dangermom
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Posts posted by dangermom
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I just got a Peter Kreeft book and I'm really enjoying it. It's just a run through the Bible. So far I haven't found much difference, except of course for the Fall narrative, which my church takes very differently than anyone else does.
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This week I read Book V of Herodotus' Histories, Jerome K. Jerome's Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow (funny, but unexpectedly sentimental), and a mystery set in an alternate-history Britain, Ha'penny. Now I'm in the middle of a whole bunch of giant books.
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Right, I dare someone to read Xenophon's Anabasis and then watch the 1970's cult movie The Warriors. Just for the cultural whiplash experience.
Wait, you mean "Warrriiiiors, come out to plaaaiiiaaaay!" Warriors movie? Oh my golly. :svengo:
Mind. Officially. Blown.
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We don't start until December starts, and we don't really decorate until we get the tree about 10 days beforehand. Tomorrow we'll put my star lamps in the window, maybe put my knitted elf out, and get out the Advent things. That's all.
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Can I give you some ideas I've used? My daughter is now 9 and we've had a terrible time with math fact sheets. She hates 'em. She would sit there and dawdle and cry and....yeah. It turns out that this is because her visual handicap makes it almost impossible to look at a sheet of paper filled with tiny figures. But anyway, I've come up with some coping mechanisms.
We have a mini-trampoline and I would have her jump and yell out answers as I called out the questions. This was very fun for her. (Actually I would have her say the whole thing-- 9x5=45 --so as to get it all in her head.)
I downloaded a free app to my tablet that is just a little math facts practice thing. She loves it--the numbers are much easier for her to see--and will happily do 50+ in a row in a few minutes.
Timez Attack also worked well for her (but not for the computer, which was too old to handle the game).
Flashcards with the problems written nice and big, and only one there at a time. You could scatter them around the floor and have him jump on them and call out the fact.
Basically, we don't do math fact sheets, and we especially don't do timed tests. But she knows her math facts very well, and life is much happier now.
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Oh wow! I didn't know that. Now I want it too! *bump*
If you look on amazon, there's quite a large sample.
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Over the summers I practice my math with Khan Academy, and of course read my kid's algebra and chemistry textbooks to make sure I understand it all. I wish I could take a course on Coursera or better yet at the college I work at, but there's no time for that right now.
What I mostly do is read--literature and history and science. I have a book blog (see my sig!) and this year I ran a reading challenge for Greek classics. I belong to a Classics Club which is a lot of fun, and I generally try to read a lot of solid stuff. I'm good at reading. :) There are a couple of other bloggers who are doing WEM on schedule, and I joined up with them for Madame Bovary--I'm doing it again for Thomas Hardy now. That sort of thing is a lot of fun.
Between homeschooling the kids, a part-time job, and running the house I don't have as much time as I'd like for studying. I envy my kids, who are supposed to study for hours a day (and of course often try to get out of it)!
Oh, Rroberts, I totally hear you about physics! I am loving chemistry this year, it's my favorite, but physics is my husband's department, not mine. But there is a great book I would recommend--"Physics for Future Presidents" is a very good read. :)
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It sounds like your gut is telling you to bring him home. I think you should consider very carefully before deciding to ignore that.
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Yeah, I'm thinking he's growing. My husband says that for a long time in high school, he would go to school, come home and sleep, get up and do his homework, and then go to bed. He was tired all the time.
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Shrinky Dinks! Print a cute picture on to Shrinky Dink sheets (say, a simple stained-glass Nativity design). Have the kids color one each and put their names on. Punch a hole through the top, bake the bits, put on gold ties, and hand back adorable stained-glass ornaments for the tree!
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I'm adding Wheel of Time to my Kindle right now and it looks like it clocks in at 814 pages. I vote we call 500+ a chunkster.
I agree---I have lots of chunksters on my pile but we have to define it as 500+!
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Right then, you convinced me. So who gets the first 300 pages? Sir Thomas More?
The first 150 pages are "The Close of the Late Middle Ages" and then it's actually seriously titled "Drab." "Drab Age Verse" is an actual title of a chapter. The last section is titled "Golden" and covers Sidney, Spenser, Donne, and etc. Now I haven't managed to read it myself--I tried and got bogged down in the late middle ages--so maybe I should read it this year...we could have an OHEL challenge!
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But - Donne! Jonson! Sidney! Rabelais! Okay, so Rabelais wasn't English.
You are right. But you know when you get to those guys? Page 318. That's when the fun starts. They get the final 200 pages.
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Oh yeah. I do not want to do school tomorrow. But I will.
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Lewis' 700-page Poetry and Prose in the Sixteenth Century.
OK, I own that book. And I am a die-hard Lewis fan. But that book is really really hard to read. The volume excludes drama, and drama was about the only fun thing going on in the 16th century. Just so you know. :svengo:
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Hm, I've had a lot of favorite books this year. Let me think of some.
Doctor Zhivago by Pasternak -- loved loved this one!
Dodger by Terry Pratchett -- fun Victorian romp
K Blows Top -- mind-blowing account of Khrushchev's tour of the US
Madame Bovary by Flaubert -- gorgeous writing. loved this one too.
Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey -- real Edwardian history!
Behind the Beautiful Forevers -- account of life in Indian slum. Not a cheery topic but a great book.
Periodic Tales -- Chemistry stories!
The Age of Innocence by Wharton -- my first Wharton novel, wonderful!
Bab: a Sub-Deb -- comedy novel. SO FUNNY. (on Gutenberg)
China in Ten Words -- account of life in China, part memoir, part cultural explanation
Eugene Onegin by Pushkin -- don't know what to say, but liked it
Quiet -- about the value of introverts!
The Book of the City of Ladies, by de Pisan -- wow, amazing medieval book about women!
The School of Freedom -- about liberal education!
And There Was Light -- wow, amazing memoir of a blind French resistance worker
You could take a look at my blog for more books if you want--there's a list of books I've reviewed.
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I'm so sorry, Melinda. That's beyond awful. Will definitely be praying for you.
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Colored tights for older girls and women have just come back into style! Target has a whole shelf of rainbow tights by the socks and pantyhose.
Leggings are still stylish too. A coordinating pair of footless leggings is very cute.
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I've just started some really loooong books so you might not hear from me for a while after this...but I'm really enjoying The Good Soldier Svejk and Quo Vadis. Last week's books:
Night, by Elie Wiesel -- what do you say about one of the most famous Holocaust memoirs?
The Republic, by Plato -- Plato was a dummy. That's what I say.
Reflections, by Diana Wynne Jones -- This is a book of essays and speeches and whatnot from the last 30 years. It was great! Because DWJ is my favorite writer, and she had a lot of cool stuff to say.
Jane and the Canterbury Tale, by Stephanie Barron -- a Jane Austen murder mystery. It was OK. Meh.
Challenges! I love your ideas, aggieamy. Would totally join up with some of those. I'm looking for: a chunkster, a TBR (dusty book), and maybe a wishlist one. I have 100 books on my library wishlist on Amazon, I think I should try to whittle that down...
Also I would always participate in a C. S. Lewis readalong!
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have you got a link to the host? I'm looking out for a chunkster challenge!I'm getting ready to begin a 14 book "Chunkster Challenge" :w00t:
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It will be easier to come home from college to a home she knows than one you've just moved to. I would go now. :grouphug:
Well, I don't know about that. My parents moved during my freshman year of college, and it was no big deal.
I can understand her feelings; it's not really much fun to spend your senior year in a new place. But that's not really a reason for your whole family to stay in an expensive area when you have an opportunity to go to a better place. OTOH, it's her last year at home and it would be nice if it was a happy year. OTOOH, I'm figuring that this opportunity of which you speak is not going to be open indefinitely.
IMO the well-being of the whole family comes before the preferences of one child. However, if you can put it off without too much difficulty, I'd suggest that you consider it carefully.
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Oh, I do agree!But I want to spend the season playing and doing things together, without having to pinch pennies and minutes in order to do everything.
I want to enjoy this time of year again.
I want to take back my holidays.
I am very lucky with my family--everyone likes to be frugal and doesn't do Black Friday, so we relaxed and played today. My husband and I are feeling the pinch, it's better now than it was when he was unemployed but we are still planning a frugal Christmas. I never go overboard on presents, but I sure would like it if I didn't have to worry about money.
However! I've learned that in order to enjoy Christmas I need to figure out what's most important to us and just focus on that. I don't do a ton of decorating, I don't go shopping a lot, but I make many presents and listen to beautiful music and enjoy being with my family. Stuff like that. It helps to focus on what we've got and try to tune out the icky stuff which will always be with us.
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If you want to use your kids' real names but don't want the blog to be incredibly public for the whole world to see, you can set it to be private. Then only people you invite can see it.
Natalie has been found safe in Texas
in The Chat Board
Posted
I'm so glad she's been found safe. I hope they can all heal a bit. What a relief that she has been found.
I would also like to know how she got to Texas. Where did the gas come from? I suppose if she was by herself she may have just driven on freeways until she wound up in Mesquite at random? Which gives me horrible shivers to think about, what if she'd run out of gas in the desert?