rzberrymom
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Posts posted by rzberrymom
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True!
Sometimes though we get lucky. For a few years I was able to bring together a group of similarly enthusiastic and chemistry passionate kiddos for a high level chemistry class. The sort of exploratory experience similar to Oliver Sacks and other chemistry hungry young boys of the 1930s-1950s. We were more than ready and willing to blow things up. Almost every person I spoke to when I was looking for a suitable venue kept saying we couldn't make it happen, that we would need insurance for accidents so no one will host us and that we would have to pay lots of $$ to someone willing to teach it. They couldn't imagine how much we parents were also willing to help to make it happen. And the lab materials cost us only $130+ (we split the cost among 4 families) and the mentor was an affordable $10-$15 per meeting per family depending on how many people turned up (he did it for the love of teaching). We had a (very brave) parent willing to host us in her larger living room! It was lovely while we could make it last.
This was when the kiddos were 7-8 years old and understanding the concepts with little effort. Chemistry is no longer a passion for kiddo like it was then but if we could do it again it would easily rival what our local high school does for chemistry. I think it really helps when the kids want it very much, otherwise it's hard on parents to be the driving force (and keep driving to long distance venues too) and we start to look pushy.
Look hard enough, want it hard enough and sometimes you will be surprised by what can happen.
Definitely!! I'm always in awe of the knowledge, expertise and willingness among the homeschool parents I meet! A group of us could no longer afford an outdoor program (where you pay $50/day and then stand around while the kids do their thing), the kids were still begging to go, so a biologist and naturalist parent took it on for free for our little group. My oldest was begging for a girls' science club, and so we found two parents with PhDs to take it on for free--a university professor in environmental engineering does the physics stuff and a fish sciences researcher for a Native American inter-tribal council does the life sciences stuff. A friend with a group of 12-13 year olds convinced the math department at the local university to take on the kids as a project--once/week, they get a free math class with a highly respected professor and the grad students he's working with. It's just amazing what's out there, especially when the kids are eager and excited!
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A few more at maybe 3rd or 4th grade level--gentle, Swedish, good stuff!
Nils Holgerssons wunderbare Reise: http://www.amazon.de/Holgerssons-wunderbare-Reise-Selma-Lagerlöf/dp/3401053345
And the Mumin books: http://www.amazon.de/Die-Mumins-Komet-im-Mumintal/dp/3401503243/ref=sr_1_10?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1387347790&sr=1-10
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I noticed something when teaching my oldest to read--if we took a long break from math she would fall very far behind, but if we took a big break from reading lessons she was actually much better at it when we started back up. This happened repeatedly, and I'm talking 2-4 week breaks. She was just too young at that point.
I wouldn't worry about taking breaks at that age. :)
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Yeah, her German Saturday School doesn't have much translated from English--mostly German series, and I never know what I'm bringing home! lol
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Agricola is very similar to Settlers of Catan but with even more strategy. Thurn and Taxis is another favorite here. My 8 year loves all 3 of those, and I bet they would be great for your little one!
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My daughter is 8 and has been playing for a year. I felt the most important things were 1) to find a teacher she could really connect with, rather than the one with the most fantastic credentials, and 2) for me to spend a good deal of time helping her learn how to practice. I actually did the songs/lessons too for the first several months to help her see what diligence looked like.
We started on a keyboard, but no one could stand it after a month or two and we found a somewhat decent piano we could afford. You could always rent a high-quality keyboard with weighted keys when starting out.
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Oh goodness, as soon as I wrote this I saw the German reading list below. I'll look in there for 3rd grade options too!
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My almost 9-year old is working her way through as many Astrid Lingren books as I can find in German, and I'm hoping to get suggestions for more chapter books at about that reading level? About 3rd grade level I would guess?
She goes to German Saturday School and they have a decently large library, but they don't have too many translated from English and the German series are all totally foreign to me. Ideally, I'm looking for classics or at least something gentle (I brought a Connie and Co. book home without realizing that they were partying and drinking in the one I picked).
Any ideas? Thanks so much!
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My 7 1/2 year old is the same way. Reading is still really tiring for her (I had her eyes checked but they're fine) and so she gets whiny about it. Reading aloud has been getting a *little* bit better over time, but she still was never reading for pleasure. To help encourage the reading for pleasure, I let her take her books and a flashlight to bed--not picture books (she gets plenty of those during the day) but only her chapter books. Sometimes she stays up way too late, but this does seem to be making reading way more fun for her. :)
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You might take a look at the Easy Classical graded schedules. :)
This looks promising for us! Thanks :)
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I'm sorry if this has been asked before--I have no idea where to look. :(
I work from home part time, I have a high-needs 2 year old, I have an overworked DH, etc. I've tried to piece together curriculum for my 7 year old, but I just don't have the time to do it well.
Is there such a thing as a classical program that has the whole year mapped out and everything in one place? Something like the K12.com program, but classically based? I tried Sonlight, but even that felt like too much work and too little guidance for us.
She would be finishing up 1st grade now. I feel pretty good about math (she's doing Singapore and EPGY) and reading is fine (we do OPGTR). It's everything else that we're lacking.
Thanks for any help!!
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My DD's favorites:
Rat-a-Tat Cat (memory, number sequences)
The card game 99 (mental addition)
Phase Ten (not sure what it teaches, but it's a fun rummy-type game)
Labyrinth (spatial reasoning)
Carcassonne (spatial reasoning--kind of pre-chess)
Settlers of Catan (probability)
One of my favorite websites is boardgamegeek.com, and they always have fantastic lists by age.
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How did you get to sign up for EPGY? I asked the local public school and they aren't members. I would really like my son to try it. He is in K and finished 1st grade SM. It just seems like anything we throw at him he absorbs very easily, so maybe he will be further along if I wasn't holding him back.
We paid for just the math through here.
If you want language arts too, they just changed the open enrollment and any group of at least 10 can register together pretty cheaply (I think it's 10). You can either get a homeschool group together or I think there's a group on here that registers together (if you do a search for EPGY it will show up).
EPGY says to start at their actual grade and only bump them up after some really long period of time (I want to say it was several months). We found that ridiculous, and my DD started to get discouraged by having to slog through everything in K and 1st. If he's done with SM 1B, I'd bump him up to at least 1.5 on EPGY--it's a circular program, so even if he missed something from earlier the same concepts will show up over and over again (I find SM to be way more in-depth anyway, so I doubt he'd miss too much).
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My DD has been doing EPGY for a few months, and I just started supplementing with Singapore in the last few weeks. My impression so far is that the teaching styles mesh really well. But, we're doing Singapore 2B and EPGY 3.0--I'm not as sure how they mesh at other levels.
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My DD was like that too. She did these 200 piece puzzles when she turned 2, and people would gather around and watch because it was so bizarre. And then one day, she wouldn't touch puzzles--she just completely lost all interest and seemed to not even remember how to do them. At age 6, she seems to struggle with puzzles that she could do at age 2!
It might be just a loss of interest for him. We moved on to other games instead, and she really took off with that. Anything that required spatial reasoning (like the puzzles used to do)--Labyrinth, Carcassone, Castle Logix, and chess are favorites.
At 6, she's still much more interested in the games, math, mapping, etc. She can barely read and it's a struggle to get through basic phonics lessons.
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I'm new too, but my 6 year old is at nearly the same point in EPGY. I haven't been happy with how quickly EPGY zooms through things--I love how well the program teaches concepts and I'm always thrilled to see how cleverly they make my DD understand concepts. But, it doesn't feel like the program goes deep enough and that it really needs supplementing.
So, I added Singapore 2B with her the last few weeks, which seemed pretty close to the level in the second half of EPGY's 2nd year (I think she's at 2.9 in EPGY, and Singapore 2B seems just right for her). I also checked out MEP the other day, and the problems in the second half of year 2 seem to be at about the same level as EPGY's 2nd year.
I hope that helps!
The Honeymoon is Over -- Pushback from 12-year-old
in Logic Stage & Middle Grade Challenges
Posted
I say the same thing, about my obligation to make sure she's educated.
My kiddo is younger, but breaks always always always throw us off. I've come to expect that a week off means several days of strife when we get back. :(