The Chit Chat Chit Chat Thread

MySmallWorldof4

MySmallWorldof4

Well-Known Member
Goofyernmost said:
I stayed at home and played, used my imagination to create things in my mind that didn't exist and act them out. I had a cousin that lived next door and he was two years older then me. He kept insisting that he was going to teach me the alphabet and basic math... I told him to take a hike that was what school was for and right now I want to play. I guess I always was a bit on the stubborn side.

The only reason kindergarten and pre-school happened at all was because the economy made it necessary for Baby Boomer Moms and Dads to work to have all the things that the neighbors had. That gave them someplace to pawn the kids off too and not be in the way of the "better life".
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I always thought the working mom thing was more of a 70's, 80's thing. Most of my friends moms were stay at home moms. Mine was one of the few that worked outside the home.
 
Goofyernmost

Goofyernmost

Well-Known Member
MySmallWorldof4 said:
My 2 older ones did that with one grammar program they had. They were older though than 1st and 2nd grade. I obviously was the one who taught it to them and I can see how it would be difficult for a little kid to get.
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I guess my grasp of communication is a fleeting thing. I didn't mean to imply that we learned that in 1st or 2nd grade, it was more like 4th. I also associate it with the grumpiest nun in the convent that was my teacher for 2nd, 4th and 5th grade. Man was she a, sounds like, witch. I remember my heart sinking when I walked into class on the first day and there was her frowning face, glaring away. I turned to my Mom, who always went along on the first day and asked if I really had to go to school. I started to feel like she was following me and the next thing I was going to walk into my home and she would be standing there. Those are called daytime nightmares.
 
Goofyernmost

Goofyernmost

Well-Known Member
MySmallWorldof4 said:
I always thought the working mom thing was more of a 70's, 80's thing. Most of my friends moms were stay at home moms. Mine was one of the few that worked outside the home.
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They were, we were the Baby Boomers, our parents where the "alleged" great generation. It is our children that were more likely introduced to the pre-school/kindergarten stuff. Kindergarten was an elective at that point as was pre-school. Both were thought of as daycare. They performed the same function, just couldn't charge as much and didn't need any accredited teachers to operate them. So change the name to pre-school and charge more. In the elementary school my kids went to, Kindergarten was held in movable structures (trailers) because the concept was so new that there were no in building spaces for it to be held.
 
Goofyernmost

Goofyernmost

Well-Known Member
MySmallWorldof4 said:
Life was easier for adults in the "olden days", for the most part. It would have been nice to have been able to buy a house for $20,000.:rolleyes:
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Just to define the olden days... my father and mother bought our house in Vermont for $12000.00. Three bedroom ranch, with fireplace in 1963. After my mother passed in 2005 it was appraised at $240,000.00. Their first house in New York State (not to far from the Canadian border) was stick built by my Father. He told me that it cost him a total of $4000.00 that would have been in circa 1954. But it was all relative. The average yearly wage in 1954 was $3500.00 and in 1963 it was $4400.00. When I got married in 1972 it was $7100.00. Because of our parents prolific desire to reproduce, the population grew by leaps and bounds and housing became more scarce, prices rose and two income families became a necessity if one wanted a roof over their heads.
 
Goofyernmost

Goofyernmost

Well-Known Member
MySmallWorldof4 said:
I have a friend who is a high school English teacher on Long Island. She said she was entering a student in a writing contest because he was a good writer. He said he could not enter. She asked him why. He told her because he couldn't sign his name on the entry. She then proceeded to teach him how. Just sad.
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I hadn't even thought of that situation, but, it is a glaring problem. Maybe new contracts and items requiring a signiture will all be equipped with this:

1543929867628.png

As this nation gets dumber and dumber the other places in the world get more and more advanced. If that isn't something that should scare the bajezzus out us, I don't know what will. However, current demands are that we should build a few Billion dollar wall for planes to fly over instead of spending it on education. Damn we are already to stupid to deserve all we have. I may not see it, but, we will be at the tail end of the line when it comes to progress before long.
 
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Rista1313

Rista1313

Well-Known Member
21stamps said:
It’s crazy, really sad that schools are doing that to kids. I would think they all must be doing basic addition/subtraction/times tables still though, hopefully.

The cursive too!! How are these kids going to sign their names?? My Mom learned shorthand, I didn’t., I get that things change.. but cursive??? No, that should be mandatory.
T has to write his name in cursive on every school paper. The get a deduction, no matter the subject/test, if they print their name.


Does your stepson enjoy Monopoly? It might be a good family game to play one night, and maybe help him.
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I don't know if he likes monopoly or not.. I know *I* don't enjoy the game!
 
Rista1313

Rista1313

Well-Known Member
MinnieM123 said:
That's scary right there. Serious question: For the non-cursive people, do they not ever "sign" their name on anything? Many legal documents require an actual signature, and I'm trying to figure out how these people get around it.
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I asked him that once.. he said that they sign everything electronically these days, so it doesn't matter... I told him it does matter! I think he can muddle through his name.
 
Songbird76

Songbird76

Well-Known Member
MinnieM123 said:
Phonics. That's what you're trying to recall. (Gabe1 said the same thing, by the way.)
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Phonics is breaking down words into sounds. I think what he's talking about with sentences is more the sentence diagram. We did things like "underline the prepositional phrase" or "circle the noun in blue and the verb in red".

What made grammar so much more fun was madlibs! Did anyone else do those? Where it tells a story but leaves out certain words and you ask someone for an adjective, a plural noun, an adverb, a place, and you fill those in and get really funny stories where someone goes to the chocolate factory and eats a blue hotdog on a flower pot and exclaims "Eureka!" You can play it on your phone these days.
 
21stamps

21stamps

Well-Known Member
Songbird76 said:
Phonics is breaking down words into sounds. I think what he's talking about with sentences is more the sentence diagram. We did things like "underline the prepositional phrase" or "circle the noun in blue and the verb in red".

What made grammar so much more fun was madlibs! Did anyone else do those? Where it tells a story but leaves out certain words and you ask someone for an adjective, a plural noun, an adverb, a place, and you fill those in and get really funny stories where someone goes to the chocolate factory and eats a blue hotdog on a flower pot and exclaims "Eureka!" You can play it on your phone these days.
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When I saw the paper T did at school, I totally thought of Mad Libs!.. that a was a worksheet, and then they made it into a book.. he said it was a lot of fun. I ended up buying him a couple mad lib books at the book fair last month.
 
MouseDreaming

MouseDreaming

Well-Known Member
MinnieM123 said:
I think part of it is due to the street congestion with all the gov't. workers, if it was a regular work day--so with a slow motorcade procession for a long distance, it's probably just easier to shut down the gov't. buildings. It's also probably a bit easier for security details with less vehicles in the area.
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It is done out of respect. Certainly, non federal businesses in the Washington, DC area may be closed for those reasons, but it is done as a show of respect, throughout the US.
By the way, I was shocked at the negative comments about a no mail delivery post on the book of face.
 
MySmallWorldof4

MySmallWorldof4

Well-Known Member
Goofyernmost said:
They were, we were the Baby Boomers, our parents where the "alleged" great generation. It is our children that were more likely introduced to the pre-school/kindergarten stuff. Kindergarten was an elective at that point as was pre-school. Both were thought of as daycare. They performed the same function, just couldn't charge as much and didn't need any accredited teachers to operate them. So change the name to pre-school and charge more. In the elementary school my kids went to, Kindergarten was held in movable structures (trailers) because the concept was so new that there were no in building spaces for it to be held.
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Kindergarten I believe is not mandatory in New Jersey or Pennsylvania, or it wasn't 10 years ago at least. A kid does not need to be enrolled in public school until they are 6 in PA. If they are homeschooled, they don't need the yearly evaluation until they reach 8 years old. Maybe now it is different in the public schools with kindergarten since they require most kindergartners to be able to read when they finish the year. One of my other friends in NY is a public school Kindergarten teacher. She said when no child left behind started, they got rid of all the play kitchens and other toys from her class. She said Kindergarten became more like first grade at that point.
 

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