sandyr
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Everything posted by sandyr
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My ds16 has been recently diagnosed as ADD, inattentive type. We went out of state for his assessment, but are now looking for someone local to assess my dh. If you've had a good/bad experience with an ADHD eval in the San Francisco Bay Area (preferably on the peninsula), I've love to hear about it. Thanks! Sandy
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My son is taking this course right now. The AP test is next Monday and they have not even completed covering the material (and so of course there is also no time scheduled for review). Fortunately, we noticed this train wreck coming and my son has been doubling up on the work, doing assigned work as well as reading ahead on his own to make sure he finished the book and had time to work through a review guide. I'm just baffled as to how they could schedule their course this way, since I know there are public charters that use the K12 curriculum. Anyone else had experience with this course? Thanks, Sandy
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Hi, My ds13 would love to find an online course that uses Sony Vegas (movie making/editing). I googled and found a few DVD courses, but he'd really like a course with a teacher. Anyone know of anything like this? Thanks! Sandy
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My son is currently taking AP Psych with PA Homeschoolers. He's really enjoying it and we intend to sign up again for the fall, but I thought it might look good on a transcript to have AP classes/grades from more than one organization. Anyone have good (or bad) experiences with online AP classes through another source, preferably interactive courses rather than ones where you buy videos and work through them on your own. Thanks, Sandy
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My 13yo son is an avid reader. He is currently enjoying medieval fantasy stories. He's read Hobbit, Lord of the Rings trilogy, Eragon books, Prydain Chronicles, Ranger's Apprentice series, probably some others which I can't remember offhand. He's clamoring for more book ideas, but I'm running out. Any suggestions? Thanks, Sandy
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Hi, My son, 15, is currently planning to study math in college. He's thinking about getting starting learning computer programming, since that will probably be useful, if not required. Does anyone know what might be the currently recommended programming language(s) for someone looking at a math major? THanks, Sandy
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They say each week, a new topic is introduced, but during the 45-minute class, that concept is repeated in various ways - over and over and over. They say it's simplistic and boring (and btw, I believe them). They want something more, something to sink their teeth into, someway to go deeper or more scholarly. They don't mind going to church, but say if they are subjected to this much longer it will do more harm than good. I can see two options: find video/print materials to use at home in place of church, or find a different type of church that tends to offer this type of study (we currently attend a Protestant church). I'd greatly appreciate any ideas/recommendations anyone might have for either of these, or any other suggestions I may not have thought of. Thanks, Sandy
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I've been going through past posts to figure out which translations of these works have worked best and I'm not sure. This would be for my 14yo son, who is a very good reader and likes history. If you've had a good experience (or a bad experience) using a particular translation, would you please comment? Also any guides you used to aid your study of the literature would be helpful. Thanks! Sandy
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If your son is a legomaniac, try to find a copy of Lego Chess. This is a computer game, not the chess board building kit. It uses Lego minifigs for pieces or you can choose to have pieces look like the actual chess pieces. Both my boys used this to learn and loved it. I don't think Lego sells this anymore, but maybe you could find it used somewhere. Definitely worth looking for if your son is also into Legos. You can see it at this link, but if you click on "Check Availability", it says the item is not found. http://www.lego.com/eng/interactive/product.asp?Title=Chess&Code=PC Sandy
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Okay California girls where are you? (and boys too)
sandyr replied to Rachel's topic in Parents' Forum Networking Board
We're in the SF Bay Area, on the peninsula. -
Is Powerpoint easy to learn?
sandyr replied to Jeanne in MN's topic in General Education Discussion Board
My ds11 disappeared into another room one day and called to me about an hour later to come look. He had put together a slide show of our pets, complete with scene changes, captions, and word bubbles. I'm not sure where he got the idea, because no one else here has used it before. I was quite impressed with it! I just now asked him how hard he would say PowerPoint was to learn and he said "well duh -- easy". I don't know all the features that are available, but at least the basics must not be too tough. -
I've seen them at Target here.
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How old were you when you started getting gray hair?...
sandyr replied to Tammy's topic in General Education Discussion Board
Can't remember exactly, but early 30s -
Rosetta Stone--what ages are best?
sandyr replied to Michele R.'s topic in Bilingual Education Board
My ds 11 is the type that will run like lightning from any kind of workbook-ish or written work. Previous attempts to learn a language using that approach have failed, but he has really taken to Rosetta Stone. There are several ways of practicing - listening, reading, speaking, writing (in the form of typing). If you buy the homeschool edition, it does come with workbooks, if you prefer pencil & paper writing. Some people don't like RS because it doesn't teach grammar, and if this is important to you, you may not like it or may want to supplement. It's true that you just have to pick up the patterns on your own as you go along. For me, the problem is finding something my son will actually use and not hate. He likes RS and he uses it almost every day, without being prodded. I've used it along with him and I enjoy it too. Many libraries provide free access to RS to cardholders and that's a great way to try it out cheaply. We're currently using it through the Chattanooga, TN libraries online databases (because I couldn't get it locally). If your library doesn't have it, you can get a non-resident online-access-only card for Chattanooga for $30/year, but their license is expiring sometime in the next few months and RS is eliminating library licenses. We like it enough that I'm buying a copy so we can continue to use it after the library access is gone. Sandy -
Oh gosh - that's all our dog did chew on when she was young (she's 10 now). I still remember the wailing of my boys! But, she never ate them, just chewed them up until they were unusable. We'd find mangled pieces in corners and under tables, wherever she'd gone off to hide while chewing them. It never seemed to hurt the dog and the chewing slowed down alot as she got older. One great side benefit - it was a great motivator to get the kids to pick up! They'd say, "Do I have to pick up these Legos tonight?" and I'd say, "No, as long as you're ok with them being chewed in the night!" Sandy
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ALEKS Math, has anyone used this?
sandyr replied to East Coast Sue's topic in Accelerated Learner Board
I agree with aleksmathman completely - Aleks is great for figuring out what my son knows and what he needs to look at again. That's exactly why I do like it for skill review. I remind my son that it's way better than slogging through page after page of review exercises in a static textbook. My son lives and breathes math - he's 13 and will be ready to start calculus this summer, but Aleks was killing it for him when we used it on a regular basis. Sitting in front of it every day was just way too monotonous. That's why we cut back to just using it for some review work, and I think that's where Aleks excels. Sandy -
ALEKS Math, has anyone used this?
sandyr replied to East Coast Sue's topic in Accelerated Learner Board
We homeschool under the private school option in CA, so I can get it at the school rate, which is around $40 per year per student. Since this is relatively cheap, we've used it for the past 2 years now. I personally wouldn't use it as the primary math resource for the same reasons already mentioned in the previous posts. We use it for review and skill drill. My older is working through LOF Trig right now, but is also working through Aleks Algebra 2 to keep those skills sharp. He moans about it, but admits it is doing him some good to revisit those topics. We found the constant assessments popping up to be really annoying, until I figured out how to shut them off and just have one come up when we wanted one. Also, the kids were really bothered when they couldn't see what they missed on an assessment. In case you haven't discovered this yet, you can call Aleks customer support and tell them you want to see the results of each assessment question and they can enable that option for you. From what I've been told, there's no way to turn this on yourself. It's a per-class setting - if you add a new class, you have to call them again to have it turned on for that class. Sandy -
We are overflowing with Legos and finally came up work a workable storage solution. In the large plastic storage container section in Target or similar store, I found Sterilite ClearView stackable, plastic drawers. We bought the small and medium sizes and sort the pieces by color into the drawers. The kids remember really well what color a particular piece they're looking for is, so this makes it much easier to find pieces. In addition to the color drawers, the kids have added a few other special-purpose drawers for things such as translucent pieces and pieces with decals. We also bought a large-size drawer for large pieces. Takes longer when picking up, but makes building more fun. We finally had to go to a filing system for the instructions also. We use those file folder pockets and sort by theme. These all go into a cardboard filing box next to the drawers. Sandy
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Sandyr? about LOF and VT
sandyr replied to Janis in DE's topic in High School and Self-Education Board
Sorry for the delayed response - we've been away this week and I just saw your post. Our basic approach is - LOF is our main text and VT is backup. We do a chapter in LOF first, then I look for the corresponding topic in VT. We're about half way through LOF Beginning Algebra and so far they've been covering the same topics in order. We take our time working through all the problem sets, and I also have the Home Companion, which I would recommend getting for more practice problems. If my son has grasped the concepts fairly well, we go really quickly through VT, because I don't want to bore him. Mainly, the benefit of doing this at all is just more practice. If he gets stuck in LOF, which so far only happened when we hit the word problems, we'll take more time with VT for a different perspective. I realize not every text works for every kid, but we love these books (so far my oldest has done LOF Geometry, is currently finishing Trig, and can't wait to get to Calc. He had already finished VT when I discovered these books. My youngest has done LOF Fractions, Decimals and Percents, and is working on Beginning Algebra). I've read and worked through each of these book along with my kids. I like them because they don't just present material and then give repetitive problems covering that same material. The author challenges them to take the concepts and apply them forward. It's important to know that much of the teaching actually takes place IN the problems. As far as scheduling this over 3 years, I don't think I'm much help there. As I mentioned before, that seems like a long time, but you know your daughter best. I will say, though, if she really takes to LOF, you'll find it hard to hold her back! The author has a delightful sense of humor! Sandy -
Question and opinions on Video Text Algebra
sandyr replied to Janis in DE's topic in High School and Self-Education Board
My older son completed all 6 modules of VT, and I'm now using it with my younger son (who is 11). With my younger, I'm combining this with Life of Fred Beginning Algebra, in part because he needs the "fun" component in his work. From our experience, I'd say three years is a long time to take to complete the modules. You mentioned your daughter is working ahead, so she must be doing ok with her math. You may want to consider doing more VT than Saxon 76 review, since she's already finished that. Basic math will continue to be reinforced in her algebra work. My older, math-oriented son completed VT in about 15 months. So far, my younger has completed modules A and B in about 3 months, although those modules are not very tough and I expect later modules to take longer. As far as a VT review: I think they do a great job of explaining the concepts; however, the presentation is a bit dry and if your kid gets it quickly, it can be a bit monotonous. Knowing that, I started my younger in just LOF, which he really likes, but he started getting lost when the word problems hit. That's when I decided to mix VT and LOF. I switched him over to VT at that point. He worked quickly through module A, then we worked through VT's approach to word problems in module B, and he's now doing fine with those. From here on, we're interweaving the two. I would beware of VT's recommendation of doing only half the exercises they provide. We started off that way, but soon switched to doing every problem and every quiz, review, and test. I second Grace's suggestion of going back to previous quizzes/test or looking for extra exercises on their website. This is another reason why I'm going to continue to use LOF along with VT for my younger. HTH, Sandy -
When responding to a WTB post, it seems there are three options - reply by email, reply by private message, or just reply to the post. Unless the post says which is preferred, I'm never sure which to use. Does anyone do all three?? Thanks, Sandy