Rockhopper
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Posts posted by Rockhopper
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We used Jump Math with my dd this year - she started the year at first grade level math and will finish probably about midway through third - so not quite to grade level (she'll be 4th grade in the fall) but not bad. I really liked Jump Math at first but eventually found it didn't have enough review - especially of carrying/borrowing and multiplication facts - and the third grade book doesn't get to division until the very, very, very end (which we are not yet near). Also, truly, there was a point where I would've appreciated a scripted TM. I actually liked using their "fast-start" Fractions unit over the summer because it had a lot more script for the teacher. (As far as I know, and all I could find, was the at-home supplemental workbook, not the full curriculum.) So lots of positives from me, but not unqualified, ykwim? We're switching to TT for next year -- if you're still considering it, I wouldn't worry as a good 1/5 or so of each grade in TT seems to be review. I bet you could start her in 5 without much if any problem.
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Years ago, my ds did NOEO Chemistry (Level Two?) for fourth grade. Don't know if it's as rigorous as you'd like but he enjoyed it.
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Yep, the National Greek Exam. Homeschoolers can take it, and classics teachers in classrooms should be knowledgeable of it and encourage their students to take it.National Greek Examfrom American Classics League, the same folks who put out the National Latin Exam, National Mythology Exam and Exploratory Latin Exam.
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I haven't read through all the replies, so forgive me if this has been mentioned. You indicated that your dad - and maybe you, to a lesser extent - have concerns about competitions, etc. I will say that my middle school boy was involved in a MathCounts and Science Olympiad group this year and it was such a great experience. It really gave him those kind of opportunities. It definitely improved his "math brain" (and hopefully consequently his ACT/SAT scores down the road!). And -- something I had missed seeing before, but very important -- doing well at the competitions showed him (and affirmed to us) how good he is at math. Not regularly "competing" with other kids in a classroom, he really didn't know that, so it was very confidence-building. Maybe you'd have an option like that for your son through the middle school years?
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Rainbow Resourcecarries their materials and you could see limited samples there. I've used several different years of their curriculum, mostly younger. I know that the 6th grade book has a section at the end that is on Revelations. I don't believe those issues are really talked about before that grade level. I don't know your own doctrinal beliefs to address any other issues than end times. I personally have concerns about most churches interpretations of Revelations and wonder if anyone has it right. When we get to stuff like that with our kids, we teach them what our church believes and other's views on it and are honest about our own feelings, too.
Positive Action is very good at making statements, but then taking kids to the actual scriptures they base these on. This could be a good way to open up discussion of why your church believes differently. In the 6th grade book (which I still have dd's), statements are made as a matter of fact, such as "Certain events will happen before the Lord brings the events of Revelation 6-22 to pass. The first event is the Rapture of the Church. The word "rapture" is never used in the Bible, but it means "a snatching away." Christ will "rapture" or "snatch away" all those who have trusted Him as Savior." Then the textbook has the student read 1 Cor. 15:51-52 and 1 Thess. 4: 15-18 and describe it in their own words, read Phil. 3:20-21 and describe what will happen to our bodies, and read Titus 2:12-13 and list what is the blessed hope for Christian.
I hope this helps. I've used K, 1st, 3rd, 6th, Proverbs for high school, and own 4th but had to put it aside because of our church starting Awana and spending time on it. I hope to pick it back up this semester and at least pick out the most important lessons I think ds should complete.
Thanks, Amy! This was very helpful,,, especially the bolded! (The Revelation stuff was easy for me to use as an example in my OP, but other things - like the Eucharist and Baptism - are of concern too. However, based on the info from you and Chris, it seems easy enough to work with -- as you said, working from the actual Scriptures to talk about our beliefs.)
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Not trollish at all :001_smile: .
Their end times stuff is still doctrinally sound, as it's undefined in the Anglican Church. You can just skip that part if you want to. When it comes to the very first chapter, where it talks about the Bible, you can just add that God used the unique personalities and writing styles of the people to communicate what he wanted us to know, but that God's word is so rich that it can apply to different times and places, and the Church helps us interpret what Holy Spirit is saying, as does scripture itself.
I think you'd be fine with it.
If you want to do Fourth Grade, you prolly could--it's not that difficult and some of the Paul stuff is a little more interesting than the "same old OT stories" they've prolly already heard.
We read thru Acts as a devotional at the table last year during Lent and had a blast--I recommend doing that, too!
Thanks! Love the Acts idea too - we do a Jesus tree each Lent but I think we're ready for a bit of a change-up/add-to.
(And I may contact you some day to talk about ACNA--)
Be glad to!
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I tried their stuff and just really didn't like it at all. I'm partial to Kay Arthur for kids.
Thanks. I don't care for Kay Arthur studies personally, but we've never tried one of her studies for kids. I'll take a look.
We used Grade 4 and really liked it. It didn't have anything in it about Revelations or End Times because it dealt with other subject matter. We found it very clear and interesting. Well, I did--dd wasn't a fan as much as me.Chris, not being stalk-ish or troll-ish, I promise, but do I remember that you're Episcopalian? We're ACNA and I've had such a hard time finding Bible resources that I like, that are meaty and scriptural, but that doctrinally are sound too. Especially for the younger kids. My oldest, I figure it's just fodder for discussion. But the youngers aren't ready for that kind of analytical thought. I was excited by the samples I saw for 3rd grade for Positive Action -- but the end times stuff in their doctrinal statement really gave me pause.
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I'm interested in this Bible curriculum. I've read mostly universally positive reviews.
However, doctrinally the publishers are on a much different sheet of music than we are, and I haven't seen any reviews that address this issue. I can't get samples to download and their offices are closed til January.
Does anyone use Positive Action for Christ who doesn't necessarily agree with everything in their doctrinal statement (e.g. "The premillennial coming of Christ to the earth to rule and reign for one thousand years.")? Has it been an issue in the student book, or created a situation where you've had to do lots of tweaking/ re-teaching/ etc?
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I've always had above average customer service from Sonlight, even to the point of them being willing - after I had a very expensive order mistakenly shipped to my old address - to re-send the entire order if they couldn't get it picked up and re-directed.
I've always been very happy with the Cores I've purchased, and I've never had a problem with the price of them because in large part the reason I use Sonlight is to buy and own the books. I've heard people complain about the price of a "glorified book list" but since I want the books and use the IG notes, it doesn't seem like a bad deal to me.
And since, as a Christian, I'm intentionally buying a curriculum with the express intent of providing a Christian worldview, I'm ok with that part of it too.
I don't necessarily agree with the worldview expressed in some of their secular book choices; nor do I necessarily agree with the worldview expressed in some of their Christian book choices. But since their IGs and philosophy make it abundantly clear that they expect me as the parent to discuss those books and topics in light of my own worldview and theology, I'm ok with that too.
Despite the vitrolic of unhappy customers and former forum users, and despite plenty of forum kerfuffles, I haven't - over 9 years as a customer - found any substantial changes in the basic worldview expressed in the Cores, or any substantial changes in the basic approach or quality of the curriculum. The frantic emotional involvement each year as some books move in and other move out seem to always be, in the end, "sound and fury signifying nothing."
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I seemed to notice a very fast improvement when I added magnesium and 5-HTP.
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IEW. It's so good for reluctant writers and kids who have problems writing. The structure it provides just helps them out tremendously.
You could try to find a class, or start with SWI-A at home. (B is middle school level; it sounds like you'd want to start with A and then you could always do B later.)
I did SWI-B with a neurologically normal but extremely writing-phobic 12 yo last year, and now he's repeating the same level in a classroom environment. Doubling the exposure - first in a quiet, "safe" home environment and then a second time with a teacher other than me -- seems to be working out very well for him.
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Thanks, everyone. It sounds like the sz 5s should still be working; we'll try a brand change and see if that helps. I'll also look at an "overnight" diaper; we've never done that before.
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What size and brand of (disposable) diaper is your toddler in? How much does he/she weight? How many diapers do you change a day? Have you ever had to change brands because the brand you were using no longer worked/fit/etc?
The reason I'm asking:
My 25-mo old has been in Luvs for nearly a year and they'd always worked great. Just a little over a month ago, it seems, I moved her up from sz 4 to sz 5s because she was starting to have leaks and occasionally wake up soaked.
But we're already having the same problem. She has soaked through the sz 5s several times and it seems like they're always droopier than I remember.
Now, I've got an older kid w/ Type I diabetes so I'm very (extremely, compulsively) aware of Type 1 signs and symptoms, and that, of course, is always on my mind and even more so now.
But she's gaining weight (just had 2 yr checkup) and doesn't seem to be drinking excessively. And I've even checked her fasting bg and it was normal.
So I'm wondering if it could just be normal growth? (My other kids are older -- I just don't remember things like this!) Or the diapers themselves? I'm thinking of switching brands.
She's around 27 lbs or so, btw -- by the box she's at the low end of sz 5s.
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My mama calls them whomp donuts or poor-folk donuts - but if you have canned biscuits, you can cut those smaller and fry them up. I just never have canned biscuits around now but I loved them as a kid rolled in sugar and cinnamon.
You can also do fry bread which isn't a yeast bread either. Mine never turns out so well, so I have no good recipe to recommend.
We call them whack-'em donuts! We cut out the center of the biscuit with a bottle cap, and fry the donuts and the donut holes.
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I've been at that point in the past, and again recently.
Honestly if you can make the time and muster the energy, some sort of exercise would help. Especially something aerobic - to really let you sweat out those stress hormones (perhaps unscientific but very helpful to me as a mental image) - something like boxing or running, as well as some stretching.
A massage would help if you can get one.
Lots and lots of water. Pain relievers. A glass of wine. A really healthy smoothie for a big injection of vitamins/minerals.
I've just in the last day or two added the natural supplements 5-HTP and Magnesium (for anxiety) and I can physically feel the difference.
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Well, Sonlight's book choices for a single Core are not ever going to easily work for a really wide span of ages (although my oldest loves to re-listen to books from Cores he remembers from years ago, the content of his Core isn't appropriate for his younger sibs AND they'd be bored).
And it will never be as conservative as you want if by that you don't want any discussion of other religions or of "hard topics."
But if you read the IG notes and use them to tailor the discussions you have with your children about other religions mentioned in books Sonlight uses, I think you'd find it very hard to call Sonlight neutral on the subject. Sonlight's view - and the view they'd typically expect their target customers to have - is unabashedly Christian. They don't expect you to present the information in the read-alouds or history books as neutral, or without discussion or without your own viewpoint (which, again, most conservative Christians will find dovetails nicely with the views laid out in the IG notes).
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I'll check her entry out!
My dd is in the toddler division - entry 389310. I'm not sure if this link goes to her entry or to the contest.
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If so, would anyone want to share entry numbers for voting purposes? :D You can vote once a day for each "Milestone" category.
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I really wanted a gift for my last midwife and what I finally came up with was to take a series of close-ups of the cute baby parts of my little one. I then cropped them, changed them to B&W, and arranged them digitally as a collage, using 4 pictures and a verse, on quarter-fold size cards. I printed them and gave her a packet of them wrapped nicely.
She seemed to like them. It was personal (my baby, my photography) but universal (nothing to identify the specific baby) and she could use them for business notes or personal ones. And they didn't take up a lot of space to store.
All of which would be good for your mw's current situation!
(I'm trying to attach a pic!)
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I definitely felt the difference in pushing with my double digit baby, but I didn't tear or need stitches and the recovery was easy. The labor was also extremely similar (I have crazy fast labors); just in pushing where I noticed those extra pounds (and gargantuan head and linebacker shoulders)!
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I accidentally had an ENTIRE core shipped to an old address. I didn't figure it out until it had ALREADY been delivered!
I called in a panic. They sent a note to UPS to attempt a pick-up and redirect from that address, but assured me that if they couldn't retrieve it, they would re-send my entire order to my correct address at no additional cost to me.
Totally my mistake - a $400 mistake, mind you - and they went way above and beyond to fix it for me.
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ooh - two more ideas - thinking putty (I know Timberdoodle carries it), and a set of smencils
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Books? DVDs? Gift cards? I-tunes, Amazon, McDs, that kind of thing?
Fun socks? (but you'd run into size/gender concerns)
Jump ropes? Balls? Sketch pad w/ pencils? "Nice" watercolor or marker sets?
Personally I think gift cards would be easiest...
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I need to start figuring out how to go about getting my ds a diabetic service dog.
(Preferably without spending thousands of dollars or needing to move out of state for the training.)
If you have any info, leads, contacts, etc. would you please share? (Here or via PM is fine!)
Thanks!
I need reviews: Sonlight core 100 Literature
in High School and Self-Education Board
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Tech difficulties -- switching browsers so I can quote.