Woodland Mist Academy
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Posts posted by Woodland Mist Academy
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I'm a CM fan, but I don't think there is a universal best speed for obtaining the optimal enjoyment or benefit from a book.I think you'd be cheating yourself if you read Pride and Prejudice in a week - save one week reads for things like Father Brown or Michael Crichton or such. It's like wondering whether you can finish a $400 top-of-the-line 12 course meal in 30 minutes. You could, but what would be the point? Finish a hamburger in that time, and savor the feast. (And there are plenty of hamburgers...)
Emily (who has been influenced by the slow pace of Charlotte Mason reading and actually come to enjoy reading lots of books slowly and simultaneously)
My daughter just read Crime and Punishment in three days. She's been talking about it in such a way that I can tell it's one of those books that will steep in her mind and seep into her soul for days, weeks, months, and years...
The speed in which she read it was almost like watching a starved soul. I wouldn't dream of depriving her of such nourishment...
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Merry Christmas/Happy Friday! I love having a teen in the house - we got to sleep in till almost 8:00 today, which is the latest Xmas morning wakeup in . . . 13 years?
I think it was our latest too. I thought she would sleep all day! We didn't start Christmas morning until 10:30!
(She had been up half the night reading Crime and Punishment, which she :001_wub: .)
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You're welcome in the book a week thread anyway. :)
I agree. They are very welcoming in the book a week thread. I pop in only on rare occasions, yet always feel right at home.
OP, I read Don Quixote on the Book a Year (or two) plan. ;) For whatever reason I enjoy it best in small bursts.
(True confession: I'm still not finished. :blushing: Maybe not wanting it to end? In my defense, I have read many books during the time spans in between DQ bursts.... Trying to redeem myself, lest I be banned from the book a week thread for pushing the time frame limits a bit too far.... :ph34r: :laugh: )
Seriously though, the book a week thread is full of splendid fun and encouragement no matter what you are reading or how quickly. Highly recommended.
I think reading should be approached with an open attitude of finding what works for you. Gather ideas from various sources, but make the final plan unique to you. That might quite possibly be the only way the plan will actually work.
Don Quixote doesn't draw you in? Don't read it! Life's too short and there are too many other worthy books calling your name...
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I mentioned kiddo working for about 45hr/week. He takes 4 courses a semester and most of the 4 would be approx. 10 hours each, sometimes more, sometimes less. His physics lab course easily required 20 hours the first few weeks for him to get used to the reading, problem solving and lab report writing requirements. A literature course this semester looked light to me at first but he was actually spending a lot of time reading and re-reading, annotating and researching biographies and supplementary work by the same author and I think it took him about 10 hours a week too (it was a writing-light course though).
Four courses at 45hrs/week is a good load for him. Any more and the stress level starts to show very quickly.
Thanks! These times are closer to what I would expect.
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Interesting. I guess that might be part of the draw of DE...less work than some high schools...
Some of my dd's high school classes require 10+ hours a week of non busywork. Obviously 7 classes at 10 hours a week would be too much. That's when knowing the student is especially important. Which classes need to be intense and which ones can be much less so. I do see the value in the intense classes she has and am grateful for them.
I may be coming from a very different perspective, though. When I arrived at university we were told to block off 40 hours a week ASAP for studies. Maybe that's why some of the reports of how little time people are spending on DE classes is rather surprising to me.
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Step away from those threads. Find a high school path that makes sense to you and your students. We used many of the programs that are called "light" on these boards for DD in high school. No single course took 10+ hours per week on a regular basis.
DD now has 42 college credit hours under her belt (including dual enrollment as a high school student and her first full-time semester as a college student). She has a 4.0 grade point average, including courses like calculus I, engineering science (i.e., physics for engineering majors), computer science I, and English composition.
High school does not have to be intense and time consuming to set a student up for success.
I'm a little confused. Did earning 30ish hours of college credit in high school not involve intensity and consumption of time? Have college courses really changed that much? I remember college being very intense and time consuming... Maybe that's changed...
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My big advice is look less at what others are doing. Choose your own path. Don't be afraid to follow it. It will be ok. Pick the education and future that fits your child and your family, not someone else's child or someone else's family. Stand bravely in that path and don't be lured off by the plans of others.
:001_wub:
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We found that outside classes always got the most attention, simply because of the outside deadline effect. So pick your outside entanglements carefully, whether that is a CC class or a coop or anything else.
:001_wub:
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Also, i agree that you have way, way too much for English/literature. Take turns instead of doing it simultaneously. You are in high school so you can think in terms of semesters. Do Rhetoric one semester and lit another. My kids just finished one semester of speech and communication. Next semester they are on to music theory for one of them and religious studies for the other. To add to that full credit for English this year we are in a teen book club where we read classic lit and discuss and analyze it. But that reading is done before bed and the club meeting only happens twice a month.
By what measure is it too much? How many Great Books do your children read and process each semester? Are the Great Books a priority for you?
I think before we can say something is way, way too much, we need to make sure we aren't confusing our own goals with the goals of the person trying to sort things out. Maybe the English/Literature is just fine. Maybe it's something else that needs to give.
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We aren't offering Spoken Rhetoric, and we'll be announcing our fall courses in February.
Thanks!
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Hello again.
I don't see the Spoken Rhetoric class listed. Is it not being offered during the spring semester? Will it be offered during the summer or next fall?
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We have removed "Basic" from the title. The classes we offer are U.S. History and Advanced U.S. History (supplement to the regular course to prepare students for the AP exam). Report cards and grade certificates will reflect the updated names. Thank you for bringing this to our attention!
Excellent! That was fast!
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All of the WTMA classes which use AoPS texts are supplemented with other materials. The syllabus for Algebra II is not yet finalized but will be available when registration opens.A class utilizing the Intermediate Algebra AoPS text is not planned for the 2016/2017 year but may be offered in the future.If you have any questions about the class materials, please email me and I'll do my best to answer your questions.
Would it be possible for the questions to be asked and answered here? I think many of us have similar questions and the answers would be beneficial to many.
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I am curious about the course as well.
I also agree about the name. I was surprised to see a WTM course named "Basic" anything. Definitely recommend a name change.
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It seemed really strange to me, but I've read (on here & elsewhere) that many colleges actually prefer AP classes (well, AP test results!) to community college dual enrollment.
I would have thought that a college class would be preferable, but AP tests are the same all over the US while community college classes differ in content & difficulty level.
I agree! I've even seen elite schools that don't accept DE of any kind, but they accept AP. Of course, for other schools it might be the reverse. Certainly something to consider!
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It is impossible to untangle nature and nurture, but my daughter used WWE and WWS with excellent results. She is now in high school and has no issues with writing. She still needs to edit, rewrite, get feedback, etc. (as do all writers), but has no concerning issues. She's well past her grade level. She definitely has some natural ability, though.
I will say that WWE and WWS weren't all we used - not by a long shot. We did a HUGE mix of language arts in the grammar and logic stages. I also expected quite a bit from history narrations even from a young age. Again, there's the tangled web of nature/nature. Could she do it because I taught it and expected it or because of natural inclinations? The answer is, of course, both.
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Some seats are also available in our full year courses for mid-year transfer students.
How does this work? Are transfer students required to turn in all previous assignments? Do they get a full credit for the course or just a half credit?
Thanks.
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Pushing a credit or two to summer is the only way dd is going to be able to get a solid, but realistic number of credits. It will be at least 7 with some partial credits that she will work on over the years.
If she tried to do them all during the traditional school year, she would need to drop some of her other activities, or we would need to lower academic expectations. Continuing to go year round allows her to do as much as possible in various aspects of her life. It's a better balance for her.
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By the way, I do plan to come back to respond to your original post! Sorry for the sidetrack!
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The latter - 2 afternoons a week, 3 hours per afternoon, 6 hours total.
Plus weekend shows, but those aren't super frequent.
Just to be totally neurotic....
Do those times count driving? I'm trying to see if what we are doing is typical. You are apparently my standard of measurement... :lol:
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Right now in 8th, she has what I would consider 5 credits worth of work, and that feels like the right amount, leaving plenty of time for creative writing time (she's writing a fantasy novel), horseback riding (she's at the stable 2 days/6 hours a week), and theater (bouts of frenetic activity, 6-20 hours per week, followed by weeks completely off). Adding two more full credits feels like it would really eat into her personal creative time, which I'm trying to avoid as much as possible, while still creating a solid, college prep high school education (and college acceptance worthy transcript!)
Just because I'm sorting out some of the same issues myself and am trying to gain perspective...
Do you mean 2 days a week for 6 hours each day or 2 days totaling 6 hours a week?
Thanks!
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How to be a Victorian by Ruth Goodman
It was fantastic. It starts with life as soon as you get out of bed and goes to the evening and even includes a section on "behind the bedroom doors". Incredibly interesting. It includes all members of society not just those ladies of Flufferton Abbey.
:001_wub: Thanks!
How to be a Victorian
Step 1: Order printed book, not Kindle edition... ;)
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My cookbook contribution...
In Beverley Nichols' semi-autobiographical/memoir novel A Thatched Roof, in a long forgotten cupboard of an old cottage, A Receipt Book of Cookery 1698 was discovered:
Eagerly we leant over that book in the fading light - a golden October sunset that flooded on to the yellowing paper - yellow to yellow, with the grave black letters dancing before our eyes, as though they were overjoyed to be read again. As we turned the pages it seemed that there was a scent in the old room of ghostly sweetmeats; there drifted back to us the perfume of curious country wines, the aroma of forgotten preserves, the bittersweet flavour of kitchens which have long crumbled into dust...
Later in the book he muses:
As I wander through this Receipt Book, it becomes more and more evident that I shall have to publish it one day in its entirely, with a preface of enchanting prose that will drift as lightly and as savourously as the scent of roast meats from the kitchen when the door is open on winter nights, and hunger is griping you."
I did some searching a few years ago and found that he did, indeed, carry through with that plan. In 1968 In an Eighteenth Century Kitchen was published, complete with Nichols' preface of enchanting prose, which he concludes with:
The romantic background to this small volume - the manner of its finding, the nature of its contents, and the fact that now, after the lapse of centuries, it may make its unobtrusive way around the world - all these things are so obvious that they need to be stressed. Nor need we enlarge upon the staggering contrasts between the world in which it made its first appearance and the world in which it is published today. But I hope that the modern housewife, if she is kind enough to glance through it in her super-streamlined kitchen, may spare a moment to reflect on those contrasts, and even to ask herself whether they are all in her favour - whether indeed, this stream-lining may not have taken some of the spice out of life, and whether there may perhaps be connection between frozen food and frozen emotion.
Half a century later, we are still asking the same question...
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Anyone with an only child?
in General Education Discussion Board
Posted
There are several of us with onlies. :)
My dh and I put a high priority on finding a group of peers for our daughter. We took many drastic measures, including moving. Don't be afraid to look beyond the homeschool community for friendships.