Is it too early to talk hits/misses for '18-'19?

[fourisenough]

I realize some people won't begin school until after this holiday weekend, but for those who are already in the thick of things, how is your year going?

DD13 is beginning her third week of school. Two of four outsourced classes have begun and are both HUGE hits! She loves Clover Creek Physics (though it will be a good challenge for her) and CLRC Great Books 1 (intense work load, but squarely within her area of strength). Latin 1 and Geometry at WHA begin next week, but both are just the next course in the sequence for her with this same provider, so I am fairly confident they will be great fits, too. Overall, I'm very happy with the amount of work, quality of instruction, expectations, feedback, and schedule. 

Edited September 1, 2018 by fourisenough

[BakersDozen]

Sonlight's Psychology is a hit so far (we are using a different text edition which I actually like much better than the current edition). I am supplementing with Crash Course videos and a lot of movies (over 20).

 

[klmama]

2 hours ago, BakersDozen said:

Sonlight's Psychology is a hit so far (we are using a different text edition which I actually like much better than the current edition). I am supplementing with Crash Course videos and a lot of movies (over 20).

 

What movies are you using to supplement?

[BakersDozen]

33 minutes ago, klmama said:

What movies are you using to supplement?

Unit 7

• Spellbound (psychoanalysis)

Unit 8

• The Caine Mutiny (stress/emotions/health)
• What's Eating Gilbert Grape? (Mood Disorders, Neuropsychology, Developmental)
• David and Lisa (patients in mental institution)
• Shine (mental breakdown/recovery)

Also reading Giants in the Earth

Unit 9

• I am Sam (mental retardation/living life)
• On Golden Pond (aging/dementia)
• Rain Man (autism) Rated R

 

Unit 12

• A Beautiful Mind (schizophrenia)
• Arsenic and Old Lace (Psychopathology/Psychosis)
• Benny and Joon (schizophrenia, personality disorder) (one objectionable scene)
• Canvas (schizophrenia/family)
• Matchstick Men (OCD)
• The Snake Pit (Psychopathology, Dissociative Disorders, Treatment, Stress and Coping)
• Sybil (multiple personality disorder)
• Unstrung Heroes Psychopathology, Anxiety Disorders, Personality Disorders, Marital/Family Dynamics)
• What About Bob? (Psychopathology, Personality Disorders, Treatment) C
• Whirlpool (Psychopathology, Dissociative Disorders, Treatment)

 

Unit 13

• Awakenings
• Captain Newman, M.D.
• Harvey C
• Patch Adams
• Stairway to Light (YouTube – short film)

 

Unit 14

• 12 Angry Men (social/cultural/prejudice)
• The Ox-Bow Incident (social/moral development)

 

End of class movies

• Vertigo (Psychopathology, Anxiety Disorders, Mood Disorders, Personality Disorders, Stress and Coping)
• King of Hearts (insane asylum) C

[klmama]

What a great list!  Thank you for sharing!

[RootAnn]

Too early to tell here. Ask me in November. Or maybe February.

[Lisa in the UP of MI]

22 hours ago, Plum Crazy said:

Big History Project. My 12yo has taken off with it. He plowed through all of the the Neil deGrasse Tyson Great Courses lectures of The Inexplicable Universe yesterday. He brought the What If? Scientific Answers to Absurd Questions and the youth version of NDT's StarTalk book into his room to read on his own. Eating it up. I don't think the writing portion will work for us, so I ordered IEW World History Themed Writing books and Fix It! grammar. 

 

Edit it whoops didn’t realize this was the high school forum. 

He sounds like my 12yo.  We've borrowed The Inexplicable Universe twice from the library.  I'll be requesting the StarTalk book for him.

[Lisa in the UP of MI]

My 9th grader is only 1.5 weeks into her online classes.  I'm glad they started before her at home classes, as it's been an adjustment.  She's finally listening about showing her work in math!

[katilac]

On 9/1/2018 at 9:49 PM, BakersDozen said:

 

 

• Sybil (multiple personality disorder)

 

 

I read an interesting book called Sybil Exposed that delves into the backstory of Sybil and her psychiatrist (who wrote the original Sybil book), and whether the multiple personalities were actual or something Sybil went along with to please the doctor. Putting the specific diagnosis aside, this case has a wealth of things to discuss about ethics and boundaries - there is no doubt that the doctor was in serious violation of both, even for that time. 

If you don't want to add the entire book, there's enough online information to spark plenty of discussion. 

[Arcadia]

On 9/1/2018 at 9:23 PM, RootAnn said:

Too early to tell here. Ask me in November. Or maybe February.

 

Same here. Ask me when semester one ends which would be Dec/Jan. 

Kids started back early August but their outsourced classes only started last week and some this week. So we will be on full schedule/workload starting next week.

[RootAnn]

Okay, I can speak to one thing. DD#1 is in week 2 of a 4 week college essay Bravewriter class. I am SO glad I never signed her up for Blue Tent Online or PAHS AP English with Maya Inspektor or another BW class (or AP Chem through PAHS!). What is common about the previous classes? No live component and multiple assignments due each week. DD does NOT do well with classes that are structured with discussion boards, morning messages, daily (or even twice per week) assignments, and NO LIVE MEETING. She doesn't feel connected with the teacher or the other students, and she really doesn't want to put her heart into something where everyone else will see it & the teacher's comments will be public when these people feel like complete strangers.

Know thy student. What works for others may not work for yours. (I still would have signed her up for this particular class. I'm just glad I didn't make an expensive mistake with one of those other very $$$ classes.)

[Roadrunner]

16 minutes ago, RootAnn said:

Okay, I can speak to one thing. DD#1 is in week 2 of a 4 week college essay Bravewriter class. I am SO glad I never signed her up for Blue Tent Online or PAHS AP English with Maya Inspektor or another BW class (or AP Chem through PAHS!). What is common about the previous classes? No live component and multiple assignments due each week. DD does NOT do well with classes that are structured with discussion boards, morning messages, daily (or even twice per week) assignments, and NO LIVE MEETING. She doesn't feel connected with the teacher or the other students, and she really doesn't want to put her heart into something where everyone else will see it & the teacher's comments will be public when these people feel like complete strangers.

Know thy student. What works for others may not work for yours. (I still would have signed her up for this particular class. I'm just glad I didn't make an expensive mistake with one of those other very $$$ classes.)

 

This is our situation, which makes me wonder if PS is calling our name. This child of mine can’t thrive in an environment without a live component. He needs constant interaction and seems to doze off into another world even with recorded lectures. I really have to quiz him after to make sure he was engaged. Daily live component would probably make even more difference. ?

Edited September 4, 2018 by Roadrunner

[...................]

Yeah it's too early but we already have a "miss"

--Community College for an English major.  Also not all community colleges are created equal.  

1.  My dd is a future English/Lit/Teaching major so the humanities and literature classes really matter to her.  The classes they teach at the community college are such a joke, and cover no actual literature until 2B.  Even at that level, very few whole literature novels are assigned and the student population seems wholly uninterested in literature and just trying to get the class out of the way.  It was better to enroll my dd in classes at the local co-op and WTM Academy!  Now, she has a lovely balance between online and in-person classes and all ALL of her teachers truly care and are teaching actual content, instead of trying to be social justice warriors.  (The first essay assigned at the CC was to choose from Gender, Ethnicity, Cosumerism or Social and Economic Class") That's not English, that's something else.

Edited to add (For my son it didn't matter that CC teaches weird humanities and less literature than high school because he was getting it all out of the way so he could get to Math and COmp Sci and Engineering...) So knowing your student and their goals actually makes a big difference where they take their classes!!!

2.  Additionally the only CC that would have worked for my dd with her schedule is far inferior to the other local CC.  There are three CC's locally that are top-ranked and literally draw students from all over the world, regularly feeding straight to Berkeley and UCLA. This other CC is in the boonies, in a mostly farming and rural community and it shows.  Although the staff were very caring and are absolutely striving to help people succeed, the entire atmosphere was geared towards poorer students not seeking a UC education, or adults seeking career/technical training.  Therefore they don't over very many sections for advanced UC-bound students, and even when they do, they're often at night or at odd times because the limited number of classrooms need to be used for the population they are trying to serve, which is remedial/career-technical.  For example, they have ONE section of British Literature, at a weird time and over 12 sections of Remedial English.  I value what they are trying to achieve and support them in the effort, but it wasn't a fit for our kid. ?  

Edited September 4, 2018 by Calming Tea

[...................]

26 minutes ago, RootAnn said:

Okay, I can speak to one thing. DD#1 is in week 2 of a 4 week college essay Bravewriter class. I am SO glad I never signed her up for Blue Tent Online or PAHS AP English with Maya Inspektor or another BW class (or AP Chem through PAHS!). What is common about the previous classes? No live component and multiple assignments due each week. DD does NOT do well with classes that are structured with discussion boards, morning messages, daily (or even twice per week) assignments, and NO LIVE MEETING. She doesn't feel connected with the teacher or the other students, and she really doesn't want to put her heart into something where everyone else will see it & the teacher's comments will be public when these people feel like complete strangers.

Know thy student. What works for others may not work for yours. (I still would have signed her up for this particular class. I'm just glad I didn't make an expensive mistake with one of those other very $$$ classes.)

I am definitely going to file this away in my brain because my dd needs live interaction now and then too! 

[Arcadia]

1 hour ago, RootAnn said:

What is common about the previous classes? No live component and multiple assignments due each week. DD does NOT do well with classes that are structured with discussion boards, morning messages, daily (or even twice per week) assignments, and NO LIVE MEETING.

 

Ironically no compulsory live meetings is what work for my kids who likes brick and mortar classes.

DS12 likes the Bravewriter SAT/ACT essay class when he took it even though he end up taking the SAT without essay twice. He likes Jeff Lanctot’s Physics class for the same reason.

DS13 has liked PAH Chemistry, Jeff Lanctot’s Physics, CTY writing courses, AoPS classes, Edhesive class because of the no compulsory live meeting requirements. He also prefers classes he can work ahead on.

It is like they want either a lively brick and mortar class or minimal to zero interaction online class. 

[MamaSprout]

9 hours ago, Arcadia said:

It is like they want either a lively brick and mortar class or minimal to zero interaction online class. 

That's this last one here, too.

Honestly everything we've picked has been a "Goldilocks" so far. We've already had a lot of travel and interruptions, but since we've made mostly choices that are written to the student, it's working. She can just pick up the next day and keep rolling. WWS3 has been a surprise favorite for my big picture dd. She's recommended the series to other homeschool moms, lol.

[chiguirre]

Trinqueta is taking a required lit class called "Short Novels" this year at MPOA. It covers many of the high school greatest hits that I remember reading in my long ago youth. I honestly thought she'd like a few of the books but that for the most part they'd be misses. The first one is Call of the Wild. I expected moaning about how boring it was (my reaction in 9th grade) but I was wrong. She's really enjoying it. I have much higher hopes for this class than I did before. The first live meeting is next week so we'll see how that goes. If nothing else, she'll have read through a stack of 17 novels that she can draw on for AP essays in the future. Last year's "Short Stories" was a good class too. T only disliked a couple of stories and only truly hated one (The Bear by Faulkner). I thought the Short Stories-Short Novel sequence was weird and it was one of my cons about enrolling in MPOA but I was wrong. It's actually a very good way to organize literature study. It allows the teachers to build up analysis skills slowly and practice them a lot over time.

[teachermom2834]

13 hours ago, RootAnn said:

Okay, I can speak to one thing. DD#1 is in week 2 of a 4 week college essay Bravewriter class. I am SO glad I never signed her up for Blue Tent Online or PAHS AP English with Maya Inspektor or another BW class (or AP Chem through PAHS!). What is common about the previous classes? No live component and multiple assignments due each week. DD does NOT do well with classes that are structured with discussion boards, morning messages, daily (or even twice per week) assignments, and NO LIVE MEETING. She doesn't feel connected with the teacher or the other students, and she really doesn't want to put her heart into something where everyone else will see it & the teacher's comments will be public when these people feel like complete strangers.

Know thy student. What works for others may not work for yours. (I still would have signed her up for this particular class. I'm just glad I didn't make an expensive mistake with one of those other very $$$ classes.)

My 10th grader is a strong and conscientious student. He is organized and motivated. He wants online classes and thrives in them but they have to be live. It makes scheduling hard and he has a delayed section at WTMA this year in a non-core subject. So many highly recommend classes are just not great for him. 

[....]

We are on Week 14-15-ish of our school year, so we have hits and misses already.  But, our homeschool seems to look different from everyone else's on this forum (so not sure if it's worth posting).    

Hits:

Komm Mit 2 with the reader (German textbook)

German Grammar Drills by Ed Swick

Zola's Introduction to Hebrew

Sonlight 300 History & Bible, 200 Literature is good, too

Apologia Biology - especially the slide set that was super-expensive and I was afraid to buy.

 

Misses:

Trying to get Robotics going with Vex IQ.  So far, this hasn't been going well...at all.  ?  

The Apologia Chemistry supply kit I bought from Rainbow Resource.  Sigh...  I ended up buying some Pyrex beakers from Home Science Tools, because the glass beaker it came with already burned at the bottom over the alcohol burner's flame.  Ok, that's another thing.  I don't know about that alcohol burner it came with.  The flame shoots out like 50 feet into the air and we can't seem to adjust the flame at all.  Also, everyone is afraid to put the flame out.  You have to stick your hand under the metal mesh platform to put the lid on the flame, to put the flame out...and the flame is enormous.  I've been putting it out every time, because I'm afraid to let the kids do it.

 

This hasn't been the best year ever...we're using more "curriculum" than I prefer to use, but this is what we needed this year.  The 3 year-old is really a handful and I didn't have time to build our year from scratch.  I'm thinking I might be able to put our stuff together again next year - as he gets older.  

 

 

[...................]

Evanthe, my dd is taking labs at a local homeschool center.  Best idea I ever had!  Do you have any nearby?

[RootAnn]

38 minutes ago, Evanthe said:

Komm Mit 2 with the reader (German textbook)

German Grammar Drills by Ed Swick

How are you using the Grammar Drills book, may I ask? Anyway you can link to the reader that goes with Komm Mit 2? 

[hollyhock2]

So far so good here, but we're only 3 days in. After 11 years of being in charge of math, it feels SO WEIRD to have handed my oldest's math over to TT 3.0. I don't even have to grade it and if I don't check in with him, I don't even know what he's working on. It's weird. Until now, I've only ever used the books for TT.

[hollyhock2]

2 hours ago, texasmom33 said:

Oldest is using SL 300 History and Lit this year too. She's really liked it so far (started in July to get a head start knowing these first few weeks of September are going to be busy) and I've been impressed. We might spread it over two years- I'm not sure how bad her reading load in other classes is going to be. But yes, at this point that's one I can tell is a hit for us too.  I was a little nervous with the investment since she hasn't done SL since level H, but now I'm wondering why we left. 

If I may derail a little... I notice that your daughter is using the Ornithology course from Cornell University. Can I ask how it's going and how she likes it?

[hollyhock2]

Good! I look forward to it.

[crazyforlatin]

Just some notes:

Lange's Lit 2 started today, and the system made DD the host several times. Auspicious indeed. It's a tiny class, total 3, and it's exactly the right size for DD, so I know PS won't work for her, but I do know that something has to change in HS given DD’s personality. 

Mr. Barr is better than no Barr in her life, apparently. 

I'm not sure if I like Chang's General Chemistry. Is it the consensus that this is the best book for Honors Chemistry?

 

 

 

[madteaparty]

DE French classes are always a hit. These professors are heros, what with the conversation hours, and frequent graded work, and just general presence and amazingness. Ds is also finding out that a gen ed class is quite quite different than a class for majors...

[....]

On 9/5/2018 at 9:58 AM, RootAnn said:

How are you using the Grammar Drills book, may I ask? Anyway you can link to the reader that goes with Komm Mit 2? 

 

It's just grammar exercises with short explanations.  They generally do 1-2 exercises each week.  I think we are going to take the rest of high school to finish the book (just trying to keep their grammar sharp).

The reader...  https://www.amazon.com/Komm-mit-Beginner-Reader-Level/dp/0030656370/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1536325784&sr=8-1&keywords=komm+mit+reader

There are several readers, but we started with Level 1 this year, because it is actually challenging for them.  They're not the best readers out there, but I've really struggled with finding high school level German materials we can use at home.

[....]

On 9/5/2018 at 3:41 PM, texasmom33 said:

Oldest is using SL 300 History and Lit this year too. She's really liked it so far (started in July to get a head start knowing these first few weeks of September are going to be busy) and I've been impressed. We might spread it over two years- I'm not sure how bad her reading load in other classes is going to be. But yes, at this point that's one I can tell is a hit for us too.  I was a little nervous with the investment since she hasn't done SL since level H, but now I'm wondering why we left. 

 

300 History and Bible is really good.  I did cut out about a fourth of the books, because you're right - it could take 2 years to read all those books.  I have another kid (dd13) using SL 100 and that's going great, too.  It was perfect for her this year.

[SilverMoon]

We haven't been running for too long. Our dance life hogs the summer and after Labor Day seems to be the best we can start anymore.

Our favorite "win" is actually loosy goosy American history. This really only works because I've been doing this long enough to have loads of resources on our shelves already; my current high schoolers have the benefit of two siblings going before them. The littlest two (2nd and 5th graders) started it with the Liberty's Kids cartoons, and all the high schoolers AND the graduate heard the theme song and plopped on the couch with them. We added books as we saw fit, some different movies for the bigger kids (John Adams, 1776, etc) and it just evolved from there. Instead of making a schedule I started a notebook where we track what we've done after we do it. Random books, lots of random movies, pulling a stack of them and letting them choose, rabbit trails this way and that way. The 9th and 10th graders say they're loving it and don't want a schedule. The little ones were slated for medieval history this year, but they're so carried up in this that I've quietly left it on the shelf.

No flops really. Yet.

[FarmingMomma]

Guest Hollow Chemistry has been a hit so far with both my 6th grader and 10th grader.  I've been doing most of the reading aloud, and then they watch the videos, which they love.  A lot of the time all the cooking gets pushed to the weekend, but that just means a Saturday full of yummy treats ? Since there is no math, my 10th grader is also watching one Great Courses Chemistry lecture per week and working out the problems.  She likes the professor on the GC lectures and has enjoyed it so far.  So all in all science is going so much better than last year for my oldest.  Last year she did Holt Biology and hated it, which makes me sad because I LOVE biology, but that textbook is so dry.  My youngest did Guest Hollow Botany last year and loved it, I wish I'd had my oldest just do Botany as well, or the Guest Hollow biology schedule.  

[RootAnn]

1 hour ago, FarmingMomma said:

Guest Hollow Chemistry has been a hit so far with both my 6th grader and 10th grader.  I've been doing most of the reading aloud, and then they watch the videos, which they love.  A lot of the time all the cooking gets pushed to the weekend, but that just means a Saturday full of yummy treats ? 

I have a 10th grader (very math-phobic) also doing GH Chem. We do one of the experiments each Wednesday. So far, we've made devil's food cupcakes (which is a later experiment, but we didn't have the book for Week 1's experiment yet, so we skipped further in), homemade bread, and homemade marshmallows. The cooking results are a hit with the whole family, but the jury is still out on the rest. (Working on Week 2/3 right now.) She's doing all the reading herself & picking and choosing the videos & extras. I'm surprised by how much actual chemistry is in the material. Almost the whole family is doing chemistry of one sort or another (DE chem for oldest, middles are doing an online class), so it has been interesting to discuss the ideas from all three classes.

[freesia]

3 hours ago, FarmingMomma said:

Guest Hollow Chemistry has been a hit so far with both my 6th grader and 10th grader.  I've been doing most of the reading aloud, and then they watch the videos, which they love.  A lot of the time all the cooking gets pushed to the weekend, but that just means a Saturday full of yummy treats ? Since there is no math, my 10th grader is also watching one Great Courses Chemistry lecture per week and working out the problems.  She likes the professor on the GC lectures and has enjoyed it so far.  So all in all science is going so much better than last year for my oldest.  Last year she did Holt Biology and hated it, which makes me sad because I LOVE biology, but that textbook is so dry.  My youngest did Guest Hollow Botany last year and loved it, I wish I'd had my oldest just do Botany as well, or the Guest Hollow biology schedule.  

I was just coming to post that Guesthollow Biology is a hit here. Actually, everything  is going well this year. Phew 

[lisabees]

Roy Speed's Romeo and Juliet and, of course, WTMA's Creative Writing with Hummel.

[yvonne]

2 hours ago, lisabees said:

WTMA's Creative Writing with Hummel.

 

My dd loved that class last year!

 

[yvonne]

It's still early, only the third week, and I should probably wait until my daughter is further in, but I have to say I think I love CLRC's Great Books course!  My dd is having to read much more closely now that she actually has to synthesize what she's reading and learning in order to write about it. There's a weekly, maybe page-long essay and short answer study questions (for which she has to include textual support) and a longer essay every couple of weeks, I think. The instructor actually READS everything and provides intelligent, cogent, useful feedback on it! 

I think I may have FINALLY found a class of the caliber of the English courses I was fortunate to have had at an excellent, private high school!  Good literature, good discussion, & solid writing!

 

Edited September 12, 2018 by yvonne

[Arcadia]

DS13 is still in his grouchy, lack of a good night sleep, picky eater stage. So while there is no hits or misses, it’s a good thing most of his classes this year does not have hard deadlines. 

History - hard deadlines but work hasn’t ramp up yet

Math - self pace mostly but midterms and finals are hard deadlines. 

German - self paced through OKState German Online even though he needs to complete in an academic year. We have to tweak the suggested daily work schedule.

Two non-credit courses that has weekly Friday deadlines which he takes because he likes them but it means he spends Friday finishing those if he didn’t get to finish them on Thursday.

The main time management difference for DS13 compared to 2017/18 is that he has two sessions of two hours tennis lessons which requires us to spend two hours on public transport to get there. Sometimes he gets work done on his laptop and sometimes he just nap on the bus. While he does get carsick if he reads, he doesn’t get bus sick or train sick if he reads on the big bus or a train. Then we “lose” another hour to recovery time for tennis. My husband picks us up after work so it’s 30 to 40mins ride home where he naps in the car. So 9 hours is used up by tennis even though 4 hours is the actual lesson time. He used to do weekly Sunday swimming lessons so that only took 1.5hrs weekly including driving time since it took at most 20mins to reach the YMCA. The time slots for tennis for his age group for weekends this Sep/Oct session crash with his usual weekend activities. Hopefully the Nov/Dec schedule has more choices on weekends that fit his schedule. I am kind of glad he didn’t want to aim for youth orchestra else I would have to hire a chauffeur just to get him to everywhere on time since I don't drive.

DS12 is not a picky eater and falls asleep fast so he is neither hungry nor sleepy. So while he takes longer to finish work, he doesn’t have the lack of good night sleep problems that DS13 has. He doesn’t get car sick either so he can do his readings in the car. So the hard deadlines doesn’t affect him as much.

[lisabees]

1 hour ago, yvonne said:

 

My dd loved that class last year!

 

She's in her second year. I've said it before, but he changed everything for her!

[madteaparty]

9 hours ago, yvonne said:

It's still early, only the third week, and I should probably wait until my daughter is further in, but I have to say I think I love CLRC's Great Books course!  My dd is having to read much more closely now that she actually has to synthesize what she's reading and learning in order to write about it. There's a weekly, maybe page-long essay and short answer study questions (for which she has to include textual support) and a longer essay every couple of weeks, I think. The instructor actually READS everything and provides intelligent, cogent, useful feedback on it! 

I think I may have FINALLY found a class of the caliber of the English courses I was fortunate to have had at an excellent, private high school!  Good literature, good discussion, & solid writing!

 

Told ya.

(it’s one of the reasons we still “homeschool”.)

[fourisenough]

13 hours ago, yvonne said:

It's still early, only the third week, and I should probably wait until my daughter is further in, but I have to say I think I love CLRC's Great Books course!  My dd is having to read much more closely now that she actually has to synthesize what she's reading and learning in order to write about it. There's a weekly, maybe page-long essay and short answer study questions (for which she has to include textual support) and a longer essay every couple of weeks, I think. The instructor actually READS everything and provides intelligent, cogent, useful feedback on it! 

I think I may have FINALLY found a class of the caliber of the English courses I was fortunate to have had at an excellent, private high school!  Good literature, good discussion, & solid writing!

 

Yes! To all of this. I think GB1 is our biggest ‘win’ of the year so far (and we’re very happy will all of our outsourced classes). I love that my DD is getting comfortable writing every week and is getting specific, detailed feedback on her writing in a timely way. I expect her to improve by leaps and bounds under Mrs. T’s guidance.

[8filltheheart]

I am very reluctant to outsource and rarely do. When I do, I have high expectations or I will completely regret the decision and end up withdrawing them from the class and doing it at home myself. That said, Diacentra's Clover Valley honors chemistry course receives high marks from both me and my Dd. The course is well-organized and covers the material extremely well. I have had to have zero teaching involvement in the course which is the only reason for me to outsource in the first place.

Highly recommend based on our experience so far.

[Kalypso]

My dd14 is also taking the Great Books I course at CLRC. The first couple of weeks were rough as she adjusted to managing her time properly. It is a lot of writing! There were tears, but I'm so pleased with how well she is doing and what she is learning. Mrs. T's detailed comments are so helpful, and she returns their work quickly. It may not be her favorite class - yet, but it is mine so far.

[madteaparty]

1 hour ago, Kalypso said:

My dd14 is also taking the Great Books I course at CLRC. The first couple of weeks were rough as she adjusted to managing her time properly. It is a lot of writing! There were tears, but I'm so pleased with how well she is doing and what she is learning. Mrs. T's detailed comments are so helpful, and she returns their work quickly. It may not be her favorite class - yet, but it is mine so far.

It’s a lot of reading talk, that’s what killed us in GB1. But I didn’t realize it’s worth at least two credits; I should have arranged our load better. 

[Roadrunner]

2 hours ago, 8FillTheHeart said:

I am very reluctant to outsource and rarely do. When I do, I have high expectations or I will completely regret the decision and end up withdrawing them from the class and doing it at home myself. That said, Diacentra's Clover Valley honors chemistry course receives high marks from both me and my Dd. The course is well-organized and covers the material extremely well. I have had to have zero teaching involvement in the course which is the only reason for me to outsource in the first place.

Highly recommend based on our experience so far.

We feel the same way. 

I will add that’s it’s a looooot of work. 

[Kalypso]

1 minute ago, madteaparty said:

It’s a lot of reading talk, that’s what killed us in GB1. But I didn’t realize it’s worth at least two credits; I should have arranged our load better. 

Yes, the Iliad has been the focus of our conversations this past couple of weeks! I'm trying to keep up with her so we can discuss as she's reading/writing.The time commitment has been an adjustment for her. I've had to keep reminding her that the reason it is taking so much time is that this class is the equivalent of 2 classes. 

[8filltheheart]

25 minutes ago, Roadrunner said:

We feel the same way. 

I will add that’s it’s a looooot of work. 

You think so?  I don't really agree.  I think the workload is appropriate for an honors level chemistry course.

[Roadrunner]

17 minutes ago, 8FillTheHeart said:

You think so?  I don't really agree.  I think the workload is appropriate for an honors level chemistry course.

 

It is in my house. I didn’t say it wasn’t appropriate. All I am saying it is the most work my kid has ever put into a class so far. ?  Hopefully he can learn to pick up speed as “the language” of chemistry becomes more second nature as the semester progresses. He is also diligently working through videos, stopping and working through problems as he goes along. Some of those videos approach an hour. I expect he will be more than prepared for AP Chem if he ever chooses to go for it later in high school. Serious class for serious students. He is most definitely enjoying it and learning study habits like how to make index cards, organize memorization work.... understand what needs to be reviewed, realizing “just reading” isn’t often enough.  What are those called? Executive skills?... 

 

[rdj2027]

32 minutes ago, Roadrunner said:

We feel the same way. 

I will add that’s it’s a looooot of work. 

Ahem, had my daughter read the "due dates" handout, she would have known that the homeworks, labs and test were not due until 30 September.  Since all of her classes are/have been due at the end of the week, it never occurred to her that chemistry might be different and yes, this last week was a little tense, I don't think she did anything but chemistry.  Lesson learned for the next chapter. 

[Roadrunner]

8 minutes ago, rdj2027 said:

Ahem, had my daughter read the "due dates" handout, she would have known that the homeworks, labs and test were not due until 30 September.  Since all of her classes are/have been due at the end of the week, it never occurred to her that chemistry might be different and yes, this last week was a little tense, I don't think she did anything but chemistry.  Lesson learned for the next chapter. 

 

3 weeks worth of work in one week? ? That’s an accomplishment that’s earning you an unexpected mini vacation from chem. ? 

[8filltheheart]

10 minutes ago, Roadrunner said:

 

It is in my house. I didn’t say it wasn’t appropriate. All I am saying it is the most work my kid has ever put into a class so far. ?  Hopefully he can learn to pick up speed as “the language” of chemistry becomes more second nature as the semester progresses. He is also diligently working through videos, stopping and working through problems as he goes along. Some of those videos approach an hour. I expect he will be more than prepared for AP Chem if he ever chooses to go for it later in high school. Serious class for serious students. He is most definitely enjoying it and learning study habits like how to make index cards, organize memorization work.... understand what needs to be reviewed, realizing “just reading” isn’t often enough.  What are those called? Executive skills?... 

 

I think the bolded is probably key.  My dd is a jr; I think she is probably the oldest student in the class.  This is her first exposure to chemistry, so everything chemistry is new to her.  (I detest chemistry, so it is not something my kids ever study unless they want to before high school chem.)  BUT, she is used to a heavy high school workload, and this course is definitely not the most time-consuming class she has taken.  It seems on par with all of our honors level courses in our homeschool.   I guess there is a reason that when my kids go to college they tell me that I am the hardest teacher they ever had. ?

[Aras]

So far our biggest hit has been Miller Levine Biology coordinated with MrDBioCFC videos and Blackburn Biology guided reading questions from TPT.

We have a miss already too: Chakerian Geometry. My kid just doesn't like the discovery approach. We have switched to Jacobs Geometry and we will see how that goes.

To be determined: Destinos Spanish, Development of European Civilization GC, and LLoLotR