I guess it does depend upon the situation. I tend to think typical elementary classroom setting. Personally the absolute worst professors/teacher I have ever known or had were the ones who were brilliant and had an intimate knowledge of their field of study but couldn't relay that information to save their lives. They knew it all and wondered why it was taking you so long to get it. Getting the knowledge is easy. Knowing how to transmit that to a room full of students is a totally different ballgame. I tend to agree more with the second half of what Ester said, I agree that isn't a personality type. Good teachers cultivate in themselves the character and skills necessary to put themselves in the position of the learner. That's what I mean by retaining their sense of wonder, the understanding of the frustration, and the need for patience.

Our kids sat on an unabridged dictionary. I swear it made them smarter. :lol:

Do what you want! Seriously. When will you ever get the chance again? Your children will be in Junior High before you know it (ask me how I know). Dive into whatever it is you and your child are interested in exploring. There are no rules. When my kids were that age, I bought curriculum and we wound up reading a bazillion books. Guess what they remember? Reading a bazillion great books. Books they still take off the shelf and read again and again. Oh, and they remember eating. Anything that had to do with making a fun food. LOL.

A sense of wonder Infinite patience A certain amount of stubbornness that lends itself to never giving up even when you've exhausted your ability to explain a concept. There MUST be a way. That's about it. I think I've just described why I believe my husband is the best first grade teacher on the planet earth. I ought to go tell him. :D

Sorry, I'm just seeing this. I leave it up to my kids honestly. I teach them to jot down lists and definitions they they feel they need to memorize. R&S is pretty good about telling you something is important. With my 9yo, I still help him. I tell him to get out a 3x5 card and copy out the state of being verbs. I tell him to draw how to diagram a two-subject or two-predicate sentence. My 12yo daughter has added to her 3x5 cards, rewritten them when they've become to cluttered, etc. A couple times a week, she has written in her planner to review her note cards. They don't write down everything. Just stuff they are struggling with or need to really memorize. Those verb tenses are a good example. They are a bear and it really helps to have a "cheat sheet" to refer to until you have them all memorized. They all fit nicely on a ring.

This is us. Eat REAL food.

This is great. Thanks.

Okay, I've changed around my comments a bit internally & reinstated them. Hopefully it will help lower the spam. I may start looking for another blog host. Scary. :lol: Thanks, everyone!

I don't know if this article came up because I haven't read every page of this thread but I loved this... Paula Deen? Why not blame Winnie the Pooh?

I'm going to just say it. What a jerk!

I taught my kids my cursive writing. I started with their name. I lightly wrote it in pencil on the top of each work page (every subject) and they traced it. Once they could write their first and last name in cursive we moved on to other letters. It was a very painless way to teach my daughter. It isn't working so well with my dysgraphic son BUT the good news is that, if nothing else, he'll be able to sign his name in cursive. LOL. The kids used those Jan Brett cursive pages also for fun. They are great practice. My cursive is fairly traditional so they match up pretty well.

I just can't figure out a way to get rid of the spam bots. I'm inundated with it. :glare: Thanks for your comment here though.

We are up. http://daisyhomeschoolblog.blogspot.com/2012/01/week-in-review-11612-12012.html

What is your denominational belief? Awana is really just like a catechism (question, answer, memory verse). BJU has a catechism in with their Bible curriculum. There are Protestant and Baptist catechisms available on the internet. Something like this? http://www.desiringgod.org/about/our-distinctives/our-beliefs/a-baptist-catechism My kids do Awana and also are memorizing the Westminster Shorter Catechism.

Would it be crazy to allow my daughter to learn German for her high school language? I don't know the language. I only know one person who speaks it (she's from Germany). We live in SoCal where knowing Spanish is what is really going to get my daughter a decent job. But my daughter wants to learn German! :glare: If yes, what resource is there for a family who doesn't have a clue about German? If no, do you have any suggestions for Spanish? Again, independent. Hubby and I have a decent Spanish vocabulary but frankly I don't even know how much of it is real Spanish and how much is just spanglish. Hubby and I both had 2 years of Spanish but don't remember all that much.

LOL. I just watched that video linked in Milovany's siggie for the first time. The whole family is dying. :lol:

For our children (9 & 12yo) it is a no to...Actually Dh and I don't watch these types of movies either... sex sexually immoral behavior shown without negative consequences. nudity (We are not going to freak out over a rear end but anything else is a no go) swearing (1 or 2 words and we won't turn it off. More than that and it starts to grate on my nerves) drugs presenting evil as good or funny vilifying or mocking our faith mocking authority figures unless there are natural consequences shown in the movie. Anything gory. No modern war movies for example, but my DH and DS watched a war movie from 1948 that was fine. We are very careful with movies that present humanistic and false religious beliefs as well. If we are going to watch the movie, we make sure to take time to discuss the issue with the children.

We start at 8am.

Our church has a box in the back for offering. They accept donations of clothes and food for the needy in our area. They've had vehicles donated to them before. I imagine if someone wanted to donate stock, land, etc. the church would take it. I'm not sure how they would actually handle it (sell it, hold on to it, etc). We have a small church though. I know some of the bigger churches in the area have automatic withdrawals, pass the plate, accept gift annuities, etc.

The book Shallows by Nicholas Carr talks about this. It discusses how Google and other big search engines are actually having an impact on even the research used in professional journals. It is wild to contemplate.

Live in California and used one on my daughter when she was 18 months or so. She never liked being confined so she had walked beside me from the time she was a year old. She'd just hold my hand. That was all fine and good until I had her brother. Then one day she dashed off at a dead run across the store (she'd NEVER done that before) and I was paralyzed in indecision. Do I run after her and leave the newborn in the buggy? Do I yell for help? It was terrible. From that point on I gave her the choice of being in the stroller/buggy or walking with a harness. She loved that harness. I don't have a problem with them. I frankly don't see the difference between a harness and strapping your kid down in a stroller. At least with a harness they are allowed some freedom of movement.

Daughter shouldn't have lied but I'm agreeing with the above.

Most of our books are in bookshelves throughout the house, but our school books are in the kitchen. Here are a few pictures. :blushing: I'm kinda embarrassed but you make due with what you have, kwim? I just snapped a pix so not everything is put away. We still have science to do after lunch.

Another vote for K'nex physics kits. My son loves these kits. They come with a cd-rom that walks you through the educational concepts of each project.

Generally not. They will occasionally allow participation of children who are enrolled in public school charter programs. I believe the decision is up to the individual district or school site though.