Bee
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Posts posted by Bee
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My school district offered my child the opportunity to take the state tests for several years but I always turned them down and used standardized tests instead. I didn't want dd going into a strange environment and feeling pressured to do well on tests she hadn't been prepped for. I know my district prepares the children for the tests and I didn't want my dd at a disadvantage. In NY we can give some tests at home, which is what I have always done.
If you decide to test at all, be aware that the tests often follow a standardized,textbook curriculum. Last year dd did poorly on the math portion because we didn't follow a textbook curriculum but only focused heavily on decimals and percents and dd said most of the questions were geometry. Now I know that, I don't put as much stock in any of those tests (and yeah, I'll be teaching to the test in those years that testing is required).
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And I think older dd might try too since she read some of this thread over my shoulder and likes the idea. I have all my catagories but 1. Are we supposed to say what they are or do we keep them private?
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I don't know if I'll ever buy the 4 cores required to get lifetime access to the SL forums but I have, at a very few rare times, been more willing to reveal a little more about myself there because they are private and therefore (I think) a little less likely to be open to people with harmful intentions. To be honest, I don't spend anywhere near as much time there as here. Things are often more interesting here. I like the variety of people and topics.
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I have several books that I've had sitting on the shelf that I just haven't felt like reading. I like the authors/series but I just... want something else, maybe. I think what I want is for someone to just tell me a good story. What does stand out, in my memory are 2 series:
The Hunger Games and Starting Fires by Suzanne Collins. YA fiction. Older dd is reading book 2 now and dh is reading book 1. We are all liking the books enough to want to know what will happen next.
The First Law series by Joe Abercrombie. Fantasy (adult content and quite a bit of cursing and not for little eyes.) It's what a real fantasy/ sword and sorcery type world is really like, if there were such a thing.The good guys are far from perfect and the bad guys are bad and sometimes it's hard to tell who's which. I came across the first book completely by accident and read through the series as quick as I could.
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Where do they go from the time younger dd first puts on a brand new pair and the laundry basket? Why is it that no matter how many times I buy older dd socks she always (according to her) only has two pairs?
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working parents. So the children go off early to day care and pre-school. The income levels for getting your child into a state-supported pre-school program are generous. We are being constantly bombarded with messages on tv and in the newspaper that early childhood education= successful student, high school graduate, college student, and ultimately, a productive member of society. I know some working parents don't have any choice but it makes me sad to see the tiny children getting off the bus at the Head Start program site with their backpacks as big as the child and sometimes children crying as their parents take them to daycare because they just don't want to be there that day. I mean, they are three for heaven's sake, it's not like they're going to be held back for missing some important life lessons that they can only learn there.
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and I just check her answers. I asked her what she though of it and she said "Some of it is kind of scary-advanced". When I asked her to explain she says it sometimes starts out sounding complicated but the author breaks things down and explains what he means. She is using it all school year but doesn't use it every day or week. She uses several other books along with it and is supposed to be doing projects/experiments too.
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She didn't lose anything but there is smoke damage. She told me she (and her child) are aftraid to go back and live in the same place, even after repairs are done. DH would like us to give her something of significant financial amount. I know she wouldn't accept cash. He was thinking store gift cards- to buy new clothes, linens, whatever (I don't care if she uses it for Christmas gifts to save money to put toward a new apartment, whatever, it takes to help). If you were in her shoes would you accept such a gift?
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Iliked it but older dd didn't. I thought it had just the right amount of reading, projects, hands on work that any child would love. The student could pick from several choices of projects to do each week. Older dd didn't want to do any of the projects. She felt she could already predict outcomes and had done enough similiar projects over the years in various science classes and on the nature walks we have taken. Older dd would rather read about science than do it. I've tried to do several different OM courses with her over the years and she hasn't found one she's liked yet.
Despite that, I am planning on her doing several OM high school level classes next year. She needs the experience of being expected to do high school level classes and using textbooks for some classes wether she wants to do them or not. I plan to have her do Environmental Science. I suspect much of it will be review for her but I'm tired of battling with her about doing the science experiments and it doesn't look like there are many (any?) for that. Though, knowing how I am, I'll probably try and find some books for her to read to go along with the textbook.
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I did Core 1 wih my oldest when she was 6 and she enjoyed most of the read-alouds and had no problems withkeeping up with it. She's used Sonlight off and on through the years and has had no difficulty with any of the readers or read-alouds in any of the cores. I used very few of the books from Core 1 for second dd when she was 6. She couldn't sit still for most of it and had no interest in it. (Same thing for Core 2 when she was 7). Now that she is 8 she's using quite a bit more of Core 3 than the previous cores and I find myself adding books in that I didn't think she'd be interested in reading at this age. Whatever we don't get to will be around for her to read when she gets older, if she wants.
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Having a good education is more than being able to pass a standardized test. And it's about more than having a good work ethic. I find myself constantly weighing the risks of spending too much time on the academics while forgetting to teach my children the things dh and I think they need to know to be successful in their future lives.
I was a good student, I went to several colleges, even graduated from one of them. I'm a professional; I've been doing my job for years. But I'm seriously lacking in real-life skills. A leaky toilet, a broken piece of electronic equipment, grilling, keeping my house plants alive...well, suffice to say, I love my dh for more than just love alone.
As for jack of all trades vs master of one- I went to college, learned my profession, practiced it for many years, and I feel like I would be completely lost if someday I were unable to do my job. At one time I thought I would be unable to work and it nearly paralyzed me with fear. Dh on the other hand, has had many jobs and has many skills, though not at anything considered a "master" trade. He isn't afraid of what might happen if he can no longer do the one thing he knows. He has a multitude of skills and isn't afraid to learn more if needed. So, while we encourage the children to follow their interests and passions, we also encourage them to attempt new things and to not set all their expectations on one single thing. IMO, jack of all trades gives one more options in life.
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Younger dd is doing week 10 and 11. Older dd is mostly on week 10 but up to week 13 in history, Wordly Wise, and ahead in her physics and literature reading. We only just finished week 5 of Spanish. Our computer runs too slow to use the computer supported parts of the lessons so we skip them or try to get to the library to do it there. It's a great program in theory but it really isn't working for us.
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It's off during "school time". It goes on at lunch and should be turned off after, but it often isn't. Sometimes someone watches it, and sometimes it's just background noise. The children must wait until 3 pm to go on the computer or play video games but we don't adhere to that strictly all the time. Older dd is pretty good about limiting her screen time but is listening to music on the radio or her MP3 player frequently throughout the day, even during school hours. The limits are mostly in place because of younger dd who would spend all day staring at some sort of a screen if she could. She is limited to 1 hour a day of video games and 1 hour of computer time on weekdays.
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And the type of jury it is. Federal court allows for more excuses-being a caregiver for a child under the age of 13, certain professions, medical excuses, and of course, if you are a convicted felon. State and county can be a lot stricter. In my county, only being a convicted felon gets you out of it indefinately. Having children and no caregiver is not an excuse. They do allow you to postpone but only for 6 months and then they call you back. The most you can hope for is that they don't call your number. I've been called in once but received summons 4 times in the last 15 or so years.I got excused from federal jury duty, postponed county duty once, never got called in when I got my summons 6 months later, and finally got called in the 4th time.
Now that I've seen the process for picking jurors I know what kind of trials I could sit on a jury for and which ones I personally consider a waste of everyone's time. So at least it was a good learning experience.
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We never did finish the whole book. The workbook had about 5 pages per reading selection. I don't think there were any for the poetry though. There were 2 pages of vocabulary and the rest were comprehension and writing.
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What about children who go to private school? Should their parents send them to ps just for the experience?
My children are out almost every day of the week experiencing the real world. Public school is hardly what I would call the real world. It's such an artificial environment. What other time in their life are they age segregated?
My children are exposed to kids that are "messed up". Not every family they know is as stable as I'd hope families can be. I don't keep my children locked in a closet you know.
And just how much discipline and structure do you remember from when you were in school? I remember an awful lot of students cheating, copying homework, and generally trying to do the minimum amount of work to get by.
That's what I'd say. Now if my children want to try the experience of school I'd permit it but I won't guarantee it will be ps.
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Oldest dd observed a young child being screened for pre-school and asked me why they do it. I'm not sure why but I'm guessing it has something to do with funds the program receives. Do pre-schools, like public schools, receive extra funds for children who need special services?
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I think even my professed athiest(sp?) husband would find it amusing. My somewhat religious self did. Absolutely no offense taken in my household.
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Ruby (grade 4) covers what is a story, plot, characters,setting theme,internal and external conflict,sequence, foreshadowing,main idea, characters (major and minor), dialogue, internal dialogue, point of view, setting,, mood, what is biography, author's purpose, stated theme,implied, theme,drawing conclusions, compare and contrast, elements of fiction, and nonfiction, elements of drama, fictionalized biography, and poetry.
Coral (grade 5) covers plot, characters, setting,theme,conflict, sequence,cause and effect,predicting, dialogue, character's inner thoughts,point of view and narration,mood,imagery,paraphrasing,establishing setting,symbol,author's viewpoint,theme in nonfiction,biography,autobiography,nonfiction,drama, and poetry.Sometimes several selections are used to further clarify themes, for example, characters.
I used only coral with older dd and she did fine except had difficulty answeringthe analytical questions (the why do you think the character did what they did? type questions).Generally, Ruby's reading level is just about the same as the Coral level. I think the workbook is where the grade level may matter more. I'm using Ruby very slowly with my third grader and I think the workbook is just way more than she is ready for. The workbooks require writing and some children read way better than they understand the writing process. You can use the books without the workbooks quite nicely though.
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Dd was insistent that she not use a textbook oriented program. She is using "Exploring the World of Physics", "The Cartoon Guide to Physics", 'Explorabook", "Lights and Mirrors", and a new book, "The Manga Guide to Physics". We have the Physics Discovery kit too, though she hasn't started it yet.
She also helps out at a monthly science class where the students study natural science, we plan to participate in the feeder watch program again this winter (birds), and of course, whatever other science experiences that may come up.
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Although she says she may technically be considered too old for them, she still says "I adore them. They're wonderful." (And after she read them, she went on to read Grimms' original tales.) She is eagerly awaiting the next in the series. Younger dd is starting to read them too.
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She did the books in order by subject, first fractions, then another subject, then another. She retained quite a bit but- when she did standardized testing after 2 years of using "Keys" series she tested poorly on the math portion because many of the questions on the test covered topics that she hadn't done for those 2 years. For example, there were lots of geometry and algebra questions and she hadn't done any of that for several years. So, I still love the series and plan to use it with younger dd in the future, but I will have her do 1 book from each series at a time. The fault was not with the series but, I think, a testing system that assumes that children are using a traditional textbook curriculum.
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For older dd, who loves to read, it would be Sonlight for history, literature, and math. Oak Meadow for science. Lightning Lit for LA. Which is basically my plan now for high school.
For younger dd, if I could justify the price in my own mind, I'd use Calvert. I just can't bring myself to do it though. Maybe Oak Meadow.
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The TM has multiple questions for each page the student reads. I pick the questions to ask that I think are most important. If the student uses the workbook, I skipped the questions at the end of the story. I never have the student do every single workbook page. My goal in using the program is to have some way of introducing story elements that may be tested on standardized tests (which my dc are required to take), check reading comprehension and incorporate a bit of writing into our reading curriculum without totally destroying my dcs' love of reading. Remember, the books are textbooks, written for use in schools so a teacher there would need enough questions to ask to make sure most (ideally, all) of the children could participate in a discussion. I like the TMs because they contain extra information for the teacher and all the answers to the questions in the text and the workbook. It makes my job easier.
What did you get for Christmas?
in General Education Discussion Board
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Because I kept wearing his. Now I wonder why I never got myself one before.
And a digital camera several weeks ago. Another one of those things that I've been saying for ages that I want but would never buy until dh insisted.