This proud parenting moment brought to you by me....

When your kid nails college calculus with a 98 average, wert?

Curriculum for our final year of homeschooling...

Finally had a minute to get this 12th curriculum post out.  I am more than just a little busy even with grown kids.

A17 is in 12th grade ((GASP))!

Its awesomely fantastic and fantastically awesome!

Apologia Physics 
Hewitt Lightening Lit 
Hewitt Speech
Spanish II-Mango and Duolingo
Writer's Inc.
Teaching Textbooks PreCalculus 3.0
Economics
Magruder's American Government
Khan Academy
ACT Prep various resources
There will also be a mix of acting jobs, volunteering, book clubs, a little traveling, babysitting, pet sitting, and whatever else she decides to do along the way.

Happy homeschooling......

ACT help.......

More helpful ACT links.

ACT science
ACT strategies and tips
ACT math prep
More ACT tips and tricks

Newton's Laws: Crash Course Physics #5

"New math"....................

A couple days of the month, my girls go to the school bus drop off and pickup our 8-year-old neighbor girl.  They help her do homework and hangout with her until her mom gets back.  The other day, she pulled out her math work and proceeded to show us how to do "new math."  She was really excited about.  It is supposed to be an easier, more efficient way to work out math problems but I don't know.  I am not sure on which planet 118 x 4 = 4008, maybe on a "new planet."  Another reason I am grateful for homeschooling!

The Nucleus: Crash Course Chemistry #1............

High School Physics - Metric System

Motion in a Straight Line: Crash Course Physics #1

Phascinating physics.............

Did you know that if you have two straws, one in your mouth and one inside of a cup filled with a drink, no matter how hard you try, you will not be able to drink from either straw.  That is physics!

Physics is all about studying matter and energy in space and time and how they interact with each other.  Physics is also an experimental science.

The word physics comes from the Greek word that means nature.

Energy can be gravity, motion, light, electricity, and/or radiation.

Phun phactoids for physics:

Sir Isaac Newton discovered the laws of motion and gravity in 1687.

Albert Einstein is noted to be the most famous physicist ever.  He won the Noble Prize in Physics for theoretical physics.  On a side note, Einstein is also the co-inventor of the refrigerator.

The lowest energy of an atom is called ground state.

Did you know that sunlight exerts solar radiation pressure?  It does and on a clear day sunlight can be reflected off of a mirror that can be seen 25 miles away.  Crazy!

Light travels about 900,000 times faster than sound travels.

Sounds travels 767 miles per hour.

X-rays are another form of physics.  Wilhelm Conrad Rontgen produced and detected electromagnetic radiation in a wavelength in 1895.


Atoms are 99.999999999999% empty space and believe it or not, all the matter that makes up the human race can fit on a sugar cube.

The mass of our atmosphere is 5.500,000,000,000,000 (quadrillion).

Venus is the only planet that spins in the opposite direction to Earth.

Uranus is the only planet that rolls on its side like a barrel.

If you were somehow on Mars and trying to weight yourself for some unknown reason, because of gravity, your weight would be significantly lower.  For example, if you weigh 200 pounds on earth that translates to about 76 pounds on Mars.

Light from earth takes only 1.255 seconds to reach the moon.

Israel is the lowest location on earth (400 meters below sea level).  The ever famous Dead Sea is located there.    The Dead Sea is so dense with salt water (hypersaline), you can actually float on it.

Crazy!  Cosmonaut Sergie Avdeyev was in space for 747 days and when he returned, he was one fraction of a second younger.

Alchemy of diamonds.  Turns out you can convert graphite into diamonds by applying a temperature of 3000 Celsius and a pressure of 100,000 atm.  I need to try this!

If you throw a tennis ball in space, it would just keep moving in a straight line with the same speed forever!  This is because space has no resistance to motion.

Pretty interesting stuff physics.  Follow the links to learn more.

Links: Here, Live Science, ZME science
Interactive physics.
Experiments to try.

Skeleton plan for 10th and 12th grades coming up in about 3 weeks........

Cannot even believe it but here we go again!  A new school year already.

The saddest part is by this time next year, I will have a graduate (sniff, sniff).  It has truly been an amazing adventure with C17 from the beginning to the end.

A15 will be in 10th grade, and I still have a hard time believing that too!  Luckily, I have great kids and luckily they both know how good they have it!  As with most homeschooling moms, anything can change in curriculum choices even on day one.  At the moment, this is what my brain is telling me looks good so hopefully all of this curriculum will get us where we need to be by the end of the year.


12th grade (EXTRA LARGE GASP)- Amazingly C17 has taken more electives than she ever needed to and that is why none are listed here.
Teaching textbooks PreCalculus 2.0

Apologia Physics

Advanced Biology
Hewitt Lightening Lit British Lit
Hewitt Speech
Spanish II-mango, duolingo, along with various other resources.
Economics-undecided at the moment.

10th grade
Teaching textbooks Geometry 2.0
Apologia Chemistry
Hewitt Lightening Lit Part 1 and Part 2
Spanish I-mango, duolingo, along with various other resources.
Driver's Ed.
Health II
I am going to add something else to this load, just not sure what she wants yet.


Both
Magruder's American Government This is a good year to do this with both since the election is coming up soon.
Writer's Inc
Co-op classes
Music
A whole lot of volunteering, babysitting, and pet sitting.

We will also be using many of the resources from Schoolhouse Teachers.com.  Click here to buy or in my sidebar under affiliates and thank you!

We will also be using curriculum from CurrClick.  Click here to buy or in my sidebar under affiliates and thanks again!

Check out Bright Ideas Press for so many goodies like the Mystery of History.  Click here and thanks!

Don't forget to check out Molly Green Magazine here.  So many helpful tips and goodies here!

Khan Academy is a site we cannot get enough of, please check them out here.

I will be posting updates here and there, and there is a good chance in a month from now, this will all look different but you have to do what works and keep the kiddos happy to be learning otherwise, it could be a catastrophe!

Happy homeschooling..............

An amazing find to share............

from Lamar education.  PDF trig tutorial cheat sheet.  You are welcome!!!

Happy homeschooling!!

Nature by Numbers-This is a really cool video for anyone studying geometry.

Who doesn't love geometry? C15, that is who!

Or math, or algebra, or ....
I have this amazingly smart young lady that hates any kind of math and every kind of math.  She does not discriminate on the hate of math.  I am not sure why, she has always score well-over 90% but she hates it no matter what.

This year for tenth grade we are using Teaching Textbooks Geometry.  Traditional 10th grade geometry is Euclidean geometry. The section C15 is working on now is a direct tie in to her world history which is a great bonus even if she does not think so.

Who is Euclid and what is Euclidean geometry anyway?

~Euclid was born approximately 330 BC and died approximately 260 BC.

~Euclid, a Greek mathematician, is known as the Father of Geometry because of his revolutionary ideas, and his textbook called Elements which was written in the year 300 BC.  The word Euclid

click for image link

means good glory in Greek.

~It is thought that Euclid attended Plato's Academy in Athens prior to moving to Alexandria, Egypt.

~Geometry can be dated back to as far as ancient Egypt around 3000 BC.

~The word geometry means earth measure.

~Euclid wanted to prove that by using logic and reasoning, you could find out if things are true or not.  For example, the idea that all right angles are equal.  Euclid used logic and reasoning and prove that to be the case.

~Whether we like math or not, we still must learn it.  Geometry is a good math topic for C15 since she is a photographer.  The relationship between geometry and photography is an important one-i.e. aerial photography, photogammetry, depth perception, triangulation, and on and on.  Here is a free book called the Handbook of Aerial Photography if you want to learn more.

Click for image link

Help:
Intro to Euclidean geom/Khan Academy

Malini
Geometry games online.
Famous people-Euclid.
wiki

Calculating GPA for high school credit.

Don't stress over trying to figure out the complex system of calculating a GPA.

Calculating your child's GPA can be tricky but it does not have to be.  Here are some great resources that helped me tackle this task with ease.



Donna Young
The Write Foundation
Free GPA calculator from Everyday Education
Pinterest boards all about GPA
Montgomery Educational Consulting

Math-U-See

This year for math, we are using Math-U-See.  My kids are getting older and if you are a homeschooling parent, you know that some subjects get a lot harder as the kids get into higher grades.  This is our first year in high school, and I have to make sure that C14 stays on track with everything.  I love the idea of Mr. Demme teaching the concepts through DVD that we can just pop in and watch and then apply the lessons taught to the corresponding pages in the workbooks. If you have trouble the first time, watch it again!  He actually makes math look easy, well at least when we are watching him do it that is.  Since I wanted Math-U-See for high school, I decided to go ahead and use it for A12/7th grade too just to simplify things in my brain since I have a lot going on so simple is better right now.  Well, simple is actually better all the time but especially when going through major life adjustments. 

Math-U-See has a fantastic website so if you need more information or help, you must go there and check out everything they have.  

Getting started

Parent resources

Drills

Worksheets

They even have online co-ops. 

Math-U-See Pinterest pins by pinners

Math-U-See Pinterest page

Math-U-See on Facebook

Math-U-See Twitter

So far, so good with the Math-U-See program.  We started our year out a little slowly due to life situations but that is just one of the great things about homeschooling.  You can go at the pace you want and take breaks when you really need to.  

A12 is using Zeta.  I am including the table of contents which was taken directly from the Math-U-See website.  Please visit the website for more information.

Major Concepts and Skills Include:

• Expanding understanding of place value from positive powers of ten to include decimals
• Fluently adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing multiple digit decimals using place-value strategies
• Solving real-world problems with decimals and percentages
• Understanding the metric system and converting from one unit of measure to another

Additional Concepts and Skills:

• Understanding and simplifying exponents
• Understanding negative numbers and representing them on the coordinate plane
• Using properties of operations to simplify and evaluate algebraic expressions
• Interpreting and graphing relationships between dependent and independent variables
• Understanding of plane geometry & geometric symbols
• Using ratio reasoning to solve problems

C14 is using Algebra 1.  I am including the table of contents which was taken directly from the Math-U-See website.  Please see the website for more information.

Table of Contents

• Commutative and Associative Properties
• Order of Operations
• Solving for an Unknown with One Variable
• Distributive Property
• Cartesian Coordinates
• Graphing a Line
• Slope-Intercept Formula
• Graphing Parallel Lines and the Equation of a Line
• Graphing Perpendicular Lines
• Finding the Slope-Intercept Formula with Different Givens

Banks and finance charges

Banks are really smart about getting money from people with their finance charges.  You really can get suckered in if you are not sure how to do basic math.

Here is an example:  You want to purchase something, I don't know lets say a 4-wheeler.  The 4-wheeler cost is only $4,500 but you do not have enough cash but you really want it so you go to the bank and they are all too happy to give you the money as long as you pay a finance charge so they can make money too, that is what their main objective is anyway, it is certainly not about helping you.

Okay so the $4,500 is approved at a rate of lets just say 15.49% and lets just say the bank is very generous and gives you 5 years to pay them back, how generous of them indeed.  Here is the part you need to understand math for.  This amount with this interest for 5 years calls for a monthly payment of $454.00 (((A MONTH!!))).  So basically when you add all of this together you get a $4,500 4-wheeler for $27,240.00.

Don't believe it, lets do the math together.
15.49%+total finance charges of $8360.96 which makes the total amount financed $18,879.04 which leaves you with a total of $27,240.00.

If that version is too difficult for you to understand just do it the easy way multiple $454.00 times 12 (12 months in a year) which gives you $5,448.00 for each year so now multiple $5,448.00 times 5 (you financed for 5 years) and you get the grand total of  $27,240.00.

That is unbelievable!!!!  Look at all that wasted money.  I cannot see how anyone in their "Right" mind could do such a thing but it happens every day when people are desperate to get something so beware of banks and their finance changes.  My car  was $6,000 cheaper than this made up 4-wheeler. It seems criminal to me that a bank could get away with that but make sure not to miss the payments because then you might have to go and do even more crazy things, like???? borrow against your house to pay off the debt for the made up 4-wheeler which is even dumber than buying a $27,240.00 4-wheeler in the first place.  Anyway, buyer beware!