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Rebecca in VA

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Everything posted by Rebecca in VA

  1. Lightning Literature 7. I ordered it last week, and the UPS man delivered it on Friday. I looked it thoroughly (it didn't take long -- things are very clearly laid out), found that it was EXACTLY what I wanted in a literature course, and started using it with my daughter immediately. We're going double-speed, which means we'll finish the course in 18 weeks (before the end of summer). Lightning Lit is extremely easy to use -- it requires very little from the parent. Yet it covers the kind of material I would want a seventh-grader to know in an easy-to-use format. I'm excited and impressed.
  2. I don't know what the weather's like down in Florida now, but it's been so awfully icky and rainy lately. It poured this morning, and there's more rain in the forecast. It's been years (literally) since it rained so much here (we've been plagued with drought for years). So all of us have been housebound, and one of our remodelling contractors has been standing us up, which means we've had to reschedule other contractors, in addition to rearranging our own plans. It's been hard to stay perky! Hope you're feeling better soon! Take lots of pictures at the birthday party -- years from now you won't remember how you felt in your heart of hearts, but you'll be glad you made the extra effort to do something nice for your son.
  3. "Survivors of the Holocaust." It's a documentary made to promote Steven Spielberg's Holocaust survivor registration project, and it's excellent. I loved hearing the survivors tell their stories, seeing their photographs, etc. The documentary was made in 1996. I bought it when it first came out and still have it, though I only watched it once. There are used copies available for sale through Amazon.
  4. Thank you so much for your kind reply! I wasn't aware of how the series worked since I've never read it. I've been thinking of having my daughter work through LL7, then LL8, and then Literary Lessons from LOTR. The information you've provided is extremely helpful.
  5. Lori, I noticed that LL8 contains "The Hobbit." If you do LL8 first and then do Literary Lessons from LOTR, won't the student be reading "The Hobbit" twice? Was that a problem for you?
  6. You don't want to skip BJU sixth-grade science! It gives an outstanding introduction to the topics the student will see again over the next few years. The student covers earthquakes, weathering and erosion, natural resources, stars, the solar system, cells and classification, animal classification, plant classification, plant and animal reproduction, heredity and genetics, atoms and molecules, electricity and magnetism, motion and machines, the nervous system, and the immune system. It's true that he will see the material again in future years, but this is a really well-done introduction that will set him up well for the much more difficult middle school courses. The very best way to teach the material is to use the DVDs -- or the new online streaming option. Mrs. Dunn (Science 5) and Mrs. Vick (Science 6, 7, and 8) rock! They're exactly the sort of teachers you would *want* your child to have if you ever sent them to a school. You can get kits with materials for the experiments at http://www.hometrainingtools.com. Having the kit available has saved me many emergency trips to the drugstore, hardware store, grocery store, etc. for experiment supplies.
  7. I had this over and over a year ago -- at least five times in a year, if you can believe that. I was under a lot of stress at that time. This year I'm not under stress at all, and I haven't gotten sick. One of the times I was sick, I kept getting worse and worse, day after day. It was during the summer, too, and no one else was sick. I finally (after three weeks or longer) went to the doctor, and he prescribed antibiotics. He said the cold itself was viral, but it was possible that I was developing some sort of bacterial infection as well. After a couple of days on the antibiotics, I was just about well. The last time I went through a bout of this, the nurse told me to use a salt-water nasal rinse (she gave me a kit). She said that would clean the "gunk" out. It worked very well.
  8. Hey, ~Jenn~, I visited both your blog and your photography website, and I have to say that your photography is STUNNING! It's the most thoughtful and altogether beautiful I've ever seen. (I'm not kidding -- if you are ever in northern Virginia, I'd love to meet up with you and have you photograph our family.) Your little boy is adorable. We're lucky to have you with us, and I look forward to hearing more about your homeschooling journey.
  9. The R&S Bible courses start out slowly, but they get much more difficult. Bible 7 goes very much in-depth. An advanced third-grader might get *something* out of Bible 7 and 8, but truly, a middle-schooler would be able to appreciate the course much more and remember it better long-term. There's information in these courses that most adults don't know.
  10. There's a lot of information about the courses on the Art of Problem Solving website. They say that a good pre-algebra course will prepare the student for AoPS Algebra I. I don't know if Saxon 87 is considered pre-algebra or not. My daughter didn't do RS Geometry specifically to prepare for these classes; I just thought it would be helpful in teaching her to think geometrically. The AoPS courses are continuing to be developed, and possibly there will be a pre-algebra course in the future. I know they recommend "Kitchen Table Math" for elementary-level students. Read the website; it's full of good info!
  11. My daughter will take the Algebra course this summer and fall (it was originally called Introduction to Algebra, but it has since been broken into Algebra I/Algebra II). We've received the textbook and solution key, and they look really good! The class will meet online on Wednesday evenings. She has taken Dolciani's Pre-Algebra: An Accelerated Course (enriched track) this year, as well as the RightStart hands-on Geometry course. She also did the Rod & Staff math lineup through Math 8. I feel that she's as ready as she can possibly be for this, but we'll see. If things go well, she'll continue on with the Number Theory and Counting and Probability courses, followed by the Geometry course. Those together will make a nice middle-school lineup, and she can take the advanced courses later. I've heard nothing but good things about the Art of Problem solving materials and courses. I'm relieved to know that this resource is available, since I'm not at all mathy and can't teach these courses myself.
  12. I wouldn't do anything. The mother knows that 911 is there if she needs it. Your letting her know that you "know" anything will just embarrass her and make her avoid you. The little girl may have misunderstood the situation. Even if she is reporting it correctly, she's sharing information that's too personal. You'd be best off letting it go and not mentioning it to anyone (though of course you'll want to make a mental note of this incident for possible future reference).
  13. Well, I definitely wouldn't use the word "challenging" in front of her -- it might scare her off, LOL! I'd make her schoolwork more "interesting" and provide lots of "enrichment" (you can use those words if you have to explain why life's getting harder). You'll have to decide if she's ready to skip grade levels in math and English. I'm not big on skipping levels, but I definitely skipped lessons at the beginnings of the books that were clearly all review. I had my daughter work through summers. Last year when I taught a Tapestry Year 1 group of girls who liked to read, I assigned challenging books that my daughter would *never* have read voluntarily but had to so that she wouldn't lose face in front of the other girls. She actually flourished with the challenging material and still speaks fondly of those books! (We also did cool activities such as plays and festivals.) We do many, many outside activities -- too many, I think. She is almost always enrolled in an art-related class. She has done piano and ballet for years and is now moving into the competitive piano world. She does Junior Cotillion (she flourishes there, because she really does want to be socially acceptable, and she likes the hard-and-fast etiquette rules!). She participates in Bright Lights (a discipleship group for tweens). She sews, knits, and crochets. We travel a fair amount, which thrills her and enlarges her world. All of these give her enrichment, but they're not dreaded schoolwork. So you don't have to skip levels to make her life more challenging and interesting, though you may want to. Hope this helps somewhat!
  14. The fact that she wants to come home should trump all your objections. She wants to be with you and her brother. She may be difficult, but she loves you. I'd talk seriously with her beforehand about your expectations. She'll have to tone down her "difficultness" in order to make this work out. But you may need to take her learning style into consideration. Have you thought about using different curricula with them? She might react well to online classes like K12. That would do a lot toward warding off competitiveness. She may very well be picking up some of your reluctance to homeschool her and your coziness with your son. You will probably have to work extra-hard to make her feel welcome and loved. As for your son being used to having the computer to himself all day long...well, he needs to get over that.
  15. I'll take a stab at this. My 12-year-old doesn't have Asperger's, but she has a few symptoms of it (she doesn't read people well, is a little rigid and rule-oriented in her thinking, and doesn't always understand subtleties). Like your daughter, she is good in math and art, is visually-oriented, etc. She's very, very smart and has an incredible memory for all kinds of details. She also has ADD. When she took the WISC-IV and the Woodcock-Johnson tests two years ago, her learning problems showed up on the WISC-IV. Her short-term memory was the lowest of all her scores (it was 100), and there were a couple of other categories that dragged her down as well, though not as severely as short-term memory. Her arithmetic score was perfect, and her verbal scores were very high. The testing counselor said the "scatter" was definitely indicative of learning issues. The Woodcock-Johnson scores were very high, many of them high school level or beyond (she was in fourth grade at the time and doing mostly fourth-grade work, except in math). Learning disabilities were NOT showing up here. They showed up very plainly on the WISC. So it's quite possible that your psychologist is right. Our daughters may be the "reverse" of each other. My daughter has true learning issues (probably ADD-related) and they showed up on the WISC, and your daughter may have boredom or motivation issues that are keeping her from doing her best on her day-to-day schoolwork and holding her back from tackling higher-level material. If your daughter were my child, I'd be challenging her a lot. I'd start giving her much more interesting material at a higher level. I'd make myself very much available to help her with anything she needs help with since she's so young, but I'd keep my expectations high. I'd also provide a lot of enrichment, especially in art.
  16. I don't think it was David Wilkerson....During the 1970s David Wilkerson was at the height of his fame for "Cross and the Switchblade." Hal Lindsey was publishing a lot about the Second Coming during that time, though. Mr. Wilkerson's blog post never said to get ready for the Second Coming. He just said that God's judgment was about to hit the United States. I read in one of his books some years ago that Americans are so spoiled that we might *think* the world will end if we get judged but in reality it happens to other nations all the time.
  17. That's really great!! I forgot to mention that the tests go better if I do an extensive oral review with her first. I'll go paragraph by paragraph through the five lessons and ask her all kinds of questions. Many of the questions that I ask will end up on her tests. Good luck!
  18. I just make them up. Here's what we do: We read aloud together five chapters at a time (say, Chapters 26-30) so that she'll have an overview of what's coming up that week. She outlines one chapter per day for five days. Then on the sixth day she takes a test. I type up two questions per chapter. After every 50 chapters she'll take a 50-chapter test (one question per chapter). She'll also take a final test on the whole book when she finishes. Here are some sample questions: Chapter 26. What caused Patrick to decide to go back to Ireland to preach to the people there? Chapter 27. What Germanic tribe agreed to come over and help the Britons get rid of the Picts and the Scots? Chapter 28. What happened to the poor, beleaguered Britons after the death of King Arthur? What do the descendants of the Britons believe about Arthur even to this day? Chapter 29. Who converted King Ethelbert of England to Christianity? Chapter 30. How did it happen that the popes of the church at Rome came to exercise the real government of the city? Chapter 31. Tell the story of St. Boniface and the Oak of Thor. Chapter 33. Name the son of Clotaire II, tell what kind of ruler he was, and what he was most famous for. Chapter 34. What are the successors of Mohammed called, and what does the term mean? Chapter 85. Philip Augustus, Richard the Lionhearted, and King Henry met under an elm and signed a treaty. Here it was arranged that, instead of continuing to fight against each other, the two nations should ___________. I haven't found it hard at all to dream up questions. The book is so rich in detail that you can find a question or two in almost every paragraph. Hope this helps!
  19. They're not light at all. They contain a wealth of detail that can really challenge a student who is studying to learn the material versus just reading through it. My sixth-grader, who's working through The Story of the Middle Ages right now, routinely has to answer questions like "Draw Meroveus's complete family tree" and "Name the seven kingdoms of the Angles/Saxons/Jutes and list which tribe founded each one" on her tests. I also give her essay questions so that she can begin to see connections. She has to outline each chapter. This is definitely logic-stage stuff! The Guerber books contain so much information that you don't really need a lot of supplementary books to go along with them. They tell the history and local legends quite well on their own.
  20. who has written many books for young teens that are set in the 20th century. Angel on the Square and The Impossible Journey are set in Russia; Homeless Bird is set in India; Chu Ju's House is set in China. There are others set in Vietnam and the United States. Most of her books are "girl" books, but boys might possibly enjoy them as well.
  21. It was rude. No question. I would have *loved* Colleen's meal. And I certainly would have been hurt if someone acted so rudely about a meal that I'd prepared so carefully and with such attention to taste and nutrition. However, as I've read over the replies, I've been remembering a banquet I attended last summer in Scotland. I don't know who designed the menu, but it was over-the-top with red meat and heavy fish, neither of which I eat. Even the salad was mostly meat, with a few vegetable shavings. I was really, really hungry that day and had looked forward to a nice dinner. I knew the banquet was going to go on till late and I'd have no chance for more food before bedtime. When I saw course after course appearing with more and more meats and heavy starches, I wanted to burst into tears. I actually got quiet and sulky about it, because I was so extremely hungry. Thankfully, no one noticed me and my little pout, but I would hate to think that someone was thinking, "Oh, Rebecca's so spoiled! Here she is, a grown adult, and she's pouting because she doesn't like the food! She just needs to try three bites, and she'll love it!" I realize that this isn't a parallel situation (I'm assuming Colleen's guest was going home before long and could eat his favorite foods when he got there), but I know what it feels like to be really hungry and disappointed in the menu. I think Colleen should have offered him a little something to help tide him over.
  22. http://www.city-data.com/forum/education/507235-teacher-wrong-binding-girls-slavery-lesson.html I just googled "Ft Myers Fl+Slavery Reenactment" and came up with this. A similar reenactment did take place in White Plains, New York recently. It got a lot of press. I don't know if the teacher from Fort Myers copied this idea or what.
  23. It didn't bother my 11-year-old at all. There were a lot of comic and dramatic scenes with the firemen, the elderly neighbor, and the wife's co-workers that kept the movie from being too heavily focused on the marriage issue. I think the wife mentioned that the husband looked at "trash" on the computer. That went right over my daughter's head. The pop-up of the girl on the computer wasn't very revealing; she was fully clothed, and it only showed her head and upper body. I think if I'd asked her, my daughter would have said that the husband was spending more time with the computer than his wife and that the wife was jealous (a real issue even when porn isn't involved). What bothered me were the fight scenes where the husband and wife were yelling at each other and the husband was really losing his temper. Those were downright scary, but at least they were brief.
  24. I agree with Kristen and Kim. He may need to see the words, but it would be good for him to hear them as well. He could sit with you as you read and alternate paragraphs, or sit with you and do some kind of quiet handiwork, looking on as you read. My daughter has some of the same issues as your son, and she knits as I read aloud. This enables her to see the words and hear them at the same time, while keeping her hands busy. She gets very restless if she doesn't have something to occupy her eyes, her ears, and her hands at the same time.
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