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abbeyej

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  1. I’m just beginning work on my rising 4th grader’s plans… I pulled up the middle child’s plans from 12 years ago, and it’s funny to see what’s the same – and what’s different! Math: Beast Academy 5 (primary curriculum) Horizons Pre-Algebra (supplemental) Math Olympiad practice problems Language Arts: A mix of resources? Killgallon, WWE / Exploring the World Through Stories E: Wisdom Tales, MCT Poetry (plus various anthologies), Spelling / vocabulary study (her vocabulary is stunning, but spelling is a real struggle – I’m hoping to work backwards from morphology to address some of the spelling deficits) History: Story of the World 4 Second half of HQ US History? We might just finish reading through this over the summer instead. I haven’t liked it as much this year as I had hoped, unfortunately, so maybe I’ll just pull in selected chapters from Hakim to supplement SOTW. Inquisikids US History II lapbooks (from Sonlight / BookShark) – she really enjoyed the first one this year as a way of addressing more US history as we read SOTW. Literature: Lots and lots and lots of reading, much of it aligned with our historical period of 1850-present. I haven’t narrowed down what that will include yet. Her comprehension is still way above her stamina for reading, so I’ll have a mix of easier readers and lots and lots and lots of more challenging read-alouds and audio books. Science: Life Science. Science Explorer texts: Bacteria to Plants; Animals; Environmental Science Tree of Life: The Incredible Biodiversity of Life on Earth, Rochelle Strauss The Wondrous Workings of Planet Earth: Understanding Our World and Its Ecosystems, Rachel Ignotofsky Additional biographies about scientists with a focus on botany, biology and climate science. Again, working on narrowing down that list. Music: Piano, violin, children’s choir, Creative Ability Development classes Art: Artistic Pursuits, Hillyer’s History of Art Painting and Sculpture PE: Swim team, dance 1-2x per week
  2. Lol, yes! My older two are out of college now, but my "baby" is in 3rd grade. 😄
  3. My 8yo and I read A Voice of Her Own: The Story of Phillis Wheatley (Lasky) today and she would love to learn more. I requested a couple of children's books from the library, but I doubt they offer much beyond the book we've read already. Anything else to recommend? Books, podcasts, maybe a kid-friendly documentary?
  4. The Math Curse, by John Scieszka Some of the others listed above (like the Sir Cumference series) are part of the Charlesbridge Math Adventures books, so looking for those can help. My daughter loved What's Your Angle, Pythagoras? The Warlord's Puzzle is about tangrams. There are several other Warlord's books with other math topics... The Number Devil introduces a number of higher-level concepts in simple ways for middle or upper elementary over the course of 12 chapters.
  5. One of my kids really enjoyed the One Year Adventure Novel. It's designed for 6th and up, but a highly motivated upper elementary school student could definitely use it. It's a bit cheesy and there are some Christian references, though it's been too long for me to say how much that played into it. I think not a lot. The videos on the website will help you determine if the cheesiness level is fun and appealing or wildly off-putting for you and your kid. 🙂
  6. The Stewart English Grammar Plus has three levels (you can buy at Rainbow, etc) and I found it perfect to prepare my then middle-schoolers for challenging high school / dual enrollment work.
  7. I sent you a PM. ... It really depends on where you are (and how far you're willing to travel). I know more about options within the city, but I can direct you to people outside the city if I know which suburbs are convenient. (You say "45minutes north" which, lol, could mean almost anything! The Atlanta sprawl is mind boggling.) Are you close to the Georgia Ballet? If Atlanta Ballet isn't feasible due to location (and know that as your girls get older, you'll only drive more and more ... and more and more and more and more...), then I would consider Georgia Ballet if it's closer. I know students and instructors who have transferred between the two. And no, I don't think it's *remotely* unreasonable to expect age-appropriate costumes in recitals and reasonably polished performances. Obviously when it comes to children (as opposed to audition-based programs) you'll see a range of skill levels represented, and some kids are always going to look like *kids* and not *dancers* on stage. But with that in mind, you can certainly watch a performance and determine whether or not the kids are getting solid classical instruction.
  8. Well, the two things that jump out at me right away: 1) no specific course catalog on the website, so I don't even know what math and science are actually available, and 2) extremely limited arts at the curricular level and none at the extra-curricular level. For my math-loving child, that second would likely be a deal-breaker. Some of the website was incomplete, so there were other questions (what's the early college program?) that simply weren't addressed at all. Another note: the only available language is Spanish. That may be completely fine, but it's something to consider. There's no world history course available. So... If I lived there and thought it might be the right fit for my child, the first step would be to call and arrange an on-campus visit. Chat with a counselor. What classes are available? What if my child comes in ahead of the sequence at any level? How much flexibility is there really? Look at the students. Do they look happy? Do they appear focused? Are there any recent graduates (or parents of same) who are willing to talk to prospective families? Can you arrange a shadow-day for your child? As I said, for *my* kid, I'd rather make my own arrangements for math and science acceleration as necessary and give him the opportunity to experience more breadth in other areas while in high school. (I have another child too. She's only in 5th grade now, but this isn't the type of school I can ever imagine being right for her.) For a kid who *only* wanted to do math and science though? And just meet the minimal requirements otherwise so he or she could have more time to be completely immersed in math, science, and technology pursuits? It could be perfect.
  9. I agree. My first move would be to seek out a second opinion at a completely unrelated practice.
  10. When you say "unabridged", do you refer to individual stories (not further edited from what the Grimm brothers themselves did) or to wanting a "complete" collection of stories? Many of the nicely illustrated editions only contain some smaller number of stories, even if those stories individually are fairly faithful to the original Grimm versions. (The brothers themselves heavily edited and rewrote the stories that they collected from folk sources, and there are differences in their own works over time -- and various translations have been more and less faithful as well.) The Everyman edition that OhE mentions above is just "selected" Grimm tales (though not, I don't believe edited within those tales). Here's another edition that I think very beautiful -- but it only contains selected works. This one is out of print (but still relatively easy to find) and has quite a number of stories (sixty or so), but not "all". It's a nice balance between "more stories" and "lovely illustrations". The Rackham illustrations are classics in their own right, and I think this is *enough* of the stories for anyone wanting a "good familiarity" without necessarily needing to read every story the brothers ever recorded. If you want all of the stories in a pretty-on-the-shelf edition, I would go with this one, though I'm not sure of the illustrations. http://www.amazon.com/Grimms-Complete-Fairy-Tales-Wilhelm/dp/1607103133
  11. If I were you, in the meantime I would start taking magnesium, soaking in an Epsom salts bath (you can get them at any drugstore), eating plenty of protein and salt to taste, and drinking lots of water. Try to relax as much as you can in the next day. The better nourished, hydrated, and rested you are going into this, the better you'll be able to handle it (and the things above may help stabilize your BP a bit too, so you're less "all over the map"). Good luck to you! I know it's not what you've planned. But (having had both a hospital birth and a planned unassisted home birth) if I were in your position (BP uncontrolled and uncontrollable, symptoms of illness), I would do what you're doing too. I wouldn't be happy about it, but if they're seeing signs of pre-eclampsia, it's time to go on. I'm sorry. But it WILL be okay.
  12. You can do *lots* of water. If you cook it long enough and add a little vinegar to draw the minerals out of the bones, it should develop a nice strong flavor.
  13. So far, so good. It's a challenging academic year for ds and his ballet schedule is pretty intense, but we're still basically on track and I'm mostly happy with the work that's being done... Things that are going great: Honors Pre-Calculus with Derek Owens -- our 3rd year with Derek and I love him and ds is doing well Ancient and Medieval History and Lit -- using SWB's History of the Ancient World (will finish by Christmas and move on to Medieval World), good lit (Gilgamesh, Iliad, Odyssey, Oedipus Rex, and Lord of the Flies -- yes, one of these things is not like the others -- so far), and Teaching Company lectures (Elizabeth Vandiver is wonderful) The Bible and Its Influence Gardner's Art Through the Ages (ds doesn't love it, but he's learning a lot) MP's Rhetoric (I'm surprised at how well it's going) Things that are a little less great: Chemistry -- ThinkWell... Not enough on its own. We're doubling back a bit and spending more time with Zumdahl. I think it will work out in the end, but I wish we had something that was working as well as Derek Owens' Physics class did for us last year French -- GAVS online course. It's covered by state funds, and that's good -- I'd be frustrated if we were paying for it. But ds has learned a *little* French, and he's learned a lot about making iMovie films. Sigh. Latin -- New tutor. She's never worked with high school students before and is having a little trouble adjusting to students doing the level of work in some of her college classes but needing a little more direction. It's not bad, but the transition hasn't been as smooth as we had all hoped. Fitting everything in with the radically increased ballet schedule (15-20 hours a week) is a bit of a challenge. But it's going okay.
  14. Ask the butcher at WF about bones. At ours, they wrap them and stick them in the freezer next to the butcher section. The selection varies quite a bit, so I always stop for a quick peak to see what's available and if it's something I like, I'll get extra to keep in the freezer. They usually have chicken backs (very cheap, perfect for soup) and marrow bones, sometimes lamb necks and other good soup bones as well. I have a couple of enameled cast iron dutch ovens, so first I throw the bones in those (lid off) at fairly high head (375-425) for an hour, then I add water to almost fill the pot along with a few tablespoons of apple cider vinegar, then put the lid on and leave for 8+ hours at 275. Then strain and put the broth into jars in the fridge. The fat will separate and solidify, so you can just scoop it off the top. These make for very nutritious and incredibly delicious soup bases.
  15. I think often times the *type* of play changes -- sometimes as girls get older, they start sewing and designing their own doll fashions, for instance -- but I would expect a girl who is interested at 7 to remain interested until at least 11 or 12.
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