Thanks for the history lesson Karen. I've actually been to the Zuni reservation and seen some of the obscene figures that represent the clowns but didn't remember the term mudhead or make the connection from the story to the zuni clowns. My aunt has a native american jewelry store and used to sell art as well so she has a lot of the figurines which she refers to as kochina (sp) dolls. Some of them would be considered obscene by most in our culture.

I didn't read through everything else but based on that one story I wouldn't hand the book to a young child. If they want to do that particular subtest I would provide only the pages with the stories needed for the test. That's assuming the stories for the test are all okay. I haven't finished reading them yet.

It was an issue for me also. We've had to discuss what words are and are not appropriate after many books. Edited to add that my daughters are of mixed race and dd8 has rather dark skin so we have lots of conversations about racism.

We've discussed where babies come from. It wasn't at all about where babies come from and the description of where body parts were inserted had nothing to do with reproduction and was quite explicit and included multiple options. Trying to avoid being too descriptive but I can't think of any reason to discuss in detail what copulation options are possible with an 8 year old.

Help me plan this trip! I'm looking for some btdt advice. We are taking the kids along on a business trip to Oahu next month. I'm very excited and it really hasn't really seemed real enough to me to actually start planning. Lodging and transportation is taken care of but we haven't planned what we will do while we are there. We don't have a huge budget but I'm looking for suggestions of "must-see" or "must-do" activities. We have an 8 year old and an almost 1 year old. Another family with similar age kids will be there with us. We will have some babysitting available so the occasional adult only activity is okay. We will be Waikiki for 5 days and then on the North Shore for a week. We have business meetings off and on during the Waikiki days so half day activities would be best. I'm open to any and all suggestions and of course free is good :). So google has told me to go to Pearl Harbor, watch whales, surf in Waikiki and hike Diamond Head and possibly tour the Dole plantation. If you've done any of these things I would like to know if you think they should be on our list.

Thanks to you I just purchased Can You Count in Greek even though I have more books and curriculum than we have any chance of completing in the near future. The sample pages look great. I made myself feel better about the purchase because it looks like a good project for dd to work on during our upcoming 8 hour plane trip.

I don't know how to quote very effectively so I'll just answer in order.. FYI, I tested mainly because I wanted access to Duke Tip programs near me. She qualified for recognition from the CTY scat exam but I can't see myself paying for any of their courses any time soon. I live in a big city and several colleges and museums near me have special classes and camps for Duke Tip students. That was my main motivation for testing. I'm not really familiar with CLE because we never tried it but I can tell you what acceleration looks like for us and there are some other threads to review on the subject. MUS does have review with each lesson and on the tests. I think most curriculum has some review. There is a dvd lesson and then 6 worksheets and a test. The first 3 worksheets cover the new topic, the next 3 worksheets and the test systematically review previously covered material. We used to do all worksheets. For a while we did 2 worksheets (1 on new topic, 1 with the review) and then the test. If we did 30-45 minutes of math every day. (I say "if" because in the last year and a half we've been a bit inconsistent in our schedule for various reasons) she would probably do 2 mus lessons per week and have a day and a half or so to do other supplemental stuff she likes like Beast Academy (highly recommend this program), CWP (don't really like singapore...which I know is akin to blasphemy on this board but we do it because it is good word problem practice), Life of Fred and various other things. In the last 2 1/2 years or so we've finished mus beta - zeta and are half way through pre-algebra. We've slowed down a bit to incorporate Beast Academy because she really likes it. I anticipate starting AOPS pre-algebra some time in March or April because I'm stretching until then because we have a 13 day business trip/vacation scheduled in February. I don't imagine we'll get much done right before or after that. Also, there are a lot of math acceleration threads. I think I've personally answered how I've done it on several occasions in greater detail that I provided here. I would read through some of them. As an added benefit I can now review my old threads and remind myself that I actually have made progress and that what I was worried about last year is no longer an issue. :lol: Contests - dd really likes contests and so I've tried to find things for her to do. We started with the spelling bee and this will be our 3rd year participating. We've done math competitions including Trimathlon and will be doing Math Kangaroo in March. We are doing the National Exploratory Latin Exam and the Mythology exam this year. She will only have to study for a few weeks but it is a fun diversion for her. We are doing a geography bee for the first time this weekend. She participates in Awana at church and this is her second year to do their Bible quizzing competition. So far that's what I've been able to find for her age group (she would be in 3rd grade this year if she were in school). She didn't really like the online things like Mathletics because her typing skills aren't great. She is starting to learn to type so that may change in the future. On the subject of dictation...it might be boredom. I've noticed that dd has gotten worse at dictation over the last 2 years. When she was 5 and 6 I could read the sentences to her and she could immediately repeat them back and write them down almost perfectly 99 percent of the time (including spelling). Now when we do it she often asks me to repeat the sentence a bunch of times and seems to have trouble remembering. I'm starting to think that this is similar to the mistakes she makes in math when there is too much busy work. We're practicing something she has mastered and she isn't mentally engaged. She certainly has no problem remembering or memorizing things. Today she recited a poem to my mom that she read two weeks ago. It was probably 10 or 12 lines. I saw SWB lecture about breaking down writing skills and why dictation is important because students need to practice the act of writing a proper sentence and master that before trying to translate their thoughts to paper. I think dd has already mastered step 1 so this year I plan to move more to having her write and helping "edit" if necessary. I think the main take away for me from the past year is that I need to think more outside the box for our school. I was attracted to the structure of classical education and imagined neat little notebooks full of complete worksheets for all of our subjects and very structured days and assignments. I'm finding that just isn't what it is going to look like for us. DD doesn't need to be taught much and I'm more like her mentor than her teacher. We're doing a lot by trail and error and making changes frequently. It's taken me a long time to let go of the ideas I had to "do school" at home. I really enjoyed the video someone posted recently of the TED talk on hack schooling. We're doing more classes, going to more museums, reading more and doing way fewer worksheets and for now that seems to be working. Another big take away has been that I can't plan extremely far ahead and I don't need to right now. We don't have to finish a book if it isn't working and every time we do finish something we evaluate whether the "next book" is a good fit, do we need to skip ahead, do we even need to do this as a formal subject, etc. We have hit a sweet spot in math acceleration so I think I'm going to focus on Latin and literature next. Maybe I'll have some thoughts on that in few months after we try some things.

My daughter has read a lot of various greek & Norse myths and we've discussed them. She is only 8 and we don't necessarily need to have conversations about what holes specific body parts need to be stuck in which is part of what was covered in that particular myth. I won't be more specific because I can't without potentially showing up in a purposeful search for x rated material. I know not everyone agrees but in my opinion it is my responsibility to censor what my daughter is exposed to and introduce things at appropriate times. I feel it is one of the great challenges of having accelerated children. Just because she can read and understand everything doesn't mean she should at this point.

DD thought the American Indian mythology subtest might be fun so I got the recommended book from the library. It was in the adult section which fortunately means dd checked with me before starting to read. The test recommends specific stories to read and after pre-reading the first one I'm assuming those are all fine. I will be just copying the pages dd needs to study and giving those to her since the first recommended story comes right after a story called "Teaching the mud heads how to copulate" which is even more shocking and inappropriate than it sounds. Dh and I were both like :huh: . I made him read it because I was a bit shocked.

I may respond more thoroughly later but here are some quick thoughts. I did Iowa Testing at a local co-op which allowed us to do the Explore test later this month and did the SCAT test through CTY. This gave me an idea of where dd is compared to other students her age without spending a fortune. I think my total expense so far is under $100. If she has good standardized test scores from public school that are recent you might be able to skip the first step. Sometimes reading on this particular board can make one feel that their child isn't "that" accelerated because there are a lot of experienced homeschoolers here with exceptional students. If your child gets everything right with little effort then she probably should be encouraged to move faster in some areas. Not everyone finds their passion early. I would suggest picking one subject and just giving it a shot. We picked math because dd was bored and complained about math all the time. It was what she liked least so I felt we needed to start there. Turns out she needed to move A LOT faster and is now happy. If she had been content I might not have pushed and I don't think that would have been the right thing for her. Don't make acceleration about more work...just different work. For example, when we started accelerating math I stopped making dd do all the worksheets. We still did math sequentially (we use mus and did one book after another in order) we just didn't spend as long on a topic. If she understood it well after watching the dvd and doing one worksheet she tested and moved on. This meant we did multiple books in one year and we keep moving ahead until we hit areas that require effort. Other topics are more difficult to accelerate and there have been a few threads about that issue lately that you might want to review. History and Literature acceleration can be as simple as having more detailed discussions after she reads things than you would with younger or less advanced students. For my dd we stopped doing formal spelling because she never made any mistakes on a pre-test after trying 3 or 4 curriculums over 2 years. We use that time for things like Figuratively Speaking and more reading time. Sometimes being accelerated means kids need less explicit instruction and more conversation. She also likes contests so we've devoted some time to contest prep. We do vocabulary from classical roots and then use the words from there for oral spelling bee practice. These are a few ways I've tried to go deeper without making it just about more work. We don't spend very much time on formal grammar anymore (we still occasionally do FLL 3 and WWE 3 because dd likes them) because we cover that through Latin. Latin is something I added to challenge dd since everything else was so easy. Piano lessons are also something we've added to work on discipline and effort since everything comes easy to her. So far it is very easy too so we're talking to her teacher about adding a little more challenge. Obviously once I got started that was longer than I anticipated but those are a few quick thoughts. The best advice I can give you is to just do it. It was very hard for me to allow dd to stop doing all the math worksheets every week. It just felt wrong. I really wanted to have all these nice weekly folders with everything neat and complete but that's just not what life or school for us looks like.

I like recipes from the blog 100 days of real food. Especially the carrot applesauce muffins.

I watched the video myself first and then again with dd and dh. We all enjoyed it. I did see the negative comments. I think geography makes a big difference on what is available at a reasonable cost. I have family in Colorado and a lot of what he talked about could be done there for little or no cost. Dh and I speak in front of groups frequently and I was impressed with his presentation skills. I don't think he was implying that this was his original idea but rather just presenting how his family does school. Since I am moving further and further away from just "doing school" at home I think I enjoyed this presentation a lot more than I would have a few years ago. Dd said she wants to be both awesome and happy when she grows up no matter what she decides to "do"

Dd was very excited about beast academy last year. My in-laws seemed a bit confused about why I gave her a math book and more confused about her excitement. This year she wants a hand generator she played with at a science class, a catapult making kit she is excited about after taking a class on siege machines and various other books & science, history or math things. She also wants an America Girl doll which we will probably let her get with money from grandparents after Christmas.

Another verse to consider would be Phillipians 2:3. In humility consider others as more important than yourself. In this instance the "others" would be mil and your kids who would enjoy spending time with cousins. I have several family members who are difficult to be around but they love my kids and my kids love them so I try to be reasonably accommodating. Of course you didn't specify what the original dispute was and whether you can be cordial. If not, then it might be best to avoid the situation.

Very helpful suggestions. I'm thinking we're going to move to a similar strategy

I recovered from tendinitis in my knees. It was horribly painful when standing or getting up in the morning but would go away as I warmed up and started exercising. I had it for almost a year and the only thing that made it better was a forced 2 month break from exercise due to unexpected travel after my uncle died. Losing some weight helped keep it from coming back when I resumed exercise but that wouldn't apply to an elbow. I currently have it in one of my achilles tendons and it became more manageable after my chiropractor made some adjustments in my foot. It still hurts but not as bad.

Dd used to enjoy watching her DVD movies in Spanish. She want through this phase around age 3 or so...when we were doing song school Latin.

Just a quick response because I'm sitting in a class with dd right now and can't really focus on the list and would like to think about it more. The thing that stood out immediately was foreign language. We did start that early. We've done Latin (ssl, Prima Latina & now Latin for children) , the Greek code cracker alphabet (and a little bit of Song School Greek) and now dd is working on Spanish on her own on the iPad. We're also doing vocabulary from classical roots. Dd really likes word roots and studying languages.

I don't know why they don't show in your link but I ran across this somehow the other day and the product reviews were hilarious. I can't figure out how to link it but the item description on what I saw said CTA Digital 2-in-1 iPotty with Activity Seat for iPad

I think I mentioned this in the math thread but it was harder to deny that dd was accelerated in math because we had more issues finding the right fit for curriculum. I've been more relaxed on the subject of writing since seeing swb speak last year at a homeschool workshop. I realized that we have plenty of time to work on mechanics and that we will do so as writing becomes necessary for outside contests and/or classes. DD is much like boscopup's son in that her oral stories and narrations are much more complex and creative if she doesn't think she has to write it down. She turns 9 in3 months and has become less resistant to the physical act of writing over the last few months. This does not mean she likes formal writing assignments but once she gets started she usually writes more than requested instead of those very short sentences she used to do for narrations when she was counting words to avoid writing. I think spelling, grammar, punctuation, handwriting and the ability to formulate thoughts and get them on paper are all separate skills. In my dd's case I am able to look back now and realize she was precocious in all of those skills except handwriting. She still tends to have poor handwriting. It is not necessarily an inability to write neatly, she can do that when prompted for a specific task, but rather a lack of desire or ability to focus on both handwriting and the creative process at the same time. For her, writing neatly requires concentration and gets in the way of getting words on paper as quickly as she would like. I tried having her use speech recognition software but it does't work well for her so she is now learning to type. I am still working on handwriting but for online classes or anything that requires turning in assignments typing would help her keep up.

This is similar to what I've been requiring of dd8. If she gets the right answer and can easily explain why/how I don't always require her work to be shown. We are currently in mus pre-algebra so only a few problems per sheet require her to show work. She hates it but I explained that if there is no work shown it is much harder to figure out where the mistake is and that she will have to start problems over from scratch. After having to redo several problems she saw the light. As we move in to AOPs it will require much more writing. Writing in neat lines lined up under equal signs is apparently irritating for her but she's stuck with doing it because getting the right answer is of no use if we can't find it or read it on her page.

I love that this board always gives me instructions for things I didn't even realize I needed to be thinking about. We will be switching to spiral graph paper and putting squares around answers for both of us . DD's work is often difficult to decipher but I can't blame her because so is mine. I am working through pre-algebra before she starts and had to redo a whole group of problems yesterday because my work was too sloppy. :huh:

Since you asked... In your situation I would consider continuing with age appropriate instruction on handwriting (copy work), spelling and grammar instruction and just let her write what she wants when she wants. FLL & WWE are good options for this. I believe in the writing instruction book that SWB wrote it discusses the idea that the creative process of writing and the mechanics do getting it on paper are distinct skills. In your daughters case the ideas and creativity seem advanced. The execution and mechanics seem more age appropriate. Teaching her to type and/or use voice recognition software was a good way to help her write down her thoughts. Give her lots of time to write and be creative and then do grade level work on the mechanics and she'll be fine.

I have pretty bad allergies which I keep under control by juicing and trying to eat reasonably healthy. I had to spend a few months in Arizona a few years ago and was excited at the prospect of my allergies not being as bad. Unfortunately, dust was just as bad as pollen for me.