Shoeless
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Posts posted by Shoeless
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15 hours ago, El... said:
I'm not very up on all this, and appreciate the thread. How much do you guys limit this stuff in your family diet? I think we eat mostly homemade food (from ingredients) at home, but we eat out a few times a week and a lot more than a few years ago, and drink quite a few sugary, colorful drinks when we're out. I think I need to reign it in.
It would be easier to list the processed foods we still eat vs list everything we don't do:
-kraft mac and cheese (DS15 polishes off a box of this daily!)
-canned baked beans once a week
-pretzel sticks with DH's lunch every day
-diet sodas for DH
-mayo
-canned refried beans once a week
-trail mix
-deli meat for DH's lunches
-occasional splurges like Halloween candy
-bread crumbs
That's about it. It sounds hardcore, but honestly, it's not. DH is the biggest consumer of processed foods here because he's toddler-level picky. I've made some progress there, but I'm probably never going to be able to nudge him into 100% healthy eating.
If you make almost everything from scratch, you don't have to watch the salt and sugar content so carefully. There is so much salt and sugar in processed foods because it tastes like garbage without it. If you eat mostly processed foods, you're always going to get too much sugar and salt.
Take away the processed foods, and now you can have a slice of cake or pie without too much fretting about the sugar. And I never think about food dyes because the only time we have them is in candy at the holidays, and we all prefer chocolate anyway!
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It seems to be a year round display
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2 minutes ago, Brittany1116 said:
Do you have any pop up consignment sales in the nearest city? We have Just Between Friends 2-3 times a year. There are others but I can't recall the names.
I don't know anyone who would turn down hand me downs. Maybe they graciously take them and just pass on what they don't like, but they still take it and I occasionally see the kids in pieces. I am sad to be moving out of our old Gymboree and Gap, and I also take care of my kids' clothes.
My mom lives middle of nowhere and has awesome thrift shops. We always find something when we visit. Near me, there is rarely anything worth looking at in the kid section. The JBF sale is where we score big.
No, nothing like that around me. Every once in a while, there's a church sale that you can set up a table, but it seems more social event than real sale. Everything was priced oddly high? There's a Plato's Closet about 45 minutes from here, but it's almost entirely college-girl clothes (it's near a university). They don't deal in kid's clothes at all.
I even tried to give away a kid's winter coat and couldn't get any takers! It looked basically new because DS wasn't one of those wrestle-and-dig-in-the-dirt kind of kids. I can't imagine passing up a free coat! 🤷♀️ His coat actually fit me but was too short in the arms, otherwise I would have kept it, lol
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49 minutes ago, Brittany1116 said:
I have a 5 year gap and save everything for the little one. I buy everything on steep clearance on off seasons and it works well 99% of the time.
I usually resell at kid consignment sales, but have just started giving away the younger one's outgrown clothes. I have a friend who has a boy after a few girls, and another who had 3 boys in under 5 years. Even my niece takes some of the pieces that my sister likes.
We're out in the country, so no consignment stores near me. I've offered his outgrown clothes to people with younger/smaller kids, but they aren't interested. Seems weird to me because DS isn't a rough and tumble kind of guy; his clothes are really gently worn.
I don't get it, but I've always been out of sync with people around here, so there's probably some cultural cue about hand-me-downs that I'm missing.
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2 hours ago, Brittany1116 said:
Oh speaking of insane sale prices.... Children's Place, which has been on par with Walmart pricing for most of my kids' lives, had a 3 pack of little boys sweat pants ON SALE for $53 this week. Last time I bought them there, they were $8 tops.
That's crazy!
Now I'm kicking myself for donating DS15's old clothes instead of trying to flip them on Ebay.
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1 hour ago, rzberrymom said:
I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I kind of, maybe agree with your kiddo. I’ve wondered how in the world universities are keeping up with the changes going on in CS right now, with all the upheaval and progress AI is bringing. Everything is changing so so fast!!
And I don’t buy that these professors are able to keep up. My DH is an engineering professor, and he has to train his students in Matlab, Python, Excel, etc. as part of that—with all the other pressures (publish or perish, department meetings, office hours, editing journal articles, politics, etc.), there’s NO WAY he can keep up with all the changes happening with regards to programming. Things are changing weekly!
So, if I were a really smart kid with tons of coding experience, I may be tempted to do a coding boot camp and just try to go for it. Even a year ago, I never would have thought that. But for the right kid, it feels to me like things are evolving too quickly to waste time on a 4 year degree right now. 🤷♀️
I am super risk averse, so this is out of character for me.
To piggyback off this, maybe a 2-year degree is something to look into? I had a 2-year programming degree, BUT I also had 4 years' experience to help me get my foot in the door. My experience mattered way more than my degree, (though that was a long time ago).
@cintinative Does he have any kind of connections that can get him an internship or low-level job to put on a resume?
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1 hour ago, prairiewindmomma said:
Is anyone else just entirely unimpressed with "sale" prices lately?
I was browsing the Target ad here: https://weeklyad.target.com/promotions?code=Target-20231001&page=6 and they are advising a package of Charmin for $39.99 (24 megarolls). Like, no.
I've been considering cancelling my Target card because their prices are crazy, so we never shop there now. I stopped in there once for TP since I was passing by, saw the $40 price tag, and walked back out.
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On 10/2/2023 at 8:00 AM, cintinative said:
He was wondering how he was supposed to come by this knowledge when it was not taught at the universities. I told him that now that he knows C#, Java, and Python, he should be able to pick up other languages without a ton of issues.
The companies expect he'll learn some of this on his own. If he knows 3 languages, he'll be able to learn others pretty easily.
That's kind of how this field is; you'll get some formal training opportunities at jobs, but there's a lot of expectation that you will do some learning on your own. Also, job postings will say "The idea candidate will have experience with..." and list every possible software package, language, platform, etc known to man. Apply anyway, even if your skills don't match up exactly. It's not hard to pick up new coding languages.
I no longer work in software development, but my husband is a Linux engineer that has transitioned over to AWS architecture.
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@2ndGenHomeschooler I started this book tonight. Maybe you can see if your library has it.
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3 hours ago, matrips said:
What I’ve realized being on various boards, is that many of those commenters typically have a budget of $35,000 or under for a year of college. So in those cases, yes- quite a few private schools will come in similar to those amounts with scholarships and aid, and be comparable to their public flagship option. My dd’s friend got about $55,000 in aid from an $80k private school. $25k is a good deal for some folks- it is very comparable to tuition, room and board at many public universities, and in some states, less.
but when your budget is really low and you’re looking at your public option as being CC or commuting, then no- private schools probably won’t come close at all.
Theres a huge range of what people find affordable. Many seem resigned to $25k/year as being the bare minimum/low end of what they’ll have to pay. That’s not my version of low budget, but I think that’s where the conversation gets skewed. We were looking for way cheaper than that! Lol.
I wish I could like your post a dozen times.
A lot of this private school "aid" isn't really a scholarship. A lot of it is simply a discount the school is giving.
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2 hours ago, 2ndGenHomeschooler said:
It feels weird to discourage a year of Bible college. So many people we know think it‘s wonderful. But there are so many cheaper, easier ways to study the Bible if that’s what she really wants to do. Unless she wanted to go into some sort of ministry of course, but that’s not her goal. This is a tough one for me because I have a lot of baggage in this area. I don’t want to bring that into it or let it color my perspective, but of course it does in some ways. I’m sure it‘a not exactly like being camp for a year. I think the friends’ mom who was telling me about was describing it to me that way as a selling point, but I don’t think young adults need to spend a year at “camp” so that was another check in the negative box for me.
So here I am trying to find and walk a fine line between supporting my DD while also encouraging her to think carefully about what she chooses to do. We can’t pay for it, and it’s nice in a way that we don’t have the option. I’m not helping fill out the application but I answer questions about it if she asks. I encouraged her to read through the website and handbook carefully, read about the teachers, and listen to them speak if she can find anything online. I filled out the FAFSA and will be sure her transcript is ready. I told her some of my concerns but also let her know that I‘d support whatever decision she makes. I’m researching other options. And then I’m hoping and praying that everything works out as it’s supposed to. Parenting young adults is hard.
Thanks for the suggestion of Christian gap year programs. I wasn’t quite sure what search term to use and I think this will be helpful.
If she really wants to do the Bible college program, could she earn the money to go? Is there a less expensive place she could attend and get a similar experience?
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24 minutes ago, mommyoffive said:
Yep. I can't even believe there is someone like this out there. Sick. I am sorry you are dealing with this.
The only explanation I can come up with is that she's so overwhelmed by her own life that she's lost sight of the big picture. Who knows? 🤷♀️
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She's awful. Absolutely awful.
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On 9/29/2023 at 11:55 AM, cintinative said:
@8filltheheart I agree room and board is insane. Also, I don't know what to make of this author saying that tuition really hasn't gone up that much because it was inflated to begin with and they just offer discounts. I suppose I have heard people say things along those lines--privates aren't really that much more than state schools because they offer aid/tuition reduction. However, when I have filled out calculators on those college's websites, they are still twice as much or more than the state schools.
I went to college in 1990. Tuition, room, board, fees, etc was $5k a year. When I run an inflation calculator for then vs now, $5k equals about $11k. I cannot send my son to that same school for $11k for tuition, room, board, etc. It's $26k now, with $16k of that to live in the same average dorm that I lived in. The dining halls were updated and look very posh, but the students gripe that the food stinks. Who knows...
There's a private school in town that has a sticker price of $45k a year. Assuming scholarships stack, assuming my kid gets a perfect SAT score (ha!), assuming he lives at home, assuming he gets the max scholarships available, tuition still comes out to $20k a year, double the cost of the state school, (before any possible scholarships at state u).
I honestly have no idea how middle class people afford this without taking on tons of debt. Is that what everyone does, they just quietly take on debt for their kids and hope for the best?
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Ruin her ability to apply? That seems a bit dramatic. Community college doesn't ruin someone for future college coursework at a 4-year institution.
OP, many states have transfer agreements between the community colleges and the state universities. Some of them, like NY, even have guarantees that if a student graduates with an A.S. or A.A. from a state c.c., they have guaranteed admission to a 4-year state school.
The student needs to make sure they are taking courses that will transfer from cc to a 4-year university. Taking classes willy-nilly without making sure they fit the transfer plan isn't a good idea. I have a 2-year degree from community college. My 200-level microbiology class would transfer to a state university because the state uni has a course that is comparable in scope and sequence to my previous course. My applied-veterinary-nursing classes would not transfer in as anything but "general elective credit" because the 4-year uni does not have a comparable course or program.
It's the same with CLEP exams. Some schools will grant credit for the Chemistry CLEP, others won't, (as an example). It all depends on how closely the exam matches what that particular school teaches. You can look this information up on the school's website and determine whether or not it makes sense for your student to take a particular exam. Most CLEP exams are freshman college level courses. There are a few that come in as sophomore level, but it's mostly 100 level. These can be a good way to knock out general education classes, provided you know that the receiving institution will accept the exam and grant the credit where you need it.
You can also get a lot of information about a school's financials by googling <name of school> common data set. You can find out how likely it is your kids will be accepted into the school, what their admissions requirements are, what the requirements are for transfer students, if they accept CLEP, AP, DSST, military credits. etc.
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3 hours ago, Mrs Tiggywinkle Again said:
I think the issue is that she knows my family(my aunt, the mother of the deceased, used to babysit her for god’s sake) and saw on FB that there will be a memorial service in our state where my cousin grew up at a later date. It’s significantly closer distance wise and will probably be on a weekend in the spring.
So she thinks it would be more reasonable for me to wait and stay here and teach Tuesday night. But frankly, I know it sounds dumb, but I really want to be there for the actual funeral and burial. I just do and I don’t feel like I owe explanations for that, but maybe I am being unreasonable.
You are not being unreasonable.
She is being a petty b!tch.
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2 minutes ago, 8filltheheart said:
I'm in the minority. My 7th graders still need spelling.
Mine was a natural speller, so I dropped spelling very early on, like 4th-ish grade, and gave him a dictionary. 🤷♀️
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On 9/29/2023 at 2:06 PM, LauraClark said:
I see these "feeling overwhelmed" topics pop up periodically and haven't really ever paid much attention to them. Up to this point in our homeschool journey I have been pretty confident (with periods of uncertainty that resolve themselves). But, this year it's my turn to type up one of these topics: with my 7th grade I am feeling increasingly anxious that I am messing this up. Highschool is just around the corner. I am feeling like there are major holes and that I just don't have time to work one on one with him for everything. He's pretty independent, but he doesn't know what he doesn't know, ykwim? He is a slow worker, so I know that's part of the problem, but he's smart and compliant and any issues that we're having I think have to be rooted with me. But, I also have other kids that I'm trying to do school with too. School takes him from 8:30-4 most days and some of the output is, frankly, not good. He knows the material if I sit down with him, but his output (tests, papers, math homework) is just not at the point I think it should be. I just feel like the year is rushing forward and I can't get my feet under me to stop and help him understand anything -it's always "on to the next thing" and we just leave the poorly done assignments in the dust behind us. Any veterans want to chime in with ideas or encouragement? And thanks in advance for reading yet another one of these topics!
Here's a typical M-Th weekly schedule (we try to use Friday as our catch up and to do a couple of more fun things):
LA
-Reading good books. I require 30 min a day, but he often reads more than that. Reading is a subject I'm not worried about. I also purchased a Progeny Press guide for one of the books we're doing this year. I thought it might be good to work through one of those.
-Spelling. Takes about 15 min and we're doing Dictation Day by Day. No complaints here - this seems to be working well. I may stop doing it next year since he's a pretty good speller.
-Grammar: 15-20 min/day in theory. Analytical Grammar. We just finished year 2 of the 3 year cycle. We'll be doing the reinforcements once every 3/4 weeks. I plan to fill our grammar time with Figuratively Speaking - it will get us talking about some of these terms and reading some short stories and poetry, which we haven't done much of up to this point.
-Writing: my nemesis... He loves to write, in theory. We're doing the old Writing Strands level 6. He does pretty good with that. I've also started this week reading through Essay Voyage (MCT) with him because the essays that he's done in other subjects have been pretty bad. I don't plan to assign any of the writing from the book, just read through it together. I'm aiming for about 20 min of WS a day. However, he usually waits until the day before a WS paper is due and then spends all day doing it.Math: Saxon 8/7. I go over things that he got wrong the previous day and the new lesson for 10-15 min and then assign the evens. I think it's a good system. His scores aren't great, but it's mostly minor mistakes. I think we're going in a fine direction with this.
Logic: We're reading through part of World Religions and Cults together. He reads a chapter a week and we discuss. No output required. It's a little advanced for him...I'm thinking about putting it aside until high school and doing a more traditional logic course. He is just really interested in other religions, so I thought it would be fun to do together, but it is a lot of extra reading each week.
Science: We're doing Berean Builders, a chapter every 2 weeks as recommended. I make him take notes and assign him a test at the end of the chapter. We're starting to get into the habit of taking notes and seeing why it's important.
Language: We're doing greek 2 days a week for 15 min and Latin 2 days a week for 15 min. It's slow progress, but that's fine with me. I think he enjoys it and it doesn't take much time. My high school plan is to have him use his greek knowledge to translate for his Bible study. I don't have thoughts on using Latin for high school - it may just be a good base for studying a modern language.
History: We're doing a geography year - a new country every 2 weeks. This is another area I'm struggling with. I want him to research the country on his own (our library is terrible so it's mostly online research) for several days and write a paper. (We're also labeling a map, writing some general information about each country we study (major religion, leader's name, currency, etc), looking up recipes from the country (and cooking them with a friend), and playing a game from the area.) This has potential to be such a fun experience, but the 45 min of daily research is yielding very little in notes and his papers are not good. Online resources are hard to find and many of them have ads which is very distracting to him. I've been trying to sit with him during the research part of this but, again, 4 other kids...
Piano: 30 min of practice. This may be the last year that I "make" him do piano - I think he would like to not be required to practice every day.
What can I cut out? Is this too much? Not enough? Is this going to figure itself out like all of our past problems have?
What I would drop: spelling, reading through MCT Essay Voyage, either Greek or Latin (which does he like better? I'd be inclined to drop Latin since you don't have a plan to continue in high school), and logic/world religions since it's over his head and taking up a lot of time. You already have a writing program with Writing Strands, so MCT is doubling up, even if you don't do the assignments. If he really wants to read about world religions, I'd incorporate that as part of his geography and get books closer to his level.
We used MCT grammar and poetry in 7th. I stopped using the writing portion once we got to the Essay level because I thought it was so painfully dull. I'd focus more on improving the quality of what he's currently writing vs charging forward into essay writing.
I'm torn on piano. If you don't plan to make him continue for much longer, then you might as well drop it entirely now. But...I also know that if you nudge them through the murky middle school years, sometimes they find a new love for music in high school and keep going.
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2 minutes ago, Rosie_0801 said:
There seems to be a grand total of three ceramic themed fiction books available through my library service...
That is 3 more than I expected
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I have never thought about this before?
I mean, it's rude to blather on about any topic the other person finds boring.
That being said, I would probably only tell someone about a dream if they were in it and it was funny. Otherwise, I can't imagine them caring about my dream at all.
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On 9/28/2023 at 6:37 PM, Frances said:
Here’s a blog about a family who ended up making an unplanned move to Vermont from Texas when their triplets were high school juniors and seem incredibly happy with the decision. They had previously also lived in CA and Virginia. Two of their four children started college at University of Vermont this fall.
Wow, thank you for this link. I'm only a few months into the story of them leaving Texas for Vermont, but WOW. I'm off to binge-read about this lady's life for the last ten years.
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8 minutes ago, Rosie_0801 said:
Melissa wants pics of these too.
So I vote he should totally buy a wheel and kiln.
Noooo. He has so many expensive hobbies already! Pottery is expensive AND messy, so that's a no go for me.
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5 hours ago, Melissa Louise said:
This is hands down the best thread I've ever seen in my time here. I am sitting here feeling thrilled about bowls and vases and pots , even ugly mid century ones.
There's something stupendously spiritual about a glazed and fired clay bowl.
I want to go to the gallery immediately and see an exhibition that is just clay bowls. Empty or with water or maybe a mix.
DH and I binge-watched a show called The Great Pottery Throwdown. Maybe you can find it on a streaming service? Spoiler alert: in some of the challenges, they made sinks, toilets, and urinals. You're welcome ?
By the time the series was over, DH was ready to buy a wheel and kiln and start making his own bowls and cups!
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6 hours ago, Ausmumof3 said:
What precautions are people here still taking? How many haven’t tested positive for Covid yet?
Masking in doctor's offices, pharmacies, any place crowded. Still using hand sanitizer after being in public. I usually mask in stores, but I don't sweat it if I realize I forgot my mask when I arrive at the grocery.
No one here has had Covid yet. DS is homeschooled and has a few out-of-the-house activities every week where he wears a mask. DH works from home. Our risk is probably lower because we're not around big groups of people all day, like for work or school.
ETA: When I visited family out of state, they did not mask anywhere. I did not ask them to, and they didn't say anything about DS and I masking everywhere we went. We also did not mask when we were at their homes because it's just not practical to mask 24/7 for a 5-day trip. I was more concerned about picking something up on the plane or at the airport than my sister's livingroom.
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The kids are in charge.
in General Education Discussion Board
Posted
What's the end goal for your daughter's sport? Is she Olympic level good or simply a talented hobbyist? Is there a hope that she'll be good enough to land a scholarship for college one day? I would not put all my eggs in that basket, if that is the case. A lot can change between now and college time.
There are a LOT of family resources tied up in supporting her sport, and I wonder if it is to the detriment of the rest of the family. How much time is spent with the boys beyond chores, schoolwork, doctors?
I firmly believe that the foundation for successful homeschooling is the relationship between parent and child. If you want to homeschool all the kids, then you need to do less outside activities and more at-home relationship building, IMO.
I am not a sports or dance mom, but what I have seen from other families tells me that the parental load does not necessarily decrease as the kids get older. It shifts to other areas. You may have fewer uniforms to wash but you now have further to drive for competitions, more expensive camps to fund-raise, etc.
What's the worst that happens if you bring everyone home and simply stop doing all these outside activities?