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Penelope

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Everything posted by Penelope

  1. I think family practice and general practice are fine for hypothyroidism, but for pregnancy I think a specialist is the way to go. The hormone levels are affected quite a bit by pregnancy and they are interpreted a little differently. My endo checked every 4-6 weeks and used a few different blood tests to monitor, one particular test that is more accurate in pregnancy but isn't part of the standard thyroid blood tests. And yes it is important to call as soon as you get a positive pregnancy test. My dose needed to be increased pretty early in the first trimester and then twice more during the pregnancy. One more thing-- some general docs think that a TSH of 3 or 4 is okay, when my endo told me it should be right around 1, especially if ttc. HTH!
  2. There is also the OPC (orthodox presbyterian church) which is quite conservative and does not allow women to be leaders, and calls for traditional psalms and instrumentation. PCA and OPC base their theology on Westminster Confession of faith and are considered reformed (Calvinist). I am not too sure that PCUSA is even very calvinist anymore. They are considered to be more liberal than United Methodist or even Episcopal and I wouldn't call them evangelical (based on my understanding of what evangelical is). ETA: What I mean is that from my understanding, they don't accept all of Calvin's original 5 points, don't agree that the Bible is the infallible Word of God or at least their denominational statements do not reflect this. FWIW, I am more or less reformed but do not attend a Pres. church currently due to DH (we have compromised on Methodist :) ).
  3. I think they should have allowed the parents to decide beforehand. I have not seen this movie yet, myself. Movies are powerful to me, and I was not sure I wanted a film maker's version of Christ etched in my mind for the rest of my life. I would have been very, very upset. I would rather have class cancelled then movies shown without my approval, especially to a 7 year old.
  4. We are just finishing up 1B. I did get the CWP but we are getting more use out of the Intensive Practice books, which also have some word problems. I have also seen a few on this board say they used the CWP at one level below the instruction level, and we may use them a bit this summer or next year for that, as a review.
  5. We did FIAR for K. At 4 personally I would add phonics if my child was ready, and nothing else yet. We do work on letters at 4 around here, but not a formal handwriting book-- my two to hit that age so far, though, have been boys. :) A lot of people do add math, but I would say it's absolutely not necessary at 4 or even 5. Learn to recognize and maybe write a few numbers, count lots of different things, I introduce addition, subtraction, place value through everyday conversations and hands-on but I don't expect them to know it yet or do any workbooks. The FIAR boards are great to get ideas. Have fun with it! I can't wait to do FIAR again with my next child.
  6. I very much agree. Although I disagree with TWTM in that I think there are children who are just not ready to read at 4 or 5. I'm sure there are children that benefit from extra time reading only cvc words, but I don't think it's necessary for all. I guess that's why I don't like all-in-one curriculums, anyway. The reading, writing, math skills in a given kid aren't necessarily going to line up the way the curriculum wants them to; one of the reasons I homeschool in the first place! I also wanted to say that one of my peeves with curriculum has come to be people that jump on the Charlotte Mason bandwagon, when they really aren't doing a Charlotte Mason education, IMHO. Queens seems to have some nice materials, but they combine reading and writing in preschoolers. CM thought children should not be doing copywork other than learning letters, until age 6, or narrations or picture study.
  7. Have you seen this article? http://www.welltrainedmind.com/schedules.php :D For the OP: First grade takes us 1-2 hours, and I feel that we are following TWTM pretty closely. This does NOT include activities for history, if we get to them, or setting up science experiments. It also doesn't include additional read aloud time, which we do every day in the evenings and/or via CD's in the car. For K it was less than an hour for structured curriculum, 3-4 days per week. I did not do a formal math program, though, and we would read lots, cook, play educational games, plant things, grow butterflies and catch worms, all through the day. I'm not counting any of that, but it is all learning.
  8. When we get to middle and high school level, I plan to talk to some school teachers about what would be expected in honors classes, and get info from many sources (including the high school board here!). When I look at some of the popular lit.-based curriculums at the high school level, I'm just not seeing "honors". I think sticking with TWTM will get us there, paying attention to output and finding challenging resources.
  9. I now have the WP catalog in my hands, and, even looking for the quotes, it is not that bad. I think at least half of the quotation marks are used appropriately, though if I was the editor I'd likely cut even those ruthlessly. I think the catalog is much better than last year. I like the explanation of their ideal --"perfect", lol -- sequence. I don't at all like their "repetitive history cycle" schedule, but the idea is nice.
  10. I am using all three of those with my first grade son. I don't think they are redundant. But we are finished with phonics for reading, and are reviewing the phonic through spelling. I didn't start spelling until closer to Christmas.
  11. Yes, I notice this kind of thing, too. (Though I should note I'm not so careful about my own punctuation on message boards, typing fast and lots of run-on sentences and all of that.....how about some ellipses for good measure....lol). But in a curriculum catalog, the inappropriate quotation marks and endless exclamation marks drive me crazy! "Crazy!!!!"
  12. I don't want to pay more than 50% of the new cost, at the most. And that would be nearly perfect, with no pages of any sort missing.
  13. I am excited to get the new edition of TWTM because I think it will answer this question. But the way I read TWTM for the grammar stage, it looks like the kids should be doing more than just one writing session per day (and I read this as not including penmanship, writing a notebook page for science, etc.). In the current editon, it talks about doing FLL (which has copywork and dictation) AND writing for history, plus narrating their independent reading and starting to have them write some of that in second grade (doesn't it? or am I reading it wrong?).
  14. So I am seeing in a couple of these recipes, that you only let it rise 10 minutes?? Is that right? What is the purpose of the yeast, then? I didn't think yeast could act that quickly. Does it just add a yeasty taste? I have a recipe I like but it needs about 1.5 hours all told for the dough, so if these quicker ones are good...
  15. :iagree: I like what Holt has to say about learning in very young children. I just don't agree with continuing on with that philosophy for all of their schooling. But, I am more of a traditionalist. There are a few more things that give me pause. First, the minor one that Holt did not have children of his own. Second, that during the time in which he wrote, there were others who felt like him and there was actually a "free school" movement in the 60's that sprouted up out of these ideas. This was a failure by most counts; I do realize that we aren't really talking about institutional schooling here, but just sayin'.
  16. When I was that age I read a series called The Tower of Geburah by John White. You mentioned no Harry Potter which is what made me think of it. It reminds me of the Narnia books but more overtly Christian from what I recall.
  17. Um, yeah, who thought that one up? Even my 5 year old last year figured out that when every single kid got a trophy, no one really won anything. :lol:
  18. I participate but I don't like it. I take the least junky snack I can buy, usually pretzels or natural granola bars or fruit, and bottles of water or 100% juice packs. I have actually had children say to me: "That's all there is?" or "Do you have any cookies?":glare: I also don't let my kids eat the snacks others bring unless it is 100% juice and all food free of artificial colors, flavors, corn syrup, and PHO's. They can take one if they want to and say thank you, and then when we get in the car they can trade it in for one of our alternatives (not that I think they need a snack afterwards; it irks me that snack would be expected because it is always RIGHT before dinner, anyway. But at least they don't have to feel left out in front of their friends). I know I won't be able to do that forever, but with young children whose behavior is worsened by sugary and artificial junk food, I am not willing to put up with the aftermath of these "snacks". ;) I just don't get it, really. What is so hard about taking along a snack for your own children? Why do we have to take turns? (This is about where I'd really start ranting in the car on the way home and DH would start laughing at me). :D
  19. I have Easy Spanish Jr. It does look like a great program; I haven't used much of it, yet. It does have a CD with may printouts. My son, though, isn't interested in drawing pictures of the characters or the other activiies. I've decided to use the CD a few times per wek, and use that as a jumping off point to practice the new vocabulary throughout the day. I also realized that what is needed is for ME to review and learn new material at my own level, and then start using phrases in speaking to the children through the day (and prompting them in how to answer). We have tried little sogs and learning words and things in the past, but no program is going to be great unless it is practiced daily and regularly and as part of daily life, or at least that is what I have come to believe for my family.
  20. I don't know, but I do remember a few boys in my first and second grade classes who were always in "trouble", two boys in particular. When I was thinking about schools a few years ago, I knew I had a little bundle of energy and that is one of the many reasons I decided to keep him at home. :) I believe first grade still does have time spent on the floor and in centers in many schools; it is not 7 hours at a desk. But still...
  21. I don't have advice per se but I can understand a little, though I'm only schooling one right now so this is FWIW. First, I'd say --- it's okay to go to the park. He's 6. I'm saying it because I need to remind myself of it lately, when the weather is beautiful and we're all staring out the windows but in my mind I'm thinking about what we still didn't do. But I know that I will look back and regret not taking enough fun days when we could, because this is one ofthe reaons I began hsing in the first place. I'd second the exercise ball. That helps my wiggly 6 yo a lot. The other thing that is a must is keeping him separated from his younger brother, and keeping his work area BORING. Nothing on the table except the pages he is supposed to be working on. I have tried letting him fidget with something, but this makes it worse because he gets distracted by whatever the thing is! I've tried the timer too, with some success. He likes to beat the timer-- I give him considerably more time than I think he needs. But whether I set a timer or use my watch, I have a general idea of how long a certain lesson should take and then, even if he isn't finished--that subject is over with, and we move on. He did not like this at first, but I decided that with younger children who also need me, I need school time to be done in a reasonable period of time; I can't be at his beck and call all day long for moving on to the next subject, and it was hard on him, too. If it is math that he is trying and just isn't getting, we might save it for the next day, but in all other cases (dawdling!) it is kept until later to be done in the evening (instead of playtime) or for Saturday school. It's working. It isn't punishment, it is just our routine, and we are both happier (and I have only had to institute "Saturday school" one time, lol. With the short lesson times adhered to, I don't have to do the 3R's first anymore. This was big around here. Now once or twice a week, we start with our history, science, or art. This has seemed to help a lot with attitudes. Edited to say-- this is what's working well for us now, but ds is closer to 7 than 6. I don't think this would have worked well for him a year ago, maybe even 6 months ago. Good luck!
  22. These are good ideas! Thank you all! There's a thought. Maybe concentrate on science for first instead. I know planning ahead sometimes comes back to bite one, lol. My thought is, though, that if it seems smart to switch to TOG and keep going with the 4 year cycle, that I should plan to do that a year or two ahead of time to make sure we like it and that I have time to get familiar with it since I plan to ramp up the older's studies a bit by the 4th grade year.
  23. Thanks! Anyone else? I thought of another option. I could skip modern history until the next cycle, so that would be 7th grade and 4th grade. Has anyone done that? Being boys who like war stories, I'd bet they will get some WW1 and WW2 history informally along the way before then.
  24. When my second child enters the 4 year history cycle in first grade, my oldest will be in 4th. I have read SOTW 4 is not really appropriate for much younger than 4th grade, yet TWTM says to have younger siblings jump in whenever. :confused: So here are the options I can think of: 1. Instead of SOTW4 for grade 1/4, take a year to focus on US History. I'm considering WP Am. History (I haven't yet looked into how I'd combine these two ages with WP). An alternative would be SL core 3, but then I'd probably end up reading SOTW1 with first grader. 2. Do WP AS1 with ds1 in 3rd grade, having K student follow along as interested, then have grade 1/4 be SOTW3, then SOTW4 for 2/5. 3. Switch to TOG and continue on same 4 year history cycle. 4. Start SOTW1 with first grader. Have fourth grader read SOTW4 on own and do discussion, map, activities with me. We could pick one activity per week from each history and do them all together. Or alternate with one activity per child, every two weeks. 5. Forget the idea of one SOTW volume per school year. Spread SOTW 2-3-4 out and make them go over 4-5 years and integrate more Am. history in there using another program. P.S. I will also have a preschooler then and quite possibly an infant. Any advice appreciated! :)
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