lauracolumbus
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Posts posted by lauracolumbus
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Not well. Headphones help a bit, but separating is best.
Laura
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Elinor,
I am so happy to read your post. My dd will likely go part time to high school so that she can play sports. In my mind it's the best of both worlds: she gets to follow her passion (volleyball) and I don't have to teach science or math AND we still have lots of freedom of choices in subjects I want to teach.
She, however, thinks it's the worst of both worlds. That she will be in school long enough to hear about all the fun stuff, but not around long enough to be part of the social scene. I don't want her too fully around the social scene. I can only hope that the girls on her vb team will be as welcoming and wonderful as your dd's band mates.
Laura
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My almost teen dd is involved in a ton of activities: hs swim, gym, and art, hs co-op, hs movie class, volunteering at a science museum and currently for a political campaign. She also plays club volleyball and does jiu jitsu. She is around a ton of kids and has lots of friends at these activities. However, I worry that she might feel the way your dd does. She used to be very close to 2 neighborhood girls, but they've drifted off w/their ps friends. She still does stuff w/one of them, but there is sometimes too much drama.
I'd love for her to have a friend who lived close by that was more on her level in maturity. The friends she gets along best with are part of her activities and live far away so it's hard to get together w/o some planning and maneuvering on the parents' part. For example it would be nice to ask someone last minute to go to the movie or to have someone to go trick or treating with. She is going w/her neighborhood friend, but she also invited one of her hs friends, but this caused an issue w/the neighborhood friend.
I sometimes wonder if this is why ds wanted to go to a b&m high school. He never gave any indication of loneliness and in fact had lots more opportunities to play w/neighborhood boys (in fact they come over all the time trying get him to shoot hoops or whatever, but he has too much homework).
I think your dd's feelings are justified. And years after defending the socialization of my hs kids, I now see that there is a nuance I wasn't prepared for b/c dd has so many activities. Her socialization is different than the neighborhood girl who has about 10 other girls she can call at the drop of her hat to hang out w/on a daily basis. It's not that I want that for my dd, but I do wish we had more compatible girls nearby. On the plus side, she has discovered a love for reading.
Laura
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I think the middle school years are the best years to NOT be in a B&M school.
However, I do think it's difficult for some kids to manage their work load all day long w/minimal help. My dd does, but w/my ds it was a big struggle. Online courses are great. And while they will have each other, I would try to find at least one group outing/co-op each week.
I would definitely try it b/c they can always return to school if hs'ing doesn't work out. And it could turn out to be the best thing you've ever done. Not immediately of course!
Laura
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I'm going through the exact same thing w/my dd12. Except that she just recently discovered her love of reading. I'm not about to squelch, so on most days I let her sleep in and make her school day last longer. She knows the consequence of her actions means doing work after 3 pm, but it works.
Laura
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Sometimes you never know what is going to flip the switch for your particular child. My oldest dd didn't like to read until I gave her Red Pyramid as part of our ancient studies. She was immediately hooked and hasn't stopped reading since. She became infatuated with Percy Jackson as well. Now history is more relevant to her.
My other dd became hooked on reading when I had her keep track of the books she read on the computer. She loved seeing her list become longer and longer. For my ds it was the ability to get away w/staying up at night w/o getting in trouble. As long as he was reading I didn't yell at him to go to bed.
I agree w/Elizabeth to 'get in and get out' of the must do subjects as quickly as possible. I like AG b/c it's a bare bones grammar program and my kids seem to retain what they learn. I don't think writing is as difficult as so many writing programs make it out to be. At least until you get to the stylistic aspect of writing. With math you have to find something that clicks w/your kids. For a fun program there's a Simply Charlotte Mason business math program (I think there's a sports store, book store, and we did the pet shop) that is a bit fun. I start our week w/fun day Monday where I pull out our 'fun' curricula like pet shop math, or Beast Academy, or MCT LA. We also do puzzles, logic games, educational dvds etc on this day.
You can't possibly have ruined your dc. You'd also be surprised at how much your accomplishing when you're working on a consistent basis. I do monitor how much tv my kids watch b/c kids need to spend time in less passive activities and more on kid led ones, which typically occurs when they have lots of free time.
HTH,
Laura
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Wow. Thanks for the link and the rec for the Stone and the Tusk. The historical novel site looks fabulous. You guys are so helpful.
Laura
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to Mara, Golden Goblet, Bronze Bow, etc. Is there a YA or younger novel that is similar to these set in this ancient civilization?
I've found some tales from Buddha, but I'm looking more for a novel.
Thanks for any help.
Laura
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My brothers buy their Hondas and Toyotas with that kind of mileage. They easily drive them for another 150k miles. I would think that after putting in a transmission, most repairs afterwards would be relatively minor.
Our current Sienna is a 2001 and seems like it could go on forever.
However, I loathe driving in a car that I think could break down on me (happened all the time when I was young and poor). So, I drive a 2011 Odyssey, while dh plugs along in our 2001 Sienna.
Laura
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i have a pretty good idea i will always insist my kids are gifted for the rest of my life, all evidence to the contrary!
That's what parenting is all about!
Laura
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I had a friend in school who kept asking to be tested for the gifted/talented program. She could NOT figure out why she could not get in. She was a nearly straight-A student, and studied VERY hard for all of her grades. The kept telling her (kindly) that she was "just short of the cut-off." They tried very hard to explain to her it was a learning style, not a commentary on her abilities, but she never, ever got it. To this day, she is mad that she never got in :/. I could see she was not G/T despite her high achievements, and would tell her to just focus on her own goals and not worry about it, but that always got a grumpy response (since I had been in "Animal Training" from the beginning).
She is now a highly respected lawyer in a large firm, having been highly successful in college and law school. She will still say "See??? I WAS right for that program!!" But, she wasn't. She would have failed miserably. The AT classes were not in her learning style at all. She tried once, to take a math class that was open to all students, not just AT, when the school opened it up to everyone-- it was an option to accelerate math by teaching it to yourself right from the book and take tests when you deemed yourself ready for each quiz and tests. We took the same quizzes and tests as the regular classroom kids. Where I completed the year's geometry course in four weeks, because I just "got it" as soon as I looked at a page, she struggled and struggled.
She absolutely THRIVED in a regular classroom atmosphere. She was an expert in a classroom where there were clear expectations, a lecture, regular assignments, homework, assigned readings, set things to study, and incremental goals. In this self-paced math course, her grades started to tank. I finished Algebra II a couple of weeks later, and then started tutoring her, and between us, we got her through algebra I by the end of the year, her GPA intact.
What she didn't get was that all of our AT classes were a bit like that. We sat in groups and discussed things. We read books from the library in history, sometimes different books in different subgroups in the class, and used our different perspectives to argue points in history. We combined history and literature together to paint a fuller picture, and might have to stop, drop, and write an essay about what someone else had read and presented the day before. It would have completely crushed her, because relative to her strengths and somewhat linear thinking, it was very unstructured, though our teachers' methodologies were very well-planned-- for us. This was how we, as a gifted group of students, thrived and thought. In the classes we had to take with typical students, we often struggled, found it hard to pay attention, and were not very engaged (and that is what she saw and was comparing herself to-- she would think, "I am a far superior student to these AT kids! They don't even pay attention in class or work very hard! None of them even outlines the book or takes notes!").
She was an accelerated student. A child of immigrant parents, she worked hard, and it has paid off. I feel she has NOTHING to apologize for or be ashamed of. She is highly intelligent-- probably well above average. She has achieved success in life, and met her life goals so far and lives how she has always wanted to live. But her learning style, I think, highlights the difference between accelerated and gifted, and the type of classes we had in our school is the reason why there was a distinction between accelerated and gifted-- there is a difference in how these groups learn.
This is also why it can matter to a homeschooler. Even at home, kids learn differently. One kid may move faster through material by being very focused and disciplined and "by the book." Another may need to pull things seemingly from the ether and synthesize things from a wide variety of disparate sources. Not all gifted learners will learn in the same way either-- there is a spectrum of "gifted" and how they function, which is one reason why having a group of gifted kids in contact with one another can be a lot of fun, as they can play off of one another quite a bit, each bringing in something a bit different.
Thank you so much for taking the time to write out succinctly your experience. It mostly jives with the esoteric way that I've had (totally unscientific) of differentiating giftedness.
Based on this reasoning, what is the next best way to test rather than spending $$ on a very expensive IQ test. Or alternatively is it better to take the IQ test b/c you get the professional interpretation along with it?
Laura
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Thanks Crimson. Your explanation of the math portion makes sense.
Laura
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Do you remember what the percentiles were? A child working that far ahead may qualify for a program like this: http://www.davidsongifted.org/youngscholars/Article/Davidson_Young_Scholars___Qualification_Criteria_384.aspx
She scored > 99.9% in all categories for the past 3 years. This year she dropped 1% in reading comp, which was interesting b/c this is the year she became a voracious reader. I don't think she learns any differently, but she is 'quirky.' DH thinks it's crazy to pay for an IQ test, and my pediatrician said the same thing since we're homeschooling. She asked if I would do anything differently, and I didn't have a good answer. We only spend a couple of hours a day on school work. Most of our day is enrichment like gym, art, swim, choir, etc. Some days I feel like I'm doing her a disservice by not having her do more work as she seems to handle everything.
Now that she's in 3d grade, I will try to have her take the EXPLORE. But, I'm curious as to how certain tests can determine giftedness (as in aptitude tests) vs. acceleration (achievement tests). For example, with the WJIII there's no way my daughter is capable of doing 9th grade work across the board, but that was her average grade equivalent.
Sorry to be so long-winded, but I've been thinking about this for a while. I've attended a few hs'ing gifted seminars at hs conferences and they were only slightly helpful. For example they said drilling actually makes GT turn off and do worse than other kids b/c they shut down. All my kids hate "rote-ness." I did too. I can't imagine anyone wanting to do oodles of work they already know how to do.
Laura
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[understanding how your child learns is what is important. You may or may not need a test to help you understand the distinction between highly accelerated and gifted.
Will (and which) testing will tell me the difference between highly accelerated and gifted? The only test we've taken is the WJIII. My dd8 tested at the 9the grade level for her overall grade. This sounds more of an accelerated determination than a gifted, but her test administrator said she was gifted (and the same for my other two who tested 5 grade levels above). The older two only seem accelerated, but I'm not sure about the youngest (the administrator told me they were all gifted). Do I need to shell out $$ for an IQ test or take the Explore test to differentiate?
Laura
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I've enjoyed reading all of your posts. I love to see how everyone implements homeschooling according to the needs of their family and their homeschooling style.
I've always been a stressed-out, relaxed homeschooler. My kids do a lot of outside activities, which has always made me stressed when it was time to sit down and roll up our shirt sleeves. I feel like I had to shovel a lot of work in them to make up for all of our fun activities.
Now, I only have two at home and feel like I can work on being more relaxed all the time.
We've made Mondays our fun days and I use all the curricula that I bought for fun. For example, instead of Saxon, we use either Beast Academy, LOF, or Pet Shop Math on Mondays. We use MCT for LA, rather than WWE/WWS. We also do our science experiments on Monday and use Story of Science.
Laura
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The Middle
Everybody Loves Raymond
Frasier
I watched one episode of BBT and it looked funny, but my 12 year old dd was with me (hotel room) and it had a lot of s8x in it, which was fine w/me, but not so much fun watching w/your dc.
I guess I'm going to have to find Arrested Development somewhere.
Laura
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Hmm. I have a long list that would mostly include chocolate. But Nutella would be at the top. It's not allowed in my house lest I need to go into rehab.
Laura
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Cool beans. Thanks.
Laura
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My dh keeps trying to get me to cancel our subscription, but it would take a lot for me to do so. I don't think I would make the effort to get online and read it. Plus, there seems to be more content in print. My ds occasionally reads the sports (an ESPN addict). I'm amazed when I talk about something I read in the paper and most people (including local politicians/leaders) etc. are clueless. It really does keep me informed and has saved me at cocktail parties by always being able to have something to talk about.
Laura
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Mine eventually outgrew it, but it wasn't any fun. Threats to send him to school would work short term. I would very gradually introduce him to school. There's not that much that you need to accomplish any way. Start very small and sneak it in. Mine became a voracious reader b/c I didn't make him shut off the light at night if he was reading. That and a bit of math, some science/history dvds and I'd call it a day.
Laura
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Yes, except Downton will have to end first.
This :glare:.
Laura
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My husband is a math professor, and after 12+ years as a professor and additional years prior as a post doc, I can tell you that he, and the overwhelming majority of his colleagues in the math department are far more impressed with kids who take their time in math and learn math through trigonometry very solidly than they are with kids who have 1-2 years of calc and other fancy-pants credentials in high school, get to college, and more often than not have not nearly the clue they think they do, because they weren't really ready to wrap their heads around the material yet, had poor advanced courses, or rushed too fast through the earlier coursework without becoming truly, completely proficient in it before moving on.
The number of kids (even kids who score 4's and 5's on the AP test) who need remedial placement in "college algebra" or other courses or to retake calc, but struggle even there because the foundational courses they should have mastered in high school are simply not there is staggering.
If in doubt, don't rush. Being truly solid is far better in the long run than an impressive, but ultimately shallow transcript. I know parents are anxious to impress admissions committees, but ask yourself-- at what cost?
When in doubt, let mastery, and not what others are doing be your guide.
I needed to hear this also. My dd is scheduled to finish Alg 1 by Christmas in 7th grade. I think we need to do another Alg. 1 program to ensure that she really gets it. Besides Alg. 1 is probably the extent of my math skills and I'll need to farm it out after this.
Around here (Central Ohio), it is not yet the norm to take Alg. in 8th, although it is getting more and more common. Our local high school only goes through Cal. A/B. More advanced high school kids have to go to the university after that.
Laura
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Thank you. I will go to the mac forum.
Laura
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My dh reluctantly bought an iMac and has left up to me (the technologically challenged to figure it out). So, on day 2, I tried to insert the disk. It went in slowly (I've used it on something else and it worked fine). Now it acts like it doesn't have a disk. The eject key is not working. The error message says: support disk not available.
Any ideas how I can get this out w/o dragging this into the Apple Store. The online help question/answer was no help.
Laura
Anyone from Columbus/Worthington Ohio?
in General Education Discussion Board
Posted
And if you do go to Graeter's you MUST get something w/the chocolate chunks. The Graeter's on Bethel is where they make the ice cream and you can watch them make it through the windows. It also has a little play place inside for kids about 8 and under.
Wow, Elizabeth, I'm going to have to hit some of the places you mentioned.
And yes, you should go to OSU stadium. There's also a labrynth nearby and a free mini-geological museum.
The zoo is one of the best in the country. So is our library downtown. And if you go to COSI, it's great to eat at the Short North Market not too far from COSI.
Laura