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Annabel Lee

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Posts posted by Annabel Lee

  1. I had the chance to flip through one of the Quest guides quickly the other day and was impressed & curious. I didn't know this was something geared to different age levels - or is it? I thought it was a set of books like her history books. Both of my homeschoolers will be logic stage next year. Am I too late? Do you have to start at the beginning with these? How helpful are the Quest guides? Is SoS (haha, I keep thinking of Switched on Schoolhouse when I type that) something meant to be used as the main science course or as a "history of science" component of another science course? The math I saw in the guide was pretty advanced for a regular 5th grader. What grades are the books & guides meant for?

     

    Lastly, could this be used by a YEC with paraphrasing & discussion? Does Hakim stick to the secular science content of the subject she's covering and leave it at that, or does she address religious beliefs? What is her tone like towards them?

  2. Is RS4K a good choice for a 7th grader? I know they are shorter courses but I was planning to do at least 2 over the course of next year. Length of the program aside, does it challenge students during that time? Does it require them to stretch their thinking? Are there lab reports or activities to prepare students to do lab reports? Is the content of the course, however short, "rigorous and meaty" (to put it in Hive terms)?

     

    I read a FB discussion between a few moms about RS4K on a used homeschool curriculum facebook page that gave me pause. They have all used higher levels for younger kids than recommended (by RS4K) and agreed that it would need a lot of supplementation to be enough for the targeted grades.

     

    So, is it enough?

  3. A scientific origins curriculum that presents information from experts in at least 3 different perspectives, Science only evolution, old earth creation, and young earth creation, more perspectives would be nice as well. The key would be that it would be developed by scientists with each point of view, not just one point of view describing the other point of view. H(hope that makes sense) Maybe this exists, but I haven't heard of any. It will be a while before my kids will be old enough for it, so if anyone would to take my idea...

     

    A history curriculum with similar types of multi viewpoints of events would be nice too :)

     

    :iagree: This! I want it to be meaty & rigourous, too. I'd want WTM-style assignments (add major science events & scientists to timeline, writing assignments, sketches, etc.) woven into it, with each day and week telling me exactly what needs to be done without having to flip to an appendix or another book to find it. I'd like it for logic and high school levels, please. :) Oh, and when I recieve it in the mail, it should look professionally done, not just like things I print off my cheap-o home printer.

     

    While the writers are at it, they should write a history curriculum in the same manner, with coverage for all viewpoints.

  4. Denise, your response isn't stupid.

     

    Many of the little people in my area have shared similar feelings at local gov't budget meetings...a 20% cut when you've been receiving annual 3-5% raises in salary plus about the same in bennies yearly means you are set back less than 4 years. Everyone else, since early 1990s, has either lost their job and been declared a non-purple monkey or they've kept the job and they're doing five people's work with unpaid OT and unpaid mandatory leaves of absence, raises of less than 1% and decreased bennies annually...they get set back by COLA every year.

     

    I feel like I'm living some of the novels my children have read. How much is enough? 1/3 of the families in my area have their children on free lunch..and the majority aren't headed by single parents. Many are doubled up in housing. Rents are incredibly high to support taxes (6% state tax, 6% local tax plus federal). I've seen more gardens in the past two years than in the 20 previous. And the number of exempt properties on the tax roll is at an all time high. Walking outside after these meetings shows where the wealth is..nothing like seeing the person arguing for a 5% salary increase need tooling away in the Mercedes while the opposing viewpoints are in the old beat up junkers, carpooling with neighbors.

     

    I don't know why I feel the need to share this, but this has been happening to federal workers for years, too. There was a pay freeze for gov't civilian employees in a particular branch at the beginning of 2009, there have been no raises since. There have never been raises in benefits, if that is what you meant by "plus about the same in bennies". There has also been a hiring freeze on at dh's particular job for years, just as there has for his type of work on every other military installation in the U.S. They are severely understaffed, now doing a workload that used to be multiple jobs. They stopped paying overtime last year but still required him to work overtime. They pay in "comp. time", but there's never time to use it due to the staffing issue. So, he waits a full calendar year for the comp. time to convert to overtime pay, when it has depreciated some due to inflation.

     

    My family is kicked back financially to what we were making 10 yrs. ago.

     

    ETA: Wait a second, what kind of benefits are you all (other civilian gov't employees) getting? We don't even have vision and the dental is a joke (they pay $12 on a $400+ bill... practically nonexistant coverage), and the regular medical coverage is very limited. Where do people get these ideas that all federal employees have got it made?

  5. I had forgotten that the new revised BP schedules Hakim. Which row/column is it listed in on the grid schedule? Usually things are divided by age group. If it's the suggested reading for everyone, I'd assume they intended it to be for everyone (prob. read-aloud for youngers). We can give our advice until the cows come home, but I think you know your kids best. Go to B&N or your library and read through some of the Hakim books to get a feel for them. See if the content matches their comprehension levels, if it is too graphic or not for your taste for those ages (I'm thinking of the wars here), and if you like it very well. That is my best recommendation. That, and contact BP to see what they say. Ask what ages they meant it to be scheduled for, and then describe your kids & your situation to find out if it would be a good fit. Rusty at BP has always been quick to respond when I email my questions. I can't say enough good about BP's customer service.

    Best of luck!

  6. I'm doing something similar with my 4th & 6th graders, but I'm trying very hard to make myself choose a simpler plan. I tend towards perfectionism (NOT a good thing!) so I struggle with this.

     

    Unless the grammar & logic stage BP schedules differ, using BP means using SOTW since BP schedules it. Are you asking if doing the SOTW AG with BP is too much? If so, my answer is probably. SOTW AG contains narration & beginning outlining aids (in Vol. 4) that BP doesn't, so it could be useful. I would pick only 1 map, 1 coloring page, 1 of each type of thing each week from the two programs. The SOTW audiobooks are very helpful.

     

    At those ages, I wish I'd have just done SOTW and done it well. My kids would have had better retention. We skipped around outside the 4-yr. cycle for a couple years and I tried to push too much at once, but they can only remember so much at a time.

  7. Well I'm finally dipping my toe in over here, due to the warm response to my other thread. :seeya: I'll join, but I can't promise any numbers. I didn't realize books we read to or with our kids for homeschool "count" if we want them to, so those & audiobooks will help a bit.

     

    I have the problem of starting a book and getting too busy with other things to get back to it, even if it's one I truly enjoy. During my kids' sports seasons, I have plenty of reading time while waiting for kids inbetween practices/lessons.

     

    I'm a bit of a budding Tolkein nerd, so you'll all have to live with that. I finished The Hobbit and am finishing up TFotR. His writing is pure brilliance.

    I also finished the first 3 Redwall books as read alouds.

     

    I started and have not finished:

    The History of the Ancient World (SWB)

    The Aeneid by Virgil

    The Optimistic Child

    The Power of a Positive Mom (with devotional journal)

     

    After reading the threads above, I had forgotten I wanted to read The Hunger Games to check them out for ds.

     

    DD is reading Night by Eli Wiesel and that sparked the strong emotions I remember having when I read it at her age, so I want to re-read that to discuss w/ her. It's short and gripping, so even though it's emotionally heavy, it will be a fast read.

     

    I suppose I need to pick just a few to focus on and get them done.

  8. Yes. I'm with you. Dh and I aren't sure how we're going to take a cut and stay above water. Contrary to what the media says about govt employees, we don't make 6 figures- far from it. We live in a small house, drive old cars, and don't have any real luxuries (no fancy cell phones, never go to the movies, etc). He's a DOD employee and works side by side with the Air Force.

    I'm especially shocked with the hate/nastiness being directed at the govt workers by the general public right now. I don't want to read any of the comment sections to any online news stories and I especially don't want to listen to any talk radio.

     

     

    I'm in the same boat. Just this mornning, I discovered this common misconception about gov't employees not working much while making loads of money. I don't know where people get that idea - maybe they're friends with top level employees. All of the civilian gov't employees in Dh's branch that I know IRL, including the top boss at Dh's job, make only 5 figures.

     

    Dh got official word in Feb. that he'd lose 1 day of work per week indefinitely; a 20% pay cut. As it was, we couldn't afford any "extras" at all. We don't have any debt except the house, but I just don't know what else we can do. We don't go to the movies, don't eat out, own our old cars that have been waiting to be fixed, can't save for college for the kids, can't make needed repairs on the house, etc. Things were already tight. The pay freeze of the last 4 years coupled with inflation and increasing costs has already hurt. I think I'll be looking for a job.

     

    ETA: The way the sequestration is written, it gives them the green light for more cuts. Dh said they could cut people on an indefinite basis entirely - layoffs.

  9. I don't know the answer to all of that, but I know that civilian DoD employees are expecting a 20% pay cut for the rest of the fiscal year because of furloughs, and they're replacing very few employees who leave or retire. DoS is hiring 1 person for every 2 people who quit or retire. That sounds like cuts to me. My budget certainly thinks so.

     

    My budget agrees. The pay freeze of the past 4 yrs. has been hard, with inflation ("quantitative easing") and ever-increasing costs. This 20% pay cut has left me speechless. For a family of 5 living on $65,000 (for example), 20% is significant.

  10. Which isn't much.

     

    They could have made cuts in other places but they wanted to make it look like it was the other sides fault.

     

    This brings up a good point. It's easier to conceal things when they're able to keep the public engaged in finger-pointing at the "other side".

  11. I don't get around here often, but I just saw this and want to offer my deepest condolences. My heart is breaking for you & your family. You'll all be in my prayers. I think he would be proud of you for putting so much careful thought into those hard decisions. Do go easy on yourself.

  12. I almost forgot: I wanted to ask about using Christian vs. secular science texts for college-bound students. I don't know what the future holds, but I don't want to be the cause of lost opportunities for my children. Either way you do it, how do you compensate for the other? IOW, if you use Christian texts in HS, what kinds of colleges or universities will accept them? If most of them do not, what, if anything, do you do to teach the other side of things? If you use secular science texts in HS, what do you do to balance them out? What would you suggest for me, still wrestling with the types of questions I posted above? (It might be easy for someone well-versed & studied in the Bible, apologetics, & theology to counter a ps textbook, but I might need some help. Then again, would adding in other resources make the workload unrealistic?)

  13. Hi all,

    <edited for internet privacy>

    Please pray healing for my dh.

     

    Anyhow... I was just going to give a quick blurb about why I haven't been around much but it turned into the above. I meant to go on to say to Texas T that if you feel led to fast & pray, DO IT! I can't put enough emphasis on that on a screen!

     

    As for Rob Bell - I agree with CarolJenn on there being some problems with his theology. I found his ideas interesting, but in the end I don't find they line up with the Bible. Other people have varying interpretations, though.

     

    Jean, I'll keep your parents and you in my prayers. :grouphug: You too, TGHealthymom.

     

    Chris in VA - holy cow! I could've almost written that at various times in my life, except you are braver than I for having gone ahead & posted it! :grouphug: :grouphug: :grouphug: It's a hard road, but we don't walk it alone. The joy of the Lord passes all understanding. If you can grasp & get a taste of the joy of the Lord, or ever have, let that be your guide through the dark. The deep rewards of turning to Him instead of other things, and learning to put Him first over possibly self-destructive, short-lived pleasure, will be SO worth it in the end. I'm speaking to myself here, too.

     

    As for the note-taking in church, I don't attend a liturgical church, but I am a prolific note-taker. I don't have a specific form, I just write. I guess the closest form my notes approach is outline, with indentations, but with little marks (like a dash) instead of numbers & letters. For a long time, it has been my way of keeping track of questions I have so that I can remember to ask them later. I should get out some of my notebooks and ask them here, but many of my questions regard issues that are the dividing lines between denominations. I'm pretty sure that wouldn't be a problem here. <ETA: ...because I sense this to be a safe place to air even differences on the smaller details.>

     

    With that, I'll post some of my questions. Is everything that comes to pass foreordained by God? I have a hard time with that. According to what I read in the Bible that God wants for us, what His end goal is for us, some of the carp on this earth just doesn't seem like it's necessarily the will of God. I'll allow that God allows things to happen (uh... now we're getting into "free will vs. soveriegnty" territory) because we have free will, so He allows us to make choices whether they are His will or not. Right? Wrong? That's what I understand (have been taught) but am not 100% certain. Also, can someone explain to me "the elect"? And is salvation forever from the moment received? Can you lose your salvation? I know of the passage that states there is one way by blaspheming the Holy Spirit, but that's not what I'm talking about. I guess I'm asking about anything else - about neglecting the relationship w/ God, about not doing proper "upkeep" of your walk w/ God, so to speak. I was raised to believe it's purely faith-based, and that anyone who asks can be saved (without having to be part of "the elect"), and then in the last few years I've heard & read about these other things and got a bit confused. Especially so, since varying & even opposing interpretations can both be based on Scripture. That makes it hard to sort out. Oh - I almost forgot - are there different levels in heaven, and will there be any dishonor there? It was something a guest speaker said, based on Bible verses, that made me wonder about that. <Edited because I realized my casual, conversational tone could be taken as a flippant attitude towards the beliefs that I genuinely want to learn about more.>

     

    I feel like I'm hesitant to embrace anything fully until I KNOW that I KNOW, kwim? It really shouldn't be such a chore, but I end up looking things up in the Greek or Hebrew and trying to figure out if one interpretation is supported by overwhelming Biblical evidence over others. I confess, I don't make much time for that, though. It just feels like if God wants man to have His message so badly, it should be clear and not encoded. <ETA: that's the feeling I get - that maybe I'm making this more complicated than it's meant to be.>

     

    Well, that's all for awhile. I'll try to check back in later this week, and I'll be praying for you all in the meantime.

  14. 1. High metabolism, energy, possibly less sleep is needed.

     

    2. Excellent time management (in cases of large families, the children are trained well to be helpers). ETA: I just went back & read Hunter's comment, which I think applies to this. This is a HARD one to figure out on your own.

     

    I've come to the conclusion that these 2 contributors are how people seem to "do it all". Except, as noted by so many others, they might not be really. Or, they might be paying for it with lack of patience, too much stress, etc. I do know someone IRL who really does do a TON by any standard, but she has an extrememly high metabolism and runs like the Engergizer bunny non-stop. She moves FAST in everything she does, and has a hard time sleeping at night.

     

    There are physiological differences between people that make it easy for one person to zoom around doing everything in their path and then some, while others feel it's quite a feat to have just homeschooled the kids *and* cooked dinner in the same day. Don't compare apples to oranges. :)

  15. "Eskimo" is a nickname for only one or a few Alaska native tribes. People of that tribe(s) usually find it offensive to be called by this nickname and prefer "native" or whatever the name of their actual tribe(s) is. It's escaped me right now. The rest of the native tribes are called Alaskan Indians or Alaska Natives, being more closely related to American Indians/Natives in the contiguous U.S. As for white, blue-eyed, blonde Russians; I don't know - I guess they originate from the same place(s) others of that coloring originate from - maybe northen Europe?

  16. Beth, I wrote about how I use TWTM here: http://forums.welltr...-did-you-think/

    To answer your question, I love it. It's a ton of work for me sometimes, but I suppose it doesn't have to be. There are ways to do it in a more simple, streamlined fashion. I just happen to be one of those that ends up doing everything the hard way first. :p I love it because I believe it is the best education available to my kids (small town w/ mediocre schools), and I love the idea of the end results. I love the freedoms it has opened up in choice of books & materials vs. a boxed curriculum, and the precious cuddle-time (even during phonics & grammar!) it allowed in the younger years.

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