Willow
-
Posts
456 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Events
Blogs
Classifieds
Store
Posts posted by Willow
-
-
For maths try
http://www.cimt.plymouth.ac.uk/projects/mep/default.htm
MEP covers K-12 (but they don't call it that as its a UK programme!) and is excellent. My teacher dh uses it from time to time with his school kids.
And yes I do think you could do it for free....but it wouldn't be as much fun!
MEP for maths
Unit studies using the library
there are free languages on the net.
I even think there is a book called How to Homeschool your child for free. Its basically a lot of websites.
I don't think i could do it without an internet connection.....;)
-
We HAVE started all over again...in 6th grade. My ds was in pre-algebra, (teaching textbooks) could do all the concepts fine but it took ages and he got a lot wrong simply because he did not know the basics. (Not his fault, we moved a lot and he did 7 school in 2 hemispheres before the age of 8, when we started HS )
So we actually went back to MUS Alpha. We got the teachers materials ONLY for Alpha and Beta (spent a month on each) then the full lot for gamma. This took a lot longer as he simply did not know his tables, but once he had them he was away. He romped through delta (benefit of knowing those tables), but slowed down at the end with those HUGE divisions...we didn't do them all, just one or two so I knew he knew them. Now we are getting through Epsilon, less than 6 months after re-starting math from the beginining. I have ordered zeta, and expect to start that somewhere between Christmas and Easter, (when he will be grade 7) and hope to get to Pre-Algebra MUS before the end of that year. then we will start Algebra sometime during his 8th grade year.
However I have learnt from MUS...It takes as long as it takes! I have no intention of doing this again, so I am getting it right this time. I explained to ds what we were doing and why. He aggreed and has been generally suportive...which helped no end back in alpha!
HTH
Willow.
By the way....you get 7 pages of exercises for each lesson....3 practice 3 review and a test. We did not do them all....many lessons he tested right out of, after proving he could teach the lesson back to me. You will really slow your kid down if you do all the pages when working remedially!
-
Can't tell left from right (even as an adult...now 19) gets "turned around" and cannot find own way home. learnt maths eventually using a calculator, finds it difficult to do daily maths without one. It doesn't really go away.
My advice from the 'otherside' as the parent of a dyscalcula adult.
1. Concentrate on the basics, but don't expect it to be quick. they may be in their teens before they remember their tables.
2. separate "drill" and Maths.
3. For maths other than drill let them use a tables chart, or even a calculator. it takes too long to do sums otherwise.
4. remember that their inability to remember the simplest of maths facts MAY not affect their understanding of, say, geometry. Don't stop their maths education, let them carry on, using charts or calculators as necessary. Mine found geometry proofs FUN!!! It was such a relief to find a part of maths they could excel at.
5. remember maths is for life. make sure they can balance a checkbook etc, even if they need to use a calculator to do it.
HTH, Willow
-
We are using it as a remedial programme for ds who managed about 7 public schools in about 3 years in several countries and both north and south hemispheres. needless to say there are some gaps........
We have gone from Alpha to Epsilon in nearly a year. I expect to move to zeta soon and that will take us into next year. I would not recommend this speed with a younger child but it shows how you can speed though MUS if necessary or slow down. Some lessons we just watched the video and discussed (often 2 or even 3 lessons a day in Alpha. This kid is 12 was 11 when we were in Alpha) Other lessons have taken over 2 weeks..."it takes as long as it takes"!
Willow
-
Thank you people....lots to look at here. :D
-
My so far heavily literature based ds has just asked for workbooks! He wants to be told how many pages so he can do it and go!! He is a good worker, and willing, but has poor handwriting skills.
So far we have done stuff like Winston Grmmar, and literature based approaches. Any "workbook" ideas for LA?
-
I expect a mixture of Life of Fred and Videotext Algebra (which includes pre-algebra)
I have both these already, as my oldest used VA, and we brought LOF for fun for ds.
My 7th grader is currently reviewing all maths through to pre-algebra before starting VT (some fractions are a bit ropey...he doesn't seem to have retained it all, same with some basic geom)
-
All of mine are huge DWJ fans. Again we started with crestomanci and worked up from there.
-
Oh it hurts....I'm in NZ but had to vote AUSTRALIA ;)
-
This is SO funny. I actually live not that far from Mount St Sunday (Edoras in Rohan!) in NZ.
Willow.
-
Just a thought...if you crave wheat products rather than Carbs in general get a check for coeliac disease. One of mine was totally addicted to wheat products, guess who was the coeliac!
Incidentally in order to make things easier we have ALL come off gluten grains and i feel much better for it, more energy, less brain fog AND I've lost weight! Mind you maybe that is because we simply do not have as much baking. With no gluten grains it is easier to snack on fruit!
Willow
-
Well we love it, but although I don't live in the Uk anymore my parents do, and in the lake district at that. We know the area well ....also we sail....
Did you know they were real kids?
Willow.
-
My ds is 12. At 9 I despaired of his writing, at 10 I gave up, and he did no writing all year for school...he gave answers verbally, narrated and I wrote etc. At 11 he started learning poetry by heart, and had to copy write the poems (not more than 4 lines a day) at 11 and 9 months he came 2nd in a national story writing contest (his group age 10-12 inclusive). He wrote the story on the computer, and that was all he did for 2 days (no maths science...for goodness sake...the kid actually wanted to write something!!!!!) He did this out of the blue, 2 days before I would have said he was incapable of putting 3 coherent sentences together.
What this tells you I have no idea, except don't panic. I laid awake at night, I read everything I could get my hands on, I worried and worried, and there was no need at all. he can write and write well. His handwriting looks like a drunken spider, but with computers that is not the end of the world. We have given up on cursive and I am trying to get him to print neatly, so he can write by hand if necessary, and he now does his school work on the computer, and does typing skills daily.
Willow.
-
Thanks for this!
-
" Dear God, why did You create toddlers with more energy than their Mums?"
I would like to have met George Fox
-
I was up in the mountains on a camp with dd. We got back 2 days later laughing and joking about how the world could have ended and we would have known nothing about it..............
-
give it a break for a week or so, then review your programme. Saxon is an excellent programme but no one programme suits all kids. There are lots of others out there (and lots of saxon refugees!) Try asking a HS friend if you can borrow another programme for a week or 2.
My money is on MUS, but we went through 4 programmes before we got there!
-
I don't know R&S but we switched (after Singapore and TT) to MUS. This can work well as both a remedial or gifted programme.
For the gifted they can watch the video and then test out of the lesson. For others there are 3 practice pages and 3 review pages plus the test per lesson. For new stuff or stuff he finds hard to get we would
1. watch the video together.
2. Chat about it.
3 review video if necessary
4. Play with the concept and the blocks.
next day.
1. play with concept and blocks.
2. Do a practice page.
next day.
1. maybe blocks
2 practice page
next day
practice page, if OK a review page
Etc etc
But other times he watches the video, aces the test (or any of the other pages I give him as a test) and he's done and we are onto the next lesson. This way he doesn't get bored, but can spend as long as is necessary on concepts he needs to practice. A lesson can take 10 mins or 1 month. This is what i like about MUS, "it takes as long as it takes".:D
-
Ds used a scratch book (rough book) for any workings out he needed to do, so we didn't write in the book.
-
Around the world in 180 days
Apologia (Christian content)
-
First i have no experience of right start, but after Singapore and Teaching textbooks MUS was a transformation to us.
I cannot say enough good things about it. My ds HATED maths although he was good at 'getting' new concepts, but was very poor at basic number facts. At age 11 we went back to alpha, skipped beta, did gamma in 2 months and are now on delta (now aged 12). His confidence has soared, he 'plays' with numbers, and loves looking for patterns. It is a different approach and means your child will not be 'in-line' with schooled peers. If this is an issue you may find another programme is better.
We love MUS. I do not intend using any other programme.
HTH Willow.
-
Its taken me to have one graduated and at college, one to go to college next year and my youngest to 12 before I realized this BUT......my big discovery.....you don't have to finish in a year!
I know lots of you will have got there long before I did, (I'm a slow learner with this one!) but my one piece of advice to newbies would be, slow down, take your time. If it takes 2 years to wander through the middle ages, but your kids remember it, that has to be better than doing it in a year and they forget 50% of the stuff. Ask me how I know this.....;)
Willow
-
I don't see why. Science is science and Apologia is well presented as long as you are OK with the creation approach. (Actually the best, and fairest, comparison of creation v evolution I have ever read was in an Apologia High school book!)
The readings and experiments are fine for any age, but for an older student I would expect more from their notebooks. For example, I would expect experiments to be written up scientifically in a lab book, where as your littles might keep a scrapbook, or just talk to you about what they did. Narrations would be in written form, and I would include some independent research topics for your 7th grader....let him pick an area you are covering and do some independent reading and then do a report for you, or a power point or a speech or whatever.
HTH
Willow.
-
As I understand it, any cheap machine that does zigzag will fall apart. It's the moving head for the zig zag. I know this is going to sound silly but the best sewing machine ever made was the Singer 201....mine is a treadle! I love it to bits. It does the most amazing straight stitch, and reverse. I believe you can get a zigzag attachment, but I nip across the road to a friends the one or two times a year I need a zigzag (Pinking shears are a great alternative) best of all its is people powered. The 201 is precision engineered and is a great machine. I think they are readily available in the US (I don't live in the states) as electric machines, but they made a few, primarily for the 'colonies' as treadles.
Willow
Try second hand shops, ebay etc, whatever you have in your country. For treadle machines try googling 'treadle on'
MUS?
in High School and Self-Education Board
Posted
We are still only in 6th grade so this is thinking ahead! We use Math U See. Has anyone used it for High School?