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Lily_Grace

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Everything posted by Lily_Grace

  1. Tackled: -car seat check -kid's schooling done -mowed the lawn -took down the tent in the basement -cleaned the living room -dishes -started dinner Need to do: -laundry -clean the basement -put the children to bed -RELAX
  2. The idea of Genesis as a poem intrigued me, and so I went searching. Lots of sites talk about how it's a poem, but this is the best explanation I found (along with how to interpret it): http://www.ancient-hebrew.org/23_genesis_1.html
  3. Homeschool Freebie of the Day has two early elem plant books right now. My personal list would include How does it look? -how many leaves? -how tall? -what shape are the leaves/flowers? -what color? -how many leaves/flowers grow together? How does it feel? -touch the bark/stem -touch the leaves/flowers/fruit Who visits? -look for bugs on the leaves -look for bugs at the root -sit back and watch for flying insects Where is it? -in a garden? wild? -in the sun? shade? How does it grow? -are seeds in fruit? -does the wind blow pollen/seeds? -does it send out runners? Meant for late elementary, there is a great set of books from No Child Left Indoors called Take A ____ Walk (Tree, Beach, City, Bird...) that teaches different plant observation techniques.
  4. Our board is available every week, just about. The boys don't have to wait. They do their scoutmaster conference and then schedule a BOR - and there have been a few times where we have hastily done one because a boy is moving or he is this close >< to getting rank before the next Court of Honor. We don't have scout spirit conferences separately, either. I think I would ask your scoutmaster to explain the purpose of BORs. Troops define them differently. Our scoutmaster wants the boys to feel comfortable in an interview - poised, confident, etc. so the requirements we have reflect that: full uniform, knocking before entering, standing before the committee...we are a small troop so we know exactly where each boy is skill and development-wise. We'll encourage them at one BOR, and then a few weeks later talk to them informally and follow-up with where they are currently standing (getting them to go for leadership positions or finishing a requirement, for example). We cheer them on, but also occasionally keep them steady for a bit.
  5. I think you can absolutely look at some parts of the bible as allegorical. My take on the 7 day creation model is this: A day is a measured piece of time. Who did the measuring? How? If the sun wasn't even invented until the 3rd day, what constituted a "day"? Why do we put limits on God and force him into a narrow box that the human mind can accept, instead of allowing Him to work his model? There are discrepancies in the bible that definitely cannot be taken as literal truth. Joshua made the sun stand still. And how did that work, exactly, since the belief at that time was that we were the center of the universe? Even creationist texts accept laws of physics. Allowing the "sun to stand still" would mean that the earth stopped spinning. How is that possible?? The Pearls are rather fond of Proverbs, and 'Withhold not correction from the child: for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die.' There are many who will testify otherwise, as abuse after abuse case rocks our nation. These cannot be taken literally. There are many, many parts of the bible that we disregard because customs fall away or we have a new way of looking at things (like, we don't kill non-virgins who get married). I look at Genesis as a 'God's people' story of how they came to be. The time frame isn't necessary, but the timeline is, if that makes sense. I don't see Adam and Eve as the first people on earth, but as the first Jews. Otherwise, Cain wouldn't have had a need to be afraid when he left his parents. There wouldn't have been other people, and certainly not cities. He wouldn't have needed to be marked.
  6. Mine would have, but the 3yo might just have eaten the jam! He doesn't like cake. :) However, I just went camping with a bunch of kids. For breakfast, three of us brought blueberry muffins. Jiffy boxed mix, Otis Spunkmeyer individually wrapped ones, and large homemade with tons of real blueberries and a crusty, sugary top, still warm from the oven. The Jiffy ones were gone in a jiffy. :laugh: When the choice came between prepackaged and homemade, the kids took the Otis ones next. Only my kids and the grownups ate the homemade ones. When we get used to artificial flavoring, that's what we like. It took a long time for my house to readjust when we got rid of most boxed foods.
  7. If I were you, my itinerary would look like this: Hotel: Port Orleans French Quarter. It's one of the smallest resorts, is a moderate, and is right down the river from DTD/whatever they turn it into (Disney Village I think?). You can take a boat and enjoy a nice dinner, or bus over to one of the other resorts. They even have a website with tons of pics (and 360 ones, too) : http://portorleans.org/ If you want to spend more, the Wilderness Lodge is amazing, too. It's quiet, but only a boatride away from the Magic Kingdom. Time: End of September. It's your anniversary, they have the Food And Wine festival going on at Epcot, and it's still in the value season, I think. If you get a reservation now you may even qualify for the free dining promo going on. Special things to do: Tomorrowland Terrace Dessert Party - enjoy the fireworks above the crowd Chef's Table dinner at Victoria and Alberts. This is pricy (around $200) and long. But you get a fully customized dinner with your own servers in an intimate setting. Tour the Magic Kingdom or Epcot. Take one of the backstage tours (Key To The World or something similar) You could also set up a special tour/event through http://giftsofalifetime.com/ They customize a special thing just for you and your dh, be it a scavenger hunt or whatnot (every one is different). Photopass - so you don't have to worry about getting someone to take all your pics.
  8. We use movies here at home. This year we've watched Inherit The Wind (debate topic), Elementary (tv series, to illustrate how different forms of logic are applied), Newsies, The Story of Us, and Pocahontas (romanticizing history), music videos.... I've looked at the public school here. They only get through about half the text and have several days out of the year where learning just isn't going to happen. November is filled with half days and days off and spring isn't much better.
  9. I'm starting to make lit guides for when my youngest gets to be in upper elementary/jr. high. We loved the Moving Beyond The Page ones - short, sweet, and full of fun - but I want to do ones based on books I know we'll enjoy together: Treasure Island Carry On, Mr. Bowditch The Indian In The Cupboard The Best Christmas Paeant Ever Understood Betsy Cheaper By The Dozen I've completed one, now to get a move on on the rest! (and no, I don't think they're strictly important, but I do want to find ways to immerse my children in good books and teach them basic literary analysis at the same time, before they get into the heavy work of high school)
  10. I love the Stanford link. We also use www.lettersofnote.com -though prereading is recommended on this site, I love the fact that they're mostly personal letters. We were able to use the one from Marie Antoinette to compare against the 'character study' one of our library books gave. http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/index.cfm - Digital History offers video, texts, and lesson plans for any American History time period. www.retronaut.co.uk is another great site for looking at personal history, but definitely requires parent oversight and weeding through the faked pics. But we've found amazing things there, too, like the Eiffel Tower blueprints and plans for a ride there. Pictures of abandoned villages and baby advertisements. The human side of history, if you will. :) If you want it, it's out there. Pick a topic and search "primary resources lessons Middle Ages" (or whatever your'e studying). Quite a bit will come up if it's available.
  11. I have an older kid (middle/high school). He's enjoying -Chem Lab (basic chemical formula memorizations) -Civil War Today (interactive civil war newspaper) -Disney's The Presidents (one of the most entertaining apps we've gotten so far. Even the 3yo loves it!) -Duolingo Total bust: -Elementeo (not fun at all) -a timeline app by Houghton-Mifflin, I think. The events are so sparsely listed that it's not worth it as an aid to any study, and the few "games" are all rote memorization within a simple matching game. Nothing fun. It was added and quickly abandoned.
  12. You might search for 'web method', but I don't know if that will come up the same. I got frustrated trying to get my kid to see the point of timelines several years ago, and I sat down and showed him with pen and paper how the world events were interrelated - why it was important to learn where in history they were. When all was said and done we had a puddle or pond. :) It opened my eyes both to how I thought about events (non-linear) and how he learns (visual/hands on) and how we could apply it to a standard lesson. We still do timelines, but I'm much less focused on exact dates and more on "what next?" Our end-of-unit is coming up this week, so we'll be tying together a handful of major events: the Homestead Act, the Fugitive Slave Act (v.1850), pre-revolution China, and the California Gold Rush. I'll post the pics of beginning, during, and after. :)
  13. Are you looking for a literature study or fun read?
  14. Take a look at the book by the same author called "Teaching What Really Happened". There are many ideas in there on how to approach history as a living subject instead of relying on storytellers to tell you what they think happened. We use a method here I call the pond method. Instead of looking at a timeline, we make a dot for an event (or draw a circle, depending on which way we're going). The older the kid, the more starting dots/circles. Then we slowly start making concentric rings as we add events that came from/caused the starting event. Older kids see the overlap, younger kids see the cause/effect of minor decisions. It's like throwing a stone into a pond, with all the ripples. And the more stones, the more ripples in history. It relies on the kid to answer and figure out WHY things happened as they're figuring out the puzzle.
  15. Try Noeo, maybe? It's leveled 1-3rd, 4-6th, and 7-9th grades, sells each level topic as a package (or separate, if you prefer) with everything included for experiments, and is set up in short, 4-day a week lessons that can be easily combined into 2-3 days. It's not scripted, but offers assignments and reading schedules for each day. Oh, and it uses living books so you can build a bookshelf to come back to over time.
  16. I keep only the stuff I love. I dunno, lugging it around the world tends to make shelves of 'okay' books lose their appeal. Many things will always stay, like my MUS dvds, but I have a large stack of must-get-rid-ofs before we move again.
  17. Vision Forum has a book called Raising A Modern Day Knight in their personal growth for boys section. I'm not sure how old your kids are, but this seems aimed for the 8+ crowd and their dads.
  18. Pack detergent. Clothes can be washed, forgots can be bought. Keep your list short and simple - but add detergent. Dh and I took our last trip to Disney Paris. 2yo, 13yo, and a 5-day stay. Everyone got two pairs of pants, 4 shirts, socks, undies, and a sweatshirt/thin jacket. Four people in two suitcases. No diaper bag - I took a backpack and threw a wetbag in there with a thin waterproof mat and extra change for the wee'un. I DID pack a few extras for us, though: -the collapsible boxes we use in the wee'un's room. They were used to organize our hotel room. -gummies in the shape of Disney characters. We don't eat that junk at home but it made a nice treat while waiting in line for practically pennies. We bought one or two souvenirs per person - they don't really need a lot of junk and at the point we're at, it's just nice to continue small collections like pin trading. And it saves packing room, too. :)
  19. I'd pick a lesson a week from mrdonn.org and supplement with mapwork and statework as necessary.
  20. Metropolis Nosferatu Meet Me in St. Louis Roman Holiday Inherit The Wind (if interested in looking at the evolution vs. creationism debate court case) Shirley Temple films Penny Serenade Cheaper By The Dozen (original) followed by Yours, Mine, and Ours An Affair To Remember The Shop Around The Corner The Canterville Ghost (Margaret O'Brian, not Jodie Foster) Godspell
  21. We did something similar for a year of world history. The Creek Edge Press task cards lay out a series of activities for each topic (non-fiction notetaking, fiction reading, maps, documentaries..etc.) and are designed to use whatever resources you want. Easy-peasy. This year, I used our curriculum and jumped off to go our own way with U.S. history - their tie-in fiction, my projects, map work, documentary choices, papers, primary docs..to provide a well-rounded history for my 8th grader.
  22. We both pay them. One bill has to be paid in town, so whomever is closest that day stops and takes care of it. The rest are set up to go out through our individual logins at our online bank. Dh and I budget together, too. I find it easier and much more relaxing if we're both on the same page about our short and long term goals. We'll sit down about once a week and go over the figures and projected expenses for the next two months.
  23. I don't blog about homeschooling. I mean, I do, but I don't. To me, my blog is like a conversation with an old friend. I keep the complaining and worrying light, talk about things that interest me, and share the love I have for my family. The minute I try to turn it into a diary is when I fall down. I don't need my blog to be there to talk about curriculum that's not working for me - I have the WTM for that. And I get the bonus of y'all talking back. ;)
  24. Probably about 7. I forget with the oldest. It was about the time he could spend the entire time singing if he went into a large restroom. Singing equaled me standing outside the door. If the music stopped I'd be storming in waving my Mom flag to find out what happened to my kid.
  25. http://www.icivics.org/ There's games, lessons, all sorts to help them get a quick jump on the topic.
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