Friday night, Eric came in from work and went straight to bed. Yep, strep throat. Considering I'd had it 3 times in 6 weeks, it was about time he actually caught it from me! I was beginning to think this was a sexist virus. He got on antibiotics on Saturday, stayed in bed until Sunday afternoon, took Monday off and is doing much better. Still very tired, but back to work and functioning.
I will finish my 3rd course of antibiotics tomorrow and I am definitely feeling better. I'm a little nervous about getting off the antibiotics, but I'm trying very hard to get to bed early and get extra rest.
I took Rebekah in to the chiropractor this morning and she has external ear infections in both ears. Will the sickness NEVER end? ARGH.
My sister moved on Monday. Again, I'm fine as long as I don't think about it. Little Bit doesn't help. She always wants to go see Aunt Dawn. Which makes me cry every time she asks.
Hopefully this will be the last time I have to post about sickness!!! I'm very very tired of it all myself!
So, hey, anyone have good suggestions for 4th grade grammar that is retained by the child and requires next to no work on the parents part? And writing - anyone have a good suggestion for writing curriculum for 4th and 7th grade that the parent doesn't have to participate in?
7 comments:
I’m glad to read that you are feeling better. I just wanted to say that I am thinking of you and praying that you guys won’t get sick anymore. ♥
Oh Tonya, your last paragraph was hysterical!! I'm sorry your house has been so sick lately, and I hope you feel better and stay that way soon! xo
Thanks for your comment on my spanking post, I was hoping you'd weigh in! I concur with the whole issue of growing beyond the need to hash out the theories: I feel that way about the baby stuff. But I'm still in the trenches with early school aged kids, so spanking is "it" now I guess, as far as theory! I've got it pretty down as far as our family for birthing, breastfeeding, partial cosleeping, babywearing, attachment theory, etc, so I don't engage much with those theory debates anymore. But the early schoolaged stuff I do, I'm still working those out!
Here are some ideas for Grammar and writing:
Wordsmith apprentice
http://www.christianbook.com/wordsmith-apprentice-janie-cheaney/9781929683178/pd/683170?item_code=WW&netp_id=332930&event=PPCSRC&view=details
For Grammar - First Language Lessons - for your 4th grader - though it does involve a bit of parent involvement. Also, Rod and Staff is excellent - I do it all orally - skipping some of it. Obviously some parental involvement, but a lesson can take only 10 minutes doing it orally. - then buy the extra worksheet packet and have them do that on their own. The Rod and Staff 6th grade is pretty tough - you could have your 7th grader do that one on her own. Also, I highly recommend Susan Wise Bauer's $4 downloads: http://www.welltrainedmind.com/store/audio-products/audio-lectures.html - esp. the ones on writing.
We used Write at Home last year w/ our oldest - great program, worth the money, hands off for Mom. They have on-line lessons and a writing coach. They have middle school offerings:
http://www.writeathome.com/Display.aspx?tabid=23
Also, it looks like there is a free on-line charter school for residents where you live: http://www.k12.com/cova/faqs__general/
all grades. If it's like it is here, you can take a single course or a whole program. Be aware though - to qualify for speech competition you can only have 50% of you HomeS publicly funded.
I'll try and brainstorm some more.
Everybody - get better!
We use Rod and Staff as well. I really don't do anything with it with my older boys (8th and 6th grade). They do it all on their own. I just make sure Caleb and Jonathan (3rd and 2nd this year) understand the lesson and a few examples. I do not make them do every problem--they would go nuts.
The year that I was pregnant with Grace, #6, while Anna was less than a year old, I tried Easy Grammar because I wanted something with no teacher involvement. I found really NO retention from that program at all, so we went right back to R&S the next year.
I am praying that you are able to stay healthy!!!
Guess I should have said what we are currently using. Professor Anitmaid :-), we are using First Lang Lessons for 4th grade and it takes FOREVER. You have to think about 20 minutes ALONE for grammar and 20 minutes ALONE for writing ... If I try that with many kids I'm sunk! I'll look at Wordsmith Apprentice - don't know if I've looked at that before. Write at Home is WAY expensive. And the K12 program here takes most of my friends ALL STINKING DAY. And we couldn't be in speech at all. And I really just don't want to do public school in any way, even if it is at home. I'm weird like that. :-)
Claire, we've used Easy Grammar as well, which was EASY. But I've heard the same thing, no retention. I'll have to look at R&S.
Hey, Claire and Anitamaid, you both know Marie. How funny is that!!! She uses Christian Light Education.
Melissa, seriously, you thought it was FUNNY!?!?! I'm SERIOUS! :-)
Thanks for the prayers all!
Hi Tonya - another small thought on grammar. We love Grammar Girl at our house. Short podcasts on perplexing punctuation, etc. a great listen at lunch, or where ever:
http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/
We also like Rod & Staff. My girls have used it for 3rd, 4th & 5th and we plan to continue. Even my third grader does it mostly on her own, although sometimes I read the lesson with her. It does include some writing lessons starting in about 4th grade (I think - I know they are in the 5th grade book.) It is a very old-fashioned, learn-parts-of-speech, diagram-sentences program. My girls generally like it because the topics are usually either Bible stories or farm life stories. We haven't done 7th or 8th grade yet, but I also have heard that they are very advanced, and starting with 6th is recommended if you are switching from another series. Here in Memphis, really cheap used copies are easy to find - I paid $4 for 3rd grade. Most lessons have some oral exercises, but we also do some of the written work orally to save a little time some days. I bought the teacher's guides as well, but I never looked at the 3rd grade one. For 4th & 5th grades, they make it faster to check the kids' papers and so are worth having. A great series IMO.
Post a Comment