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lauracolumbus

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Posts posted by lauracolumbus

  1. ^^ What Kungfupanda said. If I don't want to pay for what they offer, I'm capable of waiting 2 hours.

     

    Ditto. I also don't want my kids to think they need to eat/drink whenever they watch a movie. DH feels like he HAS to have popcorn at the theater, which of course means a drink, which of course leads to a $50 concession charge if we all go. Usually, I make everyone skip the whole thing. If it's a special night we'll go out to eat afterwards. I don't pay full price for a movie either.

     

    Laura

  2. I need to join as well. I'm doing a major, major spring cleaning--first decluttering and then if I'm lucky actually clean. We're having a first communion party at the end of the month, and my MIL, who is a total neat freak will be here. She hasn't been to my house in many years.

     

    Our church has a semi-annual donation to an Appalachian, poverty stricken community. All that I have to do is load up my van (I've taken up to 7 trips) and they deliver it all to be sold in a local thrift store.

     

    First I'm going to clean the garage so I have a place to store all the boxes/bags I'm donating. Then I'm going to town w/the rest of the house. I'm tired of things ruling my life. I might need an intervention to get me to part with some things.

     

    Laura

  3. AG can be done independently w/o the dvds (except for the grading). I like the dvds b/c it helps my ds to hear/see the info being taught as well as reading it. My dd 12 doesn't use the dvds b/c she feels they slow her down.

     

    BTW, dd12 absolutely loves AG. It's the first thing she wants to do every day.

     

    Laura

  4. When my kids were young, we were home a lot more in the evenings, and it was relaxing as the kids played w/the neighbor kids.

     

    Now, everyone, my kids included, is involved in more organized activities. I let me kids participate in several activities each. I've decided to justify this by concluding this is just who we are. My kids love everything they do. We do have to make decisions to limit the #, but for the most part they are the most active kids I know--sports, clubs, piano, acting, etc. It used to bother me that we weren't the rigorous homeschoolers of my dreams, but then I realized how much they get out of all of our field trips/activities. Just a different path.

     

    Since I'm often taking at least one kid somewhere, I mostly focus on cleaning my kitchen. Meals are simple. My dh is exactly like yours. He doesn't help much, and he knows if he's not going to be part of the solution he better not say anything. Plus, he prefers to hire out as much help as possible. We do have a cleaning service, which helps a bit and a lawn service. A lot of mornings are spent cleaning up our second dinner of the night (my kids come home ravenous from their sports) and anything else I have time for.

     

    Planning is sort of on the fly as is any other housework. My kids are all old enough to bathe themselves, so that chore (thank goodness) is gone.

     

    Laura

  5. When you select your room the room description says if the room is in the North or South tower. Looking at the hotel's website, it looks like the "Superior" rooms are in the North Tower, and the "Standard" rooms are in the South Tower (at least for the 1 King bed rooms).

     

    We picked the South Tower this year just to see if the rooms are different. We were in the North Tower 2 years ago, and thought the rooms were really small. Just want to see if there's a difference. I think we'll stay with the Millennium in future years anyway, because of the proximity to the convention center.

     

     

    Thanks for the explanation. I wasn't sure if one of the towers had more updated rooms. I remember reading some poor reviews a couple of years on one of the travel sites about the Millennium, but experienced clean, but small, plain rooms.

     

    I, too, could stay about 45 mins. away at my mom's house, (she's in Wilmington--any where near you GM?), but the convenience factor when the day starts early and ends late is huge.

     

    Laura

  6. I stay at the Millennium for the same reasons as Gardening Momma. The rooms are tight (we're in it very little), there's no pool (who has the time?), and it does cost more. However, I go to the convention by myself w/the kids and the convenience aspect is worth every penny. Last year, I could send my dc back to the hotel room to pick something up, or I left them there for a bit during the WTM hook-up. I could never do that if they were even an iota further away. My dh convinced me the first year we stayed there that even if the rooms were a bit on the shabby side, that for safety/convenience reasons it was well worth it.

     

    Gardening Momma, when you made your reservation did you specifically request the south side and why?

     

    Laura

  7. My ears were burning.... No, seriously, Rose and Elizabeth paged me. :)

     

    All is well chez Campbell. Our dd (10) is in public school and doing splendidly. We had reached a point where homeschooling was not working for either of us, and it was more important to me to be a good father to her than a good teacher. She's still writing up a storm, making art, and generally being her crazy-intense-beautiful self.

     

    After I finished "I Speak Latin" I vowed to take a break from writing for a while. That lasted until November when NaNoWriMo took over my life. I finished, but the draft is still...a draft. I have no idea if I'll go back to it or not, but I enjoyed proving to my inner critic that I could too write a novel.

     

    We had two deaths my wife's family in quick succession earlier this year - neither entirely unexpected, but hard just the same. I feel like we're only just now coming out of our collective shell again.

     

    Other than that, I've been doing my usual round of learning languages (Spanish, mostly) and reading obscure books. :D

     

    Thank you for all the kind thoughts, and thanks to Rose for nudging me to drop by and say hello.

     

    -Drew

     

    So glad you were able to pop in. We love everything you've written, so I hope your writing sabbatical isn't too long. And best of luck on the novel.

     

    Laura

  8. My son went through a phase where he only wanted to read non-fiction. He never got lost in a book. A librarian told me that there was nothing wrong in this as the vocabulary and subject matter in non-fiction was especially helpful on standardized tests.

     

    He eventually found some series he liked--usually humor was a common denominator. He laughed throughout Jon Sciezka's (sp?) books--esp. his autobiography. He eventually got pulled into others such as 39 Clues, Roman Mysteries, etc. He now routinely reads fiction on his own.

     

    One of the keys to getting him to read was to allow him to stay up later at night than he was supposed to. He felt like he was getting away with something.

     

    We also listened to a ton of audio books in the car.

     

    Laura

  9. It was *riddled* with mistakes or myths (with apologies to Spycar).

     

    It claims that the Pilgrims and Indians had problems from the start. Untrue, they had a peace treaty that lasted for 50 years. It claims that cattle and horses came with Columbus, wrong, they came with Coronado.

     

    Paul Revere never made it to Concord. That is only the most important fact that the series got wrong about Paul Revere, but hardly the only one. Even my youngest son could tell you that, thank you, Susan Wise Bauer and SOTW!

     

    It also implied that the Continental army was made up of farmers and shopkeepers. While that is partially true, it was also made up of veterans of the French/Indian Wars (not even mentioned, by the way) who fought the way they had learned from the Indians. Do you know why the British were taxing the settlers? To pay for the French and Indian Wars! But, the Stamp Act is not even mentioned (which, is unbelievable)! My kids learned all of that from SOTW. History without context is USELESS.

     

    The Boston Massacre? It implies that the British soldiers fired into an unarmed crowd. SOTW deals with this much better (vol 3, page 211), but an adult history book would point out that it was an unruly mob and even John Adams defended the actions of the British soldiers.

     

    It barely even mentioned the Continental Congress, which had a HUGE impact on the whole world! The philosophy born there was the real shot heard round the world.

     

    Morgan and Saratoga? Part of that was MADE UP! It even implies that Washington was in charge of the troops at Saratoga, untrue! Look up the real story; it is much more interesting.

     

    The series completely skipped over the Salem Witch Trials and barely mentioned Indian Removal. But it spent 20 minutes on the Donner Party. That segment contained information spread by the tabloids at the time, but refuted by the Donner party, the rescue party *and* archeological information.

     

    The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire is mentioned, but there is NO mention of the terrible working conditions that workers faced up to that point.

     

    It also skips *huge* historical feats like the first flight by the Wright brothers. They aren't even mentioned!

     

    It says the LA aqueduct was the largest water project in the world. Um, hello? Panama Canal?

     

    The discussion of WW2 was *pathetic*.

     

    I could go on and on. It might be better than Ancient Aliens, but it is hardly the comprehensive survey of American history that it purports to be. :glare:

     

    Wow, thanks for the list. I knew it wasn't comprehensive, and I knew it would be impossible to be w/its length. However, I agree that some very important major events are entirely omitted or sorely underrepresented. WWI was a one word sentence.

     

    Laura

  10. Maybe not quite what you are looking for, but How the States Got Their Shapes was very fun and had quite a bit of history thrown in.

     

    Not comprehensive, but my ds quotes this all the time!

     

    BTW, what's not true on A:Story of Us? I walk in and out when it's on and haven't caught anything.

     

    I do agree that it is a bit dramatic and graphic, but my oldest dd is watching it now and learning a lot in a short time. My ds liked it a lot.

     

    Laura

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