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charlestonmom03

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    mom to 5 boys
  1. My oldest two boys have taken many AOPS classes. Geometry has, in our experience, been the most difficult class. My oldest son spent about an hour per day on homework until he hit geometry, and then he spent 1.5 hrs, 6 days per week. He loved the class! My second son is currently in Algebra, and he spends about 1.5 hrs 6 days/week on homework for the class, plus the actual class time itself. He has always been our pokey puppy though, so I suspect part of this is just him taking his sweet time and doing a bit of daydreaming. :) We do require our boys to master the Alcumus topics, and we have them follow the "Goals" tab each day for their homework. We're very satisfied with the classes and teachers.
  2. Has anyone signed up for these classes? We are very interested in the ae100 course for the 2015-16 school year, but I'd love to hear reviews.
  3. My son usually has his writing question responses back within a week (usually before the next class period). He focuses on the Alcumus problems and the challenge problems each week. After those are done, he is free to be on the boards - which he really loves. (Those are our rules, after a week where he was up too late finishing challenge problems because he had been distracted by activity on the board.) These classes have been the first time he has ever been truly challenged in math. It was hard for him at first to not get all the right answers on the first attempt! He has to spend a lot of time thinking about some of those challenge problems. The responses on the writing questions have been very thoughtful, both in terms of the technical comments and the style comments. I am really glad that the writing problems are a part of the program. He has learned so much and we are super impressed with AOPS!
  4. A couple of my friends and I all switched to the full MP packages this year, and we too were just commenting that this is the first Christmas break in which we haven't made any changes or spent time researching what else is out there! It feels so good! We are using 5th grade (with Second Form Latin & Famous Men of the Middle Ages online), 3rd grade, 1st grade and Jr. K. It is work, but it is working! Glad to hear it is going well for others too!
  5. My 10 year old is currently taking MP's online First Form Latin, and we have been very pleased. The class meets once a week for 1 hr 15 min, and the kids have Latin homework to complete each day (the parent has to check the homework - it is done in the workbook). At the end of each week, the student takes an online quiz and MP grades the student based on these quizzes. The instructor has been very quick to respond to any emails, and it isn't a problem if the child has to miss a class. He can sit in on another class that week, or he can watch a recording of his class period. We've never watch the recording - I like him to be in a "classroom" as the instructor always calls on each student at least once during each class, sometimes more. It keeps him paying attention. The kids wear headsets so that they can talk when called on. The typing was minimal this year. Without doubt, we will enroll in Second Form Latin online for 2013-14. I do use Prima Latina with my kids when they are in 2nd or 3rd, but it is not necessary to have prior Latin before doing FFL.
  6. Yes! My 4th grade son is currently enrolled in First Form Latin. It is a full school-year long class that meets weekly for 1hr 15 min. We did Prima Latina and Latina Christiana together using the DVDs, but with a new baby this year I felt it was time to get some outside help. I am so glad I did! He first reads the lesson on his own, then "attends" the online class, then has a workbook assignment each day. On average, his Latin homework takes 30 minutes per day, four days per week (the fifth day he doesn't do any workbook pages because it is the day of his online class). There is also an online quiz that he takes each Friday. I have an answer key here and check his workbook pages each day, but that is about the extent of my involvement. He rarely gets any of the workbook questions wrong, so I think Mrs Gratto is doing her job well during their class time. Students can email any questions to the teacher during the week, and the teachers seem very good about responding very quickly. We will for sure be signing up for 2nd Form Latin online next fall.
  7. My friends have always considered me to be super-organized, but it is a surface-level of organization (as in, everyone else thinks I'm organized but I feel like I'm just barely keeping up with all that needs to be done) and it caught up with me this year when baby #5 arrived. This thread has been so helpful. I've been reading GTD and today I started going though my desk and files. I got rid of a ton of paper (Target receipts from 2010!). Now I'm working on converting all our paper US Savings Bonds into electronic bonds. Getting rid of all this paper feels so liberating! Tomorrow it'll be on to dumping owners' manuals and the rest of the filing cabinet.
  8. So is there an easy way to load the Motivated Moms tasks into Evernote? (I just downloaded Evernote and watched the videos, but I am pretty much clueless beyond the info in the videos.)
  9. I have Prismacolor and bought their sharpener and they still break. This year we did away with colored pencils because of this problem.
  10. Thank you for all the ideas shared on this thread! I just ordered both books to read over Christmas break and implement in 2013. Most of my friends would say I am extremely organized, but I am finding it more and more challenging as my children get older... probably because school is taking up more and more of my time as more of them hit school-age, and most of my cleaning and other chores used to get done during nap time when the kids were younger. I've been realizing I need to make some changes, and I'm hopeful that what I've learned here and what I will learn in these books will help with those changes.
  11. I went last night and they were out! My husband is going to pick one up at another location on his way home from work tonight. I'm really excited to try it out!
  12. Thank you so much for the recommendation! I'm off to Bed Bath & Beyond to purchase this model tonight!
  13. I'm hoping to purchase a waffle maker this week so that I can start making and freezing waffles - figure this will be healthier and cheaper (in the long run) than buying frozen waffles at the grocery store. I need breakfast to be quick on school days so that we can get going, and for whatever reason my boys take forever to eat cold cereal but gobble down waffles in no time at all. Does anyone have a waffle maker that has held up well? I don't mind spending more for something that will last. We prefer rectangles rather than round waffles. And I'd love to get 4-6 grids so as to minimize the time I spend making these.:001_smile: Thanks for any suggestions!
  14. Well, in that case, get yourself a great camera and have fun! I love Nikon, but I don't think there is a difference in quality between Nikon and Canon. Hold both at a photography shop and see which you like better. I would also buy a 50mm f/1.8 lens, but that is my favorite lens and is relatively affordable. :001_smile:
  15. Personally, I would have a hard time doing a wedding for my sister because you pretty much have to get it right the first time. And, you will be taking photos and not socializing, eating/drinking, dancing, having fun (or at least I wouldn't be because I'd be stressing over all the photos I ought to be taking!). Having said that, you could do it if her expectations are realistic. I love my Nikon d90. But it costs more than $600, and that is with the kit lens which isn't that great (I bought my camera two years ago, so I'm not certain what the prices are today). I'd want a great (fast) lens, and you would probably need a flash too, and a filter. I think you'd be looking at spending $1500. Oh, and you would want a tripod. Do you know how to shoot in manual or aperture priority mode? If not, 2-3 weeks isn't much time to experiment/learn. (But I may just very well be a slow learner! Hopefully others have helpful advice on this.) Then again, depending on what her expectations are, you may be perfectly fine shooting on auto with the camera straight out of the box. I just know that I wouldn't be happy with the end product if it were me. Scott Kelby has some easy-to-follow books on digital photography - they are called The Digital Photography Book (volumes 1-4). I know for sure that volume 1 has a section on shooting weddings. Good luck! I'm sorry if this message seems to be a downer, these are just things I'd consider going into it if it were my sister (but we are both type A perfectionists, so that this for what it's worth!!!). :)
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