Hits and Misses End of Year

[theelfqueen]

Hit- Fix It Grammar Gawain and the Green Knight ... I'm surprised by this but DS16 is in the last two weeks of this and has loved it. Pleasant surprise. We've never done IEW or the other books in this series but it worked out quite well. 

 

Edited May 6, 2021 by theelfqueen

[ScoutTN]

Hit: Alg 2 at WHA with Eric Reini and a Dolciani textbook.

Miss: Dave Raymond’s American History. I have problems with some of his content, find a disconnect between the lectures and the weekly exam answers, dislike how black and white he paints many things which should be nuanced. Plus Dd dislikes self-paced classes and always ends up getting way behind. 

[Farrar]

Hits... 

Mushroom got super into Environmental Science at the community college. Also he got really into this stock market class. In terms of stuff at home, with our year of American history and literature... Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter and Stamped from the Beginning were probably the best two books from the kids' perspective.

Misses...

Good grief... everything BalletBoy is doing. Except ballet. Though, even that, in the basement... ugh. This bleeping pandemic.

Edited May 6, 2021 by Farrar

[theelfqueen]

Weird post for an unrelated thread. 

Edited May 6, 2021 by theelfqueen

[mom2scouts]

Hits: Mr D Geometry, dual enrollment Russian, Apologia Physics with Mom

Misses: Mostly the lack of outside opportunities and restricted activities due to the pandemic. 

[cintinative]

Misses:

Spanish I with Funda Funda. Really bad fit with my kids and their learning styles. I only wish we had dropped it sooner.

Trying to do unit tests for Biology was a miss--once I switched us to chapter tests, it has gone well.  

We did miss outside activities as well. 

Hits:

My kids don't get enthused about anything, but I have not had significant complaints about anything else, so I call that a win.  😃 Switching to Avancemos was much better for them and I have enjoyed relearning my Spanish.  It just takes a lot of my time to stay on top of it.

 

[Roadrunner]

Clover Valley Honos chem was a huge hit here along with AoPS Intro to Python class. 
Lukeion muse series was a miss for this kid - I wish they had more traditional writing assignments. 

[MagistraKennedy]

On 5/5/2021 at 10:12 PM, ScoutTN said:

Hit: Alg 2 at WHA with Eric Reini and a Dolciani textbook.

Miss: Dave Raymond’s American History. I have problems with some of his content, find a disconnect between the lectures and the weekly exam answers, dislike how black and white he paints many things which should be nuanced. Plus Dd dislikes self-paced classes and always ends up getting way behind. 

Thanks for saying this. To me, on paper, self paced sounds like a dream. My daughter hates the idea, even though I keep pushing them. This will be the year that I stop bringing it up. 🤣

[ScoutTN]

21 minutes ago, MagistraKennedy said:

Thanks for saying this. To me, on paper, self paced sounds like a dream. My daughter hates the idea, even though I keep pushing them. This will be the year that I stop bringing it up. 🤣

I should have given up before this year!

[theelfqueen]

Other hits Great Courses Vikings and Black Death

Miss AOPS Precalc just not what he wanted 

[Not_a_Number]

1 minute ago, theelfqueen said:

Miss AOPS Precalc just not what he wanted 

Ah, how come? 

[RootAnn]

5 hours ago, Roadrunner said:

Lukeion muse series was a miss for this kid - I wish they had more traditional writing assignments

Thank you for this. My dd#3 likes the teacher so I was thinking about signing her up for this but decided not to. I feel better about that decision now.

For us:  It's the end of the year & I feel blah about everything right now.

Edited May 8, 2021 by RootAnn
Missed a word

[theelfqueen]

5 hours ago, Not_a_Number said:

Ah, how come? 

He wanted more direct teaching and less discovery method. He has done other AOPS things before. 

My kid said "I HATE this textbook. I dont hate trig. I dont hate math. I HATE this book."

My kid who taught himself Orbital mechanics to play Kerbal. (DH is an astronautical engineer, they developed complex spreadsheets). And is self teaching C++ and Linux from the command line... 

Edited May 8, 2021 by theelfqueen

[stripe]

Biggest miss: asynchronous classes. No matter how great the teacher is reputed to be, a hard NO on those. Never again. No matter what!!! 

Also a miss: students in classes and activities who are either deep into conspiracy theories or make casually discriminatory/hurtful statements. I have a new take on the homeschool community. 🙀

[NittanyJen]

Hits: 

Built Your Library 12 was a hit all around. DS ate it up. 

University psych class was interesting

AP Stats— he learned a ton, even though we have done a lot of stats throughout his math life. This was far more in-depth.

WTMA Rhetoric 2 has been a dream for him. He is working on his final paper right now, and is digging into touching up his citations with no complaints.

WTMA physics lab had a few rough edges here and there, but the troubleshooting was actually a good part of learning how real science is done, and he enjoyed the final projects in fall and spring semesters.

Online small group physics course— I taught this to DS and his friends using Canvas and Zoom. The kids all learned a lot and enjoyed hanging out together online. They enjoyed sharing all the current events articles, finding videos to share, and taking turns using slides or the white board to solve homework problems together, and writing a big lab report together for optics lab.

No real misses, other than he sometimes struggled to keep up with his photography homework because he wanted to go read more.

For DS20, online learning at the U was a major hit, as was online internship. He is sad he has to go back to in-person classes next fall. He’s happy he at least has an apartment instead of living in the dorms again, though he’d prefer to stay home, but that’s a hard no here. He actually just found out some of his classes will still be online in fall, so he’s thrilled to pieces.

 

Only miss— for both of them— seeing friends in person.

 

[Alte Veste Academy]

16 hours ago, NittanyJen said:

WTMA Rhetoric 2 has been a dream for him. He is working on his final paper right now, and is digging into touching up his citations with no complaints.

Which teacher did he have for this class?

[Miss Tick]

Hits - Roy Speed's Shakespeare Intensives

CVChemistry (although the final has yet to happen 🤞🏻)

Misses - apparently I'm the one really enjoying history. Not surprised!

[Aloha2U]

Hits: 

Old Western Culture: Early Moderns – This is our last year with OWC, completing all four years. It’s been a hit every year. My young man has thoroughly relished this curriculum. No regrets.

Rhetoric Alive! Book 1: Principles of Persuasion by CAP – It’s straight forward and engaging, a good bolstering before the next book, Rhetoric Alive! Senior Thesis, which we’ll use next year.

BJU Spanish 1 – I thought he’d hate more language after several years of Latin, but he’s doing it with no complaints and actually enjoying it.

CAP Apologetics online courses by Answers in Genesis — They use Moodle, which can be glitchy, but the content is worth the struggle. We look forward to their WRC online courses as well.

Honorable Mentions:

I add this list because he has been able to tolerate these subjects with successful progress even though he generally despises them as a whole and would never add them to the hits himself.

Calculus 1 by Chalk Dust Company using Calculus of a Single Variable, 9th Edition by Larson and Edwards (Cengage Learning 2010) – Had I known about Dana Mosley sooner, I may have used CD’s Precalculus and Trigonimetry instead of the final Modules of VT for Trig/Precalculus, or perhaps in addition to the latter. Next year, CD’s Stats, for which he’s looking forward and excited.

BJU Chemistry – Dry and not exactly fun, but wow does he retain from these advanced science curricula, definitely making him college ready for these courses. He was able to pass the Natural Sciences CLEP just from what he learned and remembered from BJU Physical Science and Biology curriculums, during the two previous school years, with little review from the CLEP and REA study guides. If he was not taking an accredited A&P course next year elsewhere specifically for his career path, I would have had him use their Physics curriculum. He escaped that one. 😏

Misses:

Dave Raymond’s U.S. History – For reasons previously mentioned in another post and by another poster, above, I do not recommend it. In hindsight, I should have went with Exploring America by Ray Notgrass. Next year, we’ll use Government and Economics by Notgrass.

SAT Prep Genius online course by HSLDA – Not worth the price tag. The instructor was encouraging and offered helpful insight, but the actual course material chosen was worthless, covering useless tricks, and ultimately a waste of time. If the same instructor used a different approach/curriculum, then it could be salvaged. Until then, I would not recommend it.

[cintinative]

1 hour ago, Mom21 said:

 

Rhetoric Alive! Book 1: Principles of Persuasion by CAP – It’s straight forward and engaging, a good bolstering before the next book, Rhetoric Alive! Senior Thesis, which we’ll use next year.

 

Are you doing this at home or via Schole Academy?  Are you using any of their tutoring/grading? Thank you.

[fourisenough]

DD16 is so easy to please— everything she did was a hit this year! 
 

5 stars on all of the following: WHA AP Stats w/Reini; PAH AP Psych w/Gonzalez; PAH AP Lang w/Serbicki; CLRC  Latin 3 w/Van Fossen; BT Hon Pre-Calc w/Porter; BT Hon Bio w/Paine.

Also super pleased with ACT tutoring w/Stacey at Stellar Scores. She produced great results and was actually fun to work with! 
 

And the year was truly made by the friendships she built at her residential ballet school this year. It’s true what they say about the friends you meet/bond with during difficult circumstances; I’m pretty sure these five girls will be connected throughout their lifetimes. It was especially poignant because DD has been homeschooled her whole life and had never really found her tribe before this year— other smart, motivated, intense, lovely humans. It was really wonderful. 
 

Now DD11 is a different story.... Definitely some misses, but I’ll save that for the K-8 board!

[Aloha2U]

1 hour ago, cintinative said:

Are you doing this at home or via Schole Academy?  Are you using any of their tutoring/grading? Thank you.

Yes, at home. I'm in the process negotiating with a tutor (via Scholé's Tutoring Center) to provide feedback on written work only, not guidance through the course. We are awaiting confirmation that their tutors are allowed to teach in this "unconventional" format. The first quarter begins in July for the next academic school year, so that's when standard tutoring sessions and payment are solidified, but only on a quarterly basis, as per their policy.

[cintinative]

10 minutes ago, Mom21 said:

Yes, at home. I'm in the process negotiating with a tutor (via Scholé's Tutoring Center) to provide feedback on written work only, not guidance through the course. We are awaiting confirmation that their tutors are allowed to teach in this "unconventional" format. The first quarter begins in July for the next academic school year, so that's when standard tutoring sessions and payment are solidified, but only on a quarterly basis, as per their policy.

I would love to hear how this comes out for you. I am not sure what we are doing for writing Junior and Senior year and I thought about doing Rhetoric Alive but we definitely would need grading/feedback.

[Momto6inIN]

Hits for my DD who is a junior:

Homegrown child development with a college text and having 2 toddlers from our church come over once a week to play with my toddler for a short easy "preschool". She is loving the practical aspect of it and seeing all the stuff she learned from the textbook come alive!

Destinos for Spanish - She is really understanding the conversational Spanish much better than I thought she would!

Writing - I gave her IEW's Writing the Research Paper and told her to choose a topic she could sink her teeth into and to research and write a 15ish page research paper. She chose to defend a thesis about how western youth culture (read: typical American teenager) is a detrimental social construct and that high school as it's currently implemented does more harm than good to teenagers and society. The paper is not done yet but she's done a good enough job on it so far that she might have convinced me that she's right! LOL

No real misses, but I feel like everything else has been lackluster this year. She's read some good lit and we've had some good discussions, but it's not been anything really special. She's suffering through Chalkdust PreCalc and will finish next year as a senior. It's a good program, but she struggles with it. Apologia Advanced Bio is ok. She's doing fine with it, but she doesn't love it. It's a lot of memorization. She did iCitizen for government and is finishing up GC Economics. Both were good, but not great. She doesn't really like those subjects much, so they didn't generate as much discussion between us as they did when I went through them with my boys.

[JennyD]

DS15 started the year as a 10th grader, but we've decided to push his graduation back by a year, so in retrospect it was 9th grade.

Hits:  Asian and African history, loosely based on Farrar's GPS curriculum.  NYT writing curriculum.  (The NYT Learning Network has been the sleeper hit of the year, actually.  DS13 has also been using pieces of it.)  Private Hebrew lessons -- DS (finally) has a tutor he likes so much that when her schedule changed he was willing to wake up early for lessons instead of switching to a different teacher.  

Everything else was just fine.  No real misses, I don't think, although next year we will be *much* more intentional about teaching certain study skills.  

Edited May 12, 2021 by JennyD

[Samantheia]

Hits: Lukeion Rhetoric with Mrs. Baty and PAH APUSH with Mrs. Richman

Misses: CTY Honors Biology. He did enjoy the labs, but the bulk of the course consists of videos with a robotic-sounding voice throwing fact after fact at the listener. He ended up using Thinkwell Honors Biology as a supplement. 

[MamaSprout]

Dd tells me that this year was better than last year, so that's a win.

Unqualified hits:

DE Chem with a carefully chosen professor and a funny absent-minded lab professor we nicknamed Professor Bins.

JA personal finance with their Finance Park simulation

MIT HSSP (virtual b/c of Covid)

Outschool Virtual Mock Security Council- perfect tie-in with the HSSP courses.

NSLI-Y virtual Russian intensive

Civil Air Patrol- driving to one that is a little farther away but has a larger squadron with more academic-minded teens

Another year with the stern professor music teacher. Who knew she needed someone super-serious?

Hits so far (still in progress):

CORE Economy, Society, and Public Policy

eimacs University Computer Science 1

Beginner's Russian textbook and website

Qualified hits

Blue Tent AP courses. The instructors and content were exactly what dd needed. Dd will never do another AP course, though. Online tests is also something she now knows she needs to avoid. She really needs pencil and paper. She felt well-prepared for the exams. Much more so than her B&M school friends.

Misses?

Maybe not total misses, but things that kind of didn't live up to potential?

So far... PrepScholar for SAT prep. She's an extremely inconsistent tester. She's going to give it another go in June. I think her experience with AP test prep might help her use the PrepScholar platform more efficiently.

Sporty's Learn to Fly ground school course. It think it's too much like the uber-boring online driver's ed course that she took this year. It's abandoned for the time being (but was free because she did a Young Eagles flight).

French 3 without a class. 

 

Edited May 13, 2021 by MamaSprout

[NittanyJen]

On 5/11/2021 at 1:32 PM, Alte Veste Academy said:

Which teacher did he have for this class?

He is taking rhetoric II from Dr. Elizabeth Edwards.

[JumpyTheFrog]

9th Grade

Hit: Derek Owens Geometry: We joined when DS was already in chapter 7 of the book. Watching the videos before doing the lesson is helping him and has reduced my stress level.

Hit: Avancemos for Spanish 1: We bought the course access for $40. It includes tests, quizzes, audio files, and more other extras than we'll ever use. I enter all the vocab in Anki, and DS is retaining things well.

Miss: Spectrum Chemistry: This book had only about 5-10% of the practice problems needed for a course. We gave up about 1/4 of the way through. We'll try chemistry again in a year or two and use the rest of the labs.

[Not_a_Number]

8 hours ago, MamaSprout said:

So far... PrepScholar for SAT prep. She's an extremely inconsistent tester. She's going to give it another go in June. I think her experience with AP test prep might help her use the PrepScholar platform more efficiently.

Huh. Interesting. We had really good luck with PrepScholar with my sister, although it wasn't all we did. 

[Dmmetler]

The biggest hits this year were DE Writing for Media (which turned out to actually be responsible for a particular publication for the college. My high school senior was the ONLY non-Journalism major in the class) and an Introduction to Exceptional Learning class that was only 7 students, each of which had a personal interest in a particular population, so basically the last half of the semester was students each presenting and talking about their population and their experiences in the educational system (my kid talked about gifted homeschooling, online education, and early college). 

 

Dragonology has also been a big hit-I think it inadvertently got started at just the right time, when the kids really, really needed a community of peers, because that's really been the sense every single session. I think it would have been a popular class anyway, but this past year, during COVID, it really seemed to fill a need-both for the students and for L as the instructor. 

 

The biggest miss was online calculus this past fall. Online math has never worked well for my kid, period, and a college math class over TEAMS was no more successful than any other we've tried. 

[MamaSprout]

On 5/8/2021 at 6:28 PM, theelfqueen said:

 

My kid said "I HATE this textbook. I dont hate trig. I dont hate math. I HATE this book."

 

This is my kid. And she doesn't especially mind discovery math because she does imacs stuff.

[MamaSprout]

On 5/8/2021 at 1:50 PM, theelfqueen said:

Other hits Great Courses Vikings and Black Death

 

Both are good professors. 

[stripe]

Also, board member Jetta’s Clover Creek Physics was a definite hit. What a lovely person she is.

[mmasc]

10th grade hit: Clover Valley Chemistry. I am so, so pleased with this class! It was set up perfectly for my ds’s learning style, the teacher was extremely knowledgeable on her subject, my son actually enjoyed the class (big win on that), learned and retained. Overall a big win for sure. 
 

Edited May 16, 2021 by mmasc

[crazyforlatin]

On 5/8/2021 at 9:22 AM, Roadrunner said:

Clover Valley Honos chem was a huge hit here along with AoPS Intro to Python class. 
Lukeion muse series was a miss for this kid - I wish they had more traditional writing assignments. 

How hard is AoPS Python? Dd tried an independent class last summer and didn’t finish it. I don’t think it was hard, just not enough feedback and not incremental enough. We’re really hoping to at least go through a beginner’s class before graduating. 

[Roadrunner]

1 minute ago, crazyforlatin said:

How hard is AoPS Python? Dd tried an independent class last summer and didn’t finish it. I don’t think it was hard, just not enough feedback and not incremental enough. We’re really hoping to at least go through a beginner’s class before graduating. 

My older boy didn’t find it difficult at all. The Intermediate class is a definite step up, but he didn’t sweat that one either. 
My younger kid finds programming more challenging. He is doing well in the intro and enjoying it, but I won’t be putting him into intermediate. 
So the short answer is it’s not hard if you enjoy that sort of thing. 

[crazyforlatin]

2 hours ago, Roadrunner said:

My older boy didn’t find it difficult at all. The Intermediate class is a definite step up, but he didn’t sweat that one either. 
My younger kid finds programming more challenging. He is doing well in the intro and enjoying it, but I won’t be putting him into intermediate. 
So the short answer is it’s not hard if you enjoy that sort of thing. 

Thanks, I signed up Dd for the summer class. There’s always the hope that she could enjoy it.

[alisoncooks]

DD is enjoying the Botany courses on The Great Courses Plus. We weren't quite ready for high school biology this year, and these were the perfect thing to add to a mommy-made Botany course (DD's interest). 

[CAtoVA]

Hits this year:

Funda Funda Personal Finance (online). I can't say enough about how valuable and substantive this class was for my DS (11th grade). It's asynchronous which is not ideal for my son, but the quality and scope of content, and sheer variety of assignments, is amazing. The price is very reasonable, as well. I've been recommending this class/vendor to many people. The only nit-pick I would have is that the late policy grading is somewhat harsh (10% off per day) but probably necessary for upper high schoolers. The teacher/director(?) is on this forum, so if you are seeing this comment, here is a big "Thank You!!" for all your hard work.

Also, 7Sisters High School Health is working out well as a spine so far (about 1/2 way through). It's pretty basic with readings, questions, and tests so I am supplementing it with Crash Course videos  (Anatomy and Physiology) and some more in-depth readings/questions from Glencoe Heath (textbook). I will also have my DS complete a few reports/presentations on some topics (Powtoon, Prezi, Powerpoint, etc.) to round out the course. If my DS was more academically inclined (<cough, cough>) I would add in some Great Courses lectures on various topics, but what I am doing is enough for a semester high school health credit imo without being overwhelming.

From TeacherspayTeachers 21st Century Lit— Rhetoric Through Cinema Bundle: Engaging SOAPSTone, Rhetorical Appeals & Rhetorical Devices Analysis. I purchased this at a reasonable price when TpT was having a sale. Highly engaging and surprisingly substantive PRACTICE for rhetorical analysis using speeches/excerpts from popular movies. I used these exercises after teaching about Appeals and Devices and interspersed with analyzing the"heavier classics" such as I Have a Dream and The Gettysburg Address. My non-academically inclined son was actually asking to do MORE rhetoric this year!

Misses/Fails:

Nothing immediately comes to mind which is great given we had a tough time of it last year in 10th! 

[mmasc]

@CAtoVA Could you link the exact TPT bundle on Cinema that you enjoyed please? I’d like to check it out and my search on the site isn’t getting me to it I don’t think. 

[CAtoVA]

Here ya' go!

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Rhetoric-Through-Cinema-Bundle-Engaging-SOAPSTone-Appeals-Devices-Analysis-4145045?st=6b107e0218a458dcc74745426e6fff77

 

[SeaConquest]

Hit: CTY AP Computer Science A. The professor was super quick with timely feedback and always available to assist my son with any challenging concepts. It's an asynchronous class, which isn't my favorite, but the professor was very accessible.

Davidson Academy Explore Writing in the Humanities was a huge miss for my 2e kid. The course is amazing for a humanities oriented kid with solid executive functioning skills, as it uses late high school and early college texts and has multiple hard deadlines per week and many assignments that require long-range planning. It was supposed to be for gifted middle school students, but I found it to an incredibly challenging course for any kid with ADHD, which is a not insignificant part of the Davidson population. Other parents have reported similar experiences with the Explore courses, so I definitely wouldn't recommend them for any kids without exceptionally good EF skills. It was the bane of my ADHD STEM kid's entire existence this year. Gah.

[Random]

On 5/8/2021 at 2:39 PM, RootAnn said:

 

For us:  It's the end of the year & I feel blah about everything right now.

+1

But, I'll try to contribute.

Hits:

Windows to the World by IEW.   I was worried I missed the window (ha) to use this, but it was great for 9th.

Still love Jacob's Geometry 

Novare Chemistry

Potential to be a hit with a motivated student:

DIVE Biology + lab kit from Home Science Tools: great content, but it's self-paced.  Not the best for my school-avoidant manchild.

Misses:

TOG.  I've used this for 14 years now.  I got so bogged down this year!  We skipped a lot. 😕

[madteaparty]

5 hours ago, Random said:

+1

But, I'll try to contribute.

Hits:

Windows to the World by IEW.   I was worried I missed the window (ha) to use this, but it was great for 9th.

Still love Jacob's Geometry 

Novare Chemistry

Potential to be a hit with a motivated student:

DIVE Biology + lab kit from Home Science Tools: great content, but it's self-paced.  Not the best for my school-avoidant manchild.

Misses:

TOG.  I've used this for 14 years now.  I got so bogged down this year!  We skipped a lot. 😕

@Random is there a teachers edition or solutions manual for Jacobs geometry?

I can’t bring myself to contribute to the thread. Everything sucks and I want to get on a plane and fly far away. 
ETA: okay, okay, DD’s Beast 4 live with a human face class worked very well. Too bad they’re going back in person and we can’t participate bc too far. File under pandemic silver linings. Her French seems to be coming along, seemingly by magic. 

I enjoyed doing AP Government with DS. And....that’s it. 

Edited May 21, 2021 by madteaparty

[SDMomof3]

On 5/8/2021 at 9:22 AM, Roadrunner said:

Lukeion muse series was a miss for this kid - I wish they had more traditional writing assignments. 

Lukeion was also a miss for us.

[stripe]

Sigh

[Random]

16 hours ago, madteaparty said:

@Random is there a teachers edition or solutions manual for Jacobs geometry?

I can’t bring myself to contribute to the thread. Everything sucks and I want to get on a plane and fly far away. 
ETA: okay, okay, DD’s Beast 4 live with a human face class worked very well. Too bad they’re going back in person and we can’t participate bc too far. File under pandemic silver linings. Her French seems to be coming along, seemingly by magic. 

I enjoyed doing AP Government with DS. And....that’s it. 

@madteaparty  There is a solutions manual and a teacher's manual.  They are both valuable tools that I use all the time, but they should be one book, IMO.  There isn't much help teaching the material included in either book.  They contain schedules, solving steps, answers, extra problem sets, tests, etc.

I'm sorry everything sucks right now!  I console myself with the reminder that feelings are temporary and they change.  I hope you take a restful break. 

[TheSchoolintheHills]

On 5/11/2021 at 5:05 PM, Mom21 said:

Old Western Culture: Early Moderns – This is our last year with OWC, completing all four years. It’s been a hit every year. My young man has thoroughly relished this curriculum. No regrets.

We are planning to use Early Moderns 2021-22.  Did you supplement the history at all?  Just briefly looking, it seems that the Salem Witch Trials, Lewis and Clark, and Napoleon (to mention a few biggies) aren't covered.  I could easily supplement (I plan to have ds read The Crucible, Undaunted Courage, and a bio on Napoleon), but I would love to hear your thoughts.

[Eos]

Still finishing here. 

Hit of the year: PAH AP Psych with Bonnie Gonzalez.  She's hoping to be a TA next year.

No real misses.  She's finishing chem and mostly hates it, so more an attitude miss 🙂