2ndGenHomeschooler
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Posts posted by 2ndGenHomeschooler
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And you stuck with teachers who said "you're older so don't expect much"?!
I teach violin and love, love my adult students. They are an absolute joy because they practice and because they are doing it for fun. They are also hyper critical of themselves so the biggest part of the lesson is cheering them on, giving them some perspective of how much they are learning and improving.
Yes! I teach piano and have a mom that started in October. She is doing an amazing job and finished the first book already. But she's constantly criticizing herself and thinking her progress is too slow. I have to constantly encourage her and remind her how well she's doing.
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I started voice lessons a little over a year ago. I play and teach piano and also play the violin but voice is so different! I really enjoy it. I also started doing karate with my kids last year. I have never participated in sports before so this was way outside my comfort zone. I'm so glad I did it though. I absolutely LOVE it.
Trying new things has always been hard for me. Last year I decided that since I'm not getting any younger, I needed to stop telling myself that I was too old to learn new things and just go for it. I am so glad I did! :-)
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I had planned to start reintroducing foods this week but so far it hasn't happened. I'm not in any hurry though. That puts me on day 35. I cooked rice to go with lunch today but then didn't have time to eat lunch. There were leftovers for dinner but by then it didn't sound good anymore. Instead I'm having a couple of Applegate hotdogs with cooked broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots. Cravings are back but I heard that can be normal in weeks 5 and 6 if the Whole30 is extended.
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I am using it with my 1st, 3rd, 4th, and 6th graders. We are really enjoying it. The demonstrations are easy and fairly quick to do. They make the material so much more understandable. I haven't had to buy much for them and the kids have really quick to do. There's a list at the beginning of the book of supplies needed for each chapter. If an experiment is going to take a while or need specific weather or lighting conditions, that information is typically noted in an earlier lesson so that you can prepare.
I'm not too worried about finishing it up in a year so we just do it 2-3 days a week most weeks and we'll finish when we finish.
It takes us 15-30 minutes per lesson depending on how involved the demonstration is. Sometimes we do the notebooking and sometimes we don't. It depends on what the project is and what else we had going on for school that day. My younger 2 just answer the review questions and draw a picture if they want to. If we do the notebooking, my 4th grader does the older kids projects and my 6th grader does the oldest kids projects.
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I didn't weigh myself before I started so I don't know exactly how much I lost but I'm guessing 6-8lbs. For the past several years I have kept a notebook where I've occasionally written down things like my weight and measurements, a food log, health/fitness goals, etc. The earliest date I have is Jan 1, 2011 - 2 months after my son was born. Today I weighed less than any recorded weight in that book. That feels pretty awesome. :-) I've also had more energy, allergies are much better, I'm sleeping better, and my skin looks great.
I'm ready to add some other healthy foods back in. I would like to add in legumes so that I can cut back on the meat. Also, whole grains like brown rice, quinoa, and oats. I've discovered that I really need the carbs and fiber and potatoes are getting old (never thought I'd say that!) I would also like to start eating yogurt and kefir again. I'm a little worried that I'll quickly slide back into bad habits though. The Whole30 works for me because the rules are very strict. I don't do well with "moderation". I've decided that rather than continue the Whole30, which feels safe to me, I really need to start re-introduction so that I can start tackling real life eating habits. Tonight I'm going to plan a menu for the week with that in mind.
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Day 31. I had thought about continuing through February but have decided not to - not with a true Whole30 anyway. Some parts of it are just harder than I feel like bothering with anymore.
I couldn't find the sulfite free coconut milk I had been getting when I went grocery shopping last night. So I just bought the one with sulfites and I'm not going to worry about it. Also, I was never able to find coconut aminos anywhere so I'm going to start using my Bragg's aminos (soy) again. I don't use it in very many things anyway. I'm also going to start taking my vitamins again (multi-vitamin, C, and omega-3). I have a really hard time with swallowing pills so I take supplements in chewable or liquid form. Those tend to have added sugar in some form so I skipped them for my Whole30.
I'm going to start with those things for now. Still mostly Whole30 but not not strict enough to claim that I'm still doing it. I may add other things in throughout the next few weeks too but I'm happy with this for now.
I'm still deciding about bacon. I LOVE bacon but haven't been able to find one without sugar or dextrose. It's easy enough to live without but I'm not sure I really want to. Sad, I know. LOL
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We do Tang soo do and they offer a weapons class. It's separate from the regular class and you have to be purple belt (an intermediate level belt) or higher to attend.
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Insurance is so frustrating! My dad had a problem with his after his kidney transplant. After several months of taking the very expensive anti-rejection meds, the insurance company refused to pay for more saying that he had reached the lifetime limit of coverage for them. Ummm...6 months of immunosuppressive drugs is all you get after an organ transplant?! He has to take them for the rest of his life. He managed to get it straightened out but he was down to one or two days left and had to scramble to get prescriptions filled over a weekend before he ran out. My parents were starting to panic because there is no way they would have been able to afford the several thousand dollars a month the drugs cost.
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LOL It must be a mom thing. My mom said she would do it with me "except"...She has to have honey in her tea. I suggested skipping the tea for the month and she looked confused. There were a few other "excepts" too. I think I've finally convinced her - and my dad! - to do a true Whole30. Mom ordered the book and has been reading it and trying recipes. It'll take her a while to be ready to start but I think they'll do it. Now I want to convince my sister to try it. She's 17 and is addicted to junk food. She's thinking about it but at this point only says she'll "try" it.
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Day 28 for me and I inadvertently cheated at dinner tonight. :-( We had dinner at my parent's tonight and my mom made the main dish. My parents are planning to start their first Whole30 in February so my mom has been trying out recipes. She made the stir fry from the book and put organic grilled chicken strips in it. After we ate I was looking at the bag and saw that there was sugar in it. Oh well, I'm not starting over. The stir fry was good.
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My DS6 often makes his own breakfast of eggs or oatmeal. Someone is available if he needs help but he's usually fine. He may have been doing this since he was 5 but I don't remember for sure. I've recently started letting my 9yo and 11yo DDs cook when they're home alone. They made lemon pollsters bread while I was out grocery shopping the other night.
We have an electric stove. I may feel differently if we had gas. I've never cooked on gas myself.
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Day 27 and I think the tiger blood is finally starting to kick in. We have gotten a ton of school in this week and I'm back to cleaning out the house. I'm also exercising more (although not as much as I would like) and waking up earlier feeling refreshed and eager to start the day - most definitely not normal for a PMS week! I feel like I'm able to think more clearly too. Technically, I'm done on Saturday but unless I have a re-introduction plan figured out by then, I'll probably just keep going. I'm afraid that if I start adding things back in without a plan that I'll go back to bad habits too easily.
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Day 25 done. I can't believe I'm almost done! I'm feeling good but still having some cravings. I think the cravings are due to wanting to eat something easy more than anything else. Sometimes I really just don't want to have to think about what I'm eating or take the time to cook anything!
I should pull my book out and start reading the re-introduction information.
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Thank you all so much! As I've read and thought about all the replies, I've started to realize that part of the problem was that I was over-complicating things and trying to do EVERYTHING all the time. Seems to my theme for the year :-P I've simplified everything else and it's going great. We're enjoying school much more than we were and getting so much more done. Time to do that with language arts too. I think I'm going to start next week with writing (IEW), spelling, and copywork and see how that works before I add anything else. I just need to remember to keep it simple! My oldest has 6 years left of school - we don't have to cover everything this year.
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Yesterday I was tired again and the cravings were back. Not what I expected on Day 22. My main theory as to why is pms, although I think it might be a couple days early for that. I was also thinking boredom could have been responsible for the cravings and not drinking enough water the past few days could have contributed to the tiredness. The thought crossed my mind that the return of these week one symptoms could mean I need to extend my Whole30 past 30 days. So far today I feel better and I'm going to try to drink more water and see if that helps.
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Are copywork and penmanship not the same thing? What's the difference? How much do your children copy in upper elementary grades?
I forgot about public speaking. We were working on that at the beginning of the year using the things they wrote with TWSS. I'm not sure why we stopped.
We are doing TWSS about 3 days a week. I actually haven't added it back in yet after the Christmas break but we're going to get back to it next week. I don't have the SWI. I've just been pulling my own things from history or our read aloud.
With 7th grade looming I really need to get on the ball with this. I think my snowed in weekend will be spent planning and getting stuff ready for next week.
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I am feeling really overwhelmed by language arts with my older two girls. Until they were reading well, we didn't do anything except reading and handwriting. I'm doing the same with my younger two. My plan was to have them start all the other language arts subjects after the reading was going well. This has been hit or miss and is really not going well. My oldest will be in 7th grade next year and I really need to get this figured out now.
There are just so many things that fit under "language arts". I don't know where to start or how often to do each thing or how long it should all take each day. We did LLATL for about a year and a half but I wasn't sure it was covering everything adequately so I decided to drop it and do my own thing. I've failed miserably with that plan. I got TWSS to teach writing we like it but I don't think we're doing it often enough. I'm considering going back to a curriculum like LLATL or ELTL but I thought I'd get an idea of what language arts looks like in other families to help me figure out what is both reasonable and would fit our family.
My list of what I want to cover is:
Writing/composition
Spelling
Grammar
Copywork
Dictation
Literature
Mechanics
Is this all? Am I missing something? Do you cover these things every year? How often do you do them and how long does it take? I'm not necessarily looking for specific curricula at this point. I'm mostly trying to figure out what a good language arts program includes. I know we're going to be pretty far behind at this point. How would you handle that? Any help would be much appreciated.
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Day 21 here. Hard to believe I'm 2/3 of the way there. As mentioned above, I'm a little tired of cooking. We very rarely go out so that's not a big deal but I miss the ease of a sandwich or bowl of cereal.
I'm starting to think ahead to the re-introduction phase. I want to do that right this time. I'm guessing it'll take the better part of February to get through that.
On the positive side, my clothes are fitting better, my mind is clear, I'm enjoying the food I make, and I'm eating tons of vegetables. I'm feeling so good that I'm considering keeping my diet primarily Whole30 for the long term with just one or two "cheat meals" a week. Of course, that brings me back to the whole "I'm tired of cooking" thing...
Nine days to go...time to figure out what to eat for lunch...
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I'm doing okay with my goals. I've made it through the first half of the Whole30 and it's pretty easy now. I only got in 4 days of 10,000 steps last week. I could have done the 5th day but I simply didn't want too. I have 4 days in for this week and I should be able to get the 5th in tomorrow. I'm feeling good. My energy level is up. My pants fit better. I'm pretty happy with how this month is going so far. :-)
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I knew really early with #4. I was driving somewhere and suddenly smelled the most wonderful, delicious smell. It dawned on me a second later that I was smelling a skunk. That was followed very quickly by the realization that I must be pregnant. My sense of smell was totally messed up at the beginning of that pregnancy.
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Stick with it! You won't want to kill all the things for too much longer. :-) I'm past all that now and feeling great! I just finished day 13. I have more energy than I've had in a long time. I feel thinner. My skin looks better. The cravings seem mostly gone.
My meals are still basically the same. Eggs or sausage with fruit and zucchini or sweet potatoes for breakfast. Leftovers for lunch or dinner. I make one new meal a day and I'm sure to make extra so that I'll have leftovers. Today's new meal was a roast with potatoes and carrots in the crockpot with green beans. I'll be looking forward to those leftovers! I haven't needed a snack the past couple of days which is nice.
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I'm feeling so much better about my Whole30 today. I've had a lot more energy and the cravings haven't been nearly as bad. I also feel more calm and patient today. We started back to school today and had an amazing day, and I'm sure my being more calm and patient helped with that. :-)
B - eggs, zucchini, grapes
L (our main meal due to DH's work schedule) - "fried" tilapia, sweet potatoes, roasted asparagus
S - deli turkey/veggie roll-ups
D - left over chicken chowder
I "breaded" my fish with finely chopped almonds, almond meal, flax/chia seed blend, salt, pepper, paprika, and mustard powder. I dipped them in an egg wash first and then in the almond mixture. Then I fried them in a skillet with several Tbl. of coconut oil. It could have used a little more seasoning but turned out pretty good otherwise. Everyone liked it and the almonds seemed to make it more filling than just a marinade like I usually do.
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I had my first food dream last night. We were making kettle corn (my DH makes the most amazing kettle corn) and for some reason we decided that the sugar on the corn wasn't enough. So we added Reese's peanut butter cups and Oreos to it. The corn was still hot so the pb cups melted and it was an amazing, gooey, chocolatey mess. I grabbed a handful and ate it without thinking and ruined my Whole30. After that first bite I just started eating it one handful after the next. I ended up feeling bad that I had no self control and wishing that I had stopped after the first thoughtless bite. I was glad to wake up and discover that it was all a dream. LOL It strengthened my resolve to stick this out for the 30 days.
After stuffing my face with chocolate covered popcorn - and hiding from the kids to eat more after I told them to stop - my dream continued with me trying to get everyone ready to leave for karate. I went looking for all of our uniforms and found them in the basement with the dirty laundry. Not only had they not been washed, but they had been dumped on the basement floor in a pile of dust and dirt and then trampled on. So my dream was telling me to stick to the Whole30 so I won't be disappointed in myself and...do my laundry? It was a crazy vivid dream and a couple of days ahead of schedule according to the Whole30 timeline.
Today I had eggs for breakfast again. I only had two today because the thought of eating three was nauseating. I love eggs and enjoyed the two I had for breakfast, I just can't always eat more than two. (My DH eats 6 eggs for breakfast every morning. I don't know how he does it!)
We have a potluck lunch at church every Sunday and I'm trying to bring compliant foods so that I'll have something to eat without being tempted my the rest. Last week I made Shepherd's Pie. This week I found a recipe for a tex-mex casserole. It was awesome! It was easy and the recipe made a ton. People at church liked it too. There was a little left over and I had some for dinner. I might have enough left for another meal too.
Here's the recipe: http://popularpaleo.com/paleo-tex-mex-casserole/
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One thing I really regret after my first round was not doing the reintroduction protocol. I was so mentally fried and just plain DONE being in the kitchen that first go 'round, that I just could not fathom following the reintro plan. I am hoping I am in a better mental space this go 'round and can be a bit more scientific about it. I did not go hog wild or anything (but oh that cream in my coffee was tasty on day 31 last year!), just sort of half heartedly did the re-entry stuff. If I am going to go to all this trouble to eliminate foods (and I very strictly follow the Whole30 rules), I should really figure out which ones are causing issues, yk? I did feel so much better at the end of thirty days last year, so one of my goals this time is to further my knowledge about exactly which foods make me feel my best and which don't.
This exactly! I did great last time. I followed the "rules" exactly for the full 30 days. I felt awesome. I intended to add things back in one at a time but after the first thing I just started eating whatever I wanted. I'm hoping I can do it right this time.
I'm having a harder time with this 2nd round. Day 9 and I'm still tired. And I REALLY want to eat bread and cheese right now - even though everything I have been eating has been really good and satisfying. I don't remember still having cravings at this point last time. I'm also already tired of cooking. I'll stick it out and hopefully that "tiger blood" thing will kick in soon. I'm stubborn enough not to quit now. I've already started now so I might as well finish. Plus, the timeline says most people who quit do so on days 10 or 11 so, clearly, quitting in the next couple of days is not an option.
Today's meals:
B - scrambled eggs, Apple
L - beef stew
S - handful of almonds
D - chicken sausage with sauerkraut, broccoli, sweet potatoes
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Whole 30 - Week of 2/1
in The Chat Board
Posted
My Whole30 has officially ended after 35 days. I had brown rice with lunch today. So far I don't think I feel any different but I'm trying to really pay attention to that as I add foods back in. Now back to 3 days of Whole30 eating.
Sunday we're having friends over for a pizza party. I'm not sure what I'll do about that. One of the people coming over is dairy, starch, and sugar free. She said she'd take care of her own food but I can come up with something that she and I can eat so that I'll have an option besides pizza.