Jump to content

Menu

mazakaal

Registered
  • Posts

    4,200
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by mazakaal

  1. Could you tell me what text your son used for the Astronomy course please?
  2. I didn't give a lot of info on how our conversations go, but I definitely do start with praising the things that he's done well and carefully choosing the things that can be improved. I'm not going to expect an 8th grader to be writing like an adult. I appreciate your comments though, and the Write for Texas guide looks great. Thanks! I've tried to explain that writing is a process and that all good writers work and re-work their writing multiple times, but he doesn't 'get it' or doesn't want to get it because he just wants to do the assignment and be done with it. I really like your woodworking analogy, though. Hopefully, that will help him to understand the need to revise. I'll have a look at those other resources as well. Thanks for all your help. :-)
  3. He's had loads of grammar instruction over the years, and we've covered all that. I'll look into Easy Writing. And thanks for the other suggestions - very helpful! :-)
  4. I’ve never heard of 6 Traits - is that a curriculum? I couldn’t find it on a google search.
  5. My 8th grade ds gets really offended when I try to help him improve his writing assignments with suggestions like "Could you add more adjectives to that sentence?" or "Why don't you re-write those three short sentences into one sentence with phrases and clauses." I have Editor-in-Chief to give him practice with finding spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors, and I was wondering if there was anything similar with samples of writing that need improvement.
  6. My 8th grade ds gets really offended when I try to help him improve his writing assignments with suggestions like "Could you add more adjectives to that sentence?" or "Why don't you re-write those three short sentences into one sentence with phrases and clauses." I have Editor-in-Chief to give him practice with finding spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors, and I was wondering if there was anything similar with samples of writing that need improvement.
  7. I'm not sure he would appreciate Agatha Christie (though I loved her books at that age), but Hitchcock is a great idea! Thanks!
  8. Great idea! I used to think it would be fun to do a history of the 20th century based on that Billy Joel song “We Didn’t Start the Fire.”
  9. That is amazing! When my son asked to do movies as literature, I jokingly told him that it probably wouldn’t include any of the Avengers films. This site actually has a books about Doctor Strange, Green Lantern, Iron Man, Wonder Woman. He’s going to love it! Thank you! I don’t have Great Courses Plus, but I’ll see if those are available to purchase. Thanks!
  10. Shifra, thanks for the recommendation. It doesn’t look like my library offers it, but Lynda offers a free 1 month trial. I’ll give that a try after our half-term break next week, and have him take one of their graphic design courses. Then maybe I’ll subscribe if there are enough other courses available that interest him. It’s good to hear that you’ve had a good experience with it. Thanks!
  11. You're amazing, Lori! Thanks so much. ? eta: Lori, could you share some of the resources that you used for World Cultures/Geography & Comparative Religions course, please?
  12. I've just pulled my son out of public school. He was enrolled only since Easter last year, when he was in the midst of his 8th grade year. I live in England so he went from homeschooling with an American program for 8th grade into a British year 9 (they count grades differently here) in preparation for British GCSE exams. The whole thing didn't work out the way we had hoped, so I've pulled him out, and we're going to repeat 8th grade because I don't want to create a bad experience trying to squish all of his 9th grade work into a shortened school year. So we sort of have a bonus year to a certain extent, and I'd like to have him do some non-traditional courses to engage him and get him excited about learning. He's going to use a standard math and science curriculums, but he'd like to do something like "movies as literature" for English and sociology or world cultures for social studies. Any feedback on Reading in the Dark or Media Literacy or other suggestions? Any ideas for sociology or world cultures? He's also interested in a career in graphic design and would like to do some sort of introductory course in it as an elective. I've found a few through a Google search - Introduction to Graphic Design Course with Sweet Pea Pixels, Graphics Toolbox, and Lynda.com. Does anyone have feedback on any of those or other suggestions? I'd really appreciate any ideas you have. Thanks!
  13. You've gotten some great advice here. I just wanted to mention a couple of resources. As someone else said, it would be a good idea to try to narrow down what missions organisation she would like to work with. The book Mission Handbook: U.S. and Canadian Protestant Ministries Overseas is a fairly comprehensive list of organisations with lists of which are active in each country and a short description of each. There is a page and a half of organisations listed which are active in Tanzania. Once she narrows down the organisation, she can try to figure out in what way she wants to serve, and this will guide her educational choices. I would highly recommend Global Mission Handbook: A Guide for Crosscultural Service by Steve Hoke and Bill Taylor. This is a collection of articles designed to guide a prospective missionary in their journey toward service. The sections on "Discovering Your Ministry Identity in the Body of Christ" and "Ministry Role and Assignment Search" could help your daughter to discover her ministry gifting. The book also has some worksheets to work through. Another good book is Life and Work on the Mission Field by J. Herbert Kane. Though it's relatively old (1980), part three gives a good description of the different fields of missionary work. I've been serving as a missionary for years and, as a result of seeing many people leave the field after only a brief service, began to gather information about resources for missionaries in the hope of helping them be better prepared so they can stay on the field long-term and build a website for all the resources. You can find the section on missions preparation at https://www.calvarymrc.com/missions-preparation.
  14. Thanks, everyone. I'll have a look at Khan's SAT prep and the college board's exams.
  15. I insisted on 3 years of Spanish for ds, and was planning on requiring the same of dd for Russian, but I had a hard time locating curriculum for her and ended up using Rosetta Stone. She's nearly finished the second year and has learned very little. I mean, she passes through the exercises fine, but she hasn't internalised any of it. I'm just wondering if it's a huge waste of time to require a third year. Glad to see that some others have settled for 2 years of foreign language. Thanks.
  16. DD is going into 11th grade, and I'd like to do some SAT prep with her in the autumn for her to take the exam in the spring. I've seen mention of people giving a half-credit for an SAT prep 'course.' Any suggestions for an SAT prep curriculum?
  17. How many years did your child do of the same foreign language for high school credit?
  18. Thanks for all the responses. We have decided to go ahead and cover the US history and government because she doesn't know where she wants to pursue higher education, and it's better to be safe than sorry. Thanks!
  19. We are American, but we live in the UK and have done for most of my kids' lives. My 15yo dd is doing a fairly typical American high school progression with 4 years English, Algebra I and II with Geometry for math, the usual sciences, etc to work toward an American high school diploma. She is going into 11th grade in September and isn't particularly interested in American history and government. We've covered it in her younger years, and she doesn't especially want to spend another year on it. She did Ancient History for 9th and World History for 10th. I'm wondering how feasible it would be to find other social studies courses (maybe Sociology and Geography) to fill out her last two years and not do American history and government. Has anyone else done this?
  20. I need a science curriculum for ds going into 8th grade. We had planned on him going to public school this year, but that didn't work out, so I'm a bit last minute with choosing curriculum. He did Apologia General Science last year, and it was a real struggle, so I'd like to find something that he will actually enjoy before he has to do high school required courses. He's curious about robotics, but hasn't done any study of it yet. Is there an introductory robotics course that he could work on? We live in England so I need to find something that won't cost an absolute fortune to ship over here also. Any ideas?
×
×
  • Create New...