Time for us to help build her up a bit, to offer love and support, to let her know that things will get better, and that with a little patience she will make it through this situation.
I don't need much else for Christmas. It's the perfect present.
Monday, November 29, 2010
And suddenly the world is perfect...
... or at least this small part of my world, where an unpleasant relationship between my eldest who lives in Germany and her dad, led to us searching frantically for flights to the US. And wonderfully, we were successful and she will fly here on the 25th of December to stay for two weeks.
Time for us to help build her up a bit, to offer love and support, to let her know that things will get better, and that with a little patience she will make it through this situation.
I don't need much else for Christmas. It's the perfect present.
Time for us to help build her up a bit, to offer love and support, to let her know that things will get better, and that with a little patience she will make it through this situation.
I don't need much else for Christmas. It's the perfect present.
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Random Ramblings
1. The year is almost over, and I'm trying to figure out what I've got to show for it. Sadly, not all that much in the writing business, not because of the lack of opportunity, but more of a lack of motivation. Well, it's back now, and I have good plans for 2011. :)
2. I think I may have posted a while ago that I wanted to lose weight. 15 pounds please. I didn't.
3. I tried to be a better mom... We shall see in about 10-15 years if I'm successful at this.
4. As always around this time of the year I miss home. My daughter is too far away, my niece is growing up without me, I miss my parents... and I'm a little frustrated about where we're headed in this country. Of course I'd be frustrated in Germany too. It's just easier to get frustrated at America right before Christmas. ;)
5. We fly to Phoenix on the 16th... I will meet friends whom I haven't met in the 4.5 years since we left. I will meet friends whom I've never met (just online). And I will roam the streets that I called home for 6.5 years. It's always interesting to go back.
6. I have a decision to make about whether or not I want to run for re-election as a board member for an organization next summer. I don't know that I'm ready to make this decision, but it's no use... in three days I have to say Yay or Nay.
7. I've been teaching a Science class for 5 to 7 year olds. A couple of days ago I got a teacher evaluation (anonymously of course), and was disappointed that for teacher preparedness I only got 3 out of 5 possible points. I thought it went extremely well. I actually enjoyed the class a lot (even though I was kind of pushed into teaching it, because the other teacher bailed out)... and I'm bitter. I didn't think I would let this get to me so much.
8. I have one big, messy house. I'm afraid to say that none of us for have learned to clean up after ourselves. There is clutter everywhere, and it's driving me crazy. Any advice on how to get better about keeping a clean house would be much appreciated. :)
9. Facebook is evil! It has taken away from my blogging time. It has taken away from a lot of other times as well. Every now and then I want to just delete my account. And then I can't... because... well... I can't. :)
10. 'Tis the Season. AGAIN!!! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!!
2. I think I may have posted a while ago that I wanted to lose weight. 15 pounds please. I didn't.
3. I tried to be a better mom... We shall see in about 10-15 years if I'm successful at this.
4. As always around this time of the year I miss home. My daughter is too far away, my niece is growing up without me, I miss my parents... and I'm a little frustrated about where we're headed in this country. Of course I'd be frustrated in Germany too. It's just easier to get frustrated at America right before Christmas. ;)
5. We fly to Phoenix on the 16th... I will meet friends whom I haven't met in the 4.5 years since we left. I will meet friends whom I've never met (just online). And I will roam the streets that I called home for 6.5 years. It's always interesting to go back.
6. I have a decision to make about whether or not I want to run for re-election as a board member for an organization next summer. I don't know that I'm ready to make this decision, but it's no use... in three days I have to say Yay or Nay.
7. I've been teaching a Science class for 5 to 7 year olds. A couple of days ago I got a teacher evaluation (anonymously of course), and was disappointed that for teacher preparedness I only got 3 out of 5 possible points. I thought it went extremely well. I actually enjoyed the class a lot (even though I was kind of pushed into teaching it, because the other teacher bailed out)... and I'm bitter. I didn't think I would let this get to me so much.
8. I have one big, messy house. I'm afraid to say that none of us for have learned to clean up after ourselves. There is clutter everywhere, and it's driving me crazy. Any advice on how to get better about keeping a clean house would be much appreciated. :)
9. Facebook is evil! It has taken away from my blogging time. It has taken away from a lot of other times as well. Every now and then I want to just delete my account. And then I can't... because... well... I can't. :)
10. 'Tis the Season. AGAIN!!! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!!
Time to review Time4Learning
Our month is up, and it is time for me to review Time4Learning.
First I should say, that both my children enjoyed the curriculum. Sitting down to work has become easier, because in each subject you learn by watching comic figures in real life situations... and they were kept age appropriate.
Each session is kept short, and the subjects are explained well, plus, as the parent you can print out accompanying Learning Extensions. Those are worksheets you can use while doing your online work. It is easy to find your way around the website. The children needed a little help the first time they sat down to work, but after that they logged in all by themselves and did their work independently. (BIG PLUS!)
At the end of each session you get to do a quick test of 5 questions. This is where both my children got frustrated. Instead of getting short answers such as "You are correct", each answer was a repetition of the questions. So it would say something like. "C is correct. 5/8 of the cake are covered in sprinkles." (I'm making up the answer, because I can't think of one.) You cannot skip the long answers, and to my kids this was "annoying", as they put it.
What I appreciated about the program, was that you could choose between grades. For instance, if you sign your child up as a third grader you also get the 2nd and 4th grade material to work with. Unfortunately Social Studies for 1st and 2nd grade was so short, that my son finished them in less than two weeks. He really enjoyed this subject a lot and was disappointed, when he was done. Of course you always do have the option of telling Time4Learning to move your child up one grade, which, should we decide to stick with the program, we will do for sure.
Just one thing truly frustrated me. The program does not work on the latest version of Firefox. I called Time4Learning, and while the lady on the phone was very friendly (thank you), all she could say was to downgrade our Firefox, until they update their service. This is of course not an option, as the previous Firefox has pretty severe security glitches, and we will absolutely not downgrade. So we ended up having to use just one of five computers in the house. That of course meant, the children could never work at the same time. I do hope this will be fixed soon, so we can also work on the road, when all we have are laptops with the latest Firefox version.
When it comes down to it, Time4Learning is definitely a satisfying curriculum, but I will not use it solely for our homeschool year. Some subjects we'd like to cover in more detail, and so Time4Learning is a great basis. My daughter, for instance, enjoyed reading about the Vikings, but she wanted to know much more. She finished the Vikings in no time and then asked me to go to the library to pick up more books about them.
I would most definitely recommend Time4Learning to anyone, even if you don't homeschool. The lessons are presented in bite sized pieces, so sometimes 10 minutes on the computer are all it takes. And chances are, that your child doesn't want to quit after 10 minutes. My children have walked up to me with random historical facts or math problems they conquered online. You can't not love that.
First I should say, that both my children enjoyed the curriculum. Sitting down to work has become easier, because in each subject you learn by watching comic figures in real life situations... and they were kept age appropriate.
Each session is kept short, and the subjects are explained well, plus, as the parent you can print out accompanying Learning Extensions. Those are worksheets you can use while doing your online work. It is easy to find your way around the website. The children needed a little help the first time they sat down to work, but after that they logged in all by themselves and did their work independently. (BIG PLUS!)
At the end of each session you get to do a quick test of 5 questions. This is where both my children got frustrated. Instead of getting short answers such as "You are correct", each answer was a repetition of the questions. So it would say something like. "C is correct. 5/8 of the cake are covered in sprinkles." (I'm making up the answer, because I can't think of one.) You cannot skip the long answers, and to my kids this was "annoying", as they put it.
What I appreciated about the program, was that you could choose between grades. For instance, if you sign your child up as a third grader you also get the 2nd and 4th grade material to work with. Unfortunately Social Studies for 1st and 2nd grade was so short, that my son finished them in less than two weeks. He really enjoyed this subject a lot and was disappointed, when he was done. Of course you always do have the option of telling Time4Learning to move your child up one grade, which, should we decide to stick with the program, we will do for sure.
Just one thing truly frustrated me. The program does not work on the latest version of Firefox. I called Time4Learning, and while the lady on the phone was very friendly (thank you), all she could say was to downgrade our Firefox, until they update their service. This is of course not an option, as the previous Firefox has pretty severe security glitches, and we will absolutely not downgrade. So we ended up having to use just one of five computers in the house. That of course meant, the children could never work at the same time. I do hope this will be fixed soon, so we can also work on the road, when all we have are laptops with the latest Firefox version.
When it comes down to it, Time4Learning is definitely a satisfying curriculum, but I will not use it solely for our homeschool year. Some subjects we'd like to cover in more detail, and so Time4Learning is a great basis. My daughter, for instance, enjoyed reading about the Vikings, but she wanted to know much more. She finished the Vikings in no time and then asked me to go to the library to pick up more books about them.
I would most definitely recommend Time4Learning to anyone, even if you don't homeschool. The lessons are presented in bite sized pieces, so sometimes 10 minutes on the computer are all it takes. And chances are, that your child doesn't want to quit after 10 minutes. My children have walked up to me with random historical facts or math problems they conquered online. You can't not love that.
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