plimsoll
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Posts posted by plimsoll
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It looks like neither private nor public school can provide a good education for your son.
If you are looking for recommendations, I would suggest you consider homeschooling. With homeschooling, you can invert the equation. You can spend all day "afterschooling", instead of trying to squeeze his real education into a few hours after school when he is already tired and ready to do other things.
You will be able to control the pace so he receives the educational benefits of the private school without the stress of an excessive workload or of the teachers' yelling.
Many of us came to homeschooling after trying to afterschool to make up for the deficiencies of the local schools.
Just something to consider...
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Climbing Parnassus, Latin-Centered Curriculum, and Memoria Press website articles.
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(Does anyone actually use the subjunctive nowadays, or is its primary use in Latin and French nowadays? I have gotten into so many mock-arguments over people correcting me when I say, "If I were....."!)
I use the subjunctive and impose it upon my son, but I am an old fuddy-duddy when it comes to grammar....
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I think (hope) it's just a phase they go through. 11 looking a lot like the Roman numeral 2, I hope that this is a one-year recap of the "terrible twos" and that he will grow out of it.
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We have found the two studies to complement each other well.
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We started in 5th grade with Fallacy Detective; we are currently using Thinking Toolbox. My son loves this series!
I would say anytime in middle school is good, and I would do them in the recommended sequence.
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I am apologize if you are seeking critical comments - I can only offer praise. This is very well written for a sixth grader.
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Another option would be The Making of America - The Substance and Meaning of the Constitution, by W. Cleon Skousen.
You could supplement with a number of the Uncle Eric books by Rick Maybury. Although well-known for his books on economics, Maybury has also written books on politics and justice. Bluestocking Press publishes these books along with supplementary study guides.
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Forget the peanut gallery and do what's best for you and your family.
We pulled our son out after second grade for similar reasons. Haven't looked back once, and it only gets better as they get older. The peanut gallery continues to throw peanuts. No big deal. Someone will always have a problem with something.
Why limit his education to a few hours after school when he's already tired and has had enough of "school" for the day? With homeschooling you can have real school every day.
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People keep saying this, but what do you do when a math program becomes unsatisfactory for your child? Stick with it just for the sake of not switching?
Tara
Find what works for you and your kids. Sometimes this requires a bit of trial and error.
In the past, we have used Singapore, Life of Fred, and Saxon. We are now happily using Introduction to Algebra from Art of Problem Solving. This seems to be just about the right pace, and unless we run into some problem, we plan to continue with their materials through high school. But I have no problem supplementing with other programs as needed, and switching if the current math program stops working for us.
Somehow, despite all our switching, my son is still learning math!
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Go for the SC-300.
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Ecce Romani, Cambridge, Oxford, and Lingua Latina are the main reading-based programs of which I am aware. When I was still trying to teach my son Latin myself, we used a number of programs, one of which was Cambridge. We both enjoyed it.
My son is now using Lingua Latina via an online class at Lone Pine Classical School. He loves the class and is learning Latin really well. There is plenty of grammar and vocabulary, but it is in the context of reading the story and doing the related exercises, quizzes, and online review games.
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Here is a list of prepositions I compiled:
abaft
aboard
about
above
absent
according to
across
afore
after
against
agin
ahead of
along
along with
alongside
amid
amidst
among
amongst
anent
apart from
around
as
as far as
as for
as well as
aslant
astride
at
athwart
atop
bar
barring
because of
before
behind
below
beneath
beside
besides
between
betwixt
beyond
but (except)
by
by means of
by means of
circa
concerning
considering
despite
down
due to
during
ere
except
except for
excepting
failing
far from
following
for
from
in
in addition to
in back of
in case of
in front of
in place of
in spite of
in to (into)
inside
inside of
instead of
into
less
like
mid
midst
minus
near
near to
'neath
next
next to
nigh
nigher
nighest
notwithstanding
o'er
of
off
on
on account of
on behalf of
on to (onto)
on top of
onto
opposite
out
out of
outside
outside
outside of
over
owing to
past
pending
per
plus
prior to
qua
re
regarding
regarding
respecting
round
sans
save
saving
since
than
thro'
through
throughout
thru
till
times
to
touching
toward
towards
'tween
'twixt
under
underneath
unlike
until
unto
up
up to
upon
versus
via
vice
vis-Ã -vis
wanting
with
with regards to
within
without
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Junior Analytical Grammar - focuses on grammar and diagramming.
Saxon Grammar and Writing - includes vocabulary, usage, punctuation, and other topics, i.e., not just grammar. Moves very slowly.
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Be patient and persist. This is normal. With practice and time, there will be less careless errors.
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If you can afford to pay cash, I would recommend it.
In my mind, debt is only justified if (a) you cannot afford the full cost and have a reasonable expectation of being able to pay back the loan, or (b) the loan would allow you to purchase some asset that produces enough cash flow to cover more than the cost of the loan.
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Have you ever heard someone say, "My one regret is that I didn't buy more stuff with borrowed money?"
No, and there's a reason.
Only people in government. (Sorry - I couldn't resist.)
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My son is taking Latin 100 online at Lone Pine Classical School. The text used is Orberg's Lingua Latina I, supplemented with study materials covering grammar, vocabulary, history, culture, and mythology.
He is learning Latin far more effectively than when we were studying it on our own, and my son really loves the class.
Here's a link: http://www.lonepineclassical.com/
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We have used a number of grammar and writing programs, and we gained something from each of them.
Grammar
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Easy Grammar: We used one book (4th or 5th grade, I forget which). The main thing gained was learning to identify and ignore prepositional phrases when searching for the rest of the parts of speech and when identifying the subject and the predicate.
Junior Analytical Grammar (JAG): This worked very well after Easy Grammar. It teaches diagramming and grammar.
Saxon Grammar and Writing: We used this alongside JAG, since this provided usage, syntax, synonyms, vocabulary, and other aspects of mechanics besides just the grammar we were getting in JAG. We ignore the writing component and just use the grammar and vocabulary sections. After the 5th grade book, it seems to get very repetitive (we are currently using the 6th grade book). So we do several chapters in a sitting, only doing those exercises covering new material or covering material in which my son requires more practice.
Writing
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IEW: We have a love/hate relationship with IEW. We have done Student Intensive A, Ancient History-Based Writing Lessons, and we are now doing SICC B. My son finds it very formulaic, but it does improve his writing. This will probably be our last IEW foray for some time, since we plan to focus more on CW once we are done with SICC B.
CW: We really, really like the underlying philosophy of CW. We freely skip vocabulary and grammar material which we are getting elsewhere, using the program only for writing. We are currently working our way through Homer and through Poetry for Beginners. In Homer, we focus primarily upon the six-sentence shuffle. We look forward to advancing to the next level in CW, since everyone says Homer is the toughest and least user-friendly of the levels.
Writing Tales: We used Writing Tales rather than CW Aesop, because we found it more enjoyable and because the grammar and vocabulary were not as elementary. Eventually, we dropped the vocabulary and grammar exercises altogether and simply outlined, narrated, rewrote, and revised the stories. So the way that we used the program, we could have used either of these two programs.
Imitation in Writing: Medieval Legends - more summarizing and retelling of stories. Very good if you happen to be covering the Middle Ages in history, as well. But note that this is just retelling of stories, very much along the lines of what is done in Writing Tales and CW Aesop.
Poetry
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Imitation in Writing: Poetry Primer -- this was great. We really enjoyed it and my son learned a lot. We did it in 5th grade. There was some poetry writing, but mostly we used it for analyzing meter, identifying figures of speech, etc.
CW Poetry books - we are using these along with CW. So far they are fun and educational. As with all the programs we use, we take what is useful to us and skip things that we cover elsewhere.
We also spend some time just reading poetry out loud, alternating readers.
Vocabulary
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Vocabulary in Action: series from Loyola Press. We are very happy with this series. We also keep a vocabulary notebook, where my son writes down definitions and sample sentences. Just recently, for selected words, we have started copying quotations from Bartlett’s Quotations that demonstrate the words’ usages in literary contexts.
Reading
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We jump all over the place and read widely in many genres. In addition to our other reading, we are also are using selections from the “good books list” at the Great Books Academy. We will use a revised version of their “book report form” for book reports. (Similar forms can be found in other places, or you can devise one yourself.)
“Teaching the Classics”, by Adam and Missy Andrews, provides a good framework for discussing the books read. Adapt freely whatever subset of it works for you - there is no need to discuss every single question about every single book or story read. This would remove much of the joy of reading good books.
When discussing literature with my son, we use it both as a way of interactively thinking about the books, as well as enforcing the use of correct grammar in speaking. Many of the questions in the book could also be assigned as writing topics -- I will probably do this as he grows older.
We try to avoid what Charlotte Mason would have referred to as twaddle.
Future Plans
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Moving forward, our plan is to stick with CW through high school.
We plan to use Saxon Grammar again next year, along with Analytical Grammar. After that, we will use more high school-level books like Warriner’s and various books on usage and style, along with a few revision practice workbooks (like IEW’s Fix-It series).
There are a number of online PSAT and SAT prep courses out there, and we plan to take them when the time comes.
We plan to use Norton’s Essential Literary Terms as a text for a year or so, somewhere around 8th-10th grades.
We may take a one-semester or year-long course on LTOW in 9th grade (one is offered by Memoria Press), as well a course on the 5-paragraph essay, if at some point it seems necessary.
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My son is currently doing Algebra at 11 (6th grade). We are using Introduction to Algebra from Art of Problem Solving and loving it.
He finished Saxon 7/6 and 8/7 last year. Also did the Life of Fred pre-Algebra books - I recommend those if you feel your son's not yet ready for Algebra. If he can do all the problems in the Life of Fred books, then just go ahead on to Algebra, IMHO.
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We were using Saxon and are now using Art of Problem Solving's Introduction to Alegebra. The pace is just right for us. Here is their web site: http://www.artofproblemsolving.com/
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Synonym Finder is also my son's favorite. I am very comfortable with Roget, since that is what I used all my life.
We also like Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of Synonyms, not so much for finding synonyms, but because it does a very good job of explaining subtle differences in usage between words that at first glance seem interchangeable. Once we find a synonym in Synonym Finder, if we're not sure we're using it correctly, we look in Merriam Webster.
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Sowell, Hazlett, Hayek, Von Mises, Friedman, and Bastiat. Also the "Uncle Eric" books.
Adam Smith's classics, The Wealth of Nations and The Theory of Moral Sentiments, are worth reading if you have the time.
The Libertarian Reader has many excerpts from great economists and thinkers.
For an intellectual history of most of the seminal economists, look at Mark Skousen's The Making of Modern Economics.
New Ideas from Dead Economists is another enjoyable read. Among other things, it shows the affect of various economic ideas and approaches on government policies in different periods of American history.
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We are using Introduction to Algebra from Art of Problem Solving. We like it a lot and plan to continue with their books through high school.
Latin high school
in Accelerated Learner Board
Posted
Does anyone know of any online classes or tutors using Learn to Read Latin?