babysparkler
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Posts posted by babysparkler
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Thanks! That looks good!
Any other ideas from others?
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Oh, I wish you had asked this a couple of weeks ago. I ordered AoPS Algebra 1 along with other AoPS texts. Ds#3 has been working in Jacobs but we haven't been overjoyed by it (probably never will be by any math). But when I looked at AoPS I could see that using it completely would be overkill for ds. He is about 1/2 way through the Jacobs text.
I sent AoPS Alg. 1 back, but kept the other texts. I wish I still had them and could compare them side by side for you. But when I looked at both texts, I felt like it would be too much overlap. I was hoping for something that would supplement Jacobs with some fun brainy challenges, but AoPS is really a full algebra text.
Thank you! This is very helpful! Do you think that Jacobs goes as deep (if you had a chance to compare by any chance?) DS loves the Jacobs book right now (we started last week).
I will look forward to hearing your thoughts on the other AoPS books after you have had a chance to use them too! They look wonderful!
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Is anyone familiar with these two math texts? How do they compare? I plan to go from Jacobs Alg I into the Art of Problem Solving texts with my ds, and didn't know if I should do AoPS Alg I or skip over it since he will have had Jacobs Alg I. What are your thoughts? How similar are they?
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One other option is Art of Problem Solving's texts and online courses. I wish I had known about them a few yrs ago for my really strong math student.
That is what we plan to use... ds9 just started Jacob's Algebra 1 this year in 4th grade at his own pace (so I estimate 1.5 -2 years). Then around end-of-5th/6th we will move into the Art of Problem Solving Books which I know he will go wild over :) He just LOVES number theory and probablility (and so do I)! I'm getting so excited about it just thinking about it :lol:.
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for my daily "circle time." I'd love it to have weekday, month, date, year, season, & weather. Small tabletop preferred... anyone have anything like this? What do you use?
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Also, while some might not agree with it, we hired a part time nanny. It's just 4 hours once a week at this point but it really helps me get a break which I need to effectively teach my challenging girl.
I think that is a super idea! I wish I could do that :)
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I graduated my oldest (always homeschooled) from highschool at 15 years old. He then went on to a 4 year private college, graduated summa cum laude in political science and econ (double major). He is now in his last year of law school. My #2 (also always homeschooled) graduated highschool at 16 yo, is now in her last year as a math major at Grove City College and applying to PhD programs.
I have a few "been there, done that" stories, but I will address the whole transcript issue. I made my own transcripts and grouped the courses by category, not years. Not one college had a problem with that method. There is no standard form. The grouping by category worked best for us because it fit our lifestyle. My dc would do a 1 credit course in 3 months, or they would work on something for over 2 years, or they would do a major "dig deep" project over the summer...none of which would fit well on a 4 year, 9 month transcript.
All colleges requested a transcript and were pleased with the transcripts that I made. They also requested applications, SAT scores, essays, recommendations and a check. These were all the same things that they requested from every student.
My dc had advanced classes, college classes, AP, and CLEP on their transcripts. I think of a transcript as a resume. If a course speaks something about the child, put it on. Decide whether it would be extracurricular or course work. Some of those binges from exceptional students could be either. I did include some things that were taken while they were in 8th grade and below. I can remember back when I was in 7-8th grade in a public school (back when the dinosaurs roamed), I got a 1 credit for French on my high school transcript. I think that the grades even played into the GPA. So, it is not unheard of to put advanced courses on a transcript. However, I would be judicious about the credits. Put on those things that really add value to the transcript otherwise you will end up with 80 credits (usual is around 22-25). It is good to look somewhat "normal" for the education folks in college admissions. It is also good to be unusual and let your "homeschool uniqueness" shine through.
Well, I guess I went on too long... sorry to bore you all.:001_smile:
I pm'd you with more specific ???'s :)
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Your lunch note story reminded me of when my ds who was doing multiplication/division as a 5 year old was in kinder... I sent him a pretty challenging logic puzzle in his lunch box to complete when he was finished with his lunch because he just LOVES that sort of thing and was terribly bored with kinder (he would cry each day for me not to send him). I promised him I would send him some real work in his lunch box and he so looked forward to that lunchtime challenge, but when the monitor saw it she took it away and told him not to bring his "homework" to the cafeteria.:001_huh:
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I'm so sorry... :grouphug:
These are some of the reasons we pulled our dd out of school this year to homeschool.
btw... the 3 absence may include only "unexcused" absences but not "excused" absences with a parental note.
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We do felt Bible story
What felt system do you use?
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What does it mean "bump" on the for sale pages?
A new post will bump a post back up to the top for more visibility, so "bump" or :lurk5: "pop" are used for this :)
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My kids got the wrong tooth fairly assigned to them and they are figuring that out. .50 for front teeth, $1.00 for following teeth, $2.00 for molars. Cheapskate Fairy!
Cheapskate Fairy here... We still do a quarter a tooth an no one is the wiser! They get so excited about that quarter :lol:.
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Hi! I'm Jill (34 ugh). Dh and I have been married 11 years now (though we have been together since highschool - 19 years!) Our kids and curriculum are in my siggy. This is the start of my third year of homeschooling in the Dallas, Texas area.
I have a BS in Early Childhood/Elementary Education with concentrations in Music and ESL and taught for a couple of years in the public school. I quit when I was expecting my first. I never imagined I would homeschool because I believed so highly in the public school system. It wasn't until the end of my ds's first grade year in ps that my frustration level was up so high that I pulled him and began to homeschool.
He is highly gifted, and they pretty much told me that he could spend his days teaching the other kids since he already knew the material so well!!! What?!?! Kindergarten worked for him since his teacher allowed me to come in with his other siblings (newborn and 3) and teach him myself things that would enrich & challenge him (she really appreciated the help), but in first grade they frowned on bringing the other children into the classroom and asked me to stop coming in. That year he became seriously depressed (a first grader, mind you) and I immediately began homeschooling.
I tried again, the next year, to send my dd to public school thinking that my little social butterfly would flourish in a school setting despite what was lacking, but I actually started seeing a decline in her use of proper English and in her attitude/behavior because of the social group she was associating with (not to mention all of the incorrect phonics and extremely poor curriculum that she was stuck with). So, again at the end of first grade, I pulled her and we are homeschooling everyone now!
I now wonder why I didn't think to homeschool sooner! It has been the most wonderful experience for all of us! I am just now discovering WTM (I'm a late bloomer) and am becoming a convert :lol:.
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We have our kids in our church choir and that works great:)
You might also look at the type of kids that are attending the school... we had a hard time with this b/c our dd is MUCH more innocent and sweet than the kids she was attending school with. Eventually she developed an "edge" that I'm hopeful I can soften again this year in homeschooling, if that makes sense. I definitely prefer having her social group be our church families and homeschool co-op families to the "daycare & latch-key kids" from the neighborhood.
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What is UIL? I would be happy to use the spelling power method...if I could just find a ready made list (preferably organized by spelling rule) that was challenging enough to use it on. I could make lists from ABC's and All Their Tricks, but that would be even more work! Spelling should be easy to teach! Brownie
We do an academic competiton (PSIA - Private Schools Interscholastic Association) every year that is modeled after the UIL public school competitions. One of the tests is spelling, and that is where this list comes from. It is not at all arranged by spelling rules, unfortunately... just a random sampling of above-level words similar to a spelling bee, but in written form. For the most part they are designed to be a challenge.
I don't know that it is what you want because they really are random and not according to spelling rules, but I purchased the list for $3 plus shipping from PSIA (http://www.psiaacademics.org/pdfs/misc/psia-studyorder.pdf) He is a rising 4th grader, and ended last spring in Spelling Power level G, and the 4th grade words are challenging.
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I had dd7 ps and ds9 homeschool for the last two years (with 2 littles at home). This year we decided to bring dd7 home and I will be homeschooling ds4, dd7, and ds9 (a "little" too).
Here are my thoughts:
1) I got so frustrated with how much the ps schedule affected our hs schedule on a daily basis and on a general basis. We had to drop our dd off and pick her up, and sit in the carpool line since there was no "walkup" for pickup for about 30 minutes every afternoon. (Grrr...) And they randomly had teacher-in-service days and other random days off that would make my ds want the day off too since sister was home, so we had to really mimic the school calendar. I like to have a "full week on" and "full week off" type of scheduling, so these 2 or 3 day weeks drove me crazy. And then there were the half days... I just felt like they were always messing up my schedule.
2) I got so frustrated with ps homework... my ds had plenty of time during the homeschool day to do his work, and so I didn't require any extra evening work, but dd came home with homework so that caused frustration for her... and it was essentially busy work that took away from family time.
3) A couple of times my dd got jealous of the "field trips" and homeschool co-op days that we were doing when she was at ps, so I actually ended up pulling her from school many times so that she could participate on the days when it was more educational than what she would have had in school.
4) One positive is that we felt like we had a good link into what was going on in the school district/area, and we had access to the school library :) I also took my hs kids along on the cooler public school fieldtrips. That was nice.
5) I do think the kids at home were slightly closer to one another than with my dd.
Looking back, the negatives outweigh the positives for us, so we are homeschooling all of the kids this year.
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I'm very curious to hear answers to your question because it is mine as well.
Sounds exactly like my ds9. He really loves to do the "testing", but we could go on for an hour just to find a couple of words he doesn't know... and he really likes the challenge of studying words he gets wrong, so I hate to stop him after the 15 minutes with no new words. He really loves the study methods of this particular program, so I don't want to switch, so I was wondering if I just need to move him up another level?
(On a side note, I gave him a "pretest" of the UIL spelling lists he will be competing with later in the school year and he was delighted to find 450 words out of the 800 on the list that he didn't know! He right away started studying that list (in SP style) and was so excited :) We plan to do these words this year to prepare for his competition, and now I am wondering if I will even need to do SP this year. Sorry to hijack! )
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Reading Detective is tops in my book!
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We use cc for EVERYTHING (to earn our miles and reward rebate checks) and pay off our balance completely every month. We consider cc purchases as "cash" purchases.
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Assuming it is not a medical issue. I've known some very smart kids to have had issues like this. It is almost that they are so caught up in something that they (more than most kids) ignore their body's signals.
My son (who is highly gifted) is still having issues at age 9... he tells me that he would rather keep his focus than worry about taking a potty break, so he waits until the very last second and often "misses". It drives me crazy, but doesn't seem to be a problem in his eyes. The younger siblings have started to notice, so I am now wondering if that will be his motivation to change things.
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A few tips (ok, really all the tips I know :D):
I buy the ground beef at the beginning of the month, brown it all, then divide it up into meal sized portions and put it in the freezer. MUCH easier to cook it one time for the month than to cook it each time you need it. I can then use the ground beef for tacos, spaghetti sauce, shepherd's pie, ect.
Clean and cut up fruit and veggies, and they are more likely to get eaten. Seems like 'duh', right? Well, it took me a while to figure it out.
I buy LARGE amounts of boneless skinless chicken breast when it's on sale. Then when I bring it home, I trim it all up (my family is very, VERY particular about no 'gross stuff' in their meat; no fat, gristle, etc. AT ALL). Then I put each breast into a sandwich baggie, then put all the sandwich baggies into gallon sized bags. Then I feeze it. This is one of my most LOATHED chores (gross cutting up yucky chicken pieces!), but it is totally necessary for me. This way, the chicken is ready for whatever I want to use it for. Before I started doing this, I hated, HATED cooking chicken, 'cause each time it was a gross chore. (I know that sounds dumb, but it's true.:D) Anyway, now I can just thaw whatever I need and it's good to go.
I love those tips! Thanks!
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You could have your son just do the tests through 76 and go over any material he has difficulty with. I have done that with my children when starting new books because of all the review in the beginning of the books.
This is what we did, and now we plan to skip right to Algebra 1 (Harold Jacobs). Saxon was really holding him back, hence, the skip ;).
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I am creating a monthly dinner rotation calendar.
I'm needing some ideas on dinners... what are your favorite home-cooked dishes (any kind - oven, stove, crockpot, grill, etc)
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Level 6 adds these:
Indirect Object
Predicate Noun 1
Predicate Noun 2
Predicate Adjective 1
Predicate Adjective 2
Only second day of PS and so far I am not impressed.
in General Education Discussion Board
Posted
I tend to agree with this. I had similar allergic reactions to cats as a child. A house that contained a cat, or even someone with a few hairs on their sweater from their cat from home could send me into a severe asthma attack. I was hospitalized many times each year for this. I never expected the children at school to get rid of their cats (or not touch them in the morning before coming to school) just because it would cause a reaction for me... I would just be extra cautious and stay away from the kids who had cats. I kept my inhailer with me and my mom or an ambulance was only a phone call away. I dealt with it. (And I still do, though I suspect that the severity of my condition has lessened and though I can't be near a cat, I believe that a hair or two on someones clothes won't bother me to that same extent anymore.)