I would love to know more about my ancestors. I would love to know what they were like, what type of lives they lived and where exactly they lived. I wish I knew more about past relatives. I don't live in their countries anymore but I still feel like a part of me came from somewhere else and that they somehow shaped who I am. All I know is that my Great Grandparents came over when they were really small through Ellis Island. They came from Italy on my dads side and Ireland and Wales on my moms side. I only have experienced life as an American but I would love to know more about my family history and heritage. It is funny but I relate more to immigration history stories than I do to stories about Colonial America. I'm fascinated by history and would love to know the story of the people who I came from generations ago. I feel like so much of that story is missing to me.

My dd likes the Droon Series, the Magic School Bus chapter books and the Secret Unicorn (complete fluff). She likes things to have bigger font. Graphic Novels like Calvin and Hobbes are also good for that stage.

I think it varies by area but I think it is more common to be working on letter sounds at the beginning of the year. Kids aren't really expected to read before kindergarten. Dd's school is academically ahead of the neighborhood schools and they only were doing letter sounds in the first weeks of school. DD started kindergarten able to sound out cvc and other words but she wasn't fluent at all yet. The teacher said that with those skills she was at the top of her class. There were a few that were reading really well but there were plenty that probably didn't even know letter sounds. They all were writing letters and numbers recognizably though. Reading clicked for dd right after Christmas break and she read her first real book. By the end of the year she was the top reader in her class. She made rapid progress once it clicked but there were a few that were really good readers and could handle chapter books at Christmas break. Some probably started reading chapter books but most were not. All the kids had some reading ability at the end of the year and most were reading well above the minimums. They came a long way from letter sounds, shapes, number recognition and learning math terms and following directions in the beginning of the year. By the end of the year the kids were writing sentences, reading, doing addition and subtraction, recognized, wrote and counted to at least to 100 but most knew higher, skip counting by 2s, 5s, 10s, 25s, and time and coins etc. My friend volunteers in a high income school in the same town and the levels at the beginning of first grade varied from level A and B to the second grade level which is a lower range then dd's school.

My son could figure out what the word is for a while now and I still haven't figured it out. I watched that smooth phonics video, used the tips and had ds watch it. I like what he says but it didn't work. I like the technique in phonics pathways that starts with focus on getting smooth blending with no pauses with a cv combo and then moving on to cvc words but he will do it for the lesson then forget it at other times. I use reading bear with him but they pause between sounds on reading bear so it definitely doesn't help with smooth blending.

I wish I had advice but I am newer to this than you. I would either call or email whatever the teacher prefers. My dd is seated up front by the teacher. I don't know if she was sat there because of what I said about her having a hard time focusing and getting distracted or if she just happened to get sat there but I am glad she is seated there. I think it would be helpful to move your dd to the front. Having snack time at the same time as math would be extremely distracting to my dd. I agree with you that when a child is having trouble focusing or participating it isn't always from them choosing to do it.

I haven't really settled into a routine yet.

She has a very very hard time listening to audio books and read alouds. I don't think she gets much from them at all but I keep trying. I read aloud to her every day and I have the SOTW audio book I put on in the car. I work with her on focusing when I am reading to her or when we are working on something. She does better with no background noise but even without background noise she can't focus on read alouds or audio books. She has missed the context before when someone is talking about something. Her hearing has been checked before and she doesn't have a hearing issue.. I see signs of different things like audio processing disorder, sensory issues and add but I haven't been able to get her tested. By the end of the year last year she was doing really well in school. She is reading and spelling well and her math is okay for now. The things she gets bad grades on she does know how to do if I explain to her what they were asking for although she does make very careless mistakes at times. She is not ahead in math but she isn't struggling at the moment with the concepts. That could change when she expected to have her facts memorized and new concepts are introduced. I do worry that her issues with focusing and listening to other people reading or giving instructions will give her issues. I don't want to assume she has issues either though because maybe it is just her getting used to being in a class all day and a new teacher and she will figure it out. It is just the first weeks of schools. My insurance isn't very good and a neuropysch evaluation is thousands of dollars. I would love to get one but I'm not sure whether or not is warranted or not and if it is how to afford it. I did ask her what she was having a hard time with and she couldn't tell me but I should ask if other kids talking make it hard for her. She said she is listening and that it isn't hard for her. She did say in the past that talkative kids do make it hard for her to listen. She is much better this year at telling me what happens at school.

Anchorage is a good place for homeschooling. There isn't a lot of rules here. You can join a oversight group and get a stipend to buy supplies. You have to do testing when the kids are old enough and meet with a teacher but they are all pretty relaxed about it. You don't have to join one but it is an option if you want the stipend for curriculum and any extra curricular classes you want to sign the kids up for. There is an active homeschooling community here and it is a pretty common thing in the area. Anchorage is a cool town. There are a lot of trails and there are mountains right in the city. Not everyone is crunchy but no one bats an eye at things like NIP, cloth diapers or baby carriers. You can have chickens and other farm animals on a city lot. Moose show up on a regular basis. It is pretty typical in what stores and chains it has for a city of its size but you don't have to drive very far to be out of that in some of the most beautiful wilderness and landscapes in the country. The temperatures are not as bad as you would think for Alaska since we are by water but there can be really bad cold snaps or wind that make it unbearable but a typical winter day isn't too bad. It doesn't feel as cold as places with a lot of moisture. There is 7 months of winter weather with a short fall and short spring and a spring thaw (break up) and maybe 3 months of summer. Summer can be pretty grey but they are pretty wonderful. You will need good winter gear. A lot of people like bogs for year round boots. I dress the kids in layers of fleece and wool. I use hand warmers and sometimes double up on socks and mittens. There are a few active meetup and facebook groups for parents. There is an outdoor group that does hikes and playground play dates year round and homeschooling groups. There are museums and an indoor place for kids and plenty of activities for kids. Areas to avoid in Anchorage are Fairview some parts of Spenard, and Mountain View. Housing is pretty expensive especially rents. I used to have a link of a map with Anchorage color coded by crime rates that I will have to search for. If you are looking at houses to rent or buy Trulia is a good place to check the address because it has the crime rates and schools for the address which will give you a good idea if the neighborhood is safe or not.

Thanks SKL. I do remember you posting about your issues with your dd last year and she did sound similar to my dd. She had this issue last year too but they didn't do grades that year and by mid year the math assignments were pretty similar so she knew what she had to do without needing to really focus. She has a hard time listening at home too.

DD is getting some bad grades in math. She is in 1st and this is her first year in all day school and getting graded. I got her one of the assignments back and told her what she was suppose to do and she could do it with no problem. I think what is happening is she isn't listening when the assignment is being explained. She i pretty average in math skills for a beginning 1st grader but I am a little worried about an overall problem not comprehending or listening to instructions or that she is struggling in math. Her teacher prefers to be contacted by phone.

How often do you email or call your child's teacher to see how they are doing or do you just wait for the teacher's conference. What do you do if your child is not getting the best grades in a subject?

I completely agree with this article. We do spend waaay too much money on sports in school. School should be about academics not sports. If kids want to play sports they can do it through private organizations. There is no need to spend more money on sports than subjects like math. That is completely ridiculous and a very messed up priority. The focus at school should be learning not on the high school football team.

We don't. I wouldn't dedicate an entire room to what you are describing. I would want him to declutter the unused stuff and put the tools in the garage with the other tool and the stuff he just couldn't part in the garage or a storage shed. I don't want lots of extra space to be used for just one family member and no one else unless they had to work at home and needed an office. Especially since it sounds like the stuff isn't being used. I tend towards the minimalist side. I don't want a big house. I find the concept of a space for just a man and man things a little strange. To me a den is a family room. Back in the day families were bigger and houses were half the size so it is a pretty new concept.

Someone made a grammar mistake. That isn't a big deal. There are lots of reasons why intelligent people make mistakes. I don't see the need to call them out on it. What if they find this and then feel bad about themselves.

I am not a fan of invented spelling and wouldn't be happy if that what her school taught. One of the things I liked about dd's school compared to the neighborhood schools was her school does not use invented spelling. Her school does phonics based spelling, copy work and they correct any mistakes she makes. She writes on her own and makes spelling mistakes sometimes which is fine but she is learning good habits from correcting her mistakes on her school work. She has good spelling for her age. I think the corrections and copywork is really helping her spelling. In the long run I think it will really pay off.

I'm in Alaska too. Our district is switching from EM to Go Math though. You must be in a different district. Is Go Math the same as Math in Focus or different? I know nothing about Go Math. DD's school doesn't use it anyway since she is an alternative school. They use Saxon although last year it seems exactly like the Signapore I was doing with her.

I disagree completely. He comes of as a selfish jerk. We would be fucked if only people who had kids in the school system at the moment paid into it. It is a good thing to have an educated populace.

I do not believe in delaying math. I personally need a curriculum or something to work with. It is great that people talk about math a lot and incorporate it into life really informally without a curriculum and that works for them. I would rather have something to work with. I do want something that takes the kids ages in mind but I don't like to plan things out or come up with things on my own and I don't naturally talk about math all the time. All the curriculums I know start out using manipulatives and explaining the concepts for a great while so the kids understand the operations before they expect them to just know the facts. If I could go back I would have actually started incorporating math into daily life even earlier with my kids. We know that the more a parent talks to their children and the more books we read to them or they read that the higher they score in verbal ability. Taking some time to work on math with kids however that is done either formally or informally will not cause harm but I think doing the opposite can for some kids. Some kids need a lot of practice ad exposure to master math. Singapore has some of the highest math scores in the world. They don't delay math.

I was wondering how people store kids books? Do you have pictures? I was thinking I need another bookshelf and I might get the spice racks to keep the books they are currently reading. I have so many kids books right now and I don't like having too much stuff or clutter but I think kids book can be my one excess. I would love to see pictures of others books set ups.

I just picked one up from the used bookstore. I haven't read it yet but I was looking through it and looks really good. Hopefully the kids will like it but they were flipping through and told me to buy it so we will see.

I have a BA in Environmental Studies with a minor in International Relations DH has a BA in Marketing I really wish I went for a research, statistics or science related degree and gone farther. It comes naturally to me and is a big interest.

Does anyone know a good site to back up photos online? I have a portable hard drive but I want something online because even portable hard drives do not last forever and if there was a fire then I don't want my pictures lost. What websites are good and reliable. What are the costs?

I never heard the term. I grew up in the Northeast and lived in California and now Alaska. Now that I see where it comes from and what it means I don't plan on using the term.

I agree. For some people grammar and writing are not their strong points and they make little errors especially on forums where they are writing fast and probably not proofreading. It isn't a big deal. A lot of us are working with kids who struggle in certain areas like spelling, learning to read, math facts etc. Would we want people to shame them for the areas they struggled in down the road? Some people can be brilliant but they are not good writers. We are talking about how a lot of people get missed in the US system. Obviously there are adults out there without adequate training in grammar and writing. Those examples show up on commonly misused words so a lot of people are making those mistakes. Pointing out someone's mistake for everyone to gawk at is not cool. I know I make a lot of mistakes in my writing but I am definitely not stupid.

Peter was on my lists for boy names. I really like it a lot. It isn't rising in popularity like some classic names but I don't think that is a bad thing. It isn't unfairly dated to me because it has been around a long time ad has always been in the top 500 at least. It may be declining at the moment but that is okay. I actually almost like it better when a name I like is not on an upswing. The names on my list were a mix. I went with a name I knew was trending upward for my youngest but it ended up getting even more popular then I thought it would. Peter is a timeless solid classic name.