Jamauk
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Posts posted by Jamauk
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It's been quite a while since I've visited here regularly. If there are older threads covering this, please feel free to link here and I'm happy to read them all!
We used Apologia for elementary science and loved it. However, as we make our way through General Science (first text in upper years) it's becoming quite clear that it's not going to work for us.
My son loves science and wants to take AP science his senior year and follow that up into college. I *need* a solid science curriculum that's homeschool friendly.
I found Centripetal Press and it looks promising. Does anyone have any experience with them?
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I just read about a new local group that is an offshoot of this co-op. They were asking for leaders, members, and volunteers. So my assumption is they hope to spread their ministry to other parts of the country?
There are chapters all over the country. We're members of our local chapter and we *love* it.
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She and her husband are also the director of First Class Ministries Homeschool Co-op.
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I was given a huge box of books from a friend that is a teacher as well as a former homeschooler. As I finally dug my way through the box I discovered I now had a copy of Words Their Way.
As I'm reading through the book I think I may have just stumbled upon the final piece of the puzzle for my younger son. I started doing some research online and I see there are supplemental books for each stage. My question is do I need these books or can I do the word sorts on my own? Is there more info in the book beyond the word sorts? Would having these books make the program significantly less parent intensive?
Anymore info you can give me on this program? Thanks!
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Thank you all for your replies. I'm familiar with the higher levels of WW because I use them with my older son. You've confirmed for me what I already thought - I don't need the Level 1. You just saved me sixty bucks, HA! :-)
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My 1st grader (getting ready to go into 2nd grade) is a late reader. He loves to write, doesn't have a vocabulary problem and can spell like nobody's business, but he simply refuses to read.
I'm trying to immerse him in as much language stuff as possible next year to help his fluency and was considering Wordly Wise Book 1 (and the Teacher's Resource Pack), but after reading some reviews, I'm not sure it's necessary. Thoughts?
I plan to continue using ETC with him (he loves it) along with AAS (introducing the rules and lessons as he encounters them in ETC) and also using Beyond the Code.
Is Wordly Wise overkill? Or simply unnecessary?
Thanks!
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Try some of the suggestions from this thread:
http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=396770
I mentioned it in the above thread, but will repeat- the book Reading Rescue 1-2-3 was a turning point read for me and helping my DS.
:001_smile:
I read through that whole thread last night and I put that book on hold at our local library :)
Thanks!
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I'm going to try something new today ~ I'm going to ask him to find the tile that says /b/. Then find the tile that says /a/, then the one that says /t/. After he's pulled them all down, we'll say the sounds as we put them in order: /b//a//t/ and then we'll read it together and then I'll ask him to read it to me (as opposed to how we have been doing it "spell the word "bat" Good, now can you read this word (ham) to me? Blank stare).
I think handing him a whole list of words right now (or an entire book) is still too overwhelming for him, so I'm going to break it down to one word at a time and use some of the to/with/by techniques and see how he responds to that.
Thank you again, everyone!
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My 5.5 year old (who is still in speech therapy) isn't confident about reading either. He CAN read. He says he can only read "baby books". Breaks my heart too. :( We are focusing on reading for his K year. Some things I've done that have helped:
- Read a fun easy reader together multiple times while we have it checked out. The first time, I read it all. The second time, I just have my son read one word every couple pages or so (though if he's looking tired or if it's hard work for him, I might stop having him do that halfway through the book - I tailor it to his stamina). I pick words that I KNOW he can read easily, like "cat". This book looks more like a real book, because it's not the baby board books. The last one we got was about a space race, so it seemed like a real book to DS. :D Each time we read it, I had him read a few more words. After a couple weeks, he was reading a lot of them voluntarily! Again though, I only had him read words I knew he could read. I saved hard words for our phonics/reading instruction time.
- I use a cursor for our phonics program. The program we are using now (Dancing Bears) has us uncover one phonogram at a time as we sound out the word, then we say the word again fast. Since I am requiring that he sounds it out, he does not have to immediately recognize the word. And the more practice he gets, the more he's recognizing words without sounding them out.
- I told him about his grandpa, who thinks in pictures like DS2 does and is mildly dyslexic. He was a late bloomer and didn't read in 1st grade with all the other kids. He was put in a special ed class for a year or two, but then when reading clicked, it took off, and now he's a very good reader. :D DS2 sees his grandpa a lot, and grandpa is really smart. So it's nice reinforcement that while it's taking a while, it WILL happen... he will read well one day. :)
DS learns well through writing words, so I'm going to start the WRTR word list this school year (after we formally teach letter formation the WRTR-way). You dictate sounds of the word, then analyze the word to see why it's making those sounds, then you read the word. I think that practice will help, and it will help that he's writing the words. We are continuing with Dancing Bears at least through Book A. We also do Reading Eggs, which gives him fun repetition (ok, his 3 year old brother likes it better, but he does well with it, and it HAS helped his reading).
WOW. My husband thinks in pictures and is mildly dyslexic and for some reason I never put 2 and 2 together. I'll have to have DH observe him a bit and see if he thinks there are some of the same issues in play (my DH is a HUGE reader, too).
Thank you all for your advice. My older son basically taught himself to read and needed very little prompting from me, so I was at a loss with DS #2. Last night after reading some threads here, I placed a hold on Reading Rescue 1-2-3 and OPGTR at the local library. I should have them by the end of the week and I plan to incorporate some of those ideas as well.
Thank you all, again.
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Check out "Go Kaleo" on Facebook (she has a blog, too but her FB page is much more active). She is vegan (with the exception of the occasional egg) and she's a weightlifter, so her protein needs are fairly high.
I don't know if by "carbs" you mean all carbs or just grains. All fruits & veggies are carbs, but our bodies *need* them.
We do eat meat (grass fed, pasture raised only), but the majority of our calories come from fruits & veggies and we eat little to no grains.
There are some vegan protein powders out there that you can add to green smoothies or just mix with some juice to help with your protein intake.....
Good luck!
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My 6 yo DS was diagnosed with Speech Apraxia when he was 4 years old. He has made tremendous strides and even graduated from speech therapy at the beginning of this school year. While his speech will never be "perfect" he now has all of the sounds for his age and development and strangers can understand him almost 100% of the time.
This, however, has left him with little confidence when it comes to phonetically reading. We never pushed reading and waited until he showed interest in learning how. He really wants to read, but whenever we work on it, his body language completely changes and he becomes defeated almost immediately. He then starts acting up and goofing off, because he has convinced himself that he simply can't read.
The thing is, he CAN read and I think once he gains the confidence his reading will EXPLODE.
I'm currently using AAS with him and not even using a reading curriculum (he seems less stressed when I tell him it's time for a spelling lesson rather than time for a reading lesson) and after we're finished spelling the first list of words, I have him read to me the supplemental words. He can spell all of the words immediately ~ even faster than his fingers can find the tiles, but as soon as I show him the list and ask him to read, his shoulders sag, his eyes dart towards the floor and he starts to fidget.
It's breaking my heart.
Can anyone offer any advice to help boost my little guy's confidence in himself? (this is the only area where he lacks confidence, in all other areas of life he's even maybe a little over confident in his abilities and scares the bejoogles out of me on a daily basis! LOL!)
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Wow, thanks for that! You saved me buying grapeseed oil. So I guess extra light olive oil is the only alternative?
Does anyone else find it truly challenging to ensure your family is eating healthy?
It's challenging, yes. That is for sure. Have you tried ghee? You can make your own and it's much much cheaper than buying it. I often use that for cooking if coconut oil doesn't work.
I also have on my list of things to try (but haven't done so yet): High oleic safflower oil & High oleic sunflower oil and Avocado oil.
I'm still learning about using less refined fats in my cooking. Good luck!
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I find mine jokes and goofs around when he's bored with his activities. Like a PP, he is fine during our school hours, but it's during the extra curricular activities that I often cringe over his antics.
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We *have* a Reformed Baptist Church, but I've never gone, so I can't speak to whether or not it's a great one. But the West Puget Sound area of Seattle fits the bill perfectly.
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Boy 1 has been fighting a cold and we're trying like h!ll to not let it go into a full blown asthma episode. He's actually coming out the other end of it, but I woke up this morning feeling like a dog turd.
I delcared it our first official sick day. I was hoping to make it at least a month.... *sigh*
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This baby in my lap, though ... goodness! He's not even a whole month old and he makes little noises all. the. time. :confused: The weirdest are when he's nursing. He makes "hunting" noises. They remind me of the whistle-y grunting sounds the velociraptors make in Jurassic Park.
It was a running joke in my family about the noises my youngest made when he nursed. He's always done that, from his first nursing to his last. We have, finally, taught him table manners and how not to make those disgusting cave man noises when eating with utensils (he'll be six this week).
To the OP: You honestly could have been writing about my oldest son. He makes random (high pitched) spontaneous noises all of the time. And the noise battles in the grocery stores? Oh yea. Every. Freaking. Time.
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We're using Earlybird for my youngest (he'll be 6 next week) and we're only doing a few pages for each unit, just to make sure he understands the concept. We'll be done with EB before Christmas and we'll go straight into 1A ~ I know I could probably start him on 1A right now, but I just want to make sure he's exposed to all of the units just in case something pops up that he needs a little extra practice with...
ETA ~ sorry, we're using Essentials with my youngest.
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That is interesting.
In my family history however there is a direct link between gifted and alcoholic. The smarter they were, the more likely they were to become an alcoholic, and the worse their alcoholism was. So I guess I'm reading into it at a level that other people may not.
This is interesting, my dad is (was?) very very gifted intellectually and he's a very active, heavy alcoholic. My brother and I are both gifted, my brother drinks quite a bit. Before kids, I was what one may call a heavy social drinker, but since having kids and having a husband that travels for a living, I just don't drink that much anymore....
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True story: When I was pregnant with my first son my FIL was celebrating his 60th bday. I was in my third trimester and DH and I asked my OB if I could have one glass of wine at my FIL's party to toast his special day. The OB answered with, "While I cannot actually give you permission to drink alcohol while pregnant, I can tell you that no evidence exists that would predict one glass of wine this far along in your pregnancy would do any harm."
We went out to lunch with my mom after the appt and she asked, "Oh, what did the doctor say about a glass of wine?" I immediately said "He said it was fine," at the same time my husband said "He said no"
I just thought it was hilarious that the doctor talked around the question and DH & I took away two totally different answers. :lol:
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My 8.5 yo son can be the most intolerable "know it all". He doesn't take this attitude with his friends, just with the family.
For instance, if we were driving down the road and we saw a guy on the side of the road using his cell phone my youngest might say "I think that guy's car broke down." I would follow up with "Maybe, but maybe he was just pulling off the road to make a call to be safe and responsible." My oldest would, without fail, say something to the effect of "No, his car broke down." (with a snotty attitude to go with it). Once he's decided something is true, he will not consider any other scenario and he gets snottier and snottier with each new scenario that is presented. Eventually, he will conceed that no, he doesn't in fact KNOW his idea is the absolute truth, as none of us has enough information to make that determination, but he will still tell everyone else that they are "probably wrong."
It gets on my very. last. nerve. Just today, we were coloring in our maps about the fertile crescent and discussing the first farmers in the SOTW book. He asked what we were going to study next week and I informed him we were going to talk about Egypt and the Nile River. He asked if we would color a map of the "fertile crescent of Egypt" I calmly told him there was no fertile crescent of Egypt, but yes, we would discuss how the banks of the Nile were fertile just as the Euphrates and the Tigris banks are fertile. He said "No, just listen to me, Mom. What I mean is, are we going to color a map around the Nile and it's little 'fertile crescent' like we did today with this map." Again, I explained "Yes, we are going to color a map of Egypt with the Nile River, but I want you to understand that this is the only "Fertile Crescent" and there isn't one in Egypt, but the area around the Nile is fertile."
He rolled his eyes, got an overly dramatic look on his face and shook his hands in the air in exasperation, let out a long sigh and started to say "You aren't getting it......" and then I lost it. I'm ashamed to say I totally let loose on him, raised my voice, told him when he gets this attitude I'm interpretting it as he is trying to call me stupid, tell me he's smarter than I am, etc, etc, etc....it wasn't my most shining moment. I did manage to explain to him that the reason I didn't want him referring to Egypt as another fertile crescent was because I didn't want him getting his history/geography confused in his head and I didn't want him confusing his little brother.....
So, tell me ~ is this just a phase that 8 yo boys go through? Is it something I'm doing? Am I being too hard on him and is it just him trying to flex his reasoning/logic skills and even though sometimes incorrectly, is he just trying to take what he's learned from one lesson and apply to something else? I'm at the end of my rope with this "know it all" attitude.
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I have a few songs that inspire me (P!nk, Black eyes peas, etc) and if I'm just not feeling it, I scroll through to one of them.
Also, like a pp mentioned, I try to think of people that physically can't run, but would very much like to. I tell myself I don't have the right to quit. Its not my place to wimp out.
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I think he is wanting something that has fruits and veggies in it, like Go Greens.
Thanks for all the ideas so far. I am copying them into an email!
Oh, Amazing Grass Supergreens is an awesome additive for greens! It comes in choc & berry flavors.
ETA: I add it to my protein shakes (but it's great with water or juice, too)
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Jay Robb is the only protein shake I've found that uses whey from grassfed cows ~ but I'm not sure if he makes premade shakes.
I've heard good things about Muscle Milk and you can buy cases of them at Costco.
As for water additives, I stay away from them because I don't do artificial ingredients, but we used to absolutely LOVE the Propel packets.
secular (neutral?) homeschool friendly science
in High School and Self-Education Board
Posted
I'm going to revive this thread and ask if anyone went ahead with any of the Novare or Centripetal texts this year and, if so, what are your thoughts?
We used Apologia for elementary school, but it's become very apparent that the upper level Apologia books and the author's obvious disdain for anything other than YEC, simply will not fit our needs/beliefs going forward.
I'm looking for a solid, rigorous science curriculum and hoping this will fit the bill.....