pianoplayer
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Posts posted by pianoplayer
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If the doctor sends you home with prescription pain medicine, I would assume that it will be very constipating. :( My doc recommended a moderate dose of Milk of Magnesia 3x per day until I was regulated. I would advise that you plan ahead for this and not get caught by surprise. There is no need in compounding your hurts!
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The six-eight week recovery period is the general time frame in which you will have restrictions on activity (limited steps at least at first, e.g., lifting, etc). I consider this the immediate surgical recovery period. Many seems to find that it takes a year to feel fully "back to normal." If your ovaries come out, or if they go into a funk following your surgery, your recovery will include adjusting to menopausal symptoms. Your doctor will give more specific instructions, and your recovery will vary depending on the exact nature of your surgery. In general, I would say expect to spend most of the 1st week in bed, although you will need to be up walking around some (slowly!) after a couple of days. As you get progressively stronger, you will aid your recovery both by doing the recommended amount of simple walking AND by not overdoing your activity.
Your level of pain will be somewhat unique to you and to which method of surgery is used. I had a 9" abdominal incision, and my pain was significant for the first week (lessening by the end of the week) and tapered off from there. Generally, I hurt when I shifted or moved in a way that used those stomach muscles that had gotten cut.
I would strongly recommend that you arrange for your hubby to be off from work for the two weeks including and immediately following your surgery. You don't want to need to be tending to child care, homeschooling, cooking meals, shopping, lifting young children, etc. You will probably need some help for the first two months following surgery, although your need for help will lessen progressively as you recover.
Personally, I would strongly recommend against trying to continue homeschooling, at least during the first 3-4 weeks of your recovery. You can finish your kids' lessons this summer if need be, but hysterectomy recovery is no time to push the outer limits of your abilities!
In my observation, the people who recover the fastest from hysterectomies are those who scrupulously follow their doctor's instructions, including getting the rest you need.
Hope this helps! Best wishes for a successful surgery and speedy recovery.
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Listen to great classical music together via classical radio or CDs. Research different forms and styles, and learn to identify their unique aspects (sonata form, the various dance forms, does it utilize melody and harmony or counterpoint, etc.). Have the children check out junior biographies of the great classical composers from your public library and do a report/summary.
BTW, The Harvard Brief Dictionary of Music by Willi Apel is a great beginning resource and can be obtained quite inexpensively.
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We have a great view in N VA. The kids are outside now, trying to get some good pictures of "their" eclipse. :)
My son also has his star chart out and is trying to identify the various stars & planets that are visible.
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A couple of thoughts:
Playing the piano properly requires much more than merely playing the correct notes and rhythm. Therefore, I would strongly recommend against a non-pianist trying to teach his/her children to play the piano. The same goes for having your older children teach your younger (unless of course your oldest turns out to be a Mozart). Your child might well get a number of bad habits ingrained that would have to be "unlearned" with a good teacher. However, a non-pianist/musician CAN help children learn things like notation, basic music theory, and music appreciation. FWIW, Music Ace Deluxe is a pretty good way of helping the kids learn the basics of music notation. (This is the part that's not much fun--sort of like memorizing your math facts--unlike getting to play pretty songs.)
To clarify, the problem I see is not with a mother teaching her children piano (that's certainly doable), but with a non-pianist trying to teach piano (and the same could be said for any other musical instrument).
Were I in your shoes and unable to provide lessons for each child, I would:
1. Require each child to learn basic notation skills and music appreciation. You can teach this at home. One aspect of this could be requiring the children to (with you) listen to great classical music (from radio/CDs). Use Google to research the composer and learn something about the form and style of individual compositions. (Is it in sonata form? Dance form? Does it involve melody and harmony or counterpoint? etc.) Utilize your public library to check out junior biographies of the great classical composers.
2. Look for a teacher who would be willing to give some group lessons initially. During this time, I would, together with the teacher, try to assess which children possess real music talent. Then try to provide individual lessons with a good teacher for that child/those children.
What clues might you see to budding musical talent?
-a keen sense of pitch and rhythm (Can the child sing a hymn in pitch without accompaniment?)
-keen interest
-child tries to reproduce music he/she has heard (perhaps picking out the melody on the piano, humming a melody you have listened to, etc.)
-self-discipline (A child who will not discipline him/herself to practice is not going to accomplish much musically.)
Hope this helps! Best wishes.
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One of the highlights of our trip to Boston was our day in Braintree/Quincy visiting the home of John Adams and John Q. Adams. We really enjoyed the Freedom Trail, too.
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Your daughter needs to understand the critical need to work toward doing the problems right every time. Particularly where the issue is not conceptual understanding but rather disciplined execution of work (including checking her work), I would insist on careful work habits and not push forward into Algebra too quickly.
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We've been quite pleased overall with BJUP's Space & Earth Science (8th grade).
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Hey, SnowWhite, please know that I didn't mean my comment to be in any way offensive. :o Here's what we have observed in the BJUP curriculum and what I was trying to get at (perhaps poorly): education people seem to often be focused on pedagogy--how to teach skills in an orderly fashion, including interesting and appealing skill practice exercises, etc. Because of my hubby's math background, he teaches arithmetic with an eye not just to the methodology of the instruction, but to building a sound foundation of conceptual knowledge that will equip the kids for higher level thinking as they progress to more and more advanced math concepts.
Hope this helps clarify what I was intending to communicate!
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Typically, one enters letter grades. However, it is also appropriate to include your grading scale.
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You may choose which grading scale you use--my only advice is to stick with one and be consistent. An "A" in English should represent a similar level of mastery as an "A" in Math, History, or Science.
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We switched from BJUP Math when our oldest was mid-elementary. My husband, a college math major and our resident math instructor, did not like the heavy emphasis BJUP placed on the early use of calculators, preferring that our kids learned to, with ease, think and calculate mentally. He wanted the kids to know their math facts "cold" and to not rely on manipulatives, pausing to count in their head, or other means of eventually arriving at the correct solution. (This meant drilling flash cards rather than simply completing student work pages.) BJUP seems to put a great deal of emphasis on estimation--overly so, in our opinion. He also felt that there were areas where the explanations of math concepts given in the elementary texts were very weak (or outright wrong) and could be confusing when the child reached more advanced math concepts. Frankly, we have wished that BJUP's math texts evidenced more input from their collegiate math professors and were not so heavily driven by education majors.
We ended up switching to Ray's Arithmetic and have been quite pleased with the results. However, were we to do it over again, we might well have chosen Singapore.
Hope this helps.
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If I had known when we started what I know now (nine years later):
I would have utilized classical homeschooling from the beginning rather than switching mid-stream (although I'm very glad that we have switched).
We would NOT have started with BJUP Math. We switched our oldest in mid-elementary to Ray's and have been quite pleased with what both children have learned from Ray's, although if we had it to do over again, we might well use Singapore instead.
I would gulp very, very hard, knowing full well the work involved . . . but I would most definitely still homeschool. :)
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We have been generally pleased with the grammar teaching that the BJU texts provide. I used BJUP 4th grade English/grammar with my youngest last year, and I am currently using the 8th grade text with my oldest this year. Generally, I think that the student texts could easily be used alone IF one has a strong background in grammar. I do not even order the teacher's edition for the elementary grades; I ordered the teacher's manual for the 7th-8th grades, but have rarely opened them. I never use the teacher's manuals for teaching purposes. If something seems unclear to my oldest after having gone through a lesson, I get out our college Harbrace.
I have been less than pleased with the writing portions, however--in fact, we switched to Writing Strands this year. (I just skip the writing sections of the BJUP texts.)
Hope this helps. :)
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Can you post the problem here? We might be able to help, but don't have access to your textbook.
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Boy, can I identify with these posts! Our son also began reading around his 4th birthday. (He's 13 now.) I wholeheartedly agree with the comments about not pushing too hard, but rather keeping learning keyed to your child's interest and pace at such a tender age. And definitely keep her supplied with neat books on a variety of interesting subjects! By the way, the public library is your friend. ;)
One thought on teaching spelling--you may or may not need to! I have never taught our son spelling, as he seemed to learn to spell (everything) when he learned to read. It is rare for me to ever correct his spelling, even now. One of our favorite jokes on him was when he was 4-5 and his grandma spelled a word in his presence so as to keep the question from him. He instantly repeated the word back to her, asking, "What about xxx?" On another occasion, he didn't know how to make a comma in his English workbook, so he spelled the word. :eek: Bottom line--teach spelling only if your child needs it.
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My husband was a college math major, so he teaches the children math in the evenings after supper. At this point, I am teaching the other subjects (English, history, science, etc.). We discuss curriculum and major goals together.
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No money is returned when the videos are returned. If the videos are not returned or are returned damaged, you can be charged an additional fee, I believe.
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We have been extremely pleased with the Space & Earth Science course on DVD. My 8th grade son is learning so much that he is now begging for a course in astronomy. :) My 5th grader is happily listening and learning alongside him, too (but not doing the written work).
My only criticism so far is that a silly comedy team is occasionally used to teach a small part of the lesson. I grit my teeth over the notion that youths won't learn serious subject matter unless we make it entertaining.
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My 10-year-old daughter just finished reading Booker T. Washington's Up From Slavery, and she is now starting Douglas MacArthur's Reminiscences.
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My almost 14-year-old son is a voracious reader. He is currently two-thirds of the way through Adler's How to Read a Book. After that I expect him to read Postman's Amusing Ourselves to Death and Weaver's Ideas Have Consequences. I'm hoping that Adler's ideas will help him get the most out of these important books.
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I never used a spelling curriculum with my older child, as he seemed to learn to spell everything the day he learned to read. My younger child (5th grade) has been a different story!
I have been very pleased with Spelling Workout, and we have seen huge improvements both in her spelling and her confidence with writing. Each Spelling Workout lesson focuses on a fundamental phonics or spelling rule, and a review lesson follows each set of five lessons to give a thorough review of the words which have been learned.
Do you require "perfection" of a math skill before moving on? Example...
in K-8 Curriculum Board
Posted
In general, I agree with the cautions about going forward if your child's understanding of fractions is incomplete. I would expect a child who is doing B-level work in fractions to struggle with algebra.
In addition to the helpful suggestions already given, I wonder if it might help to share with your child real-life examples of the consequences of inaccuracies and careless errors in arithmetic calculations--e.g., the calculations for constructing a bridge were almost right, and so the bridge develops a structural problem, or the technician at NASA who forgot to translate a a metric number into our English system and the explorer crashes into the surface of the planet (a great example of a careless error rather than an error in understanding).