steppingstonemomma
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Posts posted by steppingstonemomma
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Next year, my son will be in 9th grade. He is doing Apologia's Physical Science at our co-op. It is fairly well done with good lab supplies. He is getting an average grade of 98% on tests and labs.
In reading the DIVE website, I am seeing that they recommend doing an Integrated Physics & Chemistry course, which Apologia's Physical Science is apparently NOT.
Next year the co-op does the Apologia Biology book, then Chemistry, then Physics. He'd really like to take an advanced physics course before he graduates.
So here's my issue... He knows he wants to be a mechanical engineer. How critical is it that he does an IPC course? Will he really be left in the dust if he doesn't? I really NEED this co-op for him to do science as I just don't have time in my day to tutor him on my own. Do you think this will severely hurt his chances of doing well in college engineering?
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What about the McCall Crabbs book that tests reading comprehension? Anyone think this is a good resource?
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Thanks, Janice. I will look into the EPS book. She definitely has no issues with reading fiction. She is doing Windows to the World right now and can analyze and think beautifully- as long as it's a story! LOL!
We've done Wordly Wise for the past 2 years and is now using Vocabulary for Achievement grade 9. So we are working on vocabulary. She is constantly reading (no twaddle- pet peeve of mine) but only literature.
So anything else out there to boost non fiction reading comprehension skills?
Lori, I'd love to have her take classes from someone other than me, but it isn't in the budget right now. grrr...
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Elizabeth,
I gave my daughter all the reading tests. She aced every one of them. The only one she had the slightest bit of trouble with was the 12th grade level of the NRRF. She didn't get any wrong, just hesitated before three of the more obscure vocabulary words and had to sound them out a bit. Just didn't read them smoothly. (Neither could I as a matter of fact! LOL!)
So I don't think it is a reading skill problem, but definitely a comprehension issue. Does that help? Any ideas now? I'm wondering if she just needs more exposure to these types of questions or if there is an actual skill missing here.
Here is the link to the sample assessment test for our community college that I gave her last night. This is what she bombed.
http://www.harford.edu/Testing/Accuplacer%20Reading%20Comprehension%20Practice.pdf
This is the link for sentence skills. She got 100% on this part...
http://www.harford.edu/Testing/Accuplacer%20Sentence%20Skills%20Practice.pdf
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I can't believe this! I just had my 15yodd take the local community college's practice test for the enrollment assessment test. She did great on the math (shocked because she's not good at math) and sentence skills portion. BUT, she bombed the Reading comprehension part!
This is my child who LOVES to read anything literature! Dickens, Austen, Illiad- she loves them all! But, she has always struggled reading any non-fiction such as a textbook. Apologia biology is really challenging her right now! I figured it was just not her favorite subject, but now I'm suddenly realizing that it has nothing to do with that. She lacks reading comprehension skills.
( Just thinking back... she was very resistant to reading/phonics and wouldn't even read early readers. Suddenly the last week of 2nd grade she was given the first Narnia book and read the whole thing. Never looked back. And we just did a lot of living books for all the rest of her years. Now I'm thinking that I missed some important skill!Even used living books for science until 9th grade, so I never realized she didn't have good non fiction reading comp....)
Soooo, now what? What can I do to help her come up to par? I don't have a lot of time in my day to devote to extra tutoring-no that I'd even know where to start-, but could carve out a little if I can find some resource that is all planned and quick and painless. Any ideas? Age appropriate? I know she won't take it seriously if it is a book geared to elementary/middle agers.
Oh, please help! We were planning on community college next year in spring semester, but there's no way she will be able to handle it if we don't get this licked!
Any advice on this is greatly appreciated!
Tiffany
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Thanks, I will look into the TTU class as an option. I kinda figured there were no other internet solutions. It's not really feasible to drive somewhere just for her to watch a class. Too much interruption to everyone else's school day. Grrr.... wishing this wasn't such a hard thing!
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We aren't able to get any kind of dsl, cable or fios. Our only option for internet is to use a mifi box. Unfortunately it is super expensive ($80/mo) and we are limited to 8 GB's for the month. We usually stay under our allotment but we can never stream movies or even watch more than about 5 you tube clips without getting charged an extra $10/gb.
I will have a 2 high schoolers that I REALLY need to outsource some subjects with next year. I want to use some online classes. I have to drive over an hour to get to a co-op that is halfway decent and can't find tutors to teach the classes I'd like to outsource. Nor can I be out of the house that much! I have 7 kids to school!
SOOooooo, is anyone aware of ANY OTHER OPTION? I'm desperate! We had satellite in the past and the 30 second delay to do anything always prohibited us from viewing any video clips at all. So I'm assuming that option is out too.
Or, would someone that is techy have any idea how many GB's a typical online class might use? I'm willing to pay more per month if necessary, but I want to be sure it is actually going to work before signing up for a 2 yr contract. I contacted TPS and asked this question, but they just said we should use dsl or cable. Didn't answer my question at all...grrr
Pretty please, can anyone help a momma out? :)
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Thanks! She worked on changing some things you mentioned and also two of her aunts mentioned... Here's her final product..Not perfect, but an improvement. .Cool thing is that we read through everyone's comments and then she made all the changes! I didn't have to hold her hand! WOOHOOO!
Facebook
The average teen has approximately 201 Facebook friends and the average person as about 359 friends. What does that say about our commonly used social networking tool? It says that Facebook is a very popular piece of technology which is very popular with both teenagers and adults. If you can look past some of the downfalls of Facebook, you will realize that Facebook has become a positive addition to our teenage culture.
There are some negatives to Facebook. For teenagers especially, it is important for them to be mature enough to surf through any inappropriate content or foolish talk. Unfortunately, however, the majority of people on Facebook are not mature enough to post good content for children who are reading it or they will read inappropriate things themselves. Many people on Facebook, even adults, will complain or tear down other people in a post that their friends will read. Additionally, many kids tell too much about themselves by giving out very public information for the whole world to see. For example on Facebook you can tell where you live and where you are at that moment. This is a serious safety concern. Furthermore, with all the friends that people friend on Facebook, their news feed is normally very long, making spending time on Facebook a time sucking machine. Some people spend hours staring at the computer reading the numerous posts. This makes our teen culture unproductive.
Despite the negatives to Facebook, it can provide a perfect ministry opportunity for youth. For example, a teenager could encourage someone if they are having a rough week and could also let them know they are praying for them. People post everything on Facebook, from what they are doing at that moment, to what they are doing in a couple days even a year from now! So people would have plenty of opportunity to gather new prayer requests from people.
Also, for teenagers, it gives them an opportunity to have a relationship with more mature and wise adults. In the Bible it says “He who walks with the wise grows wise, but a companion of fools suffers harm.†(Proverbs 13:20). Amanda is a great example of a teenager who changed spiritually and mentally when she friended all the older, wise ladies in her church. Amanda seemed like a good Christian who wouldn’t miss church and gave great answers in Sunday school. When she would communicate with these ladies she realized her faith wasn’t quite real. These ladies became her mentors who gave her good advice when she needed it. Amanda grew spiritually and had a great relationship with theses older ladies in her church. If teens “friend†older, more mature adults, who post wisdom, then teens will begin to think more maturely, which will affect their lifestyle more then they could ever realize.
People often get lonely and feel left out when they are distant from their loved ones. Since almost everyone is on Facebook, the few people who aren’t don’t get see pictures from family far away or will miss announcements that are posted. Recently Brianna graduated and headed across the country to collage. Having Facebook allowed her to keep in touch with family and childhood friends keeping her from feeling too homesick.
One of Facebook’s strengths is its ability for people to network. Recently a concert was hosted by a young teenage girl. Facebook was a great tool which helped her to contact people quickly and build excitement. In addition there are many pages with a specific content which can unite people with the same interests. Communication among young people has definitely been enhanced because of Facebook.
In the end, Facebook has impacted teenage culture for the better. It has given young people great ministry opportunities, the ability to grow and mature, cure loneliness, and network with others. In the future hopefully there will be even more benefits to be realized.
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We recently started using LAOW with my newly turned 15yo daughter. Her assignment for chapter 3 (altered from the drag-racing prompt) was to write an essay using the full thesis points that she listed during the prewriting stage. I have always used IEW (through SICC B)and have had a checklist to grade her writing but now I feel so unsure of how to grade this piece of writing! Any help and comments would be GREATLY appreciated. I will pass them on to her and I will learn from them too! This is not my area of expertise!
Thank you so much!
Tiffany
Facebook
The average teen has approximately 201 Facebook friends and the overall person as about 359 friends. What does that say about our commonly used social networking tool? It says that Facebook is a very popular piece of equipment. It is very popular with both teenagers and adults. Facebook gives ample opportunity to witness or encourage people. If you can look past some of the downfalls of Facebook like tearing down people or revealing too much information you will realize that Facebook has become a positive addition to our culture.
There are some negatives to Facebook. For teenagers especially, it is important for them to be mature enough to surf through any inappropriate content or foolish talk. Unfortunately however the majority of people on Facebook are not mature enough to post good content for children who are reading it or will read inappropriate things themselves. Many people on Facebook, even adults will complain or tear down other people in a post that other people read. Another problem with Facebook is that many kids tell too much about themselves by giving out very public information for the whole world to see. For example on Facebook you can tell where you live and where you are at that moment. With all the friends that people friend on Facebook, their news feed is normally very long, making spending time on Facebook a time sucking machine. Some people spend hours of staring at the computer reading the numerous posts.
Despite the negatives to Facebook, it can provide a perfect ministry opportunity. For example, you could encourage someone if they are having a rough week. You could also let them know you are praying for them. People post everything on Facebook from what they are doing at that moment to what they are doing in a couple days! So people would have plenty of opportunity to gather new prayer requests from people. For teenagers it gives them an opportunity to have a relationship with more mature and wise adults. In the bible it says “He who walks with the wise grows wise, but a companion of fools suffers harm.†Proverbs 13:20. If teens friend older, mature adults, through Facebook, who post wisdom, than teens will begin to think more maturely, which, will affect their life style more than they could ever realize.
People, teens especially, will get really lonely and left out when they are out of the loop. Since almost everyone is on Facebook, people who aren’t don’t see pictures from family far away or will miss announcements that are posted. When that lonely person gets Facebook they understand what is going on, in the world around them. Facebook is a great advertising tool for special events. For example a concert is being hosted by a young teenage girl, who is not well known, Facebook helped her gather people outside her circle of friends. On Facebook there are certain pages that can unite people to certain interests, which will connect people with that same interest.
Facebook is a good social networking tool to connect and advertise with. It is very important for people feel in the loop with friends and family that they don’t see very often. And teenagers will be able to grow wise when being mentored through Facebook by wise Christian adults.
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I keep trying to put my kids' Art Reed Saxon Dvd's onto their ipod touch's and I am not having any success! Granted, I'm not the most computer savvy. But, can anyone tell me if this is a futile attempt or if you can walk me through this?
Or, can someone explain how to download it onto our laptop so we don't have to put cd's in and out every day? I'm trying to avoid them getting scratched.
I'd even be willing to just make a copy so they can use the copies and pack up the originals, but I can't seem to do that either.
Are they somehow protected so that you can't do any of these things?
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Thanks everyone!
I'm going to have to get creative since we don't have tv signal and we aren't able to watch movies or stream anything on our internet. We don't live in the boonies, we just have lousy service..
However, we do have Netflix so I'll try some of these options on there...
Sounds like media related stuff is the way to go at least for "hearing". We'll keep trying to find people to speak with locally...I'd love to do the skype thing, but our internet just won't support it.. sigh...
Our spanish was ok enough to communicate in country and get our points across, but it amazes me how quickly I've lost so much of it!
And, Lanny, where in Colombia are you?? Our kids are from Medellin. I LOVED it there and can't wait to be able to go back one day. We plan to take the kids when they are a little older.
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Background:
One year ago we adopted 3 children from Colombia. The youngest two have lost their Spanish already (so sad!) in their quest to learn English. The oldest, a very bright just turned 9year old girl, still remembers a lot but is losing more vocabulary by the day. She is speaking all in English at this point with only the occasional new vocabulary word needing to be explained. She finished reading Charlotte's Web in Spanish about a month ago.
So, I'm wondering what I can do to help her keep her Spanish! My hubby and I only know a teeny bit (Mostly taught to us by our kids!) so we're not able to help! And, unfortunately, we just don't have a good network of Spanish speakers in our circle of life. A few, but none who can converse on a regular basis.
I really need something independent that she can use- and ideally free! I actually have Rosetta Stone level 1- would that be worth it or should I go a different direction? Any suggestions?
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My 13yo son knows he wants to go into mechanical engineering. What kind of computer skills would be helpful for me to have him start learning? (I can barely figure out my email so I'm clueless in this area...)
Second Question: Where would I find a curriculum or guidebook that would help him learn these skills? Any free or almost free?
I'm thinking that he'll mostly do this in his free time since he loves that kind of stuff!
Thanks for any help!
Tiffany
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Ok, I'm doing a whole bunch of Spanish research today!
Anyone use either Homeschool Spanish Academy or 121 Spanish for High School? I understand how each of them work, but I can't find a whole lot of reviews on the homework portion of the class. Is it good? Enough for a high school credit? Boring? Any feedback is appreciated. This would be for a 14 yogirl.
Thanks!
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A new co-op is starting near me and one of the only classes I'm interested in is a native spanish speaker who will be teaching "Conversational Spanish". I don't know what all it will entail yet, but from the sound of it, would "conversational" be enough for a HS credit?
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This is a statement on our local college's website that describes what additional info a homeschool child would need to submit for consideration. Can anyone explain what these mean more simply or if you have done this before would you be willing to send me a sample of what this should look like- I'm more visual!
Thanks so much. My son is 8th grade, but wants to go into mechanical engineering and I want to make sure I do this really, really well!
Tiffany
Home Schooled Applicants
UMBC welcomes home-schooled applicants. In addition to the above admissions materials, home-schooled applicants should submit curriculum vitae describing course content, instructional materials and an evaluation of the student’s work.
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I read in Debra Bell's book about Destinos Spanish. But I can't figure out what exactly I would need to buy (textbook-wise) to use this course. Can anyone explain to me how it works?
Thanks!
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I have an 8th grader who will have to do well on his SAT's one day in the future. Does anyone have a vocab curriculum (other than reading higher level books- we're working on that!) that "wowed" you? Preferably something he can use independently!
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I would like to have my 6th grader do some solidifying of his paragraphs over the summer... but I'm struggling because I need my material support to be FREE.
I want it to only take about 10-15 minutes.
I'd like to find some thought provoking prompts so I don't have to come up with something every day.
And I need a little help in knowing HOW to teach him better paragraph formation. We've done IEW and are halfway through WWS (going to finish in the fall) but I'm not feeling like he's getting the hang of a solid paragraph, especially opener and conclusion sentences. How else can I explain this???
OR,
My 8th and 7th graders are going to attempt the Elegant Essay this summer and I could have him participate with them... Anyone think this is a bad idea if he's still struggling with a solid paragraph? Or would it help him?
We officially started our summer schedule today but I'm still trying to figure out the plan!!
Thanks for any help!
Tiffany
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Paula, I know I already chatted with you about this through PM's but I missed the part about you doing LL8. My dd also did that this past year. She's a quick reader and had already read several of the books- multiple times...
So she actually completed LL8 in one semester instead of 2. We also either cut out a lot of the writing assignments since so many of them were duplicated in other subject writing.
Just a thought...
Tiffany
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This year my 11 yo son has struggled to read some of the excerpts from the WWS book. Lots of harder words and concepts...Is anyone else experiencing this?
He was late to really get going with reading so I'm trying to figure out if his difficulty is just WWS or if it's a reading difficulty...
Tiffany
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I got the textbook for free, but I can't find where I can just buy the test/answer key. Is it only bundled with the text from Apologia???
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Sorry y'all. People keep trying to send me PM's but it was full. Mailbox if empty now. Please try again!
Tiffany
Help me think this through, pretty please... in regards to science
in High School and Self-Education Board
Posted
Thanks everyone!!! I feel so much better about this!
I think he will do Bio in 9th, Chem in 10th, Physics in 11th and Adv Physics in 12th- unless we go the duel enrollment route and change it all up! Can't see that far into his future quite yet.
He's in Alg 1 (Saxon) in 8th grade. So I guess he'll do Alg 2 in 9th, Adv Math in 10th and 11th (I think it takes 2 years to do that Saxon book) and then Calc in 12th??? Does this line up ok?