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IrishMum

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Posts posted by IrishMum

    Well-Trained Fitbits

    in The Chat Board

    Posted

    I did it!  All that work these past couple of weeks at the huge consignment sale FINALLY got me the #1 spot on our fitbit group.  Of course it didn't last long, but I got a screenshot of the page while I was there  :party:

     

    The sale is over, so I'll be back to my normal count, which is between 8k and 10k steps, depending on the day.

     

    You did amazingly!!

    Well-Trained Fitbits

    in The Chat Board

    Posted

    Thanks for making the group private!  It is more motivating when you know you have so much in common with the group.   :)

     

    Speaking of motivation...Yikes!   :(  I know I've been very, very bad about walking, but dropping from #7 to #25 in little over 2 weeks sucks. :(  Wish I could shake this mental funk and get moving again.  But here I sit typing instead of walking.

     

    aggie96, get off your arse :)

    • Like 1

    Well-Trained Fitbits

    in The Chat Board

    Posted

    I'm competitive, but not THAT competitive.  :svengo: I'm happy to be mid to low in the pack for now. I know I'll be picking up the pace soon enough.

     

    I'd prefer WTMers only because I have to admit I get a little deflated seeing those step number counts and thinking they are homeschoolers as well. Do you all walk and school at the same time?! :nopity:  I'm limited to after dark and at sunrise otherwise I burst into flames this time of year. 

     

    I'm a little competitive, and am finding being part of this group motivating, but I would prefer a realistic group of us homeschooler, or members of the forum. We are all in similar positions, I would imagine, so if they're outliers they must be extra special or working extra hard.

     

    I am lucky, here in Australia the weather is pretty good now, so I bring my kids out for a walk during the day, and I make up the balance of my 10,000-step goal when my husband comes home. I am dreading the summer, where I will need to walk at 5am to avoid bursting into flames also :)

    • Like 3

    Well-Trained Fitbits

    in The Chat Board

    Posted

    I don't really care about who is on top of the leader board.  There are runners, there are walkers, there are people half my age and others 1.5x my age (no one is 2x my age!!) ... but I have to admit to being a little challenged to step it up a level to gain a place or two.  Heh heh. 

     

    Good for you! I don't care as long as they are all WTMers :)

    • Like 1

    Well-Trained Fitbits

    in The Chat Board

    Posted

    I get the feeling we're attracting non Well Trained Minds.  Would it be an idea to do a closed group?  Is it even possible?  OTOH, it's making me work harder.  LOL.

     

    Just had a look. We can have a public, public by invitation only, or private group but I guess it has to be set that way on creation?

    Well-Trained Fitbits

    in The Chat Board

    Posted

    OK, so here is a little Fit Bit news for you all.

     

    I wore mine attached to the center of my bra.  Given my figure, it added 50% to my bra size.  

     

    However, it also resulted in disrupting my thyroid because of the radiation emitted by Bluetooth.  My naturopath found that today.  :-<   

    BUT she also tested me when I wore it at my waist, on my belt-line, and it is perfectly fine there.  

     

    I will admit to being extremely sensitive to this kind of thing, but thought I would mention it for anyone else who has this concern. 

     

    The bluetooth worry me. I no longer wear my Flex at night to give my body a break from the EMFs, and I try to walk barefoot on the grass or beach every day to ground. Yeah, I am turning into a hippie ;)

    • Like 1

    Well-Trained Fitbits

    in The Chat Board

    Posted

    When we saw that Momma is crushing Melissa M, we started speculating. Here are some possibilities:

     

    -training for a marathon

    -walking mail carrier

    -rides around on lawnmowers all day while wearing Fitbit

    -DH suggested something about living on another planet with lower gravity or crazy time zones

     

    Has to be the last one. She did over 38,000 steps one day. The woman isn't human!!

    • Like 1

    Fitbit or something similar??

    in The Chat Board

    Posted

    You have all inspired me to stop looking in the mirror saying "WTH????" I ordered my Fitbit, loaded some new music on my phone, and will be moving and grooving.

     

    Thank you!

     

    I have audio books on my phone, and I am only allowing myself to listen to them when I walk. This is greatly encouraging me to get off my ass, as I want to see what happens next. A few time, while out for a walk, I have done a couple of extra blocks because I 'couldn't put the book down'. :)

    Fitbit or something similar??

    in The Chat Board

    Posted

    I have a fitbit one and love it! It's very accurate as a pedometer. I forgot to remove it from my bra, and it went through the washer and dryer today; it still works! :)

     

    Wow, you were luck trulycrabby. I wish I had been so lucky with my iPhone when it went for a wash!

    Fitbit or something similar??

    in The Chat Board

    Posted

    I've got the Fitbit Flex, and love it!! I have gone from not moving much, to 10,000 steps a day, and am very proud of myself. I love the 'friend' ability on the Flex. I find that I don't want my friends to beat me, or if they do I want to work harder the next week. Have you read The Pioneer Woman's posts about them? I also wrote about mine, http://airskull.com/fitbit-flex/ , if you want to have a closer look at how the Flex works. I highly recommend it.

    ISO blog post about teaching computer programming

    in General Education Discussion Board

    Posted

    Scratch has just come out with Scratch Jr for iPads btw ... I haven't had chance to look at it yet but it is aimed at 5-7 year olds so should be interesting. I am a computer programmer and have been teaching coding to kids since I was a college student, and I like starting with Scratch or Alice (Alice is more complex so this is a better fit for older students) and then Python.

     

    My programmer 12 year old has been playing around with Scratch Jr all weekend. He thinks it's pretty good for the younger crowd, and it provided a weekend or fun for our older crowd. He is writing a post about it right now :)

     

    Scratch is a great place to start!

    If you are using a tutor for foreign language...

    in K-8 Curriculum Board

    Posted

    If you are comfortable with online tutoring, I am personally using a native french speaker on http://www.italki.com/. she doesn't want to teach children, but I did a few lessons with others who would. I picked mine based on the fact we got on. My boys have a tutor come once a week for French, and we do similar to what people say above. We also watch 80%of our TV/movies in French. Our tutor is expensive, but she is teaching my 4 at the same time. I am thinking about getting my oldest someone on italki too.

    Favorite supplemental math for Primary review

    in K-8 Curriculum Board

    Posted

    Wow, may I ask if you use all of that in one particular year?  And of so how do you weave them together in your schedule?  

     

    We've used Fred and Khan at various times.  Though We've never used Khan for primary math, mostly for Pre-A and Algebra.  Fred seems like it would be a fun alternative to the daily MM routine adding some nice variety.

     

    First up, I don't schedule. I work best on the fly, and seem to get more done and am happier that way.

     

    Secondly, math and reading are my priorities. If we do nothing else at primary level we always do math and reading. Our worst homeschool days will still include an hour of math, and an hour of reading.

     

    So, we use MM as our spine, and work on it for an hour a day. 2- 4 times a week we do Extra Math, this includes the others listed. Some weeks we get a lot more Extra Maths done, some we don't. All my boys love Fred, so much so that we had to by the last book (We are not there yet in math) so they could read it to see what happened to Fred. We used the primary level Fred books, and my boys loved them, though I don't think I could have used them as stand alones, and they are very $$ as a supplement.

     

    If I am having a bad day (happens a bit :) ) I tell my boys to work on Khan Academy for the day, including other subject like History, and read. That way they are still working, and I get a break.

     

    I didn't mention some of the other math things we do, it seems a lot. I use even more than I listed above. But here is my list on my blog if you are interested. http://airskull.com/our-math-books/ I want my boys to have amazing math skills, and so far I think it's working.

     

    My boys all scored in at least the top 3% in the last Australia Math Test (http://www.amt.edu.au/eventsamc.html) they took, and one was in the  .1 %.

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