I would teach kindness first, although I feel it goes hand in hand with being respectful and considering other people. I'm not all that concerned with the others. Obedience can be important, but curiosity and questioning are as well. A sense of humor develops naturally as long as they are in a family that doesn't take themselves too seriously. Patriotism doesn't rank for me at all beyond the point of a child being comfortable with who they are and where they come from.

I dye my hair black at home. I don't have to worry much about screwing it up because my hair is already dark brown and I don't have gray yet. If I were going lighter, I would go to the salon. I tried to dye my hair lighter as a teen and ended up with orange and green hair.

My middle name is gaelic, and the absolute butchering of your name gets old after the 1200th time. I have the same first name as my mom so I went by my middle name (and still do with my immediate family) for a long time. I switched to my first name after realizing people who had known me my entire life still couldn't spell it :001_huh:

I was reading the thread about accidentally not paying in the grocery store and was wondering if anyone else was taught that you aren't supposed to eat and walk at the same time? No judgments, because I'm sure I do a ton of things that are considered bad manners (sometimes intentionally :lol:). I'm just curious if anyone else's granny would have had a faux heart attack if she caught you walking and eating.

This is my favorite thing about ebooks. I have an e-ink reader, so it isn't backlit, but it still makes reading in the dark easier. I clip on the book light and don't have to deal with the awkwardness of flipping actual pages while keeping the book light situated. It's also more comfortable for reading one-handed while laying down. Keeping a heavy book open with one hand makes my wrist hurt sometimes.

I have a biblical name that wasn't popular at all until the past few years. I hear it more often these days. I'm sure it doesn't help that one of MTV's Teen Moms named their kid the name *rolls eyes* My middle name (that I go by with family) is hard for most people to remember how to spell and impossible for those who have never seen it to read, so I doubt it will ever be popular.

My daughter had a top ten name that has since become the #1 name. I don't love her having the top name, but I try to remind myself of why we chose it (it's still a beautiful name and she was named after my grandmother). I've read that the top names are a smaller percentage of all names these days, so there is virtually no chance of having a handful of Isabellas today like in my day when there may have been 4 Jessicas and 3 Ashleys in one classroom.

I use my Paypal card for everything because I run an ebay business and I thought they stopped the 1% cash back a couple of months ago? That's awesome if they still do it. Maybe it was something else they discontinued? I enjoy using my Paypal card, but they've frozen my account several times generally for no real reason at all. I'm in line, ready to pay, and BAM Paypal strikes again.

I'm going to have to try this. I love when recipes have you weigh ingredients. The recipe always comes out as intended.

I use butter. It has a certain taste that I need to feel like I'm getting a really good cookie. For those who are getting flat cookies, your dough is not cold enough. It either needs to be chilled in the bowl or (my preference) chilled in the freezer while already on the cookie sheet for about 5 minutes. Also, if you are making more than one sheet, the cookie sheet needs to either be cooled or you need to use another sheet for the next batch.

I'm a vegetarian so I have dressing by default these days but back when I wasn't, I still never stuffed the bird. Stuffing the turkey is something I only see on tv. No one I know ever stuffs the bird.

Lack of sleep. I wish I could sleep right now.

I've been thinking about this quite a bit lately. My daughter was approximately a 4 (some markers at both levels 3 and 5 as well) in Ruf's levels. Her IQ testing through the RIAS intelligence test was lower. Her achievement testing has scores around 3-5 grade levels higher than her grade (they are doing in depth additional testing at the moment). I wonder if it's a fluke that she learns as quickly as she does, because her IQ doesn't match up with ability. So basically, this whole smart vs gifted thing is confusing to me. I have to leave all the formal definitions to the powers that be before my head explodes.

My daughter gets differentiated instruction for K. She has Encore and goes to another grade for reading, but in her actual classroom, her teacher differentiates by allowing her to help the other students with their work, do a monthly project/report to present to the class, write short stories a couple of times a week, and do math journals. I'm not sure how it will all go as she has only started having her work differentiated to this extent for a short time, but it may give you some ideas.

My daughter's school is nice, but it is not very old. The older schools definitely have their issues and I expect my daughter's will too in 2065.

I have had this experience. In K, I took Language Arts with 5th graders. It was not an appropriate solution for many reasons. Acceleration is an answer, but it is not the only answer. I can't say I know of any perfect solution, but acceleration can only do so much depending on how many years ahead the child is.

I just finished watching it a couple of days ago. The only part I really hated was the first half of season 3 (Daddy Petrelli's episodes plus a future and present version of all main characters). Although it's 4 seasons, it's 5 volumes. The 3rd season is split into 2 separate story arcs. If I had to do it over, I would skip the entire first half of season 3 but watch the rest. Overall, there are some gems in season 2-4, but even when it's good it doesn't quite live up to the first season.

From experience, bigots will try to make you feel like you are crazy or oversensitive if you point out their bigotry.

Either your scale is off or you aren't rounding up enough to cover the weight of the label itself.

$300 total. $200 for one child (I only have one). She can request one big gift and two smaller ones. I may buy even less, though. My daughter is not only an only child but also an only grandchild/niece for some of my family, so last year I bought very little and still ended up with too much stuff. I only buy for 4 people and three are adults who get smaller token gifts. Last year I bought the adults movie passes so we could all watch a movie together and also things like books, pretty journals, etc.

My daughter goes to a Montessori school and this year is basically the 2nd year she has seen all her friends move up into another grade and it has been hard on her. One of the people she was closest to is in 2nd now (my dd is in K) and after being with that friend on the playground one day, I had to combat an entire week of depression and crying. I sounds counterintuitive, but she was actually in a better mental state when she didn't see the friends she misses so dearly for a small portion of the day. It's funny because my daughter is advanced as well, and when she first started I thought it would be great for her to be in a multi-age classroom because she has always connected better with older kids. I never thought about how hard it would be for her to see her best friends leave the classroom each year while she is stuck. What I'm doing is trying to encourage my daughter to expand her horizons. Just telling her to make different friends doesn't work, so we talk pretty extensively every afternoon about specific ways she can integrate new people into her life. We've had the issue with her thinking they are baby-ish, but I've talked to her about finding common ground even with the younger kids and talked with her about how she can become for them what her older friends were for her when she first came. She can be an example and connect in different ways. If you talk to her and find out her issue is missing her friends, I would deal with that separately from the acceleration issue. You could be fighting the school system for who knows how long trying to get a bump up and could still not get one. In the meantime, you can actively tackle her ability to adapt and make new friends.

Our ILL is free, but we can only request books. They got rid of media requests awhile ago. I would not mind paying a small fee per item ($1 or so) because I mainly use it preview items I am considering buying. It would still be cheaper in the long run to try stuff through ILL than buy it and hate it. Random addition: I have a book out from ILL now that is only in a handful of libraries around the country and is worth a ton of money (Teaching with Calvin and Hobbes). I never thought another library would actually send it to me and was completely shocked when they did. I've been so scared I'm going to ruin it or something and end up with a 1k library bill lol.

We don't get flu shots. I've had the flu a time or two and I don't think it's so serious that I feel the need to get a shot to prevent it. If we were not otherwise healthy and getting the flu would be a big deal, I would have no qualms about receiving the vaccination.

My dd is in K at traditional K age (she turned 5 at the end of March). Since she is in school, we don't do any traditional lesson work. I do have her read 30 mins a day to herself and we are working through Zaccaro as a math supplement, logic puzzles, and French outside of school. She is far ahead of K work, but has an excellent teacher who is really trying to meet her needs (the school system, on the other hand, is working against us). Luckily she goes to a good school that spends the last half of the day doing fun supplementary activities like violin, art, computer, music, etc. That means an entire half of the day is done doing things that she isn't years ahead in.

I don't know much about full grade acceleration, but my daughter is in kindergarten and most of the other k-ers are about at the exact same level you describe your daughter being at. All things listed are about average for a k-er at my dd's school so if they are trying to assess if your dd can do the same work as a k-er, she would fit in academically. Keep in mind that there are a ton of people who are uncomfortable with acceleration even if your child is academically, socially, and emotionally ready. My dd tested at 5th reading and half through 2nd math last year in pre-k and I am still having trouble getting even subject acceleration (which tbh would be adequate for now) for her. She started testing last November, so if your school system is anywhere near as slow as mine, she will be in K before you can even start to come up with solutions. Hopefully your school system is better than ours!