Not sure if I've responded here yet. I find this thread a bit of a difficult one emotionally actually. We decided to homeschool when DD was 1, made all kinds of wonderful plans to continue all the way through. To my surprise, when she reached K starting age (4.75 due to cut-off and birthday date) I had a period of intense mourning as I realised this wasn't really our (parents) decision at all. When the reality of asynchrony and accelerated learning (her pace - we were unschoolers) set in and I realised school would never really be an option I felt horribly claustrophobic. Forced into homeschooling even though I had chosen to do it. Of course we could still choose to send her to school, but at this point the advocacy that would be required, the testing (which DH is opposed to) in order to get any kind of accomodation etc etc etc. I can't see how any of those things would impact our family life positively. I do wish I could find a workable brick & mortar option for high school. If she decides to put her energy into music or dancing that may be an option - there are schools here with good programs for students talented in those areas. If her current interest in science continues, not so much. She and I are currently reading a seventh grade science text for fun (she is 6) and when I say fun, I mean fun. There is no new material there for her. I can't see that any school will have advanced enough science to keep her engaged by the time she is 11/12.

:lol: I love this.

I would call the restaurant and arrange to able to order separately. If she complains, just smile and say you didn't think she liked GF pasta :)

Thanks, anyone else?

DD needs more audiobooks. What are your Librivox favourites? She has listened to/read all of Narnia (not that it's available on Librivox, just an example of what she likes). :bigear:

I watched it when it first came out so I would have been a similar age. I don't remember being disturbed by the s*xual content, but I do remember finding the cultural revolution beating scene disturbing.

We are lucky enough to live where there is a vibrant hs community. My 6 & 3 year olds have tons of friends, literally. However we just went away for nearly and instantly got an awful flu on our arrival home. Thus, my children have not seen any of their friends more than once in the last two months. You know what? They are absolutely fine. So all that is to say that although I value social opportunities for my children, I agree with PP that at this age it's just not that important.

He forgot He has forgotten He did forget :)

My eldest is only 6.5. She has her own ipod touch which she got for her 5th birthday. As a family we have two laptops, a desktop, kindle and ipad so there are more than enough screens to go around ;) When the younger one turns five he will either get his own ipod or possibly we'll get a new family ipad, DD will inherit the old one and DS her ipod. At some point soon we'll probably get another kindle, then most likely one will be designated "children's".

Lewelma, is their mandarin good enough to read any Chinese material on their research subjects? You could include it that way :p

Yes, I would suggest MEP too although I find it hard to work out what to print out. Miquon is fabulous & if you can read the lab annotations on your device, there is a lot you can do without printing it (the annotations has all books too, not just orange). Oh dear, BOOKS - not BOS :)

:lol: glad it's not just me :D

It does sound as though supplementation would be a good idea. Awake here & making my morning coffee as we are two hours behind you ;)

:lol: I spelt my DS's middle name wrong on his preschool enrolment last week :blush::blush: Even worse, I had no correcting fluid and had to cross it out. Plus, as it's a Gaelic name most people assume it's kre8tiv so I felt even more ridiculous. It is, in fact a valid Gaelic name with two accepted forms (having slightly different meanings) and I couldn't remember which one DH and I had eventually agreed on back in the overtired newborn haze.

:lol:

Younger here, but we are a musical family & the children see us practicing so they understand the commitment required.

Great :)

It's a pity you can't afford private lessons, she sounds like she's really into it. It may be worth asking the group lesson teachers if they have an advanced private student who wants some teaching experience or if they know a teacher who may be into a barter arrangement. Glad you have a real shoulder rest. If she is holding the violin properly she should be able to keep a hold of it with just shoulder and chin while you try to pull it away. My dd enjoys watching other kids play her Suzuki songs on YouTube. There are also lessons on there (some are better than others). Just search the names of the songs.

Ok, I'm sorry but your three year old threw up from getting pumpkin seeds on his arm?!:confused::confused:

Well to differ from the other Aussies here, we do. It feels really odd to me because it's the wrong time of year for a Havest Festival but we compromise by also doing that in Autumn. Certain streets in my smallish town get involved and houses tie an orange ribbon (as well as decorating if they like) to signal that trick or treaters will be rewarded. We have a couple of families that have US ex-pat members in them amongst our friends and it seems really important to them so we join in :)

Dd - Monday DS - Friday DH - Friday But I am a Tuesday baby (natural).

I change DD's course all the time. She currently has a custom 3rd grade course based on the preset course for our state melded with Singapore's, some second grade things she needed revision on and some of her favourite activities from previous grades. We are yet to do any competitions though so I haven't worked out how to avoid it impacting that (she would be either end of K or end of 1 here as her birthday is on the cut off).

Hoping it goes well and recovery is straightforward and fast

Hoooo boy, yes indeedy we are familiar with that here. DD has a long running debate with me about whether 30 is odd or even. Actually, on that one she now knows she is wrong but she WILL NOT back down. I have been told "Mama, you're doing science all WRONG" with unbelievable amounts of vitriol. I think it's definitely a personality thing, but the fact that she is quite often right and these instances where she is not are rare does not help her to practice graciousness.

My six year old officially has a half hour violin lesson once a week but her generous teacher often goes overtime so she usually has 45 minutes. ITA with the previous comments about the attention span of the child. DD practices a similar amount daily, sometimes more, sometimes less depending on what else is going on in the day. From what you have said an hour lesson would be a good idea.