I get a lot of comments with my 4 - its incredibly annoying. When I'm juggling my kids, groceries, managing misbehavior, the last thing I need is someone chirping "WOW, you've got your hands full!" and all I want to do is tell them where to shove it. While I fully support snarky comments, I do agree that for a lot of people its just lack of thought and the desire to make conversation over an express desire to judge you. Like above, it seems like any female's reproductive situation is fair game for comment in today's culture. I think people have stopped learning to be discreet and recognize that these are issues that are really not polite to bring up in casual conversation.

I used to get Nicole Kidman, but I think it was just the red hair.

I would actually get 2A - more of the meat and challenge of the level is in A than B - B has some multiplication and division, a lot of money (including adding and subtracting money), and starting fractions. But SM approaches things differently than other systems and to be on the safe side, I would start with the beginning of 2A and just allow him to zip through it quickly if needed. They are not at all expensive books, so you wouldn't be out much, and the texts can be saved for future kids. You really only need the text and workbook, the extra practice books you only need if you want extra problems. It is not like Saxon where there are tons of problems with each concept. From what I've read in the Singapore philosophy book, its really key to thoroughly grasp each concept before moving on as its presented in the books, I would think it would be worth it to start farther back and make sure everything is solid as they present it.

As far as books, the best I've found have been Guiding the Gifted Child, Raising Your Spirited Child and Some of My Best Friends are Books: Guiding Gifted Readers. Living With Intensity and Emotional Intensity in Gifted Students: Helping Kids Cope With Explosive Feelings were also good. The SENG website has been really helpful to me. They have lots of free articles, and also a free ebook: The Joy and the Challenge. Gifted Homeschoolers Forum is good. Psychology Today has a collection of articles on Giftedness as well. In case this isn't enough, here is an enormous list of links I bookmarked a while ago but haven't gone through all the way. I hope this helps. I've had fun avoiding making dinner. :)

Just in case anyone is struggling with a particularly sensitive child: _Raising Your Spirited Child_ is a good resource for those with super sensitive kids. I have two that I would consider sensitive, although at different levels. Sometimes it is just a child who a bit more reactive to stimulus than other kids, but for other kids they are so sensitive to various things - their environment, other people, their emotions, everything - that it almost looks like a mood disorder (which is one reason I had been looking for books like this one). Understanding the idea of Ovexcitabilities (this is from a site on Giftedness, but it can show up in any child) also helps. I was very sensitive as a child, so I identify a lot with how they are feeling. Everything is more intense to them. In my experience you don't outgrow it, but you do learn coping tools along the way (hopefully).

We moved a year ago from MD/DC area - we lived there for 5 years when my husband was a DoD civilian Federal employee and we used BCBS federal (basic) and I have been very happy with it, and kept it after transferring to a different federal position. It covered everything with pregnancy and birth, less a $150 copay, which was great since we had 3 kids while on the plan. They also cover all well baby visits with no copay and cover preventative dental care(exams, cleanings, xrays). I have yet to have them mess up a claim, unlike United and Aetna that we'd been on before, which seemed like they messed up 1 out of 5 claims. Hope that helps!

I think Sue Me would be good. Pick anything that she can BELT comfortably. Find a song that's normal key is ideal for her.

I think it would work fine - I used it with my accelerated 6 year old because I really didn't want to start doing a heavy grammar program but I thought she was ready for some basics. We didn't do it everyday, just a few times a week, and we sometimes did multiple lessons at a time. My younger kids (who were 3 and 4) did the poetry and parts of speech memorization along with us, so I think it would be fine to try for a pre-k kid, and just modify as you need to. Its pretty cheap, so worth a look.

We live in an area that is extremely supportive of biking - there are bike lanes everywhere and people know how to drive around bicyclists. We also have an awesome coastal trail, so there area always lots of tourists on rented bikes around, and some of them know how to ride in traffic better than others. You drive differently, but I don't think its inappropriate to expect people to slow down and be more careful. There are lots of laws regulating bicyclists here - for example you have to have a certain kinds of light and reflectors on your bike if you ride at night. My husband commutes to work on his bike nearly everyday. It saves us a lot of money on gas and he gets exercise built in to his day, but he wouldn't do it probably if the community wasn't so bike friendly. I tease him that he's going to become like this: :lol:

Sounds like my dd 7 too! Lots of great suggestions here - I'll add a couple of links and books that have been helpful to us. SENG's Overexcitabilities and the Gifted Overexcitability basics Raising Your Spirited Child - best practical advice with helpful strategies Some of My Best Friends Are Books Great intro into some emotional issues with gifted kids, enormous wonderful reading list resources specifically for relating to gifted kids' Living with Intensity This one is a lot more academic, with fewer practical strategies, but I appreciated reading it especially because my husband is quite gifted and still has a lot of the issues gifted children face (he just has more emotional tools to deal with them now). Its not the first one I would buy, but definitely worth reading at some point.

Yes, you can be a minimalist with 6 kids - I am with 4. If you edit down to only what you really use and really love, and then give everywhere a logical place to live, cleaning becomes much easier. I am constantly editing and streamlining because through gifts and hand me downs we always have stuff coming into our house. My favorite book for this kind of thing is House Works - it goes into a lot of detail over decluttering and organizing.

We are a big play food family here - all four kids play with it. I especially like soft felt food (from etsy sellers or some Melissa and Doug sets) and the wooden Melissa and Doug sets. My only problem with the wooden pieces is that the paint chips over time. So if I was starting over I would stick to mostly fabric/felt pieces like Ikea's or handmade. When I picked up our first little play kitchen at a yard sale though I just made play food from boxes and such I had laying about, and that got us through a few months too!

Same thing here! When I gently ask her to turn her numbers around there is much wailing and gnashing of teeth, even though the answer is correct. Miquon Math suggests not correcting flipped numbers during math time, but rather work on it during handwriting time (just got the orange book for my younger daughter). Does anyone do this? My perfectionist can spiral out of sanity quickly with this.

Of course it matters - but I'm not going to be talking about my kids being gifted to random people (except maybe on the internet). It truly matters even into adulthood. My dh is exceptionally gifted and still has issues that a lot of gifted kids (including some of our kids) deal with. They don't just go away. I tested moderately gifted and still have the issues with finding friends I really connect with. Really intense people are just not normal, and they will naturally be on the fringes in a lot of ways. Its important to accept this and move on. But I would never get into a conversation with almost anyone about how anyone in my family is gifted. I don't see what purpose it would serve, and it could too easily be misconstrued as us being arrogant. If pressed, I just say x child is "working above grade level in that area." The only people I've gone into detail with the OE issues are grandparents who stay with the kids when we're out of town, so they can have a better understanding when a kid has a bizarre response to something. Recognizing giftedness and understanding the intensity of a gifted child is incredibly helpful in dealing with them compassionately. Hothousing is a completely different thing - taking a bright or talented child and trying to beat them into a mold that will reflect well on the parent for selfish reasons.

:iagree:

It doesn't take as long as you would think to do all that - how long are you spending? I have a first grader, and we are done with academics within 2 hours.

I second _Living With Intensity_ - although I wish it had more nitty-gritty suggestions for younger kids. Not related specifically to overexciteabilities, but I also am enjoying _Some of My Best Friends Are Books_. In it the author has suggestions for books that address some issues that I know my girls struggle with - perfectionism, etc.

Anyone?

I've been asked to teach music this semester at my homeschool co-op. They have the Bob Jones Music curriculum that I could use (I don't know which levels specifically), and I would be doing three classes of kids ranging from K-8. Has anyone had experience with this curriculum? I have a music background, but I'd like to make it easier on myself if the curriculum is decent. I have no experience with any Bob Jones at all. Thanks in advance!

Check out _Color Me Beautiful_ and figure out what "season" you are - it really helps picking out colors that flatter you for make-up and clothes. To deal with the eyebrow issue, go get your brows waxed at a decent salon (it should be about $15-$20). Then try to maintain the shape they make on your own with tweezers. I get mine waxed twice a year or so at the same place I get my hair cut, then maintain in between with tweezing. Get a flat iron, its a wonderful thing.

I found that same article a few months ago and reading it was a huge AHA moment for me too! I wish I had read it earlier...

If you are interested in them, buy them for yourselves and you can always keep them around for later. I should have mentioned that I use the MIT opencourse site for myself mainly - though my oldest will watch some with me (she's seriously tv deprived). They are college level courses, but a gifted child who is very interested in the material I think could follow at least some of it.

I haven't tried them - though I love looking through their catalog! I am using some of the courses from the MIT Opencourseware site (FREE!) http://ocw.mit.edu/index.htm

How about doing everything in the morning? My dd6 is similar, and she seems to do better when we move through a fairly consistent morning ( for us it goes ETC sheets --> math ---> reading out loud ---> language lessons for the WTM ---> history/geography --->short science reading- DONE! Then she has the afternoon to do whatever interests her. It seems to cheer her that once she's done with the morning, she can do "fun stuff," which to her is usually science reading and math games. We will read more out loud later in the evening, but she doesn't think that's school. The only other things we do in the afternoons are art projects and music practice, and when her dad gets home they'll do a casual science review discussion. The other thing is that I don't make her do a certain number of pages in her math or phonics - some days she'll do one, other days she'll get crazy and do 6 - I just do whatever. Hope this helps - I know its hard to figure out what to do with this kind of kid.

You can develop an ear - its not natural for most people actually. Once he learns the basics and a few keys worth of chords he'll be figuring out pop songs from the radio on his own, trust me. btw, I learned as a teen after already studying piano, clarinet, and voice. I was never a Suzuki kid so approaching music in a more casual, laid back way and learning to play by ear was so refreshing to me! I think in general when we're having kids learn instruments we need to remember that this is a skill they can take into adulthood most likely as a amateur for personal enjoyment, so its more important that its fun and that they'll be self motivated than that its the most technical, virtuosic way to make music, kwim?