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Space station

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Everything posted by Space station

  1. I think I would ask him if there is anything that he wants to do or explore that he will likely not have much time for once he is on a highly focussed, early high school graduation trajectory. Congrats!
  2. We had that same form with no photo this year, and they wouldn't let my daughter take the test without the photo ID. I had to find her expired passport and race back to the test center with it in the nick of time. She was very chill about it - I was a wreck. Bring the ID.
  3. Gulp! Thanks. Good for her to know what she/we need to work towards saving. Maybe she'll decide this is more important than figure skating. If she gave that up, we could pay for it ...and maybe take a vacation, shop somewhere besides the thrift store, eat organic again... Why, oh why did I ever give that girl a pair of skates?
  4. My dd11 is reading Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier right now. It is a novel about Mary Anning which she is enjoying very much.
  5. We are looking at using the MIT Open Courseware with Harold McGee's text for this. http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/special-programs/sp-287-kitchen-chemistry-spring-2009/index.htm
  6. Thank you for this thread. I have been seeing all of my friends' public school kids Facebook posts about all the awards they are getting, and I know I these are just nice, average kids, not exceptional. Seeing these responses about the unique achievements of your exceptional kiddos brings me so much more joy than those fancy sounding awards heaped on average achievements. My kids accomplished a lot that I am proud of this year, but the biggest are that they are finding passions and paths that are their own. My dd11 has almost competed Algebra and has learned math persistence (before she just wanted it to be easy, which it usually was for her). She is creating and submitting videos to compete in Khan Academy's new talent search because she thinks she has something unique to offer. She is doing it all on her own - that attitude is new and warms my heart. Dd14 is working on designing her radio astronomy course for next year to do in addition to Chemistry. As part of it, she is going to help our local observatory add a second radio telescope to expand their capabilities. Thanks for the outlet to share!
  7. I can't find any info about the cost of the Summer Science Program on their website. Is it a case of if you have to ask you can't afford this program?
  8. I'm just bumping this ancient post about this semester school, called Conserve school in upper Wisconsin, near the border with Michigan. My older daughter is hoping to go for a semester during her sophomore year. There are still a couple of spots open for boys next year if you have a boy who will be an advanced sophomore or junior next year. It really is as good as it looks. They have about 13% enrollment from homeschool students, so they are very familiar with working with homeschooled students. Every accepted student gets a full ride.
  9. My kids memorize many things, but not all. They have to memorize their pieces for auditions and testing, but not usually for recitals, unless there happens to be overlap in the pieces they are playing. I do think some memorization should be required.
  10. Announce, "Yay, now you are a nth grader! Here are your new books. Let's go get some pretty new notebooks to fill up!" :laugh:
  11. If she hasn't already done it, the Ellen McHenry Brain curriculum is a great intro to Neuroscience. It has fun activities, as well as in depth info, links to lots of videos, and books for further reading. My 13yo 14yo (birthday girl!) really loved doing it this quarter.
  12. Those are the same 2 schools my daughter was aiming for. It is so frustrating not to know what the future holds for funding. I'm sure as the flagship UW-Madison will remain fairly strong, but the other 25 campuses will struggle even more. Here is what the first round of $150 M cuts look like for next year by campus, with another $150 M proposed for the following year. http://tinyurl.com/ktjtdwwUnfortunately, our hometown campus in Eau Claire is near the top facing 18% cuts. My daughter thinks she wants to study astro-physics, and what is the first program our local campus announced would be cut? The planetarium and astronomy program. Besides that, they will be removing discounts for DE classes for high schoolers, so we will be faced with paying full credit price for any DE classes she takes. The whole thing is so backwards and short-sighted.
  13. This is all very scary, and we are facing it to a slightly lesser extent in Wisconsin. Our Governor Walker has proposed $2.6 Billion in cuts to our public education system, including $300 Million in cuts to our university system, and 30% cuts in funding to technical colleges. All this so that he can claim a reduction in property taxes for his presidential run (that tax cut would amount to about $10 for us). But at least he also proposed spending $220 Million on a new NBA stadium. :huh: Our Legislature is working to restore some of the K-12 funding in the budget, but it does not look like the funding is going to be coming back for the colleges and universities. Until this year I had assumed that my kids would go to a UW school, several of which have very good reputations. Now I think they should be looking elsewhere, because I expect a big decline in the quality of education in this state as good professors head to other states. Many of my good friends are among those fleeing this system before it goes completely under, and I expect that the same thing is happening in LA. No matter how many tax breaks Walker gives to businesses to come to WI, they won't come here if they see that we don't have a well-trained work force because he cut tech college funding. We fled MI 10 years ago; I hope we don't have to flee WI. MN is looking like the promised land.
  14. I know not everyone likes Fred, but your son is so young, would the storyline appeal to him and maybe make math fun for him?
  15. What does he like? Is he outdoor-sy? Maybe he would prefer Environmental Science. Does he like computers? Maybe he'd prefer programming. Does he like Sci Fi? How about Astronomy? It can tickle the imagination. Does he like history? How about a History of Science class? For a non-stem kid, I'd rather see him pick something that he can dig into and enjoy based on the strengths he will use after he graduates. It doesn't have to be a traditional science sequence.
  16. I guess since we live within 2 hours of the Dells, it is very common for school groups and youth groups to plan outings to the Dells for a few hours and then drive back. I never considered it a place that demands a long term stay. But there is plenty to do there every time we make it a stop on our way somewhere else.
  17. I'm kind of surprised that no one has mentioned making the Wisconsin Dells your stop over point. The Dells has tons of indoor and outdoor water parks that you could stop at for fun, as well as some science museums you could go to, and beautiful scenery for hiking. The Dells is about 30 minutes from Madison.
  18. The more common low level bullying in public school that eats away at self-esteem is higher on my list than the remote chance of violence. However, we primarily homeschool for academic reasons.
  19. We had our children in a public charter K-5 Montessori school. It was a great fit for my oldest, but my youngest was getting lost as the quiet girl who got her work done and read for the rest of the day. She had grade skipped, but was still bored in school. The class sizes got larger and larger as the school became more and more like the rest of the elementary schools in order to meet the standardized testing requirements. When my oldest went off to middle school, I kept my youngest at home and it was wonderful. My oldest did fine in school but hated dealing with middle school garbage and asked to come home too. I never would have expected her to want to be homeschooled, but it was the best decision ever. I hope they want to stay home through high school.
  20. I heard her speak at a RFWP convention a few years ago right before it was supposed to be released. I tried to wait for it, but the release date kept being delayed, and I gave up. It did look very appealing.
  21. Math just continues here. Even if no other schooling happens during the summer, math continues, even if it is just 30 minutes a day. Of course there may be a week off here and there for family vacation or camp, but otherwise - get up, make bed, have breakfast, do math, go out and play.
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