ocelotmom
-
Posts
2,972 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Events
Blogs
Classifieds
Store
Posts posted by ocelotmom
-
-
This year, I planned the full year in advance for history and the subjects covered by the Ambleside Online schedule. This involves going through SOTW, assigning one chapter per week, finding supplemental books to go along with each week and reserving them at the library (I can schedule holds in advance) and rearranging the Ambleside schedule to fit better with SOTW and our style of doing things.
The planning takes a few hours over the course of a few days. I feel like it's worked very well, though next year I'll probably allow more than one week for chapters that have a lot of supplemental possibilities. I really like having the schedule - we're more likely to actually do the non-scheduled stuff if we have scheduled stuff to structure it around.
I don't schedule math, reading, handwriting, and so forth in advance - we just do them pretty much daily at whatever pace we end up doing them. I have general goals in mind for some things (I want to be through Math Mammoth 2B at the very latest by the time public school starts here next August, for example), but don't do a formal schedule in advance based on that.
-
Right now, DS only does Cub Scouts, and we'll hopefully have regular park days now that the weather is improving if I can get a reliable local group together.
This is mostly because of money, but we wouldn't be doing a whole lot more if money was not an issue. Probably a martial arts class or some other form of physical activity, and more frequent one-time events with our semi-local homeschooling group, but I can't see much beyond that at this point.
I do want to get the older two doing swimming lessons very soon, money or not, because the irrigation canals that surround our house are going to scare me to death until they're better swimmers (of course, they'll probably realistically be at greater risk when they can swim better and they become an attractive nuisance, but swimming lessons still seem a better option than encouraging ignorance for safety).
-
Tofu chocolate pudding. It's so easy and really tastes like chocolate pudding.
You can do similar with avocado, too. I haven't made it in ages, so I don't remember our recipe. It's easy to google, though. Basically just mix together an avocado, cocoa, and sweetener until it tastes right, plus a bit of vanilla and/or salt to bring out the chocolate flavor.
It makes an amazing ice cream too, if you have an ice cream maker.
Oh, good question- I haven't made it when the oil was solid but I think it would still work well. I don't think it would hurt for you to warm it up if you want, unless you're going for the raw food benefits. But, the oil is going to be firm after you freeze it anyway, and I'm pretty sure it will mix well if you don't warm it up.Since coconut oil has a very low melting temperature, warming it up gently (ie. stick the jar in warm water, not melting it on the stove or in the microwave) shouldn't be a problem as far as raw food benefits.
-
Southern California. There's lots of zoos, amusement parks, and so on, as well as the missions, Old Town in San Diego, and so forth if you want something historical. The beaches are there (though generally too cold for more than wading if you don't have a wet suit or really like cold water :)), but there's plenty to do otherwise, too. The weather is likely to allow short sleeves, and lack of snow is pretty much guaranteed unless you go to the mountains. Going over to Mexico for a day trip or longer is also an easy option.
-
I have one brother, 3.5 years younger than me. I chose 5 - we get along great (haven't fought since I left for college :)), and keep in basic touch via facebook and stuff, but have very different lives and little contact beyond that.
-
I don't do written narration with my second grader. I suspect that would provoke meltdowns without any particular benefit at this point.
-
Not to hijack, but does anyone actually buy the printed book? I wonder if, ultimately, it is more cost effective.
Depends on your printer (some are cheaper per page than others), how many kids you're planning to use it for, how long you're planning to use it for, and so on.
If you have just one kid, the workbook may well be more cost effective, especially if you're just doing a few grades, and not all of 1-6 (there are significant discounts for packages).
I have 3 kids, though. If we'd started with MM from the start with #1 and bought the 1-6 package, it would come out to about $7 per year (not including printing costs), which is undoubtedly cheaper than buying workbooks.
I bought the workbook for this semester because I wanted to pay using my funds on Amazon. It was worth it for that, and the convenience of having it ready to go during a particularly stressful time (moving, new baby). But now I'm waiting for an additional sale and buying the 1-6 package for the future :)
-
Another vote for Protecting The Gift.
If he's not too old for it, The Bernstain Bears Learn About Strangers (book or video) takes a similar stance to Protecting The Gift, but aimed at kids.
-
I've started two books this week, and stopped both. Neither could hold my interest. I'm picking up a book from the library tonight.
Same here. Well, one holds my interest, but it's the type I'd rather read gradually. I have another sitting in front of me that I'm going to start to see if it works any better.
-
If you don't want to go far, the Sacramento area has a lot of liberal homeschoolers. I wouldn't say Reno has a ton, but there is a large and active homeschooling community, and a smaller liberal subsection.
-
I have suspected lately that colleges have been dumbing down so to speak. I have met plenty of people working on their master's and doctorates who were not very bright at all and their description of their work sounded not very rigorous. To me it is shocking since when I received my BS in Nursing, I had to write at least a hundred research papers:001_huh:. I have heard that it has gotten much easier since then.
I finished my ASN last April, through the most rigorous ASN program in my area. I'm not sure we wrote any actual papers. Hundreds of care plans of course, and a few oral presentations, but if we wrote any papers, they weren't particularly stressful or memorable.
We did have to cite sources and so forth in the care plans, but they just aren't the same as an actual research paper.
Perhaps the hundreds of papers are the difference between and ASN and a BSN, though :)
-
I plan to have DS go through it a second time when I do it with DD (so logic stage/grades 4-7). Possibly even a third time when DD2 is ready :) They won't be the only resources, but are a good starting point.
-
B&W except for the money sections.
-
63 during the day, 55 at night (with room heaters for individual rooms where there are actually people - more efficient than heating the whole house, plus the kids' room doesn't have a heater vent). The heater goes up to 68 at 5:30am-8:30am, and again from about 5:30-9:00pm.
I think it's uncomfortably cold during the day, but the kids don't complain, and I'd rather put on another sweater than spend more on propane.
-
This is not unusual for college-level writing and is not only indicative of online writing. My friend, a college English prof, tells me she often feels the urge to weep while she's grading papers.
I'm sure :) It's just rare to see other students' written work outside of online classes (or English/Comp classes involving peer review).
-
This is exactly why I hate online classes.
I took several of my nursing prerequisites online. Here's some direct quotes from my nutrition class:
* Adolescents need meat and veggies to survive properly.
* I love double doubles! Meat is my friend. If a teenager were to ask me if I thought a vegan or vegetarian diet would be good for him or her, I would say, No Way!
* I THINK TEENS SHOULD IN FACT EAT IN & OUT OR WHAT EVER THEY WANT, OF COURSE IN MODERATION. (Different person from the above)
* I agree with you it is very hard to be a vagan because we have all this fast food available to us. It is hard but not impossible as long as the diet is well planned and balanced so you don't lack any nutrients. (Again, a different person)
* I think it is appropriate for adolescent to be vegetarian because if they choose and plan well-balanced diet rich in fruits and vegatables, but no sweets, no fast food and no salty snacks. (From the same person as above)
* I know from personal experience that I've lacked nutrients when having a vegan diet. For religious reasons, rather than having the choice of what to give up, in my faith, our lent consists of a vegan diet. During lent, my diet mainly consists of tortillas, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, french fries, and shrimp. I lack many nutrients during this time.
Most of my fellow students were also pre-nursing, and the lecture which we were supposed to have read ahead of time talked about ways in which one could have a healthy vegetarian/vegan diet.
I REALLY dislike online classes. I've taken a bunch, and have had ONE where I felt the teacher was actually involved at all. In most of them, it was all just "Post your answer to this closed-ended question with one correct answer, and then reply to two other people's postings" which simply result in a lot of "good answer" or "you got this nitpicky thing wrong", with no attempts to address misconceptions or mistakes on the part of the teacher, either in lecture (which is generally the powerpoint included with the teacher's edition) or on the discussion board itself.
-
What do you use in place of eggs? I like making black bean brownies, but it seems that the baby is egg sensitive.
-
I don't think there's any way most people could read everything suggested! :) It's intended to be used across a broad range of interests and abilities, and you pick and choose what works for your family.
We're not using the activity guide this year because we rarely did the actual activities when I had it last year, and I can find supplemental reading suggestions elsewhere. However, when we did, I'd pick 1-3 books from the list. We got them from the library because, while we got fines, they weren't enough to add up to more than a handful of books a year, and we checked out way more than that.
As for implementation - we currently do one chapter a week. Sometimes we'll spread the reading in SOTW over two days if the section is particularly long.
I'm not happy with this. Some weeks have a lot of good supplemental reading options, while some weeks have next to none. Next year I'm going to schedule with that in mind, and take two weeks on some things. Since we'll be doing Volume 3, we may take some extra time on the parts related to US history, too. This will also spread it out through the whole summer, which is good, since DS loves our history reading and has no desire to take a break :)
-
I'm surprised no one else seems to think that some of the violence is gratuitous. I enjoyed the books, and obviously it's gladiators and totalitarian regimes and war and all, so violence is expected. But some of the scenes (such as towards the end of the third book) struck me as somewhat gratuitously violent and gory, and felt more like the author showing off the creative killing methods she could think up than actual plot development.
-
I hate top sheets with a fiery passion. When I was in 8h grade, a teacher who had spent time in Europe somewhere mentioned that they use duvet covers instead of top sheets, and I've done that since. Easily washable, less tangles.
When it's warm, I use a lightweight cotton bedspread. If I need more layers, they go on top of the duvet or bedspread, whichever is being used.
In sheet sets, I'll use the top sheet to make a matching duvet cover.
(I also hate sharing covers with another person. DH and I have separate blankets. He is a top sheet person, but thankfully considers the duvet cover a reasonable compromise.)
-
We have a driveway that goes up to a parking area in back of our house, and our front yard is inaccessible from the street, so our "back door" is essentially the front door, and the front door the back door, or something like that :)
Entering through the mudroom makes sense to me - you just have to design the front yard in such a way that people are guided to that door instead of the front door. Unless you don't mind formal/infrequent visitors using the front door, of course.
-
Mine's in my sig. I'm trying to actually use it now :)
-
The Merlot at Trader Joes (Charles Shaw aka Two Buck Chuck) has very low tannins ( the element in some red wines that make one "pucker") and is dirt-cheap and "drinkable" (if not particularly interesting
:iagree:
DH laughs at me because Two Buck Chuck is just about the only wine I'll willingly drink.
-
I got saxon earlier on. K and 1st grade. I found the subject is taught not systematic. It s very scatter for me. And practice the same concept day after day. It was just not for my fast pace boy. So I end up picked another program. and my saxon is sitting on the shelve
I have not used Saxon myself, but nearly everything I've read about it has said that the earlier grades are no good, but it's excellent (if it's your type of thing at all) from 3rd or 4th grade on.
S/O Do you donate foods you won't eat in your own home?
in General Education Discussion Board
Posted
:iagree:
And as far as canned/packaged food goes, there are people who will very much appreciate being able to choose a can of black beans over a can of Chef Boyardee, natural peanut butter over Skippy, or whole wheat pasta over white. Coconut milk is wonderful for people who can't eat dairy, which tends to be available in abundance at food banks, but is kind of useless if you're not able to eat it.