My ds5 loves geography. Where can I buy a nice globe?

I've had this happen with all 5 of mine. Days 6-8 are the worst. By day 10 I'm seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. One thing I would add to the list of to dos: cold compresses. Bleeding sucks, but bleeding plus inflammation is the worst. Also days 6-8 are the worst for me in terms of hormones and emotions. It took until my 4th to anticipate the day 6 deluge of tears and to realize it won't last long. Hugs!

I replace words with synonyms without realizing it all the time. For me it's actually because I am a visual spatial learner and not an audio sequential learner. I've always been a great reader with fabulous comprehension. The first time I saw it as a problem was when I had to memorize a longer passage, and I kept memorizing the synonyms instead of the text. Another weakness that I have that I think might be related is the inability to remember idioms correctly. I see the picture of the idiom in my mind and say some form of it that is often the synonyms (i.e. Rip a carpet/cut a rug). If one of my kids takes on these tendencies, I don't plan on focusing on it.

My 6 year old sometimes hums while he reads. Should I try to break that habit? FYI, he sings more than he talks.

We don't plan on spending the same on each child, not because we love them differently, but because they are different from each other. Some activities are just more expensive than others, and I don't think all of ours are naturally most gifted in the pricey activities.

We love the Constitution Center!

Love this! I made sure to read it to dh.

My problem is it felt exactly like 4 hours of early labor for pregnancy 2 & 3. I didn't go to the hospital or anything. I'm just hoping this is not my lot every night for the next three weeks. It's not that it's too painful... It's that it's messing with my head. I just want stories so that I feel like I'm not alone in experiencing this.

This is my fifth, and after a long night of what felt like early labor (that stopped), I'm feeling discouraged. I'm full term, but discouraged because this could potentially go on every night for weeks. My last labor lasted an hour, so when I get the slightest contraction, I'm on high alert. I'm thinking I might be in for weeks of mental games:-( So tell me about your experiences... Misery loves company:-)

Where do you find duct tape cheap? My dd's first request for Christmas this year was duct tape. We ran out last week.

I don't know what this is :-)

This was helpful primarily for math advice. It seems like most parents on this board have really early readers. I guess I'm wondering what to do with a gifted child who is not yet an advanced reader and who despises any formal lessons. I have a dd that read chapter books at 4 and is super advanced now at 11. I barely taught her anything; life has been one big discussion with her. My challenge with ds6 is that he's not yet a voracious reader. I think I need to "teach" him, but he is not very teachable. I suspect he might have the highest IQ of my kids, but is the latest reader. I suspect one day it will just click, but how much do I push in the meantime? So does anyone else have a brilliantly mathy kid who has limited interest in reading?

He's only slightly above average in reading. His obsession is math.

Doing phonics with my ds6 is like pulling teeth. Any advice?

I had dd first pair of glasses made at Walmart because I assumed they were all the same. The lesson: you get what you pay for. The actual lens got a film on it after several months. The frames never seemed to fit on her face right. Apparently they melted/bent them while putting the lenses in. Since then I go to a more expensive, private vendor, and they're amazing.

I have a 6ds who is obsessed with numbers/math, but dislikes reading. I'm fine with his reading progress, but wish he liked reading more. Today I got out a set of some Nora Gaydos readers focused on math concepts. It was an immediate hit. Does anyone know of any other readers that would appeal to a mathy kid?

I'm curious about MEP... but I've heard it's pretty teacher intensive. I would rather put my teacher intensive time into teaching reading with ds6 at this point.

Well, dh and I talked this weekend and decided we should definitely have dd8 and ds6 do different curriculum. I have her in MM and she struggles with the format (though not behind in math.) I think I might give MM to him, and switch her to something more spiral. Thoughts? I am not comfortable telling a 8 year old she's not as good as her younger brother at math. That is true now, but I don't assume that it will be true in the future if she puts her mind to it. However, if her only frame of reference is a super-mathy kid, I think she might start to believe she's not good at it (which isn't true.) When I say ds6 loves math, I mean he talks about numbers all day long. He has requested a plus/minus/times/divide birthday party. He adds large numbers for fun all the time. He asked me if circles have infinity corners (and lots of other mathy questions that I have to look up the answers to.) He had a counting to a thousand party a year ago. We talk about things like 30 digit numbers. When I hand him and Miquon book, he usually picks the hardest page to tackle. If he were my only child, I would be inclined to wait another year until we use a curriculum. I did this with my very bright dd11. We waited until 2nd grade and soared through several years in 1 year. She's now well above level in math. For first grade I just had her reading. She read everything she could get her hands on. Then in second we spent an hour on math a day and got well into 4th grade Singapore Math that year. But, alas, it is much different homeschooling 1 than 4. I use ETC for phonics with ds. I have him do 4 pages a day. He's in book 3. He's either flying through the lessons, saying it's too hard, or making up games with the squares as he's going along (and taking 3x longer to do it... which is fine.) I have him read to me from a primer that he doesn't seem to mind while we're doing it, but complains like crazy every time I get it out (which is just about every day.) It's below his level, but not too easy.

Are all brands the same? I'm looking for suggestions of brands that would be considered good fermented foods. I shop primarly at Trader Joe's and Wegmans. Thanks!!!! PS I'm NOT NOT NOT in the position to make my own :-)

My 6ds talks math all day long. He loves learning. However, the minute I get out a phonics book or ask him to read to me, he states, "I hate school." So far that's all I do formally/daily with him for school (phonics and reading.) He's above average in reading, and well above average in math. Some specifics of our situations that I would love you to consider. -He's one of 4 that I homeschool, so I can't just tailor the entire day to making learning fun for him. -I haven't started him on a math curriculum (though he's addicted to math) because I'm nervous about his sister's feelings if/when he passes her up. I use Math Mammoth with her, and she struggles, but she's not behind. I love MM, and could see switching him to MM and using something esle with her. -I have very limited funding to invest in new curriculums now. I could do one, but I can't have trials with several curriculums to see what works. -He asks challenging questions all the time, but does not like to be given challenging workbooks. Suggestions? Thoughts? Thanks!!!

Wow... Thanks for the tip crunchygirl. I'll have to send my dh out for legumes. Oakblossoms, I'm going to look into the treadwell primer. I looked at my calendar a little closer and am hopeful that it will be closer to 4 weeks.

Thanks, I appreciate everything free I can get.

I'm going to sign the little people up for Reading Eggs with the free 5 week trial from HSLDA. DD10 will be doing Dragonbox on Ipad and a lot of Typing Tutor, as well as just reading. She's easier. I've downloaded loads of audio books. I have a prime membership, but not sure how to weed through all the documentaries.

I think I have about 5 more weeks of constant morning sickness. So I'm wondering what you would recommend that I can put on a computer, iPod, iPad, etc., that will help me cross this hump. My kids are 6,7, and 10.

I need to buy 6 sets for the kids. I don't want them to feel like sand paper but don't need to buy the creme de la creme.