I love his solution. I will definitely be incorporating this into our plan. Bennett has published a book of brain games and has a website containing several game and puzzle resources. http://www.iwannabigbrain.com/
Let the games begin.
Showing posts with label curriculum. Show all posts
Showing posts with label curriculum. Show all posts
If Not Math, Than What?
I love it when someone smarter than me agrees with me. Last year I wrote about how I don't think we should be requiring our high schoolers to study higher math. Link Here. I recently found this TED Talk by John Bennett making a much better argument than I did.
I love his solution. I will definitely be incorporating this into our plan. Bennett has published a book of brain games and has a website containing several game and puzzle resources. http://www.iwannabigbrain.com/
Let the games begin.
I love his solution. I will definitely be incorporating this into our plan. Bennett has published a book of brain games and has a website containing several game and puzzle resources. http://www.iwannabigbrain.com/
Let the games begin.
Higher Math?
I had a bit of an epiphany this last year and I have been on a bit of a soapbox about it since.
The main reason we started teaching higher math is to teach logic. But higher math is not a good fit for all students; even college bound students.
What did I get out of my study of higher math? I received the knowledge that I could do higher math - with a fair amount of work. That's really about it. I do not use it in my daily (or yearly) life.
However what I would have really benefited from is a personal finance course. That is the kind of math that affects me on a daily basis. I have had to learn on my own how taxes, interest and amortization works. I have struggled to make a working budget and how to effectively make wise financial choices.
I venture to speculate that the lack of emphasizing personal finance in lieu of higher math courses might actually contribute to a rising generation and nation who have more debt than they can handle. Many do not understand the true purchase amount of a new car or mortgage. They do not understand how to budget and save. They do not know what it actually takes to run a business. They often do not take personal responsibility for their finances and look to others or even government to take care of them.
When I was in school, personal or consumer math had a stigma to it: it was for the "losers;" the kids who were just barely going to graduate anyway. I find this is unfortunate. We encourage higher math for all students to teach logic. Why not instead teach Logic. We encourage higher math because we have decided that everyone needs a college degree. I'm not so sure about that one either - but that is a different soap box.
I am certainly not saying we should not offer Calculus and Statistics. But I do think it would be better to emphasize personal, consumer, or business math.
So if I had my way, This would be my recommendation: Encourage math courses for everyone through Algebra and perhaps a little Geometry and then require a personal finance course (or consumer or business math). Algebra and Geometry often appeal to different of students. (I did better in Algebra; my husband did much better in Geometry.) By then most students know whether or not they would want to continue with the higher math courses. Leave higher math for the scientists, mathematicians, engineers and those who just love it. However have everyone take a personal finance course. I think we will be better off as a society.
Why Oh Why are we insisting our kids study higher math?
What did I get out of my study of higher math? I received the knowledge that I could do higher math - with a fair amount of work. That's really about it. I do not use it in my daily (or yearly) life.
However what I would have really benefited from is a personal finance course. That is the kind of math that affects me on a daily basis. I have had to learn on my own how taxes, interest and amortization works. I have struggled to make a working budget and how to effectively make wise financial choices.
I venture to speculate that the lack of emphasizing personal finance in lieu of higher math courses might actually contribute to a rising generation and nation who have more debt than they can handle. Many do not understand the true purchase amount of a new car or mortgage. They do not understand how to budget and save. They do not know what it actually takes to run a business. They often do not take personal responsibility for their finances and look to others or even government to take care of them.
When I was in school, personal or consumer math had a stigma to it: it was for the "losers;" the kids who were just barely going to graduate anyway. I find this is unfortunate. We encourage higher math for all students to teach logic. Why not instead teach Logic. We encourage higher math because we have decided that everyone needs a college degree. I'm not so sure about that one either - but that is a different soap box.
I am certainly not saying we should not offer Calculus and Statistics. But I do think it would be better to emphasize personal, consumer, or business math.
So if I had my way, This would be my recommendation: Encourage math courses for everyone through Algebra and perhaps a little Geometry and then require a personal finance course (or consumer or business math). Algebra and Geometry often appeal to different of students. (I did better in Algebra; my husband did much better in Geometry.) By then most students know whether or not they would want to continue with the higher math courses. Leave higher math for the scientists, mathematicians, engineers and those who just love it. However have everyone take a personal finance course. I think we will be better off as a society.
Coding
I've been thinking about coding and computer programing for a while. I am only fleetingly familiar with computer coding from messing around with my blogs. But just that little bit has peaked my interest. I wish I knew more. And every once in a while I do come up with an idea and wish I knew how to make a program to do "that."
My brother alerted me to this video. It didn't take much to convince me, not with it already in the back of my mind. Basic computer coding/programing will be added to my family's class schedule and part of our graduation requirements.
My brother alerted me to this video. It didn't take much to convince me, not with it already in the back of my mind. Basic computer coding/programing will be added to my family's class schedule and part of our graduation requirements.
Resources for the 2012-13 School Year
It wasn't very long ago when I had a very simple curriculum plan. It looked like this:
Daily scripture study
Reading stories and discussing them.
Family Work
Faith in God
Scouts
Individual interests
They have grown now and need more. I liked the simple focus of building a foundational core. I am glad I spent those years the way I did. I don't regret it. The academics were not forgotten, however they took a backseat to that foundational curriculum plan. I have learned that Dr. Raymond and Dorthy Moore were right: they can catch up academically- so "better late than early."
We still have the same basics but have added the academic element. I have never paid much attention to grades; I deal better with ages so I'll give it to you that way.
This year I have a 13 year old boy, an 11 year old boy with autism - He has delays and is academically about first-ish grade. I have an 8 year old boy and a 5 year old girl. (My two year old boy isn't quite ready for school yet.) I find myself in the position of having 3 in need of individualized phonics instruction concurrently. They need different types of instruction and are at different levels so I cannot combine well. This all takes more time from me each day. I cant wing it as well as I could before in this new climate. I am so grateful for wonderful resources to help me so that I do not have to reinvent the wheel.
I basically have two tracks one for the independent reader and another for the not quite yet independent readers.
This is what we are doing this year:
My oldest is doing Visual Latin this year. He is really enjoying it and even said that Latin is his favorite subject. HA! Who wudda thunk?
We were using Life of Fred and Singapore last year but went back to Math U See for this year. My oldest was struggling in Life of Fred. The concepts were not being explained well enough for him. We both agree that Life of Fred would be a great review for him, but not a main text. He is doing much better now. The younger ones were using Singapore. I liked how Singapore explained things. It was similar to Math U See in some ways and a served as a slightly different way of reinforcing the concepts. However I kept using Math U See resources and techniques enough that we just migrated back. I would not be apposed to Singapore in the future though.
(Just as a side note. In my education classes for my teaching degree the classes stressed the importance of making math visual and meaningful. All of the examples, that everyone else was ooing and aahing over, all those epiphanies were all review for me because of Math U See. I had already learned how to visualize math concepts from teaching with MUS. cool, huh?)
Daily scripture study
Reading stories and discussing them.
Family Work
Faith in God
Scouts
Individual interests
They have grown now and need more. I liked the simple focus of building a foundational core. I am glad I spent those years the way I did. I don't regret it. The academics were not forgotten, however they took a backseat to that foundational curriculum plan. I have learned that Dr. Raymond and Dorthy Moore were right: they can catch up academically- so "better late than early."
We still have the same basics but have added the academic element. I have never paid much attention to grades; I deal better with ages so I'll give it to you that way.
This year I have a 13 year old boy, an 11 year old boy with autism - He has delays and is academically about first-ish grade. I have an 8 year old boy and a 5 year old girl. (My two year old boy isn't quite ready for school yet.) I find myself in the position of having 3 in need of individualized phonics instruction concurrently. They need different types of instruction and are at different levels so I cannot combine well. This all takes more time from me each day. I cant wing it as well as I could before in this new climate. I am so grateful for wonderful resources to help me so that I do not have to reinvent the wheel.
I basically have two tracks one for the independent reader and another for the not quite yet independent readers.
This is what we are doing this year:
We are trying out the Writing Course by Fred Lybrand this year. I came across this last year in my investigation of the Robinson Curriculum. With RC you have your students spend about 1/2 - 1 hour of writing each day. Lybrand wrote this to assist that process. I'll have to let you know how it goes. Only my oldest is doing this right now. It is designed for children about 10 and over and the others are not there yet.
I do like this one. I like the way students practice their words in a multi-sensory way. I like the fact that it is one book that works for all students 8ish and above. Again, only my oldest is here thus far.
I do like this one. I like the way students practice their words in a multi-sensory way. I like the fact that it is one book that works for all students 8ish and above. Again, only my oldest is here thus far.
(Just as a side note. In my education classes for my teaching degree the classes stressed the importance of making math visual and meaningful. All of the examples, that everyone else was ooing and aahing over, all those epiphanies were all review for me because of Math U See. I had already learned how to visualize math concepts from teaching with MUS. cool, huh?)
Of course we will use the Scripture Story Books. This is a picture of the DVD's which we also have and watch sometimes, but we really like the books. The Friend Magazine is also a staple around here.
I ran across Heritage History at the Washington State Homeschool Convention. It is similar to a lot of the other living history programs, Ambleside, Old Fashioned Education, Robinson, etc.; except that it was all there ready to go. The book collections come in pdf ready to print or read online or in epub and mobi to move to the e-reader. This I loved; I don't have to mess searching for the right formatting or conversions. It also has beautiful maps and a curriculum guide. We are doing Middle Ages this year.
I always dismissed Explode the Code in my effort to avoid workbooks. I thought they were redundant and boring. Now that I have essentially three children needing that intensive phonics at the same time, I needed some help. I am very impressed with the program. The kids enjoy them and really need the repetition. I am adding the Beyond the Code books to our routine. I hope it will give them additional reading practice while working on the comprehension aspect.
This year we are doing Physics and Astronomy. This is a pricey curriculum and I have children in the pre-level one and level one ages (now called focus on elementary or focus on middle school). I decided to get both levels of the first curriculum and see how I can combine them. In a lot of ways I am just using the older level for all of them. It is too much for my Kindergartener, but the other guys are catching on to much of what is intended for an older level. I think I will probably just get the middle school level in the future. They will revisit the same subjects in few years at a deeper level.
I have gone back and forth on handwriting. Printing first, cursive first, italic instead, capital letters first, lower case first, blah, blah, blah. Each perspective has its points. For me I have an autistic boy who learned capitals first and refuses to learn anything else. (does it really matter? I don't know). But for know I am sticking with this. I like it. At least with book C and above. Books A and B teach the letters in alphabetical order. I really do like it when they teach it in stroke families. C and above do.
Really, that's about it. I am trying to keep things very simple as I finish my own degree.
Visual Latin
I have looked at several Latin programs, some are very thorough and quite expensive, others can be quite dull. A few months ago I came across Visual Latin. After previewing it through their free sample lessons, I decided to try it myself. Visual Latin helps me see, hear, and write the lesson. Dwane Thomas teaches the lesson in the visual component while I read what is being said. I then have the opportunity to listen, repeat, and then translate passages. This is great for me. I need to see and hear at the same time for it to stick with me. I then benefit from repetitions. Thomas's sense of humor is great and his love of the language shows. I never really thought that learning a language could be so fun.
Compared with other programs this is surprisingly affordable; this is a huge plus. I will warn you though, it has a strong Christian bent, however this happens to be a plus for me. I am actually enjoying learning Latin.
