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If I were to post at the top of a new page at exactly midnight, I'll break the forums, right?

They listen to classical music while reading literature. We finished watching The Breadwinner on Netflix today. It was good (cartoon taking place in Afghanistan). We seem to be on an Afghanistan kick - we're also on the last disc of Extra Credit by Andrew Clements, which involves a girl having a penpal in Afghanistan. And we finished The Eighties with the episode about greed. Some of it was funny, albeit not in a good way.

Man, y'all have been active this evening, trying to get some last words in. I just got to the top of page 2894... not sure I'll make it to the end before midnight, so if not, see you later.

Right, obviously not just with gifted kids. It's just that with gifted kids, it often feels like other people think it's by definition something external - either the kid never had enough challenges, so the kid can't deal with them, or you must have tiger parented them too hard so you ruined them that way. And, with a gifted kid (technically with any kid, but just more so with a gifted kid), you just never know how much challenge to give them, because they're so out of the ordinary, so, it's just even harder to not blame yourself.

Yeah, unfortunately I think we might be headed that way. I really need to remember to try calling a certain place again for an assessment (on a week day, before 5pm)... last time I called they just weren't answering their phones, even though I tried multiple times. Technically, that was about sensory processing stuff, but, anyway... it's a bunch of stuff.

Then and again, even if you challenge gifted kids from when they're tiny, they might struggle with it a lot, even if you tell them that struggle is good, that if everything is easy they're not learning anything, etc. Some kids just struggle with perfectionism and anxiety.

Eh, hard to predict from a single problem whether it'd be problematic in general. I did have to wait for Broccoli to be older to start LOF... when he was 5, he struggled too much with getting upset at hard problems, so, we'd occasionally do a chapter, and he'd want to do more, but I just have to shelf it a lot. That said, I do think learning to cope with hard problems and frustration is partially maturity that comes with age, and partially a tolerance you build by going through it. In other words, not having used BA myself, I'd think maybe get it, but be willing to shelf it if necessary.

Celery spontaneously wrote a story the other day, and he's writing another story now! :party:

We did go on a Pokéwalk, albeit a fairly short one because it was cold and windy, and I did one chapter of LOF with Broccoli. And then I made chicken & apple curry. And, before I get sued, I guess I should post what's in that: sunflower oil (because that's my usual oil unless I use olive oil, but that doesn't go in curry) 1 onion (maybe should've used more, but only had one) no garlic because why don't we have garlic!?!?! argh no ginger because same problem except we don't usually have ginger chicken (like, maybe 1.5 lbs? one package) 3 little boxes of raisins, soaked in hot water and drained 1 can of coconut milk 3 green apples (Granny Smith?) 4.5 or so red apples, I want to say Gala? hot curry powder serve with rice We watched another episode of The Eighties ("TV killed the radio star") during dinner, and learned the names of the artists of some songs I was familiar with but didn't know the artists of. I even managed to butcher one of their names within minutes (I said Pat Benarat... yeah, that's not it (Benatar, in case anyone else had never heard of her)). And then I forgot to put the leftovers in the fridge, so I'm annoyed.

Yeah, I saw it, and liked Loesje's post, but I really don't have any help to offer, since her kids are ahead of where my kids are at. Well, other than to chill... the 5yo will be entering groep 3, which is 1st grade, and they typically don't even start reading/writing instruction until then, so, there really isn't an issue, and she didn't say what grade the 7yo will be entering, but if the kid is reading ahead of grade level in English and knows a fair amount of Dutch, the kid really will be caught up in no time. She's basically on track to make herself look like a Tiger Mom to her kids' teachers (bar for that is much, much, much lower in NL, since people just aren't as competitive etc as in the US... nobody afterschools or w/e). Here's an interesting book, that, while I didn't agree with it 100%, has some truths in it and would be interesting to people interested in how other cultures parent and live: https://www.amazon.com/Happiest-Kids-World-Parents-Themselves/dp/1615193901/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8

I've never used BA, but this is very like Broccoli. For real, when I signed up to homeschool him, I was imagining being a teacher. Turns out I'm more of a therapist. We're definitely not typical though.

If I didn't have my books anymore, I'd contemplate Beast Academy, since after reading all of the Life of Fred elementary math books out loud twice (and once silently to preread) I don't really need a third go-around of reading them out loud (now, if it were a decade from now, maybe I would be willing to do it again... but, youngest is halfway through Jellybeans, so, this is very recent). So far, I've been turned off by the price of BA, but, that's largely because I already had most of the elementary LOF books... if I didn't have any books anymore, the cost might not matter as much to me... not sure, I'd have to look at the costs of the various options. Now, I know that BA only starts with 2A, so, the stuff before that would just be games and apps on my phone and all that. I don't feel a need for a curriculum for that per se, maybe print out some MEP or something or some dollar store workbooks. So, games and apps and free or cheap worksheets for pre-K and K, and then BA supplemented with same as soon as the kid seemed ready.

I have read everything since I joined the thread, though some of my reading might have been more similar to skimming. I think were were only in the 1800s or so when I joined, so, over a 1000 pages, plus 282 pages. Either way, I wasn't claiming to have read more... just that anyone who hasn't read everything yet will have a wonderful opportunity to chip away at catching up if they open a bunch of pages before the site goes down. No to the texting group for me, btw... 200 texts a day would probably drive me crazy.

Celery and I just did 4 chapters of LOF. Broccoli listened along to some of it. I'm Life of Fried Now.

Btw, I'm just kidding. So far both kids have done Dutch and drawn dolphins, Celery finished his grammar book and has done typing, played around with Scratch, and practiced guitar (2 notes at once now, thumb and index finger, and practiced the top notes for the Coventry Carol and Au Claire de la Lune), and Broccoli has practiced violin (mostly just a lot of improvising, but he also played the Arpeggio Song once, and no drama other than screaming no when I opened his violin case). I think that's about it. Planning to do math and/or science later, and maybe a Pokéwalk.

I think it's been over a week since it's snowed, but I can still see some snow in some spots if I look out of the window, so, that counts, right?

My youngest from around 6.5-7yo. My oldest was probably closer to 7.5-8, because he's special needs AND tiny, so he looks and comes across as younger to people. Roughly same ages for sending them to the restroom in a restaurant alone.

I don't know yet. Probably this though.

A board book. And I thought board books didn't count.

I think so? Not sure. I did three pages the other day for the threadiversary, and it had been a while before that that I'd last read some old stuff.

Right, but I'm pretty sure Sweetpea hasn't.

Famous last words. J/k. Odds are she's right.

If you open a whole bunch of thread pages before the eclipse, you can read them while the forums are down. Maybe not quite enough time to completely catch up, but hey... it's something (I'm on page 238).