Ali in OR
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Posts posted by Ali in OR
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Give the gift of time. Dec. 22 sounds like a lovely time to get out alone on a date. Doesn't have to be an expensive restaurant--just time to get away on your own and focus on your dh.
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I too think of a reader as more than just decoding CVC words. My girls were both 6 when I began to see them as readers. At that point we had finished Phonics Pathways and they could read anything that they wanted to. My youngest was rather dramatic--she went from Nate the Great books to Sea of Monsters (2nd in the Percy Jackson series). We had listened to The Lightning Thief on a car trip and she got so hooked that she plunged into Sea of Monsters on her own. My girls were not unusually early at starting to read but they did progress quickly once they had the basics down.
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I'm an introvert. I tell my introvert daughter that bubby outgoing extroverts make good friends for us. They do all of the "hard" work of keeping the conversation going. The one thing that would be uncomfortable would be to have too much attention focused on me. I don't want anyone trying to "fix" me or work hard to pull words out of me. The babysitter should just babble on, talk about things interesting to her or what's going on in the world or interact with the more outgoing dd. If she's like me at all, your introvert dd will enjoy being around the conversation without being the subject of it. She can then join in as she feels comfortable.
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Happy Birthday! You are an inspiration to so many of us.
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We're trying them as a group exercise. We're in chapter two now and just hit the challenge on pgs. 56-57 to write 4 stanzas in 4 different meters, etc. Yesterday we did iambic pentameter. We wrote it out on a small whiteboard which made it easy to change words as needed. My girls would suggest part of a phrase and it was often not iambic, so we played around with it to make it iambic. I think it's a good way to play around with the concepts and internalize them a bit. Today we'll try trochaic tetrameter. I don't think I will assign poetry writing as an individual exercise yet, but if they want to try it on their own that's great.
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When we started LfC A two years ago, Latin took the place of history as my kids' favorite subject. They really enjoyed the DVD. They liked watching the kids chant Latin. I'm not sure how much attention they pay to the whiteboard lesson, but I am learning alongside them and it helps me quite a bit. But the best part for my kids are the silly extras at the end of the lesson. I think every other week is the continuing saga of How the West Was Unus, and the off weeks would be getting to know the chanting kids better. My kids do not watch t.v. or play video games, so they are probably more easily entertained than some kids, but the DVD made this course great fun for them.
As far as learning from the black and white text, that just isn't even an issue for us. The text is logical, the skills sequential--it's a format that works well for us. I do not turn dd loose with the text--Latin is something we do together sitting on the sofa. In fact I am usually the scribe and most of the writing in the book is mine as I ask dd the questions and write down her answers. It is working well here. Dd has excellent retention and can help me on the things I can't quite remember as I help her understand some of the things she can't quite recall. We are very happy with LfC.
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We enjoyed the challenge in FLL 2. I think that list was about 42 prepositions. And you know what? It *is* helpful to have that in our brain for a quick reference as we encounter prepositions again in our grammar studies. I am looking forward to doing them again with my youngest in the coming weeks.
Can you get by without memorizing them? Sure. We never memorized such things when I was a kid. But having done it both ways, I think the best thing for my kids is to make an attempt at memorizing them, which they think is fun.
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The nuts are great--cashews would be a lovely addition.
I regularly get dh the dark chocolate bars (3 pack). Right now they have some boxed bars, I think 5, where each is 100 calories. Dh is getting those for Xmas.
The Pita bite crackers are wonderful. I would think that would be good for the next generation up.
I like the Spicy Black Bean dip and the organic tortilla chips.
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Thanks for the update. From a selfish perspective, it's useful to me as I continually try to figure out my non-verbal dd with intractable seizures. I know that she has sleep issues and your posts are encouraging me to get her to a sleep specialist (after the holidays!). As you said, sleep affects so many other things. Hope you find a treatment or path that helps your dd.
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My youngest was born a few days after Christmas. We still decorated that year, and when she hadn't arrived by Christmas we knew it would be any day. All of the decorations came down the 26th. It was just easier for me to have it all put away and know I wouldn't need to face it later.
I would also recommend a good grocery trip to make sure you are well-stocked on everything. Check basic supplies like toilet paper and laundry detergent.
Freezer meals would be great. Better yet, if you have friends or church family who can bring meals for a few nights, that might really help out.
Hit the library before surgery. Return anything that's out and load up on some books or dvds that you would enjoy.
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I usually put together lasagna the day before and just pop it in the oven. I do not want to be in the kitchen on Christmas day. Not sure what we'll do for Christmas Eve. We've been known to do KFC with some sides. The girls think that's a special treat. I'm tempted to do prime rib and yorkies (yorkshire pudding) which was the special dinner when I was a kid, but I'm afraid I would be the only one to eat it.
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We chose LfC over LL. I have no familiarity with GSWL, but I can share a few things that tipped the decision for me. I would definitely print out samples of both and try to picture using them. Factors for us:
1) I like having a book and a dvd. I don't want to print anything myself. I do not want to find audio files on my computer.
2) LfC was described as more vocabulary, less writing. This fits my dd with an excellent memory (but slightly pencil-phobic) very well.
3) LfC focuses on Latin. No added culture or history lessons. Some folks would prefer a course with this info, but after doing some Prima Latina and Minimus, I really wanted to dive into the grammar and finally see the big picture. We cover the other stuff in history.
4) From the printed sample, I could see that LfC fit how my brain works. My dd learns a lot like I do, so picking what was easier for me has worked well for us.
5) My dds love the dvds. And since I'm learning alongside of them, it really helps me to see a Latin teacher explain the material. (Incidentally, that's not the part my dds like. They like watching the kids chant and they love the silly continuing stories at the end of the lessons in LfC A and B.)
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We're in our 3rd year of R&S grammar. My dd can do many of the lessons independently, especially topics that we covered in R&S in previous years. We do lessons on new topics together and we go over the lessons that have to do with writing together. I think our first year we usually did it together. Now I have a good feel for what dd already knows and I can look at a lesson and see if she can handle it on her own or if we should do it together. It is not cumbersome for us--most days are 10-15 minutes. I assign a subset of the problems or we go through them orally when appropriate.
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We did RSO Life last year with a 1st grader and a 4th grader. It was too light for the 4th grader. My impression was that it would be ideal for 2nd grade. My first grader did fine with it but got a little tired of writing--that's why I thought a 2nd grader would be the ideal age for it. It would not be my first choice for a 5th grader, but if you have not done any science before and just want something easy that will get done, it might work for you.
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We're doing plates of cookies--pretty Christmas or winter holiday plate (haven't bought them yet) in a medium size that fits in a ziploc bag. And we're using the ziploc holiday bags.
There are so many cookie recipes that I want to make this time of year, but I don't want our family eating 24 dozen cookies! So we'll give most of them away but have a dozen or so of each variety for us. Sugar cookies, the Hershey's kiss cookies, chocolate mint cookies, etc.
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Okay, someone post a spiced nuts recipe please! We bought some in Williamsburg and I would love to learn how to make them. The ones I bought were "Wingnuts"--spicy peanuts that are supposed to be like buffalo wings.
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I scrapbook, and each child has their own scrapbook with the story of their lives. Actually they're all in volume 2 now. On their birthday we get down their scrapbooks and read the whole thing. We all like that. They also choose a restaurant for dinner and pick their dessert. More often than not it is a homemade chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream. Sometimes it is a Baskin Robbins cake. Dh prefers pie. For my birthday I usually choose a restaurant with great desserts.
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Alison--I would just start at lesson 1 with the new materials. No need to try to do what has already been changed up quite a bit.
I will look it over this weekend. At a quick glance, I'm excited about what *I* am going to learn from the topoi stuff. I'm guessing we will start at the beginning, but not repeat things we have already done. We will start on Monday, maybe by first a quick review of what we did with lesson 1 last time, then try the topoi stuff (days 3 & 4). I need to print it out and read it carefully--I'm one of those old-school, need it on paper kind of people.
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I usually wait until January, but I always buy over a long period of time because I have a monthly budget. That's how the money trickles in. I am planning to buy some stuff in December if I find it on sale. I think I'll place a CAP order for sure (Art of Argument and Greek are 20% off, not sure if Latin is too). And if MCT wants to run an end-of-year sale (please oh please) I'll place that order too.
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From an engineering perspective:
I am someone who was able to get an engineering degree (i.e. had enough math skills), but my skills aren't strong enough to excel at it. Dh is one of those really smart guys who excels at it. He really should be an engineer. I got my master's in education after the engineering degree. I've been able to use both of my degrees. Teaching doesn't pay as well and is more stressful than engineering, but it does fit my interests and talents better.
I would only advise someone to go into engineering if they are like dh and can do it well. And love it. Frankly, many many engineering jobs are going overseas. He works in what was once an American company that is now a multinational company. They have locations all over the world. They have been shrinking their American workforce for years, but still hire engineers in other countries. Dh and his local peers who still have jobs are really the best at what they do. They solve problems that the cheaper engineers overseas can't. For now they have some job security in being able to do that. But many good people with good skills have been laid off from his company.
Also with engineering, you don't have as much freedom as to where to live. If you are in high-tech, you will probably be working for one of these large multinational companies. There is no owning your own business or (depending on your specialty) working for a small company. It is frustrating that our country is not making an effort to keep these skills in America. The decisions are getting made by companies who have a financial incentive (at least in the short term) in moving these jobs overseas. Doing the very difficult college work that is required to get an engineering degree is no longer a guarantee that you will have safe secure job opportunities when you graduate.
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Planning to home school k-8 here. I think that middle school is probably the most important, simply because that is when they can get most messed up in school! Around here we have great elementary schools and our high schools are strong with honors and AP classes. Middle schools do not offer much to high performing kids. But they do offer lots of potential problems!
I think it's better to start off at home so that kids will love home schooling and not see it as something that takes them away from their friends. So ideally, try to home school k-8. But if that entire range isn't possible, I would go for home schooling the upper end of that range. I'm thinking I want my kids learning how to get along in the world before they go off to college, so since our high schools are fine, I expect to put them in school at that point.
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Do call CAP. Explain that you own the old one and would like to upgrade to the new one and find out how much they would charge you for it. Might be the cheapest easiest way to get it. They're nice folks.
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We love to pick up some books on CD at the library. We don't have a DVD player, but we all like to listen to the CDs--helps the driver too!
Kiddos have their own water bottles (sippy cups at your kids' ages) with water in them. Have other snacks available--some stuff they don't normally get to eat.
My dh made laminated maps of the route we travel down to CA which we do every year. Your kids are a little young, but you could do kind of a hand-made simple map that shows major milestones along the way. For us, it's a route we know quite well, so we know where we stop for an In-n-Out burger, or the Costco station where we get gas. If you know your route well, you can put some simple landmarks on the map that they can be looking for.
My kids can spend a whole car trip just drawing pictures! One year I got them wire-bound sketch books (not too big) and crayola twistables colored pencils so they don't have to be sharpened. They did some great drawings on the road.
My girls each have a small Lands End tote bag. They pack the bags themselves when it's road trip time. They put in their drawing stuff, a book to read, a small doll with some changes of clothes, and maybe a stuffed animal. They do a great job keeping themselves entertained.
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How much of this is much ado about nothing? Or much ado about not much?
My dd is in a wheelchair and has a ton of meds we have to carry on with us. We are not easy to get through airport security. We have always been treated with respect. My observation is that female TSA agents check female passengers. It would be very easy to drum up a lot of fear about lascivious male TSA agents patting down our daughters, but that just hasn't been the case with what I have seen. In the airports we have been in, if anyone needs to touch my daughter they always go out of their way to have a female agent do it. They tell me what they need to do or check and I am also able to hold her while they check her chair. They also speed us along, sometimes to the front of the line but usually to a side line to get us through as quickly as can be done.
Are these horror stories based on your own experience or people you actually know? Seems like just a lot of hype to put fear into people when the reality that we have experienced has been far different. Not saying the security system is fun or perfect, but I don't think it is a den of evil either.
When are you starting Christmas break?
in General Education Discussion Board
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I originally scheduled through the end of this week, but this week is pretty light. We're far enough along in many subjects to take off this week. We're going to finish the first semester math books this week and get to a good stopping point in history--that will be our main emphasis this week. We might finish by Wednesday. We'll start up again after New Year's. I really could have used last week off--I'm far busier in early December than closer to Christmas (have to mail packages early, etc.).