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ShutterBug

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Posts posted by ShutterBug

  1. I would tend to put it at a 2nd grade level when comparing to other homeschool math curriculums. Not sure how it stacks up to public school math though..

     

    Ds just finished 4th grade and used TT 7 this year with no problems so I would think that a 2nd grader using the 3rd grade would be fine as well :) .

  2. Feet pictures are second in weirdness only to giant, close up pictures of just your eye :001_huh: .

     

    Pics of food crack me up because NOBODY ever posts dinner on the night they were low on groceries and fed their kids waffles, olives and dried apricots, lol.

     

    I also greatly dislike when folks feel the need to inform me that they've just jogged 84.2 miles....or that they just kicked butt during an INSANITY work out. A.Nnoy.Ing.

  3. Hello all :)

     

    My older ds, recently turned 10 and a rising 5th grader, will be starting at a local Classical Study Center come this fall. He'll attend 2 days a week where he'll study history, literature, writing, grammar, Latin and science. His class will consist of other 3rd, 4th and 5th graders. He'll have assignments on his days off and we'll also cover math, bible, art, music, misc. language arts, etc.. at home :).

     

    We're both excited about this new chapter. With him being a the older end of the age range, I have complete confidence that he'll adjust just fine with jumping into different curriculums that we've never used.

     

    I would, however, like to work a little on writing over the summer. With having a new baby this winter we didn't get a chance to work on writing as much as I would have liked...and this is most definitely the subject that gives him the greatest anxiety. The co-op uses IEW, a program and method we're both unfamiliar with. We've done a bit of narration, copywork and dictation in the past. He's had basic instruction and minimal practice on the technical aspects of the writing process, basic outlining, how to write a paragraph, etc..

     

    I've been looking through some websites and have a basic idea of how IEW works (creating keyword outlines and then using those to re-write stories along with encouraging "dressing up" your writing with strong adjectives, etc..).

     

    I was wondering, without ordering the whole kit and kaboodle..what I could do to prepare us both (at least a little) for using IEW this upcoming year. I was looking at the books on LogosPress (Imitation in Writing) and was wondering if going through one of these would be useful...

     

    Thanks so much in advance for any help you can offer!

  4. I don't think you can really compare free/creative writing abilities with directed, expository writing as they really are two separate things. The former is more of an inborn ability while the latter is a learned skill.

     

    Ds (9 - 4th grade) will write pages and pages of beautifully written stories complete with correct grammar, punctuation, spelling, paragraphs, character and plot development, etc... but ask him to write a narrative paragraph about what we read in history that day and he panics and freezes up.

     

    With that said, your 2nd grade dd's writing sample seems very age appropriate :).

  5. And every time you do start to worry, I would say to myself, "You're tired and you have milk brain, calm down!" (I hope you don't find this insulting. I really used to fight my own craziness during my kids' first year this way, as well as make myself forgive my forgetfulness.)

     

     

     

    Thanks for the responses :).

     

    And no, I'm not insulted at all, lol. My other son is almost 10 years old and I had forgotten how much anxiety having a new baby can bring!

  6. Hi everyone,

     

    I gave birth to our second son on the 7th of this month.

     

    Everything went beautifully and we're all smitten with our newest arrival :).

     

    Yesterday, a family member mentioned that the baby has a "Simian Line" or "Simian Crease" on his left hand. Basically instead of having three distinct lines on his palm the two upper lines are merged into one line that goes all the way across his palm like this......

     

    http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2007/08/01/health/adam/17226Simiancrease.html

     

    Of course I went and googled it and found that a Simian Crease can be associated with all sorts of genetic disorders.

     

    According to what I've read though, it also occurs in 1 out of 30 typical folks and if it's not in combination with any other abnormalities or markers, there is usually nothing to worry about.

     

    The baby seems fine...he was a good size (9 lbs 2 oz), had a healthy size head (95th %), scored 9's on both his apgars and has been nursing like a champ. Overall he looks and seems like a perfectly healthy baby....but there's still that little voice in the back of my head whispering "what if...".

     

    However, I don't want to get all nutty calling my ped. demanding genetic testing quite yet.

     

    Soooooooooo, this sounds like an odd request, but if you could look at your hands, your kiddos hands...your SO's hands and let me know if it really is that common in typical kids, etc.. I would really, really appreciate it and it would help to put my mama's heart at ease a bit.

     

    Thanks so much in advance!!!!!!!!!!

     

    Jenn

  7. Ds is 4th grade so this most likely won't be of any help, lol, but here we spend..

     

    Independent reading - 1 hr. daily

     

    Spelling - 15 minutes, 3x per week (Sequential Spelling)

     

    Grammar - 20 min. - 30 min. daily (Rod and Staff English)

     

    Writing - 1 hour - 1 1/2 hours daily (mix of written narrations and dictation from across the curriculum, Winning With Writing and assigned writing)

  8. As a landlord, please, please, PLEASE inform the landlord about the dog. Wait until it actually shows up for confirmation, but please tell him.

     

    Just be upfront about it. Telling your landlord that you're thinking of getting a dog because the policy has changed might backfire on you. He might be worried about losing not one, but two tenants to the issue and just give you the go ahead to get your own dog.

     

    Animals, dogs in particular, ruin rental units. Not only that, but if someone heaven forbid gets hurt by the dog, he could be in a world of trouble.

     

    I think you're 100% validated in your concerns. I know powerful breed dogs get a bad rap and most folks who own and love them will tell you that they wouldn't hurt a fly. It doesn't change the fact that I personally know two families, one whose young son was killed by a neighbor's pit bull and my aunt who lost an arm due to an attack from her own rotweiller whose situations would have been drastically different if the attacking dog wasn't a powerful breed dog. In the case of the young boy the mother wasn't able to physically remove the dog from her son....I can assure you that if the dog had been a less powerful breed she would have been able to.

     

    I would never let my children play at someone's home who owned one of these powerful breeds and I would be horrified to find one was living upstairs from me.

     

    Once again, tell the landlord.

  9. MIL wanted to buy ds (9) a Nook for Christmas and I thought it was a wonderful idea!

     

    I was able to find a friend who was selling her never-used Nook (one of the orginal, black and white versions) for a really reasonable price and MIL bought it for ds.

     

    Ds is a voracious reader and does much of his reading in the car, many times at night. He'll usually flip on the back seat light in the car, but my mom keeps reminding me that it's illegal to drive with the light on in the car ;). The Nook came with a nice case and book like so he can read in the car at night without issue.

     

    I'm thinking it will also be nice for when we go to all day events, such as chess tournaments. I can load up a book and so can ds and we can share the Nook as opposed to bringing a bag-ful of books with us.

     

    If it's just a plain old, black and white, e-ink book reader I don't see the issue and really have a hard time counting it as "screen time".

  10. It's very simple. Ask for a full thyroid panel (TSH, T3, Free T3, T4 and Free T4) as well as a thyroid antibodies test. This will determine the nature of your/your child's thyroid issues (or non-issues).

     

    If the antibody test comes back positive you/your child most likely have autoimmune thyroid disease in which case, yes, you need to be on thyroid medication. You can't naturopath your way out of an autoimmune disease. It will get progressively worse and continue to attack your thyroid until it's utterly useless.

     

    If it comes back no, then your thyroid may be just fine. Many things can send your thyroid temporarily out of whack, including stress, illness or pregnancy.

     

    The thing about autoimmune diseases is that the stronger you try and make your immune system, the worse they get. This is why people with severe autoimmune diseases resort to immunosuppressants. While suppressing the immune system isn't ideal, it's often the only way to gain some relief from symptoms of the disease itself.

     

    I have autoimmune hashimotos (was diagnosed 9 years ago after the birth of my son). During those 9 years, finding the right dose of medication has been a trial, but a necessity. I've tried Synthroid alone, natural thyroid products such as Armor and NatureThroid and have finally found a good balance with a Synthroid/Cytomel (synthetic T3) combo.

     

    Your thyroid controls so many basic bodily functions from temperature control, to metabolism, to mood...to everything.

     

    FWIW, autoimmune thyroid disease runs rampant on both sides of my family. My grandmother was old fashioned and decided she "didn't need" to take her thyroid medication either. I don't mean to scare you, but it was this decision that led directly to her death. It took a few years, but your body can only function at such a decreased speed and without thyroid hormone for so long before it gives out.

  11. Awwww...don't 9 year old girl play with toys anymore?

     

    I played with my Barbies until I was 11..at 9 my Christmas lists were most definitely filled with Barbie, baby doll stuff or Calico Critters (they were called something else way back then though...I can't remember what).

     

    Ds9 has almost all toys on his Christmas list....Legos, Playmobil, Spy Stuff, etc..

     

    Maybe boys just play with toys longer nowadays, lol.

  12. Have you considered going more high protein and less carbohydates? I'd also recommend trying to do smaller meals every 3 hours or so to keep the metabolism up.

     

    I know, that for myself, even if I'm limiting calories, I won't lose, and will even gain if I'm not limiting my carbs. I tend to be glucose intolerant with my big triggers being refined sugar and white, starchy carbs (white bread, white pasta, white rice, potatoes, etc...). Eating smaller meals not only keeps my metabolism moving, it also helps to keep my blood sugar regulated.

     

    Here's what I eat on an average day...please keep in mind that I'm also 9 months pregnant so a plan for you would look different. On a good note, by following this type of plan I've managed to keep weight gain this pregnancy down to under 10lbs total.

     

    Breakfast

    - 2 or 3 eggs scrambled with one small plum tomato, baby spinach and shredded cheddar cheese

    - 1 piece of whole wheat or Ezekial toast with butter

     

    Snack

    - Atkins chocolate shake

    - small or medium size orange

     

    Lunch

    - 1 piece of Ezekial toast spread with almond butter

    - 1 8 oz. glass of 2 or 4% milk

    - serving of raw sugar snap peas

     

    Snack

    - greek yogurt

    or

    - cheese or nuts and a piece of fruit

     

    Dinner

    - usually some sort of lean protein, a colorful veggie (orange or green), and a grain.

     

    Snack

    - cup of cottage cheese and fresh berries

    or

    - smoothie made with whey protein powder, milk and frozen berries

  13. Meh.

     

    Our local district does have a "gifted program". Admittance is based purely on teacher/parent recommendation. No testing other than looking at the child's math and ELA scores from the previous year. Criteria seems to be that the child be well behaved, mild mannered, people pleasing, sitting the front of the class, always raising their hand and having their work organized and completed on time.

     

    The program mostly consists of weekly pullout for special field trips (museums, plays, etc..).

     

    I have one niece and one nephew (both 4th grade) in our local school district. They both tested the same on last year's ELA/math tests (the niece got a 3 in math and a 4 in language, while the nephew had a 4 in math and a 3 in language).

     

    The niece is in the gifted program. While she is a very sweet kid, she's most definitely not gifted. She just fits the above mentioned personality type and the teachers love her. My nephew on the other hand, if tested, would most likely test in the gifted range and could benefit from a gifted program. He, however, is an unmotivated, wisecracking, fidgety, unorganized, never raising his hand, doing just enough to fly under the radar type of kid....so, ya' know.

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