Dolphin
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Posts posted by Dolphin
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There is a poem that always helps me when I am feeling overwhelmed by things that just don't completely add up.
The Weaver
My Life is but a weaving
between my Lord and me;
I cannot choose the colors
He worketh steadily.
Oft times He weaveth sorrow
And I, in foolish pride,
Forget He sees the upper,
And I the under side.
Not til the loom is silent
And the shuttles cease to fly,
Shall God unroll the canvas
And explain the reason why.
The dark threads are as needful
In the Weaver's skillful hand,
As the threads of gold and silver
In the pattern He has planned.
He knows, He loves, He cares,
Nothing this truth can dim.
He gives His very best to those
Who leave the choice with Him.
The other thing that has helped me is the book The Shack (most people either love it or hate it. I loved it). It is a work of fiction, and is not a book from God, and that has to be kept in mind while reading it. It helped me to understand that as there is one way that this author found to explain a lot of questions, that there are many other possibilities out there. It helped me to keep my faith, without having all the answers. I really like what it said about free will though. Just because God knows you so well that he knows what you will do, does that take away any of you freedom?
Hope that helps
Nicole
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Yes, take the time.
I know it is different, but we took 10 days where ds had to clean his room. He never did it well, and over years it had gotten very cluttered. He worked only on that, he would keep telling me he was done and I would point out he wasn't. Until it was clean and organized to MY standard, he wasn't putting good work forth with his sister, his school work or anything. We talked a lot about respect for ourselves, our things and respect for others during this time.
If your kids are really disagreeing can you get them to unify for a goal. Set them a hard task that they will only be able to complete together using team work. Have a really great thing they can earn if they get it done. Something that even with team work that would take them at least a week to complete.
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I have only had 2. My first was a big emergency (cut through the muscle etc...) It was hard to recover from. Then 2nd was pretty easy, but I have been advised by 3 docs not to have any more babies myself. I guess the next kiddos will be coming through adoption.
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I always check plugged in online first. It gives all spoilers for the family, but if I am taking my kids I don't mind. Here is the review for the Kings Speech
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We like:
Hope and Glory
Mary Poppins
Singing in the Rain
Ponyo
Anne of Green Gables
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Oil of olay makes me break out. I have gone really simple with Agera. They don't have a lot of the perfumes etc... It is not to spendy and my skin is great.
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A 1970's car:lol: My first car was a 1978 Chevy Impala. We could fit 5 kids comfortably in the back seat of that thing.
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I have a 3 year old and a third grader. I have been spending a lot of time this year (and probably next) try to teach him to teach himself. I am still doing a lot with him, but I want him to be able to do an hour alone a day in fourth grade so I can work with my PreK daughter, and and hour and a half by 5th etc...
I will be watching this thread with interest.
Nicole
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Find a Marks and Spencers and go to their food hall in the morning. They make the most wonderful variety of sandwiches. We get our sandwhiches and some juice boxes, chips etc (they have the oddest and most wonderful flavors of those too), and take them with us. My kids love them and we often eat them for breakfast and dinner.
In the pups, go for a simple ham sandwich, the soup, or a plowman's lunch. Cornish pastys are really iffy in London, but the bakeries will have sausage rolls and those are almost always good if you like sausage. (British sausage is really different to American and German, and I love it.)
Go into a cafe, and just order a cup of tea and split a cake of some kind in the afternoon between 2 and 4. You will get to experience something very English and it's pretty cheap.
Spend a day around St. James park if the weather is nice. Watch the changing of the guard at Buckingham palace and then walk slowly through the park to the horse guards. From there you can walk through admiralty arch and up to Trafalgar square. All free. The park is a great place to sit and eat your sandwiches. There is a cafe in the park that serves the best Hot Cocoa.
I agree with the Convent Gardens bit. The street performers(buskers) have to get licenses , and they are the best in London. Then inside, especially around lunch time, Opera students come and sing (another good time for a cup of tea)
Have fun, pm me if you have any specific questions. We go every other year. Dh is from England, and we always spend a few days in London.
Nicole
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Letting a little in might not be a bad idea for the long run. My mom banned my brother and I from soda pop. Every time we went to friends houses we had it, any time we could get our hands on it we had it. My brother still drinks about 5 cans a day. I had to give it up cold turkey a year and a half ago. I am 36 and I crave coke every day.
Now, with my younger two sisters she had relaxed. She would sometimes get it in the summer. If they were out for a meal they could get it. Just allowing that little to be okay, they still only occasionally drink soda.
I allow a small amount. I would say that we are 90%/10%. At Halloween they go trick or treating with their friends. They they get to pick out 10 pieces of candy to keep and the rest we put out for the switch witch (she takes the candy and leaves a toy), When they are given candy at a birthday party, they can pick one piece and I throw the rest away. In the summer I will buy one 2litre bottle of root beer and that lasts us the summer for some occasional root beer floats. When my kids ask for junk food, if it is an appropriate time of day, they can have a small amount. They almost never ask. We also have "fun" junk yogurt covered pretzels, chocolate covered raisins, dried pineapple, pirates booty etc... Most the time they like that more.
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If I'd had a girl, I wanted to call her Georgina. She could be a Georgie, or a Gina, or of course, a Georgina.
I have a Georgina, she is Georgie. When I was a tomboy I thought that would be the coolest name, as I could be George. Loved that. We also call her GiGi and Geege.
My son is William, he sometimes says he is going to start being Liam in High School. It might be a British thing, but Liam and William are most definitely the same name.
What about Henry, Nicholas or Samuel?
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I have to admit that I am on the tough side. I put up with it and try to accommodate (reasonably) for a couple of weeks, then if he hasn't snapped out of it I tell him his time is up. Once, he was horrible and I suggested that we rent him a furnished apartment for a month. He was stunned. I just told him that I was tired of our family seeming like an inconvenience to him. If we were that horrible to live with maybe he should go live by himself for a month and let us be happy. That brought about a very quick attitude change, and now if he starts getting too stressed for two long I just have to say apartment and he gets it.
Once he is communicating and trying to be civil, then I help out and lots of tea! I am not going to reward bad behavior though! See, I am a mean wife!
Nicole
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I want a sticky of greatest hits. I have only been a member since August, so I am slowly catching up on these. I would love a link to the leather couch story. I now know about the insane acting coach, hot wax and teA. But what are books and bookshelves, I saw a veiled reference to that the other day.
Stacie, it sounds like you handled it well, that was really nice of you to put yourself forward and save the other mother.
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Thank you! I try not to talk about it around the house as I don't want the kids to realize what a big deal it is, so it is nice to have somewhere to brag.
I do talk about it with the kids, but not in terms of pounds. Just that mommy is getting healthier so she can do more with them. Or I am undoing the bad choices I made in college when I stop eating vegetables.
I have been dieting my whole life, and tried almost everything, so now I am just piece mealing it all together. I am taking what has worked best from each diet plan. I did 15 with medifast, about 19 with HCG( I found 750 cal works with my body on this) 6 with Isagenix, which I am on right now and still losing daily. Then in between I maintain with weight watchers, calorie counting or slim fast. I find as soon as I am annoyed with one diet, I switch to another, rather than stop altogether. I am just so happy that I have hit the half way mark!
Nicole
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It has taken me 15 months, but I have now lost 45 pounds. I have 45 pounds to go for my fist goal. I want to get to that and then hang out there for a few years and let my body get used to that before pushing for the final 50. But I am half way there. :lol:
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I leave a dollar or 2 if they clear the table, if I am bringing it to my seat, and clearing the table, nope. Like Panera, I have only tipped there one time. I go in there when it is quiet with two kids, and they don't do anything to help. So no tip, one day it was really busy, but the employee brought my drink and my food out to me as she saw I had kids. Her, I tipped.
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Oh, and I don't know if you looked at this It tells you exactly which book the concept is introduced in, and the other levels that touch on the subject. This helped for me finding the division.
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That is what I have been doing. I have just the teacher book and text, and we do the lessons orally. We have been going over division and multiplication in level 2, before pushing on with 3.
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I like this one http://www.livelearnandlovetogether.blogspot.com/ She is a member here too.
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Good to read. I have just bought it. I have bought year 2, unit 4. We are doing SOTW 3 this year, and I am going to try TOG for that part and see how it goes. I am excited, if it works for us it will make things much easier when dd hits K and I am working with 2 kids. I also like that I will be able to use it 3 times.
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I am working on catching my son up too. We are using Singapore. I tried using MM to supplement what he didn't know, but that didn't really work. I ended up getting the Home instructors guide and the text for the earlier levels, and we have been doing them orally.
I am not sure how right start works, but if there is a review could you have them do that first, and then just focus on what they don't know. We have found big areas we have been able to skim through as ds already knew it. We skim as review, and then we would slow down when we got to new information (multiplication, division, units of measure etc...)
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We are new this year too. We had not already paid for third grade, so I had to go and get everything new. I think in someways that was more stressful. Not only was I having to figure out HOW to be a teacher, and HOW to teach each curriculum. My ds was having to learn a new way of learning in every subject. Different programs teach the same thing in different ways and with different language.
My advice would be to keep with the curriculum that you are using, they might hate it, but it is familiar. Pick which subject you are all the most unhappy with. Research and change that. Then look at what is now your least favorite. I think it would be less stressful for the kids to change one subject at a time.
Also, someone pointed out a key message in the grammar stage part of the WTM. SWB, herself says that kids are naturally all over the map at this point in their education. The goal is to have them know what they need to know by the end of 4th grade. We are ahead someplaces, and behind in others.
This is what we are doing with my 3rd grade son
1st grade
spelling (AAS 1)
handwriting (Getty Dubbay)
Geography (map drawing)
2nd grade
Math (Singapore 2B, we are almost done and should move to 3A next month)
3rd grade
WWE3
FLL3
Latina Christina 1
SOTW 3
7th grade reading level last time he was tested.
So see, it is all over the map. I figure that it is part of why we homeschool. We can do things at our child's skill level, rather than their grade level.
One other thing a lot of people pointed out to me. The second year has some new issues, but is a lot easier than the first.
Hope that helps,
Nicole
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thanks! I think I will look at sales, but might just bite the bullet and buy.
Nicole
New to Homeschooling w/ questions
in K-8 Curriculum Board
Posted
I wouldn't buy writing straight away. If I were you I would get FLL3 (First Language Lessons) It is designed with review for students who have never done traditional grammar. In that there are optional dictation parts to the lesson that most of us skip if we have a writing program, but would probably be enough writing for right now. You could also get the Writing with Ease text (1st-4th) and just work on understanding how that writing program works.
Don't do too much to start. These curriculum's are not only new to you, but they will be new to the kids. It takes time for the student to understand how they are being asked, and the new language.
Have them do a lot of reading, find some fun history books, step into classics etc... Make sure they are of good quality, but have them read.
Research and get comfortable with your math program. Then just pick one thing at a time and slowly introduce them. You don't need to jump into the deep end of the pool, feel the water first and get used to your new role in your kids life. Have some down time for them, and read what you can about teaching. I have been reminded many time that this is a marathon and not a sprint. With them being older, it might seem like you need to hit the ground running, but you don't. Remember you have 3 more months of the year. You can do an hour or 2 or work 3 days a week through the summer.
Best of luck. This is a great place for support. I am in my first year of homeschooling, My son is in 3rd grade (I am not worried about my 3 year old daughter yet). PM me if you have any questions
Nicole