If The Boys were poor writers, I'd absolutely do something different and go a different way. But as it stands,I can't imagine going another 4 years with ELA (at the highschool level) because 1) The Boys are really darn solid with ELA currently--wonderful vocabularies, strong writers, capable speakers, really good conversationalists and very widely read. 2) Opportunity Cost. ELA for ELA's sake is a time consuming subject and I'm not convinced that there is much Return On Investment to be had to keep moving higher/farther down the continuum as opposed to spending that time and energy on other subjects or concepts. There are a few niche skills that they'll need to learn but I can't justify stretching out the list for 4 more years when it is likely that one more year will do the trick and if it doesn't, oh well. It doesn't really matter to their future. For what it's worth, you don't need a high school writing level to teach/guide your elementary school student to write. Also, you have no idea idea how many English and Lit Majors I know whose grammar and writing foundation does not actually surpass The Boys. That's not me being boastful--a few of them have said it out of their own mouths. That piece of a paper is a Degree, not a Guarantee.

So far, I can't see the need for a K-12 plan for ELA skills. I am still not completely sold on doing 4 Years of English at the High School/Undergraduate Level. For birth to K grade range vocabulary and oral/aural language skills are Ruler Supreme. Lots of talking to and with the child, describing things to the and helping them to speak and understand spoken language clearly. If I had a do-over, I'd emphasize vocabulary and language development--preferably bilingual--over Early Reading. I'd offer reading and handwriting every couple of months starting in PreK but it'd be ok if we didn't get around to reading until 1st grade so long as the language skills were developing well. Once hand-eye-coordination is established we'll work on pre-handwriting skills and/or handwriting skills daily, while we're waiting for the reading to kick in. When they're ready to read, they learn to read via phonics and read for practice. Once they're reading foundation is set, build on it for about 3-12 months (depending on the kid), then begin teaching more sophisticated vocabulary--morpheme based stuff has worked really well for me as a teacher. I'd do spelling via phonics, morphemes and controlled dictation. Weekly presentations begin pretty much in 1st grade as a vehicle to tackle a combination of language skills. We never work on grammar as a stand-alone subject. For better worse, teaching Composition is an intensive, 1-1 coaching process for which I don't prefer any substitutes. But that's how I'm able to teach my students to use grammar, spelling, figurative language and and word choice reliably. With a Do-Over I'd introduce Shorthand as early as the student demonstrated readiness and ability with reading, writing and penmanship--I'm thinking somewhere between mid-3rd and 6th grade. I can't imagine continuing ELA through high school.

Thank you for this information. We're endeavoring to learn Gregg Shorthand thoroughly but I wish I had more insight on how to best learn and practice Gregg. We've been learning the orthography and doing the dictation exercises and tons of review. We're using materials published in 1916 (Manual + Dictionary) and 1919 (Graded Readings and Speed Studies). We're doing and redoing the manual lessons and packing in tons of review. Lots of copying practice and some dictation too. The Boys think it would have been wonderful to know Gregg years ago--just to make their notes in Gregg and do drafts for school reports in and I while I wholeheartedly agree, I told them to be grateful they're learning it now, rather than after college.

Well guys, it's that time of year again. What are the some picture goals for your AL for 2022? For reference, here are the past threads if you're curious. 2021 thread 2020 thread 2019 thread 2018 thread 2017 thread 2016 thread 2015 thread

It's the Mathew Effect of Accumulating Advantage and to be blunt, we're here for it. Amen. The skills, knowledge and advise that I have to give to my kids, I'm giving them. We don't have tons of money, so the majority of what I can give my kids is my time and attention. I was in UG only some years ago and I assure you that while I was there many parents also purchase private advisors and counselors for their college aged students. Parents still routinely pay for expensive private tutoring or exam fees, many parents buy their students business casual or professional dress for mixers and events. These young adults have private counselors who read their essays and give feedback, assist with their applications etc. Many of these young adults have told me out of their mouths that they learned to play golf/racquet ball/tennis growing up in preparation for college and the young adult years. Some parents who don't have the money to purchase these things, still put the time and attention in for the paperwork side of things because many times the academics may be above their capabilities. The "Young People Need to Sink or Swim" rhetoric leads to a lot of waterlogged corpses unnecessarily. I watched so many of my peers drown with this mentality when ~10hrs of attention with a matter might have helped them through.

Get a 1 subject notebook and a used copy of Teach Yourself Algebra Visually as a review or as a preview/extension, Teach Yourself Calculus Visually. There is also the Humongous Book of Algebra Problems Translated for People Who Don't Speak Math.

These are hard-back, non consumable textbooks. The kids will have to do their work on a sheet of notebook paper or in a notebook. Amazon has used books in Very Good and Good condition for less than $7.00 shipped.

The only ESLs I've taught have been Spanish speakers, so I just model the sentence in Spanish, then in English. I color code a lot. To my mind, its unnatural to study a language via grammar -- it's all about the pattern of "how it's said" so I just teach that way too. I simply explained that they can use "it" for any single non-human thing. The weather was hot yesterday. | It was hot yesterday. The room was really crowded. | It was really crowded. The dog is fast. | It is fast. A sandwich is on the counter. | It is on the counter. In Spanish, there is a word for "there were" and "there was" because of the way verbs are conjugated. So, for the ESLs that I've worked with there were and there was are just taught as a phrase and via a hundred explicit color-coded examples.

Nothing beats a library card and a stock of recycled house hold materials for educational crafts/posters if the mood strikes you. Simplicity that is easily sustained and costs me nothing more than time I'd already give to my child anyway.

Since you don't want to print and reprint, you could just make a cardboard calendar. Take some cardboard cereal or cracker boxes, a ruler, sharpies, index cards, packing tape, tacks and a list of the things you guys have to do most often. 1) Make a calendar (daily or weekly layout) on the inside of a cereal box using sharpie 2) Cut the index cards into strips 3) Put the tasks on the strips cut from index cards using sharpie 4) use packing tape to reinforce the strips and/or calendar 5) stick the strips up on the calendar using tacks 6) repeat each day/week as needed.

I have a copy of 3rd grade Bien dicho! and 6th grade Bien Dicho! which are Spanish language grammar manuals. Its grammar so each level teaches the same content pretty much. So I suggest getting 2 copies of 3rd grade since the 3rd grade book is not as dense as the 6th grade text. These are typical grammar textbooks, so there is a lot of overlap in the skills taught at each level. In fact, since nombres and sustantivos are the same thing, the 6th grade book has 1 unit that's not included in the 3rd grade book: 3rd grade (186 pages) has units on: La oracion, Nombers, Verbos, Adjetivos y adverbios, ortografia y puntuaction, and pronombres 6th grade (251 pages) has units on: Oraciones, sustantivos, verbos, calificativos, ortografia y puntuacion, pronombres, and frases preposiciones. In both levels the format is the same. Each lesson has an explanation + examples, then some oral exercises for you to discuss what was just taught. Then written exercises to independently complete what was just taught. Rinse and repeat.

Saxon Algebra has always been used in public schools as well as home schools. The 3rd edition is a staple in the homeschooling world. You can purchase the answer key/test booklet to accompany it if you want. The 3rd edition the cover looks like this: Saxon Algebra 4th edition is definitely targeted more at Public Schools and is not really recommended by homeschoolers. The 4th edition looks like this:

I've never been sold on the supposed benefits of learning Latin--we went the route of root-based vocabulary building which has definitely been beneficial. Latin/Greek vocab combined with actually learning modern languages instead has been a better combination of benefits, in my opinion. The Boys learned to sew--both by hand and with a machine. I definitely think it's beneficial.

That was a good idea, but man, did you play yourself. I wish I had the discipline to learn some language or code that I could use to keep things secret from The Boys.

Which years did you take Short Hand? Do you remember which Short hand was taught? Any tips on how to most effectively practice it? How did you use it when you were younger? Do you still use it?

Pal was a troubled-speller all through elementary school and into middle school. He's gotten to a solid level of spelling now but I'm teaching him shorthand anyway. For him, the ability to quickly write down notes is worth the extra hassle.

Do it. The Boys think it's very useful and there is a huge "cool" factor to it since most people can not read it.

I know that handwriting is considered a dying subject in my area schools, and apparently Shorthand is already dead because I don't think a dozen schools in the country still teach it. However, I found out about Short Hand within recent times and I purchased some books on Gregg Short hand and we've been learning and practicing it. Are there any other courses/skills that used to be taught in schools, but isn't anymore? If so, what are they?

Still can't find the perfect name. Or even a good one. Last night I thought of GADGETSS: Gils Academy for Developing Generally Excellent and Technologically Superior Students Ugh! This is maddening. Someone suggested that GADGET might not be the right word to build the acronym around.

Drawing maps of the world from memory.

Maybe a nice reference book on something that he likes. An Encyclopedia of Horses or Star Wars Visual Encyclopedia or something along those lines? Honestly, I've turned to purchasing lots of books off of eBay for The Boys. There is something about getting a bunch of books at once that ups the cool factor in their eyes.

While I agree whole-heartedly with the sentiment, I absolutely disagree with the standards proposed. What you're really saying is that teaching single variable calculus (AB and BC content) to highschool students requires a Masters Degree. That's simply not so. If we want to require a Masters in mathematics to teach Calculus in highschool, then we as a society have to be prepared to drop that course from a huge portion of schools throughout out the entire country. The community colleges that I'm aware of allow people with a BS in the field (or a related field) to teach the remedial classes--which is the same content from about 4th grade up to 11th grade algebra. Anyone having a minor in math and some classes in instruction/pedagogy would be sufficiently prepared for teaching highschool mathematics all the way up the "advanced" highschool course of Calculus BC. A math degree should be valued and appreciated, but certainly not required to teach highschool mathematics. Elementary math teachers being Genuinely Proficient with math taught up to 8th grade is a reasonable standard to set and one that society could (and in my opinion should) fully support. The math done at the K-8 level is pretty much calculation or algebra-based. I mean, even the geometry done before highschool is pretty much classifying shapes based on characteristics/definitions or calculating the area, perimeter or volume of various shapes. So to be a great math teacher at the K-8 level, you don't actually need mastery of the Geometry-centric portions of highschool geometry. It wouldn't hurt, but for many it wouldn't make a difference.

Re: Textbooks. Search online for "Algebra 2" or "Intermediate Algebra" and use the chapter resources on Teacher Websites by topic. Graphing and Transforming Polynomials is the same no matter which textbook you use. You can order older texts online 2nd hand for $3.99+ SH

One thing that is helpful is to restate/summarize the chapter in your own words or short hand. Write and rewrite the summary until you have the "essence" of the lessons or chapter on a half-sheet of paper (or less). Verbalize the process (say it outloud) as you write that summary. Then write/rewrite that summary every other day. You can set an alarm on your phone as a reminder. Because it's half of a page or less, it won't take long for you to write out and summarize the essence of a whole chapter. In this way, you can create like a Memory Work schedule for reviewing entire chapters/sections of a text within several minutes.

I've always worked as far ahead as possible. With more recent review as needed. For example, I'd complete the textbook ASAP, but re-do reviews and practice intermittently as needed. Any problems that I have trouble with, I'd take note of and review them more frequently.