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KellieK

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Posts posted by KellieK

    Noeo Science, Real Science 4 Kids, Or ... ??

    in K-8 Curriculum Board

    Posted

    We are using NOEO Pphysics I & II this year. I have not encountered any YE teaching so far. I will admit that it is so well laid out and organized that I am not that involved in it much. My daughters just get it and go, although I do help the older one with hers some times. She is on the youngest end recommended for level II and some of it goes over her head, I probably should have started with biology instead of physics. I skimmed all the books before they started because I do not teach YE and did not find any in a cursory search. You could just find all the books used, but you would not have the experiments. I love that there is nothing I need to provide, it is all right there ready to go. I do not even have to do much to help with these either.

    Norms and Nobility discussion

    in General Education Discussion Board

    Posted

    I like the humble tone that Hicks takes regarding education. He writes on page 9:

     

    Classical education cast our cultural forbears in the servant's role, warning him in myths, parables, proverbs, histories, laws, and philosophies against hankering after a more exalted part. Any education that might fire in him unworthy ambitions deserved and received censure as foolish and irresponsible.

    This is an important part of education to me. I know many who claim to have followed a form of classical education and I would describe them as anything but humble. The children of one particular family I know have been so taught to question authority that they come across as having no respect for any authority, except maybe that which can be proven empirically. Arrogant is a good description. They have this reputation within our whole homeschool community. I have hesitated to claim following a classical approach, and their brand specifically, in order to avoid being lumped into a group with them. A problem is that they are looked to as examples of "education done right," after all their 16 year old son is at a university!

     

    Education is humbling. I find that the more I learn, the more I don't know. I have heard it said that we don't even know what we don't know.

     

    On page 4 when describing the Ideal Type he wrote:

     

    What made these stories valuable was not their historical authenticity or experimental demonstrability, but their allegiance to a pattern of truth.

     

    When I read the second quote I felt peace. I am Christian who believes that the Bible is the word of God, but am not convinced that everything in it is literal. I have kept this to myself because most of the Christians I associate with would wonder about me if I told them I did not take it literally. What if the stories are not meant to teach us "authentic history" but just to teach us the pattern of truth?

     

    It is also important because it shows that there is a place for fiction, especially good fiction that I would categorize as literature. I have had many people tell me that they just do not have time to add literature to their plate, but their children are free to read it in their spare time. There is also a place for stories from other cultures as well. I had a woman tell me that I was poisoning my children by telling them the stories from Ancient Greece and Rome. The children she was worried about are 10 and 8. I think they are old enough to distinguish between the One God we worship and the many gods the ancients believed in. They were just stories to them, no more real than the characters in Tom Sawyer or the Just So Stories.

     

     

    Norms and Nobility discussion

    in General Education Discussion Board

    Posted

    I finished and it left me a little in despair. I feel like it is possible to make changes in my children's education, but I worry about where my society is heading. In my opinion Americans have a very descriptive attitude about man, but at the same time the schools in my area are teaching a prescriptive ideal, just not the one I believe in. How does a society like the United States even agree on an ideal to teach? Should we all just teach our own? How would that work in a public school? Maybe I should just focus on my family.

    Education Philosophies...especially Perennialism

    in General Education Discussion Board

    Posted

    I don't know. Some of the listings make no sense to me. Archimedes and the Door of Science is definitely not appropriate for high school in my opinion. Sometimes I think gyrations to make things "fit" make common sense fly out the window.

    I agree about Archimedes and the Door of Science is not a challenge for High School students, but I learned many things and got excited too study further when I read it to my children. I saw that and thought it must just be meant to be a jumping off point for independent study.

    Education Philosophies...especially Perennialism

    in General Education Discussion Board

    Posted

    I just compared the book lists for St. Raphael's to Angelicum's list. They are very different. I wonder if Dr. Taylor has changed his mind about the quantity of "good books" a young child should read. At first glance, the St. Raphaels' list looks to be a "less in more" list. Especially when compared to Angelicum's.

     

    For example, Angelicum's Kindergarten's list includes 3 Andrew Lang fairy tale books and the Wind in the Willows (year 2 on Ambleside Online). As the mother of an almost kindergartener, 3 Lang books seems to be a bit much and the AO assignment of Wind in the Willows to Year 2 makes more sense to me than Kindergarten. http://angelicum.net/curriculum-2/kindergarten-level/

     

    The St. Raphael list for Kindergarten is much simpler. http://www.raphaelschool.org/nursery.html

     

    I really like the simplicity of this program. It seems much more doable especially because of the way they have the kids grouped. I wonder how it works having a 7 and an 11 year old in the same class?

    WWE question

    in K-8 Curriculum Board

    Posted

    I am using WWE 2 without the workbook. It is not very difficult. I take just a few moments before we get started to scan what we read that day or yesterday for passages to copy and then dictate. The selections for summary and narration are not a problem because we have done that from the beginning so i can read a whole chapter and my girls can narrate the whole thing, then in have them summarize in 2 or 3 sentences. If it were a new skill I uldmjust start with a page or even less and then build up from there.

    So, who's sticking with WWE?

    in K-8 Curriculum Board

    Posted

    While I love WWE, I never found it to be enough writing for my kids for a full, round school year. Even before W&R, I supplemented with other resources. Admittedly, my kids enjoy writing, creative writing included. I have started W&R with my youngest, and I do not see those lessons lasting a full year on their own either. Combined, I think the two programs probably have the perfect amount of work for a full school year. Also, I like still having WWE for writing across the curriculum since W&R is self-contained. Youngest adores workbooks though, so this is right up his alley.

    Do you do both at the same time or alternate weeks. I sometimes think I could do both at the same time. I have found that using WWE 2 across our own curriculum is so easy and seemless, I think it would be possible to add W&R or something like it and not make it be too much writing. Maybe I would need to skip the copy work and dictation in it.

    So, who's sticking with WWE?

    in K-8 Curriculum Board

    Posted

    I love WWE. I have one of my daughters using CAP and the other using WWE. This is simply because my older daughter struggles with spelling so much that all the dictation in WWE 3 was frustrating because she was so worried about spelling things right no matter how many times I told her I would spell it for her. I was using the workbook and it may be different if I found my I own dictation exercises. I am letting her do the two W&R books while working on spelling and I am pretty sure we will go back and do WWE.

     

    WWE works very well for my other dd. She is doing WWE 2 and I started finding my own passages (which was easier the I thought it would be), and she loves it. This was also the first year I have been consistent with writing for them. I probably should have had my older daughter do a lower level to get more practice before level 3, but her little sister is doing 2 and she was already feeling behind in other areas.

     

    A disclaimer is that I feel less prepared to teach writing than any other subject, so I have worried over this quite a bit. I am still not 100% sure I am doing the right thing.

    Using PDF Downloads in School

    in General Education Discussion Board

    Posted

    I use my ipad for PDF books all the time. If you just want to read them you can open them in iBooks which comes on the ipad. If y want to write on them you can use an app, like notability. I put our Math Mammoth files in that app,and my girls can do their math on the ipad with a stylus. I also put blank maps and we race to fill them in the fastest and the fullest.

    What is the difference between TWTM

    in General Education Discussion Board

    Posted

    I think it is going to take place here. When it was first mentioned, I think it was suggested to start in a couple of weeks to give people time to get the book. (And maybe do some pre reading? That's what I've been *trying* to do. I need to get cracking on Leisure.

    I panicked for a moment thinking that I was missing out on the discussion somewhere else.

    Having my own Homeschool Retreat at home...need good audio downloads

    in General Education Discussion Board

    Posted

    This is the problem here too. I haven't been for a few years actually. But in my neck of the woods most of the homeschool conventions have a TJED flavor. I do find some merit to parts of it, but there are a lot of "groupies" where I live and I need something different. Wishing I could afford to travel to some of the bigger conventions around the country.

     

    It is the same here. Many of my friends are attending a big TJED conference that is in a few weeks. I just nod and smile while biting my tongue while they talk about it. I love this idea too.

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