Embassy
-
Posts
3,393 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Events
Blogs
Classifieds
Store
Posts posted by Embassy
-
-
My 9th grader's plans are here: http://eclectic-homeschool.com/9th-grade-plans/ We haven't started our school year yet, but we are moving to another country this year and may need to juggle when some things are done and what resources we will use. Hopefully, I won't need to change things too much.
-
1
-
-
I have pretty much stayed away from science curriculum until my children were ready for high school science. Library books, videos, and activities did a good job preparing them for future studies. I organized the resources into unit studies for my kids to use, sometimes they did things independently.
-
We haven't started yet! I'm hoping that we will start next week. We moved temporarily and have most things in storage and will move again later this school year.
-
1
-
-
Can you help me out? I did a homeschool philosophies quiz over a year ago. I just redid it with some changes to the classical category based on suggestions from others. If you take the quiz, can you tell me if your classical score came out high?
You can find it here: http://eclectic-homeschool.com/homeschool-philosophies-quiz/
-
We take time in the morning for Bible. It is usually more relaxed and not curriculum-based. Sometime we just watch Christian music videos and meditate. On a typical day my older kids have some private time and then we come together for a little Bible study. We are slowly going through a book of the Bible and studying verse by verse. With my youngest we read a Bible story book. For high school, Bible will still be part of our day, but it won't be for credit or graded.
-
I used WWW and it was very heavy on memorization. We ended up not finishing the book because memorization wasn't an effective method for my kid.
-
Can anyone recommend lectures or a text for astronomy? This is for a kid who has lived and breathed astronomy so he doesn't want any kind of introduction. He is looking for something that explores more indepth even if the math is over his head (finished Algebra 1). Planetary science is his favourite topic. I'm looking for a 1/2 credit for him on this. Any ideas?
-
I'm still getting together plans, but 9th grade will look something like this for my kid who has a high interest in STEM :
Math: AOPS Counting and Probability 0.5 and AOPS Geometry 1
History: World War 2 - Present (homegrown: text+documentaries+++) 1
American Government and Politics (homegrown: text? and following the election) 0.5
Literature and Composition (Eclectic mix, still deciding on resources) 1.0
French (finish French 1 with Contacts and Mango and start French 2 with Contacts)
Arabic (finish Arabic 2 with Arabic for Life and Introduction to Spoken Standard Arabic A Conversational Course)
Java Programming (online course TBD) 1
Chemistry (Chang textbook? and lab) 1
Astronomy (homegrown: text +) 0.5
Other electives: Fine Arts 0.5 and PE 0.5
-
This is from their website:
- Course content is delivered using a variety of methods including:
- Online, through My ILC
- Blended, combination of online through My ILC and in print
- Printed materials
- Course materials include readings, practice exercises, assignments and (depending on the course) other resources such as books, software and web-based practice tutorials.
- Each course has a Journal used to collect your work and monitor your progress.
From tutoring students who were working through ILC courses, they were mostly set-up almost like old-school correspondence courses. The ILC sends you booklets for each unit that the student reads through, answers questions, and then submits the assignment questions to be marked. The courses I've seen haven't made a whole lot of use of any online materials although the students do submit their assignments electronically. So, basically - read, answer questions, read, answer questions, etc. It is pretty dry. :)
Thanks! That helps. I took a correspondence course back in the 1990s and it was sooooo dry! It looks like I'll probably end up using an actual text, maybe Chang. And then I'll have to put off the labs until later.
-
1
- Course content is delivered using a variety of methods including:
-
Looks like you've gotten some good suggestions, Embassy. :) If you have any questions about how various chem curriculum or programs line up with the Ontario high school curriculum, I'd be more than happy to help. :)
For those in Ontario, you can always have your student do courses through the ILC or VHS or another online provider. The ILC courses are cheap (I think they're $40 per course), they're asynchronous, and all the marking is done for you. No hands-on labs but they provide some online lab experiences. The courses are accredited by the Ontario government and follow the Ontario high school curriculum documents.
Thanks Dicentra. I've looked at ILC as an option. I can't find any information about what classes are like through ILC. Are they mostly online reading, video lectures, or something else? Do they use a textbook? My son's major request for his chemistry course is that it is interesting and from what I've heard ILC is pretty dry. Is that correct?
-
Would this Chem course from Coursera followed by the advanced Chem course work? If you combine both they say 12 weeks to finish. You could double or even triple the time to spread it over and add in additional reading/work....., maybe?
Thanks, I'll check it out.
-
No - it is solid state chemistry, not general chemistry, and is offered as a substitute course of sorts (it focuses on specific types of materials). It will cover some common content, but I would not assume that it covers the same content in general.
MIT-OCW does have an excellent freshman general chemistry course, http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/chemistry/5-111-principles-of-chemical-science-fall-2008/. I still would not consider it typical coverage - it presumes familiarity with chemistry already (equivalent to high school chemistry). The lectures are fantastic, and the book is very deep.
Likely yes. Both listed above will be hard. Remember, these are courses taught at MIT, as they are taught at MIT. Though they suggest a student only needs a desire to learn, there are assumptions regarding the minimum high school education that all MIT freshman will have. I would recommend going through stoichiometry (at least) in another chemistry course first.
In the one I listed above, chapter 1 begins with quantum mechanics, and uses a bit of calculus. It doesn't require a calculus or physics background, though - the book does a good job of presenting content at two depths: "normal" freshman honors, or "MIT" freshman honors. The "normal" level is at least AP. The "MIT" level is well beyond what you would see on an AP exam.
The prelude in the book covers all of a normal chemistry course in the span of about 100 pages. If you were to take this course, I'd plan to work every single prelude section prior to watching the first video. Then, follow the course as presented, with approximately 1-2 videos per week. It will fill a year.
If you take that course, do get the book and solutions manual. You will need them.
ETA: additional info for the solid state course.
Thanks, this is quite helpful.
-
When we did chemistry, we did all of the book first and then did two labs a week for a few months. It worked out very nicely. It was as if the book gave my son the complete picture and then he could get a whole lot more out of the labs. It was much less bits and pieces strung together.
Good idea. We'll be living in an old house without clean water for awhile. Hmm, I wonder if there is a chemistry project we can do related to the well water issues. Anyone know?
-
:bigear:
I'm listening in too as I'm making final decisions. So are you looking at the self paced version or the 15 week version through MITx starting in Sep?
Just fyi, Thinkwell is on sale till June 30 midnight through hs co-op. I just spoke to someone from a BC high school who said she thought that covered our Chem 11 & Chem 12 (be we'd need to add labs if we wanted to try to get credit)
Thanks! He is more interested in the self-paced version.
-
I'm attempting to find workable options for my son for this coming year. I'm needing something he can mostly do independently, but I can spend some time setting things up into something open and go for him. He does well with self-directed learning...watching videos or reading a textbook. This class from MIT sounds like it might work http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/materials-science-and-engineering/3-091sc-introduction-to-solid-state-chemistry-fall-2010/
But, I'm not chemistry knowledgeable. Does that course cover what a standard chemistry course would cover? I would want chemistry to be a lab course, correct? We are in the middle of a move and will be moving again in the next few months, most likely. We won't be living in a place where we will have space to do any labs right now. Perhaps we can do a bunch later.
Do you think the MIT course would be too difficult for a child who has completed CPO Physical, Space and Earth Science (integrated chemistry), Miller Levine Biology, Conceptual Physics, Tarbuck Earth Science, and the Algebra 1 portion of Art of Problem Solving Introduction to Algebra? He is a STEM kid and will most likely go into a computer related field.
Funds are limited right now so I really need to find an affordable solution too. We are located in Ontario, Canada so getting things shipped from the USA is more difficult.
-
Thank you all for your feedback! You have been quite helpful.
-
MathUSee is secular from K-6 and Christian from 7-12?
I get 0 for CLE for K-6, but 7 for 7-12?
MathUSee was in the process of changing from secular to Christian in the quizzes when you took it :) It should just show up in Christian ones now. The CLE questions are worded a little different for the older age grouping.
-
Just added Chalkdust, Thinkwell, and Harold Jacobs math to the 7-12 Secular quiz.
-
1
-
-
For secular:
Score for Art of Problem Solving: 0
Score for Math Mammoth: 6
Score for Math U See: 3
Score for Saxon: 9
Score for Singapore: 6
Score for Teaching Textbooks: -3
Score for Videotext Interactive: -3
"Christian "
Score for Abeka: -2
Score for Bob Jones: 1
Score for Christian Light Education: -6
Score for DIVE into Math: -3
Score for Life of Fred: 9
Score for Lifepac: 0
Score for Rod and Staff: 0
Score for Switched on Schoolhouse: -8
We used Horizons through Pre-Algebra, then used Jacobs Elementary Algebra, Teaching Textbooks Geometry and Life of Fred.
Was it my imagination or were the questions for the "secular" and "Christian" curriculum's different? It seemed the questions on the "secular" set were more oriented to math content, whereas the ones on the "Christian" side were more oriented to format. It could just be my perception though. As a Christian, I don't see a need for a specifically "Christian" curriculum and it struck me that the questions for the "Christian" set were less intellectually oriented than those of the "secular" set. If that is a case, it's a biased questionnaire. Why wouldn't you just combine the two and then offer both "secular" and "Christian" options?
FWIW, I would never have used Saxon. It was a horrible match for our family. I've never heard of Math Mammoth. Singapore I've heard of and would have tried if I'd found it when my son was in elementary school. The one course we did with Life of Fred did go well, but I think overall it's a light curriculum.
The software I'm using has limitations so I needed to break apart the big list of curriculum into two groups. Otherwise, the questionnaire would be huge. Unfortunately, some of the Christian curriculum options had less information on their philosophy of math instruction and more information on their format, so that may be what you are seeing in the wording of the questions.
-
I scored high for MUS. It properly identified it as my chosen curriculum for Secular K-6.
I answered "strongly agree" for the questions that asked about mastery and manipulatives.
I answered "agree" for the questions that asked about regular review of concepts, the "why" of math, and manipulatives.
I answered "neither agree nor disagree" for the questions about online and video helps, and memorization.
** OP ** Very neat quiz!
I clicked on the curriculum it identified as my second highest score because I had never heard of it. It opened in the same tab, so when I wanted to return to my scoring page I hit the "back" arrow button. Unfortunately it took me back to the first page of the quiz, and I no longer had access to my scores. I don't know if this is an issue on my end or on the website's ... I'm not very computer or internet saavy ... but it bummed me out because I was interested in reading more about the curricula in the quiz. But not enough to re-take the quiz LOL.
Thanks, I can fix that.
-
Why is everyone getting very low to negative scores for Math U See? How would one score high for Math U See?
The questions related to Math U See are about mastery, memorization coming before understanding, and manipulatives and videos enhancing learning.
-
No, it did not identify mine at all. We use and really like Math U See. I think that having it divided by Secular and Christian is a problem. For example Math U See is written by a Christian man, but is listed as secular. I love the idea of this, but looks like it needs some tweaking.
Thanks for the feedback. I'll switch over Math U See. Ideally, I would put it all into one, but the limitations of the software would require the questionnaire to be too long and repetitive. I figured if someone has a leaning one way or another, it would make it clearer and if they don't care, they could take both quizzes.
-
It didn't give me results. I just took me back to the main screen.
I'm sorry. I'm not sure why it did that. If you have any further trouble, let me know.
-
For K-6: We use Math Mammoth and Math Essentials. MM wasn't the highest but it was close [2 were listed with higher numbers].
For 7-12 [though, on the secular page, it still says "Your Results for K-6 Secular Maths". I did the K-6 one first which may have something to do with it] , my eldest is using MEP which isn't listed though MM was listed highest which was interesting to me.
Thanks SporkUK,
The results for the 7-12 wouldn't have shown the K-6, but I did have the text wrong. Thanks for pointing that out. It is now fixed.
Die Hard Classical Homeschoolers
in The Chat Board
Posted
Thanks for all the feedback!