Lorena will drive the kids to Johnston Community College in Smithfield this afternoon to take CLEP tests. This will be Christian’s first. He will take the Freshman College Composition. He seems to be very well prepared so we are excited to see how he does. It was a little scary, but a lot exciting and fun when Kelly took this same test as her first about a year ago. Kelly will take the Introductory Psychology test. I think she is pretty well prepared, too. If they pass these tests, Kelly will move on to take US History II and Christian will take Western Civilization I.
We have been thinking about what to do for a third language. We really were not thinking about doing another romance language, but are starting to rethink that a little. Our problem is time and resources. We have wanted to study a language for a year or two, then go someplace as a family for a six to eight week immersion course in the summer. Lorena has always been enamored with the idea of learning French. Quebec is within driving distance and we have friends there. So, now French, along with Russian and Mandarin, is on the table. We pretty much have to decide what we are going to do within the next two or three months. We want to have at least one full year of Rosetta Stone behind us before we go. Of course the kids do not have to stop at three languages, but the older one gets, the harder it is to learn a language well. Any thoughts on this by any of you will be grateful considered.
Interesting old post: When I checked my blog statistics page this morning, I noticed that someone had visited this old post on socialization. It was not that what I had written was so interesting, nor was it the really bad comic that I drew. It was how the reader found the link to that particular post. It seems they had performed a Google search on Koehler “Socialization Skills in Home Schooled Children”. I think the thing they were looking for was this document that describes a study that compares Socialization Skills in Home Schooled Children Versus Conventionally Schooled Children. I read through that very interesting document again, making a note to myself to recommend it to people who have sincere questions about this subject.
Results: Woo-hoo! They both passed. Kelly is now up to 24 credit hours earned. Christian has his first 6. Congrats to both of them.
Have you thought about learning Southern Redneck as a third language? My wife says I slip into in from time to time, so I may be able to help. You could spend six or eight weeks down here. The only problem is that I am not sure if Rosetta Stone has a program.
My child is learning French from a Native French speaker. We have also used The Easy French. The curriculum comes with cds that have both Quebecan and Parisan accents. The Easy French is very good but having a native speaker is even better. The author of the Easy French is easily accessible by e-mail and believe phone. We have e-mailed her often. For a small fee she helped a with some essay type paragraphs.
We have not tried Rosetta Stone so I don’t know that I could compare.
I believe that some can learn two languages at the same time.
Joel, Southern Redneck is a very elegant and nuanced language that I am not sure people as unsophisticated as us could get our arms around. We would need LOTS of help. I understand that a diet of grits, biscuits and gravy, Brunswick stew, and collard greens can be quite helpful in terms of accent. I think I will start with that part right now!
Deanne, it sounds like you are off to a good start on the French. We are thinking of using Rosetta Stone for French because that is what we used for Spanish. The problem is that we mostly speak Spanish at home, so the Rosetta Stone was not much more than a refresher and reinforcement tool. My wife, Lorena, is a native speaker and we have her parents here a lot. They do not speak any English, so that helps a lot. We do not have any of those advantages in French, so your advise is very good. We were thinking of going to one of the local colleges to see if we could find a student who is a native speaker who might be willing to help us out.
We would love to see how this works out with your child as you move along. We will definitely check out Easy French before we buy anything. Thanks for the comment!
Ken,
Congrats to the kids! Would you consider doing a blog entry specifically on CLEP? I would be interested to find out how you go about it and whether or not you pair the CLEP books with other curriculum as a supplement or use the REA books as the main test of your course, and what the other books are that you pair with each CLEP…such as, if you were going to have them take a Biology Clep, would you just have them study the REA book after Apologia Biology and then take the test? Am I even making sense?
Ruthie, Thanks for the congrats. You are making perfect sense and I have been thinking about writing out our plan for CLEP for awhile. I think we are going to different things for different materials. I am not perfectly clear in my thinking yet, but I have some ideas. I can also talk about what has not worked as well as we might have wished with the materials we have already covered. For the Biology and Chemistry CLEP our preliminary plan is exactly what you just said. Followed by (or toward the end of) Apologia, the kids will start working through the REA CLEP prep books. Kelly has been looking at the REA Biology book a little already and believes that she will be in pretty good shape for the test if she studies both. I will keep you posted. If you have any ideas on this they will be gratefully considered.
I look forward to your post. I may be changing gears here a bit…..
Changing gears?
direction…not quit homeschooling….I would like to pursue a few Clep Classes if I can figure out how.
I am sorry Ruthie! I am a little slow on the uptake sometimes. At any rate, you have me inspired on the subject.