I like Sequential Spelling for my natural speller (8 yo ds) :) It has a list of 25 new words each day as opposed to studying the same list of words for an entire week. The program works on word families, not learning the rules. They can get pretty challenging. Some words this week (in the 3rd grade level) were.. unleavened beautiful handkerchief inconceivable preconception perceived mischievous acheivement

Ds enjoyed... Beverly Cleary (he even loved the Ramona series) My Father's Dragon trilogy Hardy Boys books Cam Jansen Encyclopedia Brown books Choose Your Own Adventure books The Secrets of Droon All the "magic" books by Edward Eager (Half Magic, Knight's Castle, Magic by the Lake, etc..) The Indian in the Cupboard series The Chronicles of Narnia Harry Potter Redwall There are lots more, but this and the previous suggestions should give you a good starting place :)

Just because you're forced to suffer through life with a lame-ilicous PC doesn't mean you have to be so spiteful towards us awesome Mac users ;) . We have two Macs in the house, both are almost 5 years old, and neither is anywhere near obsolete. In addition, in that 5 years, only one of them has needed to head over to the Mac store once for minor repairs. Neither of them cost us anywhere near $3,000 or $4,000. They run so much better than PC's. When I'm forced to use a PC ( like at my sister's house for example ) I'm instantly driven into near insanity by the sloggy, crappily and inefficiently designed system. I can't even imagine attempting photo editing on a PC. I'd run eagerly into death's arms before I even considered it :tongue_smilie: . We've never, ever had a virus. DH is so devoted to Macs he refuses to even install Microsoft Word on our Macs. ~Jenn

Ds (8) - Working on a story he's writing.. Me (34) - Fidgeting around with my camera and checking in on my online stuff.. Here's the combined effort :) .

No, you're not the only one who does this...but I think you'd be much happier if you'd just move past it and let it go. It's just a typo after all :001_smile: .

I don't think you're being unreasonable at all :) I also should say that as I was reading this and based on your description, I was assuming your SIL was in her early twenties. I was floored when you said she's actually 44.

Here's my lil' Harry Potter :)

Here's my lil' Harry Potter :)

I think the best way to impress upon her the damage lying can cause is to tell her a huge lie and then let her stew about how it feels. Tell her you're taking her to Disney. Then on the day of tell her sorry..you lied. I know, it's mean, but I think it's the quickest way to get your point across.

I don't get it...why are dentists buying candy from kids so that they can rot the teeth of the troops?

We aim for 5 days...sometimes it happens and sometimes it doesn't ;) . I have a friend who is doing a 3 week on, 1 week off type schedule and it's working out great for them!

[ATTACH]3640[/ATTACH]Here's my lil' man (8). These are from this past summer and fall. Some are from a session I did with him and his friend at the beach. The last is him playing at a recent tournament :)

Here's mine (with my other favorite man <3)

I have an older edition...definitely get a new edition that will be compatible with the extension sets. Here's how to tell the difference. The older version is ALL hexagonal tiles, even the water is made up of individual hexagonal tiles. In the newer version, the water is in a few larger pieces that interlock together like a puzzle to form the water border. Not only does this make it easier to set the game up, it's going to be easier to buy add on sets that will be compatible. Catan is and AWESOME GAME!!!! It's addictive..you're going to love it!

My 8 yo ds absolutely adores my 2 yo niece. He wants to carry her, to help her (especially when she really doesn't need it), play with her and love on her. He's not regularly a particularly affectionate kid with everyone else...but she is really stinkin' cute and sweet ;) .

I was diagnosed with it shortly after the birth of my son 8 years ago. My mom was diagnosed shortly after I was born as well. See an endocrinologist if you're not already. As she is starting medication be sure that they are testing not only TSH but also T4 and free T3. The latter tests (especially the free T3) will tell if her body is successfully converting the T4 to T3. I started with Synthroid (synthetic T4) but my body wasn't doing a good job of converting the T4 to T3 and despite a normal (even borderline hyper) TSH level, my hypo symptoms persisted. Some folks convert the T4 to T3 just fine, and some don't. I didn't and needed something more which led me to natural thyroid replacement. Natural products made from dessicated animal thyroid, such as "Armour", "NatureThroid" and Canada's "Thyroid" all contain both T3 and T4 and many people have great success on them. However, a recent reformulation of "Armour" has left many patients with their symptoms returning with a vengeance. In addition, it's going to be very difficult to get your doc to prescribe them. On top of that...if you can get them prescribed, between backorders and the FDA attempting to ban their production in the US, finding a pharmacy that can fill your order and guarantee a refill is next to impossible. After a year of tracking down any pharmacy that could fill my prescription and anxiety over where I was going to get my thyroid replacement from...I gave up and went back to Synthroid with the addition of synthetic T3 (Cytomel). I feel great and have finally found a combo that works for me and I know will be available for refill when my prescription runs out. Best wishes for your dd :) . Thankfully, this is something that is manageable and treatable.

The Gummi Bears Kids Incorporated You Can't Do That On Television Family Ties (had a major crush on Michael J. Fox until I turned 12 and realized I was taller than him)

It all depends on how she cropped the original proof. If the proof was cropped in a 5x7 ratio, then that would explain why the 5x7 print is similar in crop to the proof. A 5x7 crop is going to be wider and shorter then a 16x20 (I'm assuming the larger print is a 16x20). They're two different ratios and therefore are going to look different. In the 16x20 she may have cropped in closer assuming that you wanted the focus on the subject while making sure that the image retained a nice composition. If the flowers in the background were an integral component for you, it's probably a good idea to tell the photographer before he/she crops and then ask to preview the new proof before the print gets ordered. Here are two examples of the same image cropped in a 5x7 ratio and then in a 16x20 so you can see the difference in the two crops.

Nope, haven't encountered it much :) . When ds was younger and was very articulate..or was reading a book..or drew or wrote something beyond his years folks took notice and would ask questions, but there was never any pressure for me to "give up my secret" so to speak. Ds is 8 now...so it's been quite a few years since I was in the "Toddler and Preschool Mompetition Lion's Den", lol. Things may have intensified in the years since, lol. Maybe it's your past life as a teacher that causes them to think you're holding out on them with some secret formula.

I haven't! Thanks, I'm heading over to your link now :) .

For ds (8) we do a combo using Math U See Delta as our core curriculum, Horizons 4 to supplement and then add in CWP's 4, Math Olympiad Questions and Math Perplexors. The combination of using a mastery curriculum along with a spiral approach, combined with the other stuff tossed in there for variety seems to do a nice job of keeping him engaged and somewhat challenged. We could have done Horizons 5 and CWP 5 this year, but math isn't his favorite subject so I chose to keep him at a comfortable level with a little challenge as opposed to pushing him any further. It seems to be working as he's semi enjoying math this year (especially the CWP and Math Perplexors). I had him take the test for EPGY and he was accepted....but right now the price just isn't in our budget. I have it in the back of my mind for the future though :) . It sounds like your dd could definitely use some extra challenge..either by bumping her up a level in the current program your using or by adding in some challenging extras. You've gotten some good advice on this thread, best wishes!

I learned it with the apostrophe too :) .

I feel like I should clarify. Ds hasn't been tested for IQ...so he could be gifted. He fits much of the criteria and is ahead for some aspects of language arts. At 8 he's reading at a high school level, he's a natural speller and writes exceptionally creative stories. Math comes extremely easy to him allowing him to work a few years ahead and he prodigiously talented in other areas such as chess (he's rated out of scholastic events and has been bumped into the adult sections). When I said he was a perfectly average language arts student, I was speaking specifically about grammar (which we just really branched into within the last year) and the more technical aspects of writing (forming paragraphs, etc..). He's working relatively easily through WWE 4 and Growing With Grammar 4, but nothing that far out there. So, overall, yes, it's possible. BUT, he's not exceptionally gifted in grammar and writing, which were the components I was looking at with regards to the MCT curriculum and why I was taken aback that the curriculum was designed for gifted kids. Thank you to those who posted a bit more about the process and concepts behind MCT, it helps to answer some questions I had :) .

I understand what you're saying...I guess what I'm confused about is WHAT makes this curriculum tailored for "gifted kids"? It can't be the difficulty of content, if the content is at or below other curriculums for "average kids" of the same grade. Is it the layout? The process? Honestly just wondering :) . ETA: I wasn't trying to take a shot at your child's intelligence :) . I was just trying to use my own dc as an example to show that the content of this curriculum isn't particularly advanced beyond any of the other curriculums I've seen out there, that's all.

I have to be honest and say that I wasn't aware until it was brought up on this thread that MCT was supposed to be a curriculum for "gifted" kids. My pretty average at language arts 8 yo would need to use the "Town" level for it to be just at his level. The "Voyage" level would be a little bit of a challenge..but still rather do-able for him. I'm not sure what makes this curriculum a gifted curriculum, but it's certainly not difficulty of content.