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Cheryl B in VA

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Everything posted by Cheryl B in VA

  1. There are many firsts for my son this summer and I am pleased with the life skills that he will be garnering from his summer. He will be gone three weeks out of the summer so we did not think that an actual summer job was doable. He will be getting a job in Sept., though, after he gets his driver's license. DS will be going on his first missions trip out of the country. He is going with the church youth group to Jamaica. This is not cheap so he is learning how to raise money. We paid the $250 deposit and he has to come up with the rest. The church came up with a fundraiser called "Run for the Glory." The students collected pledges for laps running around the church (it is a BIG church). They had a calling night at the church where students were given member's phone numbers and called for pledges. This was on top of what the students could get from their friends and family. As a homeschooler, this is the first time he has had to raise funds for anything. He had to work on his communication skills to do this - which he really needed. He raised around $900. The second week he is gone will be a family vacation to Williamsburg with my dad. Can we say history and fun? His third week of travel will be to South Carolina for the Assemblies of God National Fine Arts competition. This was his first year participating and the youth choir advanced to nationals. He also entered the short sermon category but did not advance. Next year he will register for more categories. And, lastly, he still needs to make some money this summer. Also, he needs a little more funds for the missions trip. He began mowing our lawn at age 11 and has occasionally mowed neighbors' lawns over the years. I have three boys, ages 16, 13, and 9, and they make up Bolt Brothers Lawn Care. They advertised two weeks ago and now how 4 clients plus our lawn (which they get paid for). Oldest DS is responsible for client communication, bookkeeping, and the mowing. Second DS does the trimming, and DS three does the bagging and blowing. My husband made a business notebook with a calendar to schedule the jobs, income record, expense record, etc. Now, after saying all that let me clarify something - DS is not a self-motivated person. Would he rather take a nap than mow someone's lawn? Yes. Would he rather visit internet forums than fundraise? Yes. We are gently nudging him into being more responsible. Thanks for letting me share!:001_smile:
  2. The teacher's book would be TWSS. This is the "how-to" of the method.
  3. This year for 7th grade English ds did: Analytical Grammar season 2, Apples 2 spelling, Word Roots A1/A2, IEW SWI A. You do not need to do Easy Grammar and AG. Choose one or the other. Also, MW and Vocab from the Roots Up seem like a double dose of vocab. The rest looks fine. JMHO
  4. DS did Apologia Biology meeting with a class once a week for labs. The next year I put him in public school and here in VA he had to take the SOL (Standards of Learning) test to receive credit for the class. He received an advanced score (better than average) on the test. So, he did cover all the material of a standard biology class. Adding the human body study would make it an AP biology course which is an extra year of biology. FWIW our high school's biology offerings are Biology 1 or pre-AP Biology and with a "B" or better a student may then take AP Biology with AP Biology lab (total of 2 credits) in grades 11 or 12.
  5. DS is finishing 10th grade and this is what he has done and is planning to do: Algebra 1 in 6th grade using Videotext Algebra 2 in 8th grade using Teaching Textbooks (we skipped a year on many subjects and unschooled because he was so far ahead) Geometry at the public school. Interesting note: He had to take the SOLs for Algebra 1 & 2. He passed BUT there were a few math topics on the test that were not covered yet in TT. These topics are taught eventually in TT but later than our public school teaches them. Son came back home this year and we tried doing precalculus using the Chalkdust textbook and Dr. Burger's lectures (Thinkwell) through Hotmath. It didn't work. DS needs to do the higher level math in a classroom setting with a teacher that knows how to do it. (My highest math was Trig/Math Analysis and I got Cs and Ds.) For next year son is requesting to take his math class at the local public school. Homeschoolers can take up to two classes at the PS. This is not my first choice - I gave him many options. His choices were: public school, community college, homeschool class of precalc (meets twice a week), online class, Teaching Textbooks. Second DS starts Algebra 1 next year. I have not yet settled on what will be the right curriculum for him.
  6. He started high school level classes in 8th grade because he could handle them. This is also benefits him because he does not need to take math and science every year in 9th-12th. So, he can take a challenging AP course and not be overloaded. 8th grade Algebra 1 (actually in 6th) Algebra 2 Spanish 1 Biology 9th (at the public school) Pre-AP English 9 Advanced Earth Science Pre-AP World History Pre-AP GEometry Spanish 2 Word Processing Health and P.E. 10th Ancient History Ancient Literature Chemistry Spanish 3 Speech and Commincations Driver's Ed (tried doing precalc at home but that didn't work) 11th AP American History American Lit or AP British Lit Functions/Trig (at the public school) Bible Logic IEW Writing Computer (learning Excel and Powerpoint) 12th Government American Lit or British Lit Advanced Biology Bible Rhetoric ?elective He is involved in the youth choir at church and next year we expect him to have a part time job.
  7. Math - Functions/Trig at the local PS English - Sonlight British lit or LL Honors English correspondence History - AP US History through PA homeschoolers Because those three courses will be a heavy workload the rest will be lighter: Logic Bible IEW writing SAT prep Ds already has three science with lab credits so we get to take a year off from that. If he wants to have 4 science credits then he wants to do Apologia's Advanced Biology his senior year.
  8. I had to sit next to dear son to help him stay on task. Finally at age 9 when he hadn't grown out of it I had him evaluated and he was diagnosed with ADHD. The doctor said that she saw a lot of kids at 6/7 years old when they can't focus at school and she also saw a lot of 9/10 year olds when parents realize that they are not going to outgrow their focusing problem. I waited until he was 9 because I was dead-set against labeling my son. When I realized that he could not reach his full potential because he was so easily distracted and hyper, I gave in. After the evaluation the doctor told me some things that she saw: when she said a series of numbers and asked him to repeat them he was not paying attention and could not do it; he was distracted by people walking down the hall; he was distracted by the window - he would look at the cars in the parking lot; he couldn't sit in the chair - he was constantlyl moving. I say all this in case the thought has crossed your mind that it is more than just being a 6yo boy. My son is now a very bright 7th grader.
  9. Math - ACE Paces, 4 days per week Language Arts - Daily Grammar, two days IEW SWI A (Added in Jan.), four days Apples Spelling, four days Word Roots A1/B1, two days Reading, 1 hour per day Science - homemade physics course, two days Mindbenders - 1 day Bible - 1 day History - BiblioPlan, 4 days (because we are behind - otherwise it would be 3 days) World Geography - homeschool class that I am teaching, class one day a week and 15 minutes of homework per day four days a week I think that is all. You will notice that I am not teaching Latin or another foreign language. I am waiting until high school for FL with him.
  10. TWSS is Teaching Writing Structure and Style. These are the teacher DVDs that are the basis of IEW. Now, some people can get that, watch the DVDs, and integrate what Andrew Pudewa teaches into their curricula. I knew I wouldn't do that so I bought SWI A (Student Writing Intensive for grades 3-5) also. This has Andrew teaching a 4 day workshop. There are suggested daily lesson plans that can stretch SWI into 12 weeks or more. SWI CC (Continuation Course) is more of Andrew teaching and can be stretched into 36 lessons. Yes, there are several IEW history-based writing lessons. I highly suggest watching the TWSS videos as you go through the history curricula, but it is not required. Request their catalog for great explanations of all the courses.
  11. My son is finishing Apples Splelling Book 2 this year (7th grade). I jumped around different spelling programs for him because he was a late reader. Apples has been painless and effective. This year he also did Word Roots A1/A2 for vocab. After reading these posts I am going to look at Megawords for him next year. What level should I start him in? I might start a new thread to ask that question. Also, I had never seen the free middle school spelling curriculum that was shared in this post. Thanks!
  12. After years of saying that IEW was too pricey I finally splurged and bought TWSS and SWI A. Okay, I confess, I bought them two years ago and they sat around for a year before I got to them. But, wow!, how writing has improved this year. My 10th grade ds has been watching TWSS as part of TRISMS this year. One day in the car he said that his mind was wandering and a Bible verse came to mind. Then he had a revelation - that Bible verse was a triple extension (a writing dress-up taught in IEW). My 7th grade ds is doing SWI A. I bought SWI A intending to do it with a 2nd/3rd grader and a sixth grader but it sat around for a year. Otherwise I should have bought SWI B. But this ds has done no formal writing program before and has really excelled this year. Doing SWI A and Analytical Grammar at the same time has really made writing "click" for him. Next year I will continue using IEW. Oldest ds will do High School Essay Intensive and/or SWI C continuation (I will talk to the reps at convention this year to help decide what to do next). Rising 8th grader will do a SWI continuation course. Youngest ds will do SWI A.
  13. Today I started AAS Book 3 with my 9 yos. At the beginning of the school year he was a struggling reader and remembered some of what he learned about phonics rules in the ETC books but had a hard time applying them consistently. AAS has been fantastic for him. It has helped him with reading and spelling. In grammar today he had to write a one syllable short vowel word with an ending. He did not double the consonant but I have trained him to always read what he just wrote. So, when he read it he said it with a long vowel and said, "Oops!" I asked him what was wrong and he said, "I forgot to double the consonant to keep the vowel short." Also, sometimes my 13 yos hears a rule that we are learning and says, "Hey, I never knew that!" Every AAS lesson has dictation sentences as well. These sentences are built in review because they only use words with spelling rules that have been learned. I use the dictation sentences for cursive handwriting practice, too.
  14. I actually read SOTW with the Biblioplan schedule. I have the AG to use the maps and for a coloring page for my 3rd graders notebook. I am not an acitivities person. I have actually used History Pockets and Interactive 3-D Maps for the first time this year and my sons (13 and 9) are really enjoying those extras.
  15. Well, I really like Sonlight's 400 level for his senior year which has American lit. Did you use British lit over 2 years? Could I choose some of the books to study?
  16. Hi, everyone. I have not been on the board much since it switched to the new format. I had several funerals to attend and a lot of traveling. Now I am back to reading the board a few times a day. Anyway, I am planning for my 11th grader next year and need some input. Has anyone used Sonlight's British lit course? What did you think? It seems to cover a lot in one year compared to other courses. The other English course we are considering is Hewitt's Honors English using 2 British lit syllabuses. For this I would do the correspondence course and have someone else grade his papers. Also, we are considering logic. I had him read Thinking Toolbox and Fallacy Detective in middle school but he is now saying that he may not have actually finished them and did not go through the questions at the end of each chapter. So, the choices are Introductory Logic and Intermediate Logic by Nance, Traditional Logic books 1 and 2, or Material Logic book 1 (would only be one semester). Any reviews, comparisons, info, etc. would be helpful.
  17. 9 yos still has to think about it and sometimes gets them confused. He was also a late reader who is finally fluent enough to read The Littles series. As someone said, they will get it before they go to college. P.S. Loved the smiley banging its head against the wall.
  18. You have to spend a little time matching up the teaching guides with the books but you can use only the info that you want with the books. I liked using the primary documents in the guides, analyzing and discussing them, and putting them in the history notebook. These are written for classroom teaching. I picked what I wanted and made lesson plans for my son 3 years ago. Unfortunately I did not save these (partly because that was for my gifted son and they would not work with my second son) but now I am looking at the guides and planning for my 7th grader.
  19. You can purchase Teacher's Guides through Rainbow Resource and other suppliers. RR sells each guide for $16.25. PBS has teaching guides from the series that they aired based on the History of US books. They have webisodes online as well. The teaching guides do not start at the beginning of the books, though. They begin at the birth of the nation. I have used these and they are excellent! Here is the website: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/historyofus/teachers/guides.html
  20. Because you are planning on doing AG in one year some of what I say will not apply. BUT for others reading this post and considering AG I hope this is beneficial. Our expericience: AG is intensive grammar work. If you do it in one year schedule at least an hour a day. We skipped the paraphrasing in Season 1 with no impact on his understanding. Because each exercise takes so much time I opted to schedule grammar twice a week and do AG thoughout the school year. This worked well for ds. Ds enjoys it! One day I opened his vocab. wb (Word Roots) and he had parsed the sentences in the assignment. At the bottom of the page he wrote, "I parsed them!" He was so proud. His writing has improved because in Season 2 he learned about all the different clauses in sentences. This combined with doing IEW for the first time greatly improved his writing. AND he knew how to use the clauses (which clause) that IEW was teaching because he was learning them in grammar. Grammar experience before AG: FLL grades 1 & 2 (completed in grade 3); some of R&S grade 4; maybe a generic workbook in grade 5 - honestly I do not recall. So, a strong background in grammar is not needed.
  21. I have not been on the board for a while but wanted to chime in on this post. Here are my 8th grade plans: Math – Algebra 1 - haven't decided on curriculum History - BiblioPlan 4 English Analytical Grammar year 3 IEW SWI B Word Roots B1 & B2 ? Lightening Literature 7 ? Science – Exploring Creation with General Science outsourced class Bible – Possibly Explorers Bible Study Health – Total Health Logic - Thinking Toolbox, Fallacy Detective Music – Recorder and music appreciation P.E. - Football in the fall and basketball in the winter My son has chosen not to do a foreign language until freshman or sophomore year in high school. He said he would not take it seriously right now. He is ADHD and if he doesn't want to do a subject then he could sit at the table for an hour with his mind wandering instead of doing the work. Believe it or not, the only thing above that he will not enjoy is literature analysis.
  22. I read the boards many times a day but only occasionally post. I have a sophomore, a 7th grader, and a 3rd grader.
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