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Stars

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Everything posted by Stars

  1. Can you just read it outside of "school time"? Maybe it could just become your one-chapter-before-bedtime book or your breakfast table book or whatever until you finish it. Can you condense it and just read the most significant parts? When my kids pick out a book that is too long or verbose, I sometimes just read aloud the photo captions and pulled-out quotes. I might skim the first paragraph of each chapter section and offer a paraphrase.
  2. We just did that lesson too. I'm ashamed to say that I let my son copy the easy sentence instead, because I just couldn't deal with him and That Word. It was hard enough for him to read it, and that's after we'd done the last lesson of OPGTR twice last summer. Maybe it's National Spaced-Out Homeschooler Week and only our kids got the message.
  3. I read it of my own volition in late high school or college, and it was one of those books that disturbed me so much that I wish I'd never read it. So, based on my own reaction, I would strongly discourage my own children from reading it until they were functionally adult readers. Many, many people will disagree with me -- I read The Bluest Eye thread and think that some of the arguments for and against LOTF will apply -- but I believe I can find books that will teach the same themes as LOTF without being persistently painful or nightmare-inducing. LOTF reduced me to tears and left a very, very bitter taste in my mouth. I am a Christian and subscribe to the "whatsoever things are good" approach to books, even if it means finding a less critically-acclaimed source for teaching a difficult theme. I think you are doing the best possible thing since your child is so adamant about reading it: You are reading it yourself first. As you can see by the variety of posts here, what one of us thinks is inappropriate for our kids, another poster may see as no big deal. Fortunately, you know your own children and your own educational philosophy best. When you finish the book, you will be uniquely qualified to decide for yourself and your child. Have you asked your son what he thinks the book is about?
  4. We started out this year virtuously doing the whole shebang over two days a week (except that even between two local tiny libraries, we are almost never able to get the specific titles recommended for extra reading. I just check out anything subject-related that looks age appropriate -- I can't tell you how many books on mummies I privately vetoed because of scary mummy photographs). The children really loved the activities, but they have been the first thing to go. Unless it's a project that uses stuff I already have, like modeling clay, I never remember to buy the supplies. And since we prioritize our subjects by time, science and history always come next-to-last. (Sorry, art and music. I'm doing the best I can here.) Sometimes, we don't do any extra reading on the subjects, or, as a PP said, we're several weeks behind on our extra reading. I do have ds6 read the lists suggested for memorization in TWTM: the principal pharaohs and the first twenty Roman emporers. After the first several frustrating episodes of my correcting his pronunciation on every name, he can speed through them pretty painlessly at the beginning of each lesson. I was surprised to find that he has memorized the pharaohs already and can name most of the emporers as well, just from reading the lists twice a week. So that's my minimum for now. I could see dropping the worksheets if I didn't have time, or the questions. Edited because "pharaoh" is the word I always misspell, and did, twice.
  5. Your anxiety about this has drawn me out of long-time lurkdom! I think disruptions like these must happen far more than most of us imagine. Long, long ago, when I was the only senior in my high school taking the AP English exam, they put me in a windowless conference room to take the test. And the building lost power. So I was allowed to resume the test at the principal's desk. Until he needed it to meet with a parent. Then I was booted to the hallway, where I sat against the wall and wrote with the test form resting on the floor. Surely the administrator must have mentioned these unusual circumstances somewhere, but they were never alluded to in my presence. I passed, which might surprise you given my use of sentence fragments. Maybe the unusual circumstances helped? Based on my own experience (and the thought that the ACT is administered too many times every year for perfect test conditions to occur every time), I would be surprised if your child's test was disqualified. Did the administrator take the tests with him or her when evacuating, or were they left unattended? That's the only scenario I can imagine that would compromise them.
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