happyhome
-
Posts
611 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Events
Blogs
Classifieds
Store
Posts posted by happyhome
-
-
MM and BA are both complete programs but stylistically, they're completely different. BA introduces that AoPS format of wrestling with the topics first, then fill in what you don't know through practice. MM is a mastery program that builds and builds until mastery is complete. Our experience here is that the kid who likes and does well with MM doesn't like the format of BA and vice versa. I tried to combine them but it wasn't successful for us. My daughters loved MM and moved effortlessly through it. They both hated BA and found it silly. Ironically, one of those girls went on to the AoPS sequence after MM and there is no turning back. She loves it!! My son started in MM, got quickly bored with the format, even on new topics. I switched him to full time BA and he's fallen in love with math. While we definitely approach math from many angles using various resources, we didn't find BA and MM to be complimentary here.
-
I found this terrific thread with resources, links and schedules for Hewitt CP. Just thought I'd put this out there for those who might be considering it. Thank you, thank you Dicentra!
http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/470118-hewitts-conceptual-physics-resources/
-
Have you considered finding her a writing partner? Professional writers use writing partners for the very thing you are talking about. Each person trades work for feedback. Our library also has both poetry and writers groups which provide one another feedback in the manner you are describing.
A writing partner!! She loves this idea! We have a pretty big library system. I'll have to see if they have any teen groups that might work. I'll also check with our local homeschool groups. Thanks!
-
Your student is probably old enough, but just a heads-up that the student must be at least 13 years old to access the OYAN forums. I didn't realize this until after the fact, and my daughter was disappointed to have to wait.
My daughter loves creative writing, too. I picked up the OYAN for her when the Homeschool Buyers Co-op had it on sale. (She did not want the Cover Story program, and, since she's doing the creative writing on her own, I let her go with OYAN.) She loves OYAN and has worked through most of it already. I found that it really helped focus her writing. Before she was writing reams and reams of stories, character profiles, story ideas, etc, like your daughter. After a couple months with OYAN, her writing is so much better, much more focused. Whereas before she had an infinite number of unnecessary details and tangents, now her stories are wonderfully tight and so much more interesting. It's almost like she was free associating before.
So, when you start OYAN, you may find that the sheer volume of your daughter's writing goes down, in a good way. My daughter spends as much time writing as she used to, but now she works and re-works chapters of her stories to get them to the point she wants them.
Yes, she's 13 so the forums will work. Cover Story has helped focus her content and tighten her style too. We're really looking forward to OYAN for that reason.
-
Perhaps the OYAN forums will give her enough feedback. The kids can post pieces of stories and get feedback there.
I do not give my creative writer feedback on everything he writes. You are brave to have tried. Unless you are quite wealthy you are not going to want to pay to get her feedback on "20-30 page story intros" or "her latest 80 pager" either. To get feedback, she is going to have to write a short story or select a scene from a longer work that she likes or is struggling with and let someone read that. She is old enough to start learning to give you what is most worth reading or she most needs suggestions on, not every word that flows from her wonderfully creative mind.
Don't feel bad. My ds is hoping to go to college to pursue a writing degree in another year. I have read only a small portion of what he writes. He has done some online classes, such as Bravewriter's. He did OYAN two years ago and this year the follow up, Other Worlds (I have read those novels). He has entered some flash fiction contest and gotten some feedback there. Sources of feedback can be many and carried, but some work will just go unread until she is ready to start publishing and pulls it out, brushes it off and makes the fortune that you get to retire on... well here's hoping for you. :)
Thanks Debbie. Yes, we are looking forward to the OYAN forums. She does math with AoPS and those forums have saved me many a time, and she's made some really nice friends along the way. I hadn't thought about contests. She won a poetry contest recently and she really enjoyed that process. I'll look into that. I also like the idea of her giving me small pieces of her writing. She starts every piece with a thorough story chart so, looking at that, I could ask for the "description of the setting" or the "character sketch of Penelope," a different part of each one.
I don't mind paying someone to give solid feedback on one piece every now and then. You're right, if I paid for everything she writes, I couldn't send her to college to do anything with it!! That said, she writes every day for a few hours, so feedback is important to me so she doesn't keep going with a bad habit. Maybe she can choose a short story for evaluation and keep her manifestos for the box that goes to her editor some day!!! Good ideas!
-
I used Write at Home Pay Per Paper Service one year to evaluate several papers at the end of the year. I was pleased with the service and found them reasonably priced.
ETA: I have a ds who is clear and concise to a fault (takes after me) - no doubt that helped my idea of reasonably priced. ;)
HTH!
Thanks Sue. This looks promising. I couldn't afford it for everything she writes, but for a couple of pieces? Sure. That would at least point her in the right direction. Did you find their feedback to be meaningful and accurate? Did your son take their classes too? They sound interesting.
-
Ok, so here's the background....DD, 7th grade, is a pretty good writer. This is our second year homeschooling and,over the last couple of years, I've wanted to sure up some holes on the academic writing side. She completed IEW B and the continuation course last year. This year, she completed WWS 1 and will finish 2 by the end of the summer. I do her academic writing instruction and I gave her Cover Story this year as a creative outlet. She self teaches that one and she loves it. Next year, we plan to do WWS 3 (taught by me) and The One Year Adventure Novel (self taught.)
With that background, I'm wondering if anyone can help me out. I have no problem keeping up with the schedule/rubrics of academic writing at this level and we've made a lot of progress. Writing seems to come easy to her and she has learned a lot. However, creative writing is her passion and she is overwhelming me with the amount of stories she is writing and needing feedback on. On a regular basis, this kid is giving me 20-30 page story intros of "book ideas" she has, short stories she wrote, characters she's invented and profiled, etc. In the beginning, I was keeping up and providing the feedback she needed. Her stories are great and she's developed her understanding of sequence and description. But I am reading her latest 80 pager and, with two other kids and a hubby who works from home, it has simply become too much. I just don't have time to read this much work outside of our normal coursework (I feel kind of guilty saying that :()
Anyway, I'm wondering if anyone knows of a writing evaluation service that we can hire to read her work and provide the necessary feedback and direction. That would free me up to read maybe every fourth story so she feels my encouragement, while also continuing to work with her (and the other two) on our scheduled coursework.
I know I'm posting on the HS board, but I thought it might be easier to get recs on writing evaluation on this side rather than the K-8 side. Please let me know if I'm in the wrong spot. Thanks.
-
Can't help with the video\DVD component but I've taught Hewitt's Conceptual Physics three times to 7th or 8th graders and it is an excellent curriculum. Labs are possible too, but it takes some planning and work.
We've decided to do this text along with Great Courses Physics in Your Life. I've given up on the DVD thing since we're going with conceptual. We'll do it together and I'll guide her through the labs. What did you use for lab work? I'm beginning to plan that out now. She's excited and frankly, so am I. You've taught it three times? Hmmmmm.....do you have a schedule or resource list you can share?
-
I think you have plenty of time to finish the sequence, especially if you take the online classes. No worries. Fwiw, even if there isn't, every minute through AoPS is worth it. Understanding math concepts, even in very complex situations, is never an issue for my ds. I attribute it to AoPS. He has been in multiple classes where the class avg on exam has been in the 60s and he had made something like a 98.
Very encouraging. Thank you for that! She's got the determination, now let's hope she can keep the pace.
-
That was my thought too, hence this thread. I was asking myself, why this expensive class? Isn't the whole self discovery/teaching aspect the reason we did this in the first place? She didn't take the class for PreA but was involved on the boards and made some nice friends, including her new best internet buddy from Scandinavia!!! So when she was asking for the class, I didn't get it at first. Now I do. Kathy's comments above and her observations about doing math with people who love it as much as you do were enough for me. And to hear your comments about community and motivation....sold! I want this for her. We'll make it work. I spent all day yesterday reworking her schedule. I'm trying to front end a lot so she's a bit more relaxed when the class starts in the fall.My older ds worked through the Intro Algebra text just fine on his own, and I never could understand why people would do a class. The books are designed to be self-teaching. But because there is no Intermediate Number theory textbook yet, we decided that he would do that class to fill in the gap. Well, after one class we were sold! As far as he and I are concerned, he will ALWAYS be enrolled in a class from here on out. He LOVES the community, the interaction, the motivation to work harder. If there is not a concept class available, he has decided to take the test-prep classes and then the WOOT.
I wish that they scheduled further out because it would definitely help us out. But we are just trying to go with the flow.
As for time for homework, it really depends on the class. Number theory was 15 to 20 hours per week!!!! But Algebra 3 is more like 7hours. But just know that the classes always ramp up so that the second half is much harder and takes longer than the first half. Now that I know this, I plan for it.
The AoPS community rocks!
Ruth in NZ
I only wish I had homeschooled from the beginning so we would have had more time for this kind of math community/sequence in high school. At this point, because of the timing of the AoPS sequence, Calc may be a stretch in HS, at least AoPS Calc. We'll see. I'm going to see how it goes this summer and make adjustments if needed. Last night, I briefly mentioned switching out of AoPS later in the sequence to see if we can get to Calc with more conventional texts, but my daughter started a mutiny :)
-
Thank you so much for your thoughtful responses Kathy. I really do appreciate it. I think that's what we'll try. I'll work the first several chapters with her this summer and into fall making sure she can keep pace. We'll try the online class in October and see how it goes. If this plan works, we'll repeat for Alg 2 and the rest of the sequence. I didn't know that AoPS goes year round. We school year round so this might work. AoPS is the way I wish I had learned Math and she loves this format. We're not giving up if we don't have to. Thank you for all your help.You can always try it out & see. AoPS gives full refunds if you cancel before the third class meeting, so you wouldn't be out anything if the pace seems too fast. The time required per week is really going to depend on the individual. If your daughter has already worked through the whole prealgebra text & loves the AoPS approach, though, I would guess that it might be a good fit!
You could do another text like Foerster first, but then you run of the risk of her being bored in AoPS algebra 1. I do like your idea of starting the AoPS intro algebra text at home for a few months and then signing on for the online experience once she has that head start.
I wouldn't recommend taking two or more online classes at once (unless one was a 'fun' class like AMC prep), but keep in mind that AoPS school runs year round, so you can average more than one class per year just by continuing with a new class soon after the old class finishes up. Of course, that depends on being willing to do math over the summer, but that's not a bad idea for any kid.
About Intermediate Algebra & Precalculus: together they cover the usual precalc topics, with advanced algebra in the Intermediate Alg text & trigonometry in the Precalculus text. In addition, the latter text goes above & beyond and has a lot of material on complex numbers and a whole introduction to linear algebra. See my old post (#5 in the thread) for more details.
-
So, I just lined up the TOC and the Alg 1 class schedule and it's about a chapter a week (with two for graphing). I have no experience with what's normal ability. Can a mathy but not super genius kid do this?
Another idea, I was originally thinking of the July start but maybe now, I'll wait until October. That way, since she just started the book, she'll be about 3-4 chapters ahead by the time the class starts. Would that help? That might also give us a good look at how fast she's processing everything and whether the Foerster's idea above has more merit.
-
I don't have personal experience with the lower classes, but the higher classes cover the equivalent of more material than in a typical class at a much more in depth level in an avg of 18 weeks. Some classes are 16 weeks. Cal was 24 weeks. I have read the pre-alg class only covers 1/2 the book per session, so it is slower paced.
My ds loved the extra challenge problems and the class interaction. I could never have even have thought of teaching him, so he also enjoyed the benefit of being able to contact the teacher for hints.....(they never come out and full out explain. ;))
I taught the Prealgebra book so Algebra 1 would be our first class experience. That pace makes me nervous but I don't want to discourage the love of Math that we fought so hard to restore. I just want that wonderful experience for her that both you and Kathy shared. Time to think a bit.
-
(1) Classes are added seasonally throughout the year; keep watching the website! The introductory & intermediate level subject courses are offered many different times throughout the year.
(2) Prealgebra 1 covers through Ch 7
Prealgebra 2 covers Ch 8 - Ch 15
Algebra 1 covers Intro Algebra text Ch 1 through 13
Algebra 2 covers Intro Algebra text Ch 11 through 21 (some overlap)
(3) The online classes take a year to cover the prealgebra text, which is a normal schedule.
Algebra 1 is a 16 week course. Even though it only covers half the book, it's a full (and then some) algebra 1 course. This pace is fast! Many kids need a full year to process algebra 1 and to practice enough to really firm it up. On the other hand, many math loving kids can handle it just fine. Same for Algebra 2 online. It's also 16 weeks and covers the material in a typical year-long alg2 course.
(4) My kids took many AoPS online courses over the years, and I'm a mathematician & could have easily handled teaching them. Why did I put them into online classes? They enjoyed the interaction with teachers & classmates immensely. The AoPS community is really special! They often met in one of the available empty classrooms online to work on homework problems with friends from their classes. After the introductory level, that sort of collaboration was invaluable, because the challenge sets get progressively more difficult, and kids can learn a lot more when they put their heads together. Also, the graders gave them valuable feedback on their solutions, both for math content & proof writing style.
Other intangibles: My kids were motivated by being with other math lovers. They were encouraged to participate in team competitions over the years, as well as attending summer camps with some of their AoPS buddies. These friends have lasted till today even (& they're well into their 20s). Finally, they offer grading & TA'ing jobs to their successful students when they graduate, and that part-time job helped both of my children in college. Dd is going to work full time for them starting in June. I seriously doubt that would have happened had we just studied at home.
Ok, now I see. A full year in half a year! Wow! I wonder how that translates to "5-7 hours per week." Their estimation sounds light unless their assuming every kid will get it right away. I think I need to print the TOC and compare it to the class schedule. In PreA, DD could do one section (not chapter) every two days or so. Review problems often took several days. She sailed through it except for Chapter 5…a little frustration there. She has just started the Intro Alg book and she wants this class. (You're right, the AoPS community is special and she has so enjoyed her first year.) She's bright and mathy and she LOVES this, but a whole year in half the time?? That makes me nervous.
Maybe we try it and see? Maybe she works through Foerster's first? Then we come back to the AoPS class as review and a deeper understanding of Algebra next Spring/Summer? Is that overkill?
I guess I'd also be a little worried about sequence and keeping pace to get through Calc in 12th if we slowed down that much. Based on your experience with AoPS, is there still a way to get to Calc? Can any AoPS classes be done concurrently? I was planning this but I don't think it will work now:
8th Intro to Algebra (I thought this was Alg 1)
9th Intro to Geometry
10th Intermediate Algebra (I thought this was Alg 2)
11th Precalc
12th Calc
-
For those who have used the online classes….would you mind answering some questions:
1) Their posted class schedule only goes through the Fall? Do they typically add more classes for the remainder of the year? I searched and searched and couldn't find any information.
2) In the PreA 1 and 2 as well as Algebra 1 and 2 classes, which chapters of the Intro books are covered in each class?
3) I've read here many times that the Algebra 1 and 2 classes move "fast." Can somebody explain exactly what that means? I know the class meets weekly and the website says "including time in class, students should expect to spend 5-7 hours per week for the subject classes" but that doesn't seem crazy to me. We do about 1.5 hours of math here a day so that would be in keeping, no? I just want to make sure that I know what we're jumping into. It scares me when so many of you say this same thing. I feel like I'm missing something.
4) What was the biggest advantage you saw in your child taking the class vs. you teaching or child self teaching?
We're planning for next year and DD loves the AoPS community so much, she's begging for the class too!! Love her enthusiasm but I want to make sure she can handle the pace.
-
My ds is reading through Robert Gilmore's books (Wizard of Quarks, Alive in Quantumland, etc.) and is pairing those with Great Courses, such as Particle Physics for Non-Physicists with the Wizard book. I think he'll do Physics in Your Life with the Alice book, or Scrooge's Cryptic Carol.
These books look fun! I'll add these to the additional reading list. There were also some good suggestions for further reading in the Amazon review section. Thanks for this.
-
That's our plan for middle school as well!
Maybe we can share ideas! Once I get the book and download the course, I'm going to start looking for the lab component and additional reading. If you come across any cool resources (i.e., books, lab kits, a schedule) would you share? She's excited and so am I. While I was a bit nervous about teaching algebra based physics, conceptual is much less daunting. Fun, fun!
-
We've done two levels here with two of the kiddies. Great results so far, but I'd love to know the answer to this too.
-
For all of you who have used the Great Courses....some advice please? I am doing American History next year with a 4th, 6th and 8th grader and was thinking about using this to beef things up for my DD13. Has anyone used it?
She's pretty bright and I think she can handle early HS material. Was this one any good? Any other recommendations?
-
I have heard goog things about pairing Hewitt's Conceptual Physics with one of the various Physics Great Courses. I don't know if you have tried any of the GC's yet, but they are a major hit around here.
Ha! I just bought Swimmermom's Hewitt book on the Classified boards a couple of days ago and now, based on that terrific Great Courses thread, I'm going to pair it with Physics in Your Life. 8th grade Science done!!
-
She should be fine as long as she is understanding the algebra material. DS did Dolciani's algebra 1 a year before using Derek's physics course and did AoPS algebra 1 as algebra review concurrently with Derek's physics course. He found the second chapter in DO's physics the hardest (it's also the longest chapter with most homework sections if I remember correctly) but it was smooth sailing after that. ETA: you can start DO's physics anytime too. DS started it in January instead of August the semester before.
Thanks Quark. I had forgotten that you can start DO at any time. She only has AoPS PreA under her belt. She's doing the first Algebra book now. She LOVES AoPS and is doing well but there have been several times where we've cross referenced with Foerster's to solidify a concept. If we go this route, think I'll let her get further along in Algebra and then start DO in the second semester.
Truthfully, based on what I'm reading, I'm on the fence about doing a full blown Physics course right now, even though that's what she wants. She's a math/science kid but we've had to play catch up in math because of her abysmal public school experience. (We've homeschooled science all along so she has broad exposure.) I keep asking, why rush algebra based Physics? Won't she enjoy it so much more in HS when she can do a challenging lab course and her math will help her and not possibly hinder her? I was thinking maybe using 8th grade for a good challenging Physical Science course to perfect her science skills....i.e., lab reports, analyzing data, reading a solid textbook. Maybe the right text could help us bring all of the "pieces" she's learned and connect them a bit more?
-
I wanted CPO to work SOOOO much but it just didn't. Part was my fault and the other wasn't my fault, lol
Part that was my fault: I am not able to teach the math in an algebra based physics class on the fly. Long story, but I didn't take Algebra. It isn't beyond me, but I don't know it like most people do. There is an expectation in CPO that the teacher is at least competent in Algebra and can help the student. I don't think that is an unreasonable expectation, in fact, I think it is a very reasonable one. But it made things difficult. So, I was the problem there.
Part that wasn't my fault: the labs are a bit tricky to manage on your own. There is some specialized CPO equipment that I just cannot afford (who can afford two photogates?) and then some other stuff that is just expensive. My son LOVES the hands on part of CPO (we have used other CPO middle grade books) and I felt like I was having to skip lab after lab after lab due to not having the material. Once you start skipping the labs CPO starts to feel a bit pointless, kwim? And the ones we didn't skip would have been so much better with several kids. Often the labs directed the students to split into groups and do different things and then compare results etc. Now, I tried looking at the labs and trying to sub in other labs from other programs with similar goals etc but that started to feel like I was creating a whole different program, and I just didn't have the time.
I also didn't find the teacher's book to have as much lab support as I have come to expect from CPO, but that could have been a problem with me and not with CPO. Sometimes we just couldn't get the data to make sense.
That makes sense. I looked at the book and, being that it's a text intended for a class setting, a lot of the labs seem to be better in groups. I'm going to look into the group option in our new area and see if something exists or if there's any interest in creating it.
Regarding the math, I thought I had Algebra down.....I went through AP Calc, after all...but AOPs seems to have a way of consistently bringing me to my knees....lol.
-
Holy smokes at the $$$$!
Yeah, I almost fell over. The price on the boxed sets are out of sight. She has a monthly subscription plan that gives you access to all her videos and text but then you're pulling it all together with schedules, labs and materials. It's a lot of work. She says to give it to your kids and let them go. That's fine for what I used it for the first year....interest lead exposure after leaving public school, but I wouldn't want my 13yr old to have the burden of pulling together a whole physics course on her own.
-
This might be worth a look. We just moved to FL so we don't have a homeschool group yet, per say. But the Homeschool community is huge here. I'll put some feelers out and see if a group setting with a hired teacher is a possibility. I have two behind her so the materials will definitely get used.We did the labs as a group. We had 4 kids from 3 families. One of the other families and I went in on the ramp and two photogates. It was expensive, but we knew we'd reuse them in a few years for our younger kids, and then the idea was to resell them and split what we got for them. This made the "hardest" labs some of the easiest to do. The rest of the CPO materials are easily swapped out with other things. In some places we used other labs we found elsewhere, but most of the labs were from the book.
It's true, we were all as teachers comfortable with the basic Algebra in the book.
Next time through we have hired a teacher. There will be 8-10 kids, split into two lab groups of 4-5 kids each. Friend will use our ramp, photogate and timers and get another set for the second group. She's thinking she can repeat this in future for other homeschool groups.
Writing Evaluation
in High School and Self-Education Board
Posted
Oooooo, a grad student. Great idea! We have some very good schools around us. I'm going to look into this one! I'll also PM you my email regarding the other post. Thanks so much Sue!