Not rested enough and irritated. It gets better after about half an hour and a cup of tea. That is when we start school.

Not necessarily. If a very young child is "wired" to see numbers and their relationships in some unusual abstract way, for example, how will it manifest itself at that age? He may well appear about the same as a child who was trained extensively to count. Or, he may not be verbal enough, and while he can count and manipulate numbers, he cannot relate the numbers as he experiences them to words, and will appear lagging behind. I think it all depends on areas of giftedness, some are noticeable much earlier.

I think it is important to do word problems using different methods. I don't require my daughter to use this method all the time.

I am not sure eexactly, but I suppose it can be something like what I had with my son. By his second birthday he wasn't talking at all, maybe a couple of words. My daughter at 18 month was talking in sentences, so I started worrying about him. However, 2 months later he decided it was time to start talking. In two more month he was talking in compound sentences, and by 2.5yo he was much more articulate than average. So he started late, but then he progressed much faster than normal. Now, I am not saying he is gifted, just that any skill/ability can show up late and pick up fast :)

My daughter is almost 8, 3rd grade English: MCT Island, Hobbit study guide, AAS as needed, Sylvan super reading when we have time - 1hour x 5 days Russian: language arts + literature - 1 hour x 5 days Math: Singapore 3a, CWP, IP + MEP and Horizons 3 as needed - 40 minutes x 5 days History: SOTW 2 - 45 minutes x 3 days Spanish: GSWS 20 minutes x 3 days Logic/critical thinking: 25 minutes x 3 days Armenian: tutor 1 hour x 2day Science: chemistry 45 minutes x 2 days Art: 45 minutes x 2 days (sometimes art appreciation, sometimes art projects) Plus she takes outside classes: for drama 1 hr, ballet 2 hrs, acrobatics 1 hr a week. She reads aloud in Russian, and has lots of free reading in English time.

I guess you are right :) I put my daughter in full time daycare 5 times a week when she was 3.5 (I became pregnant with my son and just couldn't take care of her at that time), and in a couple of months she was expressing herself in English quite nicely. I am probably expecting the same from my son, although it is absolutely unreasonable. I would prefer him to pretty fluent in 2 years, since he will have to go to school at 5, and I just don't want him to have an added stress of not understanding his teacher. And to think that I go through this stress of him acquiring English now, when I know for sure that in 3 or 4 years I'll be stressing over him losing Russian :D

Just over 4 hours of learning time, although with all the breaks it is closer to 6. I don't count reading and outside activities.

I really don't know what to say, but I would love to hear other recommendations. Maybe my kids are just not that linguistically inclined, but without immersion for several hours most days of the week, language acquisition is just not happening. Yes, my almost 4 year old son can answer questions like what his name is, or how old he is, but that is about it. He spends a few hours a week around English-speaking kids, his sister speaks English around him from time to time, he watches English TV (a couple of hours a week, I think), but it is just not happening. And the few phrases he does say, he says with a terrible accent. Frankly, I hoped that with his sister speaking English, he would be progressing faster. As it is, I am almost ready to put him in daycare. So, what I am trying to say is that to me so far it looks like they need a few hours a day of exposure to another language. And I have a feeling, at least in my kids' case, that they should feel the need to learn that language. I guess it is not too helpful, but it is something I have been thinking about lately. Good luck!

It may be. I noticed with my daughter that when she is reading something that she is not in hurry to finish (like a word problem :)) she never skips words. When she is in a hurry either because she wants to know what happens next or simply wants to finish faster, she will skip short words and even substitute some words for shorter words with similar meaning. However, it is always the words that don't carry lots of meaning that get skipped. I don't know why or how it happens, but slowing down definitely helps with it.

If he hates it, I wouldn't push it too much. I know I hate it, and if my parents made me read aloud when I was a child, I would probably transferred that hatred on reading in general. It's just the way my brain works. Now, I can read, and I do read to my kids, but I only enjoy the cuddling part :) However, it is a necessary skill, and it needs to be done to some extent. If you are worried, you can ask him to read short pieces here and there, maybe for assignments on other subjects, but not the books he enjoys. My daughter is usually reading aloud her SOTW piece for the current lesson, and maybe a few paragraphs for other subjects. You can try something like that, but definitely not his books.

My daughter is very similar. She reads out loud daily and I also reinforce the importance of correct reading. She also has her silent reading time. I realize that she may not read everything correctly at that time, and may not understand some things. However, this time is what makes her love reading, and I feel it is at least as important as reading correctly.

Thanks, it does have me a lot to think about. She definitely can do this level of work, I made her take the placement test, and she did about 85% correct, and most mistakes were just lack of attention. However, I think there is more to it, then just inability to articulate, although it may also be part of the problem. It looks like she is actually doing it backwards. So when she looks at $47 total, and $20 that remained, she doesn't subtract, she chooses a number that together with 20 will give her 47. Although she obviously learned that if she is asked how much more, she will subtract. And now I see the same thing with multiplication/division. It is not 9 because 27/3=9, but because 3*9=27. It works with smaller numbers, obviously, but will not work if we have larger numbers, and especially when we come to algebra. While she was in school, I mostly worked on math facts with her, and we did more logical type problems, which she loves and is good at, and this just fell through cracks. OK, I guess I'll just continue doing word problems with her explaining and articulating as we go. And kalanamak, I actually thought about bringing up units yesterday, but then decided to wait a little. It does come useful in more complex problems. I learned it in physics though :)

I am trying to figure out what problem my daughter has with math. She is almost 8 and in the third grade. Today she was doing a math problem where she was supposed to subtract something from a given number, and then divide the result by 3. It was a Singapore word problem from textbook 3A. The problem also had the bar diagram ready. So she got the right answer, and wrote it in the rectangle on the diagram. Then I asked her to write down what she did to get the answer and she just couldn't do it. She just looked at the diagram and said something like 'it is 47 here, 20 here, so there should be 27 here, so it will be 9 there'. But she couldn't write it down as 47-20=27, 27/3=9. I asked her what would she do if we had 4 digit numbers in the problem, and she said she didn't know. She does not usually have troubles with solving the problems, but when it comes to explanations, she just looks like she doesn't know what I am talking about. Or she can solve the problem mentally, but if I ask her to draw the diagram she just stares at me. I just cannot figure out what it is that she doesn't understand. :banghead: It is like she sees the whole picture and splits the numbers her own way, but doesn't understands why? But then how can it be possible? If it matters, I just took her out of school, where they used Everyday Math. Do they teach them to guess what number you have to add, instead of using subtraction? I am just desperate, and maybe since I had my first problem with not understanding math at the first attempt somewhere in calculus, I just don't know what she may not understand and how to fix it. Please, help me.

I think it is better in the long run to serve smaller portions and have kids ask for seconds than to serve a lot and have them think that it is a proper portion size that needs to be eaten. The second scenario is more likely to lead to weight problems later on. But I remember how much I could eat when I was a teen, so I would absolutely let my kids have seconds if they wanted (mine are still young, and I have to fight for them to eat anything at all :) )

It's cute when they are small :) With my 7 yo it drives me insane :D

I have vanilla from http://www.myspicesage.com right now, and the quality is great. Right now they are having a promotion on vanilla beans - 8 beans free with any purchase.

But doesn't the fact that many people here were not taught this trick yet they use it mean exactly what conceptual understanding is about? If you understand the concept behind, you will find a number of ways to do it. I don't always use this method. If I need to multiply large numbers, I may round and subtract or add depending on whether I round up or down, or in some cases it may be multiply then divide (for 5s), or I may even do a long multiplication in my head, whatever is easier/faster for the particular set of numbers. Honestly, I can't quite imagine "practicing concept". To me concept is an abstract idea of the process that cannot be practiced independently. What I do with my daughter is offer her chances to see the same process from different angles hoping that eventually it will solidify into a thorough understanding of the concept behind. It includes doing different kinds of word problems, without requiring to use any one method. All I ask for is an explanation how she came up with the solution. And it looks like a great excuse to post an example of testing of conceptual understanding in Russian schools. This was used in testing second graders there, so about third graders here. 20k + 13 = 22p k and p are digits from 0 to 9, 20k and 22p are three-digit numbers. Compare k and p. I do think that this requires conceptual understanding, although I am not sure my daughter (third grader) is there yet.

I didn't know it until today, but MCP sample looks pretty close to what we had in our textbooks in Russia. There was some brief explanation of the topic, which I honestly never bothered to read, because the teacher explained it in the classroom, followed by problems and word problems. The type of word problems was pretty close to SM, although we never used any sorts of diagrams to solve them. I do understand math, and never had problems with it.

I am not sure I agree that it is a *native* language thing. I actually thought about it all day. It may be that I haven't met a certain level of complexity yet, but so far I find English explanations more understandable. Could it be in your case that it happened because Latin is much closer related to French than to English? When I do Spanish with my daughter I sometimes have her translate to Russian instead of English simply because English translation will lose some finer points without some awkward conditions added (like when we have gender differences), or I may use a Russian example when we discuss conjugation. And later I will use English because articles do not exist in Russian. Again, we are just starting, but I don't see why I would have any preference for one language, especially if all three languages belong to different groups and some things may exist in two languages, but not in the third.

There are children that pick up things really fast, but you are right, most need quite a bit of review. Although again, "quite a bit" is different for different children :) Don't feel bad about it, do as much review as your children need and don't look at others. I don't do a lot of review in LA, unless I see that my daughter doesn't get something, but we always do a lot of review in math. Whatever works.

Thanks! For some reason I never thought about looking into Russian textbooks for foreign languages. I never checked those, but if you do buy them, let me know if you like them. They look nice on previews. BTW, vasha-kniga.com has them a bit cheaper, but it looks like both sites will order them from Russia for you (they will ship in a couple of weeks), and if they are out of stock there, they may cancel that part of the order.

I wouldn't change anything. He comes up with his own activities, and it is great! Just support him. He doesn't need a script. Moreover, it may make him lose his enthusiasm, if he is constantly offered something to do that is not necessarily what he wants to do.

I am an agnostic and I don't know :) Due to some personal experiences I find it hard to believe that once we are dead, there is nothing left. However, what exactly is left is beyond my understanding.

OK, I shouldn't have used the word unique, but my mistake doesn't make the book correct. I would be perfectly fine with any of the definitions you provided. A role in the ecosystem implies a certain level of specialness, although not necessarily uniqueness, it was my mistake. Anyway, I don't want to spend lots of time explaining that sleeping is not a niche, and taking an apple from a plate is not a niche. And then with my daughter I would have to listen for a lot of clauses. BTW, when I decided to read further she came up to my computer, read for a moment over my shoulder, and claimed that a pinecone is not a seed. And I myself felt very confused what learned traits have to do with grouping into species. So, this book might be fine for some people, but not for us.

In chapter 4, niche is defined as what an organism does in its habitat. It could be somehow justified, in a round- about way, but then there is an example that making breakfast is niche. Sorry, no. Making something unique for a living could be your niche, or in the case of animals living in special conditions, in certain area could be your niche, or fulfilling some special function in the ecosystem can be your niche, but not doing something trivial. Then the extinction is defined as death of all organisms of the kind, and in parentheses it says population. Sorry, population does not include all the organisms of the kind, it is only a part of species living in a particular area. That was where I stopped reading. Maybe the rest of the book is better.