Jump to content

Menu

j3mom

Members
  • Posts

    87
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Posts posted by j3mom

  1. Off topic, but yes, the macron thing has been driving my dd crazy in Lone Pine. It would have been okay if she had started with them, but she didn't and when we did the first half of LL, she didn't learn those macrons, so she's still getting dinged on chapter tests for missing macrons that don't change the meaning of the word.

     

    Yes, I can see that this would be very hard. But for others the "macron fact" may be an important fact to consider switching between Latin providers.

     

  2. Not Lukeion, but my dd#2 got an A+ in an online Latin class last year & didn't put enough time in to retain the info. She's regretting it this year as she's doing a lot more translation work. She doesn't want to redo last year, but she's having to restudy a lot of the material to put it into long-term memory. So, for us, the grade didn't reflect the learning. Not saying that is the case with your kid!!!!! Just that it can happen.

     

    This pretty much was the case of my DS at Lone Pine. The fact, that you can retake every vocabulary quiz as many times as you want and the only highest grade counts, did not really help to motivate him to study for a long term memory. Yes, the grade did not reflect the learning at Lone Pine either. I think that with Lukeion the grade is much more reflective of what is actually in the student's head :-)

  3. We have been in a similar situation at Lone Pine. My son started very young (5th grade), did amazingly well the first year (Gold Medal on NLE), and then started having some troubles mid year in 200. We agreed to stop, and will start over at Lukeion with Latin 1 in the fall ( 7th grade). He is excited that Lukeion does not use macrons, (Lone Pine does). I believe that young age and maturity is one reason why my kid struggled a bit with the higher level understanding. That and the learning approach at Lone Pine.

     

  4. It is a first season for my son, and he is part of a rookie team. It seems quite challenging, but then again we have nothing to compare it to. Yes, they are struggling as well. Despite that, I have to say, that I am impressed how much learning DS picked up from FTC since September. It is really great.

    • Like 1
  5. The usual advice for those "aiming high" for college is 5 academic solids per year. In the academic rating game, PE, music, driver's ed, etc. don't "count".

     

    This is usually: Math, science, history and social studies, foreign language, and English.

     

    However, if he has AP tests in foreign language, he will have had the equivalent of 4 years of that language before 12th. That means he could "double up" elsewhere: take both history and economics one year, take both biology and environmental science another, etc. Or, as has been suggested, he could do advanced work with the language, such as reading literature written in that language, study abroad, etc.

     

    Also, while 5 solids per year is the ideal, not all kids will have that. The minimum is 4 years each of math and English, 3 years each of science, social studies, and foreign language, and enough electives to get to 20 or 21 classes. This will have him ready for an academically solid school, just maybe not competitive for the schools that reject 90% or more of their applicants.

     

    Thanks JanetC, that makes a lot of sense. My initial thoughts were that he would have Foreign language out of the way and that would free up some time to take other classes. But I don't want to close any doors on him, that is why I am checking into this. I am very new to the HS planning and any info is very appreciated.

     

    I would make an effort to have him continue studying Spanish at a post-AP level so that he doesn't lose the language skills. It's easy to let things slip ("oh yeah, I'll get to reading that short story next week" or "I'm too busy this week to chat with a language partner") without a registered class, you know?

     

    Yes, that is a good idea to do. I can speak from my own experience, as I can hardly speak any German anymore...."use it or loose it". Fortunately we live in Florida and here are lot of opportunities to speak Spanish. However, Luckymama, you brought up a good point with scheduling and keeping it up if you really don't have to, and it is something to keep in mind while contemplating the "big plan".

    A high school AP foreign language class would be roughly equivalent to a 4th semester college class. At most of the colleges I've looked at that grant credit for AP foreign language, a 4 or 5 is credited as four semesters (e.g. Spanish 101, 102, 201, 202). But there are still many 300 and 400 level course options that involve reading and analyzing literature in the language.

     

    Your student could do those courses via DE, private tutoring, or online correspondence, as someone mentioned upthread. For example, Lukeion's Latin 4 = AP Latin, but students can continue Latin with them via independent study. There's no AP Greek, sadly, but my son will finish Greek 4 this year and will be doing Greek 5 with Regan as an independent study next year, focusing on Homer.

    Thank you for breaking it down for me. It is good to know that there are options for post AP language study.

    Just out of curiosity, Lukeion has AP Latin as a year 4? Lone Pine AP has it as 5th year....Interesting.  Your son's independent Greek study sounds interesting :-) I could totally envision something like this for my DS down the road.

     

     

    Meanwhile, I spoke to Princeton's admission (one of the school that has 4 years of FL, and actually returned my call already):

      and the admission lady said if the student achieves mastery and it is shown with a high grade on a test (AP) or if the student runs out of options to continue studying the language (higher classes not available at the school), the university does not require the whole 4 years. I explained my son's situation with the two languages, and she said that that would be totaly fine, if he does not continue FL during the all 4 years of HS and just finishes with AP levels when he does. :-)

    • Like 1
  6. On Stanford website I found the following:

    "

    Stanford students are to complete one year of college-level study of a foreign language (or the equivalent). How do I meet the language requirement? By being placed into a second-year course (or beyond) through on-campus placement testing or By completing the third course in a first-year sequence or By presenting an AP score of 4 or 5 in Chinese, French, German, or Spanish or an SATII of 630 in Chinese, German, Italian, Korean, Latin, or Spanish; of 640 in French; of 620 in Japanese; or of 540 in Hebrew. Or by presenting an IB High Level score of 5.       "     Based on this, the good AP score of 4-5 would be sufficient to even get out of the one year FL study during college. So I am reasoning that it may be sufficient for HS as well? Am I on the limb here?
    • Like 3
  7. Yes. If you run into a college that won't recognize them, they probably are too unused to dealing with academically talented/accelerated kids to be a good fit anyway.

     

    Latin would actually be a great one to continue because of it being a non-spoken language. You can probably find a classicist somewhere who would be interested in doing an independent study/reading via correspondence with a talented and enthusiastic high school student. I mean, you'd still have to pay them, but it's the easiest to do via correspondence.

     

    By the time he gets to HS, another option for continuing foreign language study might be a summer exchange program, if it is financially and otherwise feasible.

     

    Thank you Kiana,

    that makes a lot of sense. I love that idea of continuing. My DS can not wait to read the actual works in Latin, and although I am sure that some of that will be done in the future years at Lone Pine, he would love to continue like this on his own under a supervision. I will check with his teacher, maybe she has some prior experience with this already.

  8. He could always take college courses at a community college in a language in highschool. But I think showing he's made it through AP level is plenty. 

     

    That is what I was thinking as well. DS's current plan is to finish both (Spanish and Latin) to AP, which would mean 5 years for each. But only portion of it would be done in the actual highschool years, althought both are at a highschool level, from outside sources.

     

    Message has been left at a university, so hoping to have some answer soon.

     

    Everybody's input is very much appreciated. I see it is true, one can always count on the Hive ;-)

  9. Great ideas, Tsuga and Star. I have not even thought about lit studies or teaching assistant possibilities. For some reason I thought that language is done with AP level and that is it. :-)  I will research this little more.

    Yvonne, I will call and find out and will report back here.

    Yes, I thought that taking the FL earlier would free up more time to take other valuable classes during HS.

    Madteaparty, maybe the school will count his languages and he won't have to take another one at the school. Hopeful thinking ;-)

  10. This is my first post here on the highschool forum, although I have been reading here for quite some time, educating my self on the future. I am very very thankful for all the knowledge that you share here. It is very helpful.

    My question is regarding to my DS(11) currently talking 2 highschool level foreign languages. He is in sixth grade and is currently enrolled in Lone Pine Latin 200 and Honors Spanish 200 (with Ray Levens). (He took both of the 100 levels last year). He really enjoys both of the classes, he picked them out of his own interest and wants to continue with them all the way.

    However I started to educate my self on all the highschool requirements, since I did not grew up in this country. And found out that some of the top colleges (just keeping all options open for now) recommend to have 4 years of one foreign language during highschool. As of now, my son is on a track to be in AP level in both languages in 9th grade, freshmen year of highschool. We can stall Spanish with conversational Spanish in his 7th grade (next year) which would put AP Spanish in 10th grade. As of now we are not looking into graduating HS early. Would this pose a problem for him with top college admissions? Do they require to have those 4 years all done in highschool? I would hate for my son to take 5 years of each (Latin and Spanish) and then being in disadvantage for admission purposes that he would lack the 4 year language requirement during highschool. Although he would not mind to take another language in highschool, he would not have time to take another 4 years of a language then. (Besides he is most likely headeding to the science, math and engineering world.)

    I know that this is a long ways away, but since he is on this train now I want to make sure that it will lead him where he wants to go, and it will not close doors for him just because he is ahead of the schedule. ;-)

    I appreciate any information that you may provide. Thank you

    • Like 1
  11. My son turned eleven in November and is finishing Lone Pine Latin 100 this year. I have to say that it is a challenging course, but very very fun, and a favorite class and subject for my son. He just loves Lone Pine and Mrs. K.

    I was on the fence whether or not to enroll him this early, Karen and I agreed to try it (after my son really wanted to participate) and we gave it a go. He is maintaining A in the class for both semesters, and is already planning to continue all the way to AP Latin.

    I don't know what makes it a success for him. Maybe the fact that he is bi- lingual from birth, and Latin is his 4th language. He is having a real fun comparing all the languages. I would say that he spends on average 4 hr per week at most. Little more if studying for the unit tests. He is really motivated to do well in general  and is easily excited about all things (Cicero, myths, roman history, ....).

    I am really glad and relieved that it is working out so well for him, but if we waited it would have been fine as well.

    • Like 3
  12. Yes, the private lesson fee is out of our reach as well. The group lessons seem doable. I was intrigued that the class size is so small (5-10), for main focus problem solving weaved through all the math and access to the teacher 24/7 via email (for questions and such). Plus parent is not required to do anything, except support the kiddos ;-)

    Sounds good. Anybody else?

  13. I am agonizing over what to do with my son for Algebra next school year. I am leaning toward letting somebody else do the teaching. My son is good with math, and I am mediocre....I feel like I have been holding him back. But I don't want to be involved, if I outsource it. I don't want to grade his homework etc.....

    So in my search I stumbled upon Math Perfect with Courtney James http://www.mathperfect.net/Pages/default.aspx

    His name comes up from time to time (on Davidson website), I know that he works with many brilliant kids via private lessons. However, I was not aware that he also teaches group internet classes. I talked to him, and it sounds very good. He even offered to do a free consultation with my son, so they spend an hour talking about math. Needless to say, after that hour my kid bubbled with excitement for math (something I am not able to restore on my own).

    Anyway, I am really impressed, among other things with the class size (5-10 kids).

     

    Do any of you have any more experience with Courtney James or know of people that worked with him? I would like to have more information before we commit.

    I am all ears :-)

    Thanks

    Veronika

  14. So, I received The Homer level last night, and wow! I love it and at the same time I feel that it won't be an easy ride (especially for me ;-).

     

    I have a question, in the Homer core book it says additional suggested materials: Dictionaries: see suggestions in Aesop p. 21

    I tried to look up the free samples on CW website, and it ends with page 20.

     

    Could somebody please tell me what the Dictionaries recommendations are for Classical Writing program? We don't really have a good one, so if I am buying a new dictionary, I want to make sure that it is the one that is recommended.

    Thank you!!!

×
×
  • Create New...