bbrandonsmom
-
Posts
207 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Events
Blogs
Classifieds
Store
Posts posted by bbrandonsmom
-
-
What do you do for music? Do your kids take lessons? Do you go to group classes-something like Music Together or Kindermusic for the little ones? Do you just play different types of music in the house and have instruments around?
-
How involved was/is your partner in your curriculum choice? All of them, any of them, none of them etc?
My dh-confused by the history aspect, which since we learned mainly US history in elem, makes sense, and I admit, I didn't explain what we were doing. I need to do that.
Math-didn't believe me on what K went over in ps until I showed him, but he was fine with ds learning add/sub etc already. I was telling him about the EM the other day and he just shook his head.
Science-we didn't talk about this one. But I feel like we've been doing science since the first day the boys expressed an interest in nature, so it's been pretty constant in our house. Having an outline to go by just helps.
Reading/spelling/writing-ds is actually the one who brought home the PR1 post-it to tell me about it. We haven't started it yet, but he sees ds reading/spelling/writing and is happy about it.
Grammar-same as RSW. He knows they don't learn formal grammar in K, but is ok w/ ds learning it
Religion-we did discuss this one. He would like it taught as history and different peoples beliefs.
So, I feel bad we haven't really talked about the history. I have a feeling he would just want me to teach the ps curriculum, but at home-which I have to make sure we cover anyhow. But to limit to just the ps curriculum doesn't make sense to me, after reading what the new standard is. Why would I confine the 4 school walls to my home?
-
Kai,
Your post just made me curious; if homeschooling parents can teach SM to their kids with the help of the HIG, why cannot math teachers use the IG (or whatever classroom guide that comes with SM) to teach?
Perhaps it's a time thing? For example, my cousin had 1 week to teach the other teachers the new math standard before school started. If it had been something like Singapore, I think they would have needed more than 1 week, which comes down to funding to pay for training, right? As parents, we can take all the time we need to review the lesson etc, to be able to teach it.
I have another question about EM. What about how it applies to gifted though? Is the EM in other schools being taught in gifted or regular classes? The EM being taught here is in all day gifted program. Will that make a difference in understand when the kids switch to regular math in middle school?
-
Thank you, and for the after school link as well.
-
Why can I not find much on Everyday Math? I found almost nothing here on WTM. I found an article about it being Chicago based or something, and that some schools were using. Then either a few good/bad things about it.
What is it similar to? Singapore and MM? I watched this yahoo video thing of it, but the woman was pretty supportive of traditional math, and had nothing good to say about the other math methods-including EM.
Anyone here use it? Any comments about it?
I found out today that an elementary gifted program in my county uses EM. But I don't think the gifted middle school does (not positive), so how would using EM be beneficial to them in elementary?
-
We started with PP, I looked through Writing Road to Spelling and Reading (I don't like how it's broken down) and am waiting for PR1 to get here :)
I like PP though, and will prob use in combo w/ PR1 if possible as a review?
Did you read the first pages of PP? There are no lessons laid out-basically you start w/ the vowels, tell them the name and review the sound-the short vowel sound. Then it goes into a 2 letter blend, so you would go saaaa, seeeeee, siiiii, soooo, suuuu etc. There are some blending games too you can copy from the book. Then it progresses to 3 letter cvc, still blending. You just take one page at a time. After each lesson (short vowels, blending etc), it has a review page to check your child's progress. Like if they are not blending smoothly, to work on that instead of moving forward.
If your child is writing, you can start spelling the words. Somewhere around the -y suffix it has to start writing the words or short stories as you progress from there. And in the back, there is a spelling rule list and phonogram chart of the sounds. You could make up your own cards if you wanted. We just reviewed the sounds though and wrote the words as we went. Ds likes it because of the larger print and the silly stories. He finds Gus being a pig is silly :) Did that help at all?
-
My kids like Planet Earth-it's pretty awesome. Remember though, there is violence in it-animals eating other animals etc. I occasionally put it on, because they will not zone out on it like other tv shows.
That said, tv is allowed on the weekend only and very limited. Kids do much better w/o tv-they use their minds for creativity instead and play :)
Since we did used to watch tv though-I won't watch Sid-I don't agree w/ PBS sending propaganda messages to kids, and found some of the facts incorrect, and had to re explain to my ds what was actually correct. Super Why was ok-they didn't really like it though. They did like Pocoyo and Word World. And of course love Spiderman from the 60's. I know some moms here love the leap frog dvd's. I would think pretty much any Nat geo kid show would be ok, or kid nature show. Only because things move slower than a cartoon as far as what a child's mind can effectively process. Real time of an animal on the screen vs some crazy cartoon thingy. I've learned to really look at tv differently, at learning how a child's mind views tv vs how the adult mind processes the same show. Shrug.
For religious educational, I'm sure there are some very nice videos one could get that would teach about morals etc.
-
I know my mom, the one year she homeschooled me, had never heard of DYOCC, Ignatious educational philosophy, or anything of the sort. Her idea was to bring school from the brick & mortar building into the home. She used Abeka with me that year and we turned tests in to a local private school, which issued my report cards. I think that most homeschool moms who'd not heard of or read classical educator's works probably took similar paths, since there was less to choose from and no internet.
I only homeschooled 3 yrs. before reading WTM - K4 (twice), K5, & part of 1st (after pulling son from ps). I used Abeka, Calvert, and very few "extras". My single bookshelf at the time even had empty portions! My 1st year trying out WTM was hard, as I felt like I could never keep it all straight - what to do exactly, and how, and how often, and to which level per grade, etc. I would have tossed it completely and gone back to all "boxed" if it weren't for these forums. Can't imagine going it w/o internet!
A bunch of the moms I speak w/ say they used Abeka. The usually ask me if it's still around :) These are usually moms who's kids are grown now and in college.
-
A lot of moms I speak to tell me it was very hard. No internet, limited curriculum choices, limited groups to join-if any etc. It's probably why home school got a bad rap for so long, I'm going to guess?
-
CT-you make a very good point w/ the teaching of what's appropriate. Of course it would have to go by age. My ds prob wouldn't understand if I told him that, but I know by 4 we were telling our older ds about that. We even explained that he needs to tell mom or dad if another family member touches him there and why. (most are family cases when you think about it)
My friends and I have the naked conversation. Mainly because we all nurse our kids, and talk about how breast feeding has become viewed in the US, and how people view bodies. We teach a body is a body. It has functions. We eat and live healthy to keep our body healthy. Moms feed babies. We haven't gotten to reproduction, but ds keeps asking how he and his ds were born. My boys are very modest and I think modesty is something we need to teach. But they are comfortable w/ the body. They think nothing of seeing their friends in a swim suit or underwear etc. Perhaps, it's because as parents, we don't make a big deal about it.
I like the idea a pp had of drawing a big outline of the child and then coloring the organs in? In Essential Science, they have an outline of a person, and you paste on the organs, bones, muscle etc as you learn about them. I really like the full size idea though :)
-
I checked. You can purchase just the teachers binder (can't remember what that's called) for both level 1 and 2, and just have the child make the notebook. You have to email her for that I think.
I didn't see anything about purchasing the building codes separate though.
-
All I can say is I'm from Pittsburgh. The Pittsburgh talk there is horrible. When I started working, I worked very hard to drop the accent and speak correctly. I'm a huge w/ grammar on the kids. When my inlaws come down-of course they all have the Pgh accent, and it's everything to correct the kids :) I will not have, "yeah" in my house! (I know that's not a Pgh thing)
-
The very first vaccine, which was for polio, was developed by Jonas Salk, and began clinical trials in the United States in 1954. It was released to the public in 1955 and promptly killed 10 people and gave polio to another 260.
The vaccine was revamped from 1957-1963 to the ones we know today as the Salk and Sabin vaccines, which are made from inactive rather than active polio virus particles.
So let's think about this.
1944. (published, not just "discovered" or "existed") 1955. (widespread distribution)
That is an eleven year delta that doesn't add up no matter HOW anyone wants to spin it.
And that doesn't even factor in pdalley's genealogical goldmine.
The vaccine argument is simply humans refusing to acknowledge that they could possibly have scored less than "perfect" on the Darwin test.
How's that for snarky? ;)
a
How about that Mercury has been in vaccines since 1930's, so before 1944. Anyone can look at the vaccine timeline, see exactly what vaccines were used in the US first-not Polio- and see what ingredients were in them. Once again it comes down to facts.
-
I have the third ed checked out. And you're right Ellie-it is the Spalding manual. There are samples of each spelling notebook page in there. There are spelling lists to start w/ and breakdowns of how to do it, and approx how many weeks it should take to cover the material/each level. She does break it down nice, but at least in the edition I have, it seems a lot of flipping around. If you could copy it and put it in a 3 ring note book w/ tabs, I think you'd basically have PR1 as far as spelling :)
In this version, she says to write out the spelling lists w/ the syllables, and if needed, show the child the breakdown of them using right/left hand. But she says to do that only for spelling. For reading, to read fluently, not stumble over the syllables. so on the spelling lists, the word are broken up, like 'lit le', or 'moth er' and have the correct markings for the phonograms.
Tina, maybe you can answer this-how does PR add OG into it?
There are just no jingles of course-you need to make them up yourself if you wanted them :)
I still want PR and it may be a xmas gift to myself if I can swing it.
-
I was meaning to overlap by using the Spalding (it appears a bunch of us spell this wrong :) ), and then go to the PP page for review w/ the word and stories they use. Though I like the shorts in Opgtr better than PP.
That's good to know that SWR has a tch phonogram-it just wasn't one that was in WRTR at all. Ch was, but not tch. But, for example, on the C card, on the back you have the rule for when it's soft or hard, and PP doesn't do that-the soft sounds of C and G are introduced later. But ds is asking me now, why sounds are spelled a certain way etc. Which I can do easy using the Spalding method I think.
I'm going to see if SWR is in our library to compare to WRtR.
-
Is WRR the same method as SWR? Has anyone used it? I checked out WRR and OPgtR to take a look at them. I mainly wanted to phonograms and rules out of WRR, because PP was throwing me on the rules. It doesn't seem to explain the why of things to me, or I have to keep flipping to a page that explains the different ways to pronounce a sound.
WRR is all Spaulding, but she says she uses some OG methods in it. It looks a lot like PR to me. Has the child learn 54 phonograms and write them in a notebook. After that they proceed on learning 30 words a week, writing them in the notebook, marking them with lines and numbers until a certain point. Review each before moving on etc. By the end of 1st g, the word list is something like 700 words and the child knows the rules and the spelling and should grasp the definition and be able to use in a sentence for the grade level.
It's just not broken down nicely like PR1. She even has the kids write stories and create a picture to go w/ it like PR1. But, she does have the kids reading after 8 wks.
I'm still going through PP. We are reviewing endings-y, ang, ish, tch, ch etc, before heading into long vowels this week. I looked through Opgtr and found a similar concept as far as breakdown and how to teach the phonograms. I think both use OG and Spaulding?
But for example, I tried to fine the tch/ch in the WRR and only have 'ch'. She states that the 't' should be included in the word with the 'ch' added on. The rule in PP/Opgtr seemed simpler for a child than how WRR has it, but it could just be me. I'm wondering if I can overlap the 2? WRR is seems very thorough as far as spelling/rules and then reading by those rules. There is a lot of flipping around though and I'm still confused by her order of things.
-
But what about after 6th grade? I have the same question as the OP. I am doing the MM downloads as a trial now, and really like them. But I think I'm going to use Singapore, only because they continue to 12th. Can you switch from 6th to Singapore?
-
What is MCT? I keep seeing that.
-
http://childhealthsafety.wordpress.com/2009/07/05/wakefieldreplicated/
Some of the prior studies are listed here. I have more written down some place. I thought they were w/ my ingredient list, but they are not. Either way, if a person wants answers, you have to dig, dig and dig some more. The answers we seek are not always easy to find, nor what we hope to find.
-
http://www.ageofautism.com/2010/03/fombonne-lord-leventhal-vs-children-with-autism.html
Fombonne-and his studies have been picked apart to pieces. You can check Safe Minds for more info. The charges against him for the Wakefield trail are a mess and hard to find info on.
Age of Autism has a ton of info on the Wakefield trial and what went wrong, and why he was discredited. I need to dig my links on the other studies. The info might be on Safe Minds, I'm not positive.
Regarding reading the news-people will chose to believe what they want, no one can change that. If you are reading a news story, you ask yourself if it sounds true I guess. If you're like me, you pick it apart and look for the truth. That might entail days of contacting the library of congress for court reports on trials, rechecking fact on fact, comparing what the cdc tells us vs what other info found, looking into a study to see what was fact/not fact etc. It can take months, years etc. If a person reads a news story and doesn't want to do that, then that's a choice by that person. Fact for one person may be entirely different than fact for another. Especially if it's something about vaccines. I've been researching vaccines for years now. It raises my bp and stresses me out, when it starts to get to me.
I agree that having a child or having an Autism spectrum or vaccine effected child can make a difference in how you view vaccines. When you are faced w/ it daily, and if it happened after a vaccine, or due to family history, that person looks for a reason why. Those who are not directly effected, may not look too much into it.
I can see both sides quite clearly, but it's how I think. I hope I have not offended anyone here. My heart is with every single family struggling for answers about Autism and anything related to it. My heart breaks, and I send you my quiet strength, and to let you know you are not alone. So many people are out there looking for the same answers and live with the same/similar struggles.
-
This is a perfect example of a claim that needs to be substantiated. If you have links to such studies, please supply them.
What ingredient would you like info on specifically? You can search pubmed on each ingredient. You can search NVIC on the ingredients as well. They also have a calculator to see exactly how much of each one, and from there you can research the dangers of such quantity.
-
One reason that points highly to genetics is that many families have more than one person who has this or what are sometimes called related conditions.
Here is a link to why the study was retracted. Actually, I am amazed that it was ever published in the first place _ only 12 children in the study??? Now I can understand having a study of 12 kids if it is a disease where only 100 people have ever had the disease or even 196 like my dd's condition but autism?
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/03/health/research/03lancet.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=autism&st=cse
The same study has been done prior to Wakefield and NOT retracted (in fact there was more than 1 done). Why was the Wakefield study retracted and not the others that state the same information? There is an investigation on the so called professor who was trying to disprove Wakefield as well.
One can not just believe what the newspaper puts out. Not all the facts are printed. A person needs to look behind the article and find the actual facts. Just look at the many families who were not allowed to speak during the Omnibus trial. They have plenty to say.
-
carolinagirl-you sound like you did a great job :) I wouldn't say neglect can cause Autism, but it can cause a spectrum or something similar. I've read about cases, where child protective services have removed toddlers from homes (you can imagine the home), and the children were all on the spectrum or diagnosed as Autistic. And the parents didn't think there was anything wrong. I can prob find the news articles and pm them to you. They are heartbreaking though.
On that note-genetics would play a part in Autism. I know families who did not vaccinate and the kids are Autistic or on the spectrum. So we have genetics and then we have triggers. Or both combined. If you want to say genetic and it's in our family, we have to look and see what could be possible triggers? Was it a vaccine from 2 generations ago, that was chalked full of Mercury? Was it the DEET that was sprayed everywhere for bug control? Was it the drugs used in childbirth, or the processed foods we eat?
We know there are people who are given a vaccine, and because of Genetics, are predisposed to have a reaction-what ever it might be. If some one can genetically have an allergy to nuts, why can't a person have a problem with something in a vaccine? Is it that hard to comprehend?
What we don't have are the funds to test every single newborn ( but we can do a pku test), and the parents to find out what that might be, which a vaccine may trigger. Of course the FDA would have to openly admit that people can be genetically predisposed to a vaccine trigger, which would set off mass crazy, and completely undermine the vaccine system. But remember-the US has already paid out money to vaccine damaged families, so in a way, has already said there is a problem, or they wouldn't pay out.
Also, the fact is, the number of autistic children is rising so quickly, it should be an epidemic. Yet you see hardly anything being done about regulating the safety of our food, the safety and efficiency of vaccines, safety of products we use etc.
I'm frankly very tired of the Autism + Vaccine connection. It's not about just Autism. Any parent who is or has a child effected by vaccines and has done the research should be able to say that. There are many families who are effected by vaccines and it has nothing to do with Autism at all. I know many people who have chosen not to vaccinate, and it has nothing to do with Autism. I know many who start the research because it may have started w/ Autism.
I have a wonderful list of questions to ask yourself if you are researching vaccines and would be happy to pm them to anyone.
-
Has anyone here used it and just went through at a quicker pace? I know you have to start at level 1, but see you can switch from PP to level 1, but not level 2, even though it reviews level 1. But for the phonics rules, spelling and grammar, has anyone here used it?
Curriculum decisions in the family
in K-8 Curriculum Board
Posted
Lol-I like the head bob thing-dh does that w/ some stuff too.
Tina-yeah, I forget, this is our first year. I work very hard at not being one of those "homeschool is the best thing, school sucks etc" people. I know some excellent teachers, I know teachers who h/s, I know very adjusted kids in school and out of school, so...I tell people it's the choice we feel is best for our family, and then only go into detail if asked.
I just wondered, as everyone was looking at curriculum if you talked about it w/ your dh first? Because so many of us try one thing and then switch to another. I wondered if our other halves would go nuts trying to keep up :)
What I did do a few weeks ago, is make a point to show dh where all the h/s stuff was. I showed him which ones were the binders of completed work (they are all labeled) and which ones were the curriculum. He said he didn't really care, but I told him he needed to know, in case he wanted to look through to see what was done. And also in case one of his friends (or family), ask him what we actually do for h/s-he could answer them, instead of saying "I don't know". Plus, if ever he wanted to do something, he knows where it is and what's planned :)
I do think it's important for both parents to be involved-especially if it's a new thing (like for us). But dh would never sit and look at all the curric choices and pick one-that's my job. I make sure ds shows him his math or he usually shows him his writing himself, because he's very proud. Or today, he told dh some of the new phonograms he learned. Some days I ask dh to ask him what he learned today, or go take a page of something he did and ask him about it etc. So I'm doing what I can to keep him involved.
Since I do the budget, I try to incorporate any h/s stuff into our bills, or specifically save up for it, if I can't do that. I know if dh wanted to go spend $100 on something, I'd want to know why and what for-so I can completely understand why some dh's may be more involved as far as spending $ on curriculum.