This year my 10th grader did an Independent Novel Project (based on this one: -- http://home.cogeco.ca/~rayser3/Independent%20Novel%20Project.doc) as the major component of his fourth quarter literature studies. It worked out very well, and I was thinking I'd like him to do something similar for American History next year. Before I re-invent the wheel, does anyone know of something like this? Basically, I'm looking for a series of assignments, 1 to 3 pages each, covering various aspects of the historical event/person/document/etc. of his choice. He would do 2 a week for the last two months of school, then combine it into one report for presentation. Any thoughts, ideas, input appreciated! Peace, Maura

Besides the obvious - hanging out with a friend - my non-sporty boys' social activities included the following this year: Film Club (2 -- one more formal than the other. Find a group of kids who are interested, and rotate houses. Set some parameters, provide a little adult supervision, and try to get a discussion going.) Various book clubs Kid-driven drama activities ("Hey, I know! Let's put on a show!" It always makes me think of those old Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland movies, but the kids have a great time, and the group they've been involved with puts the shows on for a good cause.) Chemistry coop - I know that doesn't sound social, but when it was 3 families, with students ranging from 8 to 13, plus siblings, it was very much a social activity. Youth Group activities Basketball clinic run by one of the dads, for all ages and experience levels The hard part is finding a group (or better yet, several different groups) that your teen is comfortable with. I don't know how many homeschoolers are in your area, but one of the best things you can do is find a way to meet as many as possible. In my area we have a variety of different homeschooling groups (unschooling, Evangelical, Catholic) which all serve different needs in different parts of the homeschooling community. But some wise ladies decided to set up a yahoo loop for EVERYONE who homeschools in the area so that we could share ideas. All kinds of social activities come across the loop -- some I would never consider for my own kids, but others than turn out to be something great.

for both. The texts are thorough without being intimidating. And I love that the 2nd and 3rd problem sets (maybe it's 1st and 2nd for Geometry?) cover exactly the same problem types. My son would do all of one set, then the corresponding problems in the next set for any he missed the first time around. Some people have commented that the Jacob's Geometry is weak on proofs, but for anyone who doesn't intend to be a math major, the directed proofs were enough. (By directed, I mean that for many proofs, the student only has to come up with either the statements or the reasons.) Another great feature is that every chapter of the geometry text ends with an algebra review. FYI, we did Singapore through 7th, then Jacob's Elementary Algebra, followed by Jacob's Seeing, Doing Understanding Geometry. This year he is doing Foersters Algebra & Trig 9just through chapter 12, as recommended by the author), and next year Foerster's Precalc. Maura

Thanks everyone, for your ideas! I have a 2nd edition of Conceptual Chemistry, and I may go with that, along with the Teaching Company videos for hs chem from Netflix. But whenever I sit down to schedule it, I keep thinking the text feels too light. I'll take another look at the PH Chemistry. Thanks again, Maura

Either everyone else uses Apologia, or no one likes what they're using. Which is it?:tongue_smilie:

For a bright, but not sciency kid who's taken bio in 9th and environmental science in 10th. (He'll do physics in 12th.) We used Miller/Levine for Bio and it was a good fit. I haven't settled on anything for Chemistry, so I'm looking for suggestions! We need labs, but they don't have to be integrated with the text. (I'm thinking the micro-chem kit from Home Training Tools). TIA, Maura

thanks!

I want to know if it is okay for sensitive younger kids (9 or 10 yo). Do any of the animals that the story is following die? I know there is predator/prey stuff, with no on screen gore, but I'm wondering about the emotional impact. What do you think? TIA, Maura

My son used this in 9th grade and took the SAT II in bio that June. He did very well (740). From what I can tell, like the "baby Campbell", the Miller/Levine is considered a good pre-AP bio. I keep seeing the comment about Miller/Levine requiring previous knowledge of chemistry. I've got to say, my ds (who is bright, but not a science lover) didn't have anything beyond basic middle school physical science knowledge. This was his first rigorous science course. We did look up things that gave him some difficulty (biologyjunction.com). jmho. Good luck! Maura

My ds did the Miller/Levine in 9th grade, without any chemistry other than what he picked up from Concepts & Challenges Physical Science (similar to the PH Science Explorer stuff, but older). He doesn't *love* science like my younger one does, but he did make his way through this and scored a 740 on the SAT II in biology. I think a younger child who is science-oriented and motivated child would do fine. It is a TON of material, and you might decide to spread it over more than a year for a younger child. We used the Study Guide and the some PH labs, along with other labs that I picked up (mostly from biologyjunction.com - a teacher's site with many cool resource for biology throught the AP level). Maura

Maura in NY learning along w/Paleodon (12) and LastMonk (15)

Thanks, everyone, for your thoughts. I guess I still need to work this out. And I guess it's moot for the rest of this year, because I started out giving grades, so I have to finish out the year that way. Thanks, Maura

This is pretty much what I've been doing. It just seems funny to be resting a high school transcript on "well, it feels like an A-". And with my ds (10th grade), I'm really weighing effort (low) vs. ability (high) -- When he actually stops complaining and does the work, it's usually fairly terrific. But he is NOT a hard worker. And I have absolutely no feel for how his work compares to his public school peers. I could give him straight As and his SAT and SAT II scores would back it up, but I don't know that he's actually capable of the quantity of work done in school. I know I'm off on a totally different issue, but this is what makes it difficult for me to give grades. All thoughts & opinions welcome! Maura

Are there any New Yorkers out there who do a "written narrative evaluating the child's progress" on your quarterly reports instead of assigning a grade? I'm talking high school, here. As I read the regs, we are allowed to do this, and I feel like the grades I assign in some subjects (English, History) are so random. No writing is every "perfect" and I don't have an average student to compare to. We work to mastery in subjects like math and foreign language, so even those grades are not straight forward. But I can't figure out what a written narrative would look like after I briefly describe the material covered in each quarter. Anyone doing this? Peace, Maura

My 10th grader is doing Environmental Science this year. We used the rough outline of the AP course on NROC: http://montereyinstitute.org/courses/AP%20Environmental%20Science /nroc%20prototype%20files/coursestartc.html He read through one of the associated texts (the one by Miller), and did the online activities and labs. He integrated this with the videos and labs from this site: Habitable Planet: http://www.learner.org/courses/envsci/index.html In addition, he has been reading a wide variety of "real" books on topics such as renewable energy, biofuels, conservation, etc. He writes a brief (one page) summary for each book, being sure to discuss the author's back ground and viewpoint in addition. (He will probably complete between 8 to 10 of these). Some examples: Greasy Rider, Hydrogen: Hot Stuff, Cool Science, books about careers in environmental science, etc. He is also about to kick off a "green team" project with a half dozen teens to help figure out what families can do to live in more environmentally friendly ways (using a book called Green Living Lifestyle.) Finally, because he is creative and because he's done a literature unit on utopia/dystopia, he is planning a paper/story describing a world that has achieved sustainable living, vs. one that has not. We are not usually so "outside the box" with our courses, but this has gone quite well for my non-science son. Maura

I was just about to ask the same question, for my son, so I'll be interested to see what answers you get. He did Bio in 9th, a self-designed Environmental Science course this year, to be followed by Chem in 11 and Physics in 12th. Maura

Having done high school bio last year with a 9th grader, and using RS4K II chem this year with a 6th grader, I can say with certainty -- no way. You definitely don't need this kind of chemistry before bio. My son used the Prentice-Hall Biology (dragonfly cover) for his high school bio. This book is fairly rigorous, and I would recommend it without reservation. He had used Concepts and Challenges Physical Science (like Spock's mention of a combo intro to physics & chem) a few years back, and he'd read Tiner's Exploring the World of Chemistry in 7th grade. While I'm sure previous year's work created the "hooks" to hang the biology lessons, I wouldn't call any of it a necessary prerequisite. Turning to the RS4K II, which we are using for 2 quarters this year for a 6th grader, I would say get your hands on it, if possible, and really look at it before you decide to use it. Flip to chapters 7 and 8, for example. As the author herself describes it: In many ways Level II Chemistry presents more detail than most high school text books, but it is not comprehensive. It does not include topics such as kinetics or thermodynamics, for example. But it does cover hybrid bonds and molecular machines which is [sic] not typically taught in high school. (from the Gravitas Yahoo group) I would agree -- very in depth for very specific topics, but not comprehensive. It's a strange mix -- it has the appearance of a text for much younger kids (huge print, cartoon graphics), but the content is quite advanced. Now, my 6th grader is very sciencey (grin), and he likes the book, but personally, I don't care for it and wouldn't recommend it. (We used all three level I books, and I would recommend those.) Just my 2c. Maura

I second the Prentice-Hall Biology (aka the Dragonfly book). We used this for 9th grade, and my son did very well on the SAT II. It's comprehensive, interesting, and very usable. We also used the Study Guide and Lab Book, although I will add that most of the labs we did came from other sources.

We're doing 6th grade chemistry this year using Ellen McHenry's Elements (9 weeks), RS4K II (18 weeks), and finishing with Ellen McHenry's Carbon Chemistry (9 weeks). Results so far: We enjoyed Elements. I should note that we did the games and experiments with 2 other families. You can watch similar experiments on youtube, if desired. (youtube supervision, please!) Not much writing, very engaging. I had high hopes for RS4K II because we used all the level I books and I thought they were very good (I think we used them in 2nd and 3rd grade). Unfortunately, for us, the level II didn't follow suit. It goes into great depth with very technical topics, without giving the student a grasp of the bigger picture. On more than one occasion, I have had to dig up better explanations of a concept so that my student understands the point of the lesson. In addition, both the text and the teacher's manual have errors. Errata is available on the site, but it's frustrating. Also, for some questions, inadequate information is provided to get the right answers. (Like graph the titration of this base into this acid, giving 2 chemical formulas, without ever telling the student how to identify a strong or weak acid or base). I should note that this is my very science minded ds, who is quite engaged in the topic. We are on Chp. 8 of RS4K II. I wouldn't use it again or recommend it. We are looking forward to moving on to the Carbon Chemistry. In the past, we have used Concepts and Challenges Physical Science (half covers Chemistry) and also the Tiner book. Both of these are good. Maura

Buy? What is this "buy"? :) I may buy 2 or 3, borrow half a dozen hard to come by books from a friend who has the world's biggest homeschool collection, and the rest come from the library. I know we're lucky to have such a great library system (we pay .50 to have a book sent from another library in our county, but it's worth it.) A rough guess for 6th grade would be 36 readers and 10 to 15 read alouds, not including straight history. -Maura

Mary, Thanks for that link to the WriteSource student models. I think this will help my ds see what I am looking for better than all my talking can! Maura

With my $10 coupon, the audio download was just $25. I go this route because we listen in the car, at the Y, etc. -Maura

Thinkin' about it:001_smile:. Actually, I almost bought the download yesterday, but the Verisign certificate for the site was out of date or wonky somehow, so I decided to hold off. It looks very tempting!

This is one of the reasons I like Jacob's for Geometry. Most of the chapters end with an Algebra Review lesson which my son did the day after the chapter test. I don't think he forgot much...but I guess we'll find out soon enough, when we start Algebra II!

This is exactly what ds will do. He did Jacob's Algebra in 8th, followed by Jacob's Geometry this year. We are also adding in the Graphing Calculator supplement available for Foerster. Maura