snipsnsnailsx5
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Posts posted by snipsnsnailsx5
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That is a pretty big benefit since in the case of spreading HPV or HIV it can be a life vs death difference to that partner. No small thing.
That's not the ONLY benefit, btw, not by a long-shot, but it is not one to be underestimated.
A male can be circumcised as an adult, but at that point it is no longer the simple procedure it is at birth, and the benefits of growing up through adolescence without a foreskin are lost. It is a very bad move to wait if one is to be circumcised eventually.
As to some males being "very unhappy" being circumcised I've never met any man, ever, who is unhappy that he was circumcised. Where the few friends I've had who were not circumcised were the "very unhappy" ones, and the only males I've ever known to have UTIs.
Bill
Several doctors I've talked to - OB's, pediatricians, and a urologist have never said that there is serious enough medical reasons that circumcision must be done routinely. Although I know there are many more doctors out there who would say otherwise, it just depends on you talk to I guess.
I do know that my husband, who is circ'ed, DOES in fact regret it. It probably has to do with him having to get two circumcisions as an infant because the first one wasn't done correctly. Then he ended up getting a nasty infection from the second circumcision, and too much skin was taken off during the second circ. Finally, he has lifelong issues still to this day that bother him relating to the circ.
I left the decision up to him still, and he is definitely anti-circ. In his opinion, its unnecessary. Rather, God made our bodies in His image and perfect as they are.
Its our job to just teach our sons to properly care for themselves and wash well enough-just as you would with a daughter-to avoid infections. Again, that's his stance on it, and I tend to agree. However, I also leave it up to my husband to decide since he is the expert on penis'. lol
Five boys later...never had a problem yet.
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The thought scares me. That may seem silly, but you have to understand that my oldest three boys have gone to kindergarten at a public school and someone else taught them the basics and how to read. I have my 1st grader homeschooled now as of this fall, but he's already gotten a lot of the basics at public school last year....
So now I have my next youngest coming up to kindergarten age soon (he's only 3.5 now) and I'm faced with trying to figure out what's the best way to teach him the basics, like colors, numbers, ABC's, and beginning reading lessons. I was taught to read when I was 3 yrs old, and my oldest son was taught in daycare to read at 4 yrs old (he ended up started kindergarten, 5 yrs old, reading at a second grade level lol...everyone praised me, but I kept saying that I didn't do anything! He just really grew with the little instruction he got in daycare on his own and took it from there).
I have some preschool workbooks but I'm not sure what/where/how to start?!
Thanks!
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Oh I forgot about scouts, we do that too. Once a week meetings. And then my 11 yr old has activities with scouts once a month or every other month beyond the usual meetings.
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I keep seeing all this MCT talk. I finally realized what MCT stands for. I looked at the website and I really like the looks of this program. I like how thorough it is and how it seems to cover everything I wanted to be covered.
I spent days, weeks, months researching curriculum this summer but I never came across this (and I just joined this site a couple weeks ago!). I'm sorry I didn't see this sooner.
I have a 6th grader, 3rd grader and 1st grader. I'm happy with my 1st grader's curriculum right now (Explode the Code, WWE, FLL and AAS for his language arts programs). I also am happy with my 3rd grader's curriculum so far, except not so much on the literary/reading side. I had planned on doing LLATL but I'm not thrilled with it, and really its just confusing me on how to use it. I read the teachers manual intro about it, but it still confuses me. Do you do the lessons from front to back, or do you take pieces of diff sections to make up your lesson? Anyway...off topic.
Mostly I am not happy with what I chose for my 6th grader though which was LLATL, Winston Grammar, and AAS. There were parts about each I liked but overall I'm not pleased yet. I like the literary aspects of LLATL however its not moving fast enough yet (and again, LLATL confuses me). I liked the grammar aspects of Winston Grammar but it also is moving way tooo slowly for my son. And I chose AAS for my 11 yr old because it seems he never learned about why certain letters make certain sounds when he was in school. He pretty much taught himself to read, and then just breezed through any reading lessons in school...so he never got those beginning lessons on phonograms, etc. I see it come out in the way he pronounces words he hasn't come across before...like tonight he pronounced charisma as "karis-ma" (putting emphasis on ma) rather then "kar-iz-ma" (putting emphasis on 'iz'). I don't know if AAS will help with knowing how to better pronounce new words he comes across, but that was my plan.
So anyway, long intro there - but I wonder if MCT would be a better fit for him. I think so, but I really don't know much or anything about it.
I know its expensive. haha Especially since I've already got all this other curriculum (Dh will kill me! ;) )
But I wonder if its worth it to purchase? I assume I'd start out with the Voyage level?
Can you ladies help sell me on this program? What are the pros and cons?
THanks!
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I do piano once a week for my 8 and 11 yr old.
Soccer is seasonal, but my 11 and 8 yr old do fall soccer and my 6 yr old does spring soccer.
That's about all we can afford right now. haha
However, our community has lots of homeschool resources - such as a co-op or a public school funded program which is a school just for homeschoolers. You can take just one or two classes a week or up to 8 classes a week. These are not done at any of the public schools, but rather a totally separate building across town that is really just a school for homeschoolers. It runs Tue-Wed-Thurs and you choose your classes and how many hours.
So this year I got excited and did all 8 classes/week for the boys. That means they go three hours on Tuesday and five hours on Wednesday. They are taking a variety of classes from karate to art to science to music classes. They really really like it so far.
In the future I may cut some time back on that, but it gives me a nice break in the middle of the week and it gives the boys a nice time out of the home to be around other kids and other adults as teachers. :) The classes are all really fun too.
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Hello!
I just jumped into homeschooling this fall with my 11 yr old, 8 yr old, and 6 yr old. I was very nervous!
I researched the workbox system and have been using that. Its been working really well. It allows me to have the day planned out for each child. Also, using the workboxes to space certain things they may need me for allows me to make sure my time is being used more wisely. Things are going very smoothly so far!
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Living in a house with five boys (six including DH!) - I can't believe most of what comes out of my mouth. haha
Today for example -
"Please don't brush my hair with the cat brush"
"Is that poop or chocolate?"
"We don't poop on the floor, we poop in the toilet"
"No you may not tie your brothers big wheel to the back of your bike and go down the hill!"
"Please keep your hands out of your pants"
"We don't wipe boogers on our brothers!"
"All bugs need to stay outside."
And so on...I could keep going! lol
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Hello!
So I've jumped on the workbox wagon. We've only been homeschooling for one week now, so we're VERY new. However in my months of research over the summer (haha) I found that I really liked the idea of workboxes, especially with multiple kids. Otherwise, I didn't know how I'd organize it and make sure everyone knew what they were doing next without tons of "mom mom mom mom" all day.
Anyway, just wanted to see if anyone else is trying it. My boys really like it so far.
Here is some pictures of my set-up:
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From what I've seen with my 11 yr old - even in 4th and 5th grade, he still stood out from the majority of the other kids. The difference seemed to be that a few other kids also caught up, and he no longer was the "best reader" in the class. Pretty much those kids that caught up were a few of the girls. Girls mature faster. ;)
However, my child hasn't changed and he still continues to learn very quickly and grow. So he hasn't evened out, rather a couple other kids started to catch up. And sometimes I think that's because my son started to back off and not try as hard. Rather, he would just show up to school to have fun. He'd do the work and get good grades, but he wasn't pushing himself. So it gave the impression of other kids catching up.
I hope that makes sense. I don't even think it makes sense to me. lol
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See its hard for me to asses his skills because I really haven't been involved in his schooling.
From what I do know about him though, he's a very fast learner and absorbs it well. He doesn't seem to need repetition or a lot of sensory methods. I thought he would because he gets bored easily and gets off task often...however, if its something interesting/challenging enough then he does just fine.
For reading and grammar - he's way advanced in reading and always has been. Its becoming hard to find books in his reading level. All the books he wants to read are around the 4th grade reading level it seems...that became problem with last year in school because they wouldn't give him credit for books read that were not in his reading level. He said his last assessment at his public school last year had his reading level "range" between 6.0 and 20.0. That seems like a wide range though. I don't know how to assess his reading myself.
As for grammar and writing...he knows just what he's been taught so far according to grade level. The Winston Grammar is totally new to him, however after the first introductory lesson, he doesn't need me to walk him through the steps and all. Its pretty simple to him. He said that in 5th grade he was writing 1-2 page essays.
As for math, they tested the students in 4th grade and put them in a math according to their level. He was in the "advanced math" in 5th grade. He said he was doing multiplying and dividing fractions, decimals, probability...
Thanks!
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Thanks for the comments! That makes sense. I did do the competency test in the beginning for my older two. According to the tests, they are in the right levels. So I think you ladies are right, its just a matter of moving faster through the lessons they know.
However I do want them to get a good grasp on how to do it the Math-U-See way though, since it will help in later lessons.
This is what I've started doing now - introduce the lesson with the DVD (they like watching the DVD lol) then do one lesson sheet. The next day they do a review (if they did well on the lesson sheet) and then a test the same day. So they could be going through a lesson every two days until it gets harder.
I don't have any of the next levels though. aack! (except for my Primer son) So I think I should start looking to acquire the rest of the math-u-see levels to have on hand.
Thanks!
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Hello!
My 11 yr old has had a long, rough history with public school from K through 4th grade - last year in 5th grade it started to get better for him. We considered homeschooling way back in kindergarten when we started having problems, I'm just sad that I couldn't have talked my DH into it sooner!
Anyway, he's always been advanced and the school had to test his IQ in first grade (per Doctors orders) which showed overall borderline gifted and some parts of the test were in the gifted range. Those parts were in mathematical reasoning areas.
In school, he would get bored and daydream in class, space off, not pay attention - thus started many of our issues and a lot of teacher and principal meetings about him not listening. Several teachers even outright suggested he had ADD (thus why the doctor asked the school to IQ test also).
Anyway, not to get into all that backstory - but I really want to challenge him.
I chose Winston Grammar, Learning Language Arts Through Literature, All About Spelling, and Math U See as his language arts and math curriculum. So far its seems they are all super easy for him. I know its the first couple lessons, and hopefully they will pick up. However, I'm just curious what curriculum you guys suggest or do with your children?
Thanks!
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This is our first year homeschooling and the boys came straight out of a public school - so my 6 yr old is officially a "first grader" but when I picked out his curriculum, I just did it based on what I thought he needed to work on. His reading and writing is probably kindergarten level. We're going back to basics on that. His math is the Primer level in Math U See. It seems WAY easy right now, like kindergarten level. However its going to pick up I know.
HTH!
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All five of my boys are not circ'ed. It started with my first one. I really didn't have much information. I asked my midwife and she answered that it was mostly a personal decision or for religious reasons. It didn't seem like I had enough information that compelled me to want to have it done. I was a very young single mom, and so it was totally up to me. My mom didn't have my brother circ'ed either, so she didn't have much advice to give me about it.
So I chose not to have it done.
When I married two years later and I became PG and we had a boy. My DH is circ'ed and he wanted his son to be circ'ed. However, when we found out that its not covered by insurance, it suddenly wasn't as important to him. haha
After that he never even wanted any of the next sons to be born to be circ'ed. We never even discussed it, and his stance on the issue now is that it's not necessary. An issue came up with my 8 yr old (not related to being not circ'ed) that he had to go to the urologist. Even the urologist said that there really wasn't big reasons to get circ'ed. Personal preference mostly.
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Hello!
Its our first week of using Math-U-See, and I'm using level Epsilon for my 11 yr old (6th grade), and Alpha for my 8 yr old (3rd grade), and Primer for my 6 yr old (first grade).
The first lesson was super easy for all the boys. The second lesson still looks pretty easy. I'm wondering if its common for MUS to start out so slow? The first couple concepts being taught are things the boys learned an entire grade back, beginning of the year. (Like learning to count items in my 6 yr's old case)
Is MUS challenging enough for those advanced at math? My 11 yr old was in public school last year-this is his first year homeschooling. He's advanced, and was in an advanced math class and still getting an A, although he was being challenged enough to say it was difficult.
I'm worried this program won't be challenging enough for him?
Any thoughts or suggestions on maybe a better program for him?
Thanks!
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This is my first year homeschooling. I've spent months obsessing over curriculum but I finally got it figured out, for now. I've already made some last minute changes this week. LOL
However, the more I read about Latin the more I'm curious. I hadn't planned on this, but it does make sense. I wish *I* had been taught Latin as a child because of how language has its root in Latin. It would have made learning Spanish a bit easier too.
So what do you use to teach Latin? Are there programs or curriculum? What age do you start?
Thanks!!
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Its my first year homeschooling also! I spent all summer researching curriculum. I swear I changed my mind 10+ times. lol
I finally came to the realization that I need to keep it a lot more simple this first year. I had picked IEW for a short few weeks, and even joined an IEW users yahoo group. Then I just realized its too much right now. Its going to be a big adjustment for me to have all my boys home (ages 11, 8, and 6 - also doing some preschool with my 3 yr old and maybe my 19 mo old too).
I was also advised to not spend a lot of money at first on expensive programs, because I may not like it or it may not even be a fit for our family! This first couple years is a good time to figure out what we like, how we like to teach, and what fits our kids best.
So I was advised to stick to more inexpensive programs (or get together with other homeschooling parents to see what they use before I buy expensive programs).
My final decision was to use FLL and WWE for my 6 and 8 yr old. I'm not quite so such about my choice for my 11 yr old, but I got it all used and at good prices so it didn't cost much-but for him I'm doing LLATL and Winston Grammar.
I'm doing Math U See for all the boys (again, shopped around and bought the parts and pieces used, off ebay, etc)
ANd I'm doing All About Spelling for all the boys too. I really like the idea behind that program, and that all boys can start on the first level. It was $97 total with shipping for all the boys' books for spelling.
I'm also doing Story of the World with all the boys.
Oh and I got some Explode the Code books to use as a supplement for my 6 yr old. He probably doesn't *need* them, but I think they're cool and they're quick. We'll do it as "fun". lol
HTH!
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It was me! Looong story to follow...
When our first son started having problems in kindergarten, I was already fed up after just a few months. I wanted to homeschool him, but I had to work at that time too. Or so we thought I "had" to. A couple more years of struggling, and when our 4th son was born our boys' babysitter had to move and we knew we weren't going to find another place or person we could trust (and afford!) to watch our four boys, so I quit my job.
We thought it would be hard, but it wasn't as hard as we thought. You just adjust, ya know?
All this time we still had struggles with my oldest in 1st, 2nd, 3rd grade. I can't even count how many times he went to the principal's office or we had "special meetings" with the principal and teacher. It got old really fast. I hated that school. Hate is a strong word but oh boy do I mean it. We tried working with them. We took our son to be evaluated by his pediatrician for ADHD. The Ped also ordered an IQ test, and the final results were that he did not have ADHD (according to the ped) and he did have a high IQ, bordering on gifted for the overall score (some individual scores were in the gifted range).
The school wouldn't buy it. They said we should consider a second opinion. In 1st grade he was accused of hacking computers to change his grades. They brought in the whole cavalry for that meeting. When my husband suggested that maybe our son saw the teacher type the password in and remembered it...oh no, now way the teacher said. "That couldn't happen, I'm very careful". Of course she was saying this in front of the Principal. She just wanted to save her own hide, and she didn't care one little bit about my son. Of course, after talking to our first grader son later - it was as we suspected, he rattled off the password as soon as we asked him. He said he watched her type it in when she was signing him on for his reading test. He went on the computer under her password and started messing around with things...changing his reading score to 10,000 words per minute. Oh boy.
However, what finally broke the camel's back (or so they say) was when our second son (who was more energetic and more of a "troublemaker" at home then our first son ever was) started kindergarten and the cycle started all over again.
The biggest problem we had was how the school was NOT willing to work with us. We had many meetings, we were always willing to try what they asked. However, when we had a suggestion they never followed through.
Finally in second grade for our second son last year (our first son was in 5th grade and doing pretty well in middle school actually, different school and different rules)..it was a rough rough year. The discipline system is one warning and then a pink ticket. If you get three pink tickets a month then you get a red ticket which means you are removed from your classroom (to another classroom) until your parent has a meeting with the teacher and principal. We went through several of these red tickets. (always for things like not listening, not paying attention, not following directions, making noise, etc) During a meeting the principal said that if our son gets another red ticket then he'd be removed from the school and taken to the middle school ISS (in school suspension) room for the day, no recess or lunch breaks, just sitting in a corner at a desk all day long (eating lunch at his desk of course). I was shocked! I asked, "does that really work?" because I couldn't stop myself. The Principal said "not really, but its the only tool we have". After the meeting I told the teacher that under no circumstances was my son to be taken to the middle school for an ISS day. I'd rather come get him myself and take him home.
Well a month later, another red ticket, and I get a call from the Principal saying that he has taken my son to the middle school where I can pick him up at the end of the day. WHAT?! I was livid! My husband even called around to find out if we could press charges somehow. Extreme probably, but in the moment we just found out that someone (yes the Principal) took our son off school property and drove him to another school without our permission or even calling us first. According to school handbook rules (we looked it up) they are supposed to call the parents before a child is sent to an ISS room.
I'd NEVER heard of a 2nd grader going to a middle school ISS room! For what? Not fighting. Not swearing. Not being uncontrollable...no, it was for an accumulation of more then three warnings a month.
That was it. I immediately picked him up from the middle school. Then it was winter break, and when we returned he had ONE day and another note sent home that he was trying to chase and kiss a girl, and the mother was very upset. I took him home and never brought him back.
It took some effort on my part, but my husband quickly realized that the best place for the boys to be was homeschooled. We didn't want to single out one child. The more we thought about it also we realized it was the best thing for all of them.
Today is the first day that they've all been home (today is the first day of school for the districts here)! We'll start homeschooling on Monday. YAY!
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This is what I decided to do with my first grader -
I got FLL and Explode the Code for some "fun" work. Then I'm doing Writing with Ease for his writing portion. We're doing All About Spelling since I'm homeschooling two of his brothers too (it makes it easier to all do the same level, same program).
For more handwriting practice, I found tons of great handwriting printables online that are basically exactly what I found in Handwriting Without Tears. So I decided not to do Handwriting Without Tears afterall.
HTH!
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For his language arts curriculum I had decided to use Learning Language Arts Through Literature (Tan) along with Winston Grammar and All About Spelling.
Now that I'm looking at the Writing With Ease series for my 6 and 8 yr old...I'm really liking it for my 11 yr old too.
Those who have middle-school aged kids, what do you do for language arts?
Maybe I could substitute WWE 2 for the Winston Grammar? Would doing LLATL and WWE 2 be overkill?
Thanks!!
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Thank you all so much for the replies!
Okay another question - do I need both the WWE book and the WWE workbook? Or can I just get the workbook?
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Hello, I posted this in reply to another thread - but I thought it might need to be in its own thread.
I had planned on First Language Lessons with Learning Language Arts Through Literature and All About Spelling, and maybe even throwing in Handwriting Without Tears. But it seems like SO much. LLATL is such a "comprehensive" program too, that maybe its a bit overkill?
I'm wondering if you guys think that doing the First Language Lessons with a writing program like Writing With Ease would be enough (with All About Spelling still) - to cover my language arts: reading/writing/spelling/grammar?
Thank you!
~Bethany
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I'm wondering if you all think that FLL with WWE would be enough of a comprehensive Language Arts Curriculum for a third grader? Minus spelling of course. We're doing All About Spelling for spelling.
I had picked out LLATL (Learning Language Arts Through Literature) to go with First Language Lessons (FLL) but now I'm wondering if I need that whole program. Maybe I can just get by with FLL and WWE instead?
Thanks!!!
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Hello, I know this thread is a couple months old, however I wanted to add our experience.
We did Columbia Virtual Academy for five months last year.
The pros:
I liked how they reimbursed for materials, and a LOT of materials were covered. Some faith-based companies that local ALE programs won't cover (like Learning Language Arts Through Literature).
You didn't have to pay for it out of pocket first - you just sent the list of your materials to your student consultant person and she/he faxed it in and ordered it. The materials came directly to you.
They paid for consumables too and school supplies.
They also reimbursed for educational field trips.
Also, while we didn't do it - I heard a lot of good about the Calvert program they used -which was all your year's curriculum AND supplies in one neat kit.
The cons:
For someone new to homeschooling, I was very confused. I didn't like the lack of communication, although I could contact our consultant person through email or phone whenever I wanted...usually the email took a day for a reply. I also have too loud of a house (lots of little kids underfoot) to make numerous phonecalls.
So it was pretty confusing at first. The weekly check-ins via email became a bit of a hassle too and I was late a couple times sending them in. oops! I never got much further then that since we were only in it five months. But I hear you have to send in examples of work eventually too?
I ended up opting instead to go through a local program like Columbia Virtual Academy, but the weekly contacts are made in person, in a class. Monthly meetings with your certified teacher to show work and answer questions, etc. are also required. But we get up to 8 hours of class time in a school just for homeschooled kids. We also get to choose whatever classes we want (art, P.E. classes, music classes, lots of sciences and social studies/histories). They are very creative classes too, like my 11 yr old is taking a Mayan Civilization class in which they get to simulate mayan civilization in their class. I love they they'll be learning through doing rather then sitting in desks and reading. The majority of the classes are very hands-on like that.
Curriculum?
in Accelerated Learner Board
Posted
What is PASS?
Thanks!
I think right now we're going to zoom through MUS, just because that's what we have right now. But supplementing on the side would be helpful until I can buy a different curriculum.