April in CA
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Posts posted by April in CA
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Tonight DD has enlisted the help of a TA to work with her on problem areas. DD knows her weaknesses at this point are scientific notation and dimensional analysis. I looked through a copy of her textbook (dd has two, one for home and one for school) and even though I am 50 years old and never made it beyond Algebra 1, I can see that these are fairly easy concepts to master and all they require is drill work. Boring, yes. Difficult, no.
I think it boils down to maturity and being responsible for oneself. DD is fine in easy classes or those in which, although difficult, she can excel because of her talents and abilities. And although the concepts behind chemistry certainly interest dd, the grunt work does not. That is where maturity steps in.
It's a learning curve, no doubt about it. Thank you all for your encouragement.
Maturity, yes, but hopefully the TA can help her learn to recognize the BIG IDEAS in each section of the text so she can start to prioritize the importance of various facts and concepts presented in each chapter. She could try outlining (actively engaging with the text) and then making sure she can answer the questions that are usually given at the beginning of each chapter and the review questions at the end. This is a really important skill to master, and she can do it! Please encourage her to meet with the TA and her professor regularly - they really want her to succeed!
Blessings,
April
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Hi! Younger son is working on college apps currently. He is looking seriously at Texas A&M, and also at the University of New Mexico. He will also consider some of the other state schools that offer generous merit aid (nat'l merit semifinalist - hope to make it to finalist), especially if the schools are in places that don't get a lot of snow! He is looking strongly at Chem Eng as a major, and he is also eclectic enough to enjoy a number of other subjects that he could find to pursue at a larger university. I would love to have him consider some smaller schools that offer what he wants along with generous merit aid, so suggestions are welcome! We just got a postcard advertising q & a sessions for students interested in some of the most selective schools (Stanford, Harvard, etc). Hopefully we can attend a session here in CA in Oct to see if he wants to apply to Stanford. I would love him to apply to Cal Tech, but I don't know if their course offerings are diverse enough for his interests. He takes the SAT on Oct 1st. This is already a busy year!
Blessings,
April
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Praying for you and TX and Longview, Christine! Father, please bring rain to Texas; rain that restores and nourishes the land. Please protect lives and homes, and watch over travelers and students far from home. Thank you. Amen. You will continue to be in my prayers as I pray for my son, a student at LETU. Safe journeys!
Blessings,
April
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Thanks! This looks interesting!
Blessings,
April
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Thanks for rejoicing with me, ladies! I feel like it is a big group effort!
Blessings,
April - love those little dancing m&m guys!
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I have not picked up our package yet, but will be doing so later this week (it came to our umbrella school). Let us know what you learn! Two years ago we just mailed everything in, so I am of no help whatsoever at this point! Congratulations on NM Semifinalist status!
Blessings,
April
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Hi!
Regardless of what "n" is, you can evaluate the expression as 6n + 48. Whatever n is, this will always be true for this expression. Hope this helps!
Blessings,
April
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Hi Carrie,
Have you looked at Tapestry of Grace? It is a 4-year history rotation program with LOTS of other things wrapped in, such as literature, govt, philosophy, church history, etc (you don't have to do it all!) US history begins with the age of exploration in Year 2. Year 3 is 19th century history and Year 4 is 20th century history. US and world history are integrated, so the student gets a fuller understanding and appreciation of history.
Blessings,
April
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Hi! LeTourneau University (letu.edu) in Longview TX recently started a nursing degree program in conjunction with UT - Tyler (Tyler TX is about 45 min away from Longview). My son attends LeTourneau; it is a great school with a strong Christian emphasis. Good luck finding what you need!
Blessings,
April
PS - I am sure you already know this, but if you are a senior this year, you should be working on getting your applications in even now - financial aid is often available on a first come, first served basis.
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This sounds wonderful - I hope she has a marvelous time! I have prayed for her safety.
Blessings,
April
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Congratulations to this year's crop of Semifinalists! We got a call from our umbrella school last week that our younger son made it! We are now 2 for 2, and praising God for the doors this opens! The WTM forums have been such a help in learning how to help my guys achieve to their potential - thank you all! now to get ready for the SAT in October...
Blessings,
April
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Awesome! Congratulations to your son and rejoicing with you! Is this the petroleum engineer son?
Blessings,
April
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I did DIVE Chem so that must have been the set I bought form Home Science Tools (among other things - they are wonderful!) Excel would be good to have, but just about any data base type program should work - does Microsoft have a freeware version? You would need to play around with it to figure out how to use it. In Chemistry we used Excel for a few labs - maybe three, so if money is tight I would try to find a free version. Does your digital scale measure 1/100 of a gram? We needed that for chemistry, not sure about your class. For Chem, a good digital scale was a great investment - we used it for biology labs and nearly all Chem labs. My husband was in charge of the labs requiring a bunsen burner. He has a small blow torch in the garage, and we used that rather than a bunsen burner - worked great, and the boys loved using it. Safety glasses are a MUST! Your stove might work, but a more direct and smaller surface heat source would be better. The cheap little alcohol burners worked okay in a pinch, but the blow torch was much better! How many labs require a bunsen burner? If only a few do, I would call DIVE and see if you could use your stove successfully. The DIVE labs are well done, and if your student pays diligent attention to the video labs, you can get away with not doing all the labs physically. The labs are usually the favorite part, so if you can actually do a number of them, I would try! Another option if you have the Apologia Physical Sci book would be to see if you can find appropriate labs in there that might require less expensive components and do those along with watching and documenting the DIVE labs. Where there is a will, there is a way - you can do this without over-spending if you are creative! I will try to answer any more questions if you need!
Blessings,
April
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Come on down from the ledge! You do not need the data logger!! Deep breath! Home Science Tools should have a kit put together for this class (I bought lots of stuff from them - it is possible that I may have put together a selection of what I actually needed to complete my own equipment) Using the video labs will perfectly fine for those times that you do not have the equipment. You could watch the whole thing first before your child so you can discuss as you go when you watch it with your student. Watch the set up. Discuss. watch the lab and record data on the lab worksheets. Stop the video and complete any calculations needed. Watch the rest of the video to compare your results with his. Discuss any sources of error. Discuss what you learned. File lab report. Done!
Blessings,
April
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We are Rod & Staff lovers here! not expensive at all and incredibly thorough! I also like Sentence Composing for High School (available for Middle School and Elementary School as well - and even college level!) Two different approached, but the Sentence Composing really helps develop the ability to write more powerful sentences! I am planning to use the College level for my senior this year and may use the Elem level for a group of middle school girls who need a bit of remediation. If I had to pick one, Rod and Staff for sure - your kids will know their grammar and the names for everything and how to punctuate!
Blessings,
April
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Hi Quark,
I can only speak to AoPS Geometry. Both my guys used this at home in a self-teaching manner. I love it! It is written to the student and I would say it is akin to a guided discovery program. The student works through several problems that develop a concept (as the student reads through the solutions the concept is more fully developed) and then works lots of problems and them some very challenging problems to demonstrate understanding of the concept. The challenging problems require the concepts to be extended. Review is built in because the student is expected to apply what he has learned previously to current lessons as needed. My older son liked having me go through the lessons with him; my younger son just wanted me available. This worked well for our family!
Blessings,
April
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Hi Everyone!
My son will be a senior this year, and we are deciding which AP exams, if any, to prepare for this year. Last year, ds was part of a local. live class for AP Lit, taught by a young woman pursuing her Master's degree in English. The class was wonderful and ds scored a 4 on the exam! Unfortunately, she does not have enough students this year to offer AP Language. She is willing to tutor ds and review his writing, however. So, rather than enrolling in an on-line class, unless any of you can recommend a great one, we are considering trying AP Language at home.
Any recommendations on what we should use for writing and literature? Also, how do you think we could best make use of our tutor's services? Do you think we should go to a professional for this class and try AP Econ at home instead? Thanks for any help and recommendations you can offer, and I would love to hear from others who have done this class at home!
Blessings,
April
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Conceptual Chemistry (2nd ed.) and TOPS unit match-up:
- chapter 1 = can use TOPS #14 Kinetic Model, experiments #1-13
- chapter 2 = can use TOPS #10 Analysis, experiments #1-4 AND TOPS #12 Solutions, experiments #1-5
- chapter 3 = -----
- chapter 4 = -----
- chapter 5 = -----
- chapter 6 = can use TOPS #13 Cohesion/Adhesion, experiments #5-6
- chapter 7 = can use TOPS #12 Solutions, experiments #14-28
- chapter 8 = can use TOPS #12 Solution, experiment #17 AND TOPS #13 Cohesion/Adhesion, experiments #1-12; 15; 21-24
- chapter 9 = can use TOPS #10 Analysis, experiments #5-8
- chapter 10 = can use TOPS #10 Analysis, experiments #9-16
- chapter 11 = can use TOPS #12 Solutions, experiments #10-13 AND TOPS #11 Oxidation, experiments #1-16
- chapter 12-19 = -----
Thanks for reminding me about the TOPS books! These will come in handy this year with my intro to chem class!
Blessings,
April
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Hi everyone! In a current threat about online AP Calc and Physics classes, a couple of you have mentioned using Thinkwell Calc as prep for the AP exam. My older son finished one semester of the Thinkwell course and felt very well prepared for Calc 1 at university. Younger son will probably also have time for 1 semester of Thinkwell Calc (completing the first half of the course). Would this be adequate prep for the Calc AB AP exam? Would we need to include anything else? I am not familiar with the Calc AP exam at all. Does it include essays or showing your work to solve various problems? I don't know if he will have time to get this done by May, but I would like to know if it is possible! Thank you all very much!
Blessings,
April
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I am so glad things are going well for your son! Is he feeling better? How are you doing with the big transition?
Blessings,
April
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I think your plan sounds like a good idea. The lectures are really interesting - we really enjoyed them, and I want to get the late middle ages set since we enjoyed the first two sets so much. The professor is easy to listen to and watch (we have the lectures on DVD since I get distracted if I am not looking at something). I am not familiar with the textboon you are planning to use. Will you have your dd write papers or take tests to go along with the text and the lectures? Hope you enjoy the lectures as much as I did!
Blessings,
April
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Hi Deb,
I used the lab manual (only the student version, not the teacher's version) a few years ago when my son was using the Exploring Life (the book with the big iguana eye on the cover) text for bio. I loaned the manual to a friend who is doing a pig dissection and don't have it handy right now, but I will try to help! As I recall, there are 72 labs in the manual: a lab for each week plus an alternative lab. These are designed to be used in a classroom setting by a teacher with access to lots of nifty stuff. In spite of that, many of the labs are very usable and doable at home, as long as you have some basic lab-ware. Some of the labs would be just too expensive to do at home, but they could be discussed, and that could be valuable. If you have not had prior experience leading labs, I would suggest you consider getting the teacher's edition as well. Overall, I found the manual to be very useful, even though we did not do all the labs. I appreciated the variety of lab choices! When you are studying genetics, don't forget to do a google search for dragon genetics labs - tons of fun even with a very small group (your whole family could participate if you don't have a group of lab students)!
Blessings,
April
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Awesome! I love to hear about things like this!
Blessings,
April
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Hi! My older son is heading back to college in a few weeks (we are all going and will visit family and do a college visit for younger son afterward), and I am realizing how shockingly fast the summer has gone (except for the heat - that will linger for a while!). I have a different word of advice for you - make sure your son has all medical requirements met before he goes. My son had to have a meningitis vaccine, which we knew about. But, he also had to have a TB test, which we did not know about beforehand. We had to find a clinic that day to get one. Many other students were in the waiting room! I don't know if colleges are requiring returning students to have whooping cough boosters, but it might be worth doing. That may just be a CA thing for K-12, but I am going to check with my son's college (or have him make the call). And I will definitely ask younger son's prospective university what shots and tests he needs before coming to campus.
Blessings,
April
PS I remember the day we left ds at college (1800 miles away) - the hardest day since giving birth. Just remember that this is right and proper. We have been working ourselves out of a job since they were born!
General Chem I question--
in The College Board
Posted
Wow! In that case, lots of meetings with the TA or tutoring clinic are in order. She should ask for specific help in learning how to use this textbook effectively and efficiently, as well as asking for help with the specific chemistry concepts. One thing she can do right away is begin to outline by chapter section and see if she can pick out the big idea herself, paying special attention to any words in bold print and any questions asked in the text (rhetorical questions rather than example problems, which she is already noticing). She could also work all the example problems to make sure she understands each step and how to replicate it (sci notation is vital if she is to do well in the course.) Best wishes to her! She can do this!
Blessings,
April