TY for your thoughts!

What grammar and writing curricula would you all suggest for a motivated 5th grader? She has a very basic grasp of grammar concepts, and no real experience with writing beyond simple sentences and writing letters to family and friends. I do have the R&S books starting with book 3, however, I am open to most any curriculum that will get her "caught up" to where she should be as a 5th grader. TIA!

I do not, but am looking into it. :001_smile:

Spelling / vocab. question: we've used Spelling Workout from the start with my daughters (7th and 4th grade ages). Both are "natural spellers" and for the most part simply *tolerate* the SWO lessons. I wonder if I should have them finish the series (my oldest has just 1 book to go), or if there is some sort of vocabulary or root words program that would be of more benefit. Does anyone have any thoughts on this? I am the type to just keep plugging along with what we have, but have this nagging feeling that we are wasting time by sticking with a formal spelling program...spelling

TY both :thumbup: 'Talked to another friend tonight, and I am not as worried as I was. We had a LOT of difficult issues going on this year that were not school-related, but greatly affected my teaching time / their learning time. I really need to take that into consideration. And - like I have told my girls, these tests are not for me to evaluate them, they are mainly to evaluate myself. I see the areas that I need to focus on, and now I need to make a plan to make that happen. Thanks again for your replies.

I thought I understood what all of those stanine and grade equivalent scores meant, but come to find out I was wrong! DD#1 has taken the Stanford 10 three times now: 3rd, 4th, and 6th grades. Although her scores always looked great to my untrained eye, I had a feeling something was up this year. Things just didn't look right to me. When I started to look into what exactly all of those nos. meant, I quickly became confused and overwhelmed. Luckily my DD has a hs friend whose mother has a M.Ed. and is a Certified Educational Therapist. She graciously explained a lot about my daughter's scores to me this afternoon, but now that I am home I am confused yet again and hope someone here can give me direction. Firstly, my DD's GE vocab and comprehension scores are very far apart, 11.2 and 7.5 respectively. In 4th grade they were also about 4 GE apart, and in 3rd they were about 1 GE apart. Why would her vocab be so much higher than her comprehension? If she's not comprehending what she reads, how is she getting the vocab down? What can I do to bridge this gap? FWIW, my DD doesn't like to read -never has - and my friend suggested that we need to find out why she doesn't like to why she is not comprehending... Any ideas here? Also, her listening skills are good at GE 10.5, but her thinking skills are not nearly as good, at GE 6.7. Again, 4 GE apart. But on her 3rd and 4th grade tests, the two were less than 1 GE apart. This is very confusing to me. What does this really mean - and how can I help her improve? Finally, her verbal and non-verbal sores show a huge discrepancy: her SAI (School Ability Index) shows a 108 in verbal, and a 71 in non-verbal. My friend said that a discrepancy of >9 really needs to be looked at. Hers is at 25! Her 4th grade scores, however, showed just a 4 pt difference 97 and 101, respectively. Can anyone shed light on this for me? I am going to have my friend test DD in the fall, and I know more information will come from that...but in the meantime, I'd love a "second opinion" or suggestions on what could possibly be going on here and how I can improve as her teacher. Thanks so much!

Love this idea - I have the test booklets as well. I could let her take those, too, to see what she needs to learn. TY for the idea!

I have an almost 12yo DD who finished R&S books 2 & 3 in grade 2. When we moved from the US to Germany in '09, a lot of stuff just fell by the wayside. She never finished the 4th book, but we did go through all of the Bk 4 writing exercises in 5th grade. Last year (6th grade), I was so overwhelmed with family issues that I let grammar slip almost entirely. She is now entering 7th grade, and I want to pick back up with R&S. I am the type who wants to go through book 5, then 6, and so on...but she is balking at working through the 5th book b/c she knows it's 5th grade. WWYD? I know that each year builds on the year before... I should also mention that DD hates R&S (although I suspect she hates most everything right now, LOL). She did very well with it when we used it, however, and I believe it to be a good program. So, WWYD? Would it be a better move to pick up with another program entirely - and is there one that would cover all that she has "missed" in a middle-school text? She might feel better about things if she was doing 7th grade work. TY for any input!

TY so much! They all sound great. I am going to look them up on Amazon this evening!

I would appreciate your thoughts on two good books/each to get for my DDs for Christmas. One will be from "Santa" (yes, they both say they still believe), and one from us, so they shouldn't "go together". DD#1, 11yo, much prefers encyclopedia-type books to chapter books. Currently, her favorite is National Geographic's Weird but True, and she has actually learned quite a bit by following rabbit trails from it :hurray: I am interested in another book with lots of interesting facts, but also a chapter book - maybe the start of a series??? She would have no preference if the main character was a boy or a girl. Ideas? DD#2, almost 9yo, really has no preference, but happily reads chapter books. Right now she is reading the Grandma's Attic series and loves it. DD#2 would prefer a main character that is a girl - the start of a series might be good for her as well. Ideas???

Other: we live overseas and vote absentee.

Our homeschool co-op sold Usborne once as a fundraiser. A lot of books were sold, but I have no idea about the profit.

No real ideas - but the first thing when I saw the title and your screen name was "brownies, of course"!

EDITED: I see now that I was wrong in the 1st sentence - I only read the 1st pg by mistake before replying. I am truly surprised (not being snarky - promise) that no one has actually said that the child deserves to know that she has a biological sister. IMHO, I think that telling a child (any child - this is not aimed specifically at the OP here) something so important simply because the child will find out anyhow isn't a good reason. It almost seems like a CYA situation, where the adult doesn't want to "get busted", so they go ahead and try to beat others to the punch. Instead, I would hope that a child be told of a sibling because it is the right thing to do, and not doing so is the same as lying - by omission - to the child. Whether or not the children involved in any similar instance decide to have a relationship should be up to them and not anyone else. Now, the ages of the children in this case may be an issue. Contact with other members of the biological family might also be an issue. But IMHO I would do all that I could to allow the children to have a relationship if they so choose. And it doesn't have to be all-or-nothing. Maybe it could be as "simple" (I know that none of this is actually "simple") as telling the children about one another, and going from there. Please don't think that this is judgmental in any way. I can truly imagine how difficult a situation this is. As an adult adoptee who was told from the very day that my parents brought me home at 4 weeks old, I can not begin to imagine the hurt and betrayal that I would have felt if I had discovered later in life that I was adopted. That would be my fear in a situation like this... I hope all goes well for you and your family, no matter what you decide to do. :grouphug:

DD#1, when she was 4yo, threw up when she touched paper mache for the 1st time, so yea, it happens ;)

I agree! We have had two trick-or-treaters in the past three years -- and it was an American family who were with a German family & knew that we were also Americans :D

TY both for the replies. I know that I should move her to an appropriate grade level. I know that she could do the work. It's just that nagging voice inside that says, "You didn't do 5 - you didn't do 5..." I have to realize (accept?) that I am the one holding my DDs back because of my own hang-ups. So, tomorrow it's on to R&S 6 we go. I feel certain that the world won't end...will it ;)

We use SWO, and my DDS tolerate it ;) What I do is have them read the 1st page and then take the pre-test. If they miss no more than 1/10 (or 2/20) they write the misspelled 3x (5x) and always do the proofreading. The next day I ask the misspelled word(s) again. As long as they get them right, we move on. If they miss them, they write them 3x (5x) and also in a sentence. HTH

This rambles a bit - ty for staying with me on this. Also, I did a search and came up with several posts about skipping a level with R&S grammar, but still have a question. DD#1 is newly 11 and in 6th grade. She is a very bright kid, and used to be 2 yrs. "ahead" in every subject. However... I am the type of person who wants every. single. box. checked, and because of that both of my daughters are now "behind". DD#1 just finished R&S 4 yesterday :glare: She is bored beyond belief with most everything we are doing in school, and I am afraid that I have all but killed any love she had for learning. FWIW, the only thing that I haven't regularly taught - science - she excels in and could easily do high school level. If given a choice, she would read about anything science-related all day. I have a friend with a bright son (7th grade) who was very bored with his work. He asked to skip ahead in several subjects (they do not use R&S) and has done very well with it. She has suggested that I skip at least the 5th grade R&S and has really has encouraged me to skip the 6th as well. FWIW, DD#1 and her son think very much alike - both are viual-spatial, science-minded, and dx ADHD-Inattentive. Not sure if that is going to matter or not... But (I am almost done!) I read through my board search that R&S 5 is really not to be missed/skipped. WWYD?

This sounds a lot like what happened with my other nephew. Because his tongue-tie was not caught until he was around 3 yo, his speech was affected. He also has all sorts of food "issues" and literally will only eat about three things. He was also failure to thrive and I am not sure if he is even on the charts now (6 yo).

TY all so much! To answer several of the questions: I am not sure if he is gaining, as this was the first weight-check I am aware of. She did tell me that his discharge weight was 7 lbs, 12oz when he left the hospital (from an 8 lbs, 8 oz birth weight). It makes the 7 lbs, 6 oz weight check yesterday sound a lot better. SIL went through a long (almost 24 hour) painful induction that did not work. They sent her home and the following afternoon she had the c/s, so I assume she had plenty of fluids by the time the baby was born :tongue_smilie: Her LC suggested that she continue to bf as much as possible (nurse-in) and to supplement with pumped milk. A nurse is coming to her house later this week; she is seeing a IBCLC today, I believe; and has contacted her local LLL. One last note: SIL does not like water at all or oatmeal. She does not drink alcohol, either. She is determined, however, and said that she will add some flavoring to her water and try that. She also drinks coffee and diet soft drinks and said that she is going to cut that out JIC the caffeine is bothering him. Thanks again for the wonderful advice! ETA: I missed several posts before answering above. I will also mention tongue-tie to her. My other nephew (this baby's cousin) had it - maybe it runs in the family???

My BIL & SIL are civilian in the US and she is covered for a LC. Weights I listed were in lbs/oz. I will ask her tomorrow about discharge weight. TY :) TY - I need to remind her about the fluids retained from a surgical birth. Strangely enough, DH remembered that fact before I did ;) He actually tried to take one of my LLL calls many years ago while I was upstairs nursing and I had to remind him that *I* was the "expert". I am starting to think that he remembers more than I do, LOL!

I am almost embarrassed to ask this, as I was a LLL leader 6-8 years ago, but I am not sure on this one and I no longer have my BF Answer Book, nor any related materials. My SIL has just had a baby (6 days old) and he has lost 14% of his weight. He was 8.8 at birth and 7.6 today. I do not know his discharge weight. SIL had gestational diabetes and my nephew was born two weeks early by c/s (big boy)! SIL wants to bf, but BIL and MIL are adamant that she supplement with formula because she "obviously isn't making enough milk" :001_huh: SIL bf on demand, which works out to every 2-3 hours in the daytime, and closer to 3 hours at night, if she is lucky. I forgot to ask about wet diapers, but she mentioned that he was not producing enough of them. SIL reports that the baby nurses very well during the day, but in the middle of the night he "fights" her and cries and arches away from her. This does not happen ever during the day, so I do not think oversupply is an issue. She went to the ped. today and he suggested supplementing with formula and contacting a LC ASAP. She had not heard of LLL & I gave her the no. of four leaders near her. She does not want to supplement with formula, but I am a bit concerned with the baby losing over 10%. For now she is pumping between feedings and giving the baby that after his nighttime feedings. Can someone give me any info that I can pass on to her? Thanks so much! (FWIW it's almost midnight where I am - I will be up for a bit but will most likely answer any replies in the AM, my time)

TY - someone else suggested that to me. Will check that out this afternoon.

She gets very frustrated with explanations. She wants to do it all herself ;)