emubird
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Posts posted by emubird
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30 minutes most days of the week?
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Because you can actually see the colors on the page. They're really wonderful if you have an artist. If you're just looking for cheap colored pencils for young kids, I wouldn't bother.
Last time I bought these pencils they were cheaper at this place than Dick Blick:
http://www.nwgraphic.com/art/art.php
But they helpfully don't provide their prices in their catalog. I guess you'd have to contact them.
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These places that were mentioned seem to cost about the same as our bank. I did find a place called CarouselChecks that seems cheaper. Has anyone ever ordered checks from them?
http://www.carouselchecks.com/
I can get a box of checks for 4.99 with 2.95 shipping (as long as I get the shipping that they don't recommend).
Anyone know of anything cheaper?
ETA -- or how about this place?
150 checks for 9.95 with free shipping.
But I'm reluctant to order from some random place without a recommendation.
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Can someone help me out here? My ds is a rising 10th grader who loves science, history/literature, and creative writing but hates math. He just finished Biology using Glencoe Biology: The Dynamics of Life the fall semester and CK12 this spring.
We planned to leave off the human anatomy chapters and save them for our Anatomy & Physiology class but now I am wondering should he be using a more advanced Biology book or A&P book instead? He also plans to take Forensic Chemistry and Conceptual Physics. All of these will have labs.
He is not sure what he wants to do but he plans to take CLEP and SAT Subject Test but not sure with AP. He will also dual enroll jr and sr year. Can someone help me figure this out?
If you're wondering what to cover to take the SAT 2, I'd get a prep book. That would go into detail.
But if he's dual enrolling at college in high school, he likely wouldn't even need the SAT 2 tests. The SAT 2 is only needed for a few colleges. Most colleges don't require them. You should check if any on his radar are the colleges that do.
Many homeschoolers do the SAT 2's even if the colleges don't require them because they want a record that the student learned the material. However, if your son will have dual enrollment credits, this isn't as necessary -- even if he doesn't take courses in the area that he would have taken an SAT 2 in. If it comes down to having to choose between a dual enrollment course and an SAT 2, I'd definitely go with the course. Colleges will see that as more material covered, at a higher level than the SAT test, with the added bonus of seeing that the student could negotiate the classroom experience.
Well, unless he does really bad in the dual enrollment, but my guess is that high SAT 2 scores aren't going to do much to help overcome that anyway.
CLEP is generally done once a student is in college to place out of classes (although there might be an argument for doing it now if he knows the material now). There are a lot of colleges that don't accept CLEP. If your son has college credit on his transcript, the CLEP for that subject generally won't do him any additional good at all.
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There were huge sections of the Biology Campbell completely untouched so we had time for other topics.
I would think that would be the only way to do Campbell (at least the big one), unless prepping for the AP test.
And if it's a FIRST high school bio course, then definitely one would want to leave out great swaths.
Most of those texts are daunting. If colleges are using those and taking 3 semesters to finish intro bio, then I would expect they should take at least three years of high school to do even remotely well. (And it would be interesting to see how many colleges actually teach every chapter of Campbell.)
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There are risks with all vaccines. There are also risks when getting the diseases. The disease risks tend to be a lot higher.
The anti-vaccine sites lean toward fear mongering. They also don't really have the science on their side, for the most part. They make me pretty angry because they tend to make the doctors we've dealt with have knee jerk reactions in the OTHER direction. They just cite those fear mongering sites as reasons why one SHOULD vaccinate.
I think we vaccinated because I'm in the generation that grew up hearing horror stories from our parents and grandparents who did not have the advantages of vaccines. Back in their day, it was just assumed that one would want vaccines if they were available. It was trading a small risk for a huge one. There were no questions asked.
These days, people who don't vaccinate are getting the benefit of herd immunity (everyone else vaccinates), but many assume it is all their own doing because they eat organic foods or lots of vegetables or some such thing. Back in my grandparents day, everyone pretty much ate organic foods and they still had a lot of deaths from these diseases.
My understanding is that whooping cough is very risky for babies. That's why they started vaccinating babies, but left the rest of the population to lose their immunity. Maybe that seemed like the safer bet from a public health standpoint, weighing the risks of immunizing everyone vs the small number of vaccinated babies who would still get the disease. But if you have a baby in the house, vaccinating the rest of the family might be more attractive to protect the baby. (I think they've known for a long time that adults lose the immunity they got earlier on, but were more focused on keeping babies from getting it.)
Speaking from personal experience, whooping cough in a teen or adult is really no fun, even if complications are less likely. It knocked my kids out of commission for about a semester. (That's also about how long it kept my dad out of school when their entire family had it back in pre-vaccine times.) Given what we went through, I might be inclined to vaccinate a teen, even though I generally don't vaccinate automatically just because someone tells us to.
By the way, hearkening back to the tetanus vaccine thread -- I assume populations do not get herd immunity from tetanus as it's not spread (generally) from human to human. So I wouldn't skip the tetanus shot. Other people aren't getting it because THEY were vaccinated, but that doesn't protect the unvaccinated as happens with measles and such.
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Do you mean the online parts? If it's just the textbook that's a few years old, I wouldn't worry about it. Things don't change that fast.
Probably either of these texts would be fine. Even a few years out of date.
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My kids looked like they'd be ready to start college early, back when they were in 6th grade. And they were ready. But a couple things happened.
First, they acquired a lot more interests, and the thought of heading off to college where they were going to get told what to do for 4 years didn't really interest them. They wanted to go eventually, but they didn't see the point of rushing it when they could spend time working on other things that they wouldn't have a chance to get to otherwise. High school is a wonderful time for that.
Second, although they were certainly ready at a young age, they're even more ready if they wait until the normal age. This opens up possibilities to them in college that they might have skipped if they'd gone earlier. An older child can take their maturity and use it to be more involved in useful extracurriculars, or to double or triple major.
Third, college really isn't geared to younger students. There are a lot of internship and job possibilities that are critical for getting a job in the future. These generally aren't open to kids who are too young.
Fourth, more time before college gives the student more time to explore to find out what they really want to do. Just because they're good at math in 6th grade doesn't mean they want to spend the rest of their life in a math field. They may not have discovered yet what else is out there.
Also, you'll probably find that although *you've* got the high school years all mapped out, as kids get into things like higher math, one discovers that a little more time to mature is very helpful for understanding the concepts. Even if the kid is super bright.
And after seeing some kids who started college early because their parents "knew" they were ready, I'm actually a little skeptical that it's the best thing. I haven't seen any success stories. I've only seen disasters. There might be the occasional child who does well, but there must be a lot more who don't, given the sample I've seen.
In this age of the internet, I'm not even sure what the point of early college is. If a child wants to explore more, and have the benefit of college lectures, they can just go to the web.
You may also discover that a selective school (which only means LOTS of people apply there) may not be what your student needs or wants.
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If I were to redo the logic and grammar stage, I suspect I'd actually lean more toward unschooling than I did. It's important to focus on reading and math in the early years, but otherwise, the most important thing is that the kids are learning something -- anything -- even if it's only what the child wants to learn. It doesn't have to be totally parent or curriculum directed. It's a time to learn how to learn, and the child's interests can do just as well in that endeavor as following a curriculum.
I'd say to focus on writing as well, except that I had very little luck with getting my kids to do that, and I suspect a lot of other kids have the same issues with writing. However, I did discover that having my kids read a lot of decent literature (or even just reading it to them) seemed to pretty much teach them all the writing skills they needed. (I say this as the proud parent of a child who just did quite well in college composition -- however, I should probably admit that neither one of my kids can write 5 paragraph essays that get them high scores on the ACT or SAT writing test. When I say they know how to write really well, that doesn't include that sort of canned writing that no one ever needs AFTER the ACT. But the fact that my daughter's comp teacher spent most of the semester trying to train the students AWAY from writing those boring 5 paragraph essays does kind of vindicate my approach.)
We watched a lot of movies for history and a lot of documentaries for science. I did try to get them to do "serious" history and science, and they really did try to please me by doing the work, but, to be honest, the only stuff that stuck was the movies and documentaries.
The best preparation I found for science otherwise was fairly rigorous math.
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I'm planning to use this with my daughter next year, so I thought I'd search this forum for some feedback on the program, as it's not one of the commonly mentioned ones...
Anyone who has used this -- or the OP who just finished using it -- able to comment on strengths or weaknesses of this program?
Thanks!
Debbie
I liked it a whole lot better than Wheelock. Things stuck in my kids' heads better with the readings in Cambridge. My kids couldn't even comprehend Wheelock.
In response to the original question (in case anyone still cared): we did Cambridge with only the student book. I have a couple of the workbooks, but haven't used them. Back when the online portion was free, that was fairly useful, but I never got around to subscribing once they started charging.
But my kids only made it through book 2 before they were sidetracked by Spanish.
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http://www.quasillum.com/latin/latin-activities.php'>http://www.quasillum.com/latin/latin-activities.php'>http://www.quasillum.com/latin/latin-activities.php'>http://www.quasillum.com/latin/latin-activities.php
http://www.quasillum.com/latin/latin-activities.php
If you subscribe you get more info.
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Please only do this as long as you are comfortable with the very real risk that your son may develop a deadly disease if you choose not to give him the vax. A "foot bath" is not going to draw out any tetanus toxins nor will it prevent the disease. As I said in my previous post...you have 72 hours from the time of injury. After that, the point is moot.
If you do not give him the shot, please be on the lookout for any of these symptoms, which can develop from 7-21 days after the injury:
You should suspect tetanus if a cut or wound is followed by one or more of these symptoms:
- Stiffness of the neck, jaw, and other muscles, often accompanied by a grotesque, grinning expression.
- Irritability.
- Uncontrollable spasms of the jaw, called lockjaw, and neck muscles.
- Painful, involuntary contraction of other muscles which may cause muscle tearing or bone breakage.
- In some cases, symptoms will develop in the absence of any cut or wound that you can recall. In addition, you may notice restlessness, lack of appetite, and drooling.
- Uncontrolled urination and defication.
- Difficulty breathing.
- Fever
If your son develops ANY of these symptoms....RUN to the ER and explain that he had a puncture wound and has NOT been vaxed. You seriously won't have a minute to waste.
By the time you get to seeing symptoms, it may be too late. It's a serious disease. Here's a bit from wikipedia on treatment options (if they even work):
Mortality rates reported vary from 48% to 73%. In recent years, approximately 11% of reported tetanus cases have been fatal. The highest mortality rates are in unvaccinated people and people over 60 years of age....
Severe tetanus
Severe cases will require admission to intensive care. In addition to the measures listed above for mild tetanus:
- human tetanus immunoglobulin injected intrathecally (increases clinical improvement from 4% to 35%)
- tracheotomy and mechanical ventilation for 3 to 4 weeks
- magnesium, as an intravenous (IV) infusion, to prevent muscle spasm
- diazepam as a continuous IV infusion
- the autonomic effects of tetanus can be difficult to manage (alternating hyper- and hypotension hyperpyrexia/hypothermia) and may require IV labetalol, magnesium, clonidine, or nifedipine.
Drugs such as diazepam or other muscle relaxants can be given to control the muscle spasms. In extreme cases it may be necessary to paralyze the patient with curare-like drugs and use a mechanical ventilator.
In order to survive a tetanus infection, the maintenance of an airway and proper nutrition are required. An intake of 3500-4000 calories, and at least 150 g of protein per day, is often given in liquid form through a tube directly into the stomach (Percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy), or through a drip into a vein (Total parenteral nutrition). This high-caloric diet maintenance is required because of the increased metabolic strain brought on by the increased muscle activity. Full recovery takes 4 to 6 weeks because the body must regenerate destroyed nerve axon terminals.
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Definitely yes. If they want you in the wedding, obviously it doesn't matter to them.
I'd only back out if it were too physically uncomfortable to stand for that long. And even then, if the couple were really hoping to have me there, they might make allowances (only standing for the actual ceremony, not worrying about a matching dress, etc).
It's about family, not about making a picture perfect wedding.
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Math is hard.
But don't jump on me. I'm only saying it because many kids just don't understand that. It takes more work than many other subjects. It takes longer to get the concepts down. There are so many bits and pieces that all have to be accounted for, that kids do get confused.
And then they expect that if they've gone through a chapter once, they should know it all. And they fall apart when they don't, because they assume they're stupid.
Actually, those people who do well at math are just stubborn. They work at it longer than those who "don't do well." They work through their "stupid" mistakes. Again and again. Maybe your daughter just needs encouragement? Does she just need to be told that math IS really hard and it may take longer to learn than many other subjects?
We've had years like this. It's frustrating. We started over. It was a mistake, because it only reinforced the "I'm stupid" idea. So then we just moved on, and things fell into place better, maybe because it was seen in a different context, or maybe because the brain matured. I still don't require that tests or problems be anywhere near 80 percent correct, as long as she can go back and figure out what she did wrong. (This is the approach I took with my eldest too, and she's now in higher level math in college and doing better than most everyone else in her classes.)
Taking the summer off might be the best idea. Let her get away from it and forget that she's "stupid". Let her mind mature. Let the concepts she did learn sink into her subconscious. (If fractions are the issue, do some cooking where you double or triple or halve recipes. And measure things in containers that aren't quite right for the task.)
Another thing I discovered (when we were having problems like this) is that a low level health problem can make a kid seem dense. In our case, treating asthma and getting iron levels back up to normal made a world of difference. (Also, it takes a lot longer to get over whooping cough than I ever realized...)
And I've known a lot of nurses who started out college a bit "behind" in math. They were able to make it up in college.
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I've used Pimsleur. It's all aural, though.
I found RS with Chinese to be really frustrating, although I can't exactly remember why. My kids used it for Spanish and didn't get that much out of it.
There's this:
http://www.amazon.com/First-100-Chinese-Characters-Simplified/dp/0804838305
but it doesn't really teach the language. It's just a writing primer.
I've also used Read Chinese:
But it assumes some grasp of the language already (maybe a college semester of spoken Chinese?)
Did you try posting on the Bilingual group? I think there have been discussions of this.
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I got into a reasonable good school as a Physics major without calculus. I did have good test scores. Now...I wasn't very successful in my 2 years at that school. That was more due to not going to classes (who knew you actually had to do that?) than to anything related to my math background.
It sounds like the planned schedule for your student is:
9th Algebra 1, accelerated
10th Geometry (not honors)
11th ???
12th Pre-calc
What is the course for junior year? Is it something that he could take during the summer at a CC and then be able to do his pre-calc class starting in the fall of his junior year instead of senior year?
In many schools, 11th grade is Alg2/Trig.
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I don't know that it matters all that much. I got into MIT without Calc. And these days, isn't the rumor that MIT requires their entering freshman to take Calc whether they've had it or not? (Anyone have verification of this?)
"Lower" tier colleges that I have contact with don't seem to mind if students only come in with pre-calc. For many students, that's the better way to go, as it may give more time for their mathematical brain to mature before they struggle with calc. But if he finishes up his junior or senior year of high school and wants to accelerate, he could take the pre-calc and/or calculus at summer school through a community college if that's available in your area.
My only concern would be the accuracy of the placement test your son took. If, knowing your son, you agree with their assessment, then I wouldn't worry about it. But if your gut feeling is that he's done with Alg 1 and ready to move on to geometry, it's possible he might crash and burn in Alg1 out of sheer boredom.
Some assessment tests are accurate. Some are geared more to stuffing kids into whatever classes the school would like to have them in, regardless of where the student actually is. Also some kids, even if they know the material, can't do well on those sort of tests.
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I've never really understood why a confirmation class at a particular time is seen as more important than ANYTHING else in the child's life. I've never understood why the confirmation class material can't be made up in other ways. (So I think the assignment the OP mentioned is a good idea.)
And now for my rant, which is only tangentially related. Seriously, given the confirmation classes we've been involved in, what kid wouldn't pick some other activity over confirmation? I think some clergy just like to pull out the: well, it's your faith and that's more important than anything clause. But that importance doesn't bleed over into making their making the class actually worthwhile. Just because it's CALLED confirmation doesn't mean anything.
Unfortunately, the pastors we've been involved with seem to think that just showing up is the important thing. They often don't even bother to prepare anything to talk about. Or they give the same talk over and over and over and over.... They gave my kids a hard time about not showing up to confirmation class much (it really IS their decision, unlike baptism and if nothing was happening, why should they show up?) and weren't all that willing to confirm them (which my kids actually didn't care about, as they saw it as a ritual only, with no bearing on their actual faith). In fact, my kids were much more interested in being involved with the life of the church - the choir and volunteer work - then sitting through another worthless confirmation hour (I won't even call what they were doing class, as nothing got covered).
And guess who still comes to church? My kids. Guess who doesn't go to church anymore AT ALL? All those kids who were forced into going to confirmation.
Anyway, that's my rant. I suspect we had a particularly bad experience, but we were committed to staying in this church because of its other good qualities (the ones that keep my kids coming!). I'm still disappointed confirmation didn't amount to anything but taking attendance.
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BTW - did you use a program for ASL? If so, what was it?
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I saw some Thinkwell Bio lectures that looked good.
Here's the Thinkwell demo:
http://www.thinkwell.com/student/video
here's a link to more samples, except that as soon as he gets going, the video stops and they ask for money to continue it:
http://www.mindbites.com/lesson/4006-biology-energy-release-from-sugar-a-demo
I wasn't so excited by the questions that follow the lecture that I saw, but the lectures looked good.
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I'd be interested to know which colleges are causing you trouble about ASL, if you'd care to share.
ASL, although it has "American" in its name, is actually another language. The word order isn't even the same a good part of the time. Unless you've been doing Signed English, which is another beast: http://www.listen-up.org/sign2.htm
Spanish isn't necessarily for slackers, and I think most colleges do know that. With a large Hispanic population in the US, many colleges do recognize that it can be a useful language to know. (And frankly, my experience was that French is easier. The spelling of French might look more daunting to an English speaker, but once you know the rules, it falls into place.)
Yes, you can count middle school Spanish on the high school transcript, particularly if the student goes on to do more in high school. It's the same as counting Algebra 1 that was done in middle school.
If it were me, and my kids already had 4 yrs of ASL, I'd just go with that. If it's only admissions that you're talking about, I think the colleges will be likely to back down and accept it as a high school language, as long as you present it well. However, what they may really be saying is that while they'll admit a student with ASL, that may never fulfill the college language requirement once they're there. So your kids might need to take another language once they're at college. This is a bit of a disadvantage over kids who can place out of the language requirement, but it's not that big of a deal. Your kids could start now on an "acceptable" language (in order to place out of the language requirement faster) or they could just do it once they get to college.
But if your kids want to learn another language, by all means, encourage it! (But be aware that many schools have no way of assessing competence in languages like Japanese -- in other words, if your kids do Japanese, they may run into the same problem of not being ahead of the game with the language requirement.)
A totally random page on deaf culture that popped up when I googled:
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I've never seen a college geometry book. Alg 2/Trig/Precalc in college would likely all be covered by a college Pre-calc book. I've used Sullivan and Sullivan, and Larson and Hostetler. To me they seemed pretty indistinguishable.
Majors? Nonmajors? I don't think this is an issue with most math books. Unless it's labelled as math for humanities or something like that.
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You think it's just boys? Or kids identified as learning disabled?
Uh, no. I think human brains just work this way. (Or DON'T work:glare:)
Our solution was just to keep going, while stopping for explanations every single time it was needed. I'm now in calculus with my 2nd one, and still explaining fractions. I found that going over and over and over the basics while never moving on just killed any sense of interest or competence. Which resulted in a kid who had NO confidence. So we've just kept moving. It takes longer this way, but I think my kids have gotten a more thorough understanding of things.
Believe me, there is PLENTY of opportunity to go over these little lessons in higher math. As long as you keep reminding them how to do it, it will eventually sink in. My older daughter was EXACTLY the same with these issues. We just kept going (while re-explaining every step of the way). Calculus took forever (seeing as we had to redo so many things along the way). But she's now the top student in her math courses at college. (With a high ACT math score as well.)
I know there are going to be people who strongly disagree with this -- but it did work. And is continuing to work. I've been there with the screaming fits when the kid realizes they're basically being put back in lower math. It ruins their ability to do any math at all.
BTW, if you watch the Thinkwell Calculus lectures, you will see the lecturer going over the dumbest little things -- things you'd think students in calculus would already know. But they don't. Because everyone needs review, at all stages of math. And it makes sense to spread the review out over the years, rather than doing it as an intensive, must-pass before we move on thing. Because the students WILL forget again.
Back when I was teaching college genetics, we had to stop to solidify fractions with our students. And it's surprising how many physicists with PhDs can't add easy fractions -- simple things like 1/8 + 1/4.
BTW, memorizing the rules is useless. You just have to get to a point where it makes sense that that's what you do next. And the only way to get there is seeing it over and over.
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The French in Action videos are free at the annenberg site:
http://www.learner.org/resources/series83.html
They're at least a nice introduction. The workbooks have a lot of grammar exercises in them, but you would need the tapes to go with them. (I know the audio tapes were online somewhere not that long ago, but I still haven't tracked down the website.)
Otherwise, I'd probably start with Pimsleur before anything else. It's not a full curriculum, but we find that every time we start a language, Pimsleur is the thing that really gets us going. (We checked it out of the library. It's too expensive for us otherwise, particularly given our language addictions.)
Question about PSAT, SAT, and other high school tests
in High School and Self-Education Board
Posted
For the PSAT, call your local high school. Call now, because some schools have already signed students up (some won't start until the week before). If you missed the cut off at one school, try another.
There should be info on the SAT here (where you can also probably find PSAT info too):
http://sat.collegeboard.org/home
For the ACT:
http://www.actstudent.org/regist/index.html