Twilight Woods
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Posts posted by Twilight Woods
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I had to shelve STT and MSTT until her reading was better.She can read thos books now with some help from me. I do not require her to read those on her own. Independent reading is done with books I know she can read without my help. We use AAR not the phonics program in MP1. We also use Saxon Math. I use the lesson plans as a guide and love the books scheduled as read alouds. I couldnt use it exactly as written to much seat work- the componets I do use I love and work well. NAC is working well here too. I pick and choose what I want from the program that work for us. We will be continuing with MP2- RS spelling 2, NAC, LC, the lit guides when she is ready for them and continuing with other materials that work well for her.
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I dont have a boy but my DD [7] is JUST like your son. It takes work and a lot of time it's the battle of the wills. She has very little screen time. I am working on getting rid of it all together. I will tell you for us PS made things worse. Medication did NOT make it better. Structure, discipline , rinse repeat. I came to the conclusion that a lot of it was ME as well My parenting skills were not up to par with her needs. We are now working with a behavioral therapist and it has not only helped her but with me as well b/c I can see what I was doing wrong and how it can affect things and what steps to take to make it better. We are progressing slowly but making small gains as we go and we are so much happier.
I would have a heart to heart with your DH about HS. It sounds like you both want different things and you both need to be on the same page.
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This is our current situation. I went from working a couple overnights to full blown 40 hours [days] a week b/c of circumstances. We are still doing everything we were doing during the day we just moved it to late afternoon/evenings and weekends. DD is in first grade so the total time is not much so it's doable. Im looking forward to when I dont have to work FT and can get back to our normal routine b/c it can be exhausting at times. Things are starting to pick up for DH with his job including travel so things are looking up for us.... very exciting for us. My house is probably what suffers the most AND we arent able to do a lot of the fun activities we would normally do unless we do it on the weekend.
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Thanks for the good advice people.
We're starting to get into a bit of a rhythm, but it's hard. I guess I'm so used to not doing school that I'm finding it difficult just to fit things in around such a big time commitment I mean seriously, how on earth do 'normal' people actually have time to do school and do life as well? :D
Our week day goes about like this:
6am - Get up, spend half an hour dragging kids out of bed because they haven't gotten used to the earlier start yet. This morning Mr.9 only rose when I threatened to pour cold water on him.
Kids make beds, put dirty clothes in laundry, get breakfast ready, eat, wash and do teeth, chores, get into uniforms and pack schoolbags.
8.30am - drop off at school
3.30-4pm depending on how much dawdling happens on the walk home - kids arrive home, unpack, change and have after school snack.
4 - 6pm - afterschooling time, homework if applicable, and free play
Then it's into dinner, reading aloud and bedtime.
So not a lot of time for the afterschooling, considering that the kids all need one on one time.
I suppose I could imitate m3luvbugs and replace the afternoon snack with an earlier dinner time, but then they'd hardly ever get dinner with their daddy.
We already have very limited screen time - the elder two might watch TV 1 or 2 hours a week some weeks, and other weeks not at all, and they pretty much only watch stuff like nature documentaries and adaptations of books we've read. They sometime have an hour or two of math games or similar which would be instead of TV, so it would be very rare for them to get more than a couple of hours screen time per week.
Field trips I will need to plan better for. I've turned into a snob from years of only going to museums etc when the normal kids are in school, so it's a bit of a shock to have to visit places when they're fully of other families!
Read alouds we do a ton - we'll generally have a family novel plus an individual novel for each of the older kids on the go at once, plus 10-30 shorter library books (at least half educational) per week. Plus whatever non education things the kids pick (pony books and Enid Blyton, mainly!) We do reading/phonics practice daily with the girls.
I have already been given to understand that we're on our own as far as reading is concerned. I went to speak with Ms.7's teacher about her reading problems, and how the readers they are giving her are counterproductive. She basically informed me that although my daughter is about 2 years behind on reading, she'll probably improve in her own time, and I shouldn't be concerned because she isn't actually the worst in the class!! Yep, that's our quality Australian public schooling...
I think I'm going to have to just stress less and treat this year as a gap year. Just assume that school = day care and be pleasantly surprised about what they do learn.
The kids do not eat dinner with Dad. He gets home late most nights so they would DIE if they had to wait to eat. BUT when dad gets home they usually join him at the table [i eat with him] and talk about our day etc etc so it amounts to some good quality time together. I found with all the stuff we do there is not a lot of time for screen time. I try to limit it [i am just starting to read Simplicity Parenting] and use it as an reward or "bonus" b/c I would prefer them to not watch it. As I said before there are days where doing the "extra stuff" is hard. My 7 y/o needs the challenge b/c school isn't doing it for her.... I am counting down the days till we can just homeschool without me working.... :)
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Our 2nd grade Plans:
MP Grade 2 Lesson Plans w/ 2nd lit
AAR 2/ETC
WWE 2 / FLL 2
NAC
Saxon 2/3
Spelling: this is up in the air...... I am not happy with SWSV I was looking at R & S... it looks easy to implement.
LC 1
Adventures in America
Sassafrass Science -
It's actually called Adventures in America.
Ask me how I know? I called it the wrong thing all year....I'd tell daughter, "Get out your American Adventures....or is it Adventures in America....or whatever it is. What is it again??"
:lol:
I'm actually using it with my 3rd grader and we are really enjoying it. She loves the map work and putting a star sticker where the capital is. I got a pack of USA stickers from Rainbow Resource that has the state name, abbreviation, capital, state bird, flower, flag, etc...and she uses those on the pages too. I read the story to her as she follows along. We add in any other books we have on our shelf that goes along with what the story is about.
ETA: we don't usually do the craft project. We just do what we want to do and skip what we want to skip.
PSA: Rainbow Resource now carries Elemental History Adventures in America and also Elemental Science.
Thanks for that clarification... I fixed it in the title post... whoops! :) I will have to remember that.. I am debating if I want PDF or hard copy.....
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I'm using the Elemental History American Adventures with my 2nd grader this year. It is very easy for her to read the page herself and do a one sentence narration. The added coloring page and recommended books/crafts are good for when we want to use them. I've checked out a few library books thanks to those recommendations.
If your child can't read the page on his own, it's still a short one page reading assignment and doesn't take longer than 10 minutes to read together. I like the coloring of the states, too.
Thanks for sharing! We are definitly looking for easy but interesting with being able to pick and choose what books we want to read and crafts..... so I think we will go with this for 2nd.
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Are you referring to THE American Adventure Series (starting with The Mayflower Adventure, Plymouth Pioneers,...) or AN American Adventure series?
I use THE Amer Adv series with my 4th grader who isn't into History. He's definitely enjoying them - at times he even actually spends more time reading history than required.
I tried one of AN Amer Adv one and I wasn't impressed - long enough ago, though, that I can't remember what I didn't like.
Elemental History American Adventures.
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Im loosely planning 2nd grade. Our main focus for first grade as well as second will be reading and reading well and math. DD still really is not interested in history. We tried SL and SOTW and it was not working for her...I was hoping someone can give me some feedback on this program. We school in the evening since I am currently working fulltime. Math, Reading/Phonics FLL and WWE, cursive are our main focus during the week and will continue until I no longer have to work FT. I keep History and Science for the weekends, which is currently interest led. We plan on using Sassafras Science for 2nd. I want to move away from intrest led to something with a schedule [for my sanity :) ]-the library has most of the boosk I would need. Our goal is for me to be done working when she hits 3rd grade I plan on starting SOTW in 3rd.
Thank you !
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My youngest just recently went back to school during the day .....yes I use it as "daycare" b/c I once again needed to go back to work fulltime. She is also receiving special services b/c of her Aspergers.
So how do you figure out what to do for afterschooling?
We focus on what is improtant to us. For it is Math/Reading. She has Aspergers and is doing above grade level work in everything accept reading.
Clearly the literacy is important, since it's almost impossible to succeed in school with literacy deficits. But what else is a must?
Math is important for us as well.
How much time is appropriate to spend on afterschooling?
When she arrives home from school I let her play for about an hour UNLESS she wants to get to it. We typically do not do any work until after dinner. She is in 1st grade so there is not much homework. She typically brings home 1 math sheet and she is required to read for 20mins a day for schoolwork. Our total time with her school work and additional stuff I add is about 30mins-not including her reading. I Break her reading up in 5-10min chuncks throughout the night b/c she has a hard time sitting for that.
Do you have your children do school homework as well? (I haven't yetfound out our school's homework policy, but I was thinking that if they just get given random busywork for the sake of it, I might want to veto that and use the time for the afterschooling instead.)
I do require her to do her homework. The math for her is review and typically "busywork" for her but it's what she spent the day doing so I do reinforce that. The math sheet takes her less than 5 mins to complete.
If she is still in school for 3rd grade and up I will have to adjust thing to fit accordingly. Given she is doing "above grade level" math at home it may not be an issue unless they meet her at her ability at school when she is older.
Here is our schedule:
4pm-arrive home-play
5pm-eat dinner, clean up
6pm-homework. We do her School math sheet first. We have just finished Saxon Math 1 [in 4months] and will be starting Saxon 2 as soon as it arrives :) . We go over the 5 spelling words she is required to know for school then we do WWW1 and SWS&V1 [will be moving onto 2 soon in both of these]. We do WWE1/FLL1 3 days a week and we do Saxon on the weekends and days off school.
We are typically done with everything by 645-7. I also adjust this to her. There are some days where she isn't feeling it so I will drop all the extra stuff except Math. Reading is done at bedtime usually unless she asks to read before then.
It seems like a lot but it really isnt. I think you will have to look at your particular situation and what will work for you and your children.
My oldest has always been Public schooled and granted she is in 6th grade so I do not have time to give her extra stuff b/c she already has a full load with what she is doing. I only require Math to be done on days off and during breaks [winter, summer etc.- I typically use the summer bridge books with her]
HTH.
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I hear you. We are in IL as well. All of DH's overtime has been cut. We have lost nearly $1000+ a month and he works in healthcare. I work in healthcare as well. I have been fortunate to pick up some extra hours each week. We have decided as of the first of the year to just budget off of his income and mine will be going towards wittling down are debt. Im hoping that by doing this [no wiggle room for anything] we will be better off financially by end of summer.
Are you able to recert?
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I just started BR this week. I have done WO 1 & 2. I am really sore. So sore it hurts to do anything-Im a non workout person. I do Cardio 1 today-should be interesting.
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I havent read all the replies yet...
I was DX with Crohns at the age of 10. DIET plays a HUGE factor with how I feel/tolerate foods.
PM if you have any specific questions .
[still trying to figure out the new board system]
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Keep doing what your doing!
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:grouphug::grouphug::grouphug:
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If your SD is going to school FT she should be earning those "other" rewards by doing well in school. If you want her to do extra work on top of fulltime PS then the laptop should be the ultimate reward.
IMHO- I wouldnt require "extra" work from her unless she needs it b/c she needs the help with math. Saxon for us would not work well as a "afterschool" math. We do use Saxon for my oldest during the summer.
How are you rewarding her for doing well IN school-like you do your childrens school at home??
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69. On the bitter cold days I usually do bursts of 72.
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would taking Tumeric and Ashwagandha be to much of a good thing?
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wtg! We bought a retractble clothes line and put it in the house for when we need to hag things. We did fix our dryer 2 years ago and it needed a $14 part. I could only imagine how much we would have paid for someone to come out and look at it....
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:grouphug::grouphug:
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I do it. I work overnights Tues, Wed and Sat's. On the days Im coming off a shift sleep is a priority then we do school. School only takes us about 1-2 hours since it's only 1st grade. I have also been picking up 2 day hour shifts on Mon and Fridays b/c Christmas is coming...... so schooling the past 2 weeks has been "rough" but not bad. DH has helped out ALOT with getting things done and I have come to the conclusion that science and history are not a priority right now and if it they dont get done no one is going to arrest me :D
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Im green with envy! :) One of these days I will have normal working hours......
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I think the most daunting space will be the garage and my office and DH's man cave.
everything else will be ok I think.
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If we are moving from a 2000 sq ft house to an 1100 sq ft apartment I have ALOT of purging to do.
:001_huh:
Cost of living- Chicago area?
in The Chat Board
Posted
Agreed. I live 15mins from woodridge.