Would you share your fifth grader's school schedule with me? It seems that we almost never finish everything planned for the day. I need help figuring out if we're not working efficiently, or if we're trying to do too much. I keep a four-day school week. On Fridays we do logic, art history and music history, go to co-op and field trips. This is a typical day: grammar writing (CW) reading 20 min. (American History/leveled reader) math (TT, 1 page division supplement, 1 page fractions supplement, 15 minutes TimezAttack) piano practice 30 min. Is this enough? Spanish - Rosetta Stone 1 lesson (20 min literature - 40 min (we're reading Sarah, Plain and Tall, and doing a study guide/lapbook as we go along. The time includes independent reading time, a chapter every two days.) -or- Latin 30 min. History or Science 45 min I would appreciate any feedback, especially if you've found ways to streamline your day. TIA

I'm not a professional teacher, so there may be something I'm not getting. In every other profession pay and prestige comes directly from job performance. Teachers are the only ones I know that feel they should be exempt. If you have a classroom where more kids fail than in other classrooms, why should you not be fired or given a pay cut? In any event, I don't think about this too much. It's not my problem. I've opted out of one of the worse educational systems in the western hemisphere.

School is not fun here. I try to make it as interesting as possible, but frankly, most children don't think it's fun to be forced to sit in a chair and do math problem after math problem when they could be outside playing. It's not fun for ds, it sure isn't fun for me. I see it as an inevitable part of our day -- something that needs to be done so we can move on to the things we actually want to do. Sad, but true. Some people say they have a crazy good time schooling. My hat off to them. They're either extremely inventive, or they're awfully easy to please. ;) Schooling, for the most part, is my least favorite part of the day.

Explain to me how the children broke the law and are now criminals.

Pit bulls are illegal in my county. Probably the only intelligent thing our lawmakers have been able to pull out of their hats in the past 50 years. I had a neighbor years ago who had an illegal pit. I was walking my son in a stroller and the pit started towards us. I stood between the pit and the stroller and was getting ready to be mauled when the owner came and apologizing and asking me not to call the cops on his dog. He swore the animal was just like a baby and just wanted to play. The guy later came to my house to apologize again and tell me how gentle his dogs are. I noticed that he had a long ugly scar from his ankle all the way up to where his shorts ended. I asked him about that and he said one of his dogs had gotten "frisky." I called the cops as soon as he left and they took his dog away.

Dogs are very social animals. Leaving one outside at night is akin to leaving a child outside and expecting it to whimper quietly and wait until mommy gets up in the morning to let him in. People who do not have room inside their homes for dogs should not own them. My BIL has hunting dogs and he keeps them in a kennel. They're not allowed in the house and they spend most of their time in an outdoor run, even when the temperature is below zero. There are many, many reasons to dislike my BIL, and this is almost at the top of my list. (The fact that he's a hopeless drunk and bully is at the top. Thankfully he and his ilk are a continent away.) In my experience, people that mistreat their animals almost always mistreat people if they think they can get away with it

Wall space I'll have, and yes, there's room for either a small loveseat or a comfy large chair for reading.

Yes! I hadn't thought of that, but a comfy reading chair with good lighting is a must. Thank you!

I like that!

I didn't write that clearly. What I meant by "painting in" the whiteboard is literally that I have bought whiteboard paint and I'm going to paint a very large rectangle across the whole wall that I can then write on with dry erase markers. I love your idea of moving my desk so it's not against the wall. Right now it looks like I've been timed out when I sit at it. ;)

I'm going to bite the bullet and clear out a spare bedroom/home office to make a schoolroom. The room is 12 x 14, and has one large window and a 10' wall-to-wall closet. I'm going to keep: my desk, a matching 30" wide low file cabinet, and a tall bookshelf 30" wide. Half of the closet contain our optics (telescope, cameras, peripherals), and my sewing/craft material. That leaves me with about five feet of closet with four shelves, or 20 linear feet of closet space for supplies, etc. What I need: a desk or table for ds, a computer station, a whiteboard, which I'm going to paint on one of the walls. What else do I need? I've been teaching on the kitchen table all these years and now that I'm about to have room, I don't know what to do with it. Please tell me what you have in your schoolroom that works - maps on the walls? A proper desk for ds? I know I'm missing something. All I know is that it's going to be sunny yellow. :lol:

A nice cheerful sunny yellow. Love that color -- it's energizing, but not frantic.

Dinner is at 7:30. It works out with dh's schedule. Breakfast at 9, lunch at 2, dinner at 7:30, and healthy snacks between and after.

There is some value to this kind of riff-raff. They make the rest of us look so much better.

I don't know what the architectural differences are, but I do know that houses in the south are built to dissipate heat and houses up north are built to hold it in. I know that the insulation in my attic keeps the house from heating up when the sun beats down on it all summer, but the windows are single panes which bleed warmth (that's why up north the windows have double panes -- the air in between traps the warmth). There are three extra wide sliding glass doors in my great room looking out over the pool and patio. It's a great view in the summer, but right now just standing near the glass doors you can feel how cold it is.

:grouphug:

What grades are the three books written for? Are these middle school books? Thanks.

Wow. What an awful thing for kids to have to deal with. Some people are just born losers -- too bad they're so hard to identify in advance. I'm very sorry this is happening to your kids. :grouphug:

Vulgar: I didn't see any vulgar verbiage. Did I miss a curse word somewhere? Dismissive: He was praising Obama and commenting how electable he was. Racist: He said that Obama doesn't speak negro dialect. I've heard negro dialect -- I hear it on TV all the time. Some people call it Ebonics. It's another way of saying "non-standard English." I can see how using the word "negro dialect" could be seen as insensitive, but racist? I assure you, African Americans know that many of them speak in non-standard English. Stereotype: Really? It's a stereotype to say that Obama doesn't speak the way 80% of African Americans speak in the 'hood? Here's my personal take on this: Reid was having a conversation about how electable someone was. The fact is that some people are electable and some are not. Our country is not yet ready for an African American leader that's jet black, wears a 'fro, and speaks fluent Ebonics. (The good Mr. Mr. Steele from the GOP often uses Ebonics in an effort to ingratiate himself and it has backfired consistently.) Do you really think these conversations don't happen when any party is considering backing someone? Of course they have these conversations. They have to. They're in the business of getting people elected. The conversation was had within a very small circle of associates - five. A year later, someone in that small group felt compelled to quote the phrase. Faux news immediately picked it up, stripped it of content like only they can, and started broadcasting the sound bite. And now Mr. Steel, who speaks more negro dialect than any elected official I've ever seen (despite being quite capable of speaking in perfect standard English), is calling for Reid to step down. In his dreams.

:lurk5:

I have found it completely secular, which is my preference. We have not come across any Bible stories yet -- we're still in Aesop -- but when they come, we'll still use it. We treat the Bible and other sacred texts as Great Books and have no problem using them for copywork or models. In any event, the Bible informs much of Western civilization, so an educated person must read it at some point, whether or not they believe in God. I have seen no overt religious content in CW at all. Hope this helps.

They're in raised boxes. I couldn't even see them until I walked right up to them. They basically look like greenish smears on the mulch and they were about a foot high. It's kind of sad -- all the hard work gone to waste -- but I feel a science lesson coming up. Ack. :(

Waaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Every one of my tomatoes and peppers look like boiled spinach. It's all dead this morning. Even the nasturtiums.

I sat with my newborn (1-day-old) nephew because my sister was too chicken to go. It was awful enough that when my own son was born I didn't even consider it. The child was not anesthetized. They stuck a pacifier in his mouth and restrained him in a baby-seat. When they started cutting him, he started to scream. His face turned purple and he couldn't catch his breath from screaming and shrieking. He screamed for another five minutes after it was over. The nurse said he didn't feel a thing, that he was just being fussy because he was restrained. Just say no to ritual infant mutilation.

I'm up late printing some last minute stuff, so I check the weather while I wait for the printer. The forecast low for tonight is 42F which is basically unheard of in Miami. But the actual temperature is 37F and falling, and it's not even 3 in the morning here. It will probably fall another 5 degrees tonight, and it's snowing in Disney World. I know how much tougher it is up north. I have a house in Canada. But houses here are built to dissipate heat, not keep it in. I've got the heater set at 68F and it's been cranking non-stop since 8pm tonight. This winter will definitely be one for the books. Too bad I've only got two dogs. This is definitely a three-dog night. ;)