My ds is a total fidget. He is always climbing on the back of the sofa, etc when he reads. His reading skills are fantastic, he just needs to use them more. He has recently become interested in comic books. He doesn't always read the whole thing, but I figure eventually he will. And not a story, but still reading, he loves joke books. Really anything with lists of facts or short passages works great for him. Also, if I tell him he can read or go to sleep he will always choose reading.

1776 I love this movie and we watch it every year. Another good option is episodes of liberty's kids on Netflix.

my dd loved these. she will still talk years later about how funny they were. they are all sight words, but great for the "I read a real book!" feeling that gets kids to want to learn to read.

this, exactly.

if the question is about outside classes, here is our list dd7- dance - 3 1hour classes a week theatre- 2 1hour classes a week horseback riding- 2 1hour classes a week, occasional shows basketball- just ended (yay!) book club- once a month 4H- once a month plus extra meetings, activities, service projects nature center class- 2 2hour classes a month chinese- 1 1.5hour class a week ds4- preschool acrobatics- 1 45min class a week basketball- (did i mention how glad i am the season ended?!) tee-ball- fall nature center class- 1 1hr class a week, when it is in session chinese- 1 1hr class a week we do other stuff like playdates and museum trips and one time classes. our schedule gets a little crazy near the end of the public school year when all of the classes are having recitals and tests and parties. it also gets crazy when dd is in a play. but most of the time it is very light, especially compared to an average public school schedule.

i am so conflicted about this. my dd and ds have been doing dreambox for months and are deep in it at this point. even if they agree to start the stories over, their levels are all over the place. ds is mostly in the first grade level, but a couple of areas are second grade and has one area that is at the end of kindergarten. dd had significant math anxiety earlier in the year and after emailing back and forth with dreambox we created a situation that would slow her down even when she masters an area quickly. she has really become proud of herself and is getting much better at dealing with wrong answers. i am leary of taking away any of her hard won progress. argh!! but truly, it is a great deal. does anyone know if our original accounts will still exist and be able to be reactivated if we switch to the co-op account and it is a disaster?

i am in charlotte. :)

my kids who are 7 and 4 love reading eggs. we got it when homeschool buyers coop had it at the end of summer. ds, who turned 4 in november, started using it in august and has completed almost all of the reading lessons, he has 7 left. he was reading some before starting, so i am not sure how it would work for a kid who wasn't reading at all. early on i sat with him while he did the lessons until he got the hang of the games. i still help him with some of the timed lessons because he panics a bit with timers. dd 7 likes the spelling lessons and buying things with eggs. what she really loves is reading eggspress. she can spend hours on there reading books. they still don't seem to have all of the kinks worked out, but that doesn't bother her. ds has done a couple of reading eggspress lessons, but i have to sit with him the whole time and help with some words. ds likes playing on starfall more. it has much less depth and quantity of content than reading eggs but it does have more varied content. he likes it, and can play around on his own with it.

my dd can't remember what we did last christmas, but can give a detailed and dramatic description of the time she scraped her knee 4 years ago. and pretty much every scrape since then. she also can't remember almost anything about her brother being born which even though she was about 3yo at the time she was so obsessed with the whole process i thought she would retain a bit. oh, and she can totally remember things we did in preschool co-op when she was barely 2yo. i have no clue why some things are more memorable to her than others.

i was a bit startled when dd was tested at how much of the test she was more comfortable and familiar with because of her middle class life. the language, the content questions, the manipulatives used, much of this was familiar to her. I just kept thinking of how different it would have been if this all had been completely new. so would buying my kids melissa and doug toys and reading them nonfiction books and speaking to them about things that interest me be creating a "hot house" situation? it seems from the test dd took that it would. just call me "hot house, hover, helicopter, tiger, stage mom" :lol:

so does mine! something else that works for short periods of time is sending him on quests, like find 7 different leaves in the back yard or pick out 5 books for me to read to you or match this pile of socks. if these quests end with us making a leaf man or reading or making sock puppets out of odd socks then he is more likely to do other independent tasks.

wow! thanks!

my dd read it this year and she is 6. she like other roald dahl, and this one is my sister's favorites so she really talked it up to dd. the beginning of the book kind of stressed her out, she said it didn't seem like a nice or exciting book and she thought matilda had a bad life. i told her to stick with it because i didn't want her to leave it with those feelings. she now claims it is one of the best books she ever read. we don't use words like that. i have to say for me the worst part is when ms. honey says negative things about children, because she is the "good" character. but dd didn't seem bothered and it is similar to the sentiments expressed in other roald dahl books that she has read.

as far as the taking apart stuff and getting into stuff goes, that is regular old wonderful 3 year old behavior and development. i encourage my son towards certain okay items and activities. not to say i don't get mad at him for getting into things he shouldn't, 3 is old enough to tell a kid not to do something and expect them to comply or face consequences. yesterday i saw him walking into the bathroom with a big box of salt, as soon as i spotted him he said "sorry, mom!" ha! he was doing an "experiment". dinner was a bit bland last night. it is a great age. my son isn't super brilliant, he is starting to read because we are teaching him, but i think some of the same stuff that works for typical kids works for super geniuses also. for stimulation that doesn't destroy the house we do spanish and chinese classes, video games, bike riding, baking, board games. some computer stuff i feel good about that he likes is discovery kids, bbc schools, national geographic, reading eggs, headsprout, dreambox and better chinese online content. he also has simple chores that are things that keep him moving and that he can complete in a short amount of time. some martial arts will begin a child at 3, as will soccer, t-ball, swimming, dance and gymnastics. dd had a suzuki violin teacher at 2yo who would split the lesson between violin and piano because he recognized quickly that she had an interest in piano. if piano is something you really want, there are reputable teachers out there who know how to change lesson pace and duration for younger kids.

the whipping boy