There are a lot of good reasons for meal feeding instead of free feeding cats, so this could end up being a good change all around. http://www.catinfo.org/ I feed my cats twice per day. One in the laundry room, one in the pantry, one in the bathroom. The one who gets dry kibble gets a scant 1/4 cup of grain-free food twice daily, but this depends so much on your cat's size and activity level and your kibble's nutrient density that it's really not relevant info. :p

He's a fun kid for sure. :) But that's just it, his crazy little brain wouldn't be able to tick things over and make all these connections if he didn't have the fodder, and he wouldn't have the fodder if I limited his reading (and watching, the kid loves Cosmos and Nova) to just the stuff he can fully understand. Even the kids' book he spent the evening absorbed in, "Beyond the Solar System", is written for age 9 and up and the language is pretty challenging for his roughly fourth grade reading level, but the stuff he does get just blows his little mind and leaves him chattering with excitement! It's worth the gaps of understanding and the poor translations that crop up as a result. :)

Today DS was reading about Copernicus and I guess something was churning in his brain because he came to me with an explanation of why everything in the known universe is moving away from everything else. It amounted to circular logic, "The universe has to be infinite (because logic), so as it expands the space between things *has* to also expand in order to stay in proportion! You see?" And he proudly sat back as if he'd solved the whole thing and put the question to rest, LOL. I feel your pain. But I do think there is still plenty of time for them to learn about how much they *don't* know and learn not to make so many leaps and assumptions. I don't think the half-understood information will stick over time, as they get exposure to more sources of information and absorb more of it, but I do think that feeling of epiphany and wonder and engaging with something Really Important will stick. I think that one way to mitigate this is to read aloud at least *some* of that higher-level stuff, to limit the amount of skipping and misunderstanding that happens. And as others have said, to provide that range of material. After a day of binging on complicated books, DS will take a day to binge on Magic Schoolbus, and I find that these sources kind of set up a resonance for him and enhance his understanding across the whole range.

Yeah, the homeschool version is pretty new. I don't think there are any reviews of it yet -- someone asked about the Ferret unit a month or two ago and got no takers. Hope it works out for you!

That's what this podcast is supposed to be all about, I just started listening. :) http://amongstlovelythings.com/read-aloud-revival-the-podcast/ I think they specifically plan a future episode to be about keeping kids quietly busy during reading time. Yesterday I read Winnie-the-Pooh while the kids were building Lego or something, they were up and down and all around the room and definitely didn't see the pictures but they got the story and loved it!

My account was held up for a while too, I ended up emailing Rachel. The sale is on a handful of soldier-related novels. http://www.rfwp.com/pages/weekend-special/

I have a "mathy" kid and a "bookworm". Just like always wanting to have your nose in a book doesn't automatically make you a better student than only reading when asked, and just like drilling vocabulary and phonics can make you a better reader and a more competent reader and a less reluctant reader without actually making you *love* it, having a mathy kid is not really the same thing as having a kid who gets good grades in math and has a positive feeling toward the subject, and it is also not really something that's engendered by fact drills and speed practice. However, just like a child can bloom late into a passion for reading, I'm positive that you can't rule out the possibility of future math-o-philia just because kids aren't super keen early in life! Keep modeling enthusiasm and perseverance and you never know. ;)

Definitely the shelter. I would not take in any of the kittens, as they will find new homes easily especially if a foster home raises them. I *would* consider asking the shelter if you can adopt the mother after the kittens are weaned and she's been altered. She'll be street wise and familiar with your neighborhood, and you'll be extending her lifespan relative to being put down in the shelter (the fate of a huge majority of adult cats, especially possibly-feral former strays); plus Buddy already likes her. The kittens, on the other hand, will have their own personalities that you don't yet know and they will be off the wall biting/scratching idiots for most of a year, and raising them as outdoor cats will greatly reduce their lifespan relative to being adopted by a family who will keep them inside. (I was a bright, verbal and persuasive little girl myself and my parents got me a kitten when I was six. Despite my good intentions I ignored her, she pissed all over the first floor of our split-level, and I don't think I noticed her missing for days after she got returned to the shelter.)

I'm about 99% sure they are not. What I see is that Christopher Perrin (owner? publisher and content generator of Classical Academic Press, a publishing company in Pennsylvania) does guest lectures for CiRCE (a nonprofit advocate for classical Christian education, headed up by Andrew Kern, based in North Carolina) and talks at the CiRCE sponsored conferences; both Perrin and Kern are on the board of directors for the Society for Classical Learning (a professional society for classical Christian educators, based in Virginia). Clear as mud, LOL?!

Thanks for clarifying! Like I said, I knew I had to be missing something. I...still don't entirely follow your logic, though I have no doubt as to your good intentions!

So I've been trying to think how this would work, and I think I'm missing something. Are you saying that every time your SIX year old picked up a science-themed trade book aimed at an adult audience, you would cause her to atone for it by making her read a Magic Treehouse and give a report? I guess I can see how that would solve the OP's problem of her son wanting so passionately to read high-level science books! I sympathize with your concern about making sure that advanced readers get exposed to age-appropriate literature, but the OP did not say this is the only reading her son does. In fact she said he reads a 4th or 5th grade book daily, and that she provides books at all levels that he does read.

I don't see any downside at all to reading higher level nonfiction even if it's not fully understood. My son's current interests include multiple universe theories, deep space astronomy, electronic circuits and electromagnetic radiation. We've found him National Geographic issues to flip through, and he's been poring over Beyond the Solar System, and I'm reading to him from The Grand Design and Asimov. He got lost and frustrated at the beginning of the Grand Design because it referenced quantum mechanics, so we backed off and found some simplistic explanations of the need for these alternative models for physics on tiny scales, and then we were able to go back to the original book and proceed. Mostly he draws sound conclusions from what he understands of this material; sometimes he comes up with crackpot ideas (he has decided that the earth looks flat because the gravitational field of the planet is curving the light rays from the sun and won't hear any alternative) but I just tell him approvingly that he's made an interesting observation based on what he knows...but that there are actually much better explanations out there with better evidence. I generally leave it to him to find them.

I wouldn't hold my breath. They've said again and again that the books are now taking about 6 months each; level 5 *might* go faster if they can bring new staff on and up to speed; they will finish 5 before they start 2. Here's the latest from Facebook, two days ago: Currently, each pair of of books (4B, for example) take 5-6 months to produce. We have 2 levels remaining for grade 4, all 4 levels of grade 5, and all 4 levels of grade 2. Ten levels will likely take almost 5 years to complete at our current rate of production. Unfortunately, these books take a long time to produce and we have not yet found a way to speed production significantly without sacrificing quality.

He may be trying to call your bluff? That happened when we made a lowball offer on our house, in about the same range (about 15% below list price). The seller declined to counter, so we shrugged and walked away, but in a couple of days they came chasing back with a verbal counter (at or almost at the original list price, but still, a place to start from). We came up farther than they came down but we still felt we had a good deal in the end. Real estate should be more about the financial decision than the emotional one, good job keeping a level head on your shoulders!

If the vet is right and it's the "common herpesvirus" of cats, then that's the viral rhinotracheitis in the shot. It's certainly no guarantee, as you probably can't diagnose a kitty cold and if you could the vaccine wouldn't be 100% protection. But the vaccine plus a two week quarantine would make me feel pretty comfortable. (Not an expert, only a former tech-type person and occasional kitty foster person.) Per the above, the FeLV/FIV snap test sounds like it's already been run but I'd get confirmation from the rescue. Also I second the concerns about taking in a former feral. A feral and a stray are like night and day; a feral kitty will never be a pet but only a charity case.

I'd recommend the assessments over just looking at the S&S. I was pretty sure my DS could jump straight into 3A, but looking through the assessment with him, there were some oddly-worded word problems (best solved with bar diagrams) and some division with remainders that he didn't have experience with. So we'll cover those before proceeding. (He's solidly engaged with BA 3A & B, no problems thus far despite not having the Singapore -- and I presume MM -- 2B material down completely.)

Always quarantine a new cat for a week or two before introducing to the old cat, regardless. It helps with behavior adjustments as well as giving new kitty time to be over any infectious kitty colds. If old kitty is vaccinated for FVRCP and new cat is FeLV negative you're probably fairly good to go.

Have you looked at the samples? I am tempted to do the same or work through Alcumus. I was a hairs breadth from an honors distinction in physics and a graduate school track but I love what I've seen of AOPs, including intro to Alg...heck, even pre Alg is a fun thought experiment.

Here you go. http://www.corestandards.org/Math/

Hi and welcome! Thanks for your perspective, it sounds like we're dealing with something similar for the early elementary years. We do public school mostly because it's fun, and I'm content to pick up the slack academically. Unfortunately it's less and less fun and we have less and less time and energy to do interesting stuff afterschool. I'm so tired of telling my boy to get his nose out of a book or stop reading about astronomy so he can go to school and daydream through class and cry through recess and never do any math or reading that's at a level that engages him. I'm hoping that whatever they concoct with this new gifted program will add some fun back in (both from the engagement and from the exposure to other high-achieving kiddos.) Or that the testing convinces us to keep both kids home after all. :o Thanks again.

My husband is in a men's book club and they read this a few months ago so I grabbed it when he was done. It reminded me a lot of Brave New World with the drugged, sexually complacent population subverting the meaning and purpose of family. It creeped me out enough that I don't want to read the sequels. Not really sure what my kids would get out of it -- the "giving" and "receiving" is interesting, and the hierarchy of responsibility that the children pass through, and the way the protagonist's knowledge causes him to break the mold of his community. But I am not sure I'd want to read it with him and hope he glossed over the mature bits!

I think it's pretty dense and theoretical just to throw at a 12yo. But I bet after you read it for yourself you'll be able to coach her in improving.

Eat to Live by Joel Fuhrman. Eating Well for Optimum Health by Andrew Weil. For the more ethical side of things, Diet for a Small Planet (actually I like her second book Hope's Edge better) by Lappe, and Diet for a New America by John Robbins come to mind as having been moving reads. I was pescetarian for a while in my twenties and I felt really, really good eating that way. I should probably start paying attention again!

Well, this is a dream come true. (Edit: okay, hyperbole, but it is a huge relief to have a way forward!) I see I mentioned earlier in the thread about the new state legislation about GATE programming, and my uncertainty about whether my district was going to follow through since funding isn't guaranteed. Imagine my surprise when this afternoon I received an email regarding the new program that is starting for the fall, and about the nomination process that opens NOW. They're very fuzzy about the actual services they're going to offer but I don't even care. Anything would be better than an undifferentiated classroom. And they're going to test with CogAT and ITBS as well as with detailed parent and teacher surveys (SIGS). And the form for parents to nominate their kids has a bunch of questions on it that describe my DS to a T. I will be able to hand the form to my DH without saying a word and finally start putting the bug in his ear that our kids might need special education considerations! I am just elated. Though I will feel a little guilty if the result of all this testing is that we leave the school district and the public school world altogether. I'm a little bummed that there doesn't seem to be anything offered for entering kindergarteners, but since DD is clearly more advanced than DS, his results will give us information on both kids and if we stick with the PS we'll be able to advocate for her (and it's only part-time kindy so worst case scenario is we keep afterschooling as we would do regardless). Could you explain what you mean by these programs?

Ack, I'm really sorry to have provoked a defensive response. This is the accelerated board, of course I understand that you're working with a unique situation and trying to meet the needs of the kid in front of you! I probably just need to back away slowly here. :) I'm getting way too theoretical on way too little sleep and coffee (waxing inarticulately poetic in my mind about the majestic brilliance that is the field of mathematics?!) and that's going to do no one any good. ;) FWIW, your plan makes sense. Good luck! :)