Jump to content

Menu
Giving You and Your Child a Road Map to the Best Possible Education
The Well-Trained Mind Community

Heather in WI

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    1,366

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Posts posted by Heather in WI

    Help with high school sequencing/options, please

    in High School and Self-Education Board

    Posted

    For the sciences, if your ds really enjoyed chemistry I might try this sequence:

     

    9th chemistry

    10th AP Chemistry

    11th AP Physics 1 (you do not need a prior course in physics to take AP Physics).

    12th AP Physics 2 or AP Physics C (calc based) or class at the university

     

    Argh! I already signed him up for an online Pre-AP biology class for next year.  He doesn't have an interest in taking AP Bio, but wanted the challenge for what will probably be his last bio class.

     

    The College Board just revised the AP Physics tests. Now there will be two algebra based physics courses: AP Physics 1 and AP Physics 2.  I am not sure how this will work out.  Will students be able to take both AP Physics 1 & 2 in the same year?  There are 2 AP Physics calculus based courses which are Mechanics and Electricity/Magnetism, and currently many students take them both in one year.  Hopefully within the next year or two the sequnce will become more clear.  At any rate, this sequence would allow your son to have several advanced sciences before he graduates.  If you wanted to add in an on-level biology course, you could add that in to one of the elective spots.

     

    I think he would really like the idea of having several advanced sciences.  I wonder how we could schedule them in ... maybe Chemistry & AP Physics I in 10th, then AP Chem & AP Physics II in 11th, then AP Physics C in 12th?

     

    As far as math goes, some students take AP Calculus AB first, followed by BC the following year.  But some take AP Calc BC right from the start.  This would then allow him to take a higher level math at the university level.

     

    This is not helpful.  :lol:  How do you know which one to have your child take? Is there a pre-test? (Lol!) 

     

    Also, AP Computer Programming is a relatively easy AP class, and many colleges do accept a score of 4 or 5 for credit.  Most college websites publish which classes they will take for AP credit.

     

    I took 8Fill's advice and checked out ds's dream college. Comp Sci is a required core course (along with Statistics, LOL!!!), and both classes accept a 4/5 on the AP for validation. 

     

    I will add that my son is looking at majoring in computer programming/computer engineering.  He is taking AP classes for academic rigor and will most likely not accept credit for the classes that are within in his major (especially calculus).  Many more experienced moms on this board have advised against taking the calculus credit, and ds has agreed with this.

     

    I also saw that ds's dream college accepts a 4/5 in Calculus AB for the first required calc. class and 4/5 in Calculus BC for the second required Calc. class. It looks like there is a special Calc III class for freshman who place into it. This isn't a good idea? Another one of ds's colleges picks doesn't accept hardly any AP. Either way is fine with me honestly. 

     

    Also, if your son is taking Latin III, would he want to complete AP Latin.  If a student does well on the exam many colleges will award a good deal of credit.  I can also understand if he really wants to take Russion, though.

     

    We talked about it and he's leaving this open as a possibility at this point. If he doesn't want to continue to AP Latin, I thought about having him take the SAT-II Latin test before moving on to Russian. I guess we'll play that one by ear. 

     

    As far as electives go, logic is a great course to have before (or concurrently) with computer science.  My ds said it helped him a great deal with programming.

     

    He's had logic the last two years - two semesters of formal and two of informal. 

     

    Also, I have found speech and debate to be invaluable.  We are fortunate to have a large homeschool speech and debate club, but I know some schools allow homeschoolers to participate.

     

    We have a very active speech and debate homeschool class/team here. A good friend is involved and trying to get us involved!  :laugh: 

     

    Thank you so much, Michelle. I really appreciate your thoughtful post!

    Help with high school sequencing/options, please

    in High School and Self-Education Board

    Posted

    Fine arts can be creative, though. Photography? things like that.

     

    AP stats is probably not going to be useful. For an engineering major, I would say the most useful post-calculus classes would be multivariable calc and differential equations, as those are required in every engineering program I'm aware of.

     

    9th: I wouldn't list english and lit separately. It is expected that high school english includes literature.

     

    I'm not sure if AP CS would transfer but it's a great elective either way, engineers do a lot of programming now.

     

    I think he would really like a photography class. Thanks for the idea!

     

    The Literature classes are online classes; the first covers the secondary sources for Omnibus III (9th) and the second covers the secondary sources for VI (11th). I just assumed I'd still have to do a separate writing/grammar program ... maybe I don't? Ds is very strong in grammar concepts & regularly aces complex diagramming, however his writing does need a little work.

     

     

    I don't really understand how you have the history. I'd do World, US, European, and an elective SS if you're not going to base it on time periods. The combined American/British seems a bit odd to me.

     

    The history classes are online classes.  The first covers the  primary sources for Omnibus III and the second covers the primary sources for Omnibus VI. I guess they could be called Modern History I and II, but since they're online classes, I thought I should call them on the transcript what they're called by the school. Maybe this is a mistake and I should go with "Modern History I" and "Modern History II"? 

    Help with high school sequencing/options, please

    in High School and Self-Education Board

    Posted

       8Fill, I appreciate you answering so much!

     

    For an engineering major, I would personally skip AP stats.  

     

    Oh! Ok. I was a psych major, so I'm really not familiar with what is helpful or not for STEM students. It's the only class that stood out to me as a math elective on the Pennsylvania Homeschoolers class offerings.  :laugh:

     

     

    You can easily find out what the course sequences are for various majors by visiting college websites.   

     

    Thanks! I've scoured admissions requirements (and put into an Excel spreadsheet, LOL!), but didn't think of doing this. 

     

     

    I would think it would depend what was covered in your integrated chem course as to whether or not he would be ready for AP chem.   My ds only took Kinetic Book's conceptual physics prior to dual enrolling in cal physics at a university and he had no issues.   (but he loves physics and he was reading/watching TC physics and astronomy lectures all the time.)

     

    Ds thought he loved physics best until he started chemistry.  (Physics was the first 3/4 of the course.) It's BJU Physical Science (4th edition). He did it online with BJU & has an A in the class.

     

    As far as scholarships, most are going to require high test scores. So don't neglect scheduling them!

     

    Yes! I printed out the scheduling thread from Lori! 

     

    Check out this thread on College Confidential about high merit aid schools: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1348012-automatic-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships.html#latest

     

    Thank you. I will. 

     

    FWIW, our experience is that attending a top ranking school for chemical engineering is unnecessary.   Our ds has a great, high paying job and he attended a small unknown state tech university.   He apparently is making more than some top school grads based on recent stats I have read.

     

    That is good to know!

     

     

    ETA;  as far as electives, I would use them as an opportunity to explore areas of interest.  Our graduating sr took 3 yrs worth of astronomy, philosophy, and theology, all strong areas of interest.   Also, many schools want to see at least 1 cr in fine arts.  (depends on the school though.   Look at the admission criteria of possible schools.   Then check out their course sequences for intended major.)

     

    I did wonder about the fine arts thing. I want to keep as many options open as possible for him. I didn't see it listed for the schools he's interested in right now, but would hate for it to trip him up four years from now.

     

    Help with high school sequencing/options, please

    in High School and Self-Education Board

    Posted

    Everyone says ‘start with the end in mind’ as you’re planning out high school, but I am struggling with the big picture as I plan for my first high school student. Ds is hoping to attend a service academy or an engineering school for college. Financially, we will need scholarships to make college a reality, so putting him into the running for that is a concern.

     

    He took Latin I & II, Algebra & Geometry, and Integrated Physics/Chemistry in middle school.  His extracurriculars are/will be: Piano (taken since age 4), Boy Scouts (working on Eagle now), JV/Varsity Baseball, and possibly Civil Air Patrol (he is begging for us to let him try this out after baseball season is over).

     

    This is what I have outlined so far:

     

    9th:

    History: American & British History I

    Literature: American & British Lit II

    English 9: Rod & Staff Grade 9 with the Lively Art of Writing

    Foreign Language: Latin III

    Math: Algebra II

    Science: Biology

    Elective: Computer Science (.5 credit) and Family Life Skills (.5 credit)

     

    10th: 

    History: ? (AP World History?)

    English 10: Rod & Staff 10 with Write for College

    Foreign Language: Russian I 

    Math: Pre-Calculus

    Science: Chemistry (would integrated Physics/chemistry be enough intro for AP Chem.? – ds really likes chemistry)

    Elective: ? (AP Computer Science? Ds enjoys programming) 

    Elective: ? (Any ideas? )

     

    11th: 

    History: US, British, & Modern History II

    Literature: U.S., British & Modern Literature II

    Foreign Language: Russian II

    Math: Calculus (? Do strong math students go straight into AP Calculus? AB or BC?)

    Science: Physics (again, would integrated physics/chemistry be enough intro for AP Physics?)

    Elective ? (AP Stats?)

    Elective? (Economics .5 and US Gov’t .5?)

     

    12th:

    History: ? (AP Comparative Government?)

    English: ? (some kind of research writing class?)

    Foreign Language: Russian III (can’t find this online anywhere … maybe dual enrolled?)

    Math: ? (what after calculus? BC after AB in 11th?  I’m confused about math sequencing.)

    Science: ? (AP Chem or Physics if not possible in earlier grade? Or classes at the university? If so, what do you take?)

    Elective:? 

    Elective?

     

    Added up, this comes to:

     

    History: 4 credits, 

    English: 5 credits (include Lit here?), 

    Foreign Language: 4 credits,

    Math: 4 credits,

    Science: 4 credits,

    Electives: 7 credits

     

    For 28 credits total. Does this sound about right for a student looking at competitive colleges? Too much? Not Enough?

     

    If you dual enroll classes, how do you know what to take at the university?  I see people mention things like Discrete Math/Multivariable Calc/Linear Algebra & Diff. Equations as math options .... I don't even know what these things mean (even with Google-ing, LOL!) and/or how they fit into a strong math students sequence. 

     

    How do you choose electives?  Most electives that pop out at me are humanities oriented ... what electives are helpful for STEM oriented students? (Or, on the contrary, is it good to give them as many humanities electives knowing engineering students won't have time for these types of classes in college?) Help! 

     

    Brag alert: West Point Bridge Contest Semi-Finalists!

    in The Chat Board

    Posted

    Cool!

     

    My FIL is a West Point graduate and was a civil engineer in the Army for many years. He has a ton of bridge building experience. In fact, if he gets going on bridges, you can't stop him. If you want, I can ask him for ideas for good books or websites. If you lived closer to him, he would come visit and see their bridge and be genuinely interested!

    Elizabeth, my boys would love any suggestions he would have! Second ds dreams of going to WP. :-) Thank you!

    Brag alert: West Point Bridge Contest Semi-Finalists!

    in The Chat Board

    Posted

    I've never posted a brag before, but I'm really excited about this one! My oldest two boys made the semi-finalist round of the West Point Bridge Design Contest! The certificate they received says that they came in 25th out of 1,693 teams! It is our first year participating and I must confess, they don't really know what they're doing, so we don't expect them to place highly in the next round. Neither my husband or I are engineering oriented and the bridges they submitted were created by them doing the  trial and error method.  I wish there was a tutorial of some kind they could follow in the future as I'm sure there is a better method.  :001_smile:

     

    Anyway, there's no one for me to tell in real life, but I thought it would be ok to share here. :-)

    Has anyone actually used Math Without Borders (and liked it)?

    in High School and Self-Education Board

    Posted

    We have used it for Algebra I this year and I think it was quite helpful for my dd :).  He does show some ways to approach topics differently than the book. There is also a schedule available (I think it is on the MWB website).  The schedule is nice because your child does not need to do all the problems for every lesson.

     

    We used it for Algebra I as well. It worked very well for my son. :-)

    Jane Eyre and Boys

    in High School and Self-Education Board

    Posted

    I missed this thread the first time around. Thanks for bumping.

     

    My new word of the day is bildungsroman. 

     

    I'm in the love Jane Eyre & strongly dislike Wuthering Heights camp.  :lol:

     

    But, I love Jane Eyre for Jane.  I can't stand Rochester! I do want to re-read it now with all Angelina's notes side-by side. I feel like there is an entire layer of symbolism that I missed. 

     

     

    9th Grade Planning

    in High School and Self-Education Board

    Posted

    I got excited about sharing before I realized this was an older thread. But here it is anyway:

     

     

    It's not that old! It's for next year. :-) Editing to reflect changes: 

     

     

    Math: Algebra II with Wilson Hill Academy

     

    Science: Biology -- not sure what to use yet; maybe BJU Biology?  We just  signed up for pre-AP Honors Biology with The Potter's School & Noemi Gonzalez. I had written off this program as I hadn't been able to find any reviews on it, but recently met another homeschooling family IRL who has a daughter in a class with Mrs. Gonzalez. Their reviews won me over!

     

    History & Lit: The Great Conversation 3 with Wilson Hill Academy (basically Omnibus III)

     

    English: Rod & Staff English 9 and The Lively Art of Writing combined with an IRL yearlong homeschool Speech & Debate class/club. I'm thinking it will equal .5 credit Composition and .5 credit Speech with the Debate as an extracurricular activity.  Has anyone done something like this?

     

    Foreign Language: Lukeion Latin 3

     

    Elective: TeenCoder C# - Windows & Game Programming (.5 credit) and BJU Family Life Skills (.5 credit) After looking closely at the Teencoder class, I'm not sure I can award an entire credit even with both books. DS has gone through the four KidCoder books at a pretty rapid pace. 

     

    Extracurricular: Track, Baseball, Cross Country, Boy Scouts, Piano,  Chess, and Debate? This looks like a lot of extracurriculars. We might have to pare this down a bit. 

     

    The Myth of Working Your Way Through College (article)

    in The College Board

    Posted

     

    This is interesting. A credit hour in 1979 at MSU was 24.50, adjusted for inflation that is 79.23 in today dollars. One credit hour today costs 428.75.

    ... 

     the average student in 1979 could work 182 hours (a part-time summer job) to pay for a year's tuition. In 2013, it took 991 hours (a full-time job for half the year) to accomplish the same

     

     

    Wow. This is really crazy! 

    x-post: Wilson Hill Academy - new source of classical, online courses - Course list posted!

    in High School and Self-Education Board

    Posted

    We went ahead and signed up, too.

     

    Oldest ds (9th gr) is signed up with Bruce Etter for Great Conversation III and Anne Stueblen for Algebra II. Second ds (7th gr) is signed up with Mr. Etter for Great Conversation I. We're excited!

     

    For others that might be interested: oldest ds has taken classes from Mr. Lowery and Mr. Martin and loved them! I would give both teachers my highest recommendation.

    articles on today's announcement about coming changes to SAT (spring 2016)

    in High School and Self-Education Board

    Posted

    I just stumbled across this article: The New SAT Doesn’t Come Close to the World’s Best Tests

     

    I know we've talked a lot about the Finnish education system, but I'd never heard that:

     

    Finland’s test is far more challenging than the SAT (and the ACT) in almost every other way — even in sheer duration. Finland is famous for having very few standardized tests (high school students take a lot of tests, but the tests are designed by their teachers—not a distant testing corporation). But during their senior year, Finnish kids do take one giant standardized test known as the Matura — the mother of all tests. This test lasts about 50 hours, stretched out over three long weeks. By contrast, the new SAT will last 3 hours and 50 minutes with the optional essay (or 3 hours without).
     
    And in Finland, the essay is not optional. To the contrary, students spend a day writing short essays in response to several texts over the course of six hours. The next day, they choose one topic out of 14 options and write one long essay — over the course of another six hours. One recent topic was, “Why is it difficult to achieve peace in the Middle East?†That’s 12 hours of writing — compared to 50 minutes (or zero, for those who choose not to do the essay) on the new SAT.
     
    Wow!
     
    Has anyone read the above author's  book The Smartest Kids in the World—and How They Got That Way?  I think it looks intriguing.

    articles on today's announcement about coming changes to SAT (spring 2016)

    in High School and Self-Education Board

    Posted

    No, actually, it's not. The SAT was supposed to be an aptitude test that measures intelligence. It was specifically NOT supposed to test for college preparation based on educational background. In fact, the president of Harvard pushed to use the test as a one determiner for low-income scholarship applicants because he "thought it measured pure intelligence, regardless of the quality of the taker's high school education." 

     

    I had never heard this before! Interesting!

     

    The link on the PBS page doesn't work anymore, but I just found The Original SAT posted online. 

     

    I do wonder if all of this educational testing just goes in circles. Awhile back, we talked about the old Naval Academy Entrance Exams. Those tests were really hard! But, they were measuring attainment of certain knowledge. 

     

    I would love to do a study that administers 1) the original SAT, 2) a Naval Academy Entrance test, and 3) a modern SAT/ACT test to a group and then follow the group for 10 years. (Sorry; I'm a research nerd!)

    9th Grade Planning

    in High School and Self-Education Board

    Posted

    Oldest ds is my first ninth grader. He loves Sherlock, too. :-D

     

    He loves math and science and is working toward a competitive college and a STEM career (physics/math/programming/engineering). Some days I'm excited about next year, and some days I feel like I'm getting an ulcer! I just don't want to get to college app time and find out that he can't pursue his dreams because I screwed something up! 

     

    This is what I have planned so far:

     

    Math: Algebra II with Wilson Hill Academy

     

    Science: Biology -- not sure what to use yet; maybe BJU Biology? Ds really is liking BJU Physical Science this year.

     

    History & Lit: The Great Conversation 3 with Wilson Hill Academy (basically Omnibus III)

     

    English: Rod & Staff English 9 and The Lively Art of Writing 

     

    Foreign Language: Lukeion Latin 3

     

    Elective: TeenCoder C# - Windows & Game Programming 

     

    Extracurricular: Track, Baseball, Cross Country, Boy Scouts, Piano, and Chess

     

     

     

     

    Lukeion Latin 3 or 4?

    in High School and Self-Education Board

    Posted

    Bumping to update:

     

    I let ds choose which Latin program to go with next year after explaining the amount of work and level of difficulty involved in each one. He picked the Lukeion 3 class!! We just heard that he passed the entrance test. Yay! Thank you to everyone for your in-depth explanations! :-)

    Anna Karenina

    in High School and Self-Education Board

    Posted

    I love Anna Karenina! It is my all time favorite novel. :-)

     

    It is so much more than Anna herself!  For me, it was the stark contrast between Anna/Vronsky & Kitty/Levin; lust/love; selfishness/selflessness; self/family; profane/sacred; life/death; etc. I read it when I was in an unwittingly precarious position in life; I saw myself so much in young Kitty & early Anna. It was definitely a 'coming of age' point in my growing up and helped me to form who I wanted to be ... and not be!

    Has anyone here actually used Omnibus 1 with a 7th/8th grader despite...

    in Logic Stage & Middle Grade Challenges

    Posted

    Are you adding your own writing component to the 1815-Present Self-Paced program this year for your second oldest ds? What did you use for a writing component while previously doing SOTW?

     

    Also, do you happen to have any compiled booklists from VP, Sonlight, and SOTW that you wouldn't mind sharing with the rest of us?   :drool5:  Perhaps your favorites from each year?

     

    I might have phrased that incorrectly; Our writing component in the past was through outlining and narrations (ala The Well-Trained Mind). Yes, I am thinking that we will  add in more reading and writing to finish out this year. 

     

    I think it is so odd that there are so many great books in the VP catalog and they schedule so few in the self-paced classes. Ds (11)  has been scheduled one book a week in the past, where ds (8) was scheduled a chapter to a few chapters a day based on difficulty.  I based it (generally) on time recommendations in TWTM, that is @30-60 min a day of silent reading. 

     

    I don't have a master list in a file, but it's really easy to pull together. I generally tried to find a book a week on whatever the topic of the week was. Favorites in our house were Landmark books and Colonel Red Reeder books. We filled in around those with the Sonlight and VP books. 

     

     

    How much time did your students spend daily doing Omnibus? Could you please break it down for me (i.e., reading, discussions, writing assignment, etc.)?

     

     

    Oldest ds has taken Omnibus I and II primary and secondary with VPSA. He spends on average an hour a day in reading/writing in addition to class time.

     

×
×
  • Create New...