Ali in OR
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Posts posted by Ali in OR
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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...
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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!
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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.
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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)
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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.
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*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.
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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.
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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!
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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A Reliable Wife. Book club pick. Felt like I was reading porn. Yuck.
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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.
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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.
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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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Big supporters of milk products here! And I personally believe that it is healthy for us. My disabled dd doesn't have a big appetite, but she absolutely loves cheese. It is the only food that she self-feeds. It is a major tool in my bag of tricks for keeping her happy when we're in public. It would be difficult and expensive to get enough calories in her without dairy products (i.e. I think I would have to use a lot of Pediasure). And unlike my other kids, she has no cavities!
We have no dairy sensitivities here. My own personal unscientific opinion with no research to support it is that our ancestors have been big dairy consumers for many centuries. Lots of Scandinavian and northern European blood. When we were learning about the Vikings, I remember reading that milk and cheese were a big part of their diet. Short growing season there, but cows graze on the grasses and produce milk that people can make into cheese to store for the winter. Anyway, I find it a comforting thought to think that I am made for cheese and am living the way my ancestors did!:D
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We're in Ancients this year. We'll be starting the Greeks after Christmas and I am looking forward to that.
I DO love MCT! I think Paragraph Town is fantastic. We're also enjoying doing Building Poems all together and dd handles Caesar's English very well on her own. I want to read through it over Christmas so I'll learn everything she is learning.
Writing is the biggest skill development area for us this year. Dd is making good progress. But I think I'm still not getting enough writing into her week. I need to actively plan that--there has probably been too much "winging it" on my part.
When I put time into planning, everything goes so much better. I've had too many weeks where I'm madly scribbling things into the plan book on Monday morning. Not good. So over break I will try to map out most or all of the 3rd quarter. I want to make sure I'm getting some writing in there on most days of the week. Art, math problems of the week, and literature could also get a bit more attention.
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What an amazing gift! She will always remember this Christmas.
I have my grandparents' old dressers purchased in the '40s. I commented to my mom about how nice and solid they are and that the set must have been expensive. She said her parents never had much money--furniture was just made better back then. You have a desk that is far superior to what you can purchase today. Nice job!
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Whoever decided that decorating sugar cookies is best done with small children? I think the self-control involved is more suited to the over-10 crowd. Or teenagers.
Two other cookie ideas that DO work with younger kids: peanut butter blossoms and the Andes mint cookies. My kids are a big help unwrapping the Hershey's kisses while the peanut butter blossoms are in the oven and they manage to get the kisses planted in the center of the cookies without burning themselves when the cookies come out of the oven. And they love it. Similarly with the Andes mint cookies, they unwrap the mints and break them in half, then get the mint halves on top of the cookies when they come out of the oven. They love spreading that chocolate minty-ness around with a knife as the mint melts. And both activities are actually a big help to me.
For sugar cookies this year, they helped after the frosting was on by putting the little sprinkle decorations on. With a tasteful, light touch. That was it.
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What a wonderful update! Praise the Lord! Will continue to pray for complete healing. This is so encouraging--Merry Christmas!
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Is this your 8 year old? It's pretty impressive that he is working with all of this so young!
I would also encourage a good understanding of fractions because they are a better way to understand some concepts like rates or slopes of lines. A slope of 5/4 is actually more meaningful than a slope of 1.25. On graph paper you demonstrate it by moving up 5 and to the right 4 from one point on the line to the next. It has a physical meaning. I might also try to convince him that working with the fractions is a more elegant way to solve equations than converting to decimals. And if he is using a calculator, I would just take it away for a few more years. If you have facility with fractions and no calculator to use, it should be the easier way to solve the problem. Sounds like he doesn't necessarily want the easier way, but then I would appeal to the mathematician within that is clearly there and push the idea of elegance. Mathematicians like the beautiful, elegant solution and 1.33333333333 isn't elegant!
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Ooh! I can answer this question! I have kept track of all grocery spending by month for 2010. This includes groceries, paper products, farmer's market or u-pick or fruit/veggie stands, pet food, toiletries, and diapers for my disabled child. Our 3 kids are relatively small eaters and I think food is probably on the cheaper end here. I started the year thinking I could do $650/month, but it's looking more like $675/month. Some months are more expensive than others. I had a high (July) of $1030 and a low (August) of $427. I do a Costco run every 6 weeks, so months with a Costco run are always higher than those without. I do some fruit picking and freezing in July that explains a little of why it was so high. I think that's also when I turned some shelves in the garage into a food storage area and started stocking up.
Like others, we don't do junk food or soda. Probably half the year we go out once or twice a month (something cheap like pizza usually) and during our busier months we might go out once a week. Dh takes leftovers for lunch probably 2 or 3 days/week.
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We do both. There are books that my 10 yo has read over and over again--dozens of times. In fact, there are very few books that she reads only once. I like having a good home library where she can go on whatever little bunny trails she desires. She'll pull down books we've read in previous years for science or history just to go through them again. As we begin to do more academic writing, she knows just where to find the information she needs for the writing assignments I give her. Last week she did a comparison/contrast paragraph on Laura Ingalls and Caddie Woodlawn. She just pulled the books off the shelf to refresh her memory a bit. We don't watch t.v. or play video games, so I consider it pretty important to have a good selection of favorite books that are always available. I think that the constant re-reading is a fantastic way to learn.
We use Biblioplan which is a lot like Sonlight in that it schedules a lot of books. I could not stay within our home school budget if I bought every single book. I buy all of the family read aloud books which are great books that take several weeks to get through. The books that the girls are supposed to read on their own I will typically get from the library if they are available. Any "great" book that is used in multiple curricula (like Biblioplan, Sonlight, and VP) I tend to buy. I think a lot of good learning also comes from going through this week's or this month's pile of library books, but it's different from owning the book and being able to go back to it time and again.
Please help me - Timeline
in Logic Stage & Middle Grade Challenges
Posted
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!