:iagree:The PDF and downloaded files are in color, the printed books from Lulu are *not* in color.

I'd be bothered... Not walk-out-of-church bothered, but more titter-quietly-in-the-back-pew-about-it bothered. I agree though - Santa is welcome to take communion. Santa in vestments is welcome to serve communion. Santa in a jolly red suit serving communion is weird.

I have been in the same place. With my older daughter, I had her skip problems when I felt she understood it. The problem came on other lessons when she decided that she shouldn't have to do all of it and began whining about why couldn't she skip *these* problems. It became torturous for me. With my younger daughter we just go through every single problem. When I don't think she needs it, I take out a complete page from her binder without her noticing it. The older is now thriving in TT on the computer where she can no longer whine to me about not wanting to do *all* the problems.

It doesn't bother me a bit... I don't think our town allows franchised businesses to open in the historic downtown area at all. We also can't have fences higher than 6 ft and can't cut down a tree without a permit or walk our dog in certain parks. I figure it's just part of living in a town.

If I can find a carp, we'll do the traditional Polish Wigilia (Christmas Eve) celebration. If not, we'll eat some other kind of fish... and barszcz and a poppyseed rolled cake (like a yule log) and some other Polish food.

For a 6 yr old boy who is not yet reading fluently, but probably will be soon, I'd go with these: Elephant and Piggie Fly Guy Frog and Toad

We use brainpop a few times a week. For us, worth the money...

The article is talking about first language acquisition, not second language acquisition. You might try a google search for "Poverty of the Stimulus". The process of creolization from pidgins is also a good example of the same situation of a child imposing grammar when none existed. There's also an interesting case of deaf Nicaraguan children creating sign language when none existed.

I think its ridiculous. Since when have linguists had so much power? Blaming linguistics for causing "a generation of children" to not know standard conventions for writing is like blaming biologists for a population decline or blaming sociologists for a rise in crime. Linguists describe language, they have nothing to do with educational policy... I've never met any theoretical linguist who believes that standard writing conventions shouldn't be followed. I've gone to syntax talks with Chomsky and he's not all that charismatic. He did amazing things in linguistics, without a doubt, but the only theoretical linguist I've ever met who had an interest in education is a syntactician from UMass -- David Pesetsky. Here's a report from him on reading instruction... http://www.asne.org/kiosk/reports/97reports/literacy/Literacy5.html

We have it and have used it a bit. I though it was okay. My daughter called it Painful Jr. Grammar, though I think she just had a thing about workbooks. It was pretty inexpensive... and I like some of the exercises (like sentence combining). I'd give it a try....

I am completely ignorant about literary criticism, so I can't help you there... When I went to grad school in linguistics, I don't recall anything about structuralism other than at the beginning of a psycholinguistics class when the problem of language categories came up. The reading had to do with notional definitions about parts of speech and then putting things in substitution frames... I think the discussion went on to talk about prototypes and, like much of my linguistics training, ended with me figuring out that I don't know as much about parts of speech as I thought I did and that we can't assume that we know how many parts of speech are in any particular language or in language in general. As for whether there are debates in linguistics? Definitely! Blood has been drawn at many linguistics conferences.

I think this thread (and Sharon in Austin's original thread about MCT) is not really about 'structural grammar' but is ultimately about whether language arts should be taught from the older, traditional, prescriptive perspective that we learned as kids and our parents and grandparents learned and that textbooks and dictionaries are written in... Or whether we should use the knowledge that the modern field of linguistics can offer - where language is studied as a science. Unfortunately, linguistics is a very young field and there's not always complete agreement within the field. To make it worse, theoretical linguistics is not an accessible topic that the average educated person can pick up and read. So the information that linguists have about how grammar really works or how language changes or why people pronounce things in a certain way has just never made it into the educational world; and so we are relying on language arts textbooks that are based on an old-fashioned model and not using the modern knowledge that we have about how language actually works. So, yes... just like nouns and verbs, syllable structure is a part of linguistics -- and textbooks and dictionaries sometimes get it wrong.

Actually ETC 4 (p.33) says that "Words can be divided into syllables... between a word and its ending -- jump/ing. Also on p. 51 it has kids dividing syllables like this: sev/en, which might make sense in a teaching-reading context, but is not actually correct. CRStarlette is right that there are preferences for syllable structure that seem to be true across all languages (unless you start looking too carefully into languages like Tashlhiyt Berber or something).

We're using MCT too and I share your frustration. The author's lack of knowledge about syntax shows up in Grammar Island as much as his lack of knowledge about phonetics and phonology in Music of the Hemispheres. In my experience, few educators know anything about linguistics... and frankly, few linguists care about education (especially elementary education). The writers of books about language for kids seem to come from a dated grammarian perspective. The most accessible books dealing with linguistics are probably written for a freshman audience. I've gotten around the problem by teaching how to do basic syntax trees (rather than old-fashioned diagramming) to my older daughter... and by getting out an IPA chart and showing all the possible sounds of language and how we classify and talk about them and pointing out how language changes or why we pronounce things in a certain way or how our choice of words affects meaning. Eventually I can imagine getting a little optimality theory or formal logic in... But I don't think that there is a linguistics book for kids out there. Unless maybe we set about writing one? :tongue_smilie:

The font size is pretty average for children's novels. I think the characters are around 12 years old. And my sense is that these books have pre-teens as their target. While my 8 1/2 yr old loves these books, I probably wouldn't encourage a five year old read them.

How about Brainpop? I know it's not a complete curriculum, but there are around 240 science topics on brainpop divided into different fields. You could write it in the order you think would make sense. Then, each day, you could have each of your kids watch one video and then answer the quiz questions that follow it. It'd be about 10-20 minutes of self-contained entertaining science each day that you wouldn't need to prepare at all. Plus, there are other activities too if you wanted to do more.

I haven't used Good Eats, but we've watched "Supersizers go/eat..." on youtube for information on food in historical periods. It's awesome and my 8 yr old and I love it, but be prepared for a fair number of references to adult topics.

Look at college and adult schools in your area first... I've taken beginning ballet (at age 32) and found it the most difficult thing ever. But I did love it! I'm thinking of signing up for another class, though I'm heavier and more out of shape than I was then... and the idea of putting on a leotard is kind of frightening. But when I get my courage up, I'm going to do it. Folk dancing is really fun and doesn't require a partner or much knowledge or fitness. I like European folk music, so it can be cool. I would imagine that contra dancing or square dancing would be similar. I hope you do it! I'd love to take a dance class, but... like you... I feel a little reluctant.

My kids have either oatmeal, cold cereal (something healthy) or yogurt with granola. I usually have a smoothie...

The kids can have at their stockings as soon as they get up. Then adults get up and we make breakfast and then we do a turn-taking routine with the gifts - letting the kids hand out a present so that everyone has one to open. Every year I try to not make it as big as the previous year... Around Dec. 1, I'll say things about how everyone only gets one gift, etc... but somehow, by Dec. 25, I find a gigantic pile of presents. I don't know what happens!

We are getting a piano for Christmas and I'm so excited to start my girls with lessons. I am a fairly decent pianist and I think I should be able to teach them for a year or two without running into problems. I went through the John Thompson series as a kid (from Teaching Little Fingers to Play to the Grade 5 book), so I only know that series... but I know there's a lot more available now. For them, I'm looking at the Piano Adventures series. Here are my questions: It looks like they have the regular series for ages 7-9, the accelerated version for ages 10+ and the younger series for ages 5-6. Should both my girls learn from the same book? I have a pretty immature 6.5 yr old and a weirdly mature 8.5 yr old. I doubt either are blessed with prodigious musical talent, but I'm sure they'd do okay. Should I get all the components of the level (lesson/performance/theory/technique)? What are the "Pre-time to Big-time" books about? I'm assuming they're additional pieces to play? Are they leveled within each book? Are they worth getting? About how long should I expect each lesson to be? Thanks!

We switched from MM to TT for my older daughter who (incorrectly) believed she was terrible at math. It's a really good fit for her because it has taken the emotion she's built up around math out of the picture. Her math is now between herself and the computer. I no longer need to have the role of cheerleader/drill-sergeant/therapist. Math isn't 2 hours of procrastination and torture any more. She does it quickly and happily and without complaint and is learning and retaining. I think the format appeals to her... Plus she gets immediate feedback and usually gets 100% correct on an assignment. As you probably already know, it is at least a year behind other textbooks in scope/sequence so choose the level carefully.

We use just one - MM for my younger and TT for the older. I will probably add in LOF next summer I think.

We're using Island level and I've taught my 8yr old to do simple syntax trees rather than diagramming.... I think trees do a better job of showing relationships of words and phrases and ultimately if you want to study another language, diagramming isn't going to help you. But it's probably not practical for anyone not familiar with syntax.

We're doing a 12 lb turkey for 5 people (though I got it thinking it'd be 7 people...).