My ODS could name all his letter names and sounds and point them out when written down by 19-20 months and was counting to 5 I think. So I don't think it's totally unrealistic, though definitely on the younger side. I did work with him a bit, but nothing crazy, no flashcards or anything silly, just some fridge magnets and a magnadoodle. Then I got morning sickness and he watched a lot of Super Why, rofl! and I don't think it's necessarily rote memorization, though with some kids it is, my son began reading by 2.5 with a handful of sight words and sounding out words so clearly he understood. I think different kids just fixate on different things. Last year it was letters, this year it's trains, next year maybe it'll be mud. At least now he can read about the trains and mud if he wants, haha!

not the liberal mainline form of it that we find here in the United States (primarily with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America). LOL! This made me laugh, my DH is an ELCA pastor and yep, they are a liberal bunch for sure :) I personally hate the services, I don't like the over-emphasis on music and preaching instead of word and sacrament but DH says I'm being silly. I never feel like I went to church that Sunday when I go to just DH's church, especially his parent's church in Georgia. I've been curious how different the Missouri Synod worship style is but as I can't quite get behind the theology and we already attend 2 churches every weekend I haven't bothered to attend one of their services. Interesting article though! Btw, who are the WELS Lutherans, I don't know that I've heard of them? Is it the Wisconsin ones?

wooden trains and a wooden dollhouse are the big favorites around here, and puzzles!

We're doing the Hubbard's Cupboard 4 year old curriculum for my ODS and I'm trying to decide how to organize all the lesson plans and printouts for each week. We're hoping to move out of state this fall so things need to be organized enough that nothing gets lost mid-year. My two competing ideas are: 1) use the File Crate System--one file for each week with all related printouts and the weekly lesson plan. I'd need some place to keep the overall scope and sequence though and it wouldn't be as easy to flip through everything if I was wanting to look ahead/behind. 2) get it spiral bound--print everything in order, insert cardstock for dividers, and take it to get a spiral binding so it's all in one place and lays flat. The advantage here is portability (and laying flat ) but I'm not sure if it would be ideal for the printables that I'd want Tobias to look at. I'm not sure if I'd be better off keeping those loose so I can post them in the playroom or something where he can see them (not sure where I'd do it though) Any ideas? Which do you think would work best?

Loved that, thanks! And yes, who could not love Snape?

Yep, it actually is, lol! Or rather, i think it was very early this morning (like 2am)

Well my DH has a tattoo so I'd hope the kids wouldn't freak since it's already done. For the record our 18 month old-at-the-time didn't mind :) I won't be getting any tattoos, I'm too fickle for something that permanent.

Hmm, I can't think of any off the top of my head that are directly geared towards informing Protestants about the Catholic faith besides of course Catholicism for Dummies (not meant to be a joke, it's actually a good book despite the name, my priest owns a copy, lol!) Scott Hahn is a former Presbyterian pastor and really just a great guy, he does a wonderful job explaining the Mass from the Catholic perspective in his book The Lamb's Supper. My DH is actually going to read that soon, he liked the snippets I read aloud to him. Hahn's journey to Catholicism is outlined in Rome Sweet Home, but that doesn't sound like what you are looking for, though I'm 99% sure there'd be nothing offensive to Protestants in that book, I didn't get a tone of disgruntlement or anything, just an honest, humble search for truth and a respect for all his Protestant and Catholic friends and colleagues. The Conversion Diary blog is also a great reference, she converted to Catholicism from atheism so you'll see great general Christian explanations as well as her discovery of things unique to Catholic doctrine. If you want I can ask my DH, he just went to an ecumenical week-long retreat held by my Catholic diocese with a bunch of Lutheran, Episcopal, Methodist, Presbyterian, Orthodox, and Catholic laypeople and clergy.. He might have some suggestions from there.

Oooh, nice homeschooling room! I would line the far wall of that first picture with bookshelves, that should hide the cable wires and extra outlets from the toddler :) Then in that middle space near the big bay window I'd center the large school table maybe 2-4ft. away from the window for general schoolwork to happen at. For the actual windowseat I would definitely make a pad for it and add a couple pillows, it'd be a perfect place for the kids to lounge and read. Along that very long wall I'd do the whiteboard and bulletin board above the Target cubby shelves. Next to that I'd put the Ikea shelves thing centered and on the other side put the maps and such on the wall, maybe with the single desk below them. In the corner beside the windowseat I would make a little nook for your toddler, maybe use the target cube shelves to have montessori/workbox-ish work for them to do and put a small carpet there to define his workspace. That would be an excellent place for the raingutter bookshelves too, going up the short wall beside the window. We used the Ikea picture frame ledges in white for raingutter-style bookshelves and they work perfectly. In the remaining floor space in front of those beautiful double doors leading outside maybe a big rug would be good and that can be a good space to get the wiggles out, give your LO room to break out some bigger toys like train tracks, or do other non-table projects. Btw, you totally need to post pictures when you've got it all set up :)

Well, how my DH convinced (coerced) me into naming our second son Peter was he refused every other name I suggested. I basically was left with no choice, he wouldn't consider any of the names I preferred and I didn't mind Peter, it just wasn't my first choice. Eventually I felt a need to pick a name for the baby and so we picked Peter Isaiah. I told family it was just "probably" Peter and that as always I reserved the right to change it at any time but they went and gave us gifts (hand paintings, etc.) with the name Peter, ugh! He's 8 months and I'm still not thrilled with the name, I wish we'd named him Isaiah most of the time, Peter just is so common to me. ::sigh:: Oh well, he's cute regardless of his name. And I guess I can't complain because I named our first Tobias and refused to hear any other names, luckily DH was pretty on board with it anyway now he says he couldn't imagine him named anything else and loves it. Our family on the other hand threw a royal fit, lol!

OTC Progesterone cream might help. It has helped my migraines that used to come right around ovulation for me and it cured my postpartum depression. I use Pro-gest I think and it's one little packet in the am and one in the pm starting after I ovulate and continuing until my period starts. It's totally safe, I take it while nursing and it's often prescribed for use during pregnancies.

We keep a routine for the kiddos so I'll share our current schedule, it's flexible but this is what works right now :) I have a 3 year old and an 8 month old. 7am I nurse the baby while DH gets 3 year old out of bed and dressed (takes awhile, he's a sleepy head) 8am breakfast & clean up & chores (3 year old feeds kitties) 9am outside/free play 9:30am baby naps, 3 year old roomtime (plays in playroom independently, it's childproofed and has a reasonable amount of toys so not overwhelming). 10:30am baby napping, 3 year old school (after doing calendar time in the playroom we move to the kitchen table to do OPGTR, math manipulatives, and art/crafts or play dough 11:30am nurse baby, 3 year old watches spanish video 12:00pm lunch & clean up 12:30pm free play 1:30pm storytime 2:00pm Naptime for kids 4:00pm nurse baby, 3 year old snack 4:30pm outside/errands/free play if rainy 5:30pm baby in jumper seat, 3 year old watches video while I prep dinner 6:00/6:30pm dinner 7:00pm nurse baby, baths, pajamas, story, prayers 7:30/8:00pm bedtime for kids

Seriously, I've seen a shower curtain map before, it was the coolest thing ever! Anyway, how about prettying it up and using a frame with just the glass and writing on the glass in dry erase marker? Or just using one simple frame and changing out the 'picture' inside to be a printed quote every week or every month. Ikea has some magnetic boards as well I think. In fact, Ikea has everything I want for our schoolroom, lol! Love that place :)

We've got the same problem (err, I mean blessing :lol:) around here too. Mine is younger than yours (just turned 3) so sorry I don't have a lot to offer as help. I think it's normal though for comprehension to lag a bit behind decoding ability. We're starting narrations now to reinforce what he reads, but we're only doing the books I read aloud to him. Probably by the time he's 4 I'll start asking him to tell me what happened in the books he's reading since he'll have graduated completely from Bob Books leveled readers by Christmas and be reading more interesting stuff than "Dot has a cat." lol!

LOL! I love the "pass the bean dip" replies :lol: That's actually a good way to deflect, I'll need to try that.

Thanks everyone for these great tips! About the math, I was actually just thinking about that. He is certainly capable of moving on a bit there (currently he just counts to 29 and can do one-to-one correspondence) and it might be a good challenge, keep his mind and hands busy. We're definitely doing phonics, he hasn't done much sight reading up until these last few weeks. Before that he sounded out every word and right now his default is to sound out words. He only has the few necessary sight words "the, I, said, is" But yesterday he sounded out correctly a 7 letter compound word, lol! We're only on lesson 41 in OPGTR so it's way below his level but my thought is if I keep plugging away at that he'll have a firm underpinning in phonics and it'll just make sure I don't skip anything accidentally. I'm still trying to find a good way to handle those comments in public about him reading. He reads signs and papers and packaging all the time, out loud, and in public. Inevitably store employees say "how old is he?" and I tell them and they freak, going on and on about him reading. I'm actually considering lying but that seems like a bad precedent to set. I remember hiding my test papers from my classmates in school because they all yelled it out and made a big fuss if they saw an A. I was hoping to spare my kids that kind of embarrassment about academic achievement.

Hey everyone, I figured I'd jump on here :) My DH is interviewing at a church in Hollidaysburg, PA next week. The last 1.5 years we've been in West Virginia (horrid place, don't go there, lol!) Is anyone else in the Altoona/Hollidaysburg area? I'm really hoping I can find a homeschooling group of some kind there.

The above would be a very interesting discussion. What exactly happened in the American RC Church back in the 70's? Okay, I'm new to posting though I've been lurking on WTM boards a lot these past few months, so I have no idea how to properly quote people, lol! Sorry! Anyway, I think a lot of people would say Vatican II happened (1965 I think), but from what I can tell it was just one part of it, there were lots of reasons the catechism stopped being taught to kids. As a former teacher a lot of the modern educational theory can explain the poor catechesis of the generations of Catholics since 1970-ish. Those same modern educational techniques (pushing little kids to be creative, a fear of making them memorize prayers or catechism or bible verses), made their way into the Catholic church's education programs. When I was in CCD/PSR elementary school years we heard a few cute stories, were given facts orally and never required to write in class, and basically only told that Jesus loves us. Then our poor confirmation teachers got us and realized we didn't even have the Lord's Prayer memorized! So they spent their time drilling us in the basics--prayers, basic catechism stuff, and had no time to do the connecting/understanding level stuff. By the time we were confirmed most of my classmates were bored to tears and begged to stay home from church. They had no idea what the church was about. So now we have a couple generations with crappy catechism education, not a good thing. There are other aspects of American RCC that are problematic but the education of youth is my big issue. As for EO and RC, I am loving this discussion. My DH is Lutheran so I've actually looked into the EO church a bit, since he's a pastor and won't ever convert to RC especially since he couldn't be a pastor there. EO wouldn't have that hang-up. So far though I haven't found any compelling reason to go with the EO church over the RC church, not that the EO church doesn't have much to offer, it really is beautiful and I see a lot of wisdom in its teachings, I just haven't been compelled in that direction.

Hmm, everything I've ever read or learned about language aquisition points to early learning being better. My MIL is a Spanish and German teacher and says the same thing. I nannied for a girl who was in a French Immersion school and she loved it, she really thrived there and was a fantastic reader. I've also known a 4 year old raised in a trilingual household who knew all 3 languages well and was very bright and well-spoken. I don't think anecdotal evidence alone really would make my decision on this one though, and the studies and experts I've known are firmly on the side of earlier-is-better so I definitely don't doubt going in that direction. Loving the discussion on the music stuff. The strings vs. piano thing makes sense, the hand span problem was one of the reasons I'd heard for waiting on piano a bit. Also, one piano teacher was concerned about burnout and students not being mature enough to handle the practice, but I think that's pretty individual.

Thanks so much for the suggestions and advice so far! Carpe, music might be a good idea actually. I had always heard that piano shouldn't be started before 2nd grade though. He loves the piano, but I assume his fingers are just too small to really play it, he just messes around with the one at church (DH is a pastor and plays piano). Maybe I'll have my DH show him a few things on the piano, just goof off and see how he does. I feel like he needs his destructive little fingers kept busy. I've been giving him lots of lacing activities but need to get smaller beads, the ones he has are too easy.

So I've been telling myself our son (turns 3 in 2 months) was just bright, but essentially normal. However, I'm starting to realize he's a freak (I mean that in the best way of course ;))! Anyway, he read his first Bob Book this Christmas, at 2.5 years old. Now 5 months later he's finished all of the first set (there are 12 or 16, I can't remember) and is moving on to basic digraphs and the "sneaky e". I'm loosely following Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading ever since Christmas but he keeps jumping ahead. He seems happy with the review though so we'll keep plugging along. Thank God we're homeschooling but it's a little overwhelming to me, I'm hoping he levels out later on and the reading thing is a fluke because I feel totally unqualified to teach a super advanced kid. My question is long-term, what do I do with this kid until he's kindergarten age? He's obedient and a good kid overall but recently is getting destructive, taking objects apart whenever he's alone for even a second, and just thrives on more challenges. I already plan to do swim lessons, and then soccer next year after we move. We'd like the kids to learn spanish, would it be a good idea to try and slow down a bit on his reading/writing/number sense stuff and get him to focus on learning the second language instead? As a Lit major I was told that 0-5 is the key time to learn a second language, but then I struggle with spanish myself so we'd need a curriculum to teach me and him, kwim? WWYD? Would you carry on with academics, ignoring the fact that he's so young and going with his ability? Or would you attempt to slow those down and focus on a second language? Are there other things you found fun/useful to keep your accelerated learners happy and busy in preschool? I want him challenged and thriving, and while he has tons of time to free play I'm finding that too much free play leads to him becoming Mr. Destructo, lol!