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StaceyL in Canada

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  1. Hi Cynthia, Is that pretty standard for high school--that under 60% is a failure? I thought it was still 50% for a pass. ??
  2. Could someone please give me a quick equivalency between letter and number grades for high school? Some parents have asked me to grade their students English essays but while I have a gut feeling for letter grades, I'm not sure what the equivalent ranges are in numerical scores (for high school--I've taught at university, but am not sure the equivalencies are the same). Thank you.
  3. Help. I have four sons; the youngest is 10 and the next one up is five years older. One is away at college; my second son is completing grade 12 at school this year; and he and the other teen son at home occupy themselves with music, ball hockey, etc. The 10 yr old, however, does not seem to know what to do with himself when he has free time--and compared to his older brothers, he has quite a lot. We live on a quiet, rather secluded court street, and his only friends are a few neighbour children who are at school all day and often not available when out of school/ on weekends (extracurricular activities, other school friends, etc). Although my son is a friendly, good-natured kid, far from socially inept--not whiny or bossy, etc--he hasn't been able to make the many connections his older brothers did through the homeschooling community--somehow it seems as though fewer families with boys his age are around now. Same thing at church--the few boys his age have known each other forever, and he can't seem to break into the group. This son is not terribly sportsminded or arts-and-craftsy, though he does attend karate twice a week and a homeschool choir once a week; I also run a morning co-op for a handful of kids his age once a week. Lego (of which we have enough to build an addition onto our house) lost its appeal some time ago. In terms of reading, he has become somewhat obsessed with the Warriors series about clans of cats (we have several cats, and he is very attached to them; hence the appeal of these books). He does like to spend time on the computer writing his own cat stories, and recently he has begun frequenting the Warriors online forum where he chats with other kids about the books, etc (from what I can gather, the site is monitored; I had to send a letter requesting permission that my son have access to the site, etc, so it seems quite safe). He goes to no other websites. Nonetheless, it seems to me that he is spending far too much of his spare time on this forum and failing to come up with any other activities to occupy himself. Maybe I'm failing too in this regard--I'm very busy with hs'ing, preparing for co-op classes (including a high school class), and as a single parent (widowed), pretty much have to "do it all"--with the result that I have little or no inclination to play games or come up with other ideas for activities. So--what do *your* 10 yr old boys do with their time? Especially when there really aren't other kids around on a regular basis to engage with? My older boys have little interest in "playing" with their younger brother anymore,and we have no extended family to draw upon. I know my son feels quite lonely at times but I don't know what to do about this or how to get him to come up with his own ideas to fill his time. Any thoughts to share? Thanks.
  4. Thanks. If you look at the cuneiform alphabet chart in the SOTW book, you'll see that each "figure" is develoed from the one prior to it, etc (eg, one vertical wedge for A, two for B, three for C, etc). There's no reason, though, why the order of sounds in Sumerian cuneiform would be the same as that in our Roman/ English alphabet, hence my sense that someone just made this up.
  5. The SOTW vol. 1 activity guide book inlcudes a "cuneifrom chart" and "huerglyoh chart" on p. 10 of the student pages (at the back of the book). Could anyone tell me where these charts came from? Since neither cuneiform nor hieroglyphics were alphabetic writing, who came up with these alphabetized equivalents? Are these just an invention of someone who contributed to the book? I will be using these to let kids try their hand at these styles of writing, but I don't want them to think these are "authentic" if they are simply modern inventions! Thanks.
  6. Thank you for all the ideas. I did try running vinegar through once (alone) but didn't see any difference. Might try again though. Guess we'll just have to move :tongue_smilie:
  7. I have a Maytag dishwasher that's about 8-9 years old. Over the last few months, I've noticed that my white stoneware dishes are not getting properly clean; they retain stains after the usual cycle. I've also noticed that glasses don't get terribly clean either--I've even seen lipstick stains remaining after a wash cycle. We do have a water softener, so hard water is not an issue. I've tried those dishwasher cleaners, tried different detergents, use a rinse agent, have even taken apart what I could of the interior (couldn't do all of it) and cleaned--but the problem remains. I do have another Maytag in our basement which is the same age but has hardly been used over the years. I tried running some of the glasses in there but still had the same problem; haven't tried the white dishes in there though. Is this staining a sign that the dishwasher just isn't up to doing its duty anymore? How do you know when it's time to get a new one? Or am I just missing something obvious? TIA.
  8. Because I'm in Canada, I had to buy from the Canadian division, and they will not sell TM s except to school boards. But in any case, after posting I went online and searched for used ML Biology TMs and actually found the correct one. There were only a few and it was fairly expensive with shipping, but I will feel better with some "real" answers in hand :001_smile:
  9. Help. I have a brand new McDougal Littell Biology on CD ROM, featuring links to all sorts of helpful animations, virtual labs, and quizzes...but I have no teacher text/ key. I was told my the publisher that they cannot sell me one. The material isn't so tough that I couldn't read it and then know whether or not my son (gr 10) was absorbing enough info; it's the time factor involved in reading it all. So far, I'm just having him read the lesson, make vocab cards, look at the animations, do any virtual labs, and do the online section and unit quizzes (answers given online), not answer the (numerous) chapter review questions for which I have no key. This son is not inclined towards science, so even getting him to do this is a stretch. I keep thinking that I should be having him do more somehow--though two years ago, I had another son use Holt Biology, for which I did have a TM, and while he did many review questions, and some microscope labs, I can't say that he enjoyed or retained it much. (That's part of the reason I thought I'd try a different text this year ; the Holt Biology seemed a bit out of date, too. And I imagine many use the Apologia books, but I have never cared for them. ). So what do the rest of you do when you do not have a teacher text with answer key for science questions--and no access to a science whiz? How can I ensure that my son is at least "on track" with the material--or should I just gratefully leave him to the online quizzes and hope he makes a career in the liberal arts? (My 17 yr old informed me that all four of the boys might just well end up in theatre arts, like son #1... :tongue_smilie: )
  10. Thanks--I do actually have this, but again, it assumes that the student will read the entire OT. I'm wondering what might be reasonable to skip for now for a survey course.
  11. I did ask about this before, but I could really use some very specific advice about what to cover for an Old Testament survey source for a gr 10 student. Although we've done Bible study to varying degrees over the years, he needs this as a specific high school course to obtain a diploma from the Christian high school he will likely attend for grade 12. I already have numerous resources for studying the OT; what I need are specifics about which books or excerpts of books to cover. Last year, we used Encountering the NT as a guide to the whole NT, but I don't think it will be feasible to have him read the entire OT this year. When I inquired about this before, others did suggest including, for eg, books of the Bible which contain material often referenced in Western lit or art; but my problem is, I'm not sure what parts those are. Certainly he should read Genesis and Exodus; but what sections of the rest of the Pentateuch? Which Psalms and Proverbs? Which prophets? Major? Minor? Yeek! If you have already covered an OT survey course in your family and can share what you did, or can offer specific sections of books to include, I would appreciate it very much.
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