Random Homeschool Thoughts
Friday, November 20, 2009 at 12:37PM - Anemone made an A on her Saxon 8/7 math test today. Actually, she makes A's on all her math tests, but she rarely makes an A on her daily work. This is the pattern with Saxon; you're always working on something new, but by the time you take a test, the new stuff has become old stuff and is second nature. In other words, the topic has been mastered. Knowing that helps get me through the rough days.
- I bought Singapore's Primary Challenging Word Problems books 5 and 6 to see how The Goobs would fare with them. It is just as I suspected; book 6 is too easy for JellyMan, and book 5 is about right for Anemone. She can solve the problems easily once she understands what they are asking. Instead of providing just the information necessary to solve the problem (as Saxon generally does), Singapore provides all sorts of information and expects you to sort out what's needed. That is just the sort of practice Anemone needs.
- Now I need a similar book for JellyMan, who is working through Algebra 2 - he never misses a Saxon word problem, and that makes me nervous. I can't find a word problem book for older students on Singapore's website. Any suggestions?
- I have been busy cobbling together JellyMan's 9th grade science curriculum. The textbooks we'll use are Understanding Earth, 4th ed., and Laboratory Manual for Physical Geology, 12th ed. Both are from my college geology class. We watched a fantastic video series in that class, but I didn't write down the title or the host's name (silly me - I wasn't thinking far enough ahead), so I bought The Teaching Company's How the Earth Works video series. I am matching up those lectures with the textbook chapters. (It's a pain, because the text presents, say, volcanoes in one large chapter, and the video series splits volcanoes up into several lectures throughout the course.) To lighten things up a bit, he will also read Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything. All I need to do now is purchase rock/mineral samples and a few testing kits. I'm looking for an extensive kit I can buy all at once - I want at least thirty samples for identification. Does anyone know where I might find such a thing? I'd rather not make a dozen small purchases from a dozen small companies.
- Poor Anemone has not gotten very far with First Start French this year. (She requested French lessons. She never requests anything school-ish, so you can imagine my excitement at the time.) I have absolutely no experience with French, and I just can NOT add another language to all the stuff I'm supposed to be learning. (Why, why, WHY don't either one of my Goobs want to learn Spanish?) I wouldn't have let her start if The Man hadn't told me he'd take over the French lessons when he came home from the desert. Well, you know what they say about good intentions. I have a few options. I could buy the Rosetta Stone Homeschool French program and have her muck about by herself, or I could hire a French tutor, or I could just tell her to learn French in college and start her on Greek. All three options sound kind of crappy to me.
- I am always fretting about JellyMan's handwriting. His work is legible, but only just. I recently had the opportunity to view samples of several high school boys' penmanship skills, which makes me feel a little better about things, but I still wish I could start over in that area. I tried to interest him in calligraphy, but his calligraphy looks just as bad as his everyday writing. I don't know why I worry about it; my handwriting isn't very nice at all, and I've gotten by. I suppose it's because we all want our kids to surpass us in every way, right?
- Today I have spent more time thinking about schooling my Goobs than I've spent actively schooling them. (And my Goobs need lots of schooling.) I'll catch you later.
*** Oops - I have one more thought. When my hard drive crashed, I lost a link to a neat-O thing I wanted to get Anemone for Christmas. It's a math puzzle type of toy. It was a series of linked tringles, I think, one side silver and one side gold, that folded up a gazillion ways to make this really nifty 3-D star shape. It was about $50 and I have no idea how I stumbled across it in the first place. Maybe the WTM forum, maybe one of the math forums . . . I just don't remember. If anyone has any idea what I'm talking about, please let me know!
*** Okay. Never mind. I found it. It's the Yoshimoto Cube. Here is a video:
*** Oops - I have one more thought. Today is the last day to enter the DK/Google Mummy book giveaway.
Melanie |
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