saw
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Posts posted by saw
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My three bio children are gifted (tested). The joke is that #4, adopted at 2.5 years from Asia and now 4, is showing signs of giftedness as well. We certainly had not expected this, so now I'm going to claim that it's all due to my nurturing (kidding).
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I liked the Little Colonel books I read, but I would be careful letting a child read them because of the way race is handled. The books are clearly from another era. I think there may be some that have been "cleaned up", but you could check that on Amazon. I do like the books, but I have to keep reminding myself of the context.
I found a link to a site about her:
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We were in the Netherlands, where the language of instruction is Dutch. The girls were already bilingual Dutch/English, so the English classes were not really relevant to them (they did work I sent to school with them). We're now in France and homeschooling, but also using the Netherlands' internet school for certain subjects. I will have to find a French tutor to help them learn French, and I'm enrolling them in various activities to help them learn French in social settings. If all goes well, they should end up being more or less trilingual and have a good command of a few other languages as well.
Given our situation, it should be fairly easy for the girls to do this. I'm not sure how it would work if you were in the US or somewhere similar.
Sophie
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My dds' school (gymnasium, or highest academic level) started children on Latin, English, French, German and Dutch in the first year (seventh grade, most kids had had a bit of English) and added Greek and Spanish in the second. In the third they are supposed to drop one language. In the fourth they pick what type of course they're following (so either a language-y one or a non-language-y one, if that makes sense) and can either continue with or drop languages. DDs are now doing French, Dutch, English, Spanish, Japanese and will pick up on Greek/Latin once we find a tutor (we just moved countries). It doesn't seem to be a problem.
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Technically we live in France but are in London around 2x a month and will probably end up living there at least parttime, as DS 9 is at choir school there. DDs 11 are homeschooled.
Sophie
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I would ask about it. It could be that the school does not have a very good idea of what your son's "issues" are like. I have had similar experiences with my ds, who is 2e and has a file a couple of inches thick. His issues are mild and do not interfere with "normal" functioning. When we applied to a couple of schools for him a year ago, two schools went nuts when they heard he had had testing for this and that. They acted as though he were severely handicapped, put him on a "special" list, insisted they would need special meetings to discuss him. I think sometimes schools overreact when they see a child that is identified as atypical.
I think you should ask, though, because then you can tell whether the school is just being cautious and is open to helping you son, or whether the school is not going to be welcoming of a child with some differences.
Good luck!
S
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So very very sorry for your loss.
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We were in the Netherlands for nearly six years (in France now). In the last 1.5 years, dh was hospitalized three times. The third time was when he needed surgery for a herniated disk; the wait from the time he saw the GP to the time he saw the neurologist was two weeks, then four days for the MRI, then two to three weeks for the surgery. We never saw a bill, just confirmation that insurance had paid up.
In comparison, my dd was hospitalized once in the US overnight. We gave the hospital all our insurance information (regular and travel) and put the insurance people in contact with the hospital. After that, I received bills and threatening letters for nearly a year. The hospital, doctors and ambulance were not coordinated, the hospital would not get in touch with my insurance because they couldn't make international calls, etc., etc. My insurance company told me that they processed US claims first because US hospitals were such a nuisance to deal with. My insurance paid every cent of the claim.
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We've been afterschooling for years, I've been researching and using various curriculum (SOTW, Singapore, Alex, etc) for years, but this is the start of real homeschooling as all three big kids will no longer be in school as of mid-Feb! And from being confident that I could do this I'm starting to wonder. I'm posting here rather than on the general board as the principal reason we will homeschool is the dcs' being accelerated.
So please tell me I can do this! I have done the research, I have a few advanced degrees, I have made contact with homeschoolers in the area where we will live ... IOW done what I'm supposed to do. But then dh emails me that my MIL's sister has volunteered to tutor my ds. Apparently she thinks that as a former public school teacher in the gifted program she is better qualified than I, despite being 9 time zones away. Anyway, that was enough to throw me for a loop and ruin my afternoon.
Any words of experience for someone just starting out? TIA.
S
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One time we took the first Madeline book with us and visited all the places illustrated in the book, taking pictures of the kids at each place. If you have a Madeline fan, that could be fun. It was interesting to see how the illustrations compared to the real thing.
We went to EuroDisney in October. I think next time we go we'll try to stay at one of the on-site hotels or one nearby. I think, but am not sure, that that will give you early entrance to the park. There usually seem to be some sort of special deals on, so check their website. Just outside the park is the Rainforest Cafe, which is always a fun place to eat.
Once we went to Paris with my then 7 yo ds and two friends of his of the same age; they loved the sewer museum (Musee des Egouts sp???). The other mom and I found it amusing and smelly, but it was fun to see the boys' reactions. Definitely something different.
Sailing (little) boats in the Luxembourg Gardens is one of my kids' favorite things to do in Paris. Keeps them happy for hours, and it's really very simple, just sticks and little sailboats that they push around.
The museums have I think pretty good kid trails to follow, at least the D'Orsay does.
Have fun!
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Not sure when we realized with the three older ones, but the one that really surprised me was number 4. I remember the day we got him in China, when he was 2.5, and within the first few hours dh and I were looking at each other and thinking, oh, no, not another one! We'd been so prepared for a delayed child or a child of average intelligence or problems or anything (which was fine by us, otherwise we would never have gone ahead with adoption) that D's intelligence had us gobsmacked. Still does a year later.
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Our son was adopted from China nearly a year ago, when he was 2.5, so it hasn't been that long. We prepared ourselves for the possibility that he would have issues, either physical (cleft lip/palate) or emotional. The only issue he has was needing tubes in his ear. He's amazing. He has adapted better than anyone could have expected, and, since our life has been pretty chaotic this last year, that's saying something. He's the kind of person who can walk into a room and immediately charm everyone in it. He's kind and empathetic (will even share his food! and this is a child from an orphanage!) and funny. We could run into adjustment issues as he gets older, but from what we've seen so far, he is emotionally very healthy and well adjusted. I do know from other families who have adopted from the same orphanage that our children all seem to have been well loved by their caregivers, and this probably made a big difference to D. Also, D was apparently a bit of a favorite, which probably helped him too.
Not to say that we won't have difficulties in the future or that we think that all adoptions run smoothly, just that ours so far has been super (well, except for his jetlag right now that's going to be waking him up at 3 a.m.!) and D is the best ever.
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who can point me in the right direction for resources? My son started homeschooling this week (of course, we were still on vacation, so I completely forgot that, technically speaking, we started back to school!) after being in a British School. The reason for pulling him out is that we are moving to Paris (from Amsterdam) and will not be putting him back in a school for a while. The National Curriculum has worked very well for him, however, so I would like to continue with it. All of my research on homeschool resources up until now has focussed on US-based materials, which I will be using with my dds, so I feel comfortable with that end of things. Thanks!
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DDs' school requires English, Dutch, French, German, Spanish, Latin and Greek in the 8th grade year for their level school. In 9th they may drop a few languages, depending on their concentration. I would like them to keep going with all of these to some extent and allow them to decide which are important and which are just for fun. Fortunately DDs are good at language.
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My dds are both in Gymnasium and do Latin and Greek. They also have French, German, Dutch, Spanish and English (in addition to other classes). This year I've heard them comment frequently on how their Latin (2d year) has really helped with Spanish and French. From what I've seen, it does take a lot of effort and focus to keep up with all these languages in addition to the other classes. I'm seeing some very good things about how they are learning to learn (and definitely some areas that are missed).
S
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Dds 11 and ds 8: cricket, tennis, swimming
One dd also plays soccer and the other does ballet. DS 8 may play soccer, but he doesn't really have time.
They had skating last year but I decided that was too much this year as they have added choir.
SAW
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No help here, but my son was green today after the green hair color washed out and turned his face green.
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DD 10 has decided that she would like to learn Russian and/or Welsh. She's had no exposure to these languages, so I would like to find some sort of (inexpensive) introduction to these languages that she can play around with this summer. She and I would appreciate any suggestions you might have. She is already bilingual in Dutch/English and has had Latin and French, so she's quite language-y. Thanks very much!
S and R
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My dds are in seventh grade, which here is the start of six years of secondary school. They seem to have learned a lot this year. They're taking Dutch, English, Latin (with a Roman culture class as well), French, a bit of Greek, geography, history, math, gym, drama, drawing, music, industrial arts, and science. Where we are seventh grade is when school gets real; elementary school was nearly a complete waste of time.
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My 2 yo ds has his painted. And some of the rest of his toes as well.
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Which is of course complete and utter nonsense. I'm bilingual, so are the three older ones, and #4 (adopted from China at 2.5 yo in Feb) will be. We've been at the ENTs to check his hearing (he has fluid in his ears so they make us keep coming back). This ENT told me that we should not raise D to be bilingual as it is a fact that bilingualism can lead to problems.
This is ridiculous, but what's even more ridiculous is that this guy wears a white coat and acts all important and gets to spread misinformation to people who may not know better. So I thought I'd send him and the hospital some information on the latest research (like, research done anytime in the last half century) that shows that bilingualism is in fact a good thing. And then I'll be finding a new hospital and new ENT!
Anyone have any favorite articles? I have the books on the subject here, so I'll send those titles, but I thought I'd ask here to see whether anyone knows of anything great. Thanks!
S
mom to three bilinguals and one Chinese speaker.
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Good food for thought here -- I realized that if I just have my Crest toothpaste in the big American-style tubes, and not the tiny little European Colgate tubes, I'm happy.
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I hear complaints on nearly a daily basis about the schools here in the Netherlands, mostly about the elementary schools. Many of the complaints are from people who would like their children to be challenged more than they are.
Sophie
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We're Dutch and living in the Netherlands. I'd be happy to help with info or basic language learning.
Sophie
If you moved far away from your families...
in General Education Discussion Board
Posted
We just got home from our annual trip to my parents, in WA. This part the kids and I like, because normally we get to relax and my parents are great. The problem is that every single year my in-laws decide to come up from CA and visit. This year it was MIL, FIL, BIL&wife&2kids, and BIL. One of the kids has "issues" that no one bothered to tell us about, so we thought he was just an out of control brat. One BIL is 30 but behaves like he's 16. Then my brother and 2 of his kids were there for part of the time, which was mostly good. Now we're back in Paris. On the day we arrived back to our house (which we moved into in May and is still filled with boxes that are not unpacked since we've barely been here) a friend came from the States with her two kids for two weeks. She's not here for us but because we're a cheap place to stay, and has very little good to say about anything she's seeing. So my head is about to explode! DDs are behind on school, DS starts pre-K next week but we're so clueless we don't even know which day or where the school is, DS9 has to be delivered to boarding school next week, haven't got tickets or anything. Okay, vent over, back to monitor quiet time.