We're about 2/3 of the way (perhaps a bit more) through Singapore 2B, and have done much like the other poster, skipping around to include more of the fun stuff earlier on. We did this with 1b as well. We've done the addition/subtraction, multiplication/division, fractions, area, geometry, patterns and graphs sections. Still have capacity, time and money to cover. I've also been working on speed drills with math facts for addition and subtraction. I may go back and finish the Challenging word problems 1 book that we didn't finish last year before we look at moving on to level 3.

You may not have a need to go into a formal spelling program for a while, especially if she's not doing a lot of writing. My daughter was a fluent reader at that age as well (on or above a 2nd grade reading level going into kindergarten) and is also a natural speller, but has never been a big writer (just really getting into it recently). We worked through Explode the Code with her and didn't do any other spelling work until we were done with level 8 of that (this past December, mid 2nd grade). ETC includes phonics, some spelling, syllabification, the later levels have some reading comprehension, etc. We've now started with Spelling Power and she is doing well with it. I tried it mid last year (after ETC 5), but she balked, didn't like it and wanted to finish ETC. With SP, you do a placement test to find the starting level, then work through word lists (it's a single book that goes up at least through 8th grade, maybe beyond). It involves a pretest so that they are only studying the words they don't already know how to spell, which my daughter likes a lot.

We even had a theme song for this game: "We built this city.....We built this city on rocks and wheat" (with apologies to Jefferson Starship:))

Here's a link to the large local fabric shop, Mary Jo's Fabrics. They have an incredible selection of fabrics, especially for bridal (the store is the size of a large grocery store). They don't have pictures online, but there is an option to describe the fabric you are looking for and they may be able to help you find it. http://www.maryjos.com/shopping/default.asp?dontcache=5173 Here's one possible source, but it is pricey http://www.designerfabrics.ca/shop/scripts/prodList.asp?idCategory=66 http://www.lacestar.com/laces.html may be able to identify something similar If you can find the fabric, have you checked the pattern books for a style that she likes? Some do show a shrug with the dress http://www.voguepatterns.com/list/evening_bridal_includes_designer/page-1 http://www.butterick.com/list/evening_prom_bridal/page-1 http://www.mccallpattern.com/list/evening_prom_bridal/page-1 http://www.simplicity.com/index.cfm?cat=1&type=1&sec=4&startrow=1 http://www.simplyelegantforyou.com/dress_list.php?catid=24 looks like they have some gowns that might be of interest Good luck!

The Animated Tales is available from Netflix.

You could look for some of the Delphic Maxims or the Precepts of Solon.

Thanks, that was pretty much my impression---that what we had planned already was enough without searching out a specific literature program. All in all, it hopefully won't be overwhelming. We are using Spelling Power and Growing with Grammar which only take a few minutes a day, and I will see how the pacing goes with Vocabulary Vine--we may stretch it over 2 years. She's a very natural speller as well as an extremely fluent (and voracious) reader, so some of this comes quite easily to her. We constantly listen to books (or Jim Weiss cds) in the car for fun, so she's had a lot of exposure to various material that way, in addition to reading them together or on her own. I was thinking of primarily occasionally pulling a discussion guide from one of the Scholastic books she is reading and using those questions for a bit more in depth discussion. I will take a look at the various terminology lists so that we can talk about them as they come up in some of the works. I've been doing that for a couple of years with the Latin and Greek roots in explaining new words and it seems to help her remember them.

Other than exposure to a variety of good literature of differing styles and reading comprehension questions, what is needed in terms of literature study for 3rd/4th grade? We'll be starting Classical Writing Aesop next year as well, which I believe will get into some of the mechanics (character, setting, etc). We also have the beginning level of Reading Detective which we can use (this will be in addition to spelling, grammar, Latin/Greek roots for vocabulary and doing cursive penmanship). Language arts subjects are going to be a mix of 3rd and 4th grade levels for her for next year.

I'm available for questions as well (we've been members for 10 years). http://www.uua.org has a listing of congregations in various areas, as well as material about the association. It's got its challenges, but overall it has been a very good community for us. Karen

I was looking at the new Singapore Primary Math Standard Edition vs. the US Edition. I was thinking of switching for level 3 (we are about halfway through 2B), but then I noticed that the textbook is $15.50 per semester vs. the $8.70 for the US edition, while the workbook is $11.50 per semester vs. $8.70. Has anyone looked at both yet? Is there enough additional material to justify that sort of percentage increase in price (even if I can't find any of the level 3 US edition materials secondhand)?

Good to know. It's one I came across in a cursory search but haven't read. Karen

Add us to the list of non-DS/Wii/PSP/Gameboy/etc owners. We may eventually get a Wii, but it may well not be for a couple of years. My daughter's played it at others' homes (as have we) and it's fun, but not high on the purchasing priority list. She does have limited time on webkinz since her grandfather gave her one for Christmas. Kind of sad that the vaunted "socialization" at public school is reduced to a bunch of children sitting in a group playing on individual video games. Not sure why the teacher can't simply break out some actual board games or other activities that require non-technologically-aided interaction or cause the children with less economic means to stand out even more like a sore thumb. I'm curious---is it a school that uses uniforms so that children are theoretically not labeled by their socioeconomic status? It would be ironic if so.

How about the Jan Brett books? Many of them are definitely Scandinavian in look, but not sure about specifically Denmark..... http://www.janbrett.com http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1561452084/ref=nosim/theworldofroyalt The Yellow Star: The legend of King Christian X of Denmark

My mother's best friend (and neighbor) growing up in the 40s and 50s was Church of God here in the South. From what she and my grandmother used to tell me, the friend's mother would come down to my grandmother's house to get a permanent. She would have my grandmother trim her hair and then tell her husband that it "broke off" because she wasn't supposed to cut her hair. Now the friend had short hair (based on the pictures of them as late teens and when I knew her as an adult woman), so I don't know if this only applied to married women, only some women in the church chose to do this, her husband just didn't want her to cut her hair and it had nothing to do with the church, if the teaching changed between the friend being a child and being a teenager, or what. I got the impression that it was church-related, however. When I was growing up in the 60s and 70s, beehives were called the "Church of God hairdo". Don't know if this was only in my family or more widespread---can't remember. Assembly of God has definitely been in the haircutting camp at minimum from the 70s, based on personal observation (both from within and without the denomination).

/

I see that your youngest is 6. If the car is in my driveway at my (much safer than previous neighborhood) house, then I will leave her in the car while I run inside for a second (or send her out to get in the car on her own) now that she's 7. But I wouldn't have done so when she was 2 or 3, no, nor do I leave her in a car alone out in a public parking lot even at this age.

I loved used bookstores, curriculum sales, thrift stores, consignment shops, etc---it's all about the thrill of the hunt to find a treasure! Initially, I went just looking for anything that caught my eye, but over the last couple years I have gotten more specific. Now I research and decide on the curricula in advance that I want to use, so I go knowing pretty much what I am hoping to find, but keeping an eye open for a treasure or two. They can also be a good source for inexpensive pleasure reading books for my daughter.

That's been my favorite since encountering it in high school English class (well, technically, my favorite is "defenestration").:)

We are required to test beginning when the child is 7, but we chose to have testing earlier than that (in both K and 1st grade---with a late summer birthday, she didn't turn 7 until 2nd). For the first year, I needed it to reassure myself that things were going well, and I did get some surprises in that she scored higher than I would have predicted in a couple of areas and lower in others. We've continued to test each year, as it is the progress between the years on the same test that is most informative. We have used a streamlined version of the Woodcock-Johnson III, which is administered by a professional (in this case, the folks are parents who homeschooled their own children and now do this as a business). We picked it for several reasons: --her age---She started when she was a wiggly 5 :) and I wanted something flexible, not too long and mostly oral. This process takes about 45 minutes and has been mostly oral so far, though there is more written in math for older grades, I believe. --not normed on a single level--Unlike most standardized tests, the WJIII is normed all the way up to college (IIRC). When the results for a 2nd grader say that she had an equivalent of 4th grade in a subsection, it means that she performed as a 4th grader would on *4th grade material* rather than as a 4th grader would on 2nd grade material (as in most tests normed on a single grade level). My child is all over the place in terms of grade level depending on the subject, so this is helpful to me in choosing appropriate levels of curricula. --to see how she performed for others in an unfamiliar setting. To me, this is just as important a piece of information as anything else, since it tells me if her knowledge generalizes to other situations. She has not shown any test anxiety with it, as the testers are very good with young children. Since schools are familiar with these tests, her performance on them will also help with correct placement if she ever needs to or wants to go to public school. I also do periodic subject tests at home, partially for the same reason. I want to know both that she retained the information and that she can adapt to showing that in a variety of situations. As much as I have liked this streamlined WJIII (and we are doing it again next month), I am also going to test her on the Iowa this year at home for a couple of reasons: --- I want to see how the results compare between the two tests to see which one I want going forward. ---I want to see if it gives more detailed information on subsections of specific subjects. ---I want her to have more practice with bubble tests as well so that she won't freak if she ends up in school at some point and has to take them. Given her asynchronous performance overall, I am going to test out of level with the Iowa based on her strong subjects (probably 2 grades ahead, where she placed overall on the WJIII last year) to see how she performs as compared to others working at that same level. Overall, it is not the single most important piece of information in making educational decisions, but it has been quite useful to me.

JuJube, please note that the examples I gave were *not* "spontaneously exploding cars", they were instances where very young children (under the age of 5) left alone got out of their car seats and found a lighter , a car cigarette lighter, matches, etc (IIRC from other coverage, in the Conover case, it was a disposable lighter left by a previous passenger, no one in the family smoked and the mother didn't know the lighter was in the car) and played with them, thereby injuring or killing themselves and/or younger siblings. Others were playing with the power windows, accidentally setting the car in motion, etc. My point was that, contrary to a statement by a previous poster, it is *not* only "110 degrees or leaving them for hours" that endangers children. When my daughter was young, I either parked next to the cart return (even if it was at the far end of the lot) or parked as close as possible then took her with me to return the cart then walked back. I also like to do that so that neither I nor my daughter are likely to hit another car when we open the door <g>. Yes, I only have one, so I can't speak to taking 6 at a time. If I pulled up to a pump to get gas with her in the car and the pay at the pump feature was not available, I either got back in the car and went to another station or I took her inside with me to pay (I still do so and she's 7). I *do* have a problem with folks who leave their carts in the middle of the lot unsecured, because I think it is dangerous and inconsiderate in general (and I do offer to take someone's cart back for them if I am passing when they unload, whether they have kids or not). I take issue primarily, however, with those who choose to use the *handicapped* spaces as a cart return. I end up moving carts from handicapped spaces at least once or twice a week. Perhaps some of these were ones that were left in other areas that rolled, but I have literally watched people push their cart three spaces to deliberately put the cart in the handicapped spot *when the cart return was the exact same distance from the person's car as the handicapped space*.

http://www.wsoctv.com/news/15257143/detail.html http://www.kidsandcars.org/fire.htm In one, the mother left the children inside while she went in the store. In the other, she left them while she went to pick up a child from inside the kindergarten. Note that these were primarily very young children, strapped in their car seats. It doesn't require 110 degrees or hours. It can take seconds at any temperature. Yes, my child is out of my sight in my neighborhood or at the park at times, but she certainly wasn't when she was 2 or 3 years old.

Another miss for us: Draw Write Now---seemed like it would be a good way to get some sort of drawing instruction in with the copywork, but pretty dismal failure for us. I am hoping that we will be able to have an actual art teacher through our co-op in the fall as I can only draw stick people.

Also, if one is looking at Ellis Island and can't find information, consider that the ancestor may have come through too early for that. Prior to Ellis Island (1892-1924), the big immigration center in NY was Castle Garden (1830-1892). http://www.castlegarden.org/

Hits: HWOT Cursive Singapore Math 2A and B SOTW 2 and activity guide Growing with Grammar 3 Spelling Power (and ETC 8, which we finished before starting SP) Flash Skills Problem Solving 3 and Reading Comprehension 3 Misses: Wordly Wise 3000 book 3---their reading comprehension was too much for her, which surprised me as she tests really well on reading comprehension in the yearly tests

We've just finished the entire series (A, B, C and 1-8) and I never felt the need for a teacher's guide. Overall it was very self-explanatory. The biggest problem we faced was in trying to determine exactly what some of the little pictures were intended to represent (I'm afraid no particular one springs to mind), but it wasn't a hindrance overall.