It really can depend on the game. The puzzle solving in Portal is cool. The Professor Layton games for the DS are absolutely math puzzles of the sort you'd find in a book. From Endless Ocean, my son got to recognize a number of fish. From MineCraft he's memorized powers of 2 ;). (Yes, that one's a major stretch) I don't see any benefit to CoD other than the time he spends with his grandfather though.

I'd say Portal is pretty safe. Good problem solving too. Some potentially dark story lines in 1, but it's not gory at all. We do let our son play games like CoD with my father online in multiplayer. They have it set up so ds doesn't get the talk of anyone but his grandfather. Even with gore turned off, the game is VERY violent. It's still cartooney enough that I am okay with it, although dh and I do discuss it on occasion. Our son does distinguish reality from fantasy well, and I've not heard him obsess about any of the FPS games he's played. (First person shooters)

If he needs the credit, I like option B. credit for one year, then extracurricular in later years.

I got Rex Barks for additional practice with sentence diagramming. It's about $20 on amazon. That helped with the sentence analysis in MCT. I also have my son put prepositional phrases in parentheses and draw arrows showing what modifies what.

Awesome!

The talent searches tend to state their area. However, for most of them, you don't HAVE to be in the area. My son has participated in Johns Hopkins CTY (and took one of their online classes), Northwestern NUMATS, and now Duke TiP (we're in that area). We'll need to re-qualify him in a year or two (have to use SAT or ACT for 7th grade onward). I want to keep the online courses as options for high school. They are pretty pricey though :(

Those are also really good ones :)

On the plus side, there really isn't enough space to actually DO the work and show all the steps in CWP :) Of course, I require the occasional bar model to be shown, work to be shown, and a sentence written with units included for the final answer, so we do move to blank paper often. There have been some problems I couldn't solve without algebra until doing the iExcel books and seeing what their method was. Some of it is really cool. I've also shown my son how I'd do the problem with algebra, so he sees where this foundation is leading.

In addition. I used the iExcel books (an edition before these Process Skills books). They're excellent for showing the set up, but they don't have all types of word problems like you get in CWP. The IP books will have roughly 10-15 word problems for each unit. The CWP book has roughly 21 word problems for each unit. The iExcel books vary. They have problem solving approaches for the first part of the book. Then they have bar model work and word problems. I think the early books had how to draw bar models for basic arithmetic, then they build up to the word problems. In iExcel 5, we had sections on Whole Numbers (5 units), Fractions (5 units), Ratio (3 units), Decimals (2 units), Percentage (5 units), then review. Each "unit" has one example, then 4 problems of the same type (earlier books would have 5 problems). In contrast, CWP 5 has 15 different topics - including geometry and graphs (not in iExcel at all). I think iExcel is great at getting model set ups. I think CWP is great at giving a lot more practice with word problems. I think IP is great at going more in depth on topics and giving more challenge with some straight arithmetic. So we use all of it :) For 6th grade, we're leaving Singapore behind and moving on to the Elements of Mathematics series (with some probable forays into AoPS), but we'll still do iExcel 6, CWP 6, and IP 6A and 6B.

Yup.

I like this one best of the ones you linked. If he watches IT Crowd, there's this, this, or this.

Doesn't deal with the 50s issue... but thin socks covered with wool socks and then encase in slippers - ones that cover the whole foot. Unfortunately my down slippers don't stay on the feet very well, but they do work nicely for when I'm sitting still. And electric heating pads. I've been known to use mine on my feet as well :)

Duke TiP. You don't need to mail in scores to participate - just sign up. Northwestern NUMATS. Also, no need to submit scores. Explore info from ACT. If you check immediately, you may be able to see locations that give the test. They take the sites down shortly and start reposting for next year towards the end of summer. I think registration starts in August. The test is given in January or February. I told my son he was going to take the Explore to see how he did on a majorly out-of-level test and in a more formal setting than I could do at home. I gave him the CAT on level and out of level in 1st and 2nd grades and the ITBS in 3rd grade on level. He took the Explore in 4th grade and again in 5th grade. You do need the child's agreement since it is 3 hours on a Saturday. The wait for the scores is rough too. You can also read more on the Davidson site and their forums.

I'd be more inclined to use the IP books rather than the Extra Practice books. Or get a copy of the Tests books and use them for review. The EP books have teaching review but then only a few problems that are review. Their difficulty level is about the same as the WB. IP has some work that is pretty basic at the start of a section but then they have problems that are much more challenging... and they have word problems! For 5, instead of getting EP, I tried the tests. Sometimes we need a bit of extra practice on the same level as the workbooks. There are two tests (one mc/one open ended) for each topic and two chapter tests at the end of each chapter. There isn't any review, but if you've got the textbooks, you don't need the extra review anyway.

I really liked using base 10 blocks to demonstrate long division. We spent one day only doing problems with the blocks. The next day I showed how to use math notation after first doing the problem with the blocks. Had my son do the problems then with the blocks first, then with the notation. On the third day I let him try just the notation. If he got a problem wrong, he had to show me with the blocks, then he could write the work. It was kind of slow, but it really paid off.

I had fun with it. We saw the 3D version inadvertently :). It was fun. My first 3D movie that's a studio film. I dodged a couple times. :) Cumberbatch is fun! I think the Trek reboot beats the Star Wars hands down...although dh says see what happens with the new movies. I'm glad we saw this one in the theater.

We moved as quickly as my son could. We did the text orally, he'd do the WB on his own, and I'd have him do pages from CWP and/or iP as they fit in. We use on level and with the Standards edition...yes, match topics. I don't follow the schedule in the HiG. If we can move faster, great! We typically have done all problems in CWP but skip around in IP. If the early practice that is basic computation is easy, we move past it. Spend more time on the more challenging problems towards the back of the units.

No R&B or anything resembling Motown in Godspell. And Hair is definitely for the older crowd. Very anti war. Play is very different than movie. Both have good points, but definitely high school age...or older :) What about some of The Smothers Brothers tv show...should be available on disc from Netflix. Definitely about social justice of days and does have the music! Most of the stuff I'm thinking of initially is sex and drugs....that's the 60s some :)

No, it wouldn't. It would bring back the bad memories....ones you thought you'd blocked. Apparently not quite enough. It's really strange to me why one author will hit at one point. Brown is just one of those appalling writers. I read DaVinci code. Shudder.

Our reception was potluck :) We bought a nice wedding cake and just had the reception in the church fellowship hall. It was really nice! No showers...and no registry. We were graduating college and getting ready to do a cross country move. It was a good and relatively low stress day.

You can get the Rainbow Resource catalog..aka "the phone book" ;) Looking through it...or their website...will give you a ton of ideas of what's out there. Then come back here and look up a program and see how it's worked for people. The abbreviation list stickies at the top of the forums will be very useful. Don't overbuy the first year! It's very very easy to go overboard.

Take a look at what CTY has for West Coast. They have a one day program at the Monterey Bay Aquarium that I'd ADORE!

But only the books they allow to be lent...it hasn't been that useful to me.

You can see book prices on amazon. Our library has a large selection of books that can be downloaded to the kindle or other eReaders. If you want the kindle for eReader only, get a basic one. I got my son the paper white with ads. The ads aren't there when you're in the book, so it's worth the discount.