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lisak

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Everything posted by lisak

  1. We are using the General Science one this year. It seems to help solidify the lesson. It has the experiments written out on the page, so the student only has to write and answer the questions. It makes for an easier lab report. Answering the on your own questions are there as well. For my older daughter, we used Live and Learn Press. It worked as well. Many people use Knowledge Box Central. I think any of these would be a good addition to the book. It gives the student a specific plan to write a bit and retain some of the knowledge.
  2. I found that purchasing the kits each year saved a lot of energy in returning to the store. For Chemistry, you will want to add the toilet bowl chemical; it can no longer be purchased in stores. You should be able to find it on the supply list. We never went through the physics books, so I do not know much about it. The kits have been a help for Biology, along with the microscope slides and a good microscope. Without a good microscope, it is hard to see the images.
  3. The college is in the town we live in. We need to set up a meeting anyway, so I will put that on our list of questions to ask. I hadn't thought to ask to see student portfolios. Thank you.
  4. My daughter is finally interested in college. She has a good chance at a scholarship from the art department. She will need to provide a portfolio. What kinds of items should she include? I have been making a list of things I think would work: comics published, painted ceramics, drawings, sketches, colored drawings, paintings, textiles of fabric designs, jewelry, a set design from a play. Most of these would be photographs due to either not having the item anymore or for some of them, it would be easier to have a photograph. Any other ideas or types of work that might be missing? Thanks, Lisa
  5. I am laughing as I read this thread. I am definitely an art supply snob:) Several years ago I was chairman of an art committee and we held classes each month. made sure the supplies used were of excellent quality. Then our local group had an artist come in who held workshops and had her curriculum for sale. The supplies she used were the lowest quality you could find. Then a mom talked to me briefly and told me that I had the kids spoiled. They were used to the quality supplies and were just not enjoying themselves at this workshop. My girls have used Prismacolor pencils and markers, sketch book paper, and now as they are getting older, the supplies are changing to more artistic type materials. I find the better the quality, the better the little artist enjoys creating. If the quality is not good, they will not enjoy the process as much.
  6. We used the schedule from Core Foundations (http://corefoundations.wordpress.com/scheds-math-science/) for Biology and many other sciences. I know I found it on this forum, so whoever posted originally, THANK YOU.
  7. My daughter used it in grade 9. It was very thorough and just what she needed. She needed specific writing guidelines, from what I remember. I had purchased their British literature as it went along with her history time period, but it was way over our heads at that time. So I took a look at LL8 and it seemed to fit. I think I read several threads on here before doing that.
  8. I can't address the physics DVD, but can address the Chemistry DVD. My daughter is using the Chemistry DVD by Rusty Hughes. He explains things thoroughly. He goes through the experiments, step by step. He talks slowly, but it is good. She is learning and doing well. If she wishes to continue with Physics, I will purchase this DVD for her to use.
  9. We have Map Trek. One of the nice features of this is the schedules you can get to go along with it. My daughters use Truthquest and MOH and there are schedules for each of these curriculums as well as many others. I have the book which has a CD-ROM included in it. So it is very easy to use both to locate a specific map. There is also a schedule printed in the book as well, which does not correlate to any specific curriculum.
  10. My experience is that when you change programs, there is a learning curve with each program. MUS is no different. Having gone through many levels, I see the way it is taught different than other programs. I was concerned about this student jumping into Algebra without any prior knowledge of the way MUS is taught. It has been two years since my daughter went through Algebra I, so I am not remembering anything specific at this point. But there were places where the reference was to something she learned in Pre-Algebra. Yes it is basic algebra. It involves more graphing than I remember learning in Algebra, but that way many years ago. Lessons 7 and 8 seem to have most of that. Sorry for any confusion.
  11. That's why I'm considering the MUS Alg as Pre-Alg though for this fall. Your note on MUS is what I am concerned about. Pre-algebra is just what is says Pre-. Entering Algebra directly from another program in MUS can be frustrating. Maybe you know MUS and have used it before, so you would be good to begin there. It seems that if one is to stop MUS, they should stop after Zeta and before Pre-algebra. Also if one begins MUS at a later point, they should begin at Pre-algebra. There were a lot of the same words used in Pre-Algebra as in Algebra, so it helps to have that word foundation. Just a few thoughts.
  12. I'll chime in here as we used MCP Phonics for a number of years. Also, if you search by my name, you will find a few previous posts in regards to MCP, and one has pretty much a table of contents. My older daughter began MCP with Level D, which is word study. She is very literature oriented, so it was basically a good vocabulary program. She used it from levels D - F. The younger daughter began in K. She really liked K and A. We began B, but it was repetitive as to her reading program. She did some parts of level C. Younger daughter liked the bright colors, the little books to be made, and I think we had flashcards. I had all of the teacher's manuals. They do give some extra help if needed. I used them some, but not much. If you wish to purchase a TM, you need to contact the company and fill out a form for them. They keep this form on file and you are registered as a teacher. It basically says you will not share the answer key with the student. I purchased two from them; the rest came from a garage sale. For my daughters this was a stand alone program. There are some good things in these books. I remember latin roots introduced in Word Study. The books helped with spelling rules; this was probably in the phonics books. We liked it and found it helped. When it was outgrown, or just wasn't the best fit, it was dropped.
  13. My daughter used every resource we could find when she went through General Science. (We only did all of the resources as using a text book was a new learning experience. We usually do literature based studies for most things.) She uses the audio book to listen while she reads the text. If using version 2 of any Apologia book (Gen. Science and above) it is marked when to refer to the multimedia CD. In addition, there are the notebooking components available. She used Live and Learn Press. I think it is a nice visual way to go through the On Your Own questions and then the study guide. Other people use the Knowledge Box Central resource as it has the labs with it. Now that she is in Chemistry, we have added an instructor (the one that Apologia has) along with the full-course CD-ROM, so I can read along with her. She tends to read and listen to the material, then go the the instructor. So far, this is the hardest one we have encountered.
  14. I think you can skip Physical Science okay. The one thing my daughter remembers is that it made Physics look interesting to her. The big item to consider is math. A working knowledge of Algebra 2 is needed for Chemistry, and some trig functions are needed for Physics. So, if you can get the math down, you should be set. Good Luck!
  15. My daughter used MUS Geometry last year. She did great with it! Math is not her thing and I didn't have to help her understand anything at all. If you need more permission, I would say go for it!
  16. I used Horizons Spelling & Vocabulary when we first began homeschooling my older daughter. It worked well for her. She liked that it had a pattern. I tried using the same curriculum with my younger daughter, but it wasn't a good fit for her. She learns differently. So, if your daughter is a natural speller and likes workbooks, this might be a good fit. I have also used Spelling Workout (MCP kind) and it worked well for older daugher, but not for younger daughter. Younger now uses Sequential Spelling.
  17. I went through this 2 or 3 years ago before my daughter began high school. I found it helpful as I was pretty clueless about making a plan and requirements for high school. I'm at the point that I should probably pull it back out to review the scholarship items and college items. When I used it, it came each week for several weeks. Now you can purchase individual items. Going through the program was useful to me, however, I was new to figuring out what I needed for high school and it was helpful. I had also read every book our library had which helped. This was a bite sized way of planning and making decisions so it would not be overwhelming.
  18. My daughter uses something like the ones from Donna Young: http://donnayoung.org/apologia/general-lab-book.htm#rubric I basically used these forms when we began her structured science curriculum and have changed the form as needed. It is a place to start in addition to the ones you have posted.
  19. Here is a previous post about version 1 vs. version 2: http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=154375 Hopefully that will help you.
  20. There is a yahoo group for MOH and high school. My youngest will be using MOH this year, but she is not high school yet. The regular MOH group has a lot of information, so I assume the high school one would as well. On the regular group (volume 1) there are files where people have already planned out MOH with other curriculums including Sonlight and SOTW. Maybe one or both of these groups will be a help to you.
  21. We have used many of their books. Last year we had Exploring American History. The stories were engaging and my daughter liked it. We were following Guest Hollow, so we were also using other books to supplement. In CLP we would read the content, discuss some of the questions, and I think that was about it. I have used other history books by this same company. We typically follow the same routine. Read what is in the book, supplement it with living books or something hands on. They make a great spine and are easy to add things to.
  22. I have several of her books on my shelf, so I took a look again. In biology, it begins with creation vs. evolution. So if you believe in evolution, you may have an issue with this book. It clearly is written from a Biblical perspective which is God created the Earth. She doesn't make an issue of what year it was created in, which would be Young Earth vs. Old Earth theories. She simply takes the position that God created it and the Bible says 6 days. Nor does she make any positions on how long a day is. So whether you believe Young Earth or Old Earth, I do not see anything that would give you a problem. In regards to dinasaurs and how they are treated. They are not covered at all in this book. I think this book is geared toward a third or fourth grade level, meaning ages 8 -10. As they get older than that, it needs beefing up. I hope this helps you a bit in making your decision.
  23. I don't have a book handy, as I sold the one we used previously and am using a DVD this year, so I will answer as I best remember. When we began the program, I remember instructions in the front of the book. I think the color coding was in that part. There are no spelling rules in the book or program. If you need these, you will have to add them. I bought a set of rules, but didn't use them last year. If the word is misspelled, yes you have her correct it right away. And, yes you continue onto the next lesson. I believe you are handling it correctly, as far as I understand. The first year we used it, I purchased an AVKO membership and downloaded the book with all of the words and sentences. I think that was overkill. We began with the book and I found the sentences or made up my own. Then we went to the DVD so my daughter didn't have to wait for me. On the DVD they just say the word, use it in a sentence, say the word again, and then the student has a few seconds to write the word. If they pause it, they will have more time. The DVD does contain the book that goes along with the volume, so you can print it from there if you need a printed one. There are some word groupings on Spelling City. I'm not sure what they are called or how you find them. Maybe another poster will post that information. I know we have found them before and used them a bit.
  24. I began my younger daughter with SS a couple of years ago. We tried the workbook approach that worked for big sister, but did not fit younger. So we used just some words for a while found on Jan Brett website. I printed out the pictures and the blends from the website. Then we began SS. She prefers the DVD as she doesn't have to wait for me. Spelling is not her thing. We went through phonics for 4 years and many of the rules did not stick. SS is not rule oriented, so you would have to add them in. I just have her use the DVD, write the words out, and we go on. Some stick with her. I have noticed that she can now tell if a word is misspelled. That is great. I would say just stick with the program as written. Use the whiteboard with color. But overall, it seems to be a good program.
  25. This book seems to be a great one for reference: http://www.christianbook.com/big-blue-book-grammar-and-punctuation/jane-straus/9780470222683/pd/222683?product_redirect=1&Ntt=222683&item_code=&Ntk=keywords&event=ESRCP It is called The Big Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation by Jane Straus. I just got it and it looks like a great book for reference to last through high school and probably into college. A couple of years ago I was looking for a writer's reference book and I bought Writer's Inc which is great for writing. Many homeschooler friends recommended the Blue Book for writing. I haven't looked at it that much, but I'm pretty sure it lends itself to the grammar rules and such, not the writing rules.
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