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UrbanSue

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Everything posted by UrbanSue

  1. We like cold brew coffee quite a bit and often make big batches of it in the summer using a big jar and then a cheesecloth and strainer or our French Press. But when my kids knocked the press to our tile floor and shattered it for the second time in six months we bought an Aeropress. It is fabulous and makes a coffee concentrate very quickly. And it is one of the most inexpensive "coffee makers" you can buy. We really, really love ours.
  2. I'm pretty sure Moleskine makes one like that.
  3. We take plenty of long multi-day car trips with our kids and I'm all for boredom. But this seems like a pretty harsh attitude towards a kid who suffers from severe motion sickness.
  4. I have also heard other families say that the DVD players mounted so you have to look up is very effective but we've never tried it.
  5. My 4yo used to get car sick on any drive over 15 minutes. We got him some Psi Bands (available on Amazon) and they are really great for him. Our pediatrician agreed that he has many patients that those really work well. They're about $15 and maybe worth trying before medicating. Hope she finds some relief!
  6. UrbanSue

    .

    So people can avoid threads that are just going to make them angry.
  7. Here is the formula I use: 1 c. nuts 1 c. dates (4-5, pitted) 1/2-1 c. "extra" Then I just tweak the actual ingredients. Here are some combinations we like: Ginger Snap: dates, pecans, ginger, cinnamon, clove (you could add raisins to bulk up the "extra" category here or just add a bit more of each dates and nuts) Lemon: dates, cashews, coconut, lemon extract Chocolate: dates, walnuts, cocoa powder, coconut Blueberry: dates, cashews, dried blueberries, a few drops each of lemon and vanilla extracts Apple Pie: dates, walnuts, dried apples, raisins, cinnamon These are really flexible. You could add or substitute different kinds of nuts. Almonds make for a drier bar, pecans and walnuts are more oily. If the mixture is too wet and gooey you can add a few more nuts, if it is too dry you can add another date or a spoonful of coconut oil. Any dried fruit would work. I might do a peanut/dried cherry one this summer. The master formula makes 4-6 bars depending on how much you play with extras and how big you cut them.
  8. Does she like Larabars? They always have nuts but they are ground up and mixed with other stuff. If those are a good bet they are super easy to make in a food processor. I crank out 40 or 50 in an hour before a road trip, even making several varieties. They freeze/refrigerate well for awhile and have good protein/healthy fat, depending on what you put in them.
  9. "Yes" seems obvious from what you've said. Is there a catch?
  10. Somewhat related--we don't have to test for reporting purposes either but dh and I decided we want to test our kids at least in grades 4, 6, and 8 with something like the ITBS. Given the above, maybe we'll do the CogAt the first time as well since my ds is definitely a bit quirky in his learning and it might help us think through some things. When would I give the Grade 4 test? After completion of 4th grade? He is a rising fourth grader, nine in the fall, working above grade level in every subject (way, way above in some cases) except math where he'll be spending next year on BA 3B-4A (so he's using something quite challenging but, technically, I guess, behind grade level).
  11. One way? What is the end game/exit strategy? I have zero experience with anything like this but that seems like an enormous amount of pressure for your son to decided when he's had enough of his birth mother--whether the visit is going well or not. Or, worst of all, if it's not great but not bad and he wants to keep giving it "just a few more days." Is there any hope of chatting with him and setting up a definite end day for a reasonably short amount of time?
  12. I had forgotten about Minimus, ironically, since we also use Cambridge. But I pulled it up along with a few others for dh to review last night and he voted overwhelmingly for Minimus. I've really enjoyed Cambridge so we decided to just go with it. Thanks for all the input!
  13. This is pretty consistent, from things I've seen recently, with how families have always behaved. I just read a piece in the newest Atlantic about the "myth" that women are less fertile as they reach their 30s. It was a pretty interesting piece all around and, in my layman's view, seemed to do a pretty good job shredding some of the research on this issue. Here is the article: http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2013/07/how-long-can-you-wait-to-have-a-baby/309374/ One of the more interesting details to me was that she claims (and I didn't re-read prior to posting here so apologies if I get a few details fuzzy) that there is plenty of evidence that older women hundreds of years ago were plenty fertile. But it also seems to be the case that couples who had been married for awhile and already had plenty of mouths to feed would just stop having sex to limit their families. My dh is a theologian who specializes in the theology of marriage and actually has a grant this summer to do some writing on NFP (not really for popular audiences but it's been really fun to discuss his research with him) and he read a book on children in the Middle Ages. The author found that the average age of marriage was mid- to late-twenties and the average amount of children--even accounting for infant mortality--was 2-3 children. Of course, this might not be welcome news for those wishing to avoid ABC but wanting to limit family size and hoping for an early end to fertility. But, on the other hand, there is at least some evidence that the best (and only licit) way to limit family size for much of history was total abstinence. This isn't super-relevant to our discussion of what and how the church is saying about NFP, but I thought some of you might be interested.
  14. As for coordination: the whole premise of Singapore is to move from the concrete to the pictorial to the abstract. Start with the suggested activities from the HIG and/or educationunboxed.com. When that seems pretty solid, move to the text and discuss the pictures. Do the problems orally and/or together on z whiteboard. If she is utterly confused, play more games. When her conceptual understanding seems solid, give her the workbook page. As long as she understands what she is doing, it isn't cheating for her to use manipulatives at any point at this stage. So long as, asked to add two numbers, she knows how to figure it out somehow.
  15. The workbook is where she should show concept mastery so you know you can move on. Let her use manipulatives to do the workbook, but don't demonstrate for her. And, fwiw, I like c-rods better than the suggested linking cubes for number bond work.
  16. I don't think SM 1A is lacking. But I do think most of the concrete stuff is better done with c-rods than the suggested manipulatives. But this is a very simple change to make yourself whether you use Miquon or not. If no one has mentioned it yet, look at educationunboxed.com for good c-rod ideas.
  17. It is well within normal to have a rising first grader not know her number bonds. It would be more unusual if she did. I don't have my HIG handy but I'm pretty sure it says right in there to not worry about memorization at this point. Does she understand the concept? Given a number bond, can she find the missing piece with manipulatives? If so, you can move on. Just make sure you solidify the concrete with her at each new step.
  18. Kinda gross, but if your nose is runny, try blowing yours with no tissue so she can see what comes out. It's worked for us.
  19. The only big drawback (other than hearing, "No way! What are you a stalker?") is that you lose your negotiating power. So I would be really sure about price since, most likely, you are going to be the first one to name a price which is the opposite of how it usually works.
  20. We drove a Hyundai Elantra until our fourth was born and dh kind of regrets that we got rid of it (though our fourth baby somewhat made up for it ;) ). We moved cross country--twice! for a month!-- in it and did a huge road trip from NJ-CO-MN-NJ one summer. We could fairly easily fit three car seats across the back. We did have two Sunshine Kids Radian seats but the Hyundais have a few more inches across the back than the similar-size Toyota and Honda models we looked at. We got the hatchback version and could carry a lot of cargo for such a small car--my oldest uses a non-collapsible wheelchair so all of those road trips had a wheelchair taking up a good amount of space. And when we bought (we had a 2005) the hatchback model came standard with leather seats which are so much easier to keep clean. I really miss that. The mileage was fabulous--above 30 was our average and we'd often be approaching 40 on long freeway drives. We never had a single maintenance issue. Can you tell we really loved this car :)
  21. Thanks, I was just about to go see if RFWP has a Latin program. I was bummed to miss the conference.
  22. My initial searches were coming up dry on getting a list of programs but I guess I picked the right words this time, because now I'm coming up with quite a list. Though you're still welcome to throw recommendations at me :)
  23. I've been using Cambridge Latin with my 8yo this last year and we really like it. But he has a huge vocabulary from constant, high-level reading, so he does well with the translate-first-learn-later method with Cambridge. My dd who will be 7 in the fall and in 2nd grade wants to start Latin but I don't think Cambridge would be a good fit for her. She is more inclined to like a structured, workbook-based approach though I wouldn't rule out a reading method for her if there was one at a lower level. She just doesn't read like ds did (she reads fine, but not several years above grade level or anything) and she's starting a year younger than he did. I know about (and just sold, grrrr) Latina Christiana I and I am looking at Getting Started With Latin. What other programs are out there? I think we've ruled out Song School Latin. Our family has plenty of exposure to Latin and dh is an accomplished Latinist and uses it daily in his work so we don't need a program that is just about "exposure."
  24. Do you mean that perhaps she is looking for more one on one attention and didn't like being left to do work on her own? That's possible. She often voluntarily does work on her own but, thinking about it, it's always workbook stuff well below her level like Evan Moor Daily Geography or something. Maybe with math I need to figure out how to remain as a support while letting her work on her own. She really bristles if I give her too much help.
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