CyndiLJ
-
Posts
837 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Events
Blogs
Classifieds
Store
Posts posted by CyndiLJ
-
-
We have already done this the past couple of years, and as we enter high school I see it working even better for us. We do math every day, and English as well. We do block learning for science and history. We will be doing science for the summer, and will try and blow out all of biology and labs. Then spend fall and winter on Early American History. We did it fully last year, and it worked SO well for us, that I think we will do mainly that for all of high school. It allows for focused, not diluted, concentration on a subject. Retention has been higher, in our case, and we spend less time in review as being immersed seems to help.
-
We had a Comfortaire for about 10 years until just this year both sides starting leaking air. WE LOVED THIS BED, and will definitely get another. Not cheap, but the best sleep we have ever had. I have had arthritis in my hip for at least the past 6 years or so, and without this mattress I am miserable in the morning.
-
Rainbow Science for middle school has worked very well for us as a secular curriculum. It has to be slightly adapted regarding evolution, but the remainder is 100% secular and the tiny amount that is not is super easily worked with.
Nancy Larson Science is 100% secular and very good.
I've seen no one mention Starline Press work texts, which are inexpensive and well done.
For those who want the basics, and a lower reading level text I highly recommend Walch Education's Power Basics, which has history, science and a too basic language arts course, but the science and history are well done and fully secular for lower level high school learners.
For Elementary Lit - Mosdos Press is #1! Super texts!! Along with that, for high school I recommend TextWord's Implications of Literature series...much better than standard texts, with clearer presentation.
Geography - Trail Guide to US Geography and Trail Guide to World Geography
IXLMath as an online resource.
Time4Learning for another online resource for K-8 all subjects
Sex Ed - Our Whole Lives, a fully 100% secular curriculum published by the Unitarian Universalist Church and the United Church of Christ, very well done and in depth.
-
Our son has been a member of CAP for a year and a half now, and I can only second the comments here. We tried Scouts when he was younger, but he has always been interested in the military and aviation, so this was the perfect fit for him as he was uninterested in camping and those sorts of activities. He has thrived in CAP, we have not participated as parents at all, and find it nice that as homeschoolers we can have our son in something with strong adult leadership that is NOT directed by mom and dad :-) He plans on going all the way to Spaatz as well. Our son is more the quiet type, but this has put him in situations to practice public speaking, approaching people, etc. that were perfect to help him develop and mature. We honestly saw a difference in about 3 months of participation, even in the way he carried himself. I wish we could find an equivalent for our other coulds, who have no interest at all in anything military or camping, but would like a program that was similar but had a different focus.
-
Can anyone point me in the direction of materials/texts/resources for a unit study of Canada for MS/HS level? I can find a few things that are youngish, but not much that is a little higher level. We are wanting to take a trip there possibly, and I need something that is not just geographical and flags in orientation, but throws in some general history and culture, maybe a little modern history, etc. Not looking for adult level books to read either.
Any thoughts?
Thanks!!
-
So much of how a person perceives this practice is based upon how they feel about learning in general, and the value of a grade. Over the course of the past 4 years of homeschooling I have done a full 180 on this, and no longer give grades. We will for high school, as we "have" to as part of our charter program, but I have come to value mastery learning, and the value of the process of learning itself far more than what grade a child gets. After all, if they get a poor score on their work, we are just flat out not moving on until they "get it", so other than grading for informational purposes, I have come to value the grade itself very, very little.
Does the world operate that way? Of course not, because we A) Pass them on regardless of poor grades and B) Love bragging rights about grades. Note I am not saying everyone is that way, but it IS part of the culture surrounding education that was one of the big reasons we opted out. Why would I want to recreate that at home?
College will be different, I know that, just as high school will necessarily be. But how much emphasis we put on grades at home is our choice. I would love to see schools break completely away from Grades and Scores being the thing we use to measure our kids' progress, and instead see public schools look at scores and then actually use them to go back and work with those areas kids are struggling in rather than use it merely to evaluate a school or a child. To do nothing with what information is gathered by grades and scores seems utterly pointless to me, and I'd much rather have them allow my child to keep working at topics they are not successful at then to just test and move on.
-
I can tell you that currently, in Colorado, there is an agreement between several of the state universities that only ONE year of a foreign language is required. Also, as an aside, if you plan on Thomas Edison State College online as many HSers do, there is no foreign language requirement. I emailed to check. I have ELL learners who came home as older students and really, really don't want to confuse the mastery of English with yet another foreign language. No, they didn't retain their native Russian, as there were emotional components that were more important to us than the academic benefits. So for us, it is a little different reason/issue, and I was glad I am in Colorado so that local universities will accept with only one year. We can do that, and just make our way through it, but to actually work seriously hard at a documented, credit foreign language for semi-mastery won't work well because that is what we are already doing for no credit! Hahaha!
-
It is late at night but we just discovered that a post about our nephew, Mike Kohr, went viral and was featured on Huffington Post! Michael is a police office in Oxnard, CA, and the story is lovely about his generosity and kindness. Just had to share because it is such a kick to see him on something that went viral!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/22/officer-michael-kohr-buys-girl-new-bike_n_3118540.html
Mike is also incredibly generous with his widowed grandma, mom and sister, and is always making a surprise big purchase for them to help them out. He is a terrific young man!
-
I already lost my son's love of reading by the time we pulled him from public school in 5th grade, I will NOT risk that happening again! He has gained far too much from the wide variety and freedom allowed him now to read, and information spews from him constantly. It took me 6 months to get him feeling comfortable with reading again, as he had it beat out of him in PS.
We do a semi-formal curriculum, and have used Mosdos Press for the past 3 years, which has done an impressive job. However, we have not done the essays other than once in awhile, we have discussed and discussed and discussed it, and he knows literary terms quite well now and uses them when we talk about what he has read.
For high school, we will be using Textword Press's Implications of Literature, and though he is entering 9th grade we are using the 11th grade American Lit book to go with our history studies. I also picked up a Norton's Anthology to use as wel, and will stretch that out over a couple of years. We will cherry pick the written work, doing what makes sense and leaving the rest behind.
Truth be told...Go Ahead and Load Up the Eggs...I find all this focus on intense literary analysis in high school to be a bit overdone. Yes, for some university's I know it is probably great prep. But I'd much rather have my kids read like fiends for lifelong learning than to have them burned out and turned off totally to great literature because I forced them to do something with it that they will NEVER EVER EVER do once they are out of school. They NEED to be avid readers over the course of their lifetimes to be self-educators, they don't NEED to be able to tear apart and analyze every nuance, label it, classify it, and debate it. To have a solid understanding of literary analysis is helpful, sure, but to beat a dead horse all the way through high school with essay after essay seems to me, at times, to be an advanced form of "busy work" in the form of essays rather than worksheets.
Sometimes, I think we have made high school the new college, and that is a bit sad to me. And yea, I know, that comment alone means many will accuse me of dumbing things down, of having no clue what is expected of college students, etc. But I continue to read more and more in our media of dual enrollment, AP pressures, etc. and it makes me wonder where we got so off track that we had to take four years of high school and make them four years of college, which means foundational education is being bypassed for upper level material...sort of like walking before learning how to crawl. As I read where colleges like Brown and Dartmouth are now declining to give credit for AP courses because the level of true college level knowledge of AP students is nowhere near what they expect to see, it begs the question...are we doing a disservice to our kids to press them for ever higher levels of academic "achievement" and critical thinking skills before they have had a chance to fully develop? Sure, I am fully aware that some kids are capable of that level of work at younger ages. But I think we need to start listening a little more closely to our Universities, who are trying to tell us something that we might not be paying close enough attention to.
::::Got my jacket over my head to keep yolk out of my hair::::
-
We are using TT this year after having used Saxon for 2 years prior. The kids love it, they are doing well with it, and I am thinking of adding in IXL math for review and a little extra practice.
-
We are using TT this year after having used Saxon for 2 years prior. The kids love it, they are doing well with it, and I am thinking of adding in IXL math for review and a little extra practice.
-
People are always quick to complain, but often slow to praise. I thought I'd let everyone know about my experience ordering for the first time from Quality Science Labs yesterday. I ordered 5 kits and a new microscope, and realized afterward that we are leaving for a long trip in a week, and I was worried about the delivery time. I checked their web site and it said 4-5 days before they ship orders. Ooopss!
I emailed them and explained my dilemma. I was pleasantly surprised to receive a polite email this morning saying they were shipping it out to me today with no delay.
I was so relieved! I also appreciated it a lot. If you check out their web site, their kits are terrific...all inclusive lab kits with a manual, and great personal service!
-
Full correction of every problem...which they only have through Algebra 1 or maybe Algebra 2 right now. Geometry and Pre-Calc are coming.
-
Rainbow Science - It would work great for 2 years, everything comes in a kit, and it has a well done, but not too arduous textbook.
-
http://www.soundtrackforarevolutionfilm.com/
We all loved this film as it told the story of the civil rights movement by weaving in the music of that era. Excellent!
-
Language Arts:
Steck-Vaughn Core Skills
Mosdos Press Anthologies
Growing with Grammar, Soaring with Spelling
Write Shop (Some Christian content easily bypassed)
History:
Connect the Thoughts
Science:
Rainbow Science
Nancy Larson Science
-
Walch's "Power Basics" Biology is simpler language but high school concepts without it being overkill for the totally non-Bio kid. Add in the biology lab from Quality Science Labs and you will be set for a nice year of solid, yet not overly rigorous biology.
-
Many not-so-Progressive Christians don't care much for Borg or Crossan.
-
I started totally lost, worrying about meeting "standards", asking myself how in the world it would be possible to cover everything I felt was important in the time we had left (we started at 5th grade with our oldest). I always gravitated toward eclectic, and it has remained our main course as it has worked extremely well for us.
What has changed is my expectation of what "good" looks like, in terms of vigor, and recognizing that often vigor seems to be an idol that many homeschoolers worship. It may seem odd for me to say that, as actually I expect an awful lot out of our kids, and we take our education quite seriously, but my own ideas about what is important to cover and at what depth are constantly evolving.
Probably the biggest thing I have learned thus far is that a curriculum had better work for the way I teach, for that is as important as looking for something that works with the way our kids learn. If I find it confusing, difficult, etc. to work with, it won't get taught or will be halfhearted. So these days I always look for something that is enjoyable to teach for me.
I also discovered, much to my surprise, that workbooks work great for some subjects, but over time I found that for social studies and science topics I am a total natural at Socratic style education, and prefer that we keep workbooks to a minimum for more rote type subjects. We have the BEST time in group discussions, and it is our favorite part of learning.
I also went from feeling I could leave reading just free and easy with no structure, to recognizing I really needed textbook/anthology to feel "safe" thatw e had covered certain things. I still value free reading more than just about any other method of educating any human being, so we do a lot of it and mix in sometextbooky stuff without pressuring ourselves to finish it each year, but to make sure we cover a broad range across the topics presented. That way I feel good about relaxing in one area of literature so it isn't all so structured, and yet keeping somewhat with a textbook part time gives me the confidence I need.
So much has changed for us, I guess, and yet the core really hasn't.
-
Double owner here, we have a 1998 Dodge Caravan and a 2006 Town and Country....250,000ish thousand miles and 170,000 miles. I would never, ever, ever consider another brand (the Dodge and Chrysler are the same). Our 1998 still rides as nice and comfortably as it did new, and the only thing we have done other than regular maintenance is a timing belt. It will literally probably give us another 100,000 without any major issues. Our 2006 is just as good, and no timing belt yet :-)
Gas mileage is impressive for us on our 2006, even when loaded with 7 bodies and luggage we are getting 22+ MPG on the highway. Truth is, even when we are done with kid hauling, we have already decided we will stick with the mini-van!
-
I have not used these subjects, but have the Starline history, and have viewed AO Lifepacs. 100% would go with the Starline. There is less repetition, engaging and somewhat conversational tone which speaks to the learner. I think it is well done. AO Lifepacs are just a different style for worktexts, and my kids would really find it tedious.
-
Science for middle and high school that is lab inclusive with everything we need in a box/kit, clean textbook without all the extraneous information included and text written in clear, easy to understand language.
Literature for K-12 that is maybe Caldecott and Newbery award winners or similar types that are a nice mix of contemporary and classic books that come with a study guide that is twaddle/worksheet free, has thoughtful questions(like Progeny Press), isn't a total overkill which takes the fun out of reading the novel (like Progeny Press can be), and does a good job of teaching literary terms and analysis in a logical step by step process. Sonlight is too light on the responses required, Progeny Press is too overboard, many of the companies like PP and Total Language Plus ignore more contemporary works, nothing makes me completely happy.
Science and history that blend in multimedia/video so that I don't have to constantly go digging to find clips that work to illustrate principles.
Cultural literacy program of some sort, which would touch on current events.
An early elementary writing program that was sort of IEWish with the DVD video and keyword outlines, but without the confusing catalog and programs to figure out, sort of WriteShopish in that it is teaching more of the basics in a progressive fashion but had a teachers book that had a replica of the student book with notes alongside it rather than a totally different teacher's manual, and one that started from early writing instruction with basics taught and went all the way through high school. Not a single program really does that, and I wish i didn't have to blend curricula.
A true 21st century life skills/financial planning/Home Ec/Auto Maintenance course that could be used over middle and high school years to build skills gradually in many areas.
-
Have you all ever had moments where you started seeing your older kids pull it all together and reflect exactly what you had hoped to accomplish with homeschooling? We just had one I wanted to share, as it was so rewarding.
We've only been homeschooling for 3 1/2 years. We pulled our first son out in 5th grade because he was rapidly losing the gleam in his eye about learning. He came home hanging his head saying, "This is going to be the longest year of my life." after the first day of 5th grade. I went into volunteer in class a few days later to see exactly what was leading to this, and I had a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach that we were at a big crossroads, and I could ignore it and see what happened, or I could elect to listen carefully to what God was telling me and just obey. I had no plans of homeschooling, was 2 months from traveling to adopt 2 pre-teen sisters who spoke no English, and was dealing with another son who was fully illiterate at 11 years old. I didn't need my stable kiddo to go off the rails.
But somehow, I just knew we would lose him. I knew if I didn't act, we could regret it for the rest of our lives. So, though internally stomping my feet as I saw my whole life changing right before my eyes, I walked out of that classroom with my cell phone in hand, telling my hubby, "I don't care what we do, we have to get him out of here or 6 months from now we won't recognize him."
That was 3 1/2 years ago. It took me 4 months or so to get my formerly library loving kid to actually pick up a book for fun to read again, and once we regained that it was as if he had rediscovered a long lost love. How had I not seen how that had drifted so off course for him? I didn't see it because he was away from me most of the day, and I trusted the professionals to continue to encourage the love of learning, not have the system beat it out of him.
We enrolled in art classes taught by an amazing teacher who did more than use construction paper and glue, we took piano lessons, we studied current events, we delved into why and how with everything.
This week, I was moved to tears to see where letting him explore took us. Matthew decided he was interested in trying to help our aging, small church with technology. We have a projector and screen which go largely unused, so he wanted to create a slide who with music to use during worship. Luckily, we have the kind of congregation that embraces our youth, which really consists of our kids and one other family. "Come join us on the Worship Team!", they encouraged him.
Monday, he presented his first slide show set to the music "Simple Gifts"...he learned the software with 10 minutes of instruction from me, and he was off and running...later explaining a few features to me that I had not understood. The room hushed, and the 4 other adults sat there watching in the dark as Matt's little clip showed. 3 minutes later, lights came up and our pastor turned and in all sincerity said, "I have goose bumps!! Where in the world did you learn to do that?". Matthew, tapping what he had learned from a good art and a good music teacher, was able to beautifully weave together images with music using panning and subtle (not garish) effects to create a truly touching 3 minutes on screen.
I sat there thinking to myself that all we had done in 3 1/2 years culminated right before me, that he had taken all his education in a variety of disciplines, and applied it in a real life way. I was blown away by his creativity and sensitivity...as was everyone else.
And it was just his first effort.
I don't think I was ever as thankful for making the decision to homeschool as I was right then, as I could clearly see what had been wrought because of it. It's a small thing, I know, but it's really a pretty big thing. It was an adult thing out of a 13 year old kid, that in his own words, "I never would have done this if I was still in public school, Mom, as I would have been too worried about looking cool. It was fulfilling to see people touched by what I put together, and I really want to do more."
I also "got it" in a new and powerful way, that if we give our kids tools, access, a little instruction, and opportunity...they can do things we could never imagine.
-
Mine never, ever want to wear a bikini and find it offensive. This was a huge relief to me, as adopting them from Kazakhstan there is a heavy Russian skimpy fashion influence there. I worried big time before bringing home our daughters at ages 10 and 11 what sort of conversations and battles we might have over modesty after seeing the majority of young ladies there wearing tiny mini skirts and the like. Fortunately, my fears never came to fruition and they don't even like slightly low necked shirts, mini anything, etc. They were mortified when they arrived and saw how young girls dress here, and I discovered later when they had enough English that they were worried about offending me because they didn't want to wear any of the styles they saw in JCPenny, etc.
Both wear a one piece with shorts, and my older daughter eventually grew to enjoy a one piece triathlon swim suit because it offered even more coverage but still looked "cool" and sort of athletic. The one piece triathlon suits are a very good option for those who are not really girlie and wouldn't want to wear the swim dresses (which I'd never be able to get mine in). They won't even wear a one piece without shorts, and not the short swim shorts but longer swim shorts.
the infallible Word of God
in The Chat Board
Posted
Actually, there are tens of thousands of Christians who, despite what others might call them are indeed Christian, but who do not believe in inerrancy, infallibility, or even authority in the same sense that those who are more orthodox or conservative believe. There are those who believe the Bible was written by mankind, not literally by God, and is more about humankind's experience and understanding of God. This would be man's attempt to explain the inexplicable, and is written from the perspective of what was culturally the norm at that time, therefore, it has to be taken and read in context. For many, to do so otherwise would render the Bible hopelessly pointless. Instead, for many, reading it from that perspective allows the Bible to be a rich text filled with a wide array of ways of viewing God, and it helps folks better understand God's presence and actions in the world.
No, I do not want to get into a debate about it, just trying to answer the OP's original question.
Not everyone is a conservative Christian, not everyone is a fundamentalist...and that doesn't mean they aren't Christian, except for in the eyes of those who hold a different set of Christian beliefs.
Sometimes, we lump Christianity into one big ball, and we forget that it runs the gamut from very literal and conservative, to very metaphorical/symbolic and liberal. "Christian" means many different things to different people, and I am always stunned how often this is not understood.