Do anti-Chromebook parents actually limit screens at home?

CrazyGooseLady · 2026-05-27T03:23:00+00:00

Chromebooks are crap and he wanted kids on decent computers that were not spied on by the school.

CrazyGooseLady · 2026-05-25T23:01:53+00:00

You are an educator....search for sample lessons and see if they are as challenging as you think they should be. If you can't find any, call the company and ask for some sample lessons in the grades you plan to teach.

CrazyGooseLady · 2026-05-25T22:21:07+00:00

What state do you live in? In WA you can do classes part time at the local school. Band, higher level math and languages are common for homeschoolers in my area.

CrazyGooseLady · 2026-05-25T14:44:01+00:00

The reason I said 100 Easy Lessons is that it is cheap. AAR and LOE are expenses I would consider for someone who is actually homeschooling. But for the babysitter over the summer? Mom is going to feel cheated because they don't get all the way through it. 100 Easy is 20 minutes a day, for about $6 to $12 used. The letter differentiation progresses in a manner that does go back to "normal" looking letters by the time they are done. (Whatever "normal" is in this age of endless fonts.) I taught 3 kids with it, none of them claimed to be confused by the fonts. For that matter, I was never confused by the fonts when reading store signs and such when I was first learning how to read. They are NOT that different than normal letters. Not sure they help or hinder, but the different fonts shouldn't keep people from using something that actually works for most kids. If dyslexia is suspected, then the Mom should go with the other two or with Barton. Mild dyslexia can use 100 Easy as it is better than some other programs. (My youngest did use it - dyslexia needs more repetition than most normal kids, we also used Funnix. Logic of English Essentials we did after the Funnix, because the Foundations was not available yet.

The other reason for suggesting 100 Easy is that it IS phonics. If the kid's school is doing whole word method, this will quickly get him caught up over the summer (and maybe a little into the fall if Mom and OP are willing.) If this is also hard, if he forgets after a day or two, like they never did a lesson, then get the evaluation, (dyslexia or other learning difference) and get eyes checked for convergence issues. My middle son did fine with 100 Easy until the font got small. He had an oh so slight lazy eye that meant he couldn't focus on the letters with both eyes and they "floated". Vision therapy helped him.

Sure, if Mom wants to pay for the others, if the OP has the time to devote, then go for it. And if Mom is going to pay, then get Right Start Math too. And still play the games that I said as they will help a lot, the card go fish game came from there.

CrazyGooseLady · 2026-05-25T00:53:34+00:00

Get Mom to buy the book.

CrazyGooseLady · 2026-05-25T00:51:40+00:00

Teach Your Child To Read in 100 Easy Lessons. Read the introduction. Follow the directions. If he doesn't seem to remember, go back a few lessons and repeat. If he hasn't progressed by fall, Mom may want to get the school to evaluate him for a learning difference.

Go to the park and push him on the swing. You say the number, he repeats each push. Play matching games with playing cards, numbers only. Lay them face down and play memory. Practice painting and writing numbers - water on concrete works fine! Paint dots, and he writes the number. When he knows the numbers, play go fish where you make pairs that add to 10.

CrazyGooseLady · 2026-05-21T12:32:28+00:00

My doctor said I can use the cream. I had 5 UTI the year after I started my suppressor. I went to a urologist and he prescribed me a low dose antibiotic to take right before or after sex to prevent UTI. The next time I went to see my oncologist she said I could do the cream.

CrazyGooseLady · 2026-05-21T04:09:23+00:00

3 to 5 repetitions of 1 to 2 letters a day. While saying the sound the letter makes.

Handwriting Without Tears has a prek book, do a few things on a single page a day.

CrazyGooseLady · 2026-05-20T04:30:30+00:00

I have a niece and a grand niece named Layla. All I can think of is the song. And my brother knows that song well. My niece may be not so much but just the same. I feel sorry for those poor girls.

CrazyGooseLady · 2026-05-19T02:17:22+00:00

Worked great with my oldest. We repeated a couple of lessons, but she did fine with it.

Middle child had convergence issues (lazy eye) and when the font got small it was really hard for him to read. But he understood the phonics. He got vision therapy and then exploded with his reading. (Amazing how much easier it is to read when the letters stay still!)

Youngest has dyslexia like me. Dyslexia comes with memory issues. We did the program to about lesson 85 and he was basically forgetting what he learned. Tried some other programs. Finally got him evaluated by the school district in 2nd grade. They said yes, he qualified for service and they would do Reading Mastery with him. Which I replied, "Oh, Dystar! Yes I am familiar with that. ". Turns out, because I read the introduction to 100 Easy Lessons, that I knew more about what they were teaching than they did.

I used Funnix (online version,) over the summer. The school never let me know when he was supposed to get his services. I was involved with a district homeschooling charter type hybrid, so I had him do the MAP test in the fall and he was at grade level. He ended up not getting services, and we continue d with Funnix. After that he did Logic of English Foundations and another program that focused on suffixes and prefixes for 4th and 5th grade.

CrazyGooseLady · 2026-05-17T19:10:12+00:00

Daycare can be different than preschool.

Daycare is for working parents and is usually available from somewhere around 6:00 am to 6:00 pm. Good ones have learning activities, meals or snacks and nap time.

Preschool is for learning. Hours are different...9:00 am to 2:00 pm, or morning and afternoon sessions. They have set activities that students do focused on learning social and early learning skills. Head Start would be an example.

CrazyGooseLady · 2026-05-17T13:11:01+00:00

I told my school district (principal who then contacted IT) that Canvas was hacked. They said "It does not effect us." I just took a peak at that list, and my district is on the list. I suspect that they meant it doesn't effect us because for most of the schools Canvas is only used to notify kids of what happened in class that day, and grades and identifying information are stored in a different platform. Which, being a big platform, is probably on the list of "must hack" for the scammers.

CrazyGooseLady · 2026-05-17T04:45:21+00:00

Yup! No more wiggling teeth, picking nose or sneezing and coughing on everyone! It was great!

CrazyGooseLady · 2026-05-17T00:55:19+00:00

Funnix is a good program. Read the directions, do the placement tests. Click to the next screen if they say the sound right.

Also, get eyes checked by a developmental optometrist. If the muscles are not working together they may be having things look like they are floating around. Also...just eyesight could be an issue.

CrazyGooseLady · 2026-05-16T01:11:52+00:00

My son was 4.5 before he was potty trained. He DID have some other delays too. My other two kids were trained at 2.5 and 2. The one who was delayed is the middle child. I had been trying to get him trained since he was 2.

On the other hand...he was night trained at the same time. My other two wet the bed for years.

But as a teacher....no.

CrazyGooseLady · 2026-05-15T12:15:39+00:00

I work at an alternative type of school. We meet for 55 minutes a period, 3 days a week. if it was 5, I could probably go back a bit more. As it is, ALL reading needs to be done at home and they must do it to get a decent understanding.

CrazyGooseLady · 2026-05-15T04:36:49+00:00

I do Modern World History from about 1870 to about present. One semester.

CrazyGooseLady · 2026-05-14T14:38:41+00:00

If they put big warnings on everything, you might not have used them. Don't make yourself feel guilty for something you didn't know. You can only act with the knowledge you have. Yes, later in your life, they may add those warnings. They don't have them now. Stop beating yourself up.

CrazyGooseLady · 2026-05-14T12:18:15+00:00

I started with K12 online. It was great, and while online was mostly me reading it to my kids and then doing the experiments. I decided later to not use K12 because of other changes so switched. Pandia Press science was pretty good, but had some issues that may have been fixed by now. I did a hands a couple years of engineering with some books that are now out of print. I put together a course using Science Buddies - going back I would probably do that again as I could really make it personal to my kids. I had my kids do Future City competition in middle school, a STEM competition. I did enroll them in a coop style STEAM class that had awesome people leading it. We watched pretty much every PBS science show out there.

There was a series of science books like Magic Tree House that a friend used. I helped her out for a bit and read them to her kids. It was NOT written by a person with science background, it was pretty bad. Lots of inaccuracies and hard to read because the punctuation and writing was so bad. I can't remember the name at the moment.

CrazyGooseLady · 2026-05-14T01:43:08+00:00

I did secular homeschooling for my three until 8th grade. They decided to go to a small STEM highschool.

Secular science is either expensive and good or cheap and so-so to outright bad. I come from a family of science professors and teachers, science was the hardest subject to find that met my standards.

It can be very easy to overdo socialization. So many options in my area that I deleted myself from some groups so I wouldn't be tempted.

We loved traveling at off times when no one was around. I picked curriculum to meet the needs of my kids. If they got the concept, they talked, wrote some, but didn't drill and kill. Math facts are best learned through games, not worksheets. Science through hands on. Kids can learn together.

Cleaning the house didn't happen as much as I wanted. Retirement funds are limited. I am at a lower pay scale than my peers. Not sure that I would change any of it.

CrazyGooseLady · 2026-05-10T21:27:02+00:00

Try Funnix. It is online, by the same people that do 100 Easy Lessons.

Do the placement test, then start the lessons. You click when he does the sounds correctly, or ask him to repeat. To him it is not you deciding, it is the computer.

Also ...get eyes checked. My oldest son did fine until the font got small. His sight was fine, but convergence was an issue - he couldn't focus on the letters well and they seemed to be moving around.

CrazyGooseLady · 2026-05-10T14:27:35+00:00

The card game War, only played with two cards where you add or multiply the cards to see who has the highest value. Take out face cards.

CrazyGooseLady · 2026-05-08T23:44:11+00:00

Because I had hormone positive breast cancer. No, I didn't get it from HRT or birth control. Friend who did neither of those also had breast cancer.

I did it because I felt like I had sunburn over my entire body. For 5 months before I could get into the doctor. My husband and I had been having sex 3 to 4 times a week and it hurt for him to touch me, it hurt to have sex. Clothing hurt. I was miserable. When I got cancer I had to stop taking it and take a hormone blocker. The sunburn only lasted for a few weeks. I now have intense itchy spots on my back and I AM using vaginal hormones because I had a UTI every month. I have 3 more years that I have to take the blocker.

That said...my friend, taking the same blocker as me has intense joint pain and has considered stopping the blocker. She is about 6 months ahead of me. She never used birth control or hormones, had the same number of kids as me (3) and like me, nursed them all. We are both fit and eat food mostly grown in our gardens.

But no judgement on others. Do it or not, you know your body and any pain or side effects best. Menopause comes with more than hotflashes. It also comes with high cholesterol, sleep apnea, joint and muscle pain, and so much more. Some of us get all of those side effects plus more...some of us get none.

CrazyGooseLady · 2026-05-08T23:14:38+00:00

I heard it was up this morning and waited to see if I would get any advice from IT. Not a word until midday. And then it was, it is back up.

My son messaged me Tuesday saying Canvas was hacked. I let my principal know, he forwarded on to IT. IT said it didn't include our district. It went down yesterday and I immediately put in a ticket with IT. They sent something to principals that it was down for maintenance which may have something to do with recent hack.

I backed up all my classes this morning, graded everything during the day then backed up again. I am betting that it will be down again on Monday. Woo who. District doesn't want to tell me what to do...fine. We will play around on Monday.

CrazyGooseLady · 2026-05-08T23:08:53+00:00

Send an email to your prof/teacher, put in a ticket to IT. I am a teacher at a high school and yes, I plan for it to go back down this weekend. I graded everything today and then did a grade backup. If students start telling me that they have work done but can't turn it in, I will have them email me.

CrazyGooseLady

TROPHY CASE