I think this is more an issue of authorization to spend funds than of funds being available. Most government agencies in the US don't have their own reserves of funds, money is dispensed from the general treasury--but how the money is dispensed depends on the budget, which depends on Congress actually passing a budget. Something Congress struggles to do...without congressional authorization money can't be spent. In this partial shutdown they have authorized continuing funding for some governmental entities, including active duty military and themselves, but no overall budget has been passed. There are some units that work on two or three year budgetary authorization that have been able to keep running, and there are some that work on non-appropriated funds (i.e. their money doesn't come directly from the central pot; the Air Force depots that fix planes, for example, are paid by the units whose planes they fix, they don't draw their funds directly from the government) so they can keep working and paying people as long as there is money available. I may be using the wrong terms for some things, I'm not an expert on all this, but I think my basic explanation is correct.

According to this article most military civilians will be going back to work on Monday. Hopefully this includes the academy personnel! http://www.af.mil/News/ArticleDisplay/tabid/223/Article/467251/secdef-most-furloughed-dod-civilians-to-return-to-work-next-week.aspx

:( My brother said that degree accreditation is at risk for some majors at the USAFA because there is no accredited faculty to teach key courses. I'm not sure how that works but I guess there has been discussion of some cadets needing to change majors (some departments such as English have a higher percentage of civilian faculty, departments that have mostly active duty faculty are doing better.

Now that would be a test of obedience to orders...

Thank you all who have responded. I think we will go with playing viola in the beginning orchestra; we have the viola already and the beginning group will give her a nice low-pressure environment to learn to read alto clef and play in a group. Some of you mentioned the lower competition levels for viola playing; this was actually my rational behind buying the viola for her. I don't know whether she will eventually choose to make viola her primary instrument or stick to violin, but it is certainly nice to play an instrument that is in greater demand.

My brother (cadet) says he is teaching Russian classes at USAFA starting tomorrow... http://www.politico.com/story/2013/10/government-shutdown-military-academies-97677.html

There are some new children's orchestra's starting up in my area, and I want my kids to participate but am having trouble with scheduling. There are several levels of orchestra, starting with beginners (more of a beginning strings class, students do not need any experience on their instrument to join). Beginners is followed by two intermediate levels. The lower intermediate level would I think be ideal for my kids--the music is fun but not complicated, and all in first position. The conductor will be doing a lot of teaching about how to play in an orchestra. The music would be easy for dd10, but she is my high anxiety child who gets very stressed about new situations and not being able to do things perfectly so I think it would be a good introduction to orchestra playing for her; ds8 has been playing (cello) for a little over a year but has just started reading music, this orchestra would be a good fit music wise and a bit of a stretch reading wise, which would be good. The problem is that dd10 has a conflict every other week with this orchestra's schedule. The conductor has suggested that she could come only every other week as the music will be fairly easy for her to learn, so that is an option. The other possibility is to put her in the next higher level orchestra, which would be a bit of a stretch for her--she could learn the music, but it is really beyond her sight reading abilities at this time and most of the kids are older which is intimidating to her. A third possibility is to put her in the beginning orchestra playing viola instead of violin, she has expressed an interest in learning viola and in fact has a viola she pulls out a few times a week and plays her violin songs on, but she has not started learning to read alto clef and is not taking viola lessons. If we did this I might just wait out the first half of the year and put her in partway through as the beginning of the year everyone will be learning the basics of holding the instruments etc. and she doesn't need to spend time doing that. I've been so excited to have a children's orchestra option in the area and would really like to make things work, the scheduling issues are driving me crazy. What would you do in this situation? Dropping the conflicting activity is not on the table at this point.

I couldn't help posting a link to homeschool.com's new magazine, and now I'm wondering if their cover article was written by a Hive member?

Pumpkin Soup (made with cream...mmm) Potato with a touch of nutmeg I don't use a recipe, but these are both milk or cream based soups. I tend to just throw together what I think would be good.

Instead of saving biology for 11th grade, couldn't we do integrated or parallel science like so many other countries do? I actually had three years of biology in high school--10th, 11th, and 12th grades. 11th and 12th were IB biology, and I took IB chemistry at the same time. I think you might be right about 9th graders not being ready to really grasp the ToE. I remember my understanding of it really clicking in 12th grade, when I read a book outside of class that just laid everything out very clearly. I didn't know at the time whether I believed it, but I understood it and was able to set aside theological questions when dealing with science.

Quark, is this the video you are talking about? http://archive.teachfind.com/ttv/www.teachers.tv/videos/hungary-primary-maths.html

OK, so assuming I was in your local area and offered an all-day workshop at a local library or some such place, for free or a very small fee, people would be interested in coming? I'm trying to get a feel for if this is a workable idea or not.

I wonder what the requirement is to offer CEU's? I imagine the qualifications of the instructor would play a role, perhaps once I have a masters degree in education under my belt that would be a possibility.

Ideally I would like to design one hour workshops on a variety of topics (so maybe a workshop on teaching problem solving, one on using manipulatives, maybe one specifically on teaching fractions since that seems to be a common sticking point, one covering general research on how children develop mathematical thinking...) For the sake of the capstone project my current understanding is that I should have a more unified teaching unit covering eight instruction hours, which doesn't work so well for presenting at homeschool conferences. I need to verify if that is true or if I could meet the instruction hours requirement through more shorter and distinct workshops, with different groups of people attending. I am open to any ideas and suggestions!

I am hoping to make the workshops interactive. I am still in the early planning phases, so I am open to any suggestions.

That is an excellent idea. I will definitely incorporate material on problem solving.

nm

nm

nm

nm

:hurray:

nm

No experience with these programs, but Math Mammoth has very good incremental explanations and teaching. My child has worked through levels for and five mostly independently, though she is older.

It is not uncommon for oldest children to self-identify with the parents and think of themselves as another adult. I would say mother her, gently and kindly, sit on the couch and read to her, if you are giving her more responsibilities than the other children maybe step that back, let her find herself as a child among children. Maybe try saying yes more often than no when she asks for something, so she recognizes asking as a valid way to get things she wants. Consequences are great, but six is still pretty young--she does not see the world the way you see it, she may think of herself as an adult but does not have the perspective or impulse control of an adult. Try to set her up for success as often as possible, make sure your expectations for her behavior are well within her reach and not a constant stretch. Again, six is young. Lying to avoid consequences at that age is very, very normal, I would try to not give her opportunities to lie (i.e., if you know or think she took something she wasn't supposed to have, DON'T ask her if she took it; if you're confident she did, tell her it makes you sad when she takes things without permission, give her a small chore or something to make up for it, hug her and move on). ETA if you have slipped into a rut of frequent negative interactions with this child, make a conscious effort to increase the ratio of positive to negative interactions. This book is a good resource.

One more thing, the information I have read about memory suggests reviewing every 4-6 hours or so to get something into permanent memory. Maybe he could try reviewing first thing in the morning, again around noon, again and dinner, and once more right before bed? Doing self-tests is also helpful. He could write up a quiz for himself to take each day.