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SarahW

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Posts posted by SarahW

  1. We just finished reading Kensuke's Kingdom, and we're in the middle of The Elements. So I thought now would be a good time to watch something about how they intersect.

     

    But there's apparently a gazillion documentaries about the Manhattan Project and nuclear war. I would like something that spends more than a few seconds on the science of atomic bombs and Hiroshima/Nagasaki. Ethics would be gravy, but I don't need lengthy discussions about the Cold War or the Cuban Missile Crisis or etc.

     

    Suggestions?

  2. African Americans and the Classics: An Introduction

     

    This popped on my FB and thought it was interesting.

     

    Written by a teacher at a Classical school, so also apropos.

     

     

     

    There's more the author could have gotten in to - for example before hieroglyphics were cracked (and then before Egyptian texts really got read and interpreted) scholarship was pretty dependent on Roman sources, which were themselves very negative about Egypt and talked about them as backwards people worshiping animals, and so on. Which we now know is not accurate, but, as the end of article says "what is old news among scholars may not always be well-known or well-received among the general public." True, that.

    • Like 1
  3. It sounds to me like part of the problem is that she's rushing through her work with the expectation that she will get to play more or longer. Have you considered setting a minimum amount of time that must be spent on each subject? For example, if you know that she needs 45 min. to do her math neatly and well if she doesn't complain then you would tell her that she must spend a minimum of 45 min. on it. If she finishes earlier and the work is done neatly and well give her a math game to play until the time is up. Maybe if she doesn't have the expectation that sloppily done work or complaing will get her anything she sees as a postive she'll lose the motivation for it.

     

     

    Yeah, DH did something similar with our kid a few days ago. He also complains, slops through, messy handwriting, the works.

     

    DH had him do something and said "You have 20 minutes to do this. You must use the whole 20 minutes. Spend your time. Write neatly. If you're done before the 20 minutes are up, you can go back and check your work. If after 20 minutes it is done sloppily or incorrectly, you will have another 10 minutes to correct it."

     

    I thought it was kinda crazy, but it worked. We don't do that all the time for everything. But when he's "backsliding" it helps get him back on track.

     

     

    [We've already done a whole course of evals for nearly everything, so I'm pretty confident we know what's going on with him].

    • Like 3
  4. Drop it. Pronto. I tried to stick out an online French CC class taught by a German speaker, and it was awful. Totally awful. So much stress, screwed my GPA, just so horrible.

     

    Go to the registrar and beg to get into another class to keep FT. There's sometimes a few classes that start later for some reason, and maybe you can squeeze into  one of those.

     

    If FL is required and there's no other option, do talk to the department head. Even if they defend the teacher (it's possibie, btdt), they should tell you if there's an alternate method of meeting the requirement.

  5. My kids are a year ahead in some things, a couple years ahead in others. Mostly because we school year round and they started reading really early.   I've just read the Brainy Bunch and see that we are doing some time wasting things and not doing as much as we could, and wondering who else is out there who is considering or already speeding ahead?  I don't mean pushing my kids too hard and not letting them play, I mean going at a faster pace which I think we could very easily do.   Upping my game and me not being so lazy, really!

     

     

    Just realized this is your first post. Welcome!

     

    We have extensively discussed The Brainy Bunch on this forum in the past, so we bring a lot of history of those threads with us. But generally, we're pretty negative about it. I am very much negative about it. There are some fundamental mistakes she makes about test results. And I was turned off by her attitude that education consisted of collecting pieces of papers (degrees).

     

     

    But - yes, I think many kids can do without the redundancy present in many boxed curriculums. Especially if you school year around, yes, you can probably skip the easy review sections at the beginning of each grade level. But there's no need to then just keep moving up in the same boxed curriculum. 

     

    I "school" year around (now afterschooling) and seriously, even when only homeschooling, I've never started my kid with a whole new set of books in August. I think of the school year as fall-summer, but within that there's movement from one thing to another, adding things in, taking things out, doing units on certain science topics or books. And cutting redundancy, yes, but then using that time to explore more things. So we don't spend more time on finding parts of speech, because he's got that, so we read some poetry instead and talk about that. When we're done with doing poetry (finish the book we're using, or just plain done doing it) we do something else. It's easier to do this when there's only one student! And somewhere in the middle of the year I sometimes despair that we're not moving forward and start gazing at boxed curriculum with a set schedule with longing, lol. 

     

    If you have a kid who picks things up quickly, with this method you'll end up "ahead" of expected grade level, yes. But there's no end to the things to learn in the world, so I'm not sure if that matter too much. Unless, of course, you eventually get to the point of trying to move them into a school, and have to find a place for them that matches their level. That can be hairy.

     

    But, in general, I don't recommend starting "high school" until the child is able to do "high school" level work as far as output and maturity in discussion and learning. And I don't recommend starting "college" until the child has exhausted all "high school" level work in that subject, and, again, have the college level output and maturity in thinking. Where the distinction between high school and college is is debatable, and when a student is ready for them is highly individual. So in this I think it is very YMMV.

     

    But unlike the Mom in The Brainy Bunch, I don't think this is something any kid can do, and I don't think she's hit upon a great way for all homeschoolers to "trick" the system. But if you have kids who can move forward quickly, yes, it's beneficial to run to try to keep pace with them. And this brings its own set of issues! Finding advanced curriculum resources that are also developmentally appropriate and kid-friendly is one thing (a typical 17yo can read Of Mice and Men for English, but maybe an advanced but sensitive 9yo should read something else, kwim). If you have questions about how to provide more challenging curriculum, or how to start utilizing CC or other alternatives for kids who are topping out at a subject, please post! We discuss stuff like that here all the time.

    • Like 2
  6. Boy, I would really like to respond to the bolded, but I am afraid it would be considered too political. 

     

     

     

    LOL, I really just meant that I don't know if she understands just how standardized the National Curriculum is. I mean, there's a couple different school textbook publishers, but they all follow the same sequence. Seriously, I'm on a FB group for expats dealing with Dutch education, and it's hilarious when the veterans answer a question about multiplication tables with "oh, that gets covered group 5, quarter 2, week 5-8 or so."

     

    Pros and cons, pros and cons.

     

     

    But, riffing off another pp, ACE wouldn't stand a chance at being a school in The Netherlands. For example. 

     

     

     

    Oh, and just to follow up the pp about Special Education - in NL there's Special Education schools, and you can choose to send your child to one if you want (if the school accepts your request, they obviously have an interest in accepting the students who need to be there). They get extra funding. All regular schools get a block grant each year for accessibility accommodations. But my kid with his new ASD diagnosis didn't personally bump his school up in funding. 

    • Like 4
  7. I live in school-choice country, and I have very much taken advantage of that for my kid. For example, when one elementary school couldn't deal with his issues (sending him out to sit in the hallway almost all day, not dealing with bullying) we switched him to a different school - and we told friends whose kids were also having issues with that school to switch their kids, too. They did as well, and know we're all happy.

     

    I'm not sure how the Dutch system is set up exactly, but I'm pretty sure the schools are not "for-profit." There's also a very strong (and maybe too strict) system of federal standards, so every school teaches the same thing basically. There's also the fact that the Dutch don't think of this system as a competition. I read an article about school choice in America (Denver?) and I was surprised how much the article stressed the idea that school-choice was a game where certain schools would win and others lose. That's not really an idea the Dutch have - in fact, the elementary school my kid goes to shares it's space with another elementary school (joint common, library, and gym areas) and there's no expectation that one of the schools will "win" and take over the whole building.

     

    There's pros and cons to every system. But in the context of The Netherlands, I think the way they have school-choice set up is overall very good. Now if only the government would stop messing with teacher pay and we could be golden here, but that's another story.

     

     

    Oh, and I did read an article (from the Atlantic?) a few months ago that DeVos has the idea of implementing the Dutch system in America. I don't know how much De Vos actually knows about the Dutch system, and I doubt many Christian schools in America would be happy with how the Dutch system works. So I don't see that idea actually working out, but who knows.

     

     

     

    • Like 4
  8. We pay full price for DE tuition and textbooks - it is very expensive.  But, we feel our dd is getting an excellent education.  She started at 13 taking Spanish with a professor who is a native speaker from Spain with a Ph.D.  He was absolutely excellent and wants to continue mentoring her now that she's completed all of the Spanish classes offered at the school.  We've found that most of the instructors are so dedicated to their students and care about their success.  Currently, dd is 15 and taking two classes at the CC this semester - both with amazing instructors.  Dd loves it there and will go full time starting in her junior year.  

     

    As I said earlier in the thread, my older kids went to our state flagship university and all agreed that the instruction at our local CC was, in general, better than what they received at the university.  And the CC close to their university is supposed to be excellent as well - many students take classes at the CC over the summer because they are taught better there than they are at the university.  

     

     

    My parents enrolled me in the public HS so that DE would be free. They didn't actually want me to take an classes at the HS, we were longtime HSLDA members and were pretty scared of the evil public school. Though, looking back, I thank God I was DE through the PS. My mother was clueless about making a homeshool high school transcript. She's still clueless. Like, really, she has no idea that she could make a transcript or that she even could.

     

    Her main goal was to get education over and done with as quickly as possible so that I could get a J.O.B. (yes, spelled out in capital letters). Yes, I got my bachelors when I was 20. But it totally tanked my life chances of getting a job I wanted.

     

    It's good that you have a quality CC (mine was not, I went to the local state U 11th and 12th grade and it wasn't much better). But there's no life prize for accelerating out of education as quickly as possible. There really isn't, just so you know.

    • Like 2
  9. The OP asked for experiences. Mosf of what has been shared is opinions based not on actual experience, or even on knowing a kid who has done this. So actual experiences, and knowing what kids who have been successful are like, and supplying that information so parents can judge for themselves if it's something to pursue is OT, but generalizations with no experience are on topic?

     

    I don't think a kid wanting to go to high school is at all odd. High school is pictured as this wonderful, perfect, world. If they've never experienced it, they don't know.

     

     

    I'm totally lost about where this thread is.

     

    But I posted speaking of my own experience. 15yo starting at CC, pretty much full time DE for the rest of high school.

     

    I liked it at the time, but altogether, now, I think it was a net negative. Besides the horrid French class I nearly failed, I kept up on the pace and readings fine, and survived reading The Bluest Eye (the main characters were about my age and...spoiler alert! one ends up impregnated by her father).

     

    For the truly PG/HG kids, yes, I see the necessity of starting college very early. But there seems to be this popular view in the homeschool world that CC is a great way for all homeschoolers to bypass "government" schools (which isn't even actually true, when you think about it) and "beat the system." Like my own parents who only had Associates degrees from the CC I went to, they didn't really understand that there could be differences in quality in education, and they didn't really value a high quality education anyways. I would have been a lot better off being streamed into a quality and challenging curriculum in middle school and then stacking up the hardest classes at my high school (which offered Latin and Calculus, neither of which I took) and a judicious use of CC for advanced English and History classes. That would have set me up MUCH better for college and Grad school.

     

    So that's my actual experience, and why when I hear homeschoolers talk about sending kids, especially quite young and not exceptional kids, to CC I'm like Noooooooo!!!!! Really, even if you have a smart kid, there's probably a better option than just dumping them at CC full-time. And especially if the parents are also laboring under the "homeschooled kids who know how to read should be totally independent!" and also offer zero in the way of study skills, assignment management, and general oversight and encouragement (like, my parents, for example). I understand people also have to think of finances, I get that, but I'm thinking of people who see early CC simply as a way to score a deal and nab a piece of paper, all the while conning their kids out of a good education.

     

    That's my experience. YMMV. 

    • Like 9
  10. We lived for a month in a hotel with just a water kettle, a french press, and a crock pot (the "fridge" was a cooler bag in the trunk of the car - it was November in England). 

     

    Hard boiled eggs can be made easily in a water kettle. Boil a full pot, carefully spoon in some eggs, close the lid and wait 10 mins.

     

    I also found that I could cook a "casserole" in the crock pot. I hit Tesco in the early afternoon and grabbed from their Reduced shelf (since I was cooking it that night). Packs of pre-made meals (quiche, shepherd's pie, et al) in foil or heavy plastic were placed on top of an inverted old foil tray with a good bit of water around it on the bottom of the pot. Cook on high for 4 hours. The meals could be a bit more soggy, but still tasty. It was still processed food, but grocery bought (and in Europe there's less questionable additives) and cheap. If I got creative I could fit another old foil tray and cook a bit of nonstarchy vegetable in that alongside. My DH doesn't much like leafy salads, so I didn't bother with that, but it's a good idea. I picked up some cold salads for him to eat sometimes.

     

    For a low-carb lunch we usually just did meat and cheese roll-ups with a side of tomato or baby carrots, sometimes a cold salad or some nuts, and a bit of long-lasting but cheap fruit, like grapes or apple. 

     

    My husband has EF issues, and T2D and so on. Without me micromanaging his meals, yeah, he's random and weird and relies on easy starches and take-out.  :001_rolleyes:   I would focus on building meals that are pretty shelf-stable. So if they don't "remember" to start dinner with what they bought that night, it'll still be good the next day for them to try again. Nothing is more disheartening than spending limited money on "good" food and then having to toss it. When that happens it's easy to just give up and fall back on take out. So, outside of canned or jarred food, things like carrots and apples and cheese. And yes, if they can get a freezer, frozen vegetables are great for poor food planners.

    • Like 1
  11. "We actually are in production of three completely new Greek for Children Primers. They are already written. Greek for Primer A & B will release in 2018 (no guarantee of what month) and Primer C will be the following year. These are long overdue and for that we apologize!"

     

     

    Sooo.... GfC-B won't line up with the GfC-A I already own? Or...?

     

    Meh, they're revising LfC, which is annoying since I already own A & B (though they say the revision doesn't change the s&s). So maybe they're rethinking their language approach overall.

     

    I'm interested to see what they're doing though. GfC-A is...wow, it really does cover a bunch of grammar (compared to other common Greek textbooks, even college ones). Grammar-heavy is their shtick, so maybe that will stay. Maybe they're just "funning it up" like they are with LfC.

  12. Time scales are too short and magnitude of effect is too large - metabolic rates most likely do not alter this drastically in such a short time.

     

    As a scientist, I want a clean documentation of data before I believe a claim. As far as I have found, he has not presented these data anywhere. He has only estimated his personal caloric intake, which is notoriously unreliable. 

    I prefer science over propaganda.

     

     

    I was curious, and went to his website. And he actually does blog every single day of the 60 day filming, and lists what he eats. I suppose if a person wanted, they could go through there and make their own calculations. And he does say that he had a team of people go over his daily food log to calculate some of the hard-to-calculate things and double check.

     

    So, the data is there.

    • Like 1
  13.  

    :iagree:

     

    From what I've read, there are a lot of unsupported claims and downright falsehoods in the movie. Plus one of his main "experts" is David "Avocado" Wolfe??? Wolfe is a total charlatan with fake degrees who believes that chemtrails are poisoning us, gravity is a "toxin," vaccines are evil, people should plug their bodies into the ground wire of electrical sockets to "discharge electrical energy from stress," and that "chocolate lines up planetarily with the sun [and is] in the same solar octave as serotonin, smiles, and gold." He is literally a snake oil salesman — he sells tiny bottles of "deer antler extract" for 75 bucks, which he claims contain "cosmic androgenic substances that are levitational in nature," which will basically cure all your problems and make you young again.

     

    Other so-called "experts" in the movie are also not what they seem, e.g. the "NASA physicist" who doesn't have a PhD and can't provide any evidence that he worked for NASA (he claims he worked on super-secret stuff he can't talk about). 

     

    Even the claims about the "liver damage" are suspect:

     

     

     

    David Wolfe has 5 clips in the film (that I counted). The first lasts about 5 seconds, the others about 10 seconds. In it he says crazy stuff like "shop the perimeter of the supermarket" and "provide fruits and vegetables to children."

     

    What's your point???

     

     

     

    I'm glad some people are taking on sugar. My FIL's mother considered sugar to be health food. Seriously, she thought it was healthy. She forced my FIL and DH to add it to their cereal and yogurt. They are both now T2D. And DH and I still can't convince FIL to stop adding sugar all over his food. My MIL is also a total sugar addict. She thinks that as long as it's low-fat, it's healthy. She'll down cartons of super-concentrated tropical fruit juice. And if I roast a chicken with its skin on she won't eat any of it. But since she's still hungry after dinner, she'll eat a huge bowl of (low fat) vanilla pudding. It's INSANE. And then she's confused about why her weight is ballooning, and why if she's cut way back on the meat, why she still got cancer. I mean, hasn't she been doing everything right?

     

    Crazypants has teeth issues (SPD issues with his mouth means he doesn't brush well). We're working on it, as much as the SPD allows, but MIL keeps trying to feed him sandwiches with chocolate paste, not even Nutella, but straight up 90% sugar chocolate paste. And she's confused why this upsets me. I mean, there's no fat in it, so why is it a problem?

     

    I'm so done with sugar. DONE. 

    • Like 2
  14. Also worth considering - 

     

    CC grades are for life. You have to send any and all transcripts with college applications. Ditto for grad school apps. If she can't hack the pace or the "go study on your own for twice as many hours as the class meets, every week" expectation and gets a bad grade, it will follow her for life.

     

    Even if you point out "oh, she was only 13" - colleges do not care.

     

    Personally, I do not recommend starting CC early. I do not recommend a foreign language as a first CC course. Just my own BTDT advice, ymmv.

    • Like 10
  15. You're new here. Welcome! But you should post this on the Accelerated Learner board. That's where we discuss curriculum choices for gifted, asynchronous and generally atypical kids.

     

    But just to start you off, the first recommendation for LA for a gifted student is Michael Clay Thompson, starting at the Sentence Island level. Check it out. And if it confuses you, search these forums to see explanations for the other confused people.

     

    I did FLL with my kid in 1st/2nd-ish. I say "ish" because had the old version that combined 1 and 2, and condensed and skipped, and he got done with it all in a few months. It's a good program - if you're willing to go off script and springboard it to a free flowing conversation that teaches the topic. Since you already have it, I would say play around with it some more while you investigate different programs.

  16. I drafted out my plans - thought I'd share.

     

    For fyi - he's 2e, and has no homework from school. And his school is not-English, so I'm trying to keep him at least on grade level for English LA. And I'm an LCC-er with a stem kid. Oh, and he doesn't go to Sunday School or other Religious Ed.

     

    Math: BA4, 5?, CTCo. Algebra/Geometry
    Latin: LfcA, Minimus Secundus, LfcB
    Greek: Basic Greek in 30 Minutes, Elementary Greek 1?
    Science: The Elements, Solar System Music, CLNR5, Science in the Ancient World
    Language Arts: 
    Reading: Reading Detective? Just So Stories, Greek Myths, Holes, Poetry
    Writing/Grammar: Editor in Chief, Grammar for Middle School, Reading and Reasoning 1?
    Spelling: Spelling Power 6
    Religion: Faith and Life 4, Art 5 for Young Catholics
    Coding
     
    Sunday - Religion, Greek, Editor in Chief, Coding
    Monday - Math, Latin, Science, Coding
    Tuesday - Math, Greek, LA, Coding
    Wednesday - Math, Latin, Science, Coding
    Thursday - Math, Greek, LA, Coding
    Friday - Math, Latin, Science, Coding
    Saturday - Math, Latin, LA, Spelling, Coding
     
    The coding he does on his own. That's his choice, and I ask that he commits half an hour to it. Not counting that, afterschooling is about an hour/day.
     
    I do things by units, so the LA may be grammar a bit, then it might change to be myths for a few weeks, and when that's done.then something else. I'm going to try to intersperse Science and LA this year, but may go back to just doing one at a time for a whole week. We'll see how it pans out.
     
    Oh, and we're already part-way though some of the things that I listed above, so that's why there's so much stuff for each subject, lol. The additional things are for when we finally get done with what we're doing now. We might not even get to some of them this year. But I'm trying to think what can be stored and what I should leave handy (or buy).
     
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