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stephinsocal

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Everything posted by stephinsocal

  1. Yvonne, Sorry for the slow reply. My son had almost finished Unit 2 of Cambridge when he took the NLE (Level 1) in March. They recommend Units 1 and 2 as separate full-year courses for middle school, or both together as Latin 1 for high school. We did Unit 1 in 8th grade, Unit 2 through March of this year (9th), and are now starting Unit 3. The story format keeps my boys enthusiastic about it, and it includes good cultural and historical material, but I do find Henle valuable for the English-Latin translation exercises that Cambridge lacks. Getting the gist of a Latin passage, or even making a decent translation into English, doesn't force you to learn the grammar as does actually having to come up with the correct conjugation/declension/whatever on your own.
  2. idnib, My 14yo ds got a gold medal on Level 1 (one question away from perfect), without taking a class--we've been using Cambridge Latin, supplemented with English-to-Latin translation exercises from Henle.
  3. I've discussed the Faust story a bit with my 14yo ds, in the wake of his reading Frankenstein. Anyone want to recommend a translation of Goethe's Faust, or something else I haven't thought of in connection with this legend?
  4. I know lots of kids (including those enrolled at the local ps) who have used BYU's online course. We haven't done it so I can't discuss content, but many seem to like that it doesn't take long, is accredited, and is reasonably priced.
  5. Just to be contrary here, Scans tend to speak excellent English, so I might think about focusing on another language entirely--one more widely spoken in the world, such as Spanish or French--unless your dc's interest goes beyond a single gap year.
  6. My boat-crazy 14yo ds loves Arthur Ransome's books about kids having adventures in sailboats. Swallows and Amazons is the first in the series.
  7. Tim Severin recreated historical voyages and wrote engaging books about them. Sea voyages included the routes of Odysseus, Jason, Brendan and Sinbad. I think they're pretty much all out of print--we've ordered them through our library system.
  8. Patrick O'Brian for sure, but be aware before giving them to younger kids that the early-19th century sailors are portrayed realistically--salty language, prostitutes, syphilis, and all.
  9. If you're thinking at all about a public charter, IEM is a company that runs them in different regions of CA. Generally they require a monthly face-to-face meeting--I don't know if you could do that by Skype, but it might be worth looking into.
  10. Henle is cheap--especially if you buy the books used.
  11. Reefgazer1963, check out www.nle.org. They let anyone besides the teacher (e.g., a neighbor, the other parent) proctor the exam. It's cheap and easy.
  12. Thinkwell has not updated to reflect the new AP Bio syllabus, so that could be a consideration if your dc might be taking the exam.
  13. I have just a little to report. First, unlike Thinkwell's AP Bio course, BYU seems to be on top of the transition to the new AP Bio format--at any rate, they've posted a webinar about it. I emailed their customer service department asking about AP test results, and the person who replied told me they don't have that information. The actual instructor of the class would presumably know more, but I didn't follow up because ds wants to do AP Chem this year instead, so I've registered him with PA Homeschoolers. Finally, BYU makes a course preview available to instructors upon request. I haven't tried this, but it sounds like it would be worth a try.
  14. Anyone have experience with this? I'm wondering how it stacks up against other online providers.
  15. We've used a book called Great Studio Projects in Art History. It may not be at your dd's level, though....
  16. Whoa, thanks for reminding me--I haven't done our registration yet.
  17. For 8th grade, my son did a mix of Hewitt, the TC Great Ideas of Classical Physics, and Udacity's Intro to Physics. I liked the Udacity course: each short lecture is followed by a quiz to make sure the student is on track, there are problem sets, a few labs, and a final exam. You work at your own pace, which was great for my ds. Successful completion gets you a certificate, which is always nice for backing up the mommy transcript. It requires algebra; they teach you the basic trig necessary to do the problems.
  18. To be frank, we've stuck with it to this point mostly for the budget, which has covered private music and riding lessons as well as tons of books, a telescope, lab equipment, and other goodies. The curriculum hasn't been a big issue in this first semester, mostly because our contact with the school knows from years past that we follow quite a rigorous program, and is happy to help me figure out course titles from the school's list (e.g., "History Elective") that fulfill requirements while letting us do pretty much what we want. We're doing Art of Problem Solving, Teaching Co. courses, WTM-style English and history, etc. Looking ahead, though, I see lots of "life skills" and other requirements that look like they will suck up way more time than I want to devote to them, as well as rigid rules about the sequence of various courses. I'm not sure, for example, that "History Elective" can be used more than once. Oh, and we can't admit to learning a single Christmas song at school-funded music lessons. Thanks for your input, all.
  19. I'd love to hear from anyone, especially in California, who has done high school through a public charter. Our first two years (with kids in grades 5-8) worked fine--we got a pretty substantial budget for books and lessons, in exchange for a bit of record-keeping and short monthly meetings with a very nice, very helpful "educational specialist." Now that my oldest ds is in 9th grade, though, there's more hoop-jumping, and I'm finding it kind of tiresome. Have you been there? Did you stay? Thanks!
  20. JennW and Laura, I don't want to commit a threadjack, but I'd love to hear your general thoughts on the public charter school route. It has worked well for us for the past two years, but is starting to feel restrictive now that my oldest is in 9th grade. I looked for an earlier thread on this topic, but couldn't find one.
  21. Ditto the STARTalk recommendation. It's federally subsidized, thus on the order of $1000 for three weeks of room, board, and instruction. Friends' kids have had great experiences studying Arabic and Mandarin at BYU.
  22. Kathy in Richmond, I'm so heartened by your description of your son's path: he sounds exactly like my 14yo. Thanks!
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