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Writerdaddy

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  1. oh that's great to hear. The optional class attendance wasn't available when I wanted to sign up, back when there were still spots open. i hope people will also post back about the new PAH bio teacher too. BTW PAH did hire a questionable bio teacher last year, based on the reviews which PAH very honestly displays on it's website. The reviews are fairly convincing and consistent. However, both sections of the old teacher had waitlists while the new teacher's class was open. There is one wtmf person whose DD is in the new teacher's AP Bio right now.
  2. Thanks! oh and hi @Farrar , I remember you from oh so many years ago. I believe I passed on Blue Tent this time due to the required live class time and its importance (you can't just watch the recording, I believe. And that's probably a good thing overall). For some reason, as a West Coaster, class times has always been a problem. Why are all the enterprising teacher outfits on the east coast? Thanks @JennyD that is reassuring, that it was basically well designed and smooth going. I think I'm going to follow your lead and do the reading too. I've already signed up. I think VHS is set up for integration with schools and other outfits. The consumer price is way above competitors and as I said they provide very little information about how the course runs. Almost like they thought, what the heck let's offer it up and see if anyone bites. Now I'm wondering why I don't just do FLVS instead. Sounds like it's the same thing.
  3. IMPORTANT EDIT: MY BAD Have been in communication with the VHS Dean and these reviews are actually of another outfit called Virtual High School in Ohio and are not in fact VHS learning: I found these recent reviews. Quite alarming since the same theme is repeated. https://www.niche.com/k12/virtual-high-school-cincinnati-oh/reviews/
  4. I'm struggling to find feedback about VHS learning, especially since they've been in business a long, long time and the little I see in reviews of online AP classes is so different and mostly old. Looking to sign up for AP Bio for one of my '22 children, after deciding not to take a chance on an unknown PA Homeschooler teacher (and with the other section with an infamous teacher) I didn't hesitate to sign up for PA Homeschoolers physics and chemistry with the Kernion brothers, who are great. Anyone know anything about VHS learning's APs or AP Bio? They haven't answered my inquiries about the syllabus and in particular I want to know how their tests are administered. Any experiences or second-hand knowledge? Thanks!
  5. Looks like we are not going through with the PAH online AP Bio class for my D22, so we're in the boat of "science major without AP Bio." She can stick with the line "her school only offers AP Calc and AP Art so that's what she has." I don't know how bad that is. Well, I'm sure it's not "bad," but compared to the AP rich student she's competing with for merit scholarships, it might not be very good. And she's going test-optional. Or maybe she shouldn't even declare a science major, and switch later? I don't believe that's been discussed on this thread. Her twin brother is going to apply to some of the same schools although he will have an online AP class. I wonder if these days AOs looking at courses available to a student think "Why didn't this kid go online to get AP classes?" or is that too new or even too unpredictable as to "rigor."
  6. I think if you pay 29$ you can get the videos from the classes for self study, but not the assignments or test questions. We are in-state and get that $29 waived. At the very least, no one should put down money without putting the $29 for the "basic" version down first. So I've also sampled other classes videos for free, but there's no way to tell how the videos and assignments and tests match up for those. None of it looks promising, although that could be just as much about the vacuous nature of AP content in general as it is about UC Scout.
  7. I don't know how aware people are of UC Scout AP Classes. Sounds great, it's University of California, but we are doing two now, AP Physics for S22 and AP Biology for D22, and will be dropping them and losing the money due to the poor teaching not aligned with tests, resulting in bad grades that are doing no one any good for the future. They have no idea how to create online courses. The old-time PAH teachers do. However the new Bio teacher, who knows...
  8. I'm on the verge of signing up for AP Bio with Ivonne Heapy at PAH. Will report back if I do. If anyone can find any information (reviews) about her that would be greatly appreciated.
  9. really i mean any math with a live component, but not so difficult as aops
  10. Thanks Matryoshka, Sadly no WTM precalc classes this summer. And yes AoPS online is too fast paced for my kids. Still looking for an alternative online class for Precalculus this summer which is run live like AoPS!
  11. My kids are about ready for a Precalc online class and the AOPS format is pretty good, except it's just a little too intense for them. Is there something with instructor guided live classes like AOPS, but not quite for competitive mathletes? thanks for you help, as always! Alan
  12. Good questions and thanks Regentrude! I haven't noticed a problem when speaking. I'm pretty sure it's not much of a problem. Nevertheless, I have tried asking him to do a test verbally to himself to say "the boy..." or "they..." and try it out to see which sounds right. But he has no trouble saying "The boy run" aloud to me without batting an eye. So while he doesn't seem to make the mistake in natural speech, this is of little help when he's looking at a piece of writing. His mother isn't a native English speaker and this may have contributed to some "short-cut" communications in early childhood that have stuck around. However, I don't notice her making these mistakes much in speech although I may have flitered them out with my brain in her case. Regardless of that, his Mother speaks as she does, so... I was wondering if anyone knew of some worksheets that target this particular problem. Thanks!
  13. This might be coming from left field from someone with kids in California public school, and who volunteers in school, but if every high school writer could write like that, it would be a great world. One of my 9th graders is almost at this level, and one is many years behind it. I don't know what is "standard" but it may be a standard on this forum-- not at all like the "real" world, I'm sad to say. I also teach in university for my job, and this looks better than most freshmen, but I guess you already knew that. I agree with the other replies, however, that there is no reason to rush her along if she is asking for work to do and is doing so well already (in my perspective). Surely if you continue to see her writing you'll be able to detect copying and so forth. Maybe some of the other replies are right-- in their world! I wish I lived in their world!
  14. My son is a native english speaker but just never seems to kick the habit of writing things like "The girl run to the store." And it doesn't sound wrong to his ear. He just doesn't recognize the problem. He's actually in High School now. At this point, I want to see if it's possible to drill the devil out of him with worksheets. Do you know where I could find or buy many, many worksheets that focus on singular and plural verbs alone? thanks! Alan PS I'm not as bad as I sound in this post!
  15. I really like Derek Owens Physical Science course and wish he had a high school biology course online. Great video lectures and a workbook that follows the lectures closely. Really love that course! Do you know of an online Biology course that's good? If you know Derek Owens then you know what I'm looking for but it's basically a follow along video course with exacting standards that I'm looking for. This would be for afterschooling my 9th grade daughter who wants a career in biology but goes to a waldorf high school.
  16. Those are great ideas thanks! I do see how it would be hard to keep up a blog though if you are moving around a lot and trying to get one big thing in each day, which is what we are doing. Hmm... I haven't been great on consistency and discipline up till now, it's probably unrealistic to think I'll improve while traveling.
  17. I'm wondering if anyone has ideas or hints or links about a good way to do some writing while traveling, on the themes of the travel. Something like a commonplace book, except we won't be doing a lot of reading. Mostly I've done commonplace books based on emulating quotes and passages. My kids are 14 and intellectually probably like 13 for the average WTM kid. Some kind of notebooking activity I'm thinking. Just looking for ideas. Seen any good links you've tried? My kids are too old for those scavenger hunt type travel books I've seen. They're not excited to become detectives and super sleuths and what not. Thanks! Alan PS. also Any favorite links about commonplace books in general?
  18. This may be a big ask but I need some titles for very specific things and they have to be enjoyable reads for ages 11-13 or so. My kids are actually 14 but I find they slog through non-fiction that's of their grade level. I'm hoping the collective wisdom here can help! Here are the main topics that I'm hoping will have some interesting books for them: The Italian Renaissance and/or history of Florence/Venice or the Venetian Empire The Moors and Grenada, Spain, or the Alhambra (washington irvine wont be a good read for them) Something to do with Paris and the Louvre Anything related to Prague's architectural heydays The Roman Colosseum or the Vatican Museum I realize these are very specific and are certainly covered in textbooks for older kids and college students, but I was wondering if you happened to find a gem here or there that seems related somehow to any of these topics. I sure hope this post works! THANKS!! There might be specific parts of History of the World that I should consult too I suppose.
  19. The geology book says the science is "unclear" whether human action is causing global warming.
  20. Is bit box too kiddy basic for age 13? (by which I mean is the aesthetic too kiddy, and the difficulty too easy) My kid does some scratch and a little other programming (not sure what)
  21. Thanks! I do realize certain basic grammar terms are necessary, but I'm certain you can get an Ivy League Ph.D. in a literary field without knowing hardly any of them. The MCT looks great if you do want to go into the terms, while the Singapore books look so clever! The sample pages I saw were really ingenious. If only I could find somewhere to easily order them! I have used sgbox while living in southeast asia before, but never ordered singapore math in the US, and the math is way more readily available.
  22. Hi there, I'm wondering if there is such a beast for an early middle school child (she could safely use grade 6-8): a grammar curriculum that can be done independently for the most part, but where the emphasis is not on learning all the terminology, nor on sentence diagramming. I have a naturally grammar-challenged daughter taught mostly in public school who is a brilliant writer, but gets a ribbing from friends about her grammar. I would like to help her now although I'm certain it will straighten itself out in time, but don't believe we have time now nor energy from her for the tedium of latinate terms (and although I'm a professional writer I don't know most of them and don't want to learn them either!). Is there such a beast? I imagine it would mean cleverly designed worksheets if it's going to be largely independent. I looked at sample pages of Growing with Grammar but saw a lot of emphasis on identifying the latinate terms. thanks for your ideas I appreciate it so much!
  23. Dancing Bears works GREAT for certain kinds of reading problems. Only thing is you have to use it sparingly according to instructions. (I think it says no more than 15 min a day). Whatever the max is, definitely they are right about that. It's just an exercise, but it's a fantastic exercise! Probably its a good idea not to let the child know its remedial. Just make it look like a normal exercise you do. It requires you, but in the simplest way so I think you'll find it a nice 15 min. where you can feel you are doing something good and beneficial, while not really having to think or plan anything yourself. I wish I used it more consistently with my son, who is now beyond it (in 8th) but still glossing over things in reading and writing.
  24. I'll look at the cartoon guide too! It's actually for middle schoolers but I felt the RS4K was so great at explaining the fundamentals that I'm actually going to start there despite my kids' ages.
  25. And the winner is: It was RS4K after all. Now that I look at the Pre Level 1 (I didn't realize what level I was looking at) I see that is the one I remember. Thanks for the prod of my memory!! "More elementary than RS4K? Are you sure? Their pre-level1 is my favorite intro to chem for little guys because of the cute cartoon atoms holding hands."
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