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shinyhappypeople

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Posts posted by shinyhappypeople

    Start saving for college NOW

    in K-8 Curriculum Board

    Posted

    We're lucky to live in an area with a very good community college and excellent state schools. Our *hope* is to present our children with enough money to attend community college for 2 years (live at home) and 2 years at a good state school (living on their own). If they choose a private college or want something different, they'll need to make up the difference with p/t jobs, scholarships, etc.

     

    Does anyone know how to figure out how much we'd need to save for this to happen?

    The bickering is going to kill me.

    in General Education Discussion Board

    Posted

    Oh wow! Thank you all for the replies. I'm going to re-read this thread and take notes. I'm not sure what our next step will be, but it's good to know that it's not just my kids, yk? They do love each other and are best friends and worst enemies.

     

    I'll check my library for the book recc's. They look helpful :)

     

    For those who have instituted a daily quiet time, can you give me more details about that? How long? What's allowed/not allowed? I'm an introvert and that sounds like a really good idea to me.

     

    For those who use consequences, what specific consequences do you use? Some of you shared specifics (thank you). How about the rest of y'all? What would be a reasonable consequence for things like threatening to hit, actually hitting, throwing things, tattling, screaming, mean words, etc.

     

    Sheesh, my kids sound like maniacs. They're not, I swear! Sometimes they're as sweet as pudding and twice as nice. It's just those *other* times that are the problem.

    The bickering is going to kill me.

    in General Education Discussion Board

    Posted

    Seriously. I am LOSING MY MIND. I feel like crying. Every.single.day, multiple times a day my DDs (ages 5 and 6) just pick-pick-pick at each other and delight in annoying each other.

     

    They both dish it out and then act like tragic victims when the other does the exact.same.thing to them. Maybe I'm just mean, but I don't really sympathize. I mean, they bring it on themselves!!! Besides, nothing I say or do seems to really help.

     

    I feel like locking myself in my room for a good cry. I've just had it, you know?

     

    Experienced moms (or anyone who has words of wisdom), please HELP!!! They've literally given me a headache. I feel out of my depth here. I will humbly consider any and all suggestions. I didn't have a good mothering role model and now as a mom I'm winging it, hoping love will cover my mistakes.

     

    Thank you.

     

    (oh, wait, in the time it took to write this they've gone from stealing toys, mouthing off "You're not my friend ever again," and taunting one another to playing nicely. Thank you, Jesus!!! Praying this will last until DH gets home and I can run away for a bit.)

    Miquon math...what do I need?

    in K-8 Curriculum Board

    Posted

    I want to begin using Miquon with Singapore for my 2nd grader.....

     

    We are going into book 2a so where should I start with MIquon? Orange book?

     

    Also, what do I need??????? Just the orange book? Is their a teacher book I need? What are the lab sheet annotations?

     

    Thanks

    debbie

     

     

    Get all the workbooks (incl. orange), a big set of C-rods (I think there's a 155 piece set. That's the one you want), the Lab Annotations and First Grade Diary.

     

    Have fun!! We love Miquon at our house :)

    was sonlight's site hacked?

    in General Education Discussion Board

    Posted

    Just tried to go to Sonlight's site (www.sonlight.com) and AVG blocked it. Anyone else having trouble accessing this page?

     

    Here's the message I got:

     

    "Danger: AVG Search-Shield has detected active threats on this page and has blocked access for your protection. The page you are trying to access has been identified as a known exploit, phishing, or social engineering web site and therefore has been blocked for your safety. Without protection, such as that in the AVG Security Toolbar and AVG, your computer is at risk of being compromised, corrupted or having your identity stolen. Please follow one of the suggestions below to continue.

     

    IP Address: 209.124.45.116

     

    For additional information click here.

     

    Suggestions:

     

    • Click the “Back” button on your browser to return to the previous page and choose another link (recommended).
    • If you would like to ignore the warning and continue to the page, click here (not recommended) Note: AVG will continue to block dangerous content associated with this page."

     

    ETA: I've visited their site many times and this is the first time AVG has had a problem with it.

    Ugh - spelling, phonics, undoing the damage

    in General Education Discussion Board

    Posted

    Check into IEW's spelling program. It is designed to teach kids how to spell NOT phonetically but sequentially in word families. I started using it with my youngest at 12 YO because he stubbornly refused to learn how to spell (thought he already knew how because he can read.) but you can start it much younger. Check into info from IEW about the "blended sight/sound approach."

    http://www.excellenceinwriting.com/catalog/spelling-1

    You also may want to back off from the correcting (since she is so young) until you've had a chance to do some spelling groundwork. You can't expect her to know how to spell it until after she has been taught. So for now let the spelling errors go. Once she has studied a particular sound family, begin helping her correct her mistakes for that family. As she adds new families the errors will gradually diminish. My point is a frontal attack on this one isn't going to get you anywhere. She's "right" because she's doing what the teacher told her to do. Andrew Pudewa (IEW) also recommends breaking down writing from spelling. Spelling is an editing task, writing is an entirely different function.

    Do some research on it. I think you'll find your solution there.

     

    I will definitely check out the link. Thanks :)

     

    FWIW, I only bother commenting on her spelling if (a) she's working in her phonics workbook and part of the assignment is to copy the word correctly (and even then, my corrections are very gentle, e.g.: "I think you might want to double check this word.") or (b) she says, "I spelled this right, didn't I mom?" (that's when my "Wow, you're good at hearing the sounds in words" type comments come into play.)

     

    What bugs me isn't that she makes spelling errors but that, rather than being taught to just do her best and not worry about spelling (which I'm A-OK with at this age), she was directly taught that phonics was HOW you spell, kwim?

    Ugh - spelling, phonics, undoing the damage

    in General Education Discussion Board

    Posted

    I just have no words for how frustrated I am right now as I undo the damage done by K-teacher. When writing, DD was instructed to sound out everything and NEVER ask for spelling help. We (parents) were instructed to NEVER help her spell a word, even if she asked. I now have a bright little girl (1st gr) who will fight to the death defending her spellings of "mokea," "cidea," "rane," and "trane."

     

    I've tried over and over and over and over to explain to her that just because she wrote it phonetically doesn't mean it's spelled correctly. I hate always being the bad guy and crushing her spirit when she shows me her story and says, "See mom! I spelled all the words right!" I mostly fudge now... "Wow, hon. You were really paying attention to the sounds."

     

    Please help. This is just a phase right? :tongue_smilie:

    Affording Curr.

    in K-8 Curriculum Board

    Posted

    Also, if you plan on using SL in future years, carry the catalog with you when you're running errands and browse thrift stores and used bookstores for titles. I have found lots of stuff for future cores for .10 to $1.00. BIG savings and I own them, so no worries about finding it at the library. That means each year you only have to do SL exclusives and the IG.

     

    One more thing, lots of people wait until 1st grade to do core K. Your dc might appreciate it more in a year.

     

    (Ha - People told me similar things to the above sentence while I was planning our first HS year last spring and it was promptly filed under "Advice I'll ignore because 'they' don't get it". But, I'm tossing it out there anyway, just in case you're smarter than I was :) )

    Affording Curr.

    in K-8 Curriculum Board

    Posted

    We are starting K with my daughter this spring/summer. We've decided we want to go with Sonlight, but after loading my cart our total was $600... this is with out math or science (we have the math we want, and I don't want to do science until about 3rd grade).

     

    I was aghast! Other than the Core, it included, handwriting, Bible and a few other items... explode the code and a science book.

     

    I know it is a bit more pricey, but we can't can't do that...

    :confused:

     

    Sonlight is VERY expensive. If you have your heart set on it, I'd buy the IG, History selections and Bible stuff and then check the read-alouds out from the library or buy them a few at a time from amazon. $171.34 (plus a bit here and there throughout the year)

    Easy to Implement Science

    in K-8 Curriculum Board

    Posted

    Thank you for the suggestions! I'll be looking into them today. I'm also open to other ideas if anyone has any. In the meantime, I have a 6th grade Earth Science textbook that I picked up awhile back that we can start reading through. Maybe combined with some fun activities and experiments this might work okay.

     

    That still leaves me wondering what to do next year. The curriculum search is never ending, isn't it?

    Easy to Implement Science

    in K-8 Curriculum Board

    Posted

    I don't have a strong science background, and I've been slacking on science big time. :001_huh:

     

    DD loves science and watches science videos, reads Magic School Bus books and other interesting library books on her own. However, I'd like to introduce some sort of structure to our studies and officially DO science once a week for maybe an hour or so.

     

    It needs to be very easy for me to implement, have good explanations (so I can explain things properly), include a strong hands-on element, and be challenging for DD. It doesn't really matter what specific topic it covers, because she loves it all.

     

    She's doing first grade work, but she's comfortable with science materials geared toward 3rd through 5th graders.

     

    Please help. I don't know where to begin. :confused:

    Traditional Math (1st/2nd grade)

    in K-8 Curriculum Board

    Posted · Edited by shinyhappypeople

    We're using Miquon with Singapore 1A/1B right now. I want to drop Singapore next year. It's just not clicking with DD and I have trouble teaching it. I'm thinking that combining Miquon (which we love) with a more traditional math program will be a better fit.

     

    Will you help me sort through my options? I've heard of: Christian Light, Abeka, BJU, Rod and Staff, Saxon... are these all pretty straightforward, traditional approaches? Which is easiest to teach for a non-mathy person? Our homeschool charter only pays for secular materials, but I don't mind paying out of pocket for the right program. But, if it's faith-based, cheaper is better :)

     

    Thank you very much for your help :)

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