Runningmom80
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Posts posted by Runningmom80
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7 hours ago, cintinative said:
Agreeing with the others. 13 is a hard age on multiple levels.
There is a "my kid is a pill" thread somewhere on here that was helpful.
I have it bookmarked and refer to it often. Here it is,
I agree with the others, 13. Oof. It was the hardest parenting year for me. I dont have a ton of advice because I don't know that much really "works" but I would say try to find common ground somewhere. ANY topic you can both get excited about learning. We are big book nerds so we did a lot of reading the same book and watching the movie, which led to a lot of great discussion. OK maybe not a lot, but some great discussions and I called it a win. I don't know if this is mentioned in the pill thread but Maria Montessori believed that young teens or middle schoolers should be working on a farm all day. I have to say I agree. If she isn't getting regular physical activity, it may be another thing to try.
Mostly, just here to nod along that yeah, its a difficult age and what you are saying is something I went through too, and my oldest homeschooled from kindergarten. My DS is 14 and seems to be coming out of this stage, thankfully. I have 10.5 year old twins that are about to start though!
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We often eat with just the 5 of us due to my oldest’s food allergies, and then go celebrate with family after. We don’t love turkey so we get a standing rib roast. There are a couple of other sides we do but we don’t make it a giant affair, it’s too much for my husband and I to cook ourselves. We’ve also been vegan or vegetarian some years and done wildly different meals.
this year we contemplated doing a bunch of appetizers but my kids still want the expensive meat. Lol
I hope you have a great day, and find ways to still make it enjoyable. I ordered us all new pajamas to wear all day since we aren’t leaving the house and I’m very excited about that. 🙂
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5 hours ago, mommyoffive said:
Doesn't peloton offer other classes not on the bike? Maybe they could do those.
Yes! They have done some of those, but most of them aren't exactly geared toward 5th graders. 🙂
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knitting, hiking, lots of movies and puzzles.
We've been mostly isolated since march, aside from doctor visits and 2 social get togethers outside, so not much will change.
I'm leaning into hygge hard this year. More twinkle lights, candles, blankets and tea.
I'm mainly trying to figure out how to keep my kids physically active. We live in a Great Lakes state so it will be cold. I have a peloton but my 10 year olds are too small for it.
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20 minutes ago, PeterPan said:
Well good, I'm glad things are going well! I found myself really excited this week too. I guess it takes so little, lol. But seriously, it's fun to see him actually get back into working. He even bought into my idea with motivating posters on the door. My poster for these two weeks has been a boy figure with a "thinking cat" on. Ds thought that was HILARIOUS, lol. So maybe it's about time to bring out a new one. I was trying to challenge him with motivating thoughts. Thinking cat was just the first, like we're here to think and grow so let's do this, lol. Of course he so likes it, now I hate to change it out, lol.
My kids would have loved the "thinking cat" too! Are you just printing these out?
Yes it takes very little at this point to excite any of us 😂
I'm glad your wrist is getting better! It's got to be frustrating.
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Well, we just finished our first week, and dare I call it a success? I've only abandoned 1 curriculum!
Redbird online is just....no. We lasted 2 days. We did Math Mammoth (one page at a time) and Dream Box instead and this seems like it's going to be ok? I don't think MM is at all a great fit for dysgraphia in general but DD seems to be fine so far. The only reason I tried it is because I have it and also Singapore shipping times are nuts.
Cursive Logic! I REALLY like this. The whole "say this" part is great. DD will first trace with her finger saying the cues and then write with a pencil saying the cues. I love that it's multi-sensory. We are having to work really hard lightening her grip and her pressure but today her progress was great. I'm really liking this. It's only been a week though so I'll have to update after we've used it for a meaningful amount of time.
BYL 5 - she loves this. She narrated a whole Ted Talk worth of info about Tuberculosis. We are listening to children of the longhouse and she can answer the comprehension questions so that is encouraging. I did have her write a history summary, which she typed. It was about 10 sentences with zero punctuation, just one giant run on sentence. She said she forgot where to put the periods so that's something to work on. 😆 It was decent content and only a few misspellings that spell check didn't catch so again, calling it a win.
I just finished the Rooted in Language Phonics & Spelling class. It was a ton of info, over 10 hours of webinars, so my mind is a little overloaded. I have a plan though and we are going to start on Tuesday with phonics.
My high schooler ended up signing up for a cool camp thing so that threw a wrench in our schedule and also triggered his teen 'tude so that was fun. I had a ton of work for my grad classes too, it's been a week.
All in all it was good! @PeterPan I hope your wrist is getting better!
Hope everyone else had a good week!
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38 minutes ago, KungFuPanda said:
This is probably true. If SEA was formed any time after the early-mid 2000s I’d already locked in my preferred homeschooling boards. As the disappeared (or got to weird) I spent more and more time here. Back in the day I used the original version of TWTM and my boards were:
TWTM
Vegsource (not a vegetarian)
Homeschool Reviews
Babycenter
I was all in on Bravewriter when they were a 3-ring binder and a yahoo group and nobody’s heard of them.
I hated navigating yahoo groups! My TWJ is in a 3 ring binder though. 🙂
I agree, I much prefer forums to FB groups. I'd get off FB completely if I didn't need the groups!
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21 hours ago, katilac said:
What wording would you use to label them? As in, differentiate? I don't need the reasoning behind it if you're trying to avoid a potentially political discussion, just what terms are used instead of male anatomy, female anatomy.
You would just name the body part without giving it a gender.
(I'm not an expert on any of this, just a fairly progressive person trying to figure out how to not be hurtful to a group of people who have called this kind of stuff out. I'm definitely still learning and for all I know could be way off base. This is my interpretation as a cisgender woman.)
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On 8/31/2020 at 12:42 PM, Happy2BaMom said:
No offense, but that makes no sense to me. How does one recognize differences without labeling them (e.g. describing them) in some way?
You wouldn't label them as male or female, you would just name the body part.
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I really love the meetings. They ask me every time how I think it’s going and if I want anything to change. It’s refreshing after experiencing the opposite in public school! 😂
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6 minutes ago, square_25 said:
It’s too bad! I think there’s a discussion to be had here, even amongst people who agree on lots of politics.
I've been around since 2010. I know how the discussions go. 🙂
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Yeah I don't think this part of the discussion can go any further without turning political unfortunately.
I am reminded, yet again, why I generally avoid the chat board. 🙃
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13 hours ago, RootAnn said:
There are a lot of new teachers. My DD just scheduled a few lessons with different ones to see who she clicked with. Once she found someone she liked, we scheduled as far out as possible because the good ones go quickly.
If I were doing it over, I'd have her schedule a different teacher every day this up coming week (making sure I gave her time in her day to do the homework). She should know by Friday who she prefers. Then, I'd schedule two or three lessons per week with that teacher for the rest of the year (knowing some weeks will be one & others will be three plus cancellations happen).
That DD is in college now, so my HSA experience is now a couple years old, so your mileage may vary.
This is what we did too.
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33 minutes ago, Happy2BaMom said:
I saw that, too, and I left the group at that time.
I no longer participate in any group that refuses to acknowledge differences in physical anatomy. It's every bit as anti-science as the denial of climate change/global warming. Once it's clear that a particular worldview is more important than verifiable fact, I'm out.
I'm glad to hear that other groups are springing up (which another poster mentioned).
It's not recognizing differences in anatomy; the labeling of them is trans-exclusionary.
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18 hours ago, Corraleno said:
I think one of the big reasons there are so many "unschoolish" posts on SEA right now is that there has been a massive influx of public schoolers who know nothing about homeschooling, who decided on very short notice to homeschool this fall because of Covid, and they are panicking thinking they need to buy tons of curriculum, set up a classroom at home, and replicate PS with tons of seat work. So lots of people are saying to just relax and don't worry about having to teach 3 different grade levels, for 6 hours each, 5 days/week. Go with the flow, follow your kids' interests, try starting with one subject at a time and add things once you find your groove, etc. And there are also plenty of people still recommending packaged curriculum for all subjects every day, too. Personally, I don't see "unschooling" and "academics" as polar opposites, or even conflicting ideas, since my own approach to homeschooling has been very relaxed/eclectic/unschooly/interest-led, with very little packaged curriculum (other than math). So I'm in the camp that thinks most of these terrified covid-schoolers really would be better off to sit back, follow kids' interests, and let things evolve more naturally, versus buying a ton of curriculum and trying to replicate school-at-home, which is likely to lead to a lot of frustration and burn out for both parents and children.
Yep to allll of this. The secular groups are over run with questions from PANICKED Covid schoolers. And I get it, two of my kids were in PS when this all went down, so that’s absolutely not a judgement. But they are very nervous their kids will “fall behind,” and as home schoolers, we understand grade levels are arbitrary and even if they did nothing this year most kids would be “caught up” by 18. (I’m skeptical kids in school will learn much this year anyways but that is a topic for another day.)
I don’t know, I am not seeing any of these extremes anyone is talking about, and it still seems academic to me. It’s possible I’m part of the problem, I’ve gone as far as saying that Covid homeschoolers should just take a gap year! 😂
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On 8/30/2020 at 12:38 AM, Sk8ermaiden said:
It just really isn't the place for you then. It's really as simple as that. Some of us are SO, SO exhausted by wading through giant threads full of (mostly Christians) saying it would be easy to "leave out" the Christian content in a resource or the bias "isn't that obvious" or "they don't need to cover that in elementary anyway." I actually find the things that are subtly religious or neutral far more pernicious and harmful than things that are overtly religious, so if SEA were going to be yet another corner of the web where it became my job to figure out just how problematic different curricula are, it would offer nothing, because it would be just like everywhere else. Seriously, you can go on ANY homeschooling page and ask for secular recommendations and get religious curricula recommendations in response.
The fact that there are so few secular resources is the WHOLE POINT of the page. They can be impossible to find if you're starting from scratch. Lots of members use curriculum off the "no" list because it suits their needs, but you just can't talk about it on that page because it's for secular homeschooling discussions
All of this! I have recently returned to these groups and found them extremely helpful in general.
I was someone who used McHenry Cells & Botany with my oldest because people HERE called them secular, only to find out that it wasn’t truly secular. I was really upset because I’m not a STEM person and it’s not like it said anything about Jesus or a bible story to jump out at me. It was information omitted in order to remain YE.
(Before anyone asks what was omitted, I don’t remember and I no longer own the book.)
when I first started reading this thread I didn’t think you all were talking about SEA because I have seen any of this. I appreciate when they call out what isn’t secular. It doesn’t feel extreme to me at all, but I really truly want to know if there is a chance something can be misinforming me and my children due to the religious content included OR omitted. I use BYL and don’t mind that they don’t want people recommending the levels that aren’t secular. Personally I would just leave books out, and that’s easy with BYL, but it’s not easy with other curricula and I see the value of consistency. When they call out BYL they are very explicit as to why and very consistent including that most levels are secular.
I used SOTW, and explained the biblical chapters as “some people believe” because 8 years ago that is really all there was for history if you aren’t religious. We just had to make do. Now I just won’t use a curriculum if I can’t find something secular. Maybe the McHenry thing radicalized me. 🤷🏻♀️
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17 minutes ago, PeterPan said:
That's because it's run as part of a developmental vision eval.
Oh yeah, I still need to dig that up
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18 minutes ago, PeterPan said:
Ok, I see people say this and it makes no sense to me. https://lotsofwords.com/*utch Here's a list of the 37 supposed words (many of which you've never heard of would use) that end in -utch. So she's using an uncommon, rare variant. She was hopefully taught to start with the MOST COMMON spelling for a sound, not the least common. Then she can memorize visually the few words that use less common variants.
I misspoke, I meant she could hear the sounds. phonological processing isn't the same as phonics and I interchanged them
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10 hours ago, PeterPan said:
She's dyslexic.
How is her visual memory?
Her working memory on WISC was high, her visual motor integration was low. I don't have a visual memory score, but she's for sure allll over the place.
Developmental Test 0f Visual-Motor Integration (VMI)
Age Equivalent: 7-6
VMI Percentile: 32nd
VMI Scale Score: 93
Developmental Test of Visual-Perception (VP)
Age Equivalent: 8-4
VP Percentile: 39th
VP Scale Score: 96
Developmental Test of Motor Coordination (MC)
Age Equivalent: 9-8
MC Percentile: 68th
MC Scale Score: 107
WISC Working memory index-
digit span: 13 (84%)
picture span: 15 (95%)
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10 hours ago, PeterPan said:
That OT said 6 months at 1 hour a week. So I'm like you and I like really intensive focuses, sure. But like 1 hour a day, a week, I don't know. What *changes* if you do that? When I do it, it's because the new skill will be pivotal. Like you spend a month on typing.
I think the benefits from the VMI work may be more gradual, less whiz bang. She didn't mention drawing, but drawing has been gold for ds. The OTs really encourage it. And that's something that is easy to drip drip, 5-10 min a day.
I'm all out of order with these responses, but yeah I didn't mean to say that we would just do the VMI work for a couple of weeks. I was thinking like more of a jumpstart and then continuing on less intensely. I'm not sure I would even do that, I'm just spitballing over here 😆
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1 hour ago, PeterPan said:
Btw, I got the Kwame book and need to go through it. I don't know if you rabbited the Loops and Rotations that the OT mentioned in the dysgraphia seminar, but Burnt of L&R has an ebook for poetry http://www.cdfieldtrips.com/poetry.html It was very practical, right where my ds functions. So I was thinking I could have a whole poetry gig going this year, with the Poems for Building Reading Skills (Rasinski) to work on prosody alternated with the poetry writing workbook. Then I can go through Kwame's ideas and see what I can make accessible to ds. I'm sure the idea is right, but with him having the structure of super small steps in a workbook always works out better. And what I'm seeing now is that his LANGUAGE is finally building up enough that more original stuff is starting to come out. But what's coming out now is limericks, words for tunes, that kind of thing. It's something I do, so it's fun to see him doing it, hehe.
This is such a great idea. My oldest has read all of Kwame's books.
QuoteSo what were the components to your dd's dysgraphia? My ds doesn't have the spatial, but he does have the motor planning and dyslexia components. So I thought I'd just use components from intervention for those and see what happens. I think the Cursive Logic is going to be good for the motor component.
She mostly has dyslexia, maybe a little spatial. She has a difficult time staying on the lines when she's writing more than a couple sentences.
QuoteYou know, if I were really brilliant, I'd get through some of Cursive Logic and then have ds starting writing his spelling. I just don't want to be too perfectionist about this. I was realizing he needs to go through some lists multiple times. I guess it could be time two on the words, lol. That would be a miracle if he could comfortably write 10 words a day. I guess we'll see. Either way, I'm committed to winning on typing and he has access to tech. It's just they know that actually writing the words helps the spelling sink in better.
Well I have today to myself once ds blasts off on his adventure with his father, so I need to win the war on the office, get it tidied with the new stuff, and get some of my plans and structures organized. I have so many ideas it's insane. It's just he's been so BORED. I had this master learner list I got several years ago from the Mrs. Renz site (which is now all $$ on TPT). Anyways, I was thinking about taking some of my science learning ideas (learning all the parts of things, etc.) and turning that into *choice* boards of things to learn. So I'd have the lists prepped and he could choose lists/pages. And really, I have *activities* to go with most of my ideas. But I think it could be good for him to choose the things, since the what matters less to me than that he's actively doing it. I'm not sure he has viewed himself as a learner.
I got some really cool things to further these ideas. I had been looking for woodworking, and I found this DIY String Art book at the education store. I was thinking that's pretty close to wood working (pounding nails in wood!) and that he can merge it with things like learning the constellations (master learner list). So activities to reinforce the language lists he's learning. We'll see if he bites, but that's what i'm thinking. He wants more, but he has to choose this stuff. I don't have energy to drive EVERYTHING.
We are going to attempt soap carving next week! I think it will help dexterity, even though she's not necessarily weak, I figure it can't hurt to strengthen fine motor. (OT's have tested her and her fine motor is good, but it's in our BYL plan so I'm going with it!) Anyways, when I mentioned it she asked if we could start this week, which I took as a good sign. so I am all for them picking what they want and having that excitement about the activity. I'm sure you have TONS of stuff to accommodate what he wants to do!
QuoteOh, and if you want a laugh, I'm so old school, I was like oh I'll put the master learner choices on big circles on the wall! Haha, me and my paper. Kid would probably rather have a padlet, lol. I guess I could put it into google classroom, but it wouldn't be so pretty. I think there's a way to link a padlet to google classroom. GC is all words, but padlet could be pictures. I'll figure it out. Maybe we could have pretty things on the wall to show the things we've learned? Haha, I don't know.
I don't even know what a padlet is!
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6 hours ago, Lecka said:
I think for spelling — you can control what method is used and how much time is spent, how much review.
I don’t think you can control what is easier or harder or what is retained longer-.term, or what is spelled correctly in outside writing, etc.
Yes, this is where I'm focusing my energy. I can't really teach her anymore how to spell "much." She's obviously using phonics, so to continue to drill those doesn't seem like the wisest way to go about all of this. I could use flash cards, maybe? I'm not going to make a dysgraphic child write the word over and over, not that I even think it would help!
Anyways, yeah, it's a gray area. Lots of therapy has helped me be able to accept gray areas. lol
We will continue to work on everything, but I think I see the end of the tunnel with remediation at least as far as spelling. I'll have her keep practicing but I'm not going to spend hours a day on it. I want her to be able to use accommodations to the best of her ability so that some of this levels out a little.
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This thread is gold! My oldest is easing into 9th grade as well. He declared his history class too difficult because he got an 80% on a quiz about the syllabus 🤦🏻♀️🙄🙃. He then went on to do an actual lesson and quiz and got a 100% and realized that taking the whole summer off does make you a bit rusty. Spanish we just added in this week and he told me he had no idea what his homework says. (He’s in HS level 3 so that was definitely an exaggeration.) he’s not yet 14 and still in the throws of puberty so I’m blaming his brain fog on that.
I will mention that SOMEONE told him he might be better off spacing things over the summer and continuing Spanish at least one day a week like he’s always done but he didn’t want to hear it. Now he’s singing a different tune!
I’m trying to figure out how we will add in his other two classes, English and OM environmental science. His history class is over in March and his linguistics class is over in December, so I’m considering just making them semester classes and doubling up. Either that or spreading the English out over the summer. I think he can do OM in a semester.
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On 8/24/2020 at 5:28 PM, Seasider too said:
So far I’ve been using curbside return, occasionally a curbside pickup, and about every other week a quick run inside my little nearest library straight to my items on the hold shelf, straight to checkout. I can do this in 5 minutes tops.
I would not bring my children in, and would not bring myself if pregnant. It’s sad, but safe to stick with online ordering and curbside pickup.
This is what I just did the other day, and I plan on doing just once a month. I'm not pregnant though, and if I were I would ask them to bring the books outside. (Our library is offering this for high risk, and I would assume that they would extend the courtesy to pregnant women.)
Online Homeschool Planners in 2020
in General Education Discussion Board
Posted
I use Trello for lesson planning and google docs for High school transcript record keeping.
Trello is free, user friendly, and highly customizable. I've tried some of the ones you've listed and none were as easy or flexible as trello.