Lucy the Valiant
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Posts posted by Lucy the Valiant
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32 minutes ago, smfmommy said:
Can I ask what books you have read? My teens like me to read too, but it's hard to get through a book in a decent time with their schedules. But maybe if we had something really enjoyable we would be more apt to read the evenings when we are tired.
So in previous years we have read "real" (aka classic) literature, history, biographies, and some narrative-style science books.
THIS year, we have read Premeditated Myrtle, Summer of the Woods, The Mystery of Black Hollow Lane, Framed!, The Clockwork Sparrow. None of them are destined for a classics list, but they were all lighthearted & fun. I pulled them off a "read these new middle school books" list back in early September. No characters died a miserable death, were ruined by greed or hate or violence, lost the one true love of their life, or came excruciatingly of age.
If you asked them today what were the 2 best books we've EVER read out loud, they would all agree on the Lord of the Rings trilogy (yes, it took forever) and The War with Mr. Wizzle. --> This one I remembered fondly from my own childhood as being the first book that made me laugh so hard I wept, and (it may have been the mood we were in at the time) it did not disappoint when I read it to my own kids. We screeched in laughter, and had. to. keep. reading. so that we read the whole thing in one day. (I live where winters are long, LOL. We don't read out loud in summer.)
Every year, I choose 1 book for each kid that becomes "their" book for that year; I read the book to ALL the kids, but then that ONE kid gets to own that book when I'm done as "Fred's 2nd grade book" or "Susie's 10th grade book". When each kid has received a book, I just choose for fun / whim / personal choice for the remainder of the year. ❤️ It's become a "thing" for our family.
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2 hours ago, Murphy101 said:
FYI. There is actually zero legal requirement to use cursive on legal documents, including checks.
And yet, when we refinanced last year, the mortgage lady INSISTED that I sign IN CURSIVE every single mortgage form. (She accepted DH's illegible scrawl without comment.) I argued, but then figured the excellent rate was worth the hassle so just re-signed every. single. page.
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55 minutes ago, mommyoffive said:
Does anyone still do this? I don't think I ever have done this. Maybe in high school. It has been at least a decade or more since I wrote a check.
I often tutor high school kids whose parents have given them a blank check; the students OFTEN offer me the check to fill out for myself, because they don't know how to do it. (They do know how to Venmo, which I agree is more important for their generation, but still.) I NEVER write myself a check, and ALWAYS walk them through how to do it, and then congratulate them on picking up a new life skill. 😉
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On 1/16/2022 at 8:54 PM, KrisTom said:
Thank you so much for sharing! Is that Charlotte Mason inspired? I tried to implement some of this in the fall, and my son wondered why we were reading so many books. I was going off a list from Mater Amabilis, a free Catholic CM curriculum (though only my husband is Catholic). Going off that curriculum also made me feel a little crazy. Some of the books are thick and intended for the entire year.
I'm not sure of the Charlotte Mason crossover, and I'm not Catholic (but Sarah McKenzie is). She does home school, but her podcast is called the Read-Aloud Revival, and is targeted at all families, not just home schoolers. She has a fresh, widely appealing, can-do approach that has been an encouragement to me off and on through the years - I often forget just how much kids really do take in and learn from simply listening to a good read-aloud.
(Spoken as a mom who still reads to the teenagers, because yes, they beg for it. This year we have read NOTHING serious - our light, frivolous, just-for-the-joy-of-it push-back to the misery in the headlines; we've made zero "educational progress" but we have laughed together, chuckled at some good characters, considered new-to-us ideas, and just enjoyed some slightly-above-average middle school books. Even the college kids.)
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I would do just about anything to keep a young teen's trust / heart. That trust is a treasure, and medicine to BOTH of your souls, especially in hard times. If there are rules / schedules she doesn't like, does she have an alternative suggestion? As long as she meets some mutually-agreed-upon baselines (1 shared bathroom so keep it quick, school work done to this particular time & quality standard, helping around house) - can she decide all the rest?
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28 minutes ago, ktgrok said:
This seems the right thread to mention that with my hand and wrist splinted I've had to resort to using my husbands Keurig machine for my coffee. Let's all have a moment of silence, lol. Now
If you run over to Heart's house, she'll make you a good cup with her new press. 😉
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24 minutes ago, heartlikealion said:
I had that in my Amazon cart and it was like $13 while a press was around $20. I ended up getting the press.
Next you're going to look out your front window and see a whole huge line of WTM Boardies lined up with coffee mugs in hand! Hahaha! ❤️
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45 minutes ago, Ad astra said:
You can purchase Foerster's Algebra 1 solutions manual at
https://www.rainbowresource.com/product/033404/Algebra-I---Solutions-Manual.html?. Sorry, just saw that it's also out of print. No worked solutions for Foerster's Algebra 1 at Quizlet, either...Dolciani's solutions manual is more tricky to find as it's out of print. Used copies are rare and pricey. But you can find the step-by-step solutions for most problems at Quizlet.
^ Dolciani is known locally in my home school circles as "Houghton math" - it's the exact same Structure & Method course, but that might widen your search a bit? We were able to find a solutions manual that way "back in the day".
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(Adding: A French press is basically a container with a filter built-in; you put grounds in the bottom, pour the water on, wait a bit, and then "press" the filter to the bottom slowly. To clean it, you dump the grounds into your trash / compost, and rinse the rest out. So yes, slightly messier than just dumping grounds + paper filter, but - it's a 30-second or less process, not an all-morning chore. 😉 )
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It's common practice in my area to have coffee / offer coffee - that said, in a situation where you'd only use it sparingly, I would vote for a very low-tech French press, too (to me, it does taste better than a simple pour-over because it's stronger --> that could just be me, though).
I do have someone that I visit regularly, though, who doesn't have coffee b/c nobody there drinks it; I just bring some caffeine with me for the morning and it's no big deal.
Knowing my people, if I were in your shoes, I'd probably turn it into some kind of cute "order ahead on the app, please" little joke or something. When we have a larger coffee-drinking crew over, I try to accommodate preferences in advance (because I consider it fun / a treat), but if you surprise me with a stop-by, you're drinking what I have on hand. 🙂
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My teenagers sing together. ❤️
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7 hours ago, KrisTom said:
Thank you all so much for weighing in. I've never thought about searching for "output." I think our struggle with MP is it's the same type of output for each class, and of course, I bought ALL the things, thinking it was all necessary. My son said that he held back from reading ahead in his last novel because he knew he'd have to answer the comprehension questions for his winter intensive class. He has phenomenal recall of details. I really don't think he needs that type of curriculum for literature. I think we just need to mix it up, but I need help with having a pre-planned curriculum. I am just trying to brainstorm for next year. I am still trying to figure out the MCT books, lol.
You may enjoy Sarah McKenzie's open-ended question style of talking with kids about books. (I just now checked - her 11/4/20 podcast talks about this and has a handy list - though I'm sure she discusses it in other places as well.) Very enjoyable, sets a kid up for success, connects well to other fields/ areas, and Sarah convinces you you can teach a kiddo this way even if you didn't learn this way. No reading curriculum needed.
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3 minutes ago, Jean in Newcastle said:
Talked with a former college roommate last night. She’s lost almost all her hair after having had Covid. I had never heard of that before.
If it's any comfort, it will probably come back; that has happened to several people in my area, men and women alike.
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Our grocery store has started stacking bagged ice in the freezers along the bottom row to distract from the empty shelves.
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Definitely.
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27 minutes ago, Spirea said:
I don't know. I've never tried to do something without a curriculum. I feel I need a good plan before I present it.
But low cost would be good since I already spent my entire school budget, with a good portion on the lame MP materials. I actually have tons of science books ds has never seen that I got after a school library closed.
You could try it for 2 weeks!
"Good plan" = delight-directed reading with him telling you something cool about each book and then (maybe) doing 1 fun thing connected to the books (Lego model, watch a documentary, feed local bird species). And then you write THAT down as if it were the plan all along!
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1 minute ago, Spirea said:
Need another plan. Told ds10 he'd be doing mystery Science. He said, "I've already seen all those videos. I only like the bonus ones. Couldn't we just get books at the library, like anatomy or something?" Maybe he's been reading the forums??
Haha! (Is there a reason he CAN'T do that?)
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9 hours ago, BlsdMama said:
i think a routine and a plan is under appreciated. I had a “go to” plan. People call it morning time or whatever, but it made me feel great - I did things with the kids that made me feel like an effective, productive mom. We read a story, dang a song, listened to music, did some table work, did play dough or painting, or whatever… We made sure we were outside pretty much every day that it wasn’t negative digits. I had littles (age 4 and under) for twenty plus years. Sitting around feeds mom guilt and works against you because as hard as it is to plan, it is harder to deal with bored under stimulated kids.
Make a master list of ideas and put them into categories, like:Table Games, Art, Handwork
then categories of “school” like:
Math with Manipulative, Lacing, Puzzles, Phonics work, etc.
Then create a routine with chores you want them to learn. My brain can’t remember what to do next so I had it typed up. Did I always follow it? No. But enough that they consistently had an idea of we wake up, clean up, eat, do routines, lunch, quiet time, outside time, clean up, Daddy home. When we had littles, staying home was our norm, far more than now, even in Covid times.
Yes to this, too! Our littles would look forward to the "special" thing each day . . . for example, Uno or card games on Tuesdays, Magic School Bus or Liberty Kids show on Wednesday, etc. When ours were little (way before covid), we also stayed home a lot - which made the outings even more fun, actually. "Library day" would be a regular thing, etc. We talked up the routine, and included food, too - one day for Mexican, one day for *This Child* to choose / make a snack, - tiny things. (Schools actually used to do this, too, sometimes: classroom tasks like pencil sharpening, etc.)
And they felt important when they got to choose things, too (so, conversely, we intentionally did not let them always choose).
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9 hours ago, Starr said:
We worked into an hour quiet time in their rooms. Eventually if we were out and about they would still ask for it when we got home. It's worth taking the time to work up from 15 minutes to an hour.
We did the same, with the same effect. (Could be with sibling in shared rooms, too - just had to be quiet enough. Legos, books, Polly Pockets, small crafts, Thomas trains, drawing, inventing their own board games . . . I have no idea what they did in there most of the time, but it was quiet, it was profitable, and we ALL benefitted from the space.)
And (don't judge, I have several kids very close together in age, LOL) if the kids themselves could not think of anything profitable / enjoyable to entertain themselves during quiet time, I had a handy list of things like dusting, matching lost socks, cleaning out the silverware drawer, (for olders) vacuuming out my car, etc. *GRIN. The trick was that if they came and ASKED me during quiet time, they then HAD to do the thing I told them. They did not ask for years on end, LOL . . .
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"Move over, PCR tests, dogs are now trained to sniff out covid in schools"
(I think I'm starved for good headlines, but I LOVE this!*)
*Also quite relieved that the health status of the nation is not relying on MY OWN dog, LOL.
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^You've got this, mama!
And Liberty Kids TOTALLY counts for history. It's January. Of a pandemic.
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5 hours ago, barnwife said:
Well, I might not be the type of person you want answering. I am a former private and public teacher who now HS her kids. And the longer I HS, the more I lean toward science and history before high school being for enjoyment. FWIW, our oldest is 11. We don't do formally planned/scheduled history or science at this point, but neither is it totally unschooling. I choose interesting books to read through for each as part of our morning time. There is no formal output. I read aloud. They listen. Sometimes questions/discussion happen. Sometimes not.
I also make sure that our bookshelves have interesting nonfiction and not just fiction.
At this point, our kids think history and science are interesting. Oldest definitely prefers nonfiction to fiction, and is an avid reader. I am starting to think about how to transition him to formal output for these things, but have no concrete plans yet.
So, I will firmly be in the "if you aren't enjoying history or science in the elementary/middle school years, change something" camp. I'd rec our world history, except it's Catholic, so you probably aren't interested. The US history book we are using is The Complete Book of United States History. I saw someone here recommend it. Though I was skeptical, it's much better than I expected it to be, and my kids are enjoying it. They might be oddballs though.+1
4 hours ago, 8filltheheart said:At age 10 if it is making learning an unpleasant experience vs. encouraging a desire to learn more and sparking interests, then I would drop it without 2nd thought and find other materials that cover the same topics in a more engaging way. For American history in elementary school, for example, my kids read a list of biographies and books based on major events in American history. (Biographies of people like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin, Paul Revere, Lincoln, etc, and books on the French Indian War, the Revolution, the War of 1812, the Oregon Trail, and on forward to present times.)
Science is whatever the heck they want to study. (My 12 yod is currently reading Discover Nature at Sundown.)
Just echoing support for this interest-led style . . . it can be scary if you've always trusted a curriculum, but once you jump . . . You can soar.
2 hours ago, 8filltheheart said:Don't say you are "just reading biographies." You list the titles of the books you are reading. They are the curriculum. Unless you have to use an approved pre-packaged curriculum, books are 100% acceptable as your curricula.
^ 100%. Some modern educational systems / gurus "feel better" when this type of learning carries a fancy name - "Colonial American Perspectives" . . . or "Cultural Leaders of the Industrial Age." ---> Lends itself well to documentaries and field trips, too. (If you need fancy titles, start a new thread with the list of biographies you've read, and this crazy hive will do you solid with the descriptive course titles. 😉 )
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4 hours ago, ***** said:
An MD in my area recommends (for covid): besides vitamin D, Zinc supplements , vitamin C and Quercetin. I don't take these daily, I stagger them. If feeling like I am coming down with something, I will take quercetin for a few days.
Don't forget soothing teas: ginger, peppermint, etc.
3 hours ago, matrips said:Haven’t read others, but I’d be taking our covid protocol supplements with us.
^ This. 2 close family members of mine in a higher-risk category did exactly this over the summer.
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Dominion ----> brand new in our house this year. 6 players. Oh, my!
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Looking for meaningful and / or clever teacher appreciation gift
in The Chat Board
Posted
We have a couple of special teachers who have invested significantly in our kids over the last couple of years, and I'd like to do something "big-ish" to say thank you. I do NOT have very much money for this project, but I DO have time and creative / motivated / silly-but-grateful teens to help. I thought I would also seek ideas from the hive . . .
1. Youth Chorus Director & Wife - maybe the kids (teens) put together a funny song-thank-you? (They could pull this off quite humorously at the spring concert, I think.) We will also do a group gift card (but that seems . . . boring / average). Other ideas? Funny musical skit presentation?
2. Java Teacher - last year we gave her "java for the Java teacher" and she thought it was very clever & fun; . . . repeat? Something different?
You people have the best ideas.