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


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2 minutes ago, rdj2027 said:

LOL, I am mean and we will do some problems from Zumdahl because I suspect it all went into short term memory.  Some topics I would let slide but not stoichiometry.  I am really happy with the class though.

 

Same here. The best decision we made was taking this class! I couldn’t be happier. 

I suspect mine needs more practice for fluency on naming. I might ask Dicentra for more worksheets over the Thanksgiving break.  

 

On the the other note, British Lit at CLRC is shaping up well, but it’s still early to tell.

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3 hours ago, Kalypso said:

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. 

I don’t know why the word “talk” got inserted into my post but I’m on 3 HRs of sleep. I just mean the reading can be overwhelming if one doesn’t realize (like I didn’t) it’s basically two classes. 

 If I had Thucydides to do again I’d use the study questions as a guide (shhh). But the Iliad we read together and had so much fun with it: oh look another way to die. Cool. ? Medea was also fun. 

 

Edited by madteaparty
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Hits for us are Clover Valley Chemistry, Algebra2 and Biology with Wilson Hill, Blue Tent English and Psychology with Athena's Academy (probably my son's favorite class this year).   My daughter is not fond of history so for her the Great Courses lectures are a necessary evil.  My boys and I though thoroughly enjoyed Philip Daileader.  

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3 hours ago, Roadrunner said:

Those of you in GB class, would you say the course is about 2 hours a day workload? More?

My DD is doing most of her work for GB on the weekend because of her crazy dance schedule, but I would say it works out to more like 1.5 hours per day, M-F for her. DD is a fairly quick reader and writer. She has shed no tears and I haven’t had to be involved at all- she’s managing everything on her own. But she’s also super independent and has good EF skills.

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5 hours ago, Roadrunner said:

British Lit at CLRC is shaping up well, but it’s still early to tel

 

I'd be very interested in what you think of CLRC's Brit lit as you get further along.  I was looking at that or TPS's for my dd, but CLRC's Brit Lit conflicted w/ CLRC's GB3, so we dropped that option.

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15 minutes ago, yvonne said:

 

I'd be very interested in what you think of CLRC's Brit lit as you get further along.  I was looking at that or TPS's for my dd, but CLRC's Brit Lit conflicted w/ CLRC's GB3, so we dropped that option.

 

So far I can tell you that as with every CLRC Lit course, discussions are excellent. They covered Beowulf in two weeks and I believe they are getting ready for an essay assignment. Meanwhile they have done some summaries and have a ton of poetry assigned to read and summarize this week. It isn’t as much writing as in GB and I will let you know what the feedback turns out to be on essays. 

They are covering three Shakespeare plays according to the syllabus, even though the website only lists one.  So that’s an added bonus for us.

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4 hours ago, Roadrunner said:

Those of you in GB class, would you say the course is about 2 hours a day workload? More?

I can’t tell now as I’m not home to see but maybe 1 hr a day 7 days a week? It’s really hard to tell because here we have to split the reading into bits, it’s hard (still. Easier, but still hard ;)). It’s better to estimate by books read. The entire iliad in i think 4 weeks (correct me GB1 parents). Song of Roland in 2 weeks, Beowulf in 2 or three I forget. 

i guess it doesn’t sound like much but we double up on the lit so it’s very many pages when thought of it that way. In comparison, every other class seems light ?

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Dd is taking dual enrollment online in NC. Last year, we lived in NJ where she took online dual enrollment classes and everything went very smoothly. The program used at the college was easy for her to use. This college uses Moodle and each professor uses it differently. There are folders and lists all over the place in each course and no one place in each course to find assignments and information about assignments. One professor doesn't want emails, only messages through Moodle, while another only wants emails, and another will take either. Dd is fine with the amount of work in each course and the work itself but is very stressed because she is afraid she will miss an assignment by not looking in every single folder every day. Also, one professor is very new to using the program and has twice added new assignments onto the wrong week making it look like they were due the next day rather than the next week when they were really due.

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16 hours ago, Roadrunner said:

 

So far I can tell you that as with every CLRC Lit course, discussions are excellent. They covered Beowulf in two weeks and I believe they are getting ready for an essay assignment. Meanwhile they have done some summaries and have a ton of poetry assigned to read and summarize this week. It isn’t as much writing as in GB and I will let you know what the feedback turns out to be on essays. 

They are covering three Shakespeare plays according to the syllabus, even though the website only lists one.  So that’s an added bonus for us.

Hoping not to go too off-topic, but are the CLRC Lit and GB classes taught from a particular worldview? I know this has been discussed before but the old threads still aren't indexed it seems and I can't find it anymore.  We are secular and prefer secular discussions. 

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8 minutes ago, SanDiegoMom in VA said:

Hoping not to go too off-topic, but are the CLRC Lit and GB classes taught from a particular worldview? I know this has been discussed before but the old threads still aren't indexed it seems and I can't find it anymore.  We are secular and prefer secular discussions. 

 

They are secular but the students are usually very religious, so the discussions reflect that. I would prefer a wider opinion base in the class that a mix of religious and secular kids would bring, but it isn’t something anybody really has control over. We are also secular, but this doesn’t bother me as long as my child’s opinion is respected, and I have never experienced anything but respect there.  I am sure some secular folks might not feel as comfortable. It really depends on the individual. CLRC itself is an Orthofox Christian school. 

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41 minutes ago, Roadrunner said:

 

They are secular but the students are usually very religious, so the discussions reflect that. I would prefer a wider opinion base in the class that a mix of religious and secular kids would bring, but it isn’t something anybody really has control over. We are also secular, but this doesn’t bother me as long as my child’s opinion is respected, and I have never experienced anything but respect there.  I am sure some secular folks might not feel as comfortable. It really depends on the individual. CLRC itself is an Orthofox Christian school. 

Thank you! 

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I know it's probably not the done thing to post when folks are discussing your courses ? but I just wanted to say...

Please don't ever hesitate to give feedback on my courses - even if it's to say they are a total miss. ?  I know that it's impossible to be everything to everyone but I definitely always want to hear the good, the bad, and even the ugly about CVC.  It's the best way to work on improving.  And there is always room for improvement - in everything!  I'm a firm believer in that. ?

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5 minutes ago, Dicentra said:

I know it's probably not the done thing to post when folks are discussing your courses ? but I just wanted to say...

Please don't ever hesitate to give feedback on my courses - even if it's to say they are a total miss. ?  I know that it's impossible to be everything to everyone but I definitely always want to hear the good, the bad, and even the ugly about CVC.  It's the best way to work on improving.  And there is always room for improvement - in everything!  I'm a firm believer in that. ?

 

Oh, I hope my post didn't come out that way. We love your course, love it. It has been the course which has brought about the biggest growth in him so far, and the work he has been putting in shows. Well organized and challenging. ? Today he was working through the set of problems and joking that knocking those problems out was like jumping on goombas in Mario. Maybe we are over the naming hump. ? 

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3 hours ago, SanDiegoMom in VA said:

Hoping not to go too off-topic, but are the CLRC Lit and GB classes taught from a particular worldview? I know this has been discussed before but the old threads still aren't indexed it seems and I can't find it anymore.  We are secular and prefer secular discussions. 

I can only speak GB and only to the first three weeks, but so far, the discussions have remained secular. When I asked the teacher about this, she gave a very satisfying answer. If you’re considering the class for the future, I would encourage you to reach out to her.

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So regarding the secular or not re: CLRC GB, I go back and forth on this. The students are often extremely (from where we stand) religious. Some of the writing prompts reflect that world view, but I can’t tell whether it’s basic cultural knowledge my kid lacks (very likely), or the current subject matter (crusades!) but the religious content in these classes is not nothing and  should be given some thought. We decided we will just take it, but there is some management. In the Song or Roland readings, an “intro” document was posted that was rabidly anti-Muslim. The teacher’s position if I understood her correctly (didn’t fully make sense but I’m slow) is that it illustrates the persistence of that worldview and it would be taken apart in class. I did not personally buy that and so DS did not read that particular nonsense. But stuff like this is rare.

i will also say, any great books class, including the one DS took at the public university, will have some bible readings. DS was indignant but yeah we sat down and read the Bible for his first time ever.?

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3 hours ago, Roadrunner said:

 

Oh, I hope my post didn't come out that way. We love your course, love it. It has been the course which has brought about the biggest growth in him so far, and the work he has been putting in shows. Well organized and challenging. ? Today he was working through the set of problems and joking that knocking those problems out was like jumping on goombas in Mario. Maybe we are over the naming hump. ? 

Not at all, Roadrunner! ?  I just wanted people to know that I am always open to suggestions, critiques, and ideas!

That's a good phrase for it - the naming hump. ? But my students will be naming phenoms when I'm done with them!!

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30 minutes ago, Dicentra said:

I just wanted people to know that I am always open to suggestions, critiques, and ideas!

I want to share that I am very satisfied.  It is obvious you put a lot of thought into creating the course. My Dd has been able to look at the syllabus and figure out how to divvy up the work to stay on track without ever feeling overwhelmed. The workload does not seem at all atypical for an honors level course.  (But, oh my, rdj2027's poor Dd.....that would be insane!!)

My Dd got upset with me bc I told her that for the foreseeable future she has to do the labs on the weekends bc our grandkids are living with us until Dil is no longer on bedrest and their baby sister arrives.  I just handle any other non-routine things during our school days.  She had different ideas.....oh well, that has absolutely nothing to do with you and she will just have to get over it. But it made me try to imagine what rbj2027's Dd was thinking this week!!  Chemistry nightmare!! 

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On 9/14/2018 at 2:58 PM, Dicentra said:

 Please don't ever hesitate to give feedback on my courses - even if it's to say they are a total miss. ?  I know that it's impossible to be everything to everyone but I definitely always want to hear the good, the bad, and even the ugly about CVC.  It's the best way to work on improving.  And there is always room for improvement - in everything!  I'm a firm believer in that. ?

 

 

It wasn't available early enough and I suffered through chemistry at home twice. That was pretty annoying ?

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On 9/4/2018 at 7:36 PM, 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.)

 

So funny because this is the exact reason why DD loves BW classes and is happy enough with Derek Owens (we switched from AoPS to DO for geometry this year). She's very introverted and doesn't want to have to talk to teacher without having time to think about her thoughts. Other students drive her crazy too. Even on BW when some don't follow the guidelines (for example, repeatedly commenting about the content of the writing of peers when explicitly being asked not to), she gets so frustrated. I've talked her into Homeschool Spanish Academy for conversation practice, but it's the same teacher every time and just 1:1. That's about as much as she'll do!

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1 hour ago, deerforest said:

So funny because this is the exact reason why DD loves BW classes and is happy enough with Derek Owens (we switched from AoPS to DO for geometry this year). She's very introverted and doesn't want to have to talk to teacher without having time to think about her thoughts. Other students drive her crazy too. Even on BW when some don't follow the guidelines (for example, repeatedly commenting about the content of the writing of peers when explicitly being asked not to), she gets so frustrated. I've talked her into Homeschool Spanish Academy for conversation practice, but it's the same teacher every time and just 1:1. That's about as much as she'll do!

For sure! My dd#2 dislikes live online classes because of the on-the-spot requirements and the inability to go at her own pace. She was also sometimes annoyed by classmates, but that's just life. She watched recorded Homeschool Connections writing classes and didn't hate them as much as she would have if they were live. (Again, know thy student!)

DD#1 is very glad the BW class is over. She felt it was a waste of her time. I will say that I wasn't impressed with the class, and I think there were too many kids in it. I could be wrong, but I think the individual kids would have gotten better (and more timely) feedback if there had been 15 vs. 25 enrolled. They could have done two sessions of four weeks @ 15 each (30 total) instead of one session of four weeks @ 25. It would have been a longer timeframe for the teacher, but honestly, all the daily prompt notes seemed canned/recycled, so her energy was mostly spent on responses to the individual kids. And she typically ran at least two days behind (her projected time-to-reply) on those responses. Class ended on Friday. Last assignments were due on Wednesday (although she seemed to imply that as long as you posted before noon on Friday, she'd be able to get back to you that day). Four kids who posted their final drafts on Wednesday didn't get theirs commented on until yesterday--a day after the class officially ended. There are still four kids who haven't had any response on their final draft--although one of those posted his draft on Saturday. At least five of the kids never posted a final draft. I'm not sure when they 'dropped out' of the class.

I'm just glad the essay is done.

Her CLRC classes are going okay. I'd say Russian is harder than either of us expected. (We'd gotten feedback on the class under a different teacher. She had two teacher changes at CLRC over the summer.) The two hour class format of Norse Myths is a killer, IMO. Hard to stay engaged that long.

DD#2 is doing Guest Hollow Kitchen Chem. She seems to like it, and we've gotten some yummy treats out of it so far. Jury is still out on whether she'll learn & retain anything useful.

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3 hours ago, RootAnn said:

For sure! My dd#2 dislikes live online classes because of the on-the-spot requirements and the inability to go at her own pace. She was also sometimes annoyed by classmates, but that's just life. She watched recorded Homeschool Connections writing classes and didn't hate them as much as she would have if they were live. (Again, know thy student!)

DD#1 is very glad the BW class is over. She felt it was a waste of her time. I will say that I wasn't impressed with the class, and I think there were too many kids in it. I could be wrong, but I think the individual kids would have gotten better (and more timely) feedback if there had been 15 vs. 25 enrolled. They could have done two sessions of four weeks @ 15 each (30 total) instead of one session of four weeks @ 25. It would have been a longer timeframe for the teacher, but honestly, all the daily prompt notes seemed canned/recycled, so her energy was mostly spent on responses to the individual kids. And she typically ran at least two days behind (her projected time-to-reply) on those responses. Class ended on Friday. Last assignments were due on Wednesday (although she seemed to imply that as long as you posted before noon on Friday, she'd be able to get back to you that day). Four kids who posted their final drafts on Wednesday didn't get theirs commented on until yesterday--a day after the class officially ended. There are still four kids who haven't had any response on their final draft--although one of those posted his draft on Saturday. At least five of the kids never posted a final draft. I'm not sure when they 'dropped out' of the class.

I'm just glad the essay is done.

Her CLRC classes are going okay. I'd say Russian is harder than either of us expected. (We'd gotten feedback on the class under a different teacher. She had two teacher changes at CLRC over the summer.) The two hour class format of Norse Myths is a killer, IMO. Hard to stay engaged that long.

DD#2 is doing Guest Hollow Kitchen Chem. She seems to like it, and we've gotten some yummy treats out of it so far. Jury is still out on whether she'll learn & retain anything useful.

 

So far the only hs level one my DD took (she's just in 9th this year) was the expository/persuasive one with an instructor she had before, and we both loved it. (She had taken the 3 essay prep classes for middle school prior and we loved 2/3 of them.. I'm finding it very dependent on the instructor. There is one who we will absolutely never use again and her patterns are as you described.) Her classes have all been more like 15 kids in the class so now I feel like I am going to keep my eyes open on class size. We couldn't figure out where some kids just seemed to disappear to in the classes occasionally either. It seems too that different classes have different requirements for peer interaction. This last class didn't require any at all.

But, teaching writing is the biggest challenge for me because I manage a group of professional writers at a high tech company, and I was a serious academic so my writing expectations are just so out of sync with high school level writing. BW has been really a boost to DD to see that her writing is good compared to same age and older peers (at 13, she was by the far the youngest in the hs one this summer). She never believed me! I did a few grading experiments where I wrote down what I would give her and compared to the grade she got. It was actually a lot of help for ME as a writing instructor and to also see how differently they provided feedback.

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Biggest hit is outsourcing biology labs at a co-op! My daughter loves the weekly co-op and hands on labs. other hits have been Teaching Textbooks Geometry and an older world history textbook from the 1990's. I taught history for years and love the textbooks that are not all surface. This one has depth and lots of critical thinking activities built in. Oh, and the life skills class at co-op is going to be great as well-career resources, cooking classes, auto maintenance and personal finance. No misses so far.

 

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Yeah, the Russian course was billed as an Intro to Russian. We might choose something different for second semester.

The Programming class had an instructor change this week for an unknown reason and the new syllabus has changed what the rest of the course will look like rather dramatically. (Had been a hit. We'll see once the new instructor introduces himself next week if that continues.)

This has been an interesting first semester senior year!

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OKState German 2:

- the “busywork” was great for DS12 who needs worksheets to reinforce. DS13 was bored and he went straight for the computer exercises skipping most of the worksheets. DS13 did say the quizzes forced him to recall and review. Both kids did well in the quizzes so far. For $250 per kid, it was worth it. 

- the outline listing the daily work was very useful. DS13 likes to do a few days worth on a light weekday and on weekends. DS12 doesn’t do german on the two weekdays we take public transport to tennis and just double up on the weekend. Courses that has daily outlines for work has always worked better for DS12 because he doesn’t need to plan. 

History - DS13 is okay with the readings and analyzing but is bad at writing DBQs. It’s a subject issue rather than a course provider issue. He needs a writing tutor because he is just extremely concise. He is as stingy with words in writing as he is when talking. History is also not his favorite subject. 

Roy Speed Shakespeare - it is a hit with DS12 as well. DS13 has done all three plays with Roy and enjoyed the courses.

Edited by Arcadia
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It's a good year so far. 

Hewitt Conceptual Physics is a great book that is well written and fun. 

Our co-op lit class is using Sharon Watson's Characters in Crisis. It's a great course with lots of optional activities after each book, including art, creative writing, hands-on projects, etc. I didn't want another year of just writing essays about literature or the authors. It includes lots of literary analysis teaching, dozens of questions for discussion, and more. 

We are continuing with Holt Geometry, which I enjoy teaching. It's great to use with my students I tutor because they have the videos to watch at home after I've already introduced the lessons. I'm considering the Holt series for his Algebra 2. 

Ds is almost done with Visual Link Spanish level 2. It's not intense, but it's getting the job done for his transcript. We started out with a book curriculum and switched to this, so I'm not going past level 2 with it. He's put in 2.5 years time, so he's more than met 2 credits worth of work. 

I'm using the GA Virtual content for his government and economics this year. I think that's the weakest link because it's just basic information. I'm adding some things in, though. 

 

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Ok, we've done 4 weeks now, so I can properly comment on some of our hits and misses.

Biggest hit by far: Teaching Textbooks CD's for my oldest. I gushed about it in the other thread.

Misses: I'm not sure about his Bible course. Not sure if we'll continue it or not. It's just a simple workbook for Old Testament from Moody Publishers but some of the questions are vague and hard to answer. I've ordered The Most Important Thing You'll Ever Study to see if it's more engaging, so we might switch to that but we'll see. The other miss is that he took one look at 7Sisters' public speaking course and instantly hated it. I'm not sure if he just hates public speaking in general or he hates the assignments (presenting a poetry reading, or a children's book are some of the first couple). I might make him do it anyway just for a little bit of experience with public speaking, but I'm going to wait until next semester to decide.

Everything for my 9th grader is going swimmingly. I'm not sure if it's partly their personalities, but I find myself always changing things for my oldest, and never changing anything for the next kid. 

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On 9/5/2018 at 9:01 PM, crazyforlatin said:

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

 

I have some thoughts on this. ? So a friend’s daughter is taking honors chem at a local high school (supposedly a high ranked school). Yesterday she sent me the TOC of her daughter’s textbook and my kid’s eyes widened. Basically what we have covered in the first three chapters is half of that textbook. My kid was squealing from utter disbelief. ?

Now I think this is great, because the preparation and knowledge we are getting is far, far superior than what a typical Honors Chem at least in our district seems to offer. I also now understand why Dicentra is not using a high school text and why so many students around here claim that AP Chem covers an entire Honors Chem material in one month. 

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4 hours ago, Roadrunner said:

 

I have some thoughts on this. ? So a friend’s daughter is taking honors chem at a local high school (supposedly a high ranked school). Yesterday she sent me the TOC of her daughter’s textbook and my kid’s eyes widened. Basically what we have covered in the first three chapters is half of that textbook. My kid was squeeling from utter disbelief. ?

Now I think this is great, because the preparation and knowledge we are getting is far, far superior than what a typical Honors Chem at least in our district seems to offer. I also now understand why Dicentra is not using a high school text and why so many students around here claim that AP Chem covers an entire Honors Chem material in one month. 

Well, Chang's book is growing on me. I didn’t know it was a college textbook; that makes DD feel a lot better.  DD is squealing from your comment too.

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DS12 mentioned that he prefers all his courses to have parent accounts so that I can see his course material and assignments without “messing up” his student account. 

So far those that have parent accounts: 

WTMA courses 

PAH AP Physics C (Jeff Lanctot)

OKState German

Those that do not have parent accounts:

PAH AP Chemistry 

CTY JHU courses

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Hits: Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. Rough going at the start, but DD5 has really cottoned on to it. All you people who get your children through in 15 minutes have my respect, though - takes waaaay more time for us.

xtramath.org - DS7  enjoys this greatly. I think it's helping, and it's nice to have something for which I can just plonk him in front.

Misses: Pentime. I admire it, and wish it was working, but I think (among other things) I need a teacher's manual for me and a *lot* more practice pages for the kids.

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7 hours ago, jboo said:

Hits: Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. Rough going at the start, but DD5 has really cottoned on to it. All you people who get your children through in 15 minutes have my respect, though - takes waaaay more time for us.

xtramath.org - DS7  enjoys this greatly. I think it's helping, and it's nice to have something for which I can just plonk him in front.

Misses: Pentime. I admire it, and wish it was working, but I think (among other things) I need a teacher's manual for me and a *lot* more practice pages for the kids.

This is a great idea for a thread on the k8 forum. In case you can't find your post  and are looking for other responses, I think you accidentally posted in the high school forum. I think you should start this discussion on the k8, though, if there isn't a current one.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Yeah so the the first week of September I found a bad one for ds.  I was hoping it would get better.  It is the most boring Honors Chemistry with lots of busy work!!  This week we had a meeting with the Dean of Students.  We will see if this gets better.

Such a shame that poor ds has to put up with a incompetent teacher because Online service does not allow refunds after the first week, only a 50% credit.  Well we are not coming back this after this year.  We are definitely NOT going to use this particular online source ever again.

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  • 1 month later...

I just wanted to say, that for my not-as-academic dd, AOP's Monarch has been an amazing fit.  We use it for Biology and History.  She is so happy to know what is expected, and it is challenging her. She has to study very hard, and she is working hard to earn her grades.  It's not easy and it's not basic.  It requires a little less time than any Honors-level course would, and generally speaking it's based on facts, (tests quizzes and homework) and projects and not on discussion or essay writing.  Both courses, do, however constantly have short essay questions which I must grade, and that keeps her on her toes with thinking about the subject material and not just regurgitation.  For history projects, I have assigned hand-drawn maps because my dd is extremely weak in Geography.  The system sends her all the reminders about upcoming due dates and even schedules in time for her to work on it.

My dd will be going straight to community college for an equine degree and an English degree, with the goal of eventually transferring to a State U ...but since she's going directly to Community college, her high school courses do not need to be extremely rigorous.  We will definitely use this for at least two courses every year till she graduates!  We mix it up with co-op classes and she will probably take a few dual-enrollment 🙂

With that said, even with a college bound student, you could use Monarch here and there.  🙂 Sometimes the history has strange fundamentalist ideas stuffed into it.  And sometimes the science pushes young earth Creationism, but overall those issues are few and far between.  I do think it might be challenging to use if you're not a Christian at all, though.  

My dd has also been doing GREAT with Teaching Textbooks Geometry!!  She is getting all A's and she is really keeping her promise to show her work.  It teaches so gently and systematically with so many examples, that my dd follows right along and we almost never have any problems or questions!  We LOVE TT Geometry.  

🙂 

 

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5 hours ago, Æthelthryth the Texan said:

Reporting back! A semester in dd is giving the Cornell Ornithology class a big thumbs up. The videos are really high quality, the textbook is great. She's really enjoyed it. She said comparison wise it reminds her a lot of the Paleontology courses she took from University of Alberta on Coursera. It's a fairly pricey self paced course when you factor in the text (look on Amazon for it cheaper) but I do think it's high quality so I've felt the cost was justified. 

I did notice that Great Courses Plus now has an Ornithology course coming out, so that might be worth checking out too as a comparison for anyone interested. 

Thanks for reporting back!

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On 10/2/2018 at 10:40 PM, Arcadia said:

DS12 mentioned that he prefers all his courses to have parent accounts so that I can see his course material and assignments without “messing up” his student account.

 

It's funny because my daughters never mentioned or cared when I would pop into their student accounts to look over things - but DS groans and fusses about it! LOL He's afraid I'm going to "mess something up." What, exactly, I have no idea.... lol

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Just now, easypeasy said:

It's funny because my daughters never mentioned or cared when I would pop into their student accounts to look over things - but DS groans and fusses about it! LOL He's afraid I'm going to "mess something up." What, exactly, I have no idea.... lol

 

In DS13’s case, it does mess up his account in the sense that it marks what I read (homework assignment PDFs which I help print) as read. DS14 doesn’t care as long as I help him print his homework assignments. Our printer is wonky so I help my kids print once a week their weekly class assignments.

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4 minutes ago, Arcadia said:

 

In DS13’s case, it does mess up his account in the sense that it marks what I read (homework assignment PDFs which I help print) as read. DS14 doesn’t care as long as I help him print his homework assignments. Our printer is wonky so I help my kids print once a week their weekly class assignments.

 

Yes, this is true and a valid point. I usually log on Sunday evenings and print out DS's stuff too to make sure it all gets printed and put into his binder so he can just "start" on Monday without getting bogged down. And yes, those "already read" check marks do throw him off sometimes. I make a weekly checklist for him, though, so he'll have to train his brain to ignore the online ones, I guess! 😄

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HITS for DD and DS this year are:

PAHomeschoolers AP Music Theory. The instructor is fantastic and the workload, while considerable, is thoughtful and worthwhile. Very happy here.

FundaFunda's AP US History. It's perfect for our year! http://fundafunda.com/prodpage

Derek Owens Physics and PreCalc. I wanted to "outsource" almost everything this year for ds... but didn't want live/due dates for every single class. He's involved in two very time consuming extracurriculars and keeping on the outsourced class schedules is a nightmare. So - Derek Owens fits in nicely and gives ds flexibility on those days when he really needs it.

Blue Tent Honors English II. I LOVE This Class. It is definitely DS's toughest because he isn't a natural (non-fiction) writer by any means. But, Christine is an excellent teacher, her feedback is so incredibly helpful, and ds is learning a LOT while he struggles through the reading and writing assignments. 😄 He is getting faster and learning to think critically about what he reads. (If all the assignments were creative-writing based, though... he'd be a lot happier! 😄 )

Sonlight's AP Psychology. Easy to open-and-go.

MISS:

PAHomeschoolers Chemistry. Disclaimer: Mr. Molusk (sp?) is AMAZING and the class design is wonderful. Every assignment was well-placed and had purpose (no "busy" work).

But, omg, it took so. much. time! DS was swallowed by it and the first few weeks of school were basically just him trying to survive the Chemistry class while everything else fell by the wayside. The big reason for DS's struggle was that he did Chemistry at a co-op last year and it was a JOKE. I should have found an online Chemistry resource last year to better prepare him for the AP-level Chemistry. 😕 Add to it that ds isn't all that interested in science... and it wasn't a good fit at all (not any fault of PAHomeschoolers, though. If a class can prepare a kid for a "5" on the APChem class... it's that one!!)

We've decided that DS will do AP Physics next year and that'll be his only AP Science class. He is taking "regular" physics this year.

 

 

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9 hours ago, easypeasy said:

MISS:

PAHomeschoolers Chemistry. Disclaimer: Mr. Molusk (sp?) is AMAZING and the class design is wonderful. Every assignment was well-placed and had purpose (no "busy" work).

But, omg, it took so. much. time! DS was swallowed by it and the first few weeks of school were basically just him trying to survive the Chemistry class while everything else fell by the wayside. The big reason for DS's struggle was that he did Chemistry at a co-op last year and it was a JOKE. I should have found an online Chemistry resource last year to better prepare him for the AP-level Chemistry. 😕 Add to it that ds isn't all that interested in science... and it wasn't a good fit at all (not any fault of PAHomeschoolers, though. If a class can prepare a kid for a "5" on the APChem class... it's that one!!)

 

My boys both have that course in 8th grade because of the time commitment. Assuming a non-lab high school class takes 10 hours a week including class time, lab would add at least 3 hrs more for every lab to do the lab and report. DS14 takes less time only because he is a fast reader. He read the Chang textbook over summer as prep because I asked him to. DS13 did a summer chemistry class at a private center to prep. We do block out a day weekly for DS13 to do his chemistry readings, videos and quizzes.

AP Physics PAH Jeff Lanctot was a hit for DS14 last year and still a hit for DS13 this year.

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12 hours ago, Arcadia said:

 

My boys both have that course in 8th grade because of the time commitment. Assuming a non-lab high school class takes 10 hours a week including class time, lab would add at least 3 hrs more for every lab to do the lab and report. DS14 takes less time only because he is a fast reader. He read the Chang textbook over summer as prep because I asked him to. DS13 did a summer chemistry class at a private center to prep. We do block out a day weekly for DS13 to do his chemistry readings, videos and quizzes.

AP Physics PAH Jeff Lanctot was a hit for DS14 last year and still a hit for DS13 this year.

 

In hindsight, this is exactly what we could have/should have done. DS was capable of the work itself from 8th grade on, and is even interested in the topics. But... there are just not enough hours in the day and we couldn't sacrifice the other subjects he was trying to maintain for the sake of the one. It was taking him waaaaaay over 13 hours per week. Way, way, way more. (The more overwhelmed he felt, the longer everything took him because he just didn't know what to focus on anymore. Chemistry was EVERYWHERE! lol)

DD1 took Lanctot's Physics so we have a clear idea what to expect and know that DS will be able to manage that workload reasonably. 🙂 Not even going to THINK about AP Bio, though! hahaha!

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 9/13/2018 at 1:19 PM, Aras said:

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

 

Can you share more info about the “Blackburn Biology guided reading questions from TPT?”

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Breaking the Barrier Spanish..... so far a miss. Butbto be fair, we have had a very difficult last couple of months, a tragedy that I’ve posted about before, and a gymnastics injury DD hasn’t been able to walk in almost four weeks... it turned out to be a bruised bone and sprained acl.... so she will walk.  But anyway, the curriculum might be fine in different circumstances.  I’m thinking of switching to Easy Peasy Spanish.

Hillsdale College changed their free class structure.... dropping all actual lessons and quizzes... that messed up our year as well.  Then, due to complaints, the college put everything back in place.  Right after we revamped our plans.  So thatvhas been a bit wonky too. 

Essentials in Literature 10 has been a great fit.

ByLine has worked well... DS enjoys it   Though DD was supposed to use it as well.  She did not like it at all.

MCT WWTW2, Poetry and Humanity, re reading Magic Lens 1.... has all worked for DD.

AOPS and TT Geometry are perfect.... one for each kid   Lol

Apoogia Chemistry has been a big hit too.  A bit too slow and easy for DD, but DS finds it challenging.

 

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13 hours ago, Sblora said:

GeoKitty...where is the Essentials in Lit 10 from?  Thx for the Hillsdale info, those courses look great!

Essentials in Literature is relatively new, from the Essentials in Writing EIW people

yes, DS loves Hillsdale classes.  He wants to use them next year for government and economics.  But I may sneak in a textbook too.  We will see. 

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