Sybelle

Hello all,

My nearly 15 yo always unschooled son wants to go take some classes
at the local community college. He has decided he wants to be a vet
and wants to start taking a math class. He did the assesment tests at
the college and both scores for math and writing were so low they
don't want to admit him (of course reasding is at college level).
They don't want to make an exception, since they cannot believe he
can learn normally with such low scores. DUH, never heard of
unschoolers who suddenly decide to do something and then just do it??
Anyway, we are now looking for a crash course for math and one for
writing.
He needs to know the basicsof math: operations with whol numbers,
fractions, decimals;percentages;ratio and proportion; measurement.
And the basics of writing: grammar, sentence structure, etc. I don't
think he even needs to know how to spell for that.

So, does anyone have a child who was in this predicament? He is in a
hurry now and does not want to go thought a while taxt book. I will
help him do it quickly. hejust needs a really quick, but thorough and
well-done crash course for both.

Who can help?
Thanks!!

Sybelle

Dan Lake

There are some very nice self-paced sites for math where you can learn or
brush up on just the topics you need. I recommend that he check out the
following:

Math.com covers all of the areas of math you mentioned and you can select
the level from "first glance", "in depth" or "workout"
http://www.math.com/

The Maths dictionary is excellent for all sorts of math concepts and
terminology he might need for an entrance exam. Most come with an animated
example of the concept or term being defined:
http://www.amathsdictionaryforkids.com/

For basic math practice, I enjoy the games at these sites:
http://multiplication.com/interactive_games.htm
http://www.games.exuberanteye.com/index.html

And there are a gajillion links to other online games listed on this site
(just found this one on Google)
http://classroom.jc-schools.net/basic/math.html

Good luck to him in his studies!

~Dan




On Fri, Dec 12, 2008 at 5:25 PM, Sybelle <cUUrious@...> wrote:

> Hello all,
>
> My nearly 15 yo always unschooled son wants to go take some classes
> at the local community college. He has decided he wants to be a vet
> and wants to start taking a math class. He did the assesment tests at
> the college and both scores for math and writing were so low they
> don't want to admit him (of course reasding is at college level).
> They don't want to make an exception, since they cannot believe he
> can learn normally with such low scores. DUH, never heard of
> unschoolers who suddenly decide to do something and then just do it??
> Anyway, we are now looking for a crash course for math and one for
> writing.
> He needs to know the basicsof math: operations with whol numbers,
> fractions, decimals;percentages;ratio and proportion; measurement.
> And the basics of writing: grammar, sentence structure, etc. I don't
> think he even needs to know how to spell for that.
>
> So, does anyone have a child who was in this predicament? He is in a
> hurry now and does not want to go thought a while taxt book. I will
> help him do it quickly. hejust needs a really quick, but thorough and
> well-done crash course for both.
>
> Who can help?
> Thanks!!
>
> Sybelle
>
>
>


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Melissa Gray

Josh has really liked the 'for dummies' books. They are short,
concise and they really are misnamed, as they aren't for dummies at
all ;-)
I'll bet there is a math for dummies, also, look for "Kiss My Math",
and then "Math Doesn't Suck". It's written by the girl from the
Wonder Years, but dh and I skimmed through it and were really
impressed at how easy she made it.
It's a little girly, but I don't know of any guy versions.

I have no idea on the grammar though, sorry,
Melissa

On Dec 12, 2008, at 7:25 PM, Sybelle wrote:

> Hello all,
>
> My nearly 15 yo always unschooled son wants to go take some classes
> at the local community college. He has decided he wants to be a vet
> and wants to start taking a math class. He did the assesment tests at
> the college and both scores for math and writing were so low they
> don't want to admit him (of course reasding is at college level).
> They don't want to make an exception, since they cannot believe he
> can learn normally with such low scores. DUH, never heard of
> unschoolers who suddenly decide to do something and then just do it??
> Anyway, we are now looking for a crash course for math and one for
> writing.
> He needs to know the basicsof math: operations with whol numbers,
> fractions, decimals;percentages;ratio and proportion; measurement.
> And the basics of writing: grammar, sentence structure, etc. I don't
> think he even needs to know how to spell for that.
>
> So, does anyone have a child who was in this predicament? He is in a
> hurry now and does not want to go thought a while taxt book. I will
> help him do it quickly. hejust needs a really quick, but thorough and
> well-done crash course for both.
>
> Who can help?
> Thanks!!
>
> Sybelle
>
>
>



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Pamela Sorooshian

www.aleks.com

Perfect for his purposes, if he's okay with working online. It is very
very well done and lets you move super fast through stuff you already
know and gives you more time and help on stuff you don't know.

-pam



On Dec 12, 2008, at 5:25 PM, Sybelle wrote:

> So, does anyone have a child who was in this predicament? He is in a
> hurry now and does not want to go thought a while taxt book. I will
> help him do it quickly. hejust needs a really quick, but thorough and
> well-done crash course for both.

Kelly Lovejoy

For Grammar:



Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynn Truss

Woe is I by Patricia O'Connor




Those two are fun (well, for ME! <G>).




For more serious students (and on the dry side): 




Struck & White's The Elements of Style




and this website:


http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/






~Kelly



-----Original Message-----


On Dec 12, 2008, at 5:25 PM, Sybelle wrote:

> So, does anyone have a child who was in this predicament? He is in a
> hurry now and does not want to go thought a while taxt book. I will
> help him do it quickly. hejust needs a really quick, but thorough and
> well-done crash course for both.











[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Robin Bentley

On Dec 13, 2008, at 11:37 AM, Kelly Lovejoy wrote:

> For Grammar:
> Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynn Truss
> Woe is I by Patricia O'Connor
>
> Those two are fun (well, for ME! <G>).

> For more serious students (and on the dry side):
> Struck & White's The Elements of Style


I confess. I own "Eats, Shoots & Leaves" and three copies of "The
Elements of Style" - two are beautifully illustrated <g>.

I've really enjoyed "The Elephants of Style" by Bill Walsh. It's funny
and helpful.
http://www.theslot.com/elephantsofstyle.html

His blog on that site is cool, too, as he relates grammar and
punctuation to current culture.

Robin B.

Sybelle

WOW, you are all fantastic! So much to look into. I will spend a big
part of the weekend looking at all the suggestions and I'm positive one
of them will work well for him.

Thank you all so much!
Sybelle