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DoppeltGemoppelt

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Everything posted by DoppeltGemoppelt

  1. My kids are not allowed to have any screen time during the school week. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday they are allowed one hour after dinner. Usually my boys will choose to play video games. We also have Netflix and iPhones. I will usually not turn anything on for me until after they go to bed, but I do tend to read on my phone a lot (bad habit). My husband watches more, and I will make the kids leave the room when that happens. The kids also do not get screen time in the car or when we are waiting somewhere. There are many reasons why I feel so strongly about screen time, but I won't go into detail and repeat what other posters have already said. These rules are not in place for my 15 year old stepson. Screens were never the forbidden fruit for him. When he was younger, about 9 or 10, that may have worked out fine. He still spent time with his family got together with friends, and did many other things. Fast forward a couple of years and he is now completely addicted. It does not even feel like he is a family member anymore. He does not help out on his own, he does not do his homework, he rushes into his room after he gulped down his dinner in order to get back to his laptop, he is up all night talking very loudly to friends...I could keep going. So yeah, I've seen the other side...and I don't like it one bit!
  2. I did not read through all the posts, so I apologize if this has already been mentioned. Besides all the other great advice that you've already gotten, a little known secret to impressing buyers before they even walk in, is the front door. Invest in a really expensive looking front door, and your house will definitely compare to the other houses around you. Why? Drive around different neighborhoods and ask yourself: Which houses look good? You will very often find, that the houses with the best curb appeal always have a grand looking font door. It could even be a small ranch with a roof that needs replacement, but the door all of a sudden makes a difference.
  3. A keyboard. Ours can play more than 100 songs and the keys you have to play light up. The kids play with it all the time. You could also connect a microphone to it. We have everything from a drumset to guitars, but the keyboard definitely gets played with the most.
  4. We have a no-screen-time during the week rule. This includes car rides and wait times. On the weekend they get about 1hour Fri, Sat, Sun. The weekend rule started causing problems when it came to going to sports events though, since the kids wanted to watch right in the morning. We wound up changing it to screen time after dinner only. This works out pretty well. The kids are always excited to go to their sports, which is only swimming twice a week currently. We do require them to pick one sport and stick with it for at least the season. They've done as many as three sports at once.
  5. I am currently working part time as an instructional assistant for special ed children. I do love my job, but would like to stay home and homeschool my twin boys. It just doesn't feel right to drop my own kids off with a stranger in order to educate someone else's children, KWIM? I would like to start tutoring, in order to supplement my DH's income. It is very important to me, that I do this legally. Are there any laws regarding opening a tutoring business in CT? Where do I find them? I do not have a bachelors degree, but a strong background in mathematics. I can also teach elementary reading. In addition, German is my native language, so teaching that offers itself.
  6. I have an HP Deskjet 3052A. The cartridges cost $15 and last for a long time. If your mom (or you) want to buy a new printer, read the reviews. Not every wireless printer works with every tablet. For your iPad it's important that the printer has ePrint, which is different from wireless.
  7. I don't use AoPS yet, but I would buy a cm graph book. It is self contained, and your son won't have any problems with the size of his letters. Plus it has the added benefit of keeping all the equations in order and your son will be able to use it for geometrical drawings.
  8. Have you tried talking to the owner of your theater? If you buy tickets, maybe there is a way to watch it on a small screen in a back room? I feel for your daughter!
  9. When I first took care of my stepson in the mornings, he was about 7 yrs old. He always had trouble getting up on time. So I thought of a natural consequence in case he misses the bus. That would be walking to school. Unfortunately, the school is too far away to walk to. I told him that if he doesn't get up on time and gets ready by himself (I made breakfast and got his lunchbox ready), then he'll have to take a run around the 1/4 mile track before I drive him. When he was older, I changed the natural consequence into him having to stay home and doing all my chores for the day. The first day he had to get up by himself, I was so on edge. He was running late for everything...but he made it!!! Unfortunately, none of my kids were ever late for school until this day. I never did get anyone to do my chores for me... :confused1:
  10. My initial response to the title of your post was to have your daughter stick it out until the end of the school year, and then decide on a year to year basis. HOWEVER, being bullied would be the number one reason for me to pull my kid, immediately! I was bullied in school for two years and to this day it leaves me feeling socially crippled and gives me major anxiety when I have to attend certain social events. So my advice: Pull her out now! You'll have to deal mostly with her attitude towards schooling then. Creating a good work habit will take time and probably aggravation on both sides, but your little daughter is worth it. Please don't let her suffer through bullying in school.
  11. I also think that someone made a mistake. There is no way that this is F. My twins are in first grade and started with level F, but are now on G. None of their books that they brought home come even close. I would ask the teacher specifically about this book.
  12. I have definitely not been at this longer than you, but one of my twin boys is just like your son. He would get very upset that I explained what plagiarism is after he wrote his book, and possibly throw it away. Teaching your son about it now, and then giving him the choice as to how he wants to write his book, is probably the better idea.
  13. Sorry!! I'm in the same boat. They might offer you another chance at the test, but to be honest, after studying so hard for it (I've never failed a test before) I believe that I would have taken A LOT more time for the actual job than they allot. Unfortunately I have no advice. For me it means that I still cannot homeschool my kids :-(
  14. I really hope that this will work out for your daughter. I didn't want to discourage her with my previous post. Good luck to her!!! The guidance counselors only know what's acceptable in the US; different countries have different rules. Studying abroad will be a very valuable experience.
  15. About the Calculus: I don't know what major your daughter is trying to pursue, and I can't say anything about the German University guidelines. I do however know that if your daughter is not able to do multivariable Calculus, it will be very unlikely that she can keep up with the math class. So even if she doesn't specifically need it, she should be prepared. Can your daughter commit to a University here, and then change her mind if she gets accepted abroad? Otherwise, if she meets the specific guidelines of the German University, ask admissions what last years GPA of accepted applicants was. That can sometimes give you a good idea on the likelihood of her getting in.
  16. I am from Germany and have applied and been accepted to German Universities. I also believe, after seeing what my high schooler is learning in public school in the US, that the 4 AP classes are required in order to be equivalent to a German Leistungskurs. Therefore some of the college classes your daughter is taking should count. In my opinion, the German University wants to see one calculus math, one English literature/poetry course, one science and one language. All of these must be AP, or college level. I would submit all transcriptions of the courses that meet this criteria and your daughter received at least a B in. Keep calling the colleges until you reach someone knowledgable about US applicants. They should give you more specific information. Don't confuse them with details, only tell them that in addition to high school, your daughter is also enrolled in college and is currently taking _______(math, foreign language, science, English).
  17. I've read through the posts and feel that there were many good suggestions for you. Another idea when it comes to food may be to have the mom provide everyone's food one or two days out of the week, including breakfast, lunch and snacks for your kids. Since yours are on a special diet, give mom a list of approved foods. I have seen this done by parents in an all natural coop preschool. They all took turns providing the food.
  18. It's going okay here. We moved during the summer and the twins had to switch schools. Their day starts at nine, so we do afterschooling before school. This works a lot better for us, as the boys don't have to do homework on top of the work I give them. Right now they are working hard on reading comprehension. Both boys came home in tears when they had to take "baby books" (readers) home. Hopefully they can soon test into a higher reading level...we'll see. They also keep complaining that they're learning the same thing as last year and they already know everything. This gets them both into trouble sometimes. My little chatter boxes tend to disrupt the class when they're bored. Unfortunately, after being asked to join the boys gymnastics team, neither one of them wanted to keep going. I really enjoyed watching them progress, but I'm not going to force it on them. They still love exercising and practice push-ups,handstands, chin-ups and more. Swim lessons will start up again in October. Both boys love the water, but we don't have any swim teams within an hour's drive. We also work on reading and narration in German, and MEP math whenever we get to it. This doesn't happen often right now, because we're still enjoying the end of summer and walking to the playground or riding our bikes every day. I love, love, LOVE the location of our new house, the kids can even walk to school!! I would really like to add science and history to our mix, and do more hands on projects, but where do I take all this time from? (sigh)
  19. I've just found out about something similar to snap circuits. It's called Little Bits. It seems to be geared towards older kids, but is also somewhat expensive.
  20. Korrale, I would like to pm you some questions I have about the a-z reading system, if that's okay. I don't want to high jack this post.
  21. I'm going through the same thing. My kids understand every word I say in German, but couldn't speak it. What I came up with was to have them read a short German story to me every day and narrate it back in German. They started out struggling with every word, but are getting much better now! We haven't done any formal grammar yet, so I can't recommend anything for that. Maybe look into some German second grade workbooks? If your kids understand German well, then I definitely wouldn't bother with any language learning program.
  22. Sounds like the main problem your son has is place value. MUS teaches place value in alpha, but you can also find that video online, once you have the blocks. Start out by really solidifying place value, not addition and subtraction facts. Let him use the manipulatives for all his work, this will show you if he really understands place value. He will eventually not need them anymore. If you choose to purchase beta, he'll go through if very quickly after place value clicked for him. I believe MUS is a really great choice for a child like your son.
  23. One of the forum members here posted this: http://allinonehomeschool.com/ It is designed to have your kids do all their work independently and might be helpful if it just gets to be too much for you at some point.
  24. I am so sorry you're going through this. I moved from Germany to the US, so I can feel your pain! The one thing that helped me get over my homesickness was when my sister came to visit. She kept saying how good we have it: a house, our own backyard, etc. When someone else tells you how much greener the grass is on your side, it makes you enjoy it more I guess. The other thing: Get involved in your community! Make some close friends by inviting people whose company you enjoy. When you talk about your former home, always find something positive in your new one too. Your company will take it personal, if you tend to emphasize how much better it was at "home".
  25. I would play outside for an hour before you have to work, and then get them on a set schedule and always have quiet time/reading time in their room. Susan Wise Bauer has a video where she explains how to do that even with her Teenage kids.
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