Ecclecticmum
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Posts posted by Ecclecticmum
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A good book to get is one of those Frugal Eco books, they have stuff like building solar cookers, cob ovens, planting round your house, and a whole bunch of other interesting stuff.
If it doesn't conflict with your current program, just grabbing the activity guide that go with the sotw would be a great idea, also classical kids book, that a lot of people purchase.
My favourite thing from when I was a kid (and actually still is) is Dioramas. On any subject lol.
I also sed to (I don't have time anymore) do the re-borning of dolls, doll re-borning is a heap of fun, you can learn all sorts of things. Art, being the main one, hand eye coordination, fine motor control (drawing veins is especially fun) crafts, even maths when you learn to weight the baby properly according to how mch it "should wiegh"
Another thing I used to do as a hobby business is/was 3d felt sculpture. I used to make little caricatures of peoples kids.
Be aware that both the re-borning and the Felt Sculpture use some ultra sharp equipment so are better for older kids, the previous things are better for smaller kids.
xxx
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I haven't used it, I hope somebody can answer who will. When I was originally looking, I got it confused with another workbook type curriculum, so didn't other looking at it. I only looked at it properly 2 days ago, to me, it looks brill. Unfortunately we already have a main curriculum, and we are outside of the US, so I couldn't be bothered purchasing, and having to wait ages to receive it, plus shipping rates.
I love the look of Mother Goose Time and Bright Beginnings preschool programs, if I lived in the US, I would purchase both in a heartbeat LOL.
I hope you get some info on it, I would love to hear more about it too.
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A lot of the books I have are in PDF format.
I hate converting rofl. We have a Kindle DX, the white one, whatever gen that is lol. It reads pdfs, no conversion neccessary. It also has 9.7" screen I think, so larger than the 6" one on the normal Kindle. I have wanted a normal kindle, but between all my pdfs that would need to be converted and the fact its screen is 3" smaller (i read fast and hate miniscule print that it would probably have, as some books on the 9.7" screen are like reading fine print) makes me stay with my DX lol.
I am hoping since we need so many books next year, that I will be able to get them in ebook format, one, to save them, as they will need to go through 3 children, and two they take up less space, and 3 so its cheaper lol.
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Usually unless the person is a hoarder or the amount of animals is out of their caring level, this would not cause that much problem to hardwood floors.
Children, however, are scarier than animals IMO to rent to. And I have 3 young -uns myself so know what I am talking about. I have 3 young children, two dogs & two cats. The children do way more damage than the dogs. and DH too ROFL :lol:
In any house where there is new something or other, I would take more care with that in the conditions of the lease. I am not sureo f the rules in the US, but we have an additional conditions page. I would add something in to the degree that any damage to the floors will be recitified fully by the tenant, either as its happens or before the tenant leaves the property, to be extra careful, I would say at the 3/6monthly inspections, to make sure the floors are fully inspected, any carpet/rugs/furniture moved, to make sure they have not "covered" up marks, and after each inspection, a letter written to the tenant to rectify any damage to the floors, and that the floor damage must be rectified within 30 days or something to that effect, then a quick inspection after those 30 days or a copy of receipt to prove work was done.
FWIW even though we may cause some damage to property (as expected with 3 kids) any damage we have caused at all is either fixed as it happens, or completely fixed and updated as we move out. We usually do mini renovations as the lease goes along, and stuff like repainting and re-carpeting when we move out, so any places we rent are in tip top condition when we move, better than when we moved in. I am aware that a lot of tenants aren't like that though, esp since I use to work in RE, and we have had a lot of agents be rude to us thinking we are going to flee or something else stupid, but we are honest hardworking people, with nary a mark against us, and there attitudes have always changed once we moved out and the place is sparkling, a pty they couldn't have been nicer to use whilst we lived there. :tongue_smilie:Everyone is suspicious, usually with good reason considering most agents only remember the bad tenants and look for any similar signs in current tenants.
Hopefully though we should soon be purchasing the house we are currently renting, which will put an end to agents :hurray: Its actually costing us more a year with our constant moving (due to DHs work) and fixing, than it would be to buy a house!
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Most people who seem to do this have boys, as it is more limited on boys wearing pink or dresses, then girls whom are"tomboys" we even have a word for it, but of which you don't here one for boys, except maybe for effiminate (sp?).
FWIW everyone knows my boy is a boy, he likes his hair short, like Thomas and Lightning McQueen, but also likes Dora and Barbie, he likes wearing cool shorts & biker jackets, but also wears princess skirts for dressups and we have taken him out a couple of times with a pink shirt of one of his sisters, or flowered jeans, which he has chosen he wants to wear.
Non-gendering is weird IMO, boys are boys, girls are girls. If the boy wants to wear pink and the girl wants to wear blue who cares, they are still a boy or a girl, if they want to change that later on in life, so be it. My kids are my kids, if they are happy, I am happy.
Ppl who do this may have very unsupportive relatives whom are very insistent on gender-steretyping, and have berated them with previous children whom are "outside the norm" (which IMO everyone is, we are all individuals) so turn to this radical thought to stop outsiders berating what is their childrens decisions.
Me, I just turn around and swiftly tell anyone, its what he chose to wear, and its none of their business. I don't my PIL to walk round in a diaper, so why should they or me for that matter (unless it concerns their safety or health) care what they themselves choose to wear. My children are not sheep, and they can express their individual feelings through their clothes however they wish :001_smile:
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It sounds similar to my kids, but mine are much younger than yours, mine have always suffered from cradle cap (yellow crust/skin on scalp) mostly due to hubby taking over bath time, using too much shampoo and not scrubbing/rinsing it out well.
I am not sure it can happen to older kids though?
What I use to counteract it, every now and again, is to remind DH to use as little as possible of shampoo & we changed over to head and shoulders.
I also have a time every few months where I coat there scalp liberally in olive oil for two nights in a row and rub in ,and on the 3rd night, I wash it out and give it a comb, voila beautiful fresh scalp.
Not sure if that help any, but I hope it does xxx
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I have'nt started any foreign languages yet, we have decided to wait till later this year.
The wtm (if you don't have it, I would recommend it) says to start Latin in 3rd grade? I think it was, at to do a modern language in years 10-12? Someone correct me if I am wrong, I believe they don't count languages until after yr9 in US as part of the transcript? :001_huh: Its all babble to me lol.
We plan to start using Rosetta Stone latin late this year, and following up with prima latina from 2/3rd grade. And either italian or spanish in yr 10-12.
The WTM? I think it was, suggested that the order form of Latin, makes it greatly easier on a child to learn another foreign language once Latin has been learnt. Due to the grammar/order of it or something.
You can tell I don't pay much attention till it concerns us, can't you? lol :lol:
Good Luck! :001_smile:
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Well we keep it pretty mainstream here (for the moment anyway)
But we do double up on certain subjects, for instance:
- We are using Sonlights Language Arts K, but we also use Queen Homeschool Language Lessons for little ones.
- We have Sonlight P4/5 which has social studies built in, but we also use Succeeding in Social Studies K which is an Aussie Homeschool book, I am using it, because it builds up to Social Studies of Australia, which is hard to find without using yearly unit studies. We also plan to use galloping the globe next year which is geography, but which people still count as Social Studies LOL.
- Um,, we have exploring Art with Children, Kids Nature Activities and a few other books like learning Math & Science through Nursery Rhymes, which are more 90's books, so a bit hard to find nowadays.
- We also have a big collection of Australiana & Aborigine Picture books which are quite rare. Aussie poetry, tom tom etc.
- We use handle on the arts as a supplement to P4/5 which I have found to be absolutely fantastic, but which doesn't seem to be popular.
- We also have the rock n learn series, we everyone seems to prefer leapfrog letter factory. My 3yo happily copies along to the phonics Vol1 of Rock n Learn.
We also have Artistic Pursuits: The way they see it, preschool program coming, which most people don't use as they usually start from the kinder program.
We have Queen Homeschool books coming: Maths for a living Education, home stories for children, Math facts for copywork and Printing with Pictures.
Thats about it for any non-mainstream items.
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Maybe try mini "centers" for certain subjects (science is a good one!) so a long table with individual centers that they can readily access all the time, so for the science one, microscope, depending upon your religion you could also have finger prickers, so they can look at their blood, and some more items and a few piece of interesting lit. That way when they want to explore on their own, or you need to make a call, they have a readily availble unit center to explore further on their own.
Dawns idea of having a theme area, so for each time of the year and different theme and appropriate books (see dawns file crate site for further details as I am not good at explaining it) I also love her wall tree.
A comfy couch for snuggling into and reading.
Lots of very organised storage that is open, so bookshelves with labelled baskets would do, for all manipulatives.
An educational games area, there are heaps and heaps of games from sicence to maths to grammar available as board games these days.
If your not TV Free, then a TV with learning dvds easily accessible (interative science, mathtacular, docos)
Maybe an area for doing workshop/electronics projects? Get a few not really messy kits (anything from build & paint planes from era you are doing, to build your own wooden car, to make robotics or alarms etc) Usually we have an area outside for that, but we also have my DHs "electronics" room that we use as an inside less messy project area.
An open crafts area, with every sort of craft supply needed, especially items like paddlepop sticks, matchsticks & glue, they could even make a wonderful replica boat!
Thats it on my ideas I think, I hit a writers block lol
hth xxxx
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I was replying to a thread in the general forum, and when I pressed submit, it came up with a moderator has to approve your message?
I looked all round the help/faqs as well as google searching but couldn't find anything.
Is it a forum error, did I do an error and reply to something else, did I put a boo-boo in a previous post that has me moderated?
I understand if this needs to be deleted, I am just unsure what to do lol.
Thanks for any help xxx :001_smile:
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To pack up the whole house? A few days to a week. And we have what seems to be 5 times (at least) the normal amount for a large family.
But I have never had more notice than that. We have moved about 12 times in the past 6 years. Mostly because of DHs work, but sometimes because of owners selling, amongst other stuff.
Thats pretty much why our house was always in shambles, I could never get everything unpacked, sorted & untouched by 3 toddlers before we had to move again.
We cleared out about 20 (literally) van loads of stuff to charity, plus 5 3cube metre bin fulls before we moved this last time, and it has been better, but I honestly believe theres still a bit more room for improvement before I am happy with our amount of stuff.
I became very organised and efficient in packing over the years, but there still ends up being that last night when DH has to handle the rest of the packing and literally just throws things into boxes, leaving more trouble at the other end for me.
The things I found to be a must is two permanent markers, one thick, one thin, 5 x more tape than you think you are going to use, a tape gun that sits right and well weighted for you, and brightly coloured different colour moving stickers for each room, this time I put them on EVERYTHING, including my dovetail dresser, on the more nicer furniture I just put them in an out of sight place (table - under it, dresser - on back where mirror will be put back), that way hubby does not have to ask me about anything, and can just move the stuff in as hes able. He just plonks it in the appropriate room, and its my job to move to where I need it, and unpack the boxes. Hes the muscle, i'm the brains rofl.
Good luck! :grouphug:
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Thanks again :)
I am letting them have lots of free time, and free play, for instance we did noahs ark book, and put a blanket over the tables and saved the animals, we finished that about 15 minutes ago, right now they are having dinosaur wars, and eating snacks in their ark, as well as generally running around with the "got loose" animals rofl.
I should edit my original post to be more specific. I just want a curriculum/book of activity bags & ideas to use as jumping off points for their play, so many things seem to be number this, match letters etc, which is not what we're after.
I'll porbably just make my own activity book with ideas gleaned from everywhere some tot/lapbooks, painting ideas, and bind the thing myself lol. I was just hoping there would be a place that would have what I want so I could save time, but as with everything good, it always requires numero uno doing it. :lol:
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Thanks :)
My friend let me "borrow" her scanned in version of her FIAR volume...and it sent me to sleep :lol: But maybe I had the wrong version, or something, so I will re-look into that.
The get enough books, daddy reads to them copiously of a night, every single night, The get sonlight readers of a morning and go-alongs, we have the rock n learn stuff and similar dvds.
A says she wants more painting, shes obsessed with painting, E wants more puzzles like the ziploc preschool baggies (I still had some of the preschool activities in a bag stuff) and C...well he just wants to destroy stuff and watch Phonics Vol1 of rock n learn all the time rofl.
I am just really completely useless at coming up with ANY ideas in regards to ANYTHING lol.
The preschool activities in a bag was okay....just too much time to setup and too "formal" iykwim? I'd prefer something similar thats more about sorting and general play, like the small few I have found on the many many many preschool bag blogs I have visited (and I mean I have visited a LOT)
I guess its just another one of those things where I will have to do heaps of research, gathering, and making my own loose schedule/bucket of activities.
My kids are good at making a HUGE mess of nothing too. So those sorting games with the beads etc, the beads would just be dumped everywhere, and I'd be finding them for weeks.
I'm still finding pegs from the mosaic peg board around, the cats think there mice.
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We have just been doing activties & learning through play and only formally (as in with scheduled curriculum) started a little while ago, we are just doing year round schooling, I believe in making school fun, as to me, learning IS fun, so why do we need to take copious breaks?
I found even with doing SL both P cores together plus K language and a whole bunch extra, we still have 5 hours of the afternoon with nothing to do!
Today I am trying to go much more slowly....we started late, I have let them carry on for as long as possible with each activity still it starts to wear thin, and added a few craft supplements in between activties, so we will see how we go, but now its me sitting here doing absolutely nothing lol. Whilst they are in there probably gluing themselves to the chairs :lol:
When we finish one level of something, we just plan to move on to the next, so we don't schedule when we finish (as in Jul to whatever schoolyear) if its too hard or a bit above them (I know we'll probably get to a stage like that eventually) I will just find a revision or go over course before hopping on to the next level.
In all honesty, its ridiculous, thats half the year that they will be forgetting and not learning, so I don't understand it. We just have our days listed from one to 5, and 36 weeks scheduled, and if we don't feel like doing something one day, we'll take a day off, or if we decide to go on holiday next week (yeah right) then we'll just go, but even with many sick days, my CFS, and spur of the moment holidays, I don't see how we could ONLY do 180 days a year lol. :001_huh:
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I thought you meant our personal library as well. I was going to say it lacks a big cleanout and re-stocking lol., and some more shelves for reference books.
We must be among the only homeschoolers whom don't go to the library.
For 3 reasons:
DD1 - Any book she wants, she wants, meaning she;ll want it for at least 6 months, and it to be read over and over again till all the pages fall apart
DS - Is a challenging child (waiting to be assessed for autism) so his "borrowing books" could result in him scrunching the pages, or drawing on them, or only know what else.
DD2 - Is in the "ripping" pages stage, so definately not good.
Me - Anything I read, I usually read whilst eating, drinking, relaing etc, and theres no doubt, I will probably end up with some splotch or another on the book lol
So for a messy family like ours, out of respect to the library...we don't use it. It annoys my MIL to no end, as she is a librarian lol, and is always talking about the unlimite potential of the library.
We do just fine, we have our own library, and we buy all the books we need, and any books we plan to use for years to come, or reference books, are downloaded to my kindle anyway.
I would love to use the library though, one day, it might possibly be a go-er, then I will need a truck each time I go rofl!
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For those in the post-partum-ly way and using disposable pads (although I suppose you could do it with cloth too) I had a suggestion from my murse to put them in the fridge/freezer, the cooolness helps with the swelling and pain.
I just used Tena? pants for my 3rd child, so yes, walked around in what is meant to be for incontinent people, a bit embarrassing lol, but it was very comfortable, and solved the problem I had the other times with the PP flow getting over underwear and/or clothes. We also had the bed pads like they have at the hospital which gave extra protection to the bedding of a night for me.
PP cloth is quite bigger than normal cloth pads, due to the havy flow, and hence more expensive, so unless you have limited funds, or can sew your own, I usually just use disposable ones PP-ly, one less thing I have to clean for a while anyway lol.
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Hi,
Rather a newbie to "formal" homeschooling, and quite new to the forum (although have been lurking for quite a while)
We are currently doing p3/4 & P4/5 with some supplements.
We are usually finished by lunch, and I originally thought the kids would be happy to have "free play" till Daddy gets home, however, its not working, they are bored with a capital B lol. We have a toy shop worth of toys and games etc, but they want something more interesting, more like the school we do in the morning....
They like scheduled days, so okay now that we've done this, now we do this etc. We've tried a lot of books like tv free for toddlers, kids etc, but they are more trouble then they're worth.
Is there some sort of box/pre-planned curriculum for games to play, activities to do, stuff to paint etc? We have artistic pursuits coming, but I wasn't planning on doing that every day all afternoon lol.
So is there a curriculum that just concentrates on "non-learning" fun stuff to do?
I am at my wits end and the state of my house will thank you, as they tend to make a "mess" when they are bored lol.
Thank you very much for any help xxx
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Melissa & Doug and Montessori both do some fantastic toys. One of them a "lock box" is what I really want for my son, its basically a box with a heap of doors, with different kids of locks on them.
MFW as you suggested do the lauri? toys as well. Crayons, plastic scissors and paper, train set.
I don't have many ideas other than that LOL, its the main reason I got sonlight 3/4 so theres at least one extra activity that my 2yr old will enjoy, we just combine p3/4 & p4/5 and all the kids do everything.
I hope you find what your after xxx
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We love sonlight here! Great Lit, my kids adore the stories, Milly Molly Mandy is a huge hit, as well as berenstein bears science, we love everything.
As well as p4/5 we have LA K, and we also use the Handle on the Arts Supplements for P4/5.
The kids had great fun today making pails for Jack & Jill, putting bandaids on and wrapping themselves in bandages, and they made snowmen and glitter snowflakes, and jumped over various obstacles for Uncle Wigglys Stubby Toes, traced and counted their toes.
Tommorrow we are having a "snowball fight" using crumpled paper, and making a crystal snowflake using borax. All these ideas and more can be found in the handle on the arts supplement.
Oh and we painted the side of the house with water.
Each day is an absolute adventure!
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First of all, you are best off getting a puppy, if you do get an older dog, it should be in EXACTLY the same situation as all your wants & don'ts
Any dog is going to be interested in chickens, there is no "won't kill chickens" breeds, their game, their fun to chase. Even a dog that has grown up round chickens should not be trusted, as a few people whom hve come home to quite a sad scene have found out.
Its best to avoid terriers, hunting, scent, pointer & sight dogs, but even these dogs can be trained to ignore the chickens, it just depends how strong their working drive is.
Golden Retrievers have shown ignore capabilities if trained properly, labradors too.
There are lots of wonderful breeds out there, but don't limit yourself to certain breeds, judge the deed not the breed,so the saying goes.
Good luck with your search, I did a similar one for months on end, and ended up with a really big crossbreed (labxBorder Collie x Rotti x Kelpie) just because I am smooshy when it comes to animals and wanted to save her lol.
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If you don't have the Well Trained Mind, I would highly reccomend it, it even has details about "starting in the middle"
You could start right now from vol 1, at the beginning, the activities guide would probably just be okay for that age range.
Or you could start at vol 3.
Susan mentions in the book that its not going to matter if the child does 2 1/2 rotations or the full 3, anything she misses will be grabbed during the next round.
hth xxx
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I don't know on US level, but our SNG version earlybird maths is a two year preschool/kinder level. They are also a year ahead.
1A & 1B - Is preschool. So since this is ahead, this would be classed more as a kindergarten level. We are currently working on 1A. There is notes at the bottom to enhance the lessons, which you use household items to make them understand. There may be in the beginning, buts she flies through, as most kids learn some stuff naturally, this ust helps review and fill in any gaps.
2A & 2B - Is there "Kinder" level, but is more on par with Grade 1 here, so we plan to use those next year.
There is also a big (and I mean big) preschool activities workbook you can get as an extra, it can help to review similar activities alongside the pre/kinder program with this if you need additional review.
Then primary maths 1 we plan to start in grade 2.
Also remember that the reason the singapore math works over there, is that they use the teacher guides, which have additional life activities, and the additional workbooks, so its all about adding all the extras to make it a full complete program.
HTH xxx
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We used cloth nappies/diapers on and off throughout my 3, I have photo somewhere with 2 of 3 wearing them. They look SO much better then plastic and there are some gourgeous ones available.
Heres a peek:
xxxx
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I'm biased, but if your looking for another dog, I always reccomend labs or lab mixes.
The only thing you have to watch is their weight...they love food lol.
We have an 18 month old lab x border collie, but she is mostly lab, cept for when she gets excited lol. And a big mixer, a 4 month old Rottweiler x Border Collie x Kelpie x Labrador lol.
I keep going to get a proper pedigree dog, but I am a big softie and end up saving all these crossbreeds all the time! But I am still on the waiting list (have been for 19 months) for the purebred dog I want....another 5 years and maybe I will be at the top of the waiting list lol. (Old English Sheepdog)
History & Science for K?
in K-8 Curriculum Board
Posted
We do it informally, we're starting formal studies next year in year 1
We use Kinder as the gentle introduction to the subjects.
Since we use Sonlight (p4/5), we have Berenstein Bears big book of Science. We go with extra activities listed in the Instructors Guide, and also use the P4/5 Science Supplement from Handle on the Arts. As far as I am aware, it does not include history. We don't do anything really for History. We have a Social Studies book, that starts off with "About Me" and ends with "My world" for this year. We also have lots of chapter and picture books reagarding dinosaurs, and the history of Australia, and have informal/casual chats about history.
Once we get to next year we'll start Story of the World - Vol1 and associated stuff, and we are also going to do Australian Book Traveler very slowly (hopefully over 3 years), plus galloping the globe over 3 years as well, so theres a lot of history compacted into those 3 things.
This year we are concentrating on reading, phonics, maths & crafts. To me, in the Preschool years & Kinder, the most important thing is 1. Getting them to love books & 2. Getting them to read. So we use Sonlight which is a lit based approach, Singapore Maths Prek( 2 yr program), Happy Phonics Games, and the Supplements for our Sonlight yr from Handle on the Arts.
The preschool years are about motor control, coordination, and fun, and the kinder year is to gently introduce the rest of school.
I hope that helps in some way xxxx