u/0112358_

I'm looking to get new (used) car. Child, 7, is currently in a high back booster with seatbelt, graco extend2fit.

I'm looking at a Toyota Corolla that has non-removable headrests. How does the top tether work in that situation? I'm seeing conflicting information about if its still possible to install safely.

Side note, would a backless booster be a safe alternative? The big carseat "feels" more safe, but that might just be a bias thing!

Wondering what's typical for our second graders!

Kid is getting twice as much homework as last year (4 worksheets per week). Which while not that much total, feels more difficult to manage this year.

Two of the sheets require direct involvement. Parent reads the word, kid writes it down trying to spell it correctly. Another has a decent amount of instructions that the parent is expecting to explain.

We are also having issues with math hw, which used to be easy last year. Kid couldn't figure out what he was supposed to be doing on the math sheet so I had to sit and explain it. And then the back of the sheet, which last year was the same as the front, was a completely different style of math so he needed that explained too.

I don't mind sitting down and doing homework with him, but I'm also wondering how independent kids should be at this age. Like should they be able to read the instructions and understand "fill in the blank word" or "write the math equation"?

It's also tricky because we added an extracurricular this year which is two evenings a week. Plus therapy another day. So either we squish homework in the evenings that's already busy or take up the one day we don't have anything planned. Homework is due Friday so nothing over the weekend which is nice. But we actually have more free time on Fridays & weekends and it would be easier to do it then.

I'm wondering how things differ in different districts.

At my kid's school, all volunteers need to be fingerprinted and background checked.

We also need to complete several of those on-line training video courses. Previous years it was about 2 hours of training, this year they more than doubled it to 5 hours!

Which I find ironic as the school doesn't even have that many volunteer opportunities. It's mostly room parents, who attend 3, 1-hour parties. Or 1-2 field trips. Feels like I'm going to spend more time on these videos than actually volunteering.

Anyways, do you volunteer at your kids school and what's required of you to do so?

I recently switched my 7 year old to a high back booster with seatbelt. The graco extend-2-fit one to be exact.

The issue. When my kid buckles himself in, he has to lean out a decent amount to reach the seatbelt buckle. When he's done and leans back, only the shoulder part of the belt auto-retracts. There is enough friction in the booster seat's belt guides that the lap portion of the belt doesn't auto retract. The result is a belt that has several inches of slack.

Kid can fix this by pulling on the belt to pull it though the guides so it's snug.

But I'd prefer a seat that doesn't require remembering to do that. Is this a common issue with high back boosters? Just an issue with our seat? I'd consider buying a different seat if it fixes the issue but if that's just how boosters work, I don't want to waste the money.

I'd like to switch my 7 year old from the 5 point harness to high back booster with seatbelt. He's hit the height and weight requirements for the booster (and close to outgrowing the 5 point)

But he tends to sit with his legs propped against the back of the front seat in front of him. Will that compromise the safety of the seatbelt setup vs 5 point?

I've been bringing my kid to playgrounds since he could walk. Lately I've noticed he's often the oldest one here. Do kids outgrow playgrounds earlier than I thought? Is everyone doing other things? Mines 7 for context

When did yours stop wanting to go to playgrounds?

I have a rising second grader who's okay with reading. He's currently reading some kinda comic book/lite chapter books (super rabbit boy!).

He does decently well. But struggles with, and then just guess, words with more than three syllables. He might miss a sentence if it's at the bottom of a page with pictures around it. He'll read "that" as "what" and vice versa, read "dogs" as "dog" and similar. Probably every two pages or so. I'm pointing out a word he did wrong.

A couple times now he's gotten really into a book and wanted to keep reading but for various reasons I needed to step away and so suggested that he read it on his own. Or occasionally he will willingly read books on his own before bed (yay!).

My question is how important is it for me to sit there with him to point out these mistakes versus him reading on his own and presumably making these mistakes and not noticing/not caring/rushing though it as he does. We're aiming for 20 minutes of reading practice a day and I don't know if him reading on his own would "count" for that.

A robin made her nest on my deck. I happen to have a wildlife camera and at it up to point at the nest. 2 of the 3 eggs hatched last week, so the babies are about 8 days old.

I've observed Mama bird(assuming it's mama?), been feeding the chicks very frequently during the day and sitting on the nest overnight.

Then the previous night she left the nest at 10pm and didn't return till 5 in the morning, when she started feeding the chicks again.

Then this last night she left the nest again around 10 and still hasn't this morning (currently 9ish). Overnight temps have been slightly cooler. It's also been very rainy although the nest is quite well protected from rain.

Is this normal behavior? Does the parent bird stop sitting on the nest overnight? Also for context, no one has been near the nest for the past few days, all this info I have is from the camera. I go on my deck briefly once a day go water plants but haven't been the past two days because of rain.

Example:

"Hey mom! Is that the same one?"

First, what's "that"? I have 6 things on the table in front of me. Which of these are you talking about? Also what do you mean by "same one"? Same was what? Yours? The one we had yesterday? The one grammie brought over? Same what?!?!?

Another "does my school have those?", asked while driving in the car.

Well what's "those"? We are driving past a ton of stuff right now, I have no idea what you mean "those". Turns out he was talking about a wobbly swing at the park we were at an hour ago.

It's drives me crazy! Feels like daily, kid asks a question about "that" or "those" or "thing", then gets upset when I can't read his mind and figure out what he's talking about

I have an oldish, generic white fridge that's not looking great. It's at a summer camp, rustic environment. Would like to paint a fun design on it. It doesn't need to look professional by any means but also would like it to not start peeling and looking terrible in a few years.

What's the best approach? I've seen people suggest appliance paint, but those only seem to come in basic colors. Appliance paint base layer then can I use my craft acrylics on top? Primer vs appliance paint?

Anyone done anything similar had had good results?

Has anyone tried this? Does it count the entire clam as one plant, in terms of how many plants can be near by, or are all three squares counted?

Assuming pips can plant these anyways

I was wondering how other families handled kids wanting to buy "extras" on vacation. We have an upcoming trip and I'm anticipating kid asking for various stuff; candy store, geodes, gemstone dig (despite kid having 278 shiny rocks already he always wants more). As well as some side attractions that I consider overprice and would not want to pay for; mini golf, those arcade rides.

In the past I've splurge on a couple of the extras that I think are worth it and told kid "no" for the others. Which, to be clear, kid is fine with hearing no and doesn't argue about it.

He also gets a weekly allowance and I'm debating giving him an extra $10 or so directly for the trip. With the expectation that kid not asked for candy when we passed the third gift shop.

And the other part of me says I'm paying hundreds for hotel and admissions and kid doesn't need extra money! But then again I buy souvenirs for myself!

So what do you do with your kids? Do you give them them money for extras on vacations? Use their allowance? Do they spend it all on day one and then are whining on day three? Do you let them spend $8 on a tiny bag of gummy worms that they can get from the grocery store for $2?

Child has this habit of hearing some information, making his own conclusions in his head, then getting upset. Aged 7.

Examples:

I was talking to him about a new after school activity he might want to join. He seemed excited about the activity as I explained what it was. I mentioned buying special sneakers for it. Immediately he starts almost crying "I don't want to do it anymore. It's going to be too hard to carry the at school!"

Kid, you do not need to take the shoes to school. You will come home from school like normal and then we will get changed and then you will go to activity.

And then he was happy again and excited to do the activity. But he had tears in his eyes because he was so upset about having to carry the shoes because he jumped to that (wrong) conclusion.

I've been trying to encourage him to ask questions instead of immediately getting emotional and upset about something.

Other examples. I made cinnamon rolls, put one on his plate to put one on my plate and then started to put the rest of them on a third plate so they could cool down. He got upset because he thought he was only getting one cinnamon roll because he assumed I was going to eat the one on my plate and the other 5 on the spare plate. To be clear, we've done cinnamon rolls in the past and he's always been offered as many cinnamon rolls as he wants. I eat at max 2.

When doing math hw he immediately assumed and starts whining it's going to be hard. 95% it's super easy.

When doing a craft project he does step 3 before step 2, starts crying and throwing the entire thing out because it's ruined. Kid, SLOW DOWN. Use your words and ask for help. This is a very minor issue that can be easily fixed. But he goes from happy to "it's ruined" in literally 5 seconds and is on the floor crying

Any strategies for getting them to slow down, think about a situation, ask for help, before getting super emotional?!

Did some tidying up today and occurred to me that I don't think child has grabbed a book from his book shelves or bins in months.

When he was younger, toddler-preschool, even last year of kindergarten, he was happy to grab a couple books from his library to read before bed.

But now? Unless it's a new book, he rarely seems interested. We still read before bed but it's typically a chapter book. Or when I go to the library I'll get half a dozen picture books and we'll do a new one each night.

I also get decodables or easy readers from the library that he will read, once, with me and then finishes and doesn't want to touch again.

I get it, I rarely reread things. I'm a big reader but have very few physical books because I get everything from the library. I have a handful of purchase favorites but they sit on the shelf, maybe being read every few decades.

I guess I'm just wondering what to do with these piles of books we've acquired. That kid isn't really engaging with anymore because he prefers new stories.

Just to clarify, I am setting up an appointment with a doctor to discuss, but would love some other experiences.

Child, 7, first grade, diagnosed with autism. Wasn't given a level but probably 1. Didn't score high enough for ADHD although had some tendencies.

He has been having an uptick in behaviors at school. Stuff like not listening when being asked to pickup, get in line, throwing, outbursts. Emotional disregulation and impulse control. At home I rarely see these behaviors; only when he gets especially hyper at something like a party. I think I'm able to manage his home environment better, but I also don't see exactly what happens at school since I'm not there.

I'm wondering when/if to try meds. We only have a few weeks left of school, then he is home with me (with some summer activities, but nothing like school).

Do we start meds over the summer, to see how he does on them, even if I'm not sure if he needs them? Wait till school starts in the fall and see if he handles school better at that point, then start meds then if needed?

I'm not against meds if he needs them. But I don't want to start something he doesn't need/has side effects/could be managed differently. He's been in private ot for a few months, and school based behavior ot since the start of first grade

Up until the last month, he has been doing much better at school. So I don't know if it's just end of the year jitters or what. School has been trying different strategies but nothing seems to help.

How did you decide to start meds?

I feel there's several discussions about how schools teach reading. But I haven't seen many discussions on math. I'd love to hear what other schools are doing for math, methods to teach it and where our soon to be second graders have finished math for the year.

1. What sort of math did your child master by the end of the year? Especially what did the school teach? (If your kid is a math genius and can do trigonometry that's great, but what was covered at school?)

2. How are they teaching math?

I'll post my answers below

I hate how short the power lines are! I'm trying to bury a wireless transmitter in the floor, but that means it's one block too far away from the light on the ceiling. Also frustrated building some multiple floor houses and how to get power to the second floor. Either you have visual transmitters, or need to build walls/floors 3 blocks deep to hide them.

Even just trying to set up a string of street lights with power lines is tedious given how frequently you need to put down a transmitter. I feel like the transmitters need to have twice the range

Karate, Taekwondo, Jiu Jitsu? I've seen this and others advertised in my area. Looking into one of these for my 6 nearly 7 year old.

He's not that coordinated, already in PT for gross motor skills, doesn't want to do team spots. Would likely do better in a solo activity vs anything with a competition. On the spectrum.

Do all martial arts including sparing with partners or do some focus on just learning the skills? I'm slightly worried about teaching/encouraging fighting of any kind. We tried ninja classes but he didn't like it. Any of these more calm focused vs a crazy overstimulating class with a bunch of kids running around?

And I assume it depends on the gym, but I thought I'd try to narrow down which martial art before looking for options

I have plenty of books explaining how my child came to be (donor sperm and IVF) but I realized I haven't taught the whole natural conception aspect. It came up when we were talking about babies and kid asked about the donor. I hastly told him not all families use a donor but it reminded me that maybe I should explain that a bit better.

Any good books that explain it all, and ideally are a bit inclusive? I'd love a book that included adoption, donor material, but that might be a pipedream.

I want to avoid books that state "ALL babies start when a mommy and daddy love each other...."

What books do you like? Kid is 6 for reference

It always sneaks up on me. For Christmas I do gift cards and a handmade card from kid. Drawing a blank for teacher appreciation week. Kid also has a para and special Ed helper and various other helpers, so having kid draw a picture for teachers turns into a marathon session of art time with kid getting bored. Or we miss some of them