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Deee

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Everything posted by Deee

  1. Bless me, Hive, for I have spent. It has been a week (or so) since my last confession. I went to the nursery and bought plants. Twice! Mostly veggies, and all within my pocket money allowance. And its spring. I shall atone on my hands and knees in the garden, with a trowel. And no, I am not a bit repentant, and will probably spend again, so there!
  2. Ditch the bleach - it ruins your clothes and it'll make you ill (its also an environmental disaster). Buy some borax. Soak your stinky stuff overnight in a bucket of hot water with a tablespoon of borax dissolved in it. Then wash them on the hottest cycle your Washing Police allow (don't do this with wool or everything will be tiny). If you can find and afford an enzyme-based washing powder for front loaders use that (use half as much as the packet says - consumer testing shows that half as much detergent is just as effective for high quality brands). If you can't, grate 1 cake laundry soap and mix with equal amounts of washing soda and half that amount of borax in a 5 litre bucket (scrounge one from a take-away or deli). Dissolve in boiling water and top up with cold water to make 2 litres. Use a tablespoon per wash. If you have somewhere to dry on a line, do it. If not, make sure the clothes are properly dry when you get them out of the dryer. Other things to do: don't sleep in a heated room (ignore this bit if its silly - I live in Sydney. We don't need to heat bedrooms here but I am always amazed overseas at how hot the houses are overnight) Drink more water and makes sure you have enough salt in your diet. Many medications can muck up your electrolyte levels and make you dehydrated. Don't use antibacterial soaps - they kill all the good, stink-fighting bacteria on your skin. Use plain laundry soap. Wear and sleep on cotton. Chuck anything synthetic, especially sheets. Use blankets instead of a duvet.
  3. I like geobiology, or evolution and ecology. So you're gonna sell me this when you're done, aren't you? Because it sounds great!
  4. A couple of others: For the Term of His Natural Life - heavy, dark story about a convict. A tale of human suffering. Beautifully written but not a pleasant read. I'd steer clear of The Chant of Jimmy Blacksmith. It was commonly read in high school here, but its quite disturbing. Details mistreatment of Aboriginal Australians. Tom Kenneally is the author (he wrote Schindler's Ark). You could try some of his other books, but I can't think of the best one off the top of my head. The Fatal Shore, Robert Hughes. Again very heavy, but debunks some of the myths of Australia as a great land of opportunity for all. Probably a bit nuanced for a teen. I can jump puddles The Magic Pudding (children's book, mad, delightful, by the fabulous and risque Norman Lindsay. Worth looking at his paintings too) Picnic at Hanging Rock Anything by Colin Thiele - aimed at younger children. Lovely books, often poignant and funny. The Timeless Land - long, heavy, stunning Looking for Alibrandi - teenage novel, deals with suicide
  5. My Brilliant Career - seminal, autobiographical work by Miles Franklin (Victoria era) A Town Like Alice - WWII, beautifully written. Come in Spinner - long, fabulous story about a couple of weeks in the life of three women in Sydney in WWII Short stories from Henry Lawson and Banjo Patterson - a bit dated and reflecting a stereotypic "bush" view of Australians, but still very well written and often heartbreaking, moving or just bloody hilarious. You have to read The Loaded Dog. Colleen McCullough - fast paced, well researched, appealing but not classic lit and usually with a few sex scenes. Gwen Harwood for poetry (some of it pretty dark) Ivan Southall - short novels very appealing to teens. Beautifully written and often deeply moving. He's a bit of a forgotten hero of young adult fiction in Oz. Rabbit Proof Fence (also a movie) Ruth Park - Harp in South and Poor Man's Orange. Park was outrageously good at writing about ordinary Australians How mature is your daughter? The Secret River is wonderful but very confronting about our early settlers and their treatment of Aboriginal Australians. Tim Winton's Cloudstreet is stunning, but again I'm not sure how appealing it would be for teens. klmama, we count anybody as an Aussie once they've been here for more than a week and have done something memorable on a world stage (hence our foolish claiming of both Mel Gibson and Russell Crowe). Elizabeth Jolley is considered a National Treasure.
  6. Tech Support is still in bed (its 8.30am here) but I think he'd say take it to the Apple store. Take proof of purchase if you have it D
  7. Thanks ladies. I'm hoping for a better week this week!
  8. Last month was horrible for groceries - my husband has been digging out our cellar and is eating like there is no tomorrow. Meanwhile, I have given up sugar and have thus stopped cooking endless biscuits and cakes. While these make me fat, they keep my skinny husband and teenage son going, so both of them are eating heaps more of everything else. DS14 is whinging that he is dying of hunger and threatening to ring my mother and dob me in. Naturally, proper food is more expensive! I have suggested DS learn to bake. My mother will probably arrive with a food hamper for her darling grandson next weekend. We also bought pavers for the cellar. Because of my fantabulous financial tracking (Yay YNAB!) I could buy them when I saw a fabulous deal without even blinking - the money was all saved up. We've waiting 15 years to do this job and it will give us another 30 square metres of living space, so its very exciting. On the not-so-good side, our cat was mauled by something last week (probably a fox), so we spent the emergency fund at the vets. While Lizzie didn't make it, we had the money to allow the vet to do everything she needed to do to try to save her. We're all very sad, but I am glad that having control over our finances gave us that ability. It would have been a different story last year. And I am reminded every time we go to the vets how very lucky we are in Australia to have free universal health care. D
  9. No idea - I'm in Sydney, Australia. Enid Blyton is considered old fashioned here but has a huge following, esp amongst homeschoolers. Her books have become quite expensive on the 2nd hand market. D
  10. Enid Blyton (The Famous Five was a huge hit with my son at about that age), the Milly Molly Mandy series (very quaint, probably an easy read for your son), Morris Gleitzman and Tim Winton are the Australian Roald Dahl equivalent (silly, not as well written, but not as dark), Pippy Longstocking is a must.....
  11. Enid Blyton (The Famous Five was a huge hit with my son at about that age), the Milly Molly Mandy series (very quaint, probably an easy read for your son), Morris Gleitzman and Tim Winton are the Australian Roald Dahl equivalent (silly, not as well written, but not as dark), Pippy Longstocking is a must.....
  12. A friend's father once wrote a letter to his wife that started "Dear Sweatheart..." While they are still married 30 years on, he has never been allowed to forget it.
  13. I have an almost 15 year old who sounds like your daughter. We've cracked down on his IT time because we have a family history of depression and he was showing some warning signs. Its classic avoidance behaviour. They know they are doing it and they feel crap about it, even if they are congratulating themselves on getting one over on you at the time. Its not fun - some days its awful. He is my only child and I didn't chuck in my career to spend my days fighting with him. But I didn't chuck in my career to have a kid who does nothing but sit online all day either. So, some tough love. He must eat with the family or he doesn't get fed. He must have his chores done by mealtimes or his meal sits getting cold until the chores are done. He must get up and be ready for school (including chores) or he loses gadget time. He must get his school work done or he loses gadgets. He must exercise and help with major projects or he gets a "when I was in the Army" lecture from either DH or me (he HATES these). He must be in bed by 9.30 or he loses gadget time the next day. No gadgets in bed. Food and IT are his currencies (grounding him would be counter productive and he's quite introverted). He's had a couple of cold meals and we've packed up all his gadgets including his PC once. I don't tolerate snark. This is our home and everyone, even Mum, has the right to live peacefully and be treated with respect. Clever replies, well constructed arguments, smutty jokes, even bad puns are OK. No snark and no win/lose mind-games with family members or friends. I second the idea of taking her to the recruiting office. Ask them to lay out exactly what she should be doing to prepare. She needs to get educated or she will never rise above Private (not a fun life), she needs to get fit and she needs to start functioning as part of a team. The penalties for not being a team player in the Army are really awful. Ask the recruiting people to tell her about them. If they won't, PM me and I'll spill the beans. Meanwhile, you need to get some support. You're in for a bumpy ride and you need someone you can talk to, some physical outlet to keep your stress levels down (I walk), enough sleep, and something you enjoy to look forward to (I garden or read). It will be worth it. She will be worth it D
  14. I run a weekly bookclub for local homeschooled teens. We're in our 2nd year. We have 5 kids at the moment, one of whom is mine. They range from year 8 to year 10. We're in Sydney so homeschoolers are a bit thinner on the ground. We meet in one of the free meeting rooms at the library for an hour each week. Sometimes we sit in the park. Two of the local teens spent a year in the group and then quit. I don't think they liked the discussion aspects. One of the girls comes from a Christian family. She has sat out for some of the books (usually anything with fantasy). I miss her when she isn't there because she is a very bright student ( and a good influence on the ratty boys), but I don't set books based on what she will be allowed to read. We're reading Romeo and Juliet aloud at the moment. The kids really enjoy it. Last week we sat outside - they loved the looks from passers-by. One even stopped to comment. The parents are completely hands-off and overwhelmingly grateful. I started book club by asking them to bring in their favourite book to discuss with the group. That got the ball rolling. Then we all read War Horse. Because it was a simpler book, I was able to assess the reading level of the kids before I set anything really meaty. They each have a lapbook (for novelty value) in which they keep a record of books read, literary devices, plot maps, characterisation, whatever we are focussing on. Other than that, I don't make them write anything. Sometime the kids pick the books (Tomorrow When the War Began - kill me now!), sometimes I pick them (Huckleberry Finn - wailing and nashing of teeth - hardest book ever, apparently). This years reading list is as follows: Around the World in 80 Days And Then There Were None TinTin in the Land of the Soviets Skellig Tom's Midnight Garden Nargun and the Stars The Raven Romeo and Juliet Lord of the Flies I am David To Kill a Mockingbird Pride and Prejudice I'm not an English major (I'm a scientist!), but I loved English in high school, had a couple of stellar teachers, and wanted my son to have the same opportunities for discussion. Hope this helps. Danielle
  15. Lee, I love the idea of your husband's aunt keeping a few pieces and sharing her dinner set with you. I hope you do eat off it and think of her. My grandmother spent her last years wearing daggy old nighties, while she had a drawer full of lovely new ones. She was keeping them for when she went to hospital. She never did go: she died in our home in a daggy nightie. Use the plates! D
  16. Another Aussie here: dar-tah, strar-tah, both with emphasis on the first syllable, dar-tum is rarely used (and I'm scientist) and is more likely to be called a "dar-tah point" or just a point if its on a graph or a result if its in a table. And strat -os -phere, short a, long e, second syllable running into the first, emphasis on the third syllable. Thats the beauty of being an Aussie - we get to pick and choose between British and American pronunciation, then shorten all the long words, lengthen all the short words and quickly mumble our way through the rest. D
  17. This is turning into a great thread!!!!! I love those Dunbar poems, Sneezy. D
  18. Poe's The Raven was a big hit with my bookclub teens. Robert Lowell's poetry is very dark. The Australian poet Gwen Harwood has some really intense stuff. Try "Night thoughts: baby and demon". Wilfred Owen is very good.
  19. Hopefully some perspective on commas: I worked with a paediatrician who had no idea how to use commas. Sometimes she'd put them all over the place, sometimes she'd leave them out entirely. Once, the head of department wrote, "Someone has stolen all the commas from this page!!!!!" on the draft of a paper we co-authored. The paediatrician is a professor now..... Homeschooling IS hard. But you get to make choices when you only have one or two kids. DS14 and I have had enough of formal grammar. Analytical Grammar was making English a huge chore, so we dropped it. We were up to the punctuation section. Instead, we are reading "Eats Shoots and Leaves" by Lynne Truss. Its funny, over the top, very English and it gets the job done. Being the grammar police is very appealing to DS. The three of you could read it together on the lounge. There is a workbook online and its just enough. Enough is good. In fact, some days, enough is bloody outstanding! D
  20. " General/integrated science is usually only used as a remedial option in US " Ouch! Forget I bothered. Back to lurking for me. Or maybe I will go and concentrate on my STEM-bound son's "remedial" integrate science syllabus.
  21. You could pick four different areas of interest and call it integrated science. After all, thats what the UK and Australian education systems do. This year, year 9, DS14 will cover anatomy and physiology, reproduction, chemical reactions, forensics, wave theory and Newton's laws. It works well. DS likes physics and chemistry (he has an IT and mechanical engineering bent). He'd be vile if he had to sit through a year of biology. I loathe physics and have a science degree majoring in molecular biology. I'd be vile with a whole year of physics! D
  22. I'll second keeping Writing Strands, even if its with caveats on it. Its short, doable, no-frills and can be done independently by the most prickly, reluctant writer (ask me how I know). Apart from reading and some quick comments, mum can be sidelined, and sometimes that can be a great diffuser. It teaches formulas, without those formulas driving the writing. It makes kids push past "I don't know what to write" because the bites are small. But most of all, as Nan says, it lets kids keep their voice, which is the key to being a comfortable writer. D
  23. BFSU for science MEP for maths (its outrageously good and free, along with all the lesson plans etc) If you want a scientist to look over the science chapters, I'll put my hand up. I absolutely agree with the recommendations for a chapter on homeschooling the real child (I can't tell you how helpful your conf sessions were) and burnout. And more how-tos rather than what to buy. Danielle
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