Aras
-
Posts
291 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Events
Blogs
Classifieds
Store
Posts posted by Aras
-
-
We have unpacked enough after our move so we are somewhat functional. Maybe participating in this thread will motivate me!
-get the kids started on their schoolwork again
-go to the start and buy a new set of dishes
-start stew in the crockpot
-shoehorn the rest of the kitchen stuff into my small galley kitchen
-unpack my clothes
-
2
-
-
Happy Birthday! :hurray:
-
1
-
-
Welcome! Tacoma/Olympia is a large area, indeed. I think you'll find the homeschool culture, whether there are a lot of secular homeschoolers or not, depends on the town you're in if it's small, but in Tacoma and Olympia there are a lot of options. I'm not sure which city you'll be in, and I won't speculate for the sake of your privacy, but if you PM we might be able to tip you off on to some more specifics. They're only 30 miles apart but with traffic, Tacoma can be 1+ hours from Olympia, so there is not AFAIK a ton of overlap in groups except regional groupings.
Good luck!
Thanks Tsuga, I think I am having a hard time wrapping my brain around the amount of traffic there is!
-
I would suggest joining the meet-up group called Homeschoolers of Pierce and Thurston Counties. Tacoma/Olympia is a pretty wide area - but that group is pretty active and has quite a bit going on, as well as lots of members (several who post on these forums) in general.
Thanks for the tip, I made a Meet-Up account and I signed up for the group.
-
1
-
-
Hello Hive!
The movers come to pack up our stuff in 6 weeks and we will be arriving in the Tacoma/Olympia area in 8 weeks. We don't know where we are going to live yet. We don't want to rent a house that we have never seen, so we have set aside 10 days to look for a house when we arrive. No stress there, none at all :001_rolleyes:
I have a son who is almost 13, and a daughter who is 11. We are excited to live in a city again, and a little nervous about finding friends. They are laid-back, sweet kids who still like to play at the park and have adventures.
Can anyone suggest some secular or inclusive groups that have meet-ups, park days, or field trips. We are also looking for Boy Scout troops, Girl Scout Cadette troops, Robotics clubs, Minecraft clubs, a trumpet teacher and a piano teacher. We have btdt with coops so they are not a priority. I have done some googling, but local experience is always appreciated.
We are looking forward to this move with excitement and some trepidation. Everyone I have met who has lived in the PNW has loved it, but it is hard to leave friends behind.
-
1
-
-
Glad to know it's not just me. At our current assignment, my husband works with students who PCS here for 6 months. It is hard to hear all the wives talk about the awesome (or not so awesome) places they are going and I'm stuck here for another year. Ugh!
I wasn't happy about getting our current posting, I may have cried a little. It was originally supposed to be a 2 year tour, but they extended it to 3 right after we arrived. I'm happy to see the end in sight. I'm not sure where you are, but I hope the year goes quickly!
-
We are leaning toward living in Baltimore, I'm pretty excited about that, it seems like there are some nice, eclectic neighborhoods.
Hawaii isn't necessarily something to dread but I find the weather really depressing. I like seasons. We've had a lot of fun here, the homeschool community is great, the hiking and outdoor activities are awesome, but I feel like 3 years is enough to last me a lifetime. I don't hate it by any means, but it's not really my kind of culture if that makes sense.
I can see how HI could be too much of a good thing. I want to see snow sometimes too :) Aberdeen was one of the postings we were trying to get, my family would have been a 6 hour drive from there, and there were still some seasons. I grew up on the east coast and it still feels like home. But I haven't gotten to JBLM yet, so I will see how that goes :tongue_smilie:
-
We were stationed at Bragg for 7 years and we had a house for 5 of those years. Of course we didn't fix it up until we had to rent it out when we moved. I swear I will never do that again- buy a house and put off fixing it up. My husband is now a frustrated handyman. He doesn't want to spend time fixing up someone else's house.
I'm getting the itch to buy a house. We have the pre approval, but I know it isn't a good idea. The property in the Fort Lewis area is much more expensive than North Carolina and who knows how long we would be stationed there. But those cute craftsman houses... I am spending way too much time on Zillow right now :001_rolleyes:
We aren't getting there until early February, so I just need to be patient. I mean, there is Thanksgiving, then Christmas, then packing, next thing you know, I will be in the PNW!
-
We just got orders to Ft Lewis! Yay! This will be the last duty station unless my husband decides to do more than 20 years. I'm a little sad that we didn't get to go overseas. After he gets out all the moving around will be on our own dime.
I'm excited, nervous, overwhelmed with the thought of going through our accumulated junk.
-
1
-
-
Lane Bryant has a very nice selection of cute underthings.
-
3
-
-
I'm hoping to track down a used set of Lightning Lit 7, but I have only found the 1st edition from 2005. Does anyone know what is different in the 2011 edition from the first edition? Are they basically the same? Significant differences?
Thanks in advance.
-
What's an EOD?
Explosive Ordnance Disposal
-
An acquaintence on FB told me she understood the school official's point of view and that kid would be ok because he had an invite to see POTUS. But what if there hadn't been this internet uproar? I think the police and the school system were shamed into dropping the charges because of the uproar. What about the kid that isn't as photogenic or doesn't have a sister with a twitter account? I think he would still be detained.
-
20
-
-
Thank you! Off to read...
-
She is a slow reader, so she gets frustrated and stops reading books in the middle. She skips little words in a sentence, she exchanges longer words for others that have the same beginning and end, she loses her place often when she reads, she gets frustrated to the point of tears with visual clutter- DK, Usborne and Story of US books. She has a hard time coherently explaining what she just read.
We listen to a lot of audiobooks, we have been using Whispersync kindle books, she really likes that. We have also tried those plastic things that go over a page and only show a few lines at a time, but she still struggles. I'm willing to try things, but I need new ideas.
We have Tricare, but the psychologist I just met with wouldn't order any tests because that is the purview of the local school system. She did think that dd had visual spatial issues, but she doesn't think vision therapy is effective. She also thinks I should put dd back in school for remediation or enroll her in Sylvan learning system.
:thumbdown:
-
Hello Hive! I usually post in other parts of the board, but lately I have realized that my dd is having trouble with reading. I have called the school, they directed me to my doctor for testing, I got a referral to a psychologist, who then directed me back to the school. This feels like a Kafka novel, and we have only just started.
Does anyone have any favorite books, links, or threads about how to navigate the system? I am overwhelmed and I don't know where to begin.
-
I'm confused re: the bolded. You went to the child psych, but your daughter wasn't with you? Or was this just a meeting to see if you liked this psych? If you decide to go for private testing, rather than through the school, you ideally want a neuropsych. I recommend reading/posting on the Learning Challenges forum, if you haven't already. Lots of people have walked this testing road before and can give you advice.
The first visit is with just the parent, she has an appointment with my dd tomorrow. I'm pretty sure this doctor has already made a diagnosis just based on our conversation, and tomorrow's appointment is a mere formality in her eyes.
I will head over to the Learning Challenges board, this whole thing is turning into a nightmare.
-
The meeting with the child psychologist didn't go well.
When I said we would be homeschooling high school, the child psychologist said, "High school is great for teaching resiliency." Ummm no. If that is the only reason for high school, we will pass. I'm pretty sure my kids are learning resiliency from moving every couple of years and making new friends in each location. The meeting may as well have ended at that point.
She acknowledged that dd may have visual spatial issues, but she didn't believe vision therapy did any good. I should just go to the school for testing, ask if dd can get reading help through the school, and ask if she can get end of year testing through the school. Never having met my daughter, she also discounts memory and attention problems. Homeschool Parent, you know nothing.
-
1
-
-
Thank you so much for your replies!
I have been mulling this over the past few days. I will let him call himself 7th grade, and we will move on to some 7th grade stuff. I will keep them together for art, music, history and science so that I don't go crazy. Math and writing, I think he can handle a little push in those subjects. I warned him, and he is expecting it. I think he was ready for this but I just didn't notice. I was just doing the next thing and he had a mental growth spurt instead of a physical one.
I think also that he wants to do more things on his own rather than being lumped together with his sister. When I was his age, I did the same thing. I quit Girl Scouts because I did it with my Mom and my sister, I stopped playing the violin because my sister also played the violin. I just wanted something of my own.
-
5
-
-
I understand where you and he are coming from, and I can completely understand his desire to be in "7th grade" like his age-mates. I don't think grade level is all that important for homeschoolers, if you are going to homeschool all the way.
For me, the main decision would be based on math level, I think. Was he going to be doing 6th grade math this upcoming year? Or is he ready for PreAlgebra? What is normal in your area? What class would you see him wanting to do in 9th grade - you would want to be in Algebra 1 at least - and can he get there from where he is? And, given that he is your Future Engineer, do you want him to do Algebra 1 in 8th? Would he be ready for that?
I do think that you can call him a 7th grader and require more in-depth work from him - more writing assignments, deeper analysis, more challenging supplemental reading books, etc. I would just think through the math thing and make a decision, depending on whether I planned to continue homeschooling or whether I was preparing a kid for b&M high school.
I would be really surprised if this kid would ever want to go back to public school because he had such bad experiences in ps. At this point, our plan is to homeschool all the way through high school. Even if I went back to work, he would work on his own.
I am concerned about math.
He was a little behind for 6th grade, now he is going to be a lot behind for 7th. I think he is ready for pre algebra; a year ago I couldn't get him to work on math for more than half an hour without his eyes glazing over, and now there is less struggle and he can work longer. We are using MEP, which we really like, but it is a challenge to accelerate. My current plan is to find the MEP lessons corresponding to the topics in the scope and sequence of a pre algebra book. I have 3 different pre algebra programs that we can try out to see which one he likes better. I would like him to be ready for Algebra 1 by 8th, but we will see how it goes.
-
1
-
-
The third year is NOT a charm!
My son has a February birthday, so when he started ps in K he was already older than a lot of the kids in his class. He was held back in 1st grade, so now he is a 12 1/2yo going into 6th grade, the same grade as his sister who is 18 months younger. We have never made a big deal about it, and I didn't think it bothered him.A few days ago he asked me if he could skip 6th grade and be a 7th grader. I was taken aback and I told it would be a lot of work to skip a grade and he should think about whether he wanted to commit to that level of work.
Honestly, I think he can do it. I have seen him make a huge developmental leap in the past year. Ds and Dd get the same work, and he finishes it faster and seems to make more connections in whatever we are studying. I think Dd has some issues holding her back, but I don't think that is the only reason for this disparity in ability. I talked to him last night. He had thought about it, and he was willing to do extra work. I asked him why he wanted to skip. He said he wanted to do harder things, and he was embarrassed about meeting kids his age that were in 7th or 8th grade. Ok, I can understand that.
Now, cue my freakout. All my planning- out the window! It is August, we do a light summer schedule, and we were just starting back up to regular schedule. This means that next year is 8th grade! :svengo:
Here is the real question:
How does 7th grade differ from 6th grade? How do I differentiate instruction?
History: We are going to use Story of US this year, maybe I could add US History Detective to his work?
Math: an extra math session? Key to Series?
Writing: We were going to work on paragraph skills and outlining this year, I could take him through it faster, and then start on WWS1 in January.
Lit: He wants to read more challenging books than his sister. Ok.
Science: We are doing CPO Earth Science. Make him write some reports?
Anyone have any suggestions?
-
1
-
-
Someone was telling me a similar story about a younger dd who she had begun to suspect had serious issues. But it turned out it was just her ears. She couldn't speak well because her ears were filled and it had never been caught. It took going to an ENT.
I think one of the things we've moved away from is looking for those medical issues for kids. Some kids have learning disabilities but some kids have Lyme disease or eyesight tracking problems or ear infections or a million other things that are hindering their learning or attentiveness.
My mother told me I was totally deaf by the time I was three. Once the doctors put in the ear tubes I was fine.
I feel better about this whole thing, thanks for your stories. I feel like I was concentrating so much on academic and emotional needs that I missed this physical needs.
I called her doctor, the doctor told me to call the school. I called the school, they told me I should start with the doctor. Well rather, they said they could IQ test and then give her a test for proficiency and if she was more than 2 years behind they would offer some intervention. "Are you sure you don't want to enroll her in school?" Yes, I am sure, thank you.
I am going back to the doctor to insist on an evaluation from a child psychologist. If it is an attention issue, a processing issue, a memory issue, or whatever else, I have to start with the doctor, not the school. The glasses helped some, but I think there is something else going on. Wish me luck!
-
4
-
-
Thanks everyone, I am really glad to know this happens more often than I thought.
We are still pursuing the evals; the glasses are helping a lot, but they are not a panacea to all of her troubles.
-
I don't know if this is a vent, or a question or a PSA. I have read so many of your stories, advice, and commiseration, I think I could use any of the above right now.
In the last month or two I have begun to suspect that my dd has some sort of learning difficulties- maybe dyslexia.
She was a strong reader k-2, but her and her brother began to have trouble in school around 3rd grade. So I pulled them out to homeschool. I spent a lot of time with ds who had very obvious difficulties and his reading ability has increased by leaps and bounds.
Dd seems to be spinning her wheels with reading. She used to be excited about it, but lately she groans when she has to read more than a page. Usborne encyclopedias, DK books and Hakim's Story of US (original format) brings her to tears. When she reads out loud she skips little words and replaces longer words with similar words that have the same beginning and end.
I made an appointment with the local school to have her evaluated, and I had her eyes checked.
Lo and behold, this poor kid needs glasses! How could I miss this? Regular well child visits don't include eye exams around here. I remember getting eye exams every year in elementary school, but I don't know if they still do that even if my dc were still in public school.
I feel like I have let her down. :leaving:
She has always been the easy kid, complacent, happy to go along with whatever we do. I spent so much time trying to get ds excited about school and work on his difficulties, it didn't occur to me that she needed more too.
My bookshelves are here!
in The Chat Board
Posted
I just moved and I only have 20 boxes of books to unpack. I think I should set new goals :laugh: