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Vernal

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Posts posted by Vernal

    What is the best mop/wringer product?

    in The Chat Board

    Posted

    My MIL has a bucket with a wringer on it. She got it after she hurt her shoulder. It’s a red bucket with a black round plastic wringer on the side. You just set the regular mop in it and twist a little. I’m sure she got it at Walmart or a dollar store. Those are the only places she shops.

    • Like 1

    Birkenstocks?

    in The Chat Board

    Posted

    I love the Mayari (sp ?). I wear a size 8 - 8.5 normally and the 38 was perfect. My feet are wider and the regular was just the right width. I have the bronze color. Puffy â¤ï¸ Birkenstocks.

    • Like 1

    Garbage trucks in parades ?

    in The Chat Board

    Posted

    I’ve never seen a garbage truck in a parade here in the Deep South. But what a great idea! My DS would love this. I thought his love for garbage trucks was strange when he was younger, but I didn’t realize it was a “thing†for little ones to like garbage trucks. He says Monday is the best day of the week because it’s garbage day.

    • Like 1

    What curriculum are you loving and hating this year?

    in K-8 Curriculum Board

    Posted

    Winners for DS9 and DD8:

    CLE math + process skills

    MP Literature

    NAC 2 - my lefty DS has beautiful cursive handwriting.

    FLL 3

    WWE 3

    EM Daily Science â¤ï¸

    EM Daily Geography

    Hit of the year: Art pacs! Both kids love them.

     

    Not working/has to go:

    AAS - I really can't do this anymore. They are ok with it, but I hate it.

    SOTW 3 - ugh. Everyone dreads it. I need an Evan Moor book for history. 😃

    • Like 3

    Kindle Fire for kids

    in The Chat Board

    Posted

    How do you get your librivox audibooks onto your device? We LOVE the kindle for my ds, but I use audible and BARD. The pain with the kindle is how you sync your non app files. That's what you'd need to figure out.

     

    You'll really like the parental controls. Like you can block (turn off) the videos and apps and then with a quick swipe and your password boom you can have them back on. It's really slick because then you can put them down for naps with audiobooks and know they're doing that, not apps, kwim?

     

    You might change your mind about prime or find you like using Overdrive or something available through your library. Having it will probably help you explore and find new uses.

     

    They're really close in age. Any thought of sharing? If they would tend to both listen, I don't know, I think they could. Or maybe in the car they like different things? Throw earbuds in their stockings. My ds uses his in the car with earbuds a lot.

     

    Definitely you need to figure out what you'd be putting on there and how. There's a way to connect it to your computer with cords, but I haven't done that. I will often download videos or whatever while I'm out and about. So if you're at mcdonalds or something, you just boom download your things. I have a lot of Mythbusters on it right now for ds. We have long trips for his speech therapy, so the kindle keeps him busy.

     

    As far as what we use it for, mainly audiobooks and videos. He never streams anything with it, because I don't keep wifi on at home. I buy his audiobooks from Audible or use BARD, but the BARD books I usually put on a thumb drive and use in a different player, simply because I never got the BARD app loaded. If librivox has an app, that will be easy. Google and see what people do.

     

    As far as apps, there's not as much breadth in apps, but there are still good apps. Particularly for those ages of kids, you'll probably do well.

    I download anything that needs downloading when we are in town 😃 Our library system has VERY few audiobooks available on Overdrive, so that's not really an option. I've considered joining the library system in the nearest larger town, but for the price of joining I could just pay for Audible.

     

    The reason I was considering Fires is because I could get two. The iPad sharing goes ok in the car, but sometimes it would be better if they had their own. And I've heard good things about the parental controls.

    Kindle Fire for kids

    in The Chat Board

    Posted

    I'm thinking of getting the kids ages 8 and 9 Kindle fires. We are not Amazon Prime people, though, so I'm wondering if this is the best choice. I have an iPad, but I'm looking to spend less. They use the iPad mainly for YouTube kids and a few apps. We listen to a lot of audiobooks on LibriVox. We do some reading on the kindle app, but not a lot.

     

    So what do your kids use their Fire for?

     

    Oh and one other point, our internet is unreliable at best. We live pretty rural and don't have a better choice than what we have which is a Verizon mifi with poor service. So no streaming.

    Renting Tents, Tables, for Outdoor Event

    in The Chat Board

    Posted

    I'm sure prices depend on location, but for my area:

     

    Chairs range from 95 cents each to $5-6, with the cheapest of course the most basic plastic chair

     

    Tables are $12 for an 8 foot round and $8 for 8 foot rectangular

     

    Tents really vary in prices depending on size, number of peaks, etc.

    A 20x40 with no side walls and one peak are $295. Sidewalls are $1 per foot. Flooring is expensive to rent imo, but I don't remember any prices right now. That's the biggest size the rental company we use will let renters put up themselves. Any bigger and they send a couple of guys to put them up. The prices jump to around $1200 and from there on up.

     

    The rental co also charges $60 for delivery and it is worth every penny. You do not want to wrangle 100+ chairs from the rental place and back. But putting up a tent isn't too difficult, but does take more than one person.

    If you hate wearing closed shoes and can't stand socks, what do you wear during the winter?

    in The Chat Board

    Posted

    I bought a pair of Jellypop brand flats a few weeks ago. They are so comfortable. They are lined with what feels like knit. They are like wearing a tshirt on your feet. No sweaty feet the few times I've worn them so far. I bought them at Shoe Station, which has stores in FL, maybe one is near you.

     

    I realize they don't cover the closed toe issue, but they were acceptable to this Birkenstock lover.

    • Like 1

    Parents of twins or children close in age...

    in General Education Discussion Board

    Posted

    My two are 13 months apart. I had to separate them for skill work. DS couldn't concentrate with his sister humming, twisting, kicking the table, etc. And she was bored waiting on him.

     

    Our routine is DS comes to the table first. We do math, phonics, and hand writing. Them DD joins us at the table for "together time" which is content subjects plus our Bible, read alouds, and memory work. When we are done with that, DS is free to go and DD stays at the table for skills. It's really worked so much better than trying to do skills together and getting aggravated with one of them for disruptive behavior.

     

    I was also trying to keep them on the same lesson in math and phonics to begin with. Now it's so much easier to move ahead with one and slow and steady with the other. I am able to work with them at their pace.

    If you have chickens, what kind do you have?

    in The Chat Board

    Posted

    We got our original flick from the local feed store. Then my FIL gave us the last of his flock.

     

    Right now we have:

    1 Buff Orp Roo - we love him. He is beautiful and sweet

    1 leg horn roo - He has to go soon. Mean and crazy

    1 buff orp mixed hen

    1 Americauna hen

    1 Cochin hen

    1 duckwing bantam hen - she's a sweet tiny little chicken

     

    It's a crazy mix. We have had many other breeds in the past. My favorites have been Seabrights, Buff Orpingtons, and Barred Rocks. I won't have Wyandottes again. The heat is too much for them here. And I didn't like Leghorns. Way to skittish

     

    I want to get rid of this whole flock and start over with one kind of chicken. We need to do some renovations on their coop and runs before we get more though. We love having chickens.

    Curriculum advice needed: Keep it simple

    in K-8 Curriculum Board

    Posted

    Thank you your replies. So they can still get into college if we don't do grammar in 2nd grade right? 😀 J/k. I was looking over what my plans were and realized it's just too much right now and kind of freaked out a little. So this is what I'm thinking our plan will be for now::

     

    DS: Finish Phonics and read books.

    MUS Beta

     

    DD: Read more books. Start spelling curriculum eventually.

    Math - still undecided if I should switch to Singapore like I originally intended, MM, or stay with CLE. I have to get the next level of something. Right now she's teaching herself division for fun lol.

     

    Together: continue cursive

    Listen to SOTW2 on CD

    Read books. Whatever we have here ( which is a lot ) and what the library has. No more lists for a while. I MAY have pushed myself over the edge with the lists. 😀

     

    And thank you Oh Elizabeth for your long and thoughtful reply. DS isn't dislexic, but he does have some fine motor delays and very mild cognitive delays from a brain bleed shortly after birth. Believe me he's had all the tests!

    • Like 2

    Curriculum advice needed: Keep it simple

    in K-8 Curriculum Board

    Posted · Edited by Vernal

    Our "school year" starts in January. I already have a list made of new things to order that I made in November. Then life happens in a big way here. I need some help deciding what to use to just keep getting school done for a while. This is what I had planned for DS8 and DD7:

     

    DS: MP 1st grade reading. He's struggled some with reading.

     

    MUS beta. Changing from CLE. The tight spiral wasn't working too well for him. We did most of alpha along with CLE to get a feel for MUS, and it worked out pretty good.

     

    DD: MP Reading 2nd grade. She's doing great. Reading fluently.

     

    AAS 2

     

    Singapore 3a-3b This would be new for her. She's a mathy kid and CLE was not enough for her.

     

    Both/together:

     

    NAC 2

     

    MP Literature 2nd grade

     

    FLL 2

     

    WWE 1-2 ( we started 1 several months ago)

     

    SOTW 2

     

    Science loosely following WTM suggestions. No formal curriculum, just read books of interest within the topics outlined in the WTM for 2nd grade (earth science and astronomy)

     

    EM geography

     

    MP's 2nd grade enrichment.

     

    So looking over this list, I just can't do all this everyday right now. It's basically a continuation of what we've used in the past. . But our days were pretty long and mom intensive. And the planning .... Just can't do it right now. I want something to just keep moving forward for now. Especially for DS and reading. He's just started reading more than CVC words and I don't want to lose any hard fought ground with him. An IRL friend suggested getting Life Pacs. I looked at them and that's just not for us. So what I need is a reality check. What's the most important thing right now and how can we just keep going until we can find a new normal.

     

    I did want to add: Maybe I need something different for phonics for DS? But I don't know what. I have OPGTR, but he needs explicit instructions and practice practice practice. Maybe slow down with that?

     

    And Singapore for DD. This would be new for us and I know there's lots of moving parts. Would MM be a better choice for right now?

     

    And I didn't plan on doing all of that everyday. Lol. Phonics, math, and handwriting everyday. With FLL, WWE, MP lit, about twice a week and either history or science. Then fill in with the other stuff.

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