I would love to find a resource that has lots of question/logic problems, etc. that I could use as dinner conversations. I've done some that I've found buried in other books, like the fox, cabbage, and goat that all need to get across the river but only one can go one at a time and you can't leave the fox/goat together or the goat/cabbage together. I want to encourage out-of-the-box thinking, questioning skills, and logic. 3-5th grade range.

I'm not familiar with math in focus but the way I accelerated when I was starting out and trying to figure out level was by pretesting. Then I would only go over skills missed and move on. Math mammoth is a good one for accelerating because it's inexpensive if you end up going through a lot of material in a short period of time. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

We're finishing up Beast Academy 3B, on the last chapter and we're slogging through these last few pages for some reason. Today I kept watching her write numbers down that didn't make any sense and when I would question her she'd jolt, like out of another world, and have no idea why she'd written down whatever random number. Finally, I gave her one of the star problems on the page and told her if she solved it correctly she could be done for the day. She literally came to life, wrote the problem down, worked each step quickly and solved accurately in less than 30 seconds. Seriously? So I spent the last 20 minutes banging my head against a wall because you just didn't want to think about what you were doing?! I'm seriously considering skipping the last 3 pages and moving on!

. Perfect, thanks! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Is there a good search engine geared towards kids? Not looking for safe searches as much as better choice of relevant sites and fewer ads?

My 5 year old is sounding out cvc words and was given a basic Kindle for Christmas (not kindle fire)... we're doing progressive phonics on it and she's got a couple books in her freetime section that she loves looking at and trying to sound out some of the words, but I only have one book that's at about that basic bottom phonetic reading level (with a few sight words thrown in) can anyone recommend some early readers that I can add for her that would help take advantage of her sudden interest and motivation? I'm willing to spend a few dollars, but free is good too!

Mom28GreatKids, thank you for sharing your story! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

What did they diagnose, if you don't mind me asking? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

The YMCA is a good idea, I'll have to ask there and see what suggestions they have!

DH didn't believe me when I told him that if we put him in a preschool every day he would begin displaying the same behaviors as I see, but when I challenged him and asked if he thought I was causing the behavior, he backed off and said that no, it's not my fault. He even said he may be willing to consider evals, if I was that convinced. Almost like by allowing an eval, it might prove me wrong. I'm ok with that. Part of the issue is that we had a really bad experience with a psych eval for our eldest daughter and we paid a pretty penny for it. The guy was an idiot and he was quick to jump to conclusions, but didn't give us accurate answers or helpful behavior advice.

My husband won't agree to evaluations right now. And we'd have to pay for them - we can't afford the affordable health care plans and are members of a health sharing plan that is great for sickness/injury but doesn't cover evals. Oh, and the pediatrician doesn't think there's anything wrong. She even told me that she had another mom push for evaluations and in the end was told her kid was normal. This of course doesn't help my husband's argument against evals either. I'm basically the only one saying something is wrong.

Ok, I know I've had pieced-together discussions about my son here at various points in time, but I need to lay out some things and get some advice. I am to a point where I KNOW this isn't normal and I want help. I need help. BUT. No one around me is willing to accept that the behavior is outside "normal". Our pediatrician thinks he's "intense" and will be the most loyal adult because of it. My mother thinks it's just him trying to get his way, my dad thinks he's "tired" my inlaws just laughed at me. My husband refuses to have him evaluated, but said I'm more than welcome to buy any book I want and try a "new direction". He is 3, turns 4 in 1 month. The main behavior I need help with: he has daily, frequent (multiple times a day, often) fits. These fits can be as simple and blessedly peaceful as him shutting down (he'll pretend to be asleep and refuse to get out of the car, then when lifted down he'll walk with his eyes closed until he's good and ready to be "awake", or he'll refuse to make eye contact and not respond, if you try to force it, he'll make a screamy-whiney sound and hide his head). Snapping him out of this type of "fit" is inconsistent and like flipping a light switch. If I can get him to respond with words, he'll suddenly be normal again. It makes me feel like I have whip lash sometimes. Other times, (especially when tired or hungry) he'll throw major meltdown/screaming fits. This is getting progressively worse and he will fight you if you try to do anything. He has to be left alone to calm down. I am afraid of disciplining him or telling him no in public because I'm afraid of what the consequences will be in behavior. I never know when he'll scream in complete rage at a sibling over a messed up toy or game, but thankfully he never hits or lashes out. I'm just afraid that he'll get to that point one day. He's already almost too strong for me to fight. Some of his history: He has experimented with different types of "fit throwing" since babyhood. (breathholding was my favorite period because I could change his diaper quick while he held his breath!) He's never been violent, never hit, bit, anything. He's terribly sensitive to tv shows/movies and will be literally shaking in fright at Veggie tales. When he gets hurt, he avoids comfort. He'll hug you, but on his terms only. He had an atypical speech delay (he'd talk in the back of his throat with inflection - people could understand him even without words!) We had a PROMPT speech therapist work with him (magic! and he is talking normally now - although the phrases and things he says surprise me for his age). He's incredibly polite and charms people with his words all the time. He's still in diapers. He knows how to use the potty and keep his underwear dry, he just refuses, or can't? He'll often tell me "I don't know if I'm poopy", and yet only about half the time is actually poopy. I find it odd that it seems that he cannot tell. He's particular about his clothes - doesn't like certain pants and I have cut the tags out of every shirt he owns. He's still not consistent in sleep - in fact I will sometimes give him a low dose of melatonin because otherwise he'll be up so late and is always up early and the more tired he is the worse the fits are. He loves trains and will create in depth imaginative play with his trains. He plays well with his siblings and his sunday school teachers tell me that he acts totally "normal" in class. I've sat in and observed and he does not seem any different from the other kids. He is our thinker, asks really great questions, really good with his hands (amazing fine motor skills for his age) and is ahead of the curve with gross motor skills as well (can ride a two-wheel bike without training wheels and is better than I am on a regular scooter with 2 wheels). We've tried an elimination diet and noticed no sensitivities. Some of it seems to fit ASD but other pieces don't seem to fit - could it be gifted? High functioning autism? something completely different? (Or am I nuts and it's just a "normal" intense kid?) So if evaluation is simply off the table right now, but you could pick any book you wanted to "change directions" in how you handle a kid like this, what would you choose?

We are using Town level this year too, after Island last year. Here's how we are doing it: Paragraph Town - We use both books here and take turns reading the parts. I couldn't do this without the instruction in the back of the teachers manual. I was excited about this being right on DD's level and it is - the assignments were much more normal to us than the sentence island ones, and we are able to tweak them as we wish to cover writing assignments for other subjects too, which is nice. I'm very pleased with the instruction here - we are half-way through and have seen a huge jump in my daughter's writing organization and output. Practice Town - We use just the teachers book, I usually write the sentences on a piece of paper for her to analyze then we go over it together. Caesar's English - Thought this would be a huge leap in level but turned out it was just the right amount of challenge! We skip the word searches because DD hates them, but otherwise I like having both books. She doesn't like sharing a book with me so if I want to read with her, I need my own book. The quizzes are the biggest help from the Teachers manual though, so if you don't want to use them, you can get away without just the student book. Building Poems - We tried twice to get into music of the hemispheres and while I personally loved it, my daughter is just not into it. She likes the idea of poems but she's too rigid in her writing to really do poetry right now. I figure we can always go back and do poetry later, so I'm not stressing over it right now. Grammar Town - This was pretty quick for us - we slowed down when we went over the types of phrases, but this is gone over again in depth in paragraph town. Overall, we have loved this level, and personally I feel the vocab and writing are better than Island level.

Lol, I would have totally laughed aloud at your comment! I've made my fair share of jokes that get me strange looks over the years. I suppose that's why I tend to try to normalize awkward situations whenever I can. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

So have realized that I'm a terrible parent, lol! Not really, but I think my tendencies are going to (maybe already have?) cause damage, and I am wrestling with this! At a science center visit lately my daughter and I were chatting with a "talk geek with me" volunteer about the science behind gemstones. Through the conversation, vocabulary came up and I told her how my 3 year old son asked me, "if my posterior is my bottom, is my anterior my p*nis?" Now, in reality I had a conversation with him about it at the time, but during this retelling, I embellished with a joke about when it's appropriate to talk about private parts. She said that she tends to find that people who joke about embarrassing things tend to do so to cover up a lack of intelligence. Talk about making me feel like I was half an inch high! I realized right then and there that I tend to joke about a lot of things my kids say, and that it may be detrimental to them and I need to stop it. Like last night, when we were walking into the store and my daughter said to her siblings, "lets pretend the lines are the actinoids and we have to avoid them!" A stranger who overheard looked at me oddly and I smiled and said nothing, swallowing my joke. What I wanted to say was "doesn't every kid play like the whole world is the periodic table? That's normal, right?" See, usually when I get odd comments or looks, a joke will lessen the tension I feel, and it seems to excuse the odd things said. But I realize that this only helps me feel better (like my children are "normal") and does nothing for my children. (Thinking back on this now, I'm realizing she was probably wondering what actinoids were and a definition might have been better than a smile or joke!) How do I stop joking (or feeling defensive) about it when my kids say something smart? This is only something I do when we are in public and I feel like it's likely impacting their confidence when talking to others (like my daughter hesitant talking to the lady at the science center about elements).

Just a quick update - while I loved the look of the Great Courses, the price and inability to get them at the library right now puts it on the shelf for the time... I stumbled across Ellen McHenry's stuff and took a chance on the Elements (I let dd choose between a couple). She blew through the first 2 chapters in the past week, spends her spare time looking up elements on an interactive periodic table website, and we had an entire dinner conversation trying to figure out which element(s) we could live without. The irony is this is after shelving elemental chemistry earlier in the year after she was literally bored to tears with it. She's loving this, learning a lot, and it was inexpensive and easy to download.

Ok so here is a question about a science curriculum. She asked why we can't live on other planets after learning that one of Saturn's moons supports life. A unit study to find out what is required to support life, how that may be different from us being able to live there, and comparing planets from that perspective would be right up her alley. Only I don't understand enough of what I just described to be of any help. It seems like a lot of elementary stuff is gimmicky, watch this happen, wow isn't it cool that's science! Is there something maybe at the middle school level or higher that gives purpose to learning science beyond the gimmicky stuff? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

So here's a question - I've always assumed that part of my problem in underestimating her is that I have no test results that give me an idea of where she is intellectually - whether grade level testing or IQ. We had an IQ test a few years ago but it was inaccurate for several reasons and the guy who administered it was an idiot. Frustrating waste of money!!! I've also seen so many bits of advice on here that a number doesn't make a difference, that you just follow where your kid leads and on you will go. So how do you figure out what to introduce your kid to, where do you open doors that you wouldn't normally open for a typical kid, when you feel like you are shooting in the dark? I don't have the money for another psych workup, so I often feel like I'm floundering.

Yes this is one of the videos we watched this morning! She complained about the video editing out normal pauses in speech but I suspect it was her not feeling well that made it annoying to her and it did answer her questions. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

This is helpful because it's pretty much what we already do, so hearing it as a recommendation is helpful! We have a collection of science books on various topics and she picks them to read more often than any other random book on the bookshelf (except for her novels). I was reading a book of science questions and answers to my 5 year old last night and my 8 year old interrupted after each question and gave the answer. I need to pick stuff for her to watch more often, and I'll watch for experiences that I can involve her in. Last summer she participated in a week-long science camp that she had a lot of fun with. I hate the busy work in so many curricula options. I think that's why she loves MCT materials so much, she sees the purpose in everything she's asked to do. Part of my issue is that I'm still second guessing what she can do. I When I looked at Ceasar's English over the summer, I was convinced that we would take 2 years to complete it. I decided ahead of time that I would take it slow and steady and help her really absorb the words. Yeah. She is doing a chapter a week and knows the words cold at the end of each week. She wasn't happy when I told her we were not doing a new chapter this week because of Thanksgiving. She's not feeling well this morning, so it is a good day for a documentary I think... off to find something about the sun that will answer her question from yesterday.

Wow, this is an expensive option! I only took a few minutes to look at it, I'd have to look further, but my initial concern would be figuring out placement. Reading and writing ability seem to be the guideposts, and her writing output is not at her comprehension level, though I expect her to be able to write a 5 paragraph essay by the end of the school year. I'll have to look into it more to see if it would work for us. Yesterday I took advice from Jackie and allowed her to choose a topic of Crash Course Kids to watch, and after she wrote a summary of what she learned, she had to write one question she still had. She wants to know where the sun gets its energy.

For my 8yo third grader - I'm kind of floundering in science and not doing much. I'm justifying it at the moment by lots of outside time and free choice reading from our science library, and making sure to integrate science into some of her essay assignments. We were going to do Elemental Science, Chemistry, this year and while we did get some of it completed, she never liked doing any of it, complained about the reading assignments (which is unusual, she loves reading), and so I finally kind of let it die. I feel like science is an area she would thrive in, if given half a chance, but I obviously didn't choose something that worked for her. For reference, she is thriving in Beast 3 and MCT Town level. History is a state study project where she'll research the state and write a essay about the state. She usually includes some science in this as well; for example, Oklahoma she wrote about tornadoes and Missouri she wrote about caves. She has no particular guiding interest and seems to shift around a lot in what she picks up to read about. I'd like something that allows her to delve deeply into a subject without me having to do all the prep work to pull resources and put them together in an organized manner. something that's pretty simple for her to do self-paced/self-guided, but that we can have interesting discussions about as well. What do you use that you like?

I love this idea, thanks!! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

For now I think I'm going to use words she misspelled in writing assignments... Then the words will be more relevant to what she's learning. Now I need to research ways to drill words without taxing her hand... Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Through some investigative work I have learned that my 8yo is actually spelling pretty much on grade level, which is why I assumed her spelling was terrible, since her writing and reading are above. Anyway, she likely has dysgraphia and I am starting to see her composition ability take off now that her typing skills are improving. We are testing out Inspiration to help her organize her thoughts and she's enjoying that as well. But she gets so frustrated with her inability to spell what she is writing. We've tried sequential spelling and she hates it - plus I saw no improvement or translation from spelling lists to her writing. Given the dysgraphia, copywork is like pulling teeth. I tried Essentials of Spelling last year and she liked it because it was "easy" but it's wasn't easy enough for me to accelerate and she was really good at memorizing the short list of words. She's a strong auditory learner and is thriving on the discussion based MCT program, we are completing town level this year. I was looking at phonetic Zoo - she placed into level. Good idea? Bad idea?