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Deniseibase

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Everything posted by Deniseibase

  1. Wapiti, I might do that - still very up in the air, and don't think I'll really be able to decide until I see the AoPS books. My thought with doing Saxon Algebra as the spine and AoPS Prealgebra as the supplement is that since she already is familiar with Saxon, transitioning to a more complex, less mechanical program might be easier if we worked with material that she had already mastered the mechanics of with Saxon, and let the AoPS be there to give her a richer understanding - right now she can drive the car, but she wants to learn how the motor works, so to speak. Does that make sense?
  2. OK, so forgive my dumb questions, but I've only recently heard of AoPS and have never seen any of the books, just the sample lessons on the website. DD in fifth grade is finishing up Saxon Algebra 1/2 and flew through it, if her study habits were more mature I would have her in Algebra this year. The AoPS books seem like a great fit for us because she wants more theory and explanation than Saxon provides, but I like the continual review - this may just be *ME*, because I know that's where *I* fell down in middle school math with a mastery program where there was no review from one chapter to the next. I really think dd would like AoPS, but the sample lessons only show a few problems! And yes they are hard but they aren't THAT hard - I'm seeing people post that kids spend an hour or two a day working this program - what are they doing with that time? I'm sure I'll understand better once I can see one of the books (I have two on hold at the public library :-), but would it really be that time-consuming to use this program? I still keep thinking we could easily use the Prealgebra as a supplement for Saxon Algebra - somebody who uses AoPS, tell me what I'm missing! :-) Thanks!!!
  3. That's why I like Saxon for the lower grades. I know, it doesn't work for everyone, but it sure breaks everything down into small pieces and repeats them enough to ensure mastery. I tutor a public school girl who uses Everyday Mathematics, one of those discovery based programs. You never saw a more bewildered child, and at the age of eight she was absolutely CERTAIN she could not learn math. I have re-taught her a lot using Saxon, but sounds like this Jump Math would be excellent for her and others like her.
  4. Also curious about this - dd has completed Saxon Prealgebra & is going to do Saxon Algebra in the fall, but I was thinking about getting this to use as a supplement to add a little more in the way of puzzles & theory. Looking at the sample chapters, it looks like most AoPS books have around 5 problems at the end of each lesson - surely if she was working these on material that she already knew it wouldn't take very long to solve five problems, right?
  5. Have you looked at Saxon Grammar and Writing? My dd was also a reluctant reader, we used every grammar material out there and although *I* loved them, we studied grammar for four years and she still couldn't find a verb to save her life.... We switched to Saxon Grammar and Writing because a) it starts with grade 5, so not so babyish for a beginner, b) we already used Saxon math and I knew the continual review was something that helps her, and c) I was pleased that it covered everything I wanted to see covered, from diagramming to case & tense, in addition to the usual suspects. The writing booklet we found to be pretty dry & ended up not using it, but the grammar book has worked GREAT - we are finishing up the first year now (there are four years total) and she FINALLY knows what a verb is! :-)
  6. For what age? You couldn't use it with a young child, but I know several ladies in my homeschool group got together and did a weekly co-op class for 4th-6th graders, tying in the SOTW1 that they were doing at home with Aristotle Leads the Way from Joy Hakim's Story of Science series. I believe it is going well enough that they intend to keep using it and Newton at the Center next year with SOTW2.
  7. Arthur Waley's Monkey isn't exactly historical fiction, but it's a great retelling of the classic tale of the Monkey King - it does however have some crude humor, nothing terribly explicit, but definitely needs a parental preview. I know you want historical fiction but the Monkey King is to China as King Arthur is to us - hard to understand that time period without being familiar with the stories people told then! If you don't feel after previewing that this is suitable for your child, at least try to get one of the many collections of Monkey King stories for younger kids - The Magical Monkey King: Mischief in Heaven by Ji-Li Jiang is a good collection. That said, for historical Chinese fiction try - Lady of Ch'iao Kuo: Warrior of the South by Lawrence Yep - a little on the young side for sixth grade, this is part of the Royal Diaries series. The title character is actually a Chinese tribeswoman, not Han Chinese, so is a good introduction to ethnic tensions that have been part of China for centuries. The Examination by Michael Bosse I thought was not the best writing, but my daughter liked the book, and she certainly learned a lot about how the Chinese meritocracy worked (or didn't) back in those times. I Rode a Horse of Milk-White Jade by Diane Lee Wilson is about a Mongolian girl, set in 14th-century China. Not as realistic as some of the others, but a fun read! That's all I can think of right now! There's not as much out there that's suitable for teens as you'd expect. Once you move to a little more modern times and are looking for books around the time of the Revolution and a little before there is MUCH more - Pearl Buck and Amy Tan are great places to start! Hope that helps! :-)
  8. Does anyone know anything about this? http://saxonhomeschool.hmhco.com/en/products/default.htm?level2Code=M0010&level3Code=M31099 I'm curious about this but as there are no links on this page that seem to lead to the program I can't find out much, not even how much it costs.... any info would be appreciated! Thanks!
  9. It should not make a difference in this case. Those premises are commutative, just the same as adding 2+3 or 3+2 will both give you 5. Now your particular text, which I am not familiar with, may want you to put 'Some' premises before 'All' premises for basically formatting reasons. I took 4 semesters of symbolic logic courses in college and one of the texts I worked with WAS rather strict on formatting for the sake of formatting. But as far as in 'real life', it makes no difference.
  10. In addition to being able to download free Kindle software for your PC, you also can for most smartphones - very handy for waiting rooms! :-)
  11. Wow, thanks so much for all the ideas! As an English major who BARELY finished Algebra II (and that 25 years ago and promptly forgotten ;-), I had no IDEA all these options were available! It looks like I will definitely have to look into The Art of Problem Solving - we had looked at it previously, but she's not interested in contests & I didn't really realize it was for more than that.
  12. We just finished using Saxon Grammar 5 with my grammar-phobic daughter and are DEFINITELY going to use Saxon Grammar 6 next year. Before this year I think we had used every other grammar curricula on the market and she still didn't know what a verb was. The spiral method of review that Saxon uses is apparently critical to my daughter's ability to retain anything :-) We used the writing portion very briefly but once we got past the first two essays we quit. The grammar portion however is excellent and she not only knows what a verb is now but all the other parts of speech too, plus a lot of basic stuff about case, tense, person, and number that I didn't understand until high school. She still does not LOVE grammar - she's one of those math kids and doesn't really see the point of all these imprecise WORDS ;-) - but it is no longer a daily struggle in our house and she IS retaining what she is learning.
  13. My daughter is on track to finish calculus well before the end of high school. She wants to study math in college, so obviously we want four years of math in high school, if not more. What do you do beyond calculus? I know there are a lot of possibilities ranging from Calculus II to number theory to probability and statistics and what not, and I figure she'll have her own opinion on it based on what in particular she is thinking about for college by that point. But as an English major mom I would love to get some ideas of what the possibilities are, especially as far as what texts you would suggest - thanks so very much!
  14. I would try option 1 or 3 - if he is struggling with pre-algebra, trying to do both algebra & geometry at the same time to catch up might overwhelm him. It might not! But it's something to be aware of. I would strongly urge you however to make sure his understanding of pre-algebra is solid before you try to move on. I read recently that 90% of adults who had trouble with math in school, the confusion is with some aspect of either fractions or exponents. A firm grasp of those two concepts will really help him with all higher math.
  15. If you are wanting the 'hardcore', opposite end of the spectrum kind of spin, Richard Dawkins' The Greatest Show on Earth is very readable, but he does not shy away from controversy. If you are wanting a book that shows how evolution and God need not conflict, Ken Miller's Finding Darwin's God is excellent. Both of those books explain the basics of evolutionary theory in a clear, readable way that should be understandable by anyone reading on a high school level. For a more 'fun' way of presenting the same material, you might look for Jay Hosler's Evolution: The Story of Life on Earth, which is in comic book format, but still explains a lot of fairly technical stuff.
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