Frozen bday party stuff is very popular here too and is seemingly everywhere. When I thought my dd was going to have a big party I loaded up on every Frozen party item you can imagine--we will use very little of it now! Just FYI, our Target dollar bins have tons of Frozen stuff right now. I bought like 12 little sets of a matching game for $3 to give as party favors, as well as some $1 Frozen trinkets and socks for her stocking this year. Also, at Walgreens they had in the Xmas section little character activity books, including Frozen, at the fantastic price of 2 for $1. I bought them for dd''s preschool friends along with an Xmas pencil this year.

If you are considering one of the Cricket magazine subscriptions (like Ask or Muse) as a gift, I just recieved an email that this weekend they are offering a BOGO free deal with code NF11-027. http://www.cricketmag.com/ProductList.aspx?type=M

I do not think that what a random volunteer assesses in a few minutes accurately conveys what a child knows in the least--it is just a screening tool. In her 3-yr-old preschool last year dd was asked to count as high as she could, to which she apparently responded "by what?" The teacher asked her what she could count by and dd proceeded to loudly demonstrate...even by cubes until teacher got smart and cut her off. On the other hand, when asked to point to her shoulders dd sort of slapped in the general vicinity of her upper arm. When the teacher handed me her 'report card' with this apparent deficiency, I sort of internally rolled my eyes...until I asked Alex to show me and she did the same thing. I couldn't understand it! We had been playing the Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes game in 4 languages! Huh? Apparently in my zest to entertain her by going faster and faster, *I* was clearly not very precise with where I was pointing!☺

I will come back later with some links to ours. Dd was diagnosed with the flu yesterday and she has just woken up miserable:( We do 2 fingers. Our school was very adamant on this and it is what Alex sees demonstrated. I have read quite a bit about it and honestly I think it comes down to preference. We did not do the simple Pacchi. They are tiny for one thing. When dd began she was 3? But also, I was advised by 2 different schools not to...the students are almost immediately learning to visualize the Soroban in their head with the goal of not needing the physical abacus. You want them visualizing an abacus where they are not limited to 3 digit numbers:) I loved our demo teachers model based on Alex's age, and the fact that the beads stay in place when the Soroban is upright. I do not think it is necessary for older kids, and they are pricy. Like $300 pricy:) Okay...I will get back to you on our sorobans. BTW, I have one of the black and white ones laying around...I think they are common because they are very cheap. Maybe I can take a picture with a few of ours laid out side by side if that is useful to you?

This is one of my go-to sites for Thinking Thursday math activities: http://nrich.maths.org/frontpage

Have you done prime numbers? I did a fun activity with my dd on The sieve of Erasthenes for finding the prime numbers under 100. Lots of math practice on the 'worksheet' and they end up generating all of them from 2-99. We made up a song even to memorize them at her insistence. Even the littles can get on board as I used a colander in the sink to help Alex make a 'model.' We put shiny gemstone rocks into the colander and submerged the whole thing in water. Primes are represented by shiny rocks, water is composite numbers...lift (apply the sieve function) and you are left with only primes. Simplistic yes, but the worksheet is the meat of the activity and it is great fun:) http://www.mathgoodies.com/webquests/number_theory/PDF/unit3_wks2.pdf

I actually have level 1 and 2 of these books, and funnily enough they are almost identical to a set that a friend sent me from overseas. I think these have been translated for US audiences. They are very similar to 2-3 different sets of material we have used. All of them start at the same very beginning with getting to know your abacus, finger positioning, and how to enter individual numbers before moving into 'big friends' and 'little friends.' Next comes addition and subtraction. The only difference I have really found within basic materials is that some tend to use only thumb and index finger whilst some advocate use of the middle finger as well.

We are doing 4A now, and I would definitely say you need a good solid grasp of place value, Multiplication, and division. Also, there is a fair amount of fraction work in there, the basics of which were covered previously in 3B. 3B also had a collection of other skills: conversions and measuremement, time, very basic geometry like identifying sides, angles, etc....and area/perimeter of regular polygons.

They do! As I mentioned, we have now bought from them a couple of times. I even have the demonstration abacus. They are high quality. Honestly, if you are serious I would make the investment. I have bought a couple of random ones in the US and many of them are more for play or show. I am sure there are great ones somewhere in the US...I just have been burned a couple of times, and am going off the experience/advice of our Soroban instructor. When you get to the checkout page on Tomoe's page there is a conversion tool to show exactly what you are paying:)

Lakeshore has a BOGO 1/2 off sale through Dec 31st with code 9536...I bought 2 sets of Magnatiles for nephews and they ended up costing less than 50 cents per piece.

We have bought a couple of ours from Tomoe Soroban: http://www.soroban.com/english/shopping/ There are quite a few good resources to starting out. This website (run by a lovely lady who teaches her own young kids!) has many of them organized. I personally have the books she lists, including the Math Abacus materials. They are probably your best bet for at-home books to teach. Bonus, they are available for download. If at all possible, I would suggest you go to a physical school to at least watch a class. They will also have student soroban for sale if you would rather save on shipping. In my experience, there just isn't a substitute:( In our case, we live so far away that we worked out a deal- we go down about once per month and all other work is done at home/submitted via their software. This has been a good fit for us, especially since I am learning as well:) http://figur8.net/baby/2010/10/23/soroban-getting-started/

This is for your accelerated 5-year old? I would definitely go with a physical model. The app is really nice for playing with the concepts and independent work...but it just isn't the same. I originally bought the basic kit, which comes with the necessary pawns, number cubes (they are different than regular dice), a DVD, and a laminated page with a 'balance' on it. I actually made Alex a 3d balance out of an old vase and some wood pieces. Now we have the proper teacher's demo balance, but that isn't necessary if you are even the least bit crafty and want one:) The benefit of that starter package is really step by step problems and solutions that introduce you to the way the system is set up. There are some quirks that I wouldn't have seen the beauty of without the initial steps laid out. It would be pretty difficult to get that just from the verbal problems book (although that is definitely the meat of the program!) If you decide to try and make a go of it without purchasing the initial basic package, I am happy to give you a list of materials that you will need to put together. And Alex made a handful of videos working the basic types of problems on the balance that I can link you to:) he might like to see a child about his age working the problems! If I can help, send me a pm...

You guys are awesome. I am so grateful I have a place to go to where people understand when a child decides to stretch themselves...no matter how seemingly big or small that stretch seems to the world, it should always be cause to celebrate and be proud. Tonight she asked me to print out MLK's I have a Dream Speech! Yikes.

Aw:) So kind. This really cheered her up. She is ill today and was quite upset that she had to stay home from everything. She said " see mommy, it works! Everyone just needs to speak up!"

This summer whilst on holiday my dd4 watched a YouTube clip of President Obama delivering the Gettysburg Address as part of a project and documentary by Ken Burns. She was very excited and decided that she was inspired to memorize the Address herself. She learned the first line, and I expected that to be the end of it. However, she kept asking periodically so I printed it for her and she kept working on it. A bought her a little Abraham Lincoln puppet, and we read lots of books to place everything in historical context. She did it, we recorded it, and submitted it to the project:) I am so proud of her...a bit because it is long, but mostly because SHE was inspired to do it and stuck with it. A couple of the sentences were challenging to get, and she would get frustrated. I am so proud that she persevered, this kid that gets so incredibly frustrated when her body and mind won't quite work together! The message she sends is that this endeavor and our subsequent reading rabbit trails have made her very passionate about human rights and she hopes that today especially (anniversary of the Gettysburg Addresss) that everyone will take a moment to: "Think about how they treat other people and what they can do to help, no matter what. Skin color just means some people have more melanin and won't get a sunburn as easily. That's a good thing, right?" My mommy's in a wheelchair but she is still just a mommy. Everybody is different, but our DNA is mostly the same." Sometimes it is hard not to giggle at her simplifications until I realize that for her it IS that simple:) Anyway, here is a link to the Learn the Address website and her video: http://www.learntheaddress.org/videos/date/

LOL, No it didn't take us QUITE that long! Although she was lovingly known as Cleo the Embryo and then Cletus the Fetus for far too long prior to her birth:)

I love the way you think! And yes, both Agamemnon and Achilles have been discussed in this house. Alex suggested Acrisius but immediately abandoned it because she used her new vocabulary word to pronounce him pusillanimous, lol. Daddy is pretty serious when he suggests Maximus Aurelius...

Yep, boy names. Sorry that wasn't clear, I edited the original post to clarify. Adding Orion to the list to take to hubby! I am stuck on Atticus too, in some form? Not much in the potential for nicknames but maybe that's okay. Alex chose Charlie Chicken randomly as her nickname when she was 2 and it still gets used!

Ooh, Alex would absolutely go into raptures if we named this baby Fred:) She might even give up the little Kingie doll we made her. Off to google obscure mathematician names....

Let me start off by saying that hubby and I didn't agree on a name for our daughter until 2-3 days AFTER she was born! We made lists. We bickered and bartered. We scoffed and outright laughed at the each others choices...but did not come to a decision until we were out of time and then it just seemed natural:) I do not really want to do that again, and my dd (almost 5) is very impatient for a name. She is really interested in Greek mythology and wants things like Hephaestus, Aristophanes (called Ares), and Heracles (called Harry Baby). Daddy is British and likes traditional British names that are going to be problematic in this country. Things like Alfred, called Alfie or Alf. I had to show him who Alf was in this country, lol. So, general guidelines to complicate things: 1) My dd''s name is Alexandria Isobel McCall with a 2 syllable last name. So we are looking for something equally...formidable (hubby says pretentious is a better word:). With lots of possibilities for shorter nicknames. 2) grandpa on both sides is Charles, so bonus if it gets used. Can be tossed in as a 2nd middle name, our family isn't going to get up in arms if nothing familial gets used at all:) 3) we have a slightly hippy bent so are open to all kinds of crazy possibilities if they meet the 1st criteria. Just have to have a 1st name that COULD pass the CEO/politician test should the kid be so inclined. 4) bonus points for first names that are multisyllabic but start with A or vowel sounds, but not an absolute necessity. 5) lastly, we love names with historical significance...especially scientists or mathematicians. Alexandria is named after the library, and has asked that we formally change her name to include Hypatia (she is already a math nerd!), and I am required to include it whenever I call her full name! If you read all of that! And are still interested in playing, PLEASE help us out. So far we have Sebastian Charles X X, Maximillian Sebastian Charles X, and I like Atticus....of Alex's choices only Archimedes could even be a ugh possibility. Any ideas? ETA: It is a boy!

Well, I would not say this should be a goal, but when we did our family/individual goals at New Year's, mastering all 4 operations with automaticity was one of the things my dd chose for age 4. In her words, "I want to practice them until I am as fast as Hermes!"

Oh, this sucks! I know exactly what you mean as an almost identical thing happened with my almost five-year-old. She started to run across the parking lot at gymnastics just as an SUV with an on-the-phone driver came speeding around the corner. I went to grab her arm, but the foot rest of my wheelchair clipped her heels and so I essentially shoved her down onto the asphalt in the direction of oncoming traffic😧 She gets up screaming, skinned palms and chin, loudly and tearfully wailing "why did you shove me mommy?!" As all the moms are walking their kiddos into the gym. To make matters worse, the next day she had preschool and told her teachers and the other kids that her mother shoved her in front of a car when asked about her chin-bandaid. Yep, I'm a contender👸

Weird! I might buy the HIG and the textbook if they were cheap enough, the textbook problems could be done on the dry erase board or another sheet of paper? Maybe. But really, the workbooks and textbooks are only about $12 NEW! Hhmm, if I had a kid I knew was on the cusp between levels and I just wanted to review the lower level to check for gaps, it might be an option...but literally only if they were selling the whole lot for say, $10. Otherwise I would rather buy new, use alternate paper or the board, and resell it as new. Or save it for the next sibling.

"I am sorry, this pregnancy has left me exhausted and I just cannot take on anything at this time. My family must come first" I know that need to help, and the difficulty in saying no...but you need to look after yourself and your family right now:) extending yourself any more is not going to do that! Spend the time, if you can, for a nap, a good book, a movie on the sofa...and refuse to feel guilty!

LOL, I got to teach my dd about palindromes at age 2 when she gleefully pointed out that poop was " look mommy, P-O-O-P, P-O-O-P!!!"