hollyhock2
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Posts posted by hollyhock2
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15 hours ago, AmbitiouslyCrafty said:
Art: Nothing super formal but I do want to set aside a time each week to simply make art. I'm thinking of doing a month each of various things: drawing, pastels, water colors, acrylic paint, clay/sculpting etc
I did this one year and it was one of the best art years we had. It was really fun.
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Math - MUS Epsilon
English - Dictation Day by Day for spelling, written narrations and the Remedia Outlining book for writing, but I haven't decided on an actual English yet. I need DD to look through the books and pick. I'm deciding between Climbing to Good English, Language Lessons for Today, and possibly LLATL Tan.
Science - whatever she wants, interest-led
History - Middle Ages using R&S and SOTW 3
Logic - something puzzle-ish, maybe Logic Safari
Geography - homemade world geography
Plus random art projects, piano lessons and hopefully continue hymn singing. She also crochets, plays ukulele, and bakes.
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Yes, Algebra 1 is plenty in order to begin GCSE. I never use the practice books. I find there are plenty of exercises in the pupil text. I would probably use the practice books as extra practice if needed. However, I have not done the express/special track with my students either, so take that with a grain of salt. 🙂 One thing you could do is look at the lesson plans and see if the practice book questions assigned for express track are the same or different from the ones in the pupil text.
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14 hours ago, Nm. said:
So I’m struggling with my oldest. He really thrives with the handholding of heart of dakota (the boxes that tell him exactly what to do). They are using mystery of history in his next guide. What do you have your dd10 do with mystery of history? Read and ?
Not much. She keeps a timeline/notebook once a week, so she'll draw something and put the date on and maybe write a couple sentences about it. That's it, other than reading.
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I would recommend reading as many sample pages of both as you can find. Both these books have a certain writing style, MOH more than The World's Story. I find it kind of fluffy and emotional, but some people don't mind it.
My DD10 is using MOH 1 right now and I do really like it for its simplicity and worldview and timeline dates, but she's reading it on her own because I don't like reading it out loud.
I have used The World's Story 1 and it had beautiful pictures and lots of cool stuff about archaeology, also suggestions for Scripture reading alongside the lessons. I think it might appeal more to the 7th grader. It's written for a slightly older audience than MOH 1, but that also depends on what level you want. MOH 3 and 4 are written for an older audience, too.
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I found that my kids generally aged out of group science at about Gr. 7 and then out of group history by high school. It's okay to quit.
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5 hours ago, Lovinglife123 said:
@hollyhock2do you use all notgrass in highschool? I have a feeling I am over thinking highschool requirements
No, I don't use all Notgrass. The world history is the only one I use, and then only the first half. Part of the reason is that I'm not American, so I wouldn't do the American history or gov't anyway.
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I think I understand what you mean. I am the same way. We also use Notgrass, and their literature selections are good, but I do substitute some of them and add more for variety's sake. I have added books like The Eagle of the Ninth series by Rosemary Sutcliffe, Cyrus the Persian by Sherman Nagel, The Story of the Greeks by Guerber (for more detail about ancient Greece), and a translation of Beowulf. Some of these are easier selections because I like to have a mix of harder and easier.
For the rest of high school literature, I pick my own selections that I think are meaningful and appropriate. Some are classics, some are not. Those mostly get read and discussed.
You can always substitute books in a program, too. There are plenty of books out there that qualify as good literature and are appropriate for high school, so you should be able to find a sub for anything you'd rather leave out.
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1 hour ago, EKT said:
I know! I am really thrown. It's probably fine and something we'd get used to quickly, but Math U See is the one thing in our homeschool that has always worked for us and has never changed. Literally been using it for 11 years so far.
I'm going to spend more time looking through the new version; I'm guessing the changes are positive. But still...it's unexpected. Also: If we go with this revised program, I will have to majorly adjust our homeschool budget. I was only planning to spend money on the student pack each year for my youngest (as we've always done), but if we go with the new program, I'll have to buy the new version of the actual curriculum. (And I'll have to do so each subsequent year/level moving forward! The new levels won't be available/published in time for my oldest, but I think they will be for my youngest, so I'll have to buy every year of high school math twice if I go that route. That is something I'll have to think about....) But I sent an email to Math U See and they responded that they are definitely working on a curriculum revision like this for every high school level they offer, as well as for Pre-Algebra.
Thank you for this. I didn't know they are redoing pre-algebra as well. I plan on avoiding the new version by buying old student packs now for the levels I'll need. I only have one or maybe two more kids to use these so I don't need many of them. It is disappointing that you will have to purchase the entire package going forward. I wonder if they would offer some type of discount for that.
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The MasterBooks guides are basically just worksheets and a schedule. I have used some of them in the past and found some of them really lacking. Sometimes the worksheets are very short and too basic, and the schedule too lax (not an appropriate amount of daily work for the age level). Not all their courses are like this, but some are, so I would look at all the samples very closely before buying so you know what you're getting. As written, they may not be more work for your kids than what you did the first time around.
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I had not heard about this so I went and looked at it. It looks completely different from the old version. I have no idea how the content compares, but it seems like a totally different program. I have to say, I'm not very excited about that.
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I also bought Exploring Nature with Children, but never used it. I like the idea of it, but it was clearly designed for people living much farther south than I do, so a lot of the topics didn't work for us (like looking for earthworms in February). Also, if you want to use the suggested books for each topic, you would need a good library close by. But it did inspire me to create my own nature study, so I did that. I chose one thing to look for on each walk (birds, moss, mushrooms, etc.) and then chose lessons on those topics from books I already owned, plus we kept a nature study journal of drawings and summaries. So although I didn't use it as our curriculum, it did help me put together my own.
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Mine has already started some 12th grade courses and I plan on graduating him a bit early, so there will only be about a semester of "official" grade 12. He is trades-oriented or maybe interested in flight school (no prerequisites for that here).
Math: Essential Math (borrowing a course from local public schools)
English: homemade literature and composition
Science: PAC physics and Physics 101 DVD
History: homemade Canadian history
Electives: homemade health course and he wants to do a 4-week volunteering trip when he's done all his courses
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Math: We are going to focus on practical math next year. He needs to be more solid with decimals, percents, etc. before he moves on, so we'll be using most of the units from the GCSE level of MEP to work on this (also including basic algebra, geometry, trig and stats). We may revisit doing algebra and geometry in Gr. 11-12 if possible, but he definitely needs this first.
English: homemade literature and composition
Science: CLE Agriscience
History: Mystery of History 3
Electives: I think we'll do Culinary Arts and world geography (Abeka)
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So far I have:
Math: MUS Delta
English: Wordsmith Apprentice
Spelling: dictation
Writing: Written narrations and keeping notebooks for science/history
Science: Apologia or other books of her choosing; whatever she's interested in
History: Mystery of History 1
Geography: Explore the Holy Land
Logic: Logic Countdown
Extras: piano, Bible memory, art, hymns
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19 hours ago, countrymum said:
No I have not decided anything but to just continue this year. I want to do something more for writing next year for the 2 oldest kids. Rod and Staff doesn't feel so very intense to me, and I may well keep it for just the grammar depending on what direction I go.
I don't think the writing instruction is detailed/ strong enough though. Does LLATL have more writing in it?
I do think I want something based on imitation of good writing. I have not really dropped any thoughts yet. Perhaps added WriteShop in as an option though....
I would not say that LLATL has more writing in it than R&S. It depends on which level you're in, but I only remember actual writing assignments in the upper levels of LLATL (Green and Grey), and then they were only once a week. R&S has clearer, more purposeful writing instruction for sure.
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Maybe you have already moved on from these choices, but if you want solid diagramming and knowledge of parts of speech, I would not go with either Language Lessons for Today or Learning Languages Arts through Literature. There isn't much diagramming (I don't know if LLFT has any) and the grammar instruction isn't very consistent in LLATL, except for the Green and Gray levels, and even in those levels it is quite a bit behind Rod & Staff.
That said, if you want something less intense than R&S, it might work fine (this is why I like it).
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I only have one elementary student left, 4th grade dd. She is doing well in most areas, but we have made a few changes. We began the year doing nature study, but once the snow hit, she wasn't as interested in going on walks (don't blame her) so she requested human anatomy. Very happily doing The Human Body book from God's Design. I dropped LLATL Orange because I was basically supplementing in every area (spelling, writing, grammar) so there was no point in continuing. Now she's just doing the supplements, which makes more sense. TT math is going very well for her, as it did last year, but it's taking a very long time for her to master her multiplication facts. She'll learn them all and then promptly forget them, so I guess we will just keep doing flash cards and reviews and online math games forever. 🙂
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7 hours ago, Elizabeth86 said:
So have you used All Through the Ages living book guide?
I'm sorry, I have not used that one!
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I own a number of them and have used The Story of the Ancient World, so I don't know how well I'll be able to answer questions, but I can give it a shot.
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I don't think I've changed anything, which is a minor miracle. There's almost always something, so this is uncommon. 🙂
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Many moons ago, I had my oldest (then a 7th grader) join the rest of us for Science in the Beginning. We did it as a group/read-aloud and it actually worked out quite well. There were some topics he already knew but for the most part it worked well. I would think that Atomic Age would work even better for a 7th grader, so I would probably just do it altogether.
Generally, by 7th grade, I assign independent science, but I made an exception that year and it worked very well.
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If the rest of the book looks fine, would it be possible to skip this part and move on to the rest? Maybe revisit this part toward the end of the year? If that doesn't work and it continues to go badly, then I would begin considering something else. Don't worry about where he'll end up in math in a few years from now. It's more important that he get things solidly now and is able to move forward from there. 🙂
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My sister and I have been discussing this (via email). She met an older homeschooler who asked her how she liked homeschooling, and my sister was honest about not totally loving it. The older lady was appalled. However, I am fairly sure that lots of people homeschool their kids without absolutely loving it, right?
So, do you love it or do you do it anyway for other reasons?
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11th grade planning thread
in High School and Self-Education Board
Posted · Edited by hollyhock2
Math - Basic College Math by Lial - this child cannot reliably get past pre-algebra, so we're focusing on the practical math he will need for life, work and trades.
English - homemade literature and composition, focusing as much on technical writing as essays.
Science - PAC Chemistry and Chemistry 101 DVD
History - The Mystery of History Volume 4
Electives - PAC Economics and homemade Church History, maybe also Culinary Arts if we get to it