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Rivka

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Everything posted by Rivka

  1. I put my nine-year-old into Jousting Armadillos pre-algebra, and it was wonderful. It's written to the student and it's full of the kind of whimsy that she still needs. It's definitely not a full year of pre-algebra, although I agree with Gil that a gifted math learner probably doesn't need a year of pre-algebra. We skipped the negative numbers chapter entirely because we did MEP, which is very strong in negative numbers. Now we are in the first algebra book in that series, Crocodiles and Coconuts. I continue to be very impressed. The introduction to the coordinate plane is outstanding in the way that it builds a very deep understanding of how data tables, equations, and graphs relate. I'm planning to finish C&C, do the third book in the series (The Life and Times of Chuckles the Rocket Dog), and then switch to AoPS Introduction to Algebra. My understanding is that AoPS is deep and broad enough that it will work well as a second pass through algebra. We are also supplementing with Creative Problem Solving in School Mathematics and with math contest problems.
  2. My daughter enjoyed D&P for the story, but I found that she wasn't retaining very much. Then I came across a problem that went, "Darlene decided to lose weight so she would look nice for Joe. She started out at 118 pounds and lost 10% of her body weight. How much did she weigh afterward?" Uh, NO. I wrote to the author expressing my belief that it's hard enough to raise a daughter with a healthy body image without getting negative messages from MATH BOOKS. He wrote back explaining that Darlene is not someone that children are supposed to approve of, so there's no negative message in the problem. That didn't satisfy me.
  3. Look at the ages of my kids... I only had to do grades 1&2 and 3&4. So, you know. Easy for me to say.
  4. It might take a while for scores to be "officially" available, but since the kids are allowed to bring home their test booklets, can't you figure out the scores yourself? We knew how our kids did the same day. :tongue_smilie: Of course, I suppose that depends on your kids marking their answers in the booklet as well as on the scantron form.
  5. I can't say enough good things about Creative Problem Solving in School Mathematics. I LOVE that book. http://www.artofproblemsolving.com/store/item/moems-problemsolving
  6. My kids tested today in College Park, MD. There was a big turnout! Tons of kids, tons of parents, sheer chaos. My kindergarten-age son took the Level 1-2 test. I thought in advance that he was probably too young, and on balance I think that was right. He enjoyed it, but he also rushed through to finish as fast as possible and did a ton of guessing. My 4th grader took level 4. She feels really good about how she did. Hope everyone had fun!
  7. I can't believe I have a logic stage kid! We school year-round and promote grades on June 1st, so fifth grade is right around the corner. We're in the middle of a lot of stuff, though, so we won't be adding much that's new. Math: Continue with the Jousting Armadillos sequence. I am not really sure how fast we'll move through the books - the first one went pretty quick, but a lot of it was review from MEP 6. If we finish before 5th grade is over, we'll start AoPS Introduction to Algebra. History: We're in SOTW4. It'll probably take most of the year, because we like to expand - we've spent the last month on the American Civil War, for example. Science: We are partway through RSO Biology Level 2. I'm going to add in some TOPS units for physical science, for her to work through independently. Writing: We've been writing across the curriculum and will continue to do so. Adding in Kilgallon Sentence Composing for Middle School and some Unjournaling. Literature: I set up a shelf of books for assigned reading, and she reads them in whatever order she pleases. We discuss, and sometimes she has a literature-based writing assignment, but that's about it. Foreign Language: She's been begging to start French. I think we'll use Galore Park.
  8. When I was recovering from surgery, I read easy books, watched videos, and hung out on FB for two weeks. It was about all I had in me. Why would I expect my kids to be able to do more when they're sick?
  9. If a kid is genuinely ill, and not just feeling under the weather, they are allowed to lie on the couch or in bed and watch videos on the iPad until their brains leak out their ears. I will often supplement that with reading aloud. I remember once my son had a very high fever and seemed desperately exhausted, but didn't seem to be able to stop watching videos and fall asleep. So I told him to turn off the iPad and wait a minute because I was picking out four books to read to him. By the time I picked the books out, about three minutes later, he was asleep - as I was hoping.
  10. Alcohol was what leaped to mind for me, I guess because it seems more genteel.
  11. Honestly, it sounds like she has no interest in spending time with her kids or interacting with them. There is no moment in her description of the day when she says anything like "the two-year-old comes and cuddles with me in bed" or "we play Go Fish" or even "we all snuggle on the couch and watch a show together." It's all about pushing the kids away and dealing with them as minimally as possible. The other thing that occurs to me is that there is a weird amount of "time bleed" in her sample day. Did anyone notice that, according to her account, she spends about six hours a day on meal prep? She gets out of bed at 9 and they eat at 11. She starts lunch prep at 12 and they eat at 1:30... on a good day. She realizes dinner prep needs to start when her husband comes home at 6, and they eat at 8:30 or 9. How can she spend that much time in the kitchen and still have it be squalorous? I think she's hiding out in the kitchen as an excuse to be away from her kids. She's probably spending most of that time in the kitchen on her phone. I don't think this is a problem that can be solved by paper plates or a housecleaner or a more open-and-go curriculum.
  12. Colin turned 6 in February and will be starting first grade in June. (We school year-round, June-May.) Morning time: Together with his sister, who will be in 5th. I read aloud from two different novels and read a poem. Thinking of changing to a novel, a nonfiction article of some kind (I have a stack of old Cricket magazines with really good short nonfiction), and a poem. The kids have been asking to do singing during morning time as well, so maybe "song of the week" alternating hymns from the Unitarian-Universalist hymnal and folk songs. Reading: Living books. He'll read aloud to me daily, and also read silently for pleasure. Math: MEP 2a and 2b. Social Studies: Tagging along with SOTW4, and he'll also do the Intellego unit study "Continents and Cultures." Science: Intellego core curriculum units "Living Things" and "The Animal Kingdom." Writing: HWT until he knows all of his letters, and then WWE1. This kid might need extra easy copywork before he gets to WWE, though.
  13. I saw that thread when it was bumped up a little while ago, and I downloaded the sample unit. For a while I was deliriously excited. I still love the concept. But this thread on another board brought me back down to earth: http://www.secularhomeschool.com/homeschool-curriculum/14289-something-new-layers-learning.html A number of people quoted passages that would be problematic for me for reasons related to bias. The problematic passages also have a snide tone which wouldn't work for me in a curriculum provider. So I like the idea, and I wish someone like Rebecca Rupp would do EXACTLY THIS, but alas, we are passing up Layers of Learning.
  14. I am ooooone like under a "popular" badge on page 1 of the "no school for two years" thread. Not that I'm so uncool as to keep track. *sulks*

    1. Chrysalis Academy

      Chrysalis Academy

      You made it! I went over to give you a bump, but you were over the top! What an accomplishment. Now maybe I should actually read the thread! LOL

    2. Rivka

      Rivka

      Hee! Enjoying my Sally Field moment now.

    3. Sahamamama

      Sahamamama

      I liked it! :)

  15. Just to update you all, my DH is doing the dishes right this minute. Not because they haven't been done in a week and company is present, mind you. Just because he lives here and benefits from my awesome cooking prowess.
  16. Do you really think that it's only in our tiny, weird, driven, overly academic subculture of classical homeschooling that children are expected to receive some kind of education? I disagree. If that were the case, America wouldn't have had its first compulsory schooling law in place one hundred years before the American Revolution. I think that virtually everyone believes that children should receive regular schooling. It's one of the main concerns that non-homeschoolers express about homeschooling. It's the reason why we have, you know, schools. And truancy laws. Et cetera. Yes, there are relaxed homeschoolers and unschoolers. I am more academically oriented than most of the homeschoolers I associate with in real life. You know what? They don't say "We haven't done any school in two years." They say "We're learning all the time." They say "Johnny has learned so much about engineering and design from playing Minecraft." I can tell the difference. I give Chellie the credit of believing that she can too. The slippery slope argument is what causes us to sidle past a family in trouble, averting our eyes, twisting ourselves into a pretzel of tortured rationalizations. "Maybe when she said maggots, she meant that one day there was a housefly. After all, I feel embarrassed about my house, but it's not CPS worthy." "How would I feel if someone reported me for educational neglect because they believe that four-year-olds should have a reading program? Or because we went to the park instead of doing math one day?" I have had people online look at pictures of my nine-year-old and express concern that we don't feed her enough. (She is very, very thin.) Yes, it has crossed my mind to worry that someone who thinks that way might hotline us for suspected neglect. Yes, it's crossed my mind that the neighbor who's feuding with us might report my kids for truancy. But thinking over the possibility that I might be the subject of a baseless report doesn't turn me against the child protection system. My skinny kid gets regular medical check-ups, has meals set before her three times a day, and has access to a wide range of foods in between meals. My not-in-school kids are registered as homeschoolers and have portfolio reviews twice a year. I'm doing right by my kids. If someone makes a baseless report, our life is my defense. I'm not going to look the other way when a parent is neglecting or abusing their kids because, after all, some hypothetical person might have wildly off-base standards for neglect that include things that I do. My moral relativism doesn't slide quite that far. Kids have rights that are worthy of respect. Kids are helpless and deserve protection. I don't have to worry about "how would *I* like it if..." because I am not abusing or neglecting my kids.
  17. I have a good Mom sense for when a child is sniffly and low energy but basically okay, and when a child needs a day on the couch watching videos and listening to me do extra read-alouds. I cannot imagine expecting one of my kids to do math in between bouts of vomiting. Didn't have them brought to the hospital to do their writing lesson while I was recovering from surgery. I guess I'm just a slacker and my poor kids will never amount to anything.
  18. What about doing a year of history of science, with Joy Hakim's Story of Science books and the Thames and Kosmos historical experiments kit?
  19. Sherry in OH posted almost exactly the recommendations I would have given you for MEP. I wouldn't bother with Reception for your 4yo, though.
  20. I need to read more threads like this one and fewer threads like the one about the cleaning lady who didn't do the top of the fridge. I'm feeling so much better about the stacks of books and the occasional drifts of dog hair. We may have cave crickets in the basement sometimes, but NEVER EVER have I seen a maggot.
  21. Can we still tag posts? I'm not seeing where to do it, but I'd say this thread definitely calls for the "Tibbie's post on my fridge" tag. I agree. It seems odd to me when this happens in conservative Christian families because it seems like an abdication of what they see as the man's role as the head of the family. And it seems odd to me when it happens in liberal families (usually WoW-all-day unschoolers) because I wonder how it feels to work hard all day to support a family who just plays. In all cases it seems unbelievably short-sighted, and it's hard for me to explain it away as a normal family division-of-labor where the children are Mom's responsibility and Dad keeps out of it. Yes, I was thinking of that Facebook battle too, and how much the other person would think that this thread proves her point. I wouldn't feel myself obligated to take things over and plan them out for that mother, unless, of course, she paid me my hourly rate. (Which seems unlikely.) I think that in cases like this, homeschooling tips are not helpful. But I would speak some plain truths, and point her towards help - or school - and I would follow up to make sure that things change.
  22. It's disturbing to me that so many people would just nod and say nothing. Do our freedoms as homeschoolers really depend on keeping our mouths firmly shut no matter what another homeschooler does? I would argue the opposite. Children have a right to an education. If homeschoolers don't acknowledge that - if we dig in and say that children don't have a right to anything their parents don't choose to give them - then the public is going to step in on behalf of neglected children, and regulate us further.
  23. For some reason I can't highlight text to cut and paste, but the last chapter is very explicit: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10644439/14/Hogwarts-School-of-Prayer-and-Miracles I had it pegged as a joke from pretty early on, though, before all the chapters were posted. If you've read much bad writing in your life (and regrettably, I have) it's easy to tell the difference between someone who is authentically a bad writer and someone who is pretending to write like a bad writer.
  24. It is totally 100% satire.
  25. You guys are so helpful! I really appreciate each of these comments. A few specific thoughts: This is always a little awkward for psychologists. We're not supposed to ask clients for endorsements, because it might be hard for them to say no. We can use freely offered endorsements, though. I have a former client's mother who made an effusive post to a mailing list about me and said I could quote it wherever, so maybe I'll pull out a quote or two from that. (My favorite line from it: When I explained my findings, "it was like a whole factory of candles lit up at once.") I keep thinking that I should have a mailing list for exactly this reason, and send out, say, quarterly newsletters with short, informational articles that would also serve as a reminder that my practice exists. So people could sign up to have a personal consult OR just to be added to my mailing list. The trouble with that is carving out the time to actually create the newsletter. On the one hand, I love this idea - at least for the event at which I have a full booth space. (Events at which I only have a table prohibit anything that doesn't fit on the table.) On the other hand, when I went to the previous conference, I sometimes had an issue with someone opening the floodgates and confiding all of her frustrations, fears, experiences, etc. for 10+ minutes, while I watched other people give up waiting to talk to me and walk away. I imagine that problem would be compounded if I had comfy chairs! As it was, when they were just standing it was easier for me to say, "You know, your story really deserves more time than I can give it in the middle of a conference. Why don't you fill out a consultation form, and we can continue this later in private?" ...And yet. I had such a strong positive visceral response to the picture you set up in my mind. I think it would really help promote that feeling of connection. I love this idea! I quickly figured out that when I'm meeting homeschoolers, the first 30 seconds of my spiel has to include that I'm a homeschooler. "As far as I know, I'm the only psychologist in America who specializes in homeschooling families. I do that because I homeschool my own kids, and I understand how uncomfortable it is to go see a mainstream professional - because you don't know if that person is even going to get what you're doing." Otherwise, you're right, people are a little suspicious. I'm picturing an image with two sections: "Licensed psychologist..." with pictures of me working with kids (not actual clients, obviously) "...Experienced homeschooler" with pictures of me teaching my own kids and maybe leading a co-op class. I do have a talk that I give on that subject, "ADHD, LD, and College Bound: Helping Your Alternative Learner Prepare for College." I'm not speaking at any of the events this year, though. Thanks again for the suggestions! It looks like I should make some fact sheets, prepare that new poster, and bite the bullet and actually find the time to do a newsletter.
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