Responding to your DH: If you can memorize the word, no need to memorize the trick. But for some people, letters get lost and jumbled in their head (even if they don't have dyslexia) and the "trick" is more memorable. I did just recall that in the WRTR (Spalding method) they do sometimes give instruction to give the word as it is spelled (and to pronounce it the right way when reading). I can't think of any example right now though. It's more than just when a letter is doubled though (eg. pronouncing letter as "let ter") Any time there is a phonetic reason for the spelling it will say "use the phonogram that says ch, sh, k" I imagine learning tricks for every word could slow you down though. Imagine thinking "li-guht" not only every time you write the word "light," but also "bri-guht" for "bright," and night, right, blight, fright, etc.

Perfect! Now I can report this account too!

We know you don't. Your interest is in advertising to us, and we don't take kindly to that. Now, like Maize said, if you homeschool and/or want a community and discussion, we're warm and welcoming. We don't tolerate advertising. If you fix your post and turn it into a conversation starter or a question, you will get engagement.

It has helped me, for some words. I think it's probably best to teach the phonics rules, and even etymology first, and only introduce things like that for the really tricky words. I do remember being taught (in an American classroom) things like "wed nes day" i.e. the day you wed(marry) Ness. and fri-ends "fry the ends of your friends" I do wish I had been taught something for "said" that one tripped me up for at least a decade! Probably wouldn't have if we had been taught phonics properly though. Our school taught spelling as sight words until grade 2, then threw some sloppy excuse for phonics instruction at us.

No, sadly, I haven't ? I blame the Sluice for that... I'm down to 3 cans a day, actually!

Precisely! Actually, I think most of our kids just totally test out of college.

? didn't realize Lavender (in his/her second post) was the OP What's up with creating a new account in order to react to your own posts? ?

I have been teaching at KITTENS University for approximately 352 years, and have taught millions, no, billions, of students in my time there.

We have the "young people" one. It's suitable for 8yo if you read it aloud (may need some explanation or censoring - just because I think I recall rape being mentioned?) A 4th or 5th grader could probably read it on his/her own. My DH (not a lot of history background) found it interesting when he was listening to the audiobook of it.

It definitely IS the IQ. You're either destined to excel or doomed to fail. #sorrynotsorry Study habits? HA! That's got nothing to do with it! (yes that's snark/sarcasm) also: reported.

Interesting article, thanks for sharing.

No, that would drive me crazy too. Have you tried to explain to him that it's ok to have quick conversations over the phone? My DH will call me to chat on his way home from work, and sometimes I'm not in the mood to chat for 20 min, or am in the middle of doing something, and I end up just having to tell him "look, is there a reason you're calling? I'm in the middle of something" So, maybe being more direct/not going along with the long drawn out pre-conversation. Something like this: Me: "Hi, what's going on? I'm running late" DH: "Hi, how are you?" Me: ... DH: (hopefully recalling my initial question) "I left my phone at home, can you bring it?" Me: sure. see ya soon [hangs up]

Oooh yes, I think you're right about that. That didn't even occur to me. Thanks!

Thank you, these are perfect! I want to include something like "It's totally normal to be interested in these kinds of things as you start to get older, and there's no need to be embarrassed..." But is that the best way to phrase it? Based on past reactions when I've talked to him about these topics, he gets embarrassed and pretends he isn't interested (then googles something like "kissing" a couple of days later, so he's definitely curious...) He doesn't have unfettered access to google/computers, but sometimes, unsupervised moments happen.

Dubbed, unless it's a language that I can somewhat understand (even if I only understand ~50 words.) I tend to mostly only watch shows while multitasking though. Subtitles means I need to stay glued to the screen. That said, in a movie night context, subtitles are fine for me, and maybe even preferred (because you get a sense of what the producer meant it to sound like.)

Actually, the other puberty book that I got from the library seems very good and I was considering purchasing our own copy and reading it with DS. I'm about 1/3 the way through previewing it, and wanted to finish that before sharing it with DS, but maybe, due to his apparent intense interest in the subject (I have, more than once, caught him googling the word "kissing") I should just start the book with him now. I'm so upset with myself! I can't talk to DH about it or he would get upset with me too ? I've been having medical issues recently, and feeling very light headed. Not in my best mind lately ?

I got a couple of puberty/sex books from the library, and I don't know what is wrong with me, but I left them out, DS got a hold of the ONE that I felt was not appropriate for him yet (it's about sex, pregnancy, relationships, contraception, etc.) and I found it under his bed this morning. (That's where he puts books after he's been reading them at night) I'd judge it as more appropriate for a kid who has already at least entered puberty, but really more appropriate for 13+ Plenty of those pictures we were trying to avoid in a puberty book, especially at his age... TBH, I'm ok with the idea that he may have seen images that I consider to be objectionable, but I want to debrief him (and take away the book without him feeling like he got "caught" doing something wrong, when he's really just extremely curious about this sort of thing. He probably just looked at the pictures, maybe read a couple of the blurbs, but how do I ask him how much he read without introducing more than what he might have read? Is it even necessary? He's out right now, and doesn't know I've found the book, so I've got a bit of time to come up with a way to approach it, but I don't want to say the wrong thing (and I have the tendency to say the wrong thing.)

I don't see me testing my kids randomly for drug use. Unless there was some reason for my to suspect them. Whether it's my own child's behavior or if I catch one of their friends acting suspicious. I can see maybe making it a regular policy to periodically test if they decide to hang with a crowd of known or suspected drug users. But my main strategy when it comes to preventing drug use (and preventing premarital sex as well as pregnancy and STDs) is to build and maintain a relationship where my kids wont be freaked out to tell me if something accidentally (or otherwise) happens. Not so likely if they think of me as a drill sergeant!

Pretty much the same timeline with my brother. Except, he didn't end up in jail, or make it to age 19. My parents drug tested him every once in a while... for pot... but I think he only ever had one positive drug test, and my parents didn't actually do anything about it (other than get upset and yell at him.) He died of a heroin overdose.

Re: research studies is this what you are looking for? I only skimmed it a bit: http://willthalheimer.typepad.com/files/how-much-do-people-forget-v12-14-2010-2.pdf

In a similar vein, this list is all over the place, though I've seen other wordings - FB posts, classroom posters, etc. People remember: 10 percent of what they READ 20 percent of what they HEAR 30 percent of what they SEE 50 percent of what they SEE and HEAR 70 percent of what they SAY and WRITE 90 percent of what they DO.

That's what I did for a while. Don't forget about the library as a source of DVDs (I tend to forget about that one) After DS got a bit older I was able to get him to make sure the little one only watches certain shows by presenting it as "x show isn't good for DD's brain. Only let her watch mister rogers or magic school bus and keep an eye on her and make sure she doesn't change it. I'm gonna go take a quick nap." Giving him the responsibility in these kinds of situations also meant that he was more likely to listen and not watch 'jumpy adventure party' either. Another thing you could do, but it might only work if you're using a desktop, is to take away the keyboard/mouse. If they're on an ipad/iphone they have a setting where you can child lock the screen and black out sections to make it unclickable (i.e. so kids can't navigate away from what you left them with) Something I recently found out about netflix is the ability to add a pin to be able to watch shows above a certain rating (you set the rating). I'm not sure if the pin needs to be watched for every new show of a certain rating or if you just need to enter it once per session. Obviously, if it's the latter, that wont do you much good. ETA: I checked in my netflix account. After I enter the pin to watch one show, it let's me navigate to another previously restricted show and watch it without needing to reenter the pin. So that wont help you, unless you just want to take advantage of it and restrict certain higher age-rated shows.

If my kitchen were totally clean, I would have: a recipe book on its stand a kitchen utensil vase a metal fruit basket that usually just holds our bread (we have another fruit basket on the kitchen table that actually holds fruit) a wicker basket with our rags/unpaper towels. We have a really small counter. Think small, but not tiny, apartment kitchen. But currently, we have, in addition to the above mentioned things: some serving dishes that didn't get put away yet spices that really should have just been put back in the cupboard after being used A towel with a few air-drying dishes on it Instant pot a roll of packaging tape a box of cherry tomatoes a box of crackers some water bottles, that, you guessed it! didn't get put away yet. a silicone pot holder. We wont even talk about what is currently on the kitchen table. I need to go clean up now. Thanks?

Klean Kanteen has one, and I have one and like it, but you need two lids if you want leakproof + travel mug type lid. I like that Klean Kanteen lids are so easy to wash/get clean. The parts of the lid easily snap apart into two. ETA: I'm talking about their insulated bottles, not their tumblers. I don't have any experience with the tumblers.

Pretty much this. Though I prefer just photocopying a spiral bound workbook. Then we have the flexibility of using whatever we want to write on it. I do like the idea of laminated number bond pages, tens frames, times tables, 100s chart, clock face, number lines, etc. I would probably buy a small workbook of laminated math reusables like that, especially if it's spiral bound or otherwise able to lay flat. But I would be unlikely to invest in a whole new math curriculum just because something like that was included. No offense, lol, I just happen to like what I'm using ?