zarabellesmom
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Posts posted by zarabellesmom
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Kind of a spinoff.
Knowing that very few go riding off into the sunset happily ever after with every last goal and dream in life fulfilled to the max, is there ANYthing... one or two things maybe, about the homeschool life, the sacrifices of parenting full time etc that you've seen that make you glad you've made the choices you've made?
I only read a few posts on the thread that spun this off because it made me so sad... And I haven't read any of the replies on this thread... And I haven't ridden off into the sunset because my girls are only eleven and eight...BUT...
I wouldn't trade this time with them for anything. 18 years each, that's all I get of them at home before they go off and make their own lives. This time is so precious. No, I have no idea what I will do when this time is over. So much time will have passed(has already passed) that stepping back into my career will be impossible. I don't care. I wouldn't give this up for a moment. Is it all sunshine and roses? Nope. But what is?
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Wow, thanks! That's on our read-aloud list this year and I've just saved myself some breath. Now I can color with the girls while we all listen! What a bargain.
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Sorry, forgot to add that you have to call them. They will want some kind of verification that you are home educating (since I'm in a no-reg state, I have no documentation but they accepted a brief e-mailed statement from me including my contact info and the ages & grade levels of the kids I'm educating). I suspect they're trying to prevent people whose kids use it at school from buying it just obtain answer keys (at least is what my high schooler theorized and it made sense to me).
The price for a single copy including the answer key was around $30, I think (don't quote me- it's been a while since I bought it). This is higher than the price for schools because they buy copies in bulk.
Thanks. That's really helpful. I really liked what I saw in the sample but didn't know how to get a copy. It's kind of pricey, isn't it? (For spiral review I mean. I'm not afraid to spends lots on our primary curriculum.)
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I've used both. I didn't care for the look of HWT when my oldest used it and I'm not sure she thought it was that great either. I started my youngest with LOE Rhythm... and it's much prettier. I don't think one is harder or easier than the other. Pick whichever you like and be consistent.
ETA: My oldest has changed over to a more traditional style and really prefers it.
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We did about half of RSO chemistry and we did Nancy Larson 2 and 3. Of the two, I prefer Nancy Larson. I guess I felt like it was more open and go and since I don't like to spend a lot of time planning, I really appreciated that. On the other hand, Nancy Larson is pretty schooly and we ditched the worksheets and some of the scriptedness to make it our own. Maybe I'm just not good at curriculum. That seems to be the case more and more these days. :)
ETA: I think I also appreciated that Nancy Larson isn't a full year of a single topic so around the time you get tired of pulleys, etc, you move on to a bird study. That said, we are giving RSO Biology 2 a shot this year and I'm really excited about it.
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Two words: Simple Solutions!! It has been so perfect for exactly this purpose for us. It is quick, painless, and never allows her to forget a single concept because they are revisited so frequently, but without out endless repetition. My girls can do it completely independently, and my DD11 can even grade hers using the answer key, make corrections, and file it away all on her own (I check it frequently) in about 15 minutes per day. We began using it alongside Math Mammoth at the grade 5 level. She has completed grades 5, 6, & 7 and will be using Simple Solutions 8 next year alongside Algebra 1. DD7 has just begun with Simple Solutions 2.
Here's a link:
Where do you buy that? It looks like the link only caters to schools.
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Did you know that Math Mammoth has a review workbook that is spiral? My youngest tends to forget some basic concepts like time and money if we don't touch on them often so we used this with Beast Academy this year.
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We usually start back when the public school starts back and run about the same schedule because my oldest dances a lot and the studio follows the public school schedule. So, we finished end of May and will start back first of August. I understand why you would want to change that because of the temperature (it's super hot here too), but it's just easier for us to be doing what our friends and extracurriculars are doing. I second showing them the calendar and letting them see that they are getting just as much vacation as everyone else just at a different time and explain why. Your kids are old enough to be reasonable about these kinds of things. If they don't like it, you can go one of two ways with it:
1. Tough luck kids, I make the schedule.
2. If you don't like this plan, get together with your siblings and present something you think you would like better and be prepared to convince me that your plan is superior. (I think this sounds like a kind of fun assignment actually.)
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With my youngest about 30 and with my oldest it became closer to 45 - 60. We don't go by number of pages because it can really vary depending on what's on the page. And, if the work is really frustrating, doesn't matter how much time we've spent on it, we just put it away and pick it up the next day. With a fresh mind, they are usually able to tackle it and work it out.
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We probably spent 3 to 3.5 hours on it a week. One hour of that was the online lecture/discussion, and the remainder was split between reading the text and hands on demonstration type things. We made a fountain of the type invented by a 1 AD physicist (that was probably out favorite activity) and did some hands on things with the Pythagorean theorem. We measured the circumference of the earth. She had lots of things to do and I really appreciated that it wasn't read the book, listen to this lecture and then fill out this worksheet. The instructor is great, she seems very knowledgeable. There are plenty of opportunities to discuss things in class and she also has online office hours if the kids have other things they want to talk about. She's kind of nerdy like my daughter and referenced things like Avatar: The Last Airbender, ViHart's youtube channel, and I don't remember what else, but she really seems to get children and she has a youngish daughter herself so maybe that's why. We liked it enough to sign up for her next class.
The online portal is really well designed and once my daughter figured out how to navigate it, I was able to mostly turn the class over to her.
My only complaint, and it isn't about the class, is about the text itself. The information is great and very interesting, but the presentation is very ADHD. There are so many sidebars and other topic boxes that it sometimes really hard to read. I finally asked my daughter to just read through the chapter just reading the main text and then return to the start of the chapter and read all the extras. Maybe it's not the best method but I haven't found a better one.
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RSO has a new Physics text. It's brand new so I don't think you will find any reviews.
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http://giftedhomeschoolers.org/ghf-online/
We've taken the Aristotle course and are signed up for Newton in the fall.
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I'm curious too.
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I've been trying to track that book down for ages. Wonder how it ended up at your place??? 😉
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It's huge! I'm planning to spread it out over two years for my sixth grader.
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Poor guy. Anxiety stinks no matter what age. I keep thinking as my daughter gets older that I'll be able to reason with her (which is just stupid as I have anxiety and I'm not at all reasonable when it crops up).
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If it is not bad and you want to start with something non-prescription, you could try a zinc supplement and an over-the-counter Benzoyl Peroxide. We liked this one:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00PO7GKLM/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A28UFSKYB7UQEA
However, the dd who used that combination did need to have something stronger earlier. She had batches of cystic acne which would suddenly pop up, and she did need to go on various strong prescription creams and an oral antibiotic. A few years later, when it started to come back, she was able to get rid of it with just the oral antibiotic and the two items above. Now, she uses just the items above right when she feels it first returning.
My other dd has severe cystic acne, and she definitely needs the prescriptions. It was really, really bad in high school, and at first even the prescriptions didn't seem to help, but at about the 4 months point, she finally turned the corner and after about 6 months her face was cleared up. After another 6 months, she went off of everything because her skin was so clear! That was a mistake. It returned with a vengeance about 6 months later, even worse, if that's possible. That was about 3 years ago. She has remained on prescriptions ever since -- the creams, plus birth control pills. (No longer the oral antibiotic.) Her skin is gorgeous. But she definitely needed/needs the prescriptions.
My parents spent a lot of money at the dermatologist and it did help, but birth control pills are what finally helped. I know that's not what most people want to hear.
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This is simply not true. Additionally try get cancer treatment here in the US if you have no insurance or money to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars. My mom was told no chemo unless she could pay her bill despite having insurance (which we were grateful for since my parents went without insurance for 3 years and certainly could not afford to pay for health care out of pocket).
This article debunks what you have said:
http://www.pnhp.org/news/2012/june/5-myths-about-canada%E2%80%99s-health-care-system
My mother had to apply for a grant to receive radiation as palliative care for the stage 4 cancer that killed her. She was unable to afford insurance even though she was working full times before her condition prevented it.
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I second the psychiatrist comment. We went onto a six month waiting list for Emory in nearby Atlanta for my daughter who was really suffering. After two months they called to tell me that they wouldn't be able to see us at all, they were just too booked. I could have spent that time on someone else's wait list. Three months later we were finally seen by someone else. This is for a child who could not be more than a foot from me, no longer slept at all, and had hands that were cracked and bleeding from constant OCD hand washing. Thank God we were homeschoolers because going to school would not have even been a possibility. There was one place we could have gotten in...a place that didn't take any insurance at all... Just cash at the door, $2000 for initial consultation alone. It was money I didn't have or we would have been all over it.This is quite possibly the first step towards a single payer system. It will continue to be a bloody battle which will last for many more years to come and likely none of us will be entirely pleased with the result.
For all of you who think you can see a specialist quickly in the US: That is not true nationwide. Try to find a psychiatrist in many areas and you will be in for a big surprise. Don't even think about easy access to a psychiatric hospital for inpatient care - the beds simply aren't there. In some areas, the general practitioner is the only MD with hospital privileges. If you have a heart attack, you end up waiting at the local hospital for an ambulance to arrive from a city an hour or more away so that you can transfer to a cardiology unit. Maybe, just maybe, a cardiologist will come through your small town and see patients once a month. That's fine if you're stable, but if you're newly diagnosed, you're going to need to make many road trips to see a specialist.
My family has received excellent health are here, largely due to he fact that we live near many research hospitals. But, I by no means think that everyone has access to this level of care. In fact, it likely never occurred to my husband's parents that this level of care we receive even existed. The first time my MIL saw a cardiologist was when she needed bypass surgery. He estimated that she had previously had around ten heart attacks and over 50% of her heart muscle was "dead." She died at the age of 63.
Access to healthcare is inconsistent.
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My daughter's broken arm cost us four thousand and did not require surgery. EKG and simple bloodwork to ensure my oldest was healthy before starting ADHD medication...$2000. Health insurance for my family including company contribution monthly...$1600. It's disgusting.Here is a total thread derail, but us healthcare is so overpriced. I don't even get it. My ds4 broke his arm recently and we just got the bill from the surgeon-$1530. It was pretty much a no complication break (it was buckling a little so it needed reduction). The surgeon was with us for maybe 5-10 minutes and it definitely wasn't a surgery. The bill wasn't even for the hospital visit or X Ray. We have really good insurance and it pays 100% for accidental injuries, but no wonder insurance is so expensive. The insurance paid over $1300 for that. I know we pay for the surgeon's knowledge, but $1500 for a run of the mill broken arm still seems ridiculous.
ETA: I see the insurance company made billions in profits. I guess $1500 broken arms mY not be hurting them that much
ETA: Out of pocket.
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And... anyone else also always get the urge to visit a place when the currency drops? I was like, ooh, dh, let's do a quickie London trip. :001_rolleyes: (that eyeroll is for myself)
I'm already booked for Northern Ireland (and have been for a year). I felt guilty thinking I was glad my money will go further.
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Been pretty much there with other clothing: tags, socks, shoes, wrinkles in any sort of clothing. How old is your son?
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Because it's ridiculous to tell teenage girls that their bodies are their own and no one else can tell them what to do with their bodies, and then try to control their bodies over something as trivial as eyeliner?
Wish I could like this more than once.
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So excited for you!
Was/ is any of it worth it?
in The Chat Board
Posted · Edited by ZaraBellesMom
ETA: it wasn't really about the sofa though... It was more of a symptom of an unsettled life where needs frequently went unmet. I admit, I have the luxury of homeschooling. Our bills are more than paid and life is good. If things were different, I never would have left the workforce.