Ah, thanks:) She is. Mostly😄 Although at age 4 it is definitely a journey and a process. Some days she blows me away, and other days the extent of her math exploration is to see how many fingers fit inside her nose:) But I wouldn't trade it for anything...

Thanks for the resources! I actually have some of them. I pulled out Math for Smarty Pants and guess what? Guess mom has some reading to do! It was so much easier when we did all of our reading together:) I haven't seen the Constance Reid book so will have a look. It sounds perfect. So many of the explanations I find for kids run into the same problem as science- things get dumbed down so much to accomodate their ages that it becomes almost completely unrecognizable. I think this will improve as she gets a bit more math and experience under her belt:) Number Devil-next up on our reading list in the math dept. I tried it some time ago but she wasn't ready. I think she definitely is now. AoPS- we do Beast Academy now in part...she isn't quite ready always to tackle longer problems that she lacks the fine motor to tackle. Those perfectionist tendencies are just too overwhelming-for both of us. I actually think maybe the higher levels of AoPS would work for me though. Daddy suggested tonight that he and I start working through them together. Otherwise we are really going to be short-changing this kid if she continues like this in math. I am thinking we are going to have some interesting date nights!

Ooh fun! I have a great big box of math tiles I am going to get out tomorrow and let Alex try this tomorrow. I think it will really appeal to her. I want to see if she can 'see' the algebra explanation with the tiles. This is something I think I would like to follow wherever she wants to take it/)

Dear Quark's Son: You are a gem. Thank you for taking the time to put this together and lay it out for me. Your explanation helped me put a smile on my daughter's face. I showed her your work as well, telling her that a wonderful young man was helping her. She shouted a big 'thank you' at the IPad:)

Thanks for this:)I did figure out the signs and it was very helpful to me. I actually showed it to her this evening at dinner. Obviously, at 4 she hasn't had algebra, but she has done both Dragonbox apps and played with some Hands on Equations stuff, so I really think she enjoyed seeing a real-life probl that SHE was interested in use algebra:)

First off, before it gets lost in the post, can I just say you guys are AWESOME! Truly.

I HATE when other parents make comments about Alex at the moment. Maybe because she is four, the differences are so much more obvious, and she has no filter so she tends to make comments that are extremely obvious. We can't really go out without someone commenting. Some of this is that dd is so very loud and social, and some of it is that the activities she can be enrolled in are for very young kids. I really think (hope!) that will change as she gets older. Right now parents always comment with barely-concealed feelings I would rather not touch with a ten-foot-pole... I have learned to make it a joke: I say, "yep, she keeps me on my toes!" Which is amusing and distracting as I am in a wheelchair😄you can see people consider it, some will even look down, lol, so the. I can just shrug and say," well. You know what I mean." End of conversation:) Of course, this might change if I ever encounter a single person IRL that I could discuss te kid with!

And can I just say that someday she is going to hate me for this as she doesn't have a calculator😄 I am not planning on one for a very long time. So she is now up to 132^2, and has had to work them out by hand on a dry erase as mommy occasionally giggles maniacally from the kitchen. She knows them up to 15^2, and can sometimes catch a break when she recognizes that she can figure them out from what she knows...but mostly just by hand:) How long do you think I can garner from the cubes?! He he...

This question could probably be answered in the general forum, but I didn't want to risk the crickets. Our school today was indefinitely canceled as dd disappeared down the rabbit hole😄 We have started ending our math lessons on a 'stumper' problem, trying to work on the idea that not all math will come easily and shouldn't...and she asked for a whole day devoted to them. I have been pulling from a wide variety of materials, and today I gave her a warm up problem. One of those typical 'what comes next' pattern problems. This one was a word problem, about the growth of a frog. Said froggy is growing by squares, so you are given 1, 4, 9, and 16 under the pictures of each progressively larger frog. She did not immediately see that they were squares so decided to write them on her page. She found the difference between the squares, recognized that they were sequential odd numbers and predicted that the next should be 25. Once she wrote 25, she immediately recognized that they were all squares and excitedly predicted how big froggy would be for the next week. Great. I was thrilled that she figured it out 'her way' as I honestly would rather her spend the next couple of years on this kind of math exploration and play rather than keep advancing! This problem intrigued her and she has been busy for 2 HOURS making lists of square numbers and finding the difference to see if the pattern holds, and just informed me that she is going to try the cubes next. All fun. The problem is that she wants to know the WHY! Uh... I don't even know what you call it. I have a decent math background. I am comfortable teaching her for some time, knowing that we will probably outsource at some point. I can teach any algorithm I will need to...but I never was inclined to play with numbers and their patterns/relationships. We read a lot of kiddie math biographies and books, so I am learning too. 1) what do I call this, how can I explain the why of it? and she wants to know who (as in mathematician) studied the patterns so she can read about them:) 2) where can I find more like this to pique her interest, especially when I need some time to myself, lol? She has been quiet as a mouse...although she IS rolling around the living room floor on and every surface as she writes. I did find a great NRICH list of projects I think we can do that will thrill her, but mommy needs a bit of education first!

Well, as the mom of only one young child, hopefully you will get some more advice from moms with lots of experience with lots of kids... But I can tell you what we did: we went through RS A and B because she started very young. So when we switched to Singapore there was a lot of stuff she already was really strong in many areas, but there were some gaps. There were also areas that she just either didn't seem interested in or just didn't seem to get. For those I put the book away and got out math games for the same concept. Infinitely better, and when we came back a day or a week or a month later she was ready:) And best advice I ever got: no one said you have to work linearly through the book! Obvious exception are things that build on each other. We also took this as it is okay not to finish a page before moving on. Even now my kid might do half a page of one concept and then move on. The next day finish up both. I hope you find something or a combo that works for you:) I know what your about WANTiNG Miquon to work! I have the entire set collecting dust on my shelves😄

😄 Yep, that was my dd. She loves everything to do with math and numbers...but Miquon was a total bust. She liked to play, build trains, and create her own math games with them, so I guess all was not lost. Buying the rods was totally worth that. But Miquon as a math curriculum just wasn't happening, lol. Crewton Ramone has some lovely videos as well if you haven't looked there...and they go nicely with lots of programs:)

This is for your five yr old if I am not mistaken? Do you have the 1st grade Diary and the Notes to Teachers books? Miquon never was a huge hit with Alex but those two books helped me to get started.

Thanks for the clarification:) Yet another reason I live this boardðŸ˜

Tie one of the stretchy rubber excercise bands around the legs of the chair, tight, just at the level where his feet are resting on it with knees bent. As he sits at the table he can bounce his feet and legs as he works. Constant movement and resistance, whilst mostly keeping a body on the seat! Be prepared that you will need a couple of bands as backup. Ours seems to last a few months, but no guarantee with a wiggly boy:)

Oh wait, what was I just saying about a relatively safe place to post, lol? 8, I know we seem to have different philosophies as far as how to do academics with young kids. I imagine from your prospective it absolutely does look like hot housing. As I often look to your posts as a voice of reason when things feel so out of control with my kiddo I am at peace with that. I can have a lot of respect for what you have accomplished and still disagree that it would not work in our house, at this time. For what it is worth, although it is something I don't usually talk about here, that are many social, emotional, and behavior issues we deal with--the reason for her testing to begin with. Both Neurospychs we used strongly suggested that we not only let her continue as she wanted, but that we provide her with the routine she wanted. Some of the biggest problems we have seen *I* actually probably imposed when last year I sent her to a primarily play-based preschool for 2 mornings per week to get her away from her books and let her play with kids her age:( At home, sometimes I have to call it quits before she is ready because I can see her beginning to get worked up, sometimes she rings a little cowbell we put up to signal she has had enough. I can without a doubt say I never, ever thought it would get to the point it has. Some of that I think is situational: I am in a wheelchair and am very cognizant of the fact that maybe sometimes she chooses an activity so as to include me...but more often than not these days I am not nearly as involved as I would like to be as she often is working on things without me. She still wants me to come check though:) I guess my point is (and this is not directed at you) that even on this board it is very easy to look at parents of very young kids and roll your eyes at their 'accomplishments' and level of acceleration. I get it, especially as I mentioned up thread that I have NO idea what is actually normal. When other mothers are talking at say gymnastics or swimming, I have caught myself doing the same thing mentally. I hope this forum remains a wonderful place to celebrate the accomplishments of our kids, no matter how small or how accelerated they seem to others or what their IQ is as my dd gets older! May it be shoe tying after years of trying or calculus at 10😄

Because it is late and I am over-preoccupied by staying awake to monitor a sick kid I decided a bit of research into society's preoccupation with oral expulsions was in order😷 Lots of interesting information, including the fact that nearly every culture around the world has a variation. http://people.howstuffworks.com/sneezing.htm Funnily enough, although there is some evidence for the thought that a person's soul could be expelled via a sneeze and thus needed a blessing; apparently other bodily noises did not such a portent indicate and could be ignored:) http://www.snopes.com/language/phrases/blessyou.asp I did like the reference to the fact that apparently Pope Gregory decided that every sneeze should be immediately blessed as it might be an indication they had contracted the plague. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/God_bless_you

Can I just suggest a fun supplement? We love Peter Weatherall, and he now has a chemistry DVD/CD of songs and short explanation videos. My hubby teaches chem at Uni and has actually played a couple for his students to help cement a concept:) http://www.kidsinglish.com/video_clips/chem_vids_short_clips/chem-songbook.html

We have a ridiculous number of strategy style board and card games, including most of those listed. Some of our favorites in that age range are: Set Quarto Blokus Chess Quirkle And another not mentioned is Zeus on the Loose. There is a suprisingly amount of strategy as well as great math skills. And it is just fun:)

I think it really has just become an almost ingrained reaction, although even in the middle of the Bible Belt where we live it has become more of a simple 'bless you.'

This really resonates with me...even just starting out. I have come to the realization that I have absolutely NO idea what is 'normal' or 'standard.' I have only the one kiddo and am coming to believe that maybe I can't even begin to relate to the experiences of parents with kids the age of my child and then some. I have always, always assumed that my child had just had lots of exposure, lots of time as an only, lots of advantages. It took time, testing, and results of intensive neuropsych results to begin to change that perspective:). Even then, when my kiddo does something particularly uh, questionable, I have my moments😄 There was a thread not too long ago on how dreadfully inappropriate and intense Kindy expectations were becoming, complete with samples of work. I came to the above realization when several pages of posts agreed that that the level of work was much too much to expect of a 5/6 year old...and all I could see was the stunted sentence structure, inventive spelling, and handwriting:( I KNOW that is unfair, and for the record, do NOT agree that that level of output is appropriate as a general standard to meet across the boards at such a tender age! Of course not. But it was such a rude awakening to me personally that I simply cannot even gauge what is 'normal.' And again, I am happy to have at least one place in this forum that I feel reasonably comfortable asking advice. I made the mistake of reading through the 'what are you using for Kindy' thread not too long ago. It would have been nice to ask about a few things. Yeah, never, I know just what would happen:(

We have this too, as a drive-thru! I LOVE it. It even prints you out a receipt with the list of items you have just turned in. That, combined with self-checkout with a printed receipt basically eliminated discrepancies... Now if they can just manage a system that can measure damage to books and materials before and after. Sigh.

Glad you specified recipes! I read the thread title and was afraid you were using them for crowd control😄

That cracked me up, especially as I realized that not everyone may have actually seen the reference to the Sex and Positive Parenting thread and wondered just WHAT I was thinking, lol😊

Ah, see?! Perfect teaching moment... "Kids, no chocolate near your vagina OR your vulva!"Lol😊

Have you seen the ACS (American Chemical Society) site for middle school chemistry? It has some great lessons and resources as well: http://www.middleschoolchemistry.com/ The other thing I would suggest are the FREE chemistry video lessons from Georgia Public Broadcasting. They are actual video lessons that even go through the math in context. Watching it may help him to eventually work through the math himself. Honestly, much of the earlier math he will be able to pick up...it isn't as though he is going to jump straight to p-chem! YouTube have to work with him a bit on things like logorithms sooner than you expected:) he can start on conceptual chem and keepi plugging along. http://www.gpb.org/chemistry-physics/students/chemistry I think it is awesome:) But I may be a bit partial as hubby is an inorganic chemist and my degree is in chem and biology...although admittedly my current mommy studies are decidedly more elementary😄