Clarita
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Posts posted by Clarita
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For period underwear I get Thinx. They have a line for tweens called Thinx(btwn). They are great even if you still use pads/tampons/cups to prevent leakage. If you want to use them in place of a pad they take a while to dry so that was annoying (1.5-2 days to air dry in CA).
For pads I like always infinite flex foam. I don't have the heaviest period and these are thin but absorbant (100% sure there is chemical magic in those things). I am trying to switch over to a mentral cup though, because always irritates me after a few days of use (I tried the thicker pads that don't irritate me but... the bulkiness irritated me).
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I think in CA you have to make yourself into a private school and enroll your kids into your school. It sounds complicated but I heard it's essentially fill out a form. I believe we are a low regulation state. I enroll my child in a homeschool charter school so I don't have firsthand information on this.
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The bigger question is how do I figure out which robot vacuums to buy so they can successfully breed more robot vacuums. 😁
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I love Generation Genius videos for science. For K-2 they are short 10-15 minute videos and includes a hands-on experiment you can do at home.
For social studies and geography, I just got a history textbook designed for 1-4 grade (Notgrass, but it's unabashedly Christian). We read that and I see if my kids could do any of the suggested activities or I make up an activity for them to do. I don't expect them to learn the history. I just let those stories lead into something age appropriate to learn. (Like when we learn about explorers to America we talk about modes of transportation and my kids listed via stickers different ways one could get across the ocean.)
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2 hours ago, J-rap said:
And they've come a long way, but their method of re-learning it is by logically understanding it. Not just absorbing it over time as we do as children, so it just sounds right -- whether we actually understand why or not.
Is that for expedience? As an adult I've found the little kid method of repeat exposure to work really well, especially for the more abstract (doesn't totally make sense) things/phrases. So a little kid with their native language is a long absorbing it over time process, but if you teach them a foreign language you can expedite it by repeating the same phrasing/expression for them over and over in a lesson.
For example you may repeat the phrase "There are shoes in the box," "There are cookies in the jar, " "There are cats in the tub" ... with actual objects or pictures show them what that sentence/phrase actually represents. Once the person has a grasp of "There are __ in the __." phrase. Then you can start to explain logically why we may chose are vs. is or in the versus something else. Or you can compare and contrast 2 words like there vs. here. Some things are hard to explain using words and are easier to explain by showing.
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If you want a comparison my friend who used to night nanny (adult w/ experience for infants and sleep training) used to charge $25/hour for this service.
Not every baby/child she did this for had trouble sleeping through the night. According to her night nannies rates are the same or more than comparable day nannies.
$150 sounds right to me.
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I bought the Peter Bowers book and Gina Cooke's first insight words deck. I totally wish I was taught this stuff sometime during my K-12 stint. It has made English less mysterious to me. My kids are too young, but I'm curious if you have a way of doing this stuff with your kids? And what it looks like. Most of what I've seen online is classroom based and I have a hard time picturing it in the homeschool space.
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I have a cheap laminater from Amazon. Amazon.com : Amazon Basics 9-Inch Thermal Laminator Machine : Laminating Machines : Office Products Not mine but I bought the cheapest one available that can do 8.5" x 11".
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I'm not sure if the AD and CBT are cheap and freely dispensed is a regional thing. Amongst my friends who need medication for their mental illness they have to beg and plead to get the meds they need or be able to pay $$ for them. Therapy getting someone to talk to is much easier (not easy if you have to ask for monetary assitance but easier than getting the meds).
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Just do what is most beneficial for you and/or what they identify as. Check whatever box you want. As a Chinese person who immigrated to the US the ethinicity question is pretty bogus at times so I've not taken too much stock in what the "correct" answer should be. I once encountered a list that didn't have a general "asian" category but listed out 10 countries in the Asia continent plus a "Southeast Asia" group so I was three things because they happened to also list Hong-Kongese as seperate from Chinese. Then for some reason Japanese was not listed.
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I teach the letter formation via HWOT, but I don't correct it unless we are doing the HWOT work. So if he wants to write the AAR work I don't correct him on how he is forming those letters.
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1 hour ago, mlktwins said:
I'm not sure how all of this works, and this is not directed at you Slache (AT ALL), but I've been curious at what the line is between not taking responsibility for someone (like what Slache is dealing with) and elder abuse. What would prompt action against someone for elder care abuse? What happens when people refuse to help?
I would think that elder abuse is typically when you say you will help them (and perhaps even take $$ help from the government to do so or are in charge of the elderly person's money), but not actually take care of the elderly person. Rarely have I heard of a case where the "caretakers" got no monetary benefit and were accused of elderly abuse (usually at the very least they get the elderly's fixed retirement income). But I don't know what I'm talking about, my grandmother lived in HK when she needed full time care and we opted to tell that government that we no longer wanted to care for her and the governement took over.
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If I know it would work for my family I would print out a generic blank schedule, laminate it and write out the schedules with dry erase markers.
After a while of using it I may upgrade to putting together some appropriately sized schedule cards and using velcro strips or dots attach them to the generic blank schedule. I would be undecided whether to use velcro strips, sticky silicone stuff, or magnet and metal.
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I tend to reserve the word depression (for myself) during those times when I feel really down and bummed out and there is no reason for it. I have felt that twice in my life. Once was because I took Vicodine for a wisdom tooth extraction. The second was my third pregnancy, and the miscarriage is what made me feel better (this was not an undesired pregnancy). So not all depressed people can be fixed with happier thoughts and a growth mindset.
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We ended up doing chili for lunch (which turned out soupier than I was going for, my bad for not reading the recipe closely and just winging it) and congee for dinner.
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I need ideas for using leftover turkey. If it makes a difference we only have dark meat left.
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1 hour ago, DawnM said:
I tried to explain, but I guess not very clearly, that reasoning and discussion, and talking, and showing DO NOT WORK. We have been doing this for months on various issues.....he literally doesn't care to learn.
He is a stubborn little bugger. The Explosive Child: Greene, Ross: 9780063092464: Amazon.com: Books This book helped me. There are the same advice as other parenting books I've read but the examples showed more of a progression of cooperation as oppose to if I just "connect with the child" and say the right thing the child will miraculously be compliant.
Having two stubborn children (one who is "explosive" and one who is not), what I can say is he does care to learn (just not exactly what you teach him). He wants to learn how to get what he wants. He either is now getting what he wants doing what he is doing now or he isn't and he is seeking all the wrong ways to try and find the way that is going to work. So the simple thing is to figure out what he wants and figure out a way that gets him that but doesn't drive you nuts.
For example clothes (because that is so much easier than figuring out potty), he wants to be able to change clothes as he sees fit. That could be just he has to put them in the hamper after each wear and it becomes dirty. He has more than one pile worn but not dirty and dirty. Whatever you think you can tolerate but still gives him the ability to change. If he doesn't do that give a consequence that seems natural. If he has two piles anything not in the not dirty or dirty pile directly goes into the dirty pile. With stubborn 4 year olds less reasoning and discussion is better just tell him, let him mess up and give the consequence. (To ease the mommy guilt of being such a drill sargeant, when you aren't busy giving out consequences give lots of snuggles and loves , which I know you are already doing.)
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My kids have free reign over their clothes. My son will wear the same outful 365 days of the year my daughter changes no less than 4 times a day. My daughter has to put her clothes in the hamper after she is done wearing them. My son has to put his in there after 3 days of wear. Then I just do the laundry once a week and make them put away their clothes. At 3.5 and 5 they sort and put away by themselves and I hang things up (note I did not say fold that is not a requirement because then I don't think they could do it).
This is a bit laundry intensive (especially for my girl). It curbed her putting on different outfits because to wear that outfit she wore for 2 sec again she has to wait for me to do laundry. I've made her wear her brother's clothes (which she has no say over because he gets to choose).
Reading some past posts you can totally get rid of the changing table if you want. When my little girl regressed and started potty-ing not in the potty, I pull her diaper off in the bathroom have her help me dump the poo and she would get a rinse off in the bath. She got a choice of cold shower or wait until the water warmed up. Yes accidents was inconvienient but it was inconvienient for her too so she started going in the potty again. I would say you have to have thick skin for this exercise because the first few times may be a lot of unhappiness and screaming.
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I got this for my kids. Visual Schedule Cards + MY DAY Planner (DIGITAL) – The Gentle + Classical Press | Life, Abundantly (shopgentleclassical.com)
It's got a lot of pictures for things and somethings I just edited the words either by computer if I wanted to spend extra time on it or I just use whiteout. I laminated them and put them on magets. However this didn't work for my kids. Both my kids and I am to blame, we were all not consistent with it all around. (They were consistent at looking at it and then I wasn't consistent at making it.)
Currently we've been using a binder system that works for us. Our Weekly Binder System: Homeschool Organization Series Part 1 – Blue and Hazel They get their weekly work in there and they can choose when they want to do what. Also whether they want a fun lesson with me or just do the worksheet to show me they know the topic. (As you know both my kids are not independently doing work so, I'm still sitting there they just pick for themselves what they want to complete during our work period).
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No advice I feel really bad that it's not going well. Also timer didn't work for my eldest either. Tons of fighting each and everytime. My eldest did the same with fake going potty to get the candy too. I switched the candy bribe to he gets a treat every hour he is dry. (Something you could try even though it didn't work for me, it was apparently not a good enough incentive.)
It is absolutely exhausting to potty train a kid who doesn't naturally do it. I found my sanity in teaching my kid how to clean up his messes. It's not a magic bullet by any means, he is still not nighttime trained (neurotypical 5) but he deals with his dirty diapers by himself and it doesn't stress me out.
My second is fully potty trained herself (she's been keeping dry at night for months) at 3 years old so I can honestly say some parents have never known the misery of having to actually potty train a child. I can only claim that I gave her access to a potty.
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I chose AAR because the charter school I homeschool with gives it to me for free. I was pretty hesitent about it because it was a bust when my kid was newly 4. Now we really like it. The trick for us was getting my kid fluent in CVC words and teaching him rhyming and syllables.
AAR Pre-reading I think could be improved. I wish it was more of a here are the skills needed at the pre-reading stage and here are the activites from begining to mastery. I had to look through the teacher's manual to find all the activities associated with different phonemic awareness skills then do them.
AAR level 1 If someone were to ask me when to start this level I would say (based on my experience) when your kid can easily read CVC words. This might be different for an older child, but for a young child it's a lot of work per lesson if they are starting from scratch (with just knowing letters and letter names). The practice offered in AAR is more practice than a typical child needs. Don't listen to the people who tell you that you need to do ALL of the fluency sheet because even the teacher's manual says you don't (especially with younger children). To me the fluency sheets are a good indicator that you need to slow down and/or take a pause from the lessons. So if it's taking your kid days to read through a fluency sheet it's an indicator to pause the lessons and just work on reading words with the phonics they know - read signs, buddy read easy books, etc. The advice of doing all the fluency sheet and keep chugging along is what made the program a bust for us early on and now we really enjoy it after our break.
The fact that it doesn't include handwriting is a reluctant pro for me. Currently I just sort of use HWOT K in the order of AAR level 1 letter introductions, but the letter introductions are much faster than the amount of handwriting practice my kid can do. Sometimes instead of cutting and gluing on the worksheets I have my kid write the stuff (I have him match by drawing a line and, as many as he wants, to write the words). Sometimes I wish I didn't have to cobble the handwriting part to match the reading, but I guess in reality it is better for my kid.
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On 11/19/2021 at 1:05 PM, Green Bean said:
AAR is also interesting to consider, but no integrated handwriting. Not huge- I can make my own copywork using the day's lesson and HWT paper. Those fluency pages look like a nightmare, though! And all. those. tiles! App anyone?
There is an app. If your kids are young and normal the teacher guide actually says you don't have to do the entire fluency page. So not all the single words totally skip the phrases and straight into the sentences. The phrases are there if your kid struggles with the sentences.
AAR is expensive I think really that's their weakest link, even more so considering it is just reading.
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Writing with Ease 1 starts with writing whole sentences and HWOT K is just single letters and numbers. So I think WWE would be too much if your son would be in HWOT K for penmenship. Or your son would be beyond HWOT K for penmenship.
FWIW if it were me I would start looping your daughter into AAR pre-reading now then next year your son do AAR level 1, daughter do AAR pre-reading (again if needed and/or quicker). I think you'd keep your sanity better if they were on the same reading curriculum (even moving at different paces). If your daughter is quick at reading you may even get the added bonus of your daughter catching up and both kids could be on the same lessons at some point. Same reading curriculum, same teaching style, same manipulatives set up.
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If I got a new vehicle
in The Chat Board
Posted
For us we have a full electric Nissan Leaf. That's now my husbands commuter car. The half electric Pacifica is the minivan which we take on trips. Honestly if I didn't have two kids in the bulky carseat phase I may just have 2 electric vehicles. If I wanted to do a road trip I'd rent a car for it. We only do road trips about once a year (pre-pandemic).
If you typically go within the range of a electric vehicle they are a joy to drive. It bothers me now when my minivan goes into gas mode. The electric engine is so quiet and smooth (comparing a Nissan Leaf to a BMW or a Mercedes). I love rarely going to a gas station. The minivan forces you to run the gas engine every few months (it'll run down the gas or do a certain amount of driving); so, I have to get a little bit of gas every few months.