Anne/Ankara
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Posts posted by Anne/Ankara
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And I just found this website on Japanese flash cards-- maybe you could require memorization of these vocabulary words?
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If you are looking for Japanese curricula, have you seen this Georgia Public TV series? Maybe you could tailor the lessons to the coop and require each student to review the lesson at home before the class (does everyone have internet access?). Just an idea!
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Yes, of course I remember you! Welcome back, and hope you stay to post. I think your kids are about the same ages as ours!
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When we visit Turkey, the breakfast is invariably tomatoes, white cheese, cucumbers, olives, fruit and bread. It look me a while to get used to olives and cheese for breakfast, but hey, why not! Certainly healthy and low-cost.
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Other than for a pragmatic reason or an academic reason, why would an individual who speaks an imperialist language need or want to learn a tribal language?
In addition to "pragmatic and academic reasons," for learning a second language, I do think it is critical for looking at the world in a new way. When you have a second language, you have the ability to view things in a much more global and diverse way. You can empathize more easily with cultures outside your own, and share more fully in the complex human experience that is certainly not limited to the "imperialist" languages.
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Well, for those of us in Pennsylvania, the Pennsylvania Homeschoolers Accreditation Agency, PHAA, offers an accredited diploma program for high schoolers, where you can pick and choose your own curriculum. But it is only for families living in PA... pretty good for $45 in total (all four years!).
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We've done our local bee, and the regional bee (Western PA). It is fun! Here are two sites that might help, http://www.myspellit.com/ and http://www.spellingbee.com/studyzone.asp. Good luck!
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Thanks, Ester, looks like a great site. Along those lines, here is another science simulation site that is really neat. You have 5 minutes for each activity to do it for free, but if you want more time, then you can pay for membership. The physics ones are really nice!
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Here's a neat Youtube video on abacuses in Japan...
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Okay, I know it's really rude, but you guys paid for 2 kids to do Kumon reading and math?! Holy cow! That would cost me approx. $450 a month + the gas & time to get to the center (40 miles).
I wish there was a program like Kumon that you could implement at home only (at a fraction of the cost).
Thanks for sharing your experience!!
Don't I know it!!! And yet, the kids are only young once, and truly I do choose the investments in education carefully... but you're right, it really adds up! Now, of course, let me tell you about our music lessons! Why is everything so expensive!!! In the end, we're paying just about as much as private education can cost, but luckily I do feel that this is a choice we can make (and we don't have to make!). In other ways we are penny-pinchers-- no cable TV, no frequent movies/restaurants/take out food, fairly simple lifestyle... Oh well, to each, his own!
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Writing for Publication
Here are some children’s literary magazines that currently publish stories, poems, book reviews, and artwork by young writers.
Stone Soup Magazine—hard to get accepted here, but it is possible! Perhaps the nation’s top-rated literary magazine for kids. http://www.stonesoup.com/
Bookworm Magazine—edited by a young homeschooled girl, Sophie McKibben. Very nicely done, and certainly open to short stories, poems, book reviews, and artwork. It is easy to email her submissions, and she certainly seems open to publishing things. http://www.bookworm-mag.com/
Creative Kids Magazine—very nicely done children’s literary magazine. My kids are on the editorial board. They do a fine job printing up the stories with nice designs and such. Highly recommended! In fact, my dd did the cover art for the issue on the website! http://www.prufrock.com/client/client_pages/prufrock_jm_createkids.cfm
Skipping Stones Magazine—I think this is my favorite magazine. They publish all kinds of essays, short stories, folktales, and other student writings, and offer contests (one coming up due June ’08). I like their emphasis on traditions, environment, peace, family and society. We have published here quite a bit, and highly recommend this magazine. http://www.skippingstones.org/
Calliope World History—this magazine is perfect for WTM kids, because it covers world history in an engaging way. They often run writing contests (epic poems, etc) and publish articles written by kids. My ds just published one on SPQR Ancient Rome in the last issue. http://www.cobblestonepub.com/magazine/CAL/
Imagine Magazine—this is a very professional magazine aimed at young teens, run by the Johns Hopkins group. They do publish creative short stories (a contest just ended) and artwork (my kids won earlier this year!) as well as book reviews and such. Very nicely produced. http://cty.jhu.edu/imagine
Cogito Forum—this is a website that publishes student’s review, if you have kids who like to write book reviews. My dd just published something on Joy Hakim’s Story of Science there, so they do publish what you send in. Just an idea. http://www.cogito.org/Articles/ArticlesList.aspx?BookReviews
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Best wishes for a smooth flight and an easy pass through customs and immigration. I really think the kids pick up on our stress levels, so the more deep breathing (seriously!) as you wait in line, the better! At least that's been my yoga-inspired defenses!
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Yup, we were in Turkey last month and the price was $11/gallon. Terrible!
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I know, I just filled up my minivan, to the tune of $70! Wow, that is a huge increase. Amazing.
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I hope indeed that you do go! Your presence is a gift enough! I can compare the weddings that I've been to here in the States, versus the ones I have attended in Turkey, where many families are very poor. There, the weddings are big, noisy, family affairs, with food eaten outside, sometimes even served on paper plates, but always enough for everyone, and everyone welcome.
Those who can, sometimes buy a small gold coin/jewelry piece that they pin to the bride's dress. It is modest but heart-felt. And it is magnificent. I can only wish that here we also see the real meanings of such celebrations, and not worry over the financial aspects!
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Anne/PA: have you seen the MOEMS grade 4-8 books? I'm wondering if the 4th graders are actually advanced 4th graders such that the books would be over the head an advanced rising 3rd grader?
I *do* have and have extensively used the contest problem book by George Lenchner, called Math Olympiad CONTEST PROBLEMS for Elementary and Middle Schools, Revised Expanded Edition. It is great, and well worth it, even if you don't do the competition formally. It includes past tests, and the solutions. I see that they now offer an additional volume of more tests, which could be helpful if you've gone through the first volume.
Of course it's always hard to tell if a book is the right level for a particular student, but by all means I would definitely recommend this one for an advanced third grader. We started about at that age, and in the beginning, we could only correctly solve one or two problems out of the five, but, like anything else, the more you do, the more you learn, and by 4th grade, you could definitely successfully work many problems. If you look at the website, I believe they give examples...http://www.moems.org/sample.htm
And if the student routinely does this sort of problem solving, by 8th grade or so this type of thinking is second nature, and VERY helpful to SAT math and other higher level math. And it is fun!
Why not, indeed!
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Could you post the website for Math Olympiads? I know about all the other ones you mentioned.
Thanks
Meryl
Math Olympiads was one of the first competitons we ever did, and really did enjoy them. Here is their website, http://www.moems.org/. They are geared for grades 4-8, I believe (Elementary school and then Middle School divisions). There are five competition dates through the school year (Nov, Dec, Jan, Feb, March I believe) and the student gets five questions on the test. You can see samples on the website.
They have a nice book with past exams and answers, which is helpful to have.http://www.moems.org/Books.htm
If I remember correctly, there is something like an $80 fee to register, so we always got a group of 4 or 5 families together to split the costs. You can administer the test yourself, and homeschoolers are permitted, so that was easy enough...
It was fun! And the kids definitely learned a lot.
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Jenny, have you checked out math competitons? They are just great for kids who need to see the point in all those equations/calculations. We have done several for many years and recommend them all. Here are some to check out: Math Counts, Math Olympiads (Elementary & Middle School), Academic League Math Competition, AMC 8, 10, Purple Comet Math Contest. Each of these have websites for further information. He's at the perfect age for all that stuff.
Also, I can't remember if he likes the Teaching Company series-- they have a new one on the History of Math http://www.teach12.com/ttcx/coursedesclong2.aspx?cid=1434&pc=HomePageFeature which we haven't seen, but their Joy of Thinking was great, and we just bought their Number Theory one to watch soon. Maybe those would interest him?
Lastly, if he likes the "camraderie" of working with other kids, I highly recommend the Art of Problem Solving math courses, http://www.artofproblemsolving.com/Classes/AoPS_C_About.php because here the student is with other kids and can be motivated by his fellow students. We took the Number Theory class last semester and really enjoyed it... perhaps he could try one out?
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We don't watch any TV shows except the news and occasionally 60 minutes. But we do watch educational videos and documentaries quite a bit (almost daily, I'm afraid!).
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Nice! Thanks for posting that link...
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dd really wants to take Calc at the local public school. Too much??
Can she find out if there are different levels of Calc offered? Perhaps there is a calc-for-business students, or a gentle intro calc course? That might work out. It seems like many schools have a whole tiered system of varying levels of such math courses...
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Mrs. Piggle Wiggle! One of our all-time favorite read alouds for those ages.
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One of my heroes is John Gatto, and this is from his article on universal education... I think I agree with a lot of these goals in education, adding of course a firm religious sense, moral strength, and belief in God. http://www.yesmagazine.org/article.asp?ID=794
What Private School parents want
Now let's take a look at what parents at the finest private schools want from schooling. I've been studying their expectations for nearly 20 years in order to compare them with my own goals. I'm talking about the 20 ritziest private boarding schools in America – schools like Groton, St. Pauls, Deerfield, Kent.
I'm going to ask you to note that none of the principles these parents seek cost a penny to develop. Everybody could do one or all these things with their kids just as well as Exeter or St.Paul's could. What these elite private school parents want schools to teach their children, in no particular order of importance, are:
• good manners and to display those manners to everyone without thinking, because they know in this way their children will be welcome everywhere.
• hard intellectual knowledge, undiluted, but in simple English so no specialized jargon interferes with understanding the fundamental ideas.
• love and appreciation for the land and the natural world of plants and animals, because without this understanding, life becomes lonely, barren, and abstract.
• a public sense of decorum so that they can adapt naturally to every setting they find themselves in without provoking anger and opposition.
• a common core of western culture so that all the generations can be comfortable with a shared set of tastes and values.
• leadership; they aren't interested in their children being part of a managed herd.
• self-discipline.
A major concern of private school parents is that the schools understand the partially invisible qualification system that provides access to key positions in the economy. These parents expect schools to qualify their children to move freely through the economic system. But don't we all want this?
Private school parents also demand individualized attention for their children, small classes, continuous pressure on their children to stretch individual limits, exposure to many different theoretical and practical aspects of life, exercises to develop self-reliance and self-confidence.
To be educated is to understand yourself and others, to know your culture and that of others, your history and that of others, your religious outlook and that of others. If you miss out on this, you are always at the mercy of someone else to interpret what the facts of any situation mean.
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And I should mention that this is the list I am developing for our ninth grade year (Ancients):
Epic of Gilgamesh
Bible, Genesis-Job
Homer: Illiad, Odyssey
Herodotus: Histories, Landmark Edition
Thucydides, Peloponnesian War, Landmark Edition
Sophocles: Oedipus Rex
Euripides: Medea
Aristophanes: The Frogs
Plato's Republic
Virgil: Aeneid
Bible: Corinthians
Other WTM ideas probably will be used as selections from World Lit anthologies, not full books (Ovid, Josephus, Plutarch, Cicero, Lucretius).
Going to Oahu in Oct. Can anyone give me good and economical places to stay?
in General Education Discussion Board
Posted
I know you mentioned "cheap" places, but I will second the recommendation for the Polynesian Cultural Center, which was not cheap at all, but was very interesting to my children. We were tempted not to do it, since it is a bit of a drive, and it was pricey, but in the end, we are very glad we spent a day there, seeing the dances, customs and dress of all the various and diverse Polynesian groups. Since we were not that familiar with that region to begin with, it ended up to be very educational!