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Zann

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  1. I have an insane collection of movies, however I keep finding my way back to John Candy for Comedy, Arnold for action (Sometimes Comedy), for drama and epic films I been watching films from China. True Legend has been my most watched film for about 3 months now. Its a "True Legend" about Su Can aka Beggar Su who developed the Drunken Master style of Kung Fu.
  2. The most detrimental thing about "Teaching to the Test" is that it does not develop the brain of our children in the proper manner. In WTM and other sources on the Trivium its paramount to teach things in a manner that can be linked. Quoting from WTM "All knowledge is interrelated. Astronomy, for example isn't studied in isolation; it's learned along with the history of scientific discovery, which leads into the church's relationship to science and from there to the intricacies of medieval church history." This interrelating of facts at the grammar stage does more than just put facts in our children's mind it develops crucial neural pathways in the brain that will serve our children once they move to the logic stage. The knowledge we teach is a ends to a mean. The real task of the Trivium is to develop the brains pathways. The Grammar stage provides our child's brain with the foundational pathways that will grow and deepen as they expand to the Logic stage, from there we have grown the brain to a fact filled interrelated logic machine, next the Rhetoric stage in which our child learns to speak with force and originality. " He applies the rules of logic to the foundational information from the Grammar stage and expresses their conclusions in clear, forceful, elegant language." Teaching to the test lacks the ability to develop the needed pathways in our child's mind.
  3. I have also been teaching 3 at once. I spend about 3 hours a day (more if its Science day.) I use Language Lessons for the WTM for Grammar and Writing with Ease for Writing. I follow these lessons pretty much as writen and they go pretty fast. For history I use History of the world: Ancients along with the PDF of Ancients workbook and Tests. These are also well written and dont take a terrible amount of time. We also do a Nature walk once a week (Learning Tree's) and some kind of field trip at least once a month. This really helps break up the grind. I teach on a 7 day a week schedule so I know how you feel. I would try sliming down your schedule so that its not consuming so much time. Public school is horrid, not only for the crap education but the influence of other kids can really drag down your childrens progress. (While they are in school you can't monitor what kind of kids they hang out with) Remember even if you have to take a week off from homeschooling its not going to destroy your progress. Call it Fall Break and get some R&R in, then revamp your schedule. Keep the Faith and good luck. Our homeschooled kids will be the future in a poorly educated america.
  4. I think it was just domoted to Dwarf Planet. Planet however is in its name.
  5. This is becuase they got slammed when people where using this as a way to get around paying the cash advance interest rate on thier Credit Cards. So the Greedmongers (Aka Bankers/Corp Elite) had a fit.
  6. I suggest Kung Fu. I have studied different styles of Martial Arts and the one I felt was the most spiritual and physically benifician was Kung Fu. While I think any kind of martial art is better than none I believe Kung Fu builds more character, dicipline, and physical and emotional control. To your second question . If you don't have a clue then just sit through a class. Instructors should be calm and intelligent. Teachers should never be agressive or teaching your child to fight agressively ( No Mercy mentality) While you can find a good martial arts instructors that are out of shape, I am always skeptical about instructors that are out shape.
  7. I've have been lucky in this respect. I have taken great pains to explain to my children what "powers" they can tap into by learning to read, write, and speak properly. When I sit and explain this I try and make it as magical as possible and give it the wieght of something as serious as life and death. However my family watchs 0 cable/network T.V., and infact my kids have watched less than 2 hours of cable thier whole lives. My personal view is that T.V. programming is the absolute worse thing for our children especially in the grammar stage. The structure of commericals and programing has been shown to shorten attention spans and train your childs brain to be lazy. I also do things to keep them motivated, rewards like stickers when they do well and lollypops when they do something outstanding. Going to the playground is also very motivational. I made some mistakes in the begining and had my daughter drilling and drilling on writing the letters of the alphabet, so when it came to teaching her to read it was very frustrating becuase she just couldn't put the letters together. I just had to keep plugging away until finally she got it. (Using the Ordinary Teachers Guide suggested by WTM) Remember the goal is to get them to the 5th Grade level by the time they are 10. I would encourage you not to give up. As homeschoolers we are giving our kids the gift of a one on one education that will serve them far better than a Public School system that would let them "Goof Off" and just pass them through. Keep up the good work
  8. Copywork builds the skills the child needs in order to be truly creative. When your child copies sentences from "Good Writers" (I believe C.S. Lewis and Lynn Banks where mentioned in WTM) they learn mechanics, spelling, grammar, and vocabulary. The classical student learns to write by coping great writers. Dictation should start once your child is coping easily, dictation teachs them to have the thought in thier head and then put it on paper. A crucial stage in moving to writing original works (writing down there own Narrations for example.) I hope this is helpful and must give credit for this knowledge to WTM.
  9. Sorry to hear about your father in law. On a up note I just heard on the radio the Federal Goverment is investigating Mortgage Companies that have been involved in using illegal methods to foreclose on 100s of thousands of homes. ( Yeah over 100,000) I remembers your post about them asking you for the same documents many times and as part of the investigation goverments have already found agents are lieing and purposely losing documents to illegally foreclose on homes. From your post it looks like you been working hard to keep your home and this might be something to look into and let the goverment know thats exactly whats been happening to you.
  10. Our family has never celebrated Holloween. I guess we never really seen any use for it. Instead sometimes we would have costume parties so us kids got to dress up. As a father I have continued that tradition with my own kids. I think people forget that other religions before Christianity had morals and there celebrations where not evil. Pegan is a stigma left by the purge that the Catholic church did of all non-catholic doctorin. (Including Christians) However Holloween "Doctorine" is that the devil gets one night to come out and play. Which could beg the question in a young mind why do we dress up and celebrate something that has to do with the devil. My kids don't miss it becuase they have costumes in thier playroom and play a dress up. As far as trick or treat I got a soft spot for letting my kids get candy so they are not hurting for it.
  11. I have heard of this. My oldest son (who lives with his mother) has a friend down the street who is homeschooled. All he does all day is play video games. He is 13 and cant read among other things.
  12. I noticed mine only did this when they where sitting with bad posture. Once I required them to sit up straight they stopped.
  13. Year 1 Curriculum Language Arts Phonics - Spelling · The Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading · Modern Curriculum Press Spelling Workout series - Spelling Workout A Writing · Zanar-Bloser Handwriting Series - Grade K, 1 · Writing with Ease: Strong Fundamentals, Level 1 Workbook Grammar · First Language Lessons of the Well Trained Mind: Level 1 Reading · Homer · Greek and Roman Myths · Aesop's Fables · Plato · Aristotle · Egyptian Myths · Indian Folktales · Confucius · Chinese Folktales · Ancient Chinese Poetry · Cicero · Virgil · English, Irish, and Welsh Fairy Tales · Brothers Grim History & Geography History · The Story of the World: Ancient Times - Vol. 1 · The Story of the World: Ancient Times - Vol. 1 Workbook Biographies · Cheops, Pharaoh of Egypt (2600 - 2675 B.C.) · Hammurabi (1750 B.C.) · Queen Hatshepsut of Egypt (1480 B.C.) · Tutankhamen (1355 B.C.) · Homer (800 B.C) · Romulus (753 - 716 B.C.) · Sennacherib (705 - 681 B.C.) · Lao-tse (604 B.C. Chinese Philosopher) · Pythagoras (581 - 497 B.C.) · Confucius (Kung Fu-Tzu) (551 - 479 B.C.) · Buddha (Siddhartha Gautama) (550 - 480 B.C.) · Socrates (470 - 399 B.C.) · Plato (427 - 347 B.C.) · Aristotle (384 - 322 B.C.) · Alexander the Great (356 - 323 B.C.) · Hannibal (218 - 207 B.C.) · Cicero (106 - 43 B.C.) · Julius Caesar (100 - 44 B.C.) · Virgil (70 - 19 B.C.) · Caesar Augustus (45 B.C. - A.D. 14) · Jesus Christ (4B.C. - A.D.33) Geography · Blackline Maps of the Ancients Math · Saxon Math Homeschooling Kit Science Animal Kingdom · DK First Animal Encyclopedia Biology · The Kingfisher First Human Body Encyclopedia · Biology of Chinese Medicine Plant Kingdom · Green Thumbs: A kids Activity Guide to Indoor and Outdoor Gardening Nature · Familiar Trees of North America: Eastern Region Art Art Techniques, Elements, & Drawing with Children · Artistic Pursuits K - 3 Level 1 Great Artists · Getting to know the World's Great Artists Music · Classical Artists of the Ancients · Musical Instruments of the Ancients · Piano - John Thompsons Modern Course for the Piano Physical Education · Nature Walks ( This also ties in with Science - Learning the Trees) · Kung Fu Spiritual - Religious · Qi Gong · Meditation · Introduction to Religion's in conjunction with History Battle Tactics, Weapons, and Defense · Sun Tzu Art of War · Archery, Swordplay, and Siege Construction · Castle, Keep, and Fortress Construction and Defense Memorization - Relating to Ancient History · Egyptian Gods and Goddesses · Pharaohs · Greek Gods and Goddesses · Roman Emperor's · Chinese Kings & Emperors · Wars & Battles · Natural Disasters · Discoveries - Intellectual & Technological · Philosophers · Hero's This was my baseline for year 1 - I started with the WTM and the items I wanted them to Memorize.
  14. That is a difficult situation but not a hopeless one. My inlaws are from India and in there culture school is of extreme importance. So you can imagine the flack that I have endured becuase of "homeschooling". Becuase of the language and cultural barriers its been difficult to get them to understand that grammar school in America is crap compared to the grammar school in India. (which uses the Trivium method) If your stuck together then your going to have to have a heart to heart and find some common ground. For the sake of the flow and happiness of the family. Oh and if your a Christian you might want leave the scripture open about this is why a man leaves his mother and takes a wife ... a son owes respect to his mother for birth but his place is by his wifes side. (My wife and my mother are constantly at odds. Its my duty however to always stand with my wife while never abandoning my mother. Tough balance believe me)
  15. Yes - I try to stick to stories that will relate at some point to our history lessons. Thier current favorite is Sons of the Dragon Emperor.
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