Washingtonians

[Ogress]

Quote:
What was the incentive? I've tried both positive and negative without much luck with either. Now I'm using Girlscout activities since she seems to enjoy them.

 

[RustyHen]

Quote:
You're a good momma with a steel backbone.
Good for you.
I'm with you all the way on this.
My kids are all blessed with high intelligence, too. One of them, in grade school, quit doing homework. She was just bored. Saw no reason to do eight rows of anything if she figured it out in row 1.
So I gave her an incentive to help her along.
By the time she got to junior high she had the self discipline.
Happy Thanksgiving! And if they don't improve, well, Happy Winter Break, too!
Hang in there!

Our local school now has a website that parents can check the teachers assignments and if the kids have turned in their homework weekly. I wish they had had this when our girls hit their teen years, they got thru it but it was a nerve wracking time, for DH and myself. Keep strong or it will just get worse. She is trying her wings but,,,,,

 

[hallerlake]

Quote:
Yes, I bought them at Whole Foods. I mentioned here that I had never hatched eggs before, and asked if I should try with some cheap eggs before I bought $ ones I really wanted. Someone said that was a good idea (don't recall who, not that it matters - sounded like a good plan to me). I did ask Tamara about eggs (since I like Lav Orps) but she said she wasn't getting many right now. I figured that would be the case for most people.

I just checked my birds. They're dry, no problem. However, the two EEs were on the perch, and the rest were huddled underneath them, getting s#&@ on.

I put everybody up on the perches.

So,...mmmmmmmmmmm what you are telling me is that you are starting to hatch eggs for the very first time with crap eggs.............gee, what a lovely lesson that will be!
Seems to me that if one wants to learn, they get the freshest fertile eggs they can...and the best equipment you can.
Learning to fail, is what you are doing.
If you need fertile fresh eggs, I have lots...never been in a refrigerator or sterilizer either...

What you are doing is practicing to be a failure.
IF they hatch (I doubt it) they should be seriously screwed up by bleach solution used to wash eggs commercially, and refrigeration...and TIME.
hatching eggs need to be incubated (as far as I am concerned) within 5 days...most other feel within 6-7 days removed from the hen....comercial eggs are usually 2 weeks old, that is why you can hard boil & peel them, the membrane is dried out away from the shell...........
Get some real eggs.
I can send you some OR give you some at the show, let me know.

one's first incubation can be stressful enough without doing it with expensive eggs.

 

[HoneysuckleHills]

Quote:
What was the incentive? I've tried both positive and negative without much luck with either. Now I'm using Girlscout activities since she seems to enjoy them.

These kinds of things so depend on the child.
I guess you could say the incentive was a closer relationship with me. As in, Mom and I have this in common. Let me try to explain.
In our case, first we did what you are doing. No negotiating, no discussion, just get 'er done.
Then, when she was fully caught up, I confessed to her that I thought she was absolutely right. Much of her homework was boring to do and a waste of time because she really did know the answer. (She "sees" math - I don't know how else to explain it.) Then I shared with her the things in my life that I do that I find boring and a waste of time. I shared examples: things I did simply because I loved the person asking me to do them, things I did because the person telling me to do them had power over me (my boss which to her = teacher) The point I made to her was that the purpose of finishing homework in those cases where you really and truly don't personally need to, had to do with showing respect for authority, and so on. And then, we set aside time each day where she did the stuff she found hopelessly boring while I did the same. We commiserated, determined whose fate was worse that day, raced each other, made fun of it, that kind of comradery. And when we were done, we did something fun together - often it was cooking dinner still laughing over our boring tasks. In the middle of all that i taught her that she could take no credit for her raw intellegence. That she was naturally gifted in some areas and others were gifted in other areas and that we can all use our strengths to help each other. ( I got A's in math but I had to work for them.) I gave her credit for her effort because that's what she had control over. In other words, that math came easy to her wasn't really celebrated, if you will. That she used that skill to bring good was - such as using math to double a recipe or solve some other real life "story problem." I also celebrated her achievemtn overcoming the homework problem. (Not with stuff or even experiences. Just recognition that it was her personal acheivement. ) It kept her humble. This kind of parenting takes a tremendous amount of time but I felt it was what she needed. Like I said, each child is very different. But for super smart kids, school is miserably boring. I was never one to teach my child that 2 + 2 =4. I always asked "how many different ways can you find to get to 4?" That too, kinda backfired in class because there's no room for that kind of challenging discussion. It's mostly fill in the blanks and teach to the lcd or to the test. Wow, this ended up a little longer than I expected. Sorry. Like I said to start - it really all depends on the child.

 

[Ogress]

Quote:
The middle school does this and it is a lifesaver! Alex never was more than 2 weeks behind (we'd catch him up whenever the teachers posted, some are better than others at posting). The elementary school does not do this. Luckily it is the last year of elementary school. No desks is a big help too - the lockers at the middle school are too narrow to even hang a backpack in, (good to hang a coat in, not much else). So, as long as Alex did not leave his papers in the classroom (which he does far too often), we will usually be able to find them at the bottom of his pack. For all my griping, Alex has become much more responsible. We did not hover over him this year as we did last, and though his grades slipped some and he skipped assignments, in many ways he is becoming more responsible. HW is not a daily battle anymore; several times a week, but no longer daily. He is also voluntarily working more around the house. Olivia, however, is now worse than Alex ever was, and she does not have Autism as an excuse! Maybe it is jealousy or lack of attention compared to her brother. She does not think it is fair that his IEP allows for dictation. I pretty much leave her on her own unless she asks for help, and she almost never does. She does not like to show me her work because I circle and make her correct all her spelling errors and make her re-write sloppy work even if it is correct.

Alex gets some assignments modified. He scores well in social studies when I study with him and drill him, but he can't do the writing in the workbook, and even when we do them by dictation, the workbook pages don't help him. Alex is a very visual learner. He reads the text out loud to me, and I write a summary as he reads and embelish it with drawings. The teacher yesterday asked how we study because Alex knows the material very well. Then he told me that since Alex has no work book pages turned in, he will need to turn in all the notes and drawings we have done in order to get credit for homework. I was not expecting this. I write on any old paper I find - backs of letters, old homework assignments, packing lists.... I also do stuff on there that is probably not appropriate but will help remember things. Alex needed to remember that King John was forced to sign the Magna Carta, he did not sign it because he was a nice guy who wanted to give people more rights. So whenever I wrote down King John, Alex would add "the Jack Ass" so he could remember he was a Jerk. We drew a man in the stocks to show how he treated people, and since people seldom bathed then, we drew flies buzzing around him. And Alex added garbage and other waste to the streets because that is how people got rid of their garbage and rats running around to remember the bubonic plague, and a bleeding guy with leaches over him and a Dr. holding and astrological chart to remember how medicine was practiced. I had not kept all the pages - most I shredded after the tests and they are now lining the chicken nest boxes, but I did still have the notes and drawings for the last 2 chapters. Next trimester he has to learn about the rise of Islam. That is a subject I never studied in school.

 

[HoneysuckleHills]

Quote:
Yes maple burns longer but for real long it's oak or ash. but they MUST be very dry and even they leave more ash in the stove and creasote in the flue.

Thanks, CR. Another question and thanks in advance for your answer. )Obviously, this an area I know very little about.)
Do these woods have distinguishing characteristics so that I can tell them apart?
To get rid of the creasote, should I do a hot burn in the morning to clean the pipe?

 

[Ogress]

Quote:
What was the incentive? I've tried both positive and negative without much luck with either. Now I'm using Girlscout activities since she seems to enjoy them.

These kinds of things so depend on the child.
I guess you could say the incentive was a closer relationship with me. As in, Mom and I have this in common. Let me try to explain.
In our case, first we did what you are doing. No negotiating, no discussion, just get 'er done.
Then, when she was fully caught up, I confessed to her that I thought she was absolutely right. Much of her homework was boring to do and a waste of time because she really did know the answer. (She "sees" math - I don't know how else to explain it.) Then I shared with her the things in my life that I do that I find boring and a waste of time. I shared examples: things I did simply because I loved the person asking me to do them, things I did because the person telling me to do them had power over me (my boss which to her = teacher) The point I made to her was that the purpose of finishing homework in those cases where you really and truly don't personally need to, had to do with showing respect for authority, and so on. And then, we set aside time each day where she did the stuff she found hopelessly boring while I did the same. We commiserated, determined whose fate was worse that day, raced each other, made fun of it, that kind of comradery. And when we were done, we did something fun together - often it was cooking dinner still laughing over our boring tasks. In the middle of all that i taught her that she could take no credit for her raw intellegence. That she was naturally gifted in some areas and others were gifted in other areas and that we can all use our strengths to help each other. ( I got A's in math but I had to work for them.) I gave her credit for her effort because that's what she had control over. In other words, that math came easy to her wasn't really celebrated, if you will. That she used that skill to bring good was - such as using math to double a recipe or solve some other real life "story problem." I also celebrated her achievemtn overcoming the homework problem. (Not with stuff or even experiences. Just recognition that it was her personal acheivement. ) It kept her humble. This kind of parenting takes a tremendous amount of time but I felt it was what she needed. Like I said, each child is very different. But for super smart kids, school is miserably boring. I was never one to teach my child that 2 + 2 =4. I always asked "how many different ways can you find to get to 4?" That too, kinda backfired in class because there's no room for that kind of challenging discussion. It's mostly fill in the blanks and teach to the lcd or to the test. Wow, this ended up a little longer than I expected. Sorry. Like I said to start - it really all depends on the child.

Thanks! That helps a lot. I do need to find more time to spend with Olivia. I think she feels left out.

No need to explain "seeing math". I was one who always had to turn every math problem into a word problem so i could see how many cows were standing in a field in grade school or how much radioactivity is left in an isotope when I got to higher level maths. If I can't picture it, it is just numbers. I also see numbers in colors. Alex's math teacher yesterday said that Alex thinks way out of the box. How he reasons to solve problems is completely different than what he teaches, and he thinks this is great and it shows that Alex really thinks about the way numbers interact. Alex does not need the cows or the isotopes to learn, but for him math is also very visual. He read "Born on a Blue Day" a couple years ago, and though he is not a visual learner to quite the extent of the author, Alex was thrilled that there was someone who he could relate so well with. Alex's math teacher made a very interesting discovery this week. He was introducing a new concept in Algebra. and most of the kids missed the problems in their homework. He asked if any student could come to the front of the room and do the problem on the white board. Alex was the only one to volunteer. The teacher said he was hesitant to let Alex up as he had NOTHING on his paper and he thinks so far out of the box that most of the students are totally confused by what he says. This was the first time he was up at the whiteboard, and he said Alex wrote the problem out beautifully, step by step, not missing anything, and when he explained it, it made perfect sense! He said he was floored and wanted to call me right then and wished he had it on video. Even the studentswere able to follow him! In all these years, I never thought of having him write out his work on a big board! Years ago, I did marvel at how he writes in the sand at the beach with his feet just beautifully, yet he can't do with his hands what he can accomplish with his feet. Maybe it is all a fine-motor coordination thing, but he did OT fine motor skills for years with no success.

 

[ByN8ureHomstead]

Quote:
Explain to the flat lander please. Avalanche Control, do they stop traffic, cause an avalanche, clean it up and make everyone wait? That could take hours. Don't they detour the traffic?

You post this at 4:25 why would they do this during rush hour?




Edit - added a question.

 

[Cowgirlgrace]

Quote:
Explain to the flat lander please. Avalanche Control, do they stop traffic, cause an avalanche, clean it up and make everyone wait? That could take hours. Don't they detour the traffic?

You post this at 4:25 why would they do this during rush hour?





Edit - added a question.

Yes, they stop traffic and make everyone wait. Yes, It takes hours. It is a mountain pass so there is no detour. I've only been over the passes a few times and not in winter but I would suspect that there is no real 'Rush hour' since most people usually work on the side they live on. I also don't know what makes them decide it's time to do it but when it needs done it better get done! I think they try to let people know as far ahead as possible so you postpone your trip a few hours. Maybe wanted to get it done before the Thanksgiving rush! I'm sure others know more details about it than me.

 

[blueducklings]

Quote:
The middle school does this and it is a lifesaver! Alex never was more than 2 weeks behind (we'd catch him up whenever the teachers posted, some are better than others at posting). The elementary school does not do this. Luckily it is the last year of elementary school. No desks is a big help too - the lockers at the middle school are too narrow to even hang a backpack in, (good to hang a coat in, not much else). So, as long as Alex did not leave his papers in the classroom (which he does far too often), we will usually be able to find them at the bottom of his pack. For all my griping, Alex has become much more responsible. We did not hover over him this year as we did last, and though his grades slipped some and he skipped assignments, in many ways he is becoming more responsible. HW is not a daily battle anymore; several times a week, but no longer daily. He is also voluntarily working more around the house. Olivia, however, is now worse than Alex ever was, and she does not have Autism as an excuse! Maybe it is jealousy or lack of attention compared to her brother. She does not think it is fair that his IEP allows for dictation. I pretty much leave her on her own unless she asks for help, and she almost never does. She does not like to show me her work because I circle and make her correct all her spelling errors and make her re-write sloppy work even if it is correct.

Alex gets some assignments modified. He scores well in social studies when I study with him and drill him, but he can't do the writing in the workbook, and even when we do them by dictation, the workbook pages don't help him. Alex is a very visual learner. He reads the text out loud to me, and I write a summary as he reads and embelish it with drawings. The teacher yesterday asked how we study because Alex knows the material very well. Then he told me that since Alex has no work book pages turned in, he will need to turn in all the notes and drawings we have done in order to get credit for homework. I was not expecting this. I write on any old paper I find - backs of letters, old homework assignments, packing lists.... I also do stuff on there that is probably not appropriate but will help remember things. Alex needed to remember that King John was forced to sign the Magna Carta, he did not sign it because he was a nice guy who wanted to give people more rights. So whenever I wrote down King John, Alex would add "the Jack Ass" so he could remember he was a Jerk. We drew a man in the stocks to show how he treated people, and since people seldom bathed then, we drew flies buzzing around him. And Alex added garbage and other waste to the streets because that is how people got rid of their garbage and rats running around to remember the bubonic plague, and a bleeding guy with leaches over him and a Dr. holding and astrological chart to remember how medicine was practiced. I had not kept all the pages - most I shredded after the tests and they are now lining the chicken nest boxes, but I did still have the notes and drawings for the last 2 chapters. Next trimester he has to learn about the rise of Islam. That is a subject I never studied in school.

LWSD has an accelerated program where the kids are challenged and they are with kids just like them.
There is another private program in Bellevue.
Most of them will not sit still. LOL.