[Also expecting! :) What to expect HS-wise?]

I took a solid 6 weeks off. I really needed it to feel normal enough to do school again. I will be the first to say that I am NOT a trooper! :D I hear other moms say that they slide right back into it after a week or two. I would totally lose my ever lovin' mind.

 

So that's my .02 if you start feeling guilty about how long it's taking to get back into the swing of things. I think that's normal. :001_smile:

 

As far as scheduling goes, you could start 3 weeks earlier on this end and go 3 weeks later on the other end and still get all your days in.

 

ETA: Oh, and Congrats!! I hope all goes well!!

 

:iagree: with all this. DS was born Dec 16, and we pretty much took Thanksgiving through early January off. We were just doing K. I think I could have worked closer to my delivery date if I had NEEDED to.

 

Congrats!

[How far do you drive to church and/or homeschool group?]

Until last Sunday, we drove for 40 minutes one-way to church (yay for closer church plant!). I considered a Classical Conversations that is 1 hour in the other direction, but decided against it.

[Besides your spouse, do you have close friends?]

I haven't had a truly close IRL friend (other than dh) since becoming a parent. 99.9% of the time, I'm good with that.

 

I'm an introvert.

.

 

:iagree: except I put my percentage at 95%. I have one friend from high school who lives 6 hours away I would say is an intimate friend. One that I've met recently is a good friend, but I wouldn't say we've been through thick and thin. And she just moved :( (only 30 minutes away, but still...). DH and I are really similar, so I am pretty content with how thing are.

 

I'm also socially awkward and have trouble making friends. I felt like I had come a long way in college, but I got married and moved right after college. I felt like I've lost that progress in the years since.

 

 

I have always had a church family wherever I've lived since being married, and pretty much all of my college friends were from the college ministry I was involved with. I know that many of these people would do anything for me, but since I am not the one they go to in their times of need I often have trouble asking for help. Sounds silly when I type, but I'm sure many here know what I mean!

 

When I observe those in these groups who are really *friends*, I am more convinced that I seriously lack skills, energy, or both.

[Word or PDF Docs for OPGTR...]

I have a partial one - in progress. I'll pm you.

[If you have a 6yr old, we need their opinion]

DS is in bed, but I can answer without asking him. His fav color has been purple for some time.

[If you could only afford one subject...]

Math.

It is a huge pain to make a math curriculum that has all topics in the right order and designing enough good practice problems that illustrate just the one new thing or lead the student to discover the next new thing. It takes a vast amount of time.

 

:iagree:

[Do you remember the first time you saw or used the Internet?]

Fall 1995, when I went to college. I remember feeling overwhelmed when I learned that I would be assigned an email address.

 

I remember spending some evenings in the computer lab just amazed at all the info at my fingertips!

[S/O: If you have a college degree, have you, do you, or will you use it?]

I use what I learned from my degree all the time even though I don't have a professional job in that field.

 

I'm glad I went to college and I'm glad I earned my degree.

 

I don't feel college is necessary for everyone.

 

:iagree:I met DH at college as well, so I'm very glad I went! :lol:

 

I have a BS in Biochemistry and MS in Genetics. I have a small debt from the BS, and I got through grad school with assistantships.

 

I got married between BS and MS, and I had a strong feeling that I would end up homeschooling. DH was in grad school as well, so it was nice to have two grad stipends add up to a decent living wage. Finishing that degree when I knew I wouldn't be using it in a traditional sense was a great lesson in perseverance.

 

Having graduate experience under my belt opened a door for a part-time job (not in my field though) that helped so much as we bought our first home. I was an ideal hire from my boss's perspective - someone with skills who wasn't looking for benefits or a transition to a full-time job.

 

I quit that job about a year ago since it would have been too much once youngest DS was born. We're near a small university and cc, so once we're out of the baby/toddler stages, I hope to teach evening or online courses.

[Does Matin Latin Have More Than One Edition?]

It looks like only the worksheet packages are transitioning to pdf's on CD. I looked on Canon Press website; they offer these packages on CD, but the books are still the 1999 ones. I think you'd be ok to wait as well.

 

I also looked on Rainbow Resources and they say at the end of Matin Latin 2, "Worksheet packages are supplemental and include worksheets, puzzles and games. These are transitioning from paperback printed format to printable .pdf’s on CD." I think this last sentence applies only to the worksheet packages.

 

I have the 1999 editions of both Matin Latin books - teacher and student; they are sitting on the shelf for now... DH bought them years agoduring a great sale from Canon Press, and I think they were clearance due to being slightly damaged. :tongue_smilie:

[Did anyone stick with filing?]

I'm going to try it for the first time this year.

 

I am, too! I hear more and more hs'ers who try filing by week one year then move to filing by subject the next. By the time I heard this common tweak, I had already bought and labeled 36 hanging folders. :tongue_smilie:

 

I'll try by week this year and tweak from there. My goal is to have a smooth system (well as smooth a system as one can have...) by the time dd is in 1st grade.

[Preschool aged foster child help please!]

I don't have too many of their products, but what we have we love from Alex Toys. http://www.alextoys.com/products/132750

 

The Touch and Feel Flash cards are really cute and come in an easy to open and close box. DD has loved this one (colors and shapes) .

 

Hope this helps!

[Reformed vs. not reformed curriculum list.]

I'll give it a try. The jargon is there, but I've tried to step back and define each term/use it in a clear context. I'm sure I've overlooked something since what is clear to one is not clear to all! This is mostly in my words, so it is more of a digested layout. I've tried to be clear about what spiritual death is and the role of regeneration in a person's salvation. I've also put in Bold the theological terms for navigation.

 

I don't think this is as long-winded as it looks. :tongue_smilie:I have not presented in-depth explanations, proofs, etc. This is long enough... I typed in Word then pasted, so I had to re-format.;)

 

 

1. God is a spiritual being Who created everything and sustains everything. He has total authority and power over the universe; this is commonly called the Sovereignty of God. The extent of that power and authority, especially over our wills, is a point of disagreement among many groups of Christians. I'm stopping here on purpose; the term has been defined, and I will refer to it later.

2. God made Adam and Eve, and they lived in the Garden of Eden. There was a tree in the middle of the Garden that God told them to eat from. Life was good.

3. They disobeyed – this is called the Fall. Adam and Eve went from a state of being “holy and happy†to a state of being “sinful and miserable†(language borrowed from Catechism for Young Children). There was no sin in mankind before this point.

 

 

• Physical death (not immediately following the Fall)
  
• Spiritual death (immediately following the Fall)
  
  • A corruption of every part of man’s being (mind, will, heart, you get the point).
    
  • The pervasiveness of this corruption is what is referred to as Total Depravity. The word “total†is describing parts of a person affected and describing that the corruption is beyond our power to reverse.
    
  • All mankind inherits this spiritual corruption from Adam – this is the concept of Original Sin.
    
  • Before a person is converted to Christianity, he is “spiritually dead.†Not spiritually sick or weak, but dead. The image of a corpse is often used to convey this.
    
    • a. In the same way that a physical corpse cannot respond to environment, one who is spiritually dead cannot respond favorably to the Word of God without regeneration (explained later).
      

     

     

     

   

   

   

 

4. Salvation from a Reformed point of view. This is a breakdown of the Calvinist version of the Order of Salvation (a cross-denominational term used to describe a list of the steps/components of salvation – one can find comparable lists for other viewpoints.)

 

 

• Calling
  
  • i. Outer or External – Universal proclamation of the Gospel (what we commonly call evangelism). We are called to go into all the world and make disciples. .
    
  • ii. Inner or Internal – encompasses parts of the U, L, and I of TULIP
    
    • 1. God chose who would receive this call before Creation – aka Predestination or Election. Being part of the elect has nothing to do with what the person will do/will choose. It is unconditional, not based on foreknowledge.
      
    • 2. The Holy Spirit works in the elect person’s heart, mind, will, etc to bring about a response of belief. There is overlap with Regeneration.
      
    • 3. The Inner Calling is effectual and irresistible. Whom God wants to save, He will save. The person believes because God has called. To say otherwise is to deny His Sovereignty (again = His complete authority and power).
      

     

    [*]iii. Imagine two people hearing the same Gospel presentation. One believes, the other doesn’t. Both received the Outer Calling, but only the believer received the Inner Calling. The Outer Calling is issued to bring out the elect (I know that’s a blanket statement , but I’m trying to move on…)

     

   

   

  [*]Regeneration – this refers to the work done by the Holy Spirit to bring a person from spiritual death to life. There is a new birth to reverse the corruption inherited from Adam. Man is passive.

   

 

 

 

• This regeneration will look different in different people – ranging from the very dramatic (“I was a God-hating, party animal until I hit rock bottom. Someone shared the gospel with me, and I was a new person!â€) to the very subtle (“I grew up going to church, learning the Bible, knowing who God is, I don’t know when I was ‘saved.’â€) These two people are equally passive in their regeneration.
  
  

 

 

 

• Faith – Very quickly, believing that the work of Jesus Christ is necessary to have a relationship with God and to avoid His wrath. This comes AFTER (and as a result of) regeneration in a Reformed understanding of salvation. The ability to believe is possible only due to Regeneration. One of the most obvious differences between Reformed and Armenian views.
  

 

 

 

• Repentance – in short, person believes, hates sin, wants to obey God out of love, acknowledgement of Who He is, etc. This would be where a ‘sinner’s prayer’ falls.
  
• Justification – refers to atoning work of Christ (paying for penalty of sin). Believe in Jesus – sins are forgiven…(Justification is by faith - so there is overlap).
  
  • Here is where Limited Atonement falls. Basically, the work of Christ has paid for ALL sins of the elect.
    
  • ii. Unlimited atonement, by contrast, would be the covering of all sins of all people. The Reformed person usually believes that unlimited atonement would result in no need for hell. If the work of Christ covers all sin for all people, even unbelief would be covered, and therefore, not punishable by eternal separation from God (which is hell).
    

   

   

  [*]Sanctification – the growth of a Christian; work of the Holy Spirit over time.

  [*]Preservation/Perseverance – Since God has called, regenerated, justified, and sanctified an elect person, I think it follows that that person will persevere/be preserved. To say that falling away is a possibility is to deny the Sovereignty of God.

  [*]Glorification – happens at 2nd coming of Christ; reversal of physical death, etc.

   

 

[Saxon 1 math??]

But for children 2 and 3, I used my Saxon 1 TM and manipulatives - but only used the lesson activities and the suggestions for the meeting time. I really didn't worry about math facts - although we would use some of the flash cards and we did manage to memorize the doubles facts. We did no fact sheets and no worksheets. It was simply hands on math fun! (And we didn't even finish everything!)

 

But - they were thoroughly prepared to start Saxon 2 at the start of their first grade years.

 

:iagree:This is my plan for dc 2 and 3. DS6 (K this past year) made it to Lesson 95 in Saxon 1; we may do some this summer (probably the geometry ones), we may not, but we are going forward into Saxon 2 in August.

 

DS enjoyed fact sheets at first, but they got old pretty quickly for my Wiggly Willy. If I had it to do over with DS, I would cover the math fact lessons, and skip the fact sheets. Review occasionally with manipulatives and number lines, and whatever sticks, sticks.

[Reformed vs. not reformed curriculum list.]

I would personally want my child analyzing better than this because the comment Simka made was misconstruing the issue which was not an assessment of a belief system but the mere transference of information about ones individual beliefs for the purpose of the listener's own assessment.

 

 

I was referring to MamaSheep's comment about Simka's (I meant to include your pp to Simka's

Personally, I prefer original sources rather than predigested information.

as well, to provide more context, I guess it got lost in all the multi-quotes I deleted :tongue_smilie:).

 

All this to say :iagree:(with all your comments here), even if I wasn't as clear in my original post.

[American History at Elemental Science!!]

Is anyone considering using this alongside SOTW? I've been thinking of doing some US history all through the grammar stage, and this seems to fit the bill!

 

After 5 minutes of knowing about this product, one thought I have is to do the study over 1st and 2nd grade. That way it doesn't seem to be so much in addition to SOTW. Does that sound like biting off more than I can chew?

[Reformed vs. not reformed curriculum list.]

A thorough comparison would acknowledge a given worldview's difference from general Christianity as well as it's difference from Reformed Christianity.

 

 

I don't think you'd get much agreement as to what constitutes "general Christianity".

 

Ah, yes... I guess "general Christianity" in my post is an abbreviation of "the Reformed view of the essential Christian worldview." Thanks!

[Reformed vs. not reformed curriculum list.]

Because of the bolded. There is to much at stake for you not to be unbiased. Original source documents are saturated with bias, you take that into account when you read them.

 

When I was a Pentecostal I would not have been able to give an unbiased assessment of Pentecostal beliefs.

 

Interesting thoughts. I can see both sides of this argument. On the one hand, someone who is only on the sidelines looking on may have a less complete understanding of any topic than someone who is fully immersed in it. On the other hand, someone who is that fully committed may have a difficult time considering alternate opinions fairly. Then again, on the OTHER other hand, while "belief" may be legitimately considered a form of bias, it does seem to me that "disbelief" is an equally biased position. I can't see "disbelief" as equivalent to objectivity. Nor do I see "belief" as equivalent to objectivity, but it does seem only fair to allow people to define their own beliefs.

 

:iagree:Wanting my children to be to analyze like this (and like other posts in this thread) is one of my main reasons for homeschooling! Thinking in terms of "worldviews" helps me a lot in analyzing a lot of this!

 

 

I had quoted many others and planned to add to the debate only to read and see all my points addressed. :001_smile:

 

So I'll just talk about what I, as a Reformed Christian, would consider characteristics of a general, Refomed curriculum. DS will be in 1st next year, so this list is mainly out of my head as I've not seen/used much yet.

 

• As many have said, RT really emphasizes God's Sovereignty, so in a history text, for example, I would expect to see the viewpoint that NOTHING happens outside of God's Sovereignty applied throughout.

• I'm guessing that most Reformed curricula would be Young Earth Creationist. Among Reformed believers, there is the same spectrum as among Christians in general, but from what I've seen, it appears that the Reformed types who are making HS curric are also Creationist.

• Reformed Christians like to think (as most everyone here!); I would expect a Reformed curriculum to delve into worldviews of different religions, cultures, schools of thought, etc. There would be acknowledged bias (see my quote from MamaSheep above), but it would be handled using the rules of logic (haven't gotten to that in my self-ed yet so that is as technical as I can be on the spot). A thorough comparison would acknowledge a given worldview's difference from general Christianity as well as it's difference from Reformed Christianity.

• How does the curriculum treat these: Martin Luther, John Calvin, John Knox, Jonathan Edwards, Puritans/Pilgrims? I'm sure there are others, but it's bathtime and I have to finish up!

I'm not saying that these are exclusive to Reformed curriculum, but these are characteristics that I would look for in deciding whether or not it is Reformed.

[Learning to Write Letters]

DS was a reluctant writer as well. I used HWT hands-on materials with a ZB-type workbook, and I taught the letters in HWT's order. His handwriting has improved a great deal over the last year.

[Have you ever refused a shipment from amazon?]

I'm filing this away in my brain! I recently had an incident where I had a wish list item in my cart when someone ordered the same item as a gift for me - orders placed within 24 hours of each other. I returned the duplicate item and had to pay the processing fee.:glare:

[How long do you read to them?]

We never stop reading aloud. We read for an hour or 2 each night...and all the kids who are home listen...and love it. My dd's who do live at home look forward to read alouds when they visit...and I have caught them staying up late reading aloud to eachother:001_smile:

 

Faithe

 

I love this! DH and I read to each other so much before kids. Of course I still read a lot to my kids, but this inspires me to try to make it work on the family level.

[Should I keep using OPGTTR?]

I find the text itself nearly impossible to teach from. I've set about basically creating a "student text" myself, with just the words to be read in a large, legible font. Then I saved that as a .pdf and I transferred it to my Kindle, which makes it even more fun for my son, who loves technology. ;)

 

I'm working on this as well - a printed Word version. DS6 just completed K, and we're about half-way through OPGTR. We both love not having to share the book. We get through the lesson, and if it is a long story, we've been known to take it into the car - if he has trouble he spells it out and I coach him.

DS6 'hates' OPGTR as well, but he is making progress. I added ETC recently, and he loves it. He is trying to convince me to use only that for reading - I'm still thinking...

[Who's filing for next year already?]

I am! I have done Science and Bible already (the ones I had as pdf's). I need to make copies of WWE1 and SOTW1 before filing those. I will not be cutting up workbooks - not this year anyway.

 

I am making an index card for each week with supply and library lists. I have done up to week 10 so far. So exciting!

[When you read the letter "a" in a sentence ?]

In speaking, we use /uh/ mainly. I used long a when we first began reading sentences. Eventually, DS changed to /uh/ during reading on his own.

 

I say /u/ if the next sound is a syllable and long a if the next sound is a vowel. That's what we were taught in school, and as far as I know, that rule is still the same. So I'd say /u/ before hat.

 

This sounds like the rule I use for the word 'the' - as to whether I say 'thee' or 'thuh.'

[An embarrassing female problem]

For me, when I use store bought pads I get a very achy swollen feeling.

 

What an informative thread! I know that feeling. I hadn't always had it, so I assumed it was some kind of hormonal thing after having kids. I have been a big Always user - not anymore!

[Forum game - who wants to play?]

We need opinions!!

 

Is that a fact?