TGTB free Marine Biology unit

[TGTB free Marine Biology unit]

Thank you! We love science unit studies. 🙂

[Book rec on bipolar disorder?]

Hmm...I wouldn't assume those characteristics were caused by the bipolar disorder. That might just be a "difficult person" thing, or perhaps indicative of a different disorder. 

[Pity party - don't post if you are in a 'buck up, buttercup' mood please :)]

I'm sorry that you're feeling crummy. *hugs* 

[I need a REALLY great game for 10-12 year old boys]

We just had a homeschool board game day and King of Tokyo was the biggest hit among the 8-12 boys crowd. Some other favorites of my boys (8 and 11) are Castle Panic (cooperative and lots of available expansions), Flash Point (ditto) , and Memoir '44 (2 players or teams, recreates WW2 battles).

[Does this seem off to you - hs FB group]

19 minutes ago, unsinkable said:

 "Yeah, "oh sh!t." Took a hard, hard, violent fall. Kind of pinballed down. Hit a lot of railings, broke a lot of sh!t. I'm not going to say I survived, I'm going to say I thrived. I met a dolphin down there. And I swear to God, that dolphin looked not at me, but into my soul, into my g--d--n soul, Annie. And he said, "I'm saving you Megan." Not with his mouth, but he said it, I'm assuming, telepathically. "

/Bridesmaids

I saw this in the little preview in the thread list and thought "oh my, this thread has certainly taken a turn." I'm both relieved and disappointed that this is a movie quote. 

[Chemistry Suggestions? Real Science Odyssey Chemistry?]

We are using Ellen McHenry's The Elements for chemistry this fall. It has been a hit for all of my kids, 5th, 2nd, and K. We are supplementing with Theodore Gray's The Elements, which is a pretty photo book with an entry for each element. It's not a full-year course, but it could be a fun supplement for a yearlong course. 

[What is it with Skeptics]

2 minutes ago, Bluegoat said:

 

 

OB care in general involves a lot more elements.  Synergies, and practices you don't want to randomly change, psychological elements.  The demand for clear evidence in clinical trials, for everything, just seems out of place.  

I don't know--when I was making decisions about OB care I was grateful to have studies that showed which course was more likely to have the desired outcome. OB has the added difficulty that the "safer" option is sometimes different for mom and baby. And in the US, adding in midwifery care further muddies the waters, since there are different ways of certifying midwives and not all types of midwives are recognized at a national level. 

[Hits and Misses 2018-2019]

Hits:

Megawords. My dyslexic ds is doing well with this, and he usually doesn't grumble about it. lol 

Latina Christiana. On its own there isn't enough practice, but ds practices conjugations or declensions each day and we made a memory game for vocab review. All of the kids enjoy playing the memory game so maybe they'll be ahead of the curve when they start formal Latin study.

Miquon. This is great for my K and 2nd kiddos. Cuisenaire rods are fun, and the worksheets are uncrowded and unintimidating. 

History of US by Joy Hakim. My fifth grader loves this. I love that he loves it. ? I think it's a little busy with all of the side bars, and I'm not crazy about the tone, but it's written to kids so that's not unexpected. 

Handwriting without Tears cursive. All of my kids are doing this. They are all doing great and are proud of their pretty writing, so that's a win.

Ellen McHenry The Elements + Theodore Gray's Elements book. We all do this together, and the kids absorb the age-appropriate amount of knowledge. 

Misses:

Torchlight K. Like a previous poster said, this has turned into an expensive reading list. We do like the books, and will continue to read them. We don't use the schedule or the assignments.

Beast Academy. It was a hit last year, so I don't know what happened this year. Oh well. We'll try again in the spring or next school year. 

MCT language arts. I so wanted this to be a hit. I think that I need to accept that this is not going to work for my 5th grader. Maybe it will work for the next kiddo. 

                              

 

[Does atypical behavior get worse with age (ASD question)]

I'm not sure that atypical behavior actually gets worse, but I think that it becomes more obviously different from typical behavior. You would expect a three year old to flop on the floor, regardless of neurological wiring. but by 8 or 9, only the neurodivergent kids are likely to show that type of behavior.

[Better than Expo dry erase markers?]

My kids like the Crayola fine point dry erase markers, but I think the colors are kind of blah. They are fun for drawing pictures on the white board, but I prefer Expo for writing on our laminated schedules. 

[How you pronounce "wh"]

26 minutes ago, countrymum said:

I didn't use to. Then i took an Orton Gillingham class. Now I over use it... replace w with wh in other words. All of my in laws use it correctly.

I never used it until I used Lindamood Phoneme Sequencing with my kids. Now I over-enunciate wh words to an annoying extreme. Lol

[Do you answer your door to strangers?]

I usually don’t, but a few weeks ago we had a very confused elderly lady knock on the door asking for help. She had dementia and couldn’t find her way home. I was glad that I broke my don’t answer rule for her—I hate to think what could have happened if she had wandered around in the dark all night. 

[When you bake a pie]

I cover the edge for most of the cook time, and pull the foil off near the end if I want it browner. 

[Crossword Puzzle Generator?]

My ds is asking for more crossword puzzles for spelling and Latin practice. Does anyone have a go-to resource for making crosswords? The free crossword makers I've used have been so glitchy that at this point I'm willing to pay a few bucks for a good program for making word puzzles. Of course free is always good too, if you know a good source. Thanks!

[I actually abandoned my plan to go to Costco because it was]

I was out last night doing my usual last-minute Halloween costume search and the roads were terrible. So many people. I have to finish up today and I'm dreading it.

[The evolution of homeschooling and its consequence(s)]

13 hours ago, Serenade said:

 

I have heard many homeschoolers say that it's up to their kids to learn something, by going to Kahn Academy or researching on the internet.  It is almost said in a boastful way, like "Why are you helping your student?  They should be learning this on their own."  

This sounds like my high school algebra 2 teacher. The class started with a full roster of 28ish students and by Christmas had about 12. At that point the administration refused to transfer out any more students. Why was he still teaching? His sports teams won state championships. 

11 hours ago, kiwik said:

I wouldn't say it is easy but for many of us who have been forced into homeschooling not having to deal with the school any more makes it seem easier than school.  I really wasn't aware how stressed we both were until there was no more school.  It is going to get harder as he gets older but our house is a lot happier.

I read a couple of ebooks saying how easy it was and that "most homeschooled kids have an online teacher" both of which confused me as I had been hanging round here for years.

I wasn't forced into homeschooling, but after watching what my friend has gone through trying to get appropriate education for her son who has many of the same difficulties as my eldest, I can't believe that public school would be any easier. Definitely a choose your hard situation. 

4 hours ago, regentrude said:

That is ridiculous and shows that they don't understand that learning a skill is not the same as looking up a tidbit of information on the internet. They would not expect their kids to pick up a violin and self teach from internet videos. 

 

I can't believe how many requests I see on fb hs groups for just this type of program. 

 

[S/o Lottery winnings Have you known a winner?]

I don't know anybody who plays. Or maybe they just don't tell me because I've occasionally made the crack about the lotto being a tax on people who are bad at math. 

[Best small games to take traveling ...]

We like Hive for a two-person travel game. 

[Sanity check - vandalism?]

Vandalism seems like a ridiculous way to describe being a goofball. I wouldn't be happy either. 

[Astronomy - looking for something like Ellen McHenry units]

We haven't used the series for older kids, but we like the books from Nomad press. Planetary Science is for middle school level. 

[On Sunday I spend an afternoon holding a baby...]

16 minutes ago, Liz CA said:

Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww. Super cuteness, warm and fuzziness all rolled into one.

If you hold another baby next Sunday, what will you bring home next?  ?

 

I think my dh would prefer I not hold any more babies for a while--while he knew that I was thinking about bringing home "a kitten," the second was a bit of a surprise for him. ?

[Lack of secular science options]

We have really enjoyed building unit studies around the Nomad Press books. Geology of the Pacific Northwest was a big hit. Explore the Solar System has some fun, easy projects. We plan on using the Evolution book alongside the BYL evolution unit study. We did the BYL prehistory unit study last year and my kids loved, loved, loved it, so we're looking forward to the evolution study when they are a bit older. ACS has some chemistry units that we haven't used yet, but we will integrate into our non-secular chemistry choice for this year. lol

[On Sunday I spend an afternoon holding a baby...]

On Tuesday I bring home these cuties.

I'm sure it was just a coincidence.

[Homeschool group expectations - need input]

I agree with some of the previous posters that with the restrictions you have, it will be very difficult to have the kind of commitment that you want from this group. I'm not terribly experienced with this type of thing, being more of a wallflower than a leader, but in my experience free and committed only works if the families already have strong relationships. Starting something like this from scratch with random families seems difficult. I would complain about flakey homeschoolers, but honestly, I'm one of them. ? 

 

[S/o Unattractive]

Lots of the SNL stars aren't conventionally beautiful. I guess you get a pass if you're funny?