I would talk to the teacher because this is the first incident that you know of. There could have been others, or with other children.

What a great idea! I am very good at 'big picture' goals, but I usually don't go any farther than monthly goals. I like the idea of weekly goals, too!

I have little to zero skill with foreign language, but I've made a deal with a good friend (who is excellent in languages and majored in German!): I'll do the research to find good materials, and she'll teach all our kids. Hooray! What kind of materials should I be looking at? I've seen Das Neue Deutschmobil & Pingpong Neu both mentioned in several places. Ideally, she'd like to structure it towards our oldest children and just simplify it for the youngers (versus have multiple programs for the different ages). The oldest kids are middle-school level. What would work best? Could the kids share the textbook for any of these and just have their own workbook? Are we crazy to think of using the same materials for early middle school & elementary level kids both? TIA!

IF our house were configured differently, I would have let dd start staying at home for short amounts of time already (age 10). As it is, she'd have to stay in her room and not leave it, otherwise technically she could be seen from the road. We'll be moving sometime in the next 6ish months, hopefully, and at that point, we'll begin letting her stay home alone for short periods of time.

We use Miquon as well. Why? I love Miquon. I don't want to use it without another program, and RightStart appealed to me for several reasons as well. I wouldn't call either one a supplement though; we do both.

I agree about MTH - we used them as read-alouds for that very reason, and we could sort of smooth out the writing at the very least. And Spiderwick is sort of fun, though simplistic. :)

Yes. As I remarked yesterday when I read the earlier story – I think she will be sad to leave, but I also think she will find some peace. I hope she's found it tonight.

I think this is a false dichotomy. My daughter's acceleration in math in no way precludes her from trying "lots of different things;" I don't feel the need to rattle out all of her activities here, but suffice it to say she participates in a variety of activities in a variety of different areas. She generally spends a bit more time on math than on any other single activity, yes, but she's by no means spending time on math in lieu of other worthwhile activities. A tangential point is that the child who is gifted or accelerated in math may not, in fact, be gifted or accelerated in those other areas. Not everyone is globally gifted. Some kids may be 2E. Etc.

What's for lunch? Leftover pizza from this weekend. What is special about your day today? It is cold! I have the desire to do nothing but stay inside. Luckily, we're able to do that today! What have you been looking for but can't find? The password to log onto the TIP website. Oops.

The kids go with dh to pick out a present for me, and vice versa. We pay for that, and it's typically something I/dh would have bought for the other anyway, so it's really just relabeling part of our gifts to each other, you could say. Dd gets an allowance and chose to save up to buy her siblings & the pets each a Christmas gift. I doubt ds will be so enthusiastic when he is older. ;)

:lol: Me too! Yeah, I didn't realize what the Elf on the Shelf was until just a few weeks ago, when I saw the commercial. I do find it sort of vaguely creepy, but we also tend to downplay Santa (not, I must admit, out of any desire other than, um, hello, I want MY kids to know *I* picked out the awesome gifts. :D )

Hold On To Your Kids The Underground History of American Education

We did! Dd had her piano 'recital' this morning (her teacher's piano students & choral groups performed at a nursing home), and then both of the older two had their Colonial Feast at Master's Academy. I got to go shopping with my mom this afternoon and we just had a good dinner. Now I'm listening to the Glee Christmas CD!

I had the opposite problem. I went to an all-girls school, and the prevailing attitude was one of "If you are good in math and/or science, you OWE IT to your fellow females to concentrate in that area! You're being selfish if you take over 'their' strengths in the humanities just because you like it better." I didn't fully realize the impact of it all until I was 3/4 of the way through a science degree at Georgia Tech, and came to the conclusion I would have been happier at a LAC studying poli sci. Oops.

We passed the halfway mark(to our state-mandated number of days, anyway)!

Yes, I want to have my shopping list sorted out between "look for at convention" and "get elsewhere" well ahead of convention (Greenville in March). For ds, we will pretty much be continuing onward in the same vein as this year. I do need to make out a schedule for history & science, and decide what supplementary books to purchase, and to decide if I want to do any more formal fine arts instruction or appreciation beyond what he gets at Master's Academy. Dd is another story. We'll keep moving forward with MCT LA, and math will be some combination of Life of Fred, Art of Problem Solving, and various other resources. Everything else is at least somewhat up in the air.

Name: Kash age of dc: My oldest is 10. The other two are 5 & 2. how long homeschooling?: If you count from kindergarten, this is our sixth year. (Yiles!) have you taught these ages/grades before?: Nope. I am familiar with the age group thanks to work over the years in GS & horseback riding, but this is my first go-round with one of my own. Do you follow a particular style of education? (WTM, LCC, CM, Electic,): I say we follow WTM, and I do feel like we follow the spirit of WTM, but I find myself deviating more and more wrt to my oldest. Do you plan to homeschool high school?: Absolutely. Any favorite quotes or wisdom that get you through the day?: Some days, I keep telling myself "Never let 'em see you sweat."

I like the ones from Aprons and More

US: Another One Bites the Dust, Queen UK: Don't Stand So Close to Me, Police AU: Upside Down, Diana Ross

:iagree: A lot of people I know RL are big into the whole couponing thing right now. I can tell some of them think it's crazy that I wouldn't *want* to do it too. Well, no. I'm happy for them that it enables them to buy more whatever or save more for whosit. But I've made my choices, and I don't appreciate being looked at as if I haven't thought it through. I have.

Have your dc completed any materials? Yes - ds finished Right Start A & the first ETC book. Dd finished PLATO Life Science. (Dd is also four-five weeks away from finishing her math book, and will finish PLATO Earth & Space Science before we break for Christmas.) What are your favorite subjects to teach? It's interesting, these are different for each kid. With dd, I love doing language arts stuff with her, discussing what she's read, and so forth. With ds, it's probably history & math. How about the kid's favorite subjects? Dd loves math. She's also really enjoying critical thinking this year. Ds loves history. What changes really paid off this year? No huge changes. This is ds's first year of 'official' school. I did add in Miquon after we finished Right Start A, and we'll keep doing it alongside Right Start B once we finally start it. Do you predict changing materials next year? For dd, we'll have to find something new for science and logic. I plan to change up her history/social sciences as well. Probably few if any changes for ds. In what area has your dc grown the most this year? Ds: concentration and ability to sit still. Dd: Time management (though it's still a work in progress!) What areas are you still trying to find that match for? History/social science for dd. I'm still trying to formulate what I want to accomplish in terms of foreign language study. What is your biggest homeschooling challenge this year? Teaching two students, and keeping the two year old entertained while I do so. What projects or activities stand out so far? Is it bad if my answers are extracurricular/outside the house things? The kids both loved homeschool soccer this fall & can't wait to do it again this spring. Dd is taking a fantastic history of science class through one of the local hs groups, and ds has taken oceanography through the same group. They've been a huge hit.

Most of my 'wants' are pricey... - addi bamboo click interchangeable knitting needles - lantern moon circular knitting needles, 16" length, various sizes - iPad - new laptop :) - digital SLR I also told dh I'd love a gift card to Williams Sonoma.

I've started. There were some great coupons at Borders last week, so I picked up a few hardback books I need for next year. Since I'm going to the convention in Greenville, I'm going to try to wait and do the bulk of my curriculum shopping there (to save on shipping costs). I am going to start buying supplemental books for ds's history & science, though, and the books to put together dd's social sciences. As soon as I figure out what we're doing for dd's math & lit for the rest of this year, that is. :tongue_smilie:

Since math is a popular topic at the moment... ;) What should I be looking for to ensure dd is challenged appropriately in math? I read something a few months ago on the boards to the effect of if you give a student the appropriate challenge in math, they may only get about half of the problems correct. Not sure if I go that far, but at the same time, getting near all of the problems correct certainly isn't much of a challenge either. Specific details. Dd is 10. If she were in our local institutional schools, she would be a very young (August birthday, September 1st cutoff) fifth grader. (She's probably also 2E; she doesn't have reading issues but shows pretty much every other sign of dyslexia out there, and dh & MIL both have reading issues of one kind or another.) She did Life of Fred Beginning Algebra last year, at age 9; she's five weeks from the end of LoF Advanced Algebra. She's been working on AoPS Number Theory on her own in the evenings for fun. I'm not sure what she'll do for math in January/Februay, but in March, she's going to do one of the AoPS classes (probably Counting & Probability). My next curriculum purchase is going to include AoPS Intro Algebra as I'd like her to at least do the end of chapter problems. She aces LoF. I've been letting her free with Number Theory but decided to check the parts she doesn't, today (she doesn't check the end of chapter review or challenge problems). She's getting around 70% of the challenge problems at the end of the chapters correct. Erp. She enjoys math, so this isn't a case of me trying to push her. I'd love suggestions for specific resources or other things to do with/for her.

Completely off-topic, but I really needed to read that today. I do come from a family of early readers, so ds has been at best puzzling to me. (He *can* read, of a fashion, but not with the voracity and skill that I realize I have come to expect at an early age.)