Entropymama
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Posts posted by Entropymama
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:grouphug: :grouphug: :grouphug:
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It might be normal, as in a lot of families do this, but it's not okay. DH flushed his mother's pearl earrings down the toilet when he was 3 or 4 (he was too young to remember). Every time we get together with them, which isn't often, it's brought up. Drives me insane. He laughs it off, and I know they aren't meaning to be hurtful, but it's cruel to embarrass someone in the name of fun.
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Another factor in the housing debate is the fact that standards have changed a lot in the last 50-60 years. My grandparents raised their six kids in military housing, often 2-3 bedrooms for all 8 of them. Four years ago we moved into a condo so we could save money to buy a house. We rented a 3 bedroom, 1400 square foot place and had 5 kids at the time. It was fine, a bit cramped but not a big deal, but the only reason we got into it was the landlord was nice and let us leave one of our kids off the application. Occupancy laws state you can only have 2 people per bedroom in a rental. Our landlord told stories about sleeping in the bathtub as a kid because they had 7 or 8 kids in a little house, so he didn't care. This kind of thing puts a real crunch on larger families who may already be struggling with higher food and clothing costs. We make too much for section 8 or any other kind of assistance, but if we'd had to rent a bigger place we couldn't have saved for a down payment and bought a place, and when you're renting you're subject to increases, which means whatever you're saving can be gone next year. And the vicious cycle continues.
Another interesting thought - I looked up the income requirements in my state to receive aid, and my dh could make $25/hour and still qualify with our family size. At $15/hour (the supposed living wage) a family of four would still qualify for assistance. So is $15/hour even a livable wage?
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What we see here is that the desired job for high school or 2 yr CC grads is a govt job. Compensation is very good compared to what could be had in nongovt. Doing same work.
I can attest to this. As a 22 year old with an associate's degree from a community college I was able to land a city government job that paid $21/hour and had amazing health benefits (this was over 10 years ago, so I don't know what it's like now). I couldn't get anything anywhere close to that in the private sector. It was a dream job.
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Trouble is Entropy that very often schools and parents are not handling it. My brother had to make it clear to his kids' school that if they couldn't stop his oldest from being punched in the face by a boy who, at the ripe old age of 8, runs around bullying and swearing like a sailor that he would be forced to escalate the issue to the district and the district said that in cases like that the police and social services needed to get involved. Approaching the other parents just spurred them to throw a stream of obscenities and threats to my brother. What can parents with bullied kids do if the school and parents just don't give a rip?
Good point, and that's why I think there's more to the story. Maybe the parents had tried to deal with it and weren't able to get the school to cooperate. Maybe this has been an ongoing issue. Who knows? I can nearly guarantee this article isn't telling the full story, because one pinch between middle school students does not get you a police response. Unless this was a school resource officer? I don't remember seeing that.
Was it sexual harassment? I don't know. 12 is a funny age; some 12 year olds are quite sexually mature and socially adept and yeah, capable of sexual harassment. Others are totally clueless and have NO idea that their game isn't funny to other kids. An adult stranger pinching someone's backside is totally different than 12 year old classmates doing it, especially if it's a one time thing. All adults should know that touching a stranger's sensitive bits is a no-no, not so with all kids and their friends. I disagree that we should treat kids in school with their peers the way we treat adults dealing with society at large. School is a place to learn and grow. OTOH, what are they learning if these things aren't handled properly? Very touchy subject, and even harder to navigate when we're not dealing with people and events we know personally.
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The Phoenix Zoo is fantastic. It's a bit of a drive from Glendale, though. Will you have a car?
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Honestly. I used to work for a police dept and if someone called and 'reported' this we would have told them to have the parents and teachers handle it. I mean, yeah, it's wrong and all, but police? Sheesh. I do think there's something more going on for them to be involved.
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:grouphug: :grouphug:
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Nothing more to add that hasn't been said, just wanted to :grouphug:
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Define 'not too long' and 'an easy read' for a 19 year old. Is this high school or college? Before 1877 is pretty vague. Ancients? Medieval? Any particular area of the word interest him?
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You get out there and experience it. Maybe you find a lot of things you hate, but you keep seeking something meaningful. Maybe you find the perfect job or maybe you don't. While you are seeking, though, you may find other things that are meaningful to you that you hadn't even realized you would enjoy/care about.
This sounds great, except when you're pushing 40 there's not that much time to get out there and try things. I completely hear you Moxie, I'm at a point where in a few years I might have all my kids in school. I hate the thought of sitting around at home all day. (Ok, that's a lie, but I do feel like if I have that much time I ought to be making some money). The problem is that I want to have a good-paying, enjoyable job and those can be hard to find.
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The Clown of God by Tommie de Paola. I have read that book no less than 30 times to my kids and I still cry every. single. time.
The Railway Children. The Wheel on the School. Probably 70% of our read aloud books.
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I like FaithManor's list a lot. It's incredibly hard to pick, because it depends on the purpose of reading them. I'm going to assume I'm suggesting books to an adult who never got much of a classical education and wants to be culturally literate in America. I'd say:
To Kill A Mockingbird
Animal Farm or Fahrenheit 451
Something JRR Tolkien, either the trilogy or the Hobbit if three books is too much
Shakespeare's sonnets, or a selection thereof (I think they're easier to work through)
Uncle Tom's Cabin or The Diary of Anne Frank
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I just tried to access a recipe on a site that did this to me. You had to sign up for free membership with their site just to look - I think it was Yummly? I was astonished. Don't they know how many other sites offer recipes online? But I guess somebody does it.
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It's not directly linked to this rticle, but it came up in the original thread - what about the state of vocational training?
Thinking about the two together - universities in general are finding the kids who are university bound are not well-prepared, totally apart from what the guy in this article said. But at the same time, kids are not coming out of high school with job skills for feilds that do not require university either.
In some systems kids used to have (and in some countries this is still true) the option of learning real job skills and getting qualifications in high school. Here, the "vocational" school was right next to the high school, and kids could enter as early as grade 10, and so be qualified at a trade of some kind by the time they were 18 or 19.
It seems to me there is some kind of link, maybe, between these problems? It seems to me that to some extent it is that the school doesn't seem to know what it is actually trying to accomplish, apart from giving out diplomas.
I've been very happy with the philosophy of the high school we chose for dd next year. They have a college track, but also a couple of options for skills training in various fields, as well as an art track. And you can switch from one to another without jeopardizing graduation because those classes are the electives. We'll see how it works in practice, but in theory it sounds good.
They aren't teaching the classics, rhetoric or philosophy, but kids will leave with either really great math and english skills, or the ability to do car maintenance, use a 3d printer or build websites.
Possibly part of the problem is that the general population has such high expectations of high schools. They're supposed to graduate almost everyone with excellent verbal and math skills, an understanding of Western culture as well as a global perspective, have read the classics and also be computer literate and tech savvy and have job skills that allow them to land good-paying jobs right out of high school. No wonder it's tough.
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Bluecoat- note that some of the knowledge is is lamenting a loss of is fairly unnecessary to many.
I can answer more than half the questions correctly and answer that yes I have read most of those books. It is not some accident either, nor did the answers get dumped into my otherwise know nothing self by what he calls old fashioned teachers or a serendipitous course selection. Of the things he raised which I know, I know because I read a lot and went to a fabulous PUBLIC school with some amazing (and even fairly young) teachers. And why did that happen? Because I WANTED to read and WANTED to go to school. Yes there are kids who don't read or don't like school. But you know, there have always been kids like that.
It seems some make a second career out of (or catch bylines) by calling young people vapid and pronouncing them lacking in the moral fiber and intellect departments.
I don't doubt that the professors of his college years said similar things about his generation. Everyone thinks they are smarter than those whippersnappers!
There's just so much wrong about this article but I won't pick the whole thing apart. For one, there's this thing called dinner to cook. For two, why bother? There are thousands of other self satisfied snotty articles like it and there will be thousands more for each and every future generation.
I don't think he was criticizing the students at all, in fact he had quite a few good things to say about them. His issue, in my eyes, was with the education they received and whether it prepared them to lead our nation.
I have always believed that there are things that educated people should know. I'm not talking about the kind of in-depth knowledge you spoke of regarding the presidents, I'm talking about general knowledge. Begin aware of certain people and events. That would include knowing why Roman civilization has impact on today's Western culture, for example, but I wouldn't limit it to Western culture either; I think everyone should know who Gandhi and Confucius were. So in that respect, I agree with him. Our high school uses the Twilight books in one of its lit classes. I'm sure there are plenty of lessons that can be drawn from them, but I don't think that our current crop of students (as a rule) is learning about Socrates or reading Paradise Lost, and I think that's a shame.
On the other hand, I have a child in a classical school right now and I find myself struggling with the amount of information she is required to process. This week she has quarter finals, and her history test today is going to ask her to name a dozen WWWII battles, their locations and dates, the armies involved, casualty numbers and major effects of each one. It's daunting and feels really unnecessary. I've become the parent I never thought I'd be - telling her I don't care if she doesn't get As as long as she's learning and growing. I love how tough this school is because I think it is really preparing her for college, but I find myself frequently wondering why we're putting in so much effort when, as you mentioned, none of it is going to actually make her life any better or help her in the real world.
As I teach my younger kids, this is something I'm really struggling with - the balance between a solid, rigorous education and, you know, a life.
Also - you mentioned your son hasn't been entirely homeschooled, but the argument can be made that he hasn't received the typical public school education either.
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I hated the book. The whole car crash/party scene was just too weird and creepy for me. But I loved the movie! I really understood the characters better, and the main guy's motivation for doing what he did. Although if I hadn't read the book I don't think I would have enjoyed the movie as much. I never say this, by the way. I usually prefer books.
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Also, I don't know what you mean by large, but it sounds like some of these homes are huge. That's great if you can get it, but we have 2700 sf and it works very well. Probably because it's well laid out - just two big rectangles, one on top of the other. Not very pretty, but super functional.
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We have six kids in a traditional split-entry midwestern home. There are three bedrooms up and three down, and a living area on each floor. My older two, dd14 and ds12 have their own rooms downstairs. The third downstairs bedroom is shared by dd10 and dd1. Upstairs is the master and the room ds7 and ds5 share. School happens downstairs in the family room - we put an old dining table down there and some bookshelves and it works.
The only unique thing we've done is to keep the last upstairs bedroom empty. It's great for guests, or the baby to sleep in when there are friends over for dd10, or a quiet space for any of us to go when we need it. I don't know how long dd10 and dd1 will be able to share, but for now it's working well.
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Our teachers pay the rent. Understand that we are very small - we rent one room and have three consecutive classes, so the three teachers each pay 1/3 of the rent out of their fees.
I can't see needing to have a registration fee at this point. We have a class fee and a supply fee. The supply fee is what holds your spot and is nonrefundable. If we decide to have a party or field trip, it's optional and families that want to participate pay their way. We have no insurance, we're covered under the umbrella policy of the facility we rent from while we're there and if we do offsite activities the parents are there.
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Truthfully though, there are a lot of Americans of all ages who are fuzzy ondifferent subjects and can't answer basic questions about, say, the Constitution or correctly identify how many presidents we have had or who lack basic scientific literacy. I'm not seeing any solid evidence that rates of academic ignorance are skyrocketing or that this "know nothing" crap is limited to under 20s, under 30s or under 40s.
I sort of dismiss claims that western history is ending. Changing times =\= "End of History for the West". Doomsday much?
Do we have so little faith in ourselves and in our children that we think our kids will mark THE END?
My 12 year old knows a lot more about history that an average adult. I'm not going to trash my kid and the generation just a bit older than him.
Your kid is homeschooled. :D
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Ok, I'm maybe like Pandia Press. I do have a question about their teaching on evolution. I'm a Christian but agree with theistic evolution. I'm good with lessons on evolution but not if they say things like, "Hey, a bunch of people used to think God made the world but now we know they're wrong." What is the tone of this one?
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Next year we'll be doing biology, and while my 1st, 2nd and 6th graders will have a co-op class, my 7th grader will have aged out. My options are either to do Noeo Biology 2 and add more reading and possibly more experiments? Or to do Elementary Biology for the logic stage and add living books. I wish Noeo had a level 3, but it doesn't look like it's out yet.
Thoughts?
Moving kids around in rooms-help please!
in The Chat Board
Posted
I'd leave it empty. We did this with our kids and it's really nice having an open room for whatever kid needs some space. We also use it as a guest room or for the kids to set up a game or something they don't want anyone messing with.