nd293
-
Posts
2,994 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Events
Blogs
Classifieds
Store
Posts posted by nd293
-
-
The errors are frequent enough to be annoying, but not frequent enough to put me off the programme. They are mostly of the "careless" variety imo - they don't dramatically affect understanding. In other words - wrong word given in translation, answers occasionally omitted, mistake in cases, macrons omitted. Dd9 works independently (I read through any notes with her, she does the worksheets independently) and picks up some errors - I pick up other in the answer sheets. The answer sheets are a full duplication of the student text with answers filled in.
I've found LL easy to use, and it doesn't require much of my time. We will be using BB2 next year.
Nikki
-
Yea, I often see workers in the "real world" sitting around figuring out math problems. Oh please....that is the silliest thing I've ever heard.
I don't know. You may be being too hasty. I had a young woman at the check-out try to work out what 10% of $110 was the other day, and I really think she would have benefited from a group approach. Maybe if you're a student of "new maths" you will need those other workers to help you solve problems. One worker only has so many fingers and toes. :glare:
Nikki
-
We've just bought, but it's not our forever house. A least I hope not. We'd like to be in a neighbourhood with better schools (just in case!), and closer to the sea. As practical extras I'd also like to be in walking distance of a park and a shop (our rental house ticked both of those boxes). We have another chunk of money we can use in the future, but even with this I am not sure we can afford to move much closer to the sea (we're a 20 minute drive now, and I'd like to halve that) unless we trade a house for a unit which I don't want to do.
That aside, the neighbourhood is OK, and the house is OK. We are doing our best to get the garden looking great and to tweak the inside of the house to suit us.
Nikki
-
I always go back to two authors when I want to laugh - Gerald Durrell (the naturalist), particularly his books about his family while they were living in Greece during WWII. Those are Birds, Beasts and Relatives and My Family and Other Animals. Any of his are funny, really. They are all focused on animals.
The other author is Peter Mayle, and his books about living in Provence - A Year in Provence and Toujour Provence. There's another in the series, but I forget the name.
-
Tomato & sweet pepper soup (best served cold with pesto, sour cream and chives)
Pad Thai
Butter chicken
Pasta with cream, ham and asparagus
A fancy salad with thinly slices steak in it (or for winter, bean burritos)
-
I was repulsed by an article I read once that explained that the wife should have the house tidy, the children washed, and makeup freshly applied when her husband comes home. She should talk about how he had such a rough day and should sit down and enjoy a cool drink. She should remind the children not to stress daddy out. Seriously?
That's sort of what I think of when I head "1950s wife" and it's definitely not me. It seems to imply that what happens at work is worth more, and requires more, than work that is done in the home. (And I think it's that thinking that has so many women desperate to return to the workforce after having children.)
I guess if a woman spends all her day in the gym or having coffee and lying by the pool, then it's not unreasonable to expect her to "work" to make her husband's evenings more pleasant. But for women with kids at home all day? When dh gets home after a nice quiet drive home with no-one throwing a fit because they didn't get what they wanted at the shop, I expect him to spend some time with the kids, and give me 15 minutes all to myself.
There are many variables, of course - my dh loves his job, and I don't get much satisfaction from mine. And if being a 1950s wife makes the wife in question happy, then, why not?
Nikki
-
Dh is all grown up and I'm not his Mommy, so no, he plates his own food! However, if I'm dishing up for everyone and then putting the food out for them to take, I'll do that for him too, just as he sometimes dishes up all the food. We had friends around this weekend and had a "self service" lunch with sandwich makings laid out on the table, and I was very surprised when she prepared everything for her teen daughter and husband.
-
Oh, I agree! Such scenes always make me think that perhaps the author is so unsure of the quality of the work that he's trying to distract us.
-
Great work!
Nikki
-
I would definitely ensure that you choose a specialist children's dentist (the one we go to also deals with special needs adults). They have had plenty of experience with nervous patients who don't obey instructions! My ds's first fillings were actually done with him sitting on my lap on a normal chair, lying back with his head on the dentist's lap. By the next appointment he was begging to sit in the "big chair" and wear the cool sunglasses that went with it :-) I would also specify that the first appointment should not involve any actual dental work.
-
Do not try to refill a gas soldering iron with gas while the flame is still burning. Loss of eyelashes can result from failure to follow these instructions.
Do not get water on the inside bits of any washing machine you are trying to fix - especially not when you have it connected to power.
Do not let your 18 month old play with your bread machine and a small plastic bowl.
When going camping, and using dry ice to keep things cold, do not place your glass bottles of soda directly on top of the dry ice.
If your CD drive stops working, you might want to see if any of your credit cards are missing.
If your video machine stops working, you might want to see if any plastic forks are missing.
Do not bring a casserole dish out of the oven and put it on a glass-topped table.
Do not out a pot that is still warm onto the glass shelf in the fridge.
You really cannot use a coal-burning BBQ in your living room, even if the BBQ is only as big as a small pot.
For an endless supply of "Do not let your kids..." with photographic evidence, have a look at this blog!
-
We used this last year and loved it! We got together with friends for the art project, but everything else was done on our own.
We've done it the same way. Great fun!
-
Well it might be spam, but maybe he thinks you'd be the ideal person to convince his reluctant girlfriend as to the joys of parenting? Sounds like there could be a language barrier though!
-
I don't think that this is strange. If your child went to a swimming pool, there would be children 'in their underwear'.
:iagree:We weren't born fully clothed. I can't think how the body could be discussed without showing it to some degree. And why would we want to? I would expect a preschooler to have seen the unclothed human body within the family context already.
Nikki
-
How lovely! It's such a clever book, I'm pretty sure the author must have known this, although he is usually quick to draw attention to word play and other language connections in the teacher's notes.
Nikki
-
It's whatever works, here. In summer dd9 needs to bath every day, sometimes twice. In winter both she and ds3 get by with 2-3 baths a week. In summer I'll sometimes count a swim as a bath - we're not chlorine sensitive, although the effect on dd's hair is nasty, so she usually does rinse off under the shower.
-
I am pretty sure that's the purpose - the books are all copyright free. You can select fonts, size and all sorts of details prior to printing, but as far as I have been able to find, you can only print one chapter at a time. I tend to copy and paste into a Word document, then print all the chapters together. The pictures just come along with the text if you highlight, copy and paste.
I played around with the printing, and found the settings to print as an A5 (not sure if you use the same paper sizes - half sized, like a book) booklet, both sides of the paper then I take the pages to get cut, punched and bound, which makes the book much more readable.
-
Despite the shock, that's pretty good. I spend more than half that on my one child, although postage eats up a fair chunk as we are overseas.
It's worth remembering that using TWTM doesn't mean only using the resources she recommends - it's a map, not a prescription. Comments on the curriculum board will quickly tell you which resources are considered "rigourous" and which not.
MEP is great for maths, and it's free. Try to find things that can be used for multiple years (e.g. SWR for spelling). Things that are available as e-books are often cheaper - look at Teacher Resource e-stores, but also things like those from Pandia Press which are designed to go with TWTM cycle. History doesn't need anything other than what you can get from the library. Science doesn't strictly need anything other than an encyclopedia and library books, although I find it much easier with experiments etc laid out. Watch for hidden extras, i.e. other books or hands-on material you need to buy.
-
Have you lived abroad or did long-term (6+ months) travel? 5 years
Where did you go? Oman (in the Middle East).
What was best/worst? Best - living in such a varied and beautiful country with such friendly people; the positive attitude towards children and families; the food; safety (very little crime), meeting people from all over the world, learning that I am more resilient than I give myself credit for. Worst - being the "trailing spouse"; knowing that if anything went wrong the legal system might not be as transparent as we were used to (e.g. in a disupute with a local, the local will get preference unless you know someone more important than the people he knows (see wasta). Although it never caused any problems I found it very disturbing.
How did you support yourself financially? Dh worked full-time.
Did you homeschool during this time? No. There was a very limited HSing community, and it was too lonely. Dd went to an international school. School was not without its annoyances, but the richness of the experience she had could not have been duplicated at home.
What was reentry like (if you came back)? We moved to another country, rather than "home". Australia was so "ordinary" compared to Oman that we found the move quite easy. Ds (then 2) was very difficult for a time - he wasn't verbal, and I hadn't anticipated how difficult it would be for him. Dd (then 8) was fine, she stayed in e-mail contact with friends for a time, but I also realise that she is happy to homeschool to avoid being "the new kid".
Any advice for someone who was considering doing this? Try to think of where you are as "home". Commit to where you are. Expect it to be hard. It is. That doesn't mean it won't be good. Give someone you trust authority to operate your finances in the home country - it's 7 years since we left home and we are still sorting out the mess...
Nikki
-
I liked it in theory, but didn't like the actual implementation. Dd found the lessons boring, and I simply could not see the logic of the lessons. What were we trying to achieve? We switched to IEW (just the theme-based book without any of the dvds) and it is much clearer to me where we are going - I feel like a partner, rather than an unwilling passenger!
Nikki
-
I'm so sorry... We all know the feeling of such misery for our kids losses. It hurts just to hear about your situation. I would definitely also take it up with the organisation in terms of the conflict between policy and practice.
-
I'm really enjoying Ten Thousand Lovers by Edeet Ravel. Because the title might be a bit misleading, I'll add that it's a novel in which the narrator recalls her relationship with an Israeli army interogator in the 70s. It's a love story, argument for peace in Israel, and commentary on the Hebrew language all rolled into one.
-
We have an old laptop which is dd9's, but
1) it has no Internet access. Internet access in our family will happen in a public room.
2) if ds3 wants to watch a movie, he is allowed to watch on the laptop
-
You download it from the Internet. Quick and easy!
Library experience: Was I unreasonable?
in General Education Discussion Board
Posted
I would also complain. Our local library has toddler time in the children's section. It makes access to some shelves difficult, but they do not close off the section, and if you can work around the toddlers you can take books from that section.