This was actually my one issue with it. It's interesting to hear that's how CNN 10 was, too. The episode I watched had two "hard news" segments (about the coup in Niger and wildfires in Greece) at the beginning and then a series of science segments and human interest segments in rapid succession. I would wonder if my science loving kid would completely forget the "real" news after that. At the end of a report on a major weather disaster it has become customary to add a comment or two about climate change, but they omitted that. That was the only bias I detected. 🤷‍♀️ I thought the report on Niger was pretty well done for the target audience.

https://worldatoz.org/ Carl Azuz's new news show for young people started yesterday. Someone mentioned him in a discussion about news sources for kids. We never saw him on CNN 10 so I'd be interested to know how this show compares. I've been looking for something for DD9. I watched today's episode and I have opinions but I'd love to hear other thoughts 🙂 We've never done current events and I think it's time to start.

I guess I don't really think about it as getting prepared for the future in the sense that you'll be able to anticipate trends exactly. More that it's helpful to develop a familiarity with these concepts in order to be a part of "The Great Conversation" 2.0, if that makes any sense. I remember a couple of years ago a friend was telling me about this Black Mirror episode she'd watched (I've never seen it). It was about a woman whose partner had died but she paid for a service to develop an increasingly sophisticated chatbot/AI to replicate his presence. My friend said she could see herself using such a thing if her own husband died, for example. I kept my mouth shut, but honestly, I was horrified! I thought, surely that wasn't the point of the show? My gut instinct was that such a thing is a desecration of the soul, not to mention an unhealthy coping mechanism. I realize now of course that others must disagree with my opinion. 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️ I comforted myself with my DH's perennial opinion (he's a software engineer) that AI was going nowhere. Well, guess what? It's here: https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/10/18/1061320/digital-clones-of-dead-people/ There are also bots designed to be virtual friends for people who are lonely. Then there are all the super rich people terrified of death who want to "upload their brain to the cloud." How is that going to be any different than a very sophisticated chatbot? But will there be pressure to give such a thing legal rights? (Altered Carbon explores some of this.) I sort of suspect that regardless of what science might say about "consciousness" or "sentience" (which isn't a lot, actually, IMO that's more the realm of religion or philosophy) ordinary people are going to start treating AI as if they are sentient and that really will be a shock to society. But guess what, there's plenty of sci fi exploring human interaction with ubiquitous AI! So my thought is to start familiarizing yourself so you can form your own opinions about it. Could AI ever truly be said to be sentient? How would you know? (How do you know that you're sentient, lol?) Can you create a true digital copy of a person? Should an AI ever have legal personhood? This is what I'm talking about with The Great Conversation 2.0. A great place to start on the pro-AI side is Star Trek's "The Measure of a Man." 🙂

I can rattle off a list of my favorites but they're mostly not appropriate for kids, which is why I'm holding off on introducing them until later. I think my DD8 is ready for Start Trek TNG though. I just consulted with my DH to get a list of AI related sci fi... A lot of times AI is background to the main thrust of a story but I think most of these explore the concept more fully. Hyperion series and Illium/Olympos by Dan Simmons - boardies might like him because he loves classic literature allusions. I actually couldn't finish Illium because at some point it seemed like it was just two AI talking to each other about Shakespeare and Proust 🤣🤣 Robots of Dawn series and I, Robot by Asimov Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, Philip K. Dick 2001 A Space Odyssey Snowcrash and Neuromancer by Gibson Speaker for the Dead (sequel to Ender's Game), Orson Scott Card Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect The Cyberiad by Stanislaw Lem My DH says this thread is AI generated specifically to keep me from my homeschooling duties this morning 🤣

Can't stop thinking about this, lol. A lot of this gets back to the question of what is the purpose of education, or even Wendell Berry's question, "What are people for?" Are you really teaching your kid a second language so they can get a job as a translator? Or is it to understand language (a fundamentally human facet), to appreciate a different culture (not a particularly marketable skill), or to be able to develop meaningful relationships with people from a different place? Backing off on teaching writing would get a huge no from me. Learning to write and speak well is how you learn to think and reason. I think there will be fewer people in the future with thinking and reasoning skills, but there will still be a critical need for those skills!

I think a lot of people don't, and I get it. It's not thought of as "great literature" and sometimes it's not particularly well-written. I've always read books for pleasure primarily for their interesting ideas and not for their literary quality, so sci fi really draws me.

We're going to read lots and lots of science fiction. Seriously. So many of the new technologies have been anticipated and explored from many many different angles over the last... 150 years? AI is one, but there's also things like automation, genetic engineering, computer/brain interface, surveillance... You can go on and on. Reading science fiction gives you a vocabulary to talk about these things and to see what people have thought about potential pros and cons. I started reading sci fi maybe in middle school, and right now my oldest is more interested in fantasy (as I was at that age). But eventually I'll steer my kids towards important science fiction books and introduce some of the best tv shows, too (Star Trek, etc). I'm more convinced than ever that a "well trained mind" is vital for navigating the future. Someone's going to have to write the Orange Catholic Bible 🤷‍♀️

Ok, I'm adding something. Geography - Beautiful Feet US Geography Through Literature (Intermediate) We haven't done any geography yet, not even much through our history, so we really need to start somewhere. I've had a hard time finding a curriculum I like (and I've searched the boards more than once!) I really liked the look of this curriculum and now that I got the guide in the mail, I like it even more. This is a pretty new curriculum (2020); their older one uses the Holling C Holling books.

Thanks for the advice! With DD8 I did Singapore 1 before we switched to BA and I remember so many number bonds! Pages and pages. DD5 has been doing the dragonbox Numbers app for a couple years so she's pretty good on addition to ten, but not great on subtraction. Maybe we could spend the rest of the year with ten frames and number bonds 🙂 I actually bought BA1 a while ago because I just had to see it.

Here's what I have: Math - BA 4 with MM supplementation as needed Latin - Continue Latinum Institute Writing - W&R Narrative Handwriting - we should be done with ZB 6, so write everything in cursive! Spelling - AAS 6 Grammar - Continue MCT Island? Or move on to Town? History - Continue reading SOTW as survey, plus one chosen focus topic. This year's focus is Vikings, next year she wants China. Science - I feel compelled to do physics, so we'll read through these: https://www.amazon.com/Building-Blocks-Physical-Science-Midthun/dp/0716614200 (which I found at a used book store when she was 3!) But she's also taken an interest in mixing DNA to create mythical creatures so maybe we'll read this together: https://www.amazon.com/How-Build-Dragon-Die-Trying/dp/9813275936/ She's already flipped through it on her own. PE - Ice skating, lacrosse (if she likes it this year), Archery, maybe Ultimate (Frisbee)? Music - choir or instrument lesson Art - projects with Dad Coding - continue codewizardshq

I've had my plans done for a while, but it's honestly hard to look past this summer because that's when kid 4 is going to be born! But assuming I can actually handle everything next year this is what I have for my 1st grader: Math - BA 1. We'll be finishing Singapore K pretty soon and then we're going to try this out, so continuing that next year, presumably. If it doesn't work out probably Math Mammoth 1. Reading - continuing OPGtTR and reading at level Writing - WWE 1 Handwriting - Zaner Bloser 1 Science - Mom-made evolution/dinosaurs/prehistory unit (I did this with my oldest). Burgess Bird Book and some other bio read-alouds. History - I'm counting prehistory as part of this! Myths, legends, and fables from various cultures. Music - Choir or instrument lessons Art - maybe a drawing class? Extras - Ice skating, Swimming, maybe Ultimate (Frisbee)?

I went down this rabbit hole last year. I bought these: Libanius's Progymnasmata: Model Exercises in Greek Prose Composition and Rhetoric (Writings from the Greco-Roman World) https://a.co/d/2TOGRpk Progymnasmata: Greek Textbooks of Prose Composition and Rhetoric (Writings from the Greco-Roman World) (English and Greek Edition) https://a.co/d/bGpRmAq Education in Ancient Rome: From the Elder Cato to the Younger Pliny https://a.co/d/j1h3H4I IIRC these were quoted in the Latin Centered Curriculum, maybe? They are super fascinating. But how do they help me teach my kids how to wire? I'm still working on that😁

Hershey's chocolate syrup, ice cold. I just went through this nightmare a few months ago with a four year old so I know how stressful it is.

Thank you all, I will take a look at these. I am very encouraged by posters suggesting I can learn alongside my daughter. I'd prefer to do that, but maybe it's the format of MCT that is making me think the subject is more complicated than it is. We'll see how long we last with it... This fretting is part of a larger existential crisis I'm having while trying to answer "what is writing?" but reading through some of the older mega threads on writing and writing curricula is starting to help...

I actually really like the Curious Historian a lot. I'm using it with my second grader, though, so I don't make her do any of the worksheets. We just read through it together and pair it with other books, mostly retellings of myths.