Code Lyoko
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Posts posted by Code Lyoko
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You mean the blank tiles? Could you just use anything ?
I don't think she means the blank tiles. I think she means the letter tiles. Those are cumulative through the entire program from Level 2 onward so the tiles used in Level 2 are still being used in Level 7 and beyond. I just automatically buy a second set of tiles for each level (only $10) so that if and when I ever sell a level I can include a full set of tiles for that level without giving up my own set.
Unfortunately, not everyone does that when they buy their levels. When they go to sell them the level may not include the tiles. It is tricky to order new tiles if you buy the level used. I know people have done so successfully but I don't remember how they did it.
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The only problem if, like me, you hear the alarm, think "oh good, I need to go soon", turn it off, then get distracted. Sigh.
Yeah, me too. Eventually I started realizing that not only do I get distracted and forget to get ready, I also tend to have a warped sense of the passage of time when I am doing other things. I started having to put multiple alarms on my phone for every event. If DD needs to be at a certain place at a certain time every week then I have an hour in advance alarm (labeled for prep for that event) then a 20 or 30 minute ahead of time alarm (depending on what needs to be done to get ready), and a 5 minute ahead of time alarm and a LEAVE THIS VERY MINUTE alarm so we aren't late.
To find out if someone has a mucked up sense of time passing is to test yourself to see how far off you are. Start with testing yourself without external distractions. Sit at a table with a stop watch, look at the time, then sip a cup of tea or whatever and let the stop watch run for what you think will be 10 seconds. Check and see how close you are. Do the same for 30 seconds and a minute and 5 minutes and 10 minutes (if you can sit sit that long...I have a hard time unless I am reading). Write down your results each time. Now repeat the experiment but do other things. I found that by 10 minutes out, if I was doing other things, my sense of time was pretty off. I would think it had been just 5 minutes and it might be 15. Now that I know that, I can compensate with my phone alarms.
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The most often cited guideline is one box per cat plus one more. So ideally with three cats you'd have four litter boxes. The reason behind that is that it's not unusual for cats to guard boxes so you always want one extra so they can't all be guarded at once.. But I'd hazard a guess that most multi-cat homes do fine with fewer boxes than that.
Yeah, long time multiple cat owner here and 2 litter boxes has worked fine for even 4 cats at our house. Once we were over 4 cats (and yes at one point we were over 4 indoor cats even though I prefer not to have that many inside) we added a 3rd litter box. We just had to keep an eye out when a new cat was introduced. Sometimes existing cats DO try to block newbies from using a litter box. Depending on the situation there are several ways to address that. Usually they work.
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:grouphug: :grouphug: :grouphug:
Are you being treated for your anxiety and depression?
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I have painted and designed and changed out stuff for our houses for years but one year we did hire an interior designer because we had some serious structural issues that had to be addressed and I had some health issues that meant trying to pull it all back together myself might be problematic. She was really nice but she was soooo far from my practical sensibilities and love of retasking old objects. We had a LOT of disconnect on communication and execution. I ended up not going with most of her ideas and regretting we spent the money.
At the same time a neighbor did the same thing but she and her designer really hit it off. The designer only met with her maybe 4-5 times over the course of their remodel but she saved them a ton of money on stuff they were trying to buy. She knew where to get less costly versions. She also had some great suggestions for layout that helped tremendously with the flow of the home. The neighbor said it was worth every penny and they LOVED their home afterwards, as opposed to just liking it.
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That makes a lot of sense! I don't have an iPhone, but a cheap Moto E. Still, I'm sure there must be calendar apps I could use. I will look into that. For some reason I find paper planners more satisfying that electronic ones, but I know that's silly. I need to use whatever works best.
I prefer paper planners, too. But I needed the flexibility and changeability of an electronic planner.
What I ended up using was Homeschool Planet so I can adjust on the fly and track a zillion different things through the one source but I print out our lists and plans for the day every evening for the next day, and I review the list when I get up each morning and throughout the day. Every weekend the alarm on my phone goes off to remind me to review what is in the electronic planner for the next week to make sure that we have all our materials ready to go for the entire week and I put everything on my roll around library cart so I know where to find things. The kids and I do better if we have a paper list in front of us to cross things off from. We keep our lists on the kitchen table and try to review them at the top of every hour (alarm on the phone for that).
I have a zillion alarms on my phone. If it is something that happens weekly the alarm is permanently set, including the hour in advance warning that something is coming up, the 20 minutes ahead of time warning that we need to start getting ready, the 5 minutes ahead of time warning that we have to go VERY SOON, and the LEAVE RIGHT NOW warning. LOL.
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No, you don't normally need a separate litter box for each cat, but it absolutely helps to have two.
We have two litter boxes and actually we have 3 full time indoor cats and a couple of part time indoor/outdoor cats. Two works fine as long as they are scooped daily (we use crystal litter so it cuts down on the odor and we just scoop the poop at the end of each day, change out the whole thing every Sunday) for the upstairs regular litter box. We have an automatic litter box in the laundry room that scoops and cleans itself.
You may not have seen the last sentence. I clarified what I was posting as you were reading my post.
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Suicides even among teachers have been something of an issue in our local area. It is heartbreaking! I am sorry. :grouphug:
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I am reading and considering; I am done posting, as I think my instinct for what is offensive is not well correlated with what is actually offensive to the average reader of this forum (possibly as a consequence of reading less inhibited forums more often than this one). This discussion has been supremely helpful, though. So far (in 2 days) I have managed to do more things on time, mainly as a result of doing things right when I think of them instead of telling myself I'll remember to do that in 30 seconds, after I finish typing this sentence or after I get a cup of tea. If I give myself less opportunity to forget things I forget fewer things. I also have started keeping a much more detailed planner, like the one we had in school; I write everything down right away so I don't have to try to hold it in my brain. This has reduced stress somewhat.
On the other hand, that may only be a temporary bump as often a new motivation will make me more careful for a short while before it fades. The key for me has been to establish a new habit in that window, which hopefully this "do it right away!" tendency will be. Time will tell, though.
Also, I think part of my uncertainty may be that I am sometimes lazy *and* I have some ADHD characteristics. Figuring out which part of your brain is responsible for what is complicated.
Understood. :) And yes, people can definitely be both and the lines can blur. I'm glad this thread has been of some help to you. It has been of some help to me, too. :)
Also, having now read your siggie in detail, another part of the equation may be simple brain exhaustion from taking care of 6 kids including a newborn? Everyone needs downtime to reset their brain and body. Not just collapsing into bed at night trying to get a bit of shut eye. I mean down time where you get to focus on something that is interesting to you and lets your brain reset. For some people that is shopping without littles. For others it is reading a book with no interruptions. For many it is hanging out with friends without having to worry about anyone else but you. And so on. Do you get solid downtime where you aren't having to worry about the kids, the house, the academics, etc.?
And how collaborative are you and your DH on keeping things moving forward? Do you feel like you are helping each other or kind of getting in the way of each other?
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Agreed, a kitten will have a ton of energy and want to play.all.day. (or at least most do). That could drive an older cat nuts and honestly cause them extreme stress. Two kittens can keep each other occupied while offering a bit of entertainment and companionship for the older cat. And eventually, when the older cat passes on, the other two cats will still have each other. Just keep an eye on things. The older cat may need down time and some space without kittens periodically.
Personalities are going to be a factor, though. It will be hard to predict ahead of time if any of the cats will have issues with each other that go beyond normal rivalry. We have a sibling pair here that started genuinely hating each other and trying to rip each other to pieces (flesh ripped off, going for the literal throat, etc.). We had to permanently separate them. However, a new kitten we unintentionally acquired last fall gets along beautifully with the two aggressive siblings.
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Squares of toilet paper?
;-)
Thank goodness DH remembered we needed some today or I would be a very sad camper right now. And have no squares to measure with. :)
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So how does one objectively measure or assess "laziness"?
LOL. No clue.
And actually I do understand why the OP asked her questions. These are questions many have asked. I just think in the way she pursued the topic it was hurtful to others. I don't think it was intentional at all, though. She is trying to process and understand. I hope the posts on this thread have helped with that.
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There is a difference between periodically choosing to hang out on the internet instead of doing the dishes (what I should be doing right now) and consistently shirking all or most responsibilities because you simply do not care if they get done or not. The former is something normal and keeps life from being just always about chores and responsibilities. The latter is more chronic laziness. And of course there is a spectrum of laziness, just like with anything else.
But neither of those is ADHD. ADHD is when you really want to get things done but halfway through thinking about getting something done that thought is gone. You aren't avoiding doing what you needed to do. You just don't even remember you needed to do it. It is when you have 1000 things floating in your head and trying to stay focused on one thing long enough to get it done and done well is a herculean effort. It is when it hurts you every time you realize that you forgot to do something you should have done and once again you feel like a failure. It is when you stop trying because it hurts so badly every time you fail.
Can a person with ADHD also be lazy? Yes. But they are not equivalent.
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Idk...on the one hand Barton sounds good (aside from the cost), but on the other, the more I hear about level 4, the less I want to do it. Is there any way to just skip the syllable division parts of it and use something else entirely, like Rewards, for teaching syllable division?
Level 4 doesn't just cover syllable division (TBH that part was a breeze for my kiddos. They did fine with the Barton approach to syllable division. Hard to know which kids will do well with it and which won't until the child tries it.). There are a LOT of very complex parts to Level 4 that can be very hard for LD kiddos to get through. It takes a lot of patience, review, and a willingness to flex and be open minded about trying different approaches for particular sections if your student hits a snag. And you absolutely 100% HAVE to be prepared before each lesson or you will not make it through. Trying to just wing Level 4 won't work, IMHO.
Once you get past Level 4, though, it should go more smoothly. Not everyone finds it that way but most people I know that have used Barton find Level 4 to be the big, bad hump that you have to get over and then it is more downhill after that.
Certainly Level 5 and 6 went WAAAAAAYYYYY smoother than Level 4 at my house and the houses of a few others I know who are using Barton right now.
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I have a packet of Microwave Popcorn here (Butter popcorn, made in the USA), which DD and I can share, and may also buy a Chocolate bar to eat on Election Day. Tuesday is also the birthday of my SIL. My wife is out of town for a reunion this weekend and she will stay there, to celebrate her sisters birthday. If I could get a piece of Chocolate cake (100% Chocolate), to celebrate the 2 events, that would be a plus. I suggest eating something that is very easy on your stomach if you are watching the election results...
Good point... Pepto Bismol?
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Yes look in the tutor section and the TM main pages. Stuff should be there.
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My kids have a lot of direct instruction but once they are done with that they have work they do independently that is mainly review. I don't call it homework because all the work is done at home. There is no need to distinguish between work done at school and work done at home.
But yes, the kids do have independent work that they do without direct instruction.
FWIW, when my kids were in school because of their learning challenges even when they brought home their "homework" I still had to give them direct instruction in how to do it because the teacher's instruction at school was not enough for them to understand what they needed to do. Homework was not independent at that stage.
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Yup, I like this. This is a plan I can make happen. Tidy up our B3 by doing the EP pages, finish out the spelling lessons, play the new games that are coming, then do the same thing, tidying up 4. This really works. And I get what you're saying. I don't need to start B5 while tidying 3. There's no rush, no fire sale, lol. It doesn't take long either, now that I have help. As long as the materials are open and go, he kicks butt and gets a lot done! Like seriously, that multi-grade, 9 page (plus 4 pages of logic games!) reading packet that I made takes a flat 30 minutes to do. I kid you not! When it's open and go, we're golden!
So thanks for talking this through. I like this plan.
Sounds like a great plan. :)
(Tidying up Level 3 helped us finally have more success with Level 4 but honestly I still hate level 4. There are some parts of it that are brilliantly done, IMHO, but the level as a whole just needs to be reworked and broken down into more manageable pieces as far as I'm concerned. Level 5 felt like eating cake after eating thorns, LOL.)
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Ok, ba da bing! I missed this and wrote before you posted. We were doing some of the colored pages initially (during B1, B2) and then we got behind. When the tutor came in, I think I tried to hand them to her and nothing happened. We were all dealing with a lot of behaviors, kwim? Like try teaching a squirrel. That bites. That's about how fun it was.
And there's sort of that line where they're nifty and you're like ok I've got SO many pieces at SO many different levels (not all at one level like a traditional student), so what is essential to go back and do and what was just bonus or busywork, kwim? But you're right, I can bring those out. It's just a matter of the doing. And if they're super essential, we can get way more diligent about them.
I don't know if they are essential but I do think they can be helpful for some students. I don't pile them on on top of a bunch of other stuff, though. I use them in place of a lesson and for short review.
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Lyoko, thanks for that explanation. Yes, I think that's what I'm hoping will happen. Even numbers were that way and the colors on the c-rods. I went back and forth with RB about this, because I'm like but the names don't MATTER. They meant nothing to him and could have been Africa or George or anything else. They were that arbitrary and frustrating. But she's like no, keep at it, use them till the names GET meaning, and then they'll be useful to you.
So I agree that can happen and I like your thought process there. That's why I ordered the games. I think you're right that it will happen. My philosophy is always that just because it's hard doesn't mean he can't DO it. It might just take 4 times longer than everybody else, and that's ok!
I think working on those games will support the spelling work. He didn't need them for the *reading* piece to advance, but I think they have to come in for the spelling. And frankly, his tutor has only taken reading instruction classes in college, which means she actually knows nothing about teaching reading, lol. She might know something, but it's not OG. I'm always checking things and watching for stuff that creeps in. She's cool with learning and wants to learn, but she doesn't come in already knowing this stuff. So getting the rules games will actually be good for her too, because then they'll both have them to explain what they're doing as they work forward in the lists. The more I can have the tutor (entry level, a college student) do the spelling, the more I can focus on the decoding and the more forward level stuff. It frees me up to have that ping pong, and it's cover my butt for when real life happens. Unfortunately, real life happens.
Makes perfect sense.
FWIW, some of the games have been great. Others, not as great. :)
Oh, we actually took some of the games with us on a trip last year and the kids liked doing the card games and the Extra Practice pages for review. Didn't take long and when we got home no ground had been lost. In fact, they were remember the terms better than they had before we left on our trip.
That really convinced me that maybe taking a break from the actual lessons to just let things percolate a bit but still review daily in very short stints works better for my kids. I now have built in break/review weeks. I look over the level, see where things are sort of linked then take a break at that point to just let it percolate and sink in while we do daily short review with the games and extra practice pages. Then we move on to new lessons.
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There are two extra practice pages with each lesson that are in the pages sent in the box but there are 3 other pages per lesson that you can print out from the website. I just automatically print those out when I get the next level and put them in plastic sleeves. I don't use every page but they cover different things so some pages might be helpful for one child and others might be helpful for another child. I just find it easier to already have them available. And if I am sick or busy or we head out of town it is nice to have those around so we don't lose ground. We use them with dry erase markers and the pages can be used again later if needed.
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I need to look at the Spelling Success games again. I keep looking at them, not ordering. Well I don't order mainly to save the money, lol. The names in Barton are an utter, utter mess for him. Autism comes with naming issues, and those names are just so confusing and non-communicative. I think they must rely on inferences or assumptions about what they mean.
So if the games would help us work around the (removing not nice word) names of the rules to get to some actual verbalizable meaning, that would be nice. I find myself reverting to the rules chants from SWR or making something up to fill the gap.
If you hate the words she uses to explain things then you may not like Spelling Success. The Spelling Success card games specifically help the student remember those words/phrases/labels and apply the meaning behind them. The words are meant to help remember when to use something. Such as the Kiss the Cat rule helps remind the student that if the "k" sound is followed by a "watch out" vowel (e,i,y) then you need to use a "K" and when the "k" sound is followed by a non-watch out vowel you use a "C". These phrases actually did help my kids but if they aren't helping a child I could see that being very frustrating to have to deal with them.
What I found was that when I really worked with them on the meaning behind those phrases then they started to use the phrases when they got stumped and then eventually they no longer needed the phrases because they had internalized the rules and could just apply them. Sometimes we had to really review though. It wasn't something intuitive. Well, nothing about the process of learning to read/write/spell has been intuitive. LOL. And if I myself wasn't understanding or remembering what the phrase was referring to then we were all lost. I had to make some effort to learn the phrases and internalize them myself. But yeah, if the phrases aren't helping either one of you learn any of this that could be horrifically frustrating.
I think in your situation you are just dealing with such a large and complex group of strengths and weaknesses that no program is going to be a perfect fit. I admire you for working so hard to tweak and work through and experiment and try to make things a better fit for your son. I applaud you for your efforts and dedication.
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When you say marking, what am I missing? Were we supposed to be writing something and going CVVC markings like what I'm seeing online? What are the markings?
Marking things like the short vowel sound and the units and things like that. Not diagramming like with some very intense Grammar programs but simple marking. And of course in Level 4 then you start marking syllable division since now there are multi-syllable words. Do you use the Extra Practice pages and the extra suggestions at the back of the TM?
I realize that you have a very unique situation with your son so I realize that much of what is suggested there probably won't help. I did find that some of it was quite helpful to my kids but each one responded differently so it was very trial and error. Some things would help one and not the other while the next child would respond to some other thing better. :)
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I"m reading this and am shocked. DId Barton not start with marking words immediately? Are they starting in book 4?
Except for Level 1 kids are marking words all along but they don't start with multi-syllable words until Level 4.
Actually, Level 1 doesn't work with words at all with regards to sounds associated with letters. It just deals with sounds and breaking up and putting back together sounds. That was the level that was critical for my kids but not all kids need to go back that far (of course some need to go back even further with LiPS or Foundations in Sound). There is no marking anything, though, because it is just working with sound without letters.
Level 2 is consonants and focusing on short vowel sounds and really nailing what those sounds are and when they occur and yes the student marks them and break them up with tile and writes them and etc. but it is very, very basic. Necessary for a lot of kids to do this but there isn't much to "Mark".
Level 3 is closed syllables and units and blends and digraphs and things like when to use K at the end and when to use CK at the end. And yes, kids mark the words and use the tiles and stuff like that. I add in more dry erase board stuff and sometimes use shaving cream and other more tactile things. Barton definitely encourages tutors to add in whatever tactile or other additional things are needed for things to click. We also play the card games from Spelling Success. But again these are basic words, no open syllable words, no multi-syllable words.
Keep in mind that some kids can get through Level 1-3 in just a few months. It isn't like each level is supposed to take a year.
Level 4 makes this enormous leap. In level 4 the student now has to deal with open syllables, multi-syllable words, when to use C, K or CK in the middle of a word (which took for.e.ver. for my kids to truly grasp), more advanced vowel teams, etc. It covers a LOT of things that a student has to be flexible enough to learn about. Meaning they have been taught about one set of rules and learned how to internalize and apply those rules but now they have to make the mental leap into learning about all these more complex scenarios where things they already learned don't fit with these other kids of words. It is a hard level. And yes, the student is still marking words, as they have since Level 2.
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Teaching Textbooks users with IXL.
in K-8 Curriculum Board
Posted
Well, you might look at CTC math. The student has access to math across all grade levels but each lesson can be repeated as many times as you want and it generates new problems so the student isn't just repeating identical problems. All problems are broken down into categories that follow basically the same organizational pattern for each grade level. Makes it easy to find the geometry problems or the money problems, etc. for every grade level. It has been really helpful here for my kids to be able to go back a couple of grade levels when they get stumped, rework the more basic problems then hop forward, try some at a more advanced level, then redo the ones at the level they are currently working to clarify and fix any confusion. I stay nearby to confirm they are understanding and if necessary we work problems together on a dry erase board, too, but they love CTC.
You could assign specific sets to practice as reinforcement for the TT assignments. There may be a bit of a difference in explanation, but that might be a good thing. They can see that different explanations are actually saying the same thing. And that sometimes there are different ways to accomplish the same goal.