Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Looking forward - Maths

For the last couple of years maths has been a subject on auto -pilot:

Miquon for the first years,

A mix of Keys to ... and Singapore for the middle years,





followed by Jacobs Algebra and Geometry.

While I have a mix of love maths children and bright but not so confident students this has served us well.

However since Jacobs only has the two books we are left looking for another program to see out the senior years. Veritas recommended that we move to Foresters, and we did. So far we are struggling through the first 4 Chapters, redoing, backtracking , trying to get our heads around the specifics and the proofs rather than intuitively accepting what we know, but the love of Maths is dying fast. The jump from one style to another needs a transition that we simply don't have.



 So I'm starting to look at the options. KHAN Academy is definitely one option, and my daughter likes it, but I'm not quite ready to take on a program which I can't plonk down on the desk in front of me and say yep there it is.

So we've taken a risk and purchased the Advanced Algebra book of Life of Fred. Hopefully it works, at least it should be fun, and right now having some fun back in school is what we need.


 But if anyone reading this has any thoughts, I'm still open to suggestions. I need something that will give a bright but uncertain young lady the confidence that she knows what she is going and will succeed.

 

Monday, December 10, 2012

The End of a Long year

2012 has been long year. Some really neat things have happened along with a lot of stretching and change.

It seems to have had more than its share of stuff packed into it. The year reads as a haze of...

Increased responsibility for Tony at the school he teaches at with becoming project managed for putting in the new computer system, hardware and software. 

Looking after my mum following a pesky skin graft, and them hubby misjudging the white on white of fuzzy snow while skiing and messing up his knee.

Lots of ups and downs at the ballet studio, but my girl finally got a Distinction for her exam and thoroughly deserved it.

New experiences as we were graciously offered homeschool opportunities for Bush-craft, Caving, Rock-climbing etc, through the organization that certifies the outdoor education leaders.

   
A trip to Christchurch for the long term research project that were my youngest is involved in and which compares the development of full term and prem babies.

 Its been busy, the blog has been neglected and now it is nice to see the end of the road, Christmas and summer ahead and time to regroup.

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