fiberdrunk
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I was a piano teacher and am currently teaching my own kids (started them at ages 6 and 9). I like the Bastian Piano Basics. Each level has 4 books that are page-coordinated with eachother (Piano, Theory, Technic and Performance). I like that it teaches theory quite early on. Kids over 6 would start with the Primer level, while kids 5-6 would start with Primer A & B (after finishing A & B kids this age would go straight into Level 1). There are 5 levels all together (Primer and Levels 1-4). So you've got about 5 solid years of instruction. After 1 or 2 years, I add Thompson Modern Piano Course for the Piano: First Grade for its wonderful melodies.
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From what I've read about Common Core, it is all about the testing, so if the book in question appears on a test, then yes, the book would be required, despite claims teachers have a choice over which books they teach.
I really liked this article that Hillsdale College put in their newsletter this month:
The Case for Good Taste in Children's Books
July/August 2013 Meghan Cox Gurdon
Children's Book Reviewer
The Wall Street Journal The Case for Good Taste in Children's BooksMEGHAN COX GURDON has been the children’s book reviewer for the Wall Street Journal since 2005. Her work has also appeared in numerous other publications, including the Washington Post, the Washington Examiner, the San Francisco Chronicle, National Review, and the Weekly Standard. In the 1990s, she worked as an overseas correspondent in Hong Kong, Tokyo, and London, and traveled and reported from Cambodia, Somalia, China, Israel, South Korea, and Northern Ireland. She graduated magna cum laude from Bowdoin College in 1986 and lives near Washington, D.C., with her husband and their five children.
The following is adapted from a speech delivered at Hillsdale College on March 12, 2013, sponsored by the College’s Dow Journalism Program.ON JUNE 4, 2011, the number one trending topic on Twitter was the Anthony Weiner scandal. I happen to remember that, because the number two topic on Twitter that day—almost as frenzied, though a lot less humorous—had to do with an outrageous, intolerable attack on Young Adult literature . . . by me. Entitled “Darkness Too Visible,†my article discussed the increasingly dark current that runs through books classified as YA, for Young Adult—books aimed at readers between 12 and 18 years of age—a subset that has, in the four decades since Young Adult became a distinct category in fiction, become increasingly lurid, grotesque, profane, sexual, and ugly.
Books show us the world, and in that sense, too many books for adolescents act like funhouse mirrors, reflecting hideously distorted portrayals of life. Those of us who have grown up understand that the teen years can be fraught and turbulent—and for some kids, very unhappy—but at the same time we know that in the arc of human life, these years are brief. Today, too many novels for teenagers are long on the turbulence and short on a sense of perspective. Nor does it help that the narrative style that dominates Young Adult books is the first person present tense— “I, I, I,†and “now, now, now.†Writers use this device to create a feeling of urgency, to show solidarity with the reader and to make the reader feel that he or she is occupying the persona of the narrator. The trouble is that the first person present tense also erects a kind of verbal prison, keeping young readers in the turmoil of the moment just as their hormones tend to do. This narrative style reinforces the blinkers teenagers often seem to be wearing, rather than drawing them out and into the open.
Bringing Judgment
The late critic Hilton Kramer was seated once at a dinner next to film director Woody Allen. Allen asked him if he felt embarrassed when he met people socially whom he’d savaged in print. “No,†Kramer said, “they’re the ones who made the bad art. I just described it.†As the story goes, Allen fell gloomily silent, having once made a film that had received the Kramer treatment.
I don’t presume to have a nose as sensitive as Hilton Kramer’s—but I do know that criticism is pointless if it’s only boosterism. To evaluate anything, including children’s books, is to engage the faculty of judgment, which requires that great bugbear of the politically correct, “discrimination.†Thus, in responding to my article, YA book writers Judy Blume and Libba Bray charged that I was giving comfort to book-banners, and Publisher’s Weekly warned of a “danger†that my arguments “encourage a culture of fear around YA literature.†But I do not, in fact, wish to ban any books or frighten any authors. What I do wish is that people in the book business would exercise better taste; that adult authors would not simply validate every spasm of the teen experience; and that our culture was not marching toward ever-greater explicitness in depictions of sex and violence.
Books for children and teenagers are written, packaged, and sold by adults. It follows from this that the emotional depictions they contain come to young people with a kind of adult imprimatur. As a school librarian in Idaho wrote to her colleagues in my defense: “You are naïve if you think young people can read a dark and violent book that sits on the library shelves and not believe that that behavior must be condoned by the adults in their school lives.â€
What kind of books are we talking about? Let me give you three examples—but with a warning that some of what you’re about to hear is not appropriate for younger listeners.
A teenaged boy is kidnapped, drugged, and nearly raped by a male captor. After escaping, he comes across a pair of weird glasses that transport him to a world of almost impossible cruelty. Moments later, he finds himself facing a wall of horrors, “covered with impaled heads and other dripping, black-rot body parts: hands, hearts, feet, ears, penises. Where the f— was this?â€
That’s from Andrew Smith’s 2010 Young Adult novel, The Marbury Lens.
A girl struggles with self-hatred and self-injury. She cuts herself with razors secretly, but her secret gets out when she’s the victim of a sadistic sexual prank. Kids at school jeer at her, calling her “cutterslut.†In response, “she had sliced her arms to ribbons, but the badness remained, staining her insides like cancer. She had gouged her belly until it was a mess of meat and blood, but she still couldn’t breathe.â€
That’s from Jackie Morse Kessler’s 2011 Young Adult novel, Rage.
I won’t read you the most offensive excerpts from my third example, which consist of explicit and obscene descriptions by a 17-year-old female narrator of sexual petting, of oral sex, and of rushing to a bathroom to defecate following a breakup. Yet School Library Journal praised Daria Snadowsky’s 2008 Young Adult novel, Anatomy of a Boyfriend, for dealing “in modern terms with the real issues of discovering sex for the first time.†And Random House, its publisher, gushed about the narrator’s “heartbreakingly honest voice†as she recounts the “exquisite ups and dramatic downs of teenage love and heartbreak.â€
The book industry, broadly speaking, says: Kids have a right to read whatever they want. And if you follow the argument through it becomes: Adults should not discriminate between good and bad books or stand as gatekeepers, deciding what young people should read. In other words, the faculty of judgment and taste that we apply in every other area of life involving children should somehow vaporize when it comes in contact with the printed word.
I appeared on National Public Radio to discuss these issues with the Young Adult book author Lauren Myracle, who has been hailed as a person “on the front lines in the fight for freedom of expressionâ€â€”as if any controversy over whether a book is appropriate for children turns on the question of the author’s freedom to express herself. Myracle made clear that she doesn’t believe there should be any line between adult literature and literature for young people. In saying this, she was echoing the view that prevails in many progressive, secular circles—that young people should encounter material that jolts them out of their comfort zone; that the world is a tough place; and that there’s no point shielding children from reality. I took the less progressive, less secular view that parents should take a more interventionist approach, steering their children away from books about sex and horror and degradation, and towards books that make aesthetic and moral claims.
Now, although it may seem that our culture is split between Left and Right on the question of permissiveness regarding children’s reading material, in fact there is not so much division on the core issue as might appear. Secular progressives, despite their reaction to my article, have their own list of books they think young people shouldn’t read—for instance, books they claim are tinged with racism or jingoism or that depict traditional gender roles. Regarding the latter, you would not believe the extent to which children’s picture books today go out of the way to show father in an apron and mother tinkering with machinery. It’s pretty funny. But my larger point here is that the self-proclaimed anti-book-banners on the Left agree that books influence children and prefer some books to others.
Indeed, in the early years of the Cold War, many left-wing creative people in America gravitated toward children’s literature. Philip Nel, a professor at Kansas State University, has written that Red-hunters, “seeing children’s books as a field dominated by women . . . deemed it less important and so did not watch it closely.†Among the authors I am referring to are Theodor Geisel (Dr. Seuss) and Ruth Krauss, author of the 1952 classic A Hole is to Dig, illustrated by a young Maurice Sendak. Krauss was quite open in her belief that children’s literature was an excellent means of putting left-wing ideas into young minds. Or so she hoped.
When I was a little girl I read The Cat in the Hat, and I took from it an understanding of the sanctity of private property—it outraged me when the Cat and Thing One and Thing Two rampaged through the children’s house while their mother was away. Dr. Seuss was probably not intending to inculcate capitalist ideas—quite the contrary. But it happened in my case, and the point is instructive.
Taste and Beauty
A recent study conducted at Virginia Tech found that college women who read “chick litâ€â€”light novels that deal with the angst of being a modern woman—reported feeling more insecure about themselves and their bodies after reading novels in which the heroines feel insecure about themselves and their bodies. Similarly, federal researchers were puzzled for years by a seeming paradox when it came to educating children about the dangers of drugs and tobacco. There seemed to be a correlation between anti-drug and anti-tobacco programs in elementary and middle schools and subsequent drug and tobacco use at those schools. It turned out that at the same time children were learning that drugs and tobacco were bad, they were taking in the meta-message that adults expected them to use drugs and tobacco.
This is why good taste matters so much when it comes to books for children and young adults. Books tell children what to expect, what life is, what culture is, how we are expected to behave—what the spectrum is. Books don’t just cater to tastes. They form tastes. They create norms—and as the examples above show, the norms young people take away are not necessarily the norms adults intend. This is why I am skeptical of the social utility of so-called “problem novelsâ€â€”books that have a troubled main character, such as a girl with a father who started raping her when she was a toddler and anonymously provides her with knives when she is a teenager hoping that she will cut herself to death. (This scenario is from Cheryl Rainfield’s 2010 Young Adult novel, Scars, which School Library Journal hailed as “one heck of a good book.â€) The argument in favor of such books is that they validate the real and terrible experiences of teenagers who have been abused, addicted, or raped—among other things. The problem is that the very act of detailing these pathologies, not just in one book but in many, normalizes them. And teenagers are all about identifying norms and adhering to them.
In journalist Emily Bazelon’s recent book about bullying, she describes how schools are using a method called “social norming†to discourage drinking and driving. “The idea,†she writes, “is that students often overestimate how much other kids drink and drive, and when they find out that it’s less prevalent than they think—outlier behavior rather than the norm—they’re less likely to do it themselves.†The same goes for bullying: “When kids understand that cruelty isn’t the norm,†Bazelon says, “they’re less likely to be cruel themselves.â€
Now isn’t that interesting?
Ok, you say, but books for kids have always been dark. What about Hansel and Gretel? What about the scene in Beowulf where the monster sneaks into the Danish camp and starts eating people?
Beowulf is admittedly gruesome in parts—and fairy tales are often scary. Yet we approach them at a kind of arm’s length, almost as allegory. In the case of Beowulf, furthermore, children reading it—or having it read to them—are absorbing the rhythms of one of mankind’s great heroic epics, one that explicitly reminds us that our talents come from God and that we act under God’s eye and guidance. Even with the gore, Beowulf won’t make a child callous. It will help to civilize him.
English philosopher Roger Scruton has written at length about what he calls the modern “flight from beauty,†which he sees in every aspect of our contemporary culture. “It is not merely,†he writes, “that artists, directors, musicians and others connected with the artsâ€â€”here we might include authors of Young Adult literature—“are in a flight from beauty . . . . There is a desire to spoil beauty . . . . For beauty makes a claim on us; it is a call to renounce our narcisissm and look with reverence on the world.â€
We can go to the Palazzo Borghese in Rome and stand before Caravaggio’s painting of David with the head of Goliath, and though we are looking at horror we are not seeing ugliness. The light that plays across David’s face and chest, and that slants across Goliath’s half-open eyes and mouth, transforms the scene into something beautiful. The problem with the darker offerings in Young Adult literature is that they lack this transforming and uplifting quality. They take difficult subjects and wallow in them in a gluttonous way; they show an orgiastic lack of restraint that is the mark of bad taste.
Young Adult book author Sherman Alexie wrote a rebuttal to my article entitled, “Why the Best Kids Books are Written in Blood.†In it, he asks how I could honestly believe that a sexually explicit Young Adult novel might traumatize a teenaged mother. “Does she believe that a YA novel about murder and rape will somehow shock a teenager whose life has been damaged by murder and rape? Does she believe a dystopian novel will frighten a kid who already lives in hell?â€
Well of course I don’t. But I also don’t believe that the vast majority of 12-to-18-year-olds are living in hell. And as for those who are, does it really serve them to give them more torment and sulphur in the stories they read?
The body of children’s literature is a little like the Library of Babel in the Jorge Luis Borges story—shelf after shelf of books, many almost gibberish, but a rare few filled with wisdom and beauty and answers to important questions. These are the books that have lasted because generation after generation has seen in them something transcendent, and has passed them on. Maria Tatar, who teaches children’s literature at Harvard, describes books like The Chronicles of Narnia, The Wind in the Willows, The Jungle Books, and Pinocchio as “setting minds into motion, renewing senses, and almost rewiring brains.â€
Or as William Wordsworth wrote: “What we have loved/others will love, and we will teach them how.â€
* * *
The good news is that just like the lousy books of the past, the lousy books of the present will blow away like chaff. The bad news is that they will leave their mark. As in so many aspects of culture, the damage they do can’t easily be measured. It is more a thing to be felt—a coarseness, an emptiness, a sorrow.
“Beauty is vanishing from our world because we live as if it does not matter.†That’s Roger Scruton again. But he doesn’t want us to despair. He also writes:
It is one mark of rational beings that they do not live only—or even at all—in the present. They have the freedom to despise the world that surrounds them and live another way. The art, literature, and music of our civilization remind them of this, and also point to the path that lies always before them: the path out of desecration towards the sacred and the sacrificial.
Let me close with Saint Paul the Apostle in Philippians 4:8:
Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.
And let us think about these words when we go shopping for books for our children.
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Incompetech has tons of free printable .pdfs for every kind of lined paper you can imagine, including penmanship practice sheets.
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I'm using this for the first time this year, too (we've been doing it since the beginning of August). I basically made flash cards of all the roots and vocabulary words, which we study daily, and then I have my son do the worksheets from the book (one a day). The flashcards simplify the process. The worksheets and activity sheets and tests (the latter come every 2 weeks and cover 2 lessons) and their answer keys are quite scattered throughout the teacher/students books. I find it a pain to track everything down. I don't find this very user-friendly, either, so I've made the flashcards the heart of our study.
There's a Rummy Roots card game (and More Word Roots) that is helpful, too.
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I'd recommend doing the shorter subjects first and saving math (the heavier subject) for last. I also tend to time the heavier classes with physical exercise or music beforehand. Having my son practice piano before starting with the other lessons seems to make a smoother transition into school somehow.
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When you respond, please tell me if you:
1) have ever read The Well Trained Mind by Susan Wise Bauer all the way through or not
2) read TWTM by SWB before or after you came to the boards
I've read TWTM all the way through (both the 2nd & 3rd editions), and I read it before I ever found this forum.
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I'm not affiliated with the Ron Paul Curriculum but I thought I'd forward this info in case anyone was curious about this curriculum. Normally this costs $250 for a year's access (plus $50 per class). Here's a chance to try it for much cheaper until the beginning of January. Deadline to sign up for the $25 trial is tomorrow, Monday at 8 AM September 2nd. (Classes are still $50 each.) They are offering a money back guarantee (if you don't cancel before the beginning of January, they'll automatically renew your credit card for the full $250.) Grades K-5 are free. I can't vouch for the quality of the courses since it's brand new. As far as I can tell, there are no textbooks to buy. They present video lectures and links to online books for the courses, and depend heavily on student participation on their forums. It still looks pretty rough so far.
Ron Paul's new book called The School Revolution comes out on Sept. 17th, to coincide with this.
I had thought to maybe supplement with their history classes, but the one video I watched seemed pretty dry even to me-- it'd probably be even worse for kids. But that was only one class. They do have various teachers for various classes. It's too bad there isn't a Well-Trained Mind online school like this. I'm still a big believer in the classical trivium and haven't found its equal.
Ron Paul Curriculum Tip of the Week - August 31, 2013 RPC for $25
===================================================
http://www.ronpaulcurriculum.com/public/43.cfm
Repeating the offer. . . .
Here is a deal. If you sign up between now and 8 a.m., Eastern Daylight Time, on
September 2, 2013, you can join this site for $25: full access to the site
until January 2, 2014.
Your family will get the whole package: access to the forums and access to the
courses.
I have set the system so that everyone can log in at once.
So, you can “test drive†the curriculum for 4 months.
If, on January 2, 2014, you think it’s great, you can subscribe for $250 until
January 2, 2015. If you think it’s not what your family needs, you can get a
refund on everything: the $25 membership fee, plus the all of the courses you
bought at $50 each.
A visitor who sees the home page's promotional for the curriculum will see
the $250 membership fee.
It's now or never.
Here's why I'm doing this.
Dr. Paul’s new book will be released on September 17: “The School
Revolution.†I think it’s going to be a best-seller. In it, there are several
descriptions of the Ron Paul Curriculum. A lot of people will sign up for
$250. They will not know about this 48-hour offer, because it will no longer
exist.
I know what will happen. On Monday morning, at about 8:05 a.m., EDT, we will
start getting emails. “Dr. North, I was so busy over the weekend. I planned to
join. I really did. But things came up.â€
Things tend to do that. I am sorry to hear about it. However, the deal ends at 8
a.m., EDT.
I suggest that you subscribe today if the deal appeals to you. (Keep
reading.)
WHY THE DEAL?
Course providers want feedback. I am one of them. We want a lot of forum
participation by students. That’s the feedback that counts most. The more
students who get active in the forums, the faster we will be able to make
modifications in our courses. Our goal is to supply the best on-line courses
in the homeschool world.
What is the best way to get a lot of students signed up fast? Offer a big
discount to their parents . . . from opening day.
But, before you decide to join, I want you to see the video I have produced for
parents. It makes the case for signing up. If this program is not what you
need, find out today.
http://www.ronpaulcurriculum.com/public/723.cfm
I made a second video. This one is aimed at students. If this curriculum is
going to work for your family, your children must commit. I hope this video
will persuade them to commit before the offer ends on Monday morning.
http://www.ronpaulcurriculum.com/public/724.cfm
Warning: If your child needs nagging to get assignments completed, adopt
another curriculum. Nagging will not work with this curriculum. Trust me on
this.
FINAL OFFER. . . .
I have created a link. It lets you sign up for the next 4 months for $25. I will
kill it on Monday morning at 8 a.m., EDT.
Watch the two videos. Then come back to this email (save it) and click the link
to go to the 48-hour sign-up page.
http://www.ronpaulcurriculum.com/public/43.cfm
Gary North
=================================================
Recent articles posted on www.RonPaulCurriculum.com:
================================================================
Commitment to Success
This video is aimed at students.
Click here to read full article:
<http://www.ronpaulcurriculum.com/public/724.cfm>
================================================================
Memo to Parents
Before you sign up, watch this.
Click here to read full article:
<http://www.ronpaulcurriculum.com/public/723.cfm>
================================================================
Statistics on Home Schooling: Why and How Much Money? Nice Graphs.
Are you "normal"? What do other homeschoolers think and do?
Click here to read full article:
<http://www.ronpaulcurriculum.com/public/787.cfm>
================================================================
Why School Vouchers Are a Bad Idea
Some conservatives favor school vouchers. They shouldn't.
Click here to read full article:
<http://www.ronpaulcurriculum.com/public/704.cfm>
================================================================
Mathematics and the Lowest Common Denominator
There is no subject for which self-pacing is more essential than for
mathematics
Click here to read full article:
<http://www.ronpaulcurriculum.com/public/687.cfm><div
align=right><a class="more"
href="http://74.200.210.26/public/department15.cfm">More</a></div>
That's it for this week! -
If you like Bauer's other works (Story of the World, Writing with Ease, etc.) then I'd go with the most current edition because it includes those and tells how they fit in with the rest of the curriculum.
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The above article was also posted a week ago on Freedom Outpost, though I didn't realize it. The editor of Freedom Outpost had some additional information regarding Michael Farris' responses to Publius Huldah. I'll include them below:
Editor’s Note: Before you get into Publius Huldah’s response, there is a bit of information that is necessary for readers to know. As you recall, Publius Huldah posted an article on the issue of the Parental Rights Amendment and then subsequently we were contacted by Michael Farris’ spokesman to see if we might post a response, which we did here. When Mr. Farris’ spokesman realized that commenters saw what I saw, namely an attack on Publius Huldah and self-promotion, I received the following email response:
“Several folks on your blog have asked for clarification specific to the issues, and Mr. Farris’ response is seen as more of an attack on PH than certainly was intended. Would you be amenable to another response that does not address PH at all, but which goes point-by-point through her concerns?If you would be willing to consider posting it, I will get to work on securing that for you. I believe it would benefit both of us and your readers for us to be clearer on the issues she has raised.Thank you for your consideration, and for providing a forum for this discussion. You and I disagree on the PRA, but I hope we will continue to do so agreeably (as is my perception at least. I hope it is yours as well).â€I replied and told him that would be acceptable, but since Mr. Farris is a litigator, perhaps he should have taken this course of action in the first place and told him he would need to wait until Publius Huldah had responded to Mr. Farris’ article. I was told by Farris’ spokesman it was reasonable and he asked for Publius Huldah’s contact information, which I was told not to give out (by the way, anyone can go to her site and contact her through the site). Once contact information was turned down, I then received the following email response:
“I have spoken again with Mike Farris, and we simply cannot continue to engage with someone claiming to be a lawyer but refusing to identify herself or provide verifiable credentials. I understand you are convinced she is a lawyer, but we have only her word for it.Anonymity and a claim to be a lawyer are incompatible with each other.If we cannot verify by name that she has a license to practice law, we simply cannot continue this debate in this forum.I regret that we must ask this. I, like you, was looking forward to the debate. But a request for credentials from the outset is not unreasonable. Mr. Farris’ credentials are already on the table.I hope you will understand.â€I’m not going to tell people what to think about this, but I do find that Publius Huldah’s credentials were not an issue for Mr. Farris to respond to in the first article nor were they an issue when there was an agreement to follow up with a second response. However, this makes one wonder if you don’t provide certain credentials, does Mr. Farris not think it worthy of his time to engage you about this subject? I’ll let the reader decide. Without further ado, Publius Huldah’s response to Michael Farris.
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My husband had a shingles outbreak last year, so both my kids caught full-blown chicken pox within a day or two of each other (neither had been vaccinated).
Funny thing is, we deliberately exposed them to chicken pox two years ago. The girl had been vaccinated for chickenpox, but she got a mild outbreak when her father got shingles. My kids got a mild case of chicken pox after exposure. So you can say they got them twice, though the first time was mild.
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A direct follow-up by Publius to Michael Farris' article:
Parental Rights: God-given and Unalienable? Or Government-granted and Revocable?I like how she points out the distinction between unalienable and fundamental rights. She then directly refutes Michael Farris' post point by point. This is really the heart of the whole discussion, whether a PRA is necessary or even harmful.
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Here's a new article by Publius Huldah. Since PRA proponents claim the PRA will give protection from the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child, Publius shows how international treaties have no effect in the U.S., even when ratified by the Senate. She walks through the steps for how this is so.
Treaties: When Are They Part Of “The Supreme Law Of The Land�
Do not forget: The federal government may not lawfully circumvent the U.S. Constitution by international treaties. It may NOT do by Treaty what it is not permitted to do by the U.S. Constitution.
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Thank you, WishboneDawn!
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No. You really don't.
The idea with starting somewhere is that you also post on other topics, not just cut and paste from other locations. Let it die.
If you want to post on other topics, welcome. This is beyond boring.
Well, I've actually been a member of this forum since 2011 and have indeed posted on other topics before this, even if it doesn't look like my message count is very high. I don't have a lot of time for social media. I keep posting on this thread because it's important since it will affect all familes. But to any who find it "boring," you really don't have to read it. No one is forcing you to click on this thread.
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Whoa. Heavy thread from someone with less than 50 posts.
Well, you gotta start somewhere, right?
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Michael Farris of HSLDA has written a rebuttal to Publius Huldah's article. I'll leave it to each reader to decide whether he was successful.
Michael Farris Of HSLDA Responds To Publius Huldah’s Critique Of The Parental Rights Amendment
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Textkit has downloaded more than a dozen Latin public domain texts in .pdf format (Greek, too). They have a forum for support for those working through these books, too.
There's also A New Latin Primer and A Practical Grammar of the Latin Language (ebook).
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Publius Huldah has written a new fantastic article about why parental rights amendments aren't such a good thing. Please read!
Parental Rights Act: Congressmen Are Selling You and Your Kids Out to Big Government
eta: corrected link -
You didn't state your age, but there are some herbal tinctures you can try to slow a heavy period, too, if nothing else. Susan Weed's book New Menopausal Years has a section on flooding. She recommends a few different herbal tinctures that you can try: witch hazel tincture (not the topical stuff you usually find at the pharmacy, but a real tincture you can take internally), Lady's mantle (works best if started 1-2 weeks before period starts), shepherd's purse, or cinnamon tincture. The last one has helped me, and usually works within an hour. If flooding is a regular problem, she recommends taking 4-8 capsules of evening primrose oil for 6 weeks along with vitexberries-- this stabilizes the progesterone shifts. She also talks about diet (including how to increase your iron), accupuncture and other things you can try, so if you're in your mid-30's and up, I'd recommend taking a look at pgs. 7-13 of this book.
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I can't take iron supplements... they make me bleed worse. My mom had the same problem with iron supplements, too. I have very low iron and have been very tired this summer. I take a B complex and try to eat more raisins and such. I hope you can find a solution. Do you have any abdominal pain? I've had some this spring (gross indigestion, too) and the doc is checking me for internal bleeding in the GI tract.
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A fast way to learn grammar is sentence diagramming. Eugene R. Moutoux has a fantastic websitefor diagramming in English, Latin and German. He has written several books, including Drawing Sentences (I'm working through this book with my son this summer. Each lesson has a brief grammar explanation with examples, and then 8 to 12 sentences to diagram. Includes answer key.) He has a 22 "flashcards" minicourseon his website to introduce basic diagramming, though the book is less verbose in its explanations than the back of the "flashcards." He also has the Basics of Sentence Diagramming parts 1 and 2 online. Each part has 30 sentences that are diagrammed and explained. Each sentence introduces a different part of speech or grammatical function.
eta: With the book, it takes my son and I about 20 minutes to work through one lesson. There are more than 3 weeks worth of lessons in the book, though, but you could easily do multiple lessons each day and still not be overwhelmed. Similar to math, the lessons start with the simplest and then build on the previous material. Before this, we did First Language Lessons for grades 1-4 and then the Rod & Staff series thereafter, which gave us a great grounding, but I never felt there was enough diagramming in those. We are both learning a lot in a very short time this summer. Especially if a student is a visual learner, this is a great way to learn about grammar. Each sentence is like a puzzle to solve and you will really learn how sentences work.
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The federal version of the parental rights amendment has been resurrected (HJ Res 50). You can see it on GovTrack and Popvox. I, personally, will be encouraging my reps to oppose it, for I feel parental rights are already an unalienable right. According to the Ninth and Tenth Amendments, any power concerning the rights of parents and children are reserved to the States respectively or to the people, where it belongs. This amendment will put those rights under federal jurisdiction.
As attorney Deborah Stevens stated on her NHELD website, "If a Constitutional Amendment is enacted, the power of parents to affect reduction and elimination of interference with those rights is substantially weakened when power to “interpret†that Constitutional provision is given to a handful of justices politically appointed for life sitting on the United States Supreme Court."
Please consider all possible consequences of a parental rights amendment. As history shows us, government tends to like to grow its own powers while diminishing ours. I think this will enable a massive transfer of power from parents TO the federal government if it goes through, and will not be the protection from government so many seem to think it will be.
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My son was like that, too. Keep 'em mobile! Do an exercise video or have him run around before you want him to settle down for a lesson. Keep lessons short. Minimize TV and computer games and keep a quiet environment if you can. Give him lots of play time in nature if you can. You might look into the Feingold diet. Many food additives aggravate ADHD (especially artifical dyes, artifical flavors, and certain preservatives). Many families can't believe the change when they give up these chemicals in the diet (you do have to be very diligent and consistent and not cheat by letting them slip back in now and then).
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They begin taking high school level subjects at age 8, the ACT around age 10. They dual-enroll on a college campus at age 11 and 12. They do a very accelerated form of homeschooling, but they don't give specifics. One of the boys said after they learn how to read, they begin reading textbooks very early on (didn't say which ones). They seem to emphasize a very nurturing environment. "Kill 'em with love," the father said. The father said he is currently creating software to help families do this at http://kickstartercollegeby12.com/ though I don't see it on the website yet. The kids seem very well adjusted and confident. One of the daughters is the youngest doctor ever at 22. The family is very loving and supportive and they discover early on what the kids love and seem to guide their education based on each child's interest. 6 of their 10 kids have already graduated by age 12. They emphasize they do everything at their "own pace," but it is obviously accelerated. They don't say "why" they did this, but why not? They don't state reasons for why they try to graduate specifically by age 12.
From their website:
Rosannah completed a 5 year architecture program and California College of the Arts at the age of 18. Serennah completed a BA in Biology at the age of 17 from Huntingdon College. She hopes to be a physician by May of 2013. Keith is a senior and music major at Faulkner University at the age of 14. Hannah was Auburn University Montgomery's youngest graduate at the age of 17 with a BS in Mathematics. Seth is a freshman history major at Faulkner University at the age of 12. Katrinnah is preparing for the ACT at the age of 10. Kip is the hardworking Daddy. Mariannah is a bright little homeschooler at the age of 7. Heath set a new record when he graduated with a BA in English from Huntingdon College at the age of 15. He will be done with his MS in Computer Science just after his 17th birthday.
non-drug management for ADD
in The Learning Challenges Board
Posted
I've read melatonin only works if the body is deficient in it. Valerian can help (though in some it has the opposite effect... it's a stinky herb, too, so just be forewarned!) I grow a lot of lemon balm which is also relaxing and helps promote sleep (as does catnip).
For ADD, we've been using the Feingold diet (which avoids specific chemical additives and food colorings). And we've found the book Healing ADD by Dr. Daniel Amen had a lot of helpful and practical suggestions in it to try. There are different types of ADD, and this book helps you hone in on the right one so the correct treatment can be applied. He mostly emphasizes supplements and beginning the day with protein. I found the section near the back about how to teach ADD kids very helpful.
What is the "green therapy" you first mentioned?