Archive for February, 2010

 Wheat, MSG and Fibromyalgia

Many of you know that I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia (chronic muscular pain, sleep problems, etc) in 2002. I had a classic case including the extreme tender points and also changes in my brain (that I got to see thanks to an MRI.)
During the intervening years, I tried lots of different medicines [...]



 Vocabulary & Reading

I read a lot about different methods of teaching reading. When I grew up, we learned by an eclectic mixture of look-say and phonics, and most of us learned to read. Sarah definitely prefers look-say; her memory for new words is really amazing. She’s going through the intensive Rod & Staff phonics, but she doesn’t [...]



 An Archaic Language

Like most homeschoolers we have a few vintage and antique readers around the house, including reprints of McGuffey.
After glancing through the 4th reader, I’m almost convinced that 19th century English will be as incomprehensible as Old English in a few decades….except perhaps among the homeschoolers who grow up on these relics. It’s [...]