RenaInTexas
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Posts posted by RenaInTexas
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Megawords
MCT
Glencoe Math
Apologia Young Explorers
Glencoe Literature
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BA Online has pretty much no instruction. The guidebooks are included, so the child can read for an understanding.
So with Khan the student can see and hear explanations. With BA the student can read explanations. So it depends on the needs of the student.
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Thanks this is awesome and just what I needed. I have visited every link.
Turns out that we have Shakespeare in the Park here in the fall and they move indoors in the winter -- we will do both.
Also, we have a Renaissance Festival here in Spring.
Awesome!
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We will be studying the Renaissance and Reformation this year.
I am looking for ideas as to types of activities (class hands-on, virtual, field trip), nonfiction and fiction books (middle school level), and videos or movies.
Would also love to show them a Shakespeare play, if there is an appropriate on available and I would like it in play format, just as the people of that time would watch.
Thanks in advance for your ideas!
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The others are similar to the first book. If you like it, you should like those as well.
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Glencoe Algebra does a decent job of this. It is a full curriculum.
During my career as a mathematician, a lot of the problems I worked on could be summarized in about 3-5 sentences. Clearly, a certain level of background knowledge is assumed. The problems in Glencoe Algebra, I believe, are accessible to most 8th grade students; ie most 8th graders should have sufficient background knowledge to understand the full context of the problem. Don't overthink it.
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Oh PS kids have gaps too.
My 3rd grader had no idea what a pronoun was. The state test didn't include grammar, so the school didn't bother teaching it.
Imagine me, sitting in my first college computer science class, as a computer science minor; ten minutes into class and I finally swallowed my pride and asked the student next to me how to turn on the computer. I took a computer science class in high school, but to save time, the computers were always on and always open to the exact program we would use. I didn't have my own computer until I was a sophomore in college.
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Yes, we definitely use the Crash Courses on youtube and SciShow and a few others. Videos are easier to find on youtube.
But, as another poster mentioned, the Amazon Prime Videos are not as easy to find. The content on Amazon is so varied that a search yields very non-specific results. So I was hoping that this post would become a reference list for some Prime Videos to add to educational courses. Maybe some posters had some Prime favorites.
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So in Florida / SYG states, if you want to murder someone. Pick a fight with them and be the first to shoot. It seems as simple as that. Not just in this case, but in all the ones that have made national news.
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In my homeschool, the use of youtube videos has been a huge hit - in every subject. As my dc get older, I am in search of videos that are longer and have more depth. Youtube is somewhat limited in this area, though there are some great science and history documentaries. Another problem with youtube is the lack of a parental rating system. It's one thing to watch a 5-15 min video all the way through to approve content. But pre-watching a 30+ min video is too time-consuming.
Anyway, I have found a new source: Amazon Prime Video. They seem to have exactly what I am looking for. Longer educational videos that provide more depth for no extra cost to me. The only problem that I am having with Amazon is finding content. Searching is not as easy or as straightforward as it is on youtube. So I was wondering if any other WTMers us Prime Video in their homeschool and wouldn't mind sharing some great video series that they have come across? I mostly use video in science and history. If I find a good instructional video in another subject, I'll use it. My kids have learned several math concepts from a youtuber. I am not concerned about screentime bc my dc get almost no screentime outside of school.
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Thanks everyone.
In case anyone else reads this someday. I'll add another idea I found: Fidget Toys! from Amazon. One son is a tactile learner and loves fidget toys.
I'll update this post once they are made and filled. (For future readers who find this topic in a search.)
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I used a free tool from Zaner. It is pretty cool, but limited to one page at a time that you save to a pdf through the print button. I think the paid version is reasonable, but I got by with the free version.
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Hello,
The one thing I miss about my kids going to ps is that first day of school excitement - to see new friends, see who your teacher is, who is in your class, etc...
This year, I want to add some excitement by giving my boys a Schultüte (school cone).
There are a lot of ideas about how to make one. But not many on what to put in one.
My boys are 9 and 11 -- not crafty at all -- very into science and nature. Any ideas as to what to put in there other than a few neat pencils and treats?
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The W&R courses do cover a little grammar. I don't think that they do any literature reading - I know they don't at the younger ages. At Schole, their literature reading is included with History I believe. Send an email to the school, they have always been prompt in responding.
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We really enjoyed The Wheel on the School last summer.
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Excel workbook - each class gets its own sheet within the workbook.
Within each sheet, each row represents a lesson. It gives (in the columns) the pages to be covered, the work to be completed, lists lesson supplementals (links to youtube videos or web pages that accompany the lesson) and a list of any materials needed to complete the lesson. There are also notes to the teacher in case there is anything that needs to be done before the lesson. The student can add notes. There is also a column for a grade and to mark as completed.
I enter the entire book/curriculum into this spreadsheet lesson-by-lesson. So about 100 lines per class.
Once we start the class, we simply spend an allotted amount of time on the class and we do the next thing on the spreadsheet. If we don't complete a lesson, we make a note of where we are in the lesson and continue from there. Some classes they do on their own, in those cases, I print out the excel sheet and they cross out work as they complete it.
This way, I always know exactly where we are and exactly how much we have left to complete. Sheets can be saved for Child2 that is following Child1. Planning is done 3 months - 1 year before. It takes about 3-8 hours per class depending on the number of supplements I add).
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Nooks (notably the Samsung Galaxy version): able to download kindle/audible books, overdrive, google play, and Barnes & Nobles nook books. Can also load music files, take/watch video, and has a decent camera. Compatible with Office Products (like OneNote) which is helpful in school.
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I think that you should talk with her about race and the meaning of privilege because you don't know how these thoughts will lay a foundation for what she believes in the future.
I remember learning about American History in school and thinking that white people were evil for what they did to the Native Americans and then to the slaves. Now that was young, immature thinking. But I grew up in a black neighborhood and had nothing around me to tell me or teach me any different. And history is so poorly taught in this country - they try to glaze over those points in history - that this was the impression that stayed with me. So unless you talk with her, you don't know what her underlying understanding of these topics are or what has been planted about them. It wasn't until years later, maybe middle school years, when I started to learn more about the civil rights movement when I saw white people marching with Dr. King and I was like - wait, I thought white people hated black people. In high school, I dug deeper and read about white abolitionists who died protecting black people and I remember being upset because I was left with one impression in elementary school and wondered why no one had ever taught me the whole story. I was learning the whole story on my own - through my own voluntary reading. We try to avoid the subject of race in this country and ignore the past and I think that is the reason things are still lingering.
As for your child's age, you know her better than we do, but I can tell you for a fact that African Americans don't have the privilege of waiting to teach our children about race until they are in their teens. They experience things, see things, hear things much earlier than that. My children 9 and 11 already have a pretty good idea of race relations in this country. If I told you the things that we have to teach our children you would think I was paranoid, but turn on the TV and you would know that I am not and that's not even half of it. We don't have a choice or our kid may be the next one to make the nightly news or arrested or beaten or, ... Basically, what I am saying is that non-whites have had to teach their children at very young ages for generations and those kids have been able to handle it, so I am sure that your child would as well.
You could also talk about how everyone has different life experiences and how some people use their life experience to try to make things better for people who come behind them. She will have life experiences and she can use those to help others like her. You can also champion causes that you are passionate about even if that is not your experience as the white abolitionist did. You do not have to become poor to help the poor, or Hispanic to help Hispanics, etc... Honestly, I wish there where more white people that came to my neighborhood and did good things bc my perspective of white people at that young age would have been better.
FYI: I have outgrown that, but it wasn't easy and my children have friends of all races.
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I used Glencoe Literature Course 1 (available for cheap on Amazon). It was just easier to have a textbook because it covered every type of literature, essay questions, terms, and assessments. Outside of this, we also read and discussed chapter books (typically classical).
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Thank you!! You all have given me somewhere to start. I truly had no idea. I did all of this with my kids -- hands-on.
I am trying to put together a light plan for her where screen time will be limited.
I am looking into your suggestions now. Thanks!
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We did Zoology 1-3 in one year. We are actually half way through Zoology 3 right now and I think we will be able to finish it by first of June.
We do science 3 times per week for 40 minutes each. It is all discussion based and youtube videos. We did the crossword puzzles and chapter reviews orally. We did a few of the experiments but not all of them. We watched youtube videos on almost every topic. I read the book aloud but skipped over the really wordy parts; especially if the youtube video would cover the same content. We watched several animal documentaries - these were a hit.
This worked because my goal wasn't that they understood every detail about every animal, but that they have a big picture understanding of animals in general. How animals are classified, related, similarities, differences, what makes a fish a fish- a mammal a mammal - a rodent a rodent - etc... Understanding how animals form groups and socialize.
If your goals are similar, then it can be done. If you want them to produce more (written) output or complete more of the experiments, then you may have to do it 5 days per week.
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I know, I know: independent and pre-k don't belong in the same sentence, but this is the situation a family member of mine is in. She has 3 children; 1 sickly and 1 on the way. The oldest (not sickly) is ready to start learning (4 yo). However, with the sickly 2 yo and a new baby coming soon, mom (who is also sick due to the pregnancy) doesn't have the bandwidth to start much hands-on teaching. However, she would like to find some sort of (online/video) program that can start teaching the child something: numbers, letters, sounds, colors, shapes, etc... I didn't start homeschooling until 3rd grade, so I have NO idea. I do know, however, that kids of this generation are very adept at learning from technology. What online/video programs would you recommend? Any workbooks?
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There are colleges that will accept an ACT score in lieu of an SAT score but not many. (This does not say that the ACT is required; just that it can be used lieu of)
Actually, the list of colleges not requiring either test is growing as studies are showing that SAT scores are correlated with family income and not success in college. Some of the top colleges in the country no longer require either test or have de-emphasized the use of the test scores in their admission decision.
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I couldn't remember the other book yesterday. It is Dreamers Discoverer and Dynamos. Also talks about how high energy, independent thinkers are labeled as problem kids with ADD. To be sure, an ADD diagnosis should be for a kid who is not functioning. There are 3 chapters in the book that talk about ADD. I encourage you to read those or study the overdiagnosis of ADD. It is truly an overdiagnosed conditioned that is used to get kids to sit down and be quiet so teachers can present their lesson.
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What to use with Writing & Rhetoric?
in K-8 Curriculum Board
Posted
Yep. We have been using MCT & W&R and that has been enough. We write across the curriculum. We have done Killgallon Elementary Sentences and Killgallon Elementary Paragraphs bc my kids needed more writing practice (not their thing).