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krisandpaula

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Everything posted by krisandpaula

  1. I guess these are not true immersion then. The stories are done entirely in Spanish first. They do a great job of covering conversation, and not just key vocabulary words. Dora: Hola, Diego! Diego es mi primo. Boots: Diego es tu primo? Diego: Si, soy el primo de Dora. Then, after they go through each 2-page spread of the story, Dora goes back and does a repeat-after-me vocabulary practice. This part is in English and Spanish. I think your dd (7) could still get a lot out of them. My ds (6.5) still likes them, even though he was pretty well "over" Dora when we started them. I just can't say enough good things about these two sets! I hope they expand upon them.
  2. Thank you so much for the opinions!! I had a feeling a laptop was more of what I needed and this just solidifies that theory. As much as I think the netbooks and iPads are cute, or cool, or just so ultra-portable, I want to make sure my final choice can do everything I need it to do. I think I'll go back and look at the more portable (under 5.5 lbs.) laptops and see what I can come up with. I have enough curriculum to sell to likely cover the difference in price between the lower-end laptops and the netbooks. And Bill, as much as I 'want' you to convince me, I just don't think the extra problems that go along with the iPad is worth it for me. . .yet. I just might have to add it to my Christmas list though. :001_smile: It just looks so darn cool. kimanjo, can I ask which netbook your dd is using? I wouldn't mind loading the dvd's onto the hard drive. That is an easy step. Do you think something like Discovery streaming would be viewable on the netbooks you all have at a reasonable quality? I would love to go and look at the model you are using. Thanks!
  3. I'm trying to decide on which of these will be best for us for this school year. We like to take school on the road, to a museum, to a park, to Daddy's office, etc. and I'm trying to plan the upcoming year with portability as a priority. Keep in mind that I do have a desktop with LOADS of storage space, so when it comes to photos/music etc., I will use it. My list of requirements are: 1) portability (I need something that will fit in my backpack and not weigh 6 pounds!) 2) viewing MUS and other lesson dvds 3) websurfing for additional information (internet-linked encyclopedias, Nasa, etc.) and email. 4) basic educational games like ETCOnline, SpellingCity, etc. (No real 'gaming' in our house yet!) 5) Discovery streaming (I'm just about ready to hit the buy button on this one!) 6) use as a reader, maybe? I haven't gone down this road yet, but it interests me, especially since so much is now available in eBook format. I do like to have a touchy-feely relationship with my books, but I'm not opposed to change, especially with portability in mind. I don't really know anything about the iPad except that it looks cool. :001_smile: Is it possible to load dvd's onto one through an external hard drive or connection to my pc? The current model doesn't have a USB, right? The lack of dvd player in the iPad and most netbooks is concerning for this reason. And what about Apps? Are there enough educational apps now to make this another viable consideration? Also, price is a definite consideration. I have $55.00 in rewards dollars from Best Buy that I would like to use toward the purchase unless I can find the one I decide on for more than $55.00 cheaper somewhere else! :o) It seems like there are usually a lot of good prices during the Back to School sales, so I'm trying to make this purchase soon because of that. Thanks for your insight.
  4. We just started hs'ing at Spring Break this past year with ds (6) and dd (then 3.5). I found this and just bought it on a whim. It is produced by Pimsleur and is an immersion program. We have absolutely LOVED it! Each set comes with 2 books, each with a cd. Each book has 2 stories. There is also a teacher's manual that has the complete translation, vocabulary word list and their is an extra activity guide on each cd, if you view it on your computer. The voice of Dora is a bit annoying for Mom, but the kids don't seem to notice. :001_smile: (and the voice of Boots is so adorable that it makes up for it.) I would highly recommend this for the 3-6 age group and you can't beat the price. http://www.amazon.com/Speak-Spanish-Dora-Diego-Understand/dp/0743599772/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1279289471&sr=8-1 http://www.amazon.com/Speak-Spanish-Dora-Diego-Adventures/dp/0743599780/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1279289471&sr=8-2
  5. Here are a few free sites that I had bookmarked that may be of use: http://www.freereading.net/index.php?title=Main_Page http://progressivephonics.com/ http://home.pct.edu/~evavra/kiss/wb/PBooks/index.htm http://macmillanmh.com/languagearts/2001/teacher/teachres/workbooks.html http://teachingwithbob.blogspot.com/
  6. I would NOT trade my do-it-yourself, hand crank sharpener for a whole truck load of electric ones. Some things just can't be improved upon, in my opinion. :001_smile:
  7. Guilty as charged!! Do you remember that commercial where the dad was buying school supplies when the Mom was still pregnant? That was SO me! :tongue_smilie:
  8. I am diligently packing my file box full of hanging folders with all of my lesson plans for the year. I am going to have about 10 weeks left after my handwriting program (HWT) runs out for ds (6). I don't want to start the next book, so what would you do? I'm already incorporating lots of extra practice pages and review periods throughout the weeks that are planned. We are also using FFL/WWE and AAS, so we will have copywork and dictation built in. Should I make an effort to add in additional 'practice' for him specifically for handwriting? Are there any cute writing units out there that we could do in that amount of time? Or would you just focus on the writing that he is doing with the other subjects for the last 10 weeks and consider handwriting officially 'planned'? Any opinions? Thanks!
  9. Thank you for the encouragement. I have made the decision to push back our start date a week (we had been delayed for other reasons as well) and get this in place by next Monday. Everything may not be completely planned out for all 36 weeks, but I'm going to give it my best shot. I just finished spreading everything out in the middle of the floor and going through it all to decide what I can bear to tear apart and what I cannot. This had been my biggest hang up. Some of those workbooks just look so pretty. :tongue_smilie: But I think I can do it. I'm heading out first thing in the morning for supply shopping! Has anyone found any slightly decorative, non-plastic file crates anywhere?
  10. :iagree: I wouldn't call myself a Photographer, more of an advanced hobbyist, but I think this is great advice. Also, if you are looking for a more direct approach, you could let him take pictures that tie into things you are studying. For instance, last year, ds took pictures of the dinosaurs at the museum to add into his dinosaur lapbook. He photographed our celery experiment and added them to his science notebook. My ds is most proud of the projects that contain photos that he took himself.
  11. WOW. I just finished reading through this thread and my head is spinning!:001_smile: We were going to start school this coming week, but now I'm considering redoing my calendar and starting a week later so that I can get this set up. Do you think there is any way I can do this in a WEEK?!?! Also, I wanted to share a link for those of you adding library pockets to your folders. kalanamak shared this link in an earlier post on planners. www.diyplanner.com is a site with free downloads for planners of different sizes. Here is the link for the 3"x5" sized planner pages. They can be printed directly to blank 3x5 index cards or printed 4 to a page and cut apart. They also offer an editable version for those comfortable with Photoshop or similar programs. The ability to edit them to better suit my needs is the icing on the cake! There are over 100 different templates and there are several that are going to be VERY useful to me to add into this folder system. I had already been working on the calendar pages for the year. Now, I can add the weeks into my folders in the library pockets and then add them back together at the end of the year as a full record! I may even go back and eliminate the dates and do the full planner by week # now. Oh how I love this site!!!! Thank you all for sharing such a wealth of information here.
  12. :bigear: What a great thread! I'm all ears.
  13. I found this at our local TJMaxx/Home Goods yesterday for $6.99: Encyclopedia This hardcover, jacketed book like a nice addition to our home library to supplement our SOTW studies. It is comprehensive in nature, but brief. (Ancient Egypt gets a 2-pages spread, Ancient Greece gets the same.) There is a nice timeline that runs down the side of each page and the pictures are really beautiful. Make note that it is written from a evolutionary standpoint. I thought it was worth sharing. Don't you just love it when you find great books in unexpected places! :lol:
  14. We are learning Spanish and I plan to try my hand at Latin. Our reasoning is strictly geographical. We are in Texas and since I have lived here, I have kicked myself a hundred times for taking French in school. :banghead:
  15. My answer is yes. :tongue_smilie: We are still new to hs'ing, but my ds (6) and dd (4) seem to enjoy it more when we mix it up during the week. On days that we have activites with our Homeschool group, we get up and get 'er done! I let them know the night before that we will need to finish everything before we can head out to the park, gym, whatever. On days where I know we will likely be home all day, I break it up over the course of the day so that they have several play breaks. So far, it seems to be working. The days haven't really started to run together and I haven't heard "not again mom!" from anyone. :001_smile: For us, that equals a good fit!
  16. Yes! I do it all the time. The coils are long enough, for legal size, I believe. (I always have about 3 coils left from and 8.5x11, so it would make sense that this would work.) You can cut them to any smaller size with wire cutters. I also cut my HWT paper into 3.25" "Spelling Test" practice strips and bind at the top with covers to make little practice notebooks. I have the blue machine, which is the older version, and I love it. This is the one that you can usually get really cheap on ebay.
  17. I'm not a big fan of comb binding so I went with a Zutter Bind-it-All that uses double wire coils. It is a machine designed for scrapbooking, but it binds all sizes of books and projects. The cutter cuts through heavy chipboard with ease, so it is great for making thicker covers for books. They come in a blue and pink version. You can usually find them for a good price on ebay. They sell the coils at Hobby Lobby and lots of places on line, including Amazon.
  18. Why, oh WHY did you post this link?!?! I am addicted already. That 3x5 planner has my name all over it. Thank you, thank you, thank you. . .I think. :001_smile:
  19. We have settled on MUS and Singapore together. We did MUS Primer this spring when we started hs'ing and ds (6) really liked it. The manipulatives are a huge hit with both of our kids (dd is 4). Then, I got sucked in to one too many math discussions on the boards here and decided to do Singapore as well. We are on an alternating schedule, MUS Mon/Wed and Singapore Tues/Thurs. We use Fridays for math games, Singapore's Word Problems and any extra practice we may need on lessons from the week.
  20. My two both learned to read initially using Leap Frog videos and BOB books. While we are not huge TV supporters for littles, we found this set of videos to be well worth the 30 minutes of tube time. :001_smile:
  21. I just finished working out our calendar as well. I love your idea of breaks throughout the year. This will be our first full year at home, so I have no idea if this will work for us, be we are going to give it a try. I could tell from what we did to finish out this year that Mamma would need more breaks than a standard school schedule if for no other reason than to use the week to get my act together for the next round of lessons! :001_smile: We are starting our year July 5th with a 4 week on, 1 week off plan, for the most part. Weeks off: Aug. 2-6 Sept. 6-17 (2 week fall break) Oct. 18-22 Nov. 22-26 Dec. 13-31 (3 week holiday) Jan. 31-Feb. 4 Mar. 7-11 April 11-22 (two week spring break) May 30- July 4th (Summer Break) This gives us 35 weeks of school, or 175 days. We will likely school the 3 days before Thanksgiving too, but I marked the whole week off for now. If we do that, we will only be 2 days shy of the 180 days. I'm taking the 2 week breaks in the fall and spring when the weather is great here in TX. We are starting in July because it is too dang hot to do anything outside after lunch anyway! :tongue_smilie: And we are doing a 3 week Christmas holiday to include a week @ Disney this year. During the 2 weeks between Thanksgiving and our Christmas break, we are planning to do the Christmas Around the World portion of Galloping the Globe, before heading to the Countries in Epcot to meet all the Santas. (Yay!) I love seeing everyone's plans. Thanks so much for starting this thread!
  22. You might find something here: http://www.musictechteacher.com/musicquizzes.htm
  23. Just fyi, if you are interested in the MCP readers, you might post on the wanted to buy forum. I found a set from a member here for an amazing price! A.Maz.ing. :001_smile: I will add that the MCP readers work very will in conjuction with the BOB books. We have found great success with the two sets together at our house.
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