Asta-What kind of weird curriculum?

[Melinda S in TX]

In the Muggles Pre-Algebra thread, you said

I have all weird curricula. Except for Analytical Grammar. :001_huh:

 

So, what kind of weird curricula? I remember a math one that I hadn't heard of before. What else? We like unusual things around here.

 

Blessings,

Melinda

[mo2]

:bigear:

[wy_kid_wrangler04]

:bigear:

[woolybear]

:bigear: too. We tend towards the weird at times here.

[asta]

Weird.

 

Math

Systematic Mathematics. Complete with typos, the guy periodically making arithmetic mistakes (gee... just like real school), and an annoying kid in class

 

Righteousness Enhanced Accelerated Learning. EXTREMELY religious College Algebra (and Calculus and logic) from a professor at Georgetown College in Kentucky (?). Hoo Boy is this religious.

 

MTE, or Actionmathematics.com. No frills, you better have some math background to figure it out, arithmetic through diffyQ + stats

 

MUS Geometry (loved this guy, but absolutely NO retention)

 

History

TRISMS Expansion of Civilization. And then "Asta's TRISMS", which is me taking merely the time outline of the next one, Rise of Nations and filling in my own assignments because kid got sick of filling out the TRISMS forms.

 

Instead, I use a combination of Sherri Chekal's High School Scholar forms (Westvon Publishing) and IEW's techniques. eg: Sherri has a basic info bit for different subjects in different time periods w/ an essay question at the end of each one. I use the essay question as a prompt to practice the 30 minute timed essay for the SAT. Sometimes I alter the question. I use IEW techniques for the essay format.

 

Additionally, I use Teaching Company videos throughout our history studies, and back them up with a spattering of books: Van Loon (kid likes a narrative, even if it isn't *exact*), a book called "Compact History of the World" by Barnes and Noble (ISBN 0-7607-2575-6) that is a great synopsis and gives geographical context, and also a 4 book set (may be out of print) from Oxford called World Atlas of the Past that does the same thing from a different point of view. Finally, we read the appropriate chapter in Gombrich's "Story of Art".

 

Science

Exploring the Way Life Works, classroom edition (ISBN 0-7637--1688-x), Digital Frog, Howard Hughes Medical Institute free DVDs on Evolution, Sex Determination, Genomics and Chemical Genetics

 

Standard Guide to Chemistry with Answers, Renfrew and Conquest by Hodder Gibson (Scottish) ISBN 978-0-340-84719-0

 

Have a lab-in-the-box from Quality Science Labs

 

Chemistry, Matter and the Universe (out of print), Dickerson, Irving, Geis

 

The Mechanical Universe and Beyond (CalTech) Used Book + DVDs found on Internet. No idea how I will accomplish a physics lab. Am hoping for a miracle.

 

The Teaching Company: Chaos

 

National Weather Service Jetstream Course (quite long, actually) + American Meteorological Society lab

 

Language Arts

IEW TWSS

IEW Advanced Communication Series, High School Essay Intensive, the Elegant Essay

Classical Rhetoric and the Modern Student

Literary Lessons from Lord of the Rings

The Chronicles of Narnia from the Center for Learning (this is an actual 9-12 level program)

Archetypes in Life, Literature, and Myth from CfL (this will follow the above)

The Literary Book of Economics (this actually kills two subjects with one stone: you read classic books about different econ periods the same time you're doing Econ w/ Economics in One Lesson)

 

Other

Socratic Logic by Kreeft (this is killing us)

Theology (started with myriad Bhuddist sources, moved onto general "who/what made it all" and are now discussing Catholicism via Vatican website, Catholic Catechism and Aquinas)

American Government - Declaration Statesmanship

American History - the jury is still out - I have all sorts of videos (kid is visual), but I haven't found a spine I like

Latin - will be starting Wheelocks this fall

German - has a tutor and studies from German textbooks (was essentially his first social language)

 

Weird enough?

 

 

asta

 

 

ps: We do a LOT of Socratic discussion, I make him do write-ups on just about everything (I tell him: well, we have to have proof, you know), and we travel a lot. We are lucky to be living abroad at this point in time. Except for the physics. ;-)

Edited July 31, 2010 by asta

[swimmermom3]

Asta,

 

You do have interesting curricula. Did you face a particular problem and then go researching for material that would provide the solution or is this the result of year's of homeschooling and stumbling into resources? I am particularly intrigued by your religious studies choices. Do you have specific requirements ( a sort of framework) that your choices need to meet?

[2cents]

Thanks Asta! Love the links, especially the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. DD is interested in medicine so we like that! :D

[Crimson Wife]

The Literary Book of Economics (this actually kills two subjects with one stone: you read classic books about different econ periods the same time you're doing Econ w/ Economics in One Lesson)

 

Ooh, this sounds interesting. How much of an econ background does the author assume the reader has?

 

Will have to put that on my watch list for when my kids get older. :)

[asta]

Asta,

 

You do have interesting curricula. Did you face a particular problem and then go researching for material that would provide the solution or is this the result of year's of homeschooling and stumbling into resources? I am particularly intrigued by your religious studies choices. Do you have specific requirements ( a sort of framework) that your choices need to meet?

 

Both.

 

Kid is very visual, so I *have* to come up with dvds for practically everything. He needs to be able to see something - a TTC lecture, a video podcast - something, read about it (not necessarily the same information, mind you, just the same subject, say Queen Isabella), and then be able to gather his thoughts in an orderly manner (eg: the Sherri Chekal pages). He is all about routine. Welcome to having an Aspie. By having a "system" wherein he knows that he will get bits of info from different sources and then put them together in a particular format, it keeps frustration to a minimum. I've been able to slowly increase the length and depth of writing assignments in this manner (and also change the parameters: "no, it doesn't *have* to be a 5 paragraph essay - that is just a guide...").

 

Math is the bane of my existence. Systematic Mathematics has worked SO well for him. Paul, the teacher, is like having your grandpa teach you math. He's slow, patient, and it STICKS. No "new math" there. No stupid repetition. One page per concept. But there is no geometry, and it's over at basic Alg 2. So I thought "hey MUS for geometry and everything else!". It looked the same. Steve Demme is funny. Kid liked it and did well. Kid retained absolutely none of it and bombed the final exam. So much for that pedagogy. Kid and I both liked MTE a lot, but I simply don't have the math skills to fill in the blanks there. When we're done with SM Alg 2, we'll continue on with the God Math College Algebra, etc. The guy can teach - I'll give him that (kid made it through to the first major test before deciding it was just going too fast and that he wanted to back down to "regular" Alg 2). Besides, it's a great lesson in Protestant theology. Or, rather, how a person can twist Protestant scripture to make it fit the point they are trying to make. LOL.

 

I don't have to meet any specific theological requirements. I just want kid to enter the world with more than "YOU'RE WRONG!" as an arguing tool (I got my fill of those folk at uni). So at the end of 4 years I'll give him one credit for "Comparative Religions" or something.

 

Does that answer the question?

 

 

a

[asta]

Ooh, this sounds interesting. How much of an econ background does the author assume the reader has?

 

Will have to put that on my watch list for when my kids get older. :)

 

None.

 

I actually took an English class in college that was essentially this book (my old advisor who devised the course would be stomping mad if he knew this book had been written, let me tell you...).

 

There are certain books out there that are "representative" of certain time periods in economic history (think: The Jungle by Upton Sinclair). If you line them up, they become a sort of "economic history of the United States." They are *technically* fiction, but they represent actual events of a given time period. I remember being totally p'o'd because I was assigned Dreiser and had to read The Financier. Well, there is an assumption that The Financier was a true representation of X time period (I can't remember now) - due to the events it describes. Whole econ papers have been written around it. Well, guess what? It's not! Dreiser was in a mental institution during that time period! The only way I found out was because the way my advisor set up the course was that we read two of the author's works, a biography of the author, and someone's doctoral thesis of the author.

 

When I found this out, I went stomping into my advisor's office, flung the paper at him and said YOU KNEW! You let me slog through those dreadful books and YOU KNEW! He just laughed and said "but you'll never again believe anything you read now, will you?"

 

That was the first semester of my freshman year of uni. It was a great start!

 

 

asta

[nmoira]

Exploring the Way Life Works

I wish there were more sample pages on Amazon, but I'm impressed by what I've seen, particularly the steam engine analogy in the introduction to self-governing cycles. DD the Elder is accelerated, but is (justifiably) put off by a wall of textbook text. Consequently I'm always on the lookout for highly visual advanced materials which coincide with her interests. Yay for cheap used copies.

 

The Literary Book of Economics (this actually kills two subjects with one stone: you read classic books about different econ periods the same time you're doing Econ w/ Economics in One Lesson)

Intriguing. Intriguing is never good for the budget. :tongue_smilie:

 

Thanks so much for taking the time to list your resources. If you ever feel like adding in a retrospective of weird programs from your homeschooling past, I'm all ears. :001_smile:

[asta]

I wish there were more sample pages on Amazon, but I'm impressed by what I've seen, particularly the steam engine analogy in the introduction to self-governing cycles. DD the Elder is accelerated, but is (justifiably) put off by a wall of textbook text. Consequently I'm always on the lookout for highly visual advanced materials which coincide with her interests. Yay for cheap used copies.

 

Intriguing. Intriguing is never good for the budget. :tongue_smilie:

 

Thanks so much for taking the time to list your resources. If you ever feel like adding in a retrospective of weird programs from your homeschooling past, I'm all ears. :001_smile:

 

Forget Amazon - go to the Publisher's site:

 

Biology

 

 

a

[nmoira]

Forget Amazon - go to the Publisher's site:

 

Biology

 

 

a

 

Thanks. :)

[happygrrl]

Both.

He is all about routine. Welcome to having an Aspie. By having a "system" wherein he knows that he will get bits of info from different sources and then put them together in a particular format, it keeps frustration to a minimum.

 

 

a

 

HUGE HUGE HUGE light bulb moment for me here! (and yes, I am yelling!). Oh my goodness, Asta, you have single handed-ly saved my aspie tons of frustration this year! I have been putting off planning history-every time I list my resources I just *know* he is going to have a problem with the millions of resources I'm using (doing my own thing this year). A way to process random sources systematically! A format! I am going to need to think this through a bit more.

 

Asta, I say it every time I can and you are about to hear it again:

thank you, thank you, thank you!

[asta]

HUGE HUGE HUGE light bulb moment for me here! (and yes, I am yelling!). Oh my goodness, Asta, you have single handed-ly saved my aspie tons of frustration this year! I have been putting off planning history-every time I list my resources I just *know* he is going to have a problem with the millions of resources I'm using (doing my own thing this year). A way to process random sources systematically! A format! I am going to need to think this through a bit more.

 

Asta, I say it every time I can and you are about to hear it again:

thank you, thank you, thank you!

 

That truly made my day. Thank you.

 

 

a

[1Togo]

Asta,

 

Just a tip on The Mechanical Universe. It's a calc-based texbook, so student needs to work through that before tackling The Mechanical... Robinson Curriculum has both textbooks. We did RC for years and couldn't find anyone who made it through the course except Dr. R's children. One of our sons breezed all of his math through calc, but couldn't get through this physics book. If and when you get to this, please post about how it goes.

 

Bonita

[asta]

Asta,

 

Just a tip on The Mechanical Universe. It's a calc-based texbook, so student needs to work through that before tackling The Mechanical... Robinson Curriculum has both textbooks. We did RC for years and couldn't find anyone who made it through the course except Dr. R's children. One of our sons breezed all of his math through calc, but couldn't get through this physics book. If and when you get to this, please post about how it goes.

 

Bonita

 

Did you do it in concert with the Cal-Tech dvd lectures the books were designed for? Cal-Tech themselves produced a student's manual (I've never seen it anywhere but an obscure library, so I scanned the entire thing) that was designed to walk the students through the "needed" Trig and basic Calc functions for the first course.

 

The first book was designed for Liberal Studies students, and the second book was designed as the "next step" for Engineers, Pre-Med, etc. Cal-Tech didn't design the first one for students who had had an entire course in calc, so I find that interesting. I'm not saying you're wrong, just that it is interesting. I've even talked to the publisher of the book (they are still publishing it), and they don't market it as requiring calc for book 1.

 

Guess we'll find out!

 

 

asta