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sweetpea3829

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Everything posted by sweetpea3829

  1. Lesson planning... We were recently discussing this in a FB homeschool group and this one mom had an awesomely amazing routine. She gets a hotel room. For herself. !!!!!!!!!! She plans for the entire year for most of the subjects. Gets a hotel room for the weekend, brings ALL her stuff, some good wine, and she binge plans. When I read that I was all :001_tt1: :drool5: So ladies, whatever it is that you do...see if you can squeeze in a weekend at the hotel to have the peace and quiet to think about it. I'm totally doing this. Twice a year...for 2/3 of my planning sessions, lol.
  2. So that's them. So Amazon has several options that look just like those..except they don't actually have a pin. They are meant to be used for magnetic surfaces. This version is meant to stick into a surface, and then you can use the magnetic head to hold whatever, without pushing holes into the pages. I use them for things that would be destroyed by regular tacks. So our calendars, as I mentioned...the problem with using a tack for those is that the hole you push the tack through is too small to accommodate the head of the tack. So you have to take the tack off the wall, switch the month, and push it back into the sheetrock, or wherever. This causes the hole in the sheetrock to get larger, eventually causing damage. Our weekly dinner menus. If I had to restick them every week, they'd be ruined. (Mine are printed on dry erase paper, so I never need to replace them, just wipe off and redo). I'm kind of sad that I can't seem to find them, lol. A pack of 8 would solve my need for now, but I know I'll use many more of these in the future.
  3. Figured it out. Geez. Had to jump through all kinds of hoops. It was too large...I had to upload it to FB, then download it to the laptop. Resize it several times.
  4. How the heck do you attach a picture in here? I can't figure it out, lol
  5. Folks...several years ago, in the clearance section of Walmart, I found these awesome push pins. You push the pin into the wall, and the head is magnetic. This way, I can hang things without putting holes in the items. These work well with, for example, our calendar. Instead of pulling the pin out of the wall each month, to flip the new month over, I just take the magnetic head off, and voila. Clear as mud? Maybe not...but to me it makes sense...lol. Anyways, I need more of these pins and I CAN'T FIND THEM ANYWHERE!!! Even the great Amazon has failed me. They have a similar product, but it's not quite the same and it's expensive. The ones that keep coming up on Amazon are entirely magnetic, no pin. They're good for white boards, for example. Does anybody know of this product? Can you tell me where I can find them? I would be eternally grateful!
  6. It's been a long time since I've stopped in. But I have to say, it's always hilarious, anytime I pull up the GD thread, and I see this one still going strong. Rock on, y'all!
  7. We used Wordly Wise for 5th grade, as I transitioned mine from spelling to vocabulary development. I didn't hate it but...it was really dry. This year, we're using Word Roots and it's not much better in terms of dryness, but I like that instead of giving them some words to learn, it's teaching them word PARTS. And they're using that new information. Just tonight they were asking about the root -cide, which we haven't studied yet. So the concept is growing nicely. To make Word Roots more interesting, I purchased two different interactive notebook sets from TPT. The kids are each keeping their own Word Roots three-ring binder and in that, they have a page for each root and affix. That page has the notebook pocket. They can color the pockets, and, the pockets are kind of neat themselves. So they like that. Oh and I offer them a candy per pocket that's done with care (instead of rushed scribbling, lol). That's a nice incentive.
  8. Alright, I think I'll go ahead and give AOPS a good try. I hate that it's difficult to schedule it out, though...lol. I'm a planner.
  9. DS11 is finishing Beast 5, after having completed Singapore 5 last year. He would technically be a 5th grader, but I have him as a 6th grader. He is math intuitive and has always excelled in all areas of math. I purchased AOPS Pre-Alg last spring, anticipating he would start it this winter. But, he's had some difficulty with some of the more advanced concepts in Beast 5 (usually with the challenge sections...he does well in the rest), so I have decided to hold off on AOPS until later this spring. But I can't shake the feeling that AOPS Pre-Alg might be a miss for him. So of course, here I am on the hive and...so many other options! LOL! Any other suggestions on a Pre-Alg program that's engaging, affordable, and solid? AOPS Pre-Alg is just so boring and dry.
  10. After several years of choosing high quality novels (three a year, plus a short story for Christmas), putting together my own discussion questions, pulling free lit guides from the internet, and using a variety of different purchased lit guides from various places... I chose Mosdos Pearl for 5th grade this year. I needed a break from doing all of the legwork. Mosdos has served that purpose well. It gets the job done, and it offers enough in the way of comprehension questions, discussion, literary analysis, etc. I don't love it though. It's expensive, and textbook-ish. The selections are lovely, but they are all short stories (which is fine for a year, but I wouldn't choose for all of my literature to be this way). I'm also using Mosdos Opal with my 3rd graders and same thing...I'm thankful to not have to do all of the legwork, and the job is getting done. But I just am not in love with it. In addition to Mosdos, my 5th graders are using Editor-in-Chief, Essentials in Writing, Word Roots, and I require them to read two chapter books per month, with a book report for each. Of those two books, they can have one "fluff", but the other must be a high quality. They have a list to choose from, and they can bring me other selections that I may or may not approve. Obviously, this would all be too much, if we did ALL of what Mosdos offers...so essentially, Mosdos is just Literature. They do the reading comprehension mini-stories from the student workbook, the four reading comprehension questions that follow each story selection, and we discuss the stories together. We are skipping the poetry selections for now, and will probably dedicate the summer to covering all of those. The 3rd graders answer the comprehension questions that follow the story selections, the vocabulary from the workbook, and there's a few other selections from the workbook that I pull from them. They are also doing All About Spelling, Essentials in Writing, and Spectrum Language Arts. Like the 5th graders, they are also required to read two chapter books a month, and report on them. I'm not sure what I will do for next year. Mosdos is expensive. Too expensive to use it for just literature. But I also am not mentally ready to again take on the legwork of putting together my own lit approach.
  11. How long does it take AOPS to activate an account on Alcumus? I didn't realize I'd have to fill out a parent permission form and email it to them. If I'd have known, I would have put my own birthdate in when I registered my son, lol.
  12. We use Building Thinking Skills as one source...it's solid...thorough. But I wouldn't call it "fun", lol. I started mine in Logic with the Lollipop Logic series. There's a number of them, and the name changes as they get older...I think they become Logic Countdown or something like that. That might be a more fun, gentle introduction.
  13. We tried ToG waaaay back at the near beginning of our journey. I never was able to pull myself out of the ToG Fog though, so I can't really comment too much on what it does right. So, cons... It's very expensive. Unnecessarily so. And, they guard their copyright so tightly, that it's made the program difficult to use. (This was a few years ago, I have no idea if they've improved). Their software made it very difficult to print, and it messed up some settings on my wireless printer. Don't get me wrong, I understand the copyright issues. But, to me, it felt TOO jealously guarded. Especially given the price that charge. That said, the program is overwhelmingly large. I know you can pick and choose, but for me, it was too much. I feel like the program is better suited for later elementary and older. In fact, I had planned on returning to it when my kids reached Middle school but now that we're on the cusp of that, I've decided we probably won't. I know that ToG is highly regarded amongst its users but, I've gotta be honest, I find it overrated.
  14. For what it's worth, we only use the tiles for the first level. After that, I just write on the whiteboard.
  15. Currently, our kids are in their history rotation, with our science rotation schedule to begin in April. Just one problem though...I have no idea which direction to take! So many different options! Last year, we used Science Fusion (slightly modified for my younger learners) Modules F and G. This was part of a 2 year Earth Science approach I started...well...two years ago. The years prior, I designed and wrote my own science curriculum. It was more or less guided interest-led. We did a year of oceans, which actually enveloped some very early chemistry, freshwater, oceans, and marine biology. The next year, we did Earth Science which started with a more in depth look at chemistry, followed by a study of geology, and finally, a study of biomes/habitats. Last year we started with a review of oceanography via Science Fusion. Then we studied meteorology, and we finished the science term with a study of Astronomy, again using Science Fusion. That's pretty much all I want to cover, for now, of Earth Science. My oldest two are nearly 12 and 11 (the 12 yr old is below grade level, and the 11 yr old is pretty well above). I have them both in "6th grade". The younger two are 9 1/2 and 8 1/2. I think it's time to start thinking about more formal science for those older two...as we prepare for high school science. I'm not really sure what direction to take, and what they would likely study in high school, and in what order. Any thoughts? Suggestions? I'm open to any and all thoughts. Just as an FYI, we are devout Christians, but I am more inclined to use secular materials because I have found most faith-based materials to just be so awful (we tortured ourselves with two years of Apologia...never again). I want my kids to be thinkers. And when I can't find what I want...I'm not opposed to writing and designing my own. It's just that...the legwork is SO extensive. Oh...as for math...the 11 yr old will be starting pre-Algebra in January. The 12 yr old will hopefully some day study Algebra. Hopefully. Some day.
  16. I have used Progeny Press and Total Language Plus. I did not care for TLP, and Progeny Press is kind of hit or miss. My biggest problem with TLP and Progeny Press, though (and really, any other lit guide approach) is lining up the books I'd like to use with the selections available. The BEST lit guide I've come across was from Discovering Literature Series, from Garlic Press. I more or less stumbled across the guide for Hobbit last year and it was fantastic. It had challenging discussion questions, not too many fluff activities, and it primarily focused on LITERATURE. Not grammar. Not composition. Literature. But...they only have 9 or so lit guides in their challenge series. Five titles in their regular series. The Hobbit one was really really good.
  17. Our grammar instruction comes through Essentials in Writing (which includes grammar and composition). But...because EIW spends the first half of the year covering grammar, and the second half covering composition, I'm also using Editor-in-Chief to review grammar concepts. Editor in Chief does have some teaching, but mostly...it's proofreading short reading selections.
  18. Science Fusion may have some good options.
  19. I wonder if MBTP might fit for us? Gotta do some digging on that one, lol. It's expensive.
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