:iagree: The subtitle didn't seem to correlate to the content of the article. I agree with the points in the article but they really had nothing to do with whether or not the ability to read above grade-level is a good thing or not. A more appropriate subtitle might have been "Is forcing your child to read only at or above grade-level a good thing?. I'm not really sure what level my daugher reads currently because I've never tested her but she can read anything we put in front of her. Sometimes she chooses to read books like Narnia, The Hobbit or Secret Garden and other times she chooses picture books. She's only 6 so at this point I "assign" a little non-fiction reading but other than that I let her choose. The only screening I do is for content. She reads way too much for me to screen everything but if it's a novel that cames out of the juvenile section I check common sense media and/or squeakycleanreviews.com before I give her the go-ahead.

Do you mind sharing the casserole recipe? I've been trying to find a casserole for Christmas morning and this sounds yummy.

I am glad I'm not the only one unable to make a decision about what case to buy. I can't even tell you how many I've looked at in person or online but I can't seem to decide. I have 5 days left because I need to give the ill-fitting iPad 1 cover to dd Sunday.

I called my SIL one day just to chat and found out she was locked in her sons room with all four of her kids. At the time her toddler aged on kept wondering around in the middle of the night and it was dangerous because of the stair layout at the home. They turned the door knob around to keep him safe at night. They were in his room changing his diaper and he ran & locked & closed the door before he could catch him. She lives across the country so all I could do was offer moral support while she waited for the friend she called. The friend got their and unlocked the door for them but they stood talking for a few minutes and he locked them in again. I believe at that point they yelled out the window for the postman to let them out. I'm sure he thinks they are all crazy.

Bumping since I posted in the middle of the night.

I sure wish we had a school group to go with. We are going the week of the 5th - 10th. Anyone else there that week? We have 7 total in our group including adults. How many are needed to get the $5 price?

I have a sterling ring that I wear daily and abuse and it's held up well. I wash my hands with it on but son't wear it in the shower but only because it has inlaid stones which would start to look bad if I showered in it regularly.

I love my stylus and lost an expensive one before ordering this one http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004WB7IAS/ref=oh_o03_s00_i00_details I only paid $6 or $7 but it seems to have gone up to $11. Other than a stylus, the only thing you need is the case which is a preference issue. Just make sure you get one designed for the ipad2 so there's a hole for the camera.

If I wrap before Christmas Eve I put out only the presents for others outside of the house. I always wait until the last minute Christmas Eve to put out dh & dd's presents. I also put any presents we receive from others (like our of town relatives) under the tree as soon as we get them. ETA: I don't do this because dd would get in to them I just like the surprise factor of not seeing the gifts until Christmas morning. I always loved waking up to see how many presents were under the tree as a child. Dh apparently was deprived of this fun tradition so he thinks I'm crazy.

Thanks for the response. It does help to see what others are doing. My daughter doesn't complain about being in 2nd grade programs at church so that's where she'll probably stay for now. We do most everything at home so we'll probably end up sticking with that for the next few years. It looks like my acceleration is pretty close to what you have been doing. I am probably going to finish up the current curriculum and then evaluate another skip for English/lit. I'm not sure what her specific reading level is but she can pretty much read anything so I know I need to challenge her more in that area.

In lfc which we are using the weekly memorizations usually include declensions but if Henle doesn't include them you might look at Andrew Cambell's memorization booklet on lulu. I paid $11 for it and it includes a lot more than Latin but it includes Latin grammar memory work.

If we're taking an extended break we just practice previous memory work during the car or something. I've found starting after breaks difficult only in the sense that dd doesn't want to work period. Specifically, she has no problem remembering what she's learned in various subjects she just has a generally lazy attitude and disposition we have to get over to get back in the working groove, that shouldn't be a problem for you since you will be working just not on Latin.

Thanks for the tip about Legos. So far I bought all presents online and I don't recall any free tickets but a trip to the Lego store may be in order. Is there a particular price point that includes the ticket?

Thanks for sharing this. We are going to Disney in February and our friends wanted to add Legoland too. Our kids are 8, 7 & 6 so it sounds like it will be a good option for them. Where did you find the special tickets? I've been trying to find some and so far no luck.

We are in the middle of changing churches right now but at our previous church home the response of adults to dd was a real problem for me. The church is small and various age groups are often combined in one room. It's very obvious in that setting when the 6 year old knows the answers and pre-teens don't..this leads to the over-praising. I have been taking her to Awanas, a fine arts coop and Sunday school at a much larger church with more kids and I've found that is working better. With 100 kids in the room she can't answer every time even if she knows the answer. She really enjoys the social aspect even though the "lessons" are ridiculously easy for her. I don't think she even sees it as a learning situation. She just sees it as fun time. I assumed she would be bored in the classical coop and would try to make it social time too which is why I didn't sign her up. I liked your comments out broader vs faster too. I'm not sure we need to rush but there's still the need for challenge.

What type of situations did you radically accelerate them in and how far ahead did you put them. Right now, we don't do co-op or anything like that so I'm just dealing with things like AWANAS at church but over the next few years we'll probably start some classes at our local co-op. I considered putting her in their one-day classical school this year but we had already covered a lot of what they were covering for the 3rd grade.

I see a trend of 1-2 years being ideal socially in the responses which is interesting to me because that's what I have found to work well in our case with social activities. My daughter is 6 (will be 7 in February) and would be in 1st grade in public school. I've found that at church and other group settings 2nd or 3rd grade to be the group she fits in socially well. It's still not too challenging intellectually and she seems to be the one who knows all the answers even with the older kids but she just seems more comfortable. I'm wondering if this will change as we get to the point where kids 2 grades up are pre-teens and in a much different place of maturity. I would be interested to hear from some parents of older kids. A lot of the responses on this board seem to be from parents with similar aged kids to my daughter. Dh and I have spent a lot of our downtime this month discussing whether or not we're challenging our daughter enough in her schoolwork. It's hard to find the appropriate balance between encouraging her to work up to her ability level and pushing her too hard. I've skipped grade levels in some subjects (FLL,WWE, etc) and greatly accelerated others (math, reading) but it still feels like everything is just a little too easy for her. I waver between thinking I should relax because she is already several years ahead and thinking I should move faster to get to the point where it's more of challenge and she learns how to work hard.

I have purchased Singapore materials twice as a supplement to mus which we've used consistently. I can't really out my finger on why I don't love it but it just isn't the right fit for us. I have started using a few of the challenging word problems as supplements but dd & I both prefer the mus way of learning. Dd is able to do the Singapore problems and we both understand what they are trying to communicate in the book but she often asks why they are making it more complicated than it needs to be. She just likes a more straightforward approach. My solution has been to accelerate the mus we're doing and I'm just planning on going straight to aops after we get past mus per-algebra.

You're welcome. I enjoyed reading it myself as I hadn't heard of several of the people featured. I plan to read some of the stories with my daughter tomorrow. It's always fun to read about successful people who were homeschooled.

If she has a working desktop that she uses and likes and it's in the budget I would go for a refurbished iPad. She can read books in iBooks and kindle apps and most colleges now offer textbooks for the iPad. It's also great for note taking. Eta: the iPad is great for art and graphics.

If you can add android apps to a nook color (which is possible from what I understand) then you can share kindle books. I have the kindle app on my android phone and my iPad and share books between both. I don't think books you buy in the bookstore for Nook would be available on the kindle app but the other way around would work.

Here's a list of a few of our favorites. You should also search recent threads as there have been many lately listing apps. Education Stack the states Stack the countries Presidents vs aliens Biology exam hd Math bingo Rocket math Khan academy Brainpop Starwalk Word wit Geomaster plus Sat question of the day Sat vocabulary Jungle coins Hangman Latin hangman Kruis tafel This day in history Math board Planets I cell Just for fun (we don't have many of these) Toontastic Scrabble Monopoly Trivial pursuit I just downloaded the Appshopper app Reg recommended a few days ago and it is great for finding free apps and has an option for tracking apps you want to buy to see when they are on sale

To change the names in notability you select edit on the list screen. Select the file name you want to change and delete the current name. Type the name you want and then hit return on the keyboard. ( if you don't do this you lose your changes). Then select done at the top of the screen.

NBA player Blake Griffin was homeschooled until high school. I believe he went to high school because of his athletic ability. I googled to try to confirm what I remembered and found this link of other prominent homeschoolers. http://www.thebestcolleges.org/the-worlds-15-most-extraordinary-homeschoolers/

One more site I use is http://www.vrbo.com. It looks like they have more options in Missouri but not sure if any of them are near Jefferson City.