Review! Gifted, Bullied, Resilient: A Brief Guide for Smart Families by Pamela Price

The first thing to say is that I did receive a copy of this book for review purposes. However, given that the author is on my auto-buy list (which means I'd have been buying it as soon as I heard of its release), and the subject matter, it was going to end up in my hands sooner rather than later anyway.

Now. Given Skeeve's, my, and Mad Natter's struggles with bullying, this was a huge book for me. I've been anxiously awaiting its release for at least the last six to eight months, and that's all I can reasonably remember - it might have been a lot longer. The digital copy arrived in my
inbox this afternoon, and I promptly dropped everything, picked up paper and a pen, and immersed myself in the book.  Mad Natter was out playing with the neighborhood kids, I had some time...  I'm sad that I finished reading before I started dinner, and only partly because dinner's about half an hour late. Mostly because I want more.

Resource Review: All About Spelling!

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Something I realize I haven't talked much about has been Spelling.  We all talk about language arts, but somehow spelling gets forgotten in that.  At our house, that's less because spelling is a non-starter, but because it, like science, is one of the few subjects that gets done with very little fuss.  And for that?  I completely credit All About Spelling. Mad Natter, who absolutely hates review, will ask me if we can do spelling work. Mad Natter, whose handwriting is years behind his mind, will ask me to do spelling.  This is astounding to me.

Inside Out!

So, I'm late to jump on the Inside Out train. However, Mad Natter and I went to see the movie with Hammie this week, and it honestly deserves a post of its own.  You see, it's a Pixar film, which means it's going to be amazing, that's just because it's Pixar. But, it was more than that.  Even though the Vat O' Fruit Punch Mad Natter got before the movie meant we had to leave to pee three times between the middle and the end, the film was still so astounding as to absolutely merit talking about it. And honestly, the number one reason is because of Mad Natter's first comment after it was over: "You know, Mama, I think I have all those characters from the movie inside ME!"  SOLD.

A Review of Khan Academy: Math

Alright. As we all know, I've been off my game recently. As a result, many things slid, and the homeschool year ended abruptly on my surgery date. I'd spent a good amount of time looking for something for Mad Natter to do to keep his math from atrophying over the summer, and it seemed like The Time to start it up, especially since I had a recommendation from our next door neighbor as well.

Virtual Field Trip: Museum of Science and Industry Chicago

Mad Natter and I recently spent about a week and a half visiting with Hammie and Buppa in their suburban Chicago home, and while we were there, we had a lot of great opportunities.  From visiting with some of his cousins to spending days playing baseball with his Buppa in the yard, we had a lot of fun. We found a lot of fun things to do that were good field trips, too, and so I want to take you with us!

Review! "The Family Library" series by Robie H. Harris and Michael Emberley

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Having Mad Natter in the house is often an exercise in mitigating what he's emotionally able to handle versus what he's intellectually ready for. Nowhere has this been more evident than in his determination to understand every single thing about how the human body works - including all its parts (both variants!), and the reproductive process. This is all well and good, and I encourage a whole lot of curiosity, but there's only so much I'm willing and/or able to tell my then-four-year-old about human reproduction. As a result, I turned to the children's book section of Amazon, did some flipping through of books, and went on to find what would work for us. It turns out, that starts with It's Not the Stork!: A Book About Girls, Boys, Babies, Bodies, Families and Friends (The Family Library).

Review! The Magic School Bus: The Secrets of Space

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Mad Natter is a big fan of all things science, but he does particularly love space science. As such, one of the things he got for Christmas (and loved!) was the The Magic School Bus: The Secrets of Space kit. I was The Mean Mom, and made him wait until we could put it into our science rotation - there's only so much I can cope with in terms of half-finished projects, and Mad Natter has been notorious in the past for getting partway through anything, and then dropping it in the middle of the living room for everyone to trip over until he decides he's done it and throws it away. But, we've just finished, and I'm super excited to talk about it.

It's a love/hate kinda thing

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Yes, I know I'm posting a little late for me, but I've spent the morning fighting with anti-virus software on Mad Natter's compy - I don't want that specific package there, and it refuses to let me delete, uninstall, modify, or even stop it. So it's been eating up my morning while I'm trying to let Mad Natter play some Terraria - and he can't because this silly program is using up (literally) 98% of his systems available memory.  Nasty business.

Anyway. It's a love/hate thing. I have a long history with pedometers, and a lot of it boils down to the fact that I walk generally softly, or I have a kid. Many moons ago, I had one of those 'clip it on your hip' pedometers. I'd get to the end of a day - even if I'd gone for a run (minimum 2.5K) - and find I'd barely made 5000 steps. That just ain't right. Turns out, the pedometer, because it was on my left hip, was only counting the left half of my steps. Fine. So I'd move it to the middle. That was better, right up until I wanted to check it in the middle of the day, and it was at the small of my back - or worse, I'd put it in front, and pitch it into the toilet the first time I had to pee.  Eventually, I gave up. Imagine my cautious excitement when the Fitbit Flex came onto the market - you wear it like a watch! It's designed for one-sided use, and it won't fall in the toilet!  SWEET! You can even wear it in the shower, or while you're doing dishes!  Awesome!

Book Review: Educating Your Gifted Child: How One Public School Teacher Embraced Homeschooling by Celi Trépanier

This week, I had the pleasure of reading an ARC of the newest book in GHF Press's lineup of Perspectives in Gifted Homeschooling Series: Educating Your Gifted Child: How One Public School Teacher Embraced Homeschooling by Celi Trépanier. I can't tell you how much I love ARCs. I really do. I love having the opportunity to be part of the buildup around new titles, I love having the chance to read books early, and honestly, I love that authors trust me enough to let me review their babies ahead of release day. That said, let's get on to the part we want to talk about: Celi's new book!

Resource Review: 5 Levels of Gifted: School Issues and Educational Options by Deborah Ruf

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Once I had a handle on the fact that Mad Natter was, in fact, different from other children his age (trust me, when you're the only person you know within 500 miles who has a child, it can be difficult to see that your child is a little odd), I needed to know what was different - and hopefully why. Skeeve gave me a big "duh" when I mentioned I thought he might be gifted - Mad Natter's favorite cousin, Miss M, is gifted, which is why it even hit my radar. I didn't realize that both Mad Natter's parents are gifted too, nor that at least one of my cousins is as well. Anyway, I needed something conclusive. So I went over to Deborah Ruf's website, and ran through the assessment there. All it does is ask when your child met certain milestones, and since I'm fairly obsessive with a ridiculous memory for sequences, it was easy for me. Mad Natter was only three at the time, so a lot of accuracy was sacrificed, but it gave me an answer. Even with the likelihood of this being a serious underestimation, Mad Natter is clearly gifted. So, what's a mama to do?  FIND A BOOK! And so I did - the book that corresponds with the assessment I'd just done; 5 Levels of Gifted: School Issues and Educational Options by Deborah Ruf.

Magic School Bus Science Kits

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This year, science has been what seems like entirely too easy. Mad Natter received several Magic School Bus kits for his birthday, and so we've been working through them one experiment at a time. As a result, I'm in the position to pass along what we've learned about these kits, having gone through three bus-style kits already, with two box-kits to go.

Resource Review: A Parent's Guide to Gifted Children by James T. Webb, Janet L. Gore, Edward R. Amend, and Arlene R. DeVries

This post contains affiliate links to materials discussed. Purchases via these links help support our family at no additional cost to you. Thank you for choosing to support my little blog. Read my full disclosure statement here.

Most of my resource reviews, it seems, are books. This is because I am absolutely addicted to books - if I don't lose sight of it, I'll read it. Usually multiple times, and generally enough to justify buying both ebook and hardcopy.  Unsurprisingly, this is also the case with A Parent's Guide to Gifted Children, and the corollary (affiliate link) Grandparent's Guide to Gifted Children. I've put both together here as they cover very much the same things, just one with an eye toward the parents, the other the grandparents. Big duh there, I'm sure, but all the same worth noting.

Book Review! The Everything Parent's Guide to Raising a Gifted Child by Sarah Herbert Robbins

I meant to get this review up ages ago, but then life happened, and NOPE. Nearly three years ago, when Mad Natter was already reading and doing basic math in preschool, and I was wondering why he was the only kid there who wasn't able to write at least a little bit of his own name, his cousin was tested and diagnosed as Gifted. WonderGirl (who is my cousin's daughter) was just like Mad Natter when she was his age, and I started to think maybe that was what was going on with my little monkey. We ran through a "Five Levels of Gifted" milestone assessment, and Mad Natter scored with an above-average IQ, even at just three years of age (the test is designed for 6+). Because this is me, I immediately hit the bookstore.  One of the first books I picked up was The Everything Parent's Guide to Raising a Gifted Child.

Book Review! How to Work and Homeschool by Pamela Price

At this point, it's like tradition!  Book/Resource Review Friday!

Today, I want to talk about How to Work and Homeschool by Pamela Price. I wasn't sure how much this really applied to me, and my life, due to the simple fact of the matter that I don't work outside the home. But, if I'm going to try to get my life set up so I "work from home" doing the housekeeping things (thus helping ensure they actually get done), maybe it would be really helpful after all...

Book Review! If This is a Gift, Can I Send it Back? Surviving in the Land of the Gifted and Twice Exceptional by Jen Merrill

Deciding to keep with last week's review, I've got another review this week! Honestly, I'm not sure how well I can review If This is a Gift, Can I Send it Back, but I'm going to give it a go anyway.

The hardest part for me is truly the fact that I have no clue what the best part of it is. I picked up the book not long after its release, in ebook format. I was so excited to read it that I wasn't about to wait for it to be delivered. I got the book and devoured it, again in one sitting. It's a hazard of reading quickly as well as reading good books

Book Review! Making the Choice: When Typical School Doesn't Fit Your Atypical Child by Corin Barsily Goodwin and Mika Gustavson

I am crazy excited.  I got the opportunity to review a book I've long meant to read, but for whatever reason just never got around to.  Making the Choice: When Typical School Doesn't Fit Your Atypical Child has been on my TBR for... probably years. I first perked an ear May 22, 2012, when I heard Corin and Mika speak via a web conference. Mad Natter was just three and a half then, and we I had only realized he was truly gifted two months before that. I put it off then, because honestly, he's only three, and I have a Bachelor's Degree in elementary education, so it wasn't like I was truly too worried about how his schooling was going to go anyhow.  But now, I've had the opportunity to read the book, and so... I'm passing my thoughts on to you, should you be either sitting on the fence about reading it, or looking for something to read yourself.