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Jamee

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Posts posted by Jamee

  1. As a general rule - No.

    My dad was a firefighter and that is just one of those things that has been drilled into me. (I know. They are designed to be safe, blah, blah. Just something my dad was always strict with my mom about.)

    !

     

    Your dad sounds like my dad. (we don't do live Christmas trees either.) I'll leave ours on, but it does make me nervous. I don't think I've ever left it all day either. Would love to use it a lot more than I do now too.

  2. I personally don't think practicality matters. If wants to learn let him. He'd probably more motivated and enthusiastic in learning a language he wants to rather than one he has to. My dad hasn't stopped being on my case about taking German in school rather than Spanish--I really wanted to take Italian but it wasn't an option. Since then, I've married a fluent Spanish speaker, lived in Italy for two years and am now in Japan--haven't had a need for Spanish at all.:D

     

    If he does really well in Arabic, it could open a lot of doors for him too. Sorry, but I can't help you with any programs. If he's old enough and it's available, is there a community college that he could take classes from?

  3. Hornblower, do you have any experience with moving them from one home to another? I'm wondering how well they hold up because we are military. I've been contemplating the order for a while now, though I have no idea how much shipping will run.

     

    We haven't moved ours yet but have moved other IKEA furniture no problem. However, since IKEAs are now pretty much all over, you could probably easily sell them before you leave then rebuy if necessary. With all the books I've bought this summer, we're in the market to add more to our collection. I do love that it's so popular that you can always count on them.

  4. Thanks for the suggestions. I think I will focus more on the observation and sketching. I think they'll like it too. I'm almost positive they'll love just sitting and reading the handbook on their own too. I was also thinking that the other series Barb mentions looks really good, the Discover Nature books. Anyone have reviews on these?

     

    If anyone else has some ideas, they'd be greatly appreciated. I'm always looking for ideas.

  5. I really want to add Nature Study this year and have been reading over Barb's blog. Is there anything I should do differently for kids who could probably teach nature study? My boys are so enthusiastic and knowledgeable about just about everything science, I want to be make sure they're really getting something out of. Do you think it would be wise to combine several of the first few lessons?

     

    Thanks!

  6. Also wanted to add with the National Parks, there are Junior Ranger programs at nearly every park. The boys enjoyed collecting the badges, and we learned so much more than we would have had we just stopped to see. The National Parks puts out a guide book, the current one has a wolf on the cover. I would recommend this to help with your plans--that's how we found Pipestone.

     

    With KOA, they have a rewards card, if you stay enough times you may be able to get free nights, but it gives you a discount. The National Park pass will also give you discounts to many of the extra fees the parks charge--such as the movie and museum at Gettysburg, the ride to the top of the Arch in St. Louis.

     

    If you're not already, you may want to consider being a AAA member too. Not only will you get discounts to hotels and such, but if something happens you can get free towing--if traveling, I'd go with their plus service that gives you extra miles.

  7. How fun! we're the same way and just did 26 states this summer. I see Yellowstone is already listed. 1-90 in South Dakota is very nice. We had a great visit to Pipestone in Minnesota. Mammoth Caves and Lincoln's Birthplace in Kentucky were good. The St Louis Arch/Westward Expansion Museum was a pleasant surprise. The museum there was much more than we had expected, and you can ride to top of the arch. Gettysburg in Pennsylvania. You've got all the stuff between Pennsylvania and Virginia. White Sands New Mexico was great too and we wish we had planned a stop there to sled. Also, the bat flight at Carlsbad was such a site and then a short drive to Roswell to spend the night.:D

     

    When we come back to the states next time, we're going to go up the west coast and into Canada, we can't wait! We won't be adding as many states, but we should be doing more: Monterey, San Francisco, Seattle, Victoria, etc. Need to follow this thread.

  8. I've always bought levels one and two together. DS started Italian in 2nd grade and worked it really well for about six months. We've since taken a break, but plan on getting back to it this year and much more seriously. I think how fast they go through it will depend a lot on how fast they grasp it and how quickly you go through the program.

  9. Both of my grandfathers were made to write right-handed in school. I'm so glad times have changed!

     

    My great-aunt is a lefty and when she was in school the teachers tried to changer her, my great-grandparents went down there and gave them what for, allowing her to stay a lefty. My cousin and I are the lefties in the family and both first borns. I'm more ambidextrious though where as he is strictly left--I still can't cut with my left hand to save my life! My kids write right, but have left-handed tendencies. I'm hoping they'll both be more ambidextrious.

     

    I'm always amazed at the number of prominant left-handers out there. I think all but one of the past five or more presidents is left-handed!

  10. Just did this. Since you need to camp, highly recommend KOA. We stopped at the one in West Yellowstone and it was fantastic! We also got their atlas/catalog which allowed us to find all the others to stay out. Besides Yellowstone, our favorites were Mt Rushmore and Gettysburg. I would also suggest getting a National Park Pass and seeing the natural wonders and historical sites. South Dakota has several, going across on I-90, Pipestone in Minnesota was a wonderful discovery.

     

    As for planning, we just got out the map to stopped at the places we wanted to see and then some. We were on the road for 33 days and had a blast!

  11. Great topic! One of our favorite foreign films is the Japanese "Shall We Dance" It's what the Richard Gere film was based off on. As far as I can remember, I'd say it's ok for kids, especially if you want to discuss the cultural implications of ballroom dancing in Japan by a business man.

     

    Another favorite is a mulit-language film, "The Red Violin" with Samuel Jackson. I believe it is a French Canadian production, but has portions in Italian, German, and Chinese in addtion to English. there are a few scenes that NOT approrpiate for children.. It follows the "life" of an Italian violin.

     

    Those are the two that stand out to me.

  12. I was looking on the site yesterday to see if they'd added the workbooks to Italian only to find that none of the languages seemed to have them anymore. Do the workbooks just not exist any more? I really wish I could have something for Italian since the more common languages are covered in other areas. Good luck. Hope you can find what you're looking for.

  13. we just finished an American road trip, on the road for over a month.:eek: We pretty muched winged it the entire time. Although we camped going east, we never got reservations at the KOAs and had no issues. Coming west, we made our reservations the morning of, again, no problems. I was actually rather surprised with it being summer and all. good luck and have fun! We had a blast, but are ready to go home.

  14. :iagree:

    I teach college research methods. We teach students to use Wikipedia as a starting point to get some background info on an unfamiliar subject, then to use that broad info as a portal to better sources. Using a site like Wikipedia will give you additional keywords to use as well as link you to some reputable sources online and print.

     

    This has we use it too. I'm teaching my DCs that it's a good start but not always truly reliable.

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