Pocket door? We have one that separates our washer/dryer room and it does a pretty good job:)

Pocket door?

Ooh, thanks Quark, for the Prime Curios tip! That is one I haven't seen and Alex has a thing for primes at the moment:)

Well, I thought there were pillows inside...but when I checked realized it was all a sham😄 No, really thought pillows with shams are larger and go behind the regular pillows in cases for decoration and to make a cuddly nest:)

What about his own benefit concert? Whatever scale is appropriate. Advertise the fundraising purpose, it could even be a dinner/concert type thing with a set ticket price where he played as entertainment. He may even be able to solicit help from friends to join the entertainment lineup or through his symphony contacts? Venue could be as simple as a nice restaurant with decent acoustics or a hotel conference room possibly. Of course, some people would love to make donations as well during the course of the evening. Maybe even add in a silent auction type thing to bid on a service he could do such as tutoring or lessons?

Okay, as someone in a wheelchair who has no real choice BUT to use the handicapped stall, I have some mixed thoughts on this subject. Most importantly, I do NOT believe they should be reserved for those in a wheelchair...and I am certainly not the bathroom police to judge who/when it is acceptable to use, lol. Mothers with small children? Please, I will waive you in ahead of me with a smile:) Every mother knows the pain of trying to shoehorn in to a stall with kids, or anxiously eying your child as they do the potty dance waiting their turn. But I cannot tell you just how often I go into a public restroom and the handicapped stall is the ONLY one occupied. Loads of empty stalls and just the one I need is occupied by a seemingly perfectly able-bodied person. And I DO try not to judge, because I get it. Not every disability is visible, and often times there is other equipment in that stall such as raised/lowered seat and extra safety bars. But it can be very frustrating! The other major thing: because the handicapped stall is usually the very first stall(most accessible) or the very last(same thing and some people choose it for more privacy), and people need/want more space, the HC stall tends to get a lot more use. This means that it is also the most likely to be the ONE stall with an out of order sign on the door. This sucks:) I guess I would simply suggest courtesy. If there is another available and you don't need it, avoid that HC one just in case. If it is the last one, you have kids, it is more convenient for whatever purpose you need it for, then whatever. I actually love the system in the UK. They have locked bathrooms for HC in many public places, public transport stations, etc. You can apply for a special Radar key to open them when you need, or ask someone else hat works there if you say, need one with a baby changing facility or whatever. It means they tend to stay in working order!

I see no problem introducing the algebraic method. Because we intend to continue with SM (dd is doing 4A at the moment), I first make sure she can use the bar graphs to problem solve. But we are also doing Hands on Equations, and she 'sees' this as a much simpler method:) I actually think it has been very good for her to see and use different approaches to solve the problems! And it definitely stretches her to come up with different approaches. After she is done, she often asks how I might have gone about solving and it is a lot of fun to spark that creativity. Ultimately, you are making sure your child understands the how and the why of solving the problem. The more tools you provide them with, the more they can demonstrate mastery of the material...as well as learn to problem solve via their own creativity.

We took my VERY sensitive dd5 to see it with family whist on holiday in the UK recently. I was hesitant, as she has not seen movies in theaters other than say, the planetarium, and we don't watch television. She has only seen about 3 movies (and then in bits and pieces) because the drama is too much for her:) I was pleasantly surprised. The movie is sweet and cute. Funny. There were a couple of parts she was frightened in,!and she watched from my lap. The 'threat' of being killed and stuffed was scary to her and she thought the villain was pretty scary. I actually thought it was well done, and she IS super sensitive. The scariest part for her was when the villian has Paddington on the roof of the British Museum and looks like he will be captured. It ends with Dad saving Paddington and the villian dangling from the roof before being caught. Alex was pretty nervous, but really it was done well--no injuries, family pulls together and learns lessons, villian is apprehended and justice is served. The end of the movie even shows how she has to make amends to society, working with animals and shoveling poo, which dd found hysterical. Really, I can't think of anything that was questionable. Silly, gross, etc., maybe. Oh, I guess dd was VERY offended that Paddington was wrongly accused when the house is so damaged after the villian broke into the house attempting to capture him, and upset that no one believes him, but this was actually a very good stepping stone for conversation. And she is particularly prone to being upset at perceived injustices:) Hope that helps a bit. I do think it doesn't get much more inoffensive in a theater than this movie!

Just a quick thought, but aren't there four Mrs. Piggle Wiggle books? You might prolong his reading there as you hunt for more:) In addition to the list above, The Year of Miss Agnes might appeal as well. Alex liked Gooney Bird Greene before that, but as they are about a 2nd grade girl he might not find them as great. Pippi Longstocking Homer Price The Fudge series Matilda Are all favorites around here.

Happy birthday!!!!🎉🎉🎉🎉

Oh, don't get me wrong! I absolutely believe that everyone should have self-defense classes and be taught to fight back! I was in the Army for 4 years, and I have seen first hand what happens when people are not taught to defend themselves with whatever means necessary:( But schools are not the place for it, not like this. I could even get behind an after school program with a well-rounded self-defense theme that taught kids when, how, and why to fight back. And yes, teaching them to throw canned goods or anything else at their disposal at that point would be perfectly appropriate and helpful:)

Sorry, but the logic is shockingly ridiculous. Not to mention potentially dangerous and lethal. "It will make the students feel empowered" makes me want to shout and cry. And what kind of a message does that send the kids and parents? Your school is so unsafe that we need to collect a donation of mostly impotent foodstuffs to throw at armed gunmen. Genius. If they want to empower the kids how about education programs, collections/fund raisers for more counseled and even safety equipment. Better yet, awareness, gun safety and control, writing letters to public officials, inspirational speakers, and a million other more useful projects! Wow. Simply appalled. Now the kids at that school have to further doubt not only their safety, but the level of education they will receive at the hands of officials that generated this brilliant gem of an idea.

Alex did the contraction thing for a while:) When I finally asked her about it she was convinced that the expanded form 'sounded' better in her head. That being said, contractions later were absolutely intuitive for her so I actually think it was a good thing, lol. As for what a spelling program can do when based upon phonetics, maybe I can answer a bit there. Take it with a grain of salt, because Alex adores spelling and the rules-based nature of AAS. It has never been 'work' for her, and I definitely would never have pushed it if she didn't thoroughly enjoy it. There is a big difference between being able to identify a phoneme in isolation, then in context of a word, then in a situation where you are focusing on so many things at once:the story, the individual word/syllables, the tone, even prosody. Automaticity takes time and experience. Just reading I think Will do it, and did for Alex...but something like AAS covers all the bases and ensures it translates to spelling. One example: AAS also uses 'sound cards'. We haven't found the need to review these but occasionally, but they give a sound and ask the child to recall all the ways to spell that sound. So it might give a long a sound and she will write out a, ai, ay, eigh, etc., and Alex likes to add a game where she gives an example word. So it becomes active recall versus passive recall. The dictation sentences work in this as well, and the writing stations pull it all together. I will say that if you have only seen AAS level 1, you might not see the point:) I didn't fall in love until we hit about level3, but the kid enjoyed it so we kept going. Anyway, I absolutely don't think you NEED to do anything other than give her time to read, hear and absorb good books right now:). But I just wanted to assure you that we didn't/don't find AAS pointless or redundant. Even though dd doesn't truly need it for spelling or reading, it has still been great for her. I love that she loves it and confidently applies/reiterates WHY words sound/are spelled the way they are. Over the holiday she picked up one of her dad's college chem books and it was fun to see her use the segmenting and rules she internalized to read about organic chemistry and compound names:)

I noticed the word genius used as well...weird. Really makes me wonder about the qualifications of who would actually be running it:( I love the Idea that is is started by parents looking for options for their child, but for that kind of money would expect experts, long-time experience, and credentials, interesting mentors:) And yes, as far as religion goes: fine if that is just the faith of the faith of the founders, but not if the camp is just going to be a glorified elitist church camp that happens to collect PG kids. I wish there was more information. We wouldn't be interested this summer because of new baby, so I guess we shall keep an eye on it after the reviews are in for the first year!

Just as another idea: We are doing sort of an all inclusive, eclectic LA program to consolidate and minimize. But my dd adores the rules-based spelling so we started there and built around it. We do AAS as the backbone. It has practice sentences for dictation, and dd does them on a dry erase board. After the sentence has been written she uses little wooden Montessori parts of speech symbols and simply places them above the words to identify parts of speech. She might use different colored markers to underline a clause, or answer a question about sentence structure. That generally takes less than a minute per sentence:) This also doubled as handwriting practice, and eventually I changed it up so that half the sentences were done in cursive so she could practice that as well. AAS then has a 'writing station' at the end of each step. This is a collection of 6 words from previous lessons, generally unrelated. You can just write a sentence with each word, but I give her journal paper instead. She creates a brief 'story' using all six words correctly. She loves this, and likes to draw a corresponding illustration when done. If time, we might edit and/or diagram her sentences. Adding in poetry and memory work, that was all we did for quite some time. It all flowed together really well and took a very minimal amount of time. I guess we also read the Brian Cleary parts of speech books and those on simple literary devices such as similes and metaphors, and I did make a list of the parts of speech definitions from FLL to memorize.

He, he, pun intended?! He's cured because he tried the bacon? ETA: I see Unsinkable beat me to it:)

This is more along the lines of 'we need to homeschool because if she says it in public there may be raised eyebrows.' I went looking for Dd5 after lunch because things were very quiet. I found her lying down with her feet propped up and a suspicious lump under her shirt. "What are you doing?" "sshhhh mom, I am just gestating." "Oh. Sorry. I will come back in 9 months." Alex (pulling a stuffed elephant from under her shirt) "better make it 24 months mom, this one is an elephant and boy, is it going to hurt when I give birth!"

It is that time of year again when it seems all the applications for summer programs are starting. There aren't many fun opportunities for the youngest set to meet other kids of similar interests in such programs, so when I saw this camp in the Davidson email I had a look. It looks intriguing, and is for PG kids age 3-12 with their families. Basic tenet seems to be to partner them with mentors and opportunities, particularly in their current field of interest. It is brand new, this is the first year...which may explain the lack of depth in information on the website. Regardless, hoping someone here has heard a bit more, and passing along the info for those with younger kids looking for summer opportunities... http://www.oreacademy.org/camp.aspx

Yep. Reading that study whilst trying to find a name for my dd5 is one of my the reasons she has a more 'masculine' nickname. Her name is actually Alexandria, so much more 'girly', but we use Alex as a shortened moniker.

Whilst I agree that there is a difference in how female and male brains process math, especially in visual/spatial form, I think there is a huge cultural component in the US. A bit of this may be due to the effects of sex on competition, but I also think that the WHY of that is more nuanced as girls hit puberty. It becomes less acceptable to be smart and competitive in Maths/science:( http://www.washington.edu/news/2011/03/14/gender-stereotypes-about-math-develop-as-early-as-second-grade/ And studies in the US have shown that gender stereotypes regarding math are internalized very young. I remember reading something about a study done with 2nd graders showing this. When I was pregnant with Alex I came across a reference to a study done in the US on 1000 pairs of female twins. Girls with more masculine or unisex first names were more than twice as likely to pursue math/science at a higher level than their twin with a more traditionally 'girly' name. Here is an article in the Guardian I found, and I will try to find the paper as it is very interesting! http://www.theguardian.com/science/2007/apr/29/theobserversuknewspages.uknews ETA: I am on my phone so am posting and will add the links to avoid losing the post...again!

ALL.THE.TIME. Right now. With every waking breath, in her sleep, a never-ending-running-commentary-stream-of-consciousness.

[quote name="dmmetler" post="6128231" timestamp="1421030368 In some ways, I think it may be less "forbidden fruit" and less desirable if she gets it now, when there simply is one available, vs making it a special thing later. Right now, most of her friends her age don't have phones, and they don't really do a lot of social calling/talking back and forth yet (and if they do, they're usually using mom's phone). I imagine that by age 12-13 that will change (based on the fact that most of the 12-13 yr olds I know DO have phones). I'm thinking right now, she'd probably be content to consider it a serious "work" supply, like her field boots, compass, etc and to not use it outside of those settings because there's really not much reason to do so (and for pretty much anything but making calls/texts, her iPod or computer are much better devices). I think this is a big factor. If they just have always had it, it doesn't become nearly the issue as getting it later. It was part of my thinking... This is going to sound absolutely awful, but my dd5 has an iPhone. But honestly, it made sense, I swear:) She listens to audio books every night, and when her iPod started to die we decided to get her a new one. We hemmed and ha'ed about whether to get the regular, newer generation IPod or upgrade to the touch for her. Since we alteady have the IPad she uses more than anyone, and I didn't really WANT apps and features on something she uses primarily for listening, we bought the regular IPod at a whopping $160 instead of at least an additional $50 for the IPod touch. We loaded it up and THEN realized something critical. The newer model of the IPod has no external speakers! I was dumbfounded! At that price?! It was pretty much pointless as I don't want my 5-year-old in headphones that often, and she couldn't use it in bed...we were able to clear it and return it, but that left us either with the IPod touch or another solution. We were upgrading our IPhones from the 4s to the 6s. It became soooo much more reasonable to just give her one of our old phones! So it is now HER phone/IPod, and it has worked brilliantly. We don't have a landline, so it is an extra phone at home. She uses it to call/text/FaceTime grandma and a few others, and I LOVE the fact that with my physical issues she has a method of contact to the outside world. She uses it for all sorts of things 'school wise' as well. Googling, online dictionary, checking the weather, and so on with our wi-fi. Anyway, all that to say I think it just makes sense. And it isn't the forbidden fruit. It is a tool that they grow up using. If the situation changes, we can address that too. I think there is an element of responsibility as well, and a bit of independence. In my case, it is more the illusion of independence for her still, but the idea is the same. In our recent trip to Europe she had to keep track of it, keep it charged, etc., but I was so reassured that if she DID get separated she knows full well how to sit down and call mom and dad:)

Thanks again everyone for the ideas! I have a feeling it may end up being a bit of a trial and error process so I am glad I have some time to practice on dd's dolls and stuffed animals! I think I will try the K'Tan and maybe a Moby wrap if I can figure out the tying process in front. It looks as though there are hundreds of YouTube tutorials:) I like the idea that I might be able to modify it later when baby is a squirmy toddler to work as a seatbelt/soft restraint for safety when riding in my lap!

I love the idea of the vest:) I will have to see what I can come up with!

This is my biggest concern! As 67_Others said, the Moby looks perfect for an infant in a wheelchair, but I have serious doubts I can manage all that fabric whilst sitting in a chair and possibly balancing a baby!