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HSDCY

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  1. We have been home schooling for 7 years, ds is currently in 7th grade. When I first started, I thought I would home school him all the way through high school, but the older he gets, the less assured I am about this. We have a very reputable school here that admits only home schoolers. They use classical education model, offer many AP courses, have very small class sizes and very devoted teachers many of whom are or were home school parents themselves. If ds enroll as full-time student, he will be there for 2.5 days per week--two full days for all course work, one half day for labs or electives. Of course, there is the option of just taking 1 or 2 of their courses as well. The only downside is that it takes us about 90 minutes round trip without traffic. Would you do it for high school assuming you can afford it?
  2. We've used AoPS Intro to Algebra as a supplement last year through ch.11. The reason we used it as a supplement was not because it needed something else to be complete but because of ds's maturity. He is a very capable math student but he is not crazy about math nor does he enjoy musing over challenging math problems. I felt that AoPS books might be an overkill for him so I've alway started him with a regular but rigorous textbook. Last year we used Foerster's and this year we are using Jacobs for geometry. He finished Foerster's in half a year so we moved on to AoPS algebra. He is on his way to finish his geometry text early again this year and I will move to AoPS geometry when he does. For us, it would be best to find a text that has difficulty and depth in between AoPS and regular textbooks, but I haven't been able to find it yet. It is my personal experience with ds and my belief that AoPS books (to be used as the only textbooks)are not for every mathy kid. The student's learning style, maturity, age, and how well s/he "wrestles" with challenging math problems are all factors that will affect the outcome.
  3. My son just turned 12, he's used Better Chinese material in the past 3.5 years. We finished My First Chinese Reader series and decided to move to Magical Tour of China instead of Discovering Chinese. If my understanding is correct, Discovering Chinese is the mature version of My First Chinese Reader, designed for older beginners. In ds's case, since he's moved through My First Chinese Reader, there is no need to do Discovering Chinese. I like Magical Tour of China a lot because of its culture component. Although each lesson starts with conversations centered around a certain theme, the rest of the lesson is spent learning Chinese idioms and Chinese culture. It compares the different thinking and customs of the East and West, reminding students why some Chinese behaviors may seem strange at times. For example, it tells why Chinese people dislike certain colors or items (the reason why you should never give clocks as gifts to Chinese), why they behave a certain way when their children are praised, why Chinese don't usually open gifts in front of the givers, etc. My son finds these things very interesting but also thinks the "indirect ways" of the Chinese people unnecessary. I have to say, going through Magical Tour of China is not for the faint of heart. It requires patience and perseverance from both the teacher and the student. The vocab is much more abstract than the previous series therefore harder to remember. My son recently described his Chinese learning experience as " taking 3 steps forward then 2 steps back". It's frustrating at times for both of us because it's soooooo hard to retain without the environment for immersion. We are plowing away at a slow and steady pace, and hopefully by the time he leaves home, he will build up enough Chinese skills to read, write, and speak at a somewhat proficient level, and learn to appreciate the Chinese root in him.
  4. We've used My First Chinese Reader series vol. II to IV and have since moved on to Magical Tour of China. When we were using My First Chinese Reader, I did not use their teacher's guide so I don't know what they have included in there. The only two books we used for each volume are the student's textbook and workbooks. Because I am fluent in Chinese, I don't feel I need anything extra. If you want her to have more exposure to Chinese, I would suggest either their CD ROM or subscription to their online lessons. As for how to schedule your lessons, I've always follow my child's lead. You will need to use the material for a few week to find the perfect balance. For example, there is a huge jump in content and difficulty from my First Chinese Reader to Magical Tour of China, so I spent the first few weeks figuring out how long ds needs to master one lesson. It turns out that he needs at least 4 weeks for each lesson, sometime longer but 4 weeks is the minimum time I give him for each lesson now. So you see, it's hard to schedule it before you see and use the material. As for how much time to allocate to tutor and self-study, I'd say it doesn't really matter. You want her to spend at least 20 minutes a day studying her new words/vocab, reading her textbook, and working on her workbook. If you do decide to get the CD ROM, make sure she uses it everyday for a short time preferably away from her self study time. For example, have Chinese lesson on her own for 20min in the morning, and then spend sometime in the afternoon doing something on the CD ROM. The workbooks in this level have some writing to do and it can take up some time as the lessons get longer and harder so adjust the time as she goes along. I hope this helps.
  5. I have ds do 10 problems 2-3 times a week and that's about an hour each week.
  6. A poster on this board has shared her lesson plans with us, here is her blog: http://wildoakacademy.blogspot.com/2011/03/cpo-life-science-part-one.html It is one of the most detailed plans I've ever seen! Check it out.
  7. I third Alex Rider. My 11yo book lovers loved it, he in turn introduced it to his 10 yo cousin who is a reluctant reader. He loved it too. Plus, there are 9 books in the series so it will last a while.
  8. I forgot to mention, you can find Alcumus at AoPS's website.
  9. Has this turned into a physics thread:tongue_smilie:? Matroyshka, thanks for the info, I'll look into it. Yes, Alcumus is completely free, but you do need to create an account to use it. What's so neat about it is that you can go onto your child's account, pull out the account history, and see what she did right, what she missed, which level she is on, how many problems she attempted on a certain day. You can change the setting to make problems easier or harder, and you can activate or deactivate a certain topic. For example, I deactivate number theory and counting & probability for now because I want ds to focus only on pre-algebra and algebra topics for the time being. They also tell you where you rank out of all the Alcumus participants, and there is a forum just for Alcumus where you can ask questions or if you just want to discuss math with someone. It's a great tool.
  10. If you already own AoPS algebra, your best bet is to pick some problems from there. I know their chapters don't line up well with Foerster's, but if you flip through AoPS's book it's not that hard to find something for her to work on. Another option is to use AoPS's Alcumus. We are doing Jacobs Geo this year, and I have my son do Alcumus 2-3 times a week to keep his algebra skills sharp. It covers pre-algebra, algebra, counting & probability, and number theory, but you can change the setting so they only give you algebra problems. The down side is you can't choose which problem to work on, but the up side is that they give you several tries if you don't figure it out right away and they give you a full explanation of the problem at the end. BTW, I am interested in what physics you use because I am in search of a good physical science book. Thanks!
  11. If your guest is from Beijing, he/she is probably familiar with some western food. If you want to accomodate, then serve either rice or noodle with stew meat (any recipe without heavy cheese will do) and steamed or sautéed vegetable. If you want to serve dessert, you will want to cut the sugar to 3/4 or even half of the amount that's called for. This way, you can serve your guest something "American" yet appealing to her taste buds.
  12. This is one of the most recent (2008) productions that based on ancient Chinese history (based on the novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms). To me, the period of the "three kingdoms" is one of the most intriguing times of the Chinese history and this movie portraits that. Not only is the story itself epic, the theatrical scenes, the cast, and the cost of making the movie are all epic. Here is the Wiki article about it. It will help if you get the main characters' names before you watch it. There is another movie coming out soon called The Flowers of War. It's based on modern Chinese history in the pre-WWII days. Here is the Wiki article. You can find its trailers on YouTube if you are interested.
  13. We visited Rome, Pompeii, Pisa/Florence, and Venice in 2009. We loved Rome and Venice the most. Are you interested in hiring a tour guide in Rome? We did this while in Rome, and it worths every penny. Our guide knows Rome like the back of his hand and saved us a lot of time by avoiding the crowd. He also took us to the cleanest restrooms in Rome which is very important to me. Please PM me if you want our guide's information. I can't recommend him enough.
  14. I have two options available. One is to file for R4 (we are in California as well) and pay for our own private AP classes, or I can go to a local charter school that offers their students to go to the high school of their district to take APs there. I am torn between the two and am not able to make a decision at this time.
  15. I don't have an answer to your question, but I can tell you something about charter school based on my research (I am in the process of looking into AP course options and charter school as well). The charter school we currently use does not offer AP, not only that, they will not honor any AP courses taken from private online sources (like PA homeschoolers). So even if you take the course, it will not go on your transcript. You can indicate that you take the test and pass, but on your transcript you won't see AP Biology or AP xxx there. I checked with another local charter school to see if they have a different policy with no luck. So before you worry about the school code, check with the school first to see if they are willing to put the course on the transcript.
  16. I will follow this thread closely as I have a 7th grader just like that. Thanks for asking this question.
  17. We are using them this year, but I don't try to line the two programs up. We use Jacobs at ds's pace as our main program, then once a week, we take out Patty Paper Geometry and do one whole investigation. I find this method works well so far.
  18. IEW has a book called Journalism Basics, it's designed for high schoolers: http://www.excellenceinwriting.com/jba I just received my copy in the mail so I can't give you a review.
  19. No, not me. I've been homeschooling for 6 years and this is the first time I don't look forward to starting school. I don't know what it is, maybe because ds is heading into 7th grade and the subjects are getting harder? Maybe because I know I need to get his study skills in order in these two middle school years that I am more stressed? I really miss my early years of homeschooling....
  20. Did he say that at a conference? I read on MCTLA homeschool forum that he said not to worry about words so much but to let stems accumulate. Here is his answer to how to implement WWW in a homeschool setting: The core of the program is the list, the Notes pages, and the quizzes. The rest is a buffet of activities that you can do at your discretion. There is so much content available that you could do nothing else in life if you were not careful. The key is to have the child study each list and learn the definitions of the stems. Do not focus on the words so much, just let the stem magic accumulate. The student should read the Notes page in each lesson, seeing the background information that is there. In my Northwester classes I have the student take the weekly quiz and make three comments about the notes on the Notes page: What note is most surprising, what note is most interesting, and what note is most important. Why in each case. In the homeschool setting, I would ask the child to choose several of the other activities or questions from each chapter and do them. The child might choose different activities each time. Let me start with this, and then you can get back to me with more questions if you would like to. I hope this is a helpful start. Best, MCT I hope his answer help some of you who are not sure about how to approach WWW. We will begin WWW1 in September, and I plan to use it for 2 years.
  21. I started to have dry eyes just this past year. Sometimes I have a hard time opening my eyes when I wake up in the morning because my eyelids are stuck to my eyeballs. I think it's due to age and hormone. But what I found to be of great help is to stay away from my computer. I know it's easier said than done, but during a week of "computer fast", my dry eye problem went away completely. My guess is that the campground you stayed at probably has higher humidity than where you live, plus you were away from your computer for that whole time.
  22. I grew up drinking tea, all kinds of tea. I still love it and drink at least one cup everyday. I did not like coffee until I tried Trader Joe's coffee a few years ago, they have the best coffee! But, my stomach does not tolerate coffee well so I gave that up and drink only very occasionally.
  23. If she is doing the regular workbook plus IP and CWP, she should retain whatever she is learning. If you are still not sure, you can "layer" the books. For example, instead of doing all books for 6A, just do workbook and IP, save CWP's 6A portion after you finish 6A but before you start 6B. If you are concerned about her age and the rate of her math progression, you can have a gap year after 6A/B (by using a completely different math book to switch gear, or by exploring some interesting math topics) instead of adding supplement now to slow her down. Someone has already suggested AoPS pre-algebra and Russian Math, but if I were you, I'd let dd finish Singapore math at her own pace before using any of these books only because math is her least favorite subject. My 2 cents.:001_smile:
  24. I've used both DM2 and AoPS Intro to Algebra and I'll say they are both very strong programs but maybe suitable for different students. Like someone already pointed out, AoPS is a discovery based program. They ask you questions, see if you can come up with solution on your own, and then they provide different ways of solving them. Excellent explanations, very logical, and everything is step-by-step. However, their sample problems and exercise problems are not your regular hard algebra problems, they are often taken from past math competitions and require cleaver ways to solve. DM, however, is an extension to Primary Math. It has the same cute illustrations except the kids in the pictures are teens, clear instructions, and same high quality problems. The problems in the textbooks are somewhat easier than the ones found in the workbooks. If you have younger children learning algebra for the first time, I'd recommend DM. If I can summarize my own experience with DM and AoPS, I'd say that DM is for strong math students (or those who "get" math), and AoPS is for those who eat, breathe, and sleep math. Strong math students can get an excellent math education using DM (maybe supplementing with AoPS), but not every strong math student is crazy about math and therefore AoPS could be "too much" and dampen the interest of the student if not used properly. But if you have a student who absolutely loves math, is self-motivated to learn, is not afraid of "not getting it right the first time", can take some frustration working through tough problems, and does not need visual clues, AoPS is the one to pick.
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