Mommy to monkeys
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Posts posted by Mommy to monkeys
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I love it, but it depends what you are looking for. Honestly, in the middle guides, it is primarily discussion questions. There are a few other assignments such as drawing a map, or comparing, or writing a short report. But the bulk of the guide is scheduling pages and discussion questions. However, for me, it fits the bill. I like the flexibility with a little bit of structure. I tend to assign CM or TWTM type of writing assignments to our reading and this fit well with BF. The price of the guide is great, and most of the books are at our library.
There is also the freedom to skip books and add or take away anything you like. Some of the readings can be long, but it is supposed to be both history and literature.
For me, the beauty of it is the book list, the loose schedule and just enough structure with just enough freedom. As a side, my kids have always loved the book selections more than anything else we've used!
I think this may be the balance I'm looking for. I just can't keep up with the pace of super structured programs but I need SOME structure other than just a stack of books. Don't get me wrong. We've done lots of "just reading books" but as my big kids grow, I'd like a little guidance with things to discuss and such.
We have used BF in the past and did like it however, I remember ditching the guide. This was for Middle Ages. I had forgotten that until recently. The lower levels I like the notebooking and pacing. The upper levels start getting too much for me to handle if done by their schedule. It took me hearing the same question from several people, "Have y'all been able to finish this guide in ONE year???" to jog my memory. But other than that I truly love the books. We enjoyed the science guide and part of the geography guide pretty much as is. I am going to use the geography guide with my youngest along with the Hollings books as we come to them with the AO schedule. I don't know if I will use any other BF guide because of the heavy schedule for the upper levels. I will probably use many of the books with what ever we are doing though.
That's good to know. I remember hearing that Sonlight was much heavier as far as the amount of reading. I don't mind dropping books, though if necessary or just moving them to the "optional free reading" stack.
You're not crazy...I've been looking ahead, too!
I'm glad you posted this. I have never used BF, but I've been waffling over what to do for next year. We would be looking at Early American and World. I like the books, but I just want to put my hands on a guide. A 3-page sample is just not enough for me, I guess.
Phew. That's a relief. ;) And I agree that I wish there were more samples or more reviews online!!
We are doing part of Early American and World right now. We definitely skip books, because for us there are too many. We also divide up some of the reading since it seems like a lot some days.
Here is an answer BF posted recently about some of this discussion:
BFB studies are complete History and Literature programs so it is not necessary to supplement apart from a language arts course. And because you are covering two subjects the reading requirements are heavier than with a history-only curricula.
-Our newer Study Guides do include more detailed notes on each book in addition to web links, vocabulary, and other resources. We made this decision to offer parents and students more resources but all of our Study Guides are just that... guides. They are not designed to dictate how you move through the study and what you do on a daily basis. They are there to provide structure and give you everything you need for the course but don't feel unduly bound to them. If moving through all the assignments in the Guide is slowing things down too much, simply begin leaving out books/questions/assignments/web links/research projects/etc.
-Our main objective is to make learning history enjoyable and interesting. If the amount of books or assignments in the Study Guide is interfering with this then break away from the outline and customize the study to your needs and goals. Skipping a book here or there, having your student do every other writing assignment or do more independent reading, or focusing a discussion on just one question, will make things progress more according to your timeline while still exposing your children to great books and great history.
This is very helpful KeriJ. Honestly, this sounds like just what I'm looking for. And the fact that the guides are inexpensive and almost all the books are at our library means this is a literature based program that is actually feasible for us to use!! I've never been able to say THAT before.
I'd like to schedule history days and then pick and choose assignments/questions to discuss.
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Looking toward next year (because I'm a crazy person),I'm looking for the good and the bad about using Beautiful Feet's history guides.
Specifically the newer guide for modern history geared at middle schoolers.
I realize not many people may have used that particular guide, but would you share your experiences with any of the guides you have used? I've looked at the samples and like what I see and am I finding that almost all of the books would be available used or in my library system making it more affordable than I assumed it would be when I first glanced at it. I'm vacillating between whether I prefer this program or Notgrass's Uncle Sam and You. I DO like the looks of Notgrass, but my first instinct is that it may be a bit light for an 8th grader. I bought the Uncle Eric books used because I've heard such rave reviews and thought they'd be great to use, but they aren't really what I was looking for.
So hit me with your thoughts, pretty please.
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We like Abeka science for many of the reasons you mentioned. My 5th grader started the year with an Apologia book and begged to go back to Abeka science. I've never had any science complaints in years we've used it. It gets done and leaves time for use to do fun things with our field guides etc without pressure.
My oldest is using Apologia General for 7th grade. He says he likes it, but I will definitely give my up and coming kids the choice between Apologia or Abeka for the higher grades.-
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Sigh. I love things to be clean. I really really do, but it's just NOT realistic for ME right now. Honestly, it's harder to clean/maintain my very large old farmhouse than it was to keep up an apartment. I obviously have more kids now, but the larger the space, the more places there are for mess/chaos/clutter. I try to clean up, but my balance right now is simply to have a clean kitchen and bathroom (at the end of the day. . .it looks awful by lunch) and just do damage control everywhere else. It is the best I can do right now. I almost go through a grieving process when I look back at home videos to our much much smaller home when I just had the 4. It was always clean and tidy. :( And I do struggle with feeling like I'm failing because of things not up to my standards.
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It really depends.
Here, we are pretty rural but live on a state highway where people zoom by at high speeds. I have no fence. I prefer even my older kids to be in pairs here. My younger 4 are not allowed out alone at all.
BUT when we lived in Oklahoma and had a fully fenced backyard, i regularly let my toddlers out on the back slab (which I could see from the kitchen).
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I'm an ISTJ and I have an ENFP, but she's 5. She's is adorable, fun, makes friends everywhere she goes. . .but of all my children she is the MOST EXHAUSTING FOR ME because she is my polar opposite. I'm quiet, methodical, organized, and not particularly emotional (I'm not devoid of emotions. I just don't make choices with my feelings and every. single. thing does not illicit an emotional response). She's a friendly, talkative, highly emotional, easily distracted free spirit. We're not at the point you are yet, but I'm going to follow along.
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Yep, we have some sentimental fluff. We use Rubbermaid tubs (the blue ones). We have in the smallest tub size on each of: baby toys, cars, dolls, plastic/wood animals, train track, stuffed animals (only the little ones passed the purge), play tools and food. In the shallowest larger size we have one each of duplo and wood blocks. In the tall large size we have play silks and dress ups. We had a few larger toys that live on the shelf (cash register, tractor, xylophone. This all lives on 3.5 shelves. Then we have some puzzles, pegs, math blocks, lacing cards, board games etc. I still need to trim this down a bit. Currently around two shelves of this stuff - I think I can reduce by half.
The kids managed to keep a few things as individuals that they are actually attached to. We have seven children from baby through twelve. I think we did okay, but it still feels like a bit much at times.
This is what I want. I just don't know HOW to get there. Sigh.
My older boys have so many legos. Seriously, I should own stock or something.
I've downsized a ton, but still it seems like so much.
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Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyy!!!!
A PENNY saved is a penny earned!!!
It passed and "it" was a 1988 penny!!
The victim/patient was fascinated as he watched me search and exclaimed, "I pooped the money! I pooped the money!" as soon as I found it.
My older kids came running and feigned disgust although I know they were mesmerized. It is a bit like a train wreck. Hard not to look.
I'm considering putting the x ray and penny in a display complete with track lighting. . .
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DS swallowed a penny when he was 5. I do think the age of the child makes a difference in the ease of passing (along with coin size, of course).
Advice: use the little potty, get a stash of disposable gloves, and craft Popsicle-style sticks.
We turned DS's penny into a magnet that's still on our refrigerator, which I thought was really weird until I saw some of these other posts. (To be fair, the digestion process had changed the penny's appearance...we all thought it was pretty cool. Bonus science lesson?)
I don't know for certain what type of coin is in there. It will certainly be interesting to find out. A science lesson would be a plus. I intend on milking this experience for everything it's worth.
Is it bad I keep checking this thread for an update? Waiting for the olders reaction when you find it :p
I will definitely be back for an update when/if it passes. I was told to wait 2-3 days and then head to the hospital ER with our x-ray in hand. :( Tomorrow will be day 3. If HE doesn't "go" before about 3 or so in the afternoon, we'll have to go see what's going on.
OP, please get a Hershey bar and let a piece of it melt on your hands and then walk to where your older kids are and happily announce that little one has passed the coin! And then lick your fingers.
Bahaha! This is indeed something I'd do.
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Since we're homeschoolers and all, here's an article about swallowing things, which references both a book on the topic and a potential relevant field trip venue - the Mutter Museum, which holds a collection of 2,374 things retrieved from other people's innards over the course of one doctor's career.
I may have nightmares about this! :lol:
The lamp was never reassembled.
Poor lamp! It seems as though it's impossible to remove every chocking hazard from the grasps of these little ones! Toddlers are exhausting.
My son swallowed a quarter when he was 5. It took longer than they expected but he did eventually pass it. The funny thing was he also somehow discovered he could track the quarter through his body using a metal detector. So he also took himself for show and tell so his class got to hear his belly beep.
Hold the phones. I may need to go out and buy a metal detector just for this.
My dd swallowed a penny around 2yo. She was still using the little potty, so I resigned myself to looking for the penny for the next week. 2 days later I am telling the story at park day and the other moms started asking me;
"What did the doctor say?"
I thought to myself, "Why would I call the doctor?"
But the other moms made me feel like a bad mom (this was my first) so I called. The advice nurse asked me,
"What was the date on the penny?"
What? How would I know that? She then proceeded to tell me that pennies made after a certain date had a higher zinc content that could burn a hole in my child's stomach or intestine! By this point I was feeling like the worst parent ever. I asked for the doctor to call me back and spent the next two hours imagining a penny sitting there burning a hole in my precious baby's stomach! I started feeding her anything I could think of to make her go; cherries, prunes, apricots, pears. The doctor called me back, listened to my concerns and then, without making me feel foolish, proceeded to tell me that as long as she was eating normally & her toilet habits were regular, the chances of a penny sitting somewhere long enough to burn a hole were nonexistent and that it would be very painful for the child if it were to happen and she would let us know. He said as long as she wasn't in any pain I should just keep an eye out for the penny, just as I planned on doing. It appeared the next day.
I still miss that doctor.
My second dd never swallowed anything. Everything went right up her nose. Dimes, dried beans, pompoms, small rocks, you name it, up her nose it went. A whole 'other story :)
I will keep my fingers crossed that your coin will make an appearance soon.
Amber in SJ
Oh my gosh! I was panicking reading this story until you got to the end! Level headed doctors make the world a better place.
I'm still waiting y'all. I got to do one treasure hunt today. No treasure yet. :crying:
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We jokingly call my youngest brother the pooping slot machine. He decided one day to "drink" the change jar under my great grandma's care... He did pass it all.
Oh. my. goodness. DS has a new nickname. He will henceforth be know as my little slot machine.
The real fun starts when you have to check his poop. Better you than me! Poor baby, I hope this all is resolved quickly.
You know, I don't even care. I'd so rather go treasure hunting (with latex gloves) than go to the ER.
My oldest swallowed a LOONIE (Canadian $1 coin), which is a fair bit larger than a quarter. He passed it, but not without a fair bit of pain in the passing. We were pretty lucky though.
ACK. That's good to know. I hope we are as lucky.
Oh, that is frightening:( I hope all is well and that you will someday never be able to say with a straight face 'This too shall pass.'
ETA: we THOUGHT dd5 swallowed a penny when she was two. The doctor had me checking through her poop for 10 days before doing an X-ray. Turns out she never swallowed it! Ugh.
"This too shall pass"- too funny!!
Ugh, I wonder why the doctor didn't do an x ray immediately! What a pain. . .but a hilarious story to tell at dd's wedding.
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Ds passed a nickel at one or so. It can be done. I didn't even know he had swallowed it until I found it in his diaper.
I've found many things in diapers (stickers, lady bugs etc) but never any money. Perhaps I should be grateful this is my first rodeo with swallowing coins.
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I swallowed a penny when I was 5 or so. They took an x-ray and saw that it was in my stomach. They told my mother to look through my poop until it emerged. Which it did in a few days. I kept the penny for years. TMI, I know.
My older children are horrified that I'll be digging through his excrement. Their disgust is very amusing to me. I may save the coin simply to irk them.
Did they tell you to feed him certain kinds of foods to help it pass more easily?
They didn't but I did give ds grape juice and oatmeal with flax seed meal for supper. . .
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Yup. My 18 month old swallowed a penny. So smaller coin, but also smaller kid. It did not pass, despite everyone telling us it would. It got stuck at the end of the esophogus actually, and thank heavens he has a high pain threshold because it probably hurt stuck there like that. For 10 days. Because they said it would pass. Sigh.
He had them go in with an endoscope, under sedation,and they took it out. He was at the hospital two nights, the first night because they couldn't locate someone to do it before it got late, and at that point they just kept us there to be ready for early morning procedure. And the second night because it had been there so long it was starting to perforate the esophogus so they wanted to observe him for a bit.
But he came through it like a champ, and I still have the penny :)
That is awful. :(
DS's coin had passed from the stomach to the intestines, so hopefully the hard part is over? I'm a paranoid person. We'll see.
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So one of my 3 year old twins comes up to me this afternoon (he was supposed to be resting) and says, "I eat a money. Money is yucky." Meanwhile he's drooling like crazy and clutching his throat, so I throw everyone in the car and take them to urgent care. By the time we get there he's in good spirits but the x ray reveals a big circle in his tummy! Yuck! They think it's too big to be a dime or penny. . .so probably a quarter or nickel and said if he doesn't pass it in 2-3 days that he'll need a "procedure" to remove it. Procedure?! Dear Lord, what does that mean!? Please tell me some of y'all have been through this and what to expect.
UPDATE IN POST #44
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wrong board
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Being a first born myself I wasn't so sympathetic. At a certain age school starts. You do it. I do find it impressive how you keep several littles occupied though. If it was a big problem I would do school while the others had quiet/nap time.
I'm the youngest of my family, but I'm still not particularly sympathetic to the child who'd rather play than work. You're saying you want 30 good minutes? That is definitely NOT too much to ask. I have been in that position on a many occasions (see my siggy) and I've handled it in one of two ways depending on the situation.
1-Tell the child to that they can't play till the work is done. No excuses. The more you pout, the longer it will be till you can play. I've had less complaining from my 7 year old now that he has a checklist of what exactly he needs to do before he can play.
OR
2-Use naptime. If your younger kids nap/rest, the 30 minutes of seat work with your older child may seem more special. Granted, you have a limited window for the grades in which you can accomplish all your classwork during naptime, but still...it's a valid option for the sake of your sanity. I still like to do as much as humanly possible with my older kids while my toddlers nap/rest/bounce off the walls in their rooms.
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Hmm. CLE language arts became too much for my older kids. They could have kept slugging through it, I suppose, but I'm finding that to be better spent working on composition. We are dropping formal grammar for the rest of the year. (GASP!!) They've done some formal grammar every year since 1st grade, so I'm thinking they'll be fine. I'm clueless as to what they'll use next year, but I'm ok with that.
I wouldn't say I'm disappointed with CLE's language arts but rather that I'm disappointed it stopped working for us.
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We're using 2 theme books this year without any dvd's etc. It's going just fine. Don't forget that the "structure" part of IEW is nothing more than Ben Franklin's method repackaged. :) The "style" parts seem pretty self-explanatory in the TM to me.
I'm guessing you're using 2 theme books with 2 different kids, yes? Would you share which you are using and for what grades?
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I haven't used SICC-B, but I will say that one of the representatives for IEW told me that it is her absolute favorite product of all that IEW offers. I worked for IEW at two conventions last year, and after hearing her speak about it, I am seriously considering getting it to do next year and spread it out if ds has a lot of writing in our co-op.
You can sometimes find the dvds used which can save a lot of money. Another option is to find a group of people who will be teaching it the same year and do a mini co-op where you can share the expense of the dvds.
If I can afford it I will definitely go this route. Andrew Pudewa's instruction adds so much to the program. If I find it used, I'll be a happy camper. BUT, if I can't afford it/find it used, I'm glad to know I don't have to drop the program.
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Very helpful! I still hope I'll be able to afford SICC but if I cannot, I'm relieved to know the theme book is a viable option.
Of course now I'm going to study all the samples and track down all the webinars. . .
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I'm using IEW SWI-B this year with my older 2 children and it is sooooo wonderful!
The price tag for next year on SICC-B is pretty hefty, and I don't know if I'll be able to swing it. (Yes, I know it's for 2 years of writing, but that's a lot of $$ up front for my budget)
I'd really REALLY like to continue with the program. Would it be feasible to use one of the level B theme books even though I have NOT been through the TWSS DVDs? Yes? No? Would it be better to keep my eyes open for used copies of SICC-B DVDs? I'm a planner. ;)
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That's funny and awesome!
Would you care to share any of circumstances which would illicit a response of 'the Illuminati!' from your son? I'm amused and intrigued. ;)
PS- at our house we blurt out, "Diabolical!"
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We also like pentime. Inexpensive, good quality, and my kids like it! We like susie generally do a half page per day.
A Beka Science
in K-8 Curriculum Board
Posted
The Abeka?
Ahem. . .well sort of.Not really. I use ONLY the books. We do one section a day. If there's an easy experiment, we do it. Younger kids simply answer questions outloud and perhaps trace or draw diagrams, maybe write the characteristics of an amphibian for the section or something like that. Again, ONE section a day. As in just read to the next set of questions and come find mommy.
My 10 year old is in the 5th grade book (older son has been through that as well) and she reads ONE section (stop at the questions), takes simple notes/draws any simple diagrams, comes and find mommy to answer the questions at the end of the section. She does write the answer the questions on paper by CHOICE before going over them with me. Then if there's an experiment we may do it in the afternoon. We don't do the tests or quizzes, but do the chapter reviews split into two days. These courses seemed to be designed for 3 quarters, so I feel like we can cover a lot of ground without pressure to slug through it.
Hope this helps!
Older ds uses Apologia Gen with the materials from Donna Young that were free this summer when I was planning. .