Okay...so maybe not limited to science vocabulary...how do you have your student define and memorize and drill vocabulary? Anyone? Jill

What are your favorite ways to teach and drill vocabulary words for science? I'm teaching biology next year and it is sooooo heavy in vocabulary. I know it's crucial but it seems like we could get so bogged down and spend so much time writing out definitions and drilling 20-30 words per chapter. Surely there's a better way out there! Tell me what has worked for your high schooler. Jill

I just posted this on the high school board and you might find it helpful: My mathy 7th grade son just finished Chalkdust. My wordy 8th grade daughter is still slogging through Jacobs. We didn't use the dvd's for chalkdust because "they are too long and boring." I would go over the material with him and he would do the assignments. Chalkdust moves quickly, tackles multiple topics in one section, and presents more difficult problems than Jacobs. For my math challenged daughter, this would have brought her to tears every day. That's why I chose Jacobs for her. She worked one chapter in Chalkdust on simultaneous equations (or systems of equations in Chalkdust) because I didn't care for the way Jacobs presented it. She had a hard time making the adjustment for just one chapter. Now, ymmv, but she was glad to get back to Jacobs (remember she's not mathy.) They just completed our state's standardized testing and they both tested advanced in math. Son was off the charts, daughter was comfortably advanced (this was a huge milestone for her because she has always tested proficient.) Does this mean anything? I don't know for sure, but I think you'll be fine with either. I figured out which worked best for my kids and stuck with it.

My mathy 7th grade son just finished Chalkdust. My wordy 8th grade daughter is still slogging through Jacobs. We didn't use the dvd's for chalkdust because "they are too long and boring." I would go over the material with him and he would do the assignments. Chalkdust moves quickly, tackles multiple topics in one section, and presents more difficult problems than Jacobs. For my math challenged daughter, this would have brought her to tears every day. That's why I chose Jacobs for her. She worked one chapter in Chalkdust on simultaneous equations (or systems of equations in Chalkdust) because I didn't care for the way Jacobs presented it. She had a hard time making the adjustment for just one chapter. Now, ymmv, but she was glad to get back to Jacobs (remember she's not mathy.) They just completed our state's standardized testing and they both tested advanced in math. Son was off the charts, daughter was comfortably advanced (this was a hugh milestone for her because she has always tested proficient.) Does this mean anything? I don't know for sure, but I think you'll be fine with either. I figured out which worked best for my kids and stuck with it. Jill

Such wonderful feedback. Thank you everyone! Since I am new to this and I just realized that some of these kids will be 9th graders, I wasn't sure how to approach the board. Now I know better which direction I should go. The board is new to having 9th graders (the 8th graders advancing this year) so they probably just haven't thought through the process. Jill

Well, I'm not feeling brave as I try to imagine how they can access the information outside of class. I do like the idea of reproducibles to send home. That's why I'm thinking it would be great if Apologia had a copying policy where the school could pay a fee and I could photocopy portions to send home. (We will be skipping entire modules and doing only parts of others so I don't think the families need to purchase the entire book.) I need to contact Apologia. I've also been researching web links--thanks for that recommendation. There are so many great things out there! I just have to take a deep breath when I start to get overwhelmed by it all. Jill

I will be teaching the 7th and younger 8th graders in one class and the older 8th graders and 9th graders in another class. Twice a week. I am in the process of putting together a plan, a scope and sequence. It will loosely follow Apologia's General Science book, but I'd like to add in some other things like maybe some "how science affects your life today" or some popular science topics right now like forensic science and biotechnology. Does that make it more clear? I'm having a hard time explaining it well because I'm a little muddled myself right now.:confused: Sorry! Jill

Hello, I've been a WTM board reader for over 9 years now but rarely post..until now. I'm hoping to get some professional advice. :) I will be teaching science to 7-9th graders this fall at a small, two-days-a week school geared to homeschoolers. The school seeks share the load of a homeschool mom and provide lots of great hands-on and group experiences in several core subjects and electives. (I will receive tuition exchange for my own children.) They haven't had a successful science program for this age group yet. The last experience these kids had was with a very knowledgeable man who threw complicated higher level math at them and created a bad taste for science in some of the kids. The school board feels like the two classes in this age group need a general science foundation so they've chosen Apologia General Science as the base text. One member of the board detests the dry textbook approach but doesn't really have a better suggestion. Enter me. They are hoping I can piece together a plan that will give the kids a good solid foundation with lots of hands on labs. I have a degree in biology and nine years of homeschooling under my belt, but I'm floundering a bit here. Basically I'm struggling with how to provide a "book learning" aspect the kids can do at home to go along with our labs and hands on activites (Apologia General Science will be the framework, but we all agreed that the students would not purchase the book.) I thought maybe I could assign teaching videos (lots of free ones out there on the web) to coincide with weekly labs, maybe get permission to photocopy parts of Apologia's textbook for take home prep or deeper understanding work? Find other well written science stuff from other publishers? online sources? As much fun as it would be to just do labs every day, there's so much to learn about science that we can't do in a lab. And speaking of labs, if someone has some great suggestions beyond the labs in the Apologia textbook, I'd love to hear them. I've spent lots of time surfing the web...and there's sure a lot of stuff out there! Thanks! Jill

We combined Singapore and MUS all the way through Zeta and Singapore 5B. Once she finished, we tried Thinkwell Pre-Algebra. That didn't go well for her because of the very fast pace, difficult practice problems and not enough review. At semester, I switcher her to Chalkdust and it went much better. I found it to be a very typical "textbook" approach, different than MUS--more material at once and more difficult problems. She didn't enjoy the dvd lectures because they were too long winded for her so I just taught the concept and she would do the work. I think it was a pretty good transition from MUS to chalkdust.

I am LDS also and I took a long time deciding whether or not to take the plunge and once I made the decision to use it, I only ordered one unit at a time--just in case. :001_smile: I have 2 dialectic, one UG, and one LG. It's been wonderful so far. I agree with the other poster who said that at times the teacher's guides are over the top. I'm not used to such bold statements like "this week pray for those who are locked in muslim beliefs" (not a direct quote because I don't want to go look it up right now, but it's close.) I substituted Marshall's book with Dorothy Mills's (which makes more work for me and my dialectic kids, but it's been doable so far--we have to search multiple sources sometimes or I let them read the teacher's notes.) Overall, it's been very easy to leave out parts we don't agree with or talk about how we believe something similar. We don't do any of the worldview reading. I know that in year 3, rhetoric level worldview will be assigned a book called Mormonism Explained. I don't think I would like the book, but since we don't cover any worldview, I decided not to worry about it. After 7 weeks in year 2, TOG has been a very doable (and breath of fresh air) resource for this LDS family. Jill

Thanks. I'll cross my fingers and pray it's just on the slow truck! Jill

I am new to selling books online, and now I'm in a situation I guess I should have planned for. I sold some latin books and shipped them off (media mail) July 9th. They still haven't arrived. Other books shipped around that time to other people have arrived. I didn't insure them or do delivery confirmation. What options do I have? I'm thinking there is no recourse with the post office because I didn't insure or delivery confirm. (Which seems silly to me that we have to pay extra to make sure our package gets to where we want it to be intact--shouldn't that already be guaranteed with the postage we pay?) Should I refund her money and I take the loss?...Say "Tough, you should have asked for insurance" and she takes the loss?...or split the loss? or??? I'm really torn about the equitable thing to do. Jill

Sarasa. I'll never use anything else again. Jill