Randomness
Feb. 15th, 2012 01:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fiberaddictHerself had a slight epiphany today in Math - she suddenly "got" reverse percentages. She's asked if she can barrel ahead in this chapter, to get ahead of her brother again. I said OK, IF she passes the Chapter Review, she can move ahead, so we'll see.
Had to go to Cyn's to pick up some work - she needs help. It's stuff I'm supposed to be doing on my Mondays, but can't because I don't have time. While out, we stopped at Half Price. I really didn't have the money...but I bought some books anyway.
I've been told over and over again that Vol. 2 of Streams of Civilization is BORING. So, I figured I'd go look for books to add to the history....especially because I realized that *I* don't know a lot of post-US Civil War History. (Seriously. I only know when WWII started because of the song "Bismark", and WWI because of the song "Flower of the Forest". Yes, I'm serious, and Yes, it's sad. My HS didn't cover that part of History, except in a quick rush the last 6 weeks. My personal favorite era is Tudor England....ask me about that, and I can rattle off useless facts. American History is what - 500 years? And I am stupid in it. :sigh:) I hit the kid's section, and scored 10 books covering various eras for them - most written below their level, but that's OK.
I bought 1 book a few weeks ago off of the Reading List that came with my lesson plans. I was looking forward to pre-reading it; it's "Now It Can Be Told" by Gen. Groves - he was in charge of the Manhattan Project (the Atomic Bomb). I was excited - and the book? Is B-O-R-I-N-G. I've had it 2 weeks, and I've managed to make it to maybe the half-way point. Granted, I'm also reading Mark Twain's "Joan of Arc"...but that's normal for me to have at least 2 books going; Groves just isn't an author. It reads like a Military de-briefing...dry isn't the word for it. And it's SO FULL of interesting facts! He could have used a good ghost writer to liven it up......this? If *I* can't slog thru it, I'm not going to make my kids attempt it!
I found a copy of Nextext's "The Atomic Bomb"...while it's still not a "fun" read, it's better than Groves' book. I also got 3 books on WWII focusing on the Holocaust, 1 book on D-Day, 1 book on WWI, 1 book on the Special Forces, 1 book on the Vietnam War, 1 book on China's Cultural Revolution (1966), 1 book on Westward Expansion, 1 book on the Civil War, and 1 book about real-life Princesses (what? The first 1/3 of the book is about Princess Elizabeth (1), and the whole Tudor dynasty. I could NOT leave it there - *I* need it for...research. :nods: :lol:) I'm still needing something on Victorian England, and the Industrial Revolution, but I'm going to hunt for e-books. Those can be put on each e-reader; these hard copies have to be shared. (I also really need to go thru all MY books, because I *KNOW* I have a LOT on Elizabethan England - which is coming up in the next (and LAST!) chapter of our current text. (I told you - that's my favorite Historical Era. I have TONS of stuff on it, and on James I's England (because of his Scottish background.) I just...don't have much about anything AFTER that.) We'll be done with Vol. 1 in 2 weeks, and we're going to take a break from formal History until Herself finishes the Science book (I want to keep those sort of in line - she started later than Himself did; I rushed her thru History, since she'd been exposed to some of it in PS, but Science was a whole new world.)
SG LOVED his V-day gift. We're all at the broke stage right now (well, HE got paid today, but yesterday he was skint), so *my* gift was him finishing the tile-work in the kitchen. He just needs to grout the half-rounds on the oven side tonight, and all that's left in the kitchen is painting above the cabinets, painting the trim, and staining the cabinets (which I want to do next week). Yes, I'm thrilled - he could have put it off to the weekend, but instead he got to it last night. :hugs:
Tomorrow I get to put the stuff back on the counters - I can't wait. I'm tired of schooling at the coffee table.....I can't spread out. But it does mean that the dogs can take part in learning:
Kenzie decided she wanted to learn Latin. Not sure how much she retained, but she sure was listening to Mr. Linney very intently. (I didn't catch on film how she kept turning her head, trying to figure out WHAT was going on. :snicker:) You can see Snips was bored with it...:lol: You can't see the whiteboard in the photo - it was propped in front of the TV (which I was standing in front of to take the photo). I write the translation phrases on it, and the kids look at it and translate them along with the commentary. It's working - whenever the Farmer's Insurance commercial comes on (with the tagline: We Are Farmers!), they start chanting "Sumus Agricolae!" which is the Latin translation....I guess you have to BE here. It's hysterical in real life. :lol:
I need to go sort thru books - and try to get the mud off of the floor. It rained again last night - thankfully. We NEED rain!
Had to go to Cyn's to pick up some work - she needs help. It's stuff I'm supposed to be doing on my Mondays, but can't because I don't have time. While out, we stopped at Half Price. I really didn't have the money...but I bought some books anyway.
I've been told over and over again that Vol. 2 of Streams of Civilization is BORING. So, I figured I'd go look for books to add to the history....especially because I realized that *I* don't know a lot of post-US Civil War History. (Seriously. I only know when WWII started because of the song "Bismark", and WWI because of the song "Flower of the Forest". Yes, I'm serious, and Yes, it's sad. My HS didn't cover that part of History, except in a quick rush the last 6 weeks. My personal favorite era is Tudor England....ask me about that, and I can rattle off useless facts. American History is what - 500 years? And I am stupid in it. :sigh:) I hit the kid's section, and scored 10 books covering various eras for them - most written below their level, but that's OK.
I bought 1 book a few weeks ago off of the Reading List that came with my lesson plans. I was looking forward to pre-reading it; it's "Now It Can Be Told" by Gen. Groves - he was in charge of the Manhattan Project (the Atomic Bomb). I was excited - and the book? Is B-O-R-I-N-G. I've had it 2 weeks, and I've managed to make it to maybe the half-way point. Granted, I'm also reading Mark Twain's "Joan of Arc"...but that's normal for me to have at least 2 books going; Groves just isn't an author. It reads like a Military de-briefing...dry isn't the word for it. And it's SO FULL of interesting facts! He could have used a good ghost writer to liven it up......this? If *I* can't slog thru it, I'm not going to make my kids attempt it!
I found a copy of Nextext's "The Atomic Bomb"...while it's still not a "fun" read, it's better than Groves' book. I also got 3 books on WWII focusing on the Holocaust, 1 book on D-Day, 1 book on WWI, 1 book on the Special Forces, 1 book on the Vietnam War, 1 book on China's Cultural Revolution (1966), 1 book on Westward Expansion, 1 book on the Civil War, and 1 book about real-life Princesses (what? The first 1/3 of the book is about Princess Elizabeth (1), and the whole Tudor dynasty. I could NOT leave it there - *I* need it for...research. :nods: :lol:) I'm still needing something on Victorian England, and the Industrial Revolution, but I'm going to hunt for e-books. Those can be put on each e-reader; these hard copies have to be shared. (I also really need to go thru all MY books, because I *KNOW* I have a LOT on Elizabethan England - which is coming up in the next (and LAST!) chapter of our current text. (I told you - that's my favorite Historical Era. I have TONS of stuff on it, and on James I's England (because of his Scottish background.) I just...don't have much about anything AFTER that.) We'll be done with Vol. 1 in 2 weeks, and we're going to take a break from formal History until Herself finishes the Science book (I want to keep those sort of in line - she started later than Himself did; I rushed her thru History, since she'd been exposed to some of it in PS, but Science was a whole new world.)
SG LOVED his V-day gift. We're all at the broke stage right now (well, HE got paid today, but yesterday he was skint), so *my* gift was him finishing the tile-work in the kitchen. He just needs to grout the half-rounds on the oven side tonight, and all that's left in the kitchen is painting above the cabinets, painting the trim, and staining the cabinets (which I want to do next week). Yes, I'm thrilled - he could have put it off to the weekend, but instead he got to it last night. :hugs:
Tomorrow I get to put the stuff back on the counters - I can't wait. I'm tired of schooling at the coffee table.....I can't spread out. But it does mean that the dogs can take part in learning:
Kenzie decided she wanted to learn Latin. Not sure how much she retained, but she sure was listening to Mr. Linney very intently. (I didn't catch on film how she kept turning her head, trying to figure out WHAT was going on. :snicker:) You can see Snips was bored with it...:lol: You can't see the whiteboard in the photo - it was propped in front of the TV (which I was standing in front of to take the photo). I write the translation phrases on it, and the kids look at it and translate them along with the commentary. It's working - whenever the Farmer's Insurance commercial comes on (with the tagline: We Are Farmers!), they start chanting "Sumus Agricolae!" which is the Latin translation....I guess you have to BE here. It's hysterical in real life. :lol:
I need to go sort thru books - and try to get the mud off of the floor. It rained again last night - thankfully. We NEED rain!
no subject
Date: 2012-02-15 09:26 pm (UTC)I snagged Winston Churchill's history of WWII and the buildup (for DH, who is a WWII buff) but I didn't get through very much of it. Not that he's a bad writer, it's just so slow... and there's a lot of politics. English politics. zzzzzzz I'm reading an overview of the last 500 years of cultural civilization now. Intermittently. I just.. I dunno, it qualifies as "things I would like to know but don't find particularly gripping as reading material". Focused study, that's what I need. Focused study. (I want to homeschool so I can get my own schooling in order, sad but true).
I seem to fall into a lot of information about La Belle Epoque. Maybe I should start my own study of history with a really thorough study of that time period, instead of my patchwork mess.
-Hearth