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SEGway

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Posts posted by SEGway

  1. I pick up super cheap discounted track phones (android) at department stores (like Shopko...sadly, no longer a thing...but, even Walmart, sometimes) for as low as $10-20. If you never sign up and pay for phone service, it's local wifi only. But, if I connect it manually to our home network, I can put on any google store apps (like hoopla or audible) and download the parts of our digital library that I want them to have access to. The devices have a headphone jack as well as the ability to use the speakers (think speakerphone quality). They usually include a grainy quality camera/video feature (which my kids use frequently), but there's no way for them to put it online, so I'm comfortable with them practicing taking pictures/videos, too.

    It's basically a cheap android version of an ipod.

    I'm a big fan!

    • Like 2
  2. Has anyone gone through both years of Dimensions Math?

    What did you move on to after you finished?

    Did you feel comfortable counting it as an actual credit for Algebra 1?

    Did you redo algebra with a separate (non-integrated) option? and then move on to Geometry? Or call algebra 1 covered and move on to Geometry, then Algebra 2?

    I think integrated/DM for middle school is a good idea for at least my oldest dd, but I'm trying to plan ahead for how to proceed after...

  3. It took about a semester here, also. The writing/verbal element of the instruction was a plus for us. We got bogged down in Crocodiles and Coconuts and have switched over to Singapore Dimensions 7A (after doing Singapore 1st-6th). We enjoyed the time with JA, but I'm not sure I'll use it again, either. My dd "feels" behind because we transitioned mid-stream. Like Farrar, I really liked several elements of the program. I'm just not sure when is a good time to plug it into the sequence of materials used at our house.

  4. How comfortable are you teaching challenging middle school math without a detailed HIG? My oldest did Discovering Math 7-8A and by the end the two of us were sitting around the solutions manual trying to understand the listed answer & a lot of the time having to wait for DH to get home and explain it. We ended up dropping DM and starting Algebra 1 over again with Lial's.

     

    Math in Focus didn't have their middle school courses available at the time but if they did, that would be my choice.

     

    My 2nd child is doing Elements of Mathematics online and I'm glad that I don't have to do the teaching.

     

    I feel pretty confident through algebra 1/geometry. Much shakier for algebra 2 and beyond.

    I think my biggest question is will Discovering CC 7 lead okay into Dimensions 8?

  5. My oldest dd finished Primary Mathematics, Standards 6 last year (after having done 1A-6B for elementary), and I was pleased with the program. We went through Jousting Armadillos during the first part of the year, but Crocodile and Cocunuts seems to be a lot trickier/more of a slog for her to wade through the words,words,words to the point of the math. Which makes me think that AoPS may not be just the thing to follow up with (I have Chuckles the Rocket Dog waiting for next).

     

    I know in advance for sure and certain that my second dd is not going to appreciate all the extra words involved in JA, etc.

     

    So, I started looking at Singapore middle school math books to see if integrated would be a good option for us during the middle school years. 

    I found (and bought already...possibly should have waited on that) used copies of the 2012/13 versions of Discovering Mathematics textbooks and teacher's notes/solutions for 7A/7B. (even with shipping, it came to about $40 for all four books!)

     

    I didn't realize until today that discovering and dimensions were really similar covers, but possibly different series. (So many varieties, I now find!)

     

    At the moment, I'm thinking of having my oldest dd skim through the discovering mathematics 7 books and do a few diagnostic problems to see how her work in Jousting Armadillos translates. If there seems like a comparable quantity of work (for the amount of school year we have left), I might just have her work on the sections that we haven't already covered. 

     

    If I plan ahead for dd2 (currently working in PM4B) to do Discovering Mathematics 7A/B when she gets there, is there some reason I should be factoring in for her to _not_ be able to go from Discovering Mathematics CC edition 7A/B -> Dimensions Mathematics 8A/B? 

     

    TIA! I hope the question makes sense. (ha!)

     

  6. Am I on the rebel bus if I haven't been keeping track of counties? Or just the lazy bus? :) 

    I read Whose Body? by Dorothy Sayers this week. The spelling used to make Wimsey read like he would sound was a bit distracting to me. But, overall I enjoyed it. (Still like Christie better...but I kind of expected I would.)

    Then I don't know why, but I got started on Pearl Buck's The Good Earth and devoured it in one day. I was so....incensed by the treatment of O-lan. I'm glad I read it. But, it was seriously depressing to me. I'm in the middle of Sons, now. (For some reason, I was sure that I had snagged a kindle copy of the trilogy when it was on sale in the summer to put on my TBR list. I was just sure I had. But I couldn't find any record of it when I went back to check. Then, I started looking at the kindle preview, which as a form factor for sustained reading is almost always annoying to me. But, the sample was so long that I got sucked into the story. So, I found it in digital format at our library's website and then got Sons from Amazon because it was strangely discounted at the time. But, I think I'm going to run into a problem when it's time for A House Divided because our library doesn't have it and the kindle version is more than I usually pay for books I haven't already read and know I want to read again. Sigh...)

    Also, I've been on the waiting list for the digital copy of Born a Crime and just today thought to check if our bigger county library has a physical copy. So...that is probably my next read. :)

    Kidlit is possibly my favorite genre. I'm co-teaching a lit class for mostly jr. high kids. We're finishing up One Crazy Summer and while the rest of the group will do Wrinkle in Time to wrap up the year, I get to work through Out of the Silent Planet with a few of the older kids in the group. I think it has the potential to jump start some really interesting conversations. So, I need to re-read and annotate that one in the not-too-distant future. Currently, I'm reading Wonder to my own crew at home. 

    And, last...the link about Lloyd Alexander's Prydain Chronicles that Kareni posted upthread just made me smile. I big puffy heart love Taran's story. Thanks, Kareni! (You're an amazing article-finder! :) )

    • Like 7
  7. I finished Hillbilly Elegy and A Man Called Ove

    I thought HE did a good job of using Vance's own story to highlight some really hard things...that will require more thought. I'm not sure what the take-away should be, though. Like, what should we (I) do with this information?

    I enjoyed AMCO, but I thought the stressing of 59 as old, old! Old! was a little silly. I'm mid-thirties, and I know better than that. The story seemed a little two-dimensional, too...but I liked that the author sort of played on that (or played it up?) to show how "real" Ove actually was. I'm glad I read it. There's always more to everyone else's story than I know.

     

    • Like 5
  8. I don't have time to read the thread today ( :crying: ), but I wanted to make a note so I don't lose count...I re-read HP and the Half-Blood Prince and HP and the Deathly Hallows this week. I was going through the audio for the first time, but I got impatient towards the end of Order of the Phoenix and just read the last bit of that and the last two. 

     

    2/3 of the way through Hillbilly Elegy and have A Man Called Ove on overdrive, waiting.

     

    Carry on. :)

     

     

    • Like 9
  9. Finished Rethinking School by SWB. It's nothing super-new and earth-shaking...but it's a helpful distillation all in one place. I'm glad I read it. I think it will help me think carefully through the choices for next year and maybe tweak a bit of the way we do things for the rest of this year. I heart SWB. 

     

    Tonight, I read Christie's Murder Is Announced. I think it was a re-read, but I couldn't remember quite whodunnit until close to the end. I heart Agatha Christie, too. :)

    • Like 9
  10.  

     

    So I've noticed a lot of talk about Heinlein here recently and I'm curious as DH just got rid of pretty much all his Heinlein.  I think he maybe kept one.  He felt that it really hadn't held up well over the years and was not impressed with the sexist nature of the writing.  Curious as to what others feel about this and whether there's some Heinlein that is to be avoided at all costs but some that is still OK to say, hand to your teenage child and say "Read this!" or if there is just other better stuff out there in that same genre.

     

    I haven't actually read that much Heinlein. I think I read Have Space Ship, Will Travel sometime during high school. But I have no idea what it was about at this point. The only one of his books that I remember reading then was Starship Troopers. I read it again sometime in college (or just after? I can't remember precisely) But, it made my short-ish list of books that will probably get read 3+ times.

     

    This time around (as a parent) I was struck (pardon the pun) by all the encouragements toward the absolute necessity of corporal punishment as a means of instilling responsibility. That never stood out to me before. I'm not sure how I missed it...not what I was expecting/remembering. Also, I was more annoyed than previous times at how many times the narrator commented on the "niceness" of females. How it was such a morale booster to be near the reason they were all fighting in the first place. That came across a little more condescending than I remembered. But, not as much as I was prepared to find. 

     

    The parts that make it work for me....well, there are a few. I've never had the slightest interest in personally enlisting, but my brother served for more than a decade before being honorably discharged from the USMC. He's tried just a few times to explain the family-ness of what it means to be military. My GrandDad served in the Navy in WW2, and he and my brother have an understanding that no one else can really share. There are so many initial reasons to sign up....but for the people who make it through training...especially the people who make it through combat....there's just a bond that seems almost sacred about that. The descriptions of boot camp and sitting around getting nervous and then complete chaos of battle...this story just somehow makes me feel like I can appreciate my family a bit better. (Hope that doesn't sound as cheesy as I'm afraid it does.) Walter Myers' Fallen Angels did that for me, too, I think. But differently. 

     

    I'm also completely intrigued with the idea of a society where the franchise/citizenship is reserved for people who have volunteered for and completed at least a term of military service. This self-selected small percentage of the population have nothing obviously different about them in terms of objective measurements (not intellect, athleticism, health, wealth, etc.)...anyone can join and they will find you something to do if you insist. But, the dearest prize (a say in how the government works) is categorically reserved for those who are willing to pay the greatest cost and have demonstrated this willingness by signing up to protect the group/whole at the risk of individual self. 

     

    I like how Heinlein had plenty of females in his military allowed to take risks themselves and gain citizenship, too. No second-class citizens in this book. You either are or you aren't.

     

    I found things to take issue with in his mini-essays disguised as dialogue, sometimes...but, I think this book, at least, is going to be a good conversation starter about government, military, just war, and balancing the self-preservation instinct with the "greater good" concept for me with my kids...in a couple of years. :) (dd1 is a 7th grader who could probably read it now, but it wouldn't be her preference, and I think it'll foster better discussions several years down the road.)

     

    I can't really speak to any of his other stuff...I think someone probably steered me away from most of what you referenced earlier. 

    I think I was maybe handed a few John M. Ford books instead...

    Anyone else here read Growing up Weightless? Princes in the Air? Or....Web of Angels? I should find those to re-read, too.

    I think I had Heinlein/Ford/Asimov confused in my head for a long time.

    (shakes head) I'm sure That's not helpful to anyone else. :)

     

    Edited to remove duplicate adjectives. 

    • Like 6
  11. Yesterday I started (and finished....there's something about winter that makes me a faster reader, I think...also, more motivated to read voraciously...) Carolyn Weber's Surprised by Oxford. It's like a combination memoir/apologetic (I got that from another reviewer on goodreads) for the author's conversion/faith journey during her first year at Oxford.  It would have benefited from picking one or the other. I liked that she used classic lit as her organizing theme...but, so many conversations sounded more like unfinished essays instead of dialogue. I wanted to like it more than I did. Oh, well. There were some good parts. I'm not sorry I read it. 

     

    As soon as I finished that I started Heinlein's Starship Troopers. (No common thread that I can think of...other than they were both on the Kindle and I had been mentally classifying them as TBR sometime in the next fill-in-the-blank months.) This is a re-read, but the last time I read it was more than a decade ago. I'm trying to decide when would be a good time to include it in my required read/discuss pile for the kids. I really like this book. Also...I want to audit a History of Moral Philosophy class. 

    • Like 8
  12. I just followed up The Poisonwood Bible with Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart. I'm depressing myself.

     

    (I started 1Q84, and I really liked the style, but personally, I just can't stomach quite that much "adult content." So...I got far enough to guess how it's going to lean...about 50% according to the kindle...but, I just couldn't finish. Although, I could see why people like his style. The story drew me in.) 

     

    I'm looking through the rest of your lists and adding to my TBR pile. Keep them coming! :)

     

    Also, thanks, so much to the regulars for letting people pop in and out without feeling guilty about it. 

    I think this is my favorite thread, too, Robin. :)

    • Like 9
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