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BBG580

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Everything posted by BBG580

  1. I have dark walnut wide plank hardwood floors and they are so, so beautiful immediately after being cleaned and then never beautiful again until I clean them the next time. 3 kids + a big dog + a husband = floors that need to be swept and mopped multiple times a day. And life it just too short for that! I do a really good job of it once a day and that's it.
  2. Our experience at the Waldorf school and our experience with public school this year have led us to homeschooling because I do want my children to have an eclectic educational experience and neither school was the right longterm fit for us. I do incorporate a lot of Waldorf into our day, I love the daily and seasonal rhythms, how gentle the early years are, how children's imagination blossom without a barrage of media influences and so on. There is a lot to like about Waldorf on the surface and I've kept many of those aspects. I just don't want my children taught by anthroposophists so they aren't going to a Waldorf school. SuzyJackson- I know people who have their children in Waldorf schools and are happy. I am friends with a man who was K-12 Waldorf and now he is a computer programmer. I am not saying every single Waldorf experience is poor, I was simply stating that upon my own personal interaction with a school and after reading Steiner extensively I decided that Waldorf was not a good fit for my children.
  3. She posted the same type of thing in another PR thread, I think either she is super excited about it or had some hand in the development of that particular product. :)
  4. I love cilantro! In fact during my first pregnancy I craved it so much I would make homemade salsa all the time and put in handfuls of it. :tongue_smilie:
  5. 1. Early mornings 2. Cooked carrots 3. Cats 4. Folding Laundry and putting it away 5. Going to the Dentist 6. SNAKES!!!!!!!!!!! (Eeeek!) 7. Vomiting 8. Scary anything (movies, books, TV shows, etc.)
  6. I'm here too. I'm seeing familiar screen names from the ToG thread! Waves to Tina and AngelBee. :)
  7. No, there is no reading at all. We were very heavily Waldorf inspired for the first 4 years of my daughter's life and we have largely abandoned formal Waldorf or the possibility of sending her to a Waldorf school because we have such serious disagreements with the underpinnings of Waldorf education, anthroposophy. Rudolph Steiner basically created an offbeat and esoteric spirituality that has some commonalities with Christianity. Anthroposophy espouses very specific developmental periods in childhood and it is considered "bad" to rush through the periods or to introduce children to things that they are not considered ready developmentally for. Because of this philosophy that directs the education, children who are outliers, either ahead or behind or have some sort of disorder (like an Autism spectrum disorder) are not well served by Waldorf. My daughter's teacher determined she was Choleric and she didn't seem excited about that, to be frank because that meant that she was intense, energetic, passionate and lively. :) The soft colors associated with early childhood, no media influences, natural toys and so on fit into the anthroposophy paradigm and those external things seem to attract a lot of people to Waldorf without them realizing how extreme some of the beliefs are. To be frank, the more I read Steiner and the more time I spent at her Waldorf school (this was just PreK!) I realized that there were some people involved in Waldorf that could be considered to be a part of a cult. I'm sure I am stepping on toes, but it is the truth. Blind allegiance to any belief system is asking for trouble and if you are not allowing your children to listen to recorded music (classical!!), not allowing them to do any artwork other than felting and wet on wet painting, dressing children so warmly that they are constantly sweating, not allowing children to advance academically and developmentally at their own pace based on some archaic childhood developmental philosophy, well then the shoe fits. I know some families associated with Waldorf who take what they like and they leave the rest and that works for them. We have just moved pretty far away from Waldorf at this point because my second child is very ahead for his age and there is no way I would choose to slow him down in the name of an educational philosophy. HTH!
  8. Do any of you hire a private tutor, maybe a college graduate student or use a service like Kumon to do higher maths and sciences? We're a long, long way from this but I never had to take a chemistry or physics class in high school or college (yes, you read that correctly) and I never had courses in math beyond Algebra II which I hated. There is no way I could competently assist my kids in the high school years in these subject areas even with a well-written curriculum as my guide. Just curious!
  9. Wow, this thread has been enlightening to me! We're new and I guess I've spent more than average for two very little kids. I am not yet confident in my ability to teach and I think I prefer the "hand-holding" of very detailed curriculums so I've spent more money on them. Phonics Road, ToG, McRuffy Color Math and pieced together science and geography have totaled around $700. I've spent about $300 on my preschooler for I'm Ready To Learn + all books and resources, Get Ready Get Set and Go For the Code and Little Saints curricula. So, $1000 or so for us. I'm obviously not going to use all the PreK stuff in one year for him, it should last the next couple years and then onward for my next little one. I'm mixing and matching at this point and that is going well. Compared to the $250 per month I currently spend for 2x per week 9-12 preschool and the 9k I was planning to spend for private Catholic school for my oldest, I feel like this was a reasonable, affordable compromise.
  10. Thanks for the replies! I am going to get out the Notes To The Teacher and the Lab Annotations and spend a little more time with the Orange book to get a better feel for the program. I am NOT mathy and I really want my kids to be confident in math. I've thought more about math curriculum than any other subject and my kid is only going to be age 6 and in 1st grade. :001_rolleyes:
  11. Has anyone here used Miquon through third grade? I'm curious if you used it independently or in tandem with another curriculum, which curriculum and any thoughts you have on Miquon as a whole. I see a lot of Orange book users out there and then lots of Orange on the FS forum, so I'm wondering if this is something people try and abandon and why that is? Is is just too different to keep going with it longterm? We are using McRuffy Color Math as our main program but the Orange book looks very interesting and worth spending time with as well. Thanks in advance.
  12. Just wanted to give you some support! I do think it is an enormous job to homeschool and not every parent is in a situation in which it is the ideal choice. My daughter is actually doing really well in public school this year and we love, love, love her teacher. All public school experiences are not bad and not all homeschooling experiences are good. Each situation is unique. I hope they are able to accommodate your children. My daughter is an average student in K (she was a young 5 starting and had no traditional preschool - we were Waldorf inspired with her) and a lot of the kids in her class were 6 when the year began and had had years of formal preschool so were already reading. There are others in her class that could not identify the letters in the alphabet. There are 26 kids in her class with one teacher and one aide, so the kids who need the most remediation get the most help and the kids who are "ahead" spend a lot of time in groups with parent volunteers. I do think that the children who are ahead are not being challenged well though my daughter is being challenged. I don't think most public school districts do formal gifted testing until 3rd grade unless a child is practically a prodigy and it is apparent that they are far, far ahead of their peers. Good luck! I hope the transition is smooth for your family. Peace, love and warmth in a home environment are worth a whole lot in my book and it sounds like you need to get back to those basics. :grouphug:
  13. I see these replies about relaxing in a lot of the early grade threads and I think that is a good ideal but not going to work for me personally! I have three tiny kids, a husband who travels M-F for his job and nothing will get done if I don't have things photocopied or library lists made ahead of time so I can get things on hold, or have the right craft materials ready so we are a go for projects. For instance, for week one I have some coloring pages, 2 geography worksheets, project materials list and instructions for a quick Colonial book project, some notebooking pages for her nature journal, a 5 word vocab list, and a book list for the library. So it isn't like I am going nuts with too many things, just simply being organized! My point here is that I think this must be individual for each family and if I relaxed we would not be able to homeschool! Right now I am doing our planning during my two littles nap times while my 5 year old is in public school. I don't want to spend the precious weekend time that my husband is here during our school year lesson planning. And when my daughter is home full time after school finishes this year we will begin homeschooling right away for year round school. I will then be using the littles nap times for work time with her on phonics/reading and math. Thanks for your thoughts, though, I enjoy this forum so much because I do get such varying advice and it makes me think my own choices through. :)
  14. Excellent advice. I love the idea of subject folders rather than weekly folders - thank you! It seems so obvious now that you mentioned it, but I'm sure I wouldn't have figured this out on my own. :)
  15. I am working on our first six weeks too. We are starting early this summer. I have actually thought to just plan the first six weeks and then hold off planning more so I can see our typical pace and how our days play out. I know myself - I can plan a lot of things but that doesn't necessarily mean they are going to happen according to plan. It would totally suck to do an entire year plan and then realize 6 weeks in that my pacing was seriously off and all the files need to be reworked!
  16. I'm in the middle of a sea of papers and plans and I'm guessing that math and phonics/reading are largely "do the next thing" and not easily planned out over the course of a year? We are using McRuffy Color Math 1 and Phonics Road 1 next year and I just can't see how I can possibly anticipate what we will do when aside from aiming to do each 5 days per week? If I am missing something here, please let me know how to schedule it!
  17. I'm new and planning for first grade too. I've been ordering away and my dining room table looks a little nuts! I'm not trying to hijack here, I thought it might be interesting to compare b/c according to what I read here on this site, we are probably "over-planned" too. I'd rather have a lot planned and drop than not attempt enough. I'm doing the file folder thing, it should be interesting to see how much we get through each week that I plan for. No matter what Phonics Road and Math will be done at least 5 times per week. The other stuff is what will be sacrificed if we can't fit it all in. We're doing: L/A: Phonics Road 1 VP First Favorites 1 and 2 Math: McRuffy Color Math Family Math (I've got Orange Miquon too, not sure if we will add it in or not) History (3 x per week): ToG/Year 2 Units 3 and 4 at half pace - but the more I plan the more I realize I don't need ToG yet, I am using their books and schedule but lots of smaller craft projects - not one big long unit craft project - and only using the Map Aids very casually. We are adding the Plymouth History Pocket and the unit lapbooks which look right up my crafty girl's alley. Oh, lots of field trips for this over the course of the year to the Smithsonian, Jamestown/Williamsburg, Amish PA, Mount Vernon, Monticello and so on. Geography (3-5 times per week): Pulling from various sources. Parts of Beginning Geography K-2 ebook from Evan-Moor coupled with VA geography (neighborhood, town, state) then moving into Expedition Earth for the rest of the year. One country per week, more hands on cooking/coloring/singing which is why I picked it. Science (2-3 times per week): Very CMish, all four season unit studies from Handbook of Nature Study blog coupled with another unit study for each season from Shining Dawn (ie. Snow and Ice for winter, etc.). Mandarin Rosetta Stone with her father once per week on weekends (she's already in Mandarin in public school this year and my MIL is Chinese and speaks Mandarin with her when they are together). She'll continue with year round swimming lessons and add in Tae Kwon Do. She will begin CCD at our parish. It sounds like so much when you get it all listed out!
  18. My oldest had hers pierced at 4.5 and it was fun for us to go and do it together. I would not pierce an infant personally but I know plenty of friends who have pierced their baby girls and I also understand that it is culturally appropriate in some instances. No judgments on any parent's choice from me, I just liked waiting a bit, though some would argue 4.5 is early!
  19. I have tried so many other lines over the years and I always seem to end up with OoO moisturizer. It is light, clean scent and never breaks me out. And it is affordable. Ponds cold cream seems old-school to me, not OoO!
  20. My oldest is in public K this year and I've often said that if the school/PTO would just be up front in the beginning of the year and say, "We do not think you pay enough taxes to support our school already, so please open your checkbook and write a check for $500 payable to ____ we will leave you alone for the rest of the year." would be preferable to turning my 5 year old into a salesperson. Wrapping paper, cookie dough, coupon books, penny drives and box tops. I am SO OVER IT! ETA: The spirit wear money grubbing is the worst. I have paid $20 for a cheap, tacky tee-shirt that will never be worn anywhere other than school AND they bully the kids into bullying the parents to buy one b/c a PTO member comes around every Friday to hand out a pencil to every kid wearing "spirit-wear". I have never felt so intensely bad for poor children than I have this year seeing how they are marginalized and separated even beginning in Kindy b/c their parents cannot afford spirit wear so they don't get the crap "prize". It's sad.
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