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pineapplehorse

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Everything posted by pineapplehorse

  1. I was not implying that we would use the lecture for the complete course; maybe I was not clear in my question. I am trying to figure out how some of you who have used it integrate it with other sources to create a complete course and how you decide what percentage of the grade to assign to say "quizzes" from the lectures or writing assignments versus the other sources you use. Also, what exactly is in the "guide book" with "recommended readings"? I am truly looking to create an "Adavanced Astronomy/Cosmology" class as I have not been able to find any class that would meet his interest (other than CTY summer classes in cosmology). I was thinking of combining "Understanding the Universe" (96 lessons), with several Hawking books, Richard Feynman's quantum mechanics lectures, and other items. My son has exceptional retention so I am not worried about that at all. Simply trying to figure out how to balance all of the items, account for them on the transcript, and weigh each portion of the class without completely overloading one subject and turning it into much MORE than a single high school credit. And KarenNC, thanks :) We watched both of those right after we watched the new Cosmos this fall.
  2. DS is really interested in cosmology/planetary science right now and wants me to investigate "advanced" astronomy classes (he is taking ES Earth Science and Geology now). The Great Courses has "explore the universe" and I am really looking at it while it's on sale for use next year. We've never used a "Great Course" before so I am interested how you use them and award the credit. TIA!
  3. Thank you ladies. Lori D., is there a specific reason you decided to do them in reverse order the second go round?
  4. Hey All, I have been absent from the boards for a while. My entire life was turned upside down in early November when my amazing husband and soulmate for 24 years died in a boating accident. I am now homeschooling our three kids while running our business. I tell you all this NOT to gain sympathy or anything like that, but to give you a frame of reference for my question. I want to stay as engaged as possible in their schoolwork, but now have to have them be much more independent than they used to be because our business MUST come first or no one eats. So... For DS 13, my voracious reader, I KNOW that we will do LLfrom LOTR in 9th. He has done tons of MBTP units in the past and several John Hopkins CTY classes. I am looking for something different for 8th and like the looks of LL8 (even though he has read The Hobbit many times for fun and once for MBTP). Thoughts? Can he do this pretty much on his own with a little discussion with me and it still be a good solid step before LOTR for 9th? Anyone have any other suggestions? TIA! MMM
  5. I read Apples thru Edgewood aloud with 2 kids. They alternated pages and then wrote the answers in separate notebooks on their own. I anticipate that we will continue this through the entire elementary series. Other than occasional dabbling in RightStart, it is our primary math.
  6. See my post here...http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/477990-whos-used-life-of-fred-middle-school-books-starting-with-fractions/?do=findComment&comment=5040536 My oldest (DS12) in PreAlgebra does 30 min per day. Sometimes that is one chapter, sometimes it is 3. My younger 2 (DS7 & DD9) do 2 chapters per day in the elementary series books.
  7. Our start in LoF was Fractions. My oldest has done Fractions (at age 10), Decimals (age 10), Physics (age 11), Pre-Algebra with Biology (age 11) and is starting Pre-Algebra with Economics in August (age 12). He went from CTY Accelerated Grade 6 math into fractions so he did have some experience with fractions before. He loves it and has retained it awesomely. I dislike Physics greatly and he is head and shoulders above my understanding even after 2 semester of college physics. He is 100% independent. He sets a timer and works for 30 minutes 4 days a week. Sometimes, that 30 minutes is 1 lesson and your turn to try, sometimes it is 2 or 3 lessons. He occaissionally needs multiple tries at a bridge but if it gets to that point, I figure out what problems are causing him trouble, spend a few minutes teaching them, then just assign those questions from the remaining tries for that bridge. I completely disagree that LoF does not teach. It is our sole math curriculum, and I do not see us going back to anything else. CTY was great but at $285/mo per child, I just can't afford that any more, and LoF is the ONLY curriculum I have found that I like as much as CTY. I think it goes back to the learning style of your child. Things with lots of practice and drill destroy math for my crew. They are grab a concept and go type learners. My littles did LoF Apples, Butterflies, Cats, Dogs & Edgewood from Christmas to May this year at ages 7 & 8, and are starting Farming in August with the plan to complete Mineshaft by the end of the year and start them on LoF Fractions next year (at ages 9 & 10). They each alternate reading pages to me for 2 chapters per day and then do the your turn to try. They started in Saxon (OMG we all almost died), then tried RightStart (B was great but C started to move too slowly even with me changing everything up on the fly), then tried Math Mammoth (again...waaaaaaay too many problems to do) and ended up in LoF when my oldest started loving it. My youngest (7) told us the other night there was a 25% chance we were eating a fish he caught because he caught 2 of the 8 fish. The only place he has learned this is the odd statement thrown out by Fred.
  8. my guys - 7, 9 & 12 - get 1 hour of video game (iphone, iPad, wii, club penguin, whatever they choose) per day per child Mon to Thu and 2 hours per child Fri to Sun. It drives me nuts enforcing it but if I didn't my 7yr old would play video games from the moment his eyes open until the moment they close.
  9. That's great to know! I am not a big Christie fan so I wasn't sure. He reads Paolini, Riordan, etc. so violence doesn't bother him a bit. Thanks.
  10. I come up with a list of things I read, should have read, am just now reading or I have seen mentioned in WTM, BW, etc....I throw out things I know they will find and read on their own (my oldest and youngest are VORACIOUS readersI)... play around with it a while... and then ask Lori D :) I shoot for... 6 read alouds 6 non-fiction or historical fiction readers 6 fiction readers for DS8 and DD9 and 12 fiction readers for DS 12 I try to keep DS8 and DD9 reading different books (or different short-stories in the same collection) because 1. Their reading level is drastically different --DD9 reads at a 2.5 while DS8 reads at a 4.5 2. They are extremely competitive, and 3. That way each has something to narrate to the others about in our weekly lit discussion
  11. Thanks, Lori!!! He read the Baker Street Irregulars with CTY a few years ago and LOVED it. I knew I could count on you :)
  12. For our mystery unit, we are reading Read Aloud: Murder at the Rue Morgue - my GT teacher read this aloud to our class in 6th and I was mesmerized :) I think I still remember her because of this book. DS8: The Hardy Boys 1 DD9: Nancy Drew 1 DS12: The Hound of the Baskervilles AND ________________________________ I really want to fill the blank with an Agatha Christie but I am concerned about content. Right now I am leaning towards Murder on the Orient Express. My husband has all the Rex Stout's so I may replace Christie with Stout if I can't decide. Suggestions....reading level is no issue (he reads at grade 18) but content is. I would like to stay away from mature and suggestive themes...
  13. My guys get weekly checklists...I make them in excel/numbers and fill them in on Monday mornings... The kids love them! It is attached below Untitled 2.pdf
  14. We have a 2-sided wireless color inkjet EPSON that I adore. It was only $200 from office max and it saves SOOOO much paper being able to print the kids school stuff double-sided....and it prints and scans 11x17 :)
  15. Watch ebay - I just got a complete set (missing 1 reader - trouble for lucy) including assessments and bible supplement today for $232.50 with free shipping!!! :hurray:
  16. I have reviewed up-teen old posts and looks at TONS of curriculum...but I'm still not settled on a Spanish program for next year. DS 12 did GSWL for 4th & 5th and GWSS for 6th. Now I don't know where to go. I would like to find something similar to First Start French for Spanish. Barring that, I am leaning towards Mission Mondo or The Easy Spanish Level 1. We cannot use Learnables because we have all apple computers and do not want to run a parallel window operating system on them. Suggestions?
  17. I am scaling back next year to enjoy our time more and combining 7th with 4th & 3rd for most things. As of right now... Math (M, T, H & F) Finish LOF Pre-Algebra & start/do LOF Algebra, possibly going back to John Hopkins CTY Spanish (M, T & H) Maybe The Easy Spanish, not sure yet. Did GSWS last year and GSWL the two years before that...having a hard time finding a curriculum I love to continue with :/ Handwriting (M, T & H) Pentime 7 Health (F) LifePac HealthQuest History (M, T, H & F) POE with middle school supplement and independent reading from Hakim World Geography (M, T, H & F) Trail Guide to World Geography Science (M & F) MP Astronomy (M) MP Insects (F) Language Arts (M, T, H & F) POE with Middle School Supplement daily (M, T, H & F) BW & MP combined (T & H) with the following books: Unit 1 -Read Aloud (RA): Swiss Family Robinson & Poetry -Independent (IR): Gulliver's Travels & Robinson Crusoe -POE: already read Carry On, Mr. Bowdich so going to skip an extra independent to ease into school Unit 2 -RA: D'Aulaire's Book of Greek Myths & Poetry -IR: Black Ships Before Troy & The Girl Who Helped Thunder -POE: Pocohontas Unit 3 -RA: Murder at the Rue Morgue & Poetry -IR: The Hound of the Baskervilles & Murder on the Orient Express -POE: Almost Home Unit 4 -RA: The Wind in the Willows & Poetry -IR: The Call of the Wild & White Fang -POE: The Sign of the Beaver Unit 5 -RA: The Story of King Arthur and His Knights -IR: Black Horses for the King & The Sword in the Stone -POE: The Captain's Dog Unit 6 -RA: Around the World in 80 days (with the TGWG guide) -IR: Just So Stories -POE: Bound for Oregon Activities Running (M, T & F) Boy Scouts (M) Guitar (T) Taekwondo (W) Gymnastics (H) UMYF (Sun)
  18. I have been searching for a diagnosis....and now I have it. I have CURRICULITIS!!! On a serious note, I think you hit the nail on the head and it's what I'm doing this year. My experience with TOG + way too much else last year taught me I need to slow down and spend time together. I think our goal should be to teach them HOW to learn and guide that process through great together time...NOT to teach them everything they could possibly ever learn. So...in your words..."they have precious little time left to just relax and enjoy learning in a more casual way . . . [DO] NOT TO RUIN IT by trying to out-intense them...[L]eave THEM time to drive their learning and not fill their whole day, so that they have time to go learn what they are interested in, too." :)
  19. I was completely head over heels in love with TOG this time last year. I could have sold it at the convention I was so on-board. I watched every video, printed double-sided color copies until my printer ran out of ink (twice) and convinced another family to start using it. I even made elaborate excel spreadsheets with everyone's daily assignments - color-coded no less :) August came and we DOVE in...and around week 3 it fell apart....In the end we finished Units 1 and 2 of Year 2 in one year (1 semester for Unit 1 and 1 semester for Unit 2). Here are my thoughts on our experience... First, some background... 11yr old - voracious reader, slow poke, daydreamer, very gifted - did combination UG/Dialectic 8 yr old - struggling reader with vision therapy issues, bright in math, artistic, kinesthetic learner - LG 7 yr old - excellent reader, high energy, extremely gifted - LG 1. I did TOO much that wasn't TOG so we never had time for fun activities or socratic discussions (the part I looked forward to the most) - this is the key for me. We added math, latin, spanish, writing strands, biology, chemistry, equine science, etiquette, handwriting, spelling (not all for the same child) so spending hours a day on TOG just couldn't happen 2. The reading was insane! My 11 yr old did all the reading he was supposed to, no extras, and it took him several hours a day. This is the kid who reads a Harry Potter book in 2 to 3 days. He isn't a slow reader. 3. The vocabulary was AWESOME! 4. Many of the books were great and the themes were spot-on. Even when we didn't read exactly what we were supposed to (the lower grammar kids), we read something for that time period as a together read/read aloud and kids really enjoyed it. In the end, we did A LOT of read aloud and I bought the MBTP units that correlated with what we were supposed to be doing in TOG. The kids ADORED Shakespeare. 5. I learned that they all glow from head to toe when we do things together and that my 11yr old was tired of going off to a room to work independently while I spent time with the younger two. I learned that he can be independent AND I can be more involved in teaching him :) 6. I knew it was more religious-based than I wanted but that I could edit, and I did, and I was totally happy with that. In fact, it made me more comfortable with a religious-based curriculum than I thought possible (I teach sunday school every week, just wanted a secular curriculum for school). Will we use it this year...probably not... Why? 1. Just too much reading. My oldest was in tears by the end of the year and completely burnt out on the renaissance versus being in love with (like I am). 2. The kids begged to return to SOTW for history (I was reading SOTW as additional read aloud where suggested because they love it so much). 3. There is too much I want to add to it. I know this review has dragged...but hopefully it helped. I think TOG is a great curriculum but I think you need to dedicate yourself to it, and I just couldn't do that. I adore history and the kids do as well, but it just wasn't a good fit for us. Good luck!
  20. The Hobbit is my kids all-time favorite. Also, the Inheritance Series by Christopher Paolini (Eragon, Eldest, Brisingyr & Inheritance). There is a little bit more fighting than I care for in the Inheritance Series (especially in the last 2 books) but they are easy chapters to skip/gloss when reading aloud.
  21. Regarding the skipping around....what would happen if you took the 12 units and put them in chronological order? Would that mess anything up?
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