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fdrinca

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Everything posted by fdrinca

  1. Right now we're close to "low income," and my husband is a tenured professor at a well-respected university. It's amazing how having four children *and* living in an expensive location can really change your perspective on income needs. I voted 50,000. At this income level, all extracurricular activities would be out of the question (or subsidized via scholarships), we'd have to move to a less-expensive part of the area, our annual trip to visit family back east would be eliminated, and we'd really have to limit our driving to essentials to save gas money. At our current income, we're able to do a few extracurriculars, make a vacation trip to visit family, keep our home in a gorgeous part of the country, contribute to the church offering basket, and take weekend camping trips every few months. BUT: we have a strict food budget, buy all of our clothing/household goods used, heavily ration our water use, and rarely splurge for "extras" like dinner out or new toy/books.
  2. What about the Childhood of Famous Americans series? I loved it at that age. The reading level might be a little higher than BC, though.
  3. What about the Lemony Snicket books? We just did these as a read-aloud, such fun!
  4. I just did this! Send a note on the 12th saying "I've heard about this $60 and would like one, why didn't I qualify?" and received word back on the 16th saying to order a Kindle and they'd credit my account $60. I don't have Prime and don't order all that much (perhaps $100/month?). It might be worth sending an email.
  5. We don't gift the mailman, but we do leave a gift for our garbage men. They're always so cheerful and kind, honking for the kids and waving each time my toddler calls out to them. They get cash. Teachers get a nice card from the kids and, depending on the teacher or our finances, some kind of baking mix, or baked good, or coffee gift card.
  6. Perhaps I need to find her currency. And strike lazy from my vocabulary :) My hope for her - for all of my children, and yours, too - is that she'll develop a good work ethic. So perhaps we'll externally motivate with whatever fuel she requires. And remind myself that I'm parenting my daughter, not my 5-year-old self, even if we do look awfully similar at times.
  7. Thank you all for your feedback. I've added the book recommendations to my library request list. We don't do much by way of formal academics right now, perhaps 30-45 minutes three times a week. She's generally happy and willing to engage in academics...unless it's something she doesn't quickly intuit. Then it's a challenge, and we take a break and try again a different way another time. My short-term concern came with her gymnastics coach and another instructor asked me to work on her "sullen and defiant" attitude in class. I suppose this attitude is in one way separate from her internal motivation (an issue of respect), but at the same time it's borne from her unwillingness to do what has been asked because it is challenging. And I'm speaking as a former smart kid who worked through high school and college fueled by the praise of instructors and identification as top-flight, only to find myself in a competitive graduate school program where my identity was shared by 15 other adults who did it better than I did. It was a rough transition, and not one I'd like for my little one. Oh, and please know I never call her lazy, not to her face at least, and really only to my husband at the end of one of THOSE days.
  8. I have a young 5-year-old daughter who is precocious in academics, and most anything she tries comes easily to her. Unfortunately, when faced with challenging tasks, her first and strongest reactions are to give up/move quickly and "get it over with"/protest loudly and with tears. I've tried a few different ways to motivate her, with varying levels of success. I'd like to help her grow to a place where she's able to motivate herself. I really don't think her issue is that of perfectionism but that of laziness: she's just not in the habit of working hard. Friends have mentioned that she could be 2E, but I'm not sure what her LD would be other than a deficit in executive function. Then again, I'm not very versed in LDs. Thoughts? Ideas? Support?
  9. My kids protest if I read the book, and they only "let" me do so if I try my best Jim Weiss voice. After all of our read-alouds during the day, I'm glad to let someone else read a chapter or two.
  10. Recalling my teacher's education days, aren't grade level standards set at the 50th percentile? So we'd expect, by default, half of students not meeting the standards. Nitpick point, but one worth making.
  11. I feel like at this age, what's the point of science if not to internalize the scientific method? So do a bunch of experiments and focus on making hypotheses, recording results, and interpreting the results. When they're ready for older/more interesting curriculum, they'll already have a solid foundation in thinking scientifically.
  12. My daughter used to count with two thirteens too! I didn't realize any other kids did this. We've taught her to say "three-teen," which makes my mathematician husband batty. She's newly 5 and still has trouble with th/l/r sounds. We have an SLP that we see frequently for my hearing-impaired son, and she recommended waiting for language intervention until she's close to the edge of the age range for normal development. For some kids, it's really a physiological issue, and therapy doesn't do much that time wouldn't do on its own, with much less stress and cost.
  13. Very similar boat. We bought a somewhat cheap keyboard (around $200) and researched music books. They're learning! It's slow, and probably not as "good" as if a professional taught them (we have no eye for technique, for example), but at the end they'll be able to play a few songs on the piano, read notes, understand music, etc.
  14. I've had LDS friends in different communities (we're not LDS). The only observation I have about socializing is that many LDS wards have a very strong sense of community, so that perhaps moms and kids don't feel like they "need" new friends. It's not rude, it's just that they have an established social network and aren't necessarily looking to broaden it. It's not dissimilar from playgroups/homeschool co-ops that are well established.
  15. When I Was Young in the Mountains for West Virginia A Wrinkle in Time for New York Holes for Texas
  16. Emphasizing the relationship between the three numbers is very helpful. If the child understands the relationship between the three (say, 10, 6 and 4), then there's less rote memorization of addition and subtraction facts. We moved too quickly through the number bonds - my son "got" it but didn't spend as much time as we should have internalizing the bonds. I regretted it as we moved through the book. I'm not making the same mistake with my daughter :)
  17. This reminds me of the scene (I think Ramona Quimby, Age 8, but they all run together for me) in which Ramona discusses what grade she's in during the summertime. First grade is done, second grade hasn't started. We've told our kids that they're in whatever grade they want to be. Thus, my preschooler claims to be in college! Grade level isn't that useful for our homeschooling needs.
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