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ORIGINAL: Tinkerer

I recently began a D/s relationship with a very, very close friend of mine. One of the many goals of this relationship is to push him to learn high school math and science in an effort to patch a gaping hole in knowledge left by poor homeschooling. Since science and math are two strong points of my own, it's not the material I'm unsure about, but rather how to teach it.

I think math is going to be really easy for us. For the most part it's just communicating an idea, then practicing it like heck, then building of that idea with another idea, and repeat. Reward good, honest effort. Punish slacking. Da.

But science is different, in that some of it really requires hands on experience. To my advantage, my boy finds science very interesting, but I don't exactly have a full school lab to demonstrate different things. Physics might be easy to do at home, but since his math is lacking right now I was going to start with Biology. Has anyone had any experience teaching this at the kitchen table?

quote:

ORIGINAL: Tinkerer

I recently began a D/s relationship with a very, very close friend of mine. One of the many goals of this relationship is to push him to learn high school math and science in an effort to patch a gaping hole in knowledge left by poor homeschooling. Since science and math are two strong points of my own, it's not the material I'm unsure about, but rather how to teach it.

I think math is going to be really easy for us. For the most part it's just communicating an idea, then practicing it like heck, then building of that idea with another idea, and repeat. Reward good, honest effort. Punish slacking. Da.

But science is different, in that some of it really requires hands on experience. To my advantage, my boy finds science very interesting, but I don't exactly have a full school lab to demonstrate different things. Physics might be easy to do at home, but since his math is lacking right now I was going to start with Biology. Has anyone had any experience teaching this at the kitchen table?

quote:

ORIGINAL: AthenaSurrenders

quote:

ORIGINAL: Tinkerer

I recently began a D/s relationship with a very, very close friend of mine. One of the many goals of this relationship is to push him to learn high school math and science in an effort to patch a gaping hole in knowledge left by poor homeschooling. Since science and math are two strong points of my own, it's not the material I'm unsure about, but rather how to teach it.

I think math is going to be really easy for us. For the most part it's just communicating an idea, then practicing it like heck, then building of that idea with another idea, and repeat. Reward good, honest effort. Punish slacking. Da.

But science is different, in that some of it really requires hands on experience. To my advantage, my boy finds science very interesting, but I don't exactly have a full school lab to demonstrate different things. Physics might be easy to do at home, but since his math is lacking right now I was going to start with Biology. Has anyone had any experience teaching this at the kitchen table?

No experience but it sounds like good fun. I'd love to have a project like that with my dom.

Depending on what kind of level he is at, you might be able to download high school level revision booklets which might give you some sort of structure to work from. In the UK the BBC has a site called 'GCSE bitesize' which has lots of little quizzes, animation demonstrations and little chunks of revision work. It might be a bit childish for him but if nothing else it will give you a different way of practising things between lessons and suggest what type of topics you might cover each time.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/

GCSE is the level of exams British school kids take at 15/16 to give you an idea of level, so biology will cover things like plant cell structure, osmosis, basic genetic diagrams.

Depending on what kind of topics you want to cover, I would think there are quite a lot of experiments you could do at home for biology. Can you get a cheap microscope for looking at cells? Grow bacteria from swabs around your house in improvised petri dishes? Use potato chunks and various concentrations of sugar-water to demonstrate osmosis?

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ORIGINAL: UllrsIshtar

I'd suggest googling around for a decent secular home school program. There are several free sources out there, as well as paid ones. You'll have to sample them and see which ones you like best.

quote:

ORIGINAL: UllrsIshtar
I personally HIGHLY recommend http://www.khanacademy.org, they have free independent courses on a broad number of subjects, and include a whole series of math exercises you can do to test yourself.

It's possible to make a teach account and keep track of your pupil's progress, and it would also allow you to let him do a little bit more of the work independently; alternatively, you could use their courses and videos to brush up on subjects you're a little rusty on yourself.

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But science is different, in that some of it really requires hands on experience. To my advantage, my boy finds science very interesting, but I don't exactly have a full school lab to demonstrate different things. Physics might be easy to do at home, but since his math is lacking right now I was going to start with Biology. Has anyone had any experience teaching this at the kitchen table?

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ORIGINAL: mstrj69

I am a CPA and can carry on a discussion with anybody I know. I had high school biology for one semester. That was the extent of my science. So I am not sure why the push for science and math. Math is considered a science, or it was when I attended school.

If you feel it necessary to push it, make sure it is fun for him. I am not sure about schools in your area but here remedial science and math are taught at the junior college level. The school library should have copies of the needed book. You could possibly get one of the professors to give you a copy of his syllabus to work from. Maybe your friend or you could explain the situation to a counselor for incoming students and he or she could give you suggestions that will help you.