unity
-
Posts
353 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Events
Blogs
Classifieds
Store
Posts posted by unity
-
-
Oh, I am not anti at all. Just "a." All of the churches in our area are contemporary and do not sing hymns! I have tried that route. I cannot do "worship" music. Sorry, I am anti-contemporary-church-songs.
Oh! I never thought of that. I am Eastern Orthodox so our music is decidedly un-contemporary. :D It sounds like you have looked into the churches in your area...but, wow! Your area is sure different from mine. :001_smile:
-
I don't know how "anti" your "a" is in areligious but if your children are drawn to church/God would you feel comfortable helping them in their own spiritual journey? Most churches are very welcoming to newcomers and would be ok with your coming even if you are not "sold" on the whole God thing. If it would make you feel extremely uncomfortable, maybe they could go with a friend?
Going to church seems like a great way to learn hymns to me!
-
I went to Harvard (undergrad) and Yale (PhD) and my husband went to MIT (undergrad and grad). I have NEVER regretted it or wished I had gone to a non-Ivy. I got an INCREDIBLE education and there is no way I have "learned more homeschooling my kids." I chose to forego a high-powered career but it was definitely there for me had I chosen it. Classmates of mine have done amazing things. My husband similarly had an outstanding education at MIT and I know that it was both the education and the contacts he made at MIT that have allowed him to have the career he wanted. Our classmates from college and grad school have been among the brightest, most inspirational, and most interesting people we have known.
The only possible downside I have experienced is what I think of as the "wow factor." IRL, I usually avoid mentioning where I went to school unless it's relevant. It can be a little awkward and annoying to experience the awe many people seem to feel.
But both my husband and I feel that our Ivy/MIT education was key to our intellectual formation and essential to his career trajectory. We are doing our best to prepare our kids for the brutally competitive admission process in the hopes that they can have opportunities similar to ours. Admission to Harvard in recent years has been under 10% of all applicants--and I can tell you that most of those applicants are bright, impressive kids. I do alumni interviews for Harvard and it's demoralizing every year to see rejection after rejection for my interviewees, even among the kids who impress me. (I'm hard to impress, too.)
I am honestly shocked to hear that someone would turn down, say, Yale for a local school simply because someone might think they were snobby someday. I can't speak for all the Ivies, but I think a Harvard, Yale, or MIT education would be an incredible gift for any young person.
-
Anything objectionable (Tartuffe by Moliere? - I've just heard it's questionable?)
Would you find Shakespeare questionable to use with high schoolers? Moliere is great--funny, smart, biting, and sometimes baudy. Think Shakespeare's comedies and you'll have a good feel for Moliere.
-
If my child is taking a class from someone else, I don't usually buy the teaching materials. If I need to help with take-home work, I just ask the child what is meant by such and such requirement.
If you're going to go through all the work to learn the IEW system and how to teach it, why bother with the class? Save the hassle and just teach it yourself. But if you're going to let someone else teach it, then enjoy that you're out of the picture and just be the mom.
-
I tried AW a few years ago, using their 1-4 program (then) with my 1st grader. What a bust! She thought she was "into" animals, but it turned out to be waaay too many animals for her. For us, the adventure reading was the best part, and the One Small Square Square books were a big thumbs down. The books for older kids were pretty difficult and I was really wishing we had stuck with the younger set, even though she was in 1st.
We thought the adventure reading was the best part, actually.
I still think it looks like a great program, but if I do it again with a younger kid I will definitely use the younger books.
-
I haven't used this lit program at all but Among the Hidden is one of my absolute favorite contemporary books for children. The whole series is riveting and introduces all sorts of neat topics for discussion, like freedom, governmental control, civil disobedience, etc. Sure, older children can have deeper conversations about these issues but it's not like you can't talk to younger kids about them, too. For me, knowing that Among the Hidden is on a syllabus would make me more interested in the curriculum for sure!
Off now to check out the program you mention!
-
Regarding the bolded, I just had that epiphany today! I love some of the SL books, but I can always grab those on sale or at the library to supplement or just enjoy in our free time. As for the analysis aspect, I am looking forward to going in depth with TOG. The IG is what is really calling to me. It has done all the work for me, in gathering the resources into a list that I can choose from. It makes customizing so much simpler.
Also, your fourth point is an good one...I love that if I don't like a book for any reason, there are many others to choose from. When we ran into a SL book we didn't like, we usually ended up skipping it. Now I have options! I am probably going to buy our primary resources, but try to get as many of the alternate books at the library as possible.
Thanks for sharing your experience...it helps me a lot.
I'm glad to share my experiences. I don't really feel in a position to convince someone to use TOG, because I didn't use it with huge success, but I did learn from my mistakes and do think I will try again after this year.
At some point for me it comes down not only to what I *want* to do, but also what I feel I *need* to do. Although there are some things I do love about SL (for us, anyway, it's very relaxed and informal and fun), when I step back and ask if my kids are getting what *they* need out an education, I have to say no. I'm not indicting SL here, just probably how we use it.
And honestly, before I more or less gave up on TOG 1 I have to admit they did learn a lot. There is a learning curve and I think I never quite got out of SL mode and into TOG mode, kwim?
Best of luck as you chart your course!
-
I think the scope and sequence of the A, B, C levels are mostly parallel, and it's just a question of the depth and complexity of the material. So I think you could have her jump into level C if you wanted more of a challenge.
However, since you say you have the TWSS DVDs, yes, they do contain the same material. The TWSS course is intended to teach you how to teach, but if your daughter is as motivated as she seems I don't know why you couldn't let her learn off of those. If she doesn't get it, you could look for plan B, but if you already have them, you don't really have anything to lose by letting her try them, right?
-
I switched from TOG back to SL "because of the books" but in my year back with SL, I came to the conclusion that that was not a particularly good reason, at least for us. Here's why...
I think it depends on what year plan you are doing, what level studies, whether you do in-depth history or just the core, etc. I have to admit, I did not care for the books we used when we did TOG 1. After my year of that, I went back to SL 5. Now, a year later, I am really disappointed with my SL year and realizing many of the mistakes I made when I used TOG the first time. I did not "make it my own." I tried to do everything, including waaaay more history than we like to do. I bought all the books up front instead of by the unit, so I didn't have room to tweak. I used Dialectic across the board with my HG 4th graders--they could read it, but they didn't enjoy it much. I didn't allow us to spend extra time on the lit, which is what we all enjoy around here anyway.
Now, looking ahead for my kiddos, I have realized some things.
1) We like Sonlight for the appealing novels. So, fine, I can buy the books that appeal to me and they'll read those 'on the side.' Especially as my kids get older, I find I really miss the lack of classics in Sonlight and I REALLY dislike the lack of analysis, etc. The questions and guide in SL are useless to me, because they are 90% or more about comprehension. That's just a non-issue here; they always "get" what they read.
2) I don't really like Ancient history. I think I blamed my personal boredom on TOG when it should have been on the subject matter.
3) Sonlight has a number of "duds" every year for us, too, so it's not like it's magical just to be a SL book.
4) TOG offers so many choices in books...if you include the alternate resources, there are *many* more TOG book choices than SL ones. So it's not necessarily fair to switch based on "the books" of TOG.
These are some of the musings that have been spinning through my mind as I realize that, even though I have done 6 Sonlight Cores, it is really not taking me where I want to go.
-
I'm not a hard-core IEW fan, but we have used it in the past, through the first set of DVDs. I felt like IEW was giving tools but it was then something I could apply to whichever writing program or whatever writing assignments were to follow. I think you should base your next move on how you feel (and how your daughter) feels about IEW right now. Love it? Cough up the money for SWI-CC level C. (You can always resell it, right?) Just so-so? Move on to the LTW. Also, check out the scope and sequence for SWI-CC...I think it involves moving through the rest of the 9 units, including writing from pictures, etc, which you may not value as much as the fundamental skills taught at the beginning. (I didn't.)
Or maybe your daughter is an accomplished writer and it's time to ditch the writing programs in favor of writing assignments simply drawn from her various studies. By 9th grade, I didn't have a class in "writing"--but I was expected to write English, history, science, etc. papers.
-
I think they're really targeting mushy gushy stuff or making-out stuff. I lived on Ft Rucker for 20 months and I never heard of this rule and saw plenty of soldiers in uniform acting naturally affectionate with wife or kids. Never saw making out, but I definitely saw "affection" (kiss on the cheek, hug, piggy-back ride, etc). Maybe they weren't as conscientious because they were on base?
I also know that when my dh came home from leave from Iraq he was in uniform and we all fairly pounced on him at the airport, and I am HAPPY to say that he hugged all of us without worrying about PDA. And my dh is a stickler for rules. So I have to believe there is some room for interpretation here.
I'll betcha anything when they all show up for their arrival home from Iraq (soon! hip hip hooray!) there will be plenty of affection to go around--and it will most likely be caught on camera, too! :001_smile:
-
So, it started with me fooling around with history plans for my oldest 2, since I really only have 6 more years of history with them. You know, what do we want to cover in the time we have left? So then their plan impacts their younger sister, so I start planning my 8 yo's schedule through high school, too. Then, of course, while I'm at it I throw in my 4 yo and even the nursing baby...for whom I now have a tentative all-the-way through history plan!
Yeah. So 2 years is looking really sane to me right about now!
:tongue_smilie:
-
I use Latin for Children for ds 11 because I want to keep it fun and I don't see the need for him to accelerate in Latin. He has occasionally asked if perhaps he shouldn't have LA because this is quite easy for him, but I told him that he has enough difficult/accelerated stuff on his plate in all the other subjects, so how about a fun one? There are crosswords and other "fun" activities in the workbook. I do not feel that the program talks down at all. So, from what you said about your dd, I think LfC would be a good fit.
-
I voted Saxon 2 because I did it and I liked it, and you don't mention any reason you want to switch. If I were talking to someone who didn't already have a program and switching weren't an issue, I would suggest Right Start.
But I really enjoyed my year of Saxon 2 with my daughter.
-
I have heard of Singapore, and that it was similar to RS Math, but never looked into it. I am going to check it out. I like the fact that you can use the RS manipulatives with Singapore too.
I think you could use the RS manipulatives and games with any math curriculum, couldn't you?
And, I don't think I agree that Singapore is similar to RS. RS is all scripted and full of games and tells you exactly how to use all the manipulatives. Singapore is a very strong program, but unless it's a new product, they don't hold your hand in the teaching of it. My boys went through Primary 1-6 and half of NEM 1 before we switched away, and my little one is using the EB right now, and it seemed very workbooky and in some ways the antithesis of RS.
I don't mean to put down either program; I think they are both excellent. Just maybe not very similar.
-
Yeah, the colors are blue and yellow. Good idea about getting different beads from Michaels or something. I never thought about something like that, but it's clever. I actually probably already have a million different beads. I don't think blue/yellow really matters but it would be really nice to have just two colors used, and be sure to switch which one is first on lines 6-10.
Also, fwiw, I just wanted to comment that Right Start does have a lot to the program and I'm not sure most kids would "need" supplementation. I haven't been through a whole level of it yet, but I have used a lot of math programs and looked at this one extensively. If you actually play the games and don't measure math progress as a huge collection of worksheets, there's really a lot there.:)
-
I did some digging around in my weekly schedule and found that CHOW finishes out in week 31 with the last chapter. I don't have that book or any others that go with this. I only purchased the IG which didn't even any covers. It just came as a large stack of 3-hole punched pages.
If I can piece together what you're saying, it sounds like you have a complete schedule, notes, and activity pages, which is all you need. You also have essentially 3 different programs; the Core, the science, and the LA. So in one sense, it should be usable.
But... you don't have any of the books that go with this? Really? Do you have a plan on how to get the books that go with this? This is obviously quite an old IG (as publishing goes); surely many of the books are out of print, some are probably published by Sonlight, etc. Since it sounds like finances are really tight for you, I'm guessing you're planning to use the library a lot, but that's going to be a nightmare for the books that are used constantly, like CHOW. And if you are planning to buy some books to make life a little easier, are you sure you want to sink money into a program that, quite honestly, it sounds like you didn't really research and may not even really know what you're getting into?
I just think it would be super tough to start with an 8 yo IG that no one uses and then try to somehow find all the books that go with it that may be hard to find, even with a good library system.
You seem to feel trapped by this purchase, but be careful not to fall for the sunk-cost fallacy. By that I mean, if this was a bad purchase, be sure not to throw good money after bad and spend even more to try to justify the original expense! I'm thinking maybe you got a good deal on this, since you purchased without knowing much about Sonlight. Maybe you could re-sell if you end up changing your mind?
I'm just sayin'.
-
Well, Core P4/5 is basically just great books scheduled for you. There are no lessons plans really.
:iagree:
The Core itself is a lot of very nice books, suitable for about 3-6 year olds. I think most 3 yo would not have the patience to sit through the readings of P 4/5, but the content has wide appeal for older kids. I was just reading to my 4 yo and my 8 yo found a reason to be in the room so she could listen in! The science is very basic, and I thought the Developing the Early Learner books were way too easy for my 4 yo, although he is already reading rather well. I know others will give you coordinating LA to use with the Core, but frankly, I've had it with SL LA and will never use or recommend them to anyone again. I'd say, if you like the core go ahead and use it, but don't be afraid to use a different phonics program.
There are not really "lesson plans" but there is a schedule if you find that helpful to staying on track. Actually, Sonlight really doesn't do lesson plans at any of the levels I've used (and I've used all from P3/4 through 5...oh wait, not Core 2....but anyway...). SL is mostly a schedule for reading.
Anyhow, I am on my second time through this core right now, and it's lovely reading. I do recommend this core for the value of the books and the cuddle-time, even though I am pretty much "over" Sonlight in every other way. This core, and p 3/4, are sweet, and the only ones I can imagine doing over.
-
46 chapters; bridges after 7, 15, 22, 29, 36, 46.
:)
-
:lol: Definitely don't plan to use this then. The manuals are about 300 pages and hard to wade through.
See, I didn't find the manuals hard to get through at ALL. In fact, that's one of the reasons I prefer WP to SL. In WP there is a lot of introductory material (which I read before beginning) but then once you get started, each week is all right there, together. When you are done with one week you just turn to the next. SL's IG was useless to me except as a schedule because I HATED having to flip one place for history, another for readers, another for read-alouds, etc.
For the OP...I can't speak to the catalog because I just ordered online without ever seeing a printed catalog, but maybe you would find it helpful to poke around the website as you think about what you would want. There is a tremendous amount of information on their website. Also, for buying stuff, note that their website is divided into two main components, one information and the "store" which is a different site (you get there by clicking on the "shop" tab). I'd suggest reading through relevant pages on both sites.
-
OP here.
My thought was that they might be a nice supplement to his penmanship/writing program (which he hates) as well as a way for him to learn how to draw a few simple things with success. He can write neatly, he just doesn't see the point. I thought that the books may show him that sketching is similar writing. If you want the picture to look the way it does in the book, you have to draw it the way it is in the book. If you want your writing to look look the way it should, you have to form your letters the way they are meant to look. It sounds like these books will help.
It sounds like you have just the right expectations for this series. That is how we've used this program with success here. At some point this kind of sketching is an extension of handwriting skills, and it is also great for developing skills of observation. Like, how far along the back does the mane reach? That sort of thing. I guess, upon reflection, that is an artistic skill! :) Anyway, have fun with it!
-
I have a bunch of the books, and they do have their place--like when a child really wants to know how to draw the likeness of something specific. But I think as far as actual art instruction, they are far inferior to programs that teach artistic concepts and develop creativity. Draw Right Now does not teach concepts like color, line, perspective, etc. Nor does it teach creativity in any way. It does teach step-by-step directions on how to copy specific images.
I would personally rather get a handwriting book that has my preferred style, and then add in an art program that teaches fundamentals of art, rather than rely on this series to cover both bases.
-
Although I do have the RS abacus, I also modified our Melissa and Doug abacus so it would be a little more RS-ish. It was very easy, although not a perfect result. I just unscrewed all the screws, took apart the ends, took off all the beads, and then put them back in a different pattern that had 5/5 on each wire. It wasn't a terrific result since the two-color format really is very meaningful on the RS abacus, but I thought it made the Melissa and Doug abacus a slightly better toy for my baby and a possible "spare" occasionally for my RS A kid.
Pros and cons of Ivies
in The College Board
Posted
I had the same reaction when I visited as a high schooler. When my application came in the mail, I just threw it away. Then, a few years later, I reconsidered Yale when it turned out to have one of the top French departments in the country. I chose to go there, in spite of what I considered the sluminess. However, I also found it to be a much nicer place to live than I was anticipating and they have spent millions gentrifying the city since I visited in high school.
If you haven't been there since back in the day, you may be pleasantly surprised with how nice the city is now.