I agree...almost all kids need occasional reviewed concepts and continued repetition/practice to keep the facts in their head. My 8 year old is very talented at math and is a year "ahead" of grade level in math curriculum. He mastered all 4 operations on the six second speed in Xtramath this past year. Then I noticed this summer that he was struggling to quickly recall some of his multiplication facts again! I'll probably have him either do the three second setting of Xtramath this year or if that is too fast, have him do another fact program for review. My DS8 does well with adding in a quick, 5 minute review sheet to stay fresh on things he doesn't see very often in his regular math curriculum. I switched my DD11 to a spiral approach (CLE) a couple years ago partially because a lot of review is good for her but also because over time I noticed that she has a lot of anxiety with learning new topics, and CLE breaks things down into little bite size lessons so that she rarely feels like she is doing something "brand new".

At least one place I had an ultrasound done specifically did not allow anyone under a certain age (16 maybe?) in the room for an ultrasound. Not sure if that is very common or just an odd rule that this clinic had.

It's a tie between two "others" - Peach and White Chocolate Raspberry. :-)

With DD, I really ended up using the Spelling Plus lists more than the Dictation Resource Book to be honest. Partly due to busyness. We were coming out of two years of LOE, so she has a strong foundation. I put all the Spelling Plus lists into spelling city, and I would have DD "test out" at the beginning of the week to find the words she already knew (at the beginning of the year that meant testing thru multiple lists to find 8-10 missed words) then she would practice all the missed words on her own on paper (analyzing them LOE style) then in spelling city, with a retest on Friday. My goal was just to dictate 2-3 sentences during the week from the list(s) her words came from, choosing sentences with missed words. But there were many weeks where we squeezed in maybe one sentence, tops. ;-). I used it a lot more with DS8, actually. DD prefers as much independence as possible so didn't want to do spelling with me, while DS8 worked with me for spelling 4 days a week.

Last year for 5th grade, DD did TC as her primary writing and part of her grammar. She also did Language Mechanic, mostly to shore up her mechanics/punctuation (though it reinforced some other grammar concepts as well). She also read through Grammar Town and Paragraph Town from MCT (but she didn't do the exercises). We did Spelling Plus/Dictation Resource Book for spelling.

Those are great scores overall! One thing to keep in mind is what you are quoting is probably the percentile -- how well your student did vs. other students, rather than the percent your student actually got correct. The percentile is usually toward the top of the results page, while the percent your student got correct is in the bottom section. In that lower, detailed section you can also find out how many questions that score is based on. You might be looking at 71 percentile based on only 25 questions. It doesn't take too many times of being just confused about what the question is asking (rather than truly lacking skill) to lower a score in some cases. I've been a test reader/administrator in the past for the 1st and 2nd grade ITBS tests. One thing I've noticed about those tests is that especially at the younger levels, a lot can depend on "how well can you determine what this funny clip art is picturing." They will show a picture of something, and the question might be something like "which word fits with the picture" -- to see if the student can read the words. What if they focus on the sun in the picture instead of the tree? They might pick the word they thought looked most like "sun" instead of looking for the word tree. There are also questions that may test something your child may not have done before -- things like, "What word will you get if you take the word "tap" and add an "o" sound in the middle. And again, the answer may involve choosing the best picture! All that to say, I am not sure that I would personally make a lot of curriculum choices based on 1st/2nd grade standardized testing results. I agree that learning to do well on tests is a great skill, but I feel like the early grade tests have so many other factors thrown in: the test reader (since the questions are mainly read outloud in 1st/2nd grade except for actual reading tests) the funny pictures, the skills that are different than what your student may have been exposed to in the past -- that they aren't as telling as later grade tests. If testing well even in the younger grades is a concern, you might want to buy a test prep book specific to the ITBS before your test next year. That would help ensure that your student is familiar with the types of questions on the test. If you are concerned about actual word reading ability, I would check that against a different sort of test (like one of these diagnostic tests) or even one of the many free reading level tests available online.

I did MOH 1, 2 and part of 3 with my DD when she was in 1st - 2nd grade. She then did US History in 3rd and 4th, then we were back to ancients for her 5th grade year and did MOH 1 plus the first quarter of MOH 2. She will do the rest of 2 and part of 3 next year. DS8 listened along last year with DD (and sometimes DS 6 listened too -- he was in Kindy so I didn't require him to listen). For next year with DS8 and DS 6, I will switch them to SOTW while DD reads MOH on her own. DD loves history, and even in 1st and 2nd grade would request I read 2 or even 3 lessons per day at times. She liked the detail, even if a lot of it didn't stick long term (she said a lot of MOH 1 was unfamiliar to her this year). We liked the coverage of Biblical and church history topics in MOH. DS8 and DS6 are far less interested in history, generally speaking. They do like it to some degree, and they have some specific history related interests. They could listen to books about battles, soldiers and weapons for hours. ;-) Switching to SOTW for them should give us more time to read library books about their specific interests without history time taking too long (The lessons later in MOH 2 and into MOH 3 are longer than the lessons in MOH 1). I also like the way SOTW breaks down the history cycle better. I have to break up the MOH books over the years to match up how I want to do the history cycle, while the SOTW books do it just about the way I would do it.

Oh yeah, a venting thread! I was hoping there might be one. Somehow (not sure if it was stupidity on my part or a real computer issue), I lost a couple hours worth of work on a project (deadline...theoretically tomorrow). Computer guru DH declared that the work was simply gone (I was probably the dummy that hit, no don't save the changes...or something like that). Right before i found out about that, I found out that I would not be getting an opportunity I was really hoping for or at least looking forward too. I told someone on the committee making the decision, "I don't want to do X again (a certain responsibility in an organization), but I would like very much to do Y (another similar responsibility)." What person (apparently) told the rest of the group making the decision: "She doesn't want to do X again and would be willing to do Y but would rather take a break and not do either thing." Not what I said!!!

Well, she did say "hike" not "climb". There are many mountain hikes in Colorado that I would not describe as "foothills" (at least where we have visited in Rocky Mountain Nat'l park) that could successfully be hiked by children. We have hiked in Colorado and while we did not have our youngest at the time hike very far (he was only 18 months or so at the time), our other kids ages 4+ were able to hike up the trails with few problems.

I didn't think I had one, but then I realized today that being able to make espresso drinks/steamed milk is probably not a skill that many 8 and 11 year olds possess. It seems normal to me! The really only like the "steamer" drinks for themselves with no coffee, and they can't tamp the espresso hard enough to pull a really great shot yet, but I am looking forward to the day when I can sometime say, "Daughter, while I am teaching your brother math, could you pretty please go make me a nice latte?" :laugh:

I get fully dressed every day because jammies during the day time is like some kind of personal pet peeve of mine. :lol: Other than sick days, I have allowed my kids one pajama day in their lives. When I had babies I never had them wearing "sleeper" type jammies during the day because I just can't even. I know, I have issues. But showering is maybe 50%, I only ever let my hair air dry, no makeup or jewelry and my clothes are totally non-fancy (Jeans and a t-shirt + a sweatshirt or sweater in the winter). But...that was what I was like pre-kids and even pre-marriage. So, it is just me fair and square. I never had a job pre-kids that required any kind of formal dress, so I've been a t-shirt and jeans gal my entire life. :laugh:

I also use a pour-over for brewed coffee (a cheap plastic one I found on Amazon for about $5 I believe). While not push button, it is still so simple to just heat up the tea kettle, set up the pour over on my cup with a filter and grounds, and pour. (I do usually let the water cool off a bit first or try to stop it before it actually boils -- I like my water more like 170 for brewing...but that is cooler than many people like it I think). That is my simple coffee...my fancy/complicated coffee is my really nice home espresso machine and grinder. :laugh: (We received a large gift one year from a relative who encouraged us to splurge on ourselves...I am almost embarrassed to say how much it cost. We could have taken a small vacation for the same price!). :blushing:

Finalizing plans...changes in red

Updates in red...feeling pretty settled now!

This is a series of short youtube videos, but we really like the for physics concepts. They are old and a bit cheesy, but my kids love them!

Bill Nye is on Netflix now too...yeah! If you are ok with the idea of YouTube videos, my kids all really like the Smarter Every Day and Veritasium YouTube channels. Some of it goes over their heads but they have learned a lot of stuff too.

CGP Grey has a great video about this. I had never heard of it before I saw this video and it blew my mind. I am really wondering if it explains some things I've seen in friends/family members. No way to know for sure, but fascinating!

My kids really liked the style of the text for Ellen McHenry's The Elements as well as the book "The Mystery of the Periodic Table." Does anyone have any suggestions along those lines for astronomy and/or space exploration? I am wanting something longer (multiple chapters in length) rather than a bunch of short picture books, and I don't want something really "busy" like DK/Eyewitness books style. I'm not really looking for a fictional story with science elements. My primary audience is my two older kids (3rd grade and 6th grade in the fall, but the 3rd grader is pretty advanced in terms of science and should be able to follow most of what my 6th grader could follow). I'm familiar with the Tiner books - we have done two of those on other topics and they are "ok" - but my kids didn't like the style of those quite as much as the two Chemistry books I mentioned. The style of those is pretty lively and we found Tiner a bit dry in comparison. I know my kids would also really like a lively read aloud about space exploration even more than they would enjoy just astronomy. Any suggestions?

Are you in the app or the website? In the app, you hit the button for the menu, and it is one of the choices in the list under their profile picture. I don't see the same option on the website, so I am not sure if you can access it from there or not. I know some features are app-only so maybe that's one of them?

Not sure if your church plays quite a large variety of songs or not, but one thing I did (for different reasons) was ask the Worship leaders for a list of the top dozen or so most common songs they draw from, and that was pretty easy for them to provide. While there may be other songs occasionally, those are the most common. It may change over time, but I can always ask again next year. ;-). We asked because my DD wanted to start learning worship songs from church on guitar, but also so we could just listen to those songs more often at home so my boys would be more familiar with them. I really like the YouVersion Bible app, which has audio, but not sure about other features. And I agree with others that at our church there is no expectation for kids to read out of a Bible until older than your DS's age. My DD said the students didn't read out of a Bible until 4th grade - prior to that the teacher just read aloud.

Maybe it is a "both/and" sort of thing -- You could enroll him in a martial arts class because he really wants to try it (and if you are lucky make a friend or two), AND you could try to informally advertise your own homeschool/preschool playgroup, spanish language group or whatever? The group you start would be free or low cost! We've made few friends through classes. After attending the same TaeKwonDo studio the past year and a half, just this month a mom asked to set up a playdate for her child and my DS8. That's been my experience with most "classes" as well that are people gathering to learn a specific sport or skill. When DD was preschool age and she was my oldest, we had a lot better luck with looking for or organizing our own playgroups or informal co-ops with others who had preschool age kids and were planning to homeschool, and making friends that way. I wouldn't rule out checking out more traditional co-op that continue thru elementary age either. The co-op we're in has a preschool age class and allows families to join whose oldest child is still preschool age.

I will admit to also having no idea how to change a tire. I've always had a AAA membership, and rarely drive anywhere that wouldn't be in close range of a tow truck. I voted "other" though because I want DH to teach the kids how to do it when they learn to drive. :-) I'll just stay in happy AAA world though.

Part of the gift...unless it is from my mom, who lets me know when she is running low on bags and then takes them back with her (or I go grab a stack of bags from my stash to share). But that is totally a mom-only thing! :-)

We have half a day in the San Jose area at the end of our vacation later this summer, and I decided I super excited to see this: http://www.computerhistory.org/ But DH and I are super geeky about computer history stuff, so it may not be your cup of tea. :-) I think our kids are going to be rather bored, but I am not sure I care. We'll take them to see plenty of stuff they think is cool...this one is my pick. :laugh:

How my non-toddler kids eat ice cream cones seems to mostly fit their personalities... The one that likes things very orderly eats ice cream cones in a completely neat manner The kid that somehow makes a giant mess at everything he eats and is a whirlwind of general chaos makes a giant mess with ice cream cones The kid that is pretty laid back and kind of middling between neat and messy does an okay job, but definitely misses some drips. Meanwhile, despite being warned multiple times that it is a bad idea, the toddler continues to try and eat ice cream cones from the bottom up. :lol: