Music of the Hemispheres: In many cases you get fragments of the poems rather than the complete poem. Also, the Dickinson poems were numbered differently than in the collection I have. Some of the ? are notes I was making to myself as I was trying to find the poems in my Norton anthologies :) Emily Dickinson XXXIII (33) ; XLVII (47) ; CXXVI (126) Shakespeare Romeo & Juliet, Macbeth , Sonnet 73 , Sonnet 27 , Sonnet 30 , The Taming of the Shrew , A Midsummer Night's Dream Carl Sandburg Splinter Percy Shelley The Cloud Robert Burns Afton Water ; John Anderson, My Jo ; A Red Red Rose William Blake The Tiger Thomas Hardy The Darkling Thrush Ralph Waldo Emerson Brahma A. E. Housman To an Athlete Dying Young William Butler Yeats The Lake Isle of Innisfree William Wordsworth I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud John Keats On First Looking into Chapman's Homer Dylan Thomas ?p93, p98 (Fern Hill) - Norton p1571 Alfred, Lord Tennyson Charge of the Light Brigade Aristotle The Poetics Rupert Brooke ? P126 "The Soldier" Christina Rossetti ? P144 "My heart is like a singing bird" Sylvia Plath TG: p145 - The Moon and the Yew Tree

Or set it up as a social group: Red Flags :)

ILL costs for shipping here, so I haven't used it. But we've got a wonderful library. I can put books on hold via the internet and they'll pull them from the shelves and get them to the branch I request. We intentionally bought our house in this county to have the library access (or I'd pay for the card). I can also request they buy books. I don't know if they'll get the Liping Ma book (just requested they buy that), but they did buy a DVD on Everest years ago and last year got Wynton Marsalis's music series at my request :) I <3 my library!

Some of my education courses were pretty horrible. We had some students in our program (math) who wouldn't have been able to pass a calculus course. I have noidea how one student in particular was accepted into the program (master's level). Some of the education courses were okay for theory, but the one I hated was a "teaching of reading" course. This is for secondary instructors. I argued with the professor that it made sense to me to teach a student how to read a word problem - how to translate the English to math - but if a student couldn't read "Two trains are traveling..." then I really didn't see that as something I could remediate while getting them through their math class. His response was that he wouldn't want me teaching his kids then. What I didn't think of until later is that if his kids couldn't read by high school, I wouldn't want to be teaching them either. :glare: None of the graduate level education courses were tougher than any of my undergraduate subject courses - in any subject. I'm sure there are education programs that are good and that really prepare students to be good teachers. Mine wasn't. (And we also did have a practicum where we observed in schools for one semester and student teaching where we taught for one semester. Just convinced me that teaching in the high schools was NOT for me. Of my program, I think only 3-4 of 15-20 students are still teaching in the K-12 level.)

There was a recent thread about this. I used SWO for two years with a boy who was already reading without any phonics. We switched to AAS and I'm very pleased. It was definitely the better choice for us.

Oooh... a race! Hope you win! :auto:

We're talking about going on a vacation in a while - maybe this year sometime - more likely next year. Our last vacation was when ds was 3 (paid for by my parents). Before then, we went on a vacation the year after we were married (1995) - we didn't have a honeymoon. We have traveled to visit the inlaws on occasion. So that's 2 "vacations" in 16 years. Feel better? ;)

Working here with Firefox browser. I've had that happen before where the preview isn't visible, but it usually comes back with a couple of clicks in the screen. Hope it's working for you by now. I really like the feature and miss it on other forums!

One book I found eye-opening was Material World. The author took photos around the world with a family and their possessions. Our library has it. He later did a book where he took similar pictures with a family and their food for a week. I think so very many people here get so confused as to what needs are instead of wants. I'm constantly amazed at how many televisions people have. I also teach at a cc and I see students who complain that they don't have money to buy their textbooks (yes, they're ridiculously expensive) but I see them texting on their cell phones. We have a cell but we're aware that it's a want, not a need. We also have texting turned off and we're very careful not to go over our minutes. I hear my sil sometimes say that she "needs" something to make her feel better or that she "deserves" something. I don't think we "need" so much more here than in other parts of the world. I think many many people aren't aware of how materialistic we are here. Needs are food, water, clothing, shelter, and health care. The type of food we choose (way too much meat here, eating out) gets into the wants.

I think we've all been there. I know how overwhelmed I felt when we were getting started! I found the boards here about midway through our first year and found them overwhelming too! :lol: The posts move so quickly and there's so much discussion. I found some peace as I'd figure out one curriculum (Math: Singapore... now what on earth do I need to buy???? Okay... got that!). Of course, I'd see all the possible things I could do and my first go through of Rainbow Resource had me with about $1500 of things in my cart for first grade for one child. My husband suggested I look at what I really needed instead of what seemed like a good idea and we pared that way down :D. It's worked out well overall, but that first year was a bit of a challenge. All the books I read (a lot) said the first year can be the toughest, so :chillpill: as much as you can. It gets easier.

My son was reading fluently - except for names - when we switched from Spelling Workout to AAS. We started back in level 1 so the words are very easy for him to spell. Sounding out the words as he spells them has helped his spelling tremendously and he's getting better at sounding out names as well. So yes, I found AAS a great fit for an already reading child. :)

We've been having a good bit of rain lately. I was working upstairs and noticed ants (I think) crawling all around my office. It looks like they were coming in from the side door & then up the wall on the internet cable and then exploring upstairs. YUCK! Some have wings so I'm not sure what type they are - but they don't look like termites (phew) and most do look like very small ants. I'll be feeling them crawling on me the rest of the evening.

What about Beverly Cleary books? Roald Dahl (Charlie & Chocolate Factory, BFG)

:iagree: I've spent some of today prepping for the upcoming week and questioning WHY didn't I do more prep in May. (I know why - it's because I was playing my computer game all the time (King's Bounty - great time sink for me).) Our first week went well & after 2 years of hs, I'm figuring out what prep and organization works for me.

I teach math at the cc. I generally teach developmental students - math that starts at prealgebra and up. The students who want to learn generally do wonderfully. (The problem students are those straight from high schools who think they know the material because they've seen it before.) You can work ahead of your kids in the books - video lectures can be helpful. The website purplemath has some good explanations on how to do some algebra. You can do this! Keep practicing, get help when something isn't clear, and know that failure in the past doesn't predict what you're capable of now. You're not the same person you were then & you've got more motivation now! Good luck!

We did some narration with history. We've also started using Writing With Ease and that has narration, copywork, and dictation - and we are spending about 20 min a day on it. We're doing memory work (just added that in!) for about 5 min a day - writing out what we want to study on notecards and practicing it. Right now our cards are the original 13 colonies sorted as New England, Middle, and Southern - and subject and object pronouns (using Grammar Island!). I understand it feeling impossible to stay calm as you get started. Know that some of the curriculum you picked out won't fit well and you may need to make changes. We changed from Spelling Workout last year to All About Spelling. I had some anxiety about stopping with SWO (We aren't finishing the book! There are blank pages!!!) but it's been a wonderful decision. Start with what you have. Go a few weeks and see what tweaks you want to make - what you want to add in, what you want to drop out. It will get easier. And you'll do fine. :001_smile:

I'm amazed to hear that some doctor's won't prescribe an Epi until anaphylaxis. That's too late! I believe our son is alive because we had an Epi and we listened to him despite not seeing signs of an allergic reaction. He was diagnosed with a dairy allergy at 3 months. After a really bad reaction with hives at about a year and a half (we weren't aware that the bread wasn't safe and weren't thinking to check labels), our allergist told us to carry Epi-pens. At 5 years old and at home, he had an anaphylactic reaction to cashews. He had NONE of the symptoms of an allergic reaction that he'd had before. My husband even questioned if he was telling us the truth. We gave Benadryl and Orapred and headed to the ER just to be safe. I ended up giving the Epi in the car and we were told if this happens again to call an ambulance instead. I would fight to get the Epi ASAP. The bracelet is iffy. I've heard of them not being looked at at hospitals. We got it mainly so our phone number would be linked with our son. I think you're right on your third hand. We knew about our son's dairy allergy and we weren't sure he was having a reaction. While you're still learning how to live with the allergy, don't have him eat anything without you there - and train him to check with you before eating anything. You will find the new normal. Give yourself time to adjust. And get that Epi & carry it with him.

Not a retelling of Romeo & Juliet, but a fun book: Julie and Romeo. The author got the idea as "what if Romeo & Juliet met at 60 instead of 16". May be a fun read. We had the Zeffereli film on video and my sister watched it OVER and OVER and kept playing that dratted ballad quoted earlier. Blech. I do like R&J. One of the things that stands out for me is how just one change could have changed the outcome. Had Romeo got the message they'd both have lived. If Juliet woke up just a bit sooner... It's the same sense I get with the story of The Titanic - one change could have had a different outcome.

My son is self-taught for reading. His vocabulary is impressive and he reads very fluently - except for names. He didn't have any awareness of phonics and actively resisted sounding any words out. Last year we switched from Spelling Workout (despite all we were doing with it he was just learning words for the test and not mastering them at all) to All About Spelling. His progress has been WONDERFUL. We still struggle with his desire on occasion to make a wild guess at a word, but he's doing so much better at sounding out names and at sounding out words when spelling. I'd recommend AAS over SWO and then you don't need to do separate phonics. If you want to know if your son is having phonics problems, find one of the lists of nonsense words and see how he pronounces those. That could give you more information on what you need. My son mangled names so badly it was really clear to me we needed a change. :)

Interesting. I bought the whole series when we started - just out of fear of books going out of print. I was pleased that I'd done that when their old printer quit. Smug actually. Oh well. :) It would have been nice had they updated the covers to reflect that the books were new editions. I'm still pleased I've got the Singapore CWP :)

When we bought our new stove, we would have had to buy the broiler pan separately for an extra amount. So we don't have a broiler pan at all. I say take it & enjoy it.

I'm only seeing 3rd edition. Are you sure there's a fourth edition?

Factor out the GCF first: 6 (4x^2 - 9) Now you have the difference of squares: a^2 - b^2 So your final complete factorization is 6 (2x-3)(2x+3) You always have to factor out the GCF first, otherwise your polynomial isn't completely factored.

We're dealing with allergies with my son right now. The nebulizer is out again :( You're getting good advice. I just want to mention about the pets... My husband is highly allergic to cats and dogs. We had cats when we got married and for a few years. After they died, his asthma was finally under control for the first time in his life. He doesn't need the rescue inhaler that he used to use multiple times during the day. If you aren't able to get the allergies under control to where your daughter can comfortably get through the day, you may want to consider allergy shots for her if you keep your pets or finding another home for them. Even if they stay out of her room, their dander will be in the house and on everyone's clothes and she will be reacting to it.

The theaters here are just dismal. Sound is too loud, too many people talking through the movie and texting or talking on phones. We bought a DVD player back when they were first coming out just to stop going to the theater. I miss the movie experience - when it was a good experience. I haven't had a good movie experience in years. I think Return of the King was the last movie I saw in a theater. The Arlington in Santa Barbara was a great theater. I'd probably still go there. It's an old theater from the 20s. We saw all 3 Star Wars movies there. Long day, but great fun. And Jurassic Park on opening night was just amazing.