Baseballmom
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Posts posted by Baseballmom
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If you haven't voted yet or you want to vote again today is the last day. Jacob is trying to win a trip to California to attend a Cochlear Implant convention. His video made the finals and it all comes down to votes. So if you don't mind supporting a fellow homeschooler, we would greatly appreciate it!
You can only vote from a laptop or desktop....mobile devices will not work!
https://apps.faceboo...ntries/63598791
I will let you all know tomorrow if he wins!
Blessings~
Dorothy Bauer
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I voted! I have to say his video made me cry! Very nice.
Thank you! It makes me cry too!!
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Thank you for voting! If you didn't vote yet, you can vote until January 17th.
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The link just takes me to a page of ads. ??
I should've mentioned that you can't do it from a portable device. I'm sorry about that.
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Hi All,
I know that I am not the most active member of this group, but I have been here since the old boards, so I am hoping it is not rude to post this request. My 16 year old son received Cochlear Implants in November. He would really like to go to the Cochlear Convention being held in California next month. Since we are a homeschool family living on one income, we just cannot afford to take him to the convention. So we entered a video contest to win a free trip (including airfare and hotel accomadations.) My son's video made it into the finals. The winner is determined by which video receives the most votes. I would appreciate anyone who could please follow the link and vote for my son's video..."The Sounds of Baseball" No pressure, just anyone who wants to help a fellow homeschooler!
https://apps.faceboo...ntries/63598791
ETA: If you try to access from a portable device, inluding an ipad, it will just go to a page of ads. If you are on a laptop or desktop it will work.
Thanks in advance,
Dorothy Bauer
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Yes. Many math programs focus on learning how to plug the numbers into the correct formula and solve. There isn't a lot of understanding concepts to that method.
:iagree:
Given that you have a student who is, until now, breezing through math, I think you might benefit from reading The Calculus Trap. It sounds like your son has fallen into the calculus trap. It was this article that convinced me to switch to Art of Problem Solving with my son in hopes of avoiding that problem. We had to step back two years with AoPS.
Great article. That gave me a lot to think about.
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:grouphug: and sometimes it just is a maturity issue, too. our second dd, now 26, redid grade 8 math completely the summer between grade 8 and grade 9. she "got" it the second time thru, and never looked back.
hth,
ann
Yes, my oldest son took algebra 1 twice. He said it was so much easier the second time.
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We've had two students work through Saxon Calculus, and they always did all of the problems. One of our students had a bit of trouble with the Advanced Math book. We followed your first option; i.e. split the lesson into two days. If your son is not doing well on the weekly tests, then he hasn't mastered the material. Forging on at the current pace is probably not the best idea. With that said, our student didn't have to work 1/2 lessons for the entire book. Slowing down for a period of time doesn't mean slowing down forever.
You are right, we may not need to slow down forever.
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My thoughts:
My impulse would be to get an Algebra 2 book from a non-Saxon publisher and have him work through the chapter reviews. Since he has already finished Saxon Algebra 2, if he solidly knows the information he should breeze through this. If his Algebra 2 skills are not solid, this would enable him to target his weak areas. If he cannot pass a chapter review, I would suggest he go back and work through those parts of the chapter that are problematic. After he has gone through this process and re-solidified his Algebra 2 skills, he will (hopefully) find it easier to progress through his Advanced Math book.
Regards,
Kareni
That seems logical. Thanks
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In addition to determining whether Saxon is a sufficiently good fit for your student, you might consider the issue from another angle: what math program might be optimal for developing your student's considerable math talent.
LOVE this! Thanks!
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It took ME a few years of teaching it to really appreciate the program. It works well for many students. I did find (in my 10 years of teaching it) that about 30% of my students performed better (and developed better/improved attitudes towards math) when switched to a more traditional text.
30%-- one of my dd's ended up being in that 30%. I switched her to Lial and her once defeated attitude made a HUGE improvement. Her scores went from failing to A's and B's-- and the Lial program is not 'easy' or 'watered down'-- it is just as solid as Saxon--just presented differently.
My dd needed to camp out on a concept/procedure and explore it-- what happens when you put a negative here... what happens if... I did the last problem correctly-- I bet I can do the next one too...
With Saxon she was bouncing around from concept to concept with perhaps 5 practice problems (if she was lucky) of the 'mini concept lesson' that were similar-- everything else was totally different and unrelated (in her eyes).
When I taught Saxon I (as the teacher) had to make the connections between the concepts--VERY FEW students can make the connections themselves (or make them by reading the Saxon text). Saxon needs to be TAUGHT.
Some students breeze through the problem set-- taking perhaps an hour (at Algebra 1 level) to complete after instruction. This is reasonable. Students who were part of the 30% would take 2-3 HOURS and lots of frustration to work the same problem set. Parents/teachers would feel sorry for them and allow them to work only half of the set... still taking over 1 hour. This helped for a week or so-- then the 30%-ers were suddenly missing over half of the problems and the 15 problem lesson was taking well over an hour again!!! It spirals down for some.
Now- I must add-- that the students I had who did well with Saxon had NO TROUBLE transitioning to a traditional text for college.... they were well prepared.
The 30%-ers who made B's and C's did NOT transition well--- in fact most had to take remedial maths in college if they did not change to a more traditional text while still in high school.
Since I've been teaching from a 'traditional' text I find that I loose fewer students-- much less than 30%-- probably 5% or so (2-3 students each year). These students would be totally lost with a program like Saxon--and MOST have some sort of learning disability when it comes to Math... even the best teacher/program can only do so much-- the rest is up to student and their ability and aptitude (attitude too).
Thank you for this insight. I believe this may be what is happening with my Advanced Math student. Would you mind taking a look at my post "What would you do? Regarding Math...."and give me any other insight you may have?
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My 13 year old son is currently taking Advanced Math (pre-calculus) by Saxon. He has always been an excellent math student and has never encountered problems understanding math until this year. He does ok on the daily work since he can look back at formulas and rules or I just get him started and a light bulb goes off. But he is having anxiety when I give him the weekly test. He just seems to be having a hard time keeping all of the concepts straight in his head and knowing where to start. I had him make a formula book, hoping that would help, but it doesn't seem to have made a difference at all. Of course, I could just say he is so far ahead and take the year off from math, but I'm afraid he will lose skills that he has worked to obtain for so many years. As a side note he is on schedule to graduate at 16, but I don't care about him graduating early, that's just a goal he has set. And for what it is worth, he wants to be a Marine Biologist, which is not even a math intensive degree program from what I can tell.
Here are things I've considered...
1. Have him take two days for each lesson, doing all of the problem set instead of just the odd problems, which he would hate, hate, hate. He is not a fan of "wasting time."
2. Work on SAT math prep, his math scores from last year were 450, but that is because I didn't tell him how the SAT test works, he didn't know the wrong answer gives you negative points. I just wanted to see how well he would do, so I didn't want to worry him with that information.
3. Continue on the set course and just hope things will eventually work out. Even though he is struggling with several concepts, he still has a great grasp on many things that I struggled with in high school.
4. Do a sort of math unit study spending time on concepts that are interesting, like those used in the show Numbers.
So what would you do?
After responses from general board:
I believe he has a great foundation, has never scored below a 90% on a weekly test. Usually around 80% on midterm & final exams, where the average score in his class was 50-60%. But all of sudden this year it is taking him 1 1/2+ hours to complete the odd problems and he has developed test anxiety. Does he just need more time to mature?
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:iagree: w/regentrude.
For a student so far advanced in math, I'd want to choose the math program very carefully and I'd be thinking about depth as well as method of instruction. From what you have written, I would seriously consider whether Saxon is the wrong approach for this student (see, e.g., Jann's post on the high school board this morning, which describes just such a situation where Saxon may be the wrong fit).
Going over to read it now.
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I consider 2 hours per day the absolute upper limit for a student this age. For most students, that is beyond the threshold of their concentration waning, and spending more time would not be effective.
It would, however, give me cause for alarm if my student took 2 hours per day for what is supposed to be half the daily lesson of a scripted program. I would see this as a sign that either he is lacking foundation, or that the curriculum is not a good fit and I'd have to change curriculum.
Just to make it clear, I am not opposed to spending half an hour on a single problem; we use AoPS, and there it is par for the course. But what you describe would have me concerned.
Yes, that is why I am concerned. Previous years he didn't take so long to complete a lesson. I still think he has a strong foundation. I just think he is not grasping a few concepts. I think I will just review those (maybe with another text) and slow down a little bit. Thanks for your insight.
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:confused: You need to take whatever time is needed for thorough understanding. If he is not yet doing all the work and is NOT doing well, he might need to spend more time on math. Some students may get away with doing only half the problems - apparently he is not one of them. If you want to stick with Saxon, I'd first do the complete set of problems. (But then, I'd lean towards switching curriculum anyway). But in any case, my first remedy for math issues would be to increase time on task. How much time does he spend on math currently?
That's just it, he has always been that kid who could do half of the problems and still get it. He spends about 2 hours each day on math. 30 minutes for instruction and about 1 1/2 hours on problem set. Most of it he can get done in about 30-45 minutes, but then he will spend a 1/2 hour on one problem. Do other people spend more time on math?
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But are you requiring him to do *all* of the problems in every problem set? I was just not clear on that.
I'm sorry, I did answer in another post. No, he has not been doing all of the problems. The teacher at a local one day school only assigns the odd problems. I do understand why doing every problem would be important, but that would also probably take more time than we have available for math each day. We would probably have to take two days per lesson if he did every problem.
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Of your choices, the only one I don't like is #3. Of the others, I like #1 the best. Can you hire a tutor to help him with the pre-calc?
Another thought is that he might benefit from changing books, or even just having another book available to him for reference. Have you looked at any of The Art of Problem Solving materials? They are designed for high performing math students.
That sounds interesting, I will look into it.
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It sounds like he might be having trouble developing a big picture understanding of the concepts. If you want to stay with Saxon, I'd back up to several lessons before he started having trouble (like 10 lessons) and have him start over. And it is extremely important for him to do *all* of the problems especially if he is having trouble. (If you absolutely don't want to do that, then he should do every other problem set in its entirety, not evens or odds.) If he's still having trouble after doing this, you might want to consider switching to a different program that takes a mastery approach, like Lial.
I do think he needs more work on each problem type before moving on. Maybe I will look into a more mastery approach. I'm just leary of changing programs because we have used Saxon for 6 years.
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You're not allowing him to do just the odd problems now are you? Because that's the worst thing you can do with Saxon. Every.single.problem is important, all.the.time.
You can point out to him that he's wasting time if he is struggling, whereas by doing all the problems he'll really understand what he's doing and be more succssful, i.e., NOT wasting time.
For the last 4 years, he has been going to a one day program. The teacher at that program only assigns the odd problems. He is not the type of kid to want to change the way things work. But I understand why doing all of the problems would be important.
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taking a few months to solidify algebra 2 before attempting precalculus again might not be a bad idea.
He completed Saxon Algebra 2 with an A (97%). Daily work wasn't counted at all, just weekly tests, midterm and final exam. Do you think he doesn't have a good grasp of Algebra 2 concepts with that high of a grade? And how would I determine how far back in Algebra 2 he needs to go?
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My 13 year old son is currently taking Advanced Math (pre-calculus) by Saxon. He has always been an excellent math student and has never encountered problems understanding math until this year. He does ok on the daily work since he can look back at formulas and rules or I just get him started and a light bulb goes off. But he is having anxiety when I give him the weekly test. He just seems to be having a hard time keeping all of the concepts straight in his head and knowing where to start. I had him make a formula book, hoping that would help, but it doesn't seem to have made a difference at all. Of course, I could just say he is so far ahead and take the year off from math, but I'm afraid he will lose skills that he has worked to obtain for so many years. As a side note he is on schedule to graduate at 16, but I don't care about him graduating early, that's just a goal he has set. And for what it is worth, he wants to be a Marine Biologist, which is not even a math intensive degree program from what I can tell.
Here are things I've considered...
1. Have him take two days for each lesson, doing all of the problem set instead of just the odd problems, which he would hate, hate, hate. He is not a fan of "wasting time."
2. Work on SAT math prep, his math scores from last year were 450, but that is because I didn't tell him how the SAT test works, he didn't know the wrong answer gives you negative points. I just wanted to see how well he would do, so I didn't want to worry him with that information.
3. Continue on the set course and just hope things will eventually work out. Even though he is struggling with several concepts, he still has a great grasp on many things that I struggled with in high school.
4. Do a sort of math unit study spending time on concepts that are interesting, like those used in the show Numbers.
So what would you do?
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I believe deafness can be a partial or total hearing loss. My son has profound hearing loss and I consider him deaf. Without assistance he cannot hear me if he doesn't know I am talking to him. He is set to get simultaneous cochlear implants in November. I am so excited for him to be able to hear.
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Washers is a great camping game. It's an outdoor game.
Settlers of Catan is a family favorite, but it's really hard to learn how to play, especially if you are not board game type people.
Fluxx is fun, short and easy!
Euker is a fun card game.
Good luck!
Dorothy
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I didn't read all of the responses, so this may be have already been said, but....
The reason that I don't think I would ever get a tattoo (I never say never) is that my father has a lot of tattoos and contracted Hepititis C from getting a tattoo. While I'm sure it is pretty safe these days, I just can't get that out of my head.
The second thing that bothers me is that I know several young adults who complain all. the. time. that they have no money to eat, pay rent etc...Yet they keep getting tattoos. I just dont get it. So that leaves a bad taste in my mouth too.
I have seen some beautiful tattoos, but for me those are generally small and simple. Many tattoos even tell a story about the persons faith...I think that is beautiful.
I don't judge my friends that have them, but at this time it is just not something I would do.
Just an update on Jacob's video contest
in General Education Discussion Board
Posted
We did not win the contest, but I want to thank all of you who did vote for our video. The girl who won it had an amazing video and story, so I am happy for her!
Blessings~
Dorothy