Syllieann
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Posts posted by Syllieann
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Thank you everyone!
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Without knowing what you might object to or want to discuss, I'm not sure what to warn about. None of those are books I'd consider stopping a kid from reading based on "romance."
I don't really object to anything. I just don't want something important to the plot to go over his head.
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Please help me out by ranking these for amount/degree of romantic content. These are books that appeal to ds. I think the other themes are all fine, but this is for a kid who is still pretty clueless about romantic relationships. He knows it exists, but hasn't yet any experience in the feelings. TY!
Percy Jackson
Diary of a Wimpy Kid
How to Train Your Dragon
A Series of Unfortunate Events
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We're doing the la this year. It is a fairly good fit for us, but I hesitate to recommend it to others because I suspect it would be a bad fit for most families. Regarding just the la as I haven't used the other stuff...
Pros- It is very engaging. Using the books to launch the other stuff has produced a tremendous level of buy-in by Ds. He LOVES this program. It has introduced him to books I wouldn't have thought to bring home. The book I thought he would like least was a raging success. He immediately read the other two books that follow it as well. I like that I can differentiate the difficulty of writing and grammar while still having them taught together. The grammar is easy for him so we use the more advanced option. The writing is challenging so we use the less advanced option. I like the very clear rubrics and the variety of projects. We also have some good (and surprisingly deep) discussions about the books. Many people can do that without a program, but I didn't think I was doing a good job of it on my own. I think the pre-writing and organization aspects of the writing instruction are strong. The child does need to come up with something to say, but that is usually easy because the literature book gives us a jumping off point.
Cons- It is ridiculously expensive. I get all the books from the library, but still, that much money on la for the age we're using is just absurd to me. Oh, and then when your next kid is ready to use it they want you to buy new activity pages because you can't reproduce for family use, oi! There's also the inherent problem of aio la-some parts are too easy, sometimes WAY too easy. For billing as a gifted curriculum, I would like to see more differentiation options for vocabulary and spelling. We skip the spelling because Ds is past it. He also already knows most of the vocabulary words, so we don't benefit from that portion. Some of the extension ideas are a little corny. I just adapt as necessary, but some people might find it annoying.
Noteworthy-the grammar instruction is less detailed than what many wtm-ers would want. There is very little drill. It is expected that you use the review sheets, but it's not spelled out in the daily plan, so it's easy to forget (ironically ;)). There are 1-2 lessons in each unit that require us to "go find information on" something. I don't think the links they provide are very good, and I'm not a big fan of googling and sorting through crappy links in the middle of the school day. In some circumstances, this could be viewed as a useful learning opportunity if you have the child sort through all the crappy links or if you are able to take the time to go through and discuss the merits of each with the child. Dh and I have decided to delay the computer-based research for a few more years, so for me, it's a huge annoyance. I usually look ahead and get library books instead.
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And isn't it great that those artists were named for the Ninja Turtles? Is there a reason why WTM starts history with ancient and not modern? Maybe, as Billy Connolly said, "My definition of an intellectual is someone who can listen to the William Tell Overture without thinking of the Lone Ranger."
My, you are full of yourself.
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And btw, Michael, lots of 6 year olds of boardies here are familiar with D'aulaire. Mine read the entire Greek Myths book in kindy. Some even play chess *gasp* even if yours didn't.
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Any story will be more meaningful with age and additional background knowledge. Most adults in America will not get all of the allusions in Harry Potter. A great many can't play chess either. Could it not be the other way around too? A child that knows and loves those names in Harry Potter will get more out of reading his D'aulaire.
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But is having book content (HP or anything) go "over their heads" really what we are looking for? My own preference would be simply to wait to read it until that content doesn't go over their heads and instead can be handled appropriately because they've read other books, experienced other things, and had the relevant discussions. Then that first experience can be more meaningful.
Whenever I've reread a book, I've found that there were bits I missed the first time. Nonetheless, the first read was obviously enjoyable enough for me to undertake a second reading. It is with Harry Potter as it is with most good books. If too much goes over their heads they won't be on the edge of their seats begging to read another chapter or get them the next book. The op presumably won't force the child to listen to the book If he isn't interested.
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I think they are better read alone. There are lots of other great read alouds to choose from. Harry Potter is a great series to have up your sleeve once they really take off with reading. Some sensitive children may not be ready for them at 6, but I think most children capable of reading it will be just fine, regardless of age. My 6 yo has read all of them. His reading ability is high for his age, but his maturity is average, and he did quite well with the series. No nightmares, no tears. He loved it and incorporated a lot of things from the books into his play.
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I agree with Susan about bfsu. You can download it for $5 and read the first few lessons in each thread yourself. Next time there is a question, you will have a plan to help your child use observations that she's already made about the world to find the answers to her own questions.
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I assume "with replacement" means they put the marble they just drew back in before the next draw. If that is the case, then start with the fraction of marbles that are green (10/23). On each draw that is the chance of drawing green. There are three draws so (10/23) x (10/23) x (10/23) = your answer. You then need to do the decimal rounding business.
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I have Fix-It, all of the stories on PDF.
I don't consider that teaching grammar though, more just editing. It doesn't teach all the parts of speech, diagramming and sentence patterns etc. Maybe I don't remember correctly though, it has been several years since I used it. Off to go find it, thanks!
The new version is a complete grammar. From what I understand, it is very different from the old version. It sounds like you might have the old version?
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Iew's Fix it is made just for that.
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The shedd aquarium is good too. Michigan ave is impressive between Black Friday and Christmas.
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You don't need Miquon. If you watched the education unboxed videos you should be able to do addition and subtraction with a missing part. I only use them with mm1. Ods was done with them before he did mm2. I think they would still be helpful, but maybe not to the extent that they are in mm 1 where most of the work is number bonds to 20. They can be used to demonstrate area and multiplication too as you move up. I think the rods are probably the most versatile manipulative around.
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We use mm, and I've used RS a and Miquon Orange as well. I have two kids schooling plus a toddler. I love mm because it is so intuitive to me and easy to use. I don't need to pre-read, everything is streamlined. I don't need a gazillion crazy supplements. The mastery style makes it easy to tell when we should skip ahead vs park it for awhile. It lends itself to independence.
I think there is enough teacher support, but my kids grasp math things easily. I am also a math/science person, and I have done my math in the style that is now called Asian or conceptual for as long as I can remember. I wasn't taught that way, it just makes sense to me and requires the least mental effort for me. As such, I might not be the best judge of teacher support, but Maria is very responsive to emails and has a bunch of math teaching videos to help out too.
My oldest had no problems with mm layout. He is accelerated and was doing mm2 in kindy. I usually did the teaching box on the white board. Then he did the rest independently. This year he is doing mm3 and reads the teaching box himself and works pretty independently. I check to make sure he understands the directions before I let him loose on it. Sometimes I need to offer a hint of puzzle corner.
My dd is doing mm1 and has some issues with the layout. To remedy this, I do a couple things. First, I use a few different color highlighters to mark the boxes. She knows which color she is on, so if she looks away for a moment she can find her place again more easily. I also take it off the page by using c-rods, then point her to the place she needs to write. I like to have here write it since it doubles as handwriting, but you could just do it orally too.
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I pay attention it, and it's considered in some of my choices. I don't want something that is so radically different that they'd be clueless if something happened to require enrolling them in public school. They're working ahead of grade so I think we'd meet the standards without an aligned curriculum. I don't really find any fault with the standards the way other people do, except perhaps that writing them doesn't mean students will meet them. The underlying problems with our system are still the same. In my state, it's a huge improvement over what we had.
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My 6 yo knows he's ahead in math because of the grade level on it. For history and science he never sees a grade level on anything. His language arts says ages 7-9 so he figures he's only 1 yr ahead there. I never mentioned that it was supposedly for "gifted" 7 year olds. People have commented on things though. His vocabulary has sometimes raised eyebrows, and made him feel self-conscious. Twice his book has been mistaken as mine, with someone trying to strike up a conversation with me about the book. The material in his faith formation class is really simplistic for him, and he noticed the other kids don't read very well. So we've talked about it, but I don't think he realizes quite how far ahead he is. I try to stress that he was given that gift without having done anything to earn it. The part he should be proud of is his work in developing it and using it in an upright way.
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I used AAR very successfully at that age for my older two children. You need to put all the magnets together when you first get it. After that it's open and go. We used the cards for a lot for silly games like jump over the card after you read it, ride a bike around the driveway and read a card at each pass etc. The fluency pages aren't fun, but my kids liked all the little activities and games. I think there are tips on the AAR site to help make the fluency sheets more palatable. The AAR readers are awesome.
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Haven't used it, but I have looked at the samples. I looked at it because I thought it was like a secular version of CLE. The science sample I looked at was definitely not secular. It was decidedly young earth. I stopped looking after that, somewhat annoyed at the false advertising, so idk the extent or particulars of the religious beliefs.
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Sit right next to him the whole time. Tell him you will erase any letters that are sloppy. If he struggles with a letter, write it in the air together before writing it on paper to be sure he will have success when he writes it on the paper. When a letter is too sloppy and you erase it, tell him, "b is not allowed to go into the basement; let's try it again," or whatever the problem is rather than just saying to do it over. Erasing the sloppy stuff and requiring a redo should get him in the habit of being careful pretty quickly. Don't wait for him to do an entire row. Evaluate each letter right away to determine whether it stays or gets redone. I use the star technique from GD Italic as well, but I modify it a little. I will pick a fave and tell why, then have the child pick a fave. Both get stars.
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We homeschool for a lot of reasons. Academics are way up there. I think this forum represents a subset of homeschoolers for whom academics are important. The homeschoolers I meet in real life are quite a mix. A great many are either unschoolers or homeschooling primarily for religious reasons. Obviously academics could be important along with either of those reasons to some people, but for many of the homeschoolers I meet, that isn't the case. I have a hard time speaking up in defense of the academic education homeschoolers are getting when people make generalizations precisely because I know there's a really big chunk that aren't getting the stellar academic education many of the boardies here are striving for. It kind of resets my view of normal.
Eta: you know, it might be that I'm just more likely to meet the non-academic homeschoolers because a greater percentage of them are out and about in school-time social activities/mildly academic co-op type classes on any given day.
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I looked for this yesterday and didn't see it in my App Store. Has this been released for iPad yet?
I remain disappointed that the colors don't match the c-rods, but I'm sure my kids will love it anyway.
Yes, it's available for iPad. That's what we've been using. Try searching "dragonbox numbers" or "dragonbox nooms." Don't put a space between "dragon" and "box."
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Why would the name indicate that it's a college essay? Not denying it could be a college essay. Just wondering what the name says about it.
Because people are fond of putting their age into their name.
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For those of you who have a 30 year mortgage do you feel you had no choice? Was it the least expensive home you could (reasonably) stand to live in? Or did you go 30 year because you wanted a more expensive house?
We had a 15 yr on our last home. Our new home (we moved over the summer) is about twice the value of the old one. We went with 30 yr on this, making the monthly payment similar to the last one. We wanted something bigger for our child-raising years, but plan to majorly downsize when kids are off to college. It would be absurd to live in a house this size as empty-nesters. We do make extra payments as if it was a 15 yr note, but we like having the ability to make the lower monthly payment, and it allows more flexibility if dh were to be laid off or become disabled, etc. yes, the interest is slightly more, but I consider it a form of insurance for that peace of mind.
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As a homeschooler, how can I help revitalize public schools?
in General Education Discussion Board
Posted
Wow, cutting edge, lol. I love the third paragraph where she says reading has become academically challenged. Yeah, I guess that could be problem.