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Kathy G

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Everything posted by Kathy G

  1. It was not covered by my insurance and we had to save up to do it. That being said our kids tested much higher than anticipated (perhaps we were in denial!) and it was extremely beneficial in our decision to homeschool part time and do B&M part time.
  2. Experience with Online G3 and Athena's Advanced Academy? We tried one class from each (Chem with AAA and Horrible Egyptians and Romans with OG3) NOT impressed. We ended up doing the readings and going more in depth on our own assignments. We do like the webinar discussions, but the weekly assignments do not seem to be that advanced. The forums seem to be a joke and we are now skipping those as well. Is this true for all the classes or did I just happen to pick some duds? I had liked the idea of farming out some subjects, but this is ending up being very shallow and busywork. Tell me if you took specific courses and liked the depth, how far advanced did you place your kids? I would really like for this to work in the future, but if I am paying money and just having to keep revamping the depth each week it isn't really worth it.
  3. Did anyone find online G3 better? She is also taking a simple history class there which seems a touch better thus far, although that might be because she can take the assignments in more depth herself.
  4. So we are trying some online courses. After reading reviews of AAA I thought middle school chemistry might be a good course. It has only been 2 weeks. However, we are finding it pretty watered down. Lots of "fun" videos to watch- no lack of volume. But it really doesn't seem to go in depth. Trading cards of the elements? Really - my kids did those in 2nd grade. Someone please tell me this gets better. She is yearning for real work and depth, not frills.
  5. We did this several years ago and my child loved it. He is going to college now so it has been a long time, but it was great fun and made for some creative problem solving
  6. My DD is starting prealgebra and she really likes workbooks as opposed to a regular book. Yes I know at some point she will have to switch. Anyone use Math Mammoth prealgebra? Other suggestions? We are switching from Singapore as it gets a little messy with integration of subjects and discontinued books with them at this stage.
  7. We take notes- in artistic form- lots of pictures drawn and labels etc. Yes- chapter tests
  8. Mine has 3 AP tests and one final in differential Equations- a college course. He seems to be taking it in stride. He is also dealing with a toenail that fell off and we found out he has a benign tumor underneath it.I think he is handling it all better than I would have at age 16.
  9. When you say newer- how new? just within the last year or two?
  10. I am so tempted to use the Great courses but my child is so visual and it appears they are all lectures without much visual representations. Any BTDT with visual learners?
  11. I have mixed feeling about DYS. It has been nice to be on the facebook page and elists. However, I thought there would be more to it. Honestly we get a lot more out of PGR. My kids all have PGR friends and some of those are DYS also. I haven't been all that impressed with the webinars for DYS and we stopped doing them. We haven't used the advocacy because we homeschool and live in a very flexible school area that just lets me plug in my kids where we want (the ACT scores helped start that). We love the local PGR outings as well as the yearly retreat. It probably depends on where you live and what is available.
  12. This is really new. It would be interesting to see what had changed. We used the previous edition and did NOT enjoy it. I sold it and my other 2 will use something else.It was so dry and although we are Christian and do not normally mind Christian curricula (except for science) it seemed way too conservative for our tastes. Some of the writing my son did reflected on how his views differed from the book.
  13. Dmmetler, I think I may have not communicated clearly. I totally agree to let them wander into topics and see what happens. When my 5 year old wanted to learn about black holes we gave him material and he had to learn a lot on his own about physics to understand. However, now that he knows calculus, his understanding is much deeper. The point I was attempting to make is that if the OP's child really wants a deep understanding of poisons (which it sounds like they do), there probably are not going to be good sources out there that would make sense without knowing some chemistry. They will most likely be too basic for her child to feel satisfied. It doesn't mean the child can't learn it, but OP's child may or may not want to learn chemistry at this point.
  14. I think the issue is that you really need a good understanding of chemistry to fully understand how they work. My kids have like to look at my toxicology things from med school but they couldn't have understood without chemistry. It will likely be hard to find something that explains it unless your child is at that level.
  15. When my daughter was tested we also brought her IQ test. The test administrator was extremely glad because it was with that information that she could give us a diagnosis when she saw what her IQ had been scored. She told us a school would have never figured it out because she would test at grade level and they would pass her by, but she obviously had 2 weak areas much lower than the rest. Don't beat yourself up. We all do the best we can with the info we have at the time. Just keep moving forward!
  16. Computer programming. Art. I was a science major and can't even draw a decent stick person. How did I get 2 artsy daughters. On another level I also learned way more than I thought about profoundly gifted issues and dyslexia. I had planned to have my children in a school and never thought I would do all of this. But, we play the hand we're dealt.
  17. We used "How to Spell" and then switched to Sequential Spelling. It has been working for us, but spelling will never be her favorite subject.
  18. Wow- this sucks for so many. I am definitely feeling blessed that it is easy for us. I should set up sleeping bags in my basement and let everyone come here for 2 weeks in May! ;)
  19. I agree that science majors need to learn to write and communicate. I would also add that business majors need to educate themselves in whatever field they pursue. As a chemistry major/bio minor and practicing physician I am amazed at the administrators who want patient care done a certain way and have absolutely no understanding of how that will impact patient care. My friends in chemistry fields get tired of business people trying to lead their science as well. It goes both ways.
  20. I haven't run into this in Denver. If you call College Board they can give you names of high schools giving the tests. If my local school doesn't offer the particular test we just call around. However, I understand that this may be more difficult in areas that are less kind to homeschoolers.
  21. Thanks for all the suggestions. She has decided to read Theophilus North, Story of My Life by Helen Keller, Little Men (already read Little Women) and The Double Helix. that should keep us set for awhile! I appreciate the great ideas.
  22. I find it interesting that many here are taking Calc AB and then Calc BC. At our school the kids pick one or the other based on how well they do in precalc. My son went straight to Calc BC and it was not difficult. We were told Calc BC is essentially Calc ABC in a way and that it is Calc AB with more added on. If you take both does it seem redundant the first half of the year or so?
  23. My STEM son did the following and will graduate early. We are lucky to live in an area where acceleration and doubling up is totally fine, and we have a ton of college courses at the high school. He wants to do theoretical physics and has been very accelerated in many areas. Some homeschool and some at public school. For math AOPs until precalc because we heard such great things about the teachers at the public school Math Algebra 1,2 Geometry, precalc, calc BC, Diff EQ, Calc 3, Linear Algebra (we have to do the last one at a college) Science AP Chem, AP Bio, AP Physics E&M and AP Physics Mechanics, Soc St AP Human Geo, US hist, World Hist, AP Microecon, AP Gov't possible AP psych self study English Honors 9th, World lit, Am Lit, Technical Writing Electives Engineering 1 Engineering 2, Python programming, Java Programming C++ Programming, Objective C Programming, AP Computer Science, Stastical Programming, German 1 German2, Art History, Theater, Phy Ed, Health, I always heard the "have a well rounded education" and to some extent that is true. However it is interesting that when the college profs recruit him, all they care about is how much math and science he is taking.
  24. I agree- everybody's take is different. I think part of the problem is that she is such an avid reader that she goes through so many books, and the focus of Am Lit means a lot of depressing titles. Her Twain assisgnment was Huck Finn and she read as much Twain as we could get, etc. She certainly didn't view Uncle Tom's Cabin, Red Badge of Courage,, Narrative of Frederick Douglass, Of Mice and Men, Scarlet Letter or Jack London as uplifting. She didn't like Steinbeck nor Hemingway. She thought Poe was morbid, but funny in an odd way. She did like Ransom of Red Chief, Last of the Mohicans. She loved Twain's sense of humor and appreciated Thoreau and Emerson. Honestly, I might just have her take a few week break and read through Anne of Green Gables series (for the upteenth time) to just be happy, then start again. As I list what she has read, I believe she has definitely had a good year of American Lit- much more than she would get in a public school so it may not matter, but we are in March and I don't want to start another type of Lit this year without getting a little prepared, so we may do some free reading.
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