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jujsky

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Posts posted by jujsky

    5th grade and spelling

    in K-8 Curriculum Board

    Posted

    I'm also not a natural speller (it drove my mom nuts as I was/am an avid reader) and I don't enjoy doing spelling with my kids. Neither of my kids are natural spellers either, but since we started level 1 of SS this year, I found that they're improving. Are you sure your DD is a natural speller, or is SS such a good fit for her that it seems like she's a natural speller? Perhaps you can put SS on hold for awhile and see how she does without a spelling program? If she continues to do well, don't bother. If you start seeing frequent spelling errors, continue with SS.

    What Is A Guest? Responsibilities?

    in The Chat Board

    Posted

    If someone was coming to visit and stay with me after I gave birth, then blood or not, they're family. I would expect them to help out, or at the very least, not make additional work for me. If they're not into baby-care, fine, but they could entertain my other kids, make a meal, grab some take-out -- whatever. It's unreasonable to expect a new mother to entertain a guest. If they don't want to help, they're not staying here. If they want to come and just visit (translation: pop by for a couple hours) I'd treat them as an actual guest.

    You back over a kid's bike...

    in The Chat Board

    Posted

    If someone ran over my kid's bike because they parked it behind the car, no, I wouldn't expect anyone to pay for it. If I ran over someone's bike under the same circumstances, I probably would offer to pay all or half of it, but I would hope the parents would thank me, but decline the offer. It could be that the parents in this case never taught their child not to park his bike in back of a car. I know it seems like a common-sense thing to teach a child, but.....

    Common core in a nut shell for those interested. You may be alarmed!

    in General Education Discussion Board

    Posted

    For those who don't have sixteen minutes to spare, let me briefly summarize the video for you.

     

     

     

    Ahem. *dons tinfoil hat*

     

    FEDERAL GOVERNMENT BAD!!! FEDERAL GOVERNMENT BAD!!!

     

    *quote from Constitution*

     

    FEDERAL GOVERNMENT BAD!!! FEDERAL GOVERNMENT BAD!!!

     

    *quote from Aristotle*

     

    THE GOVERNMENT IS COMING FOR YOUR CHILDREN!!! RUN!!! RUN!!!

     

    Thank you for your time.

     

     

     

    For what is supposed to be a presentation on the CC, I find it fascinating that they literally did not say one word about the CC standards themselves. Lots of paranoia, next to no information.

     

     

     

    :rofl: Thanks for the summary. I didn't have 16 minutes to spare, and would have been ticked if I had wasted my time on that.

    Probably a stupid question.. Russian skin color vs. Eskimos

    in The Chat Board

    Posted

    As other posters have mentioned, there are MANY races in Russia. Not all people from Russia have blonde hair and blue eyes. Many people have Asian features (keep in mind that the Huns invaded portions of Russia) and there are several Jews in Russia who typically have darker hair. Not sure if you know this or not, but in Russia your race is on your ID. My husband and his parents say that they had to move to the US to become Russian. In Russia they were identified as Jews. I just asked DH, and he said some possible "races" on cards were Russian, Ukrainian, Azerbaijani, Georgian, Uzbek, Chookchee, etc. DH said it doesn't matter where you were born. He had a girl in his class born in St. Petersburg. Her family was born in St. Petersburg. She was identified as Uzbek. There is a lot of racism there. Russian Russians are considered superior to others. Jews had it the worst. DH said given the choice, he would rather have been a Chookchee than a Jew in Russia, even though the Jews made fun of the Chookchee as much as everyone else.

     

    Edited to add: DH isn't sure how they determine race there because to us it seems more like nationality. One would think if you're from Azerbaijan, you would be Azerbaijani. One of DH's grandmothers moved there from Poland, the other from the Ukraine. Both were identified as Jews, not Polish or Ukrainian, yet a blonde-haired, blue-eyed person could move there from the Ukraine, have kids then grandkids, and they would still all be identified as Ukrainian. I asked what would happen if a person considered Ukrainian married a Russian. What would their kid be? Dh said that the parents then get to decide how to list the child's race, and if they can list Russian, they will. The same thing would happen if a Jew married a Russian. Until you're 16 and they issue your passport, the stigma of having one parent on your official documents that is not Russian follows you around. Also, when you go to have your documents issued, the officials still get the final say, even if one parent is Russian, a "purist" can give you a hard time and decide if you're half-Jewish or half-Ukrainian, you are Jewish or Ukrainian.

     

    I know this is a tangent from your original question, but I found it interesting when DH first explained it to me. It might be different now, but that's how things were when DH left there 20 years ago.

    s/o If you were on a cruise ship without electricity, what kind of passenger would you be?

    in The Chat Board

    Posted

    Without debating how difficult the Carnival cruise's ship's conditions were, let's just set up our own ship.

     

    Our cruise ship was left without electricity for three days. No hot water. No working bathrooms. Food was available, but you needed to wait in long lines as there was only one working kitchen. Cabins were technically inhabitable, but you had to tolerate the lack of a/c and heat and darkness. Certain areas of the ship smelled bad.

     

    We are under the impression that the cruise line is trying to help out the passengers, but we do feel they could do more given the difficult situation. Crew is fantastic.

     

    Would you be the complainer or the person who tried to see it as a different sort of adventure?

    I would probably try to be patient the first day, maybe even part of the second. Then I'd turn into a bear. I don't do well with strong smells, cramped quarters, and no AC would put me over the edge. I'm not a super vacation person anyway. DH has to badger me to take one. If I took one and was that uncomfortable, I might even take it out on him. I would be a horrible, miserable creature. No one would want to be around me. I wouldn't want to be around me.

     

    Would you be a low-maintenance passenger or high-maintenance passenger?

    See above.

     

    Would you consider bringing a lawsuit?

    DH and I discussed this last night. Normally I wouldn't, but in that case I would. If the cruise line covered all the expenses of that trip -- like every single dollar I spent -- I wouldn't. From what I understand with this case, they covered $500 in travel (could those people even get last-minute flights/hotels out of Alabama for $500?) and gave them a voucher for another trip on the same cruise line. Sorry, I wouldn't want to travel on that cruise line again, so that would be useless to me. If they covered everything for THAT trip, I wouldn't sue. I know accidents happen, and I would consider that fair and reasonable compensation.

     

    Overall, how would you handle yourself in the three days out at sea?

    Like I said, I'd be a bear. I don't like feeling trapped. I need my own space, even on vacation. If I didn't have that, I'd lose my patience very quickly.

    Would you take an 8yo to see Les Mis?

    in The Chat Board

    Posted

    It depends on the 8 yo. I would take mine, but she's grown up listening to the music (it's my favorite musical), she knows the story, and we started taking the kids to the theater at an early age so they know how to behave in that type of venue. They usually behave better than some of the obnoxious adults in the audience :bored: Only you know your kid well enough to make that decision. The musical is less graphic than the movie version, so some of the more adult themes may go over her head.

    Am I the only one who thinks Kate Winslet in the Titanic

    in The Chat Board

    Posted

    She's a good actress, but I never thought she looked the part. She was supposed to be 17, and easily looked 25. I think Clare Danes would have made a better Rose. She and DiCaprio had already worked together in Romeo & Juliet, and had chemistry going that Winslet and DiCaprio lacked. She looks so much older than he does -- it just doesn't work. plus she's supposed be be this drop-dead gorgeous woman, and I don't think she's that pretty. It has nothing to do with her weight (curves suit her) but more to do with her face. DH also doesn't see why so many people think she's hot.

    Do home sellers often leave items of value behind for their buyers?

    in The Chat Board

    Posted

    When we sold my Mom's house, the buyers stipulated in the contract that NOTHING was to be left and that the house was to be professionally cleaned.

     

    They got a few plants and some things we "forgot" in the work bench... :gnorsi:

     

    If we ever buy another house, I'm going to stipulate that the house is professionally cleaned before we move in. Our house was FILTHY when we moved in. Nothing like planning time off work to move in and using 80% of that time to clean. If we ever sell our house, I'm also going to have it professionally cleaned because I don't want a buyer to experience what we experienced, and I don't want to deal with packing AND deep-cleaning.. I want to leave my house move-in ready.

    Do home sellers often leave items of value behind for their buyers?

    in The Chat Board

    Posted

    Ours left the window treatments (it was in the contract) and a bunch of junk and trash for us to clean up and get rid of. They didn't leave anything good. When my old boss moved into his house, the former owner took EVERYTHING! The wooden shed my boss assumed would be left, but wasn't specified in the contract? The owner paid to have it moved. He even took the drip plates for the gutter downspouts! None of my friends have been left anything decent that wasn't already negotiated in the contract.

     

    OP, it sounds like you lucked out!!

    Do you decline invitations this way? (Mostly just me griping about a relative!)

    in The Chat Board

    Posted

    I decline like that all the time. I try to be careful in some cases, like if I'm invited to a party at a mutual friend's house and the person making plans is not, I might say, "We have plans that night," or "We're going to a party that night," but I won't say, "We're going to a party at Molly's that night." We're busy, so oftentimes when I'm rattling off the things I'm doing, it's more so I can keep track and figure out what we have when and when we're free. It's not to be a jet-setter (I rarely do anything that could be considered glamorous) and it's not to make anyone feel bad.

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