arborite
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Posts posted by arborite
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Honestly, given his ACT score I would focus not on content but on test-taking strategy. His friend with a 22 needs to learn new material; your kid needs a few targeted tactics to get over the NMS cut.
Strategy is what the prep courses are best at: how to rule out wrong answers, when to guess, speed.
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Getting Started with Latin. If he is still hungry after that there are many more options!
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This sounds great! Can you please say how much time this took? Wondering if it could work for a summer course.
My son would tell you the best thing he's done this year is Youth Digital's Mods for Mincraft course (Java) he does online. This company offers generous, deep content in an excellent format. We will most definitely be signing up for more of their courses.
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We have done a lot of history-led travel over the past two years. None in the cards for the next few weeks.
We do go to China in June, though - we could start in on a China-themed history unit! Ideas welcome.
We have decided to use this time, in part, to gather digital photos from all our trips to create a travelogue/blog. This will be a nice coda to our two homeschool years - he goes to high school in the fall (sniff...).
We are also going to do a geography unit, including Mapping the World by Art. This will link up to our travelogue.
And: go to the library and pull off the shelves piles of books to just read, read, read.
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We combine Cambridge and Lively Latin. LL is definitely below grade level but it compensates for Cambridge's inadequate grammar support.
Cambridge is optimized for classroom use, with the teacher providing the grammar lessons. It did not work for us at all as a standalone. New tenses are sprung on the kid with zero warning.
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DS 14 has finished up his year-long science class, as well as his writing class. With this found time we want a break from routine and some fun, intense learning.
Please share your favorite short courses that could be enjoyably completed (or intensely initiated) within a few weeks. What would YOU dive into if you had a couple of weeks to spare?
-He is a voracious, college-level reader who loves travel, fantasy, sci-fi and history.
-He reads and speaks Latin and German at an intro level.
But we are open to absolutely anything!
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The photo goes with the score ACT sends to the HIGH SCHOOL, which (one hopes) knows what its students look like. The HS can therefore detect fraud.
do you have a source for this? What I found on the ACT site was that photos are not included in the score report sent to colleges.
Will student photos be included in score reports sent to colleges for admission purposes?
No. ACT does not plan to include photos with score reports sent to colleges at this time. The photos will only be printed on score reports sent to the student’s high school.
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Thinkwell Algebra is $65 when it goes on sale at Homeschool Buyers Coop several times a year. I am a math-y type and I think it's great. We are getting through what is supposed to be a 34-week program in about 25 weeks, and then moving to Geometry. Very pleased with the product.
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Agreed. I started my 7th grader on Fractions. He got through the pre-algebra books that year, too. I would skip physics. The pre-algebra lessons are great, I think, though we skimmed through the very cranky Econ chapters.
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Ok, this is too funny!!! So how did you find this?? You were just sorta randomly searching? You know the author?? :lol:
Randomly searching. If you search for Byzantium on Amazon, it comes up near the top.
It's definitely a book for a history-loving, teen boy - icon-painting monks swinging swords at shambling zombies. The action starts as two monks are headed toward Constantinople from their monastery in Greece.
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We have done KW basic and intermediate. Loved them both. Planning next on expository.
These courses have given my son back his confidence. He's an creative, thoughtful, natural writer who needs some structure to his writing. An inflexible, negative teacher at his traditional school destroyed his love of writing. Bravewriter brought it back.
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DS 13 is reading Zombies of Byzantium as we start our Byzantium unit. I assigned it. 😀 Also Chapters 1-2 of SWB's History of the Medieval World.
For fun he has been alternating between the Maze Runner and Harry Potter series (Nth time through HP, good thing we bought hardcover way back when).
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We love Thinkwell Algebra. Great videos and tons of practice problems. That said, a kid needs someone to talk him through difficult spots, and that someone needs to have watched the explanation the kid watched. I know algebra cold, but I mix up my son when I solve a problem in a way different from what the program just taught him. So, when he is confused I watch the relevant sections with him and THEN I explain. If your husband does not have the time for this then you should indeed sign up for a class or tutor.
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We are currently on Beginning Algebra. We did Elementary Physics when Schmidt suggested and it did not work well at all (got to Ch 22 and gave up). We went instead into the Pre-Algebra books and did not look back.
Now that we are doing physics in 8th grade we may pick up Elementary Physics again. It's tough, though - EP is not aligned well with any physics curriculum I have run across.
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Subtracting a negative is like taking away a debt.
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I never left the workforce. I don't know what I will do! My son heads to high school next year, after two years of homeschooling. I have so loved learning, traveling and exploring with him! All the hours spent reading history books that registered as "parenting" in the spousal accounting ledgers will now be categorized as "personal time." :-(
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There's not much to ACS if you skip the labs. It's a discovery-based program. We dropped it because I did not have time to do the labs with DS. We switched to McHenry's Elements, which has more content than ACS sans labs.
DS is using Prentice-Hall in an online course with AIM Academy. It works well in conjunction with the course, but the organization of the book is so scattered that I would find it difficult to use as a standalone.
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Center for Talented Youth. They use the PLATO course.
http://cty.jhu.edu/ctyonline/courses/science_engineering/life_science.html
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In 7th, we supplemented Fred Pre-Algebra with Real World Algebra and targeted Kahn practice.
In 8th, we are alternating Thinkwell Algebra with Fred Beginning Algebra. We do both at a double pace and switch whenever fatigue sets in. I think we will end up finishing both, and I aspire to start Fred Advanced Algebra before high school.
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My son is doing the year-long chemistry and physics. It has been a great experience. It is challenging and well organized. Just what he needed.
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I see you have LOF Algebra and Thinkwell Algebra listed. What do you think of them for supplementation? My ds uses Saxon because his school uses Saxon but I would like fairly easy things that explain very well for review and supplementation purposes.
We have been alternating between the two. ThinkWell has terrific, thorough, straightforward explanations and lots of drill. It works well for DS. Fred also works well for him, though it is very different. After a a month of either Fred or TW he is antsy and we switch to the other for a change of scenery. Variety is the spice of life!
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We used the LOF PreAlgebra books last year, along with Fractions and Decimals. With Econ, DS paid close attention to the math and rolled his eyes when the econ rants got ridiculous. I let him skip most of the econ questions, which contributed little to the algebra. By contrast, in the Pre-Bio book there was a real link between the math and the bio topic (e.g., balancing equations, which has arisen in chemistry this year).
The method the Econ book develops for solving rate problems (six easy boxes) is extremely useful, and that alone made it worth dodging the siller stuff. Algebra has been much easier this year because of the foundation laid by the two Fred pre-algebra books plus Everyday Algebra.
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No gifted program in my district, which is why we are homeschooling. The main "resource" listed on the intermediate school district's gifted site is a list of private schools.
Study-plan for child close to Natl Merit cut-off
in High School and Self-Education Board
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Yes, the books have that info. A lot of what is in the books would be unnecessary review for him. The nice thing about the online tests and prep is that they adapt to the kid's level. He can get quickly to what's hard for him and work on it.
Homeschool Buyers Coop often has the online courses at a steep discount.
That said, do what works for you and your kid!