Jump to content

Menu

HS mom

Registered
  • Posts

    124
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Posts posted by HS mom

  1. She's improved, she's focused...and she's being held back. Unless she is falling over, I can't imagine why.

     

    Not every child will develop into a wonderful ballerina, but at this young age, fun and developing confidence should be a big part of the experience. They are little girls; if the school finds the next Pavlova, good for them, but but each child should gain from their time in class, not only those with professional potential.

     

     

    You should observe at other schools to make a decision about where you would like your daughter to attend. Even while attending one school for a core program, it's good to take an occasional class with teachers affiliated elsewhere. And it will give you some more information to judge your current school with a better perspective.

  2. Nature journaling/ drawing and bird watching are fun and get you outdoors. Janice VanCleave's books of science experiments are fun.

     

    Art Fraud Detective is a fun book. It also showcases many time periods, can start discussions: who the people were, what they were doing, clothing, lifestyles, etc.

     

    Oversize art books from the library are great to look at together.

     

    You could a use a timeline to choose interesting people or events to read about. You could even make a timeline, as TWTM suggests.

  3. Yes, you have your hands full training two. :001_smile:

     

    Kilcommons system is a bit more thorough than what you describe. The book is somewhat of a standard; your library may have it. Not complicated, but following the system exactly for a couple of weeks (probably less with labradoodles- they're very intelligent) makes life so much easier.

  4. Wonder how long you've had them and has house breaking gone on for a while? Without a new animal/person in the house, it's fairly unusual for a dog to begin marking.

     

    Are they crate trained? Using a crate and following a strict schedule for food, water, and going out while training helps to form lifelong habits. Though I don't use all the training methods in the book Great Owners , Good Dogs by Kilcommons, his outline of housebreaking using a crate is the best I've ever come across. Teaching a dog to go in the same place using a command, such as "be quick" and following with praise and a small treat are part of his method.

     

    Not sure how much /which kind of training they've received, so thought I'd throw that out there.

     

    That said, if he seems in any type of pain, is off water or food, I'd bring him to the vet. And hey, just had the brilliant idea to go to the social groups and look for "Ask the Vet. Soph is so kind as to point us all in the right direction for our pet's care.

  5. Impressive!

     

    I'm going to save your advice just in case (our house is over 100 years old) - you never know!

     

    I, too, have a drowning method that I use, only in this case it's for camelback crickets [cave crickets]. From about April through November they invade our basement and it's like a horror movie down there. They crawl onto the ceiling and jump down on me while I'm doing the laundry (blech). Once in a while they make it up into the kitchen. I trap them in a gallon container and then turn the container upside down in a sink full of very hot water. It gives me the skeeves, but then again, so does looking at a live one of those! Eww. I can't even convey my disgust for those things. They look like an evil combo of a grasshopper and a spider.

     

     

    I understand the feeling of being overwhelmed by critters. They have to go, but make it quick. I highly recommend a good, fast swat. (Or, in the case of mice, a cat. Absolutely no swatting mice. Yech.)

     

    Not only will their end be merciful, but you will build courage. And aim.

  6. The Method: snap traps

    The Goal: extinguish the family of mice...it is not one

    The End Result: No more mice...alive that is

    Place all traps along the baseboard with "jaws" open facing the wall. Place a pinsize amount of peanut butter on the UNDERSIDE only of the little metal bait flap. This is serious business we have a goal here. If it is baited on the underside the little monster must slide his head under the trigger and SNAP!!

    Buy at least 10 traps place along the baseboards where they travel along, space the baited traps at least 1.5 yards apart. Many fail due to baiting the top side of the trigger, not enough traps place along the baseboard or not facing the wall with the open trap. You must get rid of the food source. Put crackers, cereal, nuts in Rubbermaid and check under all beds etc for the foodsource. Our house was built in 1860 , I know mice and kill them in this fashion when one dares to enter my domain. I often think to myself , I went to law school for this???? Trust me it works . About 11:00 tonight snap o rama. Make sure your dh is there to dispose of the critters as it is a bit messy. There is nothing so deeply satisfying as that snap after they have eluded and mocked your efforts for weeks. If this fails my friend from the UK has a drowning method she swears by that developed when she fought them in her bed and breakfast. Let me know if you need the water method and yes ,I am like Christoper Walken in the movie Mouse Hunt. ;)

     

     

    Elizabeth, I honour you. :)

     

    P.S. Dear Lady, no more mention of the water method...let those secrets lie undisturbed.

  7. Your family sounds like fun! :)

     

    The timing issue is a judgment call (kids aren't known for great judgment). It's perspective- they don't have the same to-do list, so they don't feel the pressure you're feeling. Katemary had good advice.

     

    What I've done with my children is share my perspective. Try telling them what you want to accomplish today; share the plan. Tell them how much time you estimate for the tasks and what time you'd like to finish up. Get them to have the same goal for the morning or afternoon (because they're kids and short times are manageable for them). And include something fun and refreshing in your schedule- time to read aloud together, or go for a short walk.

     

    So, make it a family goal to start school at the time you decide- and let them know how pleased you are when it happens.

     

     

    Once you get school started on time, you might get a family chore time started. A half hour of chores from each child might make a difference in your housework load.

     

    Hey! misread your post. Chores before school. We actually time chores. It makes life a lot happier to know it actually takes only x minutes to vacuum, and not forever, like it seems.

  8. In TWTM, Jessie wrote that Susan had a theory: students skilled in rhetoric would not feel the need for a nose ring. So, how about:

     

    Kids have something to say. Teach him to express himself...intelligently. Writing With Ease

     

     

    This written over a Jekyll/Hyde split of photos. A successful looking boy (your average WTM homeschooled child :) ) and child with a fake nose ring and spiked hair. (Tipped in a shade of purple?). Y'know. Scare everybody. ;)

  9. I think The Age of Innocence is a great one -- The House of Mirth also. Ethan Frome isn't really "typical" Wharton given its setting; to me, it's always "read" much more like someone in the Steinbeck/Hemingway school, or something Thomas Hardy would have written if he'd lived in Massachusetts.

     

    Hardy in MA...that's an interesting concept. Suddenly I want to read Ethan Frome. :) Just to see what this could mean.

  10. Age of Innocence is the only Wharton I've read. Didn't find any great insights, thought it was predictable, didn't care for the characters. And I suppose that's why I didn't read any of her other novels. So, can't comment on those... But I'm happy that way, don't feel I've missed anything. :)

    I don't have enough time to read the books I want.

     

    It is accurate as social commentary. You could read a plot summary and an excerpt to gain that perspective, if you don't care to read the book.

     

    I am not a fan of James, either.

     

     

    Are you reading through great books for history?

  11. I remember stumbling onto this site, too. I remember what was, I think, the first group of Boybarians. Weren't they Cami's?

     

    Everybody was so innocent back then. Mates called board friends "imaginary friends" (also known as the board ladies, as in "ask the board ladies what they think"). That's how the hive mind came into being.

     

    And trolls were rampant. Because we couldn't believe that anybody would say such things if they weren't true...

     

    Everybody was passionate about their math program, and even those who were very polite when other curricula were brought up secretly knew that anybody who didn't use the right elementary math , the one they used, was not passing any SAT, and probably not even the CC entry test (and those kids are all in college today, marveling that nobody knows who Herodotus was). Latin, too, would cause sudden, stormy battles.

     

    And the history spine that was recommended in the first WTM went out of print and if you were fortunate enough to have one you could sell it on the swap board and have the down payment for your first house.

×
×
  • Create New...