:iagree: I've also seen the opposite. Dd has a friend who is not allowed to read above her assigned color level in the school library! She was only able to read some of the Little House books (out of order) because a few are at too high of a level. :confused1: In addition to the lexile website above, Scholastic's Book Wizard allows you to search titles by lexile level. Every now and then I'll look up books my dds are reading. Younger dd reads books for fun over a 200 point spread. Older dd reads books over a 500 point spread. As for books my dds will read aloud, I choose books with content I want to discuss with them, or that I would find interesting. I've never actually chosen those books based on levels. I'm okay with those or their silent reading books being "over their reading level". The girls are generally really motivated to read the books they choose for silent reading, which probably stretches them in a good way. Have fun choosing books! :001_smile:

I checked with a pharmacist a couple of years ago. He said it was fine. In our case, I needed to split a pill in half. He said as long as it wasn't time-release or coated, it would be fine. He said the warning is probably because some younger kids can't swallow tablets.

We used to live 79 miles (1 hr, 45 min.) from my inlaws. We went down to visit about 3 times a year for holidays. With our kids, it was too far to go for the day. They came to see us about twice a year. There was pretty heavy pressure for us to visit more often, but it was hard to give up a whole weekend, and deal with the kids sleeping in a strange place. I definitely wouldn't have expected them to watch the kids for just a few hours.

This drives me batty! I can't believe how many kids in my neighborhood are wearing their helmets wrong. My 9yo dd was fitted for a new helmet at the bike store today. The lady illustrated how important it was to have the helmet down in front by having dd bump into a wall (pretend tree). She could feel her face hitting the wall one time, and her helmet the wall the other time. Hopefully it made a lasting impression. BTW, The store adjusted the helmets dd and dh bought. It is amazing how many adjustments can be made to new helmets. The guy even showed dd how to turn the knob for a quick adjustment based on her ponytail style of the day! LOL.

I agree that those are tough topics for 7th grade. I don't have a child that old yet, but I don't foresee my 11yo dd being ready for such things anytime soon. These are excellent points. My dds have been exposed to some pretty mature ideas in the Bible. It has always amazed me though how easily children can gloss over some things they aren't ready to handle. They have read about genocide, prostitution, incest and such in the Bible, but never really asked for clarification of what was going on. If the sexual content is important to the story line, as you mentioned above, I would wait until my dd was old enough to understand and appreciate what was happening.

Perfect! That kind of binding is ideal for my lefty. I love that company too. I used to order from them regularly- excellent customer service!

What I didn't like about it might actually have more to do with us than the program itself. I think we used Beyond, although I'm not positive (it may have been Bigger). I agonized over making the purchase, and had Carrie's help in placing my dd. It turns out that dd did not fit nicely into little boxes. I ended up with sticky notes all over the place trying to keep track of where she was. I think we finished the whole year's curriculum in about 3 months. The science was too basic, even for my non-sciencey kid. She preferred to pick her own poems, and strongly disliked some of the poems provided. As I recall, the math, science and reading were too easy, and the writing was beyond her fine motor skills. It just wasn't a great fit, and we have not purchased a boxed program since then. I guess some kids fit better in boxes than others. My younger dd, for example, is more even in her skills, and more tolerant of things she doesn't especially care for. I remember liking the format of DITHOR. We incorporated some of the activities into a book club. Dd also liked many of the literature choices for older kids.

Thanks for the ideas. I was hoping for a cheaper option than the nice bound journals, but they look lovely! It is just for a language arts notebook for dd. She liked the idea of notes on one side and drawings on the other.

I want a notebook with pages lined on one side and blank on the other. I'd prefer a composition notebook type of binding, but would use spiral if I had to. Has anyone seen notebooks like this?

Bumping for you, and because I'm curious! What problem spots have you encountered, and in which books?

I've had a couple of orders come so quickly that I was surprised. I've also had a couple that took longer than 2 weeks. So long, in fact, that I called Rainbow to see if the order had been successfully placed. Both of those times, the package arrived the day after I called. :lol:

This thread is three years old! Maybe OP will pop in and tell us what she chose- if she can remember. Lol.

:001_smile: Me too! My kids have never seen them, but I still remember my set. :001_wub:

:hurray: I'm glad he is making some friends, or at least play mates.

We recently had to use Kids and Pets (like Nature's Miracle) on our brand new carpet. It has not affected the carpet color.

I see how that can happen. I'm surprised it went so far though!

:iagree: This is pretty much what I would have written, except I have girls instead of boys. :laugh:

We use this set too. I chose it because it has separate lines for different topics (wars & conflicts, inventions, people, etc.) We work on it as a family since the girls learn history together. If one child had something particular to add, I would let her.

I have a dd going into 4th, and one who is older. I generally only assign about 1 book a month for school purposes. Both kids also read voraciously on their own though. They frequently retell portions of the books they read independently, and I ask general questions. We also usually have a read aloud and/or audiobook going. We discuss those at length. If one of my dc was only reading comics in their free time, I would set some goals for reading other genres too. I would try not to make it an assignment to be discussed, but I would be heavily encouraging them to branch out. I used a Bingo chart for that purpose one summer.

Thanks for the update- I remember when you enrolled them. Your reminder to be a mom and have fun with the kids is great. That is what I envy most about people who send their kids away to school. They get to be just "Mom" and not "Teacher" too.

I don't know where I heard about it, but I ordered Big Bad Grammar Slammer. I'm not sure how diagramming can be made into a game, but this program claims to do just that. I'm hoping my 3rd and 5th graders can play it.

That's handy to know! I usually subscribe to a thread, hoping I'll remember to reference it again in the future.

Here is how I did it one year. I purchased mp3's from IEW and SWB, and kept a list of things I wanted to research online. I bought some food that was quick to grab and eat, so I wouldn't have to spend time making lunch and dinner. I also wrote out a list of cleaning chores I wanted the girls to do. After the chores were completed, they were allowed to play. The kids actually loved the idea, and said it was like when pioneer kids had to clean the one room schoolhouses. :laugh: I think I ran to Starbucks in the morning, and brought a drink home, which is something I would not normally do. I really enjoyed the day, and so did my kids. My dh would support me in going to a hotel for a night alone to plan, but I think I'd end up missing my family. :001_rolleyes:

My ENT had an audiologist working out of her office. I had my hearing checked there, as did my children. Insurance covered it at 100%.

I don't have enough hours in the day to pre-read all of my dds' books. I rely heavily upon Amazon reviews to alert me to potential problem areas. Read the 1-3 star reviews, and you'll get an idea of what problems other parents found. Sometimes those problems aren't problems for me. Sometimes they are! HTH.