Mom0012
-
Posts
7,252 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Events
Blogs
Classifieds
Store
Posts posted by Mom0012
-
-
I've been using CC at home for the last 3 years. I pick and choose the memory work that I think is the most relevant to us - history sentences, science facts, VP cards. The first year I had my son do the latin, math, geography and english, but then I decided to have him use a computer program for his math facts and http://www.sheppardsoftware.com for geography. We dropped the latin because I wasn't sure would were going to study latin in the future and I also had a friend who said the memory work did not help them at all when they did actually study latin. I'm not sure why?
Anyway, from my perspective, you spend a day at CC to be introduced to memory work that you will then work on memorizing at home each day. For me, personally, the only reason to participate in the program for the younger children is for social reasons or maybe if you can't get motivated without a group. I was so excited about this program when it first became available, I drove an hour each way to attend the coop and then realized that it was just crazy for me to do that when I could teach my son this stuff at home in 15 minutes a day. If it had been closer, it would have been more worthwhile to me at that time because maybe he would have made friends that would carry outside of the classroom.
At this point, there are a number of these programs available very close to my home, but I don't consider it because I don't find half of the memory work they do valuable or I have found a way to do it that is better for my kids.
I guess this sounds kind of negative, but I really do feel that the memory work that we have used from the program has been very helpful for my kids and really given them pegs to hang further information on when we come across it. My son has an incredible thirst and knowledge for history and the CC memory work really fed this and boosted his self esteem as well.
Obviously, there are a lot of people who disagree with me about the coop, because it seems to be incredibly popular. There are CC coops popping up all over the place by me.
Lisa
-
I originally got it from the library through inter-library loan so we could try it out. My son does a repeated reading with me 4 days a week and he has almost doubled his reading rate over the last year. He went from 60 WPM to over 100 WPM.
Read Naturally is another program that I have heard of that does the same thing and as Claire mentioned, the dibels readings are free.
Lisa
-
I used SL K with my 5 and 7 year olds last year and this was ideal for us. I used SL Pre-K when they were 4 and 6 and that went very well too. When I did SL Pre-K, I added in other books. There is a Yahoo group called SLPreschool. In there files section, they have a schedule using all the SL-PreK books, but adding in extra stuff for the older child. That is actually what we did when we did SL Pre-K and we enjoyed it very much. Some of the extra stuff was too much for my younger one, but she participated in what she wanted to.
When my children were 3 and 5, I got Jim Trelease's Read-Aloud Handbook and we read just about everything in it that was age appropriate that was available at our library. That was a lot of fun for that age.
Another great option would be Galloping the Globe. I actually did SL Pre-K and then Galloping the Globe and then SL K.
HTH,
Lisa
-
My son has been a very picky eater in the past and is still not very relaxed about trying new foods, but so much better. I had read somewhere that children who are picky eaters may be low in zinc. I started giving my son zinc supplements and I noticed a big difference in his eating habits.
If he does not have the zinc for a while, he will begin to complain about everything placed before him. If I ask him what he would like to eat, he doesn't even know. When he is taking the zinc, he's not exactly an eager beaver about trying new things, but he will happily eat all the regular foods I serve and will be much more likely to actually like something new if he's encouraged to try it.
If you decide to try it, just be careful not to overdo it with the zinc. It's not something you want to get too much of either.
Lisa
-
Just FYI. I've just finished A with my daughter and am almost through B with my son. All that 2 digit mental addition is actually at the end of B. My daughter did nothing like that in A.
Lisa
-
Okay, now I feel like a fool. My husband thinks it's possible that I used the bathroom when I got home. One of the problems I've been having on and off for months is abdominal pressure. Tonight when I had it, it made me feel like I needed to use the bathroom and when I couldn't I freaked since I didn't think I'd gone in hours and I've had quite a bit of liquids to drink. I have been anxious that the lyme diagnosis is wrong because it is a diagnosis made based on my symptoms rather than bloodwork. My bloodwork came back negative, which my doctor says is not uncommon.
I guess I should add another problem I've been having related to the lyme is short term memory loss.
If I am still having problems in the next hour, I will head to the ER, but I suspect my husband is right.
Please forgive me for posting such a frantic message and thank you to those who tried to help me out.
Lisa
-
Thank you. I wasn't able to speak with my doctor, but got one of the doctors on call and she told me the medications I am on should not cause this and that I can go to the urgent care and get catheterized if I can't go soon.
I would appreciate any prayers. I am really scared. I have been wondering if my Lyme diagnosis is correct and I'm terrified something is really wrong with me that will take me away from my children.
Lisa
-
I've recently posted about some medical issues. I was diagnosed with Lyme disease and I've been on doxycycline (antibiotic) for a week. I've also been taking Alleve.
This evening, I've felt the urge to urinate and finally made the time to go. I cannot go, not even a drop. I didn't have any symptoms or any problems all day and it seems unlikely that this could be a urinary tract infection since I'm on a high dose of an antibiotic.
Sorry to post this, but I'm a little freaked out here and hoping someone has some ideas about this.
Lisa
-
I spent quite a bit of time working on this yesterday and today. I used Goldwave to record my voice and Windows Media Player to burn the cds. I saved the files on Goldwave in .mp3 format. Unfortunately, while it seemed as though everything worked out well, there are a couple of areas on the cd where it is skipping and not playing correctly.
Any suggestions on what I might have done wrong? The only other information I can give is that when I created the recording file in Goldwave, I used a sampling rate of 44100 and an initial file length of 30 minutes. My actual recordings are only about 10 - 12 minutes long.
What do you think?
Lisa
-
I don't know about the mayonnaise you are talking about, but here is a link about distilled vinegar and gluten. http://www.celiac.com/articles/329/1/Are-Distilled-Vinegars-Made-from-Wheat-Safe/Page1.html It looks like almost all vinegars are considered gluten free, even the ones made with wheat because of the distillation process. There is a small chance the ones made with wheat may not be gluten free however.
My son has been gluten free for 5 1/2 years and has never had problems with a product that has distilled vinegar in it, but others may be more sensitive.
Lisa
-
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! This will be a great project for me to work on this afternoon. Surely, I can get one of these methods to work for me.
Lisa
-
I have been using http://www.sheppardsoftware.com for geography for my kids, but I also own Visualize World Geography and plan to supplement with it some next year.
My kids are doing really well with spending 10 minutes a day on Sheppard Software and it is painless for me. However, I think the kind of visualization that is offered in Visualize World Geography will help more with long term memory of the countries than Sheppard Software does. I know that once the pictures from Visualize World Geography are made in my mind, I am much more likely to remember.
I don't think it would take more than 5 minutes a day to use VWG, which is nice.
Lisa
ETA: Okay, I just looked at the link you gave and the program has been updated since I purchased it. I may have to get this.
-
Thanks for all the great ideas so far.
I totally agree that she shouldn't compete and she really can't compete, but right now she is going through a terribly fragile time and I thought it would help her to have some fresh ideas on how to have fun with the kids without spending a lot.
The kids being with their dad every other weekend is a huge loss for her. She has pretty much been a single parent for years and her ex has been totally uninvolved with the children and abusive when he has been around. Now he is playing superdad and she is fearful of losing her children's hearts. I know that isn't going to happen, but she doesn't.
She is also in a position of having no money for the first time since the kids were born, so she needs to come up with new ways to enjoy time with the kids.
Lisa
-
I used SL K last year with my then 5 and 7 year olds. We loved it. I do the SL reading at breakfast and the kids look forward to it every day. It took about 30 minutes a day. I didn't use the language arts though.
There really isn't anything I didn't like about it. I love reading to my kids and they love being read to. The SL selections nearly always draw me in as much as the kids. My children pick up a ton of information in an easy, enjoyable way. It is also really nice for me to have a schedule to follow.
Lisa
-
My sister is going through a divorce and her soon to be ex-husband takes the kids every other weekend. When he takes them, it is a funfest for the kids --going to the movies, buying new toys, eating out for every meal, Chuck E Cheese, etc.
She is really down because she doesn't have the money to do all these things with them and her 5 year old asked if he could go to Daddy's house this last weekend because they do fun stuff with Daddy.
Any ideas for inexpensive activites she could do with 3 kids on the weekends? She has an 8, 5 and 3 year old.
Thanks!
Lisa
-
I am technologically behind here. Can anyone tell me if it is possible to record my own memory tapes on cd? I've been recording them on cassette tapes and they wear out quickly and take forever to rewind.
If I can record on a cd, can you point me in a direction to get started?
Thanks so much!
Lisa
-
Michelle -
I'm not having my son participate because while he has the peanut allergy, it is not so severe that I have to worry about him having a reaction from trace amounts or cross contamination. My son also has so many other allergies that relieving his peanut allergy would feel like a drop in the bucket and make very little difference in his diet. I think participating in the trials would involve me driving to Baltimore each week, which is 1 1/2 hours away, so it's just not worth it to me.
I do have friends that are trying to get into the trials. One of my daughter's friends has an extremely severe dairy allergy and it is her only food allergy. For her, it would be life-changing. I will keep you posted if she gets in.
It does give me lots of hope for the future though. What a different life it would be without all these allergies.
Lisa
-
My son has severe food allergies to peanuts, tree nuts and fish at this point. He sees Dr. Wood at Johns Hopkins, who is heading up a lot of the research you are talking about. They are currently doing clinical trials for children with peanut and dairy allergies and they have been very successful. Here is a link about the research.
http://www.wbaltv.com/health/15087171/detail.html
Be sure to click on the video link in the right hand corner.
Unfortunately, according to Dr. Wood, this treatment will not be available to the public for another 10 - 15 years, because of all the studies that will need to be done before releasing it.
Lisa
-
My son did LMB's Visualizing and Verbalizing program at one of their centers when he was 5. It was an excellent program for him and his receptive language and comprehension skyrocketed afterwards. I think he was somewhere in the 20th or 30th percentile for comprehension on the kindergarten level prior to LMB and afterwards he was in something like the 80th percentile on the 5th grade level. I don't have the numbers in front of me so that isn't exact, but it was that dramatic. He went from being upset if I put a 10 minute book on tape on in the car to listening to and enjoying all the Beverly Cleary books and much more during the weeks we travelled back and forth to LMB.
We took him back for follow-up testing 2 years after he had completed the V&V program and he had made many more huge gains which I believe were because of that program.
Going to a center is the most expensive way to do it, but the intensity factor was really stressed as being important and I knew there was no way I could do V&V for 2 hours or more a day with my son. I'm sure some parents could, but I knew that I could not.
Because my son was so young, we only did the program for 2 hours a day and we did it for 8 weeks. Our total cost was something like $6,500 for that, which was a huge amount of money for us. However, when I think of all the years that we paid $5,000 at $100 a week to speech therapists and made very minimal progress, the $6,500 in 8 weeks was a bargain.
Lisa
-
Remudamom - My doctor started me on 400 mg of Doxycycline, which is an antibiotic. Depending on how well I do with this and how my other labs come back, he may put me on Plaquenil as well.
Lisa
-
I have just been diagnosed with this after having major problems with my joints since last October. I started treatment yesterday and am very hopeful that I will be able to return to my former self once it kicks in but I'm really worried that my knees may never be the same.
I'd love to hear from anyone else who has gone through this. Basically, how long you were on treatment and how long it took you to recover and whether or not you made a full recovery or still suffer from lingering problems. Or anything else you would like to share.
Thanks!
Lisa
-
For those that are interested, it turns out my son has strep. I was very surprised and so was the doctor, since his only symptom was the dizziness.
Lisa
-
Celiac disease is what I was going to suggest looking into.
Lisa
-
Does he play much on Gameboy/DS or the like?
Well, it is interesting that you ask that because he never has, but he just bought a game that you plug into the tv last week and he's been playing with that a few times a day. I just told him today that I don't want him on it so much and that he can do it once a day for 15 minutes, so that's all he's been on it today.
He woke up first thing this morning feeling dizzy, though.
Could it be related to that, do you think?
Lisa
Ancient Rome book recommendations?...
in K-8 Curriculum Board
Posted
My son absolutely loves this one by Usborne -- See Inside Ancient Rome.
http://www.usborne.com/catalogue/browse.asp?css=1&subject=R&subcat=RH&id=2000
Lisa