I would assume she is completely fine as far as projects go. Presentations are a bit different than just projects. I do think it is important to be able to speak well and comfortably in front of others. I think the younger you start, the better (excepting kids who are naturally extremely shy). If you haven't done any type of public speaking, even just in front of grandparents or neighbors, I would.

Yes, it is amazing what can happen with a few thin workbooks full of strange and alien drawings and a box of colored wooden blocks!

Thanks! I give all the credit to Miquon, some good math genes from his dad, and, of course, his own hard work.

That approach may help him bridge from "his" way to the Singapore approach. Thank you very much!

Thank you. I definitely was very positivewith him, especially for perserving through a difficulty and finding a way to approach the problem that works for him. I do try to watch my words when teaching him and did tell him we couldn't subtract the ones without going negative - which led to his solution. I guess I'm wondering if I should push the issue this week as we finish up this section or let it go for awhile? Will it cause problems later in 1B to not tackle this now? He tends to get very emotional and almosted blinded by his frustration when he hits a wall in understanding a certain way to approach something. I'd like to let it rest for awhile, but don't want to set ourselves up for bigger problems later. I'm new to an Asian approach to math and don't always know ahead of time how the program will teach a concept.

My son, who is generally very quick at math, is in Singapore 1B and started subtraction with numbers up to 40. Today was the first day he encountered problems which necessitated going into the tens place for subtraction, like 15-7. It was UGLY. He was getting the answers correct using his Cruisinare rods, but was struggling with Singapore's explanation. While I was trying to explain the approach to him, by explaining how you could not take 7 from 5 in the problem 15-7 and needed to subtract from the ten, he insisted we use negative numbers to get -2 and than just add that to 10, getting 8. He flew through the work after that with no tears whatsoever. Is this going to really come back to haunt me later with Singapore? Should I insist we use their method now? Come back to it later? Just let it be and trust he'll realize it is all the same idea anyway?

This is somewhat tangentially related, since comics aren't exactly "literature", but the other day I was thinking how to incoporate superheroes into science by looking at their "powers" more closely. (My son is constantly asking why certain superheroes can do cetain things.) You could group them by science "Rule Breakers" and "Rule Followers." For example, Superman has no actually mechanism for flight while Angel (from X-Men) does actually have wings (thanks to a hypothetical idea of genetic mutation). You could then study the mechanics of flight or genetic mutation. You have all kinds of interesting possibilites. If your kids are into comics, they could read the comics with an eye to gathering data to understanding the superheroes' power, and then study the actual science of the situation. I think it could make a cool ongoing study or science fair project. I know my son would get a huge kick out of it. (He is still pretty young, but I totally plan on doing this when he is a little older.) I just googled the idea and, not surprisingly, there are already some works based on this idea. Also, here and here. Now if someone would just put together a kids' science unit on the idea for me...

I usually stay out of most of these types of discussions on fb. The medium is just to difficult for a genuine conversation. In general, though, I talk with Catholics who struggle with the Church's teachings by sharing how I've come to recognize the truth or beauty of the teaching in my own life. I may mention some church documents or specific teachings, but I try to have the discussion center around a personal witness. I feel this keeps the discussion from becoming "whose more Catholic." We aren't just firing encyclical quotes at each other, but really focusing on the truth of the teaching itself and how it can change your life.

I haven't watched the film yet. Maybe I'll watch to get some emotional closure.

We do the Holy Heroes Advent and Lenten Adventures every year. I love their programs because they email the links to me each day (or 3 times a week in Lent), which helps me remember to do it. My kids love it because it is other kids' teaching them in the videos. They have lots of free downloads to go with each day's lesson.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is one of my favorites, too. :bigear:

I'm glad I'm not the only one who read the whole thing with no clue! And I need emotional closure, too. Especially in a book where character development is waaaaay more important than the plot line. It's like Anne and Gilbert never reconciling or Darcy and Elizabeth never having the final proposal scene...horrible.

100% His mother WAS a full-time SAHM for the majority of her time with children under 18.

on Elizabeth Gaskell's Wives and Daughters that she died before she wrote the last chapter! I just finished reading all 670 pages in terrible innocence of this horrific reality (and sadly ignoring my children during the last 200 pages today!) Imagine my shock when I finally reach the last chapter, which should supply that wonderful fulfillment of a story whose threads all fit together, and instead I find a note by the publisher that the author died before finishing! Talk about disappointment. I went back to the Introduction, which I never read before my first perusal of a novel so I can form my own ideas about the work, and it does mention it there. But shouldn't there be some other warning somewhere?!? Uncomplete work???

Fabulous! I'd love to read his work.

My kids have really enjoyed Mixed Beasts by Wallace Edwards and Kenyon Cox. It is a funny mix of light verses about nonsensical "mixed" animals with witty hidden illustrations of real animals, like a fiddler crab drawn to really look like a fiddle and crab. It's verse and puns and Where's Waldo all together. Also, following along those lines, we've enjoyed Behold the Bold Umbrellaphant by Jack Prelutsky and several books by Douglas Florian, including Omnibeasts, Zoo's Who, and Insectlopedia.

If you want to have a written record of oral narrations, I find my 1st grader really enjoys when I type as he narrates. Then we print it off and add it to his history or science binder (the subjects in which we do narrations). He loves that his "work" looks so much like a "real" book.

I wasn't saying that a liberal arts education's end is "character-building." But neither do I think think it is simply "the development of academic knowledge and skills (to include a broad and deep comprehension of Western civilization and science a.k.a. liberal arts)," as you state in your post. IMHO, this is close to a good definition, but just slightly doesn't go the whole way. I don't find that liberal arts education's end to simply be the development of the intellect, but of the whole person. The development of the intellect must trickle over into the person's affections and ultimately into one's will, leading to a basic order and harmony in the total person. The person does not learn to just know truth; they learn to love it. They do not just know the beautiful when they see it; they enjoy it. They do not just know what justice is; they hunger and thirst for it. One's education should not simply be the accumlation of knowledge and shaping of the intellect, but the formation of whole person in light of that knowledge. I suppose the distinction between these two ends is what made me bristle a bit at the use of the word efficient, even though I agree with many of the actual educational practices in your list (individualized instruction, living books, studying the classics, etc.). I am not primarily choosing to use some of these methods because they are an efficient way to gain knowledge (though that is often a lovely bonus), but because I believe these methods help knowlege move along into my children's affections and, hopefully, into their wills. Efficiency seems to be a term more fitted to simply accumlating knowledge, not forming a human being to contemplate the truth and then integrating that truth into oneself. And I know I'm likely way out of my league here, but I wanted to be clear I wasn't just talking about "character-building!"

I completely understand your point here, Tibbie. The mind-numbing boredom and horrific inefficiency of my public school lead me to ask my parents to homeschool me when I was a high school freshman. One of the best things about homeschooling is the ability to provide individualized instruction, which is almost always more efficient than large group instruction. It is certainly one of the reasons I chose to have myself homeschooled and why I am choosing to homeschool my children. I guess I didn't take Larry's assertions this way because I went to his blog post link, which was titled: Efficiency as a basic educational principle. I don't think efficiency should be a basic educational principle. Maybe a basic educational practice, but even then I agree with EM's post that sometimes efficiency may not be the most effective way to achieve one's educational goals. I view a principle more as a goal or an end. I would not say that efficiency is a goal of a liberal arts or classical education. Of course, Larry may not have meant principle to be such a loaded word.

First, I want to apologize for the atrocious state of my first post. NEVER use your voice-to-text feature on your phone to write a post, and then fail to edit it because you want to watch Downton Abbey. My apologies, you all deserve better.

I find it odd that you chose "efficiency" as a vital measuring stick for a solid education, especially a liberal arts education. To me the end of a liberal arts education is not the simply the accumulation of the most knowledge or facts or information possible, a goal to which efficiency would naturally lend itself. Instead the end of a liberal arts education is the development of the whole human person, resulting in the virtuous person. The measuring stick I would use in this case would not be how efficient the educational process is, but how well one's education leads a person to recognize and understand the good, the true, and beautiful. As a busy mom I'm always looking for ways to make my teaching time as efficient as possible, but that seems to be more of a side issue, not a vital organizing principle for my educational philosophy. The formation of the reason and will towards the truth is always the primary end. The means to it maybe efficient or not. I chose the means I believe will best get us to our final goal, not simply the most efficient. Too focus too much on efficiency seems to risk falling too far into more progressive theories of education. Edited: For ungodly use of the English language. NEVER use the voice-to-text feature on your phone, then fail to edit because you want to watch Downtown Abbey. Just don't.

Can you really kill the bedbugs on any clothing with a hot wash? I want to go to the Williamsburg Great Wolf Lodge with the kids, but heard they have had some bed bugs problems on and off over the last few years. I was planning to just pack clothes in cheap laundry baskets and leave them there. I would bag all the clothes in garbage bags and then take then laundry them at a laundrymat instead of taking them in the house. I wasn't a 100% you could kill them with a hot wash, though. Part of me thinks it is crazy to even risk exposure, the other part of me hates living life in fear. All of our friends are going on the trip, and my kids have worked hard on their American history this year and would love visiting Williamsburg - and enjoying a waterpark!

Amazing! So glad she conquered her fear!

:iagree:This is how I was raised, well below the poverty line. I'm from a large family (seven kids) where mom stayed home (homeschooling off and on depending on each kid's educational needs) and my dad was a Catholic school teacher and part-time farmer. I was babysitting by 11, busing tables illegally at 13, and then worked at least 20 hours a week until I graduated college (two years early and summa cum laude). At age 13, I was responsible for all my own clothes, spending money, then gas and car insurance as soon as I was 16. It was hard work, but I never resented it. We were in it together as a family, and everyone worked together for the good of the whole family. My parents were very open with us about money, or the lack thereof.:tongue_smilie: They put a high value on mom being home with us and let us know what that cost the family financially; we understood and truly appreciated our mom being with us and were happy to have to work a little harder if it meant we spent our lives actually being together. Every night after grace, we'd all chant, "All for one and one for all!" A deep spirit of togetherness pervaded our daily grind. I think this is vital to help keeping teens from resenting having to take a harder path in high school and college. Also, while we were definitely financially poor, my parents made it clear that it didn't mean we had to be intellectually poor, even if we might not all follow the traditional ideal of a college-bound high school prep course. The development of life of the mind and the formation of deep character was my parents' goal for us - and they never let us forget it! I think this spirit of curiousity and searching for truth and beauty goes a long way to providing a solid basis for a kid, even if they do not get to study in the traditional progression. From your posts here, (I've been reading for about a year) I think your boys have recieved that in spades! Plus a very solid actual high school education. Rejoice in that! As for what path to take now, obviously your and our husband know best, but I'm all for thinking outside the box. My dad worked really closely with all of us kids in our family during 9 and 10th grades to develop a game plan (and some back-up plans) for the rest of high school and college. First, we did a lot of talking and job shadowing. The counseling wasn't about particular subject we wanted to study, but what kind of work we wanted to do later. Do you like desk work or more active, manual labor or something in-between? Do you like to be with lots of people, some, as alone as possible? He would show us charts and numbers about different fields and how hard it was to get a job in that field and how much it cost to be educated for such a job. Then we'd start job shadowing the fields we thought might interest us. Overall, this plan of attack really helped most of us not waste any money on education in field we wouldn't eventually enjoy working in. While it is nice not to have to decide on a major early and keep your options open, some of us can't afford it. Once we had a plan, dad made every one of us start CC at 16. Our state had a dual-enrollment program that made all the classes and books free. So each of us took as many credits as we could academically handle for the next two years. If we planned on transferring to a four year institution, we already knew what schools we were looking into and had talked with them about credit transfers. If they didn't take the CC credits, well, we were going somewhere else. (Though we actually never ran into this problem.) Planning ahead to really maximize every credit helped limit any wasted time or money. Also, while some of us went on to get 4 year degrees and graduate degrees, several of my siblings went into technical certification programs, where they had Associates degrees and program certifications, usually in healthcare related fields (nuclear medicine and MRI radiology thus far). Since they started at 16, these siblings were working by 19, debt free, and making more than me and my liberal arts degrees. At the same time, my family did support my decision to get a liberal arts degree because that was who I was and I was getting it as cheaply as possible while still striving to get the best intellectual development I could afford. And they knew I was going into it with my eyes open about what it took to be independent. There was a good balance between practicality, respect for education for its own sake, and the needs for each individual kid in my parents' approach that I really admire. Personally, I would start looking around for options. I would highly suggest looking into what your state might offer as far as dual enrollement for high schoolers. I had to enroll in my public school to get the free money in high school, but I never had to step foot in the building. If you aren't familiar with the public school system, you might not be aware of what kind of offereing they have for college. Also, you could do the FASFA form and figure out how much financial aid might be available to your boys. Start looking at tuition rates with them and start trying to figure out a plan. The early the better because you have more time to explore options. I'm sorry this is long and rambling. I just wanted to share my experience of growing up in a low-income family that also valued the life of the mind. My DH, who came from a wealthier, East Coast family and went to an all-boys prep school that cost his family more for one year than my whole college education, was sort of horrified when he first heard about my family's often inventive approach to education. (You mean, you might not just go to a four-year college right out of high school??? The horror!) Now he thinks the traditional plan is probably the more risky choice these days!

I liked my Babyhawk Mei Tei, but for under 6-9 months. Ergo is a great carrier that works through all ages, though I like my Beco Gemini better than my ergo. Still, either would be just fine. It is a bit more streamlined and has more carry options. I would look on craigslist and see what you can find second-hand at a great price. Often people will buy an expensive carrier and not use it. Many of the carriers are very similiar and price would definitely sway me.