My oldest is doing the first 12 chapters of Intro to Algebra as Algebra I. We're going to then switch books for either Introl to Probability or Number Theory and then go back to Intro to Algebra for the remaining chapters for Algebra II. Which do you think is a better pick? *He's in chapter 10 currently in the Intro to Algebra. He has struggled in three sections so far, but we got through them. In every case, it was a situation of math maturity which is why I'm doing a different course before finishing the book. Though in every case, it was also sections that are not covered in any high school Alg I nor even Alg II course that I've ever seen! (I'm a former high school math teacher and also tutored high school math so I've seen many public school math books). He's 9 years old and in 4th grade so no rush to get to Geometry before S.A.T.'s at this point.

It's about learning, not doing school for me. My kids do get a glimpse of the public school since we go there just for speech therapies. So they do see the rows of quiet kids in the halls. There was a time when the allure of the art on the wall made DD a bit envious. And many tv shows and books hype up school. In kindy, she would say she wanted to go to "regular school." Now in first grade, she says she's glad she's homeschooled. For my kids, it's about the learning too. My oldest is proud of all he knows about WWII and doing Algebra as a 4th grader. He hates that I make him write neatly for his spelling words, but that's just a fact of life. My first grader is really loving learning. She doesn't always love helping out with dinner, but the school part is going quite well. My oldest has had many phases when he didn't necessarily love what we were doing that minute, but he loved the sense of accomplishment he got after it was done.

If chapter 1 is over his head, the Pre-Algebra would be a better pick for him. (He can do Pre-Algebra II, starting halfway through the book). However, since he really WANTS to stay in Intro to Algebra, I'd actually let him as long as he was willing to put in the time. I'd tell him that if he's not, then we would switch to Pre-Algebra. I'd supplement it heavily with Alcumus. My 9 year old started AoPS for the first time this year as well, and is doing Intro to Algebra. He went from a different Pre-Algebra that wasn't nearly as invovled as AoPS so we needed more time in the beginning. I knew he could handle Intro to Algebra - he just needed to get a few kinks worked out. Doing extra problems on Alcumus helped immensly! (Alcumus is on the AoPS website and is free. They get points for problems. For some reason, ODS is more willing to struggle through a problem on the computer than in a textbook). I had started with MUS Algebra I at the end of 3rd grade and he got through a third of the book when I abandoned it for AoPS. It wasn't challenging him enough and was boring us both far too much. Plus, I thought it was overly simplistic for my advanced critical thinker. I had worried that my son would get too frustrated with AoPS. He was used to math being easy and zipping along. After a week into AoPS he said to me "I like homeschooling because without it, I wouldn't be able to get challenged in math." That is what AoPS did for him. It stopped being about racing through the math books and started to be about recognizing that it's okay to struggle through a problem and that you learn more when something is hard. He's been getting an amazing sense of satisfaction by having to work harder. I also agree with not worrying about how long it takes him to get through the book. It's not unusual for us to have one day for practice problems, one day for exercises, and one day for Alcumus if he needs extra practice. I've broken up lessons even more. I've had him do Alcumus problems from sections he's passed easily - if I think he needs more review. He's far more willing to spend extra time on Alcumus than to move to Pre-Algebra. (Also, keep in mind that Intro to Algebra is Alegbra I and Algebra II combined. So even finishing the book in 2 years is considered on pace! It's fine to finish much more slowly. That's one of the perks of having an advanced kid. There's plenty of time for it.

Not sure about B's but Belk went down to a 30A and Kohl's had several in the 30's as well. I'm a AA/A and only that big because I'm nursing. So I don't look for the B/C to know. Wendy - Kmart has some bras that come in XS. I think they're Hanes. They fit me when I was a 32 A, but I had to use the very tightest setting and that was marginal - so they were more of a 34. They're very comfy.

My 6 year old wants to know if there's a college to go to after Hogwarts. My 9 year old asked if he could be homeschooled for college. He's hoping to get into the Govenor's School of Math and Science SC for 11th and 12th grades and has trouble seeing after that at this point. But the kid is only 9, so we're in no rush!

Could you put her interests into her school work more? Like requiring her to write a story about My Little Pony? Or requiring her to learn about horses? My oldest is 9 and definately likes to just get through his work and be done with it. However, he will put his intellect into his playtime. I think a big part of it was tailoring some of his learning among his interests - like picking Literature books that he was interested in. It helped blur the line between school work and play. *My middle child is gifted and loves Little Ponies too. Having a great imagination can take a child far. I love to see how imaginative my middle child can be because she's very much a by-the-book person when it comes to school work. She's a perfectionist and wants to do everything exactly how it's "supposed" to be. Creative play with her magnet dolls or ponies helps her because she doesn't think she has to be perfect then - and can practice more innovative type skills. As for gifted friends, I'm not sure how to handle DD. She has a very ridgid set of rules for people and they must meet those qualifications. She has very high expectations. Much older girls usually meet those - but girls her age act like girls her age normally do, which means they aren't going to meet those. She's happy with the small set of friends she does have, so we're figuring it out as we go. My oldest is gifted but he is advanced socially and does very well with any kids. He'll say somethings that only a highly gifted kid would say that the others don't get. But no sooner have they given him an odd look that they're onto talking about Pokemon. Socially, I wouldn't worry about another child being my child's motivator. I'm more concerned about DD wanting everyone to reach some impossibly high standard. Kids her age don't understand her, and she has zero interest in helping them out with that or any type of compromise. (For now, ODS is fine. Somehow he has managed to have the art of nerddom and coolness perfectly balanced. It's a puzzle to me how he manages that though!)

Thanks for letting me know about this! I just signed ODS up. It said to sign up using age, however, kids were allowed to sign up for the grade they were supposed to be in using age or one higher. My oldest is a 4th grader and 9 years old so that's what I signed him up for. He's doing AoPS Intro to Alebra and could handle the 6th grade test quite easily. But since this is his first time in a timed test, I wanted him to have greater success and did his real grade. (Also, he does make careless errors. Those sample tests look easy to me - meaning that the advanced student who makes careless errors may do worse than the average kid who does not make careless errors). I figure this competition might be a good exercise in why ODS needs to be more careful about careless errors if nothing else!

My middle child was an observer. So I totally agree with learning the correct way to make the letters yourself. I never taught her how to write any of her letters - and she surprised us at 2 when we asked her to sign her name with an "L" and she wrote her entire name! She started out with the correct grip, but change to a fist grip. She had amazing coordination with the fist grip though, coloring pictures at 2 much better than her 5 year old brother. I worried that she wouldn't change it back but Miss Independant wouldn't let me teach her. One thing that helped was using tiny chalk/pencils. If it's small enough, then they're forced not to use the fist grip. That helped her reteach herself by watching me when I wasn't teaching her it! There are a few letters that she did not write in the correct order. Like she learned the number 8 on her own correctly easily but "a" was a ball and short stick for the longest time. When she actually want to learn the "right" way, she learned it quickly. She had no interest in the correct way until 5 though. *A fun tracing activity would be to trace the numbers/letters in pudding. I did that for my oldest who was delayed in his handwriting skills.

Wonderful! We waited until 3rd grade with my oldest because the website had said to wait and I didn't know anyone else who had used it. But looking back, he could have handled it in 2nd grade. (Though I'm not sure if he could have handled the 2nd level in 3rd grade. He needed a little maturing time!)

I figure that we'll figure that out when we get there. The rules/laws may change by then. And I don't know what my child will want to do either. My oldest is only 9 and in 4th grade - doing a very rigorous Alg I program (AoPS, he was doing Alg I at the end of 3rd grade but it wasn't a hard enough program - so we switched to a more interesting one that would take him longer). And middle school level for other subjects. (Except for handwriting. We still need to teach him cursive). I am not accelerating him in grade number. I don't think it's appropriate for him at this point. I could easily skip him one grade in number and he would be just fine socially if he was in the public school- but I worry about later on. Our state has an awesome public magnet boarding school for 11th and 12th grade -where a lot of those courses are college credit, like differential equations! (Not wimpy college math types, but college math that most non-majors never take). So our plan is to give him a very accelerated curriculum and then get him into that school if he still wants to go. He will likely take some CLEP tests while in middle school, but taking CLEP tests is far different than going to college. My middle child is actually more gifted than my oldest and is much more focused. She's only 6 though, so there's no way I'm skipping her yet. We use more advanced grades than first grade, but I still call her a first grader. She says she wants to be a doctor however. If that's still a goal later on, then I'd be willing to accelerate her through the grades faster since med school take so many years. (My oldest has always wanted to be an engineer, which there's plenty of time for that!) What I'll do later on is look for dual enrollement so she can get college and high school credit at the same time. Currently, she would have to be 16 to actually take courses there. But that's still 10 years away. So I'll worry about it later. Also, my oldest is advanced socially while my middle child has some social anxiety, so that's part of the reason why the magnet boarding school isn't on my radar for her yet. But that's a long time off, so maybe my feelings about it for her will change. I encourage my children, but I don't want to push them into some dream I have for them. I want them to reach their full potential, but that doesn't mean they need to race through their childhood. Homeschooling works so well for gifted kids. In the public school system, they might have to skip grades - but that still doesn't really address them being gifted. A gifted child doesn't need to race through the content faster all of the time - but they need more involved curriculum. They need more application and analysis. As I found with my oldest, racing through the math worked well for him to a point. Then it stopped working. The average-student curriculum faster was no longer okay for him. A gifted student doesn't need a faster education and simply more content, but they need more higher level thinking skills and more detail.

We skip the crib and toddler bed as well. It's much easier to get them to sleep in a regular bed than a toddler bed/crib!

Am I reading correctly that she got down to 115 two weeks post-partum and then 105 4 months post-partum? That's not losing too fast. If she thinks 105 is too small for her, then she needs to add in more food. When I was competitive marathon training and exclusively nursing a 35 lbs 18 months old, I got down to 96 lbs - and had plenty of milk. (Yep, that's exclusively nursing, he has sensory issues and was unable to eat solids). What I had to do to keep up my high level of training and not lose more was to eat when not hungry. I added in structured meal times and ate then and was able to stay at 96 lbs. I'm only 5'1" so though 96 lbs is on the low side, it's really not crazy low. (I got pg at 108-113 but normally am at 100-105).

I agree to see if you can do a swap. Asking a neighbor/friend to do it once in a while is different than regularly. I'd mention that you really need help with this and was wondering if you could swap them something in return - whether it's childcare for their kids or having your hubby mow their lawn. An exchange will make no one feel like they're being taken of advantage and is win-win. I had lots and lots of drs appts when pg with my third child. Taking a 2 and 5 year old to appts that lasted 3+ hours long was rather difficult, but I still had to do it sometimes. I was high risk and had long, involved appts. I did end up getting a babysitter since it was too much to do all the time - but I wasn't able to get her all the time so they had to come some. So, if you can't do a swap, I'd mix it up - between taking them and leaving them. It also depends on their ages, my older two are now 6 and 9 and MUCH easier to take anywhere with me. My 3 year old can be rather challenging however. Our local Y has drop-n-shop for $10 from 9-12 every weekday morning, so that saves a bundle if it's an appt that is too hard to take him to - but it takes some timing on my part. All my appts have allowed kids. There was one dr that didn't seem to like that my kids were there but they didn't have a policy against it. I switched drs since I wasn't all that impressed with him anyway. I will let my 9 year old stay in the waiting room without me, but the 3 and 6 year olds sit in the exam room with me.

At 2, they want people to be able to understand 50% of what the child says. Use that chart linked to see at what age the mastery of different sounds should happen. At 2, most kids don't have perfect speech. That being said, I'd also focus on change. Focus on how his speech is improving. I looked at it in 3 month time periods. ODS's pronounciation was horrid, but his vocab exploded right before 2 years old. And continued to increase faster than the norm. His sentence structure became more complex. And his communication as a whole increased. But pronounciation was still lacking. Right around his 3rd b-day, pronounciation stopped improving. I got him evaluated at 3.5 and he tested as a "severe articulation delay." I knew he had an articulation delay, but was shocked that it was severe. I wish I had paid closer attention to articulation on its own, but no one else was concerned due to his progress in other areas. My second child's vocab and sentence structure were always ahead. I wasn't so sure about her pronounciation. It was MUCH better than my oldest's but still seemed behind. I debated getting her tested sicne I didn't know if it really was an issue. I asked my oldest's speech therapist who said she had some interesting substitutions and I should get her tested. To even more shock, she also tested at severe articulation delay. Then there's my youngest. It's very, very rare for them to care about articuation at a young age. He started speech therapy at 20 months due to articulation. He could only make the sounds "b", "d", and a couple of vowels. He couldn't even make the "m" sound which is one of the most basic sounds that most kids can do around 12 months. With him, it was obvious that he had an articulatin delay quite young. At under 3, you need to contact EI. At 3, or almost 3, I'd contact your school district. Here, they start the testing at 2 years 10 months since the ST through the public schools can start the day they turn 3. (And the day they turn 3, they no longer qualify for EI). EI is not set up the same in every state. Here, my youngest qualified for EI but he didn't actually need it. But by signing up for EI, the EI coordinator helped him get a speech evaluation and got him ST. The speech therapist was paid for by the state's EI program, but she was more like an independant contractor, and not an EI worker. After 6 months, I dropped EI since he didn't need it but kept the ST on. When he turned 3, he then had to go through the school system's testing to get ST through it. *About needing a ped referral, anyone can go to EI. However, they needed the ped "prescription" written in order to get paid for it. So I set up the EI appt and then they asked who the ped was. Then contacted the ped and had the ped send that over. There was a way around it if the ped had refused but that was the easiest route. In both my oldest and middle child, my ped was not concerned about speech - until the next appt when my child was already in ST. (So, didn't have any concerns at 3 years old but did at 4). The speech therapists we've used say that's common - that peds tend not to catch it until later.

I have an advanced math student who makes more careless errors than I would like. The biggest problems is that he does too much in his head. It would save him time if he wrote everything but he doesn't seem to understand that no matter how many times I say it!. He knows all the why's and can see problems from many different angles. But in all that seeing the whole problem instantly, the little details like writing a "6" instead of a "9" get lost. He had a big problem with that a couple of years ago. So what I did was give him less problems. I'd give him just a few problems and tell him that if he got them 100% correct, then he was done for the day. My son should not be in Pre-Algebra or a lower course. He's done all those and understood them easily. We had a couple tough spots where we had to slow down due to careless errors. But slowing down is not stopping. My son is in 4th grade and doing Algebra, but it's homeschooled, AoPS, so I have the luxury of taking my time. If you want to give him extra practice, check out Alcumus. It's part of AoPS and is free. It asked the student math questions and then they get points. You can sign up as Pre-Algebra if you want review. I find my son pays MUCH more attention to detail when he does it on the computer. There's just something so final about hitting that enter key. Doing Alcumus has helped him pay attention to his work better. We still have some to go though! *I would let your child do Alg I if his computation is down and understanding. By having it down, I mean that he understands it completely and his careless errors are a result of rushing or not paying close enough attention - not that he can't do computation easily. Linear equations are in Algebra. The basic 3X + 2 = 7 should be down but it's fine if he doesn't have the more complex ones down yet. For exponents, he should understand the basics, like what 3^5 means. ODS did not do opporations with exponents and variables in Pre-Algebra, since it wasn't covered in his book but AoPS assumed the student had learned them. (We switched curriculums and hadn't do AoPS Pre-Alg). It took just a few minutes to go over the rules with him and he was set. AoPS did review them and go into greater detail so that helped reinforce.

MUS worked great for ODS. I have a few attention issues myself and the boring black and white was wonderful for us. I also love the mastery style - it allowed us to move the pace we needed. That's helpful for a wide range of students. Just be warned, if you have a gifted math student, to budget for more than one level! ODS started in Alpha at the start of first grade and started Alg I by the end of 3rd grade. (We abandoned MUS at Algebra I however. That's where it no longer met his needs and we went over to AoPS instead Intro to Algebra which has worked well. But AoPS is not laid out quite as simply as MUS. It would be hard to be laided out as simply as MUS!)

The big question is WHY to test him. What extra services will you get if he tests gifted? As for what he's learning, it's supposed to start simple to bring up the kids who haven't had the type of exposure yet. I'd see how he does with it - there's a lot more than academics. If he enjoys school and is learning the social rules of the classroom, then I wouldn't do a thing except provide him with brain-stretching activities outside of the classroom. (This does not mean worksheets, but more projects and exploring what he's interested in).

I I agree. There's not just the writing but a drastic increase in the vocabulary. (Look up Caesar's English and you'll see what I mean!) My oldest started Island in the suggested 3rd grade, so at 8. And it really wasn't that hard. He's doing find in Town, but I notice a steep increase in content. We did not use the literature component with MCT but used other literature books instead because I wanted it to be high-interest.

Agree. Sometimes, simply moving faster can work but it gets boring at some point. My gifted 9 year child was actually okay moving faster in Math. We did MUS. But by Algebra I, he was getting bored - and I was bored too. We switched over to AoPS and it's been wonderful! The child who used to cry if he couldnt' do MUS 100% correctly instantly is willing to work harder on AoPS and can handle not getting every problem right all the time - because he knows he's being challenged. Before he used to feel proud of finishing math books quickly. But now he's proud of how much he's learning - and getting pride even just working through a single challenging problem. After two weeks on AoPS he said "I like homeschooling because I can get challenged in math." This is a kid who likes to get through his schoolwork as fast as possible. This is a kid who normally likes the easy way out. For grammar/writing, we like Michael Clay Thompson. I was a little nervous about using MCT initially since we were very realxed in first grade and didn't use anything formal - just read a lot and he wrote books. I didn't really think he was gifted in LA. But MCT has worked quite well for us. I do notice a significant difference in difficulty level between the first and second level books though so look closely to decide which one to start with. (Their website recommends starting with the first level when you start if you start in 3rd or 4th grade. We started in 3rd, so it was easy to decide. But a child who had a stronger grammar background may be fine starting with the second level). Science is all over the place. He decides what he would like to learn about and then we find resources. As a result, it's never an elem aimed science curriculum, but that's okay! Science is his favorite subject. Not watering it down to grade level is a huge reason why. For social studies, we go off on tangents. If he's very interested in something, then we find more materials on it. He wants to learn deaper and not gloss over. Learning a date means nothing, but reading in depth about all the details means a lot - and he'll remember that better later.

Go to the AoPS website and sign him up for Alcumus. It's a free online site and asks them math questions. He can have it focus on Pre-Algebra questions. That will give you some idea if he's ready. What I saw was that my oldest would be in tears if he couldn't get all of MUS correct. He would get frustrated if he didn't understand it immediately. But he's been a LOT more willing to struggle to work through with AoPS. There's a greater sense of satisfaction now when he gets a problem correct, and that helps him work harder when it's not easy. ODS did MUS Pre-Algebra, then MUS Algebra for a third of the book - but I would have been find doing MUS Pre-Algebra and then AoPS Algebra. I just hadn't realized yet that MUS was going to stop working well for us. In hindsight, I wish I had switched to AoPS for Pre-Algebra so he would have been adequately challenged. But taking two weeks to just do Alcumus before going into AoPS did help him adjust to type of question better.

My oldest child started at the beginning of Alpha at the start of first grade, and raced through MUS. He had finished a third of Alg I by the end of 3rd grade. I was glad that I went along and did not skip. MUS is set up that you should not skip Pre-Algebra. (Though many public school curriculums are set up skipping Pre-Algebra. The content is not the exact same). However, I post because MUS was not a good fit for us anymore. I found that having a gifted child was fixed by moving faster in MUS for the most part. Until Algebra I. He just started 4th grade and we switched to Art of Problem Solving Intro to Algebra. It is working amazingly well. It's harder for my child - but now neither of us are bored! MUS did help prepare ODS for AoPS, but it no longer met his needs for Algebra I. I would not skip word problems they help to show if the child understands the logical part of math, which is very important. Also, keep in mind that there's a math maturity so you may come to a roadblock from time to time with a young gifted student. (Actually, I saw this teaching kids of ALL abilities when I was a public high school math teacher). When that happens, then it's time to take a break from what you're doing and go off on another tangent.