Americanization of the Australian lemonade scone recipe is... 1 cup (8oz) of lemon lime soda like Sprite, Sierra Mist or 7-Up. 1 cup (8oz) of heavy whipping cream. 3 cups of self raising flour. Mix and flatten and use circular shapes like cups or cookie cutters to cut into shapes. If flaky is desired roll and layer befor cutting into circular shapes. Brush with milk or egg yolk to make golden.

Last year when my son was 5 or 6 8 was shocked to realize that my American son didn't know what a cupcake was. We don't eat cake. He did know what a patty cake was. It is the same thing.

16 years in the US and I had an AHA! moment. I would call them a slice too. Slices aren't a common thing here. But bar makes perfect sense!

Oh! And porridge! I had a conversation with a friend who insisted the porridge was made from rice. As it is in Asia. But porridge is also made from oats. Known in the US as oatmeal. Goldilocks most likely ate oatmeal. Not rice porridge. Although my mum and dad did say that they are porridge from barley and other grains when they were kids.

Let me see how many i can confuse people with. Australian cot is where a baby sleeps. American cot is a low portable bed used for camping. Australian swag is what one takes camping. American swag is a goodie bag. Australian nappy is a diaper. American French Fries are Australian chips. Australian scone is an American biscuit. My mum and American husband can't tell them apart. I use the same recipe for both. I have never put an egg in a scone. Australian biscuit is an American cookie. Australian jumper is an American sweater. And there are tons more! It is quite amusing watching my Australian parents have conversations with my American husband. It is shocking how often my son and I have to translate. My folks are rural QLDers. So their speech is chockers with words that are losing flavor among the younger urban Aussies. Oh and what we call a fish burger or a chicken burger in Australia is a fish or chicken sandwich in the US. In some parts of Australia pupils take ports to school. 😉

Rootbeer is like sars.

I have never put eggs in a scone. The recipe that my mum uses to make scones is the exact same recipe that I use to make biscuits for biscuits, sausage and gravy for my husband.

Australian milky ways are American 3 Musketeers.And an American Milky Way is an Australians Mars

Every soda in other countries is different. Gosh they can differ town to town if they are fountain drinks as the water source is different. But it is pretty close to the same. Australian soda is made of cane sugar. American soda is made of high fructose corn syrup.

My son didn't finish it either. It was tough.

Kool-aid is a powder. But when made into a drink it is similar to cordial. Not as smooth as cordial though. Gosh I miss cordial.

Root beer float is a sarsaparilla spider.

It is similar to Saraparilla. Although each rootbeer recipe has variations. Some have vanilla, some have citrus. It is quite close to a double SARS.

My son also got invited to the second round.

My son had his 6th birthday in December. I signed him up for level 1 last year. Age wise he was in Kinder. He didn't do great with the test. It was his first time doing something like that. I showed him how to do scantron the week before and did fine with that part. The testers said that they hover a little over the level 1 and 2 testers to see if they need help with a scantron but they said he did just fine. Mostly it was a fun experience for my son and he wants to do it again.

Oh my, she is very similar to James. James isn't as emotionally explosive. But that could be a gender difference. We are in the process of doing assessments with a mental health team. What we know for sure is that he has severe ADHD. I personally suspect that ODD is a possibility. They don't think he has ASD. But they can't rule it out. They think they would have diagnosed him with it years ago. But now he can fake it because he is such an avid reader and his language skills are really high. And academically he is well above the norm. We will meet for a better idea in a few weeks after they have reviewed all their testing results. He does want friends. But I think he wants the ideal friendships like children from The Secret Seven. His social skills are poor. But ADHD explains that in many ways. He is buzzing and so involved in his world he doesn't stop to read the other kids. I have spent the last few weeks really looking into ADHD. So many of the things I thought were ASD fit an ADHD diagnosis. Dr Barkley would prefer ADHD to be called an executive function impairment. He has a rule of thumb and this has helped me with James. He is intellectually older and I make the assumption that he is able to handle more than he can. But the rule of thumb for ADHD children is that their executive function is thirty percent lower than their age. So I have to think of James as having the executive function of a four year old. And when I think of his fits, his lack of reasoning, defiance, hyperactivity level, lack of impulse, social skills it all fits. James also is hyposensory. Sensory seeking. He can run into a wall and it doesn't hurt. We actually do a brushing protocol to help with his sensory seeking to settle him. He would love the feeling of a plastic serrated knife across his back. It is actually common for ADHD children to have much higher pain thresholds. I really hope you can find help. I highly recommend Russell Barkley's books about managing ADHD. I have been watching the lectures of his website and they are great. Science based. He also has a book about the defiant child which is my next book to read.

I taught my son letter sounds too. But he picked up letter names form somewhere. Finely I am not sure. It happens organically. Maybe via the ABC song as I pointed to a chart. I did buy him a little laptop that he played with. It was super simple and just did letter names. It was enough. There are a plethora of kids shows that cover letter names. Leap frog comes to mind. But he didn't need to really know the letter names or orders until about 2nd grade curriculum. That was when he started to learn dictionary skills.

Thank you so much for all the updates! And congratulations on your son.

Some places in Canada have a December 31st cut off. NYC is December 31st. I have a friend in a school district in NJ that has a December 31st cut off too. California was December until a few years ago. In Ohio the cut off is Aug-Sept but there is a wiggle room up to December 31st if a parent requests and a child meets ability. These are the ones I know about.

I highly recommend the HIG unless you were taught or are very familiar with Asian style maths. The mental math exercises in the HIG alone are worth it. Then you will need the TB, WB, CWP, EP or IP depending on how your child is doing with the program. There are also some nice FAN books. But those are for enrichment. Nice but not an integral part of the program. SM is a great strong program but to get the best out of it one should be willing to do the whole program.

My son didn't do well. First time doing any kind of seated testing. Says he placed 4th in state. Which doesn't appear bad. And 56th nationally. This is level 1. Maybe there were not that many of contestants. Still he had fun and we will do it again next year.

Well done to all the children.

Gifted was not a term that existed when I was in school either. QLD in 80s and 90s. There was one teacher in my primary school that tried to create extension classes for math. And she did a pilot program for advanced students. But sadly it didn't take off. :( I was in the pilot class and I was in pull out classes for math. It was lots of problem solving fun stuff. I am not even sure what they do for gifted in Australia schools now.

Pretty much every where spells favourite with a u. Except the US. And sometimes in Canada. It was the chook, or rather the chooky, that gave it away. That I believe is uniquely Aussie.

BorrowBox is the Aust. Ebook app.