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cholderby

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Posts posted by cholderby

  1. It must be hard to be in school with an older sister who always knows more then you. She needs to find her "thing". Once she has found her "area of expertise", she'll hit her stride.

     

    My 8yo says that he hates school all the time. He really means "I'd rather be playing video games". Then I, too, say "suck it up". :)

  2. I posted this by mistake in the gen. Ed. board first:

     

    This is our first year with Math Mammoth, which is aligned to the common core. Before we used CLE, which is not aligned to the common core. We're using it for 1st and 3rd. The texts go on and on with different strategies for doing the exact same thing (in the case of 3rd grade mental subtraction, TEN strategies were presented).

     

    My kids are so frustrated at having to learn over and over different ways of doing the exact same thing. My son told me that he doesn't want to bother with the other strategies, he just does them how he wants and gets the right answer at the end. In my mind, consistently coming up with the correct answer is really all I want when it comes to arithmetic.

     

    I wonder what my kids aren't learning because lesson after lesson goes on with different ways to do the exact same thing.

     

    So...is it MM or is this a common core thing?

  3. This is our first year with Math Mammoth, which is aligned to the common core. Before we used CLE, which is not aligned to the common core. We're using it for 1st and 3rd. The texts go on and on with different strategies for doing the exact same thing (in the case of 3rd grade mental subtraction, TEN strategies were presented).

     

    My kids are so frustrated at having to learn over and over different ways of doing the exact same thing. My son told me that he doesn't want to bother with the other strategies, he just does them how he wants and gets the right answer at the end. In my mind, consistently coming up with the correct answer is really all I want when it comes to arithmetic.

     

    I wonder what my kids aren't learning because lesson after lesson goes on with different ways to do the exact same thing.

     

    So...is it MM or is this a common core thing?

  4. We did this:

    http://www.classicsforkids.com/

     

    Today and it was great. Well, we're in the 17th c. In SOTW and this week's podcast is on Aaron Copeland so we're not synced chronologically. But the kids listened and did the quiz at the end so I called it a day.

     

    My 6yo takes an art class at co-op so she's good with the hands-on creation of art. My 8yo boy would rather do just about anything than create art. I'm good with that. I would like him to learn art history and appreciation though.

     

    The search continues...

  5. Otoh, I like knowing all the nutritional stuff that triggers disease. Otoh, it puts the control at my feet and, if i mess up, the blame.

     

    I was diagnosed with MS in March. I've been rather half-heatedly trying to follow the Wahls Protocol for a while. I have four kids and a husband who don't want to eat massive amounts of kale and cooking two menus every meal is a killer.

     

    My neuro recently upped my gabapentin for nerve pain and I've been just slightly more alert than a zombie all week.

     

    How do you manage to do all this and still deal with health issues? I've been trying to simplify our curricula this year, mostly without success.

  6. ah..."chronic disease"...it sounds so glamorous... :coolgleamA:

     

    I was diagnosed with MS last March.  Things have gone pretty much straight downhill for me since.  My hands are pretty iffy nowadays, they go in and out with feeling though I still have pretty good movement.  My eyesight is getting worse too.

     

    I'd love to connect with someone else who is health-challenged and homeschools.  We can't afford private school, don't live anywhere near a Catholic school, and are completely afraid of the local public schools.  I've always wanted to homeschool but, even if I didn't love it, we really don't have much of a choice.

  7. We did HFA last year.  I liked the content but I found it tiresome to have to pull everything together from various spots in the pdf and then visit other links, print some stuff, figure out where the broken link moved to, etc.  Also, by the time we do all the "have tos", I'm too tired to deal with high maintenance "shoulds".

     

    Has anyone ever seen a music and art history program on dvd?  Or fully online (just press play?) Ideally, it would correspond to SOTW.  

  8. Just wondering how other people print their downloads. Do you print them all at once and use a three ring binder? Get them spiral bound? Print on demand at home?

     

    Any idea who has the best prices for printing?

     

    I'm trying to figure out if I should get the Math Mammoth download or just buy it printed. In the past, I've tried printing HFA on demand but it got overlooked a lot because there wasn't a book in the stack (and not one of our do-or-die subjects either).

  9. An excerpt from my favorite social studies book... :D

     

    So, I do think there is great value in social studies. But the schools screw all that up, which is part of why I homeschool. :tongue_smilie: I tend to think of all the banal stuff they cover as social studies in the early grades as real life knowledge, which I teach in the course of real life. However, not all parents do, so some kids do benefit from the coverage of elementary level civics in schools.

     

    Yes! I remember we had a whole year dedicated to "needs and wants" in my PS education.

     

    The information is good, it is much more effective (and easier) to teach in real life!

  10. I happened across our local public school's "key concepts" for each year. Looks like they don't start history until fifth grade. Instead they have Social Studies.

     

    I feel confident that we are hitting all necessary concepts by doing SOTW. But it got me thinking...what is Social Studies? Why is it a separate, competing subject? Is there any value to studying these concepts in the abstract?

     

    I don't see it, but there must be great argument for studying these things outside of the context of history. Anyone know?

  11. Last year we did Apologia astronomy. We finished it, but I'd like to try a new curriculum this year.

     

    DS is very enthusiastic about the subject. He works best with work text books with concrete lesson beginnings and endings. If I can find something to use with my K'ner too, that would be perfect.

     

     

    I enjoyed the religious aspect of Apologia but we are not literal 7 day creationists so it didn't exactly fit with our religious beliefs. If I can find a science curriculum that works for us in format whether or not it has a religious aspect is secondary.

  12. We use CLE too, I think we're on Book 107. My son adores Fred. He wants to read it at bedtime and at school time. We once did three chapters in a day and my son wanted more. I think it's a great compliment to CLE.

     

    I'm even thinking of getting a couple more copies of Apples to give to my in-school nieces and nephews.

  13. We are just finishing CLE 1. I started out with RS buy it wasn't a good fit for my teaching/his learning style. I am quite pleased with CLE! My MIL, an elementary school teacher who is HIGHLY suspicious of homeschooling in general, gives DS an impromptu math quiz once a week (poor kid) and she has never once found fault with his math skills.

     

    That said, we started Life of Fred as a supplement last month. My son begs for LoF. It is very different from CLE and compliments it well.

  14. I'm searching for the same thing! I've been making up my own but I'm sure I'm missing something. This blog http://harmonyartmom.blogspot.com/ is having a Harmony Art sale this weekend only for $12.95 for the ebook. It follows a four year cycle like SOTW. The books through 8th grade are on sale; there are high school books buy idk a thing about them.

     

    Of course you need to buy a few other things, but I'm hoping to end up around $50. I just bought it yesterday so I can't endorse it at all. Hope you find something.

  15. We use this: http://www.currclick.com/product/304/Wonders-of-Old-Blank-Timeline-Book?it=1

     

    I like that is stores in the book shelf with everything else. Also, though we try not to skip around, I like that it has prehistory-present. My son is currently interested in Darwin so, even though we are at 100 AD in history, he can add Darwin facts in his book too.

     

     

    The only drawback is that it they can't just glance at the wall to see it. But, honestly, I'll soon have four kids...what would my house look like with four timelines hanging up?

  16. Everyone is going to tell you what works for them, but it really depends on your child's learning style, etc... We've tried them ALL, and we've finally landed on CLE Math...love love love it. Spiral without being exhaustive, something they can do almost independently, even in 2nd grade!

    So true. Math is the subject that I struggled the most with to find a good fit. We do CLE plus Life of Fred. Idk if CLE will be a good kit with my k'ner, but my 7yo loves the workbook format.

  17. That is a very tough spot.

     

    I have used our public schools services. I was so, so scared to do it because I have heard so many horror stories. It was a lovely experience, all of the therapists we worked with were awesome.

     

     

    I just wanted to add that in case going to your local school system terrifies you like it did me.

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