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Kathleen in VA

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Posts posted by Kathleen in VA

    advice for curriculum writers...

    in General Education Discussion Board

    Posted

    And please do not put a flowery, ink-heavy border around every single page so that my printer runs out of ink on page ten.

     

    Please lay out the curriculum with Lesson 1, Lesson 2, etc. so that I don't have figure out what is a good place to stop and start again.

     

    In your sample pages, please remember to include the title of the curriculum (or whatever) and the URL to your website. I cannot tell you how many times I have skimmed over a sample, loved it, and forgotten where I got it. If there is no clue in the sample, it just gets sent to the trash can.

     

    If it is a high school curriculum, please state at the beginning how many credits it is worth. I do not want to have to keep track of hours to figure out Carnegie units if I can avoid it.

    Best shoes for standing for hours on concrete floors?

    in General Education Discussion Board

    Posted

    I worked across the aisle from a well-known homeschool vendor at the HEAV convention this past weekend who highly recommended this brand:

     

    http://www.zappos.com/mbt-womens-shoes~i

     

    The floor in the Exhibit Hall was concrete. She said that having to do the convention circuit for a good part of the year inspired her to invest in a really good pair of shoes. My legs, feet, knees, and hips were absolutely killing me by the end of the day, but she was fine.

    High school teacher tells graduating students: you’re not special

    in General Education Discussion Board

    Posted · Edited by Kathleen in VA

    Excellent speech. I went to one of "those" schools in a very exclusive part of Northern Virginia. It was a public school and there were approx. 100 people in my graduating class. My grandparents moved to this area in the 1940s when it was considered "out in the country" and their house was quite tiny and unassuming - they were not rich. But as the region grew, their city became very popular and property values soared (there isn't a one-bedroom condo in that city for under half a million dollars right now).

     

    When my parents divorced in 1973, my mom and I moved back to be near my grandma. Mom had a high school diploma and could type so she got a job as a clerk-typist. We were poor. Section-8 poor. Most of the kids I went to school with were not just comfortable - they were very rich. I remember my band director, who must have been having a particularly frustrating day (I guess we hadn't practiced enough or something) giving us a very long speech about how we were all spoiled brats. I can assure you, I was in no way spoiled. I was rather annoyed to say the least and I let him know so after class was over. He apologized, jftr.

     

    Anyway, even as a poor student in a rich school, I would have appreciated hearing this speech at my high school graduation (although we didn't get told how special we were all that much back then;)). Still, it would have been inspiring and motivational to me. I love the part about going to Paris just to be in Paris and to climb the mountain to see the view, rather than to be seen.

     

    If I were sitting in the audience as a parent, I would be most appreciative that someone else was telling my child something he or she needed to hear. It's always better hearing those kinds of things from someone other than a parent - it seems to have more staying power. Coming from a beloved teacher, which he appeared to be, it would have been all the better.

     

    The first part of the speech was obviously meant to be tongue-in-cheek humor and you could tell that the audience understood that. There were a lot of chuckles throughout. The last part had the meat. He was telling them to live life to its fullest, to live it authentically, to live it with passion and to lose the idea that you are the center of the universe.

     

    I heard several graduation speeches at my high school because the band played Pomp and Circumstance at all of them. The speaker at the high school graduation the year before mine was a celebrated news reporter at a Washington, D.C. office of one of the big three networks. His son was one of the graduates. The next year he, along with several of the other graduates of his class, were invited to speak to the student body during an assembly to give us an idea of what our freshman year at college would be like.

     

    As you can imagine, this particular kid was one of the popular crowd in high school. He said, after almost a year at Virginia Tech (a school with about 20,000 students at that time), that he felt insignificant on that campus and that life at our high school had not prepared him for that feeling. He realized after he got there that he was basically a nobody - there were plenty of kids with big-wig parents and he was just one of them. That's all this Mr. McCullough is trying to communicate. When you get out in the real world, the rules are going to change - get mentally prepared for that - and then go out and live your life to its fullest.

     

    He used many rhetorical devices and it would make an interesting exercise for older students to print out the speech and find as many of those as they could using the list of examples in the back of Corbin's book as a reference.

    In honor of Ray Bradbury: What book are you?

    in General Education Discussion Board

    Posted

    What book are you?

    I loved Strong Poison by Sayers. I flatter myself by relating to Harriet Vine. In some ways my dh was/is my Lord Peter. He helped me get out of a mess- not of my own making. He loves me despite my lack of convention, doing what's expected. He pushes me to use my gifts, even when I don't believe in myself. He is respectful and kind - all characteristics of Lord Peter.

    Dh is analytical and willing to wait like Lord Peter. I'm impulsive and more artistic, like Harriet. I'm sure Harriet is smarter and more analytical than I am. Sadly, neither of us is filthy rich.

    fwiw; it's our 27th anniversary! Geez. During our dating life, dh had a whole reading list for me to get through - lol!

     

    Happy Anniversary!

     

    I haven't read any Lord Peter Wimsey books but I've seen some movies. He's the paragon of patience where Harriet is concerned! (I started The Nine Tailors but didn't get very far - probably ought to pick that up again.) It's really weird watching the same actress who played Mrs. Fanny Dashwood in the Ang Lee version of Sense & Sensibility play Harriet Vine.

    HEAV convention in Richmond Are you going?

    in General Education Discussion Board

    Posted

    you are a sweet lady. I know I love going to see people from the convention that I only see this once a year time.

     

     

    I do need to look for some things. youngest iis very different than oldest so I need to look for somethings for him to do.

     

    I help out as I said in the security booth. I usually stop by and see if they need help during other times. Just to do it.

     

    Do you know if they have someone on Thurs. I don't know much about their stuff. But I do feel for them. hoping some others step up and help out too.

     

    are you still going to the leadership luncheon?

     

    I'm pretty sure they do have someone for Thursday - I think she mentioned it but I wasn't paying that much attention since I won't be arriving until Friday morning. I have other plans for lunch so will not be at the leadership luncheon.

    HEAV convention in Richmond Are you going?

    in General Education Discussion Board

    Posted

    aw that is so sweet of you. I may be looking at Notgrass.

     

    Did they get enough people to help with it?

     

    It's going to be mainly me and two other ladies who will be filling in for me on Fri and Sat afternoons for an hour or two - also one young lady who will watch things while I take my kids to lunch.

     

    You know, when you haven't got much money and live in a tiny house, there usually isn't much you can do for folks when they need help. I am just so blessed - beyond measure, really - to finally be able to do something tangible for some people who could use a hand right about now. It's so much better than wishing you could do something but not being able to, kwim? God is good.

     

    I'm a seasoned homeschooler - the only reason I was going to the Convention in the first place was to just see the folks I work with (I am a proofreader for HEAV) and just bask in being some place with a lot of like-minded people for a couple of days. I already have made my curriculum choices for next year and don't really need to go to any workshops. This adds some purpose to the trip and, like I said, it's such a relief and blessing to finally be able to do something instead of sitting at home feeling helpless.

    Literary Lessons from Lord of the Rings student book

    in General Education Discussion Board

    Posted

    It is about $55 new. I think I would like to pass down the set to my younger son to use instead of buying an additional student book.

     

    Do you have your kids write in the student book like a workbook or write their answers separately in a spiral notebook??

     

    My ds15 was so eager to get started this year he wrote in the student book before I had a chance to tell him to keep his work in a separate notebook. He adores this study, so now I think it is nice that he has the whole thing as a keepsake of sorts. I think he thinks that too.:)

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