07.29.08
Posted in The nuts and bolts of it at 2:17 am by Meg
At least as far as it’s shaping up.
I’m thinking the child will be a tad bit busy; and with taking the ps class, no more slow mornings.
Monday
7 AM catch the bus to the public school - I probably would have considered driving her because the class doesn’t start until something like 8:10, but Datter will be riding the bus and they might as well go together.
9:20 - I pick her up
10:00 - martial arts class
11:10 - pick her up, she goes home, showers and has lunch.
12:45 - she starts her seatwork for us and any homework from Spanish class
Tuesday
7 AM - catch bus
9:20 - I pick her up and we go home. She works on seatwork and can break for lunch when she wants.
2 PM - biology lab at our house (normally)
4 - lab is over and she can finish up anything left hanging or Spanish homework.
Wednesday
7 AM - catch bus
9:20 - I pick her up and we go home. She works for about 2.5 hours on seatwork and then breaks for lunch around noon.
1:10 PM leave the house for the library
1:30 - Global issues class at the library - given by someone ELSE in our group. (Can you tell that I’m happy?)
3:30 - head home where she can finish up anything left hanging or Spanish homework.
Thursday
7 AM catch the bus
9:20 - I pick her up
10:00 - martial arts class
11:10 - pick her up, she goes home, showers and has lunch.
12:45 - she starts her seatwork for us and any homework from Spanish class
Friday
7 AM - catch bus
9:20 - I pick her up and we go home. She works for about 2.5 hours on seatwork and then breaks for lunch around noon.
1 PM - homeschool group activity - gym, swimming, bowling etc…
And for classes it’s looking like:
Biology
Geometry
English (literature samples, grammar, and full length books)
Japanese history
I’ll probably put the Global issues class under something like current events.
foreign languages - Spanish through the ps, a little French literature to keep that from dieing, and Japanese.
Music (which reminds me that her music lesson is at 10:30 AM on Fridays right now and I’ll need to move that to a more convenient time) which will be a combination of her music lessons and a music appreciation text that I picked up a while ago and then set aside. Combined it will give her a nice art elective.
oh, and I mustn’t forget that she just applied to volunteer at the Children’s Museum on a regular basis. She hasn’t heard back yet, but that will have to be added in.
Hubby has expressed concern that she’ll be lonely without her brother around all day; looking at this, I’m wondering if she’s going to have a chance to miss him.
And someone asked me the other day if I was considering directing another play - I just looked at them and asked when would we have time for rehearsals on this schedule?
Then I said that I wasn’t going to even seriously consider it until after October when we can see how busy our life is.
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07.18.08
Posted in The nuts and bolts of it at 7:24 pm by Meg
My livingroom is full of kids playing D&D, so I’ve been spending most of the afternoon planning out the bio labs for this coming year. Like I said yesterday, this is both easier and harder than the last time I did this. We are certainly going to do some labs that I judged too much last time and dropping some of the busy work labs that we did last time.
I still need to price out supplies and availabilities, but this should get us through the year. (D) means it’s a dissection.
Sampling a Plant Community
Observing the Uncertainty of Measurements
Identifying Organic Compounds
Investigating Chemical Cycles in the Biosphere
Investigating Air and Water Pollution
Observing Osmosis
Measuring the Effect of Light Intensity on Photosynthesis
Observing Respiration
Observing Specialized Cells
Investigating Inherited Traits
Making Karyotypes
DNA Extraction
Comparing Adaptations of Birds
Modeling a Gene Pool
Making Coacervates
Using and Constructing a Dichotomous Key
Comparing the Characteristics of Molds
Observing Root and Stem Structures
Investigating Germination and Seedling Development
Investigating Germination Inhibitors
Comparing Sponges and Hydras
Observing the Structure of a Squid and a Clam (D)
Observing the Structure of a Starfish and Grasshopper (D)
Observing the Structure of an Earthworm (D)
Comparing Invertebrate Body Plans
Investigating Frog Anatomy (D)
Observing the Structure of a Perch (D)
Observing the Structure of a Lizard and a Snake (D)
Comparing Primates
Observing the Structure of a Fetal Pig (D)
Observing Vertebrate Skeletons
Observing Nervous Responses
Observing Bone Composition and Structure
Measuring Lung Capacity
Simulating Urinalysis
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07.07.08
Posted in COLLEGE, The nuts and bolts of it at 2:40 pm by Meg
It’s watch the mail time again in our household. Why? because Boy took the AP microeconomics exam last May and the grade should be coming any day.
Keep your fingers crossed. He needs a 4 or 5 for Trinity to count it.
We could pay Collegeboard and get the score over the phone, but we’ve already sent more money to them than I’m happy with. We’ll wait.
And it’s not fun waiting. After them losing Boy’s statistics test last year, I’m sitting on pins and needles waiting for it to happen again.
So, while I’m sitting here watching the days tick by, JoVE had to send me a link to an article by a guy that graded the AP US History test. (BTW, it’s the Chronicle and I don’t know how long there will be free access to it.) It’s interesting reading his tale of the experience.
But what caught my attention was a passage about AP courses in high schools.
I had always thought of AP as an honors program, so I’m mystified by how many dismal essays we endure. I ask around and get a range of answers. Some say that entire school districts now put all kids into AP classes. Others say that students elect to take AP classes for the extra point it adds to their GPA. Others blame No Child Left Behind. One describes the test as a “cash cow,” implying that fee revenues encourage the College Board to allow anyone to take it. …. Nevertheless, it’s clear that Advanced Placement no longer necessarily denotes academic excellence and that many students with very little aptitude take AP courses and tests.
It reminded me of our last exchange student. Part of the exchange program rules is that they have to take US History and English. They put poor Tochter into AP US History. Makes a lot of sense to me?
Anyway, she did alright - basically - until it came time to do the final. Note that this wasn’t the AP test, just the final for the course. She was feeling very lost and confused and so I told her that I’d help her study (figuring that since Boy and I had covered it the previous year, I should be alright to be able to answer her questions and direct her to what she needed.)
So we sit and she pulls out a sheet of paper.
“This is what’s going to be on the final.”
“okay, that will help us know what to study.”
“No, these are the essay questions that will be on the final.”
“So, you just need to know how to answer these 10 questions?”
“Actually we have to answer these first 3, but then we can choose any 3 of the remaining 7.”
But wait, that wasn’t the only thing (and btw, this wasn’t special instructions for her, it was for the entire class.) It turned out the they could bring in a 8.5 x 11 in. cheat sheet with whatever they wanted written on it.
AND THIS WAS AN AP CLASS!
I was floored. So, now reading this grader’s comments, I have to say I agree with him.
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06.29.08
Posted in COLLEGE, The nuts and bolts of it, Books at 10:51 am by Meg
If this works, you should be able to click below to view a list of everything that Boy has read over the last 4 years. Not just the ‘good’ stuff that we included in his course description.
List
Edited later: To follow up on Applestars question about why I didn’t have him list comic books and graphic novels - he ‘thinks’ he has about 3000 comic books and 200 graphic novels. Way too much to list.
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06.27.08
Posted in COLLEGE at 10:12 am by Meg
Trinity wants a copy and so for completeness, I figured I’d put it here (and update the page on the side)
I’ve been dragging my heels getting this done.
With this final transcript we are not resending the course descriptions - yeah, there’s some changes and more books to be added, but it’s not worth it for what is primarily a rubber stamp indicating that he did finish high school.
For fun, I thought I’d also post his entire actual reading list that includes all the ‘good’ stuff as well as the junk - the only thing that would have been missing were the comics and graphic novels of which he has an amazing collection built up. (I just bought him more sleeves and cardboard for storing them in and he wanted 200 to bring him up to date and have some to fill.)
But trying to take the file I have and get all 227 books to post on here properly (without having to retype them all in) is taking too much fiddling. So until I can figure out how to import an Excel spreadsheet in mass, you’ll have to take my word.
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