Oh, I love the look of the Catwings books! I have all 4 in my cart and I think she will love them. Thanks! I wishlisted The Black Stallion for later.

This is pretty much my feeling. I think with a class of 30 kids, you have no choice to grade and move on. But moving on when a class has missed a certain percentage of problems is inevitably going to leave gaps of understanding for some students. Homeschooling gives me the ability to fill those gaps of understanding before moving on. The answer is wrong because the kid doesn't understand or because the kid wasn't paying attention. Either way, we fix it before we move on.

DD's 7th birthday is coming up and she is wildly into cats/kittens and horses. I always give the kids classics for birthdays/holidays so I'm looking classic lit suggestions about cats and/or horses. We already have the Misty of Chincoteague series. We also have Beverly Cleary's Socks and most of the the Jenny Lind books (:001_wub: these!). She is a strong reader and I love to read aloud so level doesn't matter at all, so long as the material is appropriate for her age. (We have Black Beauty but I don't think she can take it yet.) Ideas? :bigear:

:lol: That is a hysterical thought! My ds8 loves this book for road trips. Honestly, for the 4 year old, I would submit to a DS, movies and audio books. All my kids had Leapsters at that age and those were life savers in the car too.

You can find them here. :)

:iagree: This is exactly what I am finding to be true with my kids in my third year of homeschooling. The more we do and the higher my expectations, the more joy in learning we have.

My dd and I were falling into a similar pattern. I was astounded at how such a sweet, generally happy child could focus on the negative so much of the time. This child spent 5 days at Disney World and spent the last night crying for an hour about not getting a balloon. The last experience she had somehow trumped all the good parts and ruined the trip for her. What is that?! :confused::glare: It did no good to tell her how grateful she should be to be at Disney World or to try to be logical in any way. The only thing that worked to calm her down was to hear her, really take the time to listen to her frustration and sympathize. That did not mean giving in. That was what frustrated the most about her behavior; I never gave in! All the parenting experts will have you believe that if you don't give in, the pattern will change. Wouldn't that be like magic? :lol: If it were true, I would have perfect children. Then, last year I read Strong-Willed Child or Dreamer? and it was like a light switch went on in my head. She is a dreamer (and so am I!). I found that looking at things from her perspective was very helpful for our relationship. We were falling into a negative pattern and I decided we needed to find our way to the positive. Here is my post from yesterday on a similar thread that explains what I actually did. Before this, I punished and isolated and did lots of heart-to-hearts. She went to her room for negativity. She was made to apologize sincerely. I did the role-play appropriate talking with her. I modeled the right behavior yadda, yadda, yadda. For my two boys, this works. For dd, no. That doesn't mean these things won't work for your dd but I just wanted to say it because, for some children (my dreamer dd especially), these things feel like you are punishing who they are, not their behavior. My dd is like a new person now that I have begun focusing on the positive.

:lol: This is how I work too, although I never looked at it in these terms before. I feel like a plate juggler sometimes. I get one plate spinning beautifully and then notice that the others are falling all around me. The trick I want to learn is how to get them all spinning reasonably well simultaneously. Maybe an auto-spin setting for a few of the plates... Love your idea, and your DH's art is lovely! I definitely need to work on focus. The ability to multitask is sometimes a curse for me. For me, the question is how to keep the plates spinning while focusing on one for a while. Jean, if it makes you feel any better, as a blitzer, I aspire to be a plodder/plugger. :D I feel good when I'm blitzing but I sure do wish I had a medium speed. As it is, my two settings appear to be "blitz" and "off."

Thanks for this. I do think dd grips too tightly so maybe I'll start harping on that instead. :tongue_smilie: Kidding. I'll keep an eye on her but she is so enjoying her new freedom from my nagging.

So glad this could help someone else tonight! I'm happy to hear this. DD does have very good handwriting and it always felt bizarre to be getting on her case about the grip for that reason. I guess I just had it drilled into me that there was one proper way. This thread has me (obviously!) very relieved.

I might read your post to dd for her bedtime story tonight. :lol: She is still grinning ear to ear.

Thanks! It's funny you mention having the best handwriting because DD's handwriting is much neater than DS8's and his grip is picture perfect. She even works on making up her own handwriting fonts. You're welcome! Freedom to the children! :lol: Sooo much happier! Thanks!

Thanks for this. It's nice to hear from someone who has the grip as an adult and hasn't had trouble. I just told her the handwriting experts say she can hold it that way and that I was sorry I had nagged about it because it turns out I was wrong. She was ecstatic, literally squealing with happiness. I'm clearly not the only one who was sick of this conversation. She has moved on to drawing a mother cat with her kittens, without further interference from me. :)

Yes, thank you!! You have provided me immeasurable relief! :lol: Can you tell I am so sick of having this "debate" with my 6 year old? Now I guess I get to apologize... Yippee!! Thanks to you too! :D

OK, I Googled it and came up with this. The boys and I are definitely a right tripod but she is what they call a right quadropod. That's OK?! It will thrill me no end! If it's not OK, she might change if we nickname her Qaudro. :tongue_smilie:

Despite incessant nagging from me, dd will not hold her pencil properly. Instead of resting the pencil on her middle finger and her index finger on the pencil (I'm sure that makes no sense but I can't sketch it out :lol:), she rests the pencil on her ring finger and her index and middle finger on the pencil. We have gone 'round and 'round and 'round about this. Yes, I have bought several types of the proper finger placement puttyish doohickeys and, to her credit, she has tried them. Then today I caught her using one with both her index and middle finger in the spot designated for her index finger. In other words, she was using the finger support wrong. She will write and draw for hours (which is part of the problem, as the habit is sticking like glue) so it doesn't seem to be producing the fatigue I've heard so much about. She was sitting across from me at the table right now, happily sketching out cats, until I caught her holding her pen wrong again. Now she is whining and moaning that she doesn't want to change how she holds the pencil. Will this be the death of her? Will she be scarred for life? Must I change the way she holds the pencil, whatever the cost? (If you answer yes, I beg you to give me counsel as to how to make a change with a minimum of tears. :tongue_smilie:)

:iagree: This book is great! We are not unschoolers but this book also works for those who want to create a learning lifestyle for their kids on top of planned curriculum.

I don't know if your ds is too old for this book but the message is fantastic. My dd has some grumbling tendencies which turned into a habit, which led to my habit of grumbling back, and so on and so on... This whole series of books is wonderful. What to Do When You Grumble Too Much: A Kid's Guide to Overcoming Negativity Aside from using this book, we went to a reward system for positivity. I got a quart size Ball jar and every time she did something without grumbling or otherwise behaved in a positive way, I gave her marble-size gems to put in the jar. When the jar is full, she is able to choose a "big-deal" reward (indoor rock climbing, bowling, going to the waterpark, etc.). This is working splendidly, better than I had hoped. In the past, I've been anti-rewards but I have to admit that it has been the best thing I could do for this particular child. After a little while using the jars (made some for my boys too--although they don't suffer from negativity, it didn't seem fair to reward only dd for positivity), I realized that those jars are a symbol of my energy level. When they're filling up, my energy level is going up because I don't have to deal with negativity. When they're emptying (a punishment for negative behavior is to lose some gems), you can bet my energy level is diminishing. It's been a wake up call for us all. Good luck! ETA: I also see some recommendations to punish and/or isolate. I did that. And did it and did it and did it... It just ended up with her going into her own world of feeling sorry for herself and had no positive outcome at all. It never changed things for next time either. With the rewards, you can see the gears in her head turning in a different way. It's teaching her self-control in a way that punishment never did. She has a dreamer personality type though, so that is probably part of it. You can punish my boys and they will consider that for next time for sure. DD, no.

Well, it's not a program but I highly recommend Inventing the Future: The Scientists Who Changed Our World. It is a sequential history of science written for around a 9-12 year old audience. I am matching it up to our history cycle, but I have toyed with the idea of using it as a spine for a homemade one year history of science curriculum.

Both boys - wooden blocks and Legos DD - wooden blocks with play animals and fairies, craft supplies

:lol: I would just like to take this opportunity to announce that I don't make a profit of any kind, ever, for anything. :tongue_smilie: I do feel like BW is the final touch that makes our LA program very well-rounded. I wouldn't give up any of my components, as I think they make a terrific balance, but TWJ is particularly inspirational. In the way that WWE holds my hand, TWJ and MCTLA hold my heart. I sincerely doubt you will be disappointed with it.

All this you've written out... Very Brave Writer. She even quotes Lamott and Goldberg. :lol: If voice is something you are interested in cultivating, it's what you want. You know you want to... :D https://www.homeschoolbuyersco-op.org/index.php?option=com_hsbc_epp_order&Itemid=1510&c=1 The group buy expires tomorrow at midnight. :)

Thank you for this post. My oldest DS is naturally sweet and shy. PS or HS, his personality would be the same, but I am struck by your statement that I bolded above. It is definitely true of him. :confused: Wow. His personal relationships should not be about his preference? :001_huh: I think forcing people into social interactions that make them uncomfortable is incredibly disrespectful. Do I encourage my kids to stretch? Yes. Do I coddle? No. Do I tell my kids I am "off limits" and force them to interact against their interest and instincts? I can't imagine. I personally think this is the time for him to do as Karen suggests... :iagree:

:lol: Indeed! It is vewy, vewy twicky, but it can be done! :tongue_smilie:

The Writer's Jungle from BraveWriter