[Has anyone painted walls with red paint?]

We did my son's room in DARK, deep red and it came out AWESOME, although the process was painful... :)

 

Here's a link to the finished product... we did two coats of tinted primer (mostly because the walls were in bad shape after we pulled the wall paper down) and then three coats of red, four on the edges, which were harder to darken up. We also only did half the wall to avoid the room being too dark...

 

http://s20.photobucket.com/albums/b238/Gusabotory/?action=view&current=mayjune20081312.jpg

[What are you anal about?]

I'm obsessive about avoiding sight words for as long as possible. There are so very few words that need to be taught that way and it makes me CRAZY to see words that can easily be taught phonetically like "boy" on a sight word list. UGH!

[Ps teacher just told me something really sad.]

Reading this, I see a K teacher who is trying to do her best with the system which she is forced to adhere. She doesn't come across as being pleased the play stations are being taken away or excited that K'ers have to begin reading so quickly. Do you think that maybe it isn't her preference that children be put into a remedial class right away? Or that perhaps this is a small percentage of the total number of students? It seems like she just doesn't have a choice in the matter. Quite frankly, her comment about parents who don't care to work with their children sounds quite a bit like the complaints about PS parents that are posted frequently on this board.

 

I got the same feeling as you about this teacher. I don't think she said anything wrong--she was stating the facts, not giving her opinion from what I can tell. I have a good friend who teaches in PS and she says the same things. This teacher never said SHE forces them into remedial classes, just that the kids would be forced. That is likely school board policy, not HER policy. It's not her choice, she just has to do what they tell her to do. A teacher is not a parent and should NOT have to take on the role of mother all day long. She's probably required by the state (Her boss!) to have all the kids to a certain point at the end of the year if she wants to stay employed. So how can you hold it against her to be frustrated if she's supposed to teach them to read and her kids can't even recognize at least SOME of the letters or count to ten?

 

My friend teaches in a low income area. About half of her class can barely speak English at the beginning of the year. They are expected to come into school and learn. SHE has all the pressure of teaching many of them first to speak English, then to teach them to read and count and tie their shoes. She gets no support from the parents. She sends notes home to sign, they don't come back. She sets up teacher conferences, no one shows up. She asks for parent volunteers so they can go on field trips, no one will do it. Oh and she has a class of 27 five year olds every year! She's overwhelmed, she's frustrated and she's stressed. But she does the best she can with what she's given and sees her job as a calling to kids who just don't get what they need at home. And from what I gather, she's just like most other PS teachers who are given an impossible task and expected to get it done.

 

I didn't decide to home school to avoid teachers like the one you spoke with. I home school to avoid my kids making friends with kids who have parents who don't give a crap because uninvolved parents generally lead to trouble-making kids down the road. But I almost decided not to home school because I don't want to deal with "people like you" who are so judgmental of the teachers who are just doing the best they can in the public schools. It may not be right for my kids but at least there are willing people out there, working within the INSANE policies set forth and still do the best they can for the kids.

[Kindergarten (Homeschool)~What did you do/use?]

My girl graduated from our church's preschool last night and is officially a home schooled kindergartener as of this morning! :) :)

 

She's my smarty pants so we're pretty much doing 1st grade work. SOTW 1, following the Well Trained Mind's suggestions for science (no curriculum, just reference books and lots of library books!), A Beka handwriting, First Language Lessons, Writing with Ease and just working our way through random Bible books we've got for Bible. Math is where she struggles a bit so when we decided to do Math U See, I was going to go with the Primer, but the sales lady worked with her for a bit and recommended Alpha... I think it's a bit of a heavy load for a five year old, but we are doing year-round school, focusing on different subjects at different times.

[Math U See Storage]

I really don't want to spend the $40 on their storage box if I don't have to, but those cardboard boxes aren't going to last forever!

 

Has anyone come up with any brilliant but more affordable storage solutions? I would love to be able to sort the pieces by color so they are easy to grab during a lesson.

[Now what (teaching reading)?]

We used 100 Easy Lessons, so this was never an issue for us since they use letter markings. When she was ready to read outside of that book, we sat down and did a bunch of words with her crossing out the "e" and marking over the other vowel. Then we moved to books and she would do it with her finger and eventually she just did it in her head.

[Do any of you get paid to homeschool ......???]

No option here. But we need to send our "Intent to Homeschool". Then we need to either to an evaluation or a test at end of year. Sometimes I feel like moving to Oklahoma or Alaska or somewhere else where it's less hassle.

 

Or Indiana. There are literally no rules here except "keep attendance". We have to go to school for 180 days but there is no definition of what qualifies as a "day." We don't have to report to anyone, take any tests or do anything else!

[Do any of you get paid to homeschool ......???]

I've heard that they have this available in my state but I have also heard you get ZERO say in what the child learns, you must use the curriculum that they pick. I've also been told that by enrolling in these programs, the state has the right to come into your house to check up on you because you are technically a satellite of the public school system. So basically you are giving up all the freedom you gain by home schooling.

[Just bought Math U See yesterday...]

I had no intention of going this route with math. I was planning on A Beka Book math.

 

But we got to the home school expo yesterday and I showed my daughter the A Beka kindergarten book. She said it was too easy, which I anticipated. So I showed her the 1st grade book and she burst into tears and said it was too hard.

 

As we walked around for a few hours, I showed her a few different math books and other than a cutesy Dora math workbook she was just falling apart every time I asked to her to look at a math book.

 

Then we passed the Math U See table. "Mommy! Look at that!" she said without even knowing it was math.

 

So we went over to the table and the lady showed her how to do addition with the blocks. The girl who was crying over the idea of math sat there for a few minutes and then said, "Hey Mommy! Did you know that 1 + 3 and 2 + 2 are the same thing? They both are the same as four!"

 

I was sold. :) I was going to buy the Primer but the lady talked with Tori and showed her some of the problems and then recommended Alpha. We are excited.

 

But I do have a question!

 

We brought it home and she played for HOURS with it. She wanted to do a worksheet from the book so I read through the first lesson and the video. I am just confused on why the lesson on place value is first, and then reverts back to things like counting and adding plus zero. Place value seems so much more complex to me. Does anyone have an explanation for why this is the order they chose?

[Is Math U See enough?]

Interesting info. I just bought Alpha for my almost-five year old at the home school expo yesterday and i know we'll need more worksheets... not because it will take her longer to master the stuff but because she loves doing worksheets for fun.

[Why do parents allow this????]

I had heard about it but finally watched... it was so much worse than I expected!

 

I am really starting to think shelling out the extra cash for the classical ballet company is going to be worth the money. Yikes...

[Math: A Beka or Singapore U.S.?]

I am a former employee of A Beka and I've also taught with it (7th - 10th grade) in a private school setting. I'm very comfortable with the format and so we are going to stick with A Beka for math for now. I'm not thrilled with the high school math options (I taught Business Math and it bored me to tears) so at some point we will jump ship, probably once we hit pre-algebra. My daughter loves repetition and so the extra drills and stuff are OK with me because they suit her learning style. Besides, I'd rather have too many worksheets than not enough. No rule saying you have to use them all.

[Low confidence in teaching the education I never had.]

I didn't get to have a classical education myself. I am so excited about learning the things I never got to learn in school myself.

 

For example, I moved around a bunch so I never had US History! I kept missing it because every district planned it for a different year and it just never happened. In college I only had to take World History. I'm so excited to learn American history with my kids!

 

My theory is that I may not give my kids a perfect classical education--but I can get them an awful lot closer than our local public schools can!

[Daughter is emotional about leaving school...]

I sent my daughter to preschool at our church because it's a great program (all the 4 year olds are reading now) and I'm on the school board so I felt... obligated? I also had concerns about her idea that the world revolves around her. :) I thought group activities for a couple of years would be good for her and then we'd start home school after pre-K was done.

 

Well, she's got 4 more days of Pre-K and we've got an issue with an over abundance of emotions out of this girl!!! She has been crying at the drop of a hat for over a week and she would not tell me why. She's so eager to please me and say what she thinks I want to hear and she didn't want to tell me how she really feels.

 

She finally told me, well after midnight last night when she was STILL awake crying, that all the other kids at school are talking about where they are going to school next year. And she was telling me things like "Jordan and Gabbie are going to the same kindergarten. And Hunter, Hope and Nathan are ALL going to the same school next year." She is feeling really, really left out of these conversations. And she doesn't like feeling left out of ANYTHING.

 

She is pretty understanding of days and schedules so I sat down with her and made a chart (yes, after midnight) of what we are going to be doing each day of the week. I explained to her that we would have more time for gymnastics and ballet and art classes and going to the library and the zoo and the indoor gardens. i told her about some of the fun field trips and projects I'm planning for next year. I even told her about some of her current school friends who she would still see at church and others at gymnastics and some at ballet so she would still SEE most of her friends.

 

She seemed better, even giggled a little bit about the more enticing projects (learning subtraction by eating M&Ms, for example!) but I am not sure she completely believes me.

 

Anyone else deal with this? I figured that at her age, she'd never know the difference but she is VERY aware that we are not doing the same thing all her friends are doing. I'm sure it's good for her to learn not to follow the crowd early on but her heart is broken...

[Notebooking Page-General Category]

That's awesome. I am printing a copy of it to keep on file for when we start in the fall. Thanks!

[Ummm...son's just told me they didn't really learn about money!]

Are you looking for money from a math perspective (recognizing coins, etc?) or looking for more about handling money and what it really is and how it works?

 

We plan to use this but I am going to wait for my little one to be older so they can do it together.

 

http://www.daveramsey.com/store/specials/Kid%27s-Super-Pack/prod154.html

[I need help with a book for descrimination (anti descrimination)]

I just came across something in Answers in Genesis when I was looking for supplement books tonight. How old is she?

 

http://www.answersingenesis.org/PublicStore/product/All-Gods-Children,4405,184.aspx

 

All God's Children by Ken Ham

[How to Teach Courage]

Since you mention Bible stuff in your signature, I'll recommend reading Bible stories about brave men in the Bible... I think sometimes these stories (David, Joshua, Noah, etc) are so exploited in cutesy songs and baby board books that we forget that these were REAL men with REAL fears in truly terrifying situations.

[Any WTM purists?]

Pretty close to being a purist here, at least for our first year. We may branch out as I get more comfortable. Not all of my choices are WTM's TOP choice but they are all on the "good choices" list... We used 100 Easy Lessons before I even discovered WTM and had fabulous success with it.

 

We'll be using for first grade:

Story of the World, A Beka math and handwriting, Writing With Ease, First Language Lessons, and the recommended references books for science but I will be supplementing those with Creation-based reading books from Answers in Genesis.

[Trying to figure it all out]

I'm just a little ahead of you on the process, although my daughter is about to be five. Overwhelmed is the only way to describe it. I think I've finally hashed out the details but there are so many options!

 

Right now I'm leaning towards A Beka for math just because I'm a former employee of ABB and I'm comfortable with the format. Not sure what you are looking for. ABB is heavy on drill and review.

[How many days are you required to school?]

Our law says "whatever the local school system does" and our local does 180 days.

[summer]

We signed up for daily swim lessons at the local pool for most of the summer. We are taking a two week vacation from the midwest to the east coast with stops along the way at a few amusement parks, Boston and NYC.

 

Otherwise, we will be doing as much of our science as we can over the summer. We'll be doing 1st grade science so I'm hoping to do all of our animal unit before the regular school year begins. Science in the summer just makes more sense to me--go outside for messy experiments, better chance to observe cool plants and animals, etc.

[Do you take long driving trips with you dc?]

We do a 900 mile drive four times a year. We got a Dual Screen DVD player, I bought myself an iPhone so when I'm not driving I can entertain myself and we just... do it. :) It's so much a part of our normal lives that I don't bat an eye at the thought anymore.

[Completely hypothetical question about bucking state requirements]

I'm planning to do tests even though I don't think they are required in my state and at my daughter's age. I'd just rather be safe than sorry, ya know? I would never want to deal with explaining why I didn't do it.

 

My MIL teaches in a small Christian school (actually, I taught there as well before becoming a SAHM) and I'm planning to just send her to school with MIL when they test and get it over with. It will be exciting for her to go to school with her grandmother for the day so I figure it's not hurting anyone that way.

[I need home school expo tips!]

Going to my first one on Saturday. It's local and i only have to drive 12 minutes--so in that respect it's no big deal. No hotels or long drives or meals to worry about.

 

I have typed up and printed a list of subjects and the curriculum I am interested in underneath each subject. I also included prices on Amazon and whether or not Amazon had it in stock (because it may be worth paying an extra five dollars or so if Amazon won't have it until much later).

 

There are a few workshops but I am only planning to attend one, I'm really going to get hands on with the books and this is more of a curriculum fair than full-on convention anyway. We live in a good sized city but the actual state convention came and went and I was unable to attend.

 

Any tips for me? I am afraid of spending crazy amounts of money because I love books and can't say no to them and there are going to be four different second-hand book stores there selling stuff. Oh dear!