craftyerin
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Posts posted by craftyerin
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My daughter is only 7 weeks old. Is it too soon to ask for a catalog? :toetap05:
Never!
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I have horses stashed for Christmas!
I am very jealous of you all. I have left countless AG catalogs around the house over the years, hoping DD would fall for the dolls. Once, before a birthday, I handed her a pen and told her to dog-ear and note anything she might want. I can't tell you how giddy I was when she brought the catalog back to me, so excited, and told me she had found something. At last!! Yeah, it was a microphone used as a prop in one of the spreads. They didn't even sell it! LOL She still shows no interest. Poor me. :nopity:
On the bright side, I am pretty stoked about her archery set and my boys' Lego Mindstorms EV3, which are both currently hidden away in my closet.I didn't have AG dolls as a child (was too old for them, I think?) and found out about them when I was babysitting in high school and college. I fell in LOVE!! And was determined for dd5 to love them. She couldn't care less about the dolls, but she'll play with me if she has animals! Pets and horses. Those are the hooks that got her in the door. She took the catalog and dogeared every page with pets and horses. I can live with that. :D
We now have one doll of her own, Gracie (Marie-Grace from the sale, with her horrid pin curls snipped off and usually in modern clothing), two dolls of MINE, and an American-girl-turned-boy (with a haircut) that we both love and share. The crafty part of me couldn't resist messing with a beat-up doll from Ebay and sewing him a bunch of clothes. :lol:
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Keep going. I wish the rhyming was toward the end of that program in stead of the beginning. There are plenty of other wonderful phonemic awareness activities in later lessons that she may be ready for even if she isn't do well with the rhyming ones. We loved AAR pre-reading!
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We have this set of pictures and the coordinating set of wooden pattern blocks. My kids really like them! http://www.discountschoolsupply.com/Product/ProductDetail.aspx?product=3760&keyword=pattern%20blocks&scategoryid=0&CategorySearch=&Brand=&Price=
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I didn't vote. I would call my car seat's manufacturer and follow their guideli't vote.
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My library system had 2 different story compilations. We checked them both out, and they have about a quarter of the stories overlapping. So just beware of that.
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We found the A book (first semester) of Singapore Essential Math K to be very accessible for my 4.5yos. They did that one at 4.5 and started KB around their 5th birthdays.
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The Tale of Despereaux is one of my all-time favorites!
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I would continue ETC since she loves it, but ditch the rest. I loved the PK materials from Handwriting Without Tears. I highly recommend those for letter/number formation. Those and just reading to her daily (a good book list like the one from Sonlight P3/4?) and give her some time.
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I found with my most energetic son that I needed to catch him at the beginning of the day and plow through. No breaks. Nothing fun before. Get up (eat & dress), work, then play. Cut out anything superfluous, just the basics. Also, for the pouting and stomping and complaining, I would have her go to her room and sit on the bed every time until she was over it.
:iagree: My DS6 who is VERY contrary and will argue with a stump has a hard attitude when it comes to school. If he is allowed to get started on ANYthing of his own choosing, it's nearly impossible to drag him back for school. I can force it, but it's miserable for both of us. I start 3Rs with him the very moment his breakfast dishes are cleared. I bring his math and handwriting ot the breakfast table to start the *minute* he's through eating. When those basics are done, he gets a long break to play while I do 3Rs with his siblings (twins, a grade younger). Then we have a snack together, and I start my subjects that all kids do together during snack time, before he can scoot off again. ;) He gets 5 min of screen time (iphone or laptop) for each "working period" (3Rs, entertaining himself appropriately while I do 3Rs with sibs, and joint subjects). I dock screen time minutes for attitude. This is a fairly new system for us, and is working pretty well.
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I just heard about Phonics for Reading and Spelling by Bonnie Dettmer. Christie_P, did you find something less boring? My son gets bored easily and when I read your comment it looked like a red flag for me lol. My son knows the short vowel sounds and we've already gotten some games for short and long vowel practice. But I don't think anything we own covers as much as programs like hers (for example, I was talking to someone about it online and they said she includes 4 sounds for the letter o. I don't know if those 4 sounds are even covered in anything I currently own).
I just hate to drop $70-$100 on a comprehensive program only to realize my son hates it and it's not user-friendly. I ordered an Explode the Code book recently (heard good things about ETC) but I have no idea how much that series covers.
I used Dettmer's book in the classroom at a classical private school. It's really no different than Spalding, and in fact (I think?) is a spin-off of Spalding. If that sort of reading and spelling program appeals to you, just buy yourself a copy of The Writing Road to Reading by Romalda Spalding and do that instead. It's absolutely the same thing and MUCH less expensive.
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We use the social studies and science in Five in a Row in our homeschool. My kids were PK and K last year. This year they're K and 1st, and it's still working well for us.
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Seconded. I have pathetically weak hands, and I love this can opener. I recommended it to my mother-in-law, who is also very fond of it.
Thirded.
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Do you mean the first two sets, or did you have subsequent sets? I loved how quickly we progressed through them, reading a story or two per day.
I had the first 2 sets.
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I had the same problem! All three of mine were learning to read at the same time, and I had to employ many different phonics readers, since once they heard any of them, they were memorized. We ended up with a set of Bob, of course (our least favorite), I See Sam (fantastic, but move too slowly for most of mine), and Nora Gaydos' Now I'm Reading, which were by FAR the fan favorites here. They're the only ones that my kids still pull off the shelf to read for fun now that they've mostly moved past the phonics reader stage. http://www.innovativekids.com/shop/230/learn-to-read-books
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I started AAR's pre-reading program and HWT's PK materials when my twins were 3.5. They were perfect for them. They absolutely ate it up. We finished AAR when they were 4years, 3mos or so (took ~9mos to go through it) and they were ready to start Phonics Pathways and learning to read at that point. By their 5th birthday, they were reading fluently on about a 2nd grade level. We kept working through HWT's K materials after their PK, and that has continued to work well for us. We added Singapore Essential math K around 4.5 and are nearing the end of the KB book now.
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I love A Wonder Book and Tanglewood Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne.
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Mom's in survival mode today. I'm sick. Groan, pout, whine, sniffle, snot. :glare:
Bare minimum required for the day:
school: at least handwriting,math and FIARkids to well child ped visits at 11
run the swiffer vac through the main areas because floors are gross
Anything else is gravy.
Did as much school as I have in me, which turned out to be math and FIAR. Putting the kids in front of the TV until we leave for the ped.
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I haven't listened yet, but I have standing date with the This American Life podcast during my kids' music class on Wednesdays. I'm curious now!
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Hope you feel better soon, Erin!
Thank you!
It's 7am and I've not seen a single child, which is highly unusual here. I suspect I've passed my germs onto some of the small people. The bare minimums may fall to the pediatrician for "well" checks and swiffering the floor. We might have a sick day for school and spend a bunch of time with our old buddy Netflix.
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Mom's in survival mode today. I'm sick. Groan, pout, whine, sniffle, snot. :glare:
Bare minimum required for the day:
school: at least handwriting, math and FIAR
kids to well child ped visits at 11
run the swiffer vac through the main areas because floors are gross
Anything else is gravy.
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I went to a conference and heard Andrew Pudewa of IEW speak on the topic of grammar. It was FANTASTIC!! His perspective (which I wholeheartedly agree with) is that analytical grammar (parts of speech, parsing sentences, etc) is really more a logic stage skill. He actually joked that he wanted to write an article called "No grammar in the grammar stage!" but that he didn't want to be eaten alive. :lol: He said that grammar is best taught at the point of application, so teach mechanics (capitalization, punctuation, etc) as you teach writing, copywork, dictation, etc in lower elementary. Absolutely. But you don't need grammar curriculum to do so. He said that as you approach logic stage, you can start to teach more formal grammar, but that he believes (and my experience confirms) that the most straightforward way to do that is through Latin or some other foreign language. He asked how many of us (in the audience) had learned more English grammar through foreign language study than we ever had in English class. Defintely true for me. So, now that Mr. Pudewa has given me permission, I plan to not do formal grammar with my kids in lower elementary. I am perfectly comfortable with that.
He has a sort-of shortened version of the grammar lecture I heard in this youtube video about the English products that IEW sells and recommends, if you wanted to listen:
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I'm another who lives in an area where preschool of some sort is assumed at 3, and full time (all day) 5 days/week PK is assumed at 4. When I chose not to do that I was either a. neglectful or b. a homeschooler. The year that my kids were 4 & 3, when asked, I started to identify as someone who "will homeschool". Last year, when my kids were 5 & 4, I identified as a homeschooler, including joining a group, etc. By then, I was getting questions about why my kids weren't in school when we were out in public during the day. My 4yo twins had no friends last year that were not in full time PK, except for those in our HS group.
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I have a BA in history and government, with a secondary (middle/high school) social studies teaching certificate. Instead of using that, I applied to teach elementary at a classical private school where friends' kids went, and spent 7 years teaching 3rd and 4th grades, which was a much better fit for me than my painful middle school student teaching experience. I'm not sure why I never considered an elementary ed degree, but it didn't cross my mind until after I graduated. I did love my history degree, so I guess it all worked out.
Mom's with girls who love their American Girl Dolls, you will understand this.
in The Chat Board
Posted
she's almost certainly a ballerina. :tongue_smilie: http://www.fanpop.com/clubs/american-girl/articles/206112/title/universal-feature-film-american-girl-2014-seeking-tween-ballet-dancers