deannajo
-
Posts
276 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Events
Blogs
Classifieds
Store
Posts posted by deannajo
-
-
I think I remember hearing that for the first year or two, ANY irregularities shouldn't be a concern. But that doesn't help the annoyance factor one bit. There may be some dietary things to try before going the birth control route, but I'm not knowledgeable enough to recommend anything. Poor girl.
-
I've used it for years - and before there was a Turbo Tax online, I just used Turbo Tax, buying the program at the office store ;-) - yes, you can come back and work on it later, its easy. I freelance from home, so I use the home and business version, and have for at least 13 years....since I started my freelance business.
-
With all of the social media/FaceTime... the 14 could still keep in contact with current friends (that will help her adjustment as she begins to make new friends).
Butting in with a quick note - If a move does come to pass, I'd be careful with this - my 13 yo had a really rough time with our recent move, and I think social media, facetime, texting, skyping, facebook, actually made it worse because she was seeing and hearing what her old friends were doing without her constantly, and it made her sadder and sadder - she was still really missing them, but wasn't seeing much evidence that their lives had been disrupted much at all by her departure - I thought that it would make it easier and the adjustment better, but it made it so much harder....I really wished she had been limited to periodic long distance phone calls, that had to be kept short because of the bill (remember those days?) and pen and paper letters. Eventually she started getting out more and making friends here, and its slowly getting better, but in retrospect I wish I'd somehow been more aware of how it was affecting her and been more restrictive of the social media stuff for the first several months.
-
Ah, so the gun thread wasn't really a gun thread. That went way off and I guess got deleted before I could read it all. :D
I missed it! I always miss all the drama threads. I've been behind on work, so I haven't been able to keep up with the boards - just this thread because I get the emails :laugh:
-
you can get some samples of the SL IG on their website - like three weeks worth, that would give you a good idea - I have a few different samples of cores on my harddrive - Calvert seemed way too textbooky for my liking when I considered it. I like the literature approach a lot. I also looked at Oak Meadow, but we're not so much a project family, and I think, if I remember correctly, they scheduled for the week, rather than the day, which makes it super easy for us to put everything off until Friday and then panic and just push it to the next week - cause my girls and I rock like that :thumbup1:
-
Any other insights to Sonlight? Now that I've been thinking on it for several hours, I'm thinking this might be a project I could take on (with as much help as any of you would like to contribute!).
I'm far from an expert, as we've only been using the curriculum for one week :laugh: but what I like about it is the schedules and instructor's guide. I've seen amazing book lists, but for where I am right now, I think I just need that handholding that the schedules and instructor's guide offers in SL - my own history education was lacking - a lot of memorizing dates for tests and moving on, so I feel I'm learning right along with the kids, so having some scripted discussion points, and book suggestions, and time line activities, and map activities, and literature that flows through whatever topic we're discussing, along with what seems like a very gentle, Charlotte Masony approach to language arts (although they do recommend adding on spelling and grammar but present it as optional). So our first week is over, and I really liked going to day 1, and doing that - reading what we read, talking about what we talk about, doing whatever activities are asked of us. And then day 2.. And so on. I didn't like pulling out the Christian texts and wondering if we should just pull them or replace them with something else, and if we replace it, what should we replace it with? And should I be going through the entire curriculum and figuring this out ahead of time? There's a secular sonlight yahoo group, but for the Cores I have, and the newer editions, I'm not seeing anything telling me exactly what I should do, so I'm just winging it...right now.
tbh, I work from home, the kids are involved in out of the home classes, and two of the kids are very serious dancers, and I just am trying to find something where my homeschooling time is spent with them rather than planning and scheduling and preparing. I've never thought I'd be a boxed curriculum homeschooler, as I prefer to be relaxed, child-led, etc, but nothing was getting done, and the kids were unhappy and feeling behind and feeling stupid :crying: and I was frustrated, so I'm trying it..and this week went really well. We'll see how long it continues.
-
I may have to somehow hunt down some of this Sonlight stuff. I've never seen any of it, but I keep hearing how fantastic it is except for the religious aspect of it. I wonder if it's possible that a group of us couldn't put together something similar yet secular...
I'm in :thumbup1:
-
When you join you have to sign a paper so they know you are a Christian. It includes things like inerrant bible, accepted Jesus as savior, Trinity, etc. Do other Christian groups not do that?
Like I said, we just moved to the pacific NW from the midwest, but I saw this a lot, groups in KS, MO and CO - and some more organized co-ops/schools/classes that looked really cool had this too. Oh, and the very large homeschool sports league required a statement of faith too. We sat all that out. It really chapped my hide.
-
Welcome to the group! My DH and I are planning a move out to Portland in the very near future - from all we've heard, we think we'll fit in very nicely there, too.
You'll have to stay in touch! We are still very new here, and finding our way around..it will be nice to have a friend actually newer to the area. Plus we have guinea pigs and fish and three kids too (reading your sig :cheers2: )
-
Hi! Nice thread...I'm pretty much an out and proud atheist, although I haven't made an official statement to announce it or anything. My parents know, my friends know, etc. I don't hide it. My dad is an atheist, although closeted to me until relatively recently. My mom is pretty religious, in her own way (no church). I was raised visiting churches...like mom sent us to go with the neighbors type of thing. I spent summers with my grandparents, so went regularly 2-3 months out of the year, and attended vacation bible school. Fun times. I always questioned. Always. My sister got baptized when we were middle school age, but I refused, even though at the time I couldn't voice why - I think I was waiting for God to speak to me. For me to FEEL religion. I never did. In college, I went on my own spiritual quest (via humanities and philosophy courses) and came out of it all as agnostic, which later evolved into atheism. My husband won't talk about his beliefs at all, but from what the kids and I have gotten out of him suggests agnosticism.
We've struggled some with groups and finding our community, but have mostly been pretty lucky to find secular pockets. We recently moved to the Portland OR area, and oddly enough, no one has asked me about my church at all since we moved here! Its weird. I think we'll fit in here nicely!
I just purchased Sonlight, and plan to do it as secularly as possible, but out of the box, and two days into our first week, I'm somewhat discouraged. Like Izzy said above, I wish there was something that was just like it, but secular. With where I am right now, I just want/need something just ready to go, that I can't get caught up in the planning and preparing stage of things, because so often I don't go beyond that..but trying to figure out what to skip, what to replace (and with what) makes Sonlight seem like maybe it isn't for me..but I'm giving it the ole college try before I make that determination. I looked at Moving Beyond the Page, but I don't think its exactly what I want - it just looks too workbooky and projecty for my family (if someone wants to correct me, that would be awesome!) - my kids just do not respond to that type of instruction... Prior to Sonlight, we've stuck to completely secular items as much as possible....but we've also been super hodge-podgey and relaxed...I'm trying to find more structure, as my oldest will be highschool age next year, and I'm in panic mode thinking I only have four more years and there's so much more she needs to know first! :scared:
-
Wow brla! That's awesome - we're also using LoF to remediate, but we've only just started. I hope our results are similar - both of my older daughters are far behind in math as well - we've been super inconsistent over the years, and have taken months and months off from math due to life, so now we are trying to catch up....I've been using it, starting with apples, in addition to Mastering Essential Math Skills for my 11yo, with my plans to go strictly to LoF when she's done with Mastering Essential Math Skills..and putting my 13yo in there too. Originally I thought I'd move the older girls back to Teaching Textbooks with LoF as a supplement, but after working with LoF and reading more about it, I'm rethinking the supplement aspect. Similarly I'm using it with my 8yo, starting at the beginning, and had intended to use it in addition to Math Mammoth, but have since decided to just stick to LoF all the way. We haven't gotten as far as the OP, so I have nothing to add there :lol:
-
SS brought my struggling speller to tears. She hated it. My better speller did fine with it, and at first we loved it for her, but eventually she found it boring and I found she wasn't retaining as much as I'd like.
-
I'm expecting Sonlight D to arrive tomorrow - I'm hoping it will be just what we need for my 3rd and 5th grader! Super excited...
-
With my 3rd grader we are just doing Logic of English - we're using it for grammar, spelling, and handwriting. We should finish this before the end of this school year - much of the first part was review, so went really quickly - we switched to it from All About Spelling because we were frustrated with the pace, but I really did like AAS too. When we're done I'm not entirely sure what we will do - I'm thinking about going to a dictation/copywork approach for all of it. As forth writing, I haven't worried about that yet. Oh, and we're also switching to Sonlight soon (box should arrive tomorrow actually!), so I plan to look at their language arts as well, and may or may not use it... For my older daughter, I remember using Igniting Your Writing when she was around this age, and it was a lot of fun - grammar and writing - I might just pull that out when we are done with LoE for something fun - I like that it has multiple levels for each exercise too, so if my 5th grader wanted to join in, she could.
-
He sounds like my 13yo daughter, except she has even more free time. We moved, and she hasn't wanted to resume dance or theater classes :crying: - just joined a once a week choir though, and participates in homeschool classes a bit during the week, but other than that, she is on the computer - drawing mostly - she's an amazing artist, but also spends way more time facebook/texting/instragramming/pinteresting than I'd like. I feel your frustration and concern. I wish I had more words to offer.. :grouphug:
-
here's a list. You can also look at the What Your _____ Needs to Know books. That said, I'm pretty relaxed, and I'd probably not worry too much about checking boxes - I'd just read a lot, play with math and science for fun, not following a curriculum. Go to the zoo a lot, nature walks, museums If there was an interest in learning to read, perhaps start on easy Bob books, or the Ordinary Parent's Guide to Reading, but if the interest wasn't there, I'd wait on that too. You have a lot on your plate with so many little ones and one more on the way. I'd just keep things as easy and and as joyful as possible right now :tongue_smilie:
-
I just asked my 8th grader if she could spell it, and she did. She's not a great speller ;-) My 5th grader couldn't do it - she added an extra "l" for some reason, but otherwise was correct :-)
-
Yeah, we're recovering from a very hectic year (2012) of focusing on moving to a completely different area away from family and friends (selling first house, staying in temporary housing, buying next house, moving in - its been a very chaotic year)., so we're taking things from a very relaxed, getting only the basics done (sometimes) method to more structure. I just ordered two core packages from Sonlight....and I plan to start Galore Park's So You Really Want to Learn Science with my older two girls... Sticking with our eclectic math plans and LOE for the younger two...
-
Wow! I'm so impressed! Congratulations, and you and your husband deserve a celebration!
-
I'm in the same place with my 13dd - like exactly - I also work from home, have two other kids, and am on the verge of enrolling her in the local public school...or SOMETHING - she and I just sat down today because like Deee said above, I'm done trying to find something that engages her or pleases her. I want her to be involved in what we decide to do, and I want to follow her leads all the way, but she doesn't want to do ANYTHING! I don't want her to be miserable, but since she seems determined to be anyway, I told her its time we buckle down...quit curriculum hopping, hoping for that magic cure. I've taken a very relaxed approach to her so far, hoping something would click, but next year is highschool and I'm running out of time with her!
-
It's a real thing! Not as common as traditional SAD but it's real and just as you all describe - I deal with it too - just moved to the pacific northwest from the Midwest - I think I'm really going to like it here :)
-
we always have baked oatmeal and some sort of egg casserole - things I can make the night before and pop in the oven as people are opening presents :-) The kids have been talking about the baked oatmeal for days...
-
In honor of the Les Mis movie release ;-) Fun fun....
-
Awesome! Thanks!
SOCIAL GROUP: Atheists, agnostics, free-thinkers, non-believers
in The Chat Board
Posted
Yup yup. Like I said before, I have three kids homeschooling, I work from home nearly full time, my husband travels from Mon-Fri, and I get stuck in the planning and prepping stage and never move to the implementation stage. Plus my own education in history was really lacking - so I don't trust myself not to miss some important event or time period. By trying SL, I'm hoping that having it all prepared and schedule for me will actually result in us doing something beyond math. Because math and spelling was about the only thing we did with any regularity before, and even that wasn't all that regular :bored: - so I'm trying out SL - we're doing Core F with the older one and D with the younger two....today marks the start of week 2, which isn't much, I guess, but seems like we're doing better than we have with anything else.
I feel conflicted about it though, for many of the same reasons outlined in earlier posts. I do really wish there were a secular program that was similar. Maybe I'll revisit History Odyssey, but when we tried it out years ago, it was pretty "projecty" which doesn't work for us. We've done SOTW with the activity guide, and it was ok, but the only reason it got done was because we were doing it with a co-op, otherwise, no way would I have done all those projects.