Okay okay posting an intro! LOL
I'm Erica, and I know a handful of you from various "elsewheres"... I'm actually pretty chatty :), but lately I've been spending a disproportionate amount of my somewhat limited online time IMing my DH -- he's been out of the country on a business trip for A MONTH (but he'll be back tomorrow!! woohoo!!!) So between that and general sleep deprivation and associated grumpiness, I've not been my regular babbling self lately.
Anyway! DS is 8, an only child, homeschooled "since the start", and very math-and-science oriented. I need to keep reminding myself, though, that as much as math and science come pretty easily to him, he's not too bad in history, lit/comp and languages, either. He is not a creative writer much at all, and his style is very "eight year old boy", but structurally speaking he writes a darn fine essay. Overall he's working near a 7th grade level in most everything, depending on how you define such things. I'd say what we use for math is a little above 7th (Algebra 1) and what we use for lit/comp is a little on the light side... but it's all in there somewhere.
We did the Explore this year for the second time and he was at or above the 50th percentile on the 8th grade norms for just about everything, so I think the 7th grade designation is justified... only for general use we're calling him a 4th grader (science fair registration, etc.), and for Sunday school and the library book group we're going strictly by age. Neither one is involved enough for it to matter. Also DS looks (height) and sounds (articulation) even younger than he is.
We've got a great homeschool group here with more activities available than I could possibly fit on the calendar, and with a nice little "knot" of HG+ kids (good local schools, really excellent for the bulk of the students... not so much for others, and the "others" end up in the homeschool group) so we've managed to maintain a good balance between age and ability grouping.
Anyway that's the short version (ha!) I'll try to be more involved now
Erica
