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pageta

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  1. This is a child who can stand on deck at a little league game and swing perfectly, but then he steps up to the plate and swings half-heartedly with terribly form after the pitch has already hit the ground and rolled toward the catcher. I did give him practice test questions at home and made him fill in the ovals on a separate piece of paper. I made up questions based on what I remember of the test from having taken in as a kid. I gave answer choices that would be possible choices if you were doing the answer wrong (such as a math question where someone has five baskets of six items - possible answers for total items was 1, 11, 30 and something else). He thought it was really fun and got all of the questions right. So I thought there was a chance that he might do well on the test even though he was a fish out of water in that he is not accustomed to seat work. He was very late to talk, though he won't be quiet now. We never took him for speech therapy and he caught up in due time. His narration lagged but all of a sudden really blossomed this winter. He would make comments about the readings and connect them to previous readings (done even in previous school years) and so I wasn't concerned really that he wasn't understanding the material - his verbal skills just hadn't caught up yet. He loves Latin and has memorized dozens of poems as part of our curriculum. We do Ambleside which we started with year 0 and are now in year 3. He catches on to math very quickly - we gave up worksheets because there was too much explanation and practice when he already understood the concept. He likes to draw and does it a lot in his free time - if hand-eye coordination were an issue I would assume he wouldn't enjoy that type of thing. We do copywork and dictation, but keep it short and sweet. So really I'm not concerned about his progress academically. His taking the ITBS was a total shot in the dark, but I wanted him to be familiar with that type of test because at some point he will encounter it when it does matter (we may move to a state where it is required or he may need to do well on college entrance exams). I try to avoid all things workbooky or textbooky and stick with living books and real-life math problems. I know in schools they tend to streamline things in a way that is easy to teach and show results - thus the emphasis on capitalization and punctuation on the ITBS among other things (easy to show you have taught the children something). When family and friends hear a description of our typical school day, they are generally very impressed. DS is an out-of-the-box sort of child, and I've had more than one person say it is probably especially good that we homeschool him as he might not necessarily do well in a school environment. It think that was probably a factor in his taking of the test. He is quiet and thoughtful, but has a lot to say if you are with him one-on-one. He doesn't read stories and such for pleasure, but he studies his presidents and states books (both by National Geographic for kids) as well as his favorite football team yearbook each year. For instance, if you give him any random date in US history, he can tell you who was president, when they took office and how long they served. He learned that completely on his own accord. The Ambleside readings are generally above the reading level of the child, which works fine for children who read well above grade level. When I try to get him to read them on his own (even on the Kindle with the print size he likes) he complains that it is much harder to narrate and understand the story (probably because he is focusing more on reading the words than understanding the story). We are working to develop fluency with reading, but he is not there yet. I do have him read a story from the McGuffey reader every day - we started below his reading level in order to develop fluency in oral reading, and we are currently in the midst of the third reader. Spelling was his strongest score on the ITBS, followed by science. I think the day got long and he got tired of answering questions and sitting in one place. They started at 8 and got out at noon - that is a long time to sit still and answer questions when you are accustomed to a more active learning environment. I also am pondering possibly red-shirting him for a year. My husband shot down the idea initially because he wished he had gotten his GED and started college early. I think for ds, an extra year would give him maturity and experience that would make a lot of things much less of a challenge. His birthday is five days before the current cutoff, and I am holding his brother back a year so they will be 4 years apart in school even though they are only three years apart in age. Perhaps my husband will be more open to that idea now that we have these test results. Keep the comments coming as I am very interested in others experience with kids who bombed this test the first time they took it.
  2. Anyone had their kid totally fail the Iowa Test of Basic Skills? Our oldest took it for the first time last month and I got the results back today. When dh and I were kids, our composite percentile was always 98 or 99. Alas! DS's composite percentile was 2. Seriously - there were many sections of the test where he could have done better had he just randomly filled in the blanks - he would get 1 out of 8 right or 0 out of 6 (and that's out of the questions he attempted, not just out of all of them including ones he didn't get to). Granted, we do a Charlotte Mason approach with lots of reading aloud and very little seat work. For math, we were doing Math Mammoth but DS got overwhelmed with worksheets so we switched to Ray's which I do orally with him. Spelling is done orally. We don't do map drills (though we look at maps and talk about where things happened). We cover capitalization and punctuation in copywork and dictation, but ds is notorious for copying all the words and leaving out all of the punctuation (and I do point out to him what he missed and make him fix it). But seriously, he totally bombed the test. When he took it I knew things weren't going well because he told me he finished early and got to read his book but then I got an email from the admin after the first day saying he didn't finish the tests and filled in a lot of "D" answers. The next day when I dropped him off, I looked at his test and showed him in the book how to know when he was finished with a test. I also explained that if he was putting the same answer for more than two questions in a row, he was probably answering some of them incorrectly. He did finish the tests better the second day. So I wasn't expecting stellar results. We don't have to do the test for reporting purposes - it was just for our own use. But we would like our kids to do well on tests as that is a very easy way to qualify for college and scholarships and such. DS will be 9 in July - his birthday is 5 days before the current cutoff (it used to be 3 months later than it is now) so maturity could be a factor. But still...do I need to embroider a scarlet F for FAIL to my bodice? Yikes!
  3. We do a 36 week schedule even though we school year round. The older my kids get, the more stuff "happens." There's always something going on. It's better to have extra time to take breaks than to be scrambling to finish it all up before the end of the year. Trust me!
  4. We do 36 weeks of school which is 3 weeks per month. One "week" of school is 3 days (I divide up our curriculum so we do complete it in that amount of time). We do school every MWF unless something major is happening (VBS, family in town, federal holiday, etc.). All of our errands and other excursions are scheduled on T/Th. I start counting weeks in January. Since the last two years have been a disaster due to family issues at the end of the year and I have had to school down into the depths of December and even finish up in January, this year I am pushing hard to be ahead so we can possibly be on target to take all of December off. I would like to enjoy December once rather than being wracked with guilt and deciding what absolutely must be done and what can slide. So technically my goal is to be through week 9 by the end of March, week 18 by the end of June, etc. Right now we are on target to finish week 19 by the end of June, and then only have 7 weeks left after the end of September.
  5. I am going to say that farming is not something like a 9-5 job where you know ahead of time what you are going to do. Weather may interfere. You may WANT to combine the day after Memorial day, but if you have to choose between doing it on Memorial Day or having an unexpected storm that destroys the crop before you could get it combined the day AFTER Memorial Day, if you have any sense you will do it when you can even if you had other things you wanted to do. For farmers, planting and harvest are two critical times of year that last only a few weeks (or days) but can determine an entire year's worth of income. The people that came over to help them have probably been "on call" for this time period, knowing that they will decide to harvest the crop and most likely give them less than 12 hours notice. Farming is not an 8-5 job that waits if you want to go sit by the grill. Personally, we don't make plans with family during the 6-8 weeks in the spring and again in the fall when they're planting or harvesting. We simply know they are unavailable during that time and we spend time with them during other times of the year. If this is the time of year that wheat harvest is done in your area, make plans with someone else on Memorial Day (someone who hasn't planted wheat) and enjoy your day.
  6. Where do you want to stay? We live near Lincoln, but my husband travels all over the state and stays in hotels all the time - out in the middle of nowhere, even. On I-80, Grand Island, Kearny, York are all bigger towns that should have motels. Lincoln and Omaha should have them, too. Are you looking specifically for a camping cabin? Mahoney State Park (between Lincoln and Omaha) may have them. It sounds like a great trip. We've stopped to see various things as we've traveled back and forth from CO a couple times. The arch over the interstate (near Kearny, I think) is totally worth the time, especially if you're interested in the Oregon trail and the history. Near Lincoln, there is an Audubon Center that actually has ruts left from the wagon trail that went through there (and attached to the official Oregon trial at some point) - that is free to see on Tuesdays. Send me a pm if you need more help.
  7. In our pack, the annual fee is about $35. If you don't already have a shirt, you need to buy one, which I believe is in the $10-15 range. There may be group activities like swimming parties, hikes, campouts, field trips to the police station, etc beyond that. Usually in our pack, the scouts cost is covered. So if they go to a museum, the scouts cost is covered but if your family comes too, you pay for the rest of your family. Our group goes to a hockey game once a year and the tickets are $10 for everyone (pack doesn't pay for the scout). It's a promotional night for ice hockey - they let the scouts out on the ice afterwards, etc. - and it is coordinated through the pack but not sponsored by it (vs a trip to the police station or a hike). Time commitment is one hour a week a couple times a month for den meetings (just kids his age) and then one hour a month (or so) for the pack meeting (all the kids in the pack, so ages 7-10). When I say an hour for a meeting, that is approximate. We only do one activity per evening, so I just book the evening for cub scouts. Our meeting is 5 minutes from our house, and dh/ds usually leave 5-10 minutes before the meeting and come back an hour and a half later (they have snacks afterwards and if you need to sign up for anything, that happens after the meeting).
  8. You should have 90 days of free tech support. Call them - they're great!
  9. I find that I really struggle with this when I am too tired to be doing what I need to do. If I am engaged and working with them to get things done (vs noticing it is 5 minutes past their bedtime and yelling at them to get dressed for bed and go to bed NOW), I don't generally yell. When I am yelling, I take a step back, figure out what I need to do to take care of myself so I have the energy to take care of my children, and then I get back in the game. Sometimes it involves making a list (very long) of all the things I need to do and plan when they're going to get done. But it always is when I am overtired or overstressed that I start yelling at my kids. The longer it goes on, the longer it takes to dig back out. Hang in there!
  10. Is the wireless turned off? It sounds like it simply needs to be synced, but if wireless is off, it won't sync. You should also be able to delete directly from the Kindle by hitting the right arrow (like when you sort into collections). With that said, I chose Kindle simply because I much prefer amazon's interface for shopping over B&N. Amazon has free books easy to find - for the same titles, B&N makes them very hard to find and the formatting is terrible. I also like amazon's suggestions for other titles. I buy almost all of my books from my computer, not my Kindle.
  11. I know our children's museum has weekly "no-groups" hours. I would check with the zoo to see if they have a day when they don't allow groups as well. It's well worth it, IMO.
  12. Here is the [non-]response I got from amazon: All they did was confirm that, yes, that is happening. They didn't address the question of, SHOULD it be happening? [eyeroll]
  13. I would say you are renters and the realtor should tell any prospective buyers that. Renters should not be expected to stage the home other than keeping it clean and tidy.
  14. The item is not furniture nor is it a 48"+ television. So no, that doesn't explain it. I sent them an email via their contact page asking why it wanted to charge $8.99 for 2nd day "Saturday" delivery to arrive Tuesday when I'm ordering on Sunday. We'll see what they say.
  15. I go by genre in categories that make sense to me. I have obvious categories like Literature (adult), children's literature, contemporary (recent releases, mostly non-fiction), and poetry. Then I have not-so-obvious categories like Plutarch (a number of resources I have for Plutarch) and then others such as my children's books for each year of school or just a category. I also have a category of books I think my husband would like - the category is simply his name. But all of my books are sorted onto one or more shelves. And within their categories, I keep them in order by author because I like to remember who went to all the trouble of writing them (and I once worked in a library and that's how libraries are organized within categories).
  16. I think, in part, we simply have more stuff these days. The more stuff you have, the harder it is to keep up with everything. Most of our friends have more stuff than us, and their houses are cluttered from floor to ceiling. We have enough clutter, but nothing like people we know. My husband and I both grew up in very neat, tidy, clean homes. My MIL didn't work and her only hobby (I swear) was cleaning and watching tv. So I don't think her idea of clean was realistic. At our house, my parents had two girls, and we didn't have tons of toys like our friends had. We played outside a lot. But everything was put away at the end of the day. Now my parents have more clutter and stuff in their closets than we do, but they still clean the house every Friday like we always did when I was a kid. I don't clean the house every week - I'd like to but it doesn't always get done. As for sweeping the floor after meals, under the table, every meal. The kitchen gets swept when the house gets cleaned (or when my dh notices it needs it). I have my children put all of their toys away before every meal and before bed. So we "reset" at least two or three times a day. We use the dishwasher and load it after every meal (it gets run when it's full). We wash dishes once a day at the end of the day unless I am cooking (then they get washed when I'm finished in the kitchen - like when I'm baking bread or something). It's a constant struggle, but my dh does participate. I find that I don't have time to deal with a lot of the clutter. In the past few months I've cut clutter by simply donating things (instead of trying to sell used children's clothing, for example - I simply don't have time to enter and tag everything and haul it in and so forth). But I think we live in a society where we think we need a lot more stuff than we used to have. We also have time-wasters like computers. You can clean while you watch tv, but can you clean while you surf the web? No, and so we don't have time for cleaning or cooking. That's just my theory.
  17. I would highly recommend In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan. That's the plan we follow. You don't necessarily have to be vegan or eat organic, but if something has an ingredient listed that you wouldn't stock in your own kitchen (or don't even have access to), then it's considered "contraband" at our house. His Food Rules is a quick simple list of rules based on what he talks about in In Defense of Food. Basically processed food is out and foods taken in their natural state and prepared at home are best.
  18. I got one once my daughter was a year old to use while hiking. I tried more than once to use the thing but could never figure out how to get my child into it. I watched their video, read their instructions. The straps just twisted around each other incessantly and I could never get my daughter on my back, even when my husband tried to help me. When I did manage to get her on my back, she was down so low I had to be half bent-over to keep my balance, which is not comfortable at all. That stupid contraption makes me steam just thinking about it. I know people rave about the Ergo (I have a friend who thinks it's the greatest thing since sliced bread). My recommendation would be to buy one from someone who can help you put it on and get your child in it or try on a friends and have that friend help you with yours once you purchase your own.
  19. It's from Twitter. Over on Twitter #something is a topic and all posts on that topic can be linked that way, regardless of the poster. @something is someone's name.
  20. Each family grows and so the gathering gets bigger and bigger. I've seen threads where people got tired of it getting bigger and bigger and bigger because of all the extra people invited. It's one thing for your children and their immediate family to come. It's another to include their extended family. It's one thing to do that occasionally, it's another to feel obligated to ALWAYS include extended family. I don't think it's right to expect that. Personally, I don't understand the holiday thing. When I grew up, we lived 16 hours from our grandparents. They came to see us for a week every year, and we went to visit them for a week every year. This was almost always NOT over any given holiday. If family is important, there is no reason why you can't get together at other times. Sometimes I enjoy a quiet holiday with just us. This year we did Thanksgiving by ourselves, we did Christmas with my family, and we did Easter with my husband's family. My parents just came to visit a couple weeks ago (they live 12 hours away). We see them at Christmas because my husband has a week off work and we can drive to see them, so that works well. My husbands family serves really bad food, and I love to cook, so I did my own Thanksgiving dinner this year. We see them all on a regular basis, but if we see them over a holiday, that's just an added bonus, not an obligation.
  21. Well, for what it's worth, we went to church this morning...we didn't find a seat...we left. We were sure there would be a seat at the church we went to. Oh well! I really would like to enjoy an Easter service once without having to go at an odd hour or worry about keeping children quiet for an extra long time. Someday...
  22. I should clarify as I am always happy when someone comes to church. The problem is, our church is packed every week. Do they add extra services for Easter when the attendance doubles and you have to come 30 minutes early (vs 5 minutes) in order to get a seat? No, not in our diocese. I've complained directly. And I also complain indirectly - as in, every year after Easter, I go to confession and confess that we did not attend church on Easter because we couldn't find a seat. Sorry, this issue just makes my blood boil. I think there are a lot of people who would attend church in our diocese, even during the year, if they could find a seat, and that breaks my heart. But the diocese is cheap and thinks it is a waste of money (I guess) to have empty seats on Sunday morning. Thus when they build a new church, all services are packed from the day it opens - meaning that they needed the new parish long before it was built. They add extra services for holy days during the week (such as Ash Wednesday) but never for holy days like Christmas and Easter. In fact, they'll cancel regular services and add services at prime times like midnight when most people, especially parents with young children, are home asleep where they belong. The church is run by people who don't have children and think it is perfectly normal to expect people to come to the 4:45 a.m. service instead of the 9:30 a.m. one they customarily attend. I love celebrating the Resurrection at church, but I hate fighting the crowds to do it. When ds was born, we tried to go for three years, going to a different parish each year in hopes that we'd find one that wasn't packed. We haven't even tried since. Even in the country parishes, the attendance doubles and you have to watch church via closed circuit television downstairs in the basement. If I'm going to watch church on tv, I'll do it from home - they have a whole channel devoted to that. I just don't understand it. I don't understand it at all.
  23. I grew up in a church where attendance was the same on Easter weekend as every other weekend. I am completely mystified by the people who only go to church on Christmas and Easter. In fact, now that I am Catholic, I must say I find it very frustrating that those of us who attend faithfully all. year. long. cannot find a seat when we go to church on Christmas or Easter. With small children, the last thing I want to do is arrive long before the service and have to keep my children quiet twice as long thanks to the people who attend only twice a year. When I was a kid, our service the weekend of Easter celebrated Christ's death and resurrection. We might even have an Easter cantata or something. But there was no big meal that we had for Easter. No obligatory family gathering. My mom would hide eggs for my sister and I when we were preschoolers just because it was fun, but we never got gifts at Easter like we got at Christmas (as some people do). I just don't get the whole Easter thing. We live near my husband's family, and we always get together with them for Easter. That is probably a good thing since we only see them three or four times a year (even though they live within an hour of us). My sister lives fifteen minutes from my parents, and they get together every week more than once. If there weren't big holidays like Easter, Christmas, Thanksgiving and the 4th of July, I don't think I'd ever see my husband's family. They're very good about getting together for those holidays, but those are the ONLY times we see them. Again, I just don't get it. So count me in as one who is mystified by the big hoopla surrounding Easter.
  24. DH is an agronomist and works for a government agency doing crop seed field inspections. He manages about fifty employees doing the same all over the state. Lots of driving during the summer months, but good hours otherwise. He has a Bachelor of Science in Agricultural Science and a Masters in Agronomy.
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