I think this is standard for public schools in our district - 125 on WISC. We also have a regional pg program which requires a 140 WISC. Edited to add: There are other requirements besides the 125 WISC for the regular public school gifted program. Also have to achieve 95% on majority of sections on MAP and also score high on a Creativity Test.

Thanks so much for posting!

I really like the idea behind this curriculum. About seven years ago I used bits of Level 1 with my younger sister. I starting skipping some poems and abandoned it soon thereafter. I really would like to read the teacher's manual to hear his why and how of the program, but this has never been a strong enough want that I've purchased it. I have listened to a free talk he gave about it which persuaded me to include lots of poetry memorization in our homeschool. I think many people riff off his ideas and use the Simply Charlotte Mason scripture memorization system modified for a notebook with dividers instead of tabbed index cards. Then use their own poems maybe Berquist's The Harp and the Laurel Wreath. I have other books of collections I like better like the Rod and Staff Poetry Memorization paperback that is divided by grade.

Anyone have good gift ideas for nieces/nephews or friends' children? It is a lot easier to give homemade or gifts of time (like the cooking lessons) to your own children.

I just got the Ellen McHenry's Carbon Chemistry as a Black Friday Freebie. This makes me excited to go ahead and print this for our next term. Robby is very curious about neo newtonian fluids at the moment. His comment at dinner last night was a question about my blue hubbard squash soup and whether or not it was a neo newtonian fluid because it was thick and had a low viscosity. I love your dinner discussion about which elements you could live without. Such fun kids!

Today is my dedicated pie making day. Pumpkin (actually a blue hubbard squash) Pecan with Lyle's Golden Syrup Apple with a Cheddar Crust If I have time and am feeling ambitious I will also make a Sugar Cream Pie and if I am super crazy ambitious I'll add another pie Sweet Potato (has always been on my list, but I already made sweet potato casserole). Baking the cornbread now for stuffing. Next up rolls.

Could you describe this a bit more? I think Robby would love to do this. He is not reading yet, but remembers so much! Currently he does vocabulary and recitation questions from Memoria Press.

I am a little sad about the time to win. Seems to be a smaller game than Numbers. My son has played Numbers off and on for years and still has puzzles to solve. Perhaps they will add more to this later?

I haven't seen ice listed, but you can never have too much ice.

Robby is 7. This is the first year we are required to record hours with MO homeschool laws (so I've been saying it is another year of first grade in hopes that reading would begin), but we are doing such a mix of levels I don't know what grade. I am not worried about the WISC. I actually think he will do very well on the Verbal and Puzzle sections. I do worry about the achievement test though. He understands math at a higher level instead of learning regular +/- facts he is more interested in learning all of the squares and cubes (which he discovered on his own playing with c-rods). When he was younger, one day out of the blue he told me numbers went from negative infinity to infinity, but has had trouble memorizing math facts. Reading has been even more difficult. He is just now able to read confidently (after practice) Mo Willems Elephant and Piggie books.

My son has not yet had his cognitive testing, but I suspect gifted or perhaps even pg. He was born with a congenital diaphragmatic hernia and delivered a month early due to my failing liver caused from pregnancy. He did not eat ANYTHING except breastmilk until after two. This delay was huge. The first food he ever ate was at a Whole Foods while my husband and I were eating lunch. He signed to eat and he had guacamole and Israeli curried couscous. Something you don't forget. He did not speak or babble. He finally began to speak a bit after his third birthday. It really amazes me when I reflect on it a bit because two years later he was already experimenting with circuitry and having philosophical discussions about chess. He still has some speech issues. Mostly l and th. He has slight scoliosis. We are doing swimming to help strengthen his back before a major growth spurt. He has some motor issues but I am not sure what exactly. He has a battery of tests at the local public school coming up in the next month or so. The major thing we are testing to find out is if he is dyslexic. He is having a difficult time reading. He wants to read badly and it is VERY difficult for him.

My son is advanced in science and also dyslexic. We are currently pursuing diagnostic testing at the public school. They are scheduling WISC V and also achievement test then speech and language. They told us in our initial meeting that Robby needs to score 1.5 deviations or 22 points higher on the cognitive than achievement to show he is not working at potential. I am very nervous about the achievement test because he is reading at such a beginner level. I don't know how he'd even begin to take a test that isn't read to him.

We had picked up an old copy of WW that we were using with my ds. It seemed way too easy even at a higher level. We've started just looking up word lists and asking him what is ____? If he can easily answer we move on. If there is a word he doesn't know we make an index card. Usually we go until we make three new cards. Then we add then into his deck and we shuffle them. My husband then just goes through them randomly for a few minutes to review the words. I think once the deck gets too big (I am sure this will happen sooner rather than later) we'll consider moving these to a Anki system. So far just having discussions about the word and making the card and reviewing them has been more than enough.

I am in Missouri and I know they had an event during the summer to track hummingbirds at a local state park. This would be fantastic to add to a bird study.

This is genius. Robby is going to flip!

What about different forms on narration--oral, picture, written? My husband wants to record my son's oral narrations and then have him review them so he can remember the stories better, perhaps. I remember reading something that said CM did not review. This is one of the reasons they were able to cover so much material.

This post is very timely because my daughter turned four yesterday. I need to start to be more intentional about her education. She has occasionally wanted to do school with Robby over the last two years and I have always provided her with a blank notebook and pencils to draw with while Robby is "doing school." I don't like coloring books as much as I value quality sketchbooks. I think I might make her a sketchbook where I write a large lowercase letter in highlighter per two page spread for her to trace. She can first finger trace, then in crayon, pencil, pen, marker, etc. and fill that page with her own attempts. The other side of the two page spread we can put stickers, drawings, magazine cut outs to collage, etc with words that begin with that letter. I would like to do this in the style of Doodling Dragons (making sure to include things that begin with all the sounds of that letter for example: c :: /k-s/ cards and circus. This would be a book only brought out when she asked and it would be something she may work on for a few years until she knew all the phonograms. Just an idea I am thinking of now. We are under contract for our first house. We have not had a yard that I could let her just go outside safely to play. So I am SUPER excited about creating for her: 1) a mud kitchen 2) sand pit/box 3) backyard chickens (maybe four hens) We will be only three blocks from a very small library branch, but I see lots of walks down to the library to cuddle and read picture books.

We are nearing the end of Book A. This is really neat to see how you all use this. I like the idea of using two weeks to review the words. I've thought of taking the words and making Anki cards to review more.

Thanks! Going to take a look...

I am planning on getting this book when we read Viking Tales later this summer: https://www.amazon.com/Make-Viking-Settlement-Usborne-Models/dp/0746036922?ie=UTF8&*Version*=1&*entries*=0

I was a Christian Education major at West Virginia Wesleyan before I converted to Orthodoxy Christianity. I can remember the light bulb moments while I was reading Wesley and his mother's biographies. Everything from Wesley fasting on Wednesday and Friday (something that Orthodox Christianity preserves in daily life practice) and using the clock to pray the "hours." Reading Susanna was the woman who convinced me that I would homeschool my children someday.

I have the WWE Instructor's Text and the workbook also, but so far I've only had my oldest do copywork from either poems he is memorizing or a line we liked from one of his read alouds. I have a primary composition notebook and I have so far written on one line and he copies beneath it. I want to begin having him copy from the chalkboard next year. We use Ambleside Online and they recommend narrations for every required reading. So we've done LOTS of narrations. He still does not always like it, but I see lots of fruit. He will repeat stuff in retellings from videos (like a nature documentary) nearly verbatim to random people. We were at a book signing this past weekend and he told the author all about orchid bees for nearly 15 minutes based on a documentary we had recently watched. It was a beautiful narration. So you can narrate from anything--a read aloud, a video, a nature walk, etc. You can even record their narrations (remember to help them do this in complete sentences) and even use them as copywork. This interview with Sonya Shafer was great on helping me teach narration: http://edsnapshots.com/ymb10/ Our first narrations we needed to only read a paragraph or a few small paragraphs and ask for him to retell in as much detail as possible, but he's gotten better at doing longer and longer sections. It takes years to develop narration...

I recently found Emil's Pranks at a thrift store. I am excited to read this series because Pippi is and was a favorite of mine.

After Mouse and the Motorcycle this video is fun: http://johnclarkmatthews.com/watch-mouse_and_the_motorcycle.php

Today we are listening to Frindle at home so we can watch the free author event with Sarah Mackenzie. We also have Charlotte's Web currently playing in the car.