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wordshaker

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About wordshaker

  • Birthday February 3

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  • Location
    Green Mountains
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    This and that

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  • Biography
    Feet on the ground, face toward the sun, a bit rumpled, tend dreams and grudges, try too hard
  • Location
    Green Mountains
  • Occupation
    Plenty

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  1. From my view The News Hour by PBS is tops, especially for your purposes. You can stream it from their app, no cost. In the past I appreciated the calm and neutral Newsy as a source, when we had Sling. It was blessedly hard to tell if they were right or left, slogan to ‘inform not influence.’ So shocking, lol I love Fareed Zakaria Global Town Sq, which I’m eying as a 2x mos curriculum supplement. Also love Christiana Amanpour. They are Sunday cnn shows, and more for teens and up. These are some of the best discussions by some the most intelligent and usually peace-minded folks we have in world, imo, though often left-leaning if that’s averse. We are highly sensitive types, so for tv media news those rank really high for us. Last Week Tonight tackles issues really well while using human foibles as levity, might help hold preteens and up attention, but I do think most would agree it leans quite left and can be crude. Also thirding or fourthing bbc 👍. I second missing the days when it was hard to tell the newscaster’s position, and when that was the goal, lol. 💛
  2. I didn’t like Holden’s superiority, mainly. Boring. I got so much more from the *beautifully complex,* A Separate Peace, excellent male-focus coming of age story that this girl loved!
  3. Love: To Kill a Mockingbird, The Jungle Book, first 3 Oz books, Wrinkle in Time, A Separate Peace, Jane Eyre Love-hate: Alice in Wonderland… the disturbing elements of story and author. In reading it to my kids the Queen kept saying, “Off with them!” instead of “Off with their heads!” We’re sensitive types. Not good: Of Mice and Men, Peter Pan (so much editing while reading to my kids I could barely read 😂). It was more than the violence, just really outdated stuff. Also the short story classic I’ll mention— the one where the guy is hunting disoriented humans on his estate. Responding to happypamama, as a kid I liked The Lottery as good-horror because the feeling of alienation and humans failing without knowing was so, um, relatable?? Omg, homeschooling is so therapeutic… I’ve missed all the daily insights! Well, we are happily back in the fold.
  4. So many thanks for resources. I think the dcf visit-investigation went well, and she stated I was already doing the right thing, so hopefully no hidden daggers. Next I meet with the homeschool office and hopefully get the go ahead. Public school is giving me a more difficult time, I believe, because they know I’m neuroatypical, and I’m single parent, and we have been in a crisis of the kids just not going anymore… 😮‍💨 so despite having the degrees n things that might be confidence inspiring, they don’t trust homeschool itself or me. I’m just hoping to get out of this social entanglement that represents a definite functional area of weakness for me, so always a risky spot. This week will bring more confidence if things go well. Meanwhile my dust-laden old brownstone apartment is sparkling and orderly, so that’s nice. Thanks for reading and support here, and it just helps to be here tbh Happy Dad’s Day to all those celebrating loving, lovable fathers… may they prosper and multiply! 🌷
  5. Really kind thanks for connecting. All very helpful. We ruled out the GED / college route in favor of a more child based experience, that she feels she needs. She’s a good tester, so it’s an option, but we need a little magic-of-childhood that’s been a bit robbed, so both mine lean younger emotionally, not older. Thanks for sharing your experience, which I also shared with my kids, to know they’re not alone struggling. I will definitely look at CM for high school and see what folks are up to. I imagined I was leaning in that direction with OM, and have incorporated some Charlotte materials long ago. I guess I thought the younger set, so I’m curious about it now for teens. I am uncomfortable with the wrangling, very uncomfortable. I have become super clear and a little paranoid. I’m going to see what the CPS/DCF person suggests, and then meet with the school to hopefully remedy this. I wasn’t sure where to turn if that goes poorly. In that case I will start making calls to legal aid and anyone else. Thanks for sharing hslda as a resource. I am grateful MA isn’t over-regulated, somewhat surprisingly. I’ve been up to my eyeballs in good-trouble and advocacy, speaking at town meeting and things, so I’m tired and can not stir any unnecessary pots. Hopefully the furor part will die down. Thanks again for your thoughts 💛
  6. After homeschooling my bright and quirky two early on, my marriage ended and sent them to local schools past 7 years. During the pandemic I was an essential worker in healthcare and my kids were double-abandoned by me and the public schools in 5th and 7th grade (no dad here), deeply struggling now 3yrs later. The effects have been ruinous and I became disabled and am now facing a medical eviction. We’re hoping for affordable housing in Boston before the eviction process runs out. My affluent border town has no help for housing insecurity, as a matter of choice. My 14 year old was just diagnosed with high functioning autism spectrum, but we are all neuroatypical introverts here, silly when feeling safe, with overly high compassion and coded interests. My 16 year old is in shell shock shutdown, needle phobic and medical phobic and near agoraphobic. We feel like refugees starting over. That’s not all bad. I am now in a position to homeschool again when my kids most desperately need it. We will be in Boston and will have the city at our disposal, what we can get on the resourceful cheap that is, which is a lot. Plus Cambridge across the river. If we can avoid time living in shelters, I feel we will actually be in good, or at least much better shape. But there’s a chasm between here and there at the moment. I returned to Oak Meadow for now because it’s familiar and I’m overwhelmed, and I hope it will give shape and breath of life to our Summer. That’s the plan we are starting now. My 16 y.o. has been retained in 10th for missed days, and I prefer that because she needs more childhood and the comfort of sharing some classes with her sibling. I am unsure whether 8th grader will get pushed along, failing classes but earning DESE awards in state standardized tests. I’m worried about our reverse pattern - homeschool for high school is bucking an arguably sensible trend of integrating into the system at this age. Instead mine are leaving school wrecked at this age, misanthrope one and near catatonic the other. Our public schools are utterly opposed to homeschool, even in light of eviction, loss of schools, failure, and missing the high-school choice process in Boston (meaning spots at the least preferred schools will be all that’s left). Our public school folks are currently shunning us since the homeschool applications went in. Zero well wish, or contact for that matter, from folks we’ve known for years, no return email, nothing. Is public school a cult or something? Mine’s acting that way, leaving me super self-questioning, especially since I’m a neuroatypical older mom with few friends. But there’s no choice, I couldn’t force my kids to go. I tried. I have a DCF worker visiting my house on Friday morning that I’m trying to be unphased about, a parting gift from the guidance counselor. She filed with them after I filed with the homeschool office. My family and my home look exactly like who we are and what we are doing, creating safe learning space and I’m trying not to worry. I was hoping for a bit of advice on a gentle homeschool start and building strength for my wounded warriors while bracing for a possible final storm (homelessness) before peace. Sorry for the saga, a bit unmoored here. kind thanks I’m Sheryl, thankful this community is still here when the world has turned its back.
  7. Seeking to purchase used materials for Oak Meadow Grade 9/10 English Composition: The Writer’s Craft. They’re sold out til mid July. Thanks if you can help! 🙏 COURSE MATERIALS Composition I: The Writer’s Craft Coursebook Composition I: The Writer’s Craft Teacher Manual (optional) In Short: A Collection of Brief Creative Nonfiction (Norton) Write It Right: A Handbook for Student Writers (2nd Edition)
  8. Seeking to purchase used materials for Oak Meadow Grade 9/10 English Composition. They’re sold out til mid July. Thanks if you can help! 🙏 COURSE MATERIALS Composition I: The Writer’s Craft Coursebook Composition I: The Writer’s Craft Teacher Manual (optional) In Short: A Collection of Brief Creative Nonfiction (Norton) Write It Right: A Handbook for Student Writers (2nd Edition)
  9. Update: Well it’s looking like there are other options for credit besides enrolled transcripts, though the person who approves was out today, so I’m not confirmed on that. I’m still scoping out back-up plans if anyone has a thought. Thank you!
  10. Hoping someone can help! I'm looking for a summer 9th grade English course to replace a standard public school, summer-school, English class. I'd like to use the Oak Meadow Composition 1: The Writers Craft, but I'm hearing because OM won't issue a grade or transcript for the class, it mightn't be accepted. "Enrollment" for this class with OM cant occur over the summer, and would be $2000, which out-prices me anyway. Can anyone suggest a stand-alone 9th Grade English Comp/Lit that provides a final grade or transcript or documentation of some kind that the public school might use to transfer credit? She's a 2e kid who is also an INFP (MBTI) and has difficulty with initiation, exec function and process speed but otherwise ok. She needs a class because she didn't do the work all year. I'm heading to our Office of Teaching and Learning to see if I can hire a teacher to grade her work for Oak Meadow, but I'm looking for a backup plan if that is unacceptable or looks like a battle. Kind thanks for any leads!
  11. Hello, my 2 daughters are deeply engaged in Prodigy Game for math. DD10 questions and progress section seem all over the map... she is "making progress" in all grades 4-8 according to the chart. It has me wondering - does the system adjust to my child? I was hoping for a responsive system that helps build skills, but I'm not sure that's what's happening. I'd rather not to box it in by controlling content if the system has an actual capacity to respond. BIG QUESTION: If the game is "somewhat" responsive, how do folks feel about kids attempting higher grade content without mastering lower grade material in full first? What I can say is that they both love it and we are about 4 months in. They have "struggle" areas but no one is frustrated by it. I've started paying attention to it - so perhaps we will google some of the problems we don't know how to solve. Or maybe I should just let them struggle so the game can adapt. Any insights will be much appreciated!!!!!!
  12. italki is the one I was looking for. finally found it again!! https://www.italki.com/home lingoglobe and speaky are two others. has anyone used these programs?? I'd love to hear your experiences.
  13. Does anyone know the name of the program that hosts teachers and learners via Skype for foreign language lessons from native speakers? Thanks!!
  14. I am considering dropping Singapore because dd8 is moving so quickly through Redbird and we seem bogged down by the speed of progress through Singapore. Perhaps we could use Singapore lessons as a supplement and Redbird as the primary math source. Thoughts? I don't want to short-change math, or leave gaps or holes in learning.
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