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TengoFive

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Posts posted by TengoFive

  1. Schleich Animals and Papo knights. I started buying them for my then 3 year old boy. He's 12 now and they're still played with on a nearly daily basis. Even my 14 year old will go up there sometimes :-) They use their wooden blocks and build huge cities that the animals and knights populate and have elaborate story lines. The boys and girls both play with them, so their not gender specific.

  2. There's no access to sports allowed here, due to the high school sports association. It's disappointing for us, because my kids would love to swim for the high school team. There's much great exposure to college scouts if you're swimming on a high school team. I have one that absolutely would get a sports scholarship if he could swim for the school.

    On the other hand, other activities are allowed at the principal's discretion. He's great at allowing homeschoolers to come in for whichever classes they want. Many take advantage of choir, band, and art classes.

  3. I agree on discussing the rules with the kids. If it were my kids, I would tell them before the grandparents got there, that the rules still apply. They're not allowed to have snacks unless they're approved by you. There's no reason the grandparents need to even hear that set of rules if the kids know it.

     

    The discipline is a whole 'nother issue that should be addressed by your dh with his parents.

     

    Victoria

     

    I don't think any of your requirements are unreasonable, but I do think it's unreasonable for them to come from YOU. Your DH NEEDS to be the one to explain the rules, possibly in softer language.

     

    Also, I would explain these rules TO THE CHILDREN. And explain that they are expected to obey your rules at all times, even if their grandparents say something different. This isn't much different from them having a best friend who lived down the block who had much less strict rules than you do. You would still demand they follow your rules, even at someone else's house, even if a different set of parents said they didn't have to.

  4. In your situation, I would do the placement tests for Sequential Spelling. It has a different sequence than any spelling program I've seen, so it seems there are easy and hard words in each level. Here's the link for the pre-test, but they say most students should start with level one. http://avko.org/free/Rough%20Placement%20Test%20for%20SS.pdf

     

    You can also try the first lesson to get an idea for the program.

    http://avko.org/Samples/SSH/301.pdf

  5. There's The Complete Book of US History which is for grades 3-5. http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Book-U-S-History/dp/1561896799/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1346252215&sr=1-2'>http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Book-U-S-History/dp/1561896799/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1346252215&sr=1-2

    They also have World History, but its for 4-8 grade.

    http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Book-U-S-History/dp/1561896799/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1346252215&sr=1-2

  6. One book that really helped me figure out how to deal with my difficult one, is Nurture by Nature. It talks about how to parent based on the kid's personality type. It also helped me realize why she reacted the way she did to certain things, so I could foresee a problem before it happened and help her deal with it before it became a huge deal.

    You might also want to think about starting a food diary for him and record when the tantrums are. You may be able to look back and find a trigger after a while.

    Also, Rescue Remedy is a homeopathic medication that I used to use whenever my "difficult" one and I would get into a battle. I would take a few drops, which calmed me way down and then I'd have her take a few drops and about 3 minutes later it was calm again. Amazing stuff...

  7. A cheaper/quicker option would be to get a wireless print server, if you have a wireless network. If you don't have a wireless network, you can set one up for less than $50 with a wireless print server built in. If you're interested, I can let you know what we used.

    We are having issues with our printer, but it's not the printer that's the problem, it's the USB ports on our computer that are broken. :glare: Thankfully, I can still use it as a copier, but it's really inconvenient not to be able to just print whatever we want off the computer.

     

    We will be getting my parents 7 year old computer to have just so we can print from it while we save up for a new computer.

  8. The prices look pretty good, but I haven't shopped around for these lately. I'm putting my link below, and if you sign up and purchase something I get a credit. However, feel free to just type in the url, zulily.com if you don't want me to get the credit. http://www.zulily.com/invite/Tengo6

    That's a long way of saying, I'm sharing this, because I think its a good deal, not because I want the credit. :)

  9. My kids do quite a bit through 4-H, especially my oldest with Junior Leaders. I really like that club. The kids run it, decide what community services to do, arrange, and organize them. I don't control it at all, just chauffeur her to where she needs to be. It's one of the reasons she loves 4H, being able to help others.

     

    The younger ones do some community service with our regular 4H club, but not nearly as much as the oldest.

  10. I haven't read what everyone else wrote yet, so I'll just throw in a few quick thoughts. Since he enjoys science, I would do the narration and call that writing. If you want to practice handwriting, have him copy the narration. Then you can drop WWE for now. I wouldn't drop FLL, but would also pick and choose what to do. There's a lot of repetition in there.

    I'm terrible at read-alouds, but we've found that we love listening to audiobooks in the car when we're running errands. Most of our history read-alouds have been done this way. You could also try putting a cd in during your toddlers nap time. That would be something he could do quietly on his own. Then if you wanted to do a narration/drawing to go along with it you could call that writing as well.

    For geography I've given up studying it formally. We love, love, love the 10 Days in ______ series of games. My 6 year old knows where almost all the states are now. I also let her play Stack the States on my iPhone, so she's learned a lot of capitols and landmarks too.

     

    Don't be afraid to pare back down to the basics and then add things in slowly again. What you're doing now makes for a lot of work for a 6 year old and a mom of toddlers!

  11. I haven't read what everyone else wrote yet, so I'll just throw in a few quick thoughts. Since he enjoys science, I would do the narration and call that writing. If you want to practice handwriting, have him copy the narration. Then you can drop WWE for now. I wouldn't drop FLL, but would also pick and choose what to do. There's a lot of repetition in there.

    I'm terrible at read-alouds, but we've found that we love listening to audiobooks in the car when we're running errands. Most of our history read-alouds have been done this way. You could also try putting a cd in during your toddlers nap time. That would be something he could do quietly on his own. Then if you wanted to do a narration/drawing to go along with it you could call that writing as well.

    For geography I've given up studying it formally. We love, love, love the 10 Days in ______ series of games. My 6 year old knows where almost all the states are now. I also let her play Stack the States on my iPhone, so she's learned a lot of capitols and landmarks too.

     

    Don't be afraid to pare back down to the basics and then add things in slowly again. What you're doing now makes for a lot of work for a 6 year old and a mom of toddlers!

  12. http://shop.rocksolidinc.com/around-the-town-fun-with-cuisenaire-rods-p459.aspx

     

    I'm looking for "On the Farm," and "Around Town," which I've seen referenced on old threads for curriculum resources. They were created by Elaine Douthitt. It sounds like they're really cool, but they're out of print. Waaah!

     

    We have the free Cuisenaire rod booklet and the Alphabet book, but I'm looking for more fun stuff like these before we move on to Miquon.

     

    on a related note, has anyone played the "Math Bonds" Cuisenaire-ish app on the iPhone/iPad? My son is digging on it. The colors are a teensy bit off because the app maker is trying to be hip, but they're definitely the Cuisenaire color scheme.

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