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amiechoke

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    http://www.practicalbits.com
  1. For those of you who (like me) try not to believe everything you read on the internet: The good news is, the blogspot link is for real. This girl really did give this speech and she is the owner of that blog page. And there is no bad news. I tracked her down to write an article - which I don't think I'm allowed to link to in this forum. So I'll just say that I wrote it for the homeschool column run by the Washington Times Communities website and leave it at that. Cheers! Amie
  2. Hey Sarah - There's also a secular inclusive co-op in the Gaithersburg area. We probably have room in your age group. PM me if you want more info. Amie
  3. Hiya, I thought I'd put this out for discussion, even though I can't post a link to the article I saw (as per forum rules). A group composed of all state school superintendents just released a draft document proposing one common educational curriculum. Every state except TX and AK signed on to it. Now, the group says they're completely voluntary and separate from the federal government - except when the fed announced Race to the Top funds, one of the four core requirements to be considered for funding was for states to agree to adopt common standards. Couple this with the feds also funding "rigorous, common state assessments" - which I read as "one federal test everyone has to take". Anyway, the homeschooling column at the washington times communities is discussing this topic, and I thought it would be relevant - any time the federal government wants to control major changes in education, I worry. Especially since this is something as intrinsic as curriculum, coupled with testing. It feels all Big Brother-ish to me. Amie
  4. Hey, For those of you working on timelines, there's a great free timeline website called TimeRime.com - I was going crazy trying to do a paper timeline with my kids and found this. You create an account and then you can add dates, text and pictures, plus you can choose to make it public or private. My oldest has taken over doing her timeline and it's great, she writes whole paragraphs for her entries. Amie
  5. Voting doesn't close until Nov 1 - still time to vote! I don't think you can vote more than once; I think the site may track IP addresses. Unfortunately, it seems the girl in first place is going around to the computer labs in her college and voting from *each machine* to up her votes. My friend is still behind by about 50 votes. Thanks everyone for voting! Every little bit counts! She's going to take her son with her as a homeschool field trip if she wins. Amie
  6. Totally cool to vote for one you find more interesting - but just thought I'd try to drum up some interest. Thanks for looking! Amie
  7. Hi - a really nice homeschooler I know has an amazing photo of herself swimming about 5 feet away from a manatee at this site, and she's currently in 2nd place to win the photo contest. http://matadorpulse.com/discover-dominica-photo-contest-semi-finalists/ No registration needed - just go and vote. And seriously, the current first place contender is a photo of two people pretending to jump off a rock. That's going to win over the manatees? I, for one, am appalled. The manatees are only about 40 votes away from overtaking the leader! Vote manatee! Also, the manatee photo was pure luck - happened while they were diving to do a reef cleanup off the Florida coast. From a pure karma standpoint, I believe the manatees deserve to win. Sorry. Your regularly scheduled message board will resume now. Thanks! Amie
  8. Hi Sarah, You might ask the tutors to check out the materials offered by the Stanford Chinese School (the website is in chinese so you'll want to have them look it over). Stanford has a CD-ROM that is very kid-friendly, as well as a series of workbook-type texts. My kids meet with a tutor once a week (but we'll probably make it twice since we just started homeschooling). I'm not comfortable enough with my chinese to immerse the kids in it but I can still expose them to it in pieces on a daily basis. You might also ask the tutors to help you make up character and pinyin flash cards to stick all over the house. Good luck, Amie
  9. I think the 1/2 versions can be used without the teacher's edition, but then you don't get the exercises that require teacher's instruction (we're at a lower level than you do I don't know if you still have those listening instruction activities at that level). Otherwise, they're supposed to be more practice of the same activities from the whole number levels. HTH
  10. Over here, we frame the discussion in terms of our personal standards - what we think is right and appropriate. It's a kind of a long-term explanation, but my kids have been able to understand that how you speak represents you as much as what you wear, and how that expectation is handled in our own household. Hope that helps a little.
  11. How about a book plate to go with it? It's not an inscription, I know, but it's still a nice way to personalize her book - and if you get a small pack of them, it will be the beginning of her library. Which should lead to good things...
  12. I'll make the point that you'd have to have an unbiased media before you could expect thorough or rigorous investigation of an issue. Also: the PM of Italy just came here for heart surgery. Congress is trying to write the healthcare bill so they, personally, would be exempt from using a socialized system. Doesn't speak well for how much faith they have in the system, does it?
  13. Hiya, I'm not sure what you mean by "I don't want to project, but a feed" - you're trying to put content from your laptop into a tv monitor, right? Your laptop needs to be able to provide video out. Look for a jack on your machine that has a little ID logo that looks a little like |O| and that's probably it. Also, your tv needs to accept video in, usually with an RCA cable (that's the one that splits into three color coded heads, red yellow and white, and there are corresponding jacks on your tv to accept them). If you have both of these things, then you should be able to just get a video out-to-RCA cable from a big box store like Best Buy or Circuit City. Set your TV input to the component that accepts video in from those jacks and your TV should now be a big monitor. Good luck! Amie
  14. I'm using both together. Looking over LoF, it looks as complete as the Keys series. In our house, we're using Keys as our primary and LoF as the supplement. This is mostly for my benefit - the kid is happy doing both.
  15. I looked at this recently - it seems the older editions can be had quite cheaply, but the newer editions are $$$ (which is why we passed on it). SWB qualifies the grammar stage recommendation of this series saying that you should skip the writing portion.
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