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Hunter

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Everything posted by Hunter

  1. I think sometimes when we ask for advice and make plans that we do not follow, it is because we have been shamed or coerced into believing that we "should" be doing something. Often it is not something that we truly value above what we are finishing. Other times, even if we value it, we do not have the resources to finish. Sometimes we are just overscheduled and have no idea what our priorities are and we just respond to the loudest voice of the day. Some people were reared in an environment that taught them that the only safe option is to defer to the experts or at least pretend to defer while in their presence. These people don't mean to waste a person's time; it is more of a default habit that helped them survive when they had less power. Homeschooling is either HOMEschooling of HomeSCHOOLING. A lot of HomeSCHOOLERS are shocked by families that are HOMEschooling. The courts of the United States tend to rule that families have the right to rear their children in their culture and that family culture takes precedence over college prep. The Amish are not required to even provide a high school education. Many Christian homeschoolers are HOMEschoolers, for better and for worse. We cannot discard the better of that. And it is their right by law.
  2. Interesting thread. When I started homeschooling in the 90's I thought there was a LOT of curricula. I couldn't afford most of it. It seemed like a lot to me, and it still does. I like to read old teachers manuals from the 1700's and 1800's and all of the 1900's through today. And even what the ancients wrote about teaching: Quintilian is interesting reading, especially the controversy about whether education should start at age 6 or 7. Nature schooling is just rewritten Waldorf with the gnomes taken out, and Waldorf is just earlier methods with the gnomes added in. Waldorf's discussion of whether school should start at 6 or 7 is at least as old as the Roman empire. Chalkboard, form-drawing, grain rotations, color theory: none of that was invented by Waldorf. Charlotte Mason may have written some nonsense about having a dream, but I think she just dreamed some stuff that she had already read, because I can find older teacher manuals that includes every one of her "new" ideas. The Principle approach was popular in the 90's. Far Above Rubies and Blessed is the Man were unit study curricula for teenagers. A LOT of people used American School Correspondence School for High school. It is still in business, but not the same at all. Digging up Robinson Curriculum threads is fun. LOL. Ruth Beechick, Mott Media, and Alpha Phonics were popular. Not everyone started with Abeka and BJU. They were expensive and refused to sell parents the TMs in the early days. People spent less money and less time and moms had less background education. I have never seen a study that shows homeschooling is more successful now than then. I have been around and around with my opinions of old books over the decades. Firstly, it is a BIG deal to me that they are copyright free. And secondly, the youth of any culture that completely ignore the advice and writings of the older generation, and only value the ideas of their young peers, make a fool of themselves. In the early 2000's, there was a single college textbook on the progymnasmata that is the foundation of all the later more expensive yearly progym workbooks. Around 2000, all the single books seemed to multiply like the Tribbles in Star Trek. I don't think we are doing better or are better than we were, despite all the time and money being spent, and despite how enlightened we believe ourselves to be. I think we are just too blind to see our faults, and I think part of that is a result of too much time immersed in the culture and ideas of our age peers and what they write. I have begun to embrace some older authors that I would have discarded years ago. I do not agree with everything they say and I cringe and even cry at some of it. But I take what the Bible says seriously, about taking the time to listen to my elders. I have adopted some authors and speakers as my adopted grandparents. When I listen to them go astray, I feel fear that in the years to come, what I am saying now will be seen for what it is: mess, mess, and more mess. We are human. Humans are messy. The more "advanced" and "enlightened" we get, the more our mess multiples exponentially. Like Tribbles.
  3. I think there are as many people that struggle with language as people that struggle with math. I just think they don't have permission to admit it. Part of my childhood was spent being reared by an illiterate step-parent. There are people confident about their ability to succeed in life with the abilities they have and I think that is good. Our society requires more diversity than we admit. If we ever succeed at our professed goals, I believe Western society would collapse, or at least need to quickly back-pedal on immigration. Math is hard for most human brains. I can learn it, when I prioritize it and throw lots and lots and lots of time at it. I can make some jumps that others cannot, but I cannot make the jumps that a small minority of people can make. I love math. It is beautiful. But my gifts are greater in other areas. I reared a child who was the opposite, as was his father, and other males in the family. My other son is more language gifted than math gifted to an extreme, but able to learn Asian languages with some ease. Some people are athletes and artists and musicians and naturalists and spiritual practitioners. Brains are diverse. It should be okay for people to admit what their strengths and weaknesses are, and to be able to spend more time on their passions and strengths, than wasted on endless repetitions on their weaknesses. Math is beautiful, but it is just one subject in a vast sea of subjects that lay like a beautiful buffet before us. I don't think everyone should have to crowd around the math dish and hang out there almost exclusively until they finish a full plate, before being allowed to move on.
  4. If you do not already know who YOU are, spend this time figuring that out. Many women orbit and obey others so much that they have no idea who they are are. Self-discovery requires trying things and monitoring your response. You said you want to read the Great Books. FIRST figure out WHY you want to read them, and make sure that is a good reason. Then if you want to proceed, start reading some of them yourself and be honest about how you feel as you read them. I was able to buy the Britannica Great Books collection for 50% off and what I learned reading them was that I could skip them entirely and just read my Bible, and come to same conclusion in the end. https://www.logos.com/product/55052/great-books-of-the-western-world . If you decide that you do indeed have a passion to read the Great Books for yourself, start another thread on that. When you know who YOU are and then you read a homeschool book, you are able to take small ideas and adapt them to what you already have in motion. A mistake that many readers make is to scrap what they are doing and convert to the new "better" method. "Eclectic" is not what I mean and can be worse if it is like a home with purple velvet curtains, an orange shag rug, and pastel floral couch. Adapting would be like deciding you also want thicker curtains to block the sun and find a pair of drapes that matches YOUR decor; and wanting a rug in a warm color even though the author that inspired you suggested orange; and wanting a couch with a pattern to hide stains, even though the author insisted that it must be a pastel floral couch. Homeschooling is a marathon and it is a LOT if work. Child-centered methods can burn a mom out, and leave her with no identity. This happens to some moms that arrive at homeschooling not knowing who they are. They orbit the children, and this can be worst than endlessly curriculum hopping. It is another method of following others and not knowing who YOU are. The best thing a new mom can do is self-educate, and get the education that she never had a chance to get earlier. Then bring your children along on YOUR ride. That is not selfish and that is not bad. The first goal you mentioned was "christ-loving man". If the Bible is important to you, that is the greatest Great Book. So many homeschool literature-based methods can be adapted to using the Bible as the literature. Waldorf 1st grade lessons on Grimms Fairy Tales can be adapted to using the Bible. Find out what your library has for self-education resources. Also see if you can get a free card from other libraries, especially the library in the capital city. You can usually access all or some of the online resources from home, no matter how far away that they are. Is there a language that YOU always wanted to learn? Learn that language and then teach it to your child. Once a child is exposed to language learning materials, they can learn another language on their own and they can choose that one. Their second language will be your second language and that is not selfish: no one is stopping them from learning a third or how many languages that they want to learn. They can self-educate just like you are self-educating. How is your handwriting? Do you like it? Is it consistent and are you confident making your own flashcards and worksheets? Master a style of handwriting if you have not already done so. Are you and your husband right-handed? If so, and you already write with a right slant, Don Potter stuff is free and great. http://donpotter.net/pdf/direct_path_to_cursive.pdf If you or hubby is left-handed and has any print disabilities, and you think that might get passed onto children, I recommend Spalding Handwriting, and retaining the uppercase manuscript with the cursive lowercase, if and when you transition to cursive. Before getting into any intensive phonics, I suggest becoming familiar with the pronunciation explanations of words that you know and then using this dictionary for words you encounter as you read. Merriam-Webster's Concise Dictionary, Large Print Edition https://www.amazon.com/Merriam-Websters-Concise-Dictionary-Large-Newest/dp/0877796440 Your library should be able to get How to Tutor" by Blumenfeld. It widely available used https://www.amazon.com/How-Tutor-Samuel-L-Blumenfeld/dp/0941995291/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=How+to+tutor+blumenfeld&qid=1607282348&s=books&sr=1-1 Betterworld Books has bulk sales on used books, that go as high as 20% off with free shipping and is my first choice for used books. Thrift books doesn't always send you the book that you chose, but are quick to refund you the money if you contact them. https://www.betterworldbooks.com/ https://www.thriftbooks.com/ Are you able to draw a bit? Waldorf did not start the blackboard drawing idea. You can study this topic for free with books older than Waldorf. https://books.google.com/books?id=MDZV7QCpZ9UC&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&dq=blackboard+drawing&source=gbs_navlinks_s https://books.google.com/books?id=2rg9AQAAMAAJ&dq=blackboard+drawing&source=gbs_book_similarbooks Music and art: fill your home with music and art, and your child will copy you. Let your children orbit you. That is not selfish. Cooking and crafts: read some Waldorf books about rhythm and cooking and handcrafts, but adapt them to YOUR belief system and resources. Learn a craft yourself and learn to bake yeast bread or something else. Ella Frances Lynch books need to be real alongside anything Charlotte Mason. Her method of teaching reading using Hiawatha can be adapted to Psalms and Hymns or whatever poetry that YOU like (start reading at the top of page 75 of Educating the Child at Home). https://leagueofteachermothers.wordpress.com/ella-frances-lynch/ Nature Study: People make a lot of money over-complicating this and then selling you things to make it "easier". Simply READ about Nature and watch youtube videos about whatever you read about. All the books being sold here are available for free elsewhere. https://yesterdaysclassics.com/books/nature/ Read the introduction to Handbook of Nature Study and use the lists of questions for individual species as INSPIRATION for things to notice about whatever species that is in your own backyard. It is okay not to the know the name of what you are studying. Do not focus on naming. There was an author I read that refused to tell children the name of species, because she said as soon as they knew the name, they lost interest in it. You do not need to combine your inside reading and documentary/youtube watching with your outdoor observations. They will eventually overlap. Math: governments have reasons to push math, especially by recruiting from the lower-income populations. Do not get caught up in races to dominate the universe that need more and more math-soldiers. Few families should make math the center of their homeschool. Is hard not to do that with all the pressure. Adults need to be able to budget and understand the newspaper. And they need to be introduced to the beauty of math. It is not failing to choose not to prioritize math and to find ways to succeed without becoming one of the soldiers. Get sneaky and hide from the draft. Start with your own education. Make it nurturing. When you get overwhelmed with study, STOP and just live and love. Life is short. LIVE it.
  5. I am not there with boots on the ground, so forgive me if what I say is incorrect or unwelcome in any way. And I am a fruitloop by modern standards so ... first I will list my crazy fruitloop beliefs that would underlie any specific advice. I believe in HOMEschooling, not homeSCHOOLING, and found that most problems that I encountered homeschooling were rooted in PARENTING issues and best solved with non-academic correction and training. I think young children are not designed for the academic style and volume of work that is the current fashion. It is only self-defense when they begin to pace themselves with passive-aggressive responses to painful and impossible demands that unfortunately become habits that they use even when not needed. I think some "disabilities" are only a stumbling block in our current society, and would not be a stumbling block in another. I had a child unofficially diagnosed as being on the spectrum, but ... things were complicated and ... as far as I know things were never followed up on, and that was probably for the better. Spectrum traits run in both my and my exH's family, and the level of deviation from the norm is NOT reflective of anyone's ability to function. The environment's RESPONSE to us is the most reflective criteria for how well we are able to function in it. I believe that some disabilities cannot be cured and that alternative expectations are required for that child that have NOTHING to do with the currently published expectations. I believe that very few student are proficient in the current published expectations and that authorities are quite creative in how they cover that up. I do not believe that homeschooled children, disabled or otherwise, should be measured by those published expectations that their schooled peers are not truly being measured by. I do not believe that human worth is measured by a person's ability to earn money and be independent. I believe that children require the opportunity to work physically more hours per day than to work academically to mature properly. I believe that children are best socialized by adults than by other children. Children with the opportunity to work side by side with adults develop skill sets that can be applied to academics and socializing with their peers. Academics are completed more efficiently later and in less time. The ultimate goal is that children will grow into adults that can socialize primarily with adults and also with mixed-age groups. Why not prioritize that now within the family unit? I believe that humans are spiritual beings and character training is almost impossible outside a family belief system that includes daily instruction and ritual. I told you that I am a fruit loop. Anything I would advise would be in context of that weirdness. LOL.
  6. Hillyer's A Child's History of the World does an excellent job of preparing a student to understand most classical literature. "Accurate" history isn't the most effective way to prepare a student to read literature. Using Hillyer's A Child's History of the World is like teaching a child to fish instead of try to give them the most awesome piece of fish possible. The old Calvert and American School were amazing resources that are not the same as they were. First edition Saxon math, too. Homeschooling keeps getting less efficient: more work and expense; less results.
  7. Yesterday's Classics has a list of books, and most of these can be found for free elsewhere https://yesterdaysclassics.com/books/holiday-stories/
  8. When people fall in love with CM, Waldorf, and Montessori, they are usually falling in love with some aspect of STANDARD schooling from the period of that author. None of these authors were as revolutionary in their time as people think. They might have been in the minority, and protesting something common in the PS at the time, but were not revolutionary. They often wrote to an audience with more resources than the PS. You love the BOOKS. Read the books. Make sure if you buy a curriculum that it includes the kind of books that you have fallen in love with. Complicating simple things makes authors famous and sells books. And sometimes creates special schools that accomplish the complicated things that parents cannot do at home. Artificial complication is like artificial scarcity, but worse. Educational artificial complication disempowers people and teaches them not to trust themselves. CM's audience was wealthier ladies with maids. You can often learn more from the books written to the young school teachers. Or the author Ella Frances Lynch. https://books.google.com/books?id=uX5ATXh2mEgC&printsec=frontcover&dq=ella+francis+Lynch&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi2qPPHuYvtAhWuGTQIHb0DCeUQ6AEwAXoECAQQAg#v=onepage&q=ella francis Lynch&f=false When you like something an author says, so back before them and see what other authors were saying about that same thing. It is often cheaper or even free. You like the books. Use Yesterday's Classics lists by genre to find books you like. https://yesterdaysclassics.com/books/books-by-genre/ Do hang out at the forums. You will learn from the ladies, but figure out what YOU really like and do the part you like. It is so easy to get caught up in what others are doing, and before you know what happened, you are hardly doing the parts you like.
  9. Wisconsin Electric Company has been printing a Christmas Cookie Cookbook every year since 1932. They are all free at the company website. https://www.we-energies.com/recipes/cookiebooks/index.htm? What a fun tradition to wait for the new cookbook and make a new cookie every year! The 2020 Cookbook has a fruitcake biscotti that looks interesting https://www.we-energies.com/recipes/cookiebookarchive/cookiebook2020.pdf
  10. How to Make Sock Toys http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/63454 The Santa Doll http://www.gutenberg.org/files/63454/63454-h/63454-h.htm#c20 The broad category for handcrafts http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/loccs/tt
  11. Gutenberg's category for "Christmas Stories" http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/subject/343
  12. Can we share links to collections of free and vintage Christmas Books? Survivor Library Christmas books http://www.survivorlibrary.com/index.php/8-category/28-library-christmas
  13. My oldest asked me again recently how I knew something that turned out to be critical to how his entire adult life developed. I simply told him that all the time that I was accused of "wasting" online was mostly doing research.
  14. Yes! My boys and I were reared on the KJV Bible, so our familiarity with older vocabulary and sentence structure was precocious by modern standards.
  15. Enders' Game was the first book that popped in my head, too! My youngest son loved this book. My 6th grade class read The Iceberg Hermit and I still remember that today. I think this might have been the first book that several of the boys ever read cover to cover. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0590441124/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_taft_p1_i0 In high school, the boys were reading this series and quite surprised when I joined them. The Dune series https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dune_(novel) My oldest son was a big fan of any of the Star Wars books and movies that feature Boba Fett https://www.youtini.com/collection/boba-fett The Famous Five Mystery series was my favorite as a tween and early teen https://www.fadedpage.com/csearch.php?author=Blyton, Enid The Scarlet Plague by Jack London is an overlooked treasure https://www.gutenberg.org/files/21970/21970-h/21970-h.htm Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is a classic http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2488/2488-h/2488-h.htm The Princess of Mars is timeless https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Princess_of_Mars Tarzan of the Apes. There is no need to comment. LOL https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarzan_(book_series)
  16. I think "classical homeschooling" gives us permission to delay a lot of trendy methods until the rhetoric stage, which starts somewhere from 9th to 11th grade depending on which author you are following. By that stage, students are dual enrolled, self-educating, and old enough to be seeking out mentors on their own. If a gifted child is ready and interested in lots of rhetoric type learning earlier, they are often also precocious about gaining the attention of mentors. It gets a bit tricky for some of us that have had disabled and socially delayed and awkward students that are also highly gifted students and intellectually curious. Moms and teachers are just human. Covid doesn't turn doctors and nurses into immune machines; and needy students do not turn moms and teachers into superheroes. Caregivers remain human despite the needs of the people they are responsible for.
  17. Sometimes authors and publishers ASK for things not required by law. I care deeply that authors get compensated for their work. But beyond that, when it comes to children not getting an education and mom being pushed into self-neglect, especially if this scenario manufactures deprivation that does not even profit the author, I get sloppy. Uneducated children and sick moms doesn't make this country stronger, and we all must live here, and suffer the results of the growing number of uneducated children and sick moms. Civil disobedience and stealing food are condoned in the history books, but not in the present. I have been accused of doing both. I am not sure if I did or not. It matters the definition. Sometimes things asked are not required by law, or shouldn't be.
  18. If I could get back all the time and money that I spent on timelines ... No advice. Sorry.
  19. This. And more patients die of suicide after "treatment" than die of starvation or other physical complications of the disorder.
  20. You can help a child be healthier and even thinner without ever mentioning their weight. My son just mentioned recently how I used to refuse to allow a thirsty child to drink a beverage with sugar or even milk, and insisted that "thirsty" required water not food. Food was for hungry. Water was for thirsty. I said fruit was healthier than treats. Whole grain was healthier than white flour. Etc. etc. ect. Healthy and skinny are not synonyms. Some people are never going to be thin, and they deserve to have a good life. I was not an obese child, but I was reared to believe that I was obese. To this day, my siblings will insist that I was "fat" even though they can not produce a single picture of me fat. I was reared to believe that fat was bad and that I was bad, and my weight was the reason that I was treated differently than my underweight siblings. I lived the life of an overweight child despite not being overweight. I did not know it was all a lie until I was 15 and singled out as the smallest student in a gym class of 100 girls and placed at the top of a pyramid. I looked down at the stronger girls holding me up, and realized I could not be both the smallest and obese. Overweight people are not different than lower-weight people. Rearing ALL children to eat healthy is enough, without discussing weight. If healthy eating doesn't make a child thin, then teaching them unhealthy habits in the hope they will be thin probably isn't going to end well. I believe in the right of all children to be reared to be healthy as the goal and to be told they are beautiful and moral and equal to their thinner peers and siblings. I did not stand by. I did not say nothing. I just did not ever use the word "weight". I just did not ever tell my child that he was different. I just never told him that he was inferior in any way. He failed to choose wheat bread over white bread, maybe, when he had the chance to make that choice despite my teaching, but he did not fail at being thinner, because that was never the narrow goal. We stuck to a wider goal of healthy. He was able to be successful at that most of the time. He was a healthy child. And a mentally healthy one. He got to be a child, something that I never experienced. I did not stand by. I fought for my kids with every resource AVAILABLE to ME. No regrets about this. NONE!
  21. Diets are no more effective than spelling curricula. Shaming fixes nothing. We all need to be careful about addressing things that we do not have a solution, including and maybe especially doctors addressing weights. Weights are complicated. One of my children was overweight. He did not know he was overweight until he was 14 and a physicians assistant addressed it with him. At 14, he was confused why I had not talked to him about weight, and only healthy eating. Later, he thanked me for that. His weight after 14 has been up and down, but never because of attempts to change his weight. Other factors that had nothing to do with an attempt to change his weight were what changed his weight. My mom had anorexia and pressured me to remain underweight as a child in ways that confused me then and set me up for a lifetime of mucked up thoughts about my body. I was determined that my kid would have the healthiest relationship with food possible. He says there was NOTHING more I could have done that was in my power. Medical staff are only human and only know what they know. And will get sued if they do not follow "best practice" no matter what they think of "best practice." They training is what their training is. To just do what they are trained to do, is what keeps them sane and financially solvent and able to have a life. But that doesn't mean that what they are trained to do doesn't harm you. You are harmed by this. I'm sorry this is happening to you. Many of us avoid doctors to prevent being harmed. Sometimes "treatment" is more harmful than medical neglect.
  22. Maybe letting go of this guy would be a good idea.
  23. I went to a community college. I don't know how different they are in general, but .., that was not the issue with all professors hired at my school. LOL.
  24. I have had to repeatedly step away from people I love to make room for other people to have what I want most. Stepping away is the true love. Yes, when they pass it hurts a LOT, and more, not less than if you have never stepped aside. I know what you mean about people being there at the critical moments that were unsurvivable without them, and not there later. I have a lot of those moments. And some of those people were not ones that I stepped aside; it is far more complicated and they are far more mucked up. But they were there in the moment, when no one else was. I am alive and I am who I am because they were there. She was wonderful, but so are you! So are you!
  25. Was the baiting to the level of entrapment? If students were prodded to do things that they would not otherwise have done, is that an issue? It is for the police, right? Can grading be objective by a professor that would do something like this? Even if there is not an easy rule to actively take action, do the colleges still choose the best professors possible, if they have enough professors to choose? I had some wacky professors that demonstrated diagnosable mental health issues. They tended to teach the early morning and late night classes and were very consistent in showing up. Seven a.m. in the morning was asking for crazy. And after 6 p.m. was a crap shoot.
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