scrappyhappymama
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Posts posted by scrappyhappymama
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I fell, also playing softball, a few years ago and thought I had sprained my ankle. I hobbled around on my "sprained ankle" for a month before my husband finally insisted I go see an orthopedist. Turns out, I *had* sprained my ankle, but the sprain also snapped a little bone in my foot. The Dr told me that early x-rays probably would not have shown anything, that they usually can only see it on x-ray once it starts healing some. It was not in the exact same place on my foot, but there are lots of ligaments in the ankle that attach to bones in the foot and can do the same thing.
I ended up in a boot for a few months and finally had to have a minor surgery on my foot because it never healed properly. But I'm guessing that hobbling on it for a month first didn't help me with that.
Hoping they figure out what's going on with your daughter. I know it can be frustrating!
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I love my MIL. She is a sweetheart (I KNOW I am very blessed!).
I love my husband too. He is not a plan ahead for holidays person. He's just not. It doesn't mean he doesn't care, it just means he doesn't think ahead on these things. I used to take it personally, but now I just accept him as he is.
I buy all the gifts for my in-laws for various occasions, send cards, plan most get togethers for holidays, and remind my husband to call when he should.
Normally it works out well, but this Mother's Day was one of the exceptions. I've been sick all week, on top of being 34 weeks pregnant, so I didn't get any cards or gifts bought for Mother's Day. I called my mom and my grandma who live across the country, and they know I love them whether I send something or not. They were very understanding. I reminded my husband to plan something with his mom who is local, and he finally called her Saturday evening and arranged to take her to dinner last night. He didn't buy her a card or anything else, just dinner. I felt a little bad about that because she sent a little gift back with him for me. But after all these years, she knows how my husband is, and I'm sure she appreciated the dinner and knows I was in no condition to do more.
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We have this experience often at Cub Scouts. I also had the embarrassing "how do I spell {last name}" question from my seven year old there. I found it can go both ways though.
Sometimes he amazes the other parents and kids on his knowledge of a subject. We've done a pretty extensive astronomy unit, so when his den leader asked what the kids knew about the moon, my son told them all about all the phases of the moon including waxing and waning gibbous. :D
Some subjects are also experience-related, regardless of public or homeschool. We are not a fishing family. All of the other boys in his den apparently come from fishing families. So while they were discussing the types of fish in a lake or river for their fishing beltloop, while the other boys were throwing out different types of catfish and bass, my son's guesses included tadpoles, goldfish, piranhas, and sharks. :lol:
I've learned to laugh off most of the gaps we discover this way and fill in the important ones after we get home. Of course, there are sometimes I find my boys' naivete to be refreshing and don't mind certain comments whizzing right over their heads. ;)
My boys pick up A LOT of information we haven't officially covered in their leisure reading. They both enjoy looking through our various science encyclopedias or kid magazines and often end up discussing things they've read in the car, where I can add input as necessary.
Probably the biggest gap I've found is in the "social studies" realm, especially with American History and cultural knowledge. They know some things, but we've not covered it formally yet, so we're about to start an American History and culture unit outside our normal history rotation to fill in some of those gaps.
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lalalalalalalalalalalala I can't hear you! (planning on my 5th baby coming conveniently early like the last two have ;))
Seriously, sending you lots of Baby Come Out vibes!! :grouphug:
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Take a gift anyway. It is more proper to take a gift to a party than to tell your guests not to bring any.
I also respectfully disagree. Like others have said, it can be worded as a request, not a command. :)
We have friends that we'd like to invite to parties that are in NO financial position to be buying birthday gifts. I am close enough to them to know that they would not let their children attend parties because they were embarrassed to show up without a gift. So we decided, along with our children, that we'd rather have a fun party with our friends than more gifts. For the most part, our no-gifts parties have been a great success! The kids have a blast, our kids still get plenty of gifts from family that are opened at another time, and the emphasis at the party shifts from "what did I get?" to having fun with friends. The only hitch we've encountered is from folks who insist on bringing a gift anyway, because it has the potential to make the other party attendees feel embarrassed. In this case, we do this:
THen, you find a time other than the party to give them the gift.When we have done no gift parties, the few presents people insisted on bringing were set aside in a bedroom to be opened later, not in the presence of the guests.
At first I felt badly for not opening the gifts in front of the giver, but now we just accept that they wanted to give a gift anyway, and show our appreciation at a later time as well.
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You need to post this on Facebook so I can share it! I think a lot of people need to hear this message. Thanks for that!
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I would follow dr sears' recommendations here http://www.askdrsears.com/topics/childhood-illnesses/fever
I hope your little one feels better soon.
:iagree:
Glad to hear your little one is feeling better this morning!
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If you haven't yet, you *must* check out the tags on this thread:
http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=379162
Ha! That's great!
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We had a similar situation with our son and decided to split the difference. His birthday is in June, but he is very small for his age and somewhat immature. But he is also academically advanced. So it was a dilemma.
We already school year round, so our grade levels were already a bit ambiguous with regard to the traditional school year. I ended up pushing forward the end date of one of his school years to the end of the calendar year instead of the end of the school year or end of the summer. We did it during a year with a big move and a new baby, so we took off more time than usual and it didn't stand out too much to him. So now his school year starts in January. We didn't "hold him back" a full year, but enough so that practically speaking, it will give him an extra year at home in the end. Only adjusting by a half year also gives us more flexibility to adjust forward or back in the future if we decide to.
Sports-wise and for other activities, it gives us an option to go strictly by his age or by his grade, and we are able to make the best choice for him in each instance.
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Love this response to the Time cover article:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lisa-belkin/no-i-am-not-mom-enough_b_1507550.html
Down with mommy wars!
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I checked back to see how things are going for this family, and mom has started Homeschooling this week! So far, they are just homeschooling for the rest of this school year and have made no decisions about next year, other than that their daughter will NOT be returning to that school or school district!
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We previously lived in the Houston area and the homeschooling resources there are positively amazing! Seriously, the links you've seen so far are just the tip of the iceburg. As several have mentioned, G-HAH is a great resource for both local activities and resources as well as general homeschooling information. Even though we moved away several years ago, I am still subscribed to the list for the gems I pick up from there occasionally.
Good luck on your move! As a native Californian I can tell you that the differences in cost of living will be incredible bonus as well.
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I never know what to say to people who say something like "Oh, I could NEVER homeschool my kids- I couldn't stand to be around them all day" :confused:
Yeah, I can handle the socialization question- I actually look forward to answering that one. But this question always throws me. How in the world am I supposed to respond graciously to the fact that you don't want to be around your own kids?!
One objection to homeschooling I hear a lot, that I don't think has been mentioned yet, is from other Christians who send their kids to public school. They claim that good Christian kids "need" to be in the schools to be a good influence on their peers. "Going into all the world" and "being the light" and all of that. My response is typically that those directives were issued to ADULT Christians, not to little children. Almost all of the verses one can read in the Bible regarding children involve admonitions for the parents to be training them and teaching them and guiding them, Never do I read about children being required to stand up and defend their own faith and being purposely put into adverse circumstances to give them opportunities to do so.
Although the issue above would apply primarily to Christians, there is another similar one in a secular vein. I've had folks tell me they see I am an involved parent and committed to my child's education. Then they admonish me that these are exactly the types of kids and parents that "need" to be in the public schools, to be a good influence on other struggling students and kids from households that are not actively involved in their kid's education.
While I am sympathetic to the social and moral and educational issues in public schools, I am sorry but I have no intention of sacrificing the needs of my own children on the altar of (supposed) evangelistic or educational benefits for other children. That's not the way I actually answer of course, but it is how I really feel.
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When I read comments like this, I would love to see an example of what you are referring to! Sat math is simple algebra and geometry. How does how you are teaching your elementary children make solving an Sat question easier?
Well, this is a rather simplistic example, but it illustrates the comparison I was trying to make.
As a child, if I encountered a problem like 498 + 327, the only way I would have though to solve it would have been the standard algorithm: in a column, 8+7, carry the one, 9+2+1, carry the one, 4+3+1, =825. It would *never* have occurred to me to simply add 500 to 327 and then subtract 2, taking much less time and effort and less room for error. It seems so obvious to me now, but truly only since I've been teaching my own children have I been exposed to looking at numbers and the relationships between numbers beyond the standard algorithms. On the SAT, I knew enough to generally figure out what the question was asking, but my conceptual knowledge was so weak that I was often unable to determine the most efficient and less error-prone way to come to the solution to the problem. And of course, the longer time spent on each problem, the less time to give to the rest of the questions, potentially lowering the score in that way as well.
I expect that if one is very mathy, they might figure these things out on their own. But I don't think that it is intuitive for most of us. I actually ended up scoring quite high on the SAT math, but still never figured these things out on my own. It makes me consider how much better I could have done, not so much on the SAT but on college-level maths, if I had been prepared with a more conceptual understanding of math and number relationships. In Liping Ma's book, I was disturbed by the American teacher's lack of conceptual knowledge, but mostly I was sympathetic because I understand how one could be "good enough at math" to teach it, without really understanding the underlying relationships that make math easier and more enjoyable and useful.
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This entire story makes me very angry. I don't even think I can comment rationally on it. I'll say only this. If that was my child, she'd never step into that school again. Ever.
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Yep, I wish she was somebody THAT I USED TO KNOW
..i think of all the times you shoved me over....
I will pay good money for video of you wailing, "You didn't have to cut me off!" next time she wings you.I'm dying here. Hilarious! If we had WTM awards, this would qualify as best crossover posts of the year. :lol:
I agree with most that Kimbra's part is the ex he's referring to. I think one of the more poignant parts of the video is how he winces at her first few lines. He might have been a jerk sometimes, and yeah he's a bit obsessive now, but it's obvious (to me) that he did care.
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What? No. No way.
While I understand the temptation to do this, I don't think it is OK for anyone to deceive their partner in order to have a child. With that said, I do think it is perfectly fair for her to say "I want another child. I understand that you don't, but I will no longer be taking any responsibility for birth control-no charting, no keeping track for NFP, nothing, so if you do not want another, you need to be 100% responsible for that." Then if he asks if he needs protection or not, she should just always answer 'I don't know, I told you I'm not keeping track anymore." If he is lackadaisical about it, he understands that a possible pregnancy could result (and likely will at some point.)I'm not sure I'd go about things exactly like this, but I do think it would be fair for her to expect her husband to take more of an active role in contraception, since it is so important to him.
After our fourth child, my husband was ready to be done, but I was non-committal. I just didn't feel ready to say we were done for sure. Once my fertility returned, I charted like usual, and would warn my husband when we had to abstain. But he knew up front that I would be perfectly happy to have another baby. And that if he decided not to abstain, that he was taking a big risk, and that I was leaving it up to him. I never tried to manipulate him into making the decision I wanted, but I did place the burden of responsibility upon him, while openly providing him with the information he needed to make an informed decision. Our fifth baby is due in June. ;)
That said, I agree completely with all the other posters that it would be an incredible betrayal to make a conception decision alone, without considering the concerns of the other partner.
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I had no 'wow' moment, but it did make me a better math teacher.
I think about how I am teaching math at a much deeper level. I am more willing to acknowledge my limitations and seek outside assistance. I think my language has become more precise when I teach math. I have better ways of expressing myself. I challenge myself to create word problems in order to test understanding and, I do the same with my kids. I am quicker to use manipulatives and I think I use them more effectively.
So, no wow moment, but I think I am a better teacher now that I am on the other side of the book.
I will say that, to be fair, the book was never intended to be a handbook to help parents and teachers learn how to teach math; it was a research study for her doctorate, if I remember correctly. I found the book a good primer into why Asian math methods are considered superior by many, but wouldn't recommend it to parents as the book you need to learn how to teach your kids. It seems to be an investigation into the relative weaknesses and strengths of math educators.I recognized where most (if not all) of my elementary teachers were clearly solely depending on rote methods to communicate math concepts after reading the book.
I've recommended it to several of my friends who teach elementary math, none of whom had heard of it.
I always did well in math in school, but my education was COMPLETELY algorithm based and so when I reached calculus and to some extent statistics and physics, I hit a wall. I *knew* I was missing something, and wanted something different for my own children, but did not really understand what that was. The conceptual math threads here on the boards helped somewhat, but I didn't really get it until I read Liping Ma's book.
However, I can appreciate that someone with a more conceptual background in math would find the book less revolutionary. I was also a bit surprised to find the book to be only an academic study and not more of a how-to book, considering all the recommendations for it. But I persevered through, and came away with a better understanding of the true shortcomings of my own education and a firm resolve to teach my children better. Math Mammoth, along with other math supplements has been amazing for my family, and I am frequently amazed at the concepts I am teaching my boys at their young ages that were NEVER taught to me at any age. Now, finally, I understand why I had to use a full page of scrap paper to answer some SAT problems, knowing there *had* to be an easier way to come to the correct answers.
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I try to make a green smoothie everyday and include a big handful of spinach and kale (along with the frozen fruit, rice milk, and dash of honey). I usually throw in any leftover steamed vegetables as well (squash, broccoli, carrots). Even if the rest of my day goes to pot eating-wise, it makes me feel good to know I've at least gotten one good dose of veggies in.
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Since I am not his mother I do not expect DH to give me anything.
You all are killing me with your "I am not his mother" comments. :svengo: However, my husband pretty much agrees with you.
As for me-
I am the MOTHER of HIS children. And it's Mother's Day. And our children are too young to acknowledge it without his help. So... I think it should go without saying that he needs to step up. :D
Poor guy. I don't think it helps that I have been pregnant (or *just* gave birth) 5 of the last 10 Mother's Days. So I *might* be a little hormonally influenced on this issue. I may or may not have thrown something the first time he said "But you're not MY mother" while I was 36 weeks pregnant. Pretty ballsy considering I buy and send most of the gifts/cards to his mother on his behalf.
So now he's pretty well trained that I'd love a prenatal massage and maybe a pedicure for Mother's Day. We typically go out to eat and it's my choice, although I usually defer to his mother's choice. Sometimes he buys flowers, but I haven't managed to convince him yet that I'd really prefer a $5.99 bouquet from the grocery store to a waste of $60 on a florist's delivery, when they both wilt just the same.
It's obviously culturally influenced somehow, whether one thinks the mother of his children should be acknowledged as well as his mother. I grew up with a dad who made a big deal of Mother's Day for my mom, so I'm certain that's why it hurt my feelings when my husband didn't feel the same way. I wonder if whether our father's acknowledged our moms on this day influences whether we would like to be acknowledged on this day ourselves.
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We have four boys and another on the way. We do what I would consider to be a lot of outside activities.
The two oldest are in cub scouts. The oldest is currently in baseball and the next two are in soccer. My oldest is in a homeschool choir class once a week. My second son takes piano. We try to hit at least one park day or playdate a week with homeschooled friends. We usually participate in a homeschool co-op once a week for a few hours. So, we are out of the house nearly every day and spend most weekday evenings at practices/games/meetings, and most Saturdays have games.
It's definitely a hectic schedule, but my boys seem to enjoy themselves a lot. We do try to pick and choose activities they are particularly interested in, as well as ones that we get the most economic bang for our buck, as well as ones that give us a break periodically. So, for example, we choose sports leagues that last a few months and have a one-time fee rather than ongoing sports classes like gymnastics or martial arts that we'd have to pay for monthly and that don't offer a long break in summer or for the holidays. This has been the best way for us to manage outside activities with multiple children and knowing it will only get more hectic as time goes on and we have more children of activity age. Our homeschool co-op is a casual in-home one, with only supplies fees, rather than one of the more organized ones with much higher fees. Park days are free of course. Cub Scouts is relatively inexpensive for all the activities it provides for the boys. The one recurring fee we pay is for piano for one son. I'd love to have all the boys in formal music lessons, but it's definitely cost prohibitive, so instead we do it for the one who shows the most interest/aptitude. My son in choir is learning to read music through that class and is teaching himself to play piano. :)
I think the other thing that makes this all workable is that we have a few bus seasons of the year and then a few quieter ones. During summer and winter, we don't do organized sports and the scouting and homeschool activities slow as well. So we get a breather and a chance to get lots of homeschooling done during these times, so I don't feel so bad when we need to take days off during the spring and fall on particularly busy days. So that's our plan, which works for our family. Of course we revise it as we go as needed. :)
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We have a 3500 square foot house and only pay around 150-175 each month in electricity. Our cost is 7.1 cents here in Texas. But I am part of a rural co-op.
Our house isn't quite so big, but we're also part of a rural co-op and our electric bills have never been so low. Our rate is $.06 but it averages to $.09 with all taxes and fees included.
I don't think I am *ever* moving from this rural co-op area. :D What's really nice is that this used to be rural, but is now quite suburban, but we still are part of the rural co-op. I am usually a real stickler about our thermostat, but since I am a pregnant woman within an internal furnace at the moment, I am really enjoying being able to afford to keep the house nice and cool!
We formerly lived in the Houston area and in Central Texas and our electricity bills were 3x as much. Our rate there was closer to $.13, but was variable and had many more fees tacked on.
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Well as a mom of all boys, darn tooting they're helping out around the house!
I'm actually using the Home Economics for Homeschoolers books with them. Shhhhhhh! They don't know it's written for girls. They just know they get to help mama in the kitchen and learn fun new things around the house. They do a lot of "typically male" jobs with my husband as well, so hopefully they'll end up well rounded and be able to pitch in wherever is needed when they are grown men and won't have to rely on take out and live as slobs as bachelors. That's the plan anyway! ;)
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You might consider one "add" to the recipe, and that is turmeric. I've always used turmeric but given all the medical benefits associated with its consumption—not the least of which are the anti-inflammatory properties—I've amped up the use.
This dish would benefit in a culinary sense, as the turmeric would give you the traditional curry-yellow color you will associate with curry. Kill two birds with one stone.
Bill
Yum! Good idea.
I'm surprised by all the little things my kids don't know!
in General Education Discussion Board
Posted
:lol: My friend's youngest daughter was curious what my son was doing underneath my nursing cover. I told her he was eating. She looked horrified and said "you mean, you mean... from YOU?!" When I nodded she turned to her mom and cried "I didn't know babies ATE PEOPLE!" We got a good laugh from that.
I've tried teaching my sons to tie their shoes, but apparently the way I teach it does.not.work. Each time, after failing with several attempts, my husband eventually shows them and with him, they have it down in a few minutes. So, maybe have someone else give it a go?