Ali in OR
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Posts posted by Ali in OR
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A few things we loved:
-a little wagon to pull behind her (toy size). I love the ones I've seen I think in L.L Bean with blocks inside. We still have our little radio flyer wagon and the girls still play with it. And when they don't it will probably become a piece of classic Americana decor.
-Little people. The doll house maybe or the school or farm.
-a first doll. May not be played with too much right away, but probably during the next year she'll be ready to play Mom. Doesn't have to be expensive--my dds love the baby dolls from Target.
-doll strollers were a big hit here, but I think that was for the 2nd or 3rd b-day.
-I would definitely do a hardback classic picture book that you love and read it to her often. Guess How Much I Love You, Olivia, The Little House, Corduroy were all favorites here and will never be given away.
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It really varies day to day. We always get going at 9. We take about a 15 minute am break and a 45 min lunch break. Or sometimes even more. Piano practice is part of our school time. We end at different times on different days, depending on the afternoon schedule: 2:30 Monday, 12:00 Tues (co-op in aft), 4:00 Wed, 2:45 Thurs, can go as late as 4:00 Friday. Dd has not been getting independent work done (reading, math problem of the week), so we are just beginning to start a half hour of homework time after dinner. I would say a regular day runs 4.5-6 hours, plus another half hour of independent work to get everything I assign done.
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I like the mini peanut butter cups.
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I'm an HR manager who needs to leave for work so here's my 2 second response.
Benefits are a HUGE deal. That should be a large plus for the new job.
DEFINITELY counter off the 5%. I am shocked when we don't get a counter for a mid or higher level position. Explain the differential and make the counter. I don't know anyone who pulls back an offer if they receive a counter and statistically you have a better chance of getting another counter or matching your offer than you do of getting a no. Don't be afraid to counter. It is generally an accepted part of hiring.
:iagree: Definitely counter offer. Let them know that it would be a pay cut for you--I expect that they would at least match the current salary. That was a very quick job offer--I would assume they really want your dh. And definitely look at the whole package closely.
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Another vote for a one-syllable name here. John was my first thought but James is good too.
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My dds don't know about this book yet. I think we're just going to show up at our local Borders at their book release party this weekend and surprise the girls.
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I've been making drill worksheets on MathScore.com to make sure my girls have their facts down. Easy, free (except for paper and ink), and seems to be working for us. Younger dd is doing addition or subtraction worksheets of about 24 problems. Older is doing all four operations but more mult/div than add/sub (and just one operation per worksheet)--30 problems. One worksheet per day. Not timed, but I want them to get them done pretty quickly--couple of minutes.
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I'm going to guess that we're in the 30-45 minute range most days. Rarely it could go to an hour if we're on a new topic or doing the challenging section of Singapore word problems. That 30-45 minutes includes a drill worksheet (should go quickly), about half a Horizons lesson (I cross out some of it), going through the Singapore textbook with me, and doing one Singapore workbook exercise on their own.
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I very briefly wrote problems for a math textbook that a major publisher was having written (they hire math teachers to check problems, make up answer keys, and even make up problems). I wish that I had saved the list of rules that they gave me for the word problems I created. None of the rules applied to the actual math. I do remember that we were not allowed to use titles like Mr. and Mrs. in the problems and that you could not have a situation that depicted women in traditional roles. It's okay (and encouraged) to have problems about female truck drivers, engineers, and doctors, but not about moms, teachers, and nurses. Ugh! Tell me there is no bias there. But that's what it takes to get the textbooks approved for use in California.
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My sister is a leukemia patient right now. Hopefully she will stay in remission as her chemo ends, but if not, a bone marrow donation would be the next logical step (she has 3 sibs--hopefully one of us is a match). She has had bone marrow extracted a few times during this illness and it has been extremely painful. The first time was the hardest--I think it was a little easier when she knew what to expect. And yes, pain meds were involved.
If you want to make a life-giving donation, you might also consider donating platelets. My sister (and other leukemia patients) has to have frequent platelet and blood transfusions every chemo round as her own cells are killed off. She is so grateful that there are people out there who donate regularly. Donating platelets takes longer than donating blood, but I don't think either is particularly painful.
A friend says she has been in the bone marrow registry for many years and never had a call...I think it is pretty rare to be the match.
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I'm the girly lego lover in this house. I buy them ostensibly for the kids, but in all honesty, I'm the one that builds them. Then they play with them. I hope they will want to build them when they're a little older. These are the kits I have picked out for my tastes:
-One of the house kits--can build 3 different houses. (I always built pretty ugly looking houses with our generic legos when I was a kid)
-A castle that was at Costco when we were studying Middle Ages. Lots of fun!
-The medieval village. This is probably my favorite.
If my kids were just a little more into legos, I would be getting them the Harry Potter Hogwarts kit. But they haven't even read Harry Potter yet (I have) so once again it would mostly be for me!
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My niece had this problem. She was tracked by an endocrinologist until age 10 to check for early puberty. He said that different systems can get "turned on" at different ages. For my niece, the body odor system got going early, but nothing else did.
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Ours turned into a snack. It was a sugar cookie. And it was delicious! We're thinking we need to make sugar cookie maps more often.
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I also think trick or treating is for the younger set. I would still let my kids ToT at 11 and 12, but I don't think I want my teenagers trick or treating. And mine already like passing out candy better than collecting it--they only go out for about 20 minutes or so. A couple of my reasons:
1) I don't really like trick or treaters who are bigger than I am. I think it's a bit intimidating. If I lived in the house I grew up in I would be more scared--we were not in the incorporated part of the city and there were no street lights. And I don't really see a lot of amazing, creative, fun, innocent costumes. The costumes that appeal to teenagers are not necessarily what I want to see at my door.
2) In these parts, a local dentist will buy your Halloween candy for $1 a pound. I know kids who try to collect as much candy as possible in order to sell it to the dentist. This is not a holiday tradition that I want any part of--why exactly should I spend money on candy to give kids for them to sell to a dentist who will throw it away???? I think I would rather not spend the money. And of course this appeals to the older kids more than the little kids. I will buy enough candy to last about an hour and a half. All of the little kids go out early and if we run out by 7:30, I'm okay with that.
I'm all for older kids celebrating the holiday with costumes or at parties, I just think they can leave the trick-or-treating to the elementary set.
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I've purchased many penny books and haven't had any problems. But I think of them as $4 books, because that is the cost with shipping. That's not always the cheapest price if I can find it at the library book sale or our local used book place.
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It would be the height of the t.v. that would bother me. I want it more at eye-level from a sitting position (not that we watch much). Our mantel is pretty high--maybe 5'. The center of the picture we have over it 6'-7' off the floor.
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For me: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
For dc: The Golden Goblet, Tales of Ancient Egypt
Failing to read: Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt (got too far behind, gave up), Mara Daughter of the Nile (I was going to add this in to our Egypt studies, but haven't), Shadow Hawk (dd is reading it and not liking it. I was going to read it too so we could discuss it, but don't think I'll get to it. Should have gone with Mara.), The Great Typo Hunt (had it from the library, read a couple of chapters, couldn't get into it).
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I would just choose some of the books to do as read alouds. Pick the books whose titles you recognize as being recommended over and over (here, other boards, books used in other programs, etc). The greatest value is in sharing the literature. I don't think you would need to invest in a core for afterschooling.
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Pre-teen angst. Oy. Any OTC or home remedies for this?
(Threads are adjacent at the moment and as a mom of a preteen, this sure sounds tempting!)
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We're also using Mavis Bacon here and are happy with it. And it works on a Mac--Typing Instructor Deluxe is often recommened here but doesn't work on a Mac.
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Canned beans are pretty high in sodium too. You have some control over that when starting with dried beans. I still use canned beans, but feel that it's healthier to start with dried if I have the time.
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I have no idea what the standard is, but my 2nd grader uses 48. You could just print a sample both ways and see which is more comfortable.
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There is a new owner who is putting out other support materials--they weren't there 4 years ago so I have not used them. I did use their maps for year 4 and found it difficult to figure out when to use them. They were tied to SOTW (as is the Cool History I think), which is only 1 source within Biblioplan. I wished they had just tied extras to the weekly theme instead. I am using MapTrek for maps now which is working just fine. I used the SOTW AG for the first 3 years for maps and coloring pages. If you already have that, you don't really need to buy something else.
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I liked Biblioplan enough the first time around (all 4 years) to use it again now our second time around. I seriously looked at ToG for our second cycle, but it didn't use some of the things I really like in Biblioplan (and was just too expensive for the tweaking I would do). I love the Biblioplan reading lists. I don't want to track down books on my own--I want someone to put together a schedule with really good books, and that is Biblioplan. I remember that the first time around I was particularly thrilled with the K-2 readers (great picture books mostly) which seemed more appropriate than other curricula (Sonlight, VP).
I think the reasons to use Biblioplan are particularly strong with Ancients. Biblioplan follows a different schedule than SOTW (it was written before SOTW, based on what SWB described in TWTM. SOTW readings were then added in where they fit at a later date). I much prefer Biblioplan's schedule to SOTW's. You will go through history chronologically by culture. So we are studying Egypt now and we will cover all 3000 years of Egyptian history. Then we will go on to the Nation of Israel. Then Greece, then Rome, then Eastern cultures I believe. There is no hopping back and forth to Egyptians after you look at what other cultures were doing at the same time. Since we also do a timeline, we do see how everything fits together, but it is so nice to stay with one culture for weeks at a time.
With Biblioplan you will spend weeks studying Genesis/Exodus and the Nation of Israel. If it is important to you to cover Biblical history with the other cultures of that era, you will get far more out of Biblioplan than SOTW.
Biblioplan is definitely for people who learn best by reading. The schedule includes suggested map and timeline work and writing prompts, but there is no real "hands-on" element. And the reading load can be heavy, particularly in year 3. There are no discussion questions included--just the reading schedule--but we have done fine discussing things on our own. That was one attraction to ToG, but in looking into it, I think their discussion questions are only for the highest levels?? I can't quite remember, but just remember thinking that it wouldn't give me what I thought I wanted. It is also much easier with Biblioplan to mix and match books of different reading levels. We started with just K-2 books, then mixed in some of the 3+ readers as my oldest progressed, then added in some 5+ as she could handle them. It's just a very flexible curriculum--you can work with it to fit your family's needs. And you can't beat the price!
What should I ask DH to bring back
in General Education Discussion Board
Posted
I was thinking spices. My sil brings me curry powder from her native Malaysia and it is wonderful. I'll bet India has some great stuff you can't get here (but picking it out and figuring out how to use it may be a challenge).