lea1
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Posts posted by lea1
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2 hours ago, Lori D. said:
Possibly: Guest Hollow's High School Geography & Cultures -- in another recent thread someone was mentioning it was meaty enough to spread over 2 years.
Thanks!
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2 hours ago, kristin0713 said:
I'm using the Guest Hollow curriculum mentioned above. It is PACKED. I've adapted it for our needs--removed some books and added more writing projects. There is a lot of geography but also a LOT of cultural info. You could definitely focus more on the geography aspect if you want. Notgrass also just put out a brand new HS World Geography course that looks great if you want a textbook and optional literature.
Thanks for the feedback. I will check it out.
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40 minutes ago, SilverMoon said:
Oak Meadow's Geography was a favorite with one of mine. They might have redone it since my Marine used it though. I had a guidebook and a fairly standard textbook that she used via the schedule in the guide. We might have added a Great Courses series.
Thanks, I will check this out.
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Anyone have any suggestions of a high school credit-worthy World Geography curriculum? I feel like I have looked at everything and am finding it lacking. I like the looks of BJU except it seems to cover more cultural stuff than geography stuff. Heart of Dakota seems to have a ton of moving parts and I can't see paying over $400 for World Geography. I know you get a lot more than just World Geography but I already have everything else I am looking for. Any other suggestions? I wanted to do this for 9th an then do World History for 10th. If I could find a real meaty combo course to do over two years for 2 credits, that would work too.
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37 minutes ago, ByGrace3 said:
My dd took Art of Argument at Schole Academy-- it is considered a full high school credit--though dd did this class in 8th. They do add some things-- including real life application and some paper writing. My dd did Discovery of Deduction in 9th grade and I counted it as a high school credit/elective.
Thank you. I will have to think about this and see if I might be able to add to it to make it more at the high school level. Maybe I can find some ideas on line. And thanks for the tip on Discovery of Deduction. I appreciate your help.
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2 hours ago, Lori D. said:
Welcome back to homeschooling. 😄
Yes, typically Logic is counted as an Elective -- especially if doing an informal Logic, rather than Formal Logic. (Formal Logic is sometimes counted as a Social Studies Elective, as Formal Logic falls under Philosophy, and Philosophy is a Social Studies subject.)
The publisher lists the programs as:
- Art of Argument = grades 7-12, worth 0.5 credit for high school
- Argument Builder = grades 8-12, worth 0.5 credit for high schoolI personally would not count Art of Argument towards a high school credit, even though the publisher lists that you may do so. Why I say that: Art of Argument only covers a narrow area of Logic (fallacies), and the program is most often used for middle school students. Also, I would not count Art of Argument as a high school credit as it is much more standard for schools and homeschool families to use a more thorough and rigorous text for a high school Logic credit.
I do not know enough about Argument Builder to comment on suitability for a high school credit.
What I personally *might* consider doing, if there were NO previous Logic studies, is to do both Art of Argument (1st semester) and then Argument Builder (2nd semester), and count it as 0.5 credit of Informal Logic. Or, if we were adding some additional higher level supplements to those 2 main resources, then I'd consider combining it all into 1.0 credit of Elective: Informal Logic.
Note: a credit does not have to all be earned in a single year -- 1.0 credit of material can be spread out over 2 or more years. So, if doing 1/4 of the work for 1.0 credit in each of the 4 years of high school, then 1.0 credit is earned by the end of high school. Or, you can spread 1.0 credit of material over 4 semesters. Or... you get the idea. 😉
As far as what makes something worth a credit... I am reprinting my post out of this past thread "Daily workload", to give you the background on # hours = 1 credit, in case it helps. 😄
- a credit is earned by completing all or most of a standard high school textbook or program (examples: Math or Science)
- a credit is earned by completing and passing an outsourced high school class, or a dual-enrolled college course
- a credit is earned by completing the volume/rigor of materials and scope of topics you set up as a "DIY" credit, and has a similar level of volume/rigor of materials as other high school credits
For some non-textbook-based credits, it can be helpful to track hours:. . . . . . . . minimum .average . maximum
1.00 credit = 120 . . 150 . . .180 hours
0.75 credit = 90 . . .110 . . .135 hours
0.66 credit = 80 . . .100 . . 120 hours
0.50 credit = 60 . . . 75 . .. 90 hours
0.33 credit = 40 . . . 50 . . . 60 hours
0.25 credit = 30 . . .. 35 .. . 45 hoursThe 120 hour minimum comes from the Carnegie Credit and refers to the minimum teacher/classroom contact hours for 1 credit (it is usually understood that there will ALSO be additional work done *outside of class* (teacher contact hours) that counts towards the credit).
The 180 hour maximum comes from public schools which typically are required to meet for 180 days per year -- so 1 hour/day x 5 days/week x 36 weeks/school year = 180 hours. However, most public school classes actually meet for 40-50 minutes per day, BUT, regular homework is assumed to fill up that shorter class time back up to 1 full hour of time. In general, if you shoot for the average, and you fill out 135 to 165 hours for most of your classes, then the credits on your transcript come out to be roughly equivalent.
If a student is completing a program in far less than 36 weeks of school (at the rate of 45-60 min./day 4-5 days/week) then the program is probably too light (student needs a more meaty/challenging program), or there is not enough volume of material to be worth 1 credit of material).Of course, there are exceptions 😉 -- such as:
- English & Science = closer to 180 hours -- due to extra time needed for reading/writing (English) and for labs (Science)
- some required classes = may be "box checking" classes (Econ, Gov't, PE, Health), and hours may fall closer to the minimum 120 hours
- dual enrollment (DE) courses = more advanced material (higher volume & rigor), but in a shorter period of time -- no need to count hours for DE
To help you in your overall planning for high school credits -- to be "college prep" (in other words, to have the minimum credits of the amount and type needed to be eligible for admission to most typical universities (i.e. NOT top tier/competitive/selective schools), shoot for:
4 credits = English (usually 1/2 Literature + 1/2 Writing)
3-4 credits = Math (Alg. 1, Geometry, Alg. 2, + many colleges want a 4th math with Alg. 2 as a pre-requisite)
3-4 credits = Science, with labs (most colleges flexible; only a few require Biology & Chemistry)
3-4 credits = Social Studies** (most colleges = 1.0 credit Amer. Hist.; some also want 1.0 credit World Hist./Geog.; a few want 0.5 credit each Econ + Gov't)
2-4 credits = Foreign Language, same language (Latin accepted everywhere; many colleges accept ASL)
1 credit = Fine Arts (can be performance (Dance, Theater, Music, etc.) or creation (Art, Film, Photography, Digital Arts, Studio Arts, etc.), or History/Appreciation of (Film, Drama, Art, etc.))
4-8+ credits = Electives (examples: Computer; Logic; Religious Studies; PE; Health; Vocational-Tech courses; personal interest courses; add'l Fine Arts credits; "Academic Electives" (add'l credits in English, Math, Science, Social Studies, or For. Lang. beyond the required amount of those credits; etc.)
22-28+ credits = total (averages out to about 5.5 to 7 credits per year of high school)
Very roughly, plan on 60 minutes per day per credit -- so if doing 6 credits, plan on roughly 6 hours of work per day.
** = Social Studies subjects usually accepted by colleges: History, Geography, Economics, Government, Political Science, Anthropology, Sociology, Archeology. Ethnic or Gender Studies, Religious Studies, Philosophy)
One last thought: in many areas, choosing to homeschool high school is an "all or nothing" decision, as many public/private high schools do not accept homeschool credits (or in many cases, transfer credits from another high school). Or the school will only grant credit if the student passes the end-of-year final exam for each course that you want to be transferred. The result is that if you decide to return to a high school school that has these policies, it forces the 10th, 11th, or even 12th grader to start over again as a 9th grader. Just mentioning this so you can double check what your school system's policy is, in case there is a possibility of needing to return to the high school later on.Wishing all of you all the BEST in your homeschool high school adventures! Warmest regards, Lori D.
Thank you so much for taking the time to write all of this and explain it to me. I greatly appreciate it. It's very helpful.
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We are starting to homeschool again tomorrow (2 sons, 9th grade), after not homeschooling since half way through 6th grade. I want to back up and at a minimum do some informal logic classes with my two sons. If we did The Art of Argument in 9th grade and The Argument Builder in 10 grade are those classes of high enough level/content that it could count for those grades?
I am really scrambling here because I never planned to homeschool high school and we just decided this on Friday. I'm not sure how to tell what constitutes a 9th grade level class. Would these have to be counted as electives?
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There are plenty of fears on both sides of the aisle. Biden has also been advised not to concede the election no matter what.
This, along with states sending out ballots to all citizens, not just those who requested absentee ballots, has many on the Republican side of the aisle fearing an attempt by Democrats to steal the election also. This concern along with reports of Republican mailed-in ballots being found in the garbage, people receiving multiple ballots sent to them by their (mostly blue) states, the knowledge that there will be tons of ballots being sent out that could be tampered with (and have been in past elections), recent elections that ran into lots of issues with mail-in ballots, and former Democratic operatives admitting to and describing in detail how they have cheated with mail-in voting in prior elections, has many Republicans fearing a "coup" from Democrats. The reporting of this type of stuff is constantly in the more right leaning news reports, just as the reporting about Trump not conceding is in the left leaning news. It seems both sides are scared to death that their side is going to be cheated out of a rightful win.
It is also being reported that even if Trump "seems" to win in a landslide on election night, that everyone needs to wait and be patient for all of the mail-in votes to be counted, which may take weeks. This is where all of the legal battles will come in to play and it is why both sides are indicating they will not be willing to concede right away, because they do expect there to be legal battles. I have heard reported multiple times that the Biden Campaign has hired over 700 lawyers to be prepared for this battle and I am sure Trump's Campaign has also.
I just wanted to note here that the "coup" concern/discussion is not just coming from one side of the aisle. It seems to be very strong on both sides.
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5 hours ago, StellaM said:
There is some very nasty stuff on Twitter, that I haven't seen/don't see as much elsewhere.
For example, 'non-practicing' pedophile accounts, threats of violence towards women etc.
oh my, that is very nasty. Thanks for the warning.
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On 6/3/2020 at 6:44 AM, Hyacinth said:
I think advice for social media use is one of those “It depends” things.
I have two teenage boys. Neither of them have Twitter. Only one has FB and that’s because he needed it to join a FB Group related to his college choice. He rarely checks it.Instagram is another story. Neither of them post much, but they consume a lot. Mostly basketball videos.
We held off on Snapchat way longer than many of their peers. I think they both got it when they were about 15-16. It’s true that their friends did communicate through Snapchat and they did miss out on some conversations/jokes/plans, etc.
I have access to their phones If I want it.
The issue around here is less about the content and more about the quantity. Social media can be such a time suck. It’s way easier to keep scrolling than it is to get up and DO something (says the middle-aged woman sitting with her iPad while there’s a pile of dishes in the sink...)
I have access to my sons' phones if I want it also. You raise some good points. I think we will wade into these waters slowly:).
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On 6/3/2020 at 12:20 AM, StellaM said:
There are a lot of adults behaving like toddlers on Twitter.
I can imagine kids following certain scientists/artists etc on Twitter, but a lot of the time the discourse is very unedifying.
Yes, I think this is true of all social media, unfortunately.
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3 hours ago, Farrar said:
Twitter is a cesspool, but it's relatively easy to have an account to look at specific things... like, say, to follow your school and that one celeb you like and leave it basically at that. Though that's the issue with all social media. It's good for ___ (what it's good for depends on which platform) but only if you leave it at that. It's hard to do that sometimes for some people, maybe even for most people.
I don't think there's one right answer to this. My teens have access. I check in a lot. The big thing is limiting themselves.
How do you check in? I don't know much about twitter, except for seeing twitter quotes when I read the news.
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5 hours ago, StellaM said:
Yes, twitter is a cess pool.
Good to know. I definitely need to investigate this further. Thanks.
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Does anyone have any thoughts about twitter? I need to research it more. I have Facebook and Instagram accounts to stay in touch with family and friends. The only time I use them is when I get an email saying a family member or friend posted something. Then I will get on and see what they posted. I also get on Facebook after my birthday and thank family and friends for their best wishes. That's pretty much all I do on social media. So I need to research all of them further.
I have always used my laptop to look at these websites and don't even have them on my phone. I downloaded the Facebook app on my phone today but, for some reason, it receives and error every time I try to log in. If I am at home it says it can't connect to the internet, which is strange because everything else works find. If I am not at home it just returns an error code and says try again later. Not sure what's up with that.
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3 hours ago, rebcoola said:
I would be super annoyed the school requires social media. Our district has all social media sites blocked on the grounds. They use canvas for assignments and announcements.
We recently let ODD get Facebook she has proven to be very trustworthy. She had a couple of groups she wanted to join. The rules are friends with us, we have her login, only friend and message with people you know in real life and she has a time limit. I'm not to worried about trouble on Facebook because most of the teens have fled it.
If I was you I would start with the apps they need for school. If they can follow the rules and it doesn't cause any problems you can add more in a few months
That does sound like a good place to start, thanks. We could use it as a trial and if they handle it well, they could possibly have others they are wanting....maybe.
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4 hours ago, Sneezyone said:
TBH, they probably are the only ones *they know* who don’t have access. Most kids of this generation are digital natives and they have evolved a set of social media guidelines and rules for behavior that kids in my DDs circle generally follow. Obv. There are any number of things kids can get into online but my experience has been that later isn't necessarily better WRT social media decorum b/c the kids will be learning the hard way about things others already know. It’s little things and big, like how to interpret text speak, when is it socially acceptable/necessary to screenshot and share? What behavior requires alerting an adult for guidance/intervention? This is another platform for communication with its own rules. It can be used for good or ill, same as the telephone was used to harrass in my day.If you have kids that struggle with mental health issues or boundaries it might be worth waiting but for my NT kids, later can make for a bumpier transition. DD was much more willing to listen to my guidance and respect our boundaries and edicts at 12 than she is at 15.5. I just know how things have worked here and my DD remains an online peacemaker, not at all like mom, lol. That said, my oldest has always had a heart for people.
You make some good points. Thanks for your perspective.
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1 minute ago, kand said:
Ugh, social media has been a nightmare for my older two (the only ones who have any access to it—20 and 17). My oldest wasn’t even interested until she was about to turn 18, so that was easy, but she has since bounced back and forth between deleting her accounts and going back on. It’s such a sewer of garbage much of the time. We’ve had a number of episodes that have caused her serious mental trauma.
My 17yo is the one who has forever tried to get around parental controls to do things on the computer she wasn’t supposed to. We had good reason to limit her, due to very poor choices each time she gained access. She now has pretty free access, though she doesn’t have the big ones—Facebook, tik tok, Snapchat, or instagram. Interestingly, she shared recently that her experiences in social spaces online have been pretty negative and she thinks we should keep her younger siblings off as long as possible. She has been subject to a lot of bullying via private messages.
So, I think it’s really unfortunate for schools to expect kids to have to be on these sites (especially when sites like Facebook require giving up so much privacy). At 14, I would come up with a way to have anonymous-type accounts for them that were used only for what was necessary.
It actually makes me angry and frustrated that the school expects the students to have access. We have heard from our sons that they are the only ones they know of who don't have open access to basically everything on their iphones and we have pushed back on that because we didn't feel it was appropriate. They will certainly have open access when they go off to college so we need to have some kind of plan to ease them into it, while hopefully keeping an eye on their online activities. But I would have hoped to ease into it more around the 16 year old timeframe than the 14 year old timeframe (they will be 15 in Sept & Nov). Now that they are going to public school, I don't want them to feel like odd balls or left out among their friends but I'm not sure how much to allow and how to go about it.
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5 minutes ago, itsheresomewhere said:
I allow my DD who is almost 14 to have Twitter and instagram. I have the password and can access it anytime. For Facebook, my DD does a lot of animal shows so they animals have a Facebook account that we both run. I used this as a stepping stone into social media.
I'm sorry, I just saw where you said you have the password and can access it anytime. I have read that sneaky teens sometimes create another account that their parents don't know about and use it for their "real" account, while updating the other one periodically so their parents don't suspect. My two are not usually the sneaky type but I'm just curious as to what other parents have experienced.
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11 minutes ago, Sneezyone said:
So, I kept my son off of all apps and social media and it bit me in the behind this year as teachers relied on any manner of apps and links and social media services to communicate with him. THANKS CORONA! The default may be google classroom but even that is something he hadn’t used much for assignment turn-in, grades and whatnot. I can’t count on one hand the number of different things they’ve used. That’s not likely to change for PS kids in the fall either and will be even worse if your kids are in different classes. How much do you want to provide hand-holding and mentoring when they start school? B/c I basically had to tutor my son in all of these apps where my DD was fine and dandy. With her, we took the opposite approach with more freedom and LOTS of discussion about what she saw and did online and what our family expectations are. I honestly think that worked much, much better.
One son is very tech savvy so he will be fine. The other only learns to use what he has to use but tech-savvy son is good at helping us all learn what we need to learn.
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Just now, itsheresomewhere said:
I allow my DD who is almost 14 to have Twitter and instagram. I have the password and can access it anytime. For Facebook, my DD does a lot of animal shows so they animals have a Facebook account that we both run. I used this as a stepping stone into social media.
Do you monitor them at all?
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10 minutes ago, OKBud said:
Phht. Balls to that.
If you MUST can they "communicate" with your twitter/FB instead?
What an asinine choice on their part. What is it that they are communicating vie SM???
Well I would have to go back and look through some papers and see if I can find that information. We went to a meeting for incoming 9th graders during the last school year and they talked about it then. I have been searching everywhere for information about school sports and have found a couple of things on Facebook about getting their sports physicals.
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I have two 14 year old sons who will be starting 9th grade at our local high school in the upcoming school year. The high school uses Facebook and Twitter to communicate with students so they are going to need to have access to these apps. Additionally, one of my sons has been asking for access to Instagram because he would like to post pictures and the other one is asking for access to Snapchat because he says that is how all of the kids at school communicate, not by texting.
Although our sons have had iphones since around the middle of 6th grade, we have kept them very locked down with no access to social media, no access to the internet and no access to the app store. They are allowed to have two educational games on their phones, although they are no longer really interested in them much. They have access to some specific web sites for various things but not free rein on the internet.
I am all for allowing more freedom over time, as their brains mature:) but I am pretty much a novice on social media apps. Any advice you can provide would be appreciated, as I work through what to allow and how to monitor them. Also, we have had many talks about what to do and what not to do online and the potential consequences they may encounter in the real world from making bad choices online.
Bring on the advice, oh wise ones:).
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I have two sons who are soon to be 14 and they happen to be the oldest kids in the neighborhood, of the kids they play with. When the next door neighbors moved in, my sons were 6. The neighbors son was 3 and their daughter was 1. My sons have really enjoyed playing with their kids over the years and view them as younger siblings (they have even played dolls and tea parties with the daughter:). We have gotten to know the parents also. Although we have many differences in how we raise our kids, we have worked together over the years to make it work. Their kids have played over here a few times (mostly the son) but the vast majority of the time it's my sons playing at their house and even babysitting their son at times now that they are all older. With the age difference, it makes a lot more sense for my sons to play there than for her kids to play here. If you make your rules clear, the kids will learn them and it should get easier. My boys had no problem with their rule of not pretending to "shoot" someone with a toy gun at their house (except with nerf guns), for example. They are more lenient on the amount of video game time so my sons just come home if their son starts playing games. Their son knows that too so he won't play his video games if he really wants to play with my sons.There are other things we don't do at our house that they do but my boys know our rules and we have worked through any issues that have come up. It has been so worth the effort. They don't spend as much time together these days as they once did but they still enjoy each other even now.
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My dad used to tell the story of him returning from coon hunting with a baby coon in a cage (the mom was killed). I was a very small child, who adored cats, playing outside in the yard. My dad told me to stay away from it, that it would hurt me. He later looked outside to see me holding it like a baby kitten. Danny the raccoon ended up being a family pet and lived in our barn. I'm not sure how that worked because we had chickens and dogs and cats. There were five of us kids and we would go out to the barn to play with him regularly. We have a picture of my oldest brother holding grown up Danny on his shoulder. I was too little to remember any of it. Not sure how long we had him.
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Things that Seemed to Work But Later Backfired
in General Education Discussion Board
Posted
One mistake I made more than once was to sell something I thought we no longer needed but then ended up wanting or needing it later. There were several things I ended up buying twice and many times I went looking for a book I wanted to review but realized I had already sold it.
I read to my two sons a ton. We were always reading tons of books to them when they were little and I have always read aloud for school. We had tons of books and they read in bed before going to sleep. For some reason, when they moved into chapter books, it became very difficult to keep them reading. The small chapter books were fine; they would usually read those. They loved the Harry Potter series and another series that I can't remember the name of but was kind of a mystery/spy type series for their age group. But they very quickly lost interest in reading. I still read aloud and we all enjoy that but they no longer read anything unless it is required. Sad.
One of the things I am glad I did was beginning cursive instruction as soon as they were solid on printing, and then beginning typing instruction as soon as they were solid on cursive. They would use print, cursive, and typing for different parts of their school work so they wouldn't lose it. It worked out very well.