We have a new holiday here in Ontario...Family Day which we will celebrate tomorrow. All schools in the Province will be closed and many businesses will be also.
My family will be home tomorrow. We plan to take a quiet day and just enjoy the day. The weather probably won't be good enough to get out. We are having freezing rain right now, and it is supposed to change over to heavy rain later today and then snow flurries tonight and tomorrow, so inside we will probably be.
I like the idea of Family Day. Many business owners are fussing about it because it takes away a day of work and/or sales, but I think it is important to have some time together as a family, which can be hard in today's work and play society. I plan to enjoy the day. I hope you have a good day too.
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Saturday, February 09, 2008
Beware
A very disturbing though not completely unexpected thing happened this morning with our seven year old. He was sitting beside me on our other computer watching what I thought were videos from a family friendly site about his favorite video game, "Sonic." The house was really quiet for once and even though he had earphones on, I could hear a bit of the video. Suddenly, I caught the sound of a nasty four letter word come from the earphones. I stopped what I was doing and looked over. The video seemed OK, but I sat and listened a bit longer and heard more words. I asked the youngest if he was listening to something bad and, bright kid that he is, he answered, "No Bubba." (His name for me.) I unplugged the earphones from the jack and the very nasty dialogue filled the room. It seemed he had somehow surfed over to You Tube and was watching videos of Sonic with the poster's own filth laden dialogue voiced over the film.
Needless to say, I was shocked, outraged and angry. Unfortunately for the kids, we had to stop our computer time and have a talk about lying to Bubba and the dangers of just surfing anywhere on the net. Thank goodness we have both our computers in the main room of our house where they can be monitored and steered away from such filth and the dangers that can so easily be found on the net. I'm still angry though. The video was made to entice kids like ours to watch and with earphones on (which our kids often have since the computers are in a high traffic area of our home) the video looked to be just fine for the kids to watch. It was only when my ears (a mother's hearing has to be very sensitive sometimes) heard the language that I was alerted.
Needless to say, the boys are banned from You Tube completely, and if I find them watching or listening to to anything like that again, they may lose the computer entirely. I also plan to complain to You Tube, though I doubt that will do much good. Thank goodness our computers are so close and we monitor where the kids go.
Parents beware, especially on You Tube. The dangers are everywhere.
Needless to say, I was shocked, outraged and angry. Unfortunately for the kids, we had to stop our computer time and have a talk about lying to Bubba and the dangers of just surfing anywhere on the net. Thank goodness we have both our computers in the main room of our house where they can be monitored and steered away from such filth and the dangers that can so easily be found on the net. I'm still angry though. The video was made to entice kids like ours to watch and with earphones on (which our kids often have since the computers are in a high traffic area of our home) the video looked to be just fine for the kids to watch. It was only when my ears (a mother's hearing has to be very sensitive sometimes) heard the language that I was alerted.
Needless to say, the boys are banned from You Tube completely, and if I find them watching or listening to to anything like that again, they may lose the computer entirely. I also plan to complain to You Tube, though I doubt that will do much good. Thank goodness our computers are so close and we monitor where the kids go.
Parents beware, especially on You Tube. The dangers are everywhere.
Sunday, February 03, 2008
Some Musings
Life has really been hectic the last few months. Christmas was a busy time both for the family and in homeschooling. Our youngest had to perform with his class in the school's Christmas show. This was rather traumatizing for him because he has a big case of stage fright. He managed to get up on stage, but all he did was stand there. He didn't sing any of the songs or take part in the show. At least he made it up there.
We have made the decision to homeschool our middle child again next year. He is doing so well in homeschool that we feel we really made the right choice. However, next year he would be going to the middle school which is not close to our house, so I doubt that we will be able to get the school to let him come for just the French classes that he currently takes at the elementary school. It means that I will be trying to find something to replace those classes, either through some type of program that he and I can do together or through tutors somehow. I've found a program that would be good and easy for our son to use somewhat independently, but the price of the program is pretty high. The price of tutors would be high too, but at least they would be spaced out over time. The tutors would end up costing more in the long run, though. "Sigh."
We will be starting The Outsiders soon. I've never taught the entire book before, just parts of the book, so I'm looking forward to readin it through myself. We are working on the human body, the skeleton, organs etc. right now in Science. Math is going well too. He is finally starting to 'get' the multiplication tables. It's too bad he didn't get them in school, because he is really good in math generally, but got bogged down because he didn't learn the tables. He is doing great in Spelling and handwriting. I can finally read his writing now.
I will be posting more about my research for next year soon. Keep checking back.
We have made the decision to homeschool our middle child again next year. He is doing so well in homeschool that we feel we really made the right choice. However, next year he would be going to the middle school which is not close to our house, so I doubt that we will be able to get the school to let him come for just the French classes that he currently takes at the elementary school. It means that I will be trying to find something to replace those classes, either through some type of program that he and I can do together or through tutors somehow. I've found a program that would be good and easy for our son to use somewhat independently, but the price of the program is pretty high. The price of tutors would be high too, but at least they would be spaced out over time. The tutors would end up costing more in the long run, though. "Sigh."
We will be starting The Outsiders soon. I've never taught the entire book before, just parts of the book, so I'm looking forward to readin it through myself. We are working on the human body, the skeleton, organs etc. right now in Science. Math is going well too. He is finally starting to 'get' the multiplication tables. It's too bad he didn't get them in school, because he is really good in math generally, but got bogged down because he didn't learn the tables. He is doing great in Spelling and handwriting. I can finally read his writing now.
I will be posting more about my research for next year soon. Keep checking back.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)