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Eagle

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Posts posted by Eagle

  1. "It's a marathon, not a sprint."

     

    I think of this advice quite often. It helps me to take the long view and not get caught up in trivial day-to-day concerns (oh no, we missed a day of spelling!).

     

    "Teach the child you have."

     

    If something isn't working, I have no problem switching things around. The "best on paper" curriculum may not work for us, and that's ok. We'll find something else that does.

    • Like 17
  2. Does anyone know what resources are available for expanding skills on whistling? Ds taught himself to whistle a few years ago and has reached an amazingly proficient level on his own. We listen to classical music and he can whistle all of the songs beautifully. Is there something I could be doing (lessons, resources, etc.) to help bring out his natural talent or should I just stay out of the way?

  3. I always recommend Tashi for readers who are past those 1,2,3 level books but not ready for chapter books. You can get an almost 1000 page compilation volume (big, enormous Tashi or something similar). It starts off very basic and progresses in difficulty. It is full of short stories of gnomes and elves that my ds loved. He also gained so much confidence reading such a huge book.

  4. I just want to give you a big hug :grouphug: and say that I understand. Ds has severe food allergies and it was so overwhelming at first to figure out what to eat. I particularly remember one trip to the grocery store where I just stood in the aisle and cried because there was almost nothing we could eat.

     

    The first step that helped me was to remove everything from the kitchen that wasn't ok for him to eat. It is very depressing to open your own cupboards and see more things that you can't eat than those you can. I would just close the cupboard and be hungry. After a while that really takes a toll on you, not just mentally but physically too. If you cannot remove everything due to other people in the house using those items, then move those items to a single location - one shelf of problem items, everything else things that you can eat.

     

    It also helped me to make a list of foods we could eat just so I could see the possibilities. Start with Wendyroo's list above, but list *every* item (carrots, broccoli...), not just categories like "vegetable". You need to see the quantity of items that you can still eat.

     

    I also started printing out or photocopying recipes that we could eat and putting them in a binder. In this way we ended up with a cookbook (from varying sources) that contained all recipes we could eat.

     

    It gets easier with time once you adjust to the diet and discover (or create) some new favourite recipes.

    • Like 3
  5. So far the favourite "school" item for my Ds is a light table. If you google "light table preschool" and look at the images you will see all the amazing activities they can do on a light table. We even found transparent cuisenaire rods for it. So much fun!

     

    Other favourites include tagging along for nature study with his brother, and taking swimming and skating lessons. He is also on a swim team. He loves his continent boxes and learning about other places, as well as watching nature documentaries.

     

    We have memberships to local museums, aquariums and nature centres and visit frequently. We also have symphony season tickets for a children's symphony program.

     

    We built garden boxes this year and planted a vegetable garden. Ds was involved in every step and was fascinated to watch "his" plants grow and then be able to eat them.

    • Like 1
  6. Try a Roald Dahl book. The author reads them himself. We also love Jim Weiss audiobooks.

     

    The narrator makes a huge difference in an audiobook. I didn't like the first one or two I listened to, but now that we have found narrators we enjoy we listen to audiobooks all the time.

     

    Make sure he has something else to do while listening. Lego, colouring, painting, puzzle, etc. He might like it better if it is just a background sound in addition to something else he gets to do. I wouldn't give him the book to read along.

    • Like 1
  7. That looks great! I haven't made mine yet. :closedeyes:

     

    I discovered that there are virtually no toddler-friendly-sized transparent letters and numbers. I especially wanted lowercase letters. So I figured out how to make my own. I may end up making an etsy listing to see if anyone else is searching for them. It'd be nice if I could sell enough sets to pay for the materials I bought!

    What did you make them out of? Pictures please! :)

  8. I finished the light/sensory table!! I am so proud of myself as I have never made anything like it before. It took 6 weeks and was WAY more work than I expected, probably due to my inexperience. Here it is:

     

    image_zpsl9p1hbhd.jpeg

     

    And here are the transparent c-rods. Ds was so excited!

     

    image_zpsumztxkgb.jpeg

    • Like 1
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