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Ali in OR

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Everything posted by Ali in OR

  1. I finished The Phantom Tollbooth which my dd is reading as an assignment. It was fine, but not really on my list of favorite childhood books, as I know it is for some people. I am now reading Edith Hamilton's Mythology which I started last year but got bogged down. We're just starting Ancient Greece in history, so maybe I'll be able to finish this time. 463 pages...definitely need to pick a shorter book next.
  2. Review 3 at the end of the book? 4 pages? I would assign it over 2 days and dd agreed that would be reasonable (she also does some work in Horizons each day, so too much for 1 day here). A typical workbook exercise is 2 pages, so 2 days to do 4 pages is reasonable. But her reaction may mean she is having trouble with some of the concepts.
  3. I found mine at Ross last year for $10. It's been a great purchase! And the best method I have found to get the pizza from the peel to the pizza stone in the oven is to put parchment paper on the peel and slide it into the oven with the pizza. I tried cornmeal and just never got very good at sliding the pie off the peel. And the cornmeal smells weird as it cooks! You can remove the parchment paper after a few minutes very easily.
  4. This is one of the perks of home schooling--set the schedule to what works best. My kids sleep until 8:00--the elementary school bus has already come and gone by then. Why should I get them up earlier? When they are awake and feeling good, they will learn better. If they need to sleep later when they are teens, why not? Adjust the schedule to suit their needs. When they need to be up early for something, they can do it. But I don't see why we need to do that on a daily basis.
  5. Our first was born with a serious birth defect and will always need a lot of care. We have a slightly higher chance than most at having another with a birth defect. Having a disabled child has been a huge blessing--every family should have one! But I don't think I have enough resources within me to handle two disabled kids. Having my next two kiddos was very worrisome and stressful for me, but I had enough faith that we would make it through all right (eg enough faith to handle any outcome). I don't have enough faith to face that risk anymore, especially as I age and risks increase. So we're done. I would love to have a large family, but I have what I can handle.
  6. Do them all! Okay, not for everyone, but we're actually doing that this year. We do not do all of a Horizons lesson because we just use it for review/standardized test prep. So it amounts to about 1/2 lesson per day. We do 1 Singapore lesson a day. After a major unit we do the challenging word problems, about 2 pages per day. Then after one or two units, dd gets a break from Singapore and does a section of Life of Fred Fractions. It will take us all year to do the one book. But she is enjoying it and I think likes that break from Singapore. I think we'll do the same thing next year with the LoF Decimals and Percents book.
  7. If you use CPO, what do you order? Can you get by with just the student set (text and investigations manual)? Can you do some of the investigations without all of the classroom equipment? Does the interactive DVD add much?
  8. Just finished Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger (Time Traveler's Wife) for our January book club pick. I enjoyed it. I will be counting the kid lit that I read--I need to keep up with what I assign my 10 yo! So I have just started The Phantom Tollbooth. I need to read The Children's Homer also.
  9. We are using the Home School in the Woods materials this year. We did a fold-up timeline during our first cycle of history and I wanted my 5th grader to do a nice book-style timeline the second time through. Something nice that she could use as a resource in high school, or even college. I ended up buying their timeline pages on CD and I purchased good quality binders at Office Max. If you have multiple kids, this is cheaper than buying each a printed book. Also, I can let my 2nd grader have her own book and it doesn't really matter if it's not perfect--I can just print more pages for her when she is older and able to do a neater job. Shipping is also very cheap if you are only ordering the CDs. Getting the binders adds quite a lot to the shipping charges (I had them in my cart for awhile while I was trying to figure out what to get). It will take a little training for your dd to learn how to get the figures on the right pages. I think the CD came with the suggested placement guide--very much worth it, but you'll still have to show your dd how to use it!
  10. Okay, okay, I'll try again. I only got 28 books read last year. But that was probably more than I would have read without the challenge. I was doing pretty well until about May...
  11. We just replaced our old treadmill with one with speakers and a place to plug in an ipod. Yay! So dh plugged in my ipod to test it out and it started playing a Latin chant. Not quite right for getting the old body moving! I'm looking for suggestions for good songs with a strong beat that would be fun to listen to while exercising. Songs from before 1990 would be a plus (we may actually have them in the house for one thing). I know I'll be downloading the ABBA Gold CD my dd got for Christmas (my sister and I used to sing all of those songs when we were kids and she got it for my music-loving disabled dd). What are your favorites? Thanks!
  12. We moved to a single level house from a split level when it became evident that our dd would never walk. I love having a single level and would highly recommend the ranch. Pros 1. Can age in place. Should never need to move due to mobility issues of any family members. Even a temporary condition, like knee surgery, will be easier to handle in a single-level home. 2. Everything is easier on 1 level--laundry, putting stuff away, talking to kids in another room. 3. Family is a little more close knit with everyone on same level. 4. We probably need to paint this year--can do it ourselves. 5. And I can clean all of the windows myself. 6. Heating/cooling works well with 1 unit. 7. All of our space is usable space--no square footage wasted on stairs. 8. We can easily sell our house if we need to, even in a tough market, because there is always demand for single-level homes. It's what retired folks want as well as those of us with mobility issues in the family. Where we live, builders have built very few single-level homes in the last 20 years (I think they make more money off of two-stories), so there just aren't enough to meet demand. Cons 1. Single levels are more expensive per square foot (at least here). That means if your budget is $200k for instance, you will be able to buy more square feet if you go for a two-story.
  13. We don't go to the theater much, and then it's pretty much kid movies. So pretty easy to rank them: Tangled (loved it and will buy it on dvd) Voyage of the Dawn Treader (liked it and will buy it on dvd) Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief (did not like it and won't watch it again)
  14. The If You books (eg If You Lived in Colonial Times) might be a little old for K, but you might try them. My dds loved them. My older dd was 3rd grade, so my youngest must have been in K when we did American history and she followed along okay. You don't have to read them in one sitting. And then as your kids get older they'll pick them up and read them on their own. Not a book, but you might also find your kids are old enough to enjoy Liberty's Kids (dvd series on the American Revolution). We learned so much from that.
  15. *I* was excited to finally understand what a gerund was. I don't think I ever learned it. I think it actually helps dd to hear me so excited about finally understanding the difference between the different types of phrases. That's now our favorite part of the 4-level analysis.
  16. I always had trouble getting pregnant and didn't want to be disappointed with a negative test. So I waited to test until I would be 5 weeks pregnant (3 weeks past conception). But for kids 2 and 3, I kind of knew before the test from physical symptoms that I recognized.
  17. The Lego Hogwarts Castle present actually has my name on it ahead of the kids' names. I wrap it, so I get to fill out the tag however I want! They get to play with it after I build it. At least that's how it worked with the Lego kits in the past...maybe at some point they'll want to build!
  18. I've never made it but have tasted it at other people's houses. I don't like the Worcestershire. Yeah, I suppose I could make it without, but since I didn't grow up with Chex Mix I don't feel the need to add it to my life now.
  19. We start some subjects early and different subjects have different numbers of weeks. I am thrilled to be at the halfway point for math and Latin--those are biggies. A lot of Language Arts will be finished early (FLL, MCT stuff). For a few things we're at week 16 of 36, and I want everything done by Memorial Day, so not sure we can take any time off from those. Luckily one of them is history which we love. So if we have to read some books over spring break it won't kill us.
  20. The kids will eat the Lucky Charms from their stockings at about 6 am. A few hours later we'll have: French toast made from Great Harvest's Cinnamon Chip bread Scrambled eggs for a couple of us that want something less sweet Bacon--the good stuff. Applewood smoked, no nitrates, etc. Cinnamon rolls. From a can. Trader Joe's. Had them at T'giving. Yum. Orange juice.
  21. No cable. In our house, that means no reception except for PBS which has a local transmitter. We don't even watch much PBS, except every four years when there is a presidential election. We watch DVDs for family movie nights and dh can hook up his computer to the tv and get some college football games. But that's about it for viewing here.
  22. A Reliable Wife. Book club pick. Felt like I was reading porn. Yuck.
  23. Praying for you, your dd, and your family. I read your earlier posts and you sound good. Our oldest has a severe birth defect, so I've been on a similar path. There are hard days, but so many blessings too. When you are having a down moment or if fear of the future gets to you, I want you to know that life is still good. God is good. You will be happy, your daughter will be happy, your family will be happy, your life and her life will be good. Anyway, thinking of you.
  24. If you live in America, you probably want to learn Latin American Spanish. That's what Spanish-speakers here speak (mostly folks originally from Mexico). There are some differences in vocabulary for some words. Also in Spain they use vosotros for 2nd person plural (you all). Latin American Spanish uses the 3rd person (ustedes) for you all. If you want to learn Spanish to live in Spain, then you would use that version. But if you want to open doors for yourself here by being able to speak to the Spanish-speakers in America, you want to learn the version that they speak.
  25. No organic here, but I do prefer to get the hormone-free. I believe that the regular TJ's milk is hormone-free.
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