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sfernb

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Posts posted by sfernb

  1. I'm sure they are here somewhere, but I can't find rules for posting. I couldn't get a search to work, so mistakenly thought all the old posts were deleted. I reposted thinking this was a fresh start. Could someone please point me to the new rules? We have over 20 years of stuff to clean out!

  2. We take weekends off. I usually have some planning to do, and older kids might have unfinished work from the previous week, but we plan for weekends to be free. Highly recommend it!

     

    We went to a home school seminar many years ago with Gayle Graham. She suggested picking broad goals each year for each member of the family in four areas. I don't remember her exact word choice, but they are: academic, practical (life skills), physical, and spiritual (or character).

     

    My husband and I plan time together in the summer to discern these for each person in the family, and it has been a big help to us. E.g., Child A might have these goals: academic - math, practical - doing laundry, physical- swimming, and character - responsibility. These broad goals helped with detailed planning, adjusting schedule when life happened (if only one subject can be covered that day, it should probably be math), and with staying calm about problems we saw in other areas (if Child A tripped over her feet in every family ball game, we could remember we were working on swimming that year.) :-)

  3. Thanks for all the replies.

     

    Daughter considering it is looking at English speaking countries right now, specifically Scotland (St. Andrews), Wales (Aberystwyth - which I don't even know how to pronounce!) and some in Australia. She is a physics major and is trying to make sure she can keep up with her required classes while abroad. She has a tuition scholarship we would like to retain!

  4. Wow, Regena, that's quite a list! We did something similar but nowhere near as organized. We kept maps and a globe out. For the early grades, whenever we read something for school or for fun that mentioned a place, we found it on one of them. If the kids were intrigued, we got some more books on that spot and read about it.

     

    When we drove or walked someplace, we talked about direction, landmarks, etc. As they got older, they began to use maps. We got a good local map and had them use it as we drove to lessons, church, anywhere. They loved treasure hunts. Start out with simple ones in your house and yard using directions, pacing, and landmarks. Graduate to map treasure hunts as they are able. Details varied with age, but the basic premise was that if they could give me directions to a place so we got there within a set time limit, they were rewarded with a treasure related to the destination. Ice cream stores were their favorite, but we did bookstores, dollar stores, parks...

     

    Weekly Reader has some inexpensive booklets we found useful:

     

    http://www.weeklyreader.com/estore/p-937-map-skills-for-today-grade-1.aspx

     

     

    Another resource we liked was The Ultimate Map and Timeline Guide

  5. We have a citronella collar to discourage barking. It sprays a whiff of citronella when the dog barks. We don't have her wear it regularly because she would be miserable but rarely have to actually use the thing. The first spray was very effective. If she is barking excessively, we just pick it up. :001_smile:

     

    http://www.news.cornell.edu/chronicle/96/6.6.96/barking.html

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