I'm so sorry. May your memories of him comfort you.

That's insane, right? :lol: In my defense, I'm adding two more kids to the home school mix, and I'm a little anxious about it! We will also hopefully be buying a house in the spring, so I would love to have everything decided before then as to not go completely crazy. Any other way too early planners?

Great thread, I missed it the first time around. :)

Congrats! :)

We love Singapore here!

My DD PT'ed around that age. it was the same thing, she kept telling me she was wet and wanting a new diaper. My son followed right after her. I don't think it's crazy! The only thing that stinks is that 2T pants are made for diapers so get ready to be frustrated about that!

Probably around age 4. He was in Montessori preschool and bored out of his mind. He was also reading better than any of the other students, despite the fact that he was a "first year."

We just started The Graveyard Book. DS read about it in "Reading Literature Like a Professor" coincidentally. He also loved Fortunately. I'll have to get his adult books from the library.

Thanks for all of the great suggestions! I had some of these on my amazon list, so I'm glad to see my choices confirmed. :)

title says it all. :)

That's a good idea! I don't mind it sitting out over night. He is actually very fast at computing. It's the algebraic equations that actually require, you know, "thinking" to complete. He just wants everything to come easy to him. I don't blame him! :laugh:

I definitely don't think it's an arrogance thing. He legitimately feels like if he can't get something right away, he must be too stupid to complete the task.

I wish these books and the author weren't so antiquated. What's with the disclaimer about "dolls not turning boys feminine?" Since when is feminine bad?

They are also being paid a lot less so maybe there's a correlation?

That's so cool! I agree with all of the previous posters, there are many ways to be gifted, and fame/fortune/success doesn't have to be the end goal. It certainly doesn't prove anything. (Not that anyone has anything to prove!) My DD is a budding gymnast. I think she has talent, but she's 5, and right now I am just enjoying watching her do what she loves. I'm a little scared of competitive gymnastics!

That's wonderful!

bump :)

I think this needs to be his next project!

I have looked at the other kids' writing from time to time, and it is a wide range. He is getting more comfortable expressing ideas in writing, which was well worth the cost of the course. I'm interested to see his writing at the end.

You are sweet! He's definitely an entertaining kid, he fits in well with the Athena's kids. :lol: I love the idea of the list of transition words, I think it's probably one of those things, that he's just not read enough to have internalized that kind of writing. He would probably appreciate the help! I think you're right about the repeating to conclude. He pointed out the repetition with this last one, and we were brain storming on other ways he can express the same idea. I'll keep that in mind as well! I didn't even realize you can google 9 year old writing samples, thanks for the tip!

Yes, I drink GoodBelly in my smoothies most days. I find the live cultures are much more potent than the pills. (Even the refrigerated ones) For me, I feel like I'm getting sick way less than I used to and I also have way less intestinal distress.

Here it is girls! http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/groups/253-we-should-be-writing/ Join in and procrastinate with me!

same. much to my dismay.

Brave Writer is working with my reluctant writer! We have been doing Friday free-writes, and I let him choose the topic. At the moment, he seems to be writing a weekly serial story based on Star Wars. It's not exactly academic, but he's putting the pencil to the paper, which is way more than I could have said this time last year. We are also doing Partnership Writing, and he just started his first monthly project, "The story of me," (or something like that) He gets to type on the computer and talk about himself, two of his favorite things. :laugh: I chose Brave Writer because FLL and MCT grammar were both fails and I wanted something that would lure him in. He just doesn't like really formulaic writing, a la a 3 paragraph essay. I know this is a required skill, but I'm not worried about what we are doing now evolving into more academic writing.

DS will be 9 in November. This is his first Athena's Academy class (SOTW 3). He has been answering all of the writing prompts, and improving as he goes. I know they are VERY conversational, he writes like we talk. :lol: I haven't pushed him too much on that issue because it's an internet forum. I would love tips on how to guide him in a gentle way. He has always proclaimed to "HATE!!!" writing, so the fact that he's been willing to even answer these is a huge step. He's very repetitive as well, which I've been trying to work on. I also see that he needs help organizing the different ideas when he answers. I am thinking these might not be the best examples to judge from, but we just started doing free-writes, and I don't have anything I typed up yet. These will have to do for now, and anything will be helpful. TIA!!! "I think that the Kohinoor Diamond should be returned to India. Since England took it from India, I think they should give it back. After India gets it back, I also think it would be cool if they put it in a museum. I also think India should have it returned because it was not nice for the English to just go and take it from them. I mean, if they took it from them in 1905, it's not too late for the English to give it back, right?" "I think the Black Hole was a "hole" because I think it was real. I also think that part of how they suffered was the fact that they were so tightly squeezed together. I also think that it was not fair for the Nawab's soldiers (I believe they did it) to imprison 146 innocent people in that small of a room when there were all of those people. I also think that it was not nice for the British to attack the Nawab's soldiers when they were imprisoned. It also did not have much air." "I would have invented a room-cleaning robot that, when you get it, has already been programed to clean your room. But if you wanted it to sort your building toys, you gotta program it to do that yourself. Don't worry, it would be easy. You would just go to Type In Program (TIP for short), and type in Sort Building Toys and there you go. It would also have a fuzz detector which, when fuzz was detected, would activate the vacuum that it was attached to. That's what I would invent, a room-cleaning robot."