Mrs_JWM
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Posts posted by Mrs_JWM
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I remember thinking these programs were totally bogus when I was a kid - a nerdy, reading kid. I know, I know - who woulda thunk it?!! My mother told me at the time that they were silly programs that wouldn't make a difference for me, but that other kids who might not read as much might get some use out of it.
We did the Six Flags thing. My kid finished her measly six hours in no time and earned her tickets. My nephew didn't read but his mother said he did, and he earned his tickets. My kid didn't like Six Flags. Meh.
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This happened to my kid, too - her teeth FINALLY fell out, and the new teeth moved in within three days. If your dentist isn't worried, I wouldn't worry, either. I mean, I'm not worried, but you shouldn't worry, either!
Also, my kitten had extra fangs that fell out shortly after I noticed it. I know you didn't page Dr. Hive, DVM, but I thought this info. was pertinent. You're welcome! ;)
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I live in Syracuse, but am familiar enough with Watertown to say that it is dreary and cold up there. It's enough to make me feel tired of winter, and I'm from Syracuse! Very grey, not much culture, very rural, very flat. I love living in NY, and I would prefer never to live anywhere else, and I would happily spend the summers in the 1000 Islands, but I could never live up there year-round. Homeschooling in NY is fine, though!
I feel like this is a depressing post... :(
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We get dressed, but we're on vacation this week. I've been wearing this while drinking my coffee:
Then, when it's time to get dressed, I wear this:
My neighbor on one side makes fun of my pink "bunny suit" all the time. My in-laws, husband, daughter, and I all bought them at the VT Teddy Bear Factory's outlet store a few years ago and we wear them all week when we're in VT on our annual ski vacation.
I went outside in my blue tracksuit yesterday, and ANOTHER neighbor said, "Are those your pajamas?!!" The original fun-making neighbor was also outside, and he said, "That's nothing - you should see her bunny suit!" and they laughed and laughed.
At that point, I said, "You're all jerks!" and stomped off... ;)
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We do Festivus, but we hardly had any grievences. My husband and I did thumb-wrestle, though; not surprisingly, his giant man-hands won. Wait! That's a grievence!
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I always say that you know you have the flu - the REAL flu, not some stomach bug - when you know you're going to die, but you're so happy that you're going to die because at least you'll feel better. I've had the flu once, gastroenteritis once, and food poisoning once. They were all not fun - but the flu was the absolute worst, worst, worst! Plus, it lasts much longer than any of the others!
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Oh, Janie Grace - don't you have one of these booze hats?
http://www.amazon.com/Red-Drinking-Helmet-Soda-Hat/dp/B000MTYLWC
You could make rum and Cokes right in the can! Fewer dishes to wash!
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I'm just curious - so totally not judging your individual situation! - but for people whose kids write the letters neatly and legibly, do you care how they form them? My daughter writes some of hers in ways that I don't, but they look fine. I do notice when she does it because it looks funny to me, but I don't care because the end product is good.
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We spend 11 hours out, which includes all walking and driving time. Dance takes 1 h. 45 min. and piano takes 1 h. 30 min. from the time we walk out the door to when we walk back in. We have the car one day a week, so I spend an hour taking my husband to work and driving back home, then we go to a homeschool gym time for an hour at 9:30. We stay out to do errands like libraries outside of our neighborhood or the grocery store, eat lunch, or see a friend, and then pick my husband up at 4, home by 4:30. Wednesdays are exhausting for me because I try to pack way too much in. If I had schedules like some people so, I would be a crazy person.
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My lock screen looks like this:
Hey! On the new forums, we can post pictures from the iPad! Awesome! I'm going to do it again just for fun.
My home screen looks like this:
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I'm not sure what you mean - can you post a screenshot?
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My MIL gave my daughter an advent calendar with a couplet from this classic holiday poem behind each door, so just for fun, we started memorizing it. We're 1/3 of the way though it now, and I have been astounded at the number of topics we've discussed based on what we've learned. I wrote them all down - including our actual discussions - and I covered the front and back of a piece of notebook paper.
Just a sampling:
Spelling and grammar ('twas, using parts of speech to clarify meaning and improve retention)
Poetic structure (meter, anapestic tetrameter, Shakspearean sonnets, iambic pentameter)
Proving authorship through stylistic similarities
Evolution of Christmas in America and Washington Irving; influence of Dutch, German, and English
Sugar-plums - you've had some every time you've enjoyed M&Ms or jelly beans!
Historical figures - fact and fiction
Vocabulary and diction - lustre, "settled our brains," "on the breast of the new-fallen snow"
Thomas Bowlder
Allusions to the poem in other works, such as Stuart Little
Fractions - on day 6, we were 1/4 of the way through, but on day 8, we've done 1/3!
We've also used in for diction and copywork, and all this stuff is just extra, really - my main point was simply the memory work.
This has been so fun, and although I started a little mini-marshmallow bribery system, it has been completely unnecessary...but great for earning extra marshmallows for hot cocoa! ;)
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Mine loves, loves, loves audiobooks, but not the SOTW ones. :( I also found that I didn't like listening to them in the car because we would go through so many sections so quickly that it would mess me up at home. If we were listening to them on the go, there was a reason I couldn't read them at home - very rare, but happened on unexpected trips - and she wouldn't "get" them as well as when I read them more slowly. I wish SWB would read them...you know, in her spare time! We should strt a new initial set that goes SWB...IHST for SWB In Her Spare Time! ;)
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I will tell you a silly story to distract you for two seconds!
When I got my PSAT scores - oh, so many years ago! - I added them up and immediately burst into tears. I was in the backseat of our car while my mother was driving and I was a huge sobbing puddle. My mother pulled over, grabbed the paper, and said, "You added them wrong. No wonder your math score is so low!" She was right - I misadded two three-digit numbers. Ad my math scores were always low. I made up for it with my near-perfect verbal scores, but seriously?!! Not being able to add the scores correcly was pathetic.
Back to your mail-carrier stalking, ladies! ;)
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I think focusing on one thing at a time is helpful, too. Maybe this week it's getting up at a new time - weekends included. I've started getting up when my husband leaves at 6:30 so I can drink coffee and play online or read. Then I wake the kid up at 7:30. We have an hour to eat, get dressed, do a morning chore like empty the dishwasher or recycling, and scoop the cat box. We like to play dolls or stuffies - well, she likes it, and I like doing what she likes and I love the imaginative stuff she invents - so we do that for an hour before school, but whateve dawdling time during the morning routine hour comes out of the playtime.
Gotta go - doll time!
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High-quality academic research papers CAN (and should!) be well-written. Developing a writer's voice is important in all types of writing.
I'm struggling with moving away from WWE a bit and allowing for more creative BW-style writing. I have to remember that it was nearly impossible to develop 125 writers' voices in the classroom each year while simultaneously addressing grammar, usage, and mechanics. Now I have a classroom of one; it seems much more possible, but also more personal.
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I didn't find that cursive was an issue. We used Cursive First, although not all the practice sheets, and AAS - Level 1. The dictation is AAS is individual sentences, so it was very do-able. I like how Cursive First teaches letter-family styles - "short uphill stroke," "attic loop," etc. At the beginning of second grade this year, though, during dictation, my daughter wrote, "I hate cursive." Hmmmm - now what?!! I said she was more than welcome to print, but that she had to use proper capitalization, as she preferred all capitals. Within a week, she was back to cursive because it was faster. She does print when she writes for fun on her own...and uses capitals appropriately.
I just order the five-pack of Arrows that Bravewriter had on sale, and I think I'll get The Wand. I like the continuity of using one piece of literature over a month.
I'm having a hard time letting go of AAS, though. I think it works really well, and I love how it reinforces the rules of spelling. How do the literature-based programs do that?
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I just went over to my mother's and sat on her lap - just to tease her! I'm 35 and I went to public school! :)
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I'm moving toward trying this approach, too. My daughter doesn't really like WWE (sorry, SWB! ;) ), but that's not the only reason I'm considering a change. I love the idea of teaching mechanics in context, but I'm not sure how to do it. I'm a natural speller myself, and I love to read, so spelling and writing came easily to me. My mother was an English teacher, and I was a high-school English teacher before we had a child. Most of those kids were terrible writers! I did what I could, but I always felt I was barely treading water. There was so much to teach and so little time. I've been reading about Charlotte Mason's approach, and I think it might be just the thing. Thanks for the ideas you've all given me!
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Yes - recipe for the cheesecake, please! Don't be a tease - you've been here long enough to know how this works! ;)
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Remember in Gone with the Wind when Scarlett watches all the old ladies at the Wilkes's BBQ belching and saying whatever they wanted to? That looks like fun some days... ;)
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I just tried to post that it grosses me out, too! Keep her and her cracky knuckles away from me! ;)
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Thanks! Just bought Cobblestone and Cricket!
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If you search for free Victorian borders, you'll find a ton of them. You can type out your quote, add handwriting guidelines in the appropriate size, add the frame, and print. You can even just run the paper through your printer twice to add the frame around the page if you don't want to fool around with putting the frame and the text into one file - although that's very easy with a basic photo-editing program.
Actually, I'm editing to add that if you PM me with what you'd like, I can make it up tomorrow or any time this week, really. Just not if you need it by tomorrow at 9 a.m.!
UPDATE: How would you find out why someone was in prison in 1940?
in The Chat Board
Posted
Wow - I had no idea about any of this, either. Very sad.