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Shred Betty

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Everything posted by Shred Betty

  1. I am always asking granite vendors how to clean it. They ALWAYS reply "only granite cleaner" or something that has zero antibacterial or actual cleaning power. This is a kitchen, people. It needs to be Sanitary. googling it gets too many conflicting opinions etc. For several years now I've been using windex (ammonia) thinking it's better for the granite counter than a bleached based product. Maybe I found something online recommending this, I'm not sure. Suddenly DH is concerned I'm ruining it because a store clerk told him I should never use windex, LOL. I never use bleach wipes on it due to it being so difficult to get the cloudiness to go away afterwards... I spend 3 X the time cleaning it that way. How do you clean your granite top in the kitchen? If you use a bleach or ammonia type of product how long have you been using that method? Do you know of anything I should definitely NOT be using? Thanks! -GG
  2. I already have a full time chauffeur (DH) thank you very much! I'd hate to deprive the dh of the pleasure he gets from driving me around everywhere and replacing him with a self driving car teehee. I can imagine he'd say NO to auto pilot though, to answer your question :)
  3. I tried searching athelete, sports, PE etc and have not seen any action... Are there any members homeschooling Atheletes here? I feel like I've read/heard that homeschooling can allow kids to pursue more time into their goals & gifts whether it's art, music, sports, apprenticeships, or whathaveyou, is there a spot on the forum / threads or topics I should search for? DH, dd7 and AM (amazing mommy aka Me :) all are very dedicated winter sports enthusiasts, dd is very gifted for her age and ONE of the reasons we wanted to homeschool in the first place was giving her more time to pursue her athletic progression and gifts. Thanks! -GG
  4. Ok gotta log this idea for surprise review game for if I get pulled away: Provide flash cards with review across many topics. If she can self-study them and they are challenging, when I return to school the number she successfully absorbed and can prove mastery over determines the number of push-ups she gets to make me do or number of minutes spent running around outside or something else fun. Uh oh I love these crazy ideas but I don't want her unable to just tackle the boring and mundane in life. Lol
  5. I will have days when I will have to be able to walk away from the table...1) My DH is probably planning to provide me with uninterrupted hours during the morning for our homeschool routine come the Fall when he considers we are really starting. ( we have already started anyway, lol) But in general we have a highly flexible, stressful, and unstructured work day that constantly changes minute to minute depending on the financial markets, immediate clients needs, etc. So I am currently in a lifestyle of racing around putting out fires. Not always fun but good $ and I get to stay home and homeschool! We are starting early without dedicated morning time by pulling books out when an opportunity presents itself after everyone is fed and current fires are put out, lol. We are getting more done than I expected! Not ideal for sure and still light on number of subjects but it is summer after all. 2) DD really craves independence. REALLY craves independence. I think come fall we will prioritize a routine for school and I will only respond to fire alarms after noon, but even so, a part of me still wants to be able to operate at an avg to high level even if life / work / crisis intervenes like you said ^^^, without school being derailed. With that in mind from where I sit now it would help to: -Choose curriculum wisely to promote independence( I think I did well here) -Provide chore chart and visual calendar / checklist of expectations, and provide "things to do if mommy has to be busy with something else" for 20 mins. -provide lots of interesting books and audiobooks or other related things to occupy. Be strict with no device /tv policy because she makes great choices when they're not allowed. -discipline myself to structure my own workload around school and earn the time for routine -do something so I don't have to get out the next thing for DD. Any thoughts or other threads on topic please chime in! if I wanted to allow her to work ahead independently by pulling out extra sheets I think I could safely do this with: Spelling within reason, up to end of unit Phonics (etc 3) - sky's the limit Reading - unlimited Handwriting Math just outside practice sheets not working ahead in curriculum My gut tells me my best bet will be for me to spend time planning dd independent fun reviewing style activities or sheets rather than provide extra lessons to work ahead. Ooh!! I can also lay in and plan ahead a supply of some special independent lesson plan surprises and games! oh yay. That's the ticket :) Wow thinking this through and recording thoughts for public consumption has really helped me develop a better understanding of my needs and some great ideas!! Thx for the soapbox! -GG
  6. Thanks for your perspectives! When something starts to chafe and annoy dc and they want to stop do you stop immediately & kind of let them call the shots? thanks so much for this link I read it and it is going to help tons!
  7. Oh don't worry I read pgs 1-3 then hit quote, skipped all of the current topic details :)
  8. lol! I'ma delegate that to dd7 :snap!: nice to meetcha! Hope u feel better :)
  9. Oh darn you quoted me before my edit went thru!! Lol great timing! Ok my pencils sharp fire away Captain!
  10. oh my gosh... Please ignore this post!! Classic noob, seeing pages 1, 2, 3 up top and thinking that's all there is, chiming into a convo from a point over 1 year old!! :shame:
  11. About Anne: I fell in love with these just recently. If it were me I'd want someone to ask me to look at memorable faux pas like in her younger years or character traits and ask me to re-write the scene from my own life not just as a journal entry but with an effort to style. . What's a situation where I was Anne, made a mistake, and it all turned out for the good in the end? Or wouldn't it be cute to think of your acquaintances or neighborhood and identify if there are any elderly people like the lighthouse keeper and sisters you can reach out to like Anne did when older. reach out to them like she did and befriend someone who may not initially seem like the popular choice to spend time talking with / writing to but may become a mentor or have life lessons to impart. About PEI: I went as a teen years ago as a nanny for a family that rented a beautiful old house, I'd recommend this, it was really rural and we got a real sense of the place that way, very "authentic" and memorable. Personally I did not like the day we burned going into the "city" half as much as spending all day exploring the coastline.
  12. Just one girl, and it'll stay that way :). All of your replies are awesome! I'll be re reading and looking at the links one of you suggested to other topics, thanks so much for your input!! Very much more calm and collected now, lol. Like one of you said it's very hard when you have no idea what realistic expectations for workload looks like! I have to sub,it an enrollment to my state dept of Ed outlining our plan so I will just build lots of flexibility in my goals I submit and submit table of contents with conservative expectations. I am not naturally a planner, so this helps me immensely feel confident with what I naturally wanted to do! Oops! I didn't mean workbox... used the wrong word sorry! Lol love it: laundry and meal planning matter just as much... Haha so true! Thanks for the advice everyone! Worth it's weight in gold! - GG
  13. My DH requires many small very specific meals and options ready on hand with his work schedule working from home. Also has very strict no spice requirement and eating timing requirements due to severe indigestion and his being a hobbyist bodybuilder. So DD and I make sacrifices. As in no onions and no garlic unless kept separate and added to food after DH is served. Also no family sit down meals here. Sometimes she and I do that but it's quite rare :( I have to do the modular meal idea prep in advance. Different though: I think of it in terms of ingredients. For example: I recently figured out I can prep ahead and not combine ingredients to have more options pre made and available. Mash a big batch of potatoes. Package in 7oz increments freezer ziplock bags. Cook large batch of ground beef, add a bit of flour and beef stock make it a little gravy. add corn. Add 6oz ground beef and corn to MOST of the mash bags, and freeze. Make SOME bags with only ground beef mix and freeze. Now I have 1) sides of mash in my freezer to serve with a steak another day 2) most of the ground beef with mash I call a full meal "shepherds pie" 3) sides of meat only I use as base for tacos! Yum. Just need taco shells,
  14. Oxford - obviously architecture. The Camera, Bodlyian library (spelling?), king's college. ( now every year when we listen to the Christmas radio program broadcast from Kings College Oxford, we enjoy reminiscing that we were there). We liked punting on the river, that's a nice outdoors activity. Memorize some great Churchill quotes while there. Read Narnia while there. High tea etc. act out some Shakespeare. I LOVED getting to go see Hadrians wall as a high schooler. Doesn't sound like you will be there but very unique lessons about history Rome and Latin there.
  15. Enjoy falling in love with something, try some classics if you haven't read many yet. Dickens' tale of two cities, Les Miserables by Victor Hugo. Sci fi: Hugh howey's Wool Omnibus. Or for something COMPLETELY different and modern and mind blowingly cross curricular, Haruki Murakami 1Q84. I understand you are asking for recommendations for adult "curricula" or guidance but IMO literature can be amazing. Becoming more widely read opened up lots of topics of interest for me in my personal goals.
  16. ^ +1 popular mechanics for kids on Amazon prime or Netflix. I only remember one episode example but it was something like "how do movie special effects work" even including explosion stunts and fake gunshot wounds lol. Interesting! Not boring, doesn't come across as science.
  17. Hi community, Any advice for this Noob on how to get the nuts and bolts of implementing in place after the curriculum choice craziness is largely finished with? (not how you start every year now that you are a veteran, how you recommend getting going for my very first year? What are the most important / essential supporting nuts and bolts you'd recommend I focus on? I'm moving out of the "......how many curriculum choices ARE there?! " phase and into the next... I have my curriculum either on my shelf or chosen. I'm now realizing there is a world of planning tips out there, organization reforms needed, loop schedules to design, morning time routines (?!) laminators and a zillion little supplies to buy, etc etc. I've been spending time on homeschool creations.net, Donna Young's site, and others. Which have great suggestions on certain things but will take effort, scarce time and energy to implement. I have realized I want to implement a chore chart, workbox and weekly work folder system for dd7. and maybe I need a yearly planner, somewhere to bring all the lesson plans into a master list to work from. My usual week leaves very little time for me to write in a book or plan. We were all so excited when our math curriculum arrived, we jumped right into starting lessons right away. Without any supporting organizing, routines or record keeping structure. So now we are briefly and loosely working on math and spelling workout A nearly daily, just for fun and to get past the parts that are review... I'd like to do 2 lessons per week to finish SM1A and start 1B with the rest of our curriculum in the fall. I am realizing maybe just diving in and starting was not the best idea I've ever had, wondering when I'll have time to plan our year and make my folder system etc! Honestly the nature of our summer schedule requires us to just do math when we can, 10 am, 3 pm, 5 pm, sometimes even in the car. So it's hard to picture consistency and routine right now in our future... with all kinds of subjects to cover. Thoughts? Should I just shoot for consistency in what we've already started and not start anything else? And try to very slowly over the summer implement new routines and work on the startup structure I am realizing I may badly need for the Fall? Or best to priorotize and accomplish certain essential items you think will help a startup homeschooler most and stop worrying if I need to be doing the rest? I thought choosing curriculum was bad! There is so much more to still be overwhelmed by! Thanks in advance! GG
  18. I'm brand new to homeschooling, just finishing up Singapore 1A lesson 4 with DD7. So far we have used the HIG, TB, WB only. I found the WB way too light on practice and was already burning precious time trying to print more practice / worksheets, so found out about & ordered the IP. I don't use the CWP yet but may add it if we have time or feel it's essential. I just re read the HIG intro and after doing my first 4 lessons re reading the "how to use this" section again really helped! If you find yourself floundering at it a bit unsure of how it should be clicking and order of steps and books to use etc, go back and re read, don't wonder if you won't be able to get it! IMHO, HIG is awesome! All of my instruction time is drawn from the HIG games and ideas - always fresh and interesting things to try. at least with 1A thru lesson 4 the TB seems kind of redundant and unnecessary but I trust these ppl know what they are doing and won't skip it. It does show me she knows what she is supposed to know anyway. So far TB takes about 30 seconds for us though this is review for DD7. I'm getting whole days worth of instruction from the HIG alone. Stuff we would have totally missed. For example up to lesson 4 TB and WB are about counting and grouping and number bonds and we would have blown right through this and moved on but the HIG has us slowing down here until DD has memorized her bonds to 10. There is no way I would have known to do that with her using the TB and WB alone... it is making me feel more confident that I'm not missing out on important stuff / skills etc they will build on later. "How to use" section: (and now it makes so much more sense after working with it a bit - I'm paraphrasing from memory) HIG: lesson - Instruction is concrete (showing with manipulatives etc.) TB: partly independent. visual concept of lesson. WB: independent. abstract concept. HIG again: do reinforcement activities after WB or next day to help it stick.
  19. In this example, did you learn SM through teaching it the first time and as you go (prep 1 lesson at a time), or prep through the entire thing before beginning your year? Can you tell me more about what you mean by "taking it apart?" Thanks & sorry for the thread jack! GG
  20. I don't remember!!!! (counting on fingers) ....... 26 ish.
  21. Hi there TWTM forum community, I am a Mom of one Dd7 who just finished public school grade 1 and we are taking the plunge into homeschool starting over the summer!!!!! I have a few curriculum items already and I am so excited I could burst. I am a homemaker (5 yrs experience), husband runs a practice out of the home and we all love boating in the summer and snowboarding in the winter from the bEast coast. I'm a great self-taught knitter and LOVE reading and snowboarding. My biggest challenges so far are: - prioritizing goals/ expectations / being realistic (Soooo many topics we'd like to cover!) - choosing curriculum both brand and placement! DD would be entering grade 2 but at this point we are starting most stuff at level 1... Bummer... I thought I could just get grade 2-in-a-box lol. Nope! - the actual mechanics and implementation of getting started. Eg. Making a workbox & weekly lesson folder and yearly goals and designing loop schedules. Any other winter sports obsessed atheletes here? Nice to meet you and thanks for being here! What a great resource you all are!
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