AuntieM
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Posts posted by AuntieM
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Of course I meant kar1200 - I should just have said Erica! Lack of sleep + over 40 eyes = mucho typos. Glad my son is the one who has to learn to push the new little buttons : ) Thanks again!
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Kari, thanks especially for your suggestions on familiarizing him with the instrument. I can easily prepare a stack of problems!
Jann, Susan - thanks for validating Kari's recommendation. So good to know that such a reasonable investment will result in good future value. We're off to Staples!
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My son will be taking the Explore pre-ACT test next week, and a note we just received from the test administrator listed a calculator among the things to be brought to testing. We have not yet used a calculator in our math lessons, so we don't have one. We are in the first part of Saxon Algebra 1.
Would you please recommend some makes/models of calculators?
I believe my son will be able to do the math portion of the test without a calculator - I don't want to bog him down by introducing one so soon before testing - but I guess we will need one for the future. I would also like to know, if your child took the Explore test, did s/he need to use a calculator? I am wondering if it is a true necessity, or something to accommodate the students who are instructed to use calculators from early on in their math lessons.
Thanks for your help.
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...and WOW again! Thanks for all the tremendous selections. There are not words to describe your generosity in sharing all this information.
Eliana, thank you for the many details and especially for the links, what a time saver! I appreciate the time you spent in providing them.
Today I am a tired out, overwhelmed momma, and your replies are like a hug at the end of a long day! DH is out of town, the kiddies are all squared away, asleep or reading, and it is raining steadily outside. I am almost never "done" with my day by 9 p.m., but tonight, I am going to curl up with a few of these great books. I really appreciate you all pointing me in the right direction!
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I would love to see your lists! I am planning now, trying to prepare for doing the high school years a la the WTM/WEM approach. Wish I could say I had the time to preread all the options myself, but with three schooling plus a 3-year-old-on the loose.... I will appreciate your help!
(Thanks, Nan! We'll see what happens!)
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We are Saxon users, and when my kids move to the next level I begin by giving them the tests. I take a look at what they miss, and decide whether to let them go on to the next test or just review the particular concept missed. I have had kids test out of up to the first 30 lessons with this approach, with no loss of understanding as they progressed from that point. With 120 to 140 lessons in a Saxon book, we'd not likely finish them all in a school "year" anyway, so it's nice to eliminate the unnecessary review. We also do not break for summer with math, though we may go down to 2-3 days per week. If you do a traditional summer break with 2-3 months off, the kids may truly need the review.
HTH!
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is to share with you what I was recently told by the engineer/mathemetician/homeschooling mom who will be my son's math tutor should the need arise.
You could teach Algebra 2 concurrently with Jacob's geometry. So if you have a math-lovin' kid you can do 2 subjects' worth of math in a year, or you can intersperse the lessons (perhaps alternating days) and take longer than a year to cover the material. She seemed to believe that would be a good strategy for keeping the algebra skills fresh while acquiring enough geometry to tackle the college placement tests.
I will be watching this thread to see what others recommend, as we are not actually to that point yet. I am always willing to consider other, better strategies!
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I have also decided to use the WTM/WEM history-through-literature approach with my son as he enters 9th grade. Your suggestions/method are very helpful! I do have a follow-up question for you.
If you could choose the top ten works for each of the annual history cycles, what do you think your picks would be? How many items on the WTM/WEM lists are necessary for each year? I am trying to plan and pre-read this summer, and I cannot imagine getting through the complete lists. I would love some advice from you, Nan, and other smart, experienced teaching moms to help me create our list for the year. I guess it doesn't have to be exactly 10 selections, but I'd just love to know the "don't miss" list! I am thinking I actually would like a shorter list for Ancients, which may help us move through them a bit more quickly since this may be a graduate-in-three-years boy. We have spent a lot of our time studying the Ancients and I feel the need to move on, spending more time in more recent history (post-Renaissance).
Thanks for your help!
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Sorry I have not said so sooner, it's been crazy-busy at my house.
I will get my hands on one of the other texts (Foerster's, perhaps) and give him a selection of problems from time to time. It seems a good check for the ability to approach problems that may not be worded exactly as expected. He does like Saxon, and has done well so far, so I will plan to stick with it. But I appreciate all that you've shared; I am guessing that my daughter will not be happy with Saxon all the way through and now I have a great list of ideas/options for her! Thanks for setting my mind at ease. Each and every one of you is a terrific teaching mom!
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It seems that there are some pretty strong opinions about Saxon on this board, and how folks desperately want to steer clear of it. Can someone clue me in on what's supposed to be so bad about it? Perhaps refer me to an article or study? Or, on the other hand, reassure me that it's going to be sufficient for my serious, science-minded student as long as he enjoys and understands it? We have only just dipped a toe in the waters of Algebra 1, but completed 87 (3rd ed w/prealgebra) with few struggles.
Are there dark clouds on the horizon? Do I need to have a backup plan in place? (FWIW, I did read the thread on SAT math and understand that will take a season of prep all it's own, so I don't really see that as the main issue.)
Thanks for your insight!
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Something I appreciated from some of my son's upper level course teachers was a daily assignment schedule. I know you could expect the student to be able to figure out on his own how to divide up the homework over the week, but it provided a bit more direction for my student and a "check" for me as I followed up on his co-op homework. It helped my student to understand how to structure his time for the week. We expect our little ones to learn from behavior they can model, right (like copywork)? A week's worth of homework broken down into four to five daily assignments helps our teens learn to pace their work.
If I am paying for a class, this is the kind of little "extra" that endears me to a teacher : )
Good luck, if you decide to go for it!
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in experimenting with the process, I believe, when they were learning to program the brick; at least I know my son did in his individual research and outside reading as he learned the programming. But you are correct, for the competition programming they use NXC (an acronym for "Not Exactly C," my son tells me). FWIW, I am definitely not the most computer-literate member of our household : )
One of our out-of-town friends invited our son to attend a summer camp at their local college that will teach Java and use the mindstorm bricks & bots to apply the programming language, so it does work with the mindstorm kits. We declined, though, because we hope to move to the regular FIRST league next year and from our understanding, java is definitely not used in that league.
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I am also considering the age range for FLL in choosing whether to include it as a credit. My son was the lead programmer, Java Script is what they used, and his experience was quite a good one, with the team bringing home major trophies both years. There was an instructional component with representatives from the university teaching the guys programming skills in a 2 day workshop, plus all the public speaking/interviewing that goes along with the competitions and associated community service presentations.
One of the reasons I'd like to count it as a Carnegie unit (or 1/2) is that our local community college requires a student to have earned high school junior status to enroll in classes there. They don't place a stipulation on age, as long as 12 credits (for our district) have been earned and the student passes the COMPASS test. Our goal is to open up wider opportunites for our highly-motivated science student as soon as he meets the criteria. (FWIW, we do feel his maturity matches his ability, that's the first question many ask, so in case you thought it, too...!)
In the long run, as we prepare a transcript to submit with college applications, this FLL credit may drop off, since he will almost certainly have credits in excess of the minimum requirements. As we look at college entrance requirements, we find they vary in whether or not they accept credits for work completed prior to the "official" start of high school (what you would start with as 9th grade on a transcript). That was eye-opening for us, and something to be aware of as you look at colleges!
Thanks again!
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My son has participated in FIRST Lego League robotics for the past two years, and his team has done exceptionally well at the state tournament. Considering the time and academic investment, I would love to grant him a high school science/technology credit for his work. The hours are definitely enough to have earned a Carnegie unit!
For those of you who have done this, what independent requirements have you added? I will have him write a detailed paper about his involvement in the experience, I am just wondering what other things you felt necessary to add to honestly call it a credit.
I do realize that it is a wonderful extracurricular activity to put on a transcript, and in the end, that's where it may go. However, I am considering counting it now. I appreciate anything you can share!
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oversee the planning with my son, then have him present the info to the person selected as his advisor? Of course, we would arrange for the advisor beforehand; I am just trying to consider the best use of this other adult's time (ie, want them to be interested, to want to help ds be accountable, but not have the burden of figuring out and laying out the whole program for my child). Of course we would decide on an advisor prior to beginning, in case he felt like he should have more input, but I just dislike the idea of totally turning it over to someone else!
We are new in town here, so it will take some thinking, but perhaps a Sunday School teacher (mine or his) or a science co-op group teacher would fill the bill. I guess deep down, when I posted this question, I was hoping someone would say, "Oh, but if you are a HOMESCHOOLER you are also an acceptable advisor." Guess that would've been too easy : )
Keep the replies coming, please, if any of you can share info about selecting an advisor and/or the program in general. Thanks!
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Who has served as advisor to your kids as they pursue this award? It appears that parents are excluded from this position. Do I have to find someone else to serve my son in this capacity?
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has been the oh-so-cheesy old television series Lost in Space. The kids and I laughed til we cried at the the tin-foilish special effects of the first episode, but now they are hooked! It's nostalgic and fun, with a huge cliffhanger at the end of every episode (a wonderful incentive for getting those math lessons completed in a timely fashion!) I've placed the old Jonny Quest cartoons in my queue as well, but haven't gotten them yet.
"Educationally" speaking, we've seen much of what the other gals have already recommended. Planet Earth was tremendous! We also liked Digging for the Truth (the Discovery Channel Series). When you are on the netflix website, in the search space you can enter "history channel" or "discovery channel" or "A&E" and all of shows produced by those channels will show up. Similarly, you can enter IMAX and get a list of those films (another big hit around here). I just made a habit of watching the --- channel productions first; they are usually great but often manage to throw in the sexual nature of historical figures, easy to forward past if you know it's there.
Another good resource is the list of "films to supplement history" on the Paula's Archives web site.
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he will be completing 8th grade. In my mind, this is sort of a benchmark year, prior to "officially" beginning high school studies, and I want to see where he is. He usually tests well, doesn't get anxious about it. The scores can be easy documentation for his admittance to the local chapter of the home school national honor society. We are not required to test and have not done so since 4th grade. This is what really surprised me...
I ordered a Spectrum test prep book. It's filled with so much sociological gibberish, it amazed me! I guess in some wicked combination of higher grade level and changing test standards, there's a whole lot more than your traditional old 3 R's on the newer tests! We have been laughing about it and I've just given my son some extra reading to cover these areas.
Anyone else notice this trend? Is it actually a trend, or is the difference in material strictly related to the gap in our testing grade level experience?
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and the resounding approval of the Oklahoma State program! We will definitely look into that! I appreciate the details and web link.
As far as the Spanish, we'll keep looking, would love to hear additional recomendations.
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Greetings to all, I have "lurked" here a bit and now that my oldest is going to be a high schooler next year, I have a couple of questions (and will likely have more!).
He has decided he would like to study German, and plans to go for it for the 4-year term as he is a college-bound science-freak and sees that some of the more selective universities want applicants to have 4 years of language study. That's fine with all of us (me, him & dad). So the first question is, what is the best for German? I am looking for something effective and somewhat self-teaching. I would love to hear your tried-and-true favorites for high-school level study.
Also, I believe that it would be beneficial for all of us to become conversant in Spanish. Because he is truly interested in studying German, as well as continuing with his Latin studies, and did not choose Spanish for his "formal" foreign language study, I do not want to burden him with a grammar based curriculum. We want to be able to speak Spanish passably (or better yet, well!), but want it to be fun AND effective. What are your best tips for learning conversational Spanish?
Thanks, I look forward to your replies!
Saw Prince Caspian today-anyone else?
in General Education Discussion Board
Posted
I do believe it was a good movie, it's just that *I* didn't like it. I know they have to make certain changes to translate the narrative to the big screen, I just really hate it when those changes affect the nobility of one's character. From the book, I do not remember Peter having such difficult moments in struggling with leadership, I do not recall his getting into a fistfight at the train station. I do not remember Susan's waffling loyalty to Peter. And, as others put it, I didn't appreciate THAT at the end, and neither did my kids.
As far as the plot changes, I did not mind additional action, I just don't like the way these characters were, in my opinion, diminished. In the first movie, which I loved, the thing I didn't like was the way the kids rushed into the wardrobe because they broke a window. Edmund may have hidden because of that, but in my mind, not the others. They would have done the hard thing and fessed up to doing the damage rather than running and hiding.
And I think pluggedinonline got it right when they stated something to the affect of "make no mistake, it's not a kiddie movie, nor even a family movie...it's a war movie."
Not saying I hated it, I just didn't love it and some of the changes bugged me. Great for conversation points, though ; )