Renthead Mommy
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Posts posted by Renthead Mommy
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I've had to start planning Christmas, so things have plenty of time to be ordered and get here. Currently we are studying ants, and the thought passed that it would be nice to be able to see them (as well as other bugs and bug parts) better than with just a magnify glass. Plus in a few months we'll be studying the human body, then plants, and it would be fun to get some slides of things.
So can I get a recommendations for microscopes for early elementary age? My son is in 1st. I'd like something that would work for the next few years, and then we can upgrade. Plus it's a good suggestion for the FIL to get maybe.
So recommendations please? As well as where it can be ordered? Or if places like Target or TRU have them? (FIL doesn't like to internet shop if he can help it)
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It is still $4.06 here. It has been that price since about May. It never moves, and it's that price at the gas stations on all the bases. We were talking about it the other day, and figured since the price hasn't changed in months, maybe we have to use that shipment before a new shipment comes in and the price changes.
I don't really watch the price of gas out in town, but in the summer we figured out the cost of a gallon of gas. The Okinawans were paying 177 Yen per liter. With the exchange, and the conversion to gallons, it was coming out to just about $7 a gallon. I have noticed that gas has been steadily dropping out in town. I believe it's down somewhere in the 130's Yen per liter.
So it's dropping, it's just not dropping for us. Luckily, unless you want to drive to the other end of the island (maybe 2 hours away?) everything is pretty much a 5 to 10 minute drive. We really only fill the tank up every 3-4 weeks. So while it's more here, we use a lot less of it. (Hence our theory that we need to use up the $4.06 shipment before the cost goes down.)
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We have the Sony e-Readers at the BX, so I've actually seen, touched, played a little. I REALLY want one. Books mean extra weightj when moving. Plus so much has to be ordered and then shipped. And the shipping always seems to include SO much extra, unneeded packing material! So we're looking at a way to cut down on a lot of things like that. This would slove many issues. Plus our library is only "okay".
I don't really know what the difference between the Kindle and the Sony e-Reader is, other than about $200 I think.
I'd love to here some pros and cons of both.
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But I cannot wrap my head around the concept that she is "doing the best she can." Doing her best, IMHO, would imply that she arranged a schedule without constant conflicts .
But SHE didn't set the soccer tournament time. And SHE didn't set the brownie event time. They are schedules that are out of HER control. It happens. Things are going to conflict. And even if she is always 'running in with her hair on fire' or whatever. These two events are out of her control. And if you never have the problem of having two things, both important, both where you need to be, at the same time, then you are luckier than most people.
And in the grand scheme of things, this is small stuff. Don't sweat the small stuff.
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I'm tired of catalog shopping, and I can get great fabric. Problem is I can't get patterns. I actually have someone willing to make the ultimate sacrifice and go into Walmart for me. (they just moved there, so they know where the walmart is, but not other fabric stores, so WM is it!).
I found a bunch of patterns I like online. So my question is, is it really cheaper to buy the patterns at a real store? Or are patterns sold at the envelope listed price? The online site is $9, $10 or more dollars. I don't remember if I paid that much, or whatever was on the envelope or not it's been so long. It seemed like patterns were a lot cheaper than that. Does WM sell them at a discounted rate?
Thanks!
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Original movie scrips tend to have 3 or 4 or even 5 times that many words in them. They overstock the cuss words because you just never know how many are going to get cut out from the rating/censor people (can't remember who exactly does that - that college class was a long time ago!). But they end up putting in lots of extras so they have negotiation room to keep in the words they want at the places where it is important. Sometimes they getting more cuts, so they end up with only the bare minimum of what they (the writers) orginally wanted. Other times they can end up with lots because their rating person was more easy going.
The other thing to think about is the moving you are watching. If the Sopranoes when around saying things like "Oh Sugar Snaps!" it just wouldn't be believeable. But then it also wouldn't be beliveable to have the sweet little Amish family dropping F words all over the screen.
As for cussing, I also believe it's regional. I grew up in the NYC area. The F word is primarily an adjective there. An often used adjective. It's just part of the language. You just don't really think about it.
My son is six. We aren't very stick on language. Do I let the 6 year old say the f word? No. But I won't go wash his mouth out with soap if he says it at this point either. I just tell him he's not old enough to know when to use it correctly. Same goes for ****. Same applies to stupid. Will the rules be the same at 14? Probably not. As long as he understands when it can be used.
Stupid is the word we have the most trouble with. I think mainly because it is a 'kid' word. My problem is they (all the kids, mine and the others in the area) have a hard time seperating calling an idea (Hey you want to jump off the roof?) and calling a person stupid. I'm okay with using it with the idea, just not with a person. Same holds true if they he were to call a person stupid, a f***er, or a b****.
Only words that are really "forbidden" are ain't and ya'll. Those he's not allowed to use.
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I miss you!!!
I miss my cellphone and being able to talk whenever!
I miss the girls! I miss our trips to sonic! I miss all the stupid stuff we used to do! I miss going to that crazy taco/pancake place! I miss our 'teacher workdays'!
I've been lonely, and you live in a crazy time zone for me to ever catch up with you.
Okay, breakdown over. I'll talk to you later!
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Have you considered ETC online? The program automatically adjusts so that if the child continues to have trouble in a certain area, it backs them up to a previous level to give them more practice. Downside: no writing. Looks like it is still available at Homeschol Buyers Co-op for $35 = $5 processings fee.
http://www.homeschoolbuyersco-op.org/explode-the-code-online/
I saw this, but since, according to the page notations of "For further practice see book 3 1/2 pages x-x" it looks like I only really needed about 20 pages. $35 is pretty expensive for only 20 pages. And really, the no writing thing is a really big drawback to me.
I was really hoping to order it as an e-book download and just print off what we needed. I'm guessing that just doesn't exsist.
thanks.
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We just did the last lesson and post test in book 3 today. My son has always done great with ETC. No problems. But this last lesson or two started two vowel combinations. ai, ea, ay, ow, oa and the like. He can read it fine. No problems at all. He can also do the page where they offer you two different letter choices in a box and you pick the correct letters in each box to spell the word with no problem.
But today he had a lot of trouble with that last page where you have to spell the word. All they give you is the picture and the line to write it on.
Phonitically he did it perfectly, he has that down, but he kept getting caught up on those second silent vowel when he had to spell it.
I always looked at it as a reading focus book. So do I keep going and move him into book 4 and figure he'll figure it out as we go? Or do I need to work more on the spelling of words like that? Should I order book 3 1/2?
I should mention we are also doing 1st grade Spelling Workout. We are only on lesson 11, but he's always got those words down cold ( this week - box, book, top, pop, six, mix). I think he could actually spell most of the book already, but he's not ready to do a 2nd grade speller. I know we'll cover those troubling vowel blends later (2nd grade I think) so that makes me wonder if I should focus on more ETC (3 1/2) or just keep going.
Also does anyone know if you can order ETC in e-book form anywhere? If I do need to get 3 1/2, I don't want to have to wait weeks for it to get all the way over here.
Thanks.
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I voted till graduation. Now that doesn't mean I won't need to be committed at some point!
When my husband hits his 20 years my son will be almost 21 yo. His ENTIRE school career will be spent military. Currently we are overseas, so tours are only 3 years. In a few years my husband's promotion level will start getting us moved ever 2 years.
Between all that moving, the fact that we want to go from Japan, then to Germany, and then we'd love to go to Italy (but that's a hard one) it just makes homeschooling easier. So there is no reason not to do it through highschool for us.
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We're done having kids. We pretty much always knew we wanted only one child. When he was not quite 2 my husband had a vasectomy. We were VERY careful uptill the procedure, and again until we got the 'all clear'. But somewhere in there, I don't really remember when, I was running, really, really late. The test was negative, but we were in agreement we really didn't want to have any more kids.
So yes, we took all the precautions, but things still happen. (Believe me, everyone wants to come out of the woodwork and tell you the failed vasectomy stories of their cousin's best friend's boss' brother's failed vasectomy ten years after the procedure! Do you see me rolling my eyes?)
But if we turned into one of those failed vasectomy stories, we'd abort.
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Okay, last question, I swear. Then I REALLY am going to bed!
When I was in first grade my uncle gave me a "Little Professor" for my birthday. It was a yellowish/brown color, and I think it was supposed to be an owl with a graduation/professor hat on it. The buttons were set up like a calculator. It asked you math questions and you punched in teh answers. It did addition, subtraction, mulitplication and division, and had mulitple levels.
I loved that thing, and learned so much math from it! Does anyone remember that?
I would love to find something like that for my son. They have something somewhat similar in the scholastic catalog, but it doesn't have a number keypad, just arrows to scroll to the correct number. (I'd rather have a number pad.)
Do they not make things like this anymore? I'd never paid attention to this year, and our BX is limited in things like that. The only hand held type 'games' (other than X-box type things or whatever they are) things like yatzee or poker or slots. I'd love to get him something like this. His friends have little electronic games they play in the car (EVERY time we get in the car! Drives me crazy!!!) I'd like to find him something he can do/play, but I don't want it to be just a stupid video game.
Suggestions?
Thanks.
Kelly
who really, really is going to bed this time!
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Think back to when you covered ancient civilizations (any level). Where would you have liked to go? What would you have liked to go visit if you could have hopped into a transporter and have Scotty beam you down to see?
I'm trying to plan out various field trips for the year. Mainly the Chinese/Japanese areas. I can get to just about anywhere in Japan dirt cheap to free. China is more of a vacation than a field trip, but I know there are things I want to cover while touring. The great wall is an obvious one. What else?
I would love to go to Rome and Greece as well, but right now I need to focus on Asia. Rome might (very slim chance) be doable for little money, but would take a LOT of planning and work to get there. So that probably won't happen. Greece is pretty much not possible via space A travel. Plus we are hoping to go to Europe next, so I can hit those on the second time around ("Honey I HAVE to go to Italy. It's for school!").
So please tell me where/what you wished you'd been able to visit/see while studing Ancients.
Thanks!
Renthead Mommy
Trying to make the most of living overseas and space A travel!
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Thanks everyone.
I guess what I'm afraid of is not leaving enough space for everything we'd want to put up in each section.
Next question - how did you break up your years? I just don't want the years of more recorded history to not have enough room. Where does the history really start picking up speed? Can I break it down into 500 year segments? Should I start giving more room and break it down to 100 year segments at some point? 1500 BC? 1000BC?
Does this look right, or can i condense it down some in early years where there is less 'action' to post?
5000 - 4500 -4000- 3500 - 3000 - 2500 - 2000 - 1500-1000-500-0-100-200-300-400-500
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If you've already done a first grade time line I'm hoping you can help me.
I have plenty of wall space so I wanted to do an actual time line, not the kind in a 3 ring.
For first grade Ancinets, (we are using History Odyssey 1 which uses SOTW along UILE and CHOW) how much space (pages? file folders? whatever you used?) did you use for how many years? For instance is two feet of time line enough space for 1000 years in the first grade level? Or would it need to be longer?
What has worked for you? Did you wish you made yours longer? Shorter? How many years did you cover in how many pages of line? How did you break it down year wise?
I was going to make a line out of file folders, but a friend suggested to look at Beautiful Feet's time line, especially for their pictures (I haven't had a chance to look yet). Any other really good suggestions?
Thanks.
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Well, there are lots of feral cats that live in the park. But in all the times we took that train, I never saw any homeless people. Never even saw any in the area. And actually the park was always pretty neat when we were there. And we were there a LOT!
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Good! I feel better now!
At least it was the cheap-o Quaker Oatmeal and not the $7 for a tiny can of steel cut oatmeal!
Of course if they kept more than 6 cans of steel cut oats in stock at a time I wouldn't have to be eating Quaker! But that is another rant for another time! I guess I should be grateful the commissary was out of stock this time!
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McCormick Cinnamon and McCormick Chili Powder come in the same container.
They are even very similar in color.
HOWEVER they are NOT interchangable in oatmeal.
That is all. You have been warned. Always check before you sprinkle!
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The zoo might be done with their big renovations. They were building a big 'animals of africa' section or something like that. I think it was due to be finished this last summer. And the zoo has the BEST onion rings!
We moved from there a year ago. The winter before Sea World was exprimenting with staying open through the holidays and I think they were open on the weekends as early as Feb or March. So you may actually be able to see that.
Also on teh other side of the zoo is a great kids museum. You can actually park at the zoo and take the train over to the museum. Save your ticket to get back on the train later. But check teh hours first.
The is just a train. It runs through the park. It's not really part of zoo. You aren't supposed to see animals there. It's a park train, not a zoo train. The kids always loved it and we went on it pretty much every time. Besides, it's only like $2 or something.
Just check and see when the mud festival is. That's when they drain the riverwalk section and pull out all the silverware, salt and pepper, chairs and cellphones and such that has fallen in during the last year. I know it's either Jan or Feb, but I can't remember which.
There is a great german deli which has the best home made rootbeer. It doesn't look like much, but it's been there forever, and has great rubens and all sorts of sandwiches. And if you like rootbeer you have to have their's. It's rich and creamy without that burn you get in teh back of your throat from rootbeer. I can't think of the name right now, but ask at your hotel. It's located up on the street. Right across from Republic of Texas. And right next to a mexican place that was one of the orginal resturants on the riverwalk. Casa Rio I think. Which is also really good. You just go up the steps and there it is. It's right by the 'torch of friendship' which is a giant ugly metal scupture that's about 3 stories or so high.
If you do go to the zoo, tell us if the renovations are finished and how it was. The artist drawings of the plans looked really cool.
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One of the big reasons we have an ONLY child is because of the relationship I had with my brother. And how my mother dealt with it, which mainly meant she couldn't deal with it. Now that's is certainly not the only reason we chose to only one child, but it was certainly one of are number of very good/main reasons.
So know you are not alone, and it's been going on as long as there have been siblings.
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:lol: That was kinda cute and funny. You are techie challenged but don't want to own books...which I can understand.
Download a book and save a tree...or recycle.
It just made me chuckle you saying that, after reading everyone's suggestion about the Sony and Kindle.
Sorry.....:D
I'm trying to get more technological!
But honestly I've never really needed a lot of techie stuff. I have a paper address book. I like the radio. I still own cassette tapes ( have a mix tape giving to me in 1989 that is one of my favorites!) but that's getting harder to deal with. I only joined the digital camera age about 2 years ago and usually my computers are pretty ancient! They usually were hand me down rebuits from my brother. My husband got tired of dealing with my computer problems, both caused by them being old, as well as having been done by my brother the computer guy (we called it having brother cooties!) and the fact we were going overseas so he bought me a laptop 2 years ago.
But yes, I need to get more technological! I see the 6 year old passing me by soon if I don't get busy!
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Thanks everyone!
This is definitely going on the Christmas list! It would make life so much easier in some ways!
But before I ever get it I'll have to prove to my husband I can a) work my ipod, and b) actually use my ipod more. (I'm sort of technologically challenged!)
Thanks again!
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We ended up HATING OPGTR. What we ended up finding, that worked great and he really enjoys is Progressive Phonics. You download it and you can either read it on the computer or print it out. You read it with them, so the words they read are in red bold and the words you read are all in basic gray. Because you read it with them, and your part are things that are past their level, it lends itself to stories that tend to be more fun to read than just "the fat cat sat on the mat" type things. My son just laughs at how silly some of them are. But he reads them! It's worked great for us.
Plus you can't beat the price at $20 I think. That's for all 14 or 15 books. Plus you can print out flashcards, memory game cards and handwritting pages. All for the same $20.
My son got a letter from the President, I encourage you to write leaders!
in General Education Discussion Board
Posted
When I was in 4th grade I wrote Amy Carter (who was only a year or so older than me). I got a post card back from her and kept it for years. I remember thinking how cool it was, because she was just like me, except for the whole president for a dad thing!
If Obama wins, it might be really neat for 'our' kids, to write the Obama kids.
Good Luck!