Jump to content

Menu

choirfarm

Members
  • Posts

    2,463
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by choirfarm

  1. We did Introductory and Intermediate Logic by Nance and Wilson for a year course in 9th grade. I also added the ARt of Argument Teaching Company lectures. He was taking Geometry that year as well, so it was a good combo.
  2. Ok..I'm leaning toward Physics B if it will give him a good grounding. Plus, then I would choose either AP Calc BC for him to concentrate on or Calc I and II at the cc. I don't want him to kill himself. Does that sound reasonable?
  3. Does anyone have any experience with PA Homeschoolers AP Calc? I notice that they have a new section with the same man who has been/will be teaching AP Physics. My son will probably be taking both.. How is Gilleran? They use different texts. Gilleran uses Larson. My son is using a Larson text for Chalkdust Precalc and is doing very well with it. Lanctot uses Calculus: Graphical, Numerical, Algebraic – AP Edition, 4th edition by Finney, Demana, Waits, and Kennedy. Also, I can't decide if we should do AB or BC.. He started Precalc in August and is on track to finish it up in March. He enjoys math. Any comments?
  4. My son is wanting to go to college and major in computer science. He will be taking Calculus BC next year ( I think.. trying to decide between AB and BC) . PA homeschoolers offers Physics B- the one without calc. Is that ok, or should he take the C one with calculus? If so, does anyone know of a good online class??
  5. How fast do AP Physics, AP Calc and AP Economics fill up??? To be honest, we are still discussing what we want to do. Part of it also depends on the cc and we won't know what courses he can take there until the beginning of April. I thought it would be fine since they normally don't start taking applications until April... Now that they have opened early, I don't know... I'm not ready to make a decision yet.. On a side note, I HIGHLY recommend Blue Hen's stats class!!! She is a great teacher. He is also really enjoying AP Chemistry this year and finds it fun.. ( fun chemistry...isn't that an oxymoron????)
  6. Another idea is check your local library. Ours gives basic and advanced classes in Word, Excel, Database, web design, etc.
  7. Well my son did the old versions of TT Alg I and II in one year. He was able to skip A LOT of TT Alg I though by taking the tests until he got to the stuff he didn't know.
  8. Well, I didn't do that, but I did integrate The Teaching Company's Churchill Lectures by Fears. Tog week 1: lecture 1 week 2: lecture 2 Week 3: lecture 3 Week 4: lecture 4 Week 5: lecture 5 Week 7: lecture 6 Week 9: lecture 7 Week 11: lecture 8 Week 13: lecture 9 Week 14: lecture 10 Week 16: lecture 11 Week 17: lecture 12 We also did the Hitler's empire lecture series at the same time, but we didn't like it nearly as well as the Churchill lectures.
  9. Good points about degrees not being everything..and yes, I know that. But the master's degrees were from pretty low state regional schools ( Stephen F Austin). Yes, I've looked at the edu sites as well. I will ask around, but I don't know of anyone in the homeschool group that has had their child take Calculus.. The dual credit advisor is NOT homeschool friendly at all..sadly. I'm not sure who I would ask. Maybe I should ask the boys' Spanish teacher. She has gotten mixed reviews on there, but is a GREAT teacher. However, there are only 5 students taking Spanish II out of 2 Spanish I classes. 4 out of the 5 are homeschool students!!!! I've never talked to her, but another mom has and she loves homeschool students because they actually do the work.
  10. UGGh.. Well, economics at the cc is out. There is one teacher for macro and he is AWFUL!!! I'm looking at Calc at the cc. There are 3 teachers. 2 of them only have master's degrees. If you ignore the alg. and basic math reviews saying they are hard and only look at the calc reviews, they get decent reviews. They only teach Calc I or II and one doesn't teach it all the time. 3rd teacher has a PHD and is hard according to review sites. Some say she was very hard, but the best teacher they had. This was one review: Took cal 2 before and didnt get the grade i really wanted("C") so i retook it and ended up with her. I was unable to even complete the course. Out of 28 starting the class, five ended up taking the final, and only two passed the class. Think the #s speak for themselves. Another review:THIS WOMAN IS SO HARD I TRIED TO TAKE HER AND I HAD TO W/D BECAUSE I KNEW I WAS GONNA FAIL SHE TEACHES LIKE SHE IS TEACHING AT A UNIVERSITY TO MATH WIZARDS OR SOMETHING DO NOT I REPEAT DO NOT TAKE HER UNLESS YOU LOVE MATH AND REALLY REALLY GOOD AT IT!!!!! Now that was from a basic math class person.. So.. I'm not sure what to think. PA Homeschoolers is a known quantity that he has been successful with, so I'm thinking I should leave it alone....
  11. Ok, can she just go to the cc next year as a regular college student? I would have her see an advisor there. Typically, you apply to the college early in the fall for the following fall. So she should go see a counselor at the cc that specializes in tranfering to a regular university. Our cc has lists of courses for every major university in Texas and what classes will transfer to which university. How many college hours does she have? You will have to weigh which would be better: having her just work with a gap year next year and applying to a university for the following fall as a freshman if you think she qualifies for good scholarships as a freshman. Freshman scholarships are technically better than transfer scholarships. Or if she has quite a few hours as dual credit ( 30 or so), you could have her take a full load at the cc next year ( 30) and transfer as a junior to the school of her choice. What schools does she want to attend? She should first make a list of those. Look at entrance requirements for them and deadlines. Look at the scholarships they have listed on their sites. Good luck!!
  12. Yes!!!!! It will definitely get her into decent college!!! That said, if she studies a little more, she could up her score. I am reposting how I had my son prepare for the ACT: I thought I would share how I had my son prepare for the ACT. This came in part because of a college confidential question about how they did on a practice test and how they did on a real test. I saw how much he had improved. I bought two books: the red REAL ACT booklet and the Barrons 36 book. The first week he took 1 of the practice tests out of the real ACT book. One test a day: math, reading, English, Science and writing. I like spreading it out as it only adds 25 minutes to his regular school day. He got a Engl. 31, Math 27, Reading 29, Science 27. His composite was 28. He looked at what he missed and WHY he missed it. Over the next month he did a subject a week: He read through the English section in the Barrons ACT 36 book. He did the exercises in the book. He took a practice test in that subject in the REAL ACT book and tried to understand WHY he missed what he missed. Would anything in the Barrons book have helped him with what he missed? The scores from that test that he took over that month were:English 32, Math 30, Reading 32, and science 26. Composite 30. Then we had one week left until the exam. Once again he took a test over that week. HOWEVER, we discovered these cool science videos online so instead of doing the science test he watched these videos ( since as you can see that is the subject where he didn't improve) I really wish we had found these earlier so he could have incorporated them into that week he spent on science prep. He didn't make it all the way through the videos. His scores for that test were: English 32, Math 30, and Reading 34. I also wish we had been better about practicing the essays. He only did those 3. I should have had him practice several each week. But he had writing in his other "real" classes and I didn't want to take away from that. Until the SAT this March I am making the writing his writing for English. So he took the ACT in December and these were his scores:English 35, Reading 34, Math 34 and science 31. His composite was 34. His writing score was 7. This was a relatively painless way to prepare for the ACT. He spent around 30 minutes a day for 6 weeks. We are doing something similar for the SAT except we are adding in more prep for writing. Now I don't promise that your daughter will get a 34. But I bet she could up her score to the lower 30's if she wants to!
  13. The dialectic quarter exams were good. I didn't think the weekly ones were very good. They were often just a chart to fill out or a venn diagram. I wanted more of a test format.
  14. I strongly suggest this resource: http://www.excellenceinwriting.com/apl She does a VERY good job of leading you through how to write each type of essay prompt on the AP exam. You have a huge list of works. Doing less in more detail, might be better. For each work she needs to make a list of major characters, summary of events, major themes and symbols, etc. She needs to practice an essay a week. Vary the types. The easiest is the open prompts. Here they are from 1970-2011 http://homepage.mac.com/mseffie/AP/APOpenQuestions.html Once she is comfortable with that, she can go on to the poetry. Here they are from 1970-2011 http://homepage.mac.com/mseffie/AP/Poetry_Essays.pdf The next type is the hardest. They will give them a passage and they have to write an essay analyzing tone, diction, etc. Here is a list of prompts, but without the passage included they aren't more help. I'm sure if you dig more, you might find samples with passages: http://homepage.mac.com/mseffie/AP/Prose_Essays.pdf Honestly having 3 or 4 works she knows REALLY well ( like Great Expectation that she uses in the IEW book) would be the best prep in addition to practicing the essays. I hope that helps.
  15. I have never thought of history as "an inquiry into what makes a virtuous society." That is such a subjective statement.. I've just thought of it as trying to understand what happened in the past so we can make our future better... We read all sorts of books with all sorts of bias. Right now my boys are taking AP Gov and I went to Hastings and bought them 30 used books. Plus, they have checked out 10 or more on their own. Some were by Obama, some by Coulter, some about why liberals are ruining America, some about why conservatives are ruining America. For history we travel extensively to actually SEE the places and get a feel for them. We've been to the D-Day beaches, Yorktown, 10 or more Civil War battlesites, Verdun, countless minor history museums, etc. Every single source has a bias, even primary source documents. If it is a Civil War journal, then it is from the side that they fought on. Plus, a Southerner in Texas may have seen the war very differently than one in Georgia... But what makes a virtuous society??? In whose definition?????
  16. Yes, he will be a senior. He is currently doing AP Gov and AP Chem like your daughter. He is spending more time on AP Chem. He is doing really well in both classes and isn't stressed at all. This is his schedule this year. Spanish I and II at cc Racquetball at cc Health AP Gov AP Chem English III Chalkdust Precalc- other than one concept, he has found it pretty easy. He started it in late August and will finish it up at the end of March if he keeps up his current pace. He generally watches a video and does all the odd questions every day. AOPS - computer programming class that will start in March and finish in June Now see that is another thing.. This class he is about to take is the only programming class he has taken.. and that is what he wants to do supposedly. He says he doesn't want to take any programming classes at the cc, since they won't be "real" thought they do transfer... So next year will be harder, but not necessarily horrible.. Plus, he is going to have to get ready for a tought load next year... But maybe we should rethink econ... I could just do that at home...
  17. Well, a couple of thoughts but that is part of what I wanted opinions on. 675 dollars vs 180 at our cc is a big difference. That said, our cc is not of the highest caliber. The hours might transfer, but I don't know that I want him to take Calc I and II at the cc and enter Calc III at Baylor... I don't want him doing that with AP either. I guess I don't want him to struggle with Calc. at the college level.... Econ would be easier and not a problem since it would just fufill high school credit. IT just looked like a REALLY fun class with a ton of computer games he would enjoy...
  18. Here are the questions about my 2nd son. First son listens to me very well, but has reached those higher maths and science classes I can't teach. This son does not respond to me nearly as well. He does better for other people. He is thriving in cc and doing ok in AP Gov this year. He will probably have a B and a 3 or 4 on the exam is what I am thinking. For my other son who will be a 10th grader next year and has NO idea what he wants to do. He would be an incredibly good teacher, but he says he won’t do that because he wants to make a decent living.. He LOVES history and literature. He does not particularly enjoy writing, but he is decent at it. I would put him in freshman English with his brother, but I have a friend whose son will also be a 10th grader and she doesn’t think he is ready ( he’s a math/science guy) and wants them to be together in the class. I would also like them to be together. She wants him to take speech. World Geography, Theater Appreciation, etc might be the other option.. Apologia Chemistry- have all the supplies and such...might do labs at the co-op if that fits. If so, it is 50 bucks or less. Spanish 3 and 4 at cc $180 Speech at cc $90 World Geography at CC $90 Algebra II- I would REALLY like for him to take this with Jann TX, but it will depend on when his cc classes are. Even if he does it with me, he will get a tutor- $240 History and English- Tapestry of Grace Year 1 with me. However, his writing is almost as good as I can make it. I was seriously considering having him do Laurel Tree high school composition, but that is $580 dollars. Another option is a lady that has a history/literature classical co-op. His friend that he is taking classes with is in this. She has high standards and it would be great for him to do it with someone else.. Only one problem. I believe they are going to do modern history next year. He did rhetoric level TOG for that in 8th grade. He really needs Ancients. So I’m thinking of sticking with TOG, but I have toyed with AP US History as well. Sigh.. Any thoughts.. His classes are looking to be possibly 1,500.... Just trying to decide...
  19. I came back because I really need the Hive’s opinion on this.. No one here is doing what I am doing… Ok, here is what I am looking for my oldest who wants to major in computer science, probably at Baylor but TCU, LA Tech and Letourneau are still in the running. This will be his senior year AP Calculus BC through PA Homeschoolers- $675 AP Physics through PA Homeschoolers- $600 AP Economics - $450 Spanish 3 and 4 at cc $180 ( 90 each semester) Freshman English both semesters $180 Literature TOG Year 1- with me possibly, though maybe not for credit on top of his other classes. But he has never studied ancient literature. ( He did the dialectic level in 8th, but didn’t read Odyssey, Iliad, etc.) Total for all of that is $2, 085 dollars. I cannot teach anything he needs to take with the exception of English. However, freshman English is taught by TA’s at Baylor and is notorious. My husband made all a’s in Baylor in all of his pre-med courses in everything except one semester of freshman English and one semester of Spanish where he made B’s. Now that was 25 years ago, but my stepbrother graduated from there 5 or 6 years ago and also made exactly 2 B’s in Spanish and English. I hear that nothing has changed. Spanish is really hard, and it just depends on what TA you get for English. So we really want him to get the credit for English before he goes. I am not planning on having him use the credit for Physics and Calc since he will need 3 semesters or more of each as an undergrad. I could have him take Calc I and II at the cc and then just start over again at his “real†college… We don’t have to do AP Economics, but the class looks like an incredibly fun one and a course he is interested in.. He has basically graduated from my teaching, though not from high school. Is this much money ok?? Most private schools around here are 4,000 to 5,000 dollars or so..
×
×
  • Create New...