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Debbie in OR

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  1. This was circulated on our local homeschooler's chat group. Thought this might be helpful. Although the author has called it the Bitter Homeschooler's Wish List, I would call it The "Keep-this-in-your-purse-and-pull-it-out-to-hand-to-people-when-the-need-arises" List... Enjoy! Debbie The Bitter Homeschooler's Wish List By Deborah Markus 1 Please stop asking us if it's legal. If it is — and it is — it's insulting to imply that we're criminals. And if we were criminals, would we admit it? 2 Learn what the words "socialize" and "socialization" mean, and use the one you really mean instead of mixing them up the way you do now. Socializing means hanging out with other people for fun. Socialization means having acquired the skills necessary to do so successfully and pleasantly. If you're talking to me and my kids, that means that we do in fact go outside now and then to visit the other human beings on the planet, and you can safely assume that we've got a decent grasp of both concepts. 3 Quit interrupting my kid at her dance lesson, scout meeting, choir practice, baseball game, art class, field trip, park day, music class, 4H club, or soccer lesson to ask her if as a homeschooler she ever gets to socialize. 4 Don't assume that every homeschooler you meet is homeschooling for the same reasons and in the same way as that one homeschooler you know. 5 If that homeschooler you know is actually someone you saw on TV, either on the news or on a "reality" show, the above goes double. 6 Please stop telling us horror stories about the homeschoolers you know, know of, or think you might know who ruined their lives by homeschooling. You're probably the same little bluebird of happiness whose hobby is running up to pregnant women and inducing premature labor by telling them every ghastly birth story you've ever heard. 7 We don't look horrified and start quizzing your kids when we hear they're in public school. Please stop drilling our children like potential oil fields to see if we're doing what you consider an adequate job of homeschooling. 9 Stop assuming that if we're religious, we must be homeschooling for religious reasons. 10 We didn't go through all the reading, learning, thinking, weighing of options, experimenting, and worrying that goes into homeschooling just to annoy you. Really. This was a deeply personal decision, tailored to the specifics of our family. Stop taking the bare fact of our being homeschoolers as either an affront or a judgment about your own educational decisions. 11 Please stop questioning my competency and demanding to see my credentials. I didn't have to complete a course in catering to successfully cook dinner for my family; I don't need a degree in teaching to educate my children. If spending at least twelve years in the kind of chew-it-up-and-spit-it-out educational facility we call public school left me with so little information in my memory banks that I can't teach the basics of an elementary education to my nearest and dearest, maybe there's a reason I'm so reluctant to send my child to school. 12 If my kid's only six and you ask me with a straight face how I can possibly teach him what he'd learn in school, please understand that you're calling me an idiot. Don't act shocked if I decide to respond in kind. 13 Stop assuming that because the word "home" is right there in "homeschool," we never leave the house. We're the ones who go to the amusement parks, museums, and zoos in the middle of the week and in the off-season and laugh at you because you have to go on weekends and holidays when it's crowded and icky. 14 Stop assuming that because the word "school" is right there in homeschool, we must sit around at a desk for six or eight hours every day, just like your kid does. Even if we're into the "school" side of education — and many of us prefer a more organic approach — we can burn through a lot of material a lot more efficiently, because we don't have to gear our lessons to the lowest common denominator. 15 Stop asking, "But what about the Prom?" Even if the idea that my kid might not be able to indulge in a night of over-hyped, over-priced revelry was enough to break my heart, plenty of kids who do go to school don't get to go to the Prom. For all you know, I'm one of them. I might still be bitter about it. So go be shallow somewhere else. 16 Don't ask my kid if she wouldn't rather go to school unless you don't mind if I ask your kid if he wouldn't rather stay home and get some sleep now and then. 17 Stop saying, "Oh, I could never homeschool!" Even if you think it's some kind of compliment, it sounds more like you're horrified. One of these days, I won't bother disagreeing with you any more. 18 If you can remember anything from chemistry or calculus class, you're allowed to ask how we'll teach these subjects to our kids. If you can't, thank you for the reassurance that we couldn't possibly do a worse job than your teachers did, and might even do a better one. 19 Stop asking about how hard it must be to be my child's teacher as well as her parent. I don't see much difference between bossing my kid around academically and bossing him around the way I do about everything else. 20 Stop saying that my kid is shy, outgoing, aggressive, anxious, quiet, boisterous, argumentative, pouty, fidgety, chatty, whiny, or loud because he's homeschooled. It's not fair that all the kids who go to school can be as annoying as they want to without being branded as representative of anything but childhood. 21 Quit assuming that my kid must be some kind of prodigy because she's homeschooled. 22 Quit assuming that I must be some kind of prodigy because I homeschool my kids. 23 Quit assuming that I must be some kind of saint because I homeschool my kids. 24 Stop talking about all the great childhood memories my kids won't get because they don't go to school, unless you want me to start asking about all the not-so-great childhood memories you have because you went to school.
  2. How about Living Books Curriculum (www.livingbookscurriculum.com) or Beautiful Feet books (www.bfbooks.com)?
  3. No problem at all! I LOVE to talk curriculum so it's great fun for me...! We don't wind up doing this every day; because I am using this to fill out the grammar we are getting in LL (which, because we are not doing a separate English grammar program, is not adequate for my likes), I use the lessons in Bridge to coincide with what we are doing in Lively Latin. For instance, when we were studying subject and predicates in LL, I copied those sections of Bridge, watched the DVDs and then incorporated those lessons into the week. She does have a very thoroughly daily schedule included in the notebook and we follow it loosely as the concepts are introduced somewhat in the same order, but mostly I use Bridge in the order that works for our latin. I can expound on that more later...we are off for a last day of skiing before it all melts!
  4. Hi, I am new to posting here as well...I've been reading the posts here and on the Latin Centered chat group for a couple of years but all these women sound so wise and smart...very intimidating! Anyhow, here is a cut and paste of a post I responded to a couple of days ago regarding the Latin Road to English Grammar. While I can't speak specifically to LRTEG, I am using the precursor Bridge to the Latin Road and we love it! Because I did not want a separate grammar program, I, too, was looking for a way to capitalize on grammar (and I specifically wanted diagramming) through our Latin (we went through Prima Latina and then Minimus before finally landing on Lively Latin). While LL is a great mix of grammar with diagramming, history and latin, I personally do not feel that the grammar is enough. So one of the reasons I love the Latin Road material is that it fills out the grammar we are getting in LL with serious amounts of diagramming and it also incorporates dictation. I like this aspect of it because, while we do get some dictation and narration in through our history (the History Portfolio series is great for this, btw), we don't get to history everyday. So the Latin Road gives us one more avenue for this in a different genre. Plus we are working on grammar and Latin. I just love it. I plan to continue with Vol. 1 and 2 when we complete LL. Can you tell I love it?! HTH, Debbie PS I will say, however, if you have several children you are working with on different levels, this may would probably not be a good choice. There is a high parent-involvement component as you are dictating the sentences for each lesson. Of course, you could always have an older child help with that. Ahh....there's always something... To specifically answer your questions, it does take some time as the author encourages the teacher to be at least a couple of days ahead so you will need to work ahead. Also, it's not something you can just hand to your dc; I sit with my son and dictate the sentences to him and then teach him about the specific diagramming to be done in that lesson. We are not all the way through it, though, so maybe closer to the end, there is less parent-involvement. I have the DVDs which I think are invaluable...just reading what I am supposed to do is not helpful. We spend probably 15-20 minutes on each lesson right now and then about 5 to correct. If there are things he is not understanding, we will take another 5-10 to do some extra sentences or just discuss it and see if that clarifies. I would be happy to answer any other questions you might have. HTH
  5. I hear what you are saying and I would be furious too. First, however, you might want to have a conversation with this woman and tell her it is your understanding that she has made some slanderous comments about your kids and see how she responds. It is possible that the best friend didn't hear clearly or made an interpretation of the conversation based on her love and concern for your daughter. Your daughter's friend is predisposed, and with good reason, to assume all things coming from this woman will be bad and disparaging, when in fact, it might not be as bad as it sounds. Even if she denies having said anything, she will now know that you know and that you are paying attention. Secondly, I think your thoughts on teaching your kids how to handle this kind of thing is great. If we are to bring our kids up to be mature and complete, not lacking anything, then helping them gain internal self-government will help them the rest of their lives...these kind of people will never go away. We will always be dealing with them...better to learn young how to be ok internally than trying to figure it out as an adult. I sincerely hope you get good resolution with this. It's hard enough maintaining the energy to live our lives without all these extra energy-zappers...
  6. I always have great hopes for the summer until our first camping trip which takes 7 days to prepare for, 3 days to happen and 4 months to recover from...so then I downgrade to just hoping they don't forget how to spell their names in the fall... Therefore, this summer we are going to lapbook our way through. I already have the lapbooks printed off and most of the inserts cut out. Now my kids will just assemble them as we review the material. We have a grammar one with all of the grammar material they have learned thus far; we are doing an election process one in light of our election year; I have a multiplication/division one for my ds 9 and one for spelling rules and math vocabulary for my dd7. This way, there's little work except review and hopefully it will be fun and not seem like "school". Then again, we are planning to go camping next month....:glare: Debbie, who has a Thomas Jefferson/Principle Approach homeschool with some true classical thrown in! ds 9: Lively Latin, Bridge to the Latin Road, Rightstart Math D, Ray's Intellectual Math, SWR, History Portfolio, Beautiful Feet literature guides for everything else, and reading anything and everything that interests him. dd7: Prima Latina, Rightstart Math C, Ray's Primary Math, SWR, BF Guide to Character and so much reading...
  7. I strongly encourage you to read Lee Simmons' book Climbing Parnassus (I checked it out from our library). It is a very good primer for the arguement of teaching our kids Latin and Greek. It was what pushed me over the cliff of indecision about it. I had planned to do some Latin...mainly prefixes, roots, etc.. just to help with vocabulary. But after reading this, I got a clear picture of the enormity of Latin's purpose...it's not just for breakfast, anymore...Debbie
  8. While I can't speak specifically to LRTEG, I am using the precursor Bridge to the Latin Road and we love it! Because I did not want a separate grammar program, I, too, was looking for a way to capitalize on grammar (and I specifically wanted diagramming) through our Latin (we went through Prima Latina and then Minimus before finally landing on Lively Latin). While LL is a great mix of grammar with diagramming, history and latin, I personally do not feel that the grammar is enough. So one of the reasons I love the Latin Road material is that it fills out the grammar we are getting in LL with serious amounts of diagramming and it also incorporates dictation. I like this aspect of it because, while we do get some dictation and narration in through our history (the History Portfolio series is great for this, btw), we don't get to history everyday. So the Latin Road gives us one more avenue for this in a different genre. Plus we are working on grammar and Latin. I just love it. I plan to continue with Vol. 1 and 2 when we complete LL. Can you tell I love it?! HTH, Debbie PS I will say, however, if you have several children you are working with on different levels, this may would probably not be a good choice. There is a high parent-involvement component as you are dictating the sentences for each lesson. Of course, you could always have an older child help with that. Ahh....there's always something... Debbie, who has a Thomas Jefferson/Principle Approach homeschool with some true classic thrown in! ds 9: Lively Latin, Rightstart D math, Ray's Intellectual math, Latin Road, History Portfolio Ancient, Beautiful Feet for everything else, reading anything and everything that interests him ds 7: Prima Latina, Rightstart C math, Ray's Primary math, History Portfolio Junior, Beautiful Feet Guide to Character Development
  9. Hi, I don't know if you like literature-based curriculums, but we have and use Beautiful Feet's The History of Classical Music. It's broken down into 75 easy, daily readings of several books (The Spiritual Live's of Great Composers, The Story of The Orchestra, Dance Me a Story, The Farewall Symphony, etc...), with places to listen to the music of the various composers woven in. We purchased "The Music Masters" 18 CD collection that they recommend but you could easily check out CDs from your library to correspond to the composer. The guides are inexpensive, too. I think this one is around $12. We love BF materials (they are definately Christian, not secular, if that matters) and use all of their literature guides. This just happens to be a fun, relaxing one to go through. Their website is www.bfbooks.com HTH, Debbie
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