Thanks! I went ahead and ordered it. DS just finished Ko's Journey.

The way my DS did Dreambox was to play it intensely for the first week, so-so for week 2, and then complete burnout by the end of the month. I'd sign him up every six months or so. In every first week of intense play, he'd learn a ton and advance quickly. As for the "grade level" designations, take those with a grain of salt. In an actual second grade classroom for example, there would be a lot of math concepts presented and required that you wouldn't get in Dreambox. But still, I LOVE Dreambox. My DD will play too as soon as she's old enough. Btw, this is an old post but: Dreambox Confessions

DS8 finished Ko's journey today, and I purchased Descartes Cove for the 40% deal they have going on right now. It was still $100+ with shipping. Ouch! Hopefully it's worth it. Moonlight if your son is still stuck on the last problem please pm me. It was really tricky. Most of Ko's journey DS could do on his own, but he needed help for the last part. They seemed to present it in the most confusing way possible. Final thoughts, it seems that they've changed all of the assessment questions from what's on the game compared to what's in the educator's guide. In the guide it shows straight forward multiple choice questions, but in the actual game they are open-ended writing problems. I'm not sure why that is. Does that have something to do with Common Core? I emailed Ko's journey with my question about the assessment questions, and they never got back to me. But my DS did get a lot of fractions, decimals, percentages, long division and geometry review out of the experience. So all in all, I'm a happy customer.

Thanks JeanM!

Interesting idea...

:grouphug: Hugs to you all. :(

:(

Has anyone seen Under our Skin? My DH and I are watching it together on Hulu. Scary stuff. It makes me think about one of the Hive members who also works for AAL as I recall, whose siggy said her husband was on permanent disability due to Lyme disease. Wow. Now I understand. :(

Thank you everyone for the awesome tour this year!!!!!

Here's my review of Ko's Journey. I'm still interested in Descartes' Cove. Any comments about it? :bigear:

Thanks Dana! So, I just looked more into the SCAT and it looks like I missed the boat. The testing for the 2012-2013 grade period ends June 30th. So if I had my DS8 take the SCAT this summer, they would score him against third graders. But if he took the SCAT this week, they'd score him against 2nd graders. [New paragraph!] So when is it best to take the SCAT then. The end of the year? Should I have him take it next spring?

Okay, I've read through the entire thread and I still have some questions. A third grader could take the SCAT to get into CTY, right? But the SCAT doesn't count for Davidson Gifted, correct? For Davidson Gifted, a third grader would need to do the ACT Explore. But I have no idea if the Explore is offered in our area (Seattle). Also CTY has summer classes in Seattle. So maybe figuring out how/where to take the SCAT would be best. Did I get that right? (Sorry for the lack of paragraphs, something's funny on my browser.) [New Paragraph!] If a kid is accepted into CTY does that also get them in to Davidson Gifted and TIP? Or, do you need to qualify separately for each thing?

The linky looks great. Thanks BugsMama! And thank you to Wi11ams for sharing on your FB page. (Edited to add, I think I've emailed everyone now. If you haven't heard from me please pm me.)

So glad to hear that you're better! I was really worried. So yes, let's go ahead and do the linky, if still able.

Go for it! :)

Hello again! Regarding the linky, I think we should officially save that idea for next year. One of our blog tour participants is in the middle of a health scare right now, so I don't want to add any extra commitments.

Are you guys ready to start touring? Here's another announcement, this time up on my blog for the Everett Daily Herald. Don't forget to put up your post the night before. :)

I can't understand from your siggy what math program you are using. But your DS is 11, right? And you said you put a focus on memorizing times tables this year? I'm wondering if maybe the math program you use is focusing on learning traditional algorithms, but maybe your son is capable of doing more math mentally. I have an example of what this looks like in subtraction here on my blog.

I'm going to risk getting slammed here, but I'd like to offer an alternative viewpoint, one of non-judgment and compassion. What else is this mom dealing with? Does her husband help out? Is she at her wits' end? Does her child have emotional problems? Is there perhaps and underlying developmental disorder? Maybe she knew that if she dealt with the grapes in a different way that would prompt a melt-down that would be more embarrassing than the grapes. Maybe with the poop issue, she's been having and extraordinarily difficult time potty training her son. Maybe him not pooping her his pants is a step in the right direction down a very difficult road. Maybe she didn’t see that he pooped in the neighbor’s yard, or was too embarrassed to address it. I know families like this. (Not mine! Not me!) But I know moms who are dealing with a lot of C-R-A-P, and not just the stuff their kids leave in the yard. So I would offer the idea to look at the whole picture. Put yourself in that’ mom’s shoes. Try to think about the other person’s point of view before you rush to judge.

Spelling before reading is how they often do it in Montessori. FYI: I have a bunch of games/activities for teaching little ones to read here on my blog.

Here's my Pinterest board about creative handwriting solutions.

My guess is half a million dollars a year. (Clifford is a lot of dog to love and care for.) I'm estimating that Clifford is the size of three elephants. But maybe I'm wrong. What do you think?

I don't know if this is what you are looking for or not, but here's Math Boot Camp for Moms from my blog.

Haven't read the whole thread, but here's my idea. Start up conversations about "Race to Nowhere"!

Welcome Eagle! The Parenting the Gifted Blog tour from 2012 last year might be of comfort to you. The 2013 tour is starting this month. For anxiety, I'd recommend the book "What to do when you Worry too Much". Have you seen the SENG website?