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ajjkt

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Everything posted by ajjkt

  1. ummmm .... my mum's argument when I was little for only allowing two nights a week of activities was 'what will you do when your x age if you do it all before you reach the age of x'. She still tries that argument with me, but now I get to decide for myself that one lifetime isn't enough to do everything. So, my poor kids are allowed to do whatever activity they want. 2 * art lessons (one grandma, one with a local group), dance, drama, swimming lessons, tennis lessons, chess club and gymnastics. I justify it that they are participating in organized activities that they might be exposed to briefly at a school, but this way they can go more in depth. THey love them all, don't get tired, and always want to do more (I won't up it from here)
  2. The behavioural optomestrists can reveal 'weaknesses' that can predispose to reading challenges, but there are other areas that they do not cover that can predispose to reading delays/weaknesses. FWIW, my DD6 has very low visual perception but is reading very well. She will probably need occupational therapy and vision therapy to assist her. She has fallen through 4 windows, down escalators at the shops etc. I counted one day how many times she walked into the door instead of through it - it totalled 14 times (a good day). I have had everything tested by OTs and optometrists, it all comes back to visual perception.
  3. We don't qualify as bilingual, however, we are trying to raise children that are familiar with languages other than English. We started Latin last year and are enjoying that. At this stage, I hope that they'll study Latin right through. I lived in France in 98-99 and studied seconde (year 10) at the local Lycee. Although I was fluent then, I've pretty much lost my French now. I've started the children at Saturday morning school with the VSL for French. I want them to hear French the way its meant to sound rather than the way I butcher it. I will continue it later with them. The VSL is fantastic as it uses the immersion method and has children from grade 1 - 5 in the one class including native speakers. They came home from week 1 being able to say and understand basic greetings and count to 10. That said, with my three year old I'd be desperately happy if I could understand her English.
  4. It was today's copy of The Age that bore that exert. The advice that I've grown up understanding was 'Leave very early or stay and defend' because so many lives are lost in a last minute plea. These fires have just been so much more ferocious than our other terrible bushfires have been. It really puts things in perspective when you here the stories. Almost everyone seems to know someone who's affected.
  5. What a wonderful experience! Our local association organized one. We had a great time. Kids played. Parents chatted. Lots of new friendships. I can't wait for the next one.
  6. I was like that. So is my son. I found that I continued to do very well at maths all the way through high school. However, when I hit calculus there were no more numbers. I couldn't "instinctively" understand the relationship of greek letters in the same way I could numbers. As I had always resisted showing reasoning and working out, I could not go that next step into calculus. I explain this to my son when he whinges about having to show me his working out. My daughter is just as bad. "but how do you know that there were ten apples and John ate three that there are only seven left?" "That's how many there are. You asked how many apples are left. I told you." I push it pretty hard, because I feel like I failed myself in refusing to show working out. It didn't become apparent until calculus and by then I didn't want to go back to really basic level maths to learn how I knew the answer.
  7. Thanks for the info. I really like the idea of just covering the basics and letting the travel take care of other things. I'll see if I can track down those yahoo groups. FWIW both grandmothers are very supportive, which is something we are very lucky and grateful for. We tried school for 9 months, and before that they were very luke-warm on the idea. Afterwards, they were very supportive.
  8. I have history on my 'to do' list most days ... After we do maths and LA we never seem to get to anything else. It's something I plan to make sure I get to because the dc do enjoy it when we do.
  9. My MIL quilts. She does machine quilting for a living. The kids love playing with all her stuff. She also teaches them art. I can't tell a needle from a pin. MIL finds my ineptitude in anything arty quite amusing.:)
  10. Oh, if only I knew as a pharmacist that I could work there I would be gone in a flash! School in Germany finishes at lunch time. You can still spend the best part of the day with dc while letting them learn a really useful language. I spent a year in USA and a year in France as a child. These two years stand out in my memory as being such a special time. What a wonderful opportunity!
  11. DH and i have a dream of spending a few years living in a caravan travelling around the country with our kids. Its starting to look like we might be able to do this 2010 or 2011. YAY! So ... has anyone hs 'ed while travelling? Anything I need to start preparing, taking into consideration? etc etc I'm basically looking for advice because I'm sure there are a lot of issues especially re hs that I haven't considered. If it makes a difference dc will probably be 9, 7, 5.5 and 2 when we leave.
  12. Both of my kids have struggled with that at that age. My son couldn't 'see' the number bonds the way Singapore set them out when he was 5. I left it for a year and started again but with MUS alpha. A year later he is in doing MUS delta and obviously a very mathy kid. I'm glad I waited that year because now he just loves maths. My daughter is more well rounded. She is good at maths, but cannot see X + 6 = 8. I've left it and will go back to it later. I think she is starting to get it now and we will return to it later. I think its a developmental thing rather than an aptitude thing. HTH
  13. Two of my children have been diagnosed with dyspraxia. My dc were in speech therapy from 18months for articulation (it was delayed speech to start off with, but there was no delay by 4, only a phonetic disorder). They also have noise sensitivity. Sensory hypersensitivity is often found in children with dyspraxia. They also have mildly delayed fine motor skills due to the dyspraxia. It is often confused with ASD and both were investigated for ASD. I wish I had known earlier about dyspraxia as it would have saved a lot of anguish as we investigated all the other options. Just another avenue to explore, HTH
  14. I've told my kids their grade is their age subtract 5 (eg 7 yo - 5 = grade 2). DS is working at grade 5 for maths, grade 3 for LA, which makes him feel good about himself because he feels like he's doing really well. FWIW, DS7 says he has two goals: 1) is to get so far ahead that I could never put him back in a normal school 2) to finish school by the age of 10 (I just smile, no point telling him this is unrealistic) Can you turn it into a positive for him? Just let him work at his level, and if grade level comes up use it with the 'well,you're only this old but you can do this...' approach?
  15. Just a caveat... I studied in Australia except year 10 when I did an exchange to France. My French class were studying Le Marriage du Figaro. The language equivalent in English would be Shakespeare. It put me off any further attempts. However, reading other texts of an easier level was rewarding. Just be careful as a non-native reader - great books often use great language
  16. I am going to go against the grain and say that I am using both. We started off using MUS and I really like the philosophy of addition then subtraction then multiplication then division then fractions then decimals. That really makes sense to me. However, the kids only seem to spend 5 or 10 minutes on it, and while they are mastering the facts it seems to just be a facts drill before we can move on. So, I use it because I like the progression of it and so do dc. However, to conceptualize things from multiple angles and to do something more interesting we also use RS. I figure that we can't over teach the basics. DS is almost certainly going to do something that involve heavy use of maths and science, so I want him to have a very solid understanding. DD might, too, though she is also very language orientated. The more different perspectives and methods that they have the more equiped they will be later. Both are good choices
  17. We do French and Latin, not Spanish and Latin. However, I think most of the answers would still be relevant: have added My French Coach on the Wii (may as well take advantage of his interest in this). I've got some really old Berlitz tapes that I really must update for French. I give simple instructions in French. I'd love to hear about supplements for Latin.
  18. I can only tell you what we are doing. I think you need to decide what your goals are for your dc both short term and long term. We have started Latin, using Song School Latin, and then we'll do Minimus. They like the songs with Song School Latin. My aim at this point is for them to like Latin and think it's fun with a very gentle, slow introduction. My long-term goals are multiple: grammar, vocabulary, knowledge of Latin phrases scattered through our society, the mental stimulation, easier learning of other languages derived from Latin later, and more with the vocab is learning the scientific terminology later. We are also studying French. My goals in that are different. I would like the children to be able to communicate in French. Spoken French is most important to me, rather than the written, although both are important. At this stage I think basic vocab and learning to understand the spoken word are the most important. They are going to a ps language school. THe state where I live has a state school that operates to teach over 50 languages. It operates on a Saturday morning. I did that when I was at school so I know that it is rigorous compared to learning a language at a normal Monday - Friday ps. We supplement this with French CDs on in the background at home and My French Coach on the Wii. We are only new at these, so I can't comment long term. HTH
  19. My entire Australian education in grammar at school was: nouns (proper and common), adjectives, verbs, and the use of " " , . ? ! I vaguely remember learning past, present, future and that there were irregular and regular verbs, though I think that might have been once I started to learn French. My theory is that the first third of Shurley English has covered more than this already. I was blown away when I went to France and studied year 10 there. They were doing tenses like past perfect in English classes and I just couldn't work it out. If it happened in the past, it was the past, right? I actually only just scraped through English class in Year 10 in France because my knowledge of grammar was so poor. This is a really long winded way of saying that I think kids really need to learn grammar and I'm going to make sure my kids know it well. However, the caveat is that I still did pretty well without it so I'm not going to feel that I've failed them if they do not know every grammatical intricacy. They will still know much much more than what they would have learnt in the system.
  20. I had this or something similiar when I was little. Every now and again we'd type in our coordinates and then stand outside and try and work out the constellations. I wouldn't pay much for it, but it was nice to have every now and again.
  21. :lurk5: I was wondering the same thing. DS7 and DD6 are up to lesson 12 in Shurley English 1. They can both parse the sentences given in Shurley really easily, like the gingles and are enjoying the jingles. Like the OP, I was wondering if we're missing something, but then again I know that even at this stage of level 1 that they know more grammar than I learnt in 13 years of ps and 7 years of uni. When people say that they use every second level, would this mean that I would move on to Shurley English 3 next year, or would I hit ideas that were too complex for young minds???
  22. I did most of my university degrees by distance learning. I would recommend choosing one reasonably close to home because I had to attend what where called 'residential schools'. The residential schools were 4 intensive days of lectures from 8 - 5 (usually) and labs. I much prefer the distance ed approach and would recommend it to anyone. That said, it does take much more discipline and it is nice to talk to someone who understands the trials of university study sometimes, too. It can be challenging emotionally when you struggling/frustrated/annoyed/feeling unsupported etc etc to not realize that most other people are feeling the same way as you. In Australia there several universities that offer this option, and the degrees have exactly the same weight as the traditional bricks and mortor approach.
  23. My elder two are 6 and 7. I am so sick of the bickering and nit-picking. "She looked at me", "He touched what I was playing with". What on earth do people do? I feel so embarressed and frustrated. I just can't stand the quarreling. FWIW, they rarely fought before they went to school. It has got a lot better after we started hs, and continues to improve, but no where near acceptable.
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