Spelling Power Spectrum Spelling Schonell Spelling (a NZ program) & Sequential Spelling Of all of the above, only Sequential Spelling has shown significant inprovement in my dc's spelling. I use Sequential Spelling for Adults with my 16yod & Sequential Spelling with my 2ds. Ds#2 does enjoy dictations as well, but I still use SS as well. It only takes 5-10 minutes each daily & is non-consumable. SS gives both British & American spellings for words that differ, a big plus for my dc living here in NZ. JMHO,

I tell dh "if there's no chance of failure, what is the value of success?"

as are any rolling suitcase, but the 26" one you linked is too big to carry-on. You'd have to check it. I just returned to NZ last month from a visit to VT. Airlines are getting tougher on carry-on luggage. If you check one piece you can take the toiletries (shampoo, etc) you'd need for the journey + put items, such as scissors, that can't be put in a carry-on. JMHO,

Your posts are a breath of fresh air & really hit home with me. I have 3 dc & you have described life with my 2 ds clearly. Last week dh & I insisted that ds#1 attend a taster course at the local polytech on engineering. Ds#1 is aiming for an aprenticeship at 16yo, but has yet to settle on which trade. He attended a day on construction in April & enjoyed it, but as dh is a carpenter, ds needed to look at other trades as well. I reminded ds#1 on wednesday that he had polytech on thursday. He was not happy that we insisted he go. (This dc does not like to be put outside his comfort zone, while dd will eagerly take all opportunities offered). When I picked ds#1 up after his course, I could not get a word in edgewise. He loved the course, the tutor, the others who attended, etc. You'd never believe it was the same dc who insisted he was NOT going & nothing we did would change his mind. Life with boys is never easy or boring. Blessings,

& after much talk & prayer dh & I decided NOT to give ds#1 growth hormones. Ds#1 was 7yo at the time & wearing a size 5 clothing. I'm only 4'11" & dh is 5'10". Both dh & my fathers are under 5'6", so lack of height wasn't a surprise. Ds#1 was in the 50% at birth & at 6mo had fallen to the 3%. By 1yo he was below 3%, where he has remained. At the time we were living in FIJI & I took him to the public health nurses monthly for weighing & measuring. Ds#1 was growing, just at his own speed (~100g / month). He was meeting or exceeding all his developmental milestones, so we decided not to worry. We only saw a dr. when ds#1 was 7yo to rule out diabetes 1 as a reason for his continuing to wet the bed. The dr. took one look at him & sent us for tons of tests. The reasons we decided against growth hormones at the time: 1---Giving ds#1 growth hormones would mean commiting him to daily injections until he finished puberty (probably over 10 years) 2---Ds#1's bone age x-ray came back = 2 years delayed growth. 3---We felt the unknown risk of possible side effects was worse than the likely possibility of being short. Why I'm glad we did not give ds#1 growth hormones: 1---Last year we were talking to a couple of friends who are drs. The told us that growth hormones only help children to reach their max. height sooner. Growth hormones will not make them any bigger than they would have been with out growth hormones. 2---Ds#1 has excelled in sports, even with being a full head shorter than others. He represented our provience at the national gymnastics competition at age 10yo & continues to be one of the leading gymnasts in our provience. He has played soccer & field hockey, sails, swims, & is very physically active. His size has not held him back at all. 3---Ds#2 isn't really much bigger than ds#1. He has been about 1 year ahead of ds#1 as far as growth (i.e. at 10yo he is the size ds#1 was at 11yo). Dd has stopped growing & is about 5'2". She would like to be a bit bigger, but doesn't let her lack of height hold her back. All-in-all, height is just another part of us, just like hair / eye / skin color.

was LLATL 2 (red book) + Spectrum phonics 2 + CLP's readers. I began using CLP's K readers when my ds completed ~lesson 50 in 100EL. If you dd has finished 100EL you may want to go straight in to the CLP 1 reader "Meeting New Friends". I found that LLATL 2 was good for getting them to read longer stories & they enjoyed the silly animal stories. I, also, put together a book box of easy readers for each ds to choose from for quiet time reading. These books were usually at a level easier than what they were reading in their readers. I've found that my dc "can read" long before they "choose to read" on their own. Ds#1 was almost 12yo when he began to read for enjoyment & ds#2 just started reading everything in sight (he'll turn 11yo in January). I can remember exactly when my dd caught the reading bug as she was in PS for 6 years, but I think it was about 9-10yo. All my dc still love it when I read aloud to them & each always has an audiobook they are listening to at bedtime. Dd is currently listening to The Illiad, ds#1 is listening to Dante's Comedia, & ds#2 is listening to The Hobbit. JMHO,

my 16yod using SYRWTL Latin 1 my 14yos using Latin Prep 1 my 10yos using Lively Latin 1 Last year we began Latin with my boys using PL & my dd using LC1. We made it about 5 weeks, before we gave up. PL & LC1 did not suit us as they did not have enough practice, the speaker on the cds had too strong a southern accent, & each lesson was formated exactly the same way. We needed a bit of variety & lots more practice. Ideally if I began Latin years ago (& there was the same programs available that are available today) I would have followed this plan: 10yo---Lively Latin 1 11-12yo---Lively Latin 2 13yo---Latin Prep 1-2 14yo---Latin Prep 2-3 15yo---SYRWTL Latin 3 I would use FLL 1-4 ages 6-9 for a gentle introduction to English grammar. JMHO,

PM me you address & I'll send off a postcard this weekend. How old are your cubscouts? My Kea Scouts are 6-8 yo, roughly the age of tiger & wolf cubs in the US. Scouts in New Zealand is divided up into Keas (6-8), Cubs (8-10.5), Scouts (10.5-14.5), Venturers (14.5-18), & Rovers (18-25). Blessings,

3 weeks off for most workers. Schools are closed for the summer for about 6 weeks. NZ PS is divided into four 10 week terms with 2 weeks holidays between term & 6 weeks holidays over Christmas ( our summer). Other than that we only have few other public holidays---Waitangi Day (Feb), Good Friday, Easter monday, ANZAC day (April), Queen's birthday (June), Labour day (Oct), Christmas day, Boxing Day, New Year's day & our provincial holiday(varies by provience, Northland / Auckland's holiday is in Jan). Some of these days are included in term or summer breaks, so here in NZ we don't get nearly as many days off school as in the States. PS are required to be open 190 days (highschools) & 197 days (primary schools). That's more days, but the days are shorter & include longer recesses, so there is less time-on-task. HSers aren't required to match the # of days as PS, only to teach "at least as regularly & as well as" PS.

visiting my family in Vermont. But to them (&dh) Christmas means "time to go to the beach." We pack up a special Christmas picnic for Christmas Eve as ds#1 marches in the Christmas Eve parade in the PipeBand. There's nothing like "Jingle Bells" played on the bagpipes to get you in the mood for Santa. This parade is the 5th in 4 weeks that ds#1 has to march in with the local pipeband. The lead up to Christmas is different from the States as it is the end of our schoolyear. End-of-the-year functions & parties will start as early as mid-November to fit everything in. Most town have Christmas parades, complete with Santa on a sleigh & carols in the park are popular, but you don't get door-to-door carolers like I remember in New England. Schools finish up 19th December, with highschools already finished by the first week in December. When my dc were in PS, it never seemed like we had a full summer vacation as by the time we finished Christmas / New Year's we only had ~3 weeks until school started again. Christmas morning is not much different from what I experienced as a child, but no snow & the sun rises a lot earlier & it is warm! Christmas day we spend with family either by a pool or at the beach. Dinner is either cold roast lamb or ham & salads. Fruitcake, Pavlova, & triffel are all traditional desserts. I make cookies to give away to family & friends as it's something different for them. I gave up attempting the Chritmas candies (fudge, etc.) as its just too hot & humid for them to turn out. We don't decorate as much as my family in the States does, just a small tree, a stocking each (hung on the bedposts) & a nativity scene. Local kids hang pillowcases for Santa to fill. Boxing Day is 26th December & we always head off to the beach again. Most people have 3 weeks off over Christmas / New Years, so families will go camping. We wait to camp until February, when everyone else heads back to town for school.

but he works 50+ hours a week. He switched jobs about 3 years ago to have weekends free to spend with the kids. Before that he worked 6-7 days a week. Dh would love to change jobs, but realizes that at 58 it's a bit late for a 2nd career & that he'd go crazy in any job that required a lot of paperwork. I understand what you've said about being held to deadlines, but not in control of the resources (people & materials) needed to meet those deadlines. The stress can be very bad. My dh has considered getting a job with the local council as an inspector or with the local polytech as a tutor in building trades or as a maintaince man for a big company or school. But with us living on only his income, he doesn't feel comfortable changing jobs at this point. We're lucky so far that his body is holding up for the most part. The day will come when he needs to find a job that doesn't require him to work "on the tools." :grouphug: My only advice is to just listen. Sometimes just through dh talking, an answer becomes apparent. JMHO,

but is a bit out of date as with the bit about drivers licences. A few years back (about 7 years ago I think) the Labour Gov't did make the lifelong licenses outdated & replace them with 10 year picture licenses. I'm hoping that National will bring about some changes with results like those mentioned in the article you linked, Bev. NZ needs a change. JMHO

many students leave PS when they are 16yo. The gov't is trying to raise the school-leaving age to 18, but it has yet to pass parliment. My DH (a NZer) left school at 16 & began a 5-year apprenticeship. During those 5 years he worked full-time in his field & attended nightschool for any required classes. This was a more intensive & comprehensive education than I recieved after 4 years of HS in VT + 4 years in Uni. My 16yod has attended polytech 2 days a week since May. She has no desire to attend highschool as she wants to learn w/o having to put up with the attitudes of the girls that attend the local girls HS in town. She homeschools M-W with me (maths, Latin, Biology, English, history) & attends polytech TH-F (Sustained Rural Development / Horticulture). It works well for us. At age 16 teenagers can leave school, live on their own, & work fulltime or go on the dole (welfare). I'm not sure the age of marriage. At 17 they can enlist in the military. They must be 18 to drink, vote, or serve on a jury. We have told our teenagers that they cannot "finish" their studies at home until they either are in fulltime tertiery study (polytech, uni., or apprenticeship) or have a fulltime job that is able to support them at a reasonable level & provides opportunity for advancement (i.e. not just stocking shelves at the local supermarket). JMHO,

& would recommend that you use LL with a 3rd grader. I really like the way LL covers a variety of areas (Latin, English grammar, derivatives, history, etc.) The mix keeps the learning fresh. The "slow & steady" approach has helped my ds#2 to really learn the information. My ds#1 is learning the same info, but has had to repeat a few chapters to master the topics introduced. My plan is for ds#2 to finish LL 1 & LL 2, before moving on to either LP 1-3 or SYRWTL Latin 1-3. JMHO,

this saturday, 8 Nov. I just finished totally confusing my dc while trying to explain the electoral system & now I get to try to make MMP clear to them! Isn't democracy fun?

we, too. only have a few weeks left. I just returned from spending October in the States with my 10yos to find that my 16yod got NOTHING done & my 14yos completed 1 day's work. Granted it was PS holidays 1-12 October & both had holiday jobs, they could have got a bit more done. My dd was on the Spirit of Adventure 13-22 October & has a polytech course every TH & F 9-3, so maybe it was a bit much to expect her to get schoolwork done as well. My visit with my Mom went well, but even ds#2 only completed 11 days of maths & Latin. Well, where to from here? #1---I'm not going to panic as we're only obligated to do "at least as regularly & as well as" the PS. PS-highschools are on study break from now on & PS-primary schools don't do much achedemically after Labour Day. #2---I've started making my dc get up & outside from 7-8am, giving each one an area to be responsible for. Dd does the gardens, ds#1 is assigned household mantience jobs, & ds#2 cares for our zoo. I've found that getting outside BEFORE studying has helped my dc to get up with a better attitude (well, except for ds#1 :glare:) & they are more alert & ready to study at 9:00. And I have a bit of time for myself before teaching to shower & get a few jobs done. #3---I've symplified my expectations for each dc. Dd has a fortnightly assignment sheet of what I'd like to see completed & she works on it through out the time she's home (~2.5 days a week + occasional evening & weekend work). Ds#1 is made to study at the kitchen table 9-1 M-F or until he completes 1 hours of study each in Maths (MUS, LoF, Key to Geometry), English/Latin (Sequential Spelling, IEW, & Latin Prep), History (Trisms: History Maker), & Science (Apologia's General Science). Ds#2 works about 2 hours independently & 1 hour with me w/o fuss. We're making progress & I need to be happy with that, not focus on what we won't finish before Christmas. My dc know we will work up until 19 December as they slaked off in October, but we'll take most of January off to relax. #4---I'm going to bed by 9:30 pm & not reading in bed. This is the biggest change for me & it's been a very positive move for me attitudewise & for my relationship with dh. I really DO need more sleep than I was getting before October. #5---I'm determined not to even think about next year until after New Year's. I have enough curriculum to just continue on with if we decide to continue HS/ing. If we decide to send any to PS or go on Coorespondence School, I need only to enroll them, so need not worry about that now. My suggestions for your time with your aunt. Tell her about the Moore philosophy of work / study / service. Aim to complete a bit of maths, writing, & reading daily. On your "at home" days add in history & science. On your "away" days focus on work & service. We went through a similar experience 3 years ago with my sister. I felt that we got nothing done during the 7 months we spent in VT, but when I actually put on paper what we did accomplish added up to a lot. A bit here & a bit there does add up. JMHO & :grouphug:

& log what you get done each day. That way you can roughly map out what you want to get done & clearly see if you are missing out on one area, but you won't feel tied to do ch. 2 in reading at 10:00-11:00, etc. JMHO,

If you're not flying international, pack plently of snacks as the US flights don't feed you. If you are flying international order a kids meal for your dc. Kids meals have more kid-friendly food choices & they are served before the regular meal service begins. As for entertainment...on most international flights today there is individual TVs even in the economy seats. My 10yos either watched movies, listened to audio books, played games, or slept. He didn't even open his backpack the whole 12 hours (AKL-LAX). In his backpack I had his school folder with MUS pages, LL pages, & blank paper for journal writes. We did "school" during the lay-overs in the various airports along the way. I aimed for 1 page math, 1 page Latin, & 1 journal write during each lay-over. Our 2 US flights were during the night & early morning, so ds slept for most of the flights. As blankets & pillows aren't always available, I made us each a poncho out of 2 metres of polarfleece. These ponchos are great for long flights as they don't fall off & are warm, but not as restrictive as a jacket. Our return flights are during the daytime for the US segment. I plan on getting a new travel game for us, packing a lunch of snacky-type food, & having ds choose a new book for the flight. I may have my brother load a new audiobook on my son's MP3 player as well as a surprise. Where are you flying to? Different airlines offer different choices of children's activities. Some airlines even list the movies shown on their website. I have found that if I prepare my dc for what is offered befroehand we have less fuss during the journey. For the Air NZ fight I printed out the movie selections, etc. & made a guide for ds to choose from. I crossed out selections I didn't approve of & highlighted selections I thought he'd enjoy. This prevented a lot of debate during the journey. JMHO,

My thoughts exactly. Blessings,

but the following lessons take us about 2 weeks each to complete. I do work with my 10yos. This helps me to learn the Latin as well. We've just begun lesson 9. My other two dc are using Galore Park's Latin & its been interesting to see how LL compares to those texts. We aim to complete 1-2 pages daily in LL. If a reading is that day's assignment, we read the whole reading & answer any questions. If it's a lesson, we go over the lesson together & ds completes the companion exercise page independently. On day's where we're rushed for time, we aim to complete at least 1 page. Latin takes 15-30 minutes daily & he enjoys it & is really learning. We don't do flashcards as neither of us enjoy those, but instead 2-3 times a week ds spends 15 minutes on the vocabulary matching games linked on the LL site. JMHO,

:)

Thanks for the notice. I'll go turn on the news & see what's up. Blessings,

NZ is a very easy country to HS in. I have heard of some families having trouble with getting an exemption, but usually its a case of the local offical's attitude. We've been HS/ing now for 7 years. We had our ERO (Education Review Officer) visit after 3 years. It was a great visit. The offical was the top guy from Wellington as he was training a new ERO lady. The kids had fun showing him their treasure boxes full of the things they'd made in our year of Ancient History. At the end of the ERO visit I asked him when we could expect another visit. He said, "never," and went on to explain that the ERO had more trouble with the PS than with most HSers. Ds#2 was only 6yo at the time. The Supervisory Allowance is a nice bonus, but isn't $700/child. Each additional child recieves less. I get $948 every June & December for my 3dc. Parents who qualify to use the NZ Correspondence School for free get the same allowance plus they recieve free curriculum & their children's work is assessed by a teacher at the NZCS. I prefer to HS as we aren't required to teach the NZ curriculum. We are simply required to teach "at least as regularly & as well as" the public schools. That is an extremely easy goal to reach. If you don't qualify for free enrollment in NZCS, you do have the option of enrolling your child, but NZCS is really public school at home. It is very expensive (over $3000 / year) for children aged 5-15. NZCS is free for all students aged 16-18 as they enroll as adult students. We are considering using NZCS for ds#1 when he turns 16 as he wants to enlist in the navy & having the normal qualifications makes acceptance a bit easier. The provience I live in has a large number of HSers. We have a strong HS group with weekly activities, swim lessons, sports teams, a yearly conference, play groups, etc. Many kids take part in music, sports, drama, etc. out in the community as these things are organized in clubs, not only in schools. Children who excell in sports / music / etc. aren't pressured into PS to be able to compete. I'm amazed at the opportunities that my dc have that I wouldn't have had back in VT w/o attending PS.

on our last trip, 3 years ago, my dc were fasinated with squirrels & chipmunks. They spent hours in the woods catching salamanders, frogs, & even a garden snake. Even simple things like the leaves turning colors were new to them. Snow was amazing as here they may see one frost every couple of years. And even that is gone by 9:00. I hope his nature journal will become a keep-sake for years to come. My dc are scouts, so I will have a look at ds#2's scouts book for possible badges. He did ask if we could visit the scout group he joined in with on our last trip. At that time he was 7yo & joined in with a wolf cub den. What level cubs / scouts is for 10yo? He moved up to scouts in January here, about 6 months early. Blessings,

And being extra organized & patient with the check-in personnel helps.