My son has just latched onto this books with a passion. Though the reading level is lower the content is not always. I encourage my son to read the non fiction Fact Tracker companion guides to each book. We then watch a show at the end of the week related to the books he read. And then we discuss the books in great detail. Your son might like to write a little book report or do an assignment about each subject. And as someone above mentioned, in the 20s the books increase in difficulty.

Notice to Parents from Federal Court about the Opportunity to Object to the Release of Educational Data 8/21/2014 INFORMATION FOR PARENTS CONCERNING DATA RELEASE A U.S. District Court has ordered that 2013-2014 school-year records from the Ohio Department of Education’s Educational Management Information System be turned over to Disability Rights Ohio as part of an ongoing lawsuit. Under the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act, families of students whose data will be released must be notified and given the opportunity to object. The court is instructing all local education agencies to post notice about this opportunity to object on your district website and in a central location, accessible to the public, in each building that is open to the public. A copy of the notice – which includes instructions on how parents may object to the data release – can be found here. The court must receive objections no later than Sept. 12. Students’ names, addresses and social security numbers are not part of the information to be released. Ohio is one of only three states that do not allow their departments of education to collect this data, to protect student privacy. Data to be released for each student include student ID number, school name, grade, gender, race, age and disability category. The records also reveal student performance on the state’s Ohio Achievement Assessments and Ohio Graduation Tests, as well as tests related to Ohio’s Third Grade Reading Guarantee. Student suspensions and expulsions also are listed. The data is subject to a protective order, which means Disability Rights Ohio cannot publicize it. {00119793-2} IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF OHIO EASTERN DIVISION JOHN DOE, et al., : CASE NO.: 2:91-cv-00464 : Plaintiffs, : JUDGE: WATSON : vs., : MAGISTRATE JUDGE: KEMP : STATE OF OHIO, et al. : : Defendants. : NOTICE TO PARENTS AND/OR GUARDIANS FROM FEDERAL COURT REGARDING RELEASE OF EDUCATIONAL INFORMATION HELD BY THE OHIO DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION: This is a message from the U.S. District Court in the case identified above. This notice may apply to you if you are a student or the parent or guardian of a student enrolled in an Ohio public school since 2013. The purpose of this notice is to inform you that, as part of a lawsuit related to funding for special education, a request has been made to the Ohio Department of Education for educational information regarding individual Ohio public school students. The purpose of this notice is to inform you about the request, about the information to be disclosed, and about your right to object to the disclosure of the information. The information that will be provided includes data for all Ohio students attending a school district or community school for the 2013/2014 school year. Some examples of the types of data include: a student identifying number; demographic information, such as school, grade, gender, race, age, and disability category; attendance statistics; information on suspensions and expulsions; and results on state tests such as the Ohio Graduation Tests, the Ohio Achievement Assessments, and the Third Grade Reading Guarantee. Your student’s name, address, and Case: 2:91-cv-00464-MHW-TPK Doc #: 274-2 Filed: 08/13/14 Page: 1 of 4 PAGEID #: 6331 {00119793-2} 2 social security number will not be disclosed because the Ohio Department of Education does not possess that information. Once disclosed, the information is protected by an order of the court, and cannot be used for any purpose other than this litigation. No information will be disclosed beyond the participants in the litigation in a way that allows an individual student to be identified. LAWSUIT AND REQUEST FOR EDUCATIONAL INFORMATION BY PLAINTIFFS Disability Rights Ohio, a not-for-profit organization that represents persons with disabilities, has filed a class action lawsuit against the State of Ohio for a class consisting of all disabled students in Ohio public schools and disabled students seeking enrollment in Ohio public schools. The lawsuit challenges the way that Ohio funds the provision of special education services and other related services. As part of the lawsuit, Plaintiffs have requested that the Ohio Department of Education disclose information that it stores in the Educational Management Information System, or "EMIS," which is a statewide data collection system for Ohio's primary and secondary education. Examples of EMIS data includes student statewide identifiers (SSID); demographic information, such as school, grade, gender, race, age, and disability category; attendance statistics; information on suspensions and expulsions; and results on state tests such as the Ohio Graduation Tests, the Ohio Achievement Assessments, and the Third Grade Reading Guarantee. EMIS does not include students’ names, addresses, or social security numbers. The Court presiding over this matter has determined that some or all of the information that the Plaintiffs seek from EMIS may be relevant to the claims and defenses in this lawsuit and has ordered the Ohio Department of Education to provide this information to Plaintiffs. However, under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act Case: 2:91-cv-00464-MHW-TPK Doc #: 274-2 Filed: 08/13/14 Page: 2 of 4 PAGEID #: 6332 {00119793-2} 3 ("FERPA"), a federal law relating to education records, and under Ohio law, the information sought by Plaintiffs is confidential and generally cannot be disclosed without the permission of the person who the information is about. Education information that is protected by FERPA may, however, be disclosed without permission under Court Order. Before educational information may be released, affected students and parents must be provided notice that the information will be disclosed and be allowed an opportunity to object to the disclosure of such information. CONSENT AND OPPORTUNITY TO OBJECT If you do not object to the disclosure of information described above, you do not have to do anything. If you object to the disclosure of information described above and you want to inform the Judge of your objection, you must do all of the following: 1. Write a letter to the Judge telling him what you object to; 2. On the first page of your letter, write in large or underlined letter: "OBJECTIONS TO DISCLOSURE OF FERPA INFORMATION IN DOE V. STATE, Case No. 91-464." 3. Mail your letter to: Clerk’s Office: Judge Watson’s Docket U.S. Courthouse 85 Marconi Boulevard Columbus, Ohio 43215 A parent or guardian may object on behalf of a minor student, but must state in the objection the relationship that he or she has with the affected minor student. DO NOT CALL THE COURT. THE COURT WILL NOT ACCEPT PHONE CALLS ABOUT THIS MATTER. YOU MUST SUBMIT YOUR OBJECTIONS IN Case: 2:91-cv-00464-MHW-TPK Doc #: 274-2 Filed: 08/13/14 Page: 3 of 4 PAGEID #: 6333 {00119793-2} 4 WRITING. You may also include your contact information such that the Court or the parties’ counsel may contact you to discuss your concerns. Objections must be received no later than September 12, 2014. All objections will be maintained by the Court under seal, which means they will not be available to the public, but they will be available to the parties’ attorneys. Case: 2:91-cv-00464-MHW-TPK Doc #: 274-2 Filed: 08/13/14 Page: 4 of 4 PAGEID #: 6334

Most of the people I do know that have a masters degree have gotten in several years, or even a decade after they first received their bachelors. I don't think that there is a time frame in which one needs to continue post grad work. I also think a degree is just a piece of paper. Real learning happens all life long.

I do have a friend that knows the family personally. They go camping with them. I was told that the kids seem like happy ordinary kids and that the family is close.

Yup. Sounds a lot like my 4 year old. He was the most mild mannered laid back 2 and early 3 year old. Never a tantrum. So much like his father. But oh my,.. At 4 he is bossy, argumentative, loud, rowdy.... Just like his mother. :) So there is certainly a lot of nature in there. But there is just as much nurture. Being an only child has mattered a lot I think. Right now all I can do is guide him to have appropriate responses. And we try and read books where kids are a little tamer. My son adores the Ramona Series. But it might have been a mistake right now. :)

This is my son. He has always been super independent. At 2 he was trying to make his own meals. At almost 5 he is not a fan of direct instruction. So I have chosen curriculum that he can work through on his own. He will approach me only when he has a question. A few months ago I bought him a student planner and this was the best thing I did. I wrote down all his mandatory work. Right now it is just Language Arts and Math. He is to go through and do these lessons. He has figured out that if he gets these ones done he will then be able to read or learn about anything he desires. I have found that he is also more receptive to learning from apps, TV and books initially. Once he has an idea of what he has been learning we will have an open discussion about it. He doesn't like it when I try to teach him initially. I am an autodidact also. So I get how he works.

We like CLE better because my son needs the spiral approach. Especially with money. CLE is integrated. It covers all the different Maths together. For example a lesson will have measurement, time, money, and number facts in one lesson. Skip counting lead to teaching money, which lead to time. It is smooth. And like a few others have said. It is strong on math facts. Math facts never stuck for my son until he started CLE. From what I have been told Singapore doesn't really take off until 3rd grade. We will see. We do use both. We do CLE daily. And then we go through the Singapore textbooks verbally for fun. Right now my son has done well this way. I think we might consider BA at some point.... Or we will just stick with doing both as long as Singapre doesn't become too much. We will not be dropping CLE anytime soon.

The beeping annoys me! But I wonder about that. Is it a way to retain attention? Wake the kids up? I think Farrah hit the nail in the head. It is an explanation in an easily digest able format for a little kid. Annie and Moby made my 4 year old become very diligent with hygiene. Hand washing, teeth brushing are done with joy now.

We watched the free movies for a long time. My son loves them. And frankly I do also. The content is great. It is all in a QandA format. A non verbal beeping robot kind of asks questions and a child answers the questions. I find a lot of educational content falls into the realm of edutainment when it comes to cartoons. But this is different. The segments are so short that there is no messing around.

I I just had my son memorize and recite the poem. I focused on speech skills. Standing straight, clear voice, good eye content. Vocal expression.

Yup. Pretty much all my teachers from preschool to year 7 read to us. It was always after big lunch. Reading aloud stopped for the most part when I went to highschool in year 8. A few teachers read with us. I remember my year 11 teacher reading To kill a Mocking Bird with us. And various English teachers read aloud when we covered short stories, Shakespeare, or various poetry.

I taught my son to read when he was 2. He certainly didn't teach himself. I used a sight word method. I introduced phonics when he was 3 but he has already intuited phonics so it was barely needed. I gently reinforce phonics via spelling He was a fluent reader by 3. As in reading Charlotte's Web. He will be 5 at the end of the year and he is an extremely avid reader. He reads a variety of things. Pictures books, board books, chapter books. He can read pretty much anything I put in front of him barely stumbling over any words. His comprehension is so-so with high level text due to him understand vocabulary more than for any other reason. Somethings I think we do that makes him love reading is that we don't do TV. We buddy read. Or I just read to him a lot. And we use audiobooks during nap and night time. Reading is something we love to do together. So many characters in the books he reads come to life for him. When we go for our walks he will ask me many questions about the things in the books he reads. I have to read rapidly to try and keep up with him! He even named his new puppy Heidi after recently reading the book. I was an early reader, not at precocious as my son. I was just learning to read at 3. I am an avid reader. I used to read 800 page books in an evening by moonlight when I was a teen. We had a strict lights out by 8:30pm in my house. I used to read books under my desk in class's at school. I always read in the car and on the bus. I even read while I went for walks. I used to read the shampoo bottle when I was in the bath. Today I don't read fiction as much as I used to. But I am constantly reading. Mostly non fiction.

I get this now. Usually when eating. And I chew thoroughly. I drink water and it helps.

You have to use the app if you go through testing mom. They just provide you with the login information. I think it changes frequently. So just keep going back to the page to get the new login information. Edited: you have to use the app if you go to testing mom via the iPad. I have never accessed it on a computer.

Either.... ELTL and AAS. Or just Logic of English Essentials.

I taught my son to read when he was 2. I used a sight word method when he was little and he was able to intuit phonics. I used spelling lessons to reinforce any phonics he may need.

We don't have a pro click. But I have a cheaper spiral binder option. I love the thing. I was able to get it for less than the $23 in the link. So I keeping an eye in price might be a good idea. Purchase the spirals separately. http://www.amazon.com/Carl-Brands-Binding-System-12-Inch/dp/B001UAH29Q/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1407795080&sr=8-3&keywords=carls+brand I absolutely love the folder idea!

Well... I started my research a decade before my son was born. I was in early childhood education. :) so that helped a lot. But even so, my ideals and methods are constant in flux.

I purposely avoided counting. It wasn't that hard. We would see three ducks and I would just tell him there were three ducks. I didn't say that there were 1,2,3 ducks. When reading books I didn't count the items. I just pointed out the numeral and I would use my finger to circle all the things and tell him the total amount. Then my son started just telling me how many things there were. Mind you he was 1-3 year old at this point in time. Likewise I would point to letters and I always called them by their sound. I never called them by name. He was a precocious reader. He was reading well by the time he learnt his letter names. I did intend to eventually teach him letter names when we got to spelling, but he learnt them on his own as he had a singing spider that lit up and sang the alphabet when he was about 3.5. We didn't have many other battery operated toys for him to learn counting and letter names from. And we didn't watch TV. I was home with him and I don't have family near by to have taught him. As for knowing what 5+3 was, I had no doubt that he knew it was 8. I would out down a group of 5 things (usually Cheerios) and a group of 3 things and he would push them together and tell me that there were 8. He didn't have to actually count them. In time he could take his wooden numerals and use them instead of manipulatives.

Peter Weatherall DVDs. Eureka. BFSU Real World Science episodes. I don't know where else these can be found, but we use Discovery Streaming.

I was always good at mental math. I never fully learned to use a calculator as I didn't need it. I think I also developed tricks on my own. I did not develop the 7+4 is the same as 10+1 methods that RS and Singapore use a lot. When I do math facts, even to this day when checking my son's work I visualize dice/domino patterns up to 6 and cards for 7-9. Using those things was a big influence on how I taught my son. He did very well adding dominos, dice and cards before he learnt to count. Then we taught counting forward and backward and he learnt facts the Jones Genius' dot matrix way. It worked okay. But he wasn't a great counter until he was close to 4. (He is only 4.5 so I was not concerned about it.) And he is now becoming proficient in skip counting. I think what was hard about counting with my son was that he has weird memory recall issues. Nothing major, but unlike a huge majority of kids he can't learn and recite a slew of nursery rhymes. Despite years of me teaching them to him. I think he can say Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, and oldly parts of the Jaberwocky and the Queen of Hearts. But I don't think he knows much else. I have spent 2 years singing yellow is the sun and he can only say the number portion due to holding his fingers up. Not by learning the song. So likewise counting a slew of numbers was not working for him. Learning number facts by rote was not either. Reading numerals, and seeing the amounts laid out worked. I don't think there is a strict right or wrong way to teach when they are so little. There are just different ways. RS worked for some, but not for others. Miquon or the use of C-rods is another method that does not rely on counting in the early stages. I struggle with visualizing it. And my son never really go it. Probably due to my inability to get my head around it.

I didn't start counting until way after we had been doing RSA. I just taught him to identify amounts and numerals. I taught counting and bijection later. But.... We played math at a younger age than most.

I wouldn't say a crutch. But I think the fact that my son does better in math is due to not teaching him to count until he has subtitizing and grouping down pat first.

The Reader is very important to me. There are so many that I can no tolerate. I absolutely loved Christoper Plummer's reading of Alice in Wonderland and Throught the Looking Glass. Stockard Channing does an amazing job with the Ramona Series. Jim Dales is exceptionally good also.

I highly recommend that he check out the CLE math and language arts program. The price is really good and he could split up the cost by buying a few units at a time if he needs to. Science and history can be covered by using the library. Especially if the library has DVDs like Bill Nye. For writing the child can notebook. Basically they would study a subject for a week and at the end of the week the child can write (or dictate and copy, if their writing needs progress) what they have learnt for the week. There is a book that could be borrowed from the library or bought relatively cheaply called What Your Second Grader Needs to Know. He might want to look at the earlier grades to check that there is a foundation there. But the book will cover a lot of content.