Jump to content

Menu

HayleyKC

Members
  • Posts

    89
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by HayleyKC

  1. Basically no suit and tie required. Still nice though. Slacks or khakis (not jeans) and a collared shirt; polo type or button down (short or long sleeved) and some nice shoes.
  2. Haha. I just can't stop giggling. Those were so bad and so weird! And the one that was given out as a Christmas card is funny because. . . . . since when was it normal to send out a Christmas card of a naked pregnant lady being groped by her . . . husband? Ahhh! It feels good to point and laugh sometimes. :lol:
  3. Use it! :-) What if one week a month you dropped all your other stuff and just did those things? I dunno. Just a thought. If you school year round you could definitely do this I would think. Or what if you did that stuff over the summer? Hmm.
  4. We will start then too, although. . . . we might sneak in and get an extra edge by starting ON Labor Day! haha. Is that bad? My kids don't know really recognize these holidays as "time off" yet and have no expectation that there should be anything other than school on a Monday so I take advantage of that often. I did find it funny this year when my daughter seemed truly offended to find we were doing school on Valentine's Day! Apparently to little 7/8 year old girls this holiday is a bigger deal than I thought. She expected to have a party of some sort, w/ card & candy exchanges and make heart crafts all day. :-)
  5. For my son last year who was 4 almost 5 at the start of the school year, it was very inexpensive to get the basics covered and still way ahead of the game because if I had put him in PS he wouldn't have been able to start K until this fall and they don't start teaching reading until 1st! I got everything I needed for the year for him for $65. I bought these things at Rainbow resource which tend to be cheaper but only if you are getting free shipping. If you don't have a big enough order, Amazon has decent pricing and easy to get free shipping. And you could probably drop the handwriting book to save more for now as there is writing in the phonics and you could probably do more on your own. 1. Math- singapore math early bird series. there is book A which is pre-k and book B which is k. Each level is meant to last a year. you could look and decide where to start your son. I got the textbook ($23) and the activity book ($15). 2. Phonics- explode the code- when he was 3/4 we went through the 3 book series Get Ready, Get Set, and Go for the Code which goes through all the letter sounds. Then last fall we started him on Explode the code Book 1 which begins putting those sounds together into words. We made it through Book 1 and 2 for the year (Each book was $6.50 so total of $13 for the year!). 3. Reading- We rented Bob Books from the library and went through the whole series (5 sets) over the course of the year. By the end of K, we hit our goal. He can read! :-) (FREE!) 4. Handwriting- We used "A Reason For Handwriting" Book K for kindergarten. ($13)
  6. My 5 almost 6 year old boy loves to color and does pretty well. He gets very detailed, particular about what colors to use, and often colors the entire page, all the way to the edges! I really, really think this has almost all to do with him having an older sister (8) who is a true artist and really values art. Since she's his playmate everyday, he has come to enjoy it since that's what she wants to do. I've found because of that, his skills have really come along. However he's nowhere near the way she is, but I think above average for a boy his age. I also teach in Sunday school at church and all the boys his age do what was described earlier; scribble one color and then run and play. I wouldn't worry about it. Sounds like on average, based on other comments, most boys get into coloring a few years later, if at all. I think my son just demonstrates the power of association! :-)
  7. Oh man that clock chapter was no fun! My daughter could not stand it and it seemed to go forever! She was so miserable that we were all miserable dealing with her on it. I will say when all was said and done, she's pretty darn good at reading clocks. Wondering how it will be when we revisit clocks in level 3. But it is true, you could move past to the next thing and rest assure that it will be covered again the next year, maybe at that point it will click for him.
  8. I'm not done either! Not because I can't decide though, just waiting for money. I've purchased 3/4 of my stuff, have the rest is sitting in my wish list on rainbow and still need some school supplies. Just haven't been able to finalize the purchases. It is the nice part about being the boss though! We can start out with what we have and add in as we get the rest. I'm trying to remind myself I don't need to fret about it.
  9. I'm with you! I accelerated through 1 and 2 this year because my daughter is a bit older. We did writing as well because we use TOG and it has writing and I like it. I too have an almost 6 year old this fall who will start PR 1 at normal pace. I plan to start him on level 1 writing in TOG and see how it goes. I think however, if my kids both started at the normal age and I didn't happen to have writing included in my other unit study, I wouldn't worry about something additional for writing. I do believe PR covers all you need for LA and anything else added would just be because you wanted to. So many great things out there, it's easy to be drawn into a writing program after reading great comments about it! :-)
  10. :iagree: That would explain the overlapping! :-) I'm glad you asked too!
  11. Haven't looked into this but I like what you're describing! I find that most often we work together in the main common area of the house and then they have a little bit of quiet room time at some point, like maybe 1 hr depending on the day. I have found that the curriculum you choose can greatly affect this. I use TOG which has us all studying the same stuff just at different levels, so most if not all work is done together. Also for science we do Apologia so we're all together on that (at least for elementary, it will change later.) I have leaned toward programs that have us all together so I don't feel spread too thin. My kids have different level math and are on different levels for PR, but those are the only two things that are totally different content. And I think based off of what you described, I may have my younger in the room working on something while I teach PR to my older and vise versa and maybe have them do math simultaneously so older can sometimes help younger. Although my older is still pretty young and working on staying focused on what she needs to get done so we may work into that later.
  12. My first movie in the theater was ET! I remember around that same time my favorite movies to watch at home were Wizard of Oz and Mary Poppins. Still love those two and have enjoyed sharing them with my kids.
  13. Good stuff 3blessingmom! I also remember our first year with each of my kids and that it took a week or two for them to understand the hat switched. I wasn't just mom now, I'm "THE TEACHER"! Heheh:-P Once I made that clear and we got consistent about officially switching to school mode and I was their teacher, they adjusted and behaved accordingly. But it did take a couple of weeks. Also, every month or so they might need a reminder. I also can't tell you how many times we've talked through what kids who go to regular school have to go through and what their day would be like and how much freedom they would have to give up. I find that helps keep their perspective on track
  14. I wouldn't give up so easy. Consider not sending him anyway and moving forward with your homeschool plan! Make a careful, thoughtful appeal to your husband letting him know how you feel and why you want him home. Ultimately you want peace between your dh and you. But if you maturely and calmly express to him what you've expressed to us in a respectful way, he could very likely come to agree with you. If not, go with what dh decides and God will work things to good and bless you for sticking by your dh. definitely believe that just because there is a waitlist at some school (charter, private, any kind of school), doesn't mean it's an opportunity that is necessarily better than homeschooling. Personally, the longer I homeschool, the more convicted I am that it's the best thing there is! I don't care if I had all the money in the world and the option of all the most incredible schools out there, I think homeschooling can be just as good and most often better and that's what I would do. That's just me. I realize not everyone feels that way. But in your situation, you want to homeschool him, you're able to, you're willing to, there's nothing keeping you from it, so I think you should still see if it can happen! And as far as your son's excitement. That's understandable. If your husband agrees to it after you talk with him, just think through how to present it to your son in a positive simple way and you can totally influence how positive and excited he will be. Even if not immediately, he can soon see how great of a thing it is as well. Best of luck! I think he is fortunate to have a mom with such a caring and tender heart which tells me no matter what, he has a great future!
  15. Curricula-wise I'm looking forward to year 2 for Tapestry. This is always my favorite part. In general, I'm looking forward to being more organized, and adding in a few handy tips here and there that I've learned over the last few weeks, reading this forum!
  16. Wow. Yeah, I like the comments so far. It always hurts to be personally attacked, no matter how, why or who. But I think your assumption is most likely right about her projecting her relationship with her own daughter on you. You have to think about who is saying these things, look at the fruit on their tree, and decide if they're worth listening to. I'd say based off of what you said, she's not, and you just have to decide to let it roll and blow it off. I always remind myself "hurting people hurt people." It's so true. I had a similar thing happen to me a few years back, but in person. Someone I hardly knew who was delusional about how "close" she was with my sister and mother-in-law, and decided it was her place to come lecture me about what I should be doing as my sister-in-law's "sister" for her wedding and basically tell me I was a jerk and dropping the ball for not throwing her a bridal shower. I was blown away. Little did she know I had practically put the whole wedding together for her, sang, was a bridesmaid, put the vows together, all while homeschooling my two children, working from home, you know. . . the list goes on. I'm still hurt and ticked when I think about the nerve she had to say those things, but I have to do what you have to do and that is, think about the person who's talking and if they're worth listening to, and think about what you know (reality) about the situation and remind yourself, they're nuts and don't know what they're talking about and really, have no place to say the things they are saying. Grrr. It is frustrating that facebook and online sites in general have created so many platforms for these people to say ridiculous things so freely. One of the downsides of the times we live in. You're right. You know you and your mom are tight. She's wrong. You know her values don't match up with yours based on her life results and behaviors. So delete it, drop it, and move on.
  17. I have an UG and a LG. We do blocks mostly. Here's what it looks like. Monday: Worldview/Church history reading (I read aloud usually but sometimes my oldest reads independently) Tuesday: History and History in Depth (same thing with reading- I usually read LG stuff and they both listen, then UG does her own extra reading) Wednesday: Geography- we do our maps together Thursday: Writing- I work with each student on their level assigned writing. Friday: Fun day- lapbooks and art/activity projects (I keep this optional we might do one activity a month) Note: for Literature we don't typically do this doing regular school time. My UG reads in bed throughout the week, my LG, I read to him before bed throughout the week. Also- vocab can be done lots of ways, I'm still deciding how to do it this year, but I think I'll give them a couple words each day. Also- on days with a lot of reading, I sometimes have them work on their lapbooks while we're reading. Other times I printout relevant coloring pages for my youngest to do while reading. Hope this helps!
  18. This is interesting to think about. My daughter skipped kindergarten (I guess I did so much with her at home before starting I didn't realized we'd covered the K basics.) So when she started, originally with Connections Academy (online charter school), they placed her in 1st grade. Even being a year younger for her grade, her portfolio samples we saved from 1st and 2nd grade have some AMAZING quality handwriting. Beautiful print toward the end of 1st grade and some beautiful cursive over the second half of 2nd grade. When we started homeschooling on our own last year for 3rd grade, I watched her handwriting get sloppier and sloppier! I have wondered if this is a phase because of her age or what. We still use handwriting books following the same style she was taught in, so no big change there. Obviously she has more meaty work now than the years before, could that be why? She's just wanting to keep up and get her work done? Not sure. But I love hearing everyone's thoughts on this. I especially liked what "Veggiegal" had to say and feel the same. It's important to have your final drafts, handwriting assignments and final special projects looking the very best you can do, and for practical purposes, math and other subjects need to be legible. I like emphasizing all the reasons and practical examples. Will definitely do that. I've just been disappointed with how gnarly the majority of her work is looking. Honestly, even her final drafts don't begin to compare to the 2 years previous. Any thoughts? I think pulling out her old samples and showing her that might motivate her. I also wonder if it came from learning print and then cursive and maybe she's starting to morph her writing into a messy hybrid kind of like we adults are guilty of. I dunno. I'm rambling now. Sorry. . . don't mean to hijack! :-)
  19. Wow. None of this has ever crossed my mind. :-P I leave all of the above on when I leave the house and/or when I go to bed. I love to go to bed knowing work is being done for me while I sleep! Same thing when I leave. Perhaps I should re-think this. Or at least take some precautions first.
  20. I use math mammoth and then we do miquon math in addition for our "fun math". This fall I'll have both my kids doing that. Looking forward to seeing how it goes.
  21. Art and science! :-) Last year was our first year and I didn't even bother doing art. Figured I'd at it later. We will being starting Artistic Pursuits this fall so we'll see how that goes. As a general rule, anything that requires lots of materials and setup, I tend to avoid. So I mentally have to discipline myself in this case that it's inevitable. Can't really do art without materials and setup. Planning to do it on Fridays. With Science I ran into the same stuff you mentioned. Even with the kit, sometimes the activities/projects can be dreadful to me. (not to my kids of course.) I would suggest, if there are a couple right up front that are a pain, just move past them. Probably not the end of the world if your kids miss those 1 or 2 activities. And they're better off moving forward and doing something as apposed to being stuck and doing nothing right? You just have to tell yourself you're not going to let yourself off that easy every time. :-) Only on those especially annoying projects. :-)
  22. What about gout? I think that's what some people have been describing but I hadn't seen the word. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gout?redirect=no
  23. I know I already commented on this one. But reading the rest of the posts just gets me so geared up! I love teaching and learning TOG so much. We are starting Year 2 in September but I'm chomping at the bit to get started! Honestly, I didn't experience too much of this "fog" because my friend who introduced it to me did such a great job of explaining it to me. That combined with joining the yahoo group forum and it was pretty smooth sailing. Sure I tried some things that I quickly realized needed to be tweaked, and I also dropped some things that weren't necessities to lighten the load, but that's totally how it's designed to work. There is so much support that if you are willing to ask for help, we are all here for each other. Again, some see it as complicated, but I see it now as very simple. There is one them/focus each week. All your kids are learning that same theme. There is an objective for each subject each week. You decide when you want them to get it done. Whether it's block like many of us do, or a little bit each day on each subject, whatever works for your kids. That's it! And the teacher notes completely inform you of all you need to know in order to confidently teach the subjects.
  24. I think 1st grade. So I would start this year if I were you. :-) You can read through the levels to determine where to place each of your students. If you want to just start them both at level 1 and move them up as you see fit, you'd probably be fine. They are not bound to a certain level each year. You can move them when you see that they're ready which can be part way through a year, or after a couple years all depending on the student. The loom has a document that helps you determine where to place your students.
×
×
  • Create New...