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Jackie

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Everything posted by Jackie

  1. Actually, AMC allows disability accommodations on their tests, roughly in line with whatever is in a 504/IEP. The problem is the same as all the other tests - you have to find someone to proctor. Plus, most places aren’t even aware that the AMC allows accommodations, so you have to start by educating whoever is offering the test in hopes they will then proctor.
  2. I haven't been around here in a while. Just checking in. Both the kid and I had some major mental health challenges last spring, causing us to completely ditch the last 1/4 of the school year. It sucked, but it was needed. We’ve always learned unschoolish/heavily child-led, but we’re not sure if we will eventually call this year 8th or 9th grade, so there’s some more structure. Kid does love learning, so the year is pretty packed. Math: finish AOPS Geometry, play with Zome Geometry, play with the Make: Calculus book, decide if there will be formal math after Geo is done (and, if so, what) Science: Clover Valley Chemistry, a guided Marine Bio research class at Athena’s, and a weekly discussion group on current marine bio research at Athena’s English/History: using the Exploring America in the [Decades] series as a base FL: dropped ASL 2 last spring, will likely pick it back up this spring Plus: A new Learning Effective Teaching Skills class at Athena’s, Destination Imagination team, circus arts
  3. My kid LOVED the Dragonology class and still (2-3 years later) refers to parts of it. They really wish L would add more classes for them to take! At this time, they’re set to take what I think is their 4th year of Marine Bio with Emma. We laugh about this because this kid has no interest in pursuing marine bio as a career, but has probably put more time into it than most other subjects because they love Emma so much. Plus, we live a few miles from the ocean, so they’re able to explore and put what they learn to good use!
  4. As far as I have found, the terms Concurrent Enrollment and Dual Enrollment are defined by state legislatures and differ somewhat from state to state. Homeschoolers tend to call it all Dual Enrollment and only sort out the terms if the language is causing a barrier in understanding.
  5. In my opinion, a subject (any subject) begins to become a waste when it is both (1) more that the person needs for life/career and (2) exceeds the person’s interest. Other than that, it’s about finding optimal learning and enjoyment. Show your kid the books in question, or at least samples online. What piques their interest? What would they like to learn next?
  6. Until my kid was 7, they were 100% a “language kid”. Super early reader, talked in full sentences and paragraphs before 2 years old, tested at adult “reading level” and 8th grade comprehension at age 4. They were strong in math, but maybe 2-3 years advanced, and no notable interest. Then they learned about Epsilon Camp. They had been pretty isolated in a smallish town. They hadn’t found other kids “like them”. And they didn’t care what subject they had to embrace to get to those kids. They threw themself into math like nothing I’d seen, moving from mid-4th grade BA through the end of Algebra 1 in about 14 months. They now define themselves as a STEM kid. They still test stronger in English. They’re globally gifted, with hindrances due to 2e-ness. All that talk to say: lean in. Lean in for now. Lean in if it changes. Provide inroads to math that respect the love for reading (I can rec some book if you’d like), but I’ve had the best luck just waiting for a glimmer of interest and then leaning in.
  7. And now that the thread has been derailed, I'll come back to the original post to say that a lot of mathy kids really enjoy EMF. We haven't used it, so no personal experience, but AOPS, RSM, and EMF have all been strongly recommended by parents at Epsilon. It is online and self-paced.
  8. She LOVES Epsilon Camp. This is her last year here, as she will have completed their highest level and graduate from the program in a couple days. It's been an amazing experience for her and she's said that camp is ending so soon. How old is your very mathy kid?
  9. calbear is correct. We used RightStart Math levels A, B, and a little bit of C. That's when we transitioned to BA3, which was the earliest book out at the time. The online version didn't even exist up until just as she was wrapping up BA5. We never stopped to practice math facts. With RightStart, the games are the practice, but she hated the games - even while very young she could see right through them as thinly veiled drill and refused to do them. We played lots of actual games, though. Things like Yahtzee, Dragonwood, and Zeus on the Loose, which are actually fun. When we got to multiplication, I hung a multiplication chart above her desk and allowed her to use it all she wants. Memorization came with use, not drill. As for learning formally, depends what you consider formal. I bought RightStart A when she was tiny because I found it at a good price. When she was 3, I would look through the instructor manual and see what they were teaching and how they were teaching it. I would then incorporate those concepts into play. Once she had those, I'd go back to the book and do the same thing. When she was 4, most her friends went to kindergarten and she said she wanted to start "real school, even if the school is at home" and part of her definition of that was "trickier math, with big numbers". I pulled out level B and we worked on it here and there. She picks up math intuitively, so often times one 15 minute lesson could cover the material in 2-4 lessons. I would say the first "you need to do math today" didn't come until we started BA, and that was only 3 days/week. Once we started BA/AOPS, it was the only actual curriculum we used. However, curriculum has only been maybe 1/3 of her math. We found so many resources - fun math books, apps like Dragonbox, piles of games, good YouTube channels, and so on. This is probably her greatest strength with math - not that she is advanced or taking X class at Y age, but that she is exposed to a *huge* variety of math at all different levels. She reads books by mathematicians for fun. Last time we attended Epsilon Camp, I came out with an extensive resource list and she loved all of it. I ended up at a lunch table today with two of her instructors here and they casually talked about all sorts of math resources, so I started taking notes.
  10. In the BA books as well. If she could do the starred and challenge problems, there seemed little reason to make her do the rest. She had read Murderous Maths and some other mathy books on her own. She had watched some of the YouTube stuff like Vi Hart and Numberphile. Turns out she actually learned stuff from all that and could apply the information when a problem was put in front of her. She actually skipped prealgebra altogether and went directly from BA5 to AOPS Algebra. We did look at the Prealgebra book, but the topics are all covered within BA and she detests repetition. I did give her the option of a less intensive Algebra 1 program, and was able to get my hands on several other options for her to look over - Jacobs, Forester, a couple others. If she had chosen this, we might have gone back and hit at least some selections from AOPS afterwards. However, she looked at the other books, and most are of the "teach the kid how to do X, then have them practice doing X". She loves the discovery-based method that the AOPS books use, and decided she would rather power through AOPS. As for Epsilon Camp, it was the knowledge that there would be a group of kids her age working at the same level as her in *any* subject. If I had found a similar camp in science or literature, she probably would have thrown herself into that. (Not writing, though. She would have drawn the line at writing.) She had met only a couple kids who were bright and actually liked academics and were into some of the same geeky things as her, so a camp full of them sounded like paradise. If math was the way to get to this paradise camp, then she would learn more math.
  11. Honestly, this is the reason that we almost-unschool. Our entire household is ADHD. This means that DD doesn't focus well on things she doesn't like/choose, and I'm not great about following through on boring stuff myself. However, when she does choose to learn something, she can learn so much so fast that it more than makes up for the time she spent not doing the thing. She takes fairly few formal classes, often prefers to self-teach, and is still academically well ahead of her age group. And that is with everyone in the household being medicated. Without that, we probably wouldn't really be getting anywhere.
  12. My daughter did AOPS Algebra A in 3rd grade. While it is not common, she is not the only one by far. We're currently at Epsilon Camp. Their main program is for 9-11 year olds, and campers must have completed Algebra 1 before attending. In her case, once she found out about Epsilon Camp, she was determined to go and she had one year to get from Beast Academy 4B through Algebra. She put in some extra time, I allowed her to test out of topics she felt she already knew by doing only the challenging problems, and she stuck to her goal. Every time it got hard, I simply said, "This is your goal, not mine. You can stop any time you want to." She'd usually kick something, grumble under her breath, and go back to doing math.
  13. She dislikes how directed/lecture-based it is. She wants exploration of interesting math, which can absolutely include contest prep, but this past year was sign in, listen to someone with very little interaction.
  14. Haven’t been around here in a while, but DD12 does have plans for fall. Math: She’s currently about halfway through AOPS Geometry and will continue. She prefers learning from the book and working on Alcumus, and has been 95% independent with the Geometry book. This summer is her last year with Epsilon Camp. She doesn’t like the local Math Circle, so she’s going to return to piecing together interest-based math using some online stuff from MoMath, and a variety of math books. She’s been carefully reading through Symmetries of Things because one of the authors taught her previously at Epsilon Camp and will be back this summer, so she wants to pick his brain about some of it. English: she’s taking a class on personal essay writing this summer (meant for high schoolers writing college app essays, but she wants to try for a CDB scholarship and has never written this style essay before), next year will just be the SEA Tween book clubs sometimes with the writing supplement Social Studies: she still reads nonfiction for fun, so not doing formal stuff. Will have a subscription to The Sweary Historian and regularly watch CNN10. Science: high school level Marine Bio through Athena’s Foreign language: ASL at the CC EC: Destination Imagination team, flying trapeze, various circus arts classes This past year, she put hundreds of hours into learning how to custom craft lotions, lip balms, and a few other body products. All just for funsies, but now that she has the knowledge, she’s going to try her hand at launching it as a business by the end of summer. After having put some of the time in, she learned she is allergic to the vast majority of body products on the market and further learned how to play with ingredients so she can custom make for herself and others who need to avoid any given ingredient. So we’re keeping academics especially light (by her standards) so she can put time into further product development and learning some marketing and bookkeeping skills.
  15. If he doesn’t need a class-type setting, he could self-teach with the AOPS books and work problems on Alcumus. That’s actually my daughter’s preference at this time.
  16. Looking back on this, and looking back on several years prior. I’m happy to say that my goals have always been centered around happiness, mental health, and well-being, not academic goals. Everyone in our household is 2e, we’ve all lived that very differently, but centering mental health and well-being is extremely important to us. DD knows the neighborhood far better than I do. She can run any errand in walking distance. She can take the bus, but doesn’t have a lot of confidence in her ability to do so. It’s coming along. Sh e just started doing some busking, and earned her first few dollars. EF skills . . . We will get to them. Some are being formed. I got my own ADHD diagnosis in the last year, and need to teach what I don’t know, or figured out with too much failure. She can get herself ready to leave the house for all regularly scheduled stuff. for the smaller goals: she TA’d just fine but didn’t love it, she is doing the Math Circle but doesn’t love it, she is learning ASL and down on herself all the time but excelling in the class, got promoted to intermediate classes in flying trapeze super quickly and is thriving in it, and is doing a pile of art that she is doing well in but constantly criticizing herself every step of the way. She loves her therapist, so yay for that.
  17. In our usual style, we take our plans a semester at a time, and even then we're winging things half the time. So, my contribution to the planning thread, updated for second semester: English: still working through resources for our homebrewed course on the art of persuasion. This has mostly been going well, though I'm realizing that we're hitting the end of where I can give her useful feedback on writing. Will have to outsource that in some way in the future. Math: been doing a super-light year. Math Circle and not much else. She wants to go back to using AOPS second semester. I realized that at this point, she can manage the pretests for Geometry, Intermediate Algebra, C&P, NT, and even Precalculus (minus a couple questions on geometry of circles). So, she needs to figure out what direction she wants to go in. History: still doing 2 hours/week of reading in the pile of resources we put together for History of Math Science: continuing on with the middle school marine biology classes at Athena's - next semester is Icthyology and Kelp Ecosystems. Taking Herpetology 2. Language: ASL through Open Tent is going really well Art: She is spending 12+ hours on art per week. She has explored making her own makeup and bath products, and can create her own recipes for things at this point. She is working on papermaking now. She is also working on learning face painting/body art. She is taking maker classes, studio art classes, digital art classes. She spends nearly all her free time creating in some way. PE: Three hours of flying trapeze per week. Might add parkour back in if we can find the time. Other: She wants to take Intro Psych at the community college. Need to remember to prompt her to send the necessary emails to find a prof who will accept her due to her age. Extracurricular: Destination Imagination team is going very well. Regional Tournament is at the end of February. Assuming they place well there, they will go on to States at the end of March. And, of course, they all hope that they manage to make it to Global Finals.
  18. DD is signed up for Philosophy, Icthyology, Kelp Ecosystems, and Herpetology 2.
  19. I feel like we need to rethink “happy endings”. (And, wow, is that a dirty term.) I went into college with one dream job. I realized that one might not work out for me and pivoted. I worked in the newly chosen field for about 15 years and then quit due to a combination of burnout and needing more time as a parent. However, that is not an un-success story. 15 years in a high burnout field is super amazing; I did a lot of good and it was incredibly satisfying. If anyone out there is pointing to my leaving the field as a sign of failure, I will entirely throw an epic fit. I’m still not sure what I want to be when my child grows up and I’m free to work full time again. That’s fine. I have time, and so does my kid.
  20. My kid is younger, but we have done a real mix in our homeschooling - deep and wide where her interests lie, and a more minimal approach elsewhere. I generally say she is an academic kid, and that is true, but it’s definitely not across the board. She all but refuses to do any formal study of history. She mostly doesn’t want to write. She has a love/hate relationship with math. She loves all things science, but not really formal classes. She loves words, so she will happily learn some words for a spelling bee and throw herself into learning word roots. I think wide is great. Because she learns quickly, she has time to explore a lot of subjects (both academic and not) in the time she doesn’t need to spend on academics. I think deep is great. She has a much better understanding of many subjects than I do. I also think fast is great. We do just enough on subjects she isn’t interested in and move on.
  21. Not only are we having overlapping discussions, but I think we aren’t distinguishing between levels of giftedness. I did not teach my child to read early. She asked to learn to read early, and I went over letter sounds and tried to do some beginning teaching, and she appeared to lose interest. At 2.5 years old, I saw something odd in how she was reading her books, and asked her to read a passage in an unfamiliar book to me. She struggled and was slow, but she could do it. By 3.5 years old, she was reading fluently and with inflection, better than many adults I know. She went to a play-based preschool a couple days a week, and the lead teacher (who had been doing this work for over 30 years) had never seen anything like the “story times” my kid held for the other kids. Near the end of 4 years old, she tested at an 8th grade comprehension level. My contribution to that? Being a moderately involved parent. I taught her letter sounds, played some made up letter sound games if we were in the car, read to her a lot, and listened while she read her way through Bob Books and early readers. Most parents I am friends with do all that, and their kids read at typical ages. They may be a bit advanced, but not like my daughter. That was not teaching. Do not even try to convince me that other kids could do this if they just had a better teacher. That’s complete bullshit. She was moderately advanced in math. Then she found out about Epsilon Camp, and desperately wanted to go to a camp with other kids “like her”. I explained how the requirement that she complete Algebra made this impossible, as applications would be due in about a year and she was in BA4. She was super disappointed, then asked what was between her and completion of Algebra, and totally effing did it. She took the online AOPS Algebra A and mostly breezed through it at 8 years old. Again, I take absolutely zero credit. In fact, my refrain for that year was “this is your goal, not mine. You can stop at any time. It is not my responsibility to bear your stress or to support you more than I would do for any other class.” She would glare at me, mumble, kick something, and get back to work. On the other hand, she has ADHD, anxiety, and dysgraphia. These are truly limiting factors that cap her acceleration. There is a real, solid difference between an NT kid who is accelerated and a gifted kid. And by the time we are discussing some amount of gifted+, the difference is absolutely palpable. And a 2e kid is something else entirely.
  22. There is a strong component of natural ability. Frankly, my daughter does not work hard at academics. She has anxiety and ADHD and we aim for “good enough” most times. Her main interests are not academic, and managing her mental health needs takes priority over more academics. She tested at adult level reading at age 4. She completed AOPS Algebra A at age 8. Academic testing puts her at over the 90th percentile as compared to 12th graders, and she is starting 6th grade. On the other hand, she has taken a pile of art classes. She spends hours upon hours creating art or making crafts. She has all the knowledge and much good instruction. This is something that she does work hard at. She is not a great artist. She is not even an average artist. She is probably average in the crafting/maker stuff.
  23. As another data point, my daughter thrived with BA as her curriculum, and has always disliked nearly every type of puzzle. She would ask to skip some of the more puzzle-type aspects of BA when she could demonstrate the knowledge in some other way. I won’t buy the level 1 books, given that she’s using AOPS stuff now. Hopefully I’ll know someone she can borrow them from.
  24. My daughter and I are both trying out todoist. I really like how intuitive it is.
  25. I knew she met the criteria for ADHD and an anxiety disorder, and wanted them formally diagnosed to access better treatment, as well as finding out if there was any diagnosis I was missing. I also suspected she would meet the criteria for Davidson Youth Scholars.
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