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TracyR

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Posts posted by TracyR

  1. We decided to outsource math this year because I had such a tough time helping her with higher math.  So we dual enrolled at the high school year( our school district allows it due to it having its own cyberschool). So we traditionally homeschool for history, science, and LA and she does her math and a health technology class at the high school. So she does a little bit of both. 

     

    Anyways, she is retaking Algebra 1 at the high school and is getting it this time. Has a good teacher and she comes home happy and more confident in it now.  Geometry , not so much. The teacher is very nice but not very good at teaching the concepts. She will lecture, give them some definition notes to write down, and then will send a worksheet home that is just very difficult. I will look in her notes, look at her book ( its Pearson so it doesn't explain much in the book for examples) , go online and just not find what we need. 

     

    Of course she can get tutoring but the teacher only tutors at 7:35 in the morning and to get her out of the house at that time is next to impossible ( she's NEVER been a morning person).  I'm looking to find a peer tutor but its hard to do in our town.  Its hard to explain but if your NOT in the in crowd , you get ignored.  

     

    So anyways, what in the world can we do? Can anyone suggest something that will help us get through it? Even if its online?  We're only a few weeks into the school year and I already feel stressed out. 

  2. Yes, I don't think you'll find one that both suits both Protestant and Catholic at the same time. Your only going to find one that suits one or the other.  We are using Christ the King, Lord of History( Catholic, sold by Seton)  and am finding it to be really good for 10th grade.   I have heard good things about the Catholic Project Books ( from sea to shinning sea and so forth. They go from 4th to 8th grade now). 

  3. Won't buy : 

    Anything Old Earth

    Singapore ( we tried it and it just doesn't work for my family, totally detest it )

    We didn't like Miquon ( to much trying to figure it all out)

    MUS

    Mammoth Math

    IEW ( tried it wanted it to work because I just can't teach writing but my girls HATED it)

    Shirley English ( way to darned expensive)

    Calvert (or anything boxed really though I don't mind using bits and pieces from curriculums) though we want nothing to do with anything Common Core anymore.

     

    We actually are rare and love to have religion in our school books. I mean, why as Christians would we not want to immerse our children into our faith?   Honestly I'm a curriculum addict as well and there hasn't been much we haven't tried.

  4. Saxon-hated it as a PS student, DD hated it in private school, and it's just not the way I want math to be.

     

    Anything where religion is more important than content-especially for science and history

     

    CLE-and I have a friend who works for the company, with the possible exception of some of the life skills LUs for high school.

     

    R&S

     

    Reading books, even though DD loved them when she was about 6, because she liked the big pictures and larger fonts-but if I'd actually have had to teach using the scripted questions and worksheets and stuff like that....I think I broke out in hives just thinking about it!

     

    What is wrong with CLE?  I have used both their math and LA and its excellent. My daughters scored very high on standardized tests after using it.  Granted I know they are from a Mennonite publisher so I won't use the History , which I would think would have a Mennonite slant.

  5. Yes, that is incomplete. Especially since the first 25 to 30 lessons of Saxon are review and the rest is new material. If anything you can at least breeze through the first 25 lessons , or not do them at all and start from there instead. I really don't recommend skipping though. Your best bet is to maybe pick even and odds and see how she does.  But yeah, most of the new material starts after that and then again in the next level it quickly goes through that new material you learned back in the other level and so forth. Hope that makes sense.

  6. Thanks everyone for the ideas :) We checked out the Crash Course Chemistry and that helped her a bit tonight. Which was a good thing :) I'll check for the GPD , and, yes, I'm thinking its just how she is processing it. I don't seem to process Chemistry to well myself. LOL

     

    I will type out her table of contents later tonight when she's done with her homework :) Thanks everyone so much for the help. I know we'll get her through this. Tonight she was feeling a bit sad because she was like " My other classmates understand this."  I think she got a little eager picking out what to do for science this year but she really is determined to get through it.

  7. Sorry about that. She is taking Algebra 1 this year and is very good with math. They haven't really hit to much into equations yet.  When the teacher gives her homework to do for each chapter she does really well. She even gets the extra credit and her last was a 15/15.

    But when the test comes along it even confuses me. 

     

    Sadly we aren't able to open up the test until the day of the test and once its opened, you can't close it and go back to it.

    This last test she missed 8 out of 25 questions.  We scoured the book, and this time I even googled( I don't usually let me kids do it but we had to just see), and I sat and read over the questions to her and we both actally went through this test together. And we still missed 8.

    I did find a video on Youtube on Isotopes and my daughter said " Wow, if she would of just shown me that I would have understood" and that was about finding the protons and newtrons in the isotope.  I felt the same way because I watched the lesson and she had us all confused and had we known all we had to do was subtract she would have gotten one of those questions right.  What it is she gives just a brief overview of the chapter the read. Then they get one homework assignment but its really not anything she tests them on and there is no practice of any of the concepts when she teaches. 

     

    I wish we had a homeschool co-op. I've been trying for the past three years to get something going in our area and no one is really interested. And my husband and I barely passed chemistry in high school which was like forever.

  8. This year we decided to give cyberschool a try since we were unable to afford to homeschool this year due to having to travel for my youngests health issues.

    Anyways, its definitely different than traditional homeschooling and is taking time for us to really adjust to. 

     

    My 9th grader decided to go ahead and take Chemistry this year ( we did the Apologia Biology last year) and its proving to be pretty tough. This is definitely not a hands on course by anymeans. Its just all online , watch an experiment.  The teacher has it set up , read the chapter, go over it quickly on the virtual class ( which is Monday, Wed , Fridays) and then test open book. Any assigments are about the stuff read in the chapter and my daughter does well with that part. This is the part she doesn't do to well in,, the tests. 

    Its open book but a lot of the test is definitely NOT on information learned in the chapter, or it was just never covered by the teacher and she's left to figure it all out for the test. So its really to late to ask questions if she doesn't understand the stuff before  

    the test. 

     

    So with this said, I'm trying to find something, anything to help guide us a long a little. They do have online tutoring but she just needs to see what is going on, and she wants to know why, not to mention the teacher confuses her the 2nd time around even more than she was the first time around.   I was looking at the Apologia DVD for Chemistry.  Is this worth the price?  It has the same topics that are in her book ( just in different order).   Can anyone suggest anything else? I already know about Khan Academy but this DVD seems easier to navigate and has a lot of what we need too. 

     

    Its tough because she is very hands on and this is not a hands on Chemistry course. Its just listen to the live teacher , and read the book, and no hands on experiments just watching some that the teacher puts on the class.   I really would like to help her get through this. 

     

    The tests are tough even I sat in and looked at it and thought I had the right answers only to find out I was wrong too. 

     

    Sorry this is so scattered. Just need to find something to help her along.

  9.  

    That number is more like 50-75% is finished in schools. With that said its a personal decision on whether you want to finish out a book or not., Just because Homeschool family #1 doesn't , doesn't mean you don't have to. Do what feels is right for you and your family. We finish out our subjects. I don't see a reason to follow what brick and mortar schools do and burn and churn through material. We take our time in the elementary grades. We do math through the summer and lots of reading too. Of course most boxed curriculum you will get the first at least 50 lessons are review of a previous grade, because they are made for brick and mortar schools and they know that the school most likely never covered the material at the end .. But if your using something like Sonlight , or any of the other Literature based programs, or have your own , then that's different and they don't follow that.
  10. Well my post isn't going to be as detailed as the endorsement above.

     

    My suggestion is: If what your using is working , then let it be. Or the old adage " if it ain't broke, don't fix it."

     

    There are differences though between the two and I've used Alpha Omega, Ace and Christian Light ( all workbook curriculums)

     

    It depends on what you want in a curriculum.

    Some families don't care for Ace because its a more of a fill in a blank type of curriculum. With that being said , some children actually learn really well that way. I went to an Ace school and I loved my Paces and learned really well from them. Ace's English and Word Building are excellent.

    Though if you plan on ever sending your child to a brick and mortar school, plan on Ace's curriculum to be behind in that area.

     

    Alpha Omega is a good curriculum to if you want to have your child think a bit more about the answer. Some families prefer this style of learning in their home and there is nothing wrong with that. A/O is not your read your material and fill in the blank style of learning. The child has to read the material and think about the answer.

     

    The same with Christian Light ( though I prefer their style to Alpha Omega in certain subjects.

     

    Any curriculum you use for your basic subjects is going to expect your child to have critical thinking skills.

    Its up to the parent to guide their child into developing those critical thinking skills necessary to be able to complete the work or task at hand.

     

    Critical thinking skills really develop best through time, maturity and experience in life. Not from a workbook , or a textbook. Its up to us as parents to help our children develop critical thinking.

    With that said I think every curriculum made requires the parent to guide their children into those skills.

     

    Either way, whatever you chose to use, know that the curriculum is just a tool to help your child learn.

     

    Your best bet is to go to the website and check out the samples they do have online and compare that way, but if what your child is using is working and there aren't any tears involved. Well, stick with it.

  11. I have to say as a person who lost their mother to breast cancer. Yes, I am totally annoyed with it as well. Instead of spending their time on an actual cure , and prevention most of that money that is made for Breast Cancer is for administrative costs.

    I agree the Breast Cancer Society is profiting off of this and very little if any money ever actually goes to those with breast cancer and very little of that money actually goes to a cure.

     

    So , no, your not the only one who feels that way.

     

    My daughter has a rare condition that gets NO attention at all. I bet you've never heard of VACTERL. There are seriously so many diseases out there that deserve that publicity.

  12. For us we are very, very poor right now. Only living off my youngest's SSI at the moment which is a lousy $675 a month.

     

    We use our local YMCA.

    We are fortunate enough to have a karate instructor that charges $4 per session per child for karate lessons.

    Swapping with other families for services

    Grandparents , at least with my in laws they help when they can to pay for activities too.

    I know one year a homeschool dad had an exercise class for the kids and they loved it.

    I know I had a mom ask if I could teach her daughter to sew in exchange for piano lessons

    We are also fortunate enough that PA allows homeschoolers to participate in extracurricular activities and marching band. So right now we just go through the school instead of private sports.

    You just have to search it out. It was tough for us to leave our cyber because of this but it just wasn't working with my kids and we had to do something.

  13. Our local public school offers partial enrollment. You can chose from several curriculums ( Calvert, K12 and a few others they offer ) , and should your child want to join in on a class they are allowed to do this. With that said I hate having my girls have anything to do with our public school here for many reasons.

    I think the Catholic schools are very slow into figuring this out, and for many it could mean staying open or closing forever.

  14. You could do the Keepers of the Faith. You can do it as a group, or as a family. Badges are pins I think but they are really better than Girl Scouting badges any day of the week. Teaches children things they should learn to be able to function in life.

    You could also check out and see if there is an American Heritage Girls group near you. This is a Christian Scouting group.

    Or start one of your own. Scouting is all how the leader chooses it to be.

    You can also do Girl Scouts on your own and sign up as a Juliette I think its called. You can now make your own badges though they are like $3.00 a piece to do them. I can't speak about Boy scouts as I don't have any boys. LOL

  15. I wouldn't see why not. Many of our older parishioners bring their Rosaries to Mass, and I've seen them pray with them before Mass, and after Communion. Our parish also has a specific day where they pray the Rosary. Though they aren't praying it out loud during Mass some may be doing so during Mass and we just don't know it. I would say as long as you aren't saying it out loud and in your head to redirect yourself it wouldn't hurt. Though I know as a Religious Ed teacher we teach our kids that they need to pay attention and listen because like I tell the kids, God is speaking to you through the priest.

  16. I have heard this can be an option. How does one go about acquiring it?

     

    My youngest(6yrs old) was born with a missing thumb on her right hand , and her left hand has a grade 1 hypoplastic thumb where its missing some tendons.

     

    She keeps complaining that it hurts to cut with scissors so I'm thinking we may need some OT services to strengthen up her hand muscles.

    We could try for private but our state has now changed to an HMO plan ( which is already proving disasterous for us ) and might not be worth the battle.

     

     

    Has anyone gone the public school route for services? Is it worth it?

  17. Does this even exist? My daughters attended a Catholic school the last few years and though they loved the interaction with the kids, the model didn't work well for them. The school itself was a good school and has great teachers but we had previously been homeschooling before and we found after our two year trial of brick and mortar school that homeschooling is what works best for our family.

     

    Anyways, with that said its a small private school and the principal asked me if there is a model of this that exists? Our local public school offers cyberschooling with the option to come in for classes should they want to for whatever subject. So they are still a part of the school but being schooled at home. She mentioned this when I had told her that the public school here does this to keep students and money in the school district. Which I think this model would be a good thing because its a good school to salvage and keep from closing ( this year they have 70 students prek-6th grade total)

     

    So my question: Does anyone know of any private Catholic schools whether they be K-8th or high school that has adopted this model of cyberschooling or long distance schooling? I would love to see our little school come together with the homeschoolers in our area, instead of it being us vs. them. Not to mention to try and help the school itself out by getting more students but serving those who would best learn at home but maybe benefit going in for a math class, or reading or whatever. I just think we would benefit from each other really. I've learned alot from these teachers and they've learned a lot from us as well.

    I know I have days where I just would like to hand over writing to the teachers because its the subject I have the hardest time teaching to my girls. But would rather them to go the private school rather then our public school (:ack2: ) Hope this makes sense. P.S. we don't have a co-op on our area and though I'm starting one its not going to be an academic co-op ( we just don't have the interest for that in our area).

  18. I have a couple of questions.

    My oldest daughter , is 14 , but is an 8th grader this year. She sincerely wanted to do Biology this year because she was tired of studying general and physical science and wanted to study something else. So I went ahead and bought the Apologia Biology for her and she's doing pretty well with it.

     

    After doing this though , now I'm wondering if I haven't cheated her or anything when it comes to high school transcripts. I don't think this would be counted as credits right, with her being in 8th grade? Not sure how the whole high school thing works quite yet , as this is her last year of middle school.

     

    So should we have waited to do it?

     

    Next question is she is having a tough time understanding the classification part in the first module and to be honest so am I. Does anyone have website to share, or a youtube video that would match up to this so I can help her understand this better?

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