The Rant of Our Discontent

[SAT 9,609]

Fooks....

 

https://nypost.com/2018/01/08/worker-caught-stepping-on-frozen-fish-at-chinatown-market/

[SAT 9,609]

15 minutes ago, Ontarkie said:

 

 

My back is killing me.

 

The Jedi is sleeping on the couch and I don't want to move him. 

 

1- Kill your back first, before it kills you....

2- How's little Hill doing? 

3- Get him a haircut, I mean a mullet...

[N-o-l-a 7,167]

9 minutes ago, SAT said:

 

3- Get him a haircut, I mean a mullet...

Shush. Man buns are great. The Dane told me I had permission to give the third one a man bun. I'm ecstatic. 

[SAT 9,609]

Where you are, Nano Dutch needs a full beard to keep his face warm....

[N-o-l-a 7,167]

My daughter didn't even know what half of her spelling words meant last week.  Shouldn't that be something they are covering at school?

 

They are also not teaching them word origins/roots which is killing my little soul.  I've been doing that and she went from failing the spelling tests to doing great on them.  

[SAT 9,609]

Vocabulary has to be supplemented at home. It's expected through reading and independent learning...

[SAT 9,609]

The Kindle makes learning  definitions easy.

Alexa is great for spelling. 

Modern times, modern tools, modern methods. 

[N-o-l-a 7,167]

1 minute ago, SAT said:

Vocabulary has to be supplemented at home. It's expected through reading and independent learning...

I suppose.  She just isn't a reader, ya know?

 

Just now, SAT said:

The Kindle makes learning  definitions easy.

Alexa is great for spelling. 

 

She's got a macbook pro.  It has a dictionary app.  The thing is she doesn't even care that she doesn't know a word.  I only found out by accident that she didn't know what they meant.  She is supposed to read for 20 minutes a night, but how helpful is that if she doesn't care if she understands what she reads?

I don't know if my standards are too high for her.  Her father went to a bilingual school and had multi-lingual parents but never learned a second language.  Based on his spelling/grammar, I'd say he didn't learn English well enough either.   You can see the difference at home - the little Dane is bilingual, she still can't figure out even the most basic of sentences in Danish.    They both hear the exact same amount of Danish.  

 

 

[N-o-l-a 7,167]

Maybe she's a bit like my mother too, the nuns thought she was unteachable.  They had to find a different way for her to get a regents diploma without passing the foreign language test.  

[TBoneTX 45,288]

10 hours ago, SAT said:

I remember telling him that I wanted to pack it in soon...a few years ago. 

Now it's HIM telling ME that!

Umm...that's not very good for business...

Nothing will rejuvenate your spirits more than entering the POTS business, try it man.

Verrrrrrrry small initial investment necessary, tru$t u$ man.

[TBoneTX 45,288]

Mini-B. needs at all times, and has, and is happiest having, a man's haircut, mini-macho wee man.

He's being immersed in Kumon, math math math man (and not P-math, sadly).

We try to read to him some every night, too, read we to wee man.

He hasn't read much of his own volition lately, no man.

Speaking & listening, he's bilingual English/Spanish, good start for wee man.

He's getting another certificate of some kind at skool tomorrow, arise at o'dark-Many to be there we man.

We are worried about his spelling, not good man.

We are even more worried about the grammatical errors on the homework instructions that he brings from skool, sigh man.

[TBoneTX 45,288]

De-dish cat prep highly-truncated-zzz man.

Mornin', etc.!

[NikLR 13,227]

So you are teaching her where the word comes from?  

Honestly I have been reading since I was 3 and I couldnt care less about the origin of a word.  But if it helps her learn then do it.  But I wouldnt expect it from the school.  (My phone has a serious issue with apostrophes right now too.)  I cant even remember what its called when two words are combined because in no way has it ever affected by daily life. Ive used basic algebra more... 

 

Not everyone does well with multiple languages.  I did alright in French class but I certainly can read it better than I could ever speak it. I did not bother sending the kiddo to French emersion either, English was often hard enough and speech therapy was involved.   However Mandarin was an option at high school that kiddo picked up.  Im interested to see how it goes.  

Edited January 9, 2018 by NikLR

[NikLR 13,227]

I believe I have heard that it is best to teach children a second language by age 5?

[N-o-l-a 7,167]

1 hour ago, NikLR said:

So you are teaching her where the word comes from?  

Honestly I have been reading since I was 3 and I couldnt care less about the origin of a word.  But if it helps her learn then do it.  But I wouldnt expect it from the school.  (My phone has a serious issue with apostrophes right now too.)  I cant even remember what its called when two words are combined because in no way has it ever affected by daily life. Ive used basic algebra more... 

 

Not everyone does well with multiple languages.  I did alright in French class but I certainly can read it better than I could ever speak it. I did not bother sending the kiddo to French emersion either, English was often hard enough and speech therapy was involved.   However Mandarin was an option at high school that kiddo picked up.  Im interested to see how it goes.  

 

Yes, well I noticed she was having some trouble with some of the similar sounds in English that are spelled differently.  I thought maybe her brain works like mine, in that a word spiders in my brain to its origins and then to its translations in the other languages I know.  It seemed to have some impact on her ability to think about them.

 

I wouldn't say that I do particularly well at languages, but it was easy enough for me to pick up understanding spoken/written Danish without too much effort.  My daughter doesn't seem to be able to do that.   Now speaking it on the other hand....oh boy.

 

1 hour ago, NikLR said:

I believe I have heard that it is best to teach children a second language by age 5?

 

She started learning it at 3, but the problem was that if she learned Danish, it was like her English learning just stopped.  Then, she sucked in both and couldn't communicate.  We had to pick one or the other and English is the obvious choice.  With Danish in particular, I believe you have to start speaking it like a native by age 7 to develop the proper vocal cord function for full fluency.  There are some sounds that just can't be replicated otherwise.

Edited January 9, 2018 by N-o-l-a