Lucy the Valiant
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Posts posted by Lucy the Valiant
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I would, too. We bought our house knowing it might need a system, and we tested and then installed one. It was super easy & no hassle. Around $2K, many years ago.
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Not hoarding. It's "keeping a well-stocked bookshelf (or 5)." 😉
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15 minutes ago, MissLemon said:
Most people I know with backyard flocks have an over abundance of eggs. If you can't get eggs at the store, ask around on fb. Someone always has extra eggs.
This was true in our area before covid, but not since.
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11 hours ago, Sunshine State Sue said:
This may not be what you are looking for but maybe you can pilfer something from it. My choir director used to give this out each year.
Choral Music as Education
MUSIC IS A SCIENCE
It is exact, specific; it demands precise acoustics. A conductor's score is a chart, a graph which indicates frequencies, intensities, volume variations, linear melody, and harmonic density all at once within the most structured parameters of time.
MUSIC IS MATHEMATICAL
It is rhythmically based upon the subdivisions of time into fractions which must be executed instantaneously and extemporaneously, without benefit of calculations on paper.
MUSIC IS COMMUNICATIONS AND FOREIGN LANGUAGE
Most of the terms and instructive symbolism are in Italian, German, or French, and the notation itself
is certainly not in English but a highly-developed kind of shorthand which uses abstract symbols to represent
ideas. The semantics of music is the most complex and universal of languages.
MUSIC IS HISTORY
Music usually reflects the influence of the environment and time of its creation, and speaks of the country and/or ethnicity of its composer, text, or feeling.
MUSIC IS PHYSICAL
It requires fantastic co-ordination of fingers, hands, arms, lips, cheeks and facial muscles - in addition to extraordinary control of the diaphragmatic, back, stomach, and chest muscles which must respond instantly to the sound the ear hears and the mind interprets.
MUSIC IS ALL THESE THINGS, BUT MOST OF ALL MUSIC IS ART
It allows a human being to apply all these dry, technically boring (but difficult) techniques and use them to create emotion. These are things which technology and science cannot duplicate: humanism, feeling, emotion, soul; call it what you will.
I want to teach YOU music...
Not because I expect you to major in music, or to sing in choruses all your life; Not just so you can relax and have fun... but, so you will be more human,
so you will recognize and embrace beauty, so you will be more sensitive,
so you will be closer to an infinite beyond this world,
so you will have something to cling to, have more compassion, more gentleness,
more good... in short - more life.
Of what real value is it to make a prosperous living, unless you know how to live?
Oh, my. ❤️ This caused me to re-write my speech. THANK YOU.
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“Music can name the unnameable and communicate the unknowable.” – Leonard Bernstein“As long as we live, there is never enough singing.” – Martin Luther“Music is enough for a lifetime, but a lifetime is not enough for music.” – Sergei Rachmaninoff
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Thank you! These are exactly what I'm looking for . . .
(I'm a word person.)
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I'm giving a thank-you speech to the world's most wonderful chorale teacher tomorrow, representing a large group of parents. I'd like to lead with a meaningful quote (up to 3-4 sentences, shorter is fine) about the gift of / the inspiration of / the HUGENESS of music, especially as it's shared in community settings.
Anyone have a favorite?
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55 minutes ago, Katy said:
My point wasn't whether the data is protected or not. The point is if there is a medical problem your insurance already knows so the idea that you're protecting yourself from knowledge of your own body isn't particularly logical. And also, there's an insurance database, it's a bit like a credit report. IDK how it's legal with HIPAA, but it is. If you ever get turned down for life insurance every company knows it. So basically they all know, and between data science and actuarial science they might know more about your family than you do. <snip>
No, they don't know DNA data until you agree to testing. ("They" = insurance AND also potential employers. Edit: non-military application.)
I know doing the ancestry research is fun for many people; it's just worth a note that for some kids, it's a huge danger, too. Like fire - sometimes a huge benefit, sometimes extremely destructive.
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11 minutes ago, Katy said:
I have a disabled child. He's been tested for genetic issues. The insurance pre-approved, paid for the tests, and got the results. If there is a genetic condition that needs care, your insurance ALREADY knows. And while we all know laws can be changed, right now genetic discrimination is not legal. ETA: they paid for the visits and consultations with the genetic counselor physician too.
I'm so thankful that happened for you.
Unfortunately, genetic discrimination by an employer (against a parent of a medically complex child) is nearly impossible to prove. Common, painful and devastating, and yes, technically illegal.
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2 hours ago, Katy said:
But recent science has shown that the microbiome has a much larger influence on health than DNA. In fact the microbiome seems to be the largest factor in epigenetics. Unless you have one of the rare diseases that is caused by DNA alone knowing chances doesn’t do anything but help you get better treatment and preventative care.
Unless your insurance finds the data. People (especially children, and especially children with expensive disabilites) are enormously vulnerable to misuse of medical data.
I'm actually thankful that so many people don't know that, but it's worth thinking about, especually if (general) you haven't had to do so before.
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Here, too! Picking him up in a bit.
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We just wrapped up U. S. History using Land of Hope (and the fantastic student book, too) alongside Hillsdale College's free video lectures. It's a "short" class (not 32 full weeks), so we added in some field trips, a couple of local projects & documentaries, and I had the students each take both U. S. History CLEP exams, too. The 3 kids I had really appreciated the class, and I (as facilitator) deeply appreciated the thought-provoking conversations that followed. The lectures assumed a functional working knowledge of the facts of U.S. History, and struck an authentic balance between acknowledging the ugly parts of U. S. history while still highlighting the uniqueness of this experiment in self-governance. "Land of Hope" is not just the book title; it's the theme of the lecture series. Exactly what we were looking for.
Logistics: I went through the student book at the beginning of the year and selected "essay questions" that the kids had to submit in writing before we met for class; during class time, we orally discussed the other questions from that chapter, and then watched the lecture video for the next chapter. Kids took quizzes through the Hillsdale site, which were not difficult at all.
10/10
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On 4/10/2022 at 9:58 PM, itsheresomewhere said:
I would like to apologize for the snow flurries this weekend. I got ahead of nature and power washed the siding on Friday.
Green house heat source is hooked up and doing well. Peas are started along with carrots and strawberry runners were transplanted.
Hahaha! We keep the huge pile of snow shovels RIGHT by the back door just to ward against this!
It's fine to rake and even mow once, to lay mulch and stack next year's wood, to ride bikes and change out flannels, but for the love of everything holy, do NOT put the snow shovels away!
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In my area, a shared driveway is (legally, the actual land) owned by one house, but has an "easement" (legal language) attached to the deeds of both houses. This was a common set up before the town passed an ordinance requiring a certain amount of road footage for new lots. In a similar situation to your parents', the police would be called here and they would ticket the easement-breaker's vehicle.
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Tangential idea - When ours were younger, we did an "Author Project" together. We'd read one (or several) books by a children's author, and then the kids would write letters and / or draw pictures to that author. They introduced themselves as home schoolers and asked a few questions, either about the book characters or about the author's own life. If the author was still living, we'd mail those out, and if the author was deceased, we just tucked them in our binder.
MANY of the authors wrote back - some with pre-made materials, etc., but many with individual letters actually answering the kids' questions! We saved all of them in a 3-ring binder, and just built it over the years as interest waxed and waned. ❤️
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3-ingredient protein pancakes (I was highly skeptical but VERY happy w these - we also serve them to our GF teen friends w/rave reviews)
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If you have Lego lovers (as I do), you may find some good ideas at Frugal Fun for Boys and Girls. 🙂
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The most fun thing (yes school, but not exactly curriculum) we've done over all the years is to schedule "school parties" - pick whatever we're learning in history or science, circle a date on the calendar, invite a few friends, and then divvy up "volunteer assignments" (yes, the friends, too). We've had homecoming parties to welcome Odysseus home, we've had "Scat Parties" with owl pellet dissections and (ewwwww) tootsie-roll "kitty litter" cake, we've had in-costume Shakespearean parties where we watched Hollow Crown (Benedict Cumberbatch) Richard III and played busking games, we've had brain-wave synapse relay races with candy-constructed brain diagrams, we've "encamped" through many different nations / centuries / discoveries.
For CURRICULUM, I'd have to nominate Considering God's Creation (especially the games and songs!), Ellen McHenry (never disappoints, especially the games), SOTW especially year 1 activities, there was a Little House on the Prairie one from Cadron Creek, Mapping the World with Art, and World Watch (current events, Christian worldview).
Funniest = Word Up! The Vocab Show (corny humor that my kids found HILARIOUS during the early middle school years, when it really mattered, LOL).
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So DH brought me home a surprise today, and I remembered this thread . . . it's a "Chicago Hardy" Fig! Hahaha!
Crossing my Zone 5 fingers. 😉
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*PSA for this year, though: If you have friends who have chickens, please don't go in their coop. There's a bad avian flu this year that is easily spread. It helps the chicken owners immensely if you keep your shoes / boots / etc out of the places the chickens go. We are not even going inside the feed store this year, just picking up the food curbside out of concern for biosecurity.
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Our library isn't big enough for home schoolers, so we pay $75 / year to the neighboring town as a non-resident fee. Their library is linked to a much larger system, so it turns out to be quite a bargain.
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When we did AP Lit at home, I modified one of the pre-approved syllabi; it worked out great, and was surprisingly easy. (Much easier than finding a seat for the exam.)
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Oddly, the state of Maine hosts a full length SAT, the April 2018 test that is not in the other 10 published on CB and Kahn.
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We did (and will do again with up-coming kids) the Larson pre-calc and then Larson calc. My kids appreciated the review (some of the pre-calc WAS review). We out-sourced at that point, too, and the tutor said the kids COULD have gone directly to calc (skipping pre-calc), but we've always been a slow-and-steady math approach, which has been a very good fit overall. The review built confidence, and - they know what they know, kwim? The kids described the transition as similar to the transition that happened at middle school when they moved Singapore-to-Dociani (edit: aka irregularly paced because the review was faster than the new material, but helpful in the sense of switching gears / switching math teachers / etc).
$.02 / adjusted for inflation *grin
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Food Storage suggestions needed
in The Chat Board
Posted
We use mason jars, too, for a lot of leftovers. We use (saved & cleaned) peanut butter lids on the standard mouth jars. Also, parmesan cheese container lids fit as well.