eternalsummer
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Posts posted by eternalsummer
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I am going to cautiously agree with this.
I define educational neglect as not educating a child to their potential. I understand that as I've used them here, the words "educating" and "potential" are slippery, but I'm going to go with them anyway. Using this definition, I would say that b&m schools are guilty of educational neglect just as often as homeschoolers are. This doesn't make it ok.
There are also degrees of educational neglect, so not ensuring that a kid learns to read or do basic math is more severe than undereducating that same kid to, say, the 30th percentile in reading and math when they are capable of the 90th. I realize this issue goes well beyond percentiles--I'm just using them as a shorthand for levels of educational attainment.
In the case of homeschoolers, the myth that homeschooling is always better than public school contributes to the problem. And too many social activities definitely definitely makes things worse. I am always amazed when I hear about families who don't have time for academics beyond a math workbook a few times a week, but seem to flit from one activity to the next every single day.
I also think that social neglect is a real concern. I've been guilty of it myself (unintentionally), which is why my son is attending the public high school part time--where, ironically, he is experiencing educational neglect.
To be honest I think this is complete BS.
If I were to educate my kids to their academic potential, they'd be concert pianists and get through Differential Equations and Latin, Greek, and French 5, with 10-15 APs each by graduation. Probably a couple of them would do more than that.
But what I'd sacrifice for educational potential, they would suffer in social development, personal development, freedom to just be a kid, learning how to work in and manage home life, etc.
I got an IB Diploma, was a NM scholar, graduated in the top 1% of my large (very good) public high school, etc. It was definitely definitely not as much as I could have done, academically. I spent the majority of my time in my junior and senior year hanging out with my boyfriend or going to band practice.
Guess what? I'm married to the boyfriend and we have 6 (soon 7) kids. I don't think that developing our relationship in my teens, in lieu of learning another foreign language in my free time or something, was a mistake. My academic potential, and my academic life, have come second to my social life and my home life, and that has made me happy and our family successful.
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I remember liking Bradbury's stories about people living on Mars around that age, but I'm not sure what the maturity level is.
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I am not sure how this might apply to you, but one thing I do when I am feeling sort of grumbly and blue about whatever current circumstances I'm facing is do the things I normally say to myself are a waste of time or money (which, kind of, they are) but that have some benefit and make me happy.
So for me, specifically, this means that I buy moo cards to put in customers' packages. They're little business cards - half the size of normal ones- and you can get them printed with a zillion different images and they're beautiful. They're very good quality and really too expensive. But I am so much more willing to actually fill orders on time if I have one of the little cards to put in there, because I like the way it looks and it feels good.
Also, for me, the part of the business I really like is product development. We have too much work as it is a lot of the time so really I should NOT be devoting any time to product development because the last thing we need is more products. But it's the thing I really like, my favorite less-than-1% of the business.
So if I'm feeling blue, I let myself take a few hours to look at new clip art, or read about design trends, or design a few new labels. Then I buy our product photography, send them off to be photographed, and that holds me for months, just the newness and the fun of it. If I did this as much as I wanted to (all day) we'd never get anything else done and the business would go bankrupt, so it's something I save for times when I really need a pick-me-up. Maybe there is something similar in one of your hobbies or jobs?
Also, this sounds counter-intuitive, but sometimes I find that if I'm feeling blah and like I want to do something to indulge myself, especially as I am an introvert and am inclined to isolate myself in the basement bathroom with a book for hours, doing the opposite of that can change my mood faster than self-indulgence. So what I want is say a fancy coffee drink and to spend the rest of the day by myself reading; what I do instead is take the kids to the park and buy them french fries and juice boxes. Then I watch a movie with them, or with DH, that I didn't really want to watch, then I make everyone something fancy for dinner. (these are all things I don't do very regularly, obviously). Sometimes this works better than coffee and a book would have, for some reason, even though I should be drained by it (and would be if I did it every day).
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Maybe I will try again with Getty and Dubay.
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I should also say, re: the printed-out version of a typed item - when he handwrites something, he has trouble reading it later. He certainly can't edit for punctuation or capitalization or spelling or word choice or anything. It's a burden just to figure out wth he wrote down. But when it's typed, he sees it much more clearly (I guess this is obvious, but it was a revelation to me) and can self-edit.
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DS9 is similar; we've been remediating it for approx. 3 straight years. What has worked, marginally: teaching him cursive. His cursive is better than his print by a mile, I think because once you start a word you don't have to stop and then start again for each letter, so there's less disruption involved. It also helps with capitalization, because it's quite difficult to flow from a lowercase a to an uppercase R, for instance - harder than it is to just go on to lowercase r.
Other things we've tried: small motor development (with: paper folding, various pointless Waldorf stuff, lego classes, etc.), Handwriting Without Tears - we went through the book I think 4 times, handwriting exercises set to music, forced practice (long, painful, recriminatory swaths of meaningless printing), etc. ETA: also different types of pencils, fountain pens specifically for left-handed kids, those gripper things (several different brands and types), writing sitting up, writing lying down, re-positioning paper, starting again from the beginning, whiteboards, blackboards, chalk, crayons, markers (never again!), different types of paper - lined, unlined, specially lined for people who have poor handwriting
None of it make a bit of difference. You still can't read his handwriting.
So: I am teaching him to type. He loves it. The process of learning to type, not so much - but the finished product, after he's copied his handwritten "book" (he's writing a book about cats) onto Google Docs and printed out a page just really impresses him.
What I did about writing other than that was give up completely. We do Classical Writing and I scribe about 1/4 of the time - the rest of the time he does it, and can't read it later, and I don't much care. I also got him a nature journal and Nature Explorer Paraphernalia (binoculars, sword, magnifying glass, whistle, walkie talkies, etc.) and he and DD6 have Nature Adventures which he records (illegibly) in his nature journal. Sometimes instead of Adventures they have Nature Battles and he records those.
I also got him some plain notebooks, smallish, to write books in. So he writes probably 200 words a day, all of it mostly illegible. When I was forcing handwriting and esp. when I was forcing or even encouraging good handwriting with his Writing and History and Science and Math work, he wrote maybe 50 words a day and there was a lot of drama about it.
So I guess I don't really have much advice. I have no idea what we'll do when he's 12 and old enough that school must be more serious and directed than it is now. I am hoping he can type well enough at that point to be willing to do it for all subjects, but I have zero idea how I'll be able to convince him that he's not doing schoolwork then.
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In our extended family, the way Bolt describes it is accurate. Family holds the shower (the mother of the pregnant woman or newly engaged woman, if possible) and every female relative is expected to pitch in - older ones bring food, younger ones do clean up or party prep.
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Yeah, looking back at books from the 40s-60s is probably a good idea. Asimov, early Heinlein, maaaaybe some Arthur C Clarke, etc.
We loved The Martian here and it reminded me of the I, Robot stories in many ways, although DD12 will not read Asimov for all the tea in China.
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I wonder if it had something to do with poor dental care. did people used to have worse teeth, or were dentures less functional?
I know my grandmother-in-law was never impressed by my grandfather-in-law's desire to have crunchier (steamed normally in modern terms) cooked vegetables. He had lots of good teeth left and she did not; she liked them cooked to a mush so she could eat them easily.
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In the 1930s I'm sure we did. I can't think of anything particular now. I've never eaten dishes that I've heard of in books like 'boiled beef'.
When we lived in NZ they brought out a dish at a after-school function of some sort (I was student teaching in a high school) that basically consisted of very small hot dogs, boiled, with a side dish of not-very-sweet ketchup.
In the US, we fry these little hot dog things, which we call lil' smokies, and then we cook them for a while in a sweet bbq sauce.
I explained this to the Kiwis and they said no wonder we were all fat. We fry and then soak in syrup something that is perfectly good boiled.
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my first child was delivered by a midwife (a CNM in a hospital, who also had a JD of all things), and it was great. I've had midwives for prenatal care since then but not been delivered by one.
I have to say, though, the nurse in a hospital delivery makes a much bigger difference, for me, than the ob-gyn or midwife. After my first baby I've not had a labor longer than a few hours, generally significantly shorter, so it's not like the doctor ever shows up before it is basically time to catch the baby anyway (and out of 6 births, I think only 2 were delivered by the doctor/midwife who intended to deliver - the rest were just "find someone on the floor now who can come catch this baby!" and the ob-gyn shows up 20 minutes later). I've had some great nurses and some terrible nurses, of course.
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Cleverest panhandler I ever saw had bought a bunch of water bottles on a hot day and was giving them away (but with a sign that said "anything helps" or whatever). Busy intersection, city familiar with homeless people. In the 2 minutes I waited at the light he sold like 5 bottles. Providing a useful service and making money doing it.
Other than that guy, the people who do best at panhandling in our area are women, esp. young ones. Probably I see people stop 10x as often for women as for men - but there are not very many of them.
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Maybe I will try aloe vera.
I thought they'd be a good choice because I am terrible at remembering to water plants, but I think maybe keeping them on the windowsill (so they get light) is not a great idea because the cold gets to them? I don't know really.
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Ah, I liked Medvedeva, I wish she'd won.
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I am very food motivated. If I lived in or near as big a place as Orlando, I'd go right off to a vegan restaurant or bakery, take a book or the newspaper, and plan to spend a couple of hours savoring whatever.
I looked at vegan restaurants in your area for kicks and I am jealous. This would be my first stop:
https://www.yelp.com/biz/dandelion-communitea-caf%C3%A9-orlando-2?osq=Vegan+Restaurants
Then I'd go here:
http://dajeneats.com/cafeandcreamery/
Vegan ice cream shakes! Red velvet cheesecake vegan ice cream!
I'm sorry the driving sucks :(
Every time we go anywhere, I research the vegan restaurant and bakery options ahead of time and go out of my way to check them out. Right now I live approx. 2 hours from the nearest vegan bakery, in Denver, and I would totally drive myself up there for an afternoon if I were feeling super gloomy (and if I didn't have this darned GD).
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I think my garbage service would quit coming by if we stopped using bags.
We also use the stainless steel containers for lunches.
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She did offer me the non-invasive blood test, but after the ultrasound it was unnecessary.
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Regarding damage, I agree.
But I'm kind of on your husband's side in that our kids do not climb or put their feet on any surfaces where we eat or prepare food. And yes we do wash it, of course--it's just a good habit to learn. No feet or butts where food goes. That includes babies. Climb on the downstairs couch if you need to climb. Let's go to the park if you need to climb. Not here. My girls are climbers so this translated as 3-6 hours at the park every day until the smallest was 6. We now have a trampoline outdoors, a gym mat indoors, a pull-up bar, and a "climbing on" couch. Climb on the stairs, on your bed. Heck, climb on your desk if you must. Not on the dining room table.
One can let kids climb within boundaries. I'm pro-climbing, pro-flying, but there have to be limits.
As for protection, however, I think you have two options:
1. High quality cover cut for the table, which will save money when refinishing it. I understand not wanting glass. Plastic should do.
2. Plan to refinish it after the kids leave.
Actually, with five kids, you're probably going to want to do both, regardless.
https://www.amazon.com/slp/silicone-table-mat/576uwbb9hr986fo
I don't allow climbing on the table because I have fallers-off.
But for furniture that is safe for climbing I totally don't care. Why? Because I don't have 3-6 hours a day to spend at the park. I don't have 1 hour a day to spend at the park. They can go outside if the weather is nice or run around the house like banshees if the weather isn't nice.
for me, if they were safe to climb on a table, replacing a kitchen table (or a sofa, or an easy chair, or whatever) every couple of years due to overuse is a lot cheaper than 3 hours a day of not working.
I do agree with tsuga that they make covers for tables like this. When we bought our new-to-us round dining table from a little old lady who'd been moved against her will into assisted living, and thus needed to give away her nice furniture, she took one look at the kids in the backseat and said "You'll need this" - it was a sort of vinyl cover, like those vinyl picnic blankets with a fuzzy side (inside) and vinyl side (outside) with a sort of fake-woodgrain print on the top. She said they used the cover every day of the year except holidays.
!!!!!
It was a beautiful table, beautifully finished - but I wasn't buying it for the finish, I was buying it for the price, shape (no corners for little heads to bump into), and sturdiness (very sturdy).
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I had the HL ultrasound (and genetic counseling) about a week ago. They should have done the U/S before the counseling, imo.
The ultrasound tech was a guy who has been doing it for 25 years. He was pretty awesome. When he was done the doctor came in (one I hadn't met before) and basically said the nasal bone is fine, normal length, and there's no sign of echogenic bowel or anything else. Your baby is almost certainly healthy.
I cried in relief. I think they were surprised.
She did ask a zillion other questions about diet and GD and etc. and was irritated that I only take a prenatal once a week or so - I eat a very varied diet (but no eggs or dairy) and prenatals make me nauseous. Anyway, she said I could take a gummy vegan one and just split it into 3-4 doses per day instead of all at once. I bought those (they are expensive!) and have been doing that and indeed it is a lot easier on the stomach. I don't really think I need them but I promised her I would and she was the bearer of good news so I've felt compelled.
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I wasn't on meds, they just said:
You have GD, here is a printout showing you what to eat, eat that and take your blood sugar 4x/day. Fasting should be under 90 and post-prandial should be under 140 (I think it was 140, might have been 120. I was welllllll under all the time).
Then at subsequent appts, they'd say on rare occasion "is your fasting under 90?" and I'd say, "yep, but I'm exhausted constantly" and they'd say that's normal, you're pregnant.
eta: got rid of a bunch of stuff because it was just complaining and a side-track :)
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I haven't had a baby who can't be soothed with anything you can do on a train or a plane (that is to say, nursing, rocking, walking). I have had babies who require constant holding for hours in order not to cry, which you can do on a plane or train but not in a car.
If the baby is happy in a car seat and sleeps most of the time, that works well for a car trip. If it's the must be held kind of baby, or the kind that prefers upright/tilted forward to tilted back positioning, car trips would be either constant crying or constant carrying around at rest stops.
I dunno, I wouldn't take the chance. Sounds unnecessarily unpleasant, if you have any other option.
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Yeah, a constant reading of 40-50 would have me taking her with me to the drugstore, buying new strips, testing her with the strip at the store or in the parking lot, and then proceeding either to urgent care or home depending on the result.
When I had GD my fasting sugars were regularly 60-65 and I was miserable. I couldn't think, I couldn't move, I couldn't wake up, it was awful. I had no idea there was a lower boundary to ideal blood sugar - my ob-gyn just said stay under 90 and never asked again.
So glad she's back to something stable again. I'd keep an eye on it for a few weeks anyway.
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I also don't like to listen to babies crying. I haven't had a baby with colic or anything else that can't be soothed in less than 2 minutes (and 99% of the time I get to them before it becomes crying, so there is very little crying). I would have a hard time ignoring a crying baby for hours.
Train travel is great. I used to love trains.
How Common is Educational Neglect Among Homeschoolers?
in General Education Discussion Board
Posted
I find homeschooling very easy. I have smart kids who largely don't have disabilities of any sort. My 7th grader does not require 2 hours a day of input from me; I doubt she requires more than half an hour of input from me. She herself does a lot more every day, of course, but it's not hard for me.
I spend a lot more time thinking of ways to disguise learning activities as voluntary fun things rather than schoolwork for my 9 year old than I spend actually directly teaching him. He can see right through direct teaching. He cannot see through "take these materials and this TOPScience experiment and let me know if you have problems," (and then, 30 minutes later, "how did that experiment go? oooh, how does that work? I wonder if it works with this other thing to, or if it has anything to do with that thing. Yeah, you should totally watch a video on it, I'll listen to it too while I work over here," etc.)