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BrandieRose

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Everything posted by BrandieRose

  1. Hi all! I homeschooled my kids up till high school and am now looking at re-educating myself. I’m going back to college to finish a degree I started almost thirty years ago. I will need to take the ACT and pre-cal, but I’ve forgotten much of my high school math. Any suggestions for a busy mom to relearn math? Self correcting is almost a must. I have completed the first half of Shoremann Algebra, but it’s not my learning style. I don’t mind incremental, I just don’t resonate with how he explains the topics. I’ve looked at Saxon math assistant and am open to any suggestions. Thank you!
  2. I had the same issue with Rod and Staff. I think it was so repetitious my kids felt they could just turn their brains off and go on automatic mode. After all, they'd learn it all again! They've been doing much better with easy grammar.
  3. I posted this on high school. I hope it's ok to post here too. My son thinks a Kindle would be too slow for these apps, so I'm researching just how strong those inexpensive little Kindles are. I would love to have a "school kindle" where my kids won't be distracted with social media, but I don't want it to be a frustration because it's always stalling. Any experiences? Thanks!
  4. Will these sorts of things slow a Kindle down too much? My teen think a kindle is too slow, but I don't understand why they would have kindle apps for these services if they don't work. I'd be grateful for any experiences! Thanks in advance!
  5. Thank you for your reply! It's actually having him take Chemistry after finishing "Algebra 2 that is equivalent to everyone else's Algebra 1" that I'm worried about.
  6. I second God's Great Covenant (Classical Academic Press). Definitely not superficial, but can be done independently if needed.
  7. Hi all! I'm looking for Teaching Textbook veterans to share their experiences. I just switched my upcoming eighth grader from Saxon to Teaching Textbooks Algebra. He has also just finished Apologia General Science. Physical Science comes next in line. I've heard that TT can be slow and that Algebra is equivalent to most people's Pre-Algebra and half of Algebra. I don't mind this since he's in 8th, but I'm concerned about science. He'll be starting Physical Science this year and Biology his ninth grade year. If TT is really a year behind, will he be lost in his science? I'm thinking if TT has a slower pace, maybe I should also do science at a slower pace too. Should I leave Physical Science till 9th grade? I'd be grateful for any experiences you can share! Brandie
  8. My kids' favorites were D'aulaires Greek Myths and Hittite Warrior.
  9. I haven't had medical insurance for years simply because I haven't been able to afford it. I used to put some money aside to cover any medical needs that might arise, but now that money goes toward paying the penalty.
  10. Hi ladies, My son had been struggling with his literature. I'd be grateful for any advice. He's 12 and has always had a difficult time reading out loud. He can easily and quickly read at around a fifth grade level, retaining the main ideas of what he has read as long as he is reading in his head. He answers comprehension questions accurately. He's bright and quick to understand. Once he is asked to read out loud, though, he sounds like a first grader. He reads slowly, struggling with longer words and constanlty mixing up easy words such as prepositions, suffixes and such. If I make him reread the easy word, he will read correctly after a couple of tries. Vocabulary is part of the problem, but I've done lots of reading out loud and we did Latin for several years. I don't have much time to add to this. I used Spalding for his Kindergarten and First grade and then another Orton Gillingham curriculum for second and third. He knows his phonograms and phonics rules. For the last two years he has been using Memoria press and Veritas lit guides. He has hit a wall with White Fang and is guessing at more than half the words. I know the obvious answer is that White Fang is too difficult, but he has been stuck at about a fourth/fifth grade reading level for over two years. At what point do I push him forward? I'm afraid to push him to frustration, on the other hand he is just not moving forward. Has anyone had this issue? His three younger siblings are all passing him up in fluency and it's affecting the way he sees himself. He's also embarassed to read out loud in Sunday School/ Youth Group, etc...I'd be grateful for any advice! Thanks!
  11. Julesnpebbles, I'm having this same issue. I have aimed at Omnibus all along and am now realizing my son is not ready. What did you end up doing with your kids?
  12. Thanks ladies! I've always changed curriculum as needed for grammer school, but I guess I'm a little nervous about messing up credits and transcripts for highschool. Muttichen, were transcripts a problem at all with your younger ones? Thanks again, ladies!
  13. Are there any experienced Omnibus users out there who could help me think through this? I'd very much appreciate any imput! I've always aimed at using Omni in high school, but now that my 13 year old son is finishing 7th grade I'm realizing it's going to be too heavy a load for him. I also have five other children and I need something he can handle largely on his own. Have any of you tweaked it to make it more doable for a non academic child in a busy family? I'm aiming at the "spirit" of Omnibus, but a lighter load. My son understands concepts. His vocabulary and sustained reading skills are not up to par. He also just takes his time with school. He eventually gets there, and does a good job, but takes longer than most kids. So here are some ideas I've tossed around, maybe a few kind ladies out there could let me know if they are workable or not, or if there's another option. Option 1: Ignore Primary. Instead use a text book like Spielvogel or SWB highschool history and supplement with secondary sources. Option 2: Substitute some primary works with abridged versions. Option 3: Just pick and choose the books we want and go more slowly. I'm not sure if I can still claim credit at that point. Option 4: Just use Spielvogel in 8th grade to get reading vocab up, and to free time up in 9th. As of right now, I am planning on using Transition with him in 8th grade, but I think he will still need a little help. I'd love any advice! Thanks!
  14. Logos has online classes teaching Omnibus starting in the 9th grade. They call it "Integrated Humanities" and it starts with Omni 3. I'm not sure why they don't do it earlier.
  15. Sorry I've taken so long to answer this. I don't get on the boards often. I did order the first guide and used it with my 11 and 12 year old boys for awhile. I have a mixed review. First, the guide I have is very organized. Weekly lessons are divided into five sessions, one for each day. There are a few random special or optional activities, but most days have a spine reading and a literature reading with comprehension questions for each. The spine reading each day is either from the Pages of History book or from the flashcards themselves. The child reads and then answers the questions. Some questions are grammar stage type, but many also make the kid think dialectically. Then the child reads a couple of chapters from the literature book and answers or discusses those questions. Pros: It is easy to use. No planning or preparing at all. "Pages of History" is an easy read, yet they do sneak a lot of history and worldview thinking into it. The questions really did force my children to read carefully and think critically about what they read. And of course, Veritas is always good at getting kids to think Christianly. Cons, at least for us: The Pages of History is long winded. My boys are still at an age where they want to get stuff done and go outside and play. My 12 year old kept asking, "Why do they they take 25 pages to tell us a story they could have told us in 5 pages?" He would have rather gotten to the point and just read the history story rather than read about animals talking about a history story. (In the book's defense, the animals were all taking a philosophical view of the story. There actually is a point to it, but it just felt condescending to my 7th grader). The literature books are all great books, but they are all over the place in grade level. There are fifth grade level literature books along with the unabridged Beowulf. So, one week history/ literature is easy and the next week it takes over out day. There are no vocabulary activities; we really need that. If I didn't have so many younger children to teach, I would have stuck with it and just sat and buddy read through Beowulf and the other difficult literature. I just didn't have time for that. The vocabulary was also a problem. So, we ended up switching to Memoria Press lit. and they are just continuing on with the normal Veritas history, with a higher expectation of what they can do, of course. I feel like I'm giving a somewhat negative review of a curriculum I really love. So, I want to add one more thing. My two oldest are not naturally academic. Their skills/gifts lie elsewhere. My middle children are, and I am looking forward to using transitions with them when they are older. I think they will really like it.
  16. I'm left handed and I often wrote backwards until about the second grade, at which point the habit just faded away.
  17. I have had this same issue in the past. I have found that Christianity is rational. I'm a Christian because I held all the different belief systems at arms-length and decided that Christian thought was the most systematically logical. Atheism and Agnosticism both take much too much faith for me. :) But let me add that nothing in this world can be 100% proven. We can have overwhelming evidence for a thing, but there is always an element of faith. Not blind faith, but "the circumstantial evidence is so overwhelming and every other option as been proven false" kind of faith. For example, when I go in my kitchen, I sit on my chair confidently. I have faith it will not collapse beneath me. It could, but it is looks structurally sound and has a good track record. So I have evidence my chair is safe, but in the end I am practicing a bit of faith - I don't know 100%. We do this all the time in the legal system and in life in general. So, there is no dichotomy between faith and reason. We should only have faith in what is reasonable. The Bible is reasonable. There are a lot of great books, probably written by other NT's. If you're interested here are a few titles: "A Shot of Faith in the Head" by Mitch Stokes "Miracles" C.S. Lewis "A Case For Christianity" C.S. Lewis Any youtube video by John Lennox (I'm pretty sure he's an INTJ) And I leave you with this quote from Lewis: â€Supposing there was no intelligence behind the universe, no creative mind. In that case, nobody designed my brain for the purpose of thinking. It is merely that when the atoms inside my skull happen, for physical or chemical reasons, to arrange themselves in a certain way, this gives me, as a by-product, the sensation I call thought. But, if so, how can I trust my own thinking to be true? It’s like upsetting a milk jug and hoping that the way it splashes itself will give you a map of London. But if I can’t trust my own thinking, of course I can’t trust the arguments leading to Atheism, and therefore have no reason to be an Atheist, or anything else. Unless I believe in God, I cannot believe in thought: so I can never use thought to disbelieve in God.†—C.S. Lewis
  18. You might enjoy reading articles from this lady: http://www.urthemom.com/Self-Learning.html She's not classical, but many of her curriculum suggestion work within the classical paradigm, at least in the skill areas. She's weaker in content areas, but it sounds like you already have that covered with Veritas. She believes strongly in the benefits of self-teaching. For spelling she uses "Building Spelling Skills" from Christian Liberty Press.
  19. Your post reminds me of some of the struggles I went through when my kids were younger. I had five children in 6 years, and I was running a college boarding house at the time (think clean house, dinner on time). My first three children were very energetic, no attention span, boys. My oldest had struggled with attitudes because his younger siblings got to play while he was expected to work. First, you are at the hardest time in your homeschooling career. It gets easier. There are things I learned that were helpful to me, but first I wanted to say: You do know that it is humanly impossible to have that many young children, do a good job homeschooling and maintain a spotless house. Sometimes, if I don't meet someones expectations I can feel guilty. You have no reason to feel guilt. Here are a few things that helped me survive: Work with your child's attention span. I would literally run my boys around outside for quite awhile before bringing them inside for school. Then I would keep lessons short. I would set the timer for 15 minutes and when it went off they could get up and run around for 5 minutes, and then we would set the timer for another 15. So, we did two 15 minute sessions of math and three 15 minute sessions of language arts every day. Then we would do a read aloud. Don't stress at this age; they have plenty of time. If they are working hard this does work. My kids aren't overly smart, but they were working at or above level. Of course, if they are not really buckling down during the 15 minutes it won't work. So, the next thing I realized is this, if you don't have discipline and obedience, every curriculum is going to be a failure. Do you have a consistent discipline philosophy? Do they respect you when you tell them to do something? My kids did chores. A 7 and 5 year old can make their own bed and fold their own clothes, pick up their own toys. They can wipe a table and sweep after eating. My kids do morning afternoon and evening chores. We all work together. As far as your tidy husband goes, mine finally gave up on me and left me alone, if that's any consolation. :001_smile: Of course, I let him know it was important to me, I'm just really busy and exhausted. One other thing that has helped me is understanding my children's personality (and even my husband's). The Meyer Brigg test has been tremendously helpful in my homeschooling efforts. I struggled with one particular child and it wore my out emotionally. The Myer Brigg test helped me to understand him. If your interested in it, it can be found here: http://www.personalitypage.com/cgi-local/build_pqk.cgi Sorry so long! It does get a lot easier.
  20. I just got off the phone with a VP representative. He says the transitions should help in my situation. It's basically simplified Omnibus, only without the theology , and surveying from creation to the present. It uses the "Pages of History" along with all 5 sets of history cards as a spine, and then adds literature for each time period. It is not finished yet, but should be ready to buy at the end of August. The literature list will be the same as the one in the online courses, which can be found here: https://vpsa.veritaspress.com/term/1/courses/99.
  21. I teach Bible every school day. I spend about a 1/2 hour for my olders and 15-20 minutes for my littles. We use Veritas Press mixed in with my own stuff. We usually start by playing "sword drills" where the kids compete to look up passages the fastest. They love this. Then we chant/sing through memory work and the Bible time line, and I ask a few random review questions, usually as a game. I keep the actual story somewhat short. Sometimes they'll act the story out or draw a picture. My younger kids leave early and I spend a few minutes talking about types and figures, comparing with other worldviews, application,etc... with my older kids. Any really little ones (6 and under) do Bible separately with me, similar method, but much shorter and with a slower pace. Books we really enjoy reading together: The Child's Story Bible, The Golden Children's Bible, Big Truth for Little Kids Oh, and also, my kids all have personal Bible reading included in their daily school reading.
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