I can say without a doubt that my parents sculpted my view of learning and education. I was read to every night and had a expansive library. My parents had a large collection of history, science and nature books available at all times. Conversation was open and experience was hands on as much as possible. Regular parts of my childhood included trips to museums, historic sites, plays, as well has camping, caring for animals, and athletics. If I was even remotely interested in a topic I was encouraged to pursue it. My parents have some form of higher education but my dad has a trade certificate and my mom has an associates and an unfinished MBA. My dad made it clear through my childhood that he regretted not going to college.

That is a tradition in my husband's family. For their 5th birthday the sons get a real tool box with the basic hammer, and two screw drivers. Then each year on their birthday they get a new tool to add to their tool box. My son (4yo) is already talking about his grown up tool box for his birthday.

We skipped the platforms. I'm 5'10" but I wanted the kids to be able to do their own laundry from begining to end without my help. Not getting the platforms and not stacking them means I no longer have to do their laundry except to help my youngest fold.:D

Our girls are getting new Razor scooters. While our son is getting his first set of legos. I'm making little soaps for their stockings. I'm also making my girls' a necklace and a few hairbands. Beyond that they will get a book, a webkin and new jammie pants that I make for them each year.

We use a very small space heater in the bathroom and only run it when the kids are bathing.

Our 5 year old was gluten free for 3 years while the doctors tried to figure out what was going on with her gut. We were able to buy most of the GF foods at our local grocery store. Others we bought at the healthfood store. My MIL would also purchase bulk from Amazon. It is a shocking transition at first but once you get into the routine and you don't have to read every label because you know the safe foods it gets easier. Expect an increase in your grocery budget at first until you find what your child likes to eat and doesn't like to eat. Ultimately don't get discouraged. You won't see a difference right away. Give it at least a month before expecting to see real significant changes in your child's health.

We are a same sized family as you in a same size house with a similar situation. We have storage units in the closets, a bookshelf in the landing of the hall, storage under our bench at the kitchen table, and a place for everything. If it doesn't have a place it gets assigned one or it doesn't live here long. We do have a dining room but our kitchen isn't really eat-in sized.

:001_smile: Way to go mom and daughter!

We have one. I do like it because I can actually snuggle with my husband. Since we are both tall it is impossible in anything else. There is also plenty of room for our whole family to sit together for stories and movies. It only fits in one place in our house. That really bugged me for a year. Now, I'm good with it. The only other downfall for me is the peices don't fit tight together so if you're not paying attention and you put your hand down on a spot between cushions your hand can go kind of down between the pieces.

And that just comes off as so dismissive of all the families who do make it work with little money. The show has always made me feel uncomfortable. I felt like I was peeking into something that was none of my business watching.

My middle child most certainly has a passion. She loves art in all it's forms. I don't know if my oldest has a passion yet. We are exploring some athletic options this year. I think my youngest will likely be passionate about music from the way he responds to what he hears and how he loves to sing and can already tell when someone is singing "not right" as he calls it.

I don't mind it. We are such an informal family. "Kids" doesn't bother me either. We've had baby goats and they are just too cute and fun. However, I've been known to call my children my monkeys, my ducks and my crazies as well. It is all in good light hearted affection. :)

My 5 year old isn't allowed to pick from certain sections of the library because the school thinks it would turn them off to reading because the challenge would be too much. :001_huh: So, I let my kids pick whatever they want from school and we go to the community library to pick what we actually spend time reading. I hold the opinion that a little twaddle won't melt their brains but only twaddle will.

Wow, that was like a flashback in time. My mom went through the same thing with me. I test horrible. I just hated them because I thought they were stupid. I missed out on the gifted program because of my attitude toward testing. So it left my mom fighting for me to be placed at my actual skill level all through elementary school. I got shafted in middle school because my teacher in 5th grade refused to look at my whole portfolio instead of just the end of the year test that was to be used for placement in 6th grade. My mom finally found a teacher that was on her side and was able to force the admins hand in getting me into honors classes in 7th grade. She was lucky I was not a trouble maker because I was so stinking bored in most of my classes. What did she do? She kept handing me good books to read, taking me to museums that challenge me to think outside of what I learned in school and experience the world around me in a way that kept my brain engaged and learning.

I despise them as well. I spent all of yesterday with one and was thrilled when I woke up this morning with no signs of having one today. It is a pain like no other that I would wish on no one.

I am not supporting extended days. My oldest already spend 7.5 hours out of the house from the time she leaves our front door to the time she returns to it. I can't fathom how it can be acceptable for a child to put in more hours of work than an average adult does in a day. Learning is a child's work and a break to eat lunch and run around is not the kind of break all children need. I would support year round schooling if it meant more frequent week long breaks throughout the year. We prefer to vacation in October, February and June. Now that we have children in school we have to do that on the weekends and it isn't what we want. The biggest thing that irks me about all of this is the suggestion that our children's only worth is how full of knowledge their bag is. But what constitutes and education? I have a gifted child who is only interested in art. She can do the rest of the stuff without thinking but her passion even at 5 is art. That isn't something that can be put into a test score but our society would be intolerably different if we didn't have the impact of artists and other creative minds. It doesn't matter to me how well our children compare to the rest of the world if my children are not interested in what the world places values. Lastly I think a great deal of this is the result of buying into the belief that the breakdown of family has really happened. So now the assumption is that all families are broken and parents don't care or they want school to be childcare. I don't buy it in the least. I think parents are more often than not doing the best they can within the means and resources they have or they've fallen victim to the idea that you must have xyz or you are failing your children which leads to more 2 income families than were ever necessary in the first place.

I'd be livid! And I'd be making waves not to change anything for my children exactly but to prevent any child from feeling like that is something they are obligated to share openly when it is such a deeply wounding experience. On a lighter note. I do find it interesting that this was even permitted to occur in the first place after I was at school today for training in helping in my daughter's class. It is a K class and the principal gave a 10 minute speech on the right to privacy and how what we hear in a classroom while working with children is not for us to discuss except to bring any concerns to the teacher or himself. There are parents who have a difficult time not gossiping about other people's difficulties how is it realistic to not expect a group of students to not gossip about the difficulties their peers went through.

If she is used to you being available during the day why doesn't she come and join you? I could have totally used an extra set of hands while working one on one with a child. Then have a cup of coffee or run out to lunch together when the work is done.

I'm glad to hear this. I have a few of those books on my shelf but after some less than enjoyable experience with other fantasy authors I was really hesitant. I loved the books by Douglas Adams. I remember reading them as an early teen without anything really catching me off guard.

Not if I was moving again in less than a year. I'd put up with it and look for someplace I really liked in June.

We after school but really we just fit it in wherever there is time. The plan was to homeschool full-time but life stuff got in the way of my idealism and so we're working through a new path.

We don't set out to teach high frequency words. My kindergartner entered K reading at easily a 1.5 grade level. So far with the sight words she has come home with they were ones that she knew from us working on phonics together. My older daughter can't decode a word to save her life. My older was taught to read primarily by the public school. I tried at home but at the time wasn't aware of the resources to help me help her. As a result she primarily sight reads which means sometimes she just puts words in that she thinks might make sense when it isn't anything close to what the letters are actually saying. We spend a solid 30 minutes a night working on phonics because she is so frustrated by not being able to read the books she wants to read because she can't decode unknown words. :(

That was extremely helpful. Thank you. The first link really helped me see the potential connection of it all. I knew I had spirited children but never made the connection to being accelerated learners. The second link helped me mentally prepare for what is bound to come with multiple accelerated learners in a public school environment.

:iagree: This is what I found funny and sad in a way as well. So, we want to be green but not at the expense of profit. If the heart of the company wanted to be environmentally responsible they would cut bottled water from their product line. The image of suits and spaghetti jars is quite entertaining though.:D

We have a similar experience. When I taught children's classes in our congregation I always moved up an age group when my oldest was moving up to where I was teaching. She would disrupt the whole class otherwise. It got so bad at one point I had my aunt ask her why she treated me so yucky while she was so sweet and caring to everyone else. Her response was, "Mommy and Daddy have to love me. You don't." There is a level of comfort in her relationship with us that allows her to let her guard down and not have to be "on" for us. It doesn't justify being ugly in her behavior and we do work on that but it does point out to us that we are doing something right as parents if she feels safe enough to let her ugliness be seen too.