Another Pass~Introductory Psychology

Last week was a very busy week around here with my kiddos, but I wanted to report that my 15 yr old daughter passed the Introductory Psychology CLEP exam on 12-7-11. She learned a great deal from studying for this exam. She used the same materials that her brother used when he studied for it. If anyone is interested, just scroll to find the other post about this exam and what they both used.
My daughter is thrilled to have 3 more college credits earned. Now to figure out what her next test will be....maybe Human Growth and Development? Although we will probably wait until after the Holidays to start studying for it.

Let's Talk MATH

Math~It's one of my favorite subjects and also one that is very important for our kiddos to grasp. Like I explained to my kids, it does not matter what they decide to do later in life, it will involve math. Every job requires math in some form or another. Even if one doesn't work outside the home, math is still required. Balancing a check book, cooking, planning a garden, budgeting your bills. There is no end to the list of why you need to understand math skills.

Have you ever gone to a store or restaurant and have the cashier not count out your change. The question should be have you ever had one to count your change back? Now a days that just doesn't happen. Everyone relies on gadgets, i.e. calculators, cash registers and such to tell them the answer. One of the first things dealing with math, was teaching my kids how to count using money.
Start off simple, with pennies, nickles and quarters then move up to dollars (ones, fives, tens and so forth). My kids know if the cashier gives them back to little or to much. Often times, they know exactly how much their items will cost including taxes, I think teaching kids young about tax rates are also important. It helps them to fully budget their money.

As kids get older their math skills will be more difficult than just counting money. Math as a subject should be one that is thoroughly learned. Below are some sites that we use for math.

Khanacademy Super videos! You can even watch them on your Roku box if you have one.

Aleks Monthly subscription required.

Purplemath

SOSMATH

Several years ago, I found Math Relief. My older kids really learned a great deal from Mr. Firebaugh from watching his DVD's and doing their Algebra work. Here is his website Math Relief to read about his products and for ordering. (I'm not affiliated in any way, just love his style of teaching)

I'm happy to say that all my children excel in math. I hope you find some of the sites listed of value when teaching your kiddos about math.

Introductory Psychology Clep

My son took the Intro Psychology test today at the local University. He passed the exam and earned another 3 college credits. He recently took Intro to Sociology, both test have some over-lapping material, so if you take one test you should go ahead and take the other with some additional studying on the brain, eyes, ears, neurons and neurotransmitters.

Major names and theories that were of interest in studying were those of:
Erikson, Freud, Jung, Kohlberg, Piaget, Rogers, Skinner, Watson, Wundt

We used the REA book for Introductory Psychology for most of our studying along with a couple of internet sites and of course Wikipedia to fill in gaps. Here is a site that we used for studying
Psychology: An Introduction that is very good with self test throughout each chapter. Another good site is AllPsych which both my children really enjoyed studying from.

What an interesting subject to study and learn about, Although, we are not through yet. My daughter will be taking this test in the near future.

Parts of the Brain~A mnemonic device to learn

At the moment my two older children are studying for Intro to Psychology. One of the things covered are parts of the brain and how it works. I came across a neat little video that shows how to memorize the parts of the brain using a mnemonic device. Even my 12 year old has learned by watching the video.

The video covers~Cerebral Cortex, Corpus Callosum, Thalamus, Hypothalamus, Hippocampus, Amygdala, Pons, Cerebellum, Reticular Formation and Medulla.
Once you watch the video, you won't find it hard to remember each part and what it does.

Click on the link to view:
How To Memorize the Parts of the Brain | The Psych Files Podcast

Hope you enjoy.

School year 2011-2012

Yes, I'm a bit late on posting plans for the 2011-2012 school year.

This school year I'm down to home schooling three (3) children. I have one that is a senior this year, one that is junior/senior this year and one that is in 7th grade. My son (17) has pretty much completed what is required for high school so he is working more or less on earning college credits this year. Although, he will officially graduate high school in May.

My daughter (15) is working on finishing up high school level courses and is also earning some college credits. At the end of the school year she will take the ACT, so she will be prepping for that as well sometime after the holidays.

My youngest son (12) has been steadily working his way through his studies although he is also enjoying sitting in on some of his older siblings school work. He's not ready for college work yet, but I see it in his future.

It's hard to believe that we are already in the 3rd month of the school year. Time is flying by again, I seem to say that a lot but it's true. Before I know it, I will be only schooling my youngest son. This makes me sad to even think about. My children are growing up~why does it seem like it was just yesterday that they were all so young?

Introductory Sociology CLEP

Intro to Sociology CLEP test was taken by two of my children at the local University recently. Both children passed and each were awarded with 3 more college credits. YEAH!

We spent several weeks preparing for the test. We purchased the REA CLEP prep book for Sociology. Read through it thoroughly, took the tests in the book/CD, also took 3 Peterson tests and also the test in to CLEP official Study Guide. Also did some online research of the subject and used Wikipedia to get a good understanding of certain terms.

Very interesting subject.