Aretemama
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Posts posted by Aretemama
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Our DD was accepted into BYU Provo! She had other acceptances with scholarships, but this is the one she was waiting for!
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My youngest DD received her scores yesterday. We're thrilled with a 34 English score, but her math and science are still in the 20's. She was at the top of her PreCal class (by quite a bit) and her Chemistry class this last year, but she is still struggling with the speed issue when it comes to the ACT. She's going to take an ACT/College Prep camp at her favorite university and see if she can learn some tricks to boost her speed.
She has the "average" ACT score now for admission to her preferred university, but she feels the need to prove herself with her math/science scores.
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It's been a few years since my oldest girls used Cambridge, but if I remember correctly the recommended pacing as being adjusted for age. For junior high you would use one book a year, for high school one book a semester, for college all four books in a year.
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I wanted to add one other plus for IEW for jr high or early high school- they teach note taking. The programs we tried previously did not do this in any sort of organized (or effective) manner. In fact I had dd take the WTMA study skills course specifically because it was a skill being left out of our other writing courses. And when I say note taking I mean actual, real note taking for live lectures, not just "let's make some 3x5 note cards for our research paper."
Not to downplay the need for live lecture note-taking, but for students who are on a college-prep track, I think that advanced note-taking for research papers (not just some notes on a 3x5 card) is also an important skill that shouldn't be dismissed or overlooked.
Writing with Skill is my favorite for this. Students learn how to take different types of notes for different topoi, and these pre-writing skills greatly help in their thinking and their organization so that their writing is more logical. The lessons help students avoid plagiarism, save research time, and tell the difference between common knowledge and what needs a citation. I feel like these types of note-taking skills are incredibly helpful tools.
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I would agree with Julie of KY that there is a time to move on from IEW. This would depend on how many years of IEW your student has already had. Please don't misunderstand, I love it, but there is more to writing than what IEW offers. If your child has had several years of IEW, then I recommend doing a different program for next year.
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My DS rents a Mac laptop from the university that he uses for most of his classes, but he brought an old HP from home for an information systems class that wasn't compatible with a Mac. He has loved the Mac because it is compatible with most of what he needs to do at school. We've never owned an Apple at home, so I understand your husband's reluctance, but it has been a good choice for DS at college. We're only spending about $200 for the rental for a year. DS is going to go on a two-year mission, so we don't want to make an actual purchase until he returns.
My kids have all done online classes through high school, so I understand how important it is to have good wifi access. We have had good luck with HP and Dell. I'm on a Dell Inspiron 3521 Notebook right now that I love, but last year we bought my daughter has an Inspirion 5000 that I cannot stand. She likes it well enough, but I really loathe it because I cannot get the mousepad to copy and paste. They were both bought directly from Dell online, but mine was from the outlet section. The HP's we've had were very basic but worked well.
I did recently have connection issues with this Dell, but I went online, found the solution and fixed it.It was a bit more challenging than I'm used to (I'm technologically challenged), but after a couple of attempts, I finally got the wifi working again.
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Is there any explicit violence and gore in this book? I'm looking at this translation: The Expedition of Cyrus (which I believe is the name as Persian Expedition?).
We read this version:
I don't remember explicit gore, the kind you read in The Illiad, but that could be because it has been a couple of years. It was definitely a military story, but what stands out in my memory is Xenophon's leadership. Hope this helps. :)
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We know a few young men at UNR, I believe they are all engineering majors. One of the boys' dad graduated from there and has had a successful engineering career.
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Oh, I'm so sorry. I had mono and strep throat simultaneously in college and it wasn't fun. Mostly I just slept. That's all I could do for quite awhile, but he might have a milder case. Easy food, like canned soup or ramens with frozen veggies can be a lifesaver when you have no energy (if he has a kitchen it can be easier than walking to the cafeteria).
My DS is also first-semester college and has had to deal with a broken hand that needed surgery and our insurance wouldn't cover out of state. So, he's had to fly back and forth several times for both the surgery and the follow-ups. He's missed quite a bit of school because of it. Then he got sick. I thought it was from stress, but his roommates were all passing it around. I Amazoned some good supplements to DS in order to build his immune system. Vicks vapor rub (or Doterra Breathe oil) on the feet at bedtime can be helpful if he has a cough.
My DS has had to drop one class (coding) because everything (typing, showering, etc...) is taking so long to do one handed. DS had a couple of profs who would work with him, and some that are almost unreachable with TAs who won't give any leeway. He'll have to retake it next semester.
Sounds like your DS doesn't have that problem, but he should be prepared for just being tired and schedule in extra time to complete everything. I remember the first time I was feeling better after having mono. I got dressed and was driving to meet a friend when I realized that I had used all my energy just getting ready, haha! I had to turn around and go back home.
I wish him a speedy recovery!
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It is interesting how different books affect us differently. I found Jane Eyre depressing in high school and warned my oldest not to read it when she asked about it in junior high. She read it anyway and loved it. You just never know. A lot of it has to do with where you are in life's journey.
My kids found these classics to be particularly uplifting:
Homer's Odyssey
Xenophon's Persian Expedition
Virgil's Aeneid
Cicero's Basic Works
The Voyage of St. Brendan
Dante's Purgatory and Paradise
Asser's Life of Alfred
Monmouth's History of the Kings of Britain
Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing
Austen's Pride and Prejudice
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Oh my, this hits home! We leave in 12 days to take my only DS to college, and then I have one 16 yo DD left at home. I randomly break into tears while driving or talking... I did not expect to be feeling this sad!
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Some recommendations:
I Am Malala (non-fiction)
London Calling by Edward Bloor
Tangerine by Edward Bloor
Big Mouth and Ugly Girl by Joyce Carol Oates (this is probably my favorite young person book I've read this summer)
Passenger by Alexandra Bracken (I haven't read this yet, but my 16yo DD loved it, so it is on my list)
Others my kids have enjoyed:
Anything by N.D. Wilson
Percy Jackson series (Greek, Roman, and Norse )
The Harry Potter series
The Uglies series
Scarlett Pimpernel series
Divergent series
Hunger Games series
Delirium series (very similar to Divergent)
Fahrenheit 451
The Giver
Mrs. Mike
Christy
My older girls enjoyed some of the Sarah Dessen books, like Keeping the Moon, when they were in high school, but they might be too old for your daughter. I seem to remember they contained fairly mature content.
My kids tended to find one author they love and read every book that they could find by that author. Louisa May Alcott, Mark Twain, Emma Orczy, and ND Wilson have been some of their favorites.
Something that can be fun is to find some books that she missed when she was younger, books like From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E Frankweiler, Black Beauty, Hans Brinker and the Silver Skates, Wheel on the School, etc... and read those now for fun.
Edited because I always mess up :)
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"At BYU our football team doesn't loose; we give the opposing team the opportunity to excel. 'Cause we're nice like that."
That's pretty funny! DS is very excited about attending the football games, win or lose! He's got his BYU shirts, and I think we'll have to get some blue face paint, too. :laugh:
Oh, and, one great thing is how he's been able to connect with other incoming freshmen online, and not just his roommates. They are even doing a t-shirt exchange this summer! It's such a different world than when my husband and I went.
In the freshmen online groups he has learned a lot from younger siblings of current students about all sorts of everyday stuff. We even changed his meal plan because of what he's learned from these other students (after I verified the info, of course).
DS is also doing a late summer honors course, which is a 1 unit/1 week/1 topic class, and a great way to get a jump start on getting to know the campus. He's literally counting down the days until he starts school. He is a homeschool boy who is ready to fly!
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In California, there are homeschool families (especially private homeschoolers that do not use charter schools) that take the CHSPE (California High School Proficiency Exam) in order to avoid the stigma of the GED and other issues that come with receiving a GED instead of a diploma.
Passing this exam is the legal equivalent of a high school diploma and, by law, all institutions in California must accept it as equal. This can be a big deal down the road when interviewing for promotions. As crazy as it seems, even if you have a college degree, the lack of a high school diploma can become a real issue.
You might want to check if your state as its own version of the CHSPE.
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I agree with the others that you can't crush him by addressing everything at once. In this particular assignment, my instinct would be to work on precise vs vague adjectives. Focusing on the word "great" ask him, "What was great about it? What in particular made it great?" Then pull out the thesaurus, and start finding some synonyms and substituting them, having fun with it.
I found that if I try to correct every single problem we'd never move on! You don't have to work on everything at once. As long as he's writing fairly often, you will be able to address the different issues throughout the year.
I have had to correct papers much worse than this, so I would not worry.
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I love the simple Whaley Planbooks available from Rainbow Resource:
I used this 4/8 subject planner for when my kids were younger. It was a simple and flexible. It kept them accountable. It's fun to look back at these. Yes, I kept them!
When they got into high school we switched to the 7 subject version:
We switched to the Whaley planbooks when our favorite Charlotte Mason planbook stopped being printed. There is nothing fancy about these, but they do the job.
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DS decided on Brigham Young University, Provo.
Reasons: Mostly it boiled down to cost. He had been excited about attending the University of Utah, so he was indecisive for a while. UofU has this new residential building/creative studio opening this next year that will be for "entrepreneurs, creators,and innovators" that really appealed to him, but the first year tuition ended up being so expensive compared to BYU. The tuition is already low at BYU, plus he was offered a scholarship. BYU has been investing a lot in new buildings and there appears to be an emphasis building cross-curricular programs, so I think he will be very happy there.
Major: He's been indecisive about his major, so the fact that they offer quite a few majors he is interested in is a plus. He is going to try to take a variety of classes this first year to gain some exposure to different majors and try to find his niche.
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I agree with Myra. It gets harder as they get older. Hang in there.
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Oh, and I forgot to mention that IEW does have a book (three-ring binders, actually) for the kids. The Student Writing Intensive is a great program for that age, and you can buy a combo pack that comes with Fix-It Grammar. It is secular enough for California schools, so it should work anywhere.
You would probably use SWI Level A for the age of your class. The combo pack comes with the "portable walls" which I find extremely helpful for the students. Depending on how many students you have, it is probably cheaper to buy the bulk packages rather than the combo packs.
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We love IEW, but I would also recommend adding Killagon's Sentence Composing for Elementary School. The "chunking" exercises are excellent and IEW does not address this. Also, you can draw from the exercises to reinforce the IEW sentence variety idea.
https://www.amazon.com/Sentence-Composing-Elementary-School-Sentences/dp/0325002231
I wouldn't say that every student has to have this book, but I would use it for in-class exercises.
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The very first time going through the Illiad and the Odyssey for my oldest two, we used Fagles' Illiad and Fitzgerald's Odyssey. I read them aloud, so I appreciated the pronounciation guide in the Fagles version, but ended up preferring the writing of the Fitzgerald. These were the versions recommended by Fritz Hinrichs of Escondido Tutorial Service whom we used for great books tutorials.
For my youngest two we used the Lattimore versions, and WOW! Reading this version aloud was beautiful! If the kids were desperate because they needed to get through their reading, and I was busy and couldn't read aloud, they once or twice used Fagles because it was a quicker read, but they both preferred the sound of Lattimore. My younger two loved Wes Callihan's Schola Tutorials and he recommends Lattimore. Besides still teaching live classes, Mr. Callihan's teachings are available on DVD with Roman Roads Media. Highly recommended!
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We used Catapult Engineering:
http://catapultea.com/curriculum/course-descriptions/
They are expensive, and you have to purchase the Solid Works software separately. But, Catapult bent over backwards to work with us and our charter school. They became vendors so I did not have to pay out of pocket for the class.
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University of Utah does the same thing, although I don't remember the details about not coming home in the summer or during holidays.
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Since I'm so late responding to this, I don't know if you are still interested, but I have taught WWS in a co-op situation. First, I'd say to take SWB's advice that it should be started later than 5th grade or at a slower pace. For our co-op I find that 7th is a great time to start this program because even though it starts rather slow, it does pick up speed by the second semester.
I would only do one level over two years if you are teaching younger grades, but for younger grades I'd use a different program (maybe something from Classical Academic Press?). I did try the younger grade/slower pace suggestion, and it's okay for the first semester, but after that, you might have issues with the student's being mature enough to understand the samples and be able to use citations correctly.
So, for a one-level a year class I pretty much follow the week by week schedule. Our co-op does not have as many weeks as the book, so I had to cut out the poetry section. By the end of the school year, my students (ages 12-15) were feeling pretty overwhelmed with the whole process of pre-writing and citations, and I had to slow down and take a couple of weeks on the Julius Ceaser and Marie Antoinette paper. I believe this is due to the nature of these particular students, not that it isn't an age-appropriate program.
We met twice a week (T/Th), an hour for each class. In this amount of time, I was not able to cover the copia exercises but did work in a little grammar because my students needed it. For the first semester, the students were assigned to turn in the narrative summary on Thursday and the main assignment on Tuesday. I took two days to cover Days 2-4 or 1-3 (the main assignment), depending on the week. I always did the outlining in class with them. The students had Friday through Monday to work on the main assignment.
For the crash course, where we covered three years in one, I followed a similar syllabus that the WTM Academy uses. For this class, we only met once a week, but the students (ages 14-17) handled the course just fine. We did not have time to cover any of the literary analysis portions, and I used a different resource for the copia exercises.
I hope this helps.
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Class of 2018 Acceptances (List View) Updated: 3/21
in The College Board
Posted
Accidental Coach,
I love these yearly admissions lists! Thank you for doing them. I think they are a great encouragement to the high school and younger crowd!