Reading "The Iliad", "The Odyssey", etc. is wholly unnecessary to understand later references to Greek mythology. Nor is knowledge of Greek mythology necessary at all to be an educated adult in today's culture. Reading Dante is unnecessary to be an educated, fulfilled human being as well; and if one chooses to read Dante or anything else with understanding, one need not recursively search backwards for other referenced works and read them first. It's enough to learn a summary of the information referred to instead of reading the full text.

I've read the first chapter of the latter, enough to know that I disagree with it heartily. The fact is, a person who reads the Cliff's Notes of "The Iliad" and "The Odyssey", or skips them altogether, will be no worse off.

Though they have little to no other direct relevance to modern society, the stories are of some historical interest. You won't be missing out on anything if you skip them, as long as your children receive cultural enrichment in some other way. I can think of many more useful ways to spend learning time, personally, than reading "The Iliad" or "The Odyssey", but I also am happy that some people value a study of them. It takes all kinds. :D

We did the same thing, and my son wound up with a great grasp of basic math facts. I see the only possible drawback of the notches being that if you use the rods for other things besides basic number relationships, as a previous poster mentioned, the notches might get in the way, but I wouldn't know about that. Bill (Spy Car) has posted in the past that the notches are bad because they take away an original intended benefit of the Cuisenaire rods, that of getting away from counting on fingers. That makes sense to me, but on the other hand I think it's nice to have the notches because if a child needs to double-check a fact they are available for counting; and in any event in my experience children quickly get past the point when they need to count things that are 4-5 or less in number. In the end, the only thing I really don't like about our notched plastic rods is the Lego-like protrusion on one end of each rod to enable the connection feature (which I like, just not the protrusion). However, it never seemed to get in the way of understanding. In my opinion, though it's good to get away from counting on fingers, it's not good to try to memorize number relationships without any reference to what the numbers are on a basic counting basis either (at least at the earliest stage-- and past that stage the notches won't hurt, because a student won't feel the urge to count them). That is, one can memorize "6 + 4" as two colors going together, but to me that smacks more of rote memorization than re-constructing the relationship based on counting one's fingers, and I'm not persuaded that it really builds a stronger math foundation than counting on one's fingers, though it may seem to give more basic calculation proficiency at an early age. Part of my different opinion on this might be that we didn't use manipulatives much in general, and didn't spend much time with C-rods either. I still think they provided some benefit during a brief period.

Have you read "Solaris"? It wouldnt' be first on my list for entertaining Lem books. In the same vein but perhaps a more engaging pick would be "Fiasco", but for an introduction to Lem for a twelve year old I would pick lots of others first. "The Futurological Congress" is another one to consider, based on your other choices.

If he likes Mark Twain, he would be bound to like "The Innocents Abroad", possibly the most entertaining travelogue ever written. "Animal Farm" is fun, at least more so than "1984". You might delve into some Russian classics. "The Master and Margarita" is quite a fun and thought-provoking book. Anything by Nikolai Gogol is bound to be great fun. Kafka? How about "The Castle" for starters? "The Cyberiad" is a sci-fi classic that's quite entertaining. "The Star Diaries" is perhaps a little more dense, but also wonderful and quite whimsical. Depending on his reading level and philosophical bent he might also find "A Perfect Vacuum" quite fun. "War with the Newts" is wonderful fun. "Bill the Galactic Hero" is hilarious fun. "Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid" is a classic intro to ideas in math and computer science, and quite fun.

Both of my kids sleep less than normal, although they are such bears in the morning that I suspect what's going on is a combination of being a night owl by nature (or even a sundowner), not wanting to stop whatever they're doing at a normal bedtime, and needing to get up in the morning. They both sleep later on the weekends than on weekdays, though still I would say they tend to get up after sleeping for 8-9 hours max, so a little on the low side. As an extreme example, DS6 stayed up until 3 a.m. working on a project this past Sunday, then got up before 8 a.m. to go to school-- but he was tired after school and had to take a nap. Last night DS6 and DS2 stayed up until past midnight, but got up before 8 a.m. today. That's more normal for them.

I have a high opinion of Singapore Math. Why is she behind, and what sort of quick catch up do you envision? I think it's most important with math to build a strong foundation. If she shows strong math aptitude, Singapore lends itself to acceleration very well.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and The Great Glass Elevator The Chronicles of Narnia Here Be Monsters! The Wind in the Willows The Mysterious Benedict Society (and series) The Twenty-One Balloons The Matthew (and Maria) Looney series

If money doesn't matter, you are curious and you have no reason to believe that testing will be unpleasant for him, I'd test just to satisfy my curiosity. If you need testing to learn more about possible learning disabilities (on which you may get more info after the other scheduled testing, so you may find it useful to wait), or to get access to needed gifted services (which doesn't seem to be the case), I'd test. Otherwise, I wouldn't; I'd spend the money on something else for my family.

I don't see a dilemma. Since she wants to go pay her respects, I'd let her.

I would just let it go. You found out that your Wednesday program was a bad academic fit; no biggie. It may not be the last time this happens to you. :)

The Biblical quote is dealing with hypocrisy, but it's not an example of tu quoque. Otherwise, we'd have to accept that Jesus was making an ad hominem attack in order to discredit an opponent's position during a logical argument, when he was really just teaching a religious lesson about moral values.

Just the student text for now. We also have the CD that contains the full text plus that of all workbooks etc., but haven't cracked it open yet. ETA: This is the edition we bought: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0078734606 There is a welter of different fairly recent printings, including micro-versions developed for different states. We picked this particular one because at the time we found a like-new copy for quite cheap, plus a new version of the CD for the identical version for an extra $30.

Have you looked at Glencoe? We like it.

Great list, michele.

It's certainly not too young time-wise, and in general the early math facts, including addition and multiplication, are all cross-reinforcing. I wouldn't delay. (Incidentally, I'd check out IXL for fact practice; DS learned his times tables very quickly in not very many sessions at 5, using IXL and a couple of simple techniques from MM.)

Here's an interesting abstract: The Relationship Between Handwriting Style and Speed and Legibility

Is there something to this? Because all I found in the past was statements being parroted by people to similar effect, but without any actual support. I can take anecdotal evidence from OTs that cursive helps their patients in some ways (at least for what it is-- anecdotal, otherwise unsupported evidence). However, I can't help being skeptical of claims of brain effects unsupported by any sort of evidence.

I imagine it would work fine with Windows running on a Mac (although this would of course be an extra expense for anyone not already running Windows).

It's an opinion based on the clear results of a comparative study, yes. Teaching cursive is an idea that's really got no experimental support-- I checked.

They had good reason to be, because that isn't true. What is true is that a person's chosen method, in which they have the most practice, is faster for them than the one they use less; printing is a little faster than cursive in general (i.e. for practiced users); and mixed styles with printing dominant are the fastest.

And yet we do-- go figure, eh? It's not the praying, it's the asking for others to pray for something like that. It's guaranteed to come off a bit like, "I'm stressed out over all these lottery winnings, and need you to pray for guidance on how I should spend my winnings-- French Riviera or the Bahamas? Ferrari or Lamborghini?" It might help to remember the angst and jealousy that talking about early milestones (or giftedness, perhaps much more) can cause with some people. ETA: Nothing of this is meant as a slur on the OP in any way. She has realized what I would have in the same situation-- that others would likely take it as bragging. In her situation I would probably have done the same thing: if I felt the need to ask for prayer, just make a general request.

That's interesting about the calibration error. I read a post on a different discussion board about that too, saying there had been letters sent out in the poster's district and that scores had to be regenerated due to an error (not the new 2011 norms according to that poster). Doesn't inspire a lot of confidence, does it? :D According to the documentation of the 2011 norms, kids at the top end of the bell curve would generally expect to see some mild drops relative to scores under the 2008 norms. IIRC this was explained as greater accuracy of the new tests/norms leading to greater ability for differentiation at the high end. I was not a fan of MAP as implemented in our public school when I found out that DS had taken the fall math MAP without pencil and paper, doing resorting to doing long division etc. in his head, and that he had been rushed to finish the other parts instead of given as much time as he liked. His scores jumped considerably when tested in the winter.

There is a fairly substantial manual included. It's in the software that has to be installed to use the product, and there are clear instructions included on how to do that. Once the software's loaded, there are huge unmissable buttons to click to launch into descriptions of the various predesigned bots, with how to construct the program and the hardware for each. Complete step-by-step instructions are also given for whatever setup may need to be done, such as copying the program from the computer to the bot.