HS Mom in NC
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Posts posted by HS Mom in NC
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We have done several History lapbooks and have never used any prepackaged lapbook materials for them.
We did them for The Renaissance, Colonial America, and The American Revolution.
We always use era appropriate materials from:
Blackline Maps of World History
Timeline Images on CD glued and noted on each handmade timeline of the era
Dover Publication's Historical Coloring Books of art and clothing of the era
Dover Publication's stickers or notecards printed with masterworks of art from the era
Hand copied (for handwriting) documents, other first source materials, famous quotes, or poetry from the era
Writing assignments (reports on major people, economics, or events of the era)
Charts/diagrams the kids made based on their studies
A list of all read alouds we did together and independently read books
Books report or essays of literature read relevant to the era
any other assignments
Lisa
Homeschooling Faith (14) Mercy (12) and Hope (5) from the beginning.
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A child can follow more advanced material when a parent reads aloud and discusses it that when the child is reading on his own. Discussion can only happen in depth when both the parent and child are reading the same book-read alouds are a great way to do it. The following list is one I wrote and posted at my website:
Increased Attention Spans
A great book will entice children to focus for longer and longer intervals over short periods of time.
Ear Training in Grammar
Children who have been immersed in masterworks have a more intuitive sense of good grammar. Normalizing standard English goes a long way in preparing a child for English classes.
Preparing Children for Writing
The best writers will tell you they are voracious readers of great books. Vocabulary, imagery, varied sentence structure, character development, and the like are best learned by studying a masterwork of literature.
Thinking Great Thoughts
Every great writer has something important to say about life. These great thoughts are what endure and have an influence over who we become and what we aspire to do.
Learning Great Truths
The more we read, the more we discover there are great truths in life. Those truths play out over and over again in all corners of humanity and can contribute to some degree in shaping us.
Meeting Great Men and Women
Thanks to great literature we can meet great men and women, real and fictional, and get into their hearts and minds. They have seen and done things we will never get to. We get the benefit of their experience and insight if we will just sit and listen.
Traveling Abroad Without Leaving Home
We get to travel all over the world with a great author as our guide. We meet other people who are so different than us, and are at the same time mostly the same.
Not only do we get to see the world through the eyes of a great author, we get tour worlds otherwise unknown. The pages of great books take us to places that only exist in the mind of a great author and between the pages of his/her book.
Traveling Through Time
From Ancient times to our possible futures we are able to return to dusty roads that blew away long ago or explore worlds that may come to be. We have the privilege of walking along the time tables of history for our own edification and pleasure.
Learning to Think and Discuss
Charlotte Mason called it the "feast of ideas."
Children will begin to ponder, question, and discuss these things more and more over time. They develop a taste for books with higher quality humor, ideas, and conflicts. It is easier for them to learn lessons of cause and effect and understand consequences when they are not personally involved, but are very interested in, a character's life.
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My middle daughter, now 12, has had migraines since she was 9. They cause temporary paralysis in her face or an extremity and she vomits for 6 hours in addition to dealing with the pain.
I advise you see a Pediatric Neurologist. Peds are not qualified to deal with it. We wasted 2 years with the ped who was trying, but has no specialized training in headaches. Ped. Neuros. deal with headaches all day long and have several classes of drugs to deal with them. If what your daughter is experiencing is really a migraine, over the counter drugs will not even begin to deal with the pain.
A huge numbers of factors (spinal alignment, hormones, food allergies, sun sensitivity, tumors, nerve damage, vascular issues, both good and bad stress, etc. etc. etc.) can can trigger migraines. Different people respond differently to the groups of medications used to treat the pain and the groups of medicines used to prevent the headaches.
Our Ped. Neuro. also recommends her patients see a chiropractor after a brain scan has indicated there are no structural or other problems that cannot be treated with chiropractics.
My daughter has a neck that is curved forward rather than backward and it appears to put pressure on the bones, nerves, and muscles in her neck which is a big factor. After 6 weeks of intensive work with the chiro, he taught her a series of daily exercises to keep things aligned better. She now sees him every 2-3 months for a treatment. She has gone from having migraines a couple of times a month to one about every 3-4 months.
Midrin is the only drug so far that helps her. It is a combo drug with a sleep aid, an anti-nausea, and a pain med in it. When she gets her signal (loss of feeling in her face, a hand, or foot) she takes it. It makes her sleepy for 6-8 hours, but reduces the vomiting from about 10 times an hour for 6 hours to once an hour for a couple of hours.
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Fernando Ortega's Hymns album.
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87% or 4 wrong.
Lisa
Homeschooling three daughters ages 14,12, and 5 from the beginning.
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Sadly, two miscarriages is medically considered in the normal range. It's estimated about 1/2 of all known and unknown pregnancies combined end in miscarriage. Depending on which OB you talk to it's either 1/4 or 1/5 known pregnancies. Some happen so early no change in menstrual cycle happens leaving the mother unaware. This is why they're slow to test every woman who ever had a miscarriage.
If you are considering undergoing testing (Some test mom. Some test mom and dad.) think through all the possible scenarios of what a positive answer could mean and what a negative answer could mean. What would you do under those possible circumstances? Would you continue to attempt pregnancy? If you wouldn't, do you and your spouse agree on alternative ways to grow a family? Would you terminate a pregnancy? If it's genetics testing, could there be consequences related to insurance as pre-existing conditions? Are there reasons to test a baby in utero? What are the risks and benefits of doing so? If you know what the problem is can you treat the problem? What risks are associated with both testing and treatment options? What kind of research has been done on treatment options? Do you have other risk factors that are increased by some treatment options? Things like that.
We declined the genetics testing we were offered. We had a blood type incompatibility test (Every now and then an 0+ mom's body will reject an A+ dad's baby.) done early in pregnancy #4 which came back negative.
Be sure to take time to grieve. Don't feel like you have to rush that process.
Lisa
Homeschooling 3 daughters ages 14,12, and 5 from the beginning.
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I'm sorry you lost your babies.
I had 3 1st trimester miscarriages in 2 years. (1993-1995)
I read everything I could on miscarriage by specialists at the time (not much was available then) but I learned : 1. Many OBs were not up to date on the results of DNCs. If you have one you have a higher risk of losing the next pregnancy. 2.You also put yourself at risk for a uterine puncture for no good reason. If you decline a DNC you increase the chances of carrying the next baby to term.
VERY little can be done to prevent miscarriages. There is the progesterone approach. Some give you progesterone "just in case". The reasoning behind that was so flimsy we declined it when it was offered at the beginning of the fourth pregnancy. Our fourth pregnancy was a perfectly normal pregnancy and a beautiful full term homebirth in 1996.
My fifth pregnancy was a planned homebirth that got complicated (placental attachment problems) and resulted in a transfer to the hospital for a c-section. (The hospital transfer rate w/ my midwife is 1 in 40. The c-section rate is 1 in 80.)
The number of things that actually cause miscarriage (blood clotting disorders, genetic factors, blood typing incompatibility, placental attachment problems, etc.) cannot always be tested for beforehand and even fewer can be treated.
Be very careful about "just in case" treatments like blood thinners, bed rest, and progesterone. Insist on seeing any studies a practitioners casually claim justify their recommendations. I insisted on it when told by the back up OB to stay in bed with pregnancy #5-The study clearly did NOT show any difference in outcome of reaching full term (40 weeks.)
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I'm glad you stood your ground!
Lisa
Homeschooling 3 girls from the beginning 14,12, and 5.
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I didn't cry. I have no emotional attachment to objects, so I'm the wrong demographic for the movie. I'm not generally a symbolic person by nature, so stuff is just stuff to me, it doesn't represent relationships or trigger memories for me.
I got a little choked up when the mom and the son were standing in the empty room. If they had interacted much with each other, I probably would have teared up. If there had been a significant good-bye moment between mom and son when he drove away, I probably would have cried then too.
I have three brothers and just had a hard time buying into them getting misty-eyed at 17 years old over toys they hadn't played with in years.
Lisa
Homeschooling 3 girls from the beginning14, 12, and 5.
My 12 year old got a little misty eyed, but neither of the other girls did.
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We have tons of charter schools here in AZ. We also have a K-12 virtual (or cyber) charter school that is attended at home.
AZ law does not recognize virtual charter schools as a homeschooling option. It clearly differentiates the two. Some homeschoolers consider virtual charter schools in the home another version of homeschooling and other homeschoolers do not. Some homeschooling groups here are very serious about only allowing legally recognized homeschoolers as part of their groups. Some don't care. It's a contentious issue here.
As I recall, HSLDA has a study or two on test scores of children in virtual charter schools.
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We put things in the same consistent place where we use them just like every other item in our house. We put the cooking things in the kitchen, our toiletries are in the bathrooms, etc.
I'm a type A too and I have a reputation for having an immaculate and extremely organized house.
All items not being used at the moment are neatly on the appropriate shelf in the school room.
The current in use read alouds (Bible, historical narrative, and literature) are next to my recliner neatly on the table.
Each kid has her own shelf with the things she's currently working on. They get it, use it, and put it back. Writing assignments are in their document files on their computers, and the book for their assigned reading is on their bedside table.
The Math and Science materials (my husband integrates them and teaches them together) are neatly on one shelf in the office.
Craft things are in the craft cabinet.
I don't do clutter or chaos. There are times when things pile up, but those are by far the exceptions and not the rule.
School materials don't have to be physically near each other in order for me to know exactly where everything is. The rest of my material possessions aren't all physically near each other.
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Schoolrooms can have two purposes. They can store school items and they can be a place where children do their school work.
We have a schoolroom (a formal sitting room that we never used as a formal sitting room) with a piano, book shelves, file cabinet, and large maps on the wall. It is for music practice and storage. We rarely school in there unless we need floor space for a large project.
We actually do our schooling all over the house. Read alouds (History, Bible, Literature,) phonics, arithmetic with manipulatives, and the computer with games on it are all done in the living room. Individual reading assignments are done by the older kids on their beds (by their choice) and writing assignments are done on their computers in their bedrooms. They do other assignments in the living room or at their craft tables sometimes.
My husband teaches them Science and Math in our very large home office. We have also done Grammar at the dining room table. The eat-in part of the kitchen is a craft room with craft tables and supplies (sewing machines, paint, etc. over tile so it's ok to spill.) All supplies are in a closed cabinet to avoid a cluttered look.
I would not want to spend the bulk of my day stuck in one room. I did that from K-6 at a public school and found it depressing. I think it's a personality thing.
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It depends which type of Classical Education you're talking about. Since no one owns the term Classical, it's important to remember there are different versions of Classical.
Trivium Classical Education teaches History chronologically following stages; Grammar, Logic, and Rhetoric. Formal Logic ends to be taught in a specific structured way. Some, like TWTM, the Bluedorns, and Veritas Press's curriculum, do a more structured version. There are plenty of people doing a much more a Charlotte Mason/Living Books version and others doing a more unity study approach.
A Thomas Jefferson Education is a Mentor /Statesman Model of Classical Education and could probably be considered unschooling in the earlier stages where a child's interest combined with a parent's "inspiring" (They often say, "Inspire. Don't require.") allows the child to pursue his/her own interests. The in the later stages the children are reading Classics in various subjects most of their day.
The Principle Approach could probably go either way. It's a mostly primary source based approach, but it could be used flexibly and connected to a child's interest in an area related to Science, History, Politics, etc.
The Socratic Questioning version of Classical Education I guess could be adapted somewhat to fit a more unschooling approach. I've never used this approach or met anyone who has.
It can also depend on what you mean by "unschooling."
There is the John Holt version of delight driven, child-centered learning. Different parents take this to higher and lesser degrees.
Then there is the "all practical application" version that is not necessarily child-centered. These are the people who use only real life projects and applications-not textbooks, workbooks, etc. that separate the skills from real life. The books they use (Classic writings could fall into this category) are studied to be used in real life situations. They distinguish between an education (real life, real use) and schooling (compartmentalized, pencil and paper theory.)
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I have one adopted child and two biological children.
I think it should have listed the child by whatever the standard is for listing a mother and daughter (because it's a genetic relationship) and then it should have added "adopted by [insert adoptive dad's name]" and listed the date. If places of birth are listed for all genetic relatives then the places of birth and adoption should be listed for the child. (My adopted child was born in S. Korea and adopted in the US.)
I think the reason it might have been done the way it was is to indicate that the adoptive parent was not adopting a genetic extended relative like a niece, nephew, or cousin which is a detail people interested in genealogy might care about. BUT since the child is clearly genetically related to the mother, it wouldn't take a lot of brain cells to figure out that there is no genetic relationship of any sort to the adoptive dad, so noting that there is no genetic relationship is unnecessary. In situations where a married couple adopts a genetic extended relative to one of them, a note to indicate it might be appropriate.
Adoption should be listed and spoken of with pride and warmth but never irrelevantly. That means whenever it's appropriate to the conversation, people should speak of being adopted or adopting as a joyous and normal thing. However, it would not be appropriate to introduce your kids as "This is my adopted child and these are my biological children." as a general rule.
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I think the spirit of this discussion is not so much about a specific attachment issue, but rather an awareness of the spectrum of serious emotional and mental issues related to children in the foster care system at older ages.
It seems to me that people working for agencies (private and state) have a set of goals that sometimes align with the goals of adoptive parents, foster kids, and adoptees, and sometimes their goals are more in line with satisfying the goals the agencies they work for. It's important to keep that in mind when looking for an independent assessment by a specialist in the field. Every child has to be viewed and assessed individually.
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I want to further address the idea of being 100% committed.
First, there are children who do very well adopted from the state foster care systems. They are thriving. It is a real possibility that should not be discounted.
If the state for what ever reason (good or bad) chose to remove a foster child from your home before finalization, are you willing to accept that? Since we were not (they are a lot of wonderful people who are) we saw that fost-adopt was categorically not for us, because we were not going to consider the possibility of a child leaving our home. We also knew that adopting older children internationally was not for us either. We chose to adopt an infant from S. Korea. That's not for everyone, but it was clear that was the best route for us.
Parents who have children (biological or adopted) with known risks of particular challenges should seek out information about the following things:
Are you prepared to provide the resources necessary to meet the child's needs if there is a serious problem? How will it affect your daily life? How many appointments with professionals per week would it require? For how many years? How close are you to those resources? What kind of parent training at home and follow up by the parents is required? How much time and money will it cost? What is a typical day with a child with these issues like for the child? What is it like for the parents? What is it like for siblings? If a worst case scenario happened (like one child being a threat to the life of a family member) what would you do? What options are available to you in that case? What if there is a serious issue yet to be diagnosed? What does 100% committed look like in the light of all these situations?
Be very clear on what are and are not willing to do and find the best route that matches it.
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I just joined this site this morning.
We spent 2004 considering which route we would take adopting a child. We considered domestic private, fost adopt in AZ, international adoption in Russia, S. Korea, and Guatemala. Our considerations included reading/discussing the actual experiences of dozens people who had either adopted, tried to adopt, or were professionals treating adoptees from those situations.
We had 2 children (8 and 6) already, so what was best for them was the most important factor in our considerations. We also had no intention of "test driving" a child. We were 100% committed.
It became clear after several months and interviews with people currently and recently involved in the fost-adopt program in AZ that fost-adopt was so severely problematic in AZ at that time there was no way it was for us. These are experiences of people I have an ongoing relationship with.
1. Severance in AZ was so hard, one couple had requested only children available for adoption be placed with them. Of the 12 placed over a course of 3 years they applied to adopt 11 of them. None of them were actually available for adoption.
2. A very close friend went through the fost adopt programs while we went through our international adoption in 2005. She had 4 children already. She was told she was being given all the information they had about the boy by her social workers here in AZ. A few months before they finalized they moved to KY. KY pulled his file and gave it to them-AZ told them only a small fraction of what what was in those files. They finalized.
The child (then 5) was so violent he tried to actually kill one of the other children after they finalized. The other children slept with baseball bats (he commonly came into their rooms and stood over them while they slept) in case he tried to kill anyone again. They gave him to the state of KY when they were assured he would be placed in a home with no other children.
3. Another friend in 2000 had a 2 year old child already and had a 6 year old foster child placed with them in hopes of adopting him. The social workers did tell them he had been sexually abused in at least 3 other foster homes. A few months into his placement she walked in on him trying to molest her 2 year old. She had him removed immediately.
4. Two years ago another friend who already had 5 younger children was placed with a sibling set of four children. Again, what they were being told by social workers in the foster care system was only the very tip of the iceberg compared to the reality. The foster children were so violent and molested each other and should never be around other children.
5. We only met one couple who did successfully adopt kids through foster care. They got the children as an infant and a toddler. It took 3 years to sever the birthparents' rights even though there was no cooperation at all and the extended relatives requested the children be adopted by the foster parents.
6. Most of the other people we met never planned to adopt the kids.
We talked to our pediatrician, a developmental pediatrician at a behavioral health center with experience in tough adoption situations, and a pediatric dentist whose early training included volunteering her services for adoptees from all over. All of them said the same thing, "If you have young kids in your house, adopt a S. Korean child. Problems with them are very rare."
RAD is one of MANY serious emotional and developmental problems in foster kids and adoptees. Attachment therapists and pediatricians with specialized training in dealing with children in these situations are the people who know what's going on and can be objective about any particular child. Talk to them.
Questions for ppl that do Lapbooking/Notebooking
in K-8 Curriculum Board
Posted
First we make a time line for the era with the years clearly marked on card stock and with faint lines 1/4 inch apart going horizontally so they can write the names of people or events as we study them. (Some eras can get very muddled with lots of information.)
Some assignments we do as we study that part of History or Civics: maps, charts, people and events on time lines, book reports, biographies, coloring pages of art or clothing of the time, handwritten copies of first source materials and book lists of read alouds, etc. Each child has a pocket hanging file with completed or partially completed assignments that do not work as a word file on their computers.
When everything is completed we spend an afternoon or two printing out word documents of the bios, book reports, etc. that they wrote and assembling them into a lapbook with the other completed assignments from their pocket hanging files.
My kids don't love lapbooking-they tolerate it, so I don't demand they do anything particularly fancy or clever. I just want it to be a presentable portfolio neatly made. I mostly let them decide how to format the material (I have made every suggested format from the Big Book of Books and The Ultimate Lap Book Handbook as a demonstration for them and left them in those books on the pages that give instructions for making them.)