So sorry for your loss, Luanne. :grouphug:

I like Sudoku and Ruzzle.

I found out last night from the director of the music camp my kids attend each summer that a musician/instructor agreed to take dd on as an assistant in one of his classes which will allow her to attend tuition free. Dd had the idea a few months ago to ask the director if there was any volunteer work she could do at camp to work off her tuition so she sent him an email asking. The savings will be enough for her plane ticket to Ireland for competition this summer and I am so grateful.

My boys are 23 months apart (16 and 18 years old). Feel free to PM me.

I love... -trees all the way around the sides and back giving us lots of privacy -the yard…garden, fenced in area, large out building, space for my chickens, fruit trees and grape vines -having 3 bathrooms -the new hardwood floors my husband put in recently and the beautiful craftsman-style trim he is putting through the house -having a room dedicated as a "music room" with doors

Every room is about 2 feet too small in every direction to fit the furniture we own from our former house. Kitchen needs updating and I don't like the tile in it. One last bedroom to put hardwood in.

I ordered a couple of those dresses after I saw this thread awhile ago and they are awesome! I love how they fit and so comfortable! The things I learn on this board! Thanks, ladies!

We do whatever we can comfortably do or figure out a way to do so each child gets to do what interests them most. That has meant saying "I'm sorry, we just can't fit that in unless you want to give up ____." sometimes but that's life. I have three kids with some similar interests and some completely different interests. We've always been able to find a way for them to each have something of their own. Granted, what I will do for my kids activities might be a little over-the-top for many but what I would do as far as spending and driving has increased slowly over the years to a point I would never have considered when they all were younger. I feel they only have one childhood and if they are willing to do their part in following their interests, practicing and choosing to foregoing other things, then I will do all I can do for them. I will have plenty of time and money when they are grown. Having one who can drive himself was awesome this year. He goes off to college in the fall when the next will get his license.

Yeah, it freaks me out when it does that. The other thing I think is freaky is when I am searching something on Google, say "hotel rooms" or a certain clothing brand, and when I get on Facebook there are adds for the same thing on the sidebar. OTOH, It always wants to tag my dd as me, not because we look alike, but because people tend to tag her as me when they post pics of her so I will see them.

My oldest wanted to go to public high school to wrestle. It was our only option as we could not afford the only private school in the area with wrestling and he could not wrestle while continuing to home school. I wanted him to have a year to figure out school before going into high school so we put him in for 8th grade. He has a November birthday and I could have probably pushed for him to be in 9th grade with his testing scores…he only missed the cut-off by a little less than 2 months but he was small and for his wrestling, we wanted him to have that extra year to grow and mature so he went into the grade he was supposed to be in by age. As he went into 8th grade in the public school, he was halfway through Algebra 2 at home but the only option the school had was to put him in their "accelerated" Algebra 1 class. He ended up breezing through it and Geometry the next year because he'd already done that as well at home. Not a huge deal because I had no plans to graduate him early. That was why I answered in my other post...I think dd is "allowed" to be as accelerated as she because she is home schooled.

I do not think my child is gifted because I homeschool but I know she would not have been allowed to be as accelerated as she is if I did not homeschool her. I experienced a school attempting to "hold back" my ds when he was young which led me to the decision to begin homeschooling in the first place. I have three very different kids. Take reading, for example...though the same theme runs through the majority of my experiences with my own kids. My oldest loved books. As a baby/toddler, he would sit and look at books on his own or listen to me read for hours. I taught him to read using 100 EZ lessons when he was 3-4yo because he asked to learn. My middle ds had no interest in books either reading or being read to. He might listen to a story while he played on the floor close by and be able to tell me what happened but he hadn't looked at the pictures and would never grab a book on his own or ask me to read to him. I tried a number of reading programs with him from about 4-5yo on but none "worked." He didn't learn to read until 6.5yo. My youngest had a similar love of reading as her oldest brother. She memorized books when she was extremely young and they were her favorite things to carry around even if they didn't have pictures. I did not do any reading program with her but she brought me a chapter book one day at 3yo and read it to me fluently with different voices for the quotes. Each learned in their own way and in their own time. I provided the same rich environment to all three with lots of books around the house, reading to them often, playing games with letters, and reading my own books in front of them. I think parents can scaffold for their child but the child is not going to be able to take advantage of it unless/until they are mentally capable and interested enough to do it. Certain early skills can be "drilled" especially in a cooperative child but the higher level thinking skills cannot...which may be why people talk about children hitting a wall or other kids "catching up." Early ability to use higher level thinking skills than peers is indicative of giftedness whereas skills such as early reading or lack of early reading may not be indicative of much. On the other side of the issue, I work with developmentally delayed children. I teach parents ways to set up their environment, exercises, play activities, positioning, etc… to help their child learn to walk, for example. I can work with different children with similar muscle tone or diagnoses for the same number of months with the same exercises/activities and have wonderful parents who follow with the same enthusiasm but one child might learn to walk at 18 months while another is over 2yo. Sometimes the most involved parents have the most delayed children and it isn't due to lack of helping them. Genetics, personality, and motivation play a huge role just as they do in the gifted and typical populations. Kerileanne99, I think differences are not as easily noticed when kids get older. A 3yo reading signs in a store, especially a tiny one, stands out to people whereas a reading 7yo does not. Most 7yo's are reading and, unless they are walking around carrying a novel, no one is going to notice what level material they are reading. When they are older, unless another parent talks to your child in depth (and your child is a talker) or you discuss what level math they are doing (which is easy to avoid in the wrong company), they are not going to get a full understanding of how much knowledge your child has on a particular subject or the way they think about things.

Some of my favorite childhood memories are hot summer nights sitting on the covered back porch watching storm clouds roll in bringing thunder storms with their cooling breeze, thunder, and lightning. I love a good thunder storm. My dog, eh, not so much!

My 5lb. toy fox terrier sleeps in bed under the covers curled up next to my stomach. She's spoiled but I like petting her when I halfway wake up at night.

I can sew in a pinch but I am not good at it. Dd is learning and is more interested in it than I am.

I work with a number of toddlers in glasses and the soft plastic, flexible frames (miraflex?) with a strap around their head seems to be the norm.

I have too many to list, everything from being able to open the sliding glass door to hear the birds while I drink my tea in the mornings to the accomplishments of my kids. Lately, I have been trying to focus only on the positives in my life and avoiding negativity. I like it. A few of my Facebook friends have been doing a 100 Days of Happiness thing where they post something that makes them happy every day for 100 days. I like reading them and though I am not actively participating in it (posting), it is making me think every day about my own "happy" things both big and small.

I love reading all the responses! Oldest: Did better than I thought he would on his SATs and ACT. Got accepted to all the colleges he applied to. Had a great last high school wrestling season- made the State Championships and earned over 100 wins in his "career" Made friends with an autistic boy who had been bullied horribly in his prior school by taking him under his wing at wrestling (ds was team caption), encouraging the other wrestlers to help him, and wrestling him on his birthday allowing him to win in a way that he had to work for it. (Probably my proudest moment as his mom when the boy's father came up to me at the awards banquet with tears in his eyes and told me how much it meant to their family. I work with developmentally delayed infants and toddlers and often worry how life will be for some of them when they get to high school…I always pray they meet kids who accept them.) Middle: He's a great kid and an awesome big brother. Is doing a great job with his music and has had a number of professionals compliment his playing (when you have a little sister like his, having professionals, including his "guitar idol" notice/compliment his accompaniment to her means a lot to him) Youngest: Took 1st at the All Ireland (World Championships of Irish music) in two fiddle categories…this is huge as only four 1st place trophies came back to the US and two were hers. Winning more than one category is very rare. Won her 6th straight regional title in the same age group in the MidAtlantic Region. Has decided to focus more on her Irish music than her classical music so has recently made a few difficult decisions to that end. Has tackled a number of classical pieces on her list of pieces she has always wanted to be able to play. Is doing geometry and enjoying math for the most part…she's always done well with math and been accelerated but rarely "likes" doing it. Has baked us "complicated" desserts at least once week…French macaroons, for one, yummy!

I am only homeschooling my youngest. My older two are in high school at the local public school. I have not had to fit anything into high school course descriptions yet. I plan to be creative with that.

I hear ya, too! I try to pare down our school topics then keep notes all over the place with what we want to do another time because it won't fit in our schedule right now. We are going so slowly through history and biology at the moment and going to simply continue next year because of all the rabbit trails we ended up following. Bookstores are dangerous places for me, too, and I am not even going to look at the Teaching Company catalog that came in the mail yesterday…well, maybe one little peek?

Does anyone else find it tacky that they have something on that post telling people where they can donate to help the girl go to college? Seriously? What do her college aspirations have to do with a homeschool prom?

My dd uses French in Action as a supplement to her regular French lessons and we have used Destinos previously with Spanish. Always free.

Any of those instruments would be a good choice. Which does your niece prefer? Having a child invested in the instrument helps interest them in lessons and practice. I have one who started with Suzuki violin and another who plays guitar (traditional, no Suzuki guitar in our area when he started). With Suzuki violin, a good ear is trained and a lot will depend on how much time and effort is put into listening and practice. The parent is part of the learning and helps direct practice especially when the child is very young by coming up with games to make it fun. I have enjoyed many years practicing with my dd and the bond we share because of it. I like the portability of those instruments (violin and guitar) and the social opportunities later with orchestras, ensembles, folk music, etc... When looking for a good teacher, ask to observe a few lessons with young children and for a trial lesson for your niece. If possible (this time of year should be good for it), go watch their students in a recital and hear what they sound like and their technique while playing. Ask other musicians or music stores in your area for suggestions on teachers if you are able.

I'll jump in again this year…thinking of a post along the lines of following a child's passions or helping a child forge a path when their skills and interests are beyond the norm and cannot be guided by typical parenting guidebooks? Not sure exactly what direction I will go or how it will shape up but been thinking a lot about these things with the recent WTM posts and discussions with dd's violin teacher.

:grouphug: How tragic!

Chocolate chip cookies