I completely agree with this. I think this is a case where you need to give the uncle grace. His mother died recently, and he is trying to show kindness to your older children. He was mistaken that the 8 year old was too young to be included in this. The favoritism that you see might just be because he is more comfortable talking with the older children, than the younger ones. If this happened in my own home, I would have a casual conversation with my husband about the kindness shown in the act, along with mentioning that hopefully the 8 year old would be included if it happened again the future. If this happened again next year, at that point, I would not hesitate to privately explain to your B-I-L that it could cause hurt feelings among your children.

I think the aim of the shows is for toddlers and pre-schoolers. A non-reader will not have a problem watching the shows. The words are flashed on the screen when they are said by the narrator. The videos used to be available through the Netflix, so perhaps you can watch them before you order them.

I recommend going to REI. You can call them ahead of time to see if they still have one in his size.

Where did you buy your bento boxes? My daughters have seen some featured in magazine articles and they thought they were so cute. I think it would end up being more work for me to pack them, compared to just a sandwich and apple slices, but I think that forcing me to use more variety would be healthier in the long run.

I just wanted to make a quick correction. Castellano is the official name for the Spanish language in Spain. It is the same language spoken in Mexico and Spain and Peru. The exceptions are regional differences like accent and some different names for objects and slang.

You asked "how do I get all these things done?" I recommend continuing to teach them the core subjects, but just not every day. Save a day or two or a whole week at times to studying all those books you are getting from the library. You'll probably still finish the the phonics and math books within the year. And I echo that you don't need to teach them formal grammar. FLL1 is easy for a bright child and once your daughter is older you can do multiple lessons at a time (and skip it at other times) so you could get through the first level within four months. If you are using FLL because of the poetry memorization, there are other avenues to doing that. We actually skip the poetry portion of FLL1 because I have them do memory work as a separate subject. I live in a city so I have close access to museums, theater shows, a variety of field trips, nature opportunities, zoo, aquarium, etc. There's actually too many choices in this area for young children and it makes my head swarm at times. Do you have that available? If I lived farther away from those activities, I would probably do more academics like you are doing, because I wouldn't be so exhausted from not being home. :) Have people mentioned teaching your children another language? I couldn't remember if that was something you were already doing. The Latin song cd is nice and can be kept fun for kids rather than formal sit-down work. That is certainly something you could do to replace grammar study. Now that my oldest is six, I've seen a huge jump and in the type of elaborate play and projects she can do (and the same goes for my four year old). Sure they played when they were younger, but that wasn't challenging enough for my oldest and she needed my direction in lessons because it was fun for her. Now she can spend more time and dig deeper on her own doing crafts and pretend play (indoors or out) because she has matured in creativity. There are times that doing a formal lesson is an interruption to her from her plans of play. That wasn't the case at all when she was younger. Oh, and you mentioned you collapse at the end of the day. That's me every day (I am so exhausted from my fourth pregnancy right now). If you keep it a bit easier on yourself during the day, you might enjoy studying up on the classics or another subject in the evening. I think if you can handle it, this might be a good time to focus on subjects that might come down the road with teaching bright kids, like logic, Latin, and whatnot. At least that is what I would like to be doing if I wasn't so mentally and physically exhausted throughout my day.

Yes, I guess I also pay more for dance and sports classes. Around here the fee is about $15 for a 45 minute to 1 hour long sports class. Classical Conversations is for 24 weeks a year, right? So that would come out to about $18 for each session, which is over a couple of hours long. I'm considering Foundations for next year or the year after that but I still need to do more research - attend a meeting, see it in action, etc. I really want to start my children on music lessons, but that fee is over $30 for each lesson, not including instrument rental.

The fee schedule you mentioned, is that for each child or for the whole family?

Neither pronunciation! This is definitely one of my pet peeves. Yes, the "wah" is wrong, but so is saying "know-uh". We don't seperate the say the o and a sound seperately in that word because there is no accent mark on either vowel. The ending vowels make one full sound together "Key-nwah"

The kit from Costco says to wait 3 hours for it to dry before decorating. We haven't had a problem with ours and not-so-gentle toddler and preschool hands. If you do get those kits, I recommend buying extra candy.

Yes! I have had depression during pregnancy. I was surprised because I had never heard of it before and I was quite glad to be pregnant and even planned to have my first three children. But the depression hit me hard. I thought of it as being on emotional bedrest. I did not have any postpartum depression. In my case, I think low Vitamin D, general tiredness, and intense all-day throwing up had a great part in it. We can tell you what might alleviate it, specific vitamins, exercise, sunlight exposure, etc., but it isn't like you necessarily have the time or inclination to implement it, right? Could your husband help get you on a treatment plan so you don't feel the responsibility all on your own? And anti-depressants have their own side-effects that sometimes takes a few trials to figure out the right combination or dosage. Insomnia is one the main ones that made me resist going that route. I hope you are able to find some relief.

What a loony person! Parking spots would have to be marked. And I doubt Costco would be marking spots for extra large, but not medium-size SUVs.

For those of you the have had success in math, I'm curious why you chose not to use Right Start Math or Math-U-See? My oldest child is almost finished with Right Start Math Level A (Kindergarten) and I am at a crossroads with what to purchase after this. I understand the need to provide a math-rich learning environment through games and books, but the bulk of my math teaching will still be driven by the curriculum I choose. Did you find those programs lacking? How so?

You can go to allrecipes.com and get a recipe for Cuban Pork roast. I made one recently that involved marinating in lime, lemon, orange juice, and sherry. It also called for toasting cumin seed beforehand, but I just added cumin powder. I didn't have to smoke it, but I did cook it for several hours in my cast iron pot with lid.

I think they just mean that it would have to be somebody of high caliber to have the ability to intelligently argue with Lincoln.