My son wants a Mystery Party game for his 8th birthday. I thought it would be easy enough to find something for kids like the Murder Mysteries that they make for adults, but now that I look, I can only find ones made for girls through the American Girl collection. Any ideas? TIA

My oldest knew all his letters at age 2, my next at age 3 and my next will not know them until she is 4. I always thought it was just because I had less time to spend with each child, but maybe it is a sign of intelligence. With my oldest, I taught phonics sounds at age 3 and he was reading by age 4.5. He was reading Nancy Drew Mysteries by age 6.5. He really benefited from reading early because he was reading tons of science and history books by age 6.5. He knows more about most things than me! I agree with Laura, there is usually a big pause before they are able to blend sound into words though. My son could sound out words perfectly for about 1 year, but he had no idea what word he was saying! I have heard it is a developmental milestone that can't be helped along too much.

This is what is so confusing to me. According to TWTM, they have to actually take the class, say Geometry, in high school for it to go on their HS transcript. I have heard of earning dual credit by taking a community college course in advanced math, but if I don't want my kids doing that, then what? Frankly, our community colleges around here have become nothing more than expensive high schools. 95% of the home schooled high schoolers I know, go there. Or is TWTM wrong, can you declare high school level work done in 7th grade?

Thanks for all the thoughts everyone. You all gave me quite a bit to think about! :lol:

What do all of you think about advanced grade placement? I never saw the need for it but now I am rethinking. I was finally reading the high school section of the WTM and saw that to make a high school transcript you have to do the work in high school (makes sense, huh?). So if my son starts high school algebra in 7th grade, I can’t count it on his high school transcript. He will have to do three years of high school and college math while in grades 9-12. I think I would prefer to graduate him early and let him go on to seminary or college at age 16 and earn actual college credit for doing Calc. I and II. (Do they even do higher math in seminary? :confused:) Or take a year off to do missionary work, travel, abroad internship . . . If we skip any grades, I would prefer it to be third or fourth. Really the only thing we would "miss" would be our chronological study of science and history. I was thinking if I decide to declare him in a higher grade, I should speed up how fast we are going through our grammar stage history and science now so that by 5th grade we are ready to start the logic stage. (He is already at least a grade ahead in all basic skills but spelling and possibly writing, but both of those are coming along very fast since we started concentrating on them two months ago.) It is so early to be making these decisions and I don’t know if they even matter. I do have to declare to the public school system what grade he is in each year and he has to take a standardized test every odd year. What do you all think, not just directly related to my situation, but in general about advanced grade placement? :bigear: Thanks!

I plan on trying out Vocabulary From Classical Roots. When SWB recommended it for use after SWO, the program started in 7th grade. Now there are books for 4th, 5th, and 6th grade. http://rainbowresource.com/search.php?sid=1205939473-99019

We use Quarter Mile Math and it is great. If my son does not want to do it (it is not all that fun) he can chose to do a drill worksheet of about 40 problems. He has only chosen to do that once or twice. His big problem is that he does not like to loose the race and you have to get faster each time. I finally decided to not have him save his races, so he always wins at least the first few. He has to do 6 races a day on the same topic, but we change topics most days. http://rainbowresource.com/search.php?sid=1205939473-99019 You can get a free sample CD from the company or Rainbow resource. I have also heard that Math Blaster is good, but it was not available when I was shopping for a good drill program.

We just started Delta and I was planning on supplementing with three workbooks next time I place a Rainbow Resource order. They are from the Focus On Math series, the geometry, problem solving and measurement books. Here is a link to the series: http://rainbowresource.com/search.php?sid=1205939473-99019 They are very inexpensive, about $3 each and look like they are full color. I haven't got them yet, so I can't say for sure how great they will be. Has anyone else used this series?

Did you see Steve's hint to turn a piece of notebook paper sideways and use the lines as columns to help keep these problems organized? When we went back and watched the DVD the second time because he was getting confused, I gave that a try and it worked great! My son also had trouble with the upcoming notation problems, so I saved the book and plan to revisit after he learns all the simple division problems. I think it is a great idea to trade off doing Gamma and Delta at the same time. We love QM math here!!!:auto:

I am not sure if I have ever done longer than a 20 minute lesson, unless dawdling was involved! We do every subject, every day. If I want to spend a longer time on a subject, like history, I just do two 10 or 20 minute sessions. If the math page is really long and difficult, I have them push it to the side, do something else and come back to it. I think it really cuts down on frustration. I am not a big lesson planner though. We always just do the next page in a workbook, or the next pages in a book to be read. :001_smile:

I keep mine in a plastic bag, to keep dust out, on a high shelf. During the spring I set it up on a little table for frequent use. Once the interest passes, I pack it back up.

I plan on using the "Focus On Math" series for enrichment to MUS next year. The item number on Rainbow Resource is # 038973. I also plan on getting a geometry and problem solving book from the same series.

Here are the books my son read after The Magic Treehouse series: Cam Jansen Poppleton Flat Foot Fox The Courage of Sarah Noble King-smith books (author) Encyclopedia Brown Sebastian Super Sleuth Mathstart Buttons for General Washington Cooper Kids Adventure Series Stuart Little by E.B. White The Tale of Desperaux by Dicamillo Nancy Drew Mysteries He spent about 6 months on the Nancy Drew Mysteries. He only likes the older series though. I also agree Donelda on getting him enjoying non-fiction now, before it is too late!

Some things to test would be thyroid, adrenals, celiac disease and food allergies. I have been going through this for sometime and just found out that I have celiac that has caused me to develop allergies to eggs, soy, dairy and wheat (gluten). I am not sure if I can survive the diet, but hopefully I will be feeling better soon. You could also try an elimination diet, especially since your fatigue seems to happen at the same time each day. Good luck!

This is a tough question! I am a horrible speller and so is my oldest. I could not get a college degree because my spelling is so bad. I continually had to drop any foreign language or history courses that I tried to take. If I misspelled any word, they counted the whole answer as wrong. I plan to just keep trying and trying . . . We have been spending 1 hour a day on spelling for the last 4 months and I have gotten him from words like "cat" to words like "train". Good luck!

I have this same problem. I typed in the first name I thought of, assuming I could change it later. I asked friends what they thought and one thought I was talking about shots of Vodka. I am talking about shots of espresso. Since I never posted before, I asked the admin to change it for me, I haven't heard anything, so I am assuming it is a "no" or will take a while. I have never been on a forum where you can not change your name before. I might as well start posting under this name, but just know I am not drunk!! One tired, coffee drinking mom!