Jump to content

Menu

CathyT

Members
  • Posts

    83
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by CathyT

  1. I am in Massachusetts, sorry, and know nothing about the areas you are referring to. Good luck with your move!
  2. Hi, My son is looking for a snail mail pen pal, boy or girl, to correspond with. He is 13 and his interests include making cosplay accessories, participating in ninja warrior events at the local gym, biking, hiking, role-playing games similar to DnD, and playing the ukulele. If you have a son or daughter that might be interested, please give a shout out. We live in New England, USA, and he'd love to have an international pen-pal or someone from the US. Thanks, Cathy
  3. Count down to Christmas boxes. Put the numbers 1-25 on them and a little something in each one for the kids to do or eat or add to the tree if you have a small tree and want them to add an ornament to it. Dot to dots, mazes, a little note, all could be out in the boxes.
  4. Audiobooks or playaways from the library with headphones so he isn't so distracted by others or can listen to the book and not want to move so much, little figurine he can hold and make move and talk - maybe a Lego guy or a Star Wars figure for example, a new stuffie that is small in size to hold, finger puppets, a flashlight to point around, a bell to ring if he needs something instead of yelling, some cool rings to wear as he might just sit and stare at his hands... Good luck.
  5. My breakfast menu isn't set but here is what we have each week - one or two days of eggs and toast, oatmeal or cereal, pancakes or waffles, French toast, and finally bagels and cream cheese. I usually cook three breakfasts during a typical week and then yes, we cook again on the weekends, but then it is my husband usually at the stove. For lunch I make pizza once a week, paninis or sandwiches with carrots and chips, stuff from Trader Joes, and spaghetti with frozen meatballs... We eat a lot of leftovers for lunches too.
  6. My washer is 18 years old and I have a family of 6. I have had service in twice and it cost $100 to come in the door but when he needed a part or when the work he did was not successful, he came back both times without an extra charge. I personally would have service come out and while he is there ask him if it breaks again, what would he do? My service guy said the way I treat my washer, it would work for another 20 years. That said, he suggested if it leaked from the right back area to just get another machine. I have a Kenmore, not front. You can't soak things in a front washer, did you know that?
  7. I think it depends on what your goal of the graphing experience. Is it to learn how to make a graph? are you serious about the weather? You could just pick a time of day, like breakfast and graph what it is at that point of the day. Or do two graphs, one at breakfast and one at lunchtime. There really is no one right way to do this kind of activityl
  8. My husband has diabetes and one of his favorite recipes is chicken Caesar salad. The kids love it too so we eat it every other week, if not more often.
  9. My boys are part of a fife and drum Corp. They play at Sturbridge Village, musters, and in parades. They love it and have learned so much about history!
  10. If he can wear jeans to church, I think he has enough clothes. My sons have about the same amount of clothing that you wrote - I used to buy more but then realized that they wore their favorites over and over and just started to buy a lot lot less. And we survived and they are happy. And maybe it hels because they are not clothes horses at all and are so into comfort.
  11. I didn't read all the poste but I do know from nursing my own four kids, some until they were 3, others younger, that the fingering the other nipple helped more milk to be produced. Just so you know, though it drove me nuts! Some of my boys weaned on their own, others I negotiated when it was ok to nurse and when it wasn't. I had a dress that was not possible to nurse in and I wore it part of each day for a while. LOL When I waned at night, oh that was hard but I really had to listen to my inner voice saying that i needed more sleep more than he needed to nurse, I wore a bra to bed and clothes that we ere impossible to nurse in. Hard, hard week on both of us by dh was so supportive and it paid off, especially since my son slept in our bed still at that point. Good luck with it.
  12. Here is one that I have made - an envelope that is... http://www.boltneighborhood.com/2010/06/envelope-it-a-tutorial.html I have made this a few times and all different sizes. Snaps, Velcro, and buttons have been what I used to close the envelope. Good luck with your new budget system!
  13. My husband gets home at 5 on the night he doesn't exercise on the way home at the gym or he comes home and exercises by riding his bike. We eat once he has completed his exercise then we eat at 6. Sometimes I feed the littles earlier at 5 and then we can have some great talks with the older kids at dinner. We use dinner to catch up with eveyones' days and plan our evening together...
  14. I have a 14 ds and a 16 ds and both have never wanted to attend ps but they have taken classes at a resource center off and on and we have been part of a coop off and on. They have lots of friends when they want them. At times it is hard to schedule time with them but they feel that going to ps wouldn't have changed things that way. They both have told me that if they have kids homeschooling would be a good option for them, if I could teach them if they or their wife wouldn't be able to due to jobs or what have you. LOL As they have gotten older I think they have appreciated homeschooling more and have been more involved with choosing their curriculum path. That has helped make doing what I tell them daily must be done much more tolerable and they understand WHY they must do their work. We hold them accountable for their learning goals. We meet with them a few times each year to assess what they have done, what they want to get done, and the how and why's keeping in mind their goals.I don't have them do a formal curriculum other than math. With two little ones that need my attention most of the day, the older two do a lot of their work on their own with minimal hands on by me but I check in each afternoon to see what they have done and their dad does math at night with them. Good luck with your kids. Each year is a different experience. Homeschooling is just a part of life. Not proud but definitely not ashamed. We are secular and there are times my boys make sure to point that out to others when they are asked questions about homeschooling. That said, they have good friends who are home schooled for religious reasons.
  15. Stay up late and hang out in Time Square when it is dark and full of people. Walk through Central Park or rent bikes or get a carriage ride. Watch the movie Elf before so you'll recognize the Castle there as well as other things. Visit the Science Museum. They have planetarium shows and some great exhibit halls. Watch Night at the Museum (that may not be the right title but it when the exhibits come to life at night). Corny movie but my teens liked seeing it before we went there. Visit the Intrepid (aircraft carrier) and the submarine that is next to it. Take a sail around the harbor. We did that last time at sunset and it was really nice. We went past the Statue of Liberty and the skyline where the Trade Towers once stood. It was a highlight. Have fun!
  16. We use The Week magazine, which comes out weekly - ok, we don't use it per se, but it is in our house and my 14 year old, 16 year old, and 44 year old sons (one is actually my dh) fight over who will read it first. My kids also watch the Daily Show on the Internet a couple times a week and my 14 year old watched, last school year, a daily 10 minute show aimed at high schoolers that was named in the above post. We listen to NPR too in the car. When the kids were younger we had a subscription to Boomerang! audiotapes that came in the mail every 6 weeks or so. Think NPR for the younger crowd, around 7 to 12 years old. Loved every episode and highly recommend it to everyone. They covered hard stuff too in a sensitive manner.
  17. I totally agree with this. My sons went through months of growth spurts and before, during, and after each spurt they just needed that extra sleep. My 16 year old is 6'4" and I think his brain is catching up to his body. Both my teens can't go to sleep before 11 but we do ask them to turn off all electronic devices after 10 and be in the kitchen by 9:30 am, happy and ready for breakfast. If they have a morning class somewhere else, then they figure out what time they should be up and what time I should be ready to drive the car :lol: If my kids are late for breakfast, they have to clean up the whole kitchen and the others do not have to do their morning kitchen chores. That is incentive to be ready at what we have decided is a reasonable time for our family... Cathy
  18. Hi! My 14 year old loved loved loved the card game (not to be confused with the board game of the same name) "Richard Scarry's Best Number Card Game Ever" when he was 5 years old. Now he would like to teach his younger brother the same game. We have the cards but we lost the directions. Can anyone send me the directions to these games? I would gladly pay for postage and coying costs associated with it. Thanks in advance! Cathy
  19. I went to a friends house, a dear dear friend, and they have 6 kids and their playroom is a tiny area under the stairs in their living room. Very few toys can fit there but the kids get by happily and are so well rounded. There is a small basket of wooden vehicles, a few dress up clothes hanging on hooks, a basket of library books, a basket of homemade blocks, and some wooden romper stompers. Now they do have arts and craft items readily available and the whole outdoors. It is what I aspire to, but what do in reality is put most of the toys in the attic in boxes and my kids rotate their own toys on a daily or weekly basis. Two toys up for every toy down (though they get away with more going down, to be honest, at the moment.) I also get rid of toys as often as I can. It is a battle I think is worth going through...
  20. I agree with this. It really depends on who you are running with and what their attitudes are. I feel like my children are doing great - learning, happy, healthy attitudes, interested in learning and wanting to grow their brains. But when I run with people who really DO a lot or send their kids to school and tell me all about the going to college hoops they are going through, I start to doubt myself. Then i surround myself with people who believe what I do and teach their kids in a similar manner. A few years ago I was on these boards quite often but then I started to feel that I was getting lost in what I wanted to do with my children - getting influenced in a manner that wasn't helpful for my kids (starting to doubt myself and what we were doing/not doing) so I stopped visiting the board. I am back but hopefully to gain different kinds of helpful advice than feel inadequate :) As for curriculum, we have Only always done a math curriculum. My older kids are doing through an online physics program with their dad and they like that. They have taken classes here and there but they are ones that they wanted to do. We don't grade, we just do whatever it is until it is understood or we put it aside until another time when the kid is ready for the learning experience. Trust yourself and as your kids get older, ask them what or how they want to learn. Kids can be trusted, i think, if they know you'll give them the resources they need and if you help them to understand that their education is really THEIR education.
  21. I'd ask your son what he envisions doing during the drive. My older sons like to listen to CDs, stories on tape, do nothing, listen to the radio, talk to each other and just chill.
×
×
  • Create New...