Jump to content

Menu

MorganClassicalPrep

Members
  • Posts

    1,333
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Posts posted by MorganClassicalPrep

  1. For now, the plan is to home school all the way through, except the time we spend in other countries. I'm hoping to get a Fulbright grant to spend 9 months in Brazil- if possible I'll put DD in school that year. I may also be going to a French or Spanish speaking country to teach English for a year, and again, I'll try and put DD in school.

     

    Otherwise, home school all the way. We won't be settled in one place until DD is at least 12, lots of moving in between. And by then she'll be just a couple years away from being able to go to community college, so might as well stick it out and go with that. :D But, I'm a student, and a single mother, sooooo.... never know what life will bring.

  2. It would have been too overprotective for you to forbide her from going. But you didn't do that. But, not necessarily a bad thing. I've been going to concerts and sporting events with friends since I've had friends that drove, *but* my mom would (and still does!) express her concern over my safety. Occasionally I have not gone somewhere because of the concerns she brought up, but more often it made me a little more aware of my surroundings. As a person who has often been accused of being off in my own world, the words of caution are sometimes a good thing! :tongue_smilie:

  3. 6yo loved her AG doll, but has actually been more captivated by her Avatar: the Last Airbender graphic novel. She's read it several times, including aloud to her cousin. My brother gave her a 200-piece 3-D Eiffel tower model and I was dubious, but she put it together and it looks great! She adores the rock collection our friend gave her and the chemistry kit from us.

     

    If you don't mind me asking... what brand is the Eiffel Tower model? I was looking at a couple different ones for DDs birthday next month but I was worried about the level of difficulty. She would LOVE an Eiffel Tower, especially if she can put it together (at least mostly) alone.

  4. We've done indoor rock climbing as a winter thing - I know they have it in Germantown, but I'll bet there's somewhere closer to you as well. And we love to go swimming in the winter - there are a couple of decent indoor pools near us with water slides and so forth in PG County - nothing like Great Wolf, but a big slide, two little ones, a couple of jets and a lazy river isn't bad for just a few dollars. Or maybe the trapeze school in DC? Slightly pricey, but very cool.

     

    We've also done NYC in February for a couple days and it was fine. Yes, you're risking snowstorms, but your chances aren't horrible and a little snow adds to the fun.

     

    I think DD is probably a little young for both rock climbing and trapeze... although, learning trapeze looks like so much fun! Can I have MY birthday there? :lol:

    I didn't even think of an indoor water park around here. off to google...

  5. Can't you talk her into a smaller party with your friends? Go to a fun museum and out for ice cream or play games and have a home party. I'm sorry this is difficult.

     

    This is what I'm thinking. I guess I was just looking for a way to make it HER choice not to do the big party so Mommy didn't have to be mean.

     

    We've had this issue in recent years with ds11, except he knows he doesn't have many friends.

    Last year we took 2 friends bowling and then headed back to our house where our family and dear family friends soon arrived to celebrate with cake and ice cream. It worked out good. He was happy!

    I don't know what to do this year. He still has few friends. The people he enjoys spending time with at pokemon club or taekwondo aren't really in his age group so we can't invite them to a party. They are either much younger or older. We had decent size parties last year. I may just do a trip to the aquarium and dinner out.

    Any of this help, OP? I kinda got to rambling.....

     

    It was definitely help. If nothing else, it makes me not feel so bad that it's just us! Honestly... it seems like it is only an issue at birthday party time. We are blessed to have great friends, but we split our year almost 50/50 at our home and my parents home, so our friends/family are spread out over a large geographical area. DD doesn't really realize that she doesn't have many friends, since she spends so much time with the ones she DOES have.

     

    I'd keep it special and small, and definitely local. If she has just one or two friends come, you can do something like the museum or movie and lunch. What about a special event coming to town, ice skating show, circus, etc.?

     

    If you do something overnight now, when she's six, what's left to look forward to for parties as she gets older? I'd save the NYC for when she turns 16, or 18, or a really special occasion. (Actually, we are. We'll take a trip to DC, NYC, or ?? when dd graduates from high school.)

     

    I remember having so much fun planning the parties when my kids were little, no matter what the size. Some were larger, some were just a friend or two, but it was the time that was memorable, not the number of attendees. :001_smile:

     

    I did think of a museum we could do. Port Discovery is in Baltimore, within a 2 hour drive for many of our friends (most of whom are cousins also). Maybe do something like that... You are right about saving the trip for another time, but we live within driving distance of NYC right now, and won't after next year so I thought now would be a good time to get it in,. :tongue_smilie:

     

    Not sure where you are in MD, but what about Longwood Gardens? The conservatories are wonderful in the winter, and you should check the website for special events like organ concerts, fireworks, etc. Everything is on such a big, over the top scale that kids tend to be entranced.

     

    http://www.longwoodgardens.org/

     

    The Brandywine Valley has lots of tourist attractions and lots of hotels/inns. Longwood is in PA, but very close to DE border -- day trip might work, but there is so much to see that overnight might be better.

     

    http://www.brandywinevalley.com/

    http://www.thebrandywine.com/

     

    Oooh. I'll definitely check this out. DD would LOVE an organ concert, and what kid doesn't like fireworks? Thanks!

  6. DD will be 6 next month. She has been talking about having a birthday party for quite awhile now. I'm having some issues though because while DD calls all the girls in her dance class as well as from co-op (the one we don't attend anymore...) friends, I don't think any of them would come. The only people I expect would come would be her best friends, the children of my good friend.

     

    I don't want to get DD's hopes up for a big birthday party and not come through. Soooooo, I was thinking that we could do something else instead. A day trip somewhere? I wish it was summer and I could take her to an amusement park instead. It's gotta be something good to make her WANT to give up the party. Depending on what it is, we could also take one or two of my friend's daughters.

     

    Any ideas of something exciting in driving distance of MD? I was thinking maybe overnight at Great Wolf Lodge with one friend. I also considered overnight to NYC with just DD and I, but I'm concerned about the weather.... definitely don't want to get caught in a snowstorm or anything!

  7. Everything was a hit here, except the Lightning McQueen R/C car that had been ordered off Amazon and it wasn't until wrapping last night I realized the wheel was broken... :glare: Went ahead and wrapped it up and told DD we needed to exchange it for a new one. (It was one of the two things she really, really wanted!)

    DD has spent a little time with everything she got... even having a fashion show with the clothes! :lol:

     

    I got the biggest hit though. My mom surprised me with a new laptop... I've been without a computer since September, so I am thrilled to say the absolute least!!

  8. Okay... so the first link to the Singapore/Miquon chart went bad, but then there was a second.... instead of being smart and saving it to my computer I just saved the link. Guess what doesn't work anymore?

     

    Does anyone, by any chance, have a copy (or another site?) of the chart that correlated Miquon pages with the Singapore program? I'd send you loads of good ju-ju if you do, because while I don't have time to go through and match them up myself, I do enjoy having them working together!

  9. Thanks for the info. :) I'm not a really wuss about pain. I think it is more the needle thing that is getting to me. I've given birth three times without meds on purpose, lol, but get near me with a needle to draw blood and I'm feeling lightheaded and nauseous. Maybe getting a tattoo wouldn't have the same affect? It is probably more the taking my blood out of my body thing.

     

    $50 would definitely make the price right. I wonder if I could talk dh into it? He doesn't have any tattoos either. Hmmmm.

     

    Ha! Yeah I'd probably need a drink or two for bravery. Do you think the tattoo artist would be cool with that? :)

     

    WRT price: many shops have a minimum anywhere from 50-100 dollars, depending on how detailed you want the designs, I imagine it wouldn't be much more, if any, than that.

    Don't tell the artist if you've been drinking. A reputable artist who doesn't know you won't do a tattoo on someone who is inebriated.

    Tattoo needles and blood draw needles are much different. I too pass out when giving blood (or getting immunizations) but I have 3 fairly decent sized tattoos and more planned. :tongue_smilie:

     

    And, just a second reminder that I already mentioned in Nakia's thread about tattooed wedding bands... I've been told by a number of people that the small intricate words/designs of a tattooed ring don't hold and eventually become one big blob. I'm not sure of how truthful this is since I don't have anything that small, but something to look into unless you don't mind eventually having just a solid band.

  10. I've always heard that getting anything other than a solid band there is a bad idea because eventually it will smudge and the words/numbers/designs will look bad. I love the sentiment, but definitely something to check into!

    I wanted to get fingerprints tattooed on me but was told the intricate designs would eventually look like one big blob. Haven't done much more research though, because I have about 4 more tattoos planned before I was going to get the fingerprints anyway! :tongue_smilie:

  11. Even though this wasn't my question, just wanted to say thanks for the recommendation on Nolo books.

     

    I'm a single parent, and with my Dad's recent illness, figuring out what would happen to DD has been looming over me. I know where I want her to go, unfortunately, I have a sneaking suspicion there will be some fighting, even with a will. :glare: I should probably see a lawyer and make sure my will is un-disputable, but frankly, I can't afford it right now.

  12. What do you consider 'present day'? The SOTW stops at the first Iraq war and I stopped there. To go right up to the present day is not history but 'current events'. It takes time to get an historical perspective on what happened. Even the first Iraq war is pretty fresh. Obviously, it is still playing out.

     

    Now, do we discuss current events? Yes, we do, more and more often with my elder son. But, I don't call it history.

     

    :iagree: It'll be another few years before we get to it, but I'm thinking that a good place to stop would be the year DD was born (so, we'll study up to 2006, everything since will be current events). No real reason, completely arbitrary, but I do feel that there is a strong distinction between history and current events... the same distinction I find myself trying to make between "history" and "journalism" when writing my own papers.

  13. :bigear: I'll be interested in seeing how this goes if anyone chooses to use it. We have L'art de dire, but it just isn't getting done. It isn't structured enough for me, and DD isn't enjoying it either. We've just been reading French books and learning random French vocab words for now. (One of DD's favorite games in the car is "Mommy... how do you say (random word) in French/Spanish?") lol. So we are learning words, just not how to use them!

  14. Well... every year I come up with a "plan", and every year two weeks in we are off the plan. So, I'm starting over in January acknowledging that plans don't work for us, and yet we still get (mostly) everything done! :tongue_smilie:

     

    I do have some general goals to focus more on our bookwork instead of the life-learning we've been doing.

  15. I think it probably has something to do with the definition of history. "History" is technically only that for which we have written evidence of. Anything before that is prehistory, and often falls under science studies for many people. (dinosaurs, ice age, etc.)

    It also makes SOTW usable for both creationists and evolutionists I suppose (not 100% sure on this, since I haven't used SOTW yet).

  16. Well, all 7 days are open to planning, and sometimes we do some type of school work 7 days a week. But I'm in school myself, so we have to work around my class schedule, and spreading it out to be shorter days every day is the best way to get everything done.

     

    Luckily DD enjoys school. And this schedule allows for us to take breaks when needed- whether that be a couple weeks to allow for transitioning into new schedules, or a day or two to recharge.

  17. :willy_nilly::svengo:I'm still not settled into the new school year and you want to talk Christmas??? :lol:

     

    It just so happens I actually know what DD is getting. Her big gift is going to be a keyboard- one of those that are like a piano, so she can take piano lessons (the lessons are part of her gift). She's also getting an electric guitar, complete with amplifier and everything. My boyfriend has thrown around getting her a set of drums (he plays, and wants to teach her). Our neighbors are really going to love us! :tongue_smilie:

     

    Of course, she'll also get books, pjs, and some other small gifts- a lego set, some new dollhouse furniture, baby doll clothes, etc.

×
×
  • Create New...