mamaraby
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Posts posted by mamaraby
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Totally normal for the age. Julie in BW calls that general age/stage in writing “faltering ownership” and it’s always struck me as particularly apt for that stage in development. They have these moments where they’re incredibly insightful and seem so mature and then they do something that makes you wonder if zombies have eaten part of their brain. Or one day they got themselves ready to go and helped their younger siblings get ready and the next week you have to drive to the soccer field twice because they only brought half their uniform. They can remember to shower every day, but not brush their teeth. Some days they breeze through their schoolwork like an old pro, the next day they spend way too long because they end up spending half the time staring off into space.
I am by no means an expert because ds is 13 and Dd is 10, but fwiw, I wish I had nagged ds less about being focused and cut the lesson off early instead. I’m better about doing that now. Sometimes I might elect to take a break and rethink an approach. Or take the kids to get a soda for a treat or go for a walk. Anything that works to make our day run smoother and helps me become more of the partner who comes alongside than the task master from above. Ds is less frustrated that way and he still makes forward progress.
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@Monica_in_Switzerland - I like YOYO night, but at the time I was thinking more like PB&J every night for the week, lol. I ended up taking the kids out to eat and meeting dh for dinner that night during his dinner break. Then I postponed thinking about the week ahead until yesterday afternoon. I managed to come up with some easy(er) meals. Turns out we’re eating a lot of sandwiches this week anyway per the request of my kids. Just not PB&J. Ds even volunteered to make his specialty - spaghetti. I need to teach that kid more meals.
@SarahCB - the half-marathon is a great distance! I’ve been playing around with some shorter distances, too, but if you look at the number of races I’ve run, the half-marathon is a clear favorite. 20k is nice, too because you get the similar amount of effort, but a slightly shorter distance (12.4 miles vs 13.1). Way to go on the pull ups!
@wintermom - did you get spring up there yet? The trees around here seem to have gotten the message that winter is over. Some of our spring plants are mighty confused by the summer like weather, though. Thanks for the well wishes, I’m going to carry that with me through this next race. ?
@soror - I’m tired for you and it’s not just post-weekend running fatigue on my part. I am well acquainted with that after workout hunger that makes you want to eat all the food! Hopefully you get a little time to recover before tackling the next big thing. Dh convinced me to take yesterday off and then today was a scheduled rest day anyway.
@OlgaLA - way to go!!! Woohoo!!!
@Ravin - the slow and steady increase is the way to go! It can be difficult not to reward yourself for meeting goals. Maybe a non-food based reward? Books or flowers or goal pants?
I usually taper a couple of weeks before a goal race. I may have messed a bit since I ran so well on Saturday. The plan is to taper anyway and see how the half goes. It’s one of the races on dh’s race bucket list so PR or not, it will be fun. Now that soccer practices and games aren’t routinely cancelled for snow, it’s getting challenging to fit everything in.
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I wish we had done it earlier, but we’re switching to more interest-led, slightly less intense, more relaxed for 8th grade which will be ds’s last year being homeschooled since the school district is all or nothing for high school and he’d like to go. I think middle school would have been more enjoyable for both of us had we started with the interested-led bit in 6th instead of the tail end of 7th (also known as right now).
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20k race is in the books! I finished about 7 minutes faster this year and managed negative splits. I underestimated just how hard it would be to hold back while everyone else ran out ahead of us at the start. I had planned to run a nice easy pace for the first half, but struggled and ended up 20-30 seconds faster than I should have been. I paid for it during the last 5k, but still finished strong. I’m definitely going to have to watch it at the half marathon in two weeks. Practice, right?
I’d really like to take a nap, but dinner and then I need to do some meal prepping for dh for the week ahead. I also have no idea what the kids and I are going to eat this week since dh is off to school for work for the last time. I feel uninspired. It feels like I’m cheating to just plan PB&J, but man is it tempting. ?
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I want the same thing I wanted for my birthday. I want the tablespoon and teaspoon that my children lost. I used them to make cookies, the kids did the dishes and they have never been heard from since. How do you lose something like that? It never leaves the house.
Oh, and I want there not to be a soccer tournament on Mother’s Day weekend. So, yeah. I won’t get either of them.
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4 minutes ago, regentrude said:
Then those people are not aware that organic agriculture also uses pesticides, including several synthetic ones.
And not necessarily harmless or less impactful on the environment. https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/science-sushi/httpblogsscientificamericancomscience-sushi20110718mythbusting-101-organic-farming-conventional-agriculture/
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35 minutes ago, happysmileylady said:
That’s so interesting. Do you think having such a mix works well for the girls? Do they all work on the same things as their ability level allows? Or do the different groups hold like their own meetings within the meetings? The idea of like 2nd graders and 8th graders in the same troop is really an interesting one to me. I imagine it would give the younger girls a better chance to see the cool stuff the older ones get to do and encourage them to stick with it.
Depends on the meeting. If they’re working on their Journeys then obviously it’s a meeting within a meeting. Same goes for cookie specific badges. We all got together to work on cookie badges, but each level worked on their own. Likewise, each level set their own cookie sales goals, but there was a sales goal for the group as a whole. World Thinking Day they worked on together. They did another badge (or maybe it was a pin?) together the last meeting. Sometimes the younger girls show up the older girls so it can inspire the older girls not to be outdone by the younger girls’ Take Action Project.
For field trips and the like, often they go together, but sometimes it’s just available to the Brownies or just the Cadettes. As they get further up, the projects take more time so the Cadettes meeting goes a bit later. There’s also a group that gets together before the meeting to work on Bronze/Silver awards and while they’re working on it in the same building and at the same time, they’re obviously working at different levels.
I can’t say what the older girls think because I have a Junior and a Brownie, but I know the younger girls seem to appreciate it. In our case, I think it started out at one level and then the little sisters of some of the older girls were old enough for GS so she added on the younger troop and so forth. I know when the Daisies became Brownies at the beginning of this year, she did not accept any scouts to the troop younger than Brownies.
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25 minutes ago, happysmileylady said:
I have never signed up online so I am not sure how that system is set up. That seems like a strange way to list the grades. Most troops are not that widely mixed in my experience. I have seen troops that are like brownies and juniors, or some that might be juniors and cadettes but I don’t know that I have seen any that include everyone from daisies to seniors. It is likely that troops with older girls are more established just because the girls have likely been doing scouts since brownies.
Here mixed age troops are not uncommon. My dds are in the same troop and their goes from Brownies to Cadettes. There’s another troop that’s disbanding and are looking to join ours. Theirs was a much smaller troop, but also a mixed level troop. Our troop used to all be under the same troop number until Council made us split each level off into their own troop number. I’m not sure how we’re listed online.
@MaeFlowers - I tried signing up online at first, but it first took forever and then the troop we were assigned to was new, did not communicate in any helpful manner, and then met at times we could not make. We gave up for a year until my dh saw a troop meeting at a place we were at for another event, and went and introduced himself to the troop leader. That’s the troop we ended up joining.
If I were you, I’d contact the troop that is most convenient for you. You don’t have to join that troop, but you should be able to get a feel for how organized the troop leader is based upon how responsive the troop leader is. If she’s flaky or terrrible at getting back to you, then move on to the next one. I’d see if your daughter could visit a meeting so you can see how it’s run and if she’s interested in continuing.
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I don’t have the level 2 Biology, but we have the level 2 Astronomy. I own the PDF of the student text and the TG. There are a few pages per chapter that I print out from the student text, but we access the vast majority of the student text and all of the TG via iPad/iBooks. Ds takes notes on the chapter reading on a Cornell Notes template.
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I spend a lot of time acting as scribe for my second grader so spelling is not typically a concern for her writing. If we’re talking copywork then I do require correct spelling. If it’s something the child has written on their own, then I do not tend to correct their spelling because I’m more concerned with not discouraging their writer’s voice. It’s second grade, spelling and other mechanics skills will catch up.
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Picked up race packets today for Saturday’s 20k. I am ridiculosly excited as this is my favorite not quite half marathon. The race shirt is amazing as always. We picked up at a local running store and they just happened to have the Oiselle shorts I had been eyeing online. Not only did I get a $10 discount, but they fit amazingly. And there are pockets! Five of them! Including one that fits my phone. Pockets! In women’s running shorts! They just had the one pair, but I have since ordered a second pair directly from Oiselle. Long live useful pockets!
5 miles became 3.85 miles because life and kids who needed dropping off places by the time I got around to running. Dh was not feeling well today. I’m hoping he feels better tomorrow and that it stays with him because I’d be beyond bummed to miss Saturday’s race.
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15 minutes ago, AFwife Claire said:
Yes!! I googled this, and it worked! Hooray! I had no idea this was even possible. Thank you so much!
Glad it worked! This can happen with non-OEM cartridges. I find that there’s still toner left even after the printer says it needs new toner. Try resetting next time it says it needs new toner. It’s likely you can get more pages out of it. ?
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Which printer? Have you looked to see if you can manually reset the toner cartridge? I have reset the toner cartridges on my color laser a couple of times since getting it and they’re still printing.
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@soror my sympathies for the loss of your fil. I had forgotten about your tests, but glad to hear you got to follow up on them!
@Ravin way to go on meeting your step goal! Do you have a tracker or use your phone? My Garmin tracks my steps and then “helpfully” increases it for me when I meet mine. I could turn it off, but let’s face it, I let my device boss me around.
@EmilyGF - congrats on maintenance! C25K is a great way to start running. Which one are you using?
@jen3kids - tomorrow is always another day, so keep on keeing on is my motto. I hope today goes better for you.
@OlgaLA - clothes that fit are the best! Glad to hear the trip and the competition went well.
@Stibalfamily - welcome! Slow and steady all the way!
@peacelovehomeschooling - you and me both!
@wintermom - not being more sore is a win in my book!
We seem to have skipped spring and went straight to summer. Ran 5 miles yesterday, but couldn’t go until late afternoon so it was *hot*! I don’t think I’m ready for summer running just yet. We’re running 6 miles today. It is not going to be any cooler.
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Another option for low pressure writing classes is Outschool. Class vary in length. Some may just be a couple of weeks long. Others may be a month or an entire semester long. Some are set up to address a specific topic (like creative writing or the 5 paragraph essay) or to follow a specific theme (like one based on a book or something like world travel). Most of the classes are live, but there are some that are flexible on a flexible schedule.
If you go to www.outschool.com you can search for classes and filter by age and topic.
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6 minutes ago, Ravin said:
From a safety viewpoint, the trunk is also safer because loose items can't become passenger compartment hazards in an accident.
This is one of my issues with minivans. I love mine, but there is no trunk so I do worry about the lose hazards bit. Dh was almost in a rollover accident last year. Because of one of his side hustles, he has quite a few bits in his cargo area and while they thankfully didn’t fly around, it does worry me.
Another advantage to the trunk is that it could help cut down on your vehicle being broken into because you can put things like purchases and purses in there and they’re out of sight.
I’ll have to ask dh about his perspective on the hatchback vs trunk when it comes to searches at traffic stops.
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Oh, for sure. I have absolutely no doubt that it was an unconcious choice on SWB’s part coupled with the constraints of writing a world (!) history book for elementary school children. I was listening to a podcast where Ed Ayers was discussing somewhat along these lines. There are certainly people for whom there is no written history and a perspective on the part of an author who places a priority on some sources over others.
Ayers touched a bit on fiction as a mechanism for telling those broader stories, imperfect as that may be. I, obviously, agree since we’ve often utilized fiction as a way to reconstruct those representations along with biographical resources. There are some really great resources out there in picture book form for the elementary set. HO in particular skipped whole sections of SOTW and attempted to do the same with their suggested resources/book list. I can’t speak to how they handled Catholicism since, again, it just did not register with me.
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18 minutes ago, Farrar said:
Huh. Yeah, I'm not Catholic so I know I don't think much about this. But I probably should...
Mary really does get a bad rap in our glorification of Elizabeth, though she was a powerful and important monarch who deserves some good credit. Like, *both* of them persecuted their religious foes. Neither of them was great on that front. I can't remember how it's done in the book, though I'm pretty sure we did read that section. I think it must be very tricky to not make something seem anti-Catholic in talking about the Reformation since the history is the way it is. I mean, there's a reason people were dissatisfied with the Catholic church at that time. The Catholic church itself had to go through some massive changes in response. I'm not totally sure why Charles V would be someone's historical hero though. He was an emperor of a mess. I guess he did his best? And the Catholics in America... I mean, it's a mixed story at best. You had some people, like De las Casas, advocating for indigenous peoples, but you also had a lot of the church complicit or outright participants in genocide. Which is not to say that Protestants were any better. They were just as bad. But SOTW doesn't really deal with most of that. It sidesteps it as much as possible. Just like it sidesteps the Inquisition and a lot of the bigger questions about the Crusades and a lot of violence generally before you hit SOTW4, when there's suddenly nowhere left to go.
Well, yeah. Having grown up Protestsnt, I mostly don’t notice it, but I do wonder where/how to thread that needle in parenting what are so far non-religious children. Do I need to correct for that bias? Is there a non-biased or more balanced way to present it? I felt like we mostly accomplished here with the Crusades, but I’m also not Muslim so perhaps not. I probably didn’t do that enough with the Protestant/Catholic side because I didn’t notice it.
I know you’ve talked a lot about that tension between SOTW and the great men of history perspective. It can be overwhelming with grammar stage kiddos (which is what SOTW was written for) to try and account for all of it when really exposure helps create future categories for future thinking, but my tension has always been wrt representation because representation matters. I have always tried to at least correct a little for that slant so that those categories were broader and more inclusive of a wider range of people.
I am hopeful that Lisa Hawkins will be better able to thread that needle with the HO rewrite. It’s only speculation on my part sonce they haven’t released anything yet.
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1 hour ago, Farrar said:
Interesting. Can you say where? I'd be curious to know. I have to admit, it's been awhile since we used them and I didn't end up using all of SOTW3 or 4... by then, I was frustrated with other aspects, so we probably only read about half of them in all. I remember I was really on the lookout after the thing mentioned above because it struck me too how clearly the chapter about that battle made it clear that Europe had been "saved" from the "bad" Muslims invading.
I’m not Catholic or even Christian, but it seems to be in the way SWB presents Mary Queen of Scots and Elizabeth in the first chapter of vol 3. I would imagine any discussion of the Stuarts/Scotland would also fit in there. There’s a discussion thread here that goes into more detail - http://4real.thenetsmith.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=1188&KW
I have go say, we have sort of movd past SOTW a bit even though my youngest is only at the tail end of second grade. She’s been tagging along now for awhile and we’re finding we’re using them less which isn’t to say that the OP shouldn’t use them.
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9 hours ago, Paradox5 said:
Just as an FYI, according to Pandia Press, they are going to release a new version of Hist. Ody. Level 1 with a new spine written by one of the Pandia authors in time for this fall. It is under the "When are more RSO or HO courses going to be available?" in the link below. I am very keen to see this new series and how Pandia reworks the Level 1 plans. I hope they remove both CHOW and SOTW in favor of this ONE new narrative spine.
https://www.pandiapress.com/faqs/
I am looking forward to this, albeit somewhat sadly since I suspect my kids will be too old by the time they’re out. The author is the one who put their American history curriculum together. I listened to her talk during the fall SEA Homeschoolers online conference and appreciated her perspective and approach to history. It’s pretty exciting. I’m hoping the level two ones will be up for a redo after level one, but again, it will probably be too late for us.
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@soror - looking good!
@PinkTulip -good weather can really go a long way!
@SarahCB - yay for victories along the way no matter how small. Blisters sound like no fun, tho.
8K is done. Managed a 10:58/pace which is slow, but not too shabby. My sister managed to stay healthy. The race was huge. I think it took around 20 minutes from when the gun went off for the first wave until our wave crossed the start line. We were conservative in our positioning within the corral, but no one else was so we spent a lot of time passing people. Towards the end, the course merged with where spectators walked. They were walking four wide in spots and were generally clueless so more weaving. I just managed to avoid mowing down a child who darted out in front of me. But hey, we made it!
Long run is up tomorrow after driving a couple of hours round trip to a soccer game. 11 mile run at the long, slow pace.
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SOTW1 presents the ancient myths differently with an emphasis on the Christian myths being presented in very much the same way as the historical text whereas the other ancient myths are typeset differently. SWB is a Christian so of course she’s done that.
It’s an easy solution - we never read those parts or really any of the myths as she presents them in the book. I found alternate sources and tried to even out the percentage of time spent on different myths. On the whole, though, it’s fine for what it is and less problematic than other resources.
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My family’s usage of Prime Music alone is worth the cost even with the price increase. I’m sure there is a point at which it will make sense to cancel, but $119 isn’t that point for me. I suspect that Amazon adding on other services to the membership has to contribute to the increase.
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25 minutes ago, Garga said:
Thank you. It’s been less than 2 weeks that he had a stent put in. He had a 90% blockage in a pretty important artery. We haven’t even started cardiac rehab yet and we haven’t begun really buckling down to figure out exactly what all the options are. This isn’t like when my son had a wart and I looked for alternative ways to treat it. I just haven’t been up to figuring out if the cardiologist is steering me wrong in regards to my husbands heart, so we were following doctor’s orders. It’s good to know that with my husband’s hereditary issues that the statin is probably very appropriate, at least for now. DH is working on losing some weight (though he’s not huge, he does have some room to lose) and eating healthier than we had been.
We still haven’t even had a follow up visit with the cardiologist after the stent, this is all that new.
As @Dotwithaperiod said, familial hypercholesterolemia is a completely different ball of wax than those whose levels are impacted by lifestyle choices. I think the anti-statin folks do those with FH a huge disservice. As the FH Foundation puts it, “nearly 100% of people with FH will require cholesterol-lowering medications.” (https://thefhfoundation.org/about-fh/what-is-fh)
And I don’t think there’s anything wrong with following the doctor’s orders. Lowering your cholesterol post-cardiac event is very different than finding out your levels are high because you had your physical and you have no other risk factors. For one thing, it’s an issue of time. Post-cardiac event you know that there is a problem and the push is to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
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Bravewriter for younger ages? (1st and 3rd grade)
in K-8 Curriculum Board
Posted
TWJ is expensive and difficult to follow mostly because Julie envisioned people using it one way when some of us read it like a book and then had no idea how to take this mushy, big picture philosophy and turn it in to...something useable. I still think it needs some re-working to make it more approachable, but the way it was meant to be used was that you read it one chapter at a time and then applied those bits so that you had the hang of it before moving on to the next chapter. She also expects that once you reach the freewriting chapter that you stay there for awhile - and entire semester’s worth of time.
My opinion differs from Julie’s a bit, but I’ve always felt the project based products (Jot It Down, Partnership Writing, etc) were easier to wrap your head around and implement. Starting out with Jot It Down is not a bad idea regardless of where your kids are age/ability wise. You can definitely take those projects and scale them up in difficulty for an older or more advanced writer. Homeschool Buyer’s Co-op had the PDF versions for a reduced cost.
As for who it’s good for? I go back and forth on this one. I have a natural writer who exudes words like breathing. It’s definitely a good fit for her. I have another writer who is...less so. BW has been at times disasterous and at other times the perfect fit for this child. Sometimes I and this child needed something like WWE or WWS to hold both of our hands and help us through. Other times, BW’s less is more approach was ideal. In other words, it depends. BW has a lot available on the website for free so that’s another inexpensive way to try it out.