That first one looks like utter garbage to me, but I'm not an expert. We get better resolution than the posted samples using our cheap put-it-together Galileoscope.

:bigear:

When my son was small(er), he wrote and drew something similar. A little boy was chased and eaten by a monster (he wound up inside the stomach, next to the most adorable skeleton of a previous victim), then escaped and had further adventures. In my experience, the majority of children enjoy fairly macabre and scary things, within limits. I wouldn't worry about it. Note that in the picture, the monster-slaying children are smiling happily as their friend goes down the gullet.

What I'm thinking of is a collaborative tool for developing curriculums, like writing BFSU or something similar together, but a lot more flexible. It could support features like generating a "slice" across a particular curriculum-- the same subject matter but at a different level, with a different slant (religious vs. secular), different pedagogical approach (spiral vs. mastery), etc. I think it'd be great if some world-class minds collaborated on open curriculums.

Is this the one? http://todcm.org/ I think it's got a weak data model.

A framework for developing and collaborating on free/open source curriculums. I got the idea by musing over the recent The Happy Scientist discussion and the relative weak spots in curriculum offerings, and thinking about some elements that are missing from sites like khanacademy.org, watchknowlearn.org, etc. I have a list of starting ideas for features, but wanted to know if anyone thought it was a boneheaded idea from the get-go.

As a guy, I think I can shed some light on this. It's possible that he didn't realize he was scoping her out, or that he's embarrassed, but it's also entirely possible that he views a denial as an act of loyalty. Welcome to the male mystique, as humble as it is.

Agreed. :D I think "bromance" is pretty stinkin' awful, but it's not nearly as offensive.

A list of submissions so far. I tried to create a new thread with a poll, only to find out that polls are limited to only ten options each. :banghead: action (as verb, e.g. "action that item") actualize adorbs amazing anyhoo architect (as verb) awkward awesome baby daddy badonkadonk bandwidth (to denote non-bandwidth resources) bump (baby variety) bestie BFF blonde moment breakie brilliant bromance cobble together (any use except co-shoemaking) cool beans convicted (to indicate strong belief) DD / DS / DW / DH / DGS / DGD / DGGS / DGGD etc. disrespected (as verb) douche / douchebag DNA drill down dude / dudette epic fail (also "epic fail") fluff (for cloth diapers) FML free gift frickin' / frigging friend (as verb, also "unfriend") friends with benefits get you some gifted (as past-tense verb) ginormous grassroots hey hold the phone How cute is that? hubby hubster I don't mean to interrupt, but... I get that (in place of "I understand") I heart... I just threw up in my mouth a little bit I know, right? I love(s) me some... I need to go potty / I need to go the little [boy's, girl's] room (said by an adult) I'm good I'm jus' sayin' invite (in place of "invitation") in re (in place of "about" or "regarding") in regards to It's a God thing. It's all good. It is what it is. kewl kindy lifelong learner like literally littles living books LOL / lolcat / lolz / lulz Love. love on [someone] mathy mini (for a child, perhaps from Mini Me) mompreneur my bad / my bag newbie / n00b No offense, but... obvsies Oh, noes! Oh, snap! OMG / O.M.G. / ZOMG on the ground one of the only organic pain at the pump (for anything but breastfeeding or TeA difficulties) preggers prolly (esp. written) puhlease purpose (as verb) puter random Really? 'rents ridonculous / redonkulous senior moment, the having of Seriously? service (in place of "serve") sciencing shout out shut the front door (for STFU) sick Sissy (for "sister") so (as beginning) so f***ing happy spawn sposies STEM stinkin' cute stoked supposably synergy taking it to the next level task (as verb, e.g. "We've been tasked with designing a new synergistic modality for our company") that's what I'm talkin' about tight total outpouring of... totes (in place of "totally") tween / pre-tween unpack (e.g. "Let me unpack this verse for you") vajayjay very unique / really unique / somewhat unique etc. viral wanna we're pregnant wicked word / word up wrap your head around / wrap your mind around WTF / W.T.F. / WTFBBQ y'all ya think? yeah, no / no, yeah 'za

Sweet! I hope the testing experience goes very well and that the results are as accurate as possible.

She must have a great word memory. I wonder how much she has to practice-- I'd bet she memorizes words the first time. "Vaquero" is a great word. :hurray: Too bad that Paul fellow is too old to enter Scripps. He could really liven up the proceedings with spellings such as "ternicate" for "tourniquet" and "lausone" for "lozenge". I'm going to have to show this to DS. Last time we did spelling, months ago, he made vague mention of doing the Scripps bee someday. He'd better get on the stick if he's serious.

http://giftedissues.davidsongifted.org/BB/ubbthreads.php/topics/125236/Free_WPPSI.html#Post125236 Ten testing sites are apparently available. Thought this might help someone.

What's hilarious? :confused: I actually took a mild bit of offense at the reference to "using" the deity Vinegar, presumably by self-interested prayers regarding the dishes.

I think it's adorable when parents help their children out with meeting people and dating. But you should get that girl a hamburger.

No, that's not right. Some used books do feature Prime shipping, and the number seems to be growing although still well in the minority. The prices with and without Prime shipping generally come in around the same ballpark, and the shipping for most cheap used books tends to be $3.99 so you see a lot of $4ish combined totals for the cheap stuff. Good to know.

After we first bought Amazon Prime, we gradually started buying more and more things from Amazon than elsewhere, until we do a lot of shopping there. The price is usually comparable to what you'd find elsewhere, and sometimes the best, especially when you factor in shipping. I like Prime for these reasons, many of which might not apply to you: * Next-day shipping for four dollars is a very good price, and occasionally useful. * Two-day shipping for free (or rather the spread-out cost of Prime) is very nice compared to shipping options from other sites, and the items occasionally arrive the next day. * No need to wait and combine items into $25 orders or more; I can buy what I like when I want it. This includes lots of little stuff, as a PP mentioned. * I prefer to buy from Amazon where possible due to their return and refund policies. If something's defective, they cross-ship, and I've never had any hassle with authorization for a return. I don't use any of the other services. If I didn't buy enough through Amazon to make the Prime worthwhile, we wouldn't have it; I'd probably just combine orders to go over $25.

Besties, I'm SO loving verbing and nouning with you, and this thread is turning so awesomely epic! Those are some wicked sick examples. You've gifted me with such ginormously awful cobbled together words and phrases... At first I was like, "O. M. G., WTF? I'm getting some sort of ridonculous linguistic nausea... prolly puke on the puter or at least get verbal diarrhea soon-- not for nothin' but I wonder if I'm one of the only ones with enough taste to get so grossed out..." Anyhoo, keep 'em coming and this thread may just go viral.

By "recently" let's say within the last ten years. A term can be a phrase or a word. If it's a word, it should be coined; if it's a phrase, it can be some combination of common words, such as "on the ground". Let's exclude words created by misspellings or other errors, such as "restauranteur" or "irregardless", irregardless of recency. Mine? I'm on the fence, but leaning toward "mompreneur".

I guess that like most things, it's context-dependent. I would be concerned if a five-year-old were interested in learning to read, had plenty of resources available, and still had no reading or pre-reading skills.

Do you think that your choices had anything to do with your children's outcomes?

We're both working from home more often and otherwise driving less often. For me we recently switched vehicles from an eight-year-old one with 19/25 mpg with required 93 octane gas to a new one with 27/36 mpg which takes normal gas. If we didn't both require all wheel drive, we might have considered vehicles with even better gas mileage.

I'd be concerned about a child not reading at all at age 5. That would be enough for me to follow up with a specialist to determine that nothing was wrong developmentally. Incomplete mastery of letters by age 8 would certainly be a concern for me. This thread is interesting for the absence of anecdotes about children starting to read by age 8 or later and quickly surpassing age peers. Usually those sorts of stories are offered in these threads.

A smidge, but not IMO enough by itself to form an opinion of appropriate challenge level. With math, for instance, my son tested at the 50th percentile for 9th graders on the MAP test when a young 6, but there's no way he was ready for 9th grade material, or even close to it (he hadn't even been exposed to exponents yet). I view those numbers like age-equivalent scores from other IQ and achievement tests: they're never exactly accurate, and get less useful quickly the further out they're cast. Looking at the grade-equivalent percentiles where the curve starts to fall off from the 99th percentile might be more telling, but you're still not going to see from that what tools might be missing from your child's mental toolbox. Keep in mind that clever children can often learn during a test, and might score more highly based on reasoning ability even though they haven't been exposed to some pretty basic stuff. I'd never rely on an aggregated number across an entire subject such as math to tell me much, unless it indicated total mastery at a particular level. I've read and subscribe to the idea that one wants one's child to be reasonably able to do the work with some effort, and to have to try fairly hard to get an A. If an A is unachievable it might mean the level is too difficult or not enough foundational material's been covered for the child to fill in any holes on the fly. From that perspective I've sometimes seen 85-90% achievement numbers used to justify a skip. I have had a natural tendency to argue hard with the local school for acceleration, because I know that they will never do enough in that area due to all the handwringing, even when numbers are above the 99th percentile for a target grade placement. In private, though, I tend to be a nervous nelly about leaving holes in any subject, so I'd always tend to compact first instead of skipping a whole grade's worth of material.

I'm all for modeling good manners, and think that the rationale of believing in what one says makes sense. On the other hand I believe there are some fairly radical folks out there, basing their philosophies on such stuff as "Raising Our Children, Raising Ourselves" by the discredited Naomi Aldort (i.e. the child is always right and if you impose any restrictions on their behavior you're doing it wrong :D ).

My feelings on Wolfram are mixed. He's extremely self-promotional, as shown for example by the hype over A New Kind of Science, and I tend to think of him as a brilliant person who never came close to fulfilling his potential. I do think Wolfram Alpha is pretty cool, though. I tend to make DS6 work all problems by hand right now, but think that using calculators for completely mastered calculations (where by-hand accuracy is at 100%) to focus on problem-solving is a fine idea too, which I will probably use sooner or later. Right now DS is still in the stage where he can use the extra writing practice, if nothing else.