acurtis75
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Posts posted by acurtis75
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l read somewhere that you're supposed to tell them that they'll be playing a game where the goal is to show the adult how smart a X-year-old can be. Take that advice with a grain of salt but I thought that was a fairly appropriate way of framing it.
I've never read that but that is how we've approached most tests. I tell her it is like a game where she gets to show what she knows.
When we did the SCAT and as we are preparing for Explore in a few weeks I did review with her the idea that there were specifically problems on the test designed to be too hard for her and not to stress. She expects to get everything right so I didn't want her to freak out if she saw unfamiliar concepts.
In general she doesn't seem to feel much pressure about tests or contests. She is very happy go-lucky and seems to think its all fun. She is a perfectionist about things around the house and is even starting to have what I would consider OCD type thought processes about things like making her bed right, brushing her teeth properly or making sure she cleans her room just right. So far, I haven't really seem those issues in school work.
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I haven't checked recently but last I heard they just use the Duke process in the district closest to me. If you qualify for Duke tip then you qualify for the district program. I don't think there are levels of giftedness distinctions.
This was the process when I was in school and I don't think it has changed much.
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I should add that we played along a lot, too. We just threatened punishment when Bannie "made" dd break the rules :)
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Dd had an assortment of imaginary friends when she was 3 or 4. Once she told us that her favorite and most frequently mentioned imaginary friend "bannie" (like Annie with a b") did something wrong. We explained that she would receive punishment in the future for anything Bannie did. That was the last time Bannie broke the rules at our house.
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We always have such similar experiences. DD didn't medal this year either and simple errors on 2 easy problems were the difference. This year was much different than last year. We went a location an hour away because the one we went to last year didn't do it this year. This location was much larger. They did each grade individually and parents had to leave the building during the testing. There was a starbucks next door.
Last year all the kids were at the same time and there were about 5 or 6 per grade. There were 12 in her group this year. I discovered after it was over that this particular location was the first to come up with the contest idea and they have been doing it for many years on their own before it became a nationwide thing. There were lots of repeat students and many of the students were tutored in this location which probably gave them a small advantage. The person who runs the facility is an actual mathematition not an education person so dd really enjoyed his talks before and after and his "jokes".
Another difference was that they had them work in pen and said not to make any changes to your answers. That messed with dd's head a bit since she likes to work quickly and then check her work.
Overall, it was a good experience. The kids who were there seemed a bit more enthusiastic about math than last year (probably because they were students of the owner who tutors them). Also, this is the first thing dd has ever entered and not won so it was a good life lesson for her.
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I didn't see this thread originally because it was during a post-baby school break. I have a little btdt experience in this area. Dd8 hated math until recently. I think part of it is age & stamina. Part of it is something just clicking (like dmmetler mentioned)..and part of it is after we slogged through long division we started accelerating more rapidly.
When we got to portions of multi-digit multiplication and division dd struggled with the stamina to write things down correctly. I wrote for her some, turned lined paper sideways to help her keep columns straight, had her work some problems on the white board and others on the ipad screen. During that time we started supplementing a lot. Beast academy, life of Fred, cwp, living math books, a few math game workbooks, iPad apps to drill math facts, etc.
I also decided to stop making her do every problem on every worksheet. For tougher lessons we would do a couple of worksheets and then test. For easier lessons she would have a choice to do one worksheet and then test and move forward. Because we use mus and there is systematic review on the tests I was comfortable that she wasn't forgetting things she already learned.
Now that we have made it to curriculum that is less basic arithmetic and more challenging problem solving work she enjoys math and is asking for extra time to spend on it. I posted about this recently. She asked to do extra honors problems in her mus pre-algebra book and is enjoying the alcumus website.
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Thanks regentrude and quark. It's good to know I'm not the only one who is making this up as I go along :)
I haven't looked at the Teaching Company resources or re-read swb's guidelines recently so I'll give them both a look along with the Socratic discussions thread. I have always utilized the Socratic method when teaching adults in both my professional and ministry roles but for some reason applying it to dd's schoolwork hasn't come as naturally.
Quark - it was helpful to be reminded that we can do a lot if this orally. Dd has middle school writing ability but not stamina so discussions would be a good start. She is starting to generate better writing output but it still lags WAY behind her ability to have a discussion and articulate what she is learning.
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Thanks for sharing. I will wait to hear the response you receive but we'll probably do it. Dd would enjoy reading through the prep materials even if she didn't medal and she loves anything that involves a quiz "game". Currently all tests are games in her mind. She asked me this week if we could go take the SCAT tests again for fun.DD got a 64%, and there were some she guessed on based on "Well, it looks kind of like, so it might be...." I'm guessing she probably wouldn't medal above Bronze at best this year, but it would be a challenge for her, and she really enjoyed the practice test, but I do want the OK that it's alright for her to do it.
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In English and history, for example, we only have essays. No book reports, no worksheets, no fill-in-the blanks etc - the kids write papers. In science, I assign problems from the end of the chapter and select each problem carefully so that it illustrates a certain concept that needs to be practiced; we don't just pick a random set of problems.
In math, this has already been done by the AoPS people; the problems are already a well chosen minimum, and we are doing it pretty much straight through.
Regentrude - please excuse me if I sound dense but can you give a little more detail. I have been evaluating where and how to make changes in how I assign work to dd8 for the last year. I think we are on track now in math and Latin but I have been trying to figure out a better approach for history and science. We use SOTW and lots of library books for history and a similar approach for science. Dd almost never gets anything wrong on worksheets or fill in the blank assignments so they feel like a waste of time. I would like to assign essays and strategic questions but am interested in how you are doing this.
Should I just say read this and the write a summary or are you asking a question and having them write about that? What types of questions do you ask for science. Are the essays and assignments more about the child's thoughts about what they read or about the content.
These may seem like basic questions but because I haven't completed much college level work personally I would use a little guidance. I'm willing to read and research if you have any suggestions on good resources. I was originally attracted to the concept of classical education because of the structure and rigor but I'm realizing my dd doesn't need me to do much teaching. She needs me to supervise, hold her accountable an provide assignments that stretch her. Box curriculum isn't cutting it for us.
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Crazyforlatin and dmmetler...did you have your kids do the practice test? If so, do you mind sharing how they did? Dd took one last night and scored just under 50 percent. I got 64 percent. I think all our kids are similar age with similar curriculum so I was curious about whether the results were similar.
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Let us know what responses you get because I have a lot of the same questions. We've done song school Latin, Prima Latina & are 18 chapters in to LFC A. She's also been doing vocabulary from classical roots and is 5 or 6 lessons in to book A.
Mindsnacks has a nice SAT vocabulary app that she really enjoys.
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I never heard of this before your post but it sound like it would be something dd would enjoy. I'm going to check in to it further tomorrow when I'm more awake.
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I shared some problem solving techniques with dd8 from her mus honors lessons and we just worked a little at a time at building stamina. Fwiw she is 8 1/2 and I've seen an improvement in the last month or so after working on this for over a year. She is starting to understand having to try more than one way to solve the problem is not a sign of failure and that persistence is more valuable than knowing answers right away.
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Dd is 8 and just increased her piano practice time from 15 to 30 minutes this week. She started lessons in January and is a pretty quick learner and memorizes things easily. Her teacher told me to have her practice as long as necessary to master the material assigned per week. She could probably have done that in 5 minutes a day at first but we just picked 15 minutes. We took a one month break in August and when we started back this month he moved her to slightly more difficult material and suggested we start practicing 30 minutes per day.
Our piano is at home, I have a six-month old who naps in the room next to the music room and we do school at our small business most days so remembering to get practice completed everyday is a regular struggle for us. We are trying to do it before we leave everyday to see if that works better. I think after reading these posts I'm going to put a dinner time reminder in my phone to confirm that she has practiced for that day.
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I'd support having parents or grandparents come share lunch with a kid a couple of times a year but I can't imagine the nightmare of having 60+ people showing up every single day at lunchtime. Those people have to sign in at the office and get guest passes...the lunchroom staff has to prepare food for them, the already crowded lunchroom has to make even more room...and so on.
I'm a little suspicious or the 60 plus people a day. I bet that is more of a special occasion number like grandparents day which is a regular event here.
I'm a little out of touch now since I homeschool but classes only have several parties a year and I think that is the limit that the parents on Facebook seem to be upset about since there is a per classroom limit. One mom mentioned that she has been volunteering for every party for 2 years straight and is never one of the 3 selected and is therefore not allowed to attend. She has triplets in the same class,
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In the 2 school districts my kids went to, parents were not allowed to join them for lunch.
That's interesting. It is pretty common practice around here and has been for as long as I can remember. Of course it is mostly only lower elementary students who have parents visit. They aren't really allowed to socialize during lunch so they don't care if mom and dad show up and eat with them.
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This article is about a district very near me.
http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=news/local&id=9258373
Here's a short summary for those who don't want to read the whole thing. The elementary school says that they have too many visitors during the day so they are placing a limit on the number of parties and lunches that parents can attend per year and the number of parents (3) that can be present for each classroom party. I estimate there are about 25 to 30 kids per classroom. This is a relatively affluent district with lots of stay at home moms and invoved grandparents so the decision is not going over too well. Apparently lots of parents and grandparents were visiting their kids for lunch.
I thought parent involvement in school was considered a good thing by most school administrators so I'm really surprised by this. Is this common in others areas?
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I received a package yesterday addressed to me but filled with stuff I didn't order. It had a packing slip so they are sending me a return label. I ordered 4 sleep n plays for the baby and didn't receive those so they said they will mail them tomorrow.
It did make for a funny conversation with dh who wondered why I ordered $30 moccasins 3 sizes to big for dd8, a men's belt too small for him, expensive fish oil vitamins for babies and a $285 watch for hiking.
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Good points mathwonk. A few years ago I didn't see any value in testing because I knew dd was working several years ahead in everything and we just kept moving to the next thing. As she gets older I realize there are some educational opportunities she would benefit from in our area and online. Several local museums have Duke TIP classes which led me to researching their program. i had dd take the 2nd grade ITBS early this year to practice for taking it next year to qualify. She cored 99 percentile on everything which led me to NUMATS and scheduling the Explore test for this November.
When considering some online math classes I discovered CTY and EPGY and therefore scheduled the SCAT test. She took that this week and qualified for CTY on her verbal score but not math. She missed math by a few points which didn't surprise me because I know her. She didn't finish all the questions because she is a perfectionist and double checked each problem before moving to the next one. I'm fairly certain if/when we restest her score on math will be much higher. We will decide when to do this based on how she does on explore and which classes we choose to pursue.
All that to say, testing has its place IMHO when seeking entry to programs, etc but it doesn't necessarily provide a lot of information that I use in day to day homeschool planning. This is why I've chosen to use the qualification options that don't involve playing a large sum of money to a private test administrator. My total investment for Duke/ITBS $50, Numats/explore I think was about $60 and for CTY/SCAT under a $100.
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Hooray! It's so encouraging to hear success stories - thanks for sharing!
If possible, I'd love to hear specifics about how you accelerated. I get nervous about gaps, too.
I tried to respond earlier but my iPhone wasn't cooperating :)
We use mathusee which is a mastery program and facilitated our desire to go quickly. We are in the middle of the pre-algebra book and we started about a month ago. For each chapter we watch the DVD, do one worksheet and then dd can choose to "test out" of the rest of the chapter by completing the test for that chapter. This usually means we do between 3 and 4 chapters a week. The test systematically review previously covered material so I can tell if she is forgetting something she already learned. So far that is rarely an issue. I assumed we would need to slow down a bit when we got to pre-algebra but so far she's moving just as quickly through it. We also use Beast Academy as a supplement and she reads life of Fred on her own. We used to use Singapore CWP as a supplement once a week but the new mus books have honors problems and she is now using that and alcumus instead.
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This is wonderful news. If you have not already, I would recommend checking out Math for Smarty Pants. I loved, loved, loved that book from about ages 6-9 myself.
We don't have that one so I'll have to check it out
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I think we have finally arrived at the point where dd8 is enjoying math. I have always read dmmetler and others' posts about how their kids asked for extra math and figured we would never get there because dd claimed to hate math. This was sad for me because it was always my favorite subject and she is obviously gifted in her ability to grasp concepts.
After much reading here, accelerating A LOT and supplementing to make things more interesting (or at least tolerable) for dd we have reached the point where she did alcumus voluntarily for over an hour yesterday and asked if she could spend some more time on it today. She has also been working on some test prep books for Explore on her own and is suddenly seeing all these patterns and concepts in math she is excited about. She spent an hour the other day testing a theory about the affect on the area of a circle when you change the diameter after a similar question came up in a lesson.
I have to thank everyone for the advice I received here. I was hesitant to move as fast as we did and unnecessarily concerned about those dreaded "gaps" we hear about so much. I was making her spend way too much time on drill and practice that she didn't need. As we've moved to more and more difficult work she is making fewer mistakes because she's no longer bored.
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We recently started using this and dd8 likes it and does it completely on her own. There are lots of words listed for each root that I use to do spelling bee practice but the actual lesson is completed on her own and then I check it.I was looking at this one online; have you used it? I wonder about placement. Placing her at grade level might not make much sense because her reading level is much higher than 5th grade.
Thanks!
Here is an excerpt from the website with sample words from Book A which we are using.
The themes presented in Book A include: Numbers, All or Nothing, More or Less, Before and After, Creativity, Travel, Sports, and Animals. Some of the words presented in this book include: trilogy, monarch, monolith, unilateral, quatrain, panacea, posthumous, nihilism, magnate, copious, artisan, fetish, salient, and decimate.
For context, dd reads on an adult level and has done a few years of Latin studies already. After looking through the books I just decided to start with the first one instead of trying to place her based on level.
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In your situation cobra is probably your best option. It will be expensive but it is short term. Individual insurance is expensive, has high deductibles and will likely not cover the pre-existing condition. Since you've already met your deductible the cobra would probably work out the cheapest.
DD's comments on trimathlon
in Accelerated Learner Board
Posted
dd won last year and we never heard back from the center where we tested. This year we tested at a larger, more organized center. The owner said they only contact you if you place and it takes a few weeks.