DD (8 yrs) wants a microscope for Christmas. I would like to get one that is "useful" and not a toy. I talked to her about what appeals to her about the microscope and she said it was being able look at slides and also the "cool" factor of putting her eyes into the lens and "acting like she is a scientist" :-) So there is the "toy" factor which rules out the digital microscopes. I can spend around 75 dollars - I want something that she can use for a while and has more than "toy" value. I am not able to make a decision from the Amazon reviews eithers. What do you recommend? TIA! Edited to add: I like this one: http://www.levenhuk.com/catalogue/microscopes/levenhuk-2l-ng-amethyst/#.VIG8KHtfHsM Is it a good choice?

DD just turned 8 and will be moving to third grade in Fall. She is good at reading and loves to read. By loves to read, I mean she is obssessed with reading. She will ready anywhere and anytime. That said, I have noticed that she is reading very very fast - she read 167 pages of Trumpet of the Swan in 45 minutes last evening. The teacher had been mentioning on and off how DD was a surface reader, that she needs to learn to read with meaning and is not quite getting what she is reading about, etc..(inspite of this, the teacher placed DD in the highest reading level group). Last evening when I talked to DD about slowing down and understand what she is reading, she asked me how to do it??? I am at a loss, how do I teach her to slow down and read with meaning?? I have asked her questions about the books that she has read and she answers my questions correctly - so I know she understands what she is reading. She definitely skips words and sentences that she does not understand and I think she pretty much skips parts that are not interesting. Help me help DD please. TIA.

Me!! I had an early miscarriage six months before I got pregnant with DD so the OB was extremely cautious. Everything went well and DD is now 7. Please get your thyroid levels too. Good luck!

After reading some of the replies to my post, I asked DD if the other kids in her book club (three girls) came up with the comments on their own - DD's answer was that one gets help from her nanny and the moms help the other two kids. I am mad and and at the same time feeling very guilty that I did not even the field for DD by helping her.

I should have mentioned this before - DD has probably close to 250+ books at home. She is never without books to read.

I wish I could homeschool but I can't. Various reasons.

This is what I am afraid of. I will deal with ADD is that is what the real issue is but I don't want her being labelled as ADD just because she is not behaving up to someone else's expectations.

Preface - DD is 7 1/2 years and an only child. She is in second grade at a private school which we like. We like her present teacher who we feel stays on top of things. DD loves to read - I would say she is addicted to reading. I send me upstairs to change clothes, she will ready for 10 minutes and spend two minutes changing her clothes. She has a lot of toys (thats she chose) but prefers reading above all activities. We have been constantly hearing from her teachers that she does give her work her best shot - that she is capable of much more work than she is doing. The class has multiple book clubs going on and DD's group is reading the Amber Brown series. According to her teacher, DD is a surface reader and her comments on the chapters that she is reading are "retellings" and "predictions". She does not have any insightful comments. What insightful comments would a seven and half year old have?? The other kids in her group are doing better than DD according to the teacher. I read the book and I feel DD does not have the maturity to grasp what the main character is going through (parents divorce, friend moves away, mother seeing someone new, father and mother bitter about each other..). I mentioned it to the teacher in an email and the teacher's response was that they have talked in class multiple times about Amber's feeling. Can a child write about feelings that she can't get??? Help me out here, please. In math, DD does great on the numeric portions but initially was totally lost on the logic portion of the tests. The teacher allows the students to read books quietly if they finished their work earlier than the others and I believe that DD gave it a few minutes and then moved on to reading a book. She is called back and asked to work on the test but DD does not show any interest - she'd rather read. After the last episode, I told DD that she can no longer read in class unless specifically told to by the teacher. DD will not follow directions at times - according to the teacher, she wants to do her own thing if she does not feel like doing what the teacher wants the class to do. I don't see this at home - DD might take her time getting things done but there is no willful disobedience on her part. DD is very chatty in class - can't stop talking. She will be well behaved and all of a sudden one day do something that she shouldn't do. Two weeks ago she painted her palm and made impressions on the paper table cover in Art class. This was termed as "inappropriate usage of art materials" in her report card. When I asked her why she did it, her answer was that she just did it. The teacher allows the students to borrow as many books as they want from the class library. DD was bringing in about four to five books a day and she stayed up late reading them. Starting last week, we implemented a rule that she can bring only two - one non-fiction and one fiction. And since she has to read the Amber Brown for book club, that counts towards the fiction. Yesterday, DD did not bring Amber Brown and instead picked up another book that she was "desperate" to read. This was the first time that she has done something this wilful - she says that she knew that she was supposed to bring the Amber Brown book but she decided against it - knowing that I would not be too pleased. And she left her folder (with the latest test results) at school on purpose because she doesn't want me to see it. Is this normal behaviour for a seven year old??? Or is there something else going on??? I don't hear anything good about her from her teachers - I see a lot of good things in her but seems like the teacher's are missing it. Your thoughts on this please! TIA!

I am looking for a book with advanced Math Logic problems gearedtowards 2nd graders. Right now this involved searching the internet for these and printing them. I would like to get one book and just work through it. I am looking for multiple level problems involving addition, subtraction, basi c multiplication (example, 358 x 2, 48 x 3), basic division and beginning fractions. What I am envisioning is this book with many logic problems that I can just pull and work on with DD. TIA!

Do you really think its only people in Third World countries who eat poorly??? There a lot of kids in the US who eat poorly - just take them to the PS cafeterias.

OP here - sorry, I probably should have given more information. We don't homeschool - DD is in a private school which follows Everyday Mathematics. The kids are introduced to Probability and Statistics as early as Kindy. They have just started to get into "numerical" statistics - mode and median. The teacher is awesome and does a great job supplementing the curriculum so I am happy overall this year with her math. DD is quick on catching the concepts and building on it so I was very surprised that she didn't do well on the mean and median part of her assessment. Which is why I would like to work with her on it. Thanks!

I have a Nook HD which allows me to create a separate profile for DD. But how do I ensure that she stays out of mine - right now there is nothing stopping her from getting into my profile. Is there a way I can set a password locking her out of my profile?? Please help. TIA!

The problems are very basic - give a set of numbers (double digit and under 30) and find the median and mode. Extremely gentle but not gentle enough for my DD :-(

Hi All. I am looking for a workbook that focuses on Probability and Statistics for 2nd Grade. DD came back with her test results - she needs to work more on graphs, charts, finding mode and median. I looked at Amazon but couldn't find any workbooks that focused only on this topic. Any pointers?? TIA

Hi all, DD is showing interest in wanting learn more about the digestive system, periodic table, electricity etc etc... I am thinking about picking a topic and studying it for a couple of weeks and then going on to the next topic. I am looking for some good resources for these - books, kits, etc. Are there any books - something like the biology for kids, physics for kids, chemistry for kids, etc? How are the True Books?? TIA!

Google it :-) I really can't point you to a source - its something that I learnt growing up as a Hindu. There isn't one holy book that the Hindus follow - there isn't a standard like the Bible or Koran. Most often, the Gita is referred to as the sacred book that Hindus follow but in reality there are the Vedas, Upanishads, the Puranas, etc and each of these consist of a series of books. I don't really know which of these books contains the answer to this. Hinduism is constantly evolving - the Hinduism practiced today is different from how it was practiced 50 years ago. There was a "reforming" period where a lot of beliefs were explained differently and deemed no longer applicable in today's time. One of them was travelling abroad. Google more on this and you will find out as times changed, the concept of losing one's religion when travelling abroad was redefined.

Actually most of them would not be suprised to learn of this - they just ignore it. Google the topic and you will find more than a few references to the topic and why it is believed that Hindus who cross the seas lose their religion. And yes, Hinduism a more a way of life than a religion. And it is a way of life that is very geographically defined. All the ancient Hindu treatises constantly refer to India, its rivers, forests, flora and fauna. Take away India from the Hindu context and there is not very much left to it. Yes, it can be adapted to other geographies but the very basis of the way of life defined by Hinduism is very much tied to the sub-continent. I don't want to hijack a discussion on India and turn it into a discussion on Hinduism. If anyone is interested, please start another thread.

Anglo Indians are Indians with part British ancestory - mostly paternal as a pp mentioned. Sadly the community is in danger of becoming extinct - their numbers have significantly dwindled in last 30 years or so :-( Most of them have emigrated to other countries or have married into the mainstream Indian communities. A large number of Britishers - working class (in the railways and army mostly) - ended up either co-habiting or marrying Indian women. Most of these women came from the poorer sections of the society or were Christain converts. The offspring of these parents are Anglo-Indians. Unfortunately, most of these women/children ended up being deserted by their fathers. The men left when their jobs were finished - very few of them ended up staying back with their Indian families. The offspring ended up forming their own community and created a unique culture which was very British with an Indian flavor thrown in. I grew up surrounded by Anglo Indians - all of them Catholics. We lived close to a big church (and a large mosque) which was why there was a huge Anglo Indian population in the neighborhood. The women worked very hard (either teachers or secretaries in offices) and the men worked in government offices. They spoke only in English and kept up all British appearances. I can go on and on about the community and culture. I had so many good friends growing up but unfortunately lost touch with them. I don't believe there is even one Anglo Indian family left in the neigborhood anymore :-(

There is no concept of conversion in Hinduism. A person can be born a Hindu but cannot become - and one of the requirements to be a Hindu is to be born in India. Hindus who leave the country (or cross the seas) are no longer Hindu. Something not many Hindus living in other countries want to think about :-) Especially the Gita-thumping religious fanatics :-) :-) One of the reasons Mahatma Gandhi's father didn't want him to go to England for further studies was because he Gandhi would no longer be Hindu if he crossed the shores of India.

I am seriously contemplating signing up for iXL starting January - we will use this primarily for afterschooling (DD is 7, 2nd grade). I just saw that they have added a Language Arts section as well. Is it worth the time spent on it or is there something better. I want something online so that DD gets into the habit of taking online tests - she has abosolutely no exposure online test taking. TIA!

I know nothing about Hello Kitty except for the T-shirts and accessories that I see in stores. What age group is this character appropriate for?? Thanks!

I am looking to develop her pronunciation mainly - her vocabulary is great but I have noticed that she pronounces a few words wrong. Example: crisis as cresis etc etc. I like the idea of reading something that interests me and suitable for her. I will look into that genre. We do discuss books - I do read majority of books she reads and discuss them with her after she has read them, so yes, we do bond over books. And yes, I will start off by reading atleast during weekend.

I would like to start off saying that DD (6.5) is a good and voracious reader. I have been slacking off majorly in the reading to her department - mainly because I am tired of the reading kiddie content (ashamed of it, but I am admit it). Her teachers read aloud to the class everyday for 20 minutes and I use that as an exit excuse for me. I found a bunch of books on tape at her school library - will that be a good substitute for now??

Is there a way I can put it on my iPad??

How to you keep silverfish out of them. I was stacking DD's books back in her bookshelf (three packed shelves) and I saw one crawling (gross!). How to I get rid of them and make sure that I don't get anymore. TIA