My memory may be hazy in my older age, or I may have been young and naive and overly influenced by 2 years of journalism classes when I lived in England, but I think it was not respect and honour. The press (specific newspapers) was threatened with being shut down if they would not stop printing stories on the then-minor grandsons. (this was 1993/1994 - if anyone recalls the time, or the stories, enough to share links I'd love to revisit them!)

Why yes, yes it is. Living in several other countries has helped me to understand American pride/ prejudice/ brainwashing/ patriotism. Just trying to look into the roots of why this question would be asked, and enjoying seeing people on both sides of oceans/ borders try to determine what is a freedom or why Americans think they have "more." :001_smile:

While I would agree that many, many Americans are knowingly or unknowingly terribly jingoistic and inward-looking, there are different perspectives on what freedom is. Most Americans were raised "pledging allegiance to the flag." The pledge was actually a poem written after the Spanish-American war but when faced with the "creeping menace of Communism" post-WWII, Congress decided to require each public school student to begin the school day with a declaration of national loyalty and unity. So, basically, we are taught to think we are the best and from a very young age are daily drilled with the idea that we are "more free." That said, I remember being completely shocked while living in England that the queen could just TELL (threaten) the press to stop printing certain types of stories and, at least for a while, they did. I also remember being told in Morocco that they had "freedom of religion," which to the speakers meant "the freedom to convert TO Islam from any other religion." The freedom to convert FROM Islam, however, was not a part of their understanding of "freedom of religion." So it all comes down to what your culture has taught you to value. If you have that, then you have freedom.

That does not happen in this book. This one is set about 30 years before school integration.

If you do choose "Roll of Thunder," you will need to have a discussion about lynching. The climax of the book involves quite a bit of violence and the threatened lynching of a 14 year old friend of the protagonist family. It is hinted at all the way through but ends with the white men in town chasing after the kids' school friend, who has been beaten up and otherwise mistreated by 2 white boys. I guess you just decide which conversation you don't want to have.

I just read this last week (again) - I had read it in 6th grade. I think I missed the main points as a 6th grader. The curriculum we use includes it on a recommendation list for grades 4 and up. In my opinion, your 7th grader can get it with a lot of guided discussion. I would not just hand it to a 7th grader to read. I am pretty sure that most 4th graders will not understand the bigger picture/ themes.

Our book group based our choices on this list, which has been floating around on Facebook the last couple of years. It is a mix of contemporary and (mostly) classic, (mostly) British. We have really enjoyed the ones we have read. http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2007/mar/01/news "Cold Comfort Farm" was well liked!

My first thought is a handful of cotton balls to feed the stuffed animal. Maybe in a little container or plastic bag, or just in the toe of the stocking. A handful of yarn to use to make a leash. This is a very sweet idea!

Dh brought home a free kitten for an early Christmas present and it has pooped and or peed on all of our beds. I HATE laundry. And now my kids hate me because I am not willing to live in the crazy cat lady pee-smelling house and after consulting with a vet friend, need to get rid of the cat. And it rained yesterday so every ant in the yard has come inside looking for something to eat. So now the house smells of cat pee AND ant poison. And dd11 is about as slow as Molasses in January when it comes to finishing her work and has proved herself untrustworthy to the degree that I cannot go in the other room and trust that she is doing the work she has been assigned. The end. Thanks. I feel better!

My grandmother did this. She once lost a very valuable ring for 2 years. When my aunt came to visit from another state, she stated out loud, "Now, if I were you and I had taken it off to put it somewhere safe I would have put it right..... here," and reached up to the lip of the decorative door frame. There it was! When my grandmother died we found wrapped Christmas presents that had to have been hidden for at least a decade, based on the ages of the intended recipients. I think it must be genetic. I do it too. :D Makes me think of her every time.

Thank you for saying that! I was just needing a place to vent. We (11 yo and I) JUST NOW finished a very long day of school - it's 9 p.m.!!! (Ah well, I like to remind her sometimes of what her life would be like with PS homework). And she just came out to ask for a PRIVILEGE and is huffing off in anger and tears because I told her no, you have not earned that today. You need to go straight to bed! How do I tell her it's only partially because I think she needs the sleep. The other, major portion, obviously, is that I want a break from her so I don't throw her out the window.... Let's just all repeat together - We. Are. Not. Alone. :glare::glare:

Earthquake activities: make your own seismograph (hang a marker by string from a table, one students shakes the table, the other pulls the graph paper slowly). Build "homes" out of sticks, "adobe" (sugar cubes or play blocks), etc in different shapes and see which ones stand up best to seismographic waves (shaking the table). Go on a hike and find some rocks to try to compare. Create your own "grand canyon" to show effects of erosion - basically build a big hill of dirt (or fill a large baking pan with dirt and tilt it slightly); run a faucet or slowly pour a stream of water over it to show that water washes away the dirt. Build a structure out of sugar cubes and spray with a water bottle for same lesson. Make "igneous rock" : Melt chocolate and pour over a hill made of aluminum foil; show how melted "rock" will flow and then harden. Chocolate chip cookies make great metamorphic rocks. Peanut butter sandwiches are perfect for sedimentary rocks. Make fossils with plaster of paris/ add in shells

Great question! We have been using the same timeline for 8 years now. We usually put the figures closest to the dates their work was most important - usually somewhere in the middle. But I can't wait to see if anyone else has other ideas! (For art and music we have used Fandexes as starting points that list the most famous or important works - we then put the figure closest to those dates).

I learned to do this overseas where they didn't have "microwave popcorn." It's so much less expensive too! There is a great microwave caramel to put over it _ SOOOOO good. (eta recipe!) Large glass bowl: 10 large marshmallows, 1 stick butter, 3/4 c. brown sugar. DO NOT STIR. Microwave 2 1/2 minutes. Stir, then microwave 30 seconds. Heavenly over popcorn.

I taught in a public school for several years and even did private tutoring for students in their homes. I did NOT understand how to teach reading/ learning letters until I moved to a country which uses a completely different but phonetic alphabet. When I tried to learn to read and write, it opened my eyes to what younger students were going through. Not everyone can move to a new country to learn these lessons, but when I am in charge of educating educators, I will require reading specialists to learn to read in Cyrillic or Arabic or another phonetic alphabet.

I was thinking in terms of teens too... and then found out that 11 had set up an email account on her own. Kinda like any other part of her education, I may not have been ready to teach it, but she is needing to learn it, so here we are.

I will read every word for the time being. Just as my parents said to me, "It's not you, it's the other people out there I cannot trust." I compare allowing a child to have unmonitored access to email/ internet at least as dangerous as allowing a child access to my car. Giving her permission to use the Internet or email without proper training and monitored practice could very likely end in tragedy, just as asking my 11-year-old to drive to the grocery store might. We have certain rules ("there are no friends on the Internet") and have had many discussions about using EXTREME measures to protect privacy. No sharing of a real name with someone you don't know; no adding friends or replying to emails sent by someone you don't know; never EVER share information that could lead someone to know where you live (I know this is not "email" but part of the larger Internet training). I don't consider this an act of mistrust, but part of "driver's ed" for the Information Superhighway.

I believe it would have something to do with the high-stakes testing mandates, No Child Left Behind, etc. Test scores are broken down into all sorts of subcategories and ethnic background is a big one due to historic inconsistencies across ethnic/ "racial" lines. Schools will not receive state or federal funding if they cannot show specific, measureable test score data. Unfortunately "other" is not a recognized category in the sorting process.

My name is Stephanie. How do you mispronounce that? My entire adult life, people who don't know me well have called me.... Jennifer. I am not making this up. DH and I laugh about this regularly. Maybe it's because I am from a generation of Jennifers (my 3rd grade classroom had 4). But still - since when does "Stephanie" sound like "Jennifer"?

I would visit. It is neither a) anywhere near the pacific nor b) anything remotely like Yosemite. Consider: the name of the town comes from stock yards. It is in the north-middle of the agricultural area of the state. VISIT FIRST!

We did a big overseas move when dd was a month shy of 4, and again at 7. Saying goodbye to each room was important. Packing her room last, and unpacking it first, also helped a lot - and BIG decor items like bedspread to make it feel like home helped. Maybe have a countdown (like and advent calendar) since she knows you are going - make some paper chains and remove one link each day so she can see it coming and prepare for it. And ask her to explain to her toys, to a friend, sibling, or... even to you what is going on. This might help you understand what the tears are about. (There may be a BIG misunderstanding in there that she is not able to tell you directly, but her teddy bears might be able to get it out of her. Ours had 2 imaginary friends: Ernie and Bert, from Sesame Street. When she was feeling very uncertain about something, Ernie would go with her and Bert would stay behind. It was such a cool window into her mind!)

Go ahead and have some wine. It will take a few weeks to really get your schedule working well. It may well be that it's not going to be a morning schedule - and that is the beauty of it! Do it every day after 6 p.m. if that's what he needs! 6 weeks to adjust. Maybe 8. Invest in those 1 cent wine sales!

We just got back from 3 weeks in a cottage by the beach. I didn't get paid a dime. I figured it was a free beach house. We fed their cat, got the mail and the papers, watered their flowers... ate their food, used their electricity, and probably left a small mountain of sand even after cleaning extensively. I was in heaven and didn't think about getting paid! You are so nice to consider it!

The other place you might find information is with groups that work with advanced or talented kids. I believe CTY states test scores must all be above 95% (for their grade level) to participate. Others may be different, but that is a place to start.

In my experience as a classroom teacher, there are different ages for learning to read, just as there are for rolling over, getting first teeth, standing, walking, etc. In particular, I have had a significant number of boys who are not "fluent" readers until late 2nd grade - so I wouldn't worry too much. That said - the most useful things are: 1) Read to them EVERY DAY. (FIAR or just reading the same story daily for a week is helpful). 2) Run your finger underneath the words as you read them. If they memorize the story during those 5 days, keep using your finger or another pointer to follow along in the book. 3) Give them "their own word" in the story to read. If it is a book about Grover, their "word" is "Grover." Every time you come across that word while you are reading aloud, you pause and look at them expectantly. They will "read" their word. As they improve, they can look for 2 different words ("Bert" and "Ernie"), then add in other words that are used throughout the book. Eventually you can give them 2-5 of "their words" from the most commonly used words in English: for example, "Your words for this story are: AND, THE, and OF." Then you need to remember to pause and let them "read" those words in the context of the story. I had a student read a repetitive picture book (The red door. The red ball. The red house... etc.) and praised him for "reading" me the whole book. Tried to tell his dad what a good job he did "reading" and Dad responded, "That's not reading. That's just looking at pictures." Hmmm. That would be a "how NOT to encourage/ teach your child to read." Encourage ANY positive progress.