kokotg
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Posts posted by kokotg
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I don't consider feminist to be an epithet, either. Not at all. I am one. I just disagree that the patriarchy is responsible for Uncle Tom's Cabin's literary reputation. My personal opinion is that it's poorly written (though certainly an interesting book to read and an important one, from a historical perspective). I realized after I wrote that that it could come across as dismissive of feminism or feminist criticism. I didn't mean it that way at all...I think that particular feminist critique is off base, though.
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Yeah, most of the efforts to "reclaim" Uncle Tom's Cabin that I've encountered are from feminist critics who argue that the sentimental novel is disparaged because it's a style of writing associated with women. Personally, I don't buy it.
I wrote a paper in grad school on UTC...I argued that the chapter where Eliza hangs out in the Quaker community is a very deliberate move on Stowe's part--that she presents this vision of a Quaker utopia as an alternative to Uncle Tom's brand of Christianity (with focus on the afterlife to the exclusion of any attempt at earthly solutions to suffering). Uncle Tom's religion (and little Eva's,et. al.) always seems to running up against insurmountable limitations that Quakerism and the Quaker community offer a way past.
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seedsavers.org is a good place to get rare varieties of heirloom seeds (and also to support them in preserving heirloom stuff)
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I don't know how useful taking a couple years of a second language and then forgetting it all is, but I do think it's immensely useful to study a language long enough that you DO remember it. I took 6 years of Spanish in middle school and high school and then another year or so in college, and, while I'm certainly not fluent, I can still get around okay in Spanish. I'll toss out one more reason in addition to those already mentioned...when I was in grad school (an English ph.D. program) everyone was required to pass a translation test in 2 foreign languages as a requirement of the program--a common requirement in humanities programs (in fact, some professors complained that we were getting off too easy and should need THREE languages). I passed the Spanish no problem, but would have had to do a crash course in French or something had I stayed in the program. I took a year of Russian in college, but didn't learn nearly enough to pass the translation test. I would have been in big trouble if I hadn't had even the one language. So just something to think about...since you can't know what your kids are going to wind up doing as a career, it's good to keep as many possibilities open to them as you can. ...although someone who had researched it recently told me that no recent presidents have been fluent in a language other than English, and, of the current candidates, only Barack Obama is (and that only because he spent part of his childhood in Indonesia). I think it's kind of a shameful fact, but it does go to show you can make it pretty far without a second language ;)
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better late than never...ours is up!
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wow--thank you!! I remember seeing the Loaves of Fun one before at some point...it looks really fun! The second one looks very promising, too!
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Not sure where to post this, so I'll try here first :) ...does anyone know of a cookbook (could be aimed at kids or not) that tells how to make breads from different parts of the world--like one where that's the premise of the book: "here are the traditional breads of Germany, here are some they make in west Africa." Extras in the book like cultural info or history would be great, too. I'm thinking of doing a geography unit study sort of thing with the kids in which we try a different bread every week and read a little about the country. thanks!
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I also have some cooking with US history books coming and I am on the hunt for some good American history diaries and such.
Would you mind sharing what cooking books you've found? I was thinking of doing a cooking project once a week when we start American history in a few weeks.
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DH is a teacher, so we take advantage of having him home in the summer to help entertain the 2 year old and keep doing school. At least we plan to every year. Between vacations and other life, we usually end up slowing down more than we mean to.
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I have no idea how to measure such things, really, but I'd guess we have at least a six month supply of food on hand? A side of beef in the freezer, 4 six gallon bucket of various kinds of wheat, 2 six gallon buckets of beans, 2 more of rice. And I've been stocking up on other staples--baking supplies and whatnot. We're really lacking in stored fruits and veggies at the moment, but I'm gardening like crazy and hope to can/freeze/dry a lot more stuff this year than we did last year (we made dozens and dozens of jars of applesauce last fall, but it was all gone by february). I'm also working on edible landscaping in my yard. So far this year I've planted rhubarb, 2 dwarf apple trees, 4 blueberry bushes, and 2 paw paw trees (all in addition to my regular vegetable garden). So with luck we'll have some fruit coming in by next spring.
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My six year old does nothing. Well, he does copywork and dictation, and I make sure there are unfamiliar/harder to spell words there. And he writes all the time (on his own) and asks me how to spell things about 29 times a day. But we don't do a formal spelling program.
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In a college English class once, the professor was making a point about how there's no longer really a body of knowledge that we as a culture share. To demonstrate, he spent some time trying to come up with a single novel that everyone in the class (of 30 or so students) had read. The only one we could find was The Great Gatsby. In his fabulous Mississippi accent, he shot back, "That's because it's SHORT!" But anyway, make sure he reads The Great Gatsby since it's the only novel everyone at college will have read! :tongue_smilie: Aside from that, I think there's probably more value in, say, an in depth reading of The Grapes of Wrath than in rushing through several of them just so he can say he's read them.
If he hasn't read any Hemingway (Old Man and the Sea isn't the best, IMHO), he could read a couple of short stories so he's familiar with his style. Animal Farm's a very quick read and doesn't really require very close reading, I'd argue (it's value is more historical than literary). I would actually say that the movie To Kill a Mockingbird is better than the book, although I know that suggesting TKAM is not great art is sacrilege to most.
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yeah, I was looking at the website and trying to figure it out, too. It looks like they just don't have the schedule finished yet. Anyway, if you find anything out, please let us all know!
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Ours is up!
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Me too. I wonder if we were at the same theater! :) The one at the mall? Why can't I remember the name of it? But I do remember wearing an awful uniform of navy blue pants, a red checkered long sleeve shirt, and a vest.
It was the one at the mall! I'm guessing from your kids' ages that you were there before me, though (I worked there 96-97). The uniforms were different by then, but no less awful.
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Like everyone who lived in Athens in the 90's, I have Michael Stipe encounter stories. He used to come to the movie theater where I worked (and Kenny Rogers! but I guess he doesn't have a new album out). Once he ordered chocolate covered raisins, which are so not vegan.
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We have done SOTW 1 and 2 for the last 2 years, but next year we will do WinterPromise's American Story 1 and 2 (the following year).
I found a nice transition from the end of SOTW 2, which covers European expansion and exploration, into the same exploration which typically begins American History.
I may pick back up with SOTW3 after this, or I may look at starting the world history rotation again.
Good luck!
Lisa
This is us exactly. One of my reasons for doing American History in the middle is to give my middle DS (who'll be 5 next month) time to get a little older before we move on to (what I hear are) the more intense parts of SOTW. Right now my plan is to finish out SOTW after 2 years of WP (assuming we like WP), which will put us ready to start over again with ancients when my youngest is 6 (eek! I can't believe he's ever going to be SIX!)
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There's a website called backyardchicken, with forums where you can post pictures and ask what kind of chick you have. not that early, though. people post pics of 3 and 4 week old chicks, and educated guesses are made (roosters get combs earlier and redder than hens, for one thing), but you won't know for sure until they either crow or lay eggs.
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I'm one of those who buys so few things for which coupons are readily available that it's not really worth the time to me.
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honestly, my kids (same ages as yours) don't love it, either. I think, at least for my older son, it's that he's so visual that he really still needs something with pictures (although he does fine with fiction chapter books. I dunno). I finally bought the CDs--so for the rest of the year we're listening to it in the car and then I'm trying to focus more on the other things we do in history--actually getting some projects done from the activity guide, books from the library, reading the Usborne Encyclopedia more closely (I'm trying to use that more as the spine now, with SOTW as extra material, instead of the other way around). Next year we're taking a break from SOTW and doing Winterpromise's American history. I'll see if that's a better fit and reevaluate where we're at next year--right now the plan is to go back and finish up SOTW after American history, but we'll see.
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My bias might become obvious from my first two selections ;):
Delta Wedding, Eudora Welty
Absalom, Absalom, William Faulkner
those might be my two favorite books, but not exactly beach reading.
Bobbie Ann Mason, particularly Shiloh and Other Stories
earlier (but not too early) Anne Tyler--in particular, Celestial Navigation, The Accidental Tourist, and Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant
Katherine Anne Porter's short stories, particularly the Miranda stories
Peter Taylor's short stories
more recent, less regional, I liked Middlesex and Snow Falling on Cedars
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I wouldn't want to try it without the workbook. Very often, the student is asked to follow along in the workbook while you read something from the teacher's book. And the exercises aren't just copywork and dictation; I just opened randomly to one lesson, and the student is asked to fill in blanks and then add an apostrophe-s to words in one exercise. Everything is printed in the teacher book that's in the student book, so I suppose you COULD retype the exercises yourself and print them out, but I don't think it'd be worth the trouble.
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Mine's up--link in sig!
50 lbs of wheat grain = how many cups approx?
in General Education Discussion Board
Posted
It will stay good forever, so you might as well buy the bigger amount. We buy in 6 gallon buckets (about 40 pounds, I think), and I'd say we go through one of those in 3 or 4 months, on average.