I didn't know, but asked British hubby tonight and he did...of course, this coming from the man who gave me a hard time for not knowing what a gusset was as I was explaining to my then 2-year-old how to put underwear on properly:)

I agree, say something. BUT...if her mind is made up, try to convince her to have him come HERE to be married on a regular tourist VISA...better yet, apply for the Fiancé VISA whilst here. My hubby is British, an this is what we did. It took the better part of a year, with him living in the UK and me in the US. That way there is plenty of time for her to change her mind! I actually think applying for a VISA the other way around hurts your application, if I remember correctly, as it jumps out at immigration. If you can't convince her that this isn't a misunderstood, true-love issue, lol, approach her on pocketbook and logistics!

LOL, See, I always end up discounting MEP because I am ridiculously unorganized at printing pages! But now I have to give it another look if I can find it in Spanish:) And the signature...ah, yet another thing I am horrible at updating! The last time must have been before Christmas according to the read-a-loud. Updated now, Thanks for the reminder:)

And to think I was more than a little irritated that hubby has to 'interrupt' our vacation for a Long weekend conference 20 minutes from Disneyland! I guess we won't be sitting in the hotel room waiting for him after all:)

Looking at the website I have to say I am impressed:) AND as part of our month-long driving road trip we are going to be in Anaheim for a bit. I guess we could take the kid to Disney Land then and she would learn everything she ever wanted to know! She IS 'princess', fancy dresses/tiara/wand stuff crazy already, so I sure she would be in heaven!

Today I saw a small car driving down the road slowly with its hazard lights flashing. Atop the car were two massive, disgustingly stained and lumpy mattresses strapped on with ropes and the like. The driver and passenger both had arms out the windows, I guess in an attempt to stabilize the precarious load. Strange, but not unheard off... The strangest thing was that there was a PERSON strapped on top of the mattresses! I had to double check to see if it was a live person or a body!

Ah. Well, yes, you get absolutely no argument from me that Venn diagrams should ever be used INSTEAD of things like block towers, PlayDough, dolls and trucks, finger play, or much else that every preschooler/Kindy should get to be doing the vast majority of the time. I gues I have been lucky enough not to see that!

I received the new Timberdoodle catalogue in the post today and spent quite a bit of time eyeing the TT sets. I like the idea that she could do them when she wants, but she just seems so young for something like that. Anybody used them with very young kids? I also just spent a small fortune on Prufrock Press books as fun things to do on our LONG driving road trip this summer. Things like Amusement Park Math, Camp Fraction, Math Extensions, and lots of others. She doesn't do well for long periods in the car unless she has something to do, so I am hoping these will be hits she can work on quietly:) Hopefully, I can find another challenging geography supplement as she also really likes that and maps, Geocaching too!

Ooh! *I* want these. I have no idea what SHE will think, but I just found used copies and ordered them. Thanks for these!!

I absolutely agree in some ways! She needs time to mature and be willing to work through the problems that cannot be solved in one sitting:) But in the meantime I want to encourage her passion. I am hoping that lots of fun extension ideas and a program with a different style of thinking things through will allow her that maturation time whilst not discouraging her.

Is this what you are referring to? http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1881431355/ref=pd_aw_sims_1?pi=SL500_SY115 This looks very interesting. She enjoys more outside the box math, every since I bought her the movie Donald Duck in Mathmagic Land when she was two! We read children's stories about mathmaticians and scientists, mostly because at this age she seems to have the idea that ALL math is easy an because she enjoys the stories. Maybe this would be something fun for summertime.

I am trying, believe me:) We are doing quite a bit of Spanish through a couple of different programs, as well as having a college student come once/week to 'play/chat' in Spanish with her. I bought the same programs (the DVD-based vocabulary ones and Song School) in Latin, but we are no where near as far along...and Latin is a whole new thing for me too:) I love the idea of math in Spanish! I am not fluent enough for that by far, but maybe the girl who comes would be:)

This is SO cool! There is so much material here. I am awful at printing stuff and organizing it as a program (which is why MEP never worked for ME even though I think dd would love it!), but really amazing things there. Thanks for the tip.

Funnily enough, I have this on Kindle. At your suggestion I pulled it up and gave it to her for quiet time. She read for quite a while, and I really think she likes the style. Thanks for the reminder:) ETA: yes, she does HOE about 1-2 per week, although this I have out and she asks me for...and the app and the Dragonbox apps have saved me more times than I can count when I am having a hard day with health issues...

I took my dd4 today. She is VERY sensitive, to the point where we have seen all of ONE Disney movie. She will watch anything nature/animal related though as she sees it as 'natural.' I was concerned a bit as we are also vegetarian and she has a hard time with people on animal violence, such as hunting. She was fine reading say 'On the Shores of Silver Lake' when the pay master was strung up, but was really in literal tears when Pa accidentally shot the swan. Regardless, she did climb into my lap when she felt the cubs were in danger from hunting animals and covered her eyes at times...all in all though it was quite well done and very cute.

Hhmm, I see your point I guess, but I think Kindy is really about teaching the kids to think mathematically without pushing more traditional, formal math like memorizing more advanced arithmetic for most. So I would argue that maybe Venn diagrams are useful tools for this type of thinking...even before kids are ready for traditional Kindy work. For example, in one of dd's preschool classes (extremely play-based, mostly non-academic), the kids were given a blank Venn Diagram. They had a separate sheet with fish to color and put on sequins, ribbon strips, or both., cut out, and glue into the diagram. So lots of coloring, line cutting practice, and gluing too, but with the fun twist of deciding how to classify their creations. Doesn't this teach a BIT of mathematical thinking pre-math skills? Why is this a bad thing? And yes, I totally agree with block towers...although my kiddo seems to learn just as much from knocking them down:)

In our area there are NO 1/2 Kindy programs...in fact, I have spent literally weeks trying to find a fun pre-K placement for next year for my December bday 4 yr old. Guess what? They are ALL full day (or at least 8:15- 2:30) because they are trying to get the kids ready for being in all-day Kindy the following year! There are a few that are 3 day/week programs, but all have extended hours now. And I do see why they have chosen to do it, on some level. Part of it is that they don't want the kids suddenly thrown into all-day school, and part of it is that it is what the parents want. For us, it is a little different. My dd is very accelerated in several areas, enough that I am not worried about academics at all. I just want a place for her to play a bit, do some messy art, an do those kid activities that are more fun in a group setting. I would even consider sending her to Kindy, even though we will be homeschooling out of necessity long term, just for that play time...but not all day! 1) she couldn't handle it 2) I would lose our 'school time' that is actually work on her level, that she wants to do. I finally just signed a contract for dd''s official preK year at a private Montessori school that has 1/2 days for preK. I have to actually PAY for full time, but she will only go part time! Shocking, but the local coops won't let her in as an only under official school age, an she is incredibly social. Unfortunately, their Kindy is also full day, so home she will be...

I agree, my dd likes to draw them randomly. I think it is just a really simple, straight-forward way to visually represent comparing/contrasting simple things...in fact, I distinctly remember a section in the Kindy level of IXL devoted to Venn Diagrams. We are not talking heavily abstract thinking here...fish with spots, fish with stripes, fish with spots and stripes were the type of initial problems, slowly building up to a bit harder:)

Wow! You guys are awesome. I have so many ideas to research! And fast too, as we are going to try to book a trip for either the middle of May or the middle of June, whenever we can get reservations for. That works as the beginning of our vacation, or the end. In talking it over with hubby, it seems like there is so much we want to do that we will extend to 10-14 days and spend the time:) My dd has been reading volcano books all day, so I KNOW we can't let her down there. Although she did ask if she will need a special fire-retardant suit like she saw on YouTube:) Also, she has been insistent that she is going to be a marine biologist and oceanographer now for almost 2 years, so I would imagine she will be ecstatic with just about anything we do. Mrs.Mungo- what an awesome list. I passed it one word for word to hubby and he is busy tracking down everything. He particularly wants to visit Pearl Harbor. So it sounds as though Big Island is a must for us as I don't think I would be readily forgiven if we didn't see an active volcano, lol. Then we will see about Oahu, as I was quite excited at the sheer amount of things we want to do. So at least 4-5 days there. If we have time we really want to visit Kauai, as just in my initial research it had more along the lines of what I think hubby and I would enjoy. ItoLina- thanks for the book recommendations, they look great! I just added several to my Amazon cart, awaiting final travel plans:) Oh! Anybody know anything about rock climbing on either Big Island or Oahu? I wouldn't be climbing with hubby as we do not do any shall we say, more difficult climbs at the same time anymore. Strange how becoming a parent changes the little things, right? Anyway, hubby would probably need to hire a guide or service to take him in an unfamiliar locale...

Lifeoftheparty- Thanks for the great suggestions...it hadn't really occurred to me that late resorts would have accessibility issues. We are the type of people who usually just accept it as part of a vacation, but it certainly would be nice if things were more a accessible! It actually had not occurred to me to consider Disney at all. Dd4 loves all things 'princess-y' but she has only seen 1 Disney movie. She just has never had the desire to sit and watch them for some reason. But she does know who they all are I think, from a princess ballet camp she went to last summer. So if she really isn't all that into it, I wonder if it would matter. Surely they would still offer everything else, so I will investigate. As far as flying to other islands, say to see Kiluaea, how difficult is that? Has anyone made that part of their vacation? What about staying on one island for 2-3 day, then moving to a different one? We could extend for extra time if necessary.

We have planned an extended road trip this summer, renting an RV and traveling from Texas to the West Coast...whilst we are excited at the prospect of showing our dd4 all sorts of great things and experiences, I think this is going to be EXHAUSTING:) So...last night hubby and I decided we would need a vacation to relax from our vacation! I know, rough problem to have, but I really need some help-last night looking at vacation info to Hawaii was extremely daunting. Specifics: which island? We will have a week or so, and will have dd4 with us. Another major consideration is that I am in a wheelchair...very mobile, we rock climb and will want to explore. Both of us are SCUBA trained but dd is of course not. Dd has requested to see Kiluaea, so we want to accomodate that. Any ideas on which island we should choose, and which resort? We probably prefer outdoors, culture, that sort of thing over spas and nightlife. Food will also be a bit of an issue as kiddo is ridiculously picky and we are all vegetarian. Any ideas or advice?

See, that would terrify me too, and I think I would be keeping ALL my kids home. Especially given the date (Such close proximity to the Columbine tragedy remembrance and a couple other school shootings in history specifically on April 24th) Plenty of schools that have experienced tragedies have had decent security...it is no guarantee. Also, as paranoid as I am (probably due to time in the Army) I would be thinking in terms of this: if officials have been made aware of the possibility, but the child/adult attaches specific significance to the day or just feels like they have psyched themselves up for it, or are just ready to be done with it? They may either have a backup plan or will come up with one in a spur of the moment decision. It is just too entirely possible. Keep them home for the day. It is just not worth it.

Wow, what an invaluable resource!

Absolutely. I feel like I can come to WTM when I need advice regarding my crazy-advanced/overly sensitive emotional preschooler. I DO NOT discuss it in public, or even with other moms of young kids. I have been burned WAY too many times, and have never met a person who did not react badly. They might put on a smile and say vaguely kind things...all the while looking for things their kids do better or 'flaws' in my child. I hate this, and my kiddos education is seriously in closet-mode IRL. But it is not fair to her when people judge her by a new set of standards when they learn, just as much as I would find it unfair to judge a child that age for NOT reading yet. As far as finding lots of WTM folks with young advanced toddlers/preschoolers, of course they are here! The parents of only young kids uninterested in academic interests as of yet have no reason to be interested in looking for ideas and help. It is a sampling issue...and an 'I can't discuss this IRL' issue:) And yes, I do think kids probably imitates mom and dad, and take advantage of the environment. I find this natural. Do I think mine might sometimes want to sit at the table for schoolwork so that she has my undivided attention? Probably, but again, natural. She is just as likely to want me to 'go away' whilst she does a page of math problems and then calls me back to check. I can't agree with the idea that a kid would opt to do school ONLY to get attention from a parent. Mine routinely asks for my attention for all sorts of things, baking, playing, games, Legos, puzzles, making cardboard rockets...I am 100% certain all kids do this, right? If they didn't want to do 'school' why would they ask to do it instead? The only way I see that idea holding is if personal attention is ONLY really received during a school time...far more likely that only children at home get so much attention that there is time to spread it to all sorts of activities, including learning to read, whilst larger families with older kids lead to littles wanting to 'do school' like their siblings...and absorbing more than parents realized.