AP Self Study

Some homeschooling parents don’t feel qualified to teach AP classes to their students. What can be done by the student on their own? Here are some ideas to empower the student to own the AP experience. Start with an Overview Look at the main ideas of the course. What will be the primary topics? What is the structure of the test? What are the essays and multiple choice questions? You can find this information on College Board’s site.
One minute to read

AP Psychology

This is a great course to explore ideas, theories, and methods of the scientific study of behavior and mental processes. Online Resources Crash Course: watched videos throughout the year but found that they were not very helpful for review. Textbook Meyer Felt too casual and not very professional. Wasn’t super concise but it did stick pretty closely to things covered on AP exam. Barron’s This was the only review book I used and it was super useful.
2 minutes to read

AP Physics 1

Prerequisites: algebra 1 and 2 Basic Details AP Physics Reviewbook
One minute to read

Blue Blind

For me, forsythia and daffodils are friendly reminders of the abundance of springtime. Yellow feels so happy and cheerful. I love spring in general, but yellow specifically, as a herald of growth and vitality. Imagine my disappointment when I learned last week that my child can’t see yellow. At all. Never in her life has she seen yellow. She is a teenager and we are only just now noticing this yellow deficiency!
3 minutes to read

Sounding It Out

For five years now, we’ve been reading daily as a family in the Spanish language. Reading in Spanish is predictable; there are few exceptions. Though our accents aren’t perfect, at this point, we are all able to sound out any Spanish word. Learning to read Spanish is a huge help to all of us, but especially to my children with dyslexia. They cannot guess at the Spanish word, instead, they need to slow down and read each syllable.
2 minutes to read

Do Your Children Ever Disobey?

Feeling wounded by her fourteen-year-olds Tyrannosaurus-like outburst, my friend slumped across the park bench. She looked defeated as she told me about her son’s disappointment with their recent family celebration which she had cut short in expectation of the demands of his 4:30 am workouts. “You never let me do anything fun!” he had yelled when she encouraged him to head to bed early, reminding him of the agreement they had previously made.
2 minutes to read

The Moment Your Skate First Touches the Ice, You Feel It

My child is learning to ice skate. I’m proud of her. No one else in our family is big into ice skating. So it is unfamiliar to me. Since she is high school age, she has paid for and attended her lessons alone. I haven’t heard the instructions from her teachers. I haven’t spent much time with her on the rink. But, when she gets back home, she consistently says, “That was so fun!
3 minutes to read

Mrs Zajac

Rules can be scary. Rule enforcers can be scary. Breaking rules can have big consequences. Compassion can motivate you to overcome obstacles. These mindsets are eloquently described by Tracy Kidder in his book, “Among Schoolchildren.” Mrs. Zajac seemed to have a frightening amount of energy. She strode across the room, her arms swinging high and her hands in small fists. Taking her stand in front of the green chalkboard, discussing the rules with her new class, she repeated sentences, and her lips held the shapes of certain words, such as “homework,” after she had said them.
2 minutes to read

First Learn Then Create

When I follow-up my learning with an application of the learning, I am more likely to remember what I learned. I’ve found this works well for my children, too. After field trips, I like to pause and reinforce the learning. I especially like to do it creatively. When I found this book at the library, my kids and I were excited to use it to reinforce some of what we’ve learned at National Parks.
One minute to read