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Clarita

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Posts posted by Clarita

  1. I've put in a more detailed what we are using for DS7 in the second grade thread.

    As with this year we are continuing to work on writing output, I'm counting all the writing in this umbrella (seriously including doodling). I just reviewed WWE and realized we are actually on pace with SWB's recommendations, so pretty proud of us. 

    Without even meaning to, we really used WWE as a guide but use our own copy work and reading to do it. I wish I could have an open and go option here (and I tried this year), but the reality is I need the selections to be super high interest or else it drags down the rest of our day. 

    DD5 is really struggling with being the younger sister of DS7. She kind of beats herself up about not being good at stuff because she keeps comparing herself to her 1.5 year older brother and thinking she isn't good. This year I started her on a lot of curriculum that I had used with DS7, but as the year went on I switched some curriculum so it'd be harder for her to compare. So, this year I'd like to find some activities she can call her own and build up her frustration tolerance.  

  2. 1 hour ago, AnneGG said:

    Curriculum can be expensive. But how do we define expensive? I went to a coffee shop last week and paid $8 for a medium iced vanilla coffee with cream and sugar. Nothing fancy. $8. My aluminum free deodorant is now $12.99. 🤯 Organic Milk is $8.99 a gallon. I mean, honestly, what’s a couple hundred dollars on curriculum? That’s like the equivalent to a month of groceries nowadays. 

    I've been looking at the MCT Poodle books for a few months thinking "Oh they are so expensive". Then I went to use some Starbucks gift cards I got for Christmas. I was shocked that $5 did not get me a regular size drink (sure it wasn't the just a coffee but still...). If I substituted coffee drinks for dollars in terms of curriculum it seems super cheap.  

    • Like 4
  3. 13 minutes ago, thriftschooler said:

    Homeschooling isn't very big here, so she hasn't really spoken to many people. A lot of what she was hearing was from the other side of the argument: people trying to convince her that public schooling was so much cheaper

    The people aren't wrong and it would be really hard to convince her to homeschool because homeschool would be cheaper than public school (public school is subsidized from the government). It is the point of public school to provide free and affordable education to the public. Our school district offers free lunch for everyone, water is available on tap at school but you could bring personal water bottle from home if you are concerned about tap water. If you are low income and qualify after school care can be subsidized to free.  

    I think the convincing should be on how she can afford homeschooling not that it would be cheaper. 

    • Like 2
  4. I agree with the counseling. If a therapist isn't going to happen, then an adult outside your family somewhat trained (or just really good) in talking to people. That helped me process hard stuff that happened in my teens. Sometimes it's just hard to talk to your parents and family about really hard stuff. I wanted to say for teens, but that's not true because it is still hard sometimes as an adult. 

    It might have been hard for my parents that I never talked to them about the hard stuff that happened in my teens. In hindsight I'm pretty sure my mom asked my youth pastor to talk to me about it (because seriously how else did he know and it never dawned on me back then that this happened because I was so relieved to have an adult to talk to). Talking to my family about it would have not worked because 1) I needed to process all my feelings ("right" and "wrong") and 2) I needed to speak with someone who's completely outside the situation so that halfway through the conversation the adult I'm talking to doesn't also breakdown. Since she sounds like a smart sweet girl, she can't put you in that position, because she loves and cares about you.   

    • Thanks 2
  5. 11 hours ago, Ting Tang said:

    There isn't a perfect math, you are correct.  We found that my next in line enjoys the Strayer-Upton series, and my daughter is doing well with Singapore Dimensions.  With my son, we've just really struggled.  I think he'd rather be doing other things, quite frankly, than math.  And I have tried to find something tolerable for him.  I've been teaching from the LMF books, but I know we need something more in depth for next year.  I still haven't decided what we are doing, so I have bought nothing just yet in case he does go back to regular school.  I just find our local school to be a bad place. They were very anti Covid protocols, and I truly believe parents send their kids sick there...joking about how everyone is getting Covid anyway. So yes, I do worry about the germs there, moreso than I worry about germs in a group of 5 kids once or twice a week...or a first-in-a-lifetime taekwondo tournament. 

    So, I'm a fixer type person so I tend to look at everything and find all the issues. Sometimes I get hyper-focused on the issues, especially ones I have not found a solution for. This part of my personality usually makes me a person who takes on a lot and gets things done, but sometimes it reeks havoc on my moral. I've found a useful practice I do in my homeschool to keep me from spiraling into "education is awful in my home" thinking.

    I just observe what happens during our homeschool time. I pick a day and I just write down what happens (without judging good or bad). DS did 5 math problems today. DD wrote a 10 sentence story. (Sorry my kids are little.) etc. Then I go back and make my judgements and how I feel about each thing. Lastly I go back and decide if any of them require action. It sounds like it doesn't help fix anything, but it clears my head a bit and helps me see the good parts of the school day. Then the bad stuff it has helped me get a clearer picture of what I need to do to make things run more smoothly. Like your son may always have a bad attitude toward math and that may never be a subject that he does independently, but on the other hand maybe his reading is fantastic. Or that yes everyday you all get to math and it's a total drag but in reality you all have great time doing read-alouds. Or your children never provide good narration during your read aloud time but later in the day you find them incorporating parts of your history read aloud in their pretend play or conversation. I can't tell you how but seeing these tells me how to teach the children I have and less on the children I wish I had. 

    • Like 5
  6. Downton Abbey

    The Expanse

    Star Trek TNG, Enterprise, DS9, Picard, and even Voyager. I haven't watched all of them but I'm sure I'd find a way to like them all. (A reason that I haven't watched all of them.)

    Firefly

    Battlestar Galactica 

    Reading this list I suppose you could just put whatever idea you have in space and I'll love it. (Except horror I hate horror so I may not like that, thriller is OK just wouldn't be a repeat watch.) 

  7. We really liked All About Reading. My kids really like it, I'm OK with it. It seems like a bit much for a normal/smart child but it's fun so they don't mind doing it. It definitely works though. Basically my children can just read whatever they want after level 2. (They can just kind of figure out how to figure out words after that.)

    My only suggestion (which goes against TWTM) is I would do some written and spelling work even in All About Reading level 1. 

  8. FYI the first thing I see when I look at the page with my phone is how to donate right in the center of my screen. The icons about what is important to your church is above that and if I scroll other things are below, but front and center is "Donate". (I'm not sure you want that) It also probably looks better on a computer, but a lot of people use their phones for looking up stuff.

  9. If you don't plan on doing the makeup thing past the one day, I highly suggest hiring a makeup artist to do your makeup that day. They can just do it for the day (I mean you could hire them to follow you around but I don't think that's necessary). Look for someone who you like the way their make up looks (some may even post pictures of their past projects). 

    For the one time deal it can be much cheaper to do this than to buy all the products you need for that day (even inexpensive products). 

    • Like 1
    • Thanks 1
  10. 1 hour ago, Sneezyone said:

    Not historically, but increasingly, some athletes are making money. Plenty of others are making more.

    Isn't that the same with arts and humanities? Some are making money in arts and humanities. Some in those fields make  A LOT of money. I thought the argument is that the majority can't make ends meet with it, which I would say is the same for sports, even the sports that bring in lots of money for some people. 

    For reference here's an article talking about a recent contract for minor league players in baseball. https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/minor-league-baseball-players-ratify-historic-first-cba-deal-includes-salary-increases-more/According to it a triple A player (which is the level right before the Major Leagues) makes $17,500-$35,800 annually. Although apparently housing is offered. Then there are plenty of people who don't even make it to that level.

    • Like 3
  11. 2 hours ago, PronghornD said:

    How many of you are still working in the career you went to college for?

    I did for 10 years until DD came along. DH works in the career that he got a college major in. The majority of people who work in my field do have degrees in my field, some are happy with their jobs and others the job pays the bills. There's also a lot of people with "practical" degrees whose jobs fund their passions and plenty of people who go back to college later in life (30's, 40's 50's+) to further their education in their passions. 

    No matter the passionate degree is a job is still a job. So when you get that degree and are in that career in the field that you love and the stars are completely aligned there are parts of that job that is a grind. Sometimes the whole job in the field that you love is still an awful job. 

    7 minutes ago, regentrude said:

    That is true. However, not being *allowed* to try and to find out can be a life-long source of resentment and seriously damage the relationship. 

    On the flipside, some parents fully cheered on their kids to pursue their dreams to have them completely "fail" as is the norm with certain dreams. Now their kids aren't in a good place, the parents also have regrets. So I don't think there is a right or a better answer as to how to handle this. Just a decision a parent has to make and consequences they have to deal with.

    • Like 2
  12. As the child of parents who questioned her choice of college majors, in hindsight I'm not mad/upset that they doubted me. Was I bummed and upset that they weren't celebrating my decision at the time, yes of course. Ultimately though it made me really think about my decision from a practical stand point rather than just the idealist rainbows and puppies standpoint some people in their teens and twenties tend to take about their decisions. 

    Also having gone through the experience of my life I'm glad my parents pushed back on my decision. They pushed back on my decision because they cared about me, and my future happiness. In doing so they did a lot more for me than the people who stood around just cheering me on, never asking me to consider the downsides to my decision.  

    • Like 4
  13. 17 minutes ago, Langell0002 said:

    "does some well known curriculum offer video lessons for kindergarten,  because I can't teach my child,"

    I joined a math curriculum Facebook group because we are using the math curriculum. I dislike the fact that the math curriculum offers video lessons and online because a lot of the posts are can my 5 year old do the video/online option independently. Mixed with the occasional my student has been doing this independently for a while and I've realized they have a few gaps or they don't really know how to do the math. What do I do? 

    I think Facebook groups sometimes just attracts certain people.

  14. A few years ago I had kids hit me up for a "donation" to their ski vacation. I was confused an inquired no it's not for school, no they weren't on some ski team, they were just going door to door asking for money for a family vacation. I didn't recognize them as living near me either and mom was in the car  as her kids asked for money to fund their family vacation... I guess in my case at least they understood what they were doing?

    I find having kids go door to door doing these sorts of things inappropriate. I realize some people think these things build character or teaches kids important life lessons, but I don't understand it at all. Yes I do find it weird that we make little girls sell cookies which are made by a large corporation.

    • Confused 6
    • Sad 2
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