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Personally I find that if there’s a serious goal you can’t achieve on your own and through the available resources then get help. The good worthwhile help.
I hear your son complaining about how slow and excruciating the process is. Not about how bad or ridiculous the subject is.
And I think this is such a great thing to learn. When you’re stuck figure out why and find a way out. Find the solution to the problem. Get a shortcut. Or remove the delay.
This is probably one of the best things to learn because it’s applicable in any stage of life all throughout.
From my own personal experience with learning on a difficult subject or topic, I don’t like struggling through the work with someone who is on the same level. It’s so much easier having someone who knows it well, explaining it to you so you can move on quickly to what you are trying to achieve.
Like when I was taking finance math and had this problem to solve: An investment of $3,000 is made at an annual simple interest rate of 5%. How much additional money must be invested at an annual simple interest rate of 9% so that the total annual interest earned is 7.5% of the total investment?
I spent a lot of time “whining” my way through these problems, thought I figured it out, but in the end I really didn’t. Then when I found someone who was an expert to explain it to me, instead of working with people at the same level, I got it and moved on.
I have found grown homeschoolers myself who experienced selective science from their parents and were left to fend for themselves with math, they are anti-homeschool… or at least they were until I told them about tutors.
Geez, I love this post for so many reasons. I love hearing about music camp, the stitching photos, and your links to OLD posts with cute chubby-cheeked kiddos, but the best is that you are someone who is willing to take a different route and still tweak it to satisfy your needs. I love having a tutor, it makes me so happy because then I can focus on math and science, and the tutor can do the other stuff I don’t like…
I never really understood why it is perfectly fine and readily apparent that a music teacher has to be hired to teach an instrument but the very same thing does not occur to most people for learning science. As if you could learn science by osmosis (something for your son to check out :-) )
I was thinking the same thing but refrained from making the comment because I figured that it had already occurred to her.
I can see the argument too, but at the same time, both my brothers taught themselves guitar… from a book. And they were both in a rock band and totally amazing.
I try not to over-simplify, but I know that in some cases it’s needed to make the argument. I didn’t need a teacher to learn how to be on a computer, the internet, or video games… but I admit that some people’s minds work completely in a different way than mine works. It’s hard to understand, for me, but I try not to have high expectations of other people. Thus… why I think it’s ok to over-simplify a scenario.
It was more a remark as to what is generally done and accepted. I personally think it is perfectly fine to have a teacher for any science one fancies and for any instrument one desires to learn. Teachers can help to accelerate advancement and to avoid common pitfalls in comprehension – being able to discuss what appears to be counterintuitive on first sight with a teacher can be very enlightening. That does not mean you can not learn on your own – different paths for different things depending on once own preference.
I realized that… experts make things so much easier to learn. There are those rare people that become experts all on their own… I envy them.
My kids really want across stitch disease kit now. Is there any way to find a parts of the cell and stuff like that? You have perhaps found the one thing to make science pleasant for my oldest! Thanks!
She sells the kit too I think… did you go to her etsy page?
That science business is really going to come back to bite Christians and homeschoolers both. :-(
Homeschooler here, and I guarantee you that won’t happen in my home. My office looks like a science lab. My husband is an engineer and he sends sh!t to space. We are both inventing something as we speak. So don’t tell me that my kids are being set up to fail in science… that. wont. happen. period. I can’t speak on the other group you lumped me with.
I am also a homeschooler — and a Christian — so when I speak I do so as a member of both groups. I did not lump anyone with anyone — actually, I deliberately mentioned the two groups separately, since I know many Christians who are not homeschoolers, but who do teach their children an exclusive literal interpretation of Genesis — nor did I use the words “set up to fail,” but I can tell you with assurance that it is not happening in my home either.
I say that it will come back to bite Christians because their children, when they find out their parents were so far wrong, and so willfully wrong, on this subject, they will likely reject what their parents taught them on other things, too — in particular, since the subjects are linked, on faith. And I say it will come back to bite homeschoolers because if homeschoolers develop a reputation for sending students to college ill-prepared, it hurts all homeschoolers, not to mention giving ammunition to the opponents of homeschooling who would like to see it regulated out of existence.
Ah… well that was a better explanation. Your original statement, lumped homeschools AND Christians as a group of people who are ill-equipped to teach science. I’ve never met so many scientists (outside of my husbands employment and schooling) until I started homeschooling and reaching out to other homeschool moms, who just happened to be engineers and scientists. Our geography probably plays a big role in this… I’m not sure where you are, but L.A. is pretty big and open. There are many co-ops and science museums that cater to homeschoolers to teach science… I can only empathize on a limited basis because my own experience is different.
I’m in Alabama. As luck would have it, I was at a really nice science museum today (the McWane Center in Birmingham) looking at a replica mosasaur skeleton. Alabama also has it’s own unique variant of a T. Rex (Appalachisaurus?). So there are good resources here too, fortunately.
The “science business” is coming back to bite Americans, period http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090312115133.htm. Yep, some HSers are screwed with regard to science knowledge, but that really is just a drop in the bucket compared to general science knowledge rates. Not that we shouldn’t express concern, but let’s fry that bigger fish first before we get to the catfish nuggets (though, I love me some catfish nuggets, especially with a side of hot sauce).
You’re absolutely right, and that’s why I keep recommending Hazen and Trefil’s book (Science Matters; I’ve mentioned it here before) to anyone who reads. Unfortunately that’s not going to help the vast majority who don’t read, but I’m laboring in that field, too.
Hey, I got that book last week. It’s really good. It sounds like you are gonna have an uphill battle, teaching selective science is not teaching science. If you aren’t teaching evolution because it doesn’t fit your narrative… then you aren’t teaching science. I would rather spend my time with like-minded people, it has become increasingly difficult for me to make any sort of emotional bond with someone who believes in a literal 6000 year creation narrative… I wish I didn’t have to have those conversations, it would be easier, but because I homeschool… most of the moms I meet homeschool and it comes up in conversation. Keep trying though!
I’m glad you like the book! What I’m finding is that I’m not all that unusual in rejecting the literal Genesis, it’s just that people are afraid to speak up because there are some powerful people who clamp down hard on dissent (witness Ken Ham’s full frontal assault against the Christian singer who spoke openly about the subject, just today) . Like I said, it’s going to come back and bite them.
Penelope,
I love that you are postings. I don’t always agree, and I vacillate between thinking, she’s nuts/no she’s brilliant. Isn’t that what they say about all the great thinkers? I do have to say, that when I saw the title “When Is It Time to Get a Tutor?” and the cross-stitch photos I thought, “It’s time to get a tutor when you’ve convinced yourself that cross-stitch as a highly effective pedagogical tool for retaining science knowledge…” ;-) Keep posting — and if cross-stitch is your thing, great — but hopefully just as a nice hobby! As for me, I hope I know when to stay away from the cross-stitch and call the tutor instead. I wonder what the “cross-stitch” is in my homeschooling plans. Is there anything I need to shore up this year by getting outside help? I think that will always be the question that homeschoolers should ask themselves from time to time, though, like other posters, I don’t think you can pre-judge what that might be until the time comes — and tutoring in a given area may only need be temporary to get your student over a hump before they might be better off with self-study or another method.
“she’s nuts/no she’s brilliant”
You say that like they are mutually exclusive…;)
A fellow homeschool mom, who is also a scientist developed this curriculum, it might be better than your old high school textbook.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0979849667/?tag=ptrunk-20
This is the curriculum we’ve been using for 2 years; first for chemistry and then biology. Some of the mnemonics are a wee bit corny and the graphics look home-made, but the content is first rate, easy to follow and thorough. I highly recommend it.
Heather
Oh, neat! Thanks for that feedback. My daughter is starting the chemistry and then we will do biology 2. I really like the curriculum and it’s better than I could have come up with on my own and I think we can still unschool even if someone else is designing the curriculum for us.
Interesting. I just happened across a link from a homeschooling site’s (homeschooldiner) click-o-matic what is your homeschooling style. The link was to a tutoring service in India (tutorvista). I have no experience with it, but, apparently you can get unlimited 24/7 access to live tutor’s on various subjects. The cost is $99-$149 a month depending upon whether or not you add voice or term length. Could be interesting. Homeschoolers could put a major hitch in their projected hrs/month usage. :D
FWIW, I’m teaching history for the Well Trained Mind Academy (classical homeschool education), and they’re offering biology (with and without lab) this fall. Might want to look into it.
http://www.wtmacademy.com
Laughing.
Penelope, this story is ridiculous. You are a blogger. Your kids use their computers all the time. It never occurs to either of you to type the word “taxonomy” into the search field of a browser? (Google: “about 92,800,000 results”)
Have you learned nothing from your years of internet use? If you haven’t taught your kids to do that, what have you taught them?
and the conversions between metric and english units don’t just fall from the sky – they are deeply rooted in how the two systems developed: the first one from a desire to find a measure independent of the dimensions of the human body and a system which allowed to trade easily between countries – a foot was defined differently in each country, sometime even differed in magnitude between cities making trade really difficult. The english system developed historically and is due to its odd multipliers (8, 12 anyone?) much harder to use in a scientific or trade context than the decimal metric system. And there are only three countries who still adhere to the english unit system in US, Myanmar and Liberia. And another interesting tidbit: check out “Mars Climate Orbiter ” for conversion mistakes, really expensive ones.
Hey, if cross stitch isn’t your thing, perhaps Crocheting the Hyperbolic Plane might be.
(will this fly without the w’s?) math.cornell.edu/~dwh/papers/crochet/crochet.html
From a Guardian article on the recent (first female) Fields medal winner.
“Most of the problems Mirzakhani works on involve geometric structures on surfaces and their deformations. She has a particular interest in hyperbolic planes, which can look like the edges of curly kale leaves, but may be easier to crochet than explain.”
The article is worth a read. As a child growing up in Tehran she went from wanting to be a writer to a mathematician. theguardian.com/science/2014/aug/13/fields-medal-mathematics-prize-woman-maryam-mirzakhani?CMP=fb_gu
The cheapest tutor is an index in the back of the book.
it’s “tax-ON-o-MEE”
Try the Khan Academy videos. Watch them together–they’re not bad, and you can learn alongside.
Sorry–the “mee” should not be capitalized. It’s not stressed.