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mereminerals

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Posts posted by mereminerals

  1. I used it last year for both my younger two and will be using it with my youngest again this year. We do ours through a local co-op and the kids really do enjoy it. I have a couple of the latest edition and the rest in the 2nd edition. I personally enjoy the 2nd edition over the 3rd, mostly for financial reasons. All the tests and worksheets are in the book in the 2nd edition, whereas you have to buy a CD for the 3rd edition to get that material. Granted, the 3rd edition is in color and the 2nd is black and white. I think you can still get some 2nd edition books from Rainbow Resource, but am not certain.

  2. My 13 yo ds is going to be covering The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings Trilogy along with The DragonSpell Series this year for Literature using various study guides and discussion guidelines we already have. I am tossing around the idea of having my 9 yo dd do the same literature as ds instead of BFIAR as I had originally planned for next year. Does this sound feasible or is it too far above her level to do this?

     

    I have started reading aloud the first in the series of DragonSpell and she loves it and grasps quite a bit of it and reads several levels above her level as it is, so I'm not concerned with her comprehension or her ability to read them.

     

    Thanks for any suggestions!

  3. This posting is very interesting to me. I have struggled the last year on whether the kids were spending enough time doing work as some days they soar through the lessons. I tend to take the approach of I assign a certain amount per day and when they are done, they are done. I don't add anything to the time to extend the lessons if they finish quickly.

     

    Here is a breakdown of our everyday work:

     

    3rd Grader:

    Math - Horizons 4

    Grammar - Easy Grammar

    Spelling and Vocabulary - from books we are reading

    History - Mystery of History I

    Science - God's Design for Science

    Free Reading

    Bible - Quiet time on own

    Art - Co-op Class

    PE - Once a week Homeschool PE class with daily exercise & Karate

     

    7th Grader:

    Math- LOF Beginning Algebra

    Grammar - Co-op Paragraph Writing Class

    Reading - Co-op Book Discussion Class

    History - Mystery of History I

    Science - God's Design for Science

    Spelling and Vocabulary - Co-op Book Discussion Class

    Bible - Quiet time on own

    PE - Once a week Homeschool PE class with daily exercise & Karate

    Guitar practice

     

    They spent Thursdays at co-op and Fridays were our makeup days or project days to wrap up the lessons we covered during the week. They also had Math, Bible, and Grammar on Fridays.

     

    Thinking about it broken down, I'm almost positive we were holding to the 1 hour per grade without realizing it.

  4. Coming from both a mom and a professional standpoint as I am an esthetician and also own a mineral makeup company, here is what I recommend to my friends and clients. Tweens and young teens should only wear makeup that would enhance their natural beauty, i.e. a very neutral eyeshadow, neutral blush, sheer lip gloss and possibly mascara. Now, with that being said there is nothing wrong with a tween or young teen wearing a tinted moisturizer that contains SPF as well. It is very important that they begin understanding the importance of wearing sunscreen at this time. They also need to be sure to use an appropriate skincare routine when they start wearing any form of makeup. For tweens and teens alike, I recommend using a cleanser twice daily, toner twice daily to balance out the pH that is stripped from the cleanser and a moisturizer at bedtime only. Too much moisturizer will cause her pores to clog, thereby possibly leading to an increased chance of acne.

     

    At around 15, is when I recommend starting with a very sheer base. At this age, there really isn't any need for a full coverage base. If they have some red areas they want to cover, I recommend having them use a mint green concealer just on those areas applied very lightly and blended in. This can be done even when they don't wear base.

     

    Bronzers are also a good choice for just playing up their natural beauty without being very heavy.

     

    When taking girls to the makeup counter for recommendations, please make sure you are being shown by an esthetician or makeup artist and not a demonstrator, who are not required to have any knowledge of the skin or the effects too much makeup can have on a young girls skin. I am not dissing demonstrators, but where I live they don't have to do anything but apply for a license with the state board, there is no formal training unless the company they work with provides it.

     

    Sorry to go off on a tangent. This is something I am very passionate about.

  5. My daughter absolutely loves the American Girl series. She has read nearly all of them. We tried to go through them based on the time period in order. There are many resources out there too that give ideas on each series.

     

    My daughter really didn't enjoy the My America or Dear America books.

  6. If I were in this position, I honestly would take a good look at the doctrinal beliefs of the other church and if I had issues with some of them, I would look to see if any were of a more legalistic viewpoint than scriptural. My boys have often asked to go with a friend to church for a youth event, where we have said no based purely on how vastly different their beliefs were from ours.

     

    I am always amazed at how many are anti-YGs. I am very biased as my husband and I both serve in leadership positions in our youth group. We have many fun events for the teens, but they are separate from our regular schedule. Sunday mornings, we all worship together in the first service of our church and then go to Sunday School in age appropriate classes. Sunday evenings during the school year, we have LifeGroups where the kids are separated by gender and grade and meet in various homes of church members and dive even deeper into the word with an experienced youth leader. Examples of such are my husband taught on Revelation and End times and I went through several books of the Bible with my girls. During the summer, we do theme nights, which are more fun on Sunday nights, but there is always a message. On Wednesday evenings, we have a worship service for the youth while the adults are in classes of their own and the younger kids are in Awanas.

     

    We do offer alot of fun events outside of this, like this Friday night we are doing a Campout with the 7th/8th graders. We have done scavenger hunts and having the kids over to our house for dinner and movies. These are great opportunities for our teens to invite their friends who might not be involved in a church home and for the kids to have fellowship and build relationships outside of typical youth group events. I understand the sentiment that many churches offer camps and mission trips which are accompanied by large costs. Ours does as well, but I also know how expensive these trips are and most often the costs are not fully recovered by the fee charged to the students.

     

    We have several students who attend all of our youth events that belong to other churches. We are very big on Theology and helping the kids understand what they believe and why.

     

    I never truly understood all that was involved in youth groups when our oldest son started attending our youth group. Now that I am serving in the youth group, I see all that goes. If you are frustrated with your youth group, you might be surprised at how frustrated the youth group is at the lack of support by most church members. Just food for thought.

  7. Last year, my daughter had a spa birthday party. I did the girls makeup and they played a game called spin the bottle where you use a bottle of nailpolish and whoever it lands on has to paint either a fingernail or a toenail that color. We had about 8 different colors that we rotated. The girls had a blast with that game, although it did take up quite a bit of time.

     

    Her friend had a really cool party this year. Her parents picked 5 different categories like Cash Cab, Bible Characters, Jeopardy, How Well Do You Know ____, and Movies and played it like a game show. It was really neat and the kids enjoyed it. They are still talking about it.

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