Thank you guys! I’ll look at all of these. I definitely think he’d like biographies of inventors and scientists, and I will try Freddy the Pig to test his “talking animals” rule. I really appreciate the suggestions and the support. XOXO

Help! Currently reading aloud the 26 Fairmount Ave series to DS7, and he likes it very much but he is getting worried about what we read after this, and I’m hoping to bring him some options so he can “choose” and have a little buy-in. Here’s the Venn diagram I’m building: * he’s chronologically 7, intellectually 10 and social-emotionally 4 * he strongly prefers non-fiction, including memoirs; he’s good w SOTW * last I heard he cannot tolerate talking animals but that was a couple of years ago * he is quite sensitive and newly diagnosed as ASD. Today he sat for “The Emperor’s New Clothes” as our short story (we do a “novel” chapter and a short story or folk tale or picture book most days) and he thought it was kind of funny until we got to the part where the Emperor was going to walk naked through the streets and then he started screaming and spinning and wouldn’t let me continue. * he’s a fluent and strong independent reader, my goal with read-alouds is family bonding and some emotional and linguistic stretching *if possible* I’m thinking Boy by Ronald Dahl, Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder, maybe Little Britches by Ralph Moody, maybe Betsy-Tacy by Maud Hart Lovelace. Any other suggestions? Have you had any success reading COFAs/biographies to this type of kid? TIA for advice and shared experiences

Remembering empathy for our kids is hard but so important!

This is absolute wisdom.

Ha yes!

THIS IS BEAUTIFUL AND IMMA USE IT. Thank you. ?

Hello! I am due with #4 in May. In our area and social milieu, having four or more kids is...not common. We know one Orthodox Jewish family with 10, a Catholic family with 5 kids, and I have a couple of LDS friends who are from large families. But four or more is generally NOT the done thing around here. Where I live, I find that one kid is common, two is the "norm," three is "oh how cute they like having kids and they can afford it" or "well you know those immigrants are so family-oriented," but four is "what is wrong with you are you insane?" Sidebar rant: My parents are somewhere between irked and irate (they only had three, so that's their number). We are 41 and 42, married, happy, financially independent and have a paid-off home. Our kids are well-fed and well-educated. I need to lose weight but other than that none of us have any major health problems. My dad said we were being selfish and expressed a concern that we won't be able to take care of them in 10 years (which is totally unfair since we live two miles away, and are available at their beck and call, and heretofore they have always literally *laughed* at us if we asked if they needed any help with aging) and demanded that we find a birth control method. I was pretty much planning to get my tubes tied after this one, but I told him we do have a lot of ambivalence about birth control versus family building. Heck, just being told I *have* to do something makes me want to not do it and head in the opposite direction and do IVF to get pregnant with #5 & #6 as twins. ANYWAY, I think we have entered the phase of our family building where we are statistically weird. Only 14 percent of American women have four or more children. I was wondering if any of you larger-family moms have any experiences or wisdom on how you manage responses to "you're nuts" or "you're being selfish" or other responses you get from people. Help?

DS5 has started reading the Horrible Science series. He's been a fluent reader since 3 but he doesn't love it (he seems to abhor fiction), but "human body books" fascinate him.

<3

THIS IS THE ONE I WAS THINKING OF. THANK YOU!!!!!!

I'm asking here because I remember this existing and I'm sure I learned about it here, but hell if I can find it again through much Googling. Does anyone have a link to a one-page reading vocabulary/reading level test that was like twelve rows of words (for the 12 grades) and there was a guideline that once the kid didn't recognize like three or five words on a line that was probably their reading level?

Either put it all in aggressive-growth mutual funds or try to find a well-maintained three-bedroom, two-bath single-family home in a good school district around here to buy and use as a rental.

We found this one at a thrift shop and my kid whipped through it. Seemed to leave a good impression: http://amzn.to/2vzAdnI If your kid is 12+ or an extremely advanced/voracious reader of any age, I recommend the Oxford Press version retold by Geraldine McCreaghan and illustrated by the great Victor Ambrus: http://amzn.to/2vzfa4I

I have only the faintest recollection of radical being a math term! Maybe my kids will know it better. Thanks for all the ideas and tips. I am taking notes furiously. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

DS7 is very excited about multiplication. We are doing lots of multiplication problems using C-rods. Last night he snatched a book about multiplication out of my hands and hid in a corner with it for a while. Our math program includes lots of multiplication work up to x10, but no further. * Multiplication facts up to x12 * Squares to 30 & Cubes to 30 - inspired by Miko - * Did you or your kids memorize further than twelves? (I knew a kid in elementary school who had them up to 15 and I thought he was a god.) Was it useful to have them memorized even though everything above 10 can be "worked out"? * What other math facts might be good to practice at the grammar stage?

1. Signing Time ABC signs is my very favorite. I usually start w that and then move on to Letter Factory. 2. Rusty & Rosie videos if you can find them. They were recommended by a mom on this forum years ago and we really liked them. Quite old-fashioned (80s/90s computer animation) but oddly catchy songs and illustrations. 3. My must-have alphabet book is Curious George Learns the Alphabet and then second (for letter sounds) is Abadaba Alphabet, which comes with a CD narrated by Jim Weiss.

* The Dark is Rising series * Wolves of Willoughby Chase series * Prydain Chronicles * Children of Green Knowe series * Spiderwick Chronicles

I was once in a competition with a Liberty. She was supposedly a triplet with sisters Equality and Fraternity.

Ds4 read-aloud: Jenny and the Cat Club DS7 read-aloud: just finished Cricket in Times Square. Next will be Homer Price, Miss Hickory or Basil of Baker Street DS7 independent read: Quikpick Adventure Society & Hardy Boys Me: Lessons from Privilege: The American Prep School Tradition by Arthur G. Powell & Schools That Work: America's Most Innovative public Education Rograms by George H. Wood

Possibly helpful resource: http://www.cyndislist.com/houses/

whatsthatbook.com

I found $0.26 on the ground, LOL.

Disclosure: This runs in our family. My dad has allergies, my mom has eczema, I had both. I have expected one or more of the kids to have to it too. Anecdata follows: DS4 had eczema on his trunk and behind his knees. His nose seemed to be running CONSTANTLY, even more than usual for snotty little kids. Took him to our favorite allergist and paid out of pocket for the basic food panel. He was said to be NOT allergic to dairy. He was very mildly allergic to egg whites, pinto beans, tomatoes and blueberries. We took him off all of those things. No change. Snot. Bad skin. Eczema. Finally I said this is milk (which is what I thought it was in the first place). We took him off all dairy products (although now and again he will encounter a slice of pizza or string cheese in the wild and we try not to fly off the handle). Snot is gone. Eczema is gone. His visibly healthier and more vibrant; his mood also seems improved. In some genetically predisposed children kids, cow's milk is the keystone trigger for allergies. Everybody panics because cow's milk is considered *the* fundamental food of childhood, but it's not as essential as you've been led to believe and in some kids it does serious damage. I wish more than anything that when I was a kid my mom had spent less time washing my clothes in Ivory Snow and more time addressing nutrition/diet factors for my eczema. [/end anecdata] Link: This article from The Guardian about extreme eczema has a number of helpful comments. Good luck. https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/may/21/life-with-extreme-eczema-maggie-ofarrell