Thank you thank you!!

I *just* got my Kindle, so I may be confused, but when you buy something for the Kindle from Amazon.com, does it give you a choice of which format you want it in? PDF or whatever? In that case, you could have it sent to your regular email instead of Kindle email, and print? Is that possible? Is it legal?

Not wanting to kill a perfectly good, brand-new Kindle, I wrote to Amazon asking for the failure rate & if the skew numbers from my new cover were among those having problems. Their (useless) response is copied below. Why would customer service be telling some people there is no problem, and giving other people credits??? Really, how hard is it to use the cover??? -------------------- Hello Megan, Thank you for writing to us, if an approved Kindle cover is used correctly, it will not cause any damage to the Kindle. For more information about using your Kindle cover, please visit this Help page: http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=200390460 I hope this information helps! Thanks for your interest in Kindle.

I wondered the exact same thing! (I got a Kindle, plus the exact linked pink cover for Christmas.)

That's it - thank you thank you!!!

I am looking for the somewhat recent thread whether or not it was necessary / the reasons for doing more than one math program.

I think I have read every post from the past on this! It seems like people in general have been happiest when they have worked on a language for 2 years before adding another, then worked on that for two years before adding another, etc. I have also seen comments that 5 languages seems to be the tipping point between too many & just right.

Long long ago (early 90s), I went to Tulane. Most classes had just a final, or a midterm & final, or a term paper & a final, and that was your whole grade. Most exams were written essays, and the topic was almost always "tell me what you have learned in this class, and how you will apply it to your life. You have 4 hours. Go." To grade, the professor had a certain number of things he was looking for. If we spent two entire weeks discussing a certain topic, that better be mentioned along with some relevant facts. How much thought you had put into processing what you had learned and developing an opinion counted too - you couldn't just regurgitate a bunch of facts. More than a certain number of grammatical or spelling errors were considered to be a distraction to your essay, so you lost points for that, even if the class was completely unrelated to English. "There is no point in learning anything or having an opinion if you can't communicate!" Somehow, the professor would manage to get to a final numerical score. Then, the professor would write all the test scores down and draw a bell curve, and assign letter grades based on that. Numbers were irrelevant. If the average score was a 40, that was a C. If the average score was a 90, that was a C. I graduated with a 2.9, and was really proud of that because it was well above average, then found out that all my high school friends had been goofing off for 4 years at other schools and were getting 4.0s and all the job offers. But I clearly got the far superior education!

Title says it all. Looking for short & sweet interesting American history readalouds at a kindergarten level. THANKS!

I saw some kids using Rosetta Stone Spanish this morning, and WOW! Their language skills were amazing! I went to look at it online, and see that there are several different versions. Are you teaching Latin American Spanish, or Spanish from Spain? Are they really different? Any reason to choose one over the other?

THANKS!

Well, that was a letdown! AL Abacus iPad App THE IPAD APP IS HERE!!!

And just now we got up from resttime, and I asked everyone to get a towel and their swim bags, and went to help my son wipe his hiney, and before I was even to the bathroom there was bloodcurdling screaming b/c C had a towel, E wanted that towel, snatched it out of C's hands, and then just to add insult shoved C so hard that C fell and smacked her face on the tile. It's just ALL DAY LONG... The sad thing is that if she had just said "C I really want that towel - may I use it today?", I know C would have let her have it. It's like E is just LOOKING for a reason to attack and throw a fit.

Printing this thread to take with us to swimming lessons - lots to read / think about. THANK YOU!!!!

I'm a little tougher than that - I can't imagine what would be offensive about suggesting a book & saying what type of parent it would appeal to! :)

Two of the others (who were preemies) have SPD, so I know what that looks like, and this is different. When my sensory kids have a meltdown, it is usually for an obvious reason and they seem out of control. (Like when we went to soccer in a metal warehouse with 4000 kids running and screaming and balls flying everywhere and bouncing off the walls - too much input = meltdowns.) But this seems more attitude / willful. This kid is actually already getting OT for some fine motor delays. To be honest I don't think there is anything wrong with her other than the fact that the triplets do too much for her in an attempt to keep her from tantruming, and since she has had them doing everything for her for years, she hasn't learned to do a lot of stuff on her own. (A whole 'nother issue!)

I am a pleaser for the most part, but can be stubborn / judgemental when others are doing things "wrong". (I often don't realize it until it is pointed out!) For example, when everyone told me I "just couldn't" handle triplets, I set out to prove that not only could I handle it, I could do better than anyone else who had "only" one child, just because I had been "dared". She is all about looking out for #1 and getting everyone else to do what she wants, but is easily as stubborn as me.

I AM venting, but I really want advice as to what to do! :)

In the ongoing homeschool vs. public school "conversations" (we'll pretend these aren't arguments for the purposes of this post!) in our house, my husband asked "well, what would you want to do with Elise (my youngest) if you keep the triplets at home next year?" "Uh, she HAS to go back to preschool - I can't homeschool the big kids with her around." I am a fairly strict parent. I have high expectations for my children's behavior. We talk often about only speaking when what we have to say is KIND and TRUE. Loving each other, etc. etc. etc. We are very consistent with requiring appropriate behavior. We don't fly off the handle every time someone misbehaves - we remove them to a corner in another room and ignore them until they cool it, then we talk about it, get an apology, etc. etc. My youngest is an angel for everyone except me. I swear she hates me. She was the absolute easiest baby there ever was, with the sweetest disposition, and I spoiled her some in the early years. Around 18 months, she started being a little more challenging, and it has gone downhill from there. It has gotten steadily worse and worse despite the fact that as soon as I noticed this behavior, we tightened up a LOT with her. At this point, she is throwing a tantrum like a 2 year old (she's FOUR) about 10 times a day. We have tried timeout, spanking, lectures, etc. I really feel like we have been consistent in trying things before changing it up and trying something else. I don't get it. If I were a slack parent, I would expect this, but I'm not! I have put the work in - WHY DO I HAVE SUCH A DIFFICULT CHILD???? The thought of trying to homeschool this one makes me physically ill. I know I shouldn't feel that way, and I have enough guilt about it already, but I am desperate for some help so I need to put it all out there. As an example of the issues, this morning, she woke up and was mad because her brother woke up before she did. Then she was mad because she didn't want to take off her pullup and put on her panties. Because she sat and sulked for too long, a sibling got downstairs first and found Snitch (our Elf on the Shelf), so they "ruined the fun". Then she was mad that we were having hot cereal for breakfast. (Our rule is eat or don't eat, but don't talk about it and ruin the meal for anyone else, and she likes hot cereal, so I really don't know why this was an issue.) Then she started picking at everybody else and was excused from the table, but then she was mad b/c she was "HUUUUUUNGRY!" Then she didn't like the buttons on the sweater I had picked out for her. And so on and so forth. If you are still reading, I really appreciate it! I know this got so long, but sometimes you just have to get it off your chest, you know? PS - if I have to listen to my mother say ONE MORE TIME "she's just desperate for attention - you can't possibly give each child all the attention they need when you have SO MANY!", I will explode! My kids get PLENTY of one-on-one attention, especially the youngest. It's not like I have 42 kids - there are just four!

Headsprout vs. Reading Eggs vs. Starfall Are they all pretty much the same thing? Preference? Thanks!

Here's a related thread: http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=227503&highlight=geography+core&page=2

We have the placemats that are world maps, and I used a Sharpie to trace the 5 great circles (equator, tropics, arctic, antarctic), as well as a SIMPLIFIED outline of the continents like this: http://memorize-maps.blogspot.com/ I also bought a HUGE world map from an office supply store and drew the same simplified outlines on that and hung it over our stairway landing.

I've been in touch with our local HS group, and have talked to a number of the members with small children. I think I've decided that people on this forum are setting SUCH a high standard! I think I've decided to go for it, knowing that with the guidance here, I can do a great job and do it better than the public school, without feeling like if I can't do 18 math programs, 42 reading programs, along with handwriting, hands on twice-daily messy science projects, SOTW activities, 2 languages, and hours reading, that that is OK! :)

I don't know if this will make you feel any better, but I was in advanced & honors classes all through public school, and I can't EVER remember finishing a textbook in ANY class. In fact, I distinctly remember us joking one year about how depressing it was to spend the last few days of school studying WWII, and I think that was the closest we ever got in history. Two days on WWII at the very end of school. What does that say? It's a problem for EVERY teacher, not just HS'ers. But schoolteachers have the ability to just be done at the end of the year. If you have enough hours/days of study, and it isn't material that is vital to the next year, I say let it go! :) (And now you know why I am stressing about whether or not I have what it takes to HS, thus my post the other day!)

And I thought I was paranoid! :tongue_smilie: Relax, momma, 5 1/2 is NOT late!!