I do not have time or brain power tonight to write well about this, but this is a topic that is very important to me. I also like teaching and being involved and I personally think it is a very good thing. My junior with a big scholarship in a college that has an average ACT of 30 and has a 4.0 would agree (we have talked about this!) that being involved and teaching and discussing is a good thing. I teach math and they sit near me while they do it. I teach chemistry and physics(though not biology). I do writing with all my kids at once. We do quick lessons and quick writes and then they go write and I rotate around as needed. Other courses I discuss with them when I can (lit and history particularly) but otherwise do on their own. Some courses are completely independent. My goal is not to have an independent learner off in their room doing all their school on their own. My college kids haven't needed hand holding in spite of my larger amounts of interaction/teaching. I do also teach them about doing college. The rude awakening my kids have had about college is that it isn't just about learning. You have to do things to get a grade and they aren't always what they feel is the best use of their time. Also their workload can be impossible to do as thoroughly as they might have done in high school with a mom that focused on learning and not grades. They can still get an A and not do a thorough job. They might like to spend more time reading and researching before writing, but they don't have time. They do help plan their year/schedule and they know they can let me know if things aren't going well and that we will find a solution. When they have had an outside class (pretty rare in our home) I give as much support as is needed, if any. Then as the class goes on I work at transitioning out of that support. Usually (Always, maybe?) that happens naturally and I don't have to work at it.

Thank you all for the links and information about the class. I'm working on a plan.

Do you know of any physics videos that are for algebra based college courses or high school? I assume Kahn academy has some, but I would like to look at other options as well. I'm teaching from the Knight algebra based physics book and it isn't going as well as the last time because this is a different child:). I hope to put more time into it myself and teach her more directly, but I've had challenges this year I didn't expect and I'm just now getting to the point that I can even think about it. I'm also just realizing how frustrated she is. If I had a video to have her watch on various topics (currently drag/weight/F=ma,etc.) then I could send her to that when I am not available. Thanks, Kendall

I think he meant that the things he underlined-argument and summary-were fundamental skills needed to be able to do, among other things, literary analysis.

I showed this (bold mine) to my 21 year old son who is a junior psychology major. I've pasted his response below because it adds to the conversation in this thread.from someone who is currently in the "trenches". The honors program he refers to is a great books, history, philosophy type honors program. This thread was really timely for me! Kendall He said: The bold part is sometimes accurate in my experience. It depends on the type of college paper, which greatly depends on the type of class, which obviously depends on the major. In psychology, absolutely yes. I'm currently working on two papers that qualify as synthesis papers and one that combines a synthesis and an explanation of the results of our own study. In my honors classes, there was a mixture of literary analysis and synthesis, sometimes in the same paper. I think that students should come to college with the fundamental skills to do both synthesis and literary analysis. Summary is a fundamental skill. Don't expect a high school student to summarize an article that they won't have enough background knowledge to understand until graduate school. Do teach them to summarize papers, essays, or books that they can understand, even if the material is right at the edge of their ability to understand. If they are skilled at summary, synthesis will not be hard to figure out. Argumentation is a fundamental skill. I think that literary analysis is an accessible way to teach argumentation. There are other ways to teach argumentation--analyzing a current issue, for example--and it may be helpful to teach using those methods as well. Almost every paper I have written at the college level has required both summary and argumentation. Another key point is that high school is not merely for college preparation. It is entirely possible for students to obtain a bachelor's degree without reading a single work of literature. They may completely avoid literary analysis. This is sad. We need to read literature and critically evaluate it in order to access our full humanity. If they will not read literature and learn to critically evaluate it in college, they must do it before college. The lack of humanities in college coursework does not excuse the high school from teaching the humanities. Rather, it emphasizes the responsibility of high school to prepare their students not merely for college but for life. And not merely for life, but for a life of humanity.

What are some good academic sources that you have used for them to summarize and respond to?

My junior is researching careers in the major she is currently interested in (biochemistry), and then will write about what she has learned. I'm looking for ideas for 1) a direction that would make this a 'high school worthy' writing assignment (If such a designation exists) 2) models "mentor texts" of this kind of writing (informative?) that are well-written. Ideas for websites, blogs, books, etc. are all welcome. Thanks, Kendall

That's so great! Thanks for updating us!

Thank you!

I am teaching my 11th and 12th grader precalc/trig using the Foerster text (2nd edition). One of them struggles to understand new, foreign-looking concepts and I would say parametric equations will fall into that category. She will only need College Algebra and Stats I in college. What are your thoughts on the value of wrestling with this topic for this kind of student? I'm thinking of using these days for review and teaching the parametric equations to the other one who will go on to AP Calc next year and possibly a science major. Thanks, Kendall

Thank you so much everyone! This is great! I was floundering online searching for well-written travel blogs etc, and getting nowhere. 3 tennis meets and 1 college visit in 8 days has allowed very little time to look at your suggestions, but this weekend is mine and I'll be working through sampling your suggestions. I also thought about Susan Wise Bauer's blog and book reviews. This writing experiment seems completely overwhelming at times and my feelings about my ability to pull this off look like a sine curve. Yet my girls are so happy with it. You've helped pull me up to the top of the curve again:). Kendall edited to correct the spelling of sine! Good grief, I've been teaching how to graph trig functions all week, you would think I would have caught that.

My 3 high schoolers work about 7 hours. No online classes

Are there any well-written reviews written about anything? I've found lots of poorly written ones...Online would be nice, but book/magazine suggestions are great, too. I'm trying a major experiment in writing this year and I need models ("mentor texts"). We are working currently on informational writing and one of the suggestions was writing a review. I'd like some well-written ones that we can analyze. Any other well-written informational text suggestions are great, too. I know about National Geographic. Thanks, Kendall

I agree with giving feedback rather than a grade. As the farmer says, weighing a pig doesn't make him fatter. ? I read that this summer in some writing book in which the public school teachers that wrote it, expressed that they dearly wished they could avoid giving grades for writing.

I've read a bit about spaced repetition and retrieval practice and mixed practice. I also think the research in favor of these appears solid. What I don't have figured out yet is what this looks like in a high school level text. I don't see a difference between AoPS and say Foerster Alg 1 in regard to spaced repetition, but more in regard to the number of easier and medium difficulty practice problems. I think any program needs the spaced repetition and I've not seen a math program that does that. I am familiar with Saxon, but I don't feel like it does enough practice up front for some concepts and I also prefer a program that causes students to put more things together and problem solve. It definitely does the repetition. Foerster Alg 2 and Precalc have the closest I have seen to the built in spaced repetition/mixed practice with the Do These Quickly Problems at the beginning of each section which review previous things in the book and in math courses prior to the book. My copy of the Algebra 1 doesn't have those I don't think. Making problem cards from each section and shuffling and rotating through them has been the best way to help my kids, the one who has memory issues as well as the more typical ones, remember concepts and procedures. What I wondered about AoPS is if there were enough of the easy/medium problems to get the concept down before being challenged. On the other hand I think a lot of learning can take place working on problems that aren't straightforward, it just isn't as comfortable as cranking out answers to easy problems and then doing the same with medium. I'm certain the answer to this lies with each child to some degree. I'm interested to see how it plays out this year with my 7th grader. I'm just musing a bit here, not arguing! Kendall

Those of you who have had children have very little retention, do you have any theories about why? I

I did this https://marietagrissom.wordpress.com/2014/10/04/labeling-spiral-binders/ but I tied them on using 6 strands of embroidery thread. I happened to have old blinds that were plastic and easy to cut and easy to hole punch and I tied them at the top and bottom. Really, you could do the same thing with card stock or card stock laminated with packing tape to make it more durable.

I'm using AoPS PreAlgebra for the second time. The first child I used this with learns very quickly so I didn't have this issue. My current 7th grader is a little shaky on a few things after Chapter 1. It could be that after doing the review and challengers she will have it. It could be that the errors she made that we went over are enough for her to get it. Maybe I should have her redo again the ones that she missed. I'm curious as to how you have handled this and what you have found has worked well. I could either have her do some alcumus on those topics or make some questions up myself, redo the problems she missed, or I could just see how the review goes. She is really liking the book, though, so I am not looking to change programs. Thanks, Kendall

I used aoPS prealgebra (and now Intro) with my 6th child who is very quick at math and loves math. Last week I started it with a different child who was moaning about having to do it and who does okay in math. She is really liking it. We did MEP up through year 5 before that. I am doing some teaching rather than having her read it all. My nephew also just started it and he is loving it and I think reads it himself.

Math - Geometry by Jurgensen and continuing the Art of Problem Solving Introductory Algebra from chapter 10 on. Not sure how this is going to work, but she didn't want a whole year of only geometry Science - Biology Science Shepherd Latin - Henle 1 she has been doing this for several years so she will finish the book this year. I don't see how anyone gets this book done in 1 year History - Ancient this year the history and literature blends together more and there is not a fine distinction, I plan and choose materials for both Literature - Ancient English - Doing this on my own this year with no curriculum for my 5-12th graders. Scary. Trying a writer's workshop approach(I think that is what you would call it). Elective - Javascript programming using Code for Teens by Jeremy Moritz (we started school this week and she is loving this) 6 credits (Lit and elective are 1/2 credit each but done half time for the whole year)

I would suggest the Moonstone by Wilkie Collins and then To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis. to Say Nothing of the Dog has lots of allusions to literature and history and reading it first would give away the Moonstone. Otherwise the two books are not related. I also have my kids first read Three Men in a Boat and some Jeeves stories, but that isn't necessary to do before To Say Nothing of the Dog Also, I guess they technically are romance(?), but I really don't see Pride and Prejudice as a romance in the YA sense of the word. My sons and daughters have all liked it and none were into reading romance. Just reread your post, maybe only the Moonstone would be considered in the classics realm. It is contemporary with Dickens, but not as difficult of a read. If you are looking for reading that is new and not necessarily classic then what I mentioned above would be great. Other newer adult fiction (but appropriate for 8th grade) for free reading (which I realize you didn't ask for) - The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax (and then others if she likes that one). The Thirty Nine Steps by Buchan.

Thank you so much! I'm going to try it with my 5th and 7th graders this year.

I like that.

Thanks for the input

Have any of you used this for a 5th grader? Or is it better for older kids? This child is a strong reader (of fiction at least).