lovemyboys
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Posts posted by lovemyboys
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.......Who is picking on our token male??
:001_huh: There have been guys around here for years......perhaps not as permanent a fixture as Bill, but certainly active participants. I can think of a half dozen or more, several of whom have brought great wisdom in their homeschooling experience.
I can't imagine that Bill thinks anyone is picking on him. Is that what OP was getting at? From what I've seen, Bill seems to hold his own and then some with a variety of topics.
:001_smile:
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Before a year - probably 10 months or so. He said his sister's name. It blew me away.
By a year old he was off the charts with vocab.
Ds1 talked around 10 months too. Same story with the vocab, just beautifully appropriate words.
Interestingly though, he didn't group lots of sentences til he was 26 months old.....then it was a floodgate opening with paragraphs flowing.
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We're using the "Critical Thinking" books One and Two first. They're certainly.... thorough, but very dry.
Next year (9th grade) I'm looking at "Traditional Logic" and then "Material Logic". From there on to "Art of Argument."
In speaking with older homeschoolers, I've heard and seen good things about what I've (so far) chosen. But I've yet to see something I'm *thrilled* to use for logic.
The one thing I *did* appreciate about FD was that it was a gentle introduction to some aspects of the subject. For a logic-phobic 6th grader, FD was a gentle and occasionally humorous book. Even (or perhaps "especially") the topics with which we disagreed with the authors provided great conversation. It was a nice springboard into the far meatier "Critical Thinking" books.
H. :001_smile:
Thanks for the list. We're hitting the lower edge of *real* logic with dc....so I've been reading up on this this week.
Younger ds has been gobbling up the Logic Safari books since 1st grade. I'm not sure there's another level or if it's just time to move on with him.
I recently sold a couple Critical Thinking Co. books (where's the sob smiley for selling brand new material?) because dc just get this kind of stuff and don't go for more worksheets. Should've known better on these. I do like their critical thinking with science, etc., to further the exploration.
Just when you get something or someone *figured out,* he changes or advances or matures and it's back to the research! :tongue_smilie::lol:
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I believe the BOE is a group of whackadoodles who believe that public education is some sort of perverse institution.
..............
ignorant people breed more ignorant people.
Do you feel this way historically or just with this current board?
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:iagree: and was thinking this very thing. Classic passive aggressive behavior, methinks.
Especially for one so new to the board. :001_huh:
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The difference is that teachers used to be able to teach things that were developmentally appropriate. And the vast majority of kids they taught had functional homes and weren't showing up hungry, unable to speak English, watching 7 hours of TV a day and shuffling to various parental dates, homes, and partners.
Teachers used to be able to determine what to teach when in the classroom. Now the politicians do, with the school boards and administrators following suit. It's not fair to place 100% of the blame on the teacher when they are at the bottom of the system and not the top.
I certainly agree that the pace and expectations were more developmentally appropriate decades ago. And that's a shame.
The system has also injected a great deal of marginal topics and projects that take away from dedicated teaching time to the detriment of the kids. Decades ago, some schools separated children by abilities so that the teacher could work with his/her students at the speed and depth they were capable of. Now with mainstreaming and other social engineering, those distinctions are next to impossible.
But I really doubt your assertion that kids of yesteryear were some kind of homogenously well-dressed, well-cared-for, "leave it to beaver" population. Just in the microcosm of my small town gradeschool, there was poverty, abuse, divorce, unemployment, hardship and ignorance.
And earlier in the 1900s, the immigrant populations would have presented a number of kids with little English skills, etc. Late 1800s would've had a number of kids with family obligations, work requirements to help the family, low expectations for much formal education, etc.
My .02
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That has *always* been the teacher's job. Previous generations have done it far better than this one. I am sick, sick, sick of teachers abdicating responsibility for this. I had little students, five and six and seven year old children whose parents' custodial rights had been *terminated*, the abuse was so bad. And you know what most of those kids had in common? They all thought they were stupid. To a child, they believed they were bad. Not at home. In school. In class. Their cries for help, which had taken the age-appropriate form of acting out, had not initially attracted their teachers' attention to the abuse. It had caused the teachers to villainize the children, because all those teachers could see was the obstacle those children presented on the way to the goal of the happy little classroom in their imaginations. These people had training in child development. They should have been able to look past their own wants and identify a problem before they did more damage to the children. Heaven help the ones who weren't brave enough to yell for help at the tops of their little lungs. Every day in this country, we label children based on the criterion: "Inappropriate behavior or emotions under otherwise normal circumstances", as if school itself is a bubble, and *always* represents normal circumstances. As if a child from a disrupted home can be expected to come to school and behave normally. As if we have the right to expect that, and as if it is *the children* who need behavioral remediation, when in fact they are doing the only thing that makes any sense.
Whatever child a teacher gets, teaching that child is the teacher's job. Not moaning and whining about the child they'd like to have. They're not supposed to throw them back, or throw up their hands. But they do. Routinely. And there is a culture within schools that supports these actions.
We can get as angry at egregiously irresponsible parents as we like, but in truth there aren't that many of them in any one class...just normal parents who don't think they should have to be a test prep coach for their four-year-olds. The egregiously bad parents...yeah, that's a tough row to hoe. But someone who's feeding the "poor me" party line to a total stranger at Girl Scouts is using those parents as an excuse to fail the children. And that makes me angry.
Well said, Saille. As one who has been *in the system,* you certainly have a perspective and an authority to share that many of us don't.
OP's post struck me in a similar way .... there was a fait accompli attitude like it was out of this (or any) teacher's hands.
And as the parent of a male child who wouldn't have been on the journal writing, spelling, reading track in kindergarten, I would've been quite frustrated for ds to be in some of the classes mentioned here. This is a bright creative child -- he just didn't read well at 5 or 6.
Thanks for the post, Saille.
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I don't know in depth how the racket works, just know a little bit. The major textbook publishers rewrite their products to suit the loudest-mouthed buyer (i.e. a state's board of education). This accounts, in part, for "state versions" of textbooks. Therefore, these ideological shifts may, or may not, necessitate a change of publisher. Those who have followed the commotion closely maybe have links to share for specific titles now on the "menu".
It is a racket, isn't it?
While the Texas board is working for the students in their own state, they can't deny that the product of their efforts effects children across the US. The textbooks are mass-market and many are cobbled together from each other, from what I've read, so the final product is more homogenous than one might expect.
One observation -- For whatever reasons, Texans have elected more conservative members to their board. I would imagine that those members did the job that they felt they were elected to do. As is so often stated, elections have consequences. Some folks just don't seem too happy with that reality in this instance.
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In a real live conversation, it's hard to say. Just depends on the dynamics. But with email, I'm with your dh. If you send me an email with the subject line
FW: Fw: Fw: Fw: Fw: This is REAL!!!!!!!!!!!
You're gonna be getting a snopes link in return. And if you have cc-ed me with a thousand other people I don't know, you're going to get a link to a "how to use bcc" webpage as well.
Otherwise, I'm quite polite. Truly. :D It's just that I tend to lose patience after the two hundred and fifty third time I've received the same stupid urban legend about a horrifying new computer virus that's going to hit everyone tomorrow . . . and its an email that has been circulated for four years. :lol:
I like the idea of the bcc link! I've always done the snopes and other searches too.
In person, it sure depends on the situation. I would very rarely rebutt someone's beliefs in public. But dc and I often discuss things later. Fortunately we are not often around folks who espouse extreme views or kooky myths, though ds did come to me with questions after a baseball dad he met went on at length in a "truther" vein. Ds is so young he hasn't heard much of the real history at all much less this stuff. If I'd been around for this, I would've probably deflected it with a "really?" kind of comment and tried to change the subject. Some folks will just hold on to things.
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The other thread got me thinking about something that's been on my mind. I've gone through books with classical art since my daughter was very young' date=' so she's used to seeing nudes in art. But what I'm wondering about is taking a college drawing or painting class and having live models. I remember taking a summer college course on drawing, and I was quite shocked that it involved way more than fruit. :lol:
I think my dd could handle a female model just fine, but from what I've been seeing, it's not at all unusual for males to be used. Any thoughts on this for being appropriate for a high schooler?[/quote']
Your tag line says dd is 13, is this the student in question?
If so, yes, I think (yours might be the exception) that most early teen girls would have a difficult time handling this.
In reality, it's not a big deal. Similar to an operating room, in an art studio with a paid model, the atmosphere is very professional. The model is mostly robed except for the poses. There's usually a quick series for warm-up sketches, then increasingly longer poses, in between each the model dons a robe. Posing is tough and takes concentration and the artists/students are there to produce good sketches and improve skills and knowledge of the body and kinesiology.
Ime, the ratio of female to male models has been something like 10:1 (particularly in any community college setting for some reason), so perhaps it won't come up much.
good luck :001_smile:
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Thomas Jefferson was removed from a list of individuals who inspired revolutions in the late 18th and 19th Centuries, and was replaced with Thomas Aquinas, John Calvin, and William Blackstone, for reasons of politics and religion. It is a serious intrusion on the teaching of history ......
But some of what seems to be at issue in the TX debates is putting the late 20th, early 21st century lens on history from 100 or more years ago. That is a serious and dishonest intrusion on history, and one that is frequently seen.
One of the reasons that the series MadMen has been such a hit is just that -- its insistence on remaining as true as possible to the actual mores and structures of that time in history.
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Here's a few other things they wasted time and money on:
1. Religious conservatives on the board killed .....
20. The board’s right-wing faction ....... bloc ....
..........Board conservatives argued that what the United States did at the time was not the same as European imperialism. (1/15/10)
Well this detailed list (from which I just clipped a couple phrases) certainly uses charged language throughout, which leads one to wonder who created it and what the bias of that person/group is.
A number of the points are reasonable and worthy of consideration such as the last one. There has long been a liberal cant to many textbooks, if changing some of the more loaded terminology helps to bring balance for students then the contentious debates have been worth it.
I've seen several interviews with various board members and have to say that there have been a number of assertions by the more liberal board members that were surprising if not downright odd. They do need balance.
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Regarding the deletion of Thomas Jefferson from world history standards:
Let's not jump into hyperbole. The educational standard was regarding the study of the period of the Enlightment. Thomas Jefferson's ideas were not original: he based his ideals on others' ideas. As important as he was to American history, he was not important on a worldwide scale to the formation of the ideas of the Enlightment. And this, rightfully, is why he was deleted from that particular world history educational standard.
Thanks for the clarification. It makes a world of difference.
As with anything, knowing the facts is crucial to understanding the issue.
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Nice advice, Julie.
I've always given away what we outgrew, didn't use or didn't like. Then this year decided to sell it locally (a little online). But overall it's more effort than it's worth for most of it. Only the newest, nicest, most popular things sell for much. The rest, people want for a bargain.
So I try to keep that in mind when pricing. If I've hauled boxes to a curriculum sale, I don't want to just haul them home again. So you price to sell.
If you've got intact curric. from one of the big names, I'd look for avenues to reach those users (sonlight, abeka, tog, whatever) to make a reasonable amount of money. In my case, the curric. is an eclectic mix so again, not a big revenue opportunity.
Good luck. Like Julie said, you'll feel freer and lighter for the effort. :001_smile:
I'm just finishing a major book purge. It was a lot of work, and I was surprised that I was emotional about some of it. Getting rid of the books that I liked a lot, but which didn't work for our family was especially difficult. Finally giving up on the idea that we would sit around and do read-alouds as a family at this point was difficult. It was part of my best times with my dc *ever*. They're older now though, and it's time for me to be real about what they need. My books about what to read to children...gone. As much as I love using a hands-on approach to science, my dc *love* to have textbooks for that. So that really cool experimental/experiential science course...gone. Why am I hanging onto that 4th grade grammar when my youngest dc is almost 12? Gone.I went through and picked out the things that I knew would sell for enough money to be worth the time & effort of selling. The rest went into bins/crates, and I took it along to a local homeschool meeting. I tried not to wince as I let the ladies have free reign. My only requirement of them was that they not look at the abundance of unused materials and ask me, "WHY?" "Why do you have so much that you didn't USE?" :blush:
A lot of it went that way. I emailed other homeschooling friends, and had a little "open house" and gave away more of it then. I had to part with some beloved stuff, but at least I got to have a fun afternoon with my friends in the process! :)
My last step will be to post an ad on Freecycle.com for the leftovers. Someone will absolutely take the remainder away. I haven't done this last part yet, because I have one or two more friends who'd like to look first.
I've been able to bless lots of people throughout the process, and truly, if you focus on how stupid it really is to have so many curriculum "mistakes" hanging around, how embarrassing it is to be a hoarder, and how freeing it is to know that you finally have it under control, you'll get through it. :grouphug:
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:lol::lol::lol:
Those are too funny. Of course you can't stop with just one!
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I didn't see this brought up yet, excuse me if it has. What time does he eat dinner? Is he allowed a snack before bed?
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Does he have any interest in cooking shows? Alton Brown would be good. Maybe someone (besides a parent) showing him how to use good food in a healthy way might encourage some better choices, although I know that sugar is good. Okay not good as in good for you, but good as in tasty.
Maybe you could transition from junk sugar to more natural sugar with fresh fruit. Natural applesauce with some cinnamon on top. As your eldest could you give him some ownership and options in the kitchen, so he doesn't feel like he has to be sneaking.....
Excellent. My dc are much more adventurous when they have a hand in making something. They love to cook.
Another sweet treat that can be good is pudding, especially the cooked version with milk.
Ours do eat something kind of late too.
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Funny story about blood oranges. The first time my family saw/bought some was in the '79 about the same time someone was randomly putting poison in fruit in Europe.
My mom bought them, cut them open and was convinced we'd bought some of the poisoned fruit. She took it back to the store. Boy, between my mom's broken French and the grocery's broken English they finally got it resolved. It was quite a scene. :D
:lol: The name sounds disgusting but boy are they luscious. I can only imagine cutting into them and being freaked out.
To this day, if things are in the wrong places on shelves, like tylenol, I get suspicious. Of course a creepy poisoner would be meticulous about putting it back where it ought to be, but still....
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:grouphug: Rose. How difficult this is.
We had a friend who did this. She just refused to go to the doctor's even though she knew something was really wrong. It was hard on everyone else but it preserved her final weeks as normally as possible -- without hospitals, treatment. She was surrounded by family and friends and not medical staff and equipment.
Enjoy these moments as much as you possibly can. And grieve now too. Sorry I don't have good advice for keeping it from the kids. I'm not sure how you do that, do they know she's sick at all?
:grouphug:
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All I can remember is there is a scene in the cantina where a character gets his head, arm or something chopped off.....It is a little gross...but it's amazing for something so high tech back than it really isn't as graphic compared to today's technology
I'd vote no. Kids grow up fast enough. Maybe there's not a lot of graphic violence, but scenes like this in the cantina, Vader choking people, etc. are full of menacing characters and surprising scares.
Mine are very visual so I'm still careful. But even so, at the age of 4-1/2, I'd let the little guy stay "little" a bit longer.
Like others here, though, I know of other families whose kids have seen SW, even LOTR and more before the age of 6.
:001_smile:
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:grouphug: :grouphug: Oh Kari. I will pray for God's comfort to surround all of you and give you peace. :grouphug: :grouphug:
What a gracious soul you are to post this reminder for all of us in the midst of your pain.
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Oh Brittney, this is heartbreaking! Will pray for a miracle. :grouphug:
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This post is hard for me to follow--I'm afraid the words are too big for me! :001_huh:
So here goes (am I right?)--you think I'm wanting him to fill up on carbs, thereby feeding a carb/sweet addiction. I hope not. We do sometimes have more than I'd like, but I try to swing it the other way when that happens.
Unlimited access & easy options for protein--when I think protein, the only thing I come up w/ is meat & eggs. So you're suggesting precooked eggs/meat that he can eat whenever? That sounds fine to me. I have noticed that he does a lot better when I remember to feed him protein in the mornings. It's easy to forget when things get crazy, though.
I do think the sneaking has become a habit. Our thought has been that if we eliminated sugar/carbs completely for a few weeks, that would help break the habit. Our thoughts have been to try to approach this more from a standpoint of helping him than punishing him. The addictive behavior is my biggest concern.
We have a ds like this. He's got a sweet tooth and he's trying to get away with more than we'd like him to eat. I limit buying those mostly. He's getting better as he's gotten older. I would remind mine of the ants and bugs that will come to find his remainders if it would help (ds here doesn't like bugs).
They do reach an age, about where yours is now, of requiring more protein and earlier in the day.
One solution I came up with is a breakfast sandwich. We make an egg (usually over medium with broken yolk -- so it doesn't squirt), cheddar or similar cheese, and sometimes bacon or ham on a toasted bagel or english muffin. We did this one day before running off to a field trip and they started requesting these.
I also encourage yogurt. Homemade pancakes, waffles, cold breakfast cereal don't hold them long enough without a hard-boiled egg or some dairy.
Your ds just may be hitting that voracious pre-teen boy stage. Mine could be a hobbit, wanting to eat every hour or two. He's also very lean. Of course, homeschooling with it's easy access to the kitchen lends itself to these habits. (I remind mine of how hungry their gradeschool counterparts must be...)
Good luck, Aubrey.
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Aaaaaaand now we are going to have a spin-off thread:
S/O: Should homeschooling Dads wear Speedos?
My vote is a Big Fat NO!
Sorry, my vote is -- it depends on the guy and the location.
Well into his late 40s, dh was still looking pretty hot in his speedos. But he only wore them when he was diving into the pool to swim like he belonged in speedos. So....definite connection there.
;)
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Sanguinella -- blood oranges. I've seen them in groceries in the past couple years but they are a bland relative of the real thing.
Carambola -- star fruit. They're available here now.
Do you itemize your expensive items when you are moving using a moving company?
in General Education Discussion Board
Posted
We do the same...video through the rooms to show electronics, nice furniture, art on walls, good rugs, etc. We also take still photos of the more valuable, irreplaceable, special things, jewelry.
I make sure to take a close shot of any damage too, like a ding on the table top, scratched dresser drawer, etc., to show that it was there before move and we were aware of it.
There's usually a form for the more expensive stuff and you write down serial #s. For one move I remember that they noted on the inventory list and outside of a box if there was something expensive inside.
For the really small stuff, like valuable jewelry, special coins, very special mementos, it's better to hand carry especially the jewelry. (Within reason, of course!)
With an international move, there's storage. If it's crated right in your driveway, you should have little damage or loss. If it's truck-loaded and then crated at a warehouse, the handling is rougher and often done at day's end when guys are tired. It's worth asking to get the crating in your driveway in case that's not already set up.
With all the chaos of a move and upheaval in your lives, it's just nicer not to have the headache of damage and claims while you're trying to get settled. Doing some documenting beforehand is worth the effort...especially if it's never needed!
Have a wonderful move! :001_smile: