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Hunter

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Everything posted by Hunter

  1. I'd think of signing the oldest up with American School. It would only take a few more courses to earn a degree from them, and she can apply for financial aid, even while underage, and maybe start junior college next year as a full freshman, or you can spend the year homeschooling without having to worry about recordkeeping.
  2. My youngest child tackled some of Euclid in the original Greek. I wonder if the website is still up. There is no time for neoclassical history and lit, when tackling the classical languages and/or classical sciences and maths!
  3. I skimmed this book very quickly in the bookstore yesterday. My attention span is SHORT right now and I am very busy. It looked totally unappealing to me. I'll have to take another look at it when I'm not in need of something, more spoon fed. 7th grade? Definitely not as independent study!
  4. Were 9 novels picked, because there are 9 months in the public school year? Now that I'm self educating, I'm not locked into set time periods, but when I was, I always preferred short well thought out lists as a spine with room to add, as my children showed interest in something. 9 novels is a LOT when discussing a high school credit, and trying to fit it in with rigorous maths, classical languages, a lab science, and writing, never mind logic, religious training, and everything else. And then throw in a case of the flu and Aunt Mabel's hip surgery :-0 When I was in school in the 80s, I think we only tackled 3-4 novels a year in high school and they tended to be short ones. My children took World Lit through American school using just a textbook I think and I'm not sure what they took in college, but they definitely didn't read more than 9 novels in a semester! The younger child was so busy devouring church history, Shakespeare and the Loeb Classics, and the older child working, that neither spent much time reading American Literature. But because of their extensive history backgrounds and reading the KJV Bible (and listening to it on audio tape) both have done well in college and in life.
  5. Was Old Man and the Sea post WW2? I think I would substitute that for the other Hemingway novels, listed.
  6. I adore short lists and discussions on them :-) Life is short. What is most important and why? I would enjoy reading more in this thread, if people have more to add. And similar lists for World and British lit and maybe a list for adult self-learners.
  7. I have not read Swiss Family Robinson in a long time, but remember it is a good book. I have a local bookstore that sells paperbacks of the classics published by Signet and Dover that are amazingly cheap. My friend and I have been picking one and then reading it together. The DVD series on gold was picked to supplement Call of the Wild. As we read, she often has many questions, and instead of giving her a quick answer, I usually go to the library website and put a few things on hold. Although I know enough what to look for, once the book, DVD, software comes in, I learn quite a bit too. We are not too big for unit studies ourselves :-) it's fun to make at least one recipe, inspired by something read in your current story. My friend has frightening geography skills and immediately starts searching for a map to accompany each book we read. For my reading list, I picked, The Book of Great Books. In the past I always picked more demanding lists, featuring too many books originally written in the the classical languages and was pushing myself too hard. In my efforts to be truly classical, I lost sight of my true goals, and got lost in doing things the "right" way. Reading Write Like Hemingway and Writing Tools has also helped me narrow down my goals and prioritize. Hemingway's minimalist writing style is certainly not the only way to write, but it works for me. Movies as Literature has also been a big hit with us. One of my current goals is to learn to be able to whip out a quick short research essay. I'm currently still assembling junior high and remedial junior college resources, to create a template for myself. In the past I have floundered at keeping up with some free courses at a pagan/metaphysics site, because of my inability to pound out a quick essay, properly supported by research. My goal here is short, quick papers, with interesting, varied sources. I'm having to sift through many resources setting lofty goals that are just not my goals right now and will just slow me down. Good luck :-)
  8. Some of the best cookbooks use a lot of French.
  9. There are only just so many hours in a day. Certain shortcuts, save a ton of time, and raise a person to cultural literacy, and instill confidence. THEN once that foundation has been laid, they can move onto getting fancy, where and if they want to. What do you all think of the quality of science taught in the Bill Nye videos? How much science will a person retain after 20 hours of instruction with them, compared to 20 hours of reading Great Books on science, if they are not scientifically literate? I have a friend whose knowledge base in history and science is so woefully deficient, that her conclusions about current events are...illogical to say the least. I have been picking out high quality DVDs such as a 4 part documentary on gold, that covered thousands of years of history on several continents and touched on science and included quite a bit of economics. She was so happy about all that she learned in just 4 hours.
  10. Often other people don't know as much as you think they know. They just talk confidently about what they do know. The most startling difference between them and you is their CONFIDENCE in what they know. I've seen a group of farmers with little book learning, talk circles around a "college boy", who is starting his first garden. Same with a plumber or an electrician, talking to a lawyer. I'll bet you know MUCH more than you think you do about many things. When we are denied a certain activity or resource, we spend our time growing and learning in another area. DVDs are the quickest way to learn KNOWLEDGE. Books and software are the quickest way to learn SKILLS. I wouldn't invest time and money in books for history or science right now unless using them as a spine to know what to search for DVDs on. If you do use books for KNOWLEDGE use kids books. For SKILLS also don't forget to first look at what is produced for children in textbooks, software and audio, especially for foreign language. For maths and English, took at junior college remedial textbooks, used for the noncredit courses. I'll bet you know your way around a kitchen. Start with kitchen science and get cookbooks based on literature, geography and history. Food writing is a genre of writing, you can study and practice. Study botany and start some house plants this winter. Herbs can also be worked back into the food studies. Maybe study French as a language if you are enjoying your food studies. Start with something you have confidence in, and design your own unit study for yourself.
  11. As I'm working through "Write Like Hemingway" and "Writing Tools" I'm finding that I don't think I need to worry so much about improving my vocabulary and mastering "correct" punctuation. I don't think minimalist writing is the ONLY way...but it sure is a simpler and cheaper way to learn/teach writing :-0 Not only is it advocating less is more in the final product...but if I read between the lines...it seems like I can apply less is more to writing instruction too. I'm really interested in any input from others who have embraced or discarded minimalism in writing.
  12. Thanks Kereni. I was hoping maybe for some fresh input. It's too bad it is such an expensive curriculum and that the author forbids reselling. Less people are able to try it.
  13. Has anyone been using this? I'm thinking of using it for myself. I don't think I'm ready to commit to writing a complete novel right NOW. How would this curriculum work in a more passive approach as mostly literature analysis for a future writer? Can the lessons be tweaked into stand alone lessons, journaling prompts, and short stories?
  14. I understand that "good writing" is an opinion, but I'm finding that different writing curricula have DRASTICALLY different ideas of the type of writers they are trying to produce. Which writing curricula are complementary to a minimalist/Hemingway approach? Writing Tools is, isn't it? http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=78&aid=103943 Which types of college/adult situations will be best served by a student trained in minimalism? Journalism and technical writing? Where might it be a handicap?
  15. I have found that scheduling a couple quick chores between subjects give the brain enough down time and the body enough movement, to prepare for optimal performance at the next lesson.
  16. I'm interested in the replies. I too have been looking at R&S for myself.
  17. My friend and I are learning a lot from it, and we are adults, and she has even done college level work on the subject. It is well done and worth the money. We plan on completing the entire book. I wish there was a second volume. My friend is very interested in movies, but I am focusing on the short story aspect of the films. The curriculum points out that every film is a short story.
  18. Janice and Swimmer mom, thank you. This looks like a great combination. And quite affordable too :-)
  19. I think rereading is easier for short books. I'm planning on using the guide for Old Man and the Sea. I read Call of the Wild and was then planning on rereading it as I worked through a couple guides I downloaded, but got distracted by wanting to do Hemingway. If I spend weeks on a book, I want to use an author that I want to imitate his writing. For now I plan on using short books and reading them more than once. I'm also working through Movies as Literature with a friend and rewatching the movies several times.
  20. From Ben Franklin's biography About this time I met with an odd volume of the Spectator. It was the third. I had never before seen any of them. I bought it, read it over and over, and was much delighted with it. I thought the writing excellent, and wished, if possible, to imitate it. With this view I took some of the papers, and, making short hints of the sentiment in each sentence, laid them by a few days, and then, without looking at the book, try'd to compleat the papers again, by expressing each hinted sentiment at length, and as fully as it had been expressed before, in any suitable words that should come to hand. Then I compared my Spectator with the original, discovered some of my faults, and corrected them. But I found I wanted a stock of words, or a readiness in recollecting and using them, which I thought I should have acquired before that time if I had gone on making verses; since the continual occasion for words of the same import, but of different length, to suit the measure, or of different sound for the rhyme, would have laid me under a constant necessity of searching for variety, and also have tended to fix that variety in my mind, and make me master of it. Therefore I took some of the tales and turned them into verse; and, after a time, when I had pretty well forgotten the prose, turned them back again. I also sometimes jumbled my collections of hints into confusion, and after some weeks endeavored to reduce them into the best order, before I began to form the full sentences and compleat the paper. This was to teach me method in the arrangement of thoughts. By comparing my work afterwards with the original, I discovered many faults and amended them; but I sometimes had the pleasure of fancying that, in certain particulars of small import, I had been lucky enough to improve the method or the language, and this encouraged me to think I might possibly in time come to be a tolerable English writer, of which I was extremely ambitious. Yes, I study one writing tool each week. It seems to be working well. I'm amazed how things in my life, come up that allow me to apply the lesson. Things that are not even about writing. Like the chapter on passive voice. Because of my lack of faith issues, I was able to apply the idea to prayer, by changing the focus to the recipient, rather than the deity. Mrs Mungo, you are funny :-)
  21. A friend and I are working through Movies as Literature together. She recently graduated with a degree in communications and officially I think her concentration is in film making...but...she isn't prepared for that, and knows it, so is doing a lot of self-study right now. She had a great internship at channel 7, but...it didn't cover things in her concentration :-0 She learned a lot at her all women's college, but graduated unprepared to use her degree :-0 She is in a unique situation where she doesn't need to panic about money, so is just playing around with her new camera and begging me to watch movies with her. I'm very interested in this thread. Thank you unsinkable for the list!!! :-)
  22. The only reason to do the Geometry book is if you want to start teaching proofs in the second year of high school math instead of the third. Some highschools only require 2 years of math and want to teach proofs in that second year.
  23. I got mine at Borders, using a 33% off coupon. Here is a link to Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/Write-Like-Hemingway-Writing-Lessons/dp/1598698966/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1282601748&sr=8-2 The first chapter is a lot of biography, but after that there are a lot of exercises. I don't understand why the 1 star review says the writing tips are rare :-0
  24. I bought and started reading the short stories. The 2 stories he wrote for children are pretty strange :-0
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