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edelweiss

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Posts posted by edelweiss

  1. Both of my girls have found their passions. :001_wub:

     

    DD8 loves dance. She takes advanced-level ballet, hip hop, jazz, tap, and modern. Ballet is her main "thing" though and she is very good. She just won a "starring"/solo role in the Nutcracker for her age level. She also does gymnastics and art and enjoys those classes too, but dance is her passion.

     

    DD11 loves horseback riding. She would live at the barn if she could. We bought her a horse, so now she is really in heaven. She is the youngest person on the equestrian team. She loves showing and wants to do something equestrian-related for her career. She also takes dance and art and gymnastics, but horseback riding is what she loves.

     

    I'm so glad that both of them have found their passions. It was one of my main goals for them. I never developed much of an interest in anything and still don't have a passion. :sad: I'm glad that I could help them find theirs.

  2. Major peeve- People who do not even acknowledge that you went out of your way to let them into traffic or to hold a door for them.

     

    Yes... I mean you "Mr. Full-Suit Business Man with the cell phone glued to your ear who did not even glance at my dd13 who politely went out of her way to hold the door of the restaurant open for you this past week".

     

    I have spent years teaching my children good manners and a respect for other people. Thank you for screwing that up with your selfish, entitled attitude!

     

    (Is it wrong that I have the tendency lately to give a very loud "You're welcome" after encountering oafs such as above?)

     

    Oh, there are so many mentioned that I agree with, but this is a big one for me. I have to admit that a loud "You're welcome" is exactly what I do. I swear that some people think that I am a paid doorman or something. :confused:

  3. I am super-punctual so this would drive me insane. My mother has never been on time in her life and it used to drive me crazy. I hated how disorganized I appeared because she was always late (and I had to count on her to get me places).

     

    So, I am always on time, but I have learned that time is a more amorphous concept to some people. :D So, I usually expect people to be 20-30 minutes late, but two hours??? :eek: That is so rude and I wouldn't be inviting that person to much again.

  4. I really do not like cell phones. I do not want to just give my cell phone number to anyone and have it ringing while I am doing things. I don't want to be one of those people with a constantly ringing cell phone. Many businesses around here are even putting up signs now asking for people to not use their cell phones inside. The people that might truly need to talk to me or that I want to talk to have my cell number. Anyone else can call the landline and leave a message. I can also hear much better on the landline phone.

     

    I agree with all of this. I give very few people my cell phone number, and even those people are encouraged to text, not call, me on it.

  5. We keep our landline for various reasons:

     

    -- For emergencies

     

    -- So that the whole world isn't able to reach me by cell phone. This is a biggie for me. I *like* the fact that I mainly give out my home phone number and that all of those calls go through my Caller ID and then to my answering machine. I would absolutely HATE it if my cell phone was constantly ringing with every Tom, Dick, and Harry calling.

     

    -- There is inconclusive evidence about the safety of frequent cell phone use. My daughters are at the ages that they want to talk on the phone more often. I don't like the thought of them using a cell phone all of the time.

  6. I'm having the same dilemma. DD8 has asked for an iPod Touch for Christmas. I was planning to get it for her and then the Fire came out. I preordered it for her, but I'm not sure that she will like the Fire better or that she would prefer the Touch since it is small and portable. :confused: Maybe I should stick with the iPod Touch and get her a regular Kindle instead?? I'm so confused!!

  7. Not me! Homeschooling is my only DIY project. I don't sew or garden and hate to do crafts. We hire out for home projects and car repairs (fortunately, we can afford to do so). Maybe that is why so many people are surprised that I started homeschooling and have stuck with it for 6 years. ;) I don't think I fit the mold of the typical homeschooler. :001_huh:

  8. Yup. :)

     

    http://www.danaramsey.com/ Here's her website, if the op is interested. She did a great job, had a very pleasant demeanor, and was very affordable.

     

    How funny! Small world. We've used her for several years as well. We really like her a lot. She used to be closer to us when she lived in Dublin, but I have no problem driving out to Marysville to use her. I always look forward to having her do the assessments and analyzing the results.

  9. NO, I would not allow the results to be sent to the school. You do not legally have to do the testing through them, not in Ohio, and I would not do it if that's what they want. Testing can be as cheap as $25, so there's no reason to be required to give them more information than legally required. In Ohio they only get the top number (the composite score), nothing else. No subscores, nothing. So if you're not going to receive the scores directly, I would definitely think through your comfort. If money is an issue, I guess just do the testing through the school. If you have the $25, the CAT is quick and can be administered by the parent. We've done it through CLP and Seton, and both were fine. BJU has a testing service for the Iowa and others.

     

    I've also already forgotten, did you say your dc is SN? You mentioned wanting to know where he's really performing vs. what a standardized test will show you. What you want is the Woodcock Johnson III (WJIII). It has no ceiling and is given one-on-one with a tester. It cost us $75 this past year with a lady in (sorry I've forgotten the town, west side of Columbus), and it was a good process. It's still standardized, still works for your state-reporting (only the top/composite number!), but the tester keeps going to find the dc's ceiling. Gives you a much better picture of what is going on when you have a complex kid. You can see the math way up, the spelling way down, reading off the charts, whatever. Results in a very thorough, multi-page printout explaining everything. Lots of info, less time (~2 hours), and not that much more cost.

     

    I've done both the portfolio review and the testing, because I wanted the feedback I was getting from someone who had kids like mine. You're allowed to pick your reviewer, so you are in control of finding someone who will actually have valuable feedback for you. If it's just a regular teacher who's going to be wowed and rubberstamp, that's not much help. I wanted someone who would dig a bit and tell me something useful. Every year the lady spent several hours with me, looking at what we had done, looking at what I had planned for next year, suggesting goals/holes. It was a very worthwhile process and one I highly recommend. As you know, the tests aren't going to tell you the whole picture, only how he's doing on what they test. That live person sees the rest.

     

    The other nice thing about doing both is it both gave me peace of mind, quantifying how we were doing AND gave the reviewer additional information to work with. She could look at the test scores, look at what we had been doing, and read the tea leaves. We try to do that ourselves, but fresh eyes are good too, kwim?

     

    Just ask around and see what you find and what you want to do. Remember, just because you test DOESN'T mean you have to turn in the scores. You can test, keep the scores, and turn in the letter with the portfolio reviewer sig. It's your choice. Either way you're fulfilling the law.

     

    Is your assessor named Dana by any chance? She sounds like the one that we use. :001_smile:

  10. In our family, college is presented as the next step. We never discuss it as an option. It is just what you do next. I have every expectation that both of my daughters will attend and finish college. I think it helps that we live in an affluent area where pretty much everyone goes to college. I sincerely doubt that it will ever enter my kids' minds to not go to college.

     

    If, by some chance, the unthinkable did happen and one of them didn't want to go to college, we would be supportive of their choice. We would wish them well, but I would also make it clear that we will be there for them if (I suspect "when" is more likely) they decide to go to college after all.

  11. Yes, we will be paying for our kids to attend college. DH and I paid for college ourselves with no help from our parents, and we want something different for our children. We can afford to pay for their college, and I can't imagine a better way to spend our money. One reason that we only had two children was to be able to give them a nice leg up in life.

     

    We will expect them to take college seriously though because we're not going to just pay for them to party. They are only 8 and 11 but we've been talking about our expectations for years. ;)

     

    We won't limit their choices of majors, but we will be involved and discuss pros and cons of things for them. For instance, my older DD will likely go to a college with a strong equestrian studies program. It is her passion and she wants to consider various careers in that field. I will absolutely support that, but I'll also encourage a double major or a minor in something more "mainstream".

  12. I don't think we have any misses so far! However, we haven't started IEW's poetry memorization program or our typing program, and I still need to add a Spanish program (once I figure out which one to use). So, we might still have a miss or too yet.

     

    Hits:

     

    CLE Math and CLE Reading-- 2nd year that we've used them and we still love them

     

    IEW SWI-A-- My girls are really liking this; they hated WWE and Writing Tales, so I'm very pleased

     

    Sequential Spelling-- We still love this

     

    Nancy Larson Science 3-- I debated about whether or not to call this a hit because I'm a little bit disappointed in it. However, it is actually getting done and my girls don't mind it, so I guess it is a hit! Science has been my homeschooling nemesis so far. :glare: NL Science is actually getting done and my girls are learning quite a bit.

     

    Winterpromise American Story 2-- I know that WP has a bad rep (and I agree that the customer service is awful), but we have enjoyed their programs and this one is no different.

     

    Beautiful Feet History of a Horse- My little equestrienne loves it!

     

    Beautiful Feet Geography-- The girls love the stories. They aren't thrilled with all of the map work, but they tolerate it.

     

    Extras (all of these are going fairly well):

    Math Detective

    Life of Fred-- Fractions and Cats

    Singapore Challenging Word Problems

    Reading Detective

    Mind Benders

    Balance Benders

    Crypto Mind Benders

  13. My DD had a similar problem when we used MUS. I always read how you should choose a math program and stick with it, so we used MUS for Primer through Gamma. At the start of Delta, I gave up because I was so disappointed at how little she was retaining. She hated math and it was always a struggle.

     

    We switched to CLE and now she doesn't mind math at all! She is retaining SO much more and her math scores went way up. The constant spiral of concepts really helps her. We love it!

  14. We followed a similar path with DD11. We started out with a couple of years of MUS. She didn't like it and she didn't retain what she should. I ended up buying MM and CLE and originally used them both simultaneously. She didn't love MM at all, but she really loves CLE!! She is absolutely thriving with it. I would give CLE a try. Order a Light Unit or two. It is such a small investment and you can see what she thinks. :001_smile:

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