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8filltheheart

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Everything posted by 8filltheheart

  1. I don't have any suggestions for most of your post, but for French, he doesn't need a formal class. He can read French literature. He can read French history in French. He can watch the French news, TV shows, etc. He can write essays in French. You can find an online source to correct the writing or do conversation. (Check out iTalki. I have never used it but have read multiple posts on here about it.) FWIW, my dd self-taught herself French. (I don't know any.) She read Les Mis in high school. Before that she read lots of other things like Guy de Maupassant's short stories (and researched and wrote essays in French about them). She listened to their version of 10 min news (they speak very fast). You can find global radio stations online and listen to French radio for free. IOW, the options are endless. Continuing a language becomes a focus on broadening vocabulary and ease of just being in the language. One way I knew that she had really started mastering the language was when she would watch movies and build puzzles at the same time. When you can multitask and fully comprehend what is going on, that is a major hurdle in language processing.
  2. I think that this is a myopic view bc natural talent combined with "grit, effort, and resilience" also exists. They are not diametrically opposed, existing in separate vacuums. There are those with natural talent/gifts who work hard and can achieve levels that those without those same gifts working hard cannot achieve. (My avg kids, no matter how much effort they put in, would never be able to see the world mathematically the way their brother does. His brain has an ability to perceive things that he in turn used to master math and physics at a very high level. Nope....definitely not translatable to others putting in just hard work attempting to achieve the same level.) It reminds me of the current trend to deny giftedness. We celebrate disabilities and special needs, yet as a society we belittle the truth of giftedness.
  3. Busymom5 expanded on many of my thoughts. I wanted to share that in no way would I try to slow your younger dd down or be less vocally affirming of her achievements. First, it won't help your middle dd. She'll be aware regardless. Second, your younger dd's needs also have their own place. Teaching them to respect each other and themselves vs worrying about individual perceptions will serve your entire family more than trying to hide or minimize inequalities that blatantly exist. Embrace them for what they are and focus on each child's uniqueness. My kids are almost all adults now. I have a son who when he was 6 would be sitting on the floor playing and would blurt out answers that his 8 yr old sister was struggling to answer. He passed her academically early on. He was also extremely dyslexic. He had his own struggles. Even so, he graduated from high school having basically completed minors in both math and physics. There was no way in the world that his older sister was not going to be aware. 5 yrs younger than her, older dd also had to face a sister who was extremely gifted with language (she didnt pass her older sister, but Latin and French were easy for her where older dd had really struggled.) Our 7th child is very much like her oldest sister....very avg and really has to work hard to memorize things. She is very aware of the successes of her older siblings. She also has a sister who is 4 yrs younger than her who breezes through everything. Even more chaffing to her at times is that 7th child dd works very hard on her voice lessons and has really improved her singing...meanwhile our youngest is also gifted musically and with minimal effort her voice is truly amazing. As a parent, I cant hide or "fix" those inequalities. They are who they are. It is far more important to help each one figure out how to be the best them they can be. So, I have a ds who is extremely successful who pursued math and physics and had all sorts of academic honors. But, I also have a dd who pursued a 2 yr occupational therapy assistant degree who loves her job and the flexibility it gives her to be the great mom that she is. They are in very different places but both are very happy "in their skin." Our 7th is graduating from high school this yr. She is DEing full time this semester bc for the longest time she hasn't wanted to go to college but has wanted to start her own business. She has the drive, vision, and personality to make it work. We convinced her that having a background in business and accounting would be beneficial for her plan, so she is pursuing a 2 yr accounting and office management degree while working on her vision and creating a client base already. Helping them find them is the greatest gift you can give your kids. My kids are all so different from each other that I have had to constantly reevaluate homeschooling courses/plans to fit their needs. I hate chemistry but one ds is a chemE. I know nothing about physics but one loves it. I know no French or Russian but a dd graduated from high school fluent in French and at a high level in Russian. Creating a business plan? Nope, no knowledge. Our youngest is an 8th grader who thinks she wants to pursue violin performance... definitely 100% out of my league on that one. I have spent the past 8 months reading everything I can in attempt to educate myself so we can guide her as she makes decisions. That is my main goal....to be able to offer some basic guidance in helping them achieve their goals. Eyes are on them individually. They are affirmed in who they are with unique skills and interests. No hiding. Just celebrating each one's individuality. They know. We know. It is way easier if we live honestly vs acting like we need protect them from reality.
  4. Nichola, yes, I have very avg kids who are sandwiched between gifted siblings. There us only so much you can do. Really help them understand their unique gifts and that self-worth is not based on intelligence or academics. Everyone has their own struggles.
  5. Alas, they and many other homeschoolers (school-in-a-box or the online equivalent) miss that it doesn't have to be an either/or choice. It can be both.....a lifestyle where it bears little resemblance to a classroom yet still highly academic in focus.
  6. Carol, are you sure it's not online? MP has an an online school.
  7. Many of my close friends enroll their kids in online homeschool "schools." No one in my close friend group uses something Miacademy or Power, but those are definitely fan favorites on FB. CC and full enrollment co-ops are also extremely popular. (Someone recently told me that they think there are 26 CC groups in our area.) Outsourcing everything piecemeal, like your bolded comment, is another popular approach. In my close group, I know 2 families where mom is the primary teacher. Mom as primary teacher is definitely the least popular approach.
  8. Mia Academy is one of the new fads. Give it a search. I suspect you just arent around enough of the new, younger moms. What I find so incredibly disheartening is that these parents celebrate plopping their little kids in front of a screen and that the teaching doesnt involve them. I think it goes to the constant marketing mantra of let us be your kids' teacher. We can do it better. When you try to break through that mindset and share, no, you as the parent who knows the child can do better, you are simply dismissed as wrong bc the loud voices say otherwise.
  9. It's absolutely the case where I live. Almost everyone either uses online programs like Mia Academy/Power Homeschool/Classical Conversations/co-op/or correspondence (or online version) of school in a box. And, yes, if you talk about homeschooling not having to be simply moving from one classroom into another and instead you can control what your kids learn/what they use for school/be their primary teacher, most are offended that you even suggest that all things aren't completely 100% equal. Sure.....your 1.5 hrs of high school work is right on par with what my kids are doing....🤮
  10. I agree with Scout. I would not use a literature guide with younger kids. You could easily accomplish what you posted here by with having her write a couple of sentences about the story or selective copywork assignments. (I use copywork to teach grammar and writing skills. ) I personally don't have 3rd graders writing about lit at all. We just discuss. (If they can't remember what the storyline is, in general, I would question comprehension.) My kids don't write about lit until 6th-8th, depending on the student. We don't do formal lit analysis, ever, all the way through high school graduation. We discuss lit bc great lit has so much to talk about. We discuss forshadowing bc it makes us want to know what is going to happen. We talk about character development bc sometimes we wish flat characters had developed more or how we have watched a round character develop. My kids love searching for "hidden" depth in writing by recognizing allusions that provide insight. But, we never sit down and over-analyze a work. (My current 8th grader is writing an essay comparing The Most Dangerous Game to Hunger Games and is having a lot of fun writing it. Having a kid who wants to work on their essay=homeschooling bliss!)
  11. I am just going to toss some questions to consider bc I personally would not have a 9th grader DEing. 1-Is your student very strong academically? (DE grades follow forever in terms of having to be reported.....so when they apply to UG and grad school, those transcripts have to be included.) 2-What is the population of students like at your CC? (We have never lived anywhere where the CC is populated by strong students. It is my last choice option for my kids who are strong academically and plan on pursuing any sort of academic 4 yr degree.) 3-How old are the other students? (Many CCs restrict enrollment by age. Some don't. 14 yr olds are not often found in most academic-oriented CC classrooms, though.) 4-How will your student do mastering content in a 1/4? (Learning college level sciences and languages in a 1/4 can be rough for college age kids. Even adjusting to learning in a regular semester vs a school yr can be an adjustment for a lot of students.)
  12. Congratulations on the acceptances. I recommend asking on the music forum on College Confidential. They have been discussing the various camps and can give you informed opinions based on instrument, too. I have been trying to educate myself bc my dd is getting very serious about music performance. She is only an 8th grader, so I have no idea if things will stay this way, but I want to be informed in case she does. She is only going to two 1 weeks camps this yr bc we aren't ready for her to be gone on her for for a long period of time. I'm working my way up to expecting it in the not too distant future, though.
  13. Welcome to the wonderful adventure of homeschooling. I love homeschooling!! It has been such a blessing for our family. BUT, the blessing of homeschooling comes from allowing our homeschool to reflect the needs of our family and our children. I highly encourage you to not get caught up in definitions of "classical" homeschooling bc not a single classical homeschool marketed curriculum is really classical. Just decide what you want for your kids and family and prioritize those goals. I have been homeschooling for a very long time (I started when my oldest was in K back in 1994. My youngest will be an 9th grader next yr. I have been homeschooling non-stop since there are 6 in between those 2.) I have witnessed numerous trends come and go. We have just plugged along matching materials to the needs of our kids vs. conforming our kids to materials. It has enabled our kids to progress at their own rate focused on their strengths/weaknesses/interests. One of our kids loved math and physics and essentially completed minors in both before he graduated from high school. Another loved languages and had 15 foreign language crs on her transcript. Our youngest loves music. I hope that illustrates that not one sibling's education reflects another's. Every course has been tailored to meet their needs. I would recommend starting with 2 simple goals: finding a math curriculum that matches your oldest's level and learning style and creating a stack of books for him to read through. I would wait until you have some sort of rhythm with those before adding in more. Sometimes less is more when you are adjusting to homeschooling. FWIW, science and history can both be reading focused in 8th grade. (Actually, history remains that way in our homeschool through to graduation. I don't use textbooks for most subjects-- math, high school science, and foreign language grammar being the exceptions.) I have my 8th+ graders take Cornell Notes from their reading. I create writing assignments across curriculum from their reading.
  14. We have always met with the depts. But, my kids wanted specific info. They also asked to sit in on a class. They also asked about research opportunities, etc. I have never found a general campus tour or dept tour helpful other than to see the inside of a dorm.
  15. Hands On Equations Verbal Problems Book is an excellent supplement.
  16. It's hard for me to process, but my baby will be a 9th grader next yr. I am not "planning" in any form at this pt. I do have different ideas that I am contemplating. My dd currently believes she wants to pursue violin performance. Music is a totally new realm for me, so I have spent the past few months researching. That seems more important at this pt than formally thinking about next yr. (But, I am very relaxed about it in general bc she will be my 8th 9th grader and we do most things at home so there is zero stress in trying to get into outsourced classes that fill up quickly.) In general, she will be taking Foerster's alg 2, Western civ, probably physics, continuing with Russian, lit, and some type of music theory/classical music. Those are the generalities. Specifics will be considered more seriously this summer.
  17. There is zero bipolar anywhere on either side of our family. (There isn't autism, either, that we are aware of, but my parents were older when I was born, so definitely not something that was diagnosed back then. Anxiety and depression, however, my mom and a couple of my siblings suffered from both.) Exactly what happened.
  18. I read the book 20 yrs ago when my now 32 yos was 12. We had taken him to a neurobehavioral specialist who diagnosed him as bipolar without even having spoken to him. He made the diagnosis based on the parental survey. He literally brought us into his office, never even looked at ds, and started writing scripts for heavy duty meds while telling us that he had diagnosed children as young as 18 months!!!!! as bipolar. On the way home, we stopped by B&N and bought the book. I stayed up all night reading it. I threw the scripts out in the morning. That book did not describe our ds. I was infuriated. The back of the book listed all of the testing that should be done, etc. He did nothing! It made me wonder how many kids were diagnosed by that man and were put on meds with parents who just accepted what he said bc he was the "dr." Our ds is autistic with anxiety as his main comorbidity. (When he was younger, he was ADHD and had no impulse control.) But, he was definitely not bipolar.
  19. My comment is based on this comment Most gifted kids do not need (or more importantly, thrive) on incremental instruction. Both your math and writing program selections teach via every single tiny step progression. Kids who grasp big concepts quickly tend to find micro-progression tedious. The fact that you said indicates to me that he is your typical gifted big picture thinker and grasps concepts more intuitively than kids who need to be taught every single step sequentially. He might like Saxon simply bc he has never experienced math taught a different way. Math might move to a favorite subject if it wasn't taught dwelling in the weeds and instead presented the forest to explore.
  20. He must be a very compliant child. My gifted kids would have rebelled with what you said you have done. I am not going to answer your question bc you need to do what works for you. But, I am going to encourage you to stop approaching education with fear and trust yourself to be able to see gaps if they actually occur. (FWIW, Saxon would have made my kids hate math.)
  21. I am another who disagrees with the bolded. Kids deserve actively engaged teachers. My youngest of 8 is an 8th grader. I have been an involved teacher for the past 30 yrs. (We dont do coops. They have only taken a handful of outsourced classes.) Independent in completing assignments, yes. But, not independent in teaching themselves content. And even when they are completing work, I'm there to help. I personally think that kids who are "independent learners" in 5th or 6th grade are receiving a subpar, flat education. In depth learning comes from being able to discuss, be challenged in thinking=interaction with others. The OP has been floundering for a very long time. I dont think her ds working independently is realistic solution that would solve the numerous issues. I am a huge proponent of homeschooling. But, when it's not working after yrs of trying, it may not be the right choice for a particular family.
  22. Your post hits all of my thoughts. Not everyone is meant to homeschool.
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