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TarynB

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    Been a LOOONG time--need advice re colleges for my junior

    in The College Board

    Posted

    You didn't ask for advice about this, so please ignore if it isn't welcome. Your comments about ADHD and being a slow test-taker and taking his Adderall only on test days caught my eye. My DH is diagnosed ADHD and has to take medication. He can't focus on his work without it and would be seen as a slow worker without it. His brain tries to do EVERYTHING at once. I've known him since high school. He's very capable but he struggled academically in high school and college . . . he didn't seek medical help for his ADHD until well into adulthood . . . so that's where I'm coming from with my thoughts. Why is your son only taking his medication on test days? That is a red flag to me. Yes, medicating for ADHD is very individual and it can be a process to land on the specific medication that will work best for any particular person. (I'm sure you probably already know this.) Maybe your son could consider talking to his doctor more about his ADHD if he needs/wants to bring up his test scores for targeting schools such as the ones on his list. Just a thought, please ignore if not wanted. 

    Biology: Any experiences with Red Wagon Tutorial or MPOA?

    in High School and Self-Education Board

    Posted · Edited by TarynB

    OP, I hope you find something that works for you, and it sounds like Excelsior Classes might. But I wanted to mention for anyone else who is reading, while Mrs. Stokes at Excelsior Classes does use Science Shepherd for her high school biology course, the other Excelsior Classes science courses, at least at the high school level, do not use the Science Shepherd curriculum. Just wanted to mention that since it was referenced in an earlier post. My son is taking chemistry and anatomy & physiology, and both use secular texts. Some of their other high school science courses appear to use OpenStax (free online digital, or low-cost in print) textbooks. 

    • Like 1

    12th grade planning 2019-2020

    in High School and Self-Education Board

    Posted · Edited by TarynB

    Count me as not emotionally prepared for 12th grade. ☺️

    Here's what we are planning at the moment:

    AP Calculus with Derek Owens

    Biomedical Science with Excelsior Classes - fall semester 

    Chemistry via dual enrollment - spring semester

    Essay Writing and Appreciation with Roy Speed at HSCollegeBound.com - excellent at meeting each student where they are and provides very helpful feedback

    dual enrollment for US History, Government, and Public Speaking

    Also going to go through the Great Courses' How to Look At and Understand Great Art and How to Listen To and Understand Great Music.

    If he has time, I want to watch the Great Courses video course on Economics with him. Econ likely won't be required in his planned major. Maybe this summer. 

    Tell me about how you use The Great Courses

    in High School and Self-Education Board

    Posted

    We use the videos, not audio. DS is driving now, so we don't often wind up in the car together anymore, but even before that we both just preferred to watch - seems to help us focus better, IDK. We generally watch them while we eat lunch. This year DS is using them to study US History. Usually we discuss each lecture afterwards and then I pick one question per week from the course guide for DS to write an answer to. 

    • Like 1

    ChemAdvandage AP for first full-fledged online course?

    in High School and Self-Education Board

    Posted · Edited by TarynB

    I'm not the OP, but I want to thank all those who shared their experiences here with AP Chem. You all gave me lots to think about, and the comment about going off the beaten path even when it seems "everyone" is doing APs really spoke to me.

    DS is interested in a career in health care. This year he has doubled up on science courses (regular chemistry and anatomy & physiology) and he wants to take at least 2 science credits again next year for 12th grade. So we've decided to have him take dual enrollment chemistry instead of AP Chem, which will also allow him to dive deeper into a biological science that he is "authentically" interested in.

    He just signed up for a one-semester course called Biomedical Science at Excelsior Classes for next year (he's already taken regular bio). He's SOOO excited. Thank you all so much!

    • Like 4

    ChemAdvandage AP for first full-fledged online course?

    in High School and Self-Education Board

    Posted · Edited by TarynB

    46 minutes ago, easypeasy said:

    I've posted about this before, but this class kicked my kid's tail end (we had to drop it). It wasn't his first online class, but the time commitment was intense. BUT my kid doesn't *love* science and, while he actually truly enjoyed the material he was learning, he just didn't have that kind of time to dedicate to one class (he was spending waaaay over 10hr/wk. Waaaaay Over).

    If it were ME, I'd certainly have my student in at least one other online learning experience before heading right into Mr. M's AP Chem. Again, the class is absolutely wonderful, organized, totally worth the $$, and Mr. M was fantastic. But, whoo boy. If this had been my kid's first online class, I think he would have had a stroke and never volunteered to take another online class ever again! 😄  As it was, he was quickly able to assess that, for whatever reason, this class was taking him a LOT longer than he had expected and he had previous online classroom experience to compare it to. This previous experience helped us a lot as we were making the decision about what to DO about it (suck it up and stick it out, or drop it before it consumed most of his year while other things fell by the wayside).

    Easypeasy, if you don't mind the question, did your son replace Mr. M's class with another AP chem course, or did he opt to go with a regular (non-AP) chemistry course instead, or go another direction entirely? I think I saw another thread you have going right now where you posted about your musically talented son and mentioned that he took chem in 9th grade - is this the same child? Sorry if I'm getting my wires crossed. I'm going to search more for your past posts about this too. TY! 

    ETA: My DS is taking regular chemistry with Excelsior this year (11th) and planning on AP Chem next year (12th). The Excelsior chem is not too challenging for him. He's pulling an A with only about 5-6 hours of work per week (outside of the 90 minute once weekly class). He likes science. Planning on a major that will require chem in college. But I'm pretty sure his schedule next year won't allow for 20 hours in one week devoted to just one class.

    • Like 1

    ChemAdvandage AP for first full-fledged online course?

    in High School and Self-Education Board

    Posted

    27 minutes ago, Arcadia said:

     

    I have a slow worker and a fast worker. My slow worker spends a day on weekly quizzes, a day on labs and half a day on videos. So easily 20hrs a week. My fast worker also spends a day for a lab, he spends a day for videos and quizzes.

    What helps my oldest was pre-reading the Chang textbook during Summer. My youngest wasn’t willing to do so he had to do his first round of reading when class started which took him more time

    Whoa! I've seen others say 2 hours a day . . . and I was assuming that meant 5 days per week . . . total of 10 hours per week spent. But yours who didn't pre-read spent easily 20 hours per week? I might have to rethink my plans . . . yikes.

    • Like 1

    what's working this year for US history?

    in High School and Self-Education Board

    Posted · Edited by TarynB

    We're having a great year with the lecture series from The Great Courses (History of the United States, 2nd edition), reading from A Patriot's History of the United States by Schweikart and Allen, plus the book of primary documents ("reader") that goes with it, and writing assignments that I choose from the prompts in the Great Courses guidebook that comes with the videos.

    https://www.thegreatcourses.com/courses/history-of-the-united-states-2nd-edition.html

    https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1595230017/ref=oh_aui_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

    https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1595230785/ref=oh_aui_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

    • Like 3

    Online Chemistry teacher recommendations

    in High School and Self-Education Board

    Posted · Edited by TarynB

    Another option is chemistry with Kerrie Childress at Excelsior Classes. It meets live once a week for 90 minutes. Class opens with a prayer but is otherwise just chemistry. The textbook she uses is a standard, secular high school text. Mrs. Childress is really good at explaining concepts. (She previously taught at Landry Academy before it folded, as did many of the other teaches at Excelsior Classes.) The course also includes lab work. DS is having a great experience with her this year.

    https://excelsiorclasses.com/product/chemistry/

    ETA: Excelsior requires a $40 per year "family membership" to enroll, but if you get on their email newsletter list, or follow them on FB, you should see a promo code come out for a significant discount off the membership price. They did that last year, around enrollment time (February).

    • Like 1

    What is everyone doing for science next year?

    in High School and Self-Education Board

    Posted

    4 hours ago, Roadrunner said:

     

    Fundafunda didn’t work for us. I think the lack of a live class was a factor. My kid also started to dislike the style of videos. Once he discovered Bozeman videos, he refused to watch her hand write slides. It just wasn’t a good fit here, but glad to know it worked for your DS. 

     

    Yes, DS thought it was fine but I can see where the note-taking style of the videos might not be a hit with everyone. She explained that she does that so that the note-taking speed isn't too fast, so the students can easily keep up while writing down their own notes. She previously taught at a community college, so I imagine study skills and other helps like that were emphasized.

    • Like 1

    What is everyone doing for science next year?

    in High School and Self-Education Board

    Posted · Edited by TarynB

    On 1/18/2019 at 8:08 PM, RootAnn said:

    Thanks for the mention. I looked up FundaFunda earlier and found all the threads about how time consuming and confusing Bio is/was. I don't think that is the class for this kid. I also checked out Blue Tent. That's another No.

     

    FWIW, my son took FundaFunda's Biology and in his experience it was not time consuming or confusing. Perhaps the reviews with that experience were for kids younger than the target age (high school)? Or otherwise needed more than the typical high school level of assistance with executive function/organization? Or had not taken online classes previously and were therefore dealing with learning how to learn online while also learning the course material? I think all those background factors are important to consider when reading reviews. We found that FundaFunda Bio's materials were all well organized, laid out clearly week by week, easy to work with, etc. DS was in 9th grade and the typical 9th grade age & maturity when he took it. It uses the Miller and Levine text as a spine, which is a solid, regular high school textbook - not advanced. I doubt he ever spent more than 4 - 5 hours per week, and that was during weeks with labwork; non-lab weeks took less time. Of course "know thy child" always applies though. 😊

    ETA: I think I found the thread with the reviews you were referring to. There is mention of dyslexia, non-NT, Asperger's/autism, so def. understandable in those cases that some students might need additional parental support in the class.

    High school bio classes that use secular texts are hard to find. The class wasn't perfect (none are), but it worked fine for DS. I hope others reading would consider it as an option.

    • Like 1

    Video based Great Books, what are my options?

    in High School and Self-Education Board

    Posted · Edited by TarynB

    9 hours ago, cintinative said:

    Can anyone on this thread answer if we can take the Roman Roads or Wasko Lit courses out of order? My son is in GC1 at WHA and we would not want to do ancients again in 9th. I can't see anything about prerequisites?

    The Wasko Lit class is appealing to me because it includes writing. I am not sure about how to manage history alongside a course like this though since the lit is history based already. I have a lot of research to do!

     

    For Wasko Lit, yes, you can just jump into the sequence for the course/time period you want. My son did ancients, skipped middle ages (partly bc it covers a lot of Shakespeare which he had already done a lot of elsewhere), then did renaissance, and is now in modern. DS says in his experience none of the lit courses require any of the previous courses (or books).

    However, a word of caution if you are looking to Wasko Lit to cover a lot of writing instruction: Wasko Lit does not spend a lot of time on writing instruction and there is not a lot of writing output required. That is a plus for us, but may not be for others. (We've covered writing instruction in all its various forms with other resources, including WriteAtHome, among others.) The focus of the lit courses really is to read, discuss, and enjoy the books. There is some writing instruction focused on lit analysis. For the entire year there are two lit analysis papers and two "creative projects" (i.e., create a powerpoint about one of the books covered that semester, etc.). The two lit analysis papers come back with comments and constructive criticism, but there are not multiple drafts handed back and forth. It works out to one assignment (either a paper or a project) per quarter. HTH.

    The website explains how each class works and provides a list of the books covered, etc. https://www.writeathome.com/wasko-lit/

    • Like 1

    Video based Great Books, what are my options?

    in High School and Self-Education Board

    Posted · Edited by TarynB

    Just for another option to consider, my son is taking the Great Books classes offered online by Brian Wasko (Wasko Lit), which you can find through his main website, WriteAtHome.com. Link: https://www.writeathome.com/wasko-lit/

    The Great Books classes are live, once a week discussion classes with low output requirements. Completely separate from all the various asynchronous writing classes that are offered on his website. There's a weekly multiple choice quiz of like 8-10 questions to keep the kids accountable on their reading schedule, a discussion forum, and a semester paper or project. (I like the lighter workload because it frees up our schedule for other writing instruction. There is more to life to lit analysis, lol!) Mr. Wasko is a Christian; however our experience is that the discussion is respectful towards all faiths. DS is in his third year of the lit classes and he really, really likes Mr. Wasko. DS has a schedule conflict this year, so he isn't able to attend the live class most weeks, but he watches the recordings and that is working out just as well as the previous two years when he attended live classes.

    Great Books 1 covers ancient Greece and Rome. Book list pasted below:

    The Lit 1 Syllabus includes:

    • Mythology, Edith Hamilton
    • The Iliad, Homer
    • The Odyssey, Homer
    • Agamemnon, Aeschylus
    • Oedipus Rex, Sophocles
    • Medea, Euripides
    • Antigone, Sophocles
    • Selections from Dialogues, Plato
    • The Republic, Plato
    • Poetics, Aristotle
    • Till We Have Faces, C.S. Lewis
    • Selections from Fables, Aesop
    • Selections from Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans, Plutarch
    • The Aeneid, Virgil 
    • Julius Caesar, Shakespeare
    • Like 3

    Looking for an entertaining overview of medieval history

    in High School and Self-Education Board

    Posted

    I think I know which Great Courses prof you're referring to (Daileader?). Many seem to love him, according to reviews, but we found him a bit too dry also, the year we covered medieval history. We switched to the courses by Dorsey Armstrong, and both DS and I enjoyed her style much more. Esp. her series about the plague, strangely enough. Any chance you can try videos by a different prof?

    • Like 2
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