Embassy
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Posts posted by Embassy
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We used Reflex Math to have DS memorize his math facts. It's a video game format and he really got them down with it. We did this concurrently with AoPS pre-algebra.
Thanks for the tip. I might do the trial and see how it goes. He hasn't been too successful with anything other than an interactive (person to person) approach to learning his facts so far, but I think he would like to play this one.
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The single thing that helped my DD realize that she needed to get her math facts cold was competing in competitons (world Maths games, American math challenge, N2K) which were speed driven. She needed to have those other people out there that were much faster than she was to challenge her to learn them and overlearn them.
We're on chapter 6 of Intro algebra after PA, and I agree with Stephanie-PA is a good prep for Intro algebra and the thinking required. The book basically throws you in the deep end from the first problem. We never used the videos for PA, and only a couple of things were challenging for DD, but she's had to struggle more with Intro A. Since you have PA, I'd accelerate through it when easy, but do go through it.
I took a look at the Intro to Algebra book and decided that it wouldn't be good to skip over pre-algebra. This week I started to cut out some problems when my son showed that he fully understood the concepts. I don't think my son would be into the competition angle - meaning that he would be just peachy if he didn't win, lol.
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1) You really must get him to truly master his facts ASAP. Anything less will frustrate him for eternity. Devote 5 min per day to fact practice until he truly has them all mastered. Honestly. Do this. It is late, but late is better than never.
Last school year i slowed down his math progression greatly to focus on math facts after a couple years of work on them. He learned them and was pretty quick with his facts by the end of the school year and now he is no longer fast with his multiplication facts. :huh: I've added in some review, maybe that will help.
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We hit AOPS again today. We just made it through the exercises in an hour. He understood the concepts, but he doesn't have his multiplication facts mastered so it really slows him down. Learning multiplication facts was something we focused on mastering last school year and by the end of the year he had most of them down. He hasn't retained them well though. He usually figures them out in his head each time. Hmmm...not sure what to do about that. He did use a multiplication chart for a couple years and used it extensively, but didn't retain the facts.
He does enjoy the videos and learns well through that method. I usually have him watch them after the exercises and before the problems.
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I think a "typical" pace for an average student would be one section per day in the textbook and then 3-5 days on the reveiw problems.
To go faster, you can cover multiple sections on one day and move through the review sections faster. Alternatively, what we did was cover one section per day per book but out of multiple books so that we were going through one book at an average pace, but covering multiple books at the same time. Often we'd do the new sections in one book while working on the review problems from a different book and then flip-flop which book we are learning new sections in.
Don't be afraid to change it up to make it work for you.
A typical pace is to cover the exercises and problems for one section in a day? I've done more like the exercises one day and the problems another day. We use the videos too.
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Thanks for all the suggestions. Now that I stop to think about it, I will probably just have my son go a little faster through AOPS Pre-Algebra. Putting my boys together may not be the best fit because I forgot that my younger son was going to have time to do the counting and number theory books.
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Thanks for the input. How does someone go through AOPS at a quicker pace?
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I started my almost 11 year old on AOPS Pre-Algebra earlier this year, but only part-time. He is doing things like Life of Fred, Murderous Maths books, Zometools Geometry, and watching Vi Hart and Numberphile videos for the other half of his math time. AOPS hasn't really been challenging for him so far (unless you count part of chapter 2). AOPS is really suited to his visual-spatial learning style. He doesn't particularly like the book, but he would prefer math to be a video game. I think it is growing on him though.
I had previously accelerated him through Singapore because he is a whole to parts learner who needs to focus on the concepts without being held up by learning things by rote. He was making tons of mistakes on easier problems, but we plowed ahead and I gave him harder problems and he learned easier concepts that way. Even when doing AOPS he might ask me questions like "does 7 go into 28?" but he typically doesn't require help figuring out the problems aside from questions like that.
I'm not sure the best approach to take with him right now. I had thought that AOPS Pre-Algebra would be more challenging for him and I do want him to face challenge. He also seems to find math more engaging when it is more difficult. Testing revealed that this kid is PG.
Do you think we should spend more time on AOPS or continue on our meandering stream approach that we have been doing this year? Or something else? I'm also wondering if it would be a good option to put him in AOPS Intro to Algebra instead. His older brother is starting that in a month or two and they had previously concocted a plan that would have them doing the book together (this involved my older son not doing math for awhile so that didn't work :p ). I think they might do well and enjoy the topic more if they worked together, but I have no idea if it is too much of a jump.
Thoughts?
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Embassy, your microbiology study looks fabulous! How much time does your son spend on it a week and is he spending the whole year on it? Does he work independently or are you actively involved teaching it? I may well use a portion of it next year for my then 5th grader.
Thanks!
It is mostly independent. I assist him in some of the projects and experiments, but he does the videos and reading on his own. He is probably spending 2 hours a week on it, but that isn't steady - sometimes it is more and sometimes it is less. I don't know how long it will take. He started a couple months ago and has just made it through the plant cells. He is also doing some engineering projects this year for his science time so I don't expect that it will take the entire year.
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My 7th grader started Cothran's Traditional Logic 1 this year and he finds it incredibly dull. What other options are there for a study of formal logic? Any open course lectures?
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Thank you for your help! I'll check out the recommendations.
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Can anyone recommend Physics texts for someone who plans to go into a STEM field? My son is mostly interested in computer coding, but he also likes electronics (building circuits, making computers) and I want to prepare him well for either option. What do you recommend?
He is doing well with Conceptual Physics this year (7th grade) and I had planned to use Halliday, Resnick, and Krane Physics Vol 1 and 2 at the end of high school. I'm thinking an algebra-based physics (currently finishing AOPS Pre-Algebra) in a few years would be good, but I'm looking for your wisdom here. I had no physics at all in school and went into a soft science field that was more related to biology. Would an online course be preferable? He is very much self-taught in that he learns well by reading the textbook.
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I absolutely loved your blog post.
It's so easy to get wrapped up and sucked in with the "school" aspect of homeschooling, and I applaud your efforts (and success!) at keeping this wonderful tradition and using your family time together to do something so special. When you--when all of us--envisioned our homeschooling back in the beginning, wasn't this a big part of our goal?
I've said this before (more than once), but I've followed your baking competitions for a long time (is this your second year?). I'm an early convert--my first thought was, no, you don't want them to compete against each other like this. But their joy and enthusiasm was quickly evident. These fun competitions have built life-long memories that they will always appreciate, in that special way that only siblings can share. These are the stories they'll pass on to their kids and grandkids. You rock, Mom, and your kids rock too! Now, BAKE ON!!!
:party:
Thanks so much for the kind words :)
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Thanks for all the votes! The results for the naan competition as well as the final results for the entire competition have now been tallied and the final standings are posted here: http://eclectic-homeschool.com/baking-competition-final-challenge-winner/
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I don't have a 3rd grader right now, but I did blog about a "typical" day when my oldest was in 3rd grade. You can see it here: http://eclectic-homeschool.com/a-school-day-in-pictures/
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Thanks for the votes! This looks like a close one.
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NO! No, it cannot be the last baking competition! :crying: I really love your baking posts and polls. :drool5:
I voted cheese kulcha. :thumbup1:
Thanks for always voting! We will be starting an entrees around the world competition in a month or two. :)
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UPDATE: Final results here http://eclectic-homeschool.com/baking-competition-final-challenge-winner/
We recently finished our last baking competition! We like Indian food in our house so it only made sense to have a competition involving naan or kulcha. The pictures of the flat bread are here: http://eclectic-homeschool.com/naan-baking-competition/
Please vote on the best looking bread. You can vote on the blog or here. :) Thanks for your participation! The final winner will be declared when voting closes on December 8th. It has come down to be very close so your votes may decide the overall winner.
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Embassy - Has it worked out to about a chapter a week? The schedule and resources on your blog are quite detailed, Thank You.
Not really. I don't have things set up that way through. He is splitting his time between 3 things (Biology, Physics, Computer programming) and every day is different. He also had a big project that took up a chunk of time. However, it would be easy to do a chapter a week if this course was the focus. I'd guess that the outline generally takes 3-4 hours per chapter for the most part.
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I have a great love for early learning as that is my professional background.
My kids aren't toddlers any more, but love of learning is highly valued in our household. Around that age I cultivated curiosity and wonder by helping my kids explore the world around them. I followed their lead and help them explore their interests further. They did messy art projects on their own. We had conversations and discussed silly things, serious things, or whatever came across their minds. We read together. I also helped them extend their pretend play sequences through playing with them (i.e. pretending to drink -> setting up tea party, drinking, spilling, cleaning-up, etc) over the years so they could engage in hours of connected pretend play.
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My 7th grader is using the 9th edition. I am using selected online answers to the problems in the book. My son spends about 3-4 hours a week on it right now and he is on chapter 9 (about 1/3 through our school year). You can see our course outline here: http://eclectic-homeschool.com/conceptual-physics-9th-edition-by-paul-hewitt-course-outline/ He pretty much does everything independently. I just check his answers to the problems at the end of the chapter.
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Mango has a Koine Greek program.
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If your child is spelling well and reading unfamiliar words without a problem, phonics may not be necessary. My kids have all had a big gap in their phonics skills and reading skills with reading being much higher. We worked on phonics because it was difficult. With one child, his phonics and spelling skills caught up to his advanced reading skills and in 4th grade we quit spelling instruction. My other child still needs plenty of phonics-based spelling instruction and he is in 5th grade now.
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Former SLP here...
Maybe something like http://www.linguisystems.com/products/product/display?itemid=10276 for phonemic awareness. This might be good for vocabulary http://www.linguisystems.com/products/product/display?itemid=10117 or http://www.linguisystems.com/products/product/display?itemid=10323.
http://www.linguisystems.com/products/product/display?itemid=10377 or http://www.linguisystems.com/products/product/display?itemid=10319 might be good for reading comprehension.
Whatever you do, I'd check with your SLP before you purchase something to see if she thinks it will be a good fit.
AOPS math question
in Accelerated Learner Board
Posted
I appreciate your suggestions. My oldest child (sequential learner) learned them quite easily without any drill. I have done more than the 5 minutes a day for this kid (very visual-spatial whole-to-parts learner) and have done multiple years learning multiplication facts. Last year we did drill, games, and wrap-its for a good part of our math time. It isn't easy for him. He just doesn't learn in a sequential manner. He is rather backwards - easy is hard and hard is easy. When he went on Khan Academy he started doing calculus problems and was getting many right. He learned things like multiple digit subtraction when I gave him a huge number, but did not do well with 2-3 digit number subtraction. When he was doing multiplication in Singapore, he was mastering addition and subtraction facts. I actually gave up on him mastering those and he eventually got there through day to day math. Maybe I should do the same here.