The people who win the lottery aren't randomly selected... well they are, sort of, but the people who buy the tickets aren't, if that made sense. My dad taught me to regard the lottery as a "tax on people who are bad at math" (that's a quote from somewhere) so I suppose that just carries over for many. As a result of this overstated and one-sided view, I always have a strong resistance to buying even a single lottery ticket. Once or twice my husband bought me one as a joke because he is bad at math, but that is it.

I like Tico & the Golden Wings so much better than the Rainbow Fish -- it gets the message across much better, without the icky subtext.

I couldn't even finish Curious George... that was uncomfortable reading to say the least. Babar was always horrific though.

My daughters like the rabbit ears stories and classical kids (I think, because there's both music and words).

Maybe they meant a wheelbarrow? What a horrible question! My daughter had to count to 20 (count the number of blocks in a tower), write her name, and read an easy reader for her K screening last year. I can't remember what else they had her do. I do agree that K is the new first grade -- at least in wealthier places -- partly because of redshirting. So many kids are 6 at or near the beginning of the school year that they are the age that first graders used to be. My older daughter has a November birthday, and I thought she'd be one of the older kids, but she's actually dead in the middle as far as age.

My 6yo daughter plays games including Minecraft and it's not an issue, but mostly because we only really allow this stuff on weekends (there is some screentime, mostly educational, on the weekdays but I do regulate that). That way she feels like she has choice and freedom, but it's limited when you consider everything else that happens on weekends. In your place, I'd make a "Free screen day" (maybe Saturday?) and see how it goes.

No -- it just doesn't make sense for all the reasons stated above. Female over 18. I kind of wonder how different the answers would be if you posted this in a different venue though (e.g., school teachers, or public school parents).

Thanks! I have all the DVDs but I can't say no to free portable walls, and I'm sure a friend would like the DVD!

I think it is widely recognized, but still not in elementary curricula... Perhaps it could be covered when discussing space, in a way that made sense too young kids. I like the idea of sailing on the solar wind!

I didn't skip at all in Saxon 3 (I did skip/combine in K, but got less comfortable with skipping as the work got more challenging for my daughter), but I did stop for a bit in every level 1-3 and make sure the math facts used were solid.... Otherwise things started to take an eternity. I afterschool so I have to break it up (1/2 a day) but a lesson typically took 45 minutes to an 1 hour altogether.

We have ticonderogas as well, but we use erasable pens more and more (frixions). Even the ticonderogas seem to break more for us lately.

One question I'd ask them is whether that means there is no between-class grouping or not within-class grouping. My daughter has no grouping at all in math at the public K she attends part-time, but has within-class grouping for reading. Within-class allows kids to move up or down mid-year, and I think that makes sense given that kids can go change and learn quickly within just a couple of months. Another question for them is how much is adaptive. A lot is done online now, and all of that stuff is adaptive (e.g., they get their own RAZ-kids reading assigned, their own spot in ixl/xtramath/lexia). Even though the kids are sitting together doing reading, it's totally different reading assigned to each child. As far as our experience, I don't think it's helped my daughter for there to be grouping. If your daughter's skills are very strong when she starts, she might have the same experience -- her "group" isn't really pitched at her level anyway, so it's not helpful to her.

My 6 year old does it, having started maybe 8 months ago. We only do one a week. At what age/stage did you start freewriting? (Or do you suggest starting?) We started at 5.5 but my daughter was already a decent writer... well, not a decent writer but her grammar was ok (about second grade level) and her spelling was very good (about 4th grade level). Do you give prompts? (I see the author suggests topics on her blog.) Yes, I use hers OR I come up with something recent. Do you stick to the 10 minute time limit? I do 5 minutes. I know she says to go to 10 but despite her abilities, my daughter is not ready for 10 minutes... at least I feel like she runs out of steam at about 4 minutes, she is just keeping the pen moving until 5 (not necessarily a bad thing). This probably makes me sound awful but the hardest part for me is not judging when she reads it to me. I think in TWJ, it says to find one positive thing to say. Sometimes I've got to struggle to keep positive. We afterschool so there's not a lot of extra time during the school year, but this past summer we did freewrites with snip and pin (or whatever it is called), where she wrote X number of freewrites, then picked one for expansion. We took that, wrote 3 more freewrites on it, etc.

This is such a great point. My older daughter is a kid to whom academics come easily. She doesn't see herself as "smart" -- quite the contrary, she has always thought she's just not that bright. I had always praised her effort, not her innate brains; other kids think of themselves as smart but she never has. Then, in school around age 4 (she started going to a Montessori from age 2.9) she had a HORRIBLE month when she just could not understand why everyone couldn't do the same "with effort." She believed that 5 year old who couldn't read was just not trying and told her "it's easy if you try." Total backfire of the "don't tell your kid they're smart." She was honestly being HORRID without knowing it. The other kid was devastated. It's a hard balance. I still haven't mastered it and probably won't.

I still feel like any day now, someone is going to figure out I'm just not that smart, I just have lucked out here and there. It's an unhealthy way of thinking but it's a hard habit to kick. It is really so so common. I think there is a list of quotes out there of successful women saying what frauds they are, how they get up in the morning thinking they just can't do it today, it's just impossible, everyone will find out. What helps is that my husband and I both have terrible cases of imposter syndrome. We can tell each other that we are such frauds and it ends up being something we can laugh about. The human mind is crazy and twisted though. I can both know about imposter syndrome, and still have it. Sigh.

My 6 year old has been questioning Santa since she was 2 but she's never said she doesn't believe. I think she just likes to believe, so she does. The 4 year old absolutely believes.

Interesting topic - My older daughter goes to public school in the morning (2.5 hrs including the specials each day, then recess), Montessori in the afternoon (2.5 hrs then circle time), then I teach her at night where there are gaps. I think I teach well academically, but I'm absolutely no fun. Whoever said "it hasn't all been sunshine and rainbows" kind of describes it for me. The public school my older daughter attends is all warm and fuzzy and fun. However, even she gets annoyed that they always say she does so well, even when she's not trying. She told me: "You are way too hard, [Public school teacher] is way too easy; [Montessori teacher] is juuuuuust right." It's way out of our price range to continue Montessori all the way, though, so I hope we can find some balance after this year.

I don't like it but I just let it go. I usually take plenty of pictures at family events but pretty much never of adults, just the kids.

I agree -- at one point I realized that the main person I needed to protect my kid's time from was myself! I needed to schedule in: *15 -30 minute leisurely "nature" or "going someplace close" walk with kids every day if the temperature is 40 or higher and it's not raining *At least 1 hour outside with the children (unstructured) if the temperature is 50 or higher and it's not raining, plus *At least 1 additional hour unstructured time, preferably with other children since my kids are very social (no electronics), plus *1 hour of time or reading alone, listening to music, or whatever (no electronics), plus *30 minutes of being read to by a parent The end result is that there are 4 hours of the day when the feeling is "doing nothing," even though I know for myself they are scheduled. My husband also does "game night" with them -- they play pokemon cards or board games. I do wonder at what age they need less "relaxed time" time -- my daughters want to join everything but with that 4 hour block of time out of every day, there are a lot of limitations.

It is one of the things I dislike about Envision. When shown a picture of 9 dots arranged in a 3 x 3 matrix and asked "About how many dots are there?" my daughter would say "9!" when the answer should be "10." When they present them like that, it's easy to "just know" it's 9 since it's 3 x 3 (probably you don't "just know" but your brain can see the pattern and put it together quickly, more quickly than you could count). I think there was even one on a recent sheet where they showed 4 buttons (or 4 somethings) and wanted children to say "about 5." Wouldn't most children instantly know it's 4? Its a useful skill to know how to estimate but the problems in the early years of envision don't seem to work well to teach the skill.

I would ask for an example of a problem if your daughter isn't already bringing home those big colored newsprint sheets (if she is the problem is written in tiny text on the bottom). My daughter uses Envisions math K at school and a lot of the time the problems are worded oddly and they have to listen carefully to understand what it is asking (i.e., it might show them the number 13 and the teacher READS "So and so has one more raisin than this number, circle the plate that has the number of raisins so and so has." Unless they are supplementing a lot or using envisions far ahead (like 1-2 years ahead) I think it might not really be problem solving -- it might be listening to convoluted problems then applying it.

My daughters are close in age (1.5 years apart) and usually my older daughter is good with her toys and things, so my younger daughter already has so many things. When she asks for something, it's really just something she wants; with my older daughter, it's often something she needs but we haven't bought yet (e.g., a raincoat in her size). I don't worry if it's even $50 or $75 difference in what I spend, but more than that makes me uncomfortable. I agree-- sometimes kids notice but don't tell anyone. I think a small deviation is ok, but when it starts getting really big (over $75 in difference to me), I start to worry. Maybe I was neurotic but even as a young child I would not ask for expensive things because I understood they cost a lot and the more my parents spent on me, the less there was for other things. My brothers - being less neurotic asked for what they really wanted, which was often expensive.

I've been waiting for some contrarian to come along and make it un-unanimous.

Nope, no effect.

I don't think your expectations are unreasonable. The stickers might just be a binge, but the climbing on counters to get things that are intentionally out of reach would bother me. I wish I had a better solution! With my own kids, I just let things run out and they had to go without them until the next time someone gave them a gift (once, 8 months of waiting for color wonder after one daughter wasted her packet in 10 minutes!) but that doesn't help because it's not your own child. Maybe ask the parents what their strategy at home is on consumable art supplies, and go from there? Their answer, whether it's "We don't have them!" or "We're really strict with them!" should give you a good starting place.