hollyhock2
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Posts posted by hollyhock2
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My son did Birds last year for 6th grade and he really liked it. It wasn't just reading and doing a workbook. There was a colouring book field guide, and bird songs to listen to online. The main book, What's That Bird, has lots of really nice photos. He set up a number of bird feeders for winter and then built and put up a ton of bird houses in summer. That was really fun hands-on, although not scheduled, but it seemed like an obvious add-on.
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The only things I've ever done are read out loud to them and buy a lot of books. I'm not sure what I can credit for why all my kids (so far) are readers, but those are the only things I consciously did.
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I am not familiar with all the books on your list, but of the ones I have read, I would say The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Across Five Aprils and Treasure Island are probably the easiest and are good choices for 8th grade. I have not personally read Journey to the Center of the Earth, but some of my kids have around that age or younger, so it's probably a good choice, too. The Count of Monte Cristo is definitely more difficult. I save it for high school. I'm not familiar enough with the others to say.
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I used Rod & Staff Spelling with all my kids. Nice and simple and cheap, with a lot of emphasis on spelling rules, phonics, etc.
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Anybody have a review to share of MUS Precalculus? I'm not that interested in how it matches up to other precalc courses; I'm more interested in its ease of use, if the instruction is clear, how involved you are as a parent, that kind of thing. We tried MUS Algebra II and had a lot of issues with new things being in the student worktext that weren't taught in the video lessons or the instruction manual, and that was frustrating. I'm wondering if the precalc is similar. We did fine with the geometry, if that helps. Thanks!
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My four boys really liked Little Men. We didn't read Little Women first. It was fine.
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Use what works for you and your kids and don't worry too much about whether it fits into a "style" or not. Your children are more important than a style. 🙂 (Said with love!)
And yes, when my four oldest boys were all in elementary school and I needed to do LA with all of them, I did switch to things that were more independent, like Climbing to Good English or R&S English with the worksheets, or LLATL. Sometimes sanity is the most important thing.
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Thanks for those suggestions. They are all helpful. I guess I am wondering if I should maybe forget the missing number problems for now and first focus on just regular addition problems. Then I can add in the missing number stuff later. We do play the "some went hiding" game. She likes that one, so we'll continue.
2 minutes ago, sweet2ndchance said:She sounds like she gets the idea, since she can do it with smaller numbers, but she needs more practice with the fact families for numbers larger than 5. The Some Went Hiding game from Math Mammoth is good for figuring out fact families. Cuisenaire rods are also a very visual way for young learners to see how numbers work together if it isn't intuitive for them.
I think you're right that she just needs more time and practice. It feels like MM 1 moves really fast this time around! And of course, she's not in Grade 1, so I don't feel bad ditching it for 6 months if I have to.
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I have my 5yo daughter starting MM1. She's done fine with the first chapter and now we're onto the second chapter of addition facts up to ten. She is not getting it the way MM teaches it. It seems that MM spends a lot of time on missing numbers, like 1 + __ = 4. She can do those to a point (like when the sums are 5 or less) but it moves very quickly into sums with 7 and sums with 8. It is not clicking. (For the record, I have done MM1 with 3 of my sons and they all had no problems.) I think maybe she needs a different approach but I'm not sure what that is. What is a more traditional way to teach addition facts? Should I get out marbles and make little groups of them and put them together?
Any suggestions for games or strategies or workbooks (she loves workbooks) are appreciated.
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I think you could do it either of the 3 ways you listed, either combining it with something else, or stretching it out, or just doing it once a week. My son did some practical hands-on stuff when he did it (but it's stuff he does anyway because he loves birds) like putting up all sorts of feeders and bird houses. Or nature walks where you look for and identify different birds. Or just get all the bird books you can from the library. There are lots of those. My son really enjoyed this course.
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14 hours ago, lewelma said:
Finally, I believe strongly that algebra takes time away from more valuable learning for many students. Qualitative statisitics is where we need to send these kids. It is useful and foundation to many many careers and to being an informed citizen.
Lewelma, do you have a recommendation for a qualitative statistics course? Like others have said, it is difficult to find statistics courses in the homeschool market. Do you have any suggestions?
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1 hour ago, J-rap said:
I (respectfully) disagree. I really believe that a good, strong understanding of Algebra is perfectly adequate for the majority of people, along with just a very basic, probably 1/2 credit course of Geometry. I don't think four years of math should be required. I do think a consumer math class should be required, however, for those who opt out of advanced math (I mean, besides Algebra and very basic Geometry). With my children, I spent two years on Algebra 1. Then, about 1/2 year on Algebra 2 and 1/2 year on Geometry. Only one took Trig. They're all doing very well in their professional careers. I'm not against higher level math, of course! But I don't think it's as necessary as some people think.
I don't disagree with you at all. I had basic geometry in mind, and basic trig (which, in our experience, has only been needed when DH is building farm equipment, which most farmers don't do). Full courses in each may not be necessary.
ETA: I'm not in the US, so trigonometry here is integrated into math classes starting in Gr. 9 or 10, so it's pretty basic. I wasn't referring to pre-calculus or a full trig course.
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18 hours ago, happysmileylady said:
I think both Algebra and Geometry are absolutely necessary parts of the basic high school education for those without disabilities.
Agreed. I have kids who will probably all end up in trades, and a husband who is a farmer. Algebra, geometry and basic trig are necessary even for trades and blue collar jobs. I think a person can probably get by in life with just pre-algebra, but why should that be the goal? That's aiming so low, especially when kids are capable of doing more. Besides, as someone else said, what else will you do in high school math? There aren't enough other options to fill four years.
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I find that adding a younger sibling really only works if she's interested. If she's just not interested in what older brother is doing, I'm not sure I would try very hard to have her join. I would do something like just random picture books about history and science topics and do them just with her (doesn't even have to be part of school - you could read aloud in the afternoons or something). IMO, in K and 1st, history and science aren't super important, so I wouldn't worry about it much. I don't really require formal science and history until about 3rd grade.
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The only ones I can think of that I'm using or planning to are stuff from Master Books and the 101 DVDs. I've used and plan on using some of the MB science courses. We really like the 101 DVDs as supplements for science, but I wouldn't do them on their own (even though they say they are full courses alone).
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Learning Language Arts Through Literature (the Gold books) would fit that criteria. I'm not sure if they teach annotation, but I think the rest fits.
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Well, I hate to make your decision more difficult, but after further investigation, I found some reviews of the Stobaugh at Amazon and CBD. Have you seen them? Most of them are not very favorable, saying the curriculum is disjointed and scattered, and also doesn't include nearly enough information. They might be worth looking into. Of course, there are some positive reviews as well, but maybe that would give you more insight into the course.
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I agree with you that Abeka is a simple and cheap choice because it's just one text, read and answer the questions, unless you want to get the tests and such. I have no idea how interesting it is. My DS17 is doing their geography this year and he says it's "ok" as far as interesting goes (not much help). There are samples on the website where you could read through a section, or get him to.
We like Notgrass here. If you skip the Bible parts, that will cut down on a lot of the reading, and also, every 5th lesson is a Bible lesson. If you skip those lessons, that cuts down the whole program to about 120 lessons, so maybe a little easier to get done in a shorter time. Sometimes the original source documents are a bit long to read, but not as a rule, and there isn't one for every single lesson. I would say that would probably make the Notgrass lessons shorter to read than Abeka. The projects are easily skipped, or you can pick and choose among them, or even substitute them for the occasional history essay. You could absolutely take a "read and answer questions" approach, and the quizzes and tests are in the Student Review Book. It's quite a bit more money than Abeka, though.
I have one doing Notgrass right now. He takes a very thorough approach to history - reads everything, all the Bible, and then the commentary in the Student book - so it takes him awhile, but if you just read the lesson, the original source doc, and do the questions, you could probably get that done in about 30 minutes (of course, that's a guess).
I have not personally used the Stobaugh course at Master Books, but it does seem to fit what you are looking for - short lessons, one assignment at the end of each lesson, straight-forward, cheap. I think I would go with that if I were you; it seems like the simplest choice. I'm pretty sure British history hasn't been left out as it pertains to world history, just judging by the table of contents (I see stuff about Crusades, the Reformation, WW1 - all of those things had something to do with Britain). I know someone on another board who was using it with her daughter and liked it, but ultimately dropped it because they prefer doing history by just reading living books, so I don't think it was a problem with the book itself. But yes, there aren't many reviews.
I know nothing about SOS, except for another poster here who has used some of the courses with her daughter (CalmingTea) and she says they're boring. 😊
I hope that is somewhat helpful.
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On 2/27/2019 at 9:47 AM, Calming Tea said:
I have a question for you- Do they teach balancing equations at all? Even touch on it?
So far, no, but he is only through 4 of the 6 chapters we're doing this year. If I see any, I'll try to remember to post an update here. We are pairing it with the Chem 101 DVD and that has touched on balancing equations. He did a few through that, so he has at least seen it.
ETA: After finishing the course, I can report back and say there is no balancing equations in the chem chapters of IPC.
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My son is doing the chem part of IPC this year and he also finds it really interesting (so do I). I didn't think there was such a thing as interesting chemistry.
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I also really like The Lively Art of Writing, but another one that breaks essay-writing down even more simply is Writing to the Point by William Kerrigan. There are specific chapters about how to write a compare/contrast and (I think) an argumentative essay. My kids can't stand reading books about writing, but these two have really helped me as a teacher.
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I have a 10yo boy (almost 11). Anything he has to write is done at the dining room table. Reading stuff is done on the couch in the living room. We have a dedicated school computer in the main area of the house that the kids use for any school-related stuff, and they are not allowed on the internet at all without permission (the only reason my 10yo goes online is for his typing lessons and I have that bookmarked).
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Reminds me of something my oldest would write. 😄
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A lot of people in that thread were more freaked out about 12th grade than actually planning anything. 🙂 I totally get that. My rising 12th grader is my oldest, and yes, it is super weird to have a kid that old. Does everyone else have all these thoughts: how can I be that old? Did I actually teach him/her enough? Or anything at all? What have I been doing the past 12 years?? I thought my own insecurities were possibly due to the fact that my oldest was born when I was 19, so I don't feel "old enough" to have a senior, but it looks like this is just normal for parents of a kid who may be about to leave the nest.
Thoughts? Empathy?
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Fostering a Love of Books and Reading
in General Education Discussion Board
Posted
I also wonder that, because I have occasionally seen posts where parents do everything they can to encourage reading and some of the kids just don't like to read. Maybe it's partially personality or natural interest.