Education Explorers
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Posts posted by Education Explorers
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Never say never. I swore I would never HS. Eww, not for me! I'd go crazy being home with my kids all day. I had all sorts of preconceived notions about HS and figured Laura Ingalls, I ain't. God does have a wicked sense of humor. So I am now HSing two kids and we are all shocked by how well it is going and how much we like it. Not once was Children's Services called, I'm not drinking (heavily :lol:) nor I am I living in a padded room while sporting a fashionable straightjacket. Phew! We are taking it year by year, but are not committed for year number two. We are keeping our fingers crossed for continued success.
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I'm glad he is okay and you get brownie points for keeping it together!
My boy and blood saga is quite tame, but I still hold a grudge against Thomas the Train. When DS was about two, he tripped and fell face first on a Thomas push toy. Once we cleaned him up, we realized he had a round hole in his face! Still don't know how he managed it, but the train put a hole in his face between his lip and his nose. You could have slipped a straw in the opening. Eww! He had to get a few stitches to close up the hole and now has a small scar just above his upper lip.
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For any Ikea lovers out there, you can use a white glass table top as a whiteboard for less than $100. My husband just opened his own law firm, and we got him this for Father's Day for his new office. We will be hanging it this weekend. Hopefully hanging it will not be a problem...
http://www.ikeahackers.net/2012/01/not-expensive-glass-whiteboard.html
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Clearly there are people with way too much time on their hands. Once they have sidewalk chalk banned, they will find something else that bugs them and needs "to go." That kind of behavior really drives me nuts. People need to relax! :chillpill:
Our neighbor across the street likes to call the HOA on every little thing. He used to come to ask us to follow up with complaint calls to get something banned. For example, "Doesn't it bother you when so and so doesn't pick up their papers? Shouldn't we all call the HOA and get something done?" He no longer asks after I replied, "No. I am way to busy to worry about something like that. I'm surprised something so trivial would bother you so. Hmm."
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Corn Risotto/Succotash
Even my carnivore dh will eat this for dinner with no complaining!
Ingredients:
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 cup chopped red onion
1½ cups Arborio or other medium-grain white rice
½ cup dry white wine
Coarse salt
3 cups fresh corn kernels (from 6 ears) or canned or frozen corn
5 ounces creamy, mild goat’s-milk feta cheese or fresh goat cheese, crumbled (about 1 cup)
1 cup diagonally sliced (¼ inch) green beans
1 garlic clove, grated
2 cups diced (½ inch) tomatoes (I like halved cherry or grape)
¼ cup loosely packed torn fresh basil leaves
Freshly ground black pepper
Directions:
1. Heat 1 tablespoon of the oil in a large skillet until it is hot enough to sizzle a piece of onion. Add ½ cup of the onion and cook, stirring, over medium-low heat until tender, about 5 minutes. Add the rice and stir until coated with the oil. Add 2½ cups water, the wine and 1 teaspoon salt. Bring to a boil, stirring once. Cook, covered, over low heat, stirring once or twice, until the rice is creamy and tender, 12 to 15 minutes. Stir in 1 cup of the corn and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes. Fold in ½ cup of the cheese.
2. Meanwhile, heat the remaining 2 tablespoons oil in a large skillet until it is hot enough to sizzle a piece of onion. Add the remaining ½ cup onion and cook, stirring, until tender, about 5 minutes. Add the remaining 2 cups corn, the green beans and garlic and cook, stirring, until the beans are crisp-tender, about 5 minutes. Add the tomatoes, basil, a pinch of salt and a generous grinding of black pepper.
3. To serve, spoon the risotto into four shallow bowls. Top with the succotash and sprinkle with the remaining ½ cup cheese.
Very summer-y and delicious!
I just printed this out, it sounds delicious. It seems like it would be a hit with my crew. Thanks for sharing!
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I don't think twice about it. it isn't a secret that women have breasts/vaginas or that men have penises. Not a secret, not a big deal.My kids have never seemed to have a problem either. They never pointed and giggled. They just saw the pictures and artwork as no different from other pictures and artwork I guess. Of course, I never pointed out the art as being a problem. I would imagine that pictures that include marker clothing would catch their eye. I don't like the idea of my kids thinking nudity is ugly or sinful.
:iagree: but with a caveat... my ds certainly giggles and chuckles. He thinks breasts are absolutely hilarious. Ahh, the joys of little boys. I make a point of taking the "no big deal" approach, but he still chuckles. :lol:
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I must confess that I avoid telling people that we HS. Part of it is that I feel almost embarrassed to be bucking the system. I don't want to deal with looks or odd comments from clerks or strangers. However, mama bear lives and thrives within me. Someone says something negative about my cubs and it may not work out too well for them. I may not verbally defend myself, but I will certainly rip others a new one to defend my children or friends.
However when dealing with family, the situation gets a bit more tricky. Comments that I don't appreciate really only come from my sister. My response is: "I love you, but I don't always agree with all of your parenting decisions either. But I keep my opinions to myself. It is your family, you raise yours the way you see fit. I need you to give me the same respect and to allow me to raise mine in the way I see fit. We don't need to agree, we just need to respect each other's right to make the best choices as we see them for our own families."
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I had been perusing this board for months prior to our decision to homeschool. Then when we made the giant leap from private school to our own, I kind of floundered in the specifics of names, etc. I kept thinking we would have such a creative name for our homeschool (which is required on our Letter of Intent), but it never happened. So I started a blog with this same title. I keep trying to think of this as an adventure as we delve into unknown waters (for us). I have always admired the chutzpah of explorers. Just hope I don't wind up dead, trapped or frozen on some forsaken patch of land during these adventures...:lol:
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This is by far one of the best recipes that I have found over the years. Any time during corn season that we are asked over to someone's house, the response to "What can I bring?" is always--"Your Corn Salad." It is so easy and delicious.
3 cups Fresh Corn Kernels, cut off the cob
2 T Olive Oil (EVOO if you have it)
1/4 cup Fresh Basil, chopped
1 T Shallot, minced
1 T Red-Wine Vinegar
1/4 t Salt
Fresh ground pepper to taste
Preheat oven to 450. Toss corn and oil to coat and spread out on a large baking sheet. Bake, stirring occasionally, until some kernels begin to brown (approx. 20-25 min). Combine basil, shallot, vinegar, salt and pepper in a medium bowl. Add hot roasted corn, toss to coat. Serve warm or cold.
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"Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire." - William Butler Yeats
Love This!
It's a marathon not a sprint. When you get to then end of your rope, tie a knot and swing for a bit.I've never heard the second sentence of this one, but it is great!
"Don't strangle them. It's illegal."My similar thought is that the hospital has a strict, "No Returns" policy. I know, I checked. Also, I lost the Instruction Manual that the hospital gave out when you were born. Oops!
from the Siegfried & Roy website"We believe that there are always two choices … two paths to take.
One is easy and its only reward is that it is easy."
This is great too!
I don't really think I have a mantra and I never really thought about it. I guess the closest thing for me would be something I tell the kids:
"Just put it on the list for your therapist for when you're all grown-up."
The kids may not like it, but they'll live. We all have things that we wish our parents did/didn't do and from which we feel "scarred." I just try to have a sense of humor about that fact that I am human and will make mistakes. Kids need to understand that parents are doing the best we can under the circumstances.
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I would use goodreads instead of HST+ for your reading log. You can review book there too.
I had never seen goodreads before. It looks quite intriguing, so I just signed up and reviewed 20 kids books that we have read to get a feel for it. I think I am going to enjoy playing around on it. Thanks for the info.
We have Library Thing and I have used it to keep track of what we own. We have over 2500 books listed on our account. There is no way I can go into a bookstore and remember if we own a certain book or not. I pull up Library Thing and check our account before I accidentally buy a duplicate copy.
I have never thought of tracking the kids individual reading lists online. Hmm...
I did print up a little reading journal for each kid at the beginning of this year where each kid wrote the title and author of each book. Then they rated it. I just wanted them to have a visual of how much they read for the year. I think this could develop into something much larger.
Do you track your children's reading year by year? How are you organizing their reading? What do you ultimately do with the information?
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Last year was our first year HS, so take this with a grain of salt (obviously we have not used any other science programs either).
We used RS4K: Chemistry Pre-Level 1 and Level 1 last year. I taught my 2nd grade son and 5th grade daughter together. The Pre-Level 1 book was extremely helpful for a subject in which the kids had zero background knowledge. If we had just jumped into Level 1, I think they would have been lost. While at first blush, it does not seem to have all that much in chapters and chapter length, I found it was packed with a lot of information. Getting kids to understand the different types of bonds and chemical reactions, for example, is not a one day of reading kind of thing. Getting then to understand and retain them is going to mean going a little slower than reading the chapter one day, doing the lab the next and then start a new chapter (IMO).
The kids enjoyed the labs and seemed to really learn a lot from the program. I liked it and we will be using RS4K Biology next year. I will supplement it for my new middle schooler because RS4K does not cover human biology.
I wanted a secular science program and was pleased overall with the program. My cousin who has a masters in chemistry and thought we ultra-weird (as if that wasn't the pot calling the kettle black :lol:) for HSing. He "quizzed" the kids and was blown away by their understanding of chemistry.
I would recommend the program. Just a thought: to save some money, you could skip buying the pre-level 1 labs and teacher's manual and just use the pre-level 1 text to accompany a Level 1 program. We did Level 1 labs exclusively and my youngest had no trouble. I just required less writing/conclusions etc. of him.
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I hate exercising. Hate it! As others stated, I have very little time to myself. I'm constantly running around with the kids, cleaning, cooking, etc. I want to relax in my free time. I also find it boring. Now if I had time to play a sport, like tennis or softball, I'd be all over that. I like activities with a "purpose", not just repetitive motions.
Amen!
Because I hate to be hot. I detest being hot. Loathe it. And when I exercise, I get hot.Again, Amen!
I know you didn't ask for solutions, but I can't help myself for a couple of them. :)Boobs bounce: Get a great sports bra (yes, $50+) and/or layer TWO sports bras, or a bra under a tank with a built in bra. For D+ cup sizes, it is nearly imperative to invest in a great bra and/or layer two good bras.
Boredom: Walk with a friend. Take a class with a friend or make friends there. The social aspect is reinforcing and also reduces or eliminates boredom.
Me-Time Loss: Make exercise social (see above). Or, make it Meditative (YOU time) by hiking somewhere beautiful or running solo or doing yoga in a beautiful space.
Heat: Exercise outdoors in cool temps. Early mornings are good for summer months. Inside, use an industrial fan ($60-$100 at home improvement stores) aimed right at you, not a wimpy typical fan. Crank up the A/C and/or workout in the basement. Also, wear good quality tech fabric clothes.
Body jiggles: Invest in some cute and well designed workout clothes. Capri compression/tight leggings with an attached sports skirt are adorable and cover a lot of bases. One great outfit is enough to start with!
:) I love to run. I used to hate exercise. For all of the reasons above, and more. Just STARTING was the key, because once I got started, the benefits were so vast that the obstacles above (and more) became smaller and smaller in my mind.
This is so perky and peppy that it actually makes me hostile. As if I would want to waste money on exercise clothes, when deep down I know I will never stick with... (I know you are trying to be helpful, but as a hard core couch potato, I am beyond help.)
I started to write down several reasons that seemed valid, but the truth is that it all boils down to this: I am too lazy to work out and can always find something I would rather be doing instead.Yup, that too!
I don't exercise because I hate it.I hate the clothes that I have to wear to do it.
I hate packing up the kids to go to the gym.
I hate the time that it takes from other things that need to get done.
I hate being sweaty.
I hate feeling like all of the pretty gym people are staring at me with pity.
I hate actually doing the exercises.
I've tried doing stuff at home, but our living room is small, and the kids keep interrupting. I guess I could get up before everyone else and do it, but the idea of getting up early when I'm already tired all the time to do something I do NOT enjoy is really unappealing to me.
You are reading my mind!
A few that no one else has mentioned:
1) The mosquitos are so bad here in the mornings and evenings, you have to coat yourself in Deet if you want to have any blood left after your walk. YUCK!!!
2) If it is not prime mosquito time, then I have to slather every inch of myself in sunscreen which I also loathe.
3) I despise the feeling of sweat underneath my boobs. Eeewww!!!!
4) I have a severe allergic reaction to bee stings, so I cannot be outside without an Epipen and a cellphone. Extra things to carry is just a pain in the butt.
5) Procrastination, procrastination and... oh yeah, procrastination!
Only the topic of exercise can make me this negative and grumpy. It is even worse then me getting up early (not a pretty sight).
All that whining being said, I do want to start exercising and finding a way to put all my excuses and complaints behind me because I know I should. I would be healthier and more fit. If I only I can over come the procrastination... I'm sure I'll start exercising tomorrow... or maybe next week or...
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I would ignore it, and just write him a nice email back thanking him for his concern. You get some slack when you're 85. Also, I'm impressed that he's 85 and uses email. My 80 year old MIL won't get within ten feet of a computer!
The family got him internet access that hooks into his TV for Christmas. My BIL works with him in the evenings to teach him how to use it. He can send an email on his own now. He can't surf the net or anything, but he is making progress.
as for the cap-lock.
At 85 he might find it easier to read in cap, and not even know that it is considered shouting.
Ignore the cap-lock entirely. I promise that he has no idea that it could possibly be considered shouting. He has no idea it could be rude. In fact, I doubt he has any idea that the content of his email could be considered rude.
He fluctuates on things to obsess over since he is 85 and lives alone. For the past several months, he has been obsessed with a small blinking light on his cordless telephone. It was driving him crazy and it was all he could thing about. He drove both of his sons ABSOLUTELY NUTS about it. This weekend, he was haranguing my husband about it while we were all sitting there. I picked up the instruction book, read for awhile and got it turned off.
When he tried to belittle his sons for not fixing it earlier, I pointed out that the apple did not fall far from the tree. Out of the three of them, not one of them bothered to read the instructions-- like father, like sons.
Now he needs a new focus. Egads! I don't want to be it. He is a very sweet, well-intentioned, intensely annoying man. If he drives me nuts, then who will talk my husband off the ledge??? Sometimes it takes a lot of deep breathing to deal with him. But alas, that is the nature of family.
"Thanks for your concern. We love you, too. Love, Us":D
This is exactly what I needed. I was too dumbfounded to think of a simple, polite reply. I was at a loss for something nice to say. I have a very sarcastic nature and I knew that it would not be an appropriate way of handling the situation. I will respond to his email with this exact quote. Thank you for helping.
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WOW !!! That was blunt. My mother usually just insults me about my weight (which is technically 5 lbs "overweight") with a smarthy comment about it being "harder to get off now that you are older" LOL She like to insult in pairs LOL Weight and age :)
I feel that this is the domain of Mothers. My mom who whole-heartedly believes in "calling a spade a spade" is extremely blunt. She would NEVER, at her most snide or snippy, say something like this.
She would simply pat my rear or tummy and say, "This could use a little work."
If my mother-in-law was still alive, she would have wrung his neck for a comment like this. She would NEVER EVER allowed him to say something like this. When she passed, so did his "social-filter."
It is making me a bit paranoid. Like it is time to go buy a "wide load" sticker and put it on my rear end as a caution for all who might be in danger. Geez!
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I'm having the same issue. :bigear:
I posted an obviously sarcastic comment that was missed entirely by the person. I would've never known about their confusion except a friend called and told me about it. I couldn't find the comments.
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I received the following email from my widowed 85 year old father-in law:
HOW MUCH DO YOU LOVE YOUR CHILDREN
DOLOVE THEM ENOUGH TO DO SOMETHING VERY DIFFICULT FOR YOU BOTH
DO SOMETHING NOW BEFORE SOMETHING LIFE THREATENING HAPPENS
LIKE A STROKE OR A HEART ATTACK
DO SOMETHING NOW
YOU BOTH HAVE FAMILY HISTORIES THAT MAKE YOU VULNERABLE
SON, YOUR MOMS MOTHER DIED WHEN SHE WAS WAS SEVEN YEARS OLD
THIS AFFECTED THE REST OF HER LIFE
DONT LET THIS HAPPEN TO YOUR KIDS,START ON DIET AND EXERCISE PROGRAM NOW LOVE GRAMPERS
I am flabbergasted. I know he means well, but could he go about this in a worse way? Are my husband and I overweight? Yes. Are we obese? No! Could we both stand to loose 15-20 pounds? Sure. If I did, that would make me about a size 6. Overweight; yes, rotund; no.
How would you respond?
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Nothing like a little "hands on" science to ruin your day. I'm so sorry that happened. One day this will be funny. Not anytime soon, but one day when you are old and grey and your kids are grown. Ever the optimist, I am confident that we will survive the raising of our children. Hang in there!
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Her hair if very long, very fine and white blond. She has enough hair to cover the bald spot. Her scalp is still fire engine red where she got "plucked" by the mixer and this happened on Saturday. Poor little thing was really shaken by how quickly it happened and how much it hurt. The welt on her forehead where the mixer hit her on its speedy travels has gone down. We were truly lucky it was not worse.
I don't have the heart to disillusion her about just how long it is going to take her hair to grow back. She thought it would be like the rest of her hair in about a year. Ha!! She is looking at several years until there will be no trace of this incident since her hair is half-way down her back.
I am just holding my breath until I see peach fuzz forming. Then I can breathe a sigh of relief and know that it is growing back with no permanent harm done.
It certainly was an unbelievable sight to see her with the mixer stuck in her head.
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Does anyone ever regret not grabbing for the video camera first before consoling their child?? (Especially when you would have been likely to win America's Funniest Videos...:lol:)
Let me preface this scenario with the fact that my daughter is okay (minus a bald patch).
Imagine your eleven year old daughter who loves to cook is making a cake for her grandfather's 85th birthday. It is a nice image, isn't it? Too bad it didn't work out that way. The cake was out of the oven and cooling on the racks. It was time to make the frosting. There is no reason she couldn't handle that on her own, right??? WRONG!!!
Silly me, I was blow drying my hair when I heard screaming. Running down the stairs, I invision a horrible finger in the electric beater scenario. Nope! Walk into the kitchen to find my daughter wearing the hand mixer like a hair accessory. She is crying hysterically but not bleeding and the mixer is off.
I even thought about grabbing the camera, but opted for my child's emotional welfare first. Alas, we will be out $10,000...
Despite being told at least 100 times to keep her eye on the hand mixer, apparently she turned her head in an attempt to see the TV in the other room while the mixer was running. A chunk of her long blond hair got got in the mixer. Whirrr! Up the entire length of her hair it traveled in a mere second! She had the mixer full of mocha frosting stuck in her hair. Slowly we unraveled the mocha mess and got the beaters out of her hair. But unfortunately, it did rip out a chunck of hair. So now she has a bald patch about the size of a man's thumb print. Parting the hair to side covers the patch, but it will take years for the hair to grow out to match the length of the rest of her head.
I am dumbfounded that this happened. I am very grateful that she was not injured worse. We all see the humor in the situation, NOW.
Hope you do to...
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Nothing is more popular at our house than breakfast for dinner. Pancakes or eggs are the usual fare. It is guaranteed to create cheering for all--even my husband.
On other nights, cereal is the dinner of choice for those who do not care for what Mommy cooked that night (aka my ds). After you eat your obligatory 3-5 bites of what I made, then you can go fix yourself a bowl of cereal (only healthy varieties) if you don't like dinner. I refuse to be a short order cook. He tried a little, ate a small portion of the protein and veggie du jour and will satiate his own hunger without whining or creating more work for me. Win-win in my book.
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Hey I love the idea of new books. Anything to get him to actually read the whole thing!
I even bought Sir Fartsalot Hunts the Booger. He loved it got almost half-way through it before he put it down and started another book. Grr!
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My son is to the point that his decoding is pretty good, so I just have him read, read, read, but I feel like I need to do more to build and check for comprehension.
I have a list of books I want him to read next year [and a smaller list of read-alouds], and I truly want him to read them and enjoy them and be inspired by them to want to learn more [many are historical fiction], so I don't want to "burden" him with too much "work" as follow-up, but I need him to do SOMETHING. And I want him to start thinking about what he's reading.
So what do you all do? How often? How extensive?
DS is 8 going into 3rd grade [-ish]. His writing is still minimal. I mean, he CAN write, but his penmanship is atrocious, and he rushes through any writing I ask him to do which just makes it worse, and he just doesn't LIKE it. :/
I had to do a double take to make sure that I didn't post this myself, especially the bolded part.
I don't have anything helpful to add because I am in the same boat.
I have one additional problem with my son. He starts to read a book, puts it down and then never wants to pick it up again. So he starts to read another book and another and another. I am torn about what to do when I want him to enjoy reading for reading's sake. Forcing him to finish and creating a battle kind of defeats the "reading is fun" aspect of things. So now what?:001_huh:
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Your family is large enough for a relay race that I do with my Girl Scouts and they LOVE it--Reflective Tape Hunt.
Take black construction foam sheets and cut out book mark shaped rectangles. Then take reflective tape and make two sets of identical geometric designs. (Shouldn't take very long to make and I got everything at Wal-Mart very cheaply.) A few examples would be: two horizontal lines with a circle in between them, four triangles, a big circle, a "plus" sign etc.
Once it is dark, you hide one set of the cards in a small area when the clan is otherwise occupied. Bring everyone together and form teams. Show the first person of each team a different design to find. The first person for each side then uses a flash light (hence the reflective tape) to find their assigned card. If the person can't find their design shape, they come back and the next person in their line is shown what to look for and then tries to find it. The organizer checks as each person brings back their assigned design to make sure they got the right one. If not, the player puts it back where they found it.
It is a lot of fun and especially helps younger kids enjoy the dark rather than feel spooked by it when camping.
I need a pep talk
in General Education Discussion Board
Posted
Our kids appear to be on the same level. My dd will be in 6th and ds will be in 3rd. I taught history to them together this year and we are in exactly the same place as you are... we just finished up Ancient Greece and that was just before we "quit" for the summer. So, would you like to form a club of those who got stuck at ended at Ancient Greece? :lol: Since the history is on a rotation, this was not our only crack at Ancient Rome, so I figure this will not be the end of the world.
You deserve a break. Take one and relax!!!! Chill and make sure you have plenty of "you" time. Curricula will be there, whether you order now or in August. It seems to me that the beauty of HSing is that you have the freedom to start when you want and do things on your schedule. If you re-charge your batteries, then your plans will come together so much easier. Give yourself the freedom to mentally get in a better place. Have some fun, splash in a pool or squirt your kids with a hose, build a fort in your living room, whatever but find your laughter again.
In a couple of weeks, when you are feeling rejuvenated, then shop for curricula.
Good Luck!