plimsoll
-
Posts
419 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Events
Blogs
Classifieds
Store
Posts posted by plimsoll
-
-
Here are a few links for you to explore:
http://www.cyberguys.com/collectorz/
http://www.collectorz.com/movie/?a=cyberguys
http://www.x-tremegeek.com/templates/searchDetail.asp?productid=10670
Good luck! I have thought of using some of these but never quite got around to it. If you do go with any of these, I'd be interested in hearing how it turns out...
-
:lurk5:
Is it true that it requires a lot of physically copying of the problems from the book to a separate piece of paper?
Only if you follow their instructions to the letter. Instead of copying the sentence and correcting the capitals, just use proofreading marks to indicate which letters should be capitalized. Same thing with inserting puctuation. Instead of rewriting run-on sentences, correct them in place, adding puctuation and conjunctions. Etc., etc.
The only thing we use a separate piece of paper for is the sentence diagramming.
-
We use it for grammar and really like it. It includes vocabulary, spelling rules, grammar, usage, diagramming, and more. Plus, with the Saxon-style spiral review, my son actually retains the material because he is continually practicing it.
For writing, we use IEW and CW, so I cannot speak to that part of the program.
We have done some of the exercises in the writing workbook and have found them useful - primarily ones that are not writing so much as identifying topic sentences, etc., etc.
-
Hooray! I am very happy for you!
-
A related series, also spectacular, is Blue Planet: Oceans of Life. If you like Planet Earth, Blue Planet is a good followup.
-
At the moment my son is memorizing "The Owl and the Pussycat," by Edward Lear.
After going through many poetry anthologies, I have settled upon Poems Every Child Should Know (ed. Mary Burt, pub. Yesterday's Classics) as my favorite.
We memorize other things as well - Latin vocabulary and grammar, Greek alphabet and words, various Latin and Greek roots and English derivatives, some facts from history and science, etc.
-
This has nothing to with homeschooling. You are not responsible for these people's actions and you do not need to respond about them. Obviously these disturbed people were not homeschooling their children - they were just using that as an excuse to hide their abuse. If homeschooling were not available, they would have found some other excuse.
I repeat, this has nothing to do with homeschooling and everything to do with sick people abusing their kids. Don't let anyone try to turn it into a discussion of the pros and cons of homeschooling.
-
Oops. Sorry about that. Thought I had posted the link.
Here is the Affirmative and Negative from the book. It was printed in 1921
Apparently in my old age I've turned into a real reactionary. Who would have thunk, given my feckless youth. When I read the "affirmative" link above, I find I agree with just about all of it. When I read the "negative" link, I find in it the seeds that I believe have led us to the abysmal impasse in which public education currently finds itself.
-
I just wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a happy, healthy new year.
Thank you all for being here. Our little homeschool has benefited greatly from the collective experience embodied in all of your posts here on the forum.
Thank you!
-
You may also want to take a look at the Rich Dad, Poor Dad series. There are one or two books in the series geared for kids, as well as a board game that teaches entrepreneurial thinking.
-
Try putting some article(s) of clothing that smell like your family outside, hanging on the door knob or on the porch. A friend of mine lost his cat for several weeks. When he put a tee shirt on the doorknob, the cat was back at his door meowing to come in shortly thereafter.
Good luck!
-
In my opinion, social studies is a way to avoid teaching actual history. Instead, various cultures are explored, and the time is passed with crafts and coloring. :001_smile:
-
The Standard Deviants performing group have a series of educational dvds on Shakespeare. My son enjoys everything by them.
-
Here are some things I wrote in other posts regarding our own writing journey:
We finished WT and CW Aesop last year, then started IEW. Grammatically, we're not yet ready for CW Homer. So we're doing IEW and Imitation in Writing: Poetry Primer for a year (5th grade), then we'll pick up CW Homer next year with stronger grammar.
==========
We did CW Aeosp last year (4th grade) and started IEW (SWI-A, Anicent History-Based Writing Lessons).
We are continuing with IEW this year as my son improves in grammar and writing experience so that he can tackle CW Homer next year (6th grade).
CW Aesop is very user friendly. CW Homer seems to me somewhat daunting - I keep feeling like the poor fellow in A Day at the Races (Marx Brothers film) who needs half a dozen manuals and explanatory texts to understand the racing forms. Neverthless, I feel we will be able to use it starting next year.
IEW is very straightforward, easy to implement, and user-friendly. It is also somewhat formulaic. When we try some CW Homer-style sentence rearrangement exercises, my son finds these more interesting than applying the checklists of dress-ups provided by IEW. Still, I feel the two programs can be used to complement each other. Until my son is able, on his own, to identify opportunities for varying sentence structure, applying strong verbs, adjectives, adverbs, etc., having to follow the IEW checklists is useful for him.
I feel that IEW teaches him various stylistic techniques and provides a lot of practice doing so. At least at his age, it does not seem to help him discriminate or identify by himself where such techniques may be appropriate. As such, I consider a lot of what we do in IEW as writing exercises - perhaps a little contrived and mechanistic, but they are training exercises, like practicing scales in music.
It is my hope that over time through CW he will eventually learn when to apply these stylistic techniques and develop the skill needed in identifying the best usage of the various techniques on his own. In other words, I'd like to see him eventually learn to judiciously apply style as part of an overall approach that advances whatever thesis or story he is presenting. For some reason, I feel this will come more from CW in the long run that from IEW. Just my opinion, partly gut feel.
From reading threads on this forum, it would appear that students who have persevered with either program all the way through have ended up as superior writers.
As we use both programs, I cannot say which is more effective in terms of improving his writing skills. He continues to improve, which I credit to both programs.
I looked at several levels of Writing Strands in 3rd and 4th grades - it just didn't appeal to me, so we never used it.
-
We finished LL1 and are now "starting over" with LC1. The more curricula I sample, the more I keep coming back to Memoria Press' materials. Here is some of what I said in the thread about "fun" latin programs:
Bear in mind that my experience is very subjective - all three programs are very good. When we used LfC, we found it a little dry. I switched to Lively Latin because it looked more fun - puzzles, derivatives, vocabulary, grammar, history - all mixed together. Plus it was pretty easy to let my son work on it independently. He definitely learned a lot from it. However, he didn't fully memorize the grammar and vocabulary, perhaps because he didn't really do latin every day - some days it was history, some days grammar, derivatives, etc.
So we've come back to MP. With LC, each lesson is just latin and some derivatives. It's a small enough chunk to digest, and not diluted with other subjects. We separately use Ludere Latina for latin word games and derivatives reinforcement. We also use The Book of Roots, which correlates to LC - vocabulary/derivatives based on what we're learning in latin. We don't call that latin - we call it vocabulary, and it goes in its own time slot. For Roman history, we use MP's Famous Men of Rome (with the student guide/workbook). We don't call this latin either - we call it history; it too goes in its own time slot, separate from latin. We study English grammar separately, so I do not need a program that teaches English grammar alongside latin grammar.
With LC and the accompanying MP materials, the individual subjects are modular. I can separately control the pace and scheduling of latin, latin word games, Roman history, vocabulary/derivatives, etc. We have distinct time slots during the day for LC, Ludere Latina, Book of Roots, and history.
Another reason I like LC is because MP offers a clear progression from LCI/II to Henle, and if we want to someday take any of MP's online classes, we will be using the same material. MP also offers latin reading and translation materials that can be used alongside both LC and Henle.
Just a final note: although we bought the dvds, we do not use them. For us, the text is sufficient. So I cannot comment on the dvds.
-
I wouldn't worry about skeptical parents, grandparents, neighbors, etc. Mostly you can ignore them/agree to disagree. I do think you and your husband need to be united on making homeschooling work.
Here's what I said in response to a similar query regarding resistant/hostile relatives:
Don't get into it with them. It's more important to save your energy for homeschooling.
You may need to politely but firmly reiterate that while you thank them for their opinion, you have made up your mind and the decision is yours to make, not theirs.
Do what you can to change the subject, defuse things, and lighten things up. Eventually they'll agree to disagree and leave you mostly alone on the subject. But above all, do not let them suck you into unending arguments that you cannot win - they are already convinced that they know best. That's ok - you do not need their approval to succeed.
Better to use your time and energy in the bright, happy, and wonderful task of homeschooling your children. Eventually the results will speak for themselves.
-
There are a lot of things that children are "taught" in preschool, but teaching children at that age is like throwing spaghetti at the wall: some stuff sticks, and some stuff doesn't.
I agree.
-
You may also want to take a look at the IEWFamilies Yahoo group. There is a lot of good information about scheduling, lesson plans, etc., etc. there.
-
One day a week we read a chapter from Famous Men of Greece and do the corresponding Memoria Press study guide lesson. Every day my son reads 1-2 chapters from whatever book we happen to be reading for world history and 1-2 chapters from whatever book we happen to be using for American history. Two days a week, my son watches educational videos about history during lunch break.
We usually read 1-2 surveys of world history and 1-2 surveys of American history each year, and then we supplement with many books and videos on various topics and periods from the library.
We use the history based writing lessons from IEW every day, so there's some history study involved in that as well.
-
Different states have different laws regarding the types of knives and blade lengths permissible. Here's a link to knife laws by state:
http://www.thebladeshop.com/State_Knife_Laws_s/478.htm
I can't imagine that there would be any problem with either a Swiss Army knife or a Leatherman tool (as long as you don't take it to school or try to board an airplane with it).
-
I looked at B&H Photo Video (one of two mail order places I use - the other is Adorama Camera) - the newer model of your camera, the Canon Powershot SX120 IS, is available for 200.00. Here's a link:
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/643182-REG/Canon_3190B001_PowerShot_SX110_IS_Digital.html
-
We have two black and white cats, mostly black. The giant 24-pounder (might be Maine coon) is Moonbeam. The tiny one is Dakini. Deal is, I get to name the cats, my wife names the kids.
-
In Babylon 5, Mr. Garibaldi says that there is only one fruitcake and it keeps getting passed around, year after year.
-
There are many family-friendly neighborhoods in and around Pittsburgh. If you want a good-sized yard, you need to look in the suburbs. Pittsburgh consists of the City of Pittsburgh and numerous townships pretty close by (15-40 minutes, depending on traffic). When people say they live in Pittsburgh, they include in it all these little townships surrounding the city. The suburbs north of the city are called the North Hills and the suburbs south of the city are called the South Hills; each of these areas themselves contains numerous small townships.
I would recommend looking for a place near your relatives. A good realtor should be able to help you with information about the different neighborhoods, school districts, etc. I realize you will be homeschooling, but an area with a good school district will have more families and more kid-oriented activities available.
Bethel Park is in the South Hills. I'm not sure where North Huntington is.
I do not find the PA homeschool laws to be difficult or strict. We're in our third year of homeschooling and no problems so far. This is my favorite site for info relating to the PA homeshooling laws: http://home.comcast.net/~askpauline/index.html
The zoo (Pitsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium) and the museums (Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Carnegie Museum of Art, Carnegie Science Center) all offer excellent programs for homeschoolers. If you buy an anuual membership to the museums, you get free admission to all four Carnegie musuems and a discount on their homeschool programs, gift shops, etc. At these programs you will find homeschoolers and their parents from all over Pittsburgh, so these might be good places to meet other homeschoolers as well.
The Carnegie Library is awesome. It has about 15 or so local branches and is very well organized. Using their website, you can order almost anything from any branch, and they will deliver it to your local branch for you to pick up, for free. I have found around 95% of the books and videos I need for homeschooling at the library.
Here are some other home-school/educational resources we have used around Pittsburgh:
Carnegie Mellon University - offers C-MITES workshops - http://www.cmu.edu/cmites/
CMU also is one of the sites for the iDTech summer computer camps (http://www.internaldrive.com/)
Pittsburgh Chess Club (www.youthchess.net) offers kids chess classes and tournaments
Pittsburgh Center for the Arts - offers various classes and weeklong summer camps - http://www.pittsburgharts.org/index.php
Carnegie Museums - offer many classes and summer camps - http://www.carnegiemuseums.org/
Pittsburgh Children's Museum - good museum for kids, has hands-on classes http://www.pittsburghkids.org/
Carnegie Library - offers many programs for kids, including an annual chess tournament: http://www.clpgh.org/
Steel City Martial Arts - karate dojo in the South Hills - really good kids' classes - http://www.steelcitymartialarts.com/
Hope this is helpful....
For those of you who own dogs and have visitors with dog allergies,
in General Education Discussion Board
Posted
We have cats. If someone is allergic, they cannot stay in our house. I assume the same applies to dogs as well.