2021-2022 Planning for your AL

[SeaConquest]

The high school boards kicked off planning threads for 2021-2022 early this year because some providers open enrollment on 2/1. So, let's chat about plans!! We know how much this virus just loves to abide by our plans!!! 😄 

It's another big transition year for us. I will be working full-time for the first time since the boys were born. G-d willing, I will graduate from nursing school in July, take the NCLEX in August, and then we are going on a much-needed, 26-day vacation in late September/early October to Greece, Italy, Turkey, & Israel for Sacha's bar mitzvah. Grad school applications will be due around the same time, so I will have to get those done before we leave.  And we will have to manage online classes from the road during that time, which should be interesting.

Fall semester 2020 was a difficult adjustment for Sacha. His writing course through Davidson Academy Online Explore showed him what a rigorous humanities course, with high expectations and a supportive professor, looks like. For 2021, he applied to take courses at Stanford Online High School. We won't know until March if he got in, but it is extremely competitive, so we are trying to be realistic about his chances. 

For Ronen, his charter did extensive testing and determined that, along with ADHD, he also has dyslexia, dysgraphia/fine motor issues, and speech issues. He just started receiving a boatload of services at the end of December, and seems to enjoy working with his teachers.  Ronen has also started taking online classes through his charter and through Outschool. He really comes alive in these group settings, which just serves to remind me how hard it is for these kids to be isolated for so long.

With that context, this is where I am with planning right now. 

Sacha (7th grade):

Math: AoPS Online Intermediate Algebra (Fall),  AoPS Online Pre-Calculus (Spring)

Science: He took Thinkwell Honors Chem this past semester, and he enjoys the class. But, he misses human interaction and wanted to at least try out a chem class at our local community college to see if he preferred it over Thinkwell. He wants to study biology next year, but I am in a bit of a pickle.  If he stays in the community college chem class, then he wants to take biology at the community college next year. But, if he decides that he prefers Thinkwell, then I think that he would be better off in Blue Tent Honors Bio. The problem is that Blue Tent opens enrollment on the day the chem class begins, so I will need to check out their refund policy. ETA: It looks like Blue Tent opens enrollment on 3/1, not 2/1, so he has one month in the community college chem class to decide if it is a good fit before deciding on whether to opt for Blue Tent or CC Bio. That seems like enough time to make a decision. Phew.  

Language Arts: If he gets into SOHS, then he would take one of their "core" classes -- "Logos, Cosmos & Doubt." If not, then he will likely take British Lit at OnlineG3.

History: Advanced American History at OnlineG3.

Programming: He finished AP Computer Science A this fall and just started an algorithms and data structures class at Stanford through EdX. They have a similar one going on at the same time through Georgia Tech and I bought another one off Udemy. Can you tell I have no idea what I am doing with this? What I have realized is that coding is good for his ADHD brain but, other than just handing over thousands of dollars (that we don't have) to Alpha Star for USACO classes, I am still trying to figure out the best path forward. ETA: I emailed the professor that teaches data structures at one of our local community colleges to see if he will let Sacha into his course with his AP Computer Science grade alone (since he doesn't have a score at present and I am not sure if a homeschooler needing accommodations will even be able to find a test location) -- we will see what he says.

Extracurriculars: He has been taking online guitar and chess classes, which he has enjoyed. He is turning 12 on Thursday and has his Civil Air Patrol application ready to go (ETA: he met with the Civil Air Patrol recruiter and starts on Tuesday!). He hopes to get back to Kung Fu and glider training again, but obviously, Covid-dependent.

Ronen (2nd grade):

Math: Beast Academy Online, Beast Academy class on Outschool.

Science: BFSU and Scientific Connections Through Inquiry. I try to find cool Outschool classes, documentaries, NSTA trade books, and science kits that align to the topics that we are covering. We also have Mystery Science, Generation Genius, and Brain Pop.

Language Arts: Spelling You See, copywork with Writing With Ease, grammar with MCT Island, reading from tons of booklists like Torchlight, Build Your Library, Books For Littles, Blossom and Root, We Need Diverse Books, Social Justice Books, and Sex Positive Families.

History: History Quest, Letters from Afar, River of Voices, Curiosity Chronicles, probably some Outschool social studies courses as well.

Elective: He has been taking random art classes on Outschool, but perhaps I should get him into something more formal. He really enjoys being creative.

Extracurriculars: Outdoor school with his charter and Parkour (both Covid-permitting).

 

Have you started making plans for next year?

 

Edited January 22, 2021 by SeaConquest

[purpleowl]

Thanks for starting this thread, @SeaConquest! Looks like you guys have a lot going on.

DD#1 will be in 7th grade for 21-22. Here are my current plans for her:

• Bible - Starr Meade's The Most Important Thing You'll Ever Study.
• Math - AOPS Intro to Geometry and then Intro to C&P (books, not online courses). This year she's been doing Intro to Algebra and she'll start Intro to Number Theory in a few weeks, so she may have a bit of that still to do at the start of 21-22.
• Latin - Wheelock's, second half.
• History - K12 Human Odyssey volume 3. This one is shorter than the other two, so I will have more room to work in extras...which means I have to work on getting those extras figured out, lol.
• Science - biology - I'm pretty sure we're going with Miller Levine (macaw). I'm planning to get the lab kit from thehomescientist.com, and I may use The Student Lab Report Handbook (Mays) - I bought a copy but haven't had a chance to look at it. And I expect we'll use a variety of YouTube videos to go along with the instruction as well.
• Writing - Writing & Rhetoric books 9 & 10.
• Literature - I am still piecing this together. It will be a combination of mom-selected novels, mom-selected short stories, and poetry (using Art of Poetry).
• Coding - She has pretty much been teaching herself Python. I think DH might work with her next school year on conceptual things, but we have to talk that over some more.

DD#2 will be in 4th grade.

• Bible - same as DD#1
• Math - AOPS Intro to Algebra and then Intro to Number Theory (books). She's actually going to start Intro to Algebra pretty soon.
• Latin - Lively Latin 2 (should finish this)
• History - same as DD#1
• Science - same as DD#1
• Writing - same as DD#1
• Literature - mom-selected novels
• Coding - She will probably just continue with exploring Python on her own.

DS will be in 2nd grade. 

• Bible - Suffer Little Children (I really wish it had a different name, lol!), book 2.
• Math - Beast Academy 3 (books)
• Latin - Lively Latin 1 (first half)
• History - Story of the World 3
• Science - WTM-style earth science first semester, astronomy second. Using DK First Earth Encyclopedia and First Space Encyclopedia as spines (at least I expect to - I have them ordered!).
• Writing - probably continuing with copywork and narration. I'll adapt expectations as he seems to need it.
• Literature - mom-selected books
• Grammar - First Language Lessons 3

DS has asked me if he can start doing coding; I'm not sure, but that could end up on his list as well. If so, it'll be a course on code.org.

DD#2 might ask to add another foreign language. Or some other random thing that I can't even predict right now. 😄 We'll see.

[Condessa]

I haven’t the foggiest.  I have been focusing on just one step ahead at a time, getting through one day, one week.  But it’s looming in the background.  What do we do for next year?  It is looking likely that our foster girls will return to their bio mom before then, so I will only have four kids to manage.  But seeing the work of our local public school system’s education up close and personal while remediating my foster daughters has made me much more averse to putting our kids into their hands.  At the same time, I don’t know if what I could offer while also juggling the cancer treatments would be much better.  We’re getting along in the core subjects right now out of sheer necessity,  but we’re only hitting core subjects.

 I wish there were some way to put them into the classical charter school across the river, but we just can’t afford to move right now.

[MamaSprout]

Early College Boarding school.... if everything falls into place.

 

Edited January 26, 2021 by MamaSprout

[Not_a_Number]

Oh, gosh. There are so many question marks in my head about next year. Will we be able to take classes at our local homeschooling center? Will we be vaccinated? Will the kids? Will the kids' friends' parents? What will that mean for our socializing? 

In terms of academics, I suppose we'll do something similar to this year. We DIY everything, and we'll keep doing it. Right now, our serious subjects are math, Russian and piano, and we do some reading aloud for history and science, as well as lazily going through BFSU when I can get it together. (I like it as a "misconception reference," though, so I'm going to stick to it. But I can't promise to do it with high frequency next year, either 😛 .) 

Our reading out loud for history has been very much "whatever the kids want," which is why our history reading out loud is completely unserious. On the other hand, reading funny books that are kind of, sort of about history has at least encouraged DD8 to finally read her Horrible Histories series, which is a win. 

One of our math ambitions for next year is for DD8 to take the AMC 8 and do decently well. Since we go so out of order, she doesn't know a lot of the basic level definitions that one sees on the AMC 8, but that ought to be finally rectified by next year. In terms of subject matter, she's currently doing algebra, but I wouldn't be able to tell you what KIND of algebra... she manipulates variables like a pro, she's been graphing functions and solving lots of equations, but we haven't seriously focused on lines or anything like that and she doesn't know the quadratic formula. 

Russian ambitions involving finally learning enough Russian grammar to actually be able to form fully grammatical Russian sentences. Right now, I'm modeling correct grammar for nouns but not forcing DD8 to use it and am instead focusing on verbs. Hopefully that'll be done soon enough. 

Oh, and DD8 has been dabbling in coding in Python. I've offloaded that to DH, and I plan to keep it that way for now. (I'm more than competent to teach DD8 to code, but I have enough to do.) 

Our writing this year has been entirely in the context of mathematical proofs, and I'll probably keep it that way. It might be fun to do a focus on poetry, though, or something a bit more literary. I don't think beautiful phrasing comes naturally to DD8 in the way that logical phrasing does, so that could be a good way to address a weakness. 

[Jackie]

Lol, we don’t even have the current semester planned, let alone next year. The first half of this semester, DD is doing a whole pile of Athena’s classes for fun (Religions and Sustainable Development, Sherlock Holmes, Dragonology, Herpetology, Comparative World Mythology). She is practicing spelling words from the Scripps list. She is learning AOPS Counting and Probability from the book, though I doubt it will take her all semester. She actually already knows some of the C&P and some of the NT, so there’s a small chance we fit in both books this semester. She’s doing some fun Brave Writer and BW-esque writing projects right now. Oh, and she’s taking an hour of Homeschool Spanish Academy per week, so a super leisurely pace.

Second half of this semester is up in the air. We’ll do more lightweight writing. AOPS as mentioned above. The homeschool spelling bee will be done. The Athena’s classes will all end. I’m thinking of taking a Python class through Harvard Extension for myself; the kid already knows everything covered in the first half but she may take the rest of the class over my shoulder after spring break. She’s taking a few of Ben Corey’s Bio classes on Outschool because she’s learned most of high school Bio through following random interests but hasn’t been randomly interested in cells. We’re unschool-ish, so around the beginning of March she needs to make some decisions about how to use her time.

I require at least two full “core” classes per year right now. She wants to do American Sign Language (Blue Tent, Mr D, or a local class if one exists) for one of them. And then she’s thinking either AOPS Geometry at home or Clover Valley Chemistry or both. She knows she has to decide on at least the Chemistry by the end of February. Other stuff will be decided as we go along. We have absolutely no idea where we’ll be living next fall, so that adds a twist to our scheduling as we have no idea what our local opportunities might be, and we usually rely somewhat heavily on those when possible.

[SeaConquest]

17 hours ago, Jackie said:

Lol, we don’t even have the current semester planned, let alone next year. The first half of this semester, DD is doing a whole pile of Athena’s classes for fun (Religions and Sustainable Development, Sherlock Holmes, Dragonology, Herpetology, Comparative World Mythology). She is practicing spelling words from the Scripps list. She is learning AOPS Counting and Probability from the book, though I doubt it will take her all semester. She actually already knows some of the C&P and some of the NT, so there’s a small chance we fit in both books this semester. She’s doing some fun Brave Writer and BW-esque writing projects right now. Oh, and she’s taking an hour of Homeschool Spanish Academy per week, so a super leisurely pace.

Second half of this semester is up in the air. We’ll do more lightweight writing. AOPS as mentioned above. The homeschool spelling bee will be done. The Athena’s classes will all end. I’m thinking of taking a Python class through Harvard Extension for myself; the kid already knows everything covered in the first half but she may take the rest of the class over my shoulder after spring break. She’s taking a few of Ben Corey’s Bio classes on Outschool because she’s learned most of high school Bio through following random interests but hasn’t been randomly interested in cells. We’re unschool-ish, so around the beginning of March she needs to make some decisions about how to use her time.

I require at least two full “core” classes per year right now. She wants to do American Sign Language (Blue Tent, Mr D, or a local class if one exists) for one of them. And then she’s thinking either AOPS Geometry at home or Clover Valley Chemistry or both. She knows she has to decide on at least the Chemistry by the end of February. Other stuff will be decided as we go along. We have absolutely no idea where we’ll be living next fall, so that adds a twist to our scheduling as we have no idea what our local opportunities might be, and we usually rely somewhat heavily on those when possible.

Did I mention Ben Corey's classes to you or did you find them on your own? Sacha took Ben Corey's entire bio series two years ago and LOVED his classes. He did that, along with reading Miller-Levine, and some dissections and other random labs, as a first pass at bio. The following year was when we did AoPS Physics vs Jetta's class -- I really regret that decision. Should have stuck with Jetta.

I only start these threads so early because so many providers fill up early, so many of us have to get our schedules going early for that reason. Who am I kidding? You know that I am a consummate planner -- that's just the excuse that I use! 😉

[SeaConquest]

On 1/20/2021 at 4:33 PM, MamaSprout said:

Early College Boarding school.... if everything falls into place.

Do you have some schools in mind? Do you want to share or talk about it?

[Jackie]

2 hours ago, SeaConquest said:

Did I mention Ben Corey's classes to you or did you find them on your own? Sacha took Ben Corey's entire bio series two years ago and LOVED his classes. He did that, along with reading Miller-Levine, and some dissections and other random labs, as a first pass at bio. The following year was when we did AoPS Physics vs Jetta's class -- I really regret that decision. Should have stuck with Jetta.

I only start these threads so early because so many providers fill up early, so many of us have to get our schedules going early for that reason. Who am I kidding? You know that I am a consummate planner -- that's just the excuse that I use! 😉

I’ve seen Ben’s classes recommended by a few people; you were probably one of them. She did a 14-week dissections class last semester; I was plenty happy to outsource that aspect! I remember looking through a Bio textbook you had and thinking that she already knew the ecology, evolution, and genetics parts of the book, so I’m really happy to have found a way to cover just this one bit of Bio. She’s also going to take some of his genetics classes because she doesn’t believe me that she already knows it at the level required of high schoolers, but that’s because she really doesn’t understand what “high school level” actually is. Once she does a chemistry class, she’ll have covered all the standard high school sciences and I assume she’ll move to taking AP or DE levels of the classes when she’s actually high school aged. She knows for sure that she doesn’t want to touch a Physics class again until she has taken Calculus because she wants to actually be able to understand the math instead of simply using the formulas.

[MamaSprout]

On 1/22/2021 at 12:30 PM, SeaConquest said:

Do you have some schools in mind? Do you want to share or talk about it?

There are various versions of this. Ours is considered a public school, so it's just for people in our state. Ours is just for grades 11 and 12. Some examples are listed here (ours isn't): Early Entrance College Programs | Hoagies' Gifted

 

Edited January 26, 2021 by MamaSprout

[Shoes+Ships+SealingWax]

DS is heading into 3rd grade next year.

Summer 2021

Marine Biology via Ocearch, Glitter Bomb Tide Pool Art unit, nonfiction paragraph writing, BA 4D. We’ll save Didax Pentominoes for the summer after 3rd. 

Fall 2021 - Spring 2022

• Math: BA 5A-5D
• LA: IEW FMFT & ATFF Units 5-8, NaNoWriMo, Scholastic Latin / Greek Roots, MCT Town (PrT, maybe BP & CE1), AAS 5, Typing
• Science: RSO Chemistry, chem-themed board games
• History: HQ Middle Ages cont’d (Black Plague to Elizabethan Times)
• PE: Tennis, Soccer, Swim, Scouting

Edited April 1, 2021 by Shoes+Ships+SealingWax
Edits in italics.

[dietcokette]

My kiddo will be kindergarten as of 2021-2022. Don't have all the details nailed down yet, but thinking about it here gets me thinking about what gaps I need to fill. We will still be taking it easy in terms of hours a week of school time, but in terms of content/curriculum it's looking like we will be doing:

MATH -- might still be finishing up the tail end of Beast Academy 2 come fall, then diving into to Beast Academy 3 (online, but self-paced rather than the classes). Also going though the RightStart abacus activity book and the Gattegno books. And I'm sure he will keep playing Prodigy, DragonBox Algebra 12+, and DragonBox Elements, but we count all those under his free time screen time minutes rather than schooling. 

READING, SPELLING, HANDWRITING, AND LANGUAGE ARTS -- Logic of English Foundations level D and lots of free reading. I have lots of friends recommending Brave Writer Dart as going well with LOE D, but am thinking about MCT Sentence Island as possibly being a better fit. Depending on what we use, we may start in on the First Whole Book of Diagrams as well. 

SCIENCE -- this year has been mostly a deep dive into anatomy (human and cat) and the topic that seems to be floating to the top for next year as far as interest + feasibility is diving into evolution, phylogeny, and identifying species. Will probably use Real Science Odyssey - Life as a spine but then with deep dives in different directions as we go. And continuing nature walks. 

SOCIAL STUDIES, GEOGRAPHY, AND HISTORY -- this year has been heavy on maps, civil rights, and early US history, but next year we will start into ancient history, probably using History Quest from Pandia. 

RELIGION -- I despair of ever finding a curriculum I truly like for this. We are currently using the "hands on religion" series from Catholic Heritage, but I end up skipping a good 2/3 of it and replacing it with other things, and will probably try Faith and Life or Gods Plan in Scripture next year. 

MUSIC -- continuing Suzuki violin, plus beginning music theory using Music Mind Games and I Can Read Music

EXTRAS -- continuing ballet, as hard as that's been via Zoom. He really loves chess and so we will keep working our way through the ChessKid curriculum, and I am working on my own chess skills to stay ahead of him for now. He has also really enjoyed sewing all year and I think it's likely we will keep working on that this coming year. He goes through spurts of doing projects and lessons on Tynker and being uninterested in it, and I think that will likely continue as well. 

Oh, and we will probably add in a foreign language once he finishes LOE D. I am debating between Spanish (which seems the most useful), Russian (which I have at least some competency in but for which there is very little in terms of good materials for teaching English speaking kids), and Latin (which I'd always assumed I'd teach him but can wait until he's a few years older, as there's no need with Latin to capitalize on the early childhood facility with learning to recognize and make new sounds). 

 

Edited January 28, 2021 by dietcokette

[Rush]

Hi all

On 1/22/2021 at 12:53 AM, Jackie said:

Lol, we don’t even have the current semester planned, let alone next year.

Same here. In fact, we haven't begun many things, which were planned for this current scholastic year due to many factors, including my health issues ( I have developed a strong allergy to something still unknown and most probable we will have to relocate soon 😞 ).

So this year my eldest didn't do any Chemistry and Geometry and it will be moving to the next year. Instead, DS is taking numerous classes of public speaking, English literature and Finance & Entrepreneur classes, and he loves it.  My little one has developed a passion for writing and he has started taking different creative writing and literature classes.

Next year we have to go back on track, but I am sure it will not be so intensive as before as school and all activities require move time and efforts now 🙂

 

Plans for next year so far:

DS13 - core subjects at school including French, Physics, Accounts and Comp Studies. AOPS Geometry (Royal Fireworks Press) and Intermediate Algebra (tutor), Honour Chemistry (Connie), extra English Literature (Dreaming Spires), Debates (Various, I guess), Biology (we'll do something ourself), German (tutor), Russian (various) and DS is asking for a history/political club, we ll see if he has enough time for it.

Extra curriculum: tennis, chess, music school (piano. the last year!)  + private physical coach

 

DS11 - school + extra aops prealgebra 2 (to finish) and intro to algebra (private teacher), creative writing courses (various), literature/book club (?), debating class (various), German (tutor), Russian (various), French (school + Alliance Française), electronics with daddy, Introductory Programming (Python- CompuScholar), and lots of lego and board games 🙂

Extra curriculum: swimming, art school, music school (piano) - most probable he will drop it as it is quiet hard for him, and cooking (home. He wants to attend professional culinary school, but I doubt he will have time ) + private physical coach

 

Edited January 29, 2021 by Rush

[Rush]

Thank you for Blue Tent Honors Bio 🙂  I will save it for my eldest for 22-23 scholastic year. I m not sure if he is able to allocate another 12hrs weekly for this course next year🤔

Edited January 29, 2021 by Rush

[mathmarm]

This post was submitted by accident.

Edited January 30, 2021 by mathmarm
Ignore this post.

[mathmarm]

We'll be changing things up a bit for the 2nd half of 2nd grade.

Music: continuing ukulele and recorder daily. 
Physical Education: Health + nutrition  as well as daily athletics (soccer, tennis, baseball, basketball)
Drawing: New Augsburg Year 4. Finishing The Drawing Textbook
Geography: Living books + Atlas Study + Map Drills
Science: Living books + Hands on Demonstrations and Explorations
Writing: Reasoning and Writing D + Journaling and short essays.
Math: home made with mom

Starting summer 2021, we'll begin Spencerian Penmanship, French and resume regular math.

3rd Grade:
Music - Starting Piano. Not sure what to use.
Penmanship - Spencerian
Math - Homemade exploration of upper level mathematics
Literature - Reading by a timer each day whatever he chooses. We will be discussing the books more intentionally with him
Writing - Reasoning and Writing E
Language - French but not sure what program or approach yet
Painting - now that he has a foundation in drawing, Hubby wants him to begin learning how to paint.
All Content Subjects Note taking and revision activities
History - something systematic -- not sure what yet.
Science - Interest led reading + hands on demonstrations and exploration
Geography - Reading about cultures and peoples around the world

[purpleowl]

@mathmarm Tell me about the drawing textbook, please! 😊

[mathmarm]

3 minutes ago, purpleowl said:

@mathmarm Tell me about the drawing textbook, please! 😊

We've been loving it. Its a tiny little pamphlet, but it contains 27 lessons with a total of 222 exercises in it. We split it up and have restarted it a few times and will have spent a couple of years working through it all. The book is the first in a series from the 1950s created by a Disney Animator named Bruce McIntyre. 

A "newer version" of The Drawing Lesson was published by Mark Kistler (he was a student of the original author) and you can purchase TDT or one of Kistlers books on Amazon quite cheaply. I've found it very easy to "teach" drawing even though I have no real drawing talent and minimal skills.

I loved the simple, step by step approach and the written instructions. 

I combined TDT with the New Augsburg Drawing series (free on Google Books) and have been very pleased by the development in Jrs drawing. I'm not sure what we will move on to afterwards, but I think we're going to complete New Augsburg 4 and will re-evaluate.

 

Jr. loves to draw and his confidence in what he can draw is just so gratifying.

[Dmmetler]

L will be a full time college student. If it is safe to do so, living on campus. If not, presumably at home online for one more semester. Right now there are still about 5 schools in the running, but two are more because parents are insisting on some local options than otherwise. Each has some advantages and disadvantages (the one that has Space Camp in the backyard and is probably the best for the science Ed side is one of the weakest on biology, although they do have two folks who work primarily with freshwater bio and salamanders, the one with the most focused major and the student Herp society is also the largest and, so far, has the least automatic merit aid, the private LAC would require doing the last year at a different school to get the teaching license, because they don't have an Ed school, the state U has good programs, but mediocre dorms and is not exciting, and the local school...well, it's local, and would have probably been a reasonable fit several years ago. To go now kind of defeats the purpose of staying dual enrolled/in high school on paper until dorms were an option).  Dragonology and Herpetology are expected to continue, although scheduling for next fall is going to be hard. There is also a planned dinosaur class for younger students in the works. 

 

It is very weird to not be planning for homeschooling.

I would love to offer more local classes, since I won't be homeschooling, but without knowing what COVID looks like, it's hard to figure out what to do. I also have a possible online class (one for teens who are or want to teach music lessons to siblings, neighbors, etc, since a majority of my girls end up at least trying that when they reach prime babysitting age-and often the kids they are handed are the little ones who honestly are about the hardest age group to teach effectively-I'm envisioning a child development class with a music focus-basically what I've taught to college students) but I am still trying to figure out if it could actually work well in that format. 

 

----- 

An update. 
L picked Agnes Scott. The focus on internships, and the fact that the Amphibian foundation runs their programs for the community on Agnes's campus normally won out. I am really impressed by the class planning/advising structure at Agnes, which we're dealing with now. A big part of it is for the kids to go through the catalog of classes and areas offered, and list what they are interested in taking at some point in the future, whether or not it is in their major, with a goal of getting those classes in as well, and if they become an extra major, degree, or minor, so be it. The scholarship package should cover finishing the BS in bio plus the MAT-while the MAT is officially through Mercer, there is a degree path at Agnes which provides the prerequisite classes, and certain schools where Agnes students do their internships and practicums to lead to the degree. I think it will be a good fit. Agnes is requiring vaccination or a medical waiver for all student, faculty, and staff who will be on campus next fall, so it looks like it will be a normal semester with relatively few restrictions for the students. They are also anticipating being able to do the international travel experience that normally first year students participate in.  While they're accepting a decent amount of transfer credit, L will still live in housing with the other students entering this fall, and will have the same class color, mascot, etc, will get the ring in 2nd year, and so on, which I think will be a good social situation for a kid coming from homeschooling who really just wants to be part of the group and fit in. 

 

I have decided to offer music pods this fall, where families or a small group of friends can set a time and do music together, and am listing the areas that I am willing to teach that way. I'm hoping that this will get a few more daytime students, but also keep COVID in mind, rather than grouping unrelated people together. I will also likely be picking up teaching the preschoolers at the center in a group setting, as well as my piano students. 

Edited May 28, 2021 by Dmmetler

[wendyroo]

Peter, 7th:
Math - Algebra II, probably Dolciani or Foerster + 2nd half of AOPS Algebra
Writing - WWS + Lantern
Literature - Mosdos Gold + Figuratively Speaking + Lots of Reading
Grammar - MCT Magic Lens
Science - Mr. Q Advanced Physical Science
History - Medieval: Kingfisher, OUP, tons of supplements, MapQuest & Notebooking
Spanish - Tutor, Rosetta, reading, writing, listening, speaking
Music - Piano
Art - Comic book drawing
Memorization - Anki, so many Anki cards!!

Edited February 3, 2021 by wendyroo

[wendyroo]

Elliot, 5th:
SO MUCH THERAPY!!
Math - Arbor School Algebra, Alcumus, Real World Algebra
Writing - Tantrums
Literature - Reading
Spelling - Spelling Workout
Spanish - Listening and speaking
Music - Piano
Art - Comic book drawing

[wendyroo]

Spencer, 3rd:
Math - MM 6, Hands on Geometry, Hands on Equations, Problem Solving Genius
Writing - Five Paragraph Essays + Lantern + Typing
Literature - Lots of Reading
Grammar - MCT Grammar Island
Spelling - AAS 5
Science - Mr. Q Advanced Physical Science
History - Medieval: Kingfisher, OUP, tons of supplements, MapQuest & Notebooking
Spanish - Rosetta, reading, listening, speaking
Music - Piano
Art - Comic book drawing
Memorization - Anki

[SeaConquest]

On 1/19/2021 at 9:57 PM, SeaConquest said:

Sacha (7th grade):

Math: AoPS Online Intermediate Algebra (Fall),  AoPS Online Pre-Calculus (Spring)

Science: He took Thinkwell Honors Chem this past semester, and he enjoys the class. But, he misses human interaction and wanted to at least try out a chem class at our local community college to see if he preferred it over Thinkwell. He wants to study biology next year, but I am in a bit of a pickle.  If he stays in the community college chem class, then he wants to take biology at the community college next year. But, if he decides that he prefers Thinkwell, then I think that he would be better off in Blue Tent Honors Bio. The problem is that Blue Tent opens enrollment on the day the chem class begins, so I will need to check out their refund policy. ETA: It looks like Blue Tent opens enrollment on 3/1, not 2/1, so he has one month in the community college chem class to decide if it is a good fit before deciding on whether to opt for Blue Tent or CC Bio. That seems like enough time to make a decision. Phew.  

Language Arts: If he gets into SOHS, then he would take one of their "core" classes -- "Logos, Cosmos & Doubt." If not, then he will likely take British Lit at OnlineG3.

History: Advanced American History at OnlineG3.

Programming: He finished AP Computer Science A this fall and just started an algorithms and data structures class at Stanford through EdX. They have a similar one going on at the same time through Georgia Tech and I bought another one off Udemy. Can you tell I have no idea what I am doing with this? What I have realized is that coding is good for his ADHD brain but, other than just handing over thousands of dollars (that we don't have) to Alpha Star for USACO classes, I am still trying to figure out the best path forward. ETA: I emailed the professor that teaches data structures at one of our local community colleges to see if he will let Sacha into his course with his AP Computer Science grade alone (since he doesn't have a score at present and I am not sure if a homeschooler needing accommodations will even be able to find a test location) -- we will see what he says.

So, changes already. Since second semester is back in full swing. Sacha is already buried again by his Davidson Explore class. They are now learning to write summaries re philosophers that I didn't learn about until college. For a sixth grade STEM kid. Eesh. I think, at this point, he has a mental block with the class, and just wants to be done. But, I could already foresee a repeat of last semester with work starting to pile up, so I made the unilateral decision and dropped the spring semester community college chem class before it even started. Thinkwell has been working fine. We are in the middle of a pandemic. I want to keep things low key, so we are sticking with easy breezy Thinkwell.

Re Science, for next year, I am thinking Blue Tent Honors Bio is probably going to be the best fit; or, if he gets into SOHS (doubtful), he can try to talk them into letting him take Astrophysics.

Re Language Arts, we won't know about SOHS until mid-March, and I think his chances are probably low, especially with so many crisis-schoolers applying. So, instead Sacha and I decided to go with the sage advice of the Hive and enrolled him in Integritas' Literature and Composition for Underclassmen with [the Master] Cindy Lange. We are thrilled. I am hoping that Ms. Lange's approach will bring some of the joy back to writing for him because he does have a lovely voice. The course is light on lit, so I will probably assign additional reading, or perhaps he can join one of Jill Harper's Outschool book clubs for fun discussion without additional output.

Re programming, oddly, I never heard back from the prof that I emailed, but I got too busy to care. SOHS has a data structures course that would be a really good fit for him, so it would be amazing if he got in and could take that class. If he doesn't get in, I think this is one area where community college (+ competition prep on the side, if he enjoys it) will probably be the best fit for him going forward. Still trying to find a way for him to take the AP Computer Science test.

Re history, we may even change American history for economics. He took a game theory class last summer that he really enjoyed, and has been showing an interest in learning more about how people make decisions, which I explained to him was economics. 

He also asked to take a game design class. I found a series on Outschool that looked cool, but I am totally open to suggestions if anyone has any. We are also looking at the Money Sense and Critical Thinking classes at Online G3 as possible electives as well. So, yeah, a complete revamp. The only thing that looks the same for Sacha is AoPS. We are never breaking up with AoPS. They are our ride or die, apparently. 

 

 

 

[Condessa]

If my kids get in to the charter school’s lottery and I can find a way to move us over the river, they will attend there.  (Trying to sell dh on the idea of a fixer upper we could actually afford).  Otherwise, we’ll be homeschooling.  Here are my rough ideas for that.

 

dd11 (7th): AOPS Algebra (book, online class, WTMA class?), CLRC Online Intermediate  Literature & Composition class, Spelling by Sound and Structure 6, Spencerian, CLRC Online Intro to Renaissance/Early Modern class, ??? Science

 

dd10 (5th): Prealgebra of some kind, xtramath, MCT Voyage level (except for vocab), All About Spelling 4, Spencerian, ??? History, ??? Science

 

ds8 (4th): finish BA Online 5/start Prealgebra, MCT Voyage level (except for vocab and poetry, latter will be Island level), Spelling by Sound and Structure 4, Pictures in Cursive, SOTW 3, ??? Science

 

ds6 (2nd): BA Online ~4, xtramath, finish up OPG if he hasn’t yet, Treasured Conversations plus MCT Island poetry, something for spelling when phonics are done, HWOT 2, SOTW 3, ??? Science

My little guy's work is very tentative, based on what he feels up to around chemo.

 

 

 

Edited February 16, 2021 by Condessa

[MamaSprout]

Okay. I feel like I've been holding my breath since March 1st when university schedules came out. DE kids register last. My schedule was like a house of cards. If we hadn't gotten the sections we wanted, things were going to fall apart quickly. We got one of the last 3 spots in two of her classes. 

I'm posting here because we're not sure what grade next year will be yet. By age, 11th grader.

No early college boarding school. She declined their offer of admission. 

May/ Summer: Finishing Core's Economy, Society & Public Policy, an eimacs class and taking CLEP exams for French and maybe Biology. Camp counselor at one camp, camper at a university engineering camp, maybe CAP encampment, life guarding, and fill-in line cook at a senior living facility. ETA- the PA Homeschoolers Essay Writing Class in August if she decides in July that next year is her last year.

Fall Dual Enrollment. All really good professors (except the physics prof can be boring, but she likes physics too well to care.)

American History  Pushed to spring to make room for a LOtB Comparative Sci Fi class.

Calc III Going with Calc 2. It's review from Calc BC, but 1.) it gets her on-track with a really good professor's sequence and 2.) gives her a a good place to work through her test anxiety. She will know the material so she can focus on test techniques. It will also give her more time for Russian.

University Physics 1

Engineering Graphics

Online:

Christine's LOtB World Affairs class 

ETA: LOtB Comparative Science Fiction. 

CLRC Russian 1  CLRC Russian 2. CLRC Russian 3. CLRC Conversational Russian.  She really likes CLRC's Russian 1 & 2 textbook for self-study.

Home:

Government work text (this wraps up a number of "government" things). I probably should give a year's credit for government, lol, but we just don't seem to get to the "branches of government". Too many bunny trails.

Spring

Probably /maybe US History 2, DE Speech (or a LOtB class), DE Linear DE Calc 3, DE Physics 2, eImacs class, and probably an Outschool world religions class. More Russian. Some sort of engineering elective. ETA: maybe welding.

 

Edited May 22, 2021 by MamaSprout

[Porridge]

2 hours ago, MamaSprout said:

Okay. I feel like I've been holding my breath since March 1st when university schedules came out. DE kids register last. My schedule was like a house of cards. If we hadn't gotten the sections we wanted, things were going to fall apart quickly. We got one of the last 3 spots in two of her classes. 

I'm posting here because we're not sure what grade next year will be yet. By age, 11th grader.

No early college boarding school. She declined their offer of admission. 

May/ Summer: Finishing Core's Economy, Society & Public Policy, an eimacs class and taking CLEP exams for French and maybe Biology. Camp counselor at one camp, camper at a university engineering camp, maybe CAP encampment, life guarding, and fill-in line cook at a senior living facility.

Fall Dual Enrollment. All really good professors (except the physics prof can be boring, but she likes physics too well to care.)

American History

Calc III

University Physics 1

Engineering Graphics

Online:

Christine's LOtB World Affairs class

CLRC Russian 1- This is review, but the second semester probably isn't. This is fine. She will have demanding DE professors.

Home:

Government work text (this wraps up a number of "government" things). I probably should give a year's credit for government, lol, but we just don't seem to get to the "branches of government". Too many bunny trails.

Spring

Probably /maybe DE Speech (or a LOtB class), DE Linear, DE Physics 2, eImacs class, and probably an outschool world religions class. More Russian. We've been talking about a welding class. They had a local "women welding" class just before Covid that we both wanted to take. Hopefully it comes back.

 

Glad your daughter was able to get the classes she wanted! Is it usual for kids to take 4 DE classes plus 2 online plus a homemade coures? I tstrikes me as a heavy load, given DE classes are, as I understand, equivalent to college classes? I don't mean to sound judgy at all - I'm genuinely curious. I have one on the cusp of high school, and we may make use of DE as well. I'd love to get a sense for what the workload can be like.

 

[MamaSprout]

8 hours ago, WTM said:

Glad your daughter was able to get the classes she wanted! Is it usual for kids to take 4 DE classes plus 2 online plus a homemade coures? I tstrikes me as a heavy load, given DE classes are, as I understand, equivalent to college classes? I don't mean to sound judgy at all - I'm genuinely curious. I have one on the cusp of high school, and we may make use of DE as well. I'd love to get a sense for what the workload can be like.

 

Not judgey at all. It's a good question. Yes, basically it is the equivalent of a full college load. She will be 16 for most of the year, so probably an 11th grader. I would not have given her this load in 9th/10th grade. I also would not have given her this load if it wasn't classes she was really looking forward to taking.

We've balanced high output classes with ones that can flex or are lower output. It works okay because first semester Russian is a review, government is completely self-paced (and is the end of an ongoing government at home course with lots of parts, the work text is no more than a few weeks probably). The World Affairs class is 10 weeks long so government can tuck in before and after  it. Engineering Graphics is a 2 credit class so it balances the physics 4 credit class. We will size up the Calc 3 class when she starts. It could change into a math elective (which won't fill) or Calc 2 again (lots of sections of that in the fall, but does terrible things to my schedule tetris.) if she needs more time to get her feet under her.

If she starts the semester and it's too much, she can also drop Graphics or Russian, which are just for fun (she has already done 3 years of French). Government might be done before fall, anyhow. We use a small university for DE and it's hard to add classes in the summer after the incoming Freshman are scheduled. It's better to overschedule a bit and drop the first week of classes.

She also did two Blue Tent Online AP courses this year. They are very high output/ high expectation courses. I know she's prepared for more demanding DE, although she is still working on some test-taking skills. We were able to select professors who are more-or-less ones who we know what to expect. None of them are 2-tests-and-final-for-your-grade kind of professors. ETA- We are in a small town. I work at the uni and her business professor last year knew her from kindergarten story time. It's really more like high school in a lot of ways except that it has college classes. 

Edited March 31, 2021 by MamaSprout

[Porridge]

thank you, @MamaSprout. That's helpful!

[Condessa]

 

dd11 (7th)

Online: AOPS Algebra, CLRC Online Intermediate Literature & Composition, CLRC Online Intro to the Renaissance and Early Modern World

Maybe: spring semester of Beginning Logic, AAA’s STEM Critical Thinking A, CLRC Middle School Latin II

Independent: Spelling by Sound and Structure 6, Spencerian Handwriting, The Thinking Toolbox & maybe some of Think With Socrates

In-Person: Piano Lessons

 

dd10 (5th)

Online: CLRC Online Beginning Drawing, Voice Lessons with my sister

Instruction: Math-U-See Prealgebra/Algebra, AAS 4, MCT Voyage minus the vocab, OUP Medieval and Early Modern World books

Maybe: German tutoring on LanguageConvo.com, AAA’s STEM Critical Thinking A

Independent: xtramath, Spencerian Handwriting, Orbiting With Logic

 

ds8 (4th):

Online: AOPS Prealgebra self-paced, Spanish tutoring on LanguageConvo.com, AAA Digging for Dinosaurs class

Instruction: SOTW 3, MCT Voyage level (combined w/ dd10) minus vocab and poetry, Music of the Hemispheres

Independent: Spelling by Sound and Structure 4, Pictures in Cursive, Logic Liftoff

In-Person: Cello Lessons

 

ds6 (2nd):

Online: BA Online 4, Japanese tutoring on LanguageConvo.com

Instruction: OPG for phonics, AAS, Treasured Conversations, SOTW 3

Maybe: MCT Island poetry with ds8, AAA Digging for Dinosaurs class

Independent: HWOT2, xtramath

 

I am outsourcing everything I reasonably can and we will school through the summer so that we can take some time off in the Fall.

Edited April 12, 2021 by Condessa

[SDMomof3]

DS 8th grade 

DE Classes  
math: Fall: Calc/  Spring: Linear Algebra 

elective: Fall: Advanced Algorithms/ Spring: graph theory 

B/M private school classes 
english: Honors English 

Science: AP Physics online 

history: not sure yet, will be at home w/ mom

PE: swimming

Extras: Research Assistant at UC, USACO Gold/Platinum, AIME, Boy Scouts, Piano

Edited May 29, 2021 by SDMomof3

[Shoes+Ships+SealingWax]

DS has gotten bogged down in BA 4C & our local Parks & Rec released a long list of fun, affordable summer day camps so we’re dialing back our summer plans. We’ll spend a month on Marine Biology, Paragraph Writing, & Didax Pentominoes followed by a month of day camps for Cooking, Crafts, Footwork (soccer), & Theatre.

We’ve completed all I want to in IEW ATFF. Paragraph Town & the rest of BA will have to wait for 3rd grade. 

Fall 2021 - Spring 2022

• Math: BA 4C-??, Athena’s Mathematics of Poetry
• LA: Complete IEW FMFT, NaNoWriMo, Scholastic Latin / Greek Roots, MCT Town (PT, PrT), AAS 5, Typing
• Science: RSO Chemistry, chem-themed board games
• History: HQ Middle Ages cont’d (Black Plague to Elizabethan Times)
• PE: Tennis, Soccer, Swim, Scouting

[Rush]

On 1/29/2021 at 8:21 AM, Rush said:

Hi all

Same here. In fact, we haven't begun many things, which were planned for this current scholastic year due to many factors, including my health issues ( I have developed a strong allergy to something still unknown and most probable we will have to relocate soon 😞 ).

So this year my eldest didn't do any Chemistry and Geometry and it will be moving to the next year. Instead, DS is taking numerous classes of public speaking, English literature and Finance & Entrepreneur classes, and he loves it.  My little one has developed a passion for writing and he has started taking different creative writing and literature classes.

Next year we have to go back on track, but I am sure it will not be so intensive as before as school and all activities require move time and efforts now 🙂

 

Plans for next year so far:

DS13 - core subjects at school including French, Physics, Accounts and Comp Studies. AOPS Geometry (Royal Fireworks Press) and Intermediate Algebra (tutor), Honour Chemistry (Connie), extra English Literature (Dreaming Spires), Debates (Various, I guess), Biology (we'll do something ourself), German (tutor), Russian (various) and DS is asking for a history/political club, we ll see if he has enough time for it.

Extra curriculum: tennis, chess, music school (piano. the last year!)  + private physical coach

 

DS11 - school + extra aops prealgebra 2 (to finish) and intro to algebra (private teacher), creative writing courses (various), literature/book club (?), debating class (various), German (tutor), Russian (various), French (school + Alliance Française), electronics with daddy, Introductory Programming (Python- CompuScholar), and lots of lego and board games 🙂

Extra curriculum: swimming, art school, music school (piano) - most probable he will drop it as it is quiet hard for him, and cooking (home. He wants to attend professional culinary school, but I doubt he will have time ) + private physical coach

 

 We have moved forward and some changes have already taken place too 🙂

So these are the plans for next year, although I cannot say they are final yet hehe

DS13 - school (he has enrolled for all core subjects including all science: Physics, Chemistry & Biology), French, Accounting and Renaissance Literature too. Intermediate Algebra with tutor & Geometry class with Dreaming Spires. Comp Science will be postponed to 2022-23. German (tutor), Russian (various), History (library), Debates (hopefully school's extra curriculum will take place from next scholastic yet. If not we ll take a few short courses), Piano (last year. Yey). Sport: tennis, swimming and physical coach, chess (we had to stop all lessons. reading books himself). Also Crypto and Forex with mummy)

 

 

DS11 - school + extra aops prealgebra 2 (to finish) and intro to algebra (private teacher), creative writing (Dreaming Spires), German (tutor), Russian (various), French (school + tutor). Electronics, 3d Printing/laser printing , and etc. with daddy, Introductory Programming (Python- CompuScholar), and lots of lego and board games. Art school, Piano(?? - he wants to drop it). Sport: Swimming + private physical coach

 

 

 

Edited August 9, 2021 by Rush

[Condessa]

Here are my updated plans:

dd12 (7th)

Online: One more month of AOPS Intro to Algebra A, then she is going to do Intro to Counting & Probability during the Fall.  In the Spring, we will probably do Intro to Algebra B.  This year she will also be taking CLRC Online Intermediate Literature & Composition, CLRC Online Intro to the Renaissance and Early Modern World, and CLRC Middle School Latin II.

Semi-Independent: The Thinking Toolbox & maybe some of Think With Socrates, reading-heavy homemade Biology with lots of books, some documentaries, and some projects thrown in.

Independent: Xtramath, Spelling by Sound and Structure finishing 5 and then 6, Spencerian Handwriting

In-Person: Piano Lessons, Youth Group, maybe Judo

 

dd10 (5th)

Online: CLRC Online Beginning Drawing in the Spring

Instruction: Math-U-See Prealgebra/maybe into Algebra, depending on how quickly we move, AAS 4, MCT Voyage minus the vocab

Semi-Independent: OUP Medieval and Early Modern World books for history, reading-heavy homemade Biology with lots of books, some documentaries, and some projects thrown in.

Independent: Xtramath, Spencerian Handwriting, Orbiting With Logic

In-Person: Dance class, Youth Group in the Spring

Maybe???: German tutoring on LanguageConvo.com.  Still not sure about this.  dd10 really does not learn well with an online format, and made extremely slow progress when doing this before.  Unfortunately, I do not have the time to teach her German myself in a satisfactory way and I have been unable to find any in-person options here, so I am not sure what else we could do right now.

 

 

ds9 (4th):

Online: Finishing up the last of BA Online, then AOPS Prealgebra self-paced, Spanish tutoring on LanguageConvo.com

Instruction: SOTW 3, MCT Voyage level (combined w/ dd10) minus vocab and poetry, Music of the Hemispheres 

Semi-Independent: Reading-heavy homemade Biology with lots of books, some documentaries, and some projects thrown in.

Independent: Spelling by Sound and Structure 4, Pictures in Cursive, Logic Liftoff

In-Person: Cello Lessons, maybe Judo

 

ds7 (2nd):

Online: BA Online 4

Instruction: OPG for phonics, Music of the Hemispheres (w/ds9), Treasured Conversations, either AAS or Spelling by Sound & Structure

Independent: Pictures in Cursive, Xtramath

Maybe: Japanese tutoring on LanguageConvo.com.  He loves this, but we really need to lighten his load, and we don't know from day to day how much he will have the energy for, so there would probably be lots of lessons paid for but not used.

Tagging along when he's up for it: SOTW 3, homemade Biology

In-Person: maybe soccer

 

ds -3.5 months due in November

[Jackie]

My 11yo daughter’s first classes of the year started this week, and I think we kind of have a plan. We still lean a little unschoolish, so she chose everything here except that I do require two core classes per year; this year they will be English and foreign language.

English: homebrewed course focusing on the art of persuasion: reading literature that is focused on or encourages discussion regarding persuasive techniques, and the books Thank You for Arguing and They Say/I Say. Possibly hiring a writing coach for feedback beyond what I can give.

Math: a light year for her, possibly including the local math circle. We have Zome Geometry and a pile of zometool, so we may approach it that way.

Science: Athena’s classes on bioacoustics and tide pools. We have tide pools near us, so many field trips.

History: she requested History of Math, unschool style. Still putting together a booklist but this is shaping up really well. She will read/watch many things.

Language: ASL through Open Tent. She has taken Spanish for years and wants to branch out.

Art: her side passion. She will do a full semester of exploration, including papermaking, soap making, jewelry making, and creating makeup. Second semester will be choosing one to pursue in depth. Goal is for next year to include business classes and use the art skills to start up. Also, this year she has been learning face painting and hopes to eventually earn some cash busking. She also will take some art and maker-type classes at an in-person learning center.

Other: she will be in two sections of Athena’s Philosophy. Tuesdays, she is taking the class. Wednesdays, she is TAing the class. She hopes to become a junior instructor in the future.

She will take Digging for Dinosaurs because she loves dmmetler’s daughter so much she doesn’t care about level.

She will super casually, maybe, do some spelling stuff. She likes spelling bees but not enough to actually study most the time.

She is taking lessons in flying trapeze and kendo. She’ll probably add some classes at the circus center as time and money allow.

Destination Imagination team. Hands down her all time favorite activity! This will be her fifth year and the first time she competes in the middle school category.

 

ETA: fleshing this out, she will probably commit 30 hours/week, not counting PE or extracurriculars. And 10 out of those 30 hours per week will be on art. I am starting to recognize that this might not be a “side passion” for her, but am at a total loss for what to do for a kid who is not at all naturally gifted in art but is pg and loves art.

Edited August 21, 2021 by Jackie

[SoCal_Bear]

On 8/13/2021 at 1:14 PM, Jackie said:

 Athena’s classes on bioacoustics and tide pools. We have tide pools near us, so many field trips.

 

Not sure if you know this is available in our area. https://lanternsglobal.com/tides

[HomeAgain]

I can now write out our plans now that our first week is done. 

DS11:

Math: MUS Algebra 1 w/Gattegno book 6

Science: Glencoe physics

Language arts: IEW, Elson Reader 6, Reading & Spelling Through Literature

History: Human Odyssey, Story Of Science, additional literature

Latin: Ecce Romani 1B

French: Scholastic Easy French Reader, 180-day workbook.  Can I just say how much I love the French Reader?  It starts out fairly simply, and then moves into historical pieces that complement the era we're studying this year.  There's also an app that has all the pieces to listen to, flashcards, and if he wanted, the exercises from the book. (I wrote them out as worksheets instead)

Music: still violin lessons 4x a week

Art: Evan-Moor How To Teach Art To Children.

 

So far, he has liked nearly everything.  The physics text starts with a whole unit on applied science in the movies, which gave us the perfect excuse to compare technology in Godzilla vs. Jurassic Park and the evolution of Star Wars sets. 😄

[Jackie]

On 8/17/2021 at 7:30 PM, calbear said:

Not sure if you know this is available in our area. https://lanternsglobal.com/tides

I’ve seen it. We have a major problem with overcommitting and then feeling frazzled. I already see it coming. She saw that the Junior Theater and a parkour place were on the list of vendors for her charter, and is already trying to pile on more stuff. 

[Dmmetler]

L's first semester full time college schedule is set, and starts Monday-move in and orientation has been this week, and today and tomorrow is the initial leadership courses. 

 

Research Statistics 

GEMS (Science research LLC) seminar

SUMMIT first year experience (this includes various things all year, including, hopefully, a 2 week international trip in Spring).

First year Leadership Seminar 

Integrative Biology/Lab

Integrative biology Research 

Intermediate Spanish conversation and culture

 

They were able to set up a four day a week schedule, leaving Friday to teach at Athena's-for fall, four classes total. 

 

There's a whole list of interesting clubs and activities that L plans to do, too. 

 

It is definitely weird to have my job end at ordering and paying for textbooks....

 

 

 

 

[Shoes+Ships+SealingWax]

45 minutes ago, Dmmetler said:

They were able to set up a four day a week schedule, leaving Friday to teach at Athena's-for fall, four classes total.

DS is really enjoying his Mathematic of Poetry class, so he may join her for Dragonology during the second half of the semester! ☺️

[SeaConquest]

On 8/19/2021 at 11:05 PM, Jackie said:

I’ve seen it. We have a major problem with overcommitting and then feeling frazzled. I already see it coming. She saw that the Junior Theater and a parkour place were on the list of vendors for her charter, and is already trying to pile on more stuff. 

Let's do Parkour together! The boys loved it last year and I need to sign them up again.

[mckittre]

We're pretty loose and interest led here, but as my kid gets older I figure there might be benefits in being more organized, at least by college application time, so am slowly moving a bit that way. 

7th grade:

Listening to/discussing the book Sapiens, hopefully with some branch-off projects/research

Learning to write research papers, continuing working on a long fantasy story he's been writing for awhile (this kid is almost certainly at least somewhat dyslexic, and not particularly advanced in writing)

Intermediate Number Theory class with AOPS (no idea how this will work out as a first official math class, but he wants to try, and thinks intermediate is the right level for him). He found the page on the AOPS wiki that lists "introductory number theory" problems from various contests, and is working through those to prepare himself.

Physics, using a college physics with calculus book we have, a book called "thinking physics", whatever experiments he or I can come up with, and anything else that seems useful.

Computer programming. He's super into this right now, working on a web app that compares weather data with his dad and another programmer, and on his own is writing a program to visualize and analyze intertidal invertebrate data we've been collecting for years. The intertidal animals are a shared family obsession, so I'm super curious to see what he comes up with there.

Typing -- whatever game he found online to practice. This kid refuses to write anything on paper unless he has no choice (even math -- he prefers LaTex), and can't spell, so typing seems pretty key.

Spanish is something he knows pretty well, but we've not kept it up the past few years and I hope we can at least get back to conversation practice

There aren't many official activities available in my tiny town, and none that my kid is interested in, but we do a lot of outdoor stuff all year. Will move from hiking and trail building to ice skating and skiing as the year progresses.

 

[Not_a_Number]

26 minutes ago, mckittre said:

Intermediate Number Theory class with AOPS (no idea how this will work out as a first official math class, but he wants to try, and thinks intermediate is the right level for him). He found the page on the AOPS wiki that lists "introductory number theory" problems from various contests, and is working through those to prepare himself.

People say that's the hardest of the intermediate classes. Does he pass the pre-test easily? If not, I might be kind of worried about jumping into that head-first. 

[mckittre]

I told him to go through all the pre-tests for all the classes he was interested in to make his decision, so hopefully he chose wisely. If not, figuring out how to make those decisions is part of learning too, and I think it's important to let him try. There is that 3 class drop time if he's totally overwhelmed, and if he decides to stick with it I certainly don't care about the grade. This is also a kid who only likes doing math if it's skating the edge of way too hard (which has made it basically impossible to find any math book he'll go through). Sometimes he takes that too far (decided to back off after the first 5 or so chapters of the AOPS calculus book last year), but other times it works out well for him.

[Not_a_Number]

6 hours ago, mckittre said:

I told him to go through all the pre-tests for all the classes he was interested in to make his decision, so hopefully he chose wisely. If not, figuring out how to make those decisions is part of learning too, and I think it's important to let him try. There is that 3 class drop time if he's totally overwhelmed, and if he decides to stick with it I certainly don't care about the grade. This is also a kid who only likes doing math if it's skating the edge of way too hard (which has made it basically impossible to find any math book he'll go through). Sometimes he takes that too far (decided to back off after the first 5 or so chapters of the AOPS calculus book last year), but other times it works out well for him.

I was that kind of kid, lol. I decided to take a third year ring theory class the first year of college, cause I could. I’ll say that I got an A in the class but learned basically no ring theory, though…

Personally, I’d prefer that approach with something more scattershot, like a hard contest class. But I’m curious how this goes for him!!

[SanDiegoMom]

My ds definitely rates Int Number Theory the hardest.   For comparison the Aops calc class was relatively easy.  

[Cake and Pi]

Well, we're 3ish weeks into the school year and I think I've finally just about got things figured out. We've had some last minute adjustments, and second semester still feels a bit up in the air. 

DS#1, 8th grade
Math: AoPS Precalculus through WTMA
English: MCT 5 Lens I Level + Fishtanking Learning grade 8 + Online G3 Essay Essentials 1st semester and some kind of literature 2nd semester (probably Shakespeare)
Science: G3 physics class 1st semester and TBD second semester, probably another G3 science class.
Social Studies: (with DS#3) OUP The Medieval and Early Modern World + corresponding literature and historical fiction + bits from World History Detective + HQ Middle Times reader
Extras: Digital art and graphic design with Adobe Photoshop, Athena's Money Sense class 1st semester, TBD elective-type online class for 2nd semester, swimming

DS#2, 6th grade
Math: Algebra 1 class through homeschool charter
English: GT language arts 6 through public school district's virtual academy + finish Sequential Spelling 3 + whatever we get through in Killgallon middle school stuff and/or MCT 4 Lit Level on the side when he cooperates
Science: Physical science class with homeschool charter
Social Studies: 7th/8th grade U.S. History class through homeschool charter (they use Hakim's History of US as a spine)
Extras: P.E. and digital photography through the homeschool charter; fundamentals of flight, rapid prototyping, tool skills, and genius hour through the local aerospace academy's middle school level enrichment program; CBT, Tinker Crate, probably swimming but he'll have to alternate with DS#3 since they're in the same level and won't play nicely in the pool together

 

DS#3, 4th grade
Math: Still not really sure. He's currently reviewing Intermediate Algebra with Alcumus after a 7-8ish month long break from math, and he has renewed interest in EMF and may work on that for a while. He's also interested in statistics and dabbling a bit in that via Khan Academy. Might spend some time working on improving his proofs with material suggested by one of his Epsilon instructors. I think he'll probably eventually get back into AoPS Precalculus and/or start Intermediate C&P, but I'm not sure if he'll do AoPS Online or self-study with the book(s) at this point, and it's looking like it won't be until the spring semester anyway.
English: IEW Structure and Style for Students 1B + Fix It 3 Frog Prince + MBtP ages 10-12 + (maybe, possibly, if we get around to it) MCT 4 Literature Level.
Science: Biochemistry Literacy for Kids + Mr. Q Advanced Chemistry + MEL Chemistry boxes
Social Studies: (with DS#1) OUP The Medieval and Early Modern World + corresponding literature and historical fiction + bits from World History Detective + HQ Middle Times reader
Extras: Online G3 Scratch class, Athena's Write NOW workshop, Athena's math club (but he's not really liking all that much 4 weeks in, so might not continue), social skills group 1st semester, Unstuck and On Target curriculum (either independently or we'll get him in a group through our children's hospital) 2nd semester, Tinker Crate, swimming (alternating sessions with DS#2), probably TBD Athena's/G3 classes for 2nd semester, also hoping to restart therapeutic horseback riding in the spring.

 

DS#4, 2nd grade (the opposite of an AL, but I choose not to exclude him from the thread)
Math: SRA Connecting Math Concepts grade K + Ronit Bird + Activities for the AL Abacus + ST Math grade K
English: SRA Reading Mastery Signature Edition grade K reading and oral language strands, Heggerty Bridge the Gap, handwriting practice, SRA Read-Aloud Library Vocabulary and Listening Comprehension grade preK at half-pace, half-ish of the literature from Blossom & Root Early Years vol. 1
Science: Second pass through Let's-Read-and-Find-Out-Science level 1 + the nature stuff from B&R Early Years 1
Social Studies: Built into our literature selections from SRA Read-Aloud Library and B&R
Extras: Speech therapy, adaptive swimming, the whole Highlights My-First-whatever set, easiest snap circuits kit, Koala Crate --> moving into Kiwi Crate mid-year, Cooking with Kids Integrated Curriculum level K-1 (aiming for 1/4-1/3 this year)

[Jackie]

On 8/13/2021 at 1:14 PM, Jackie said:

My 11yo daughter’s first classes of the year started this week, and I think we kind of have a plan. We still lean a little unschoolish, so she chose everything here except that I do require two core classes per year; this year they will be English and foreign language.

English: homebrewed course focusing on the art of persuasion: reading literature that is focused on or encourages discussion regarding persuasive techniques, and the books Thank You for Arguing and They Say/I Say. Possibly hiring a writing coach for feedback beyond what I can give.

Math: a light year for her, possibly including the local math circle. We have Zome Geometry and a pile of zometool, so we may approach it that way.

Science: Athena’s classes on bioacoustics and tide pools. We have tide pools near us, so many field trips.

History: she requested History of Math, unschool style. Still putting together a booklist but this is shaping up really well. She will read/watch many things.

Language: ASL through Open Tent. She has taken Spanish for years and wants to branch out.

Art: her side passion. She will do a full semester of exploration, including papermaking, soap making, jewelry making, and creating makeup. Second semester will be choosing one to pursue in depth. Goal is for next year to include business classes and use the art skills to start up. Also, this year she has been learning face painting and hopes to eventually earn some cash busking. She also will take some art and maker-type classes at an in-person learning center.

Other: she will be in two sections of Athena’s Philosophy. Tuesdays, she is taking the class. Wednesdays, she is TAing the class. She hopes to become a junior instructor in the future.

She will take Digging for Dinosaurs because she loves dmmetler’s daughter so much she doesn’t care about level.

She will super casually, maybe, do some spelling stuff. She likes spelling bees but not enough to actually study most the time.

She is taking lessons in flying trapeze and kendo. She’ll probably add some classes at the circus center as time and money allow.

Destination Imagination team. Hands down her all time favorite activity! This will be her fifth year and the first time she competes in the middle school category.

 

ETA: fleshing this out, she will probably commit 30 hours/week, not counting PE or extracurriculars. And 10 out of those 30 hours per week will be on art. I am starting to recognize that this might not be a “side passion” for her, but am at a total loss for what to do for a kid who is not at all naturally gifted in art but is pg and loves art.

In our usual style, we take our plans a semester at a time, and even then we're winging things half the time. So, my contribution to the planning thread, updated for second semester:

English: still working through resources for our homebrewed course on the art of persuasion. This has mostly been going well, though I'm realizing that we're hitting the end of where I can give her useful feedback on writing. Will have to outsource that in some way in the future.

Math: been doing a super-light year. Math Circle and not much else. She wants to go back to using AOPS second semester. I realized that at this point, she can manage the pretests for Geometry, Intermediate Algebra, C&P, NT, and even Precalculus (minus a couple questions on geometry of circles). So, she needs to figure out what direction she wants to go in.

History: still doing 2 hours/week of reading in the pile of resources we put together for History of Math

Science: continuing on with the middle school marine biology classes at Athena's - next semester is Icthyology and Kelp Ecosystems. Taking Herpetology 2.

Language: ASL through Open Tent is going really well

Art: She is spending 12+ hours on art per week. She has explored making her own makeup and bath products, and can create her own recipes for things at this point. She is working on papermaking now. She is also working on learning face painting/body art. She is taking maker classes, studio art classes, digital art classes. She spends nearly all her free time creating in some way.

PE: Three hours of flying trapeze per week. Might add parkour back in if we can find the time.

Other: She wants to take Intro Psych at the community college. Need to remember to prompt her to send the necessary emails to find a prof who will accept her due to her age.

Extracurricular: Destination Imagination team is going very well. Regional Tournament is at the end of February. Assuming they place well there, they will go on to States at the end of March. And, of course, they all hope that they manage to make it to Global Finals.

[Kassia]

On 1/29/2021 at 2:21 AM, Rush said:

 

 

 

DS13 - core subjects at school including French, Physics, Accounts and Comp Studies. AOPS Geometry (Royal Fireworks Press) and Intermediate Algebra (tutor), Honour Chemistry (Connie), extra English Literature (Dreaming Spires), Debates (Various, I guess), Biology (we'll do something ourself), German (tutor), Russian (various) and DS is asking for a history/political club, we ll see if he has enough time for it.

 

 

Have you used Dreaming Spires before?  We used it when it was first getting started and it was not a good experience at all.  Dd's instructor was the founder/owner and we thought she was awful.  I don't know if things have improved since then but it was a frustrating class for us.  Hopefully, it's gotten much better and/or the other instructors are better than her.  

 

[dovrar]

On 8/13/2021 at 4:14 PM, Jackie said:

Math: a light year for her, possibly including the local math circle. We have Zome Geometry and a pile of zometool, so we may approach it that way.

How did the Zome Geometry go, I've been eyeing it for years and wondering if I should get it. My second wave of kids are getting old enough that I'm considering the purchase. Also, would you mind posting or pm me a list  of the pieces necessary to do all of the constructions? I can't seem to find that information anywhere online. Thanks!