yellowperch
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Posts posted by yellowperch
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No tv--we don't have an actual television (not that that matters anymore) and not a lot of other screen time--a movie or science or history type dvd ever couple of weeks or so. The last two summers have been entirely screen-free. The two older boys get 30 minutes of computer game time a week during the school year.
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Does no one love southern New England? :tongue_smilie:
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Virgina Lee Burton's books--
Choo Choo
Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel
Katy and the Big Snow
Marybelle
I'm Mighty
I Stink, both by McMullen
Mr. Gumpy's Motorcar
The Little Red Lighthouse
Glorious Flight
That should get you started...
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I'ce sent this e-mail to Patti, but I thought I'd post here. I wanted to add that even if we went the hotel conference room route, I'd hope to have some great meals and late-night coffee and wine here at out house.
.ExternalClass .ecxhmmessage P{padding:0px;}.ExternalClass body.ecxhmmessage{font-size:10pt;font-family:Tahoma;}Dear Patti,
I would be thrilled to host a New England conference. I am in the south eastern corner of Rhode Island, 25 minutes away from Greene International Airport, 10 minutes from the Kingston Junction train station and from the University of Rhode Island. We're also 35 minutes south of Brown University, RISD and Providence College. 20 minutes over a bridge is Newport. Block Island is a ferry ride away.
Our current house could accommodate a small group, say 12-14 adults and a few babies, but not a large group of children. We are working on buying a new house, one that could accommodate 20 or more adults. That house has a great outdoor space, and a basement playroom so we could be more generous about children.
Alternately, there is a Holiday Inn and a few other similar hotels that have conference rooms, etc. I' be happy to look into those. I am active with our libraries, and could easily arrange access to some space there. There is also the university, which has lots of space. I do think the hotel conference rooms would be the best bet if we go the non-house route since people will be staying at the hotels.
Public transport isn't great here, so that is another consideration.
Finally, I am planning to attend the North East Conference, and a group of us from the board would like to invite Susan to something--a night out, a coffee clache, light-night drinks, or a somewhat more intimate but directed talk/conversation. My guess is she'd just like a break so we can all spend time, but we are open to anything.
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Love this. Just love it! I live near a beach/airport/trainstation in RI. Summers are amazing here, and not crazy like Cape Cod, etc. I'd host, happily. I know where to get inexpensive lobsters. Please come!
SWB--you are a credit to your faith. Does your husband fish? My DH know where the fish are running......
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Here's one of the old threads:
http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=249341
Love your post, Halcyon.
Like minded folk: please come to the NE convention in Philly. I'm going (despite the spanking advocate who is on the roster), and I would love to meet WTMers. I'm taking Amtrak from RI to get there if anyone wants to meet en route.
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I would feel enormously happy that such generosity exists (especially if the gift were the new surf board I've been eyeing). I would consider myself tagged, if you will, with good fortune and therefore compelled to pass it on in someway or another. I think of it this way: if we really are all we have then we better take good care of each other.
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I think we should formally invite SWB to something--lunch, a powwow, a dinner, a little side workshop?--that is more or less just us--WTMers from the board.
What do you think we should do? do you think it should be purely fun and social or should it be set up so we can get work done?
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I am really thrilled. September will be the first time I will be homeschooling all of them (except little Joe) full-time. My oldest will be a sixth grader; there is no more fooling around for any of us. I'll have a 6th, 4th, 2nd and K child. I can't be a homeschooling dilettante any longer.
My most serious concerns are:
writing for my 6th, 4th and 2nd
math for all
handwriting for my K (I really don't like it and did as little as possible for the two who were home for K, and they paid the price)
the gifted child (all my kids are brilliant :) but my 4th grader is off the charts in math--several grade levels beyond typical--and quite a complicated cat)
organizing/managing the whole show
teaching and engaging my real (spirited, distractible, argumentative, bickering, lovely) children.
creating a safe, loving environment for all, one where the baby feels as important as my sixth grader, and where no one is teased, ignored, spoken over.
AND:
I want to find out more about Circe
How to manage the education of several young children at different levels, etc.
Thinking about the long-term, or how not to screw up their college admissions prospects
On my list:
SWB
Ed Zaccaro
Pudewa
Guffanti (I think it would benefit my oldest son if I learned some techniques for helping kids with ADD--do you think he'll get into specifcs?DS hasn't been diagnosed, but he is easily distractible )
Michael Clay Thompson (for the gifted issues--does he get into practical matters?)
Do you think my expectations are too high? Aren't they always?
Any advice on selecting sessions and making the most of this would be welcome. I think I'll cross post this. Maybe people will have some fresh-from-the-scene insight from Memphis or Greenville.
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My DH was ROTC at Cornell. He joined soon after the Marines were attacked in Lebanon back in the 80s. He felt called to service, seeing other young men his age putting their lives on the line for their country. The college money didn't hurt. Joining ROTC transformed him a frat-boy football player to a much more serious person.
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Welcome to the club! I haven't read all the posts. When I was growing up big families were the ones with 7 or more. But where I live and in this era I would say 4 is over the top, at least that is how I've been made to feel, but really only on rare (but memorable) occassions (jeez, how do you spell that word). Four is great! You are going to love it so much you'll want more. :tongue_smilie:
People have generally been very kind and approving (if they've noticed at all. most people are usually too busy to think twice about other people's families) Must be because my kids are so awesome!
One thing I have had to guard myself against is being very boastful or smug. I tend to be a little bit like that. My mother would have wanted to have had more than her four, and then my younger brother died when we were children. She would always say nice things to mothers of big families (she likes saying nice things to lots of people). Once in a while one of the mothers would respond smugly, and that would upset my mom. I know some of you think commenting at all is poor manners, but really she was always very kind and cheery about it. My point is you just never know why someone is looking at your lovely brood and scowling or smiling or nodding or saying, "hey lucky you."
Good luck with the rest of the pregnancy. I envy you a tiny bit, in a nice way.
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Leave an island for an oversized house? I wouldn't! We are thinking of going the other way. (Our house isn't oversized, but we dream about buying a little 3 bedroom beach house--the kind with no garage or basement or attic but a view!) How old are your children? If they are very young and you have lots I might consider it....
McMansions are hard to sell, when the time comes.
I bet more than one family will come to your open house. You are already where we all want to be.
Love the bathroom. I've always thought an outside bathroom with little kid toilets and small sinks along with adult sized ones would be a nifty idea. But we'll make do with our outdoor shower and muddy, sandy kids traipsing through the kitchen to use the bathroom.
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There are certain scenes in books that I carry with me and wish I didn't. The Road has some, so do the Poisenwood Bible and the Atwood books Oryx and Crake and The Year of the Flood. But I still think those books were worth reading.
I really dislike certain cheap, sucker-punch type fiction like My Sister's Keeper--what a ridiculous way to get out of a writerly knot. Inscest theme books are always badly plotted and trite, with the horror of the events giving the book gravity it doesn't deserve. I also don't like books like the Kite Runner where everything bad that ever happened happens to just one person. I don't need to be twisted up like that.
I guess I can handle grim and disturbing fictional events if the writer earns them, and they matter in the story. Cheap, lazy writing disappoints every time (even though I know when I pick up a Jodi Picolt or most Oprah books that is what I am going to get.)
Wonder what book OP was talking about in her first post. Can you tell us?
I read American Pastoral on my honeymoon and wish I hadn't. Grim. But then I followed it with Angle of Repose which is lovely and took the bitterness from my mouth.
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My son is 11 and loves a feast. He's skinny guy and eats all day long and twice at meal times.
I know now that I will prepare him with a little chat about manners in a buffet line if we are invited to an event that features one. I think it would be a good idea to remind him that there will be others behind him and that he's welcome to go through the line a second time after everyone has had a chance to go through. I wouldn't have thought about this before this thread but it makes sense. We have only been at a handful of weddings and events where this is an issue, and never since his new-found love of food. I'm sure he would do just as OP son has done. But now that I think of it 3 pieces of meat just isn't excessive at all. Hmm. So maybe scratch my comment.
The aunt was obnoxious but I would let it go. Obnoxious aunts are to be forgiven and loved because if we don't who will?
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I've come back to add: I agree that the premise of the show is poor. I don't like television in general and this is one more example of why. It's not that I think we shouldn't look at ourselves in the mirror--we should--but this is just a weird way to do it.
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There was supposed to be a proposal?
Ours was more like 5 years of negotiations, ending with getting married as a lark.
Seriously, we felt married from our first months together. We felt like we needed to get married officially when we wiped out our education debt and were ready to start a family. The actual wedding was on the beach with two strangers as witnesses.
12 years and 5 children later I don't feel like I missed anything.
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I would respond, and I'd like to think I'd keep the bagger in mind rather just go off on a rant. Maybe I'd call the shopper out but then direct my conversation to the bagger who I imagine would appreciate kind words, or if I were really on my game, a really funny comment about the shopper. But talking about someone in front of them is bad manners, no? I don't think I would care.
My 5 foot tall, 66 year old mother, however, would have picked any of those shoppers up and carried them out of the store, tossing them on the sidewalk. She would really be enraged.
I think women speak up not only because they are mothers but also because they don't have to fear that the altercation could get physical. It could, of course. But it isn't as likely.
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I'm in. Would some of us like to meet at 3 Thursday? My train should get in at 2 and I think the festivities start at 4. We could meet in the bar (I'm more of a coffee drinker but I think we can be sure there is a bar) at the Radisson.
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Hahaha!
A fun little something was my post.
I feel honored, Ibbygirl.
This has been so fun to read, messy kitchen be darned.
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I just bought this play for my 4 year old who is a just-busting-out reader. He's thrilled with himself, to say the least.
Many of you know the Now I'm Reading series. The author has also written plays for early readers. They come in a kit with paper masks, four scripts and the story. This level 1 kit (there is one other and two level 2s) was just right for my son who has finished the 3 level 1 book sets in the series and is 1/2 way through level 2.
The hardest part was getting my oldest son to take on a role, but my 4 yo was so happy to have his older sibs do something like this with him it was worth the cajoling. The older guys were very impressed with his reading and let him know it, which thrilled him.
This was a fun Saturday project (it is still darn cold here in NE.)
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Thank goodness for Land's End. My daughter turns 7 this week. She is still such a little, little girl. I am so queasy right now. I worry about who she will spend time with as she gets to be 10 and 12. My friends who have daughters that age fight this kind of insanity, but they describe an uphill battle even in our little corner here.
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My mother is amazing too. She just took care of my children for three days while I took some time with DH. Looking for ideas too. :lurk5:
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We gave our bookish 11 yo books for his birthday...and money to put towards the snowboard he wants to buy in the late fall.
Are you looking for titles?
We gave him Asterix and Tintins he didn't already have. A few cartoon histories of the world (I found a batch of used ones for a good price. we don't mind used books een as gifts) and a tintin dvd collection. We run through novels like water around here, so they aren't really gift-y to my kids. I just saw the big DK Universe book and I would have given him that if I had known about it before his birthday.
http://www.amazon.com/Universe-Robert-Dinwiddie/dp/0756636701/ref=lh_ni_t_
We gave him this for Christmas and everyone has loved it.
http://www.amazon.com/Elements-Visual-Exploration-Every-Universe/dp/1579128149/ref=pd_sim_b_10
I might buy the universe book for DD. Her Bd is next week. Time to change my signature....
For my birthday I would like this:
http://www.amazon.com/Natural-History-Smithsonian-DK-Publishing/dp/0756667526/ref=pd_sim_b_5
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Wow! Hope he recovered...What's in it? How advanced is the science?How is the science incorporated? How graphic is it? Are the two books sequential or are they the same math with different applications? Thank you again for the help.
Should I splurge and get an ipad?
in General Education Discussion Board
Posted · Edited by yellowperch
Here's what I'm weighing: 1. My laptop is ancient and the battery no longer works. A replacement batter is 179. The laptop buzzes and crackles so it is only a matter of time before it goes caput. At which point I'd have a brand new battery for an obselete hand-me down computer. If I get an ipad then I can still keep the laptop for any really typing.
2. I was stuck in NYC (kidless) with no book (I had just finished one and didn't think it would go so fast) one night when Chris was writing. The book stores were already closed and Chris only had technical guides on hand-- I found myself reading a sat phone set-up guide.
3.I have $189 in returned xmas gift money earmarked for a splurge.
4. I love real books, which is why I returned my kindle (which I bought for DH. He didn't really want it and passed it on to me). Plus I spent $40 the first day I had it.
5. I think screen-time is generally bad for humans, and especially my kids and for me. I don't really want something shiny and new for the kids to covet. I want to spend less time with technology, not more.
6. I'm frugal and I could use the money for a baby sitter so I could surf for real this spring.
7. I think that just because something is new and cool doesn't mean I'm supposed to have it. (I have an old cell, for example, that doesn't text or take pictures. It's fine!)
8. DH is out of the country and I feel like I need a treat.
What do you think?