I am so glad I read this thread. I just requested the Star Wars Shakespeare book from the library. They even have online audio versions and a cd version of it. I also will be reading that World War II comparison which he will really enjoy.

I did not love mine. I used it for things like rice and beans but I needed more water then it called for and it stuck to the bottom a bit. I got a year or less before it broke from normal use and following instructions about how and when to open. It cost too much to only last that long. If it lasted longer and I used the cooker and crock pot options I would have maybe liked it more.

I would not like it if it was like that. My dd's troop did really well at booth sales and ran out of cookies. All we did was sell at dh's work, church and at booth sales. People in our area are not as health conscious I guess. We do not know a lot of people so we just do booth sales. I would feel the same way if I were in your position. That stinks that they got mad at you for it. Cubscout popcorn sales will be like that for us. I do not know people who will spend that kind of money on popcorn and I do not think they would do well at booths either.

Medicaid may pay for it. I know the parents who have kids on Medicaid or the state insurance can get the testing since it is covered. If it doesn't you can request testing through the school.

I would prefer they make a rule about loud behavior or a curfew for noise and enforce that rather then an overzealous age rule. It may just be one place but it is getting more common for people to think older kids and teens are not capable of being away from parents. If one hotel has the rule it will be one more common in other places. I think people correcting a teen's behavior if they were being immature is better then never allowing them freedom. If a big group is causing problems then the adults in charge of those groups should be informed. I personally believe that giving my kids more freedom over time is good for them. When I have stayed at hotels I haven't run into kids behaving bad but there have been occasions when adults have.

I do not think I could do it but I know people from other countries that are all named Maria or Mary and go by their middle name and I knew a kid growing up who had a half brother with his exact same name. I would ask the child in question how they felt about it at least and consider it if get do nit mind.

http://www.insp.com/blog/the-life-and-times-of-laura-ingalls/# This came up on my feed today. It was interesting. I did not realize the lived in such a small dwelling. It did mention a boy that lived for 12 days but not the boy who died the day he was born.

I still read my 5 and 7 year old picture books even though they can listen to higher level chapter books. A lot of picture books actually have good stories with advanced vocabulary and they are not simple. My 9 year old does not read them as much but she still will occasionally. a Very Hungry Catapillar is very young but there are still good ones out there for older kids.

The goal is to fill in gaps in conceptual understanding so she does not have weak spots and to get her thinking deeper about math rather then just learning a formula to plug in like with traditional borrowing she needs to understand the conceptual behind it.

The biggest problem is that it was filled with all different types of problems. I think it could be ok if it was similar problems and then I can at least have her do less if she seems to need less or all if she seems to need it. I will look over samples. from what I hear about Beast I do not think that would be the best fit for her. It may be better for my son when he gets to that level.

Thank you I got the audible narration. The book was free before but not the narration that went with it.

I really like the David Attenborough documentaries. There are other animal ones they like too. We also watch some of the NOVA documentaries if the are interested in the topic. All my kids like Your Inner Fish, How the States got Their Shape, and Cosmos. They also liked On the Way to School, one about living on a dollar a day and Brooklyn Castle.

I am an afterschooler but I want to work with my kids in the summer to help with their weaknesses or keep them fresh. Their school uses Saxon and it is not the best fit. For my oldest she needs something that is more conceptual because she is weak in that area. I think Saxon's pages are a little busy and the fact it goes over so much at once is not the best for her. I heard Math Mammoth is easier to implement and has more examples then Singapore. I am looking for something that is more conceptual, takes time on something then moves on and is very easy to implement. I am very unorganized myself and do better when everything is open and go and in one place. Would Math Mammoth fit that or what else is out there?

If they evaluator said it seems the processing speed lowered her vocabulary score on the WISC I would believe him. She did get higher vocabulary scores on that other testing. Plus everyone has days where they do better then others. I do think weaknesses can artificially lower other scores or subsections and I do not think the testing is perfect but it can help catch patterns and areas of strength and weakness. I think a common thing to happen is that with a slow processing speed they are working so hard to hold onto the details that the big picture is missed. Multitasking is also something that will be a weakness. They learn better when not a lot is thrown at them at once or with cluttered busy pages. I have kids with processing speed weakness. There is not a lot out there yet and no researched methods specifically for the weaknesses and issues they cause like there are for dyslexia. Dyslexia is a common thing to occur with a low processing speed. I liked the book Bright Kids Who Can't Keep Up. It addresses a slow processing speed. It goes into what causes it, what things you might see with it, what types of thing work for kids with that difficulty etc. It is a good book but it left me wishing there was more info out there on it. I do think speech therapy can help scores especially if is focusing on articulation and phonemic awareness type of things. I think my ds presents ok in phonemic awareness because of the speech therapy he got. My youngest who did not get that has weaker phonemic awareness then him.

My youngest seems to not be able to hear the difference between the th and the f. She failed the Barton pretest and she has a very hard time counting 13 and 14 and 30 and 40 because they sound the same to her. She had a few other combos she had difficulty hearing the differences between.

My kids have the same hair color but different shades. My family of origin had very different shades of hair color. Dh's siblings all have very different hair colors.

This was an interesting discussion. I never heard truck as chruck but I guess I can see how it may be a distinction some people have trouble hearing or that some people may pronounce that way because of a regional accent. My youngest has trouble hearing the difference between certain similar sounding vowels and digraphs.

They barely touch on it in the majority of schools I toured. At the school my kids go to they only do very basic science and not much of it. They also do not do much history either. What they do do is not world history it has to do with the holidays like they learn about Martin Luther King around Martin Luther King day and the pilgrims on Thanksgiving. I really wish they taught science and history better because it is something a lot of kids enjoy learning and it is fundamental to understanding how the world works. The area I grew up did a better job then the area I live now but I think barely covering it is more the norm in most schools for the elementary grades.

The thread is not anti teachers and some people who feel the school should educate children adequately are after schoolers. The fact is there are kids showing up from all types of backgrounds and who have many different learning challenges. Some schools do let lots of kids fall through the cracks but it is not the teachers fault. They need a good system in place to get the kids who need it support and to let the kids who are ahead to work at their level.

A lot of kids get homework too that takes them a while so even 30 minutes extra on top of that can be too much. Studies show that parents helping with homework does more harm then good. A lot of parents were not taught the ways the school is teaching and do not even know how to provide help. Not many know know much about dyslexia or what type of intervention works for kids with similar issues never mind lesser known things like dyscalculia, dyspraxia, processing issues, CaPD etc etc. I see so many viral posts complaining about schools teaching such concepts as making tens or other conceptual things. Sure it is good to help kids if you can and to spend time helping them read or with things they have a hard time with but you cannot expect it from all parents. Too many kids do fall through cracks because they do not get the right type of help or the instruction they are ready for.

What are the MFW lesson plans?

Some kids especially young ones are tired after 6-8 hours of school. Doing 2 hours of work after school is not something that all young children can do. Sitting down and learning for hours is a lot for little kids. Not all parents are even capable of doing 2 hours worth of work with their little ones nor would it be good to force it for a tired child who wants to play. A school does need systems in place to get help for the kids who need it without stigmatization and allow the kids who already learned what is taught to work at their level. I like what they do in some European countries. The day is much shorter but the kids that need help stay after and work with a specialized teacher in smaller classes. They get the help until they no longer need it and they expect throughout the school career that some kids will go in and out of needing help at any time. Not all parents can teach pre reading skills and not all kids will learn easily just by being read to. At the neighborhood schools here they teach kids to read using ineffective methods. They are not expected to have reading skills until the end of kindergarten but they have the kids repeat back simple books that the teacher or parent read. They use a lot of sight words and just a little phonics but not very explicit. If the kid needs help and they are in a title 1 school they get help but it is just help with the same thing they are doing in class that is not working. I have neighbors who are raised by great grandparents or single parents who work a lot and grandparents are watching over children from multiple families. They are not being read to every day. They do not get help at home with what they are having a hard time with. It is a common scenario. Even kids that do get help often have a hard time. Dyslexia and other reading disorders are pretty common. Most people do not know that dyslexia is often related to phonemic awareness and not seeing things backwards. It is not easy to teach phonemic awareness. In the alternative school where the majority of parents are very involved there are several kids that have a hard time. Some of them end up in tutoring but not all parents can afford expensive tutoring.

I would probably go to Tanzania.

That is what I wonder about too. Kids change so much through the years and some kids are early bloomers and some late. Often kids do get tracked pretty early. Kids who struggle in the early years with learning to read can get through that hump and really do well later. I have one who has a hard time but he really understands concepts.

All kids are different. My kids were intense kids who had meltdowns but it got better as the years went by not worse. They still can be intense but some things have gotten better. It does sound like he has sensory issues and is an intense child. If the issues interfere with daily life which they do then you can get help for it. My kids did not cross the line into autism and we did not have insurance but if we did I would have looked into OT. I watch the preschoolers at church and there have been 3 year olds who really cry and meltdown when they first join the class and even older kids who do not like to go to class. I really like the book the explosive child but he might be just a little young for that.