Writing. I miss it. I keep telling myself I'm going to work on something, but it's just... hard. There's not enough time as it is and I'm a slow writer. Maybe when the kids are older. Playing the violin. But now that Savannah is taking lessons, dh and I (he plays, too) have been getting out our instruments and are even working on a duet. :wub: Math. Like the crazy abstract proofs stuff. Does that count as a talent? Anyway it's hard and fun, but more than the other two, I'm not sure I could do it anymore if I tried. Mommy brain or something. I really don't feel like I'm as sharp mentally as I used to be.

Here are a few favorites from my notebook: Savannah: Pi isn't a number! Me: But it is! Savannah: No, it isn't! Me: Yes, it is! Savannah: No, it isn't! Me: Yes, it is! Savannah: Pi can't be a number -- it starts with "P," for goodness sake! Savannah, with a cloth over her face: What do I look like? Me: A ninja. Savannah: What's a ninja? Somebody who takes care of teeth? Me: Thank you for using the potty, Savannah. Savannah: Oh! Thank YOU! ...for caring!

This. It really depends on the tone and exact words, but yes, I think it could be appropriate if said in a lighthearted or gentle and helpful way, not in a spirit of trying to get rid of the guy and not in the spirit of disparaging the daughter. Better still, though, would be for the dad to discuss it with his daughter after the proposal (so as not to spoil the surprise) and say something like, "Are you sure he can handle you? Does he know about this side of you?" and to be sure they are getting premarital counseling that deals with that kind of thing. My dh knew from my honesty that I have a temper, and I think it was important for him to know that ahead of time. It wasn't necessarily my dad's responsibility to make sure dh knew that, but one way or another I think it's good for the parents to encourage the couple to work through character issues during the engagement.

It's a battle every night to get Savannah to brush her teeth. She hates every toothpaste we have tried. Any suggestions for a brand or flavor she couldn't possibly turn her nose up at?

Any tips before I write ours? (And please don't say not to send them. We're sending them anyway, lol.)

My uncle always used to send a funny card even if he didn't send a gift. I guess at some point he stopped sending them at all. Maybe a special card -- funny if that's your thing, or handmade if you do that, or generic if you like -- would be something to ease the transition.

I have much higher expectations for the kids' bedroom than for the playroom. The bedroom is bare-bones, though... nothing but clothes and beds and a little treasure basket stored under the bed. Dirty clothes are expected to go directly into the hamper (kept in the room) and toys aren't allowed in the bedroom except for a couple of stuffed animals to sleep with. The beds can be left unmade (though dd likes to make hers), and fairly often I will leave a basket of clean, unfolded clothes in the room somewhere. (But that's on me.) I'm also bad about dusting and vacuuming. The playroom gets picked up maybe once a week. We try to keep toys to a minimum, but even then the blocks or legos can get scattered around the room and make it *look* bad. Doesn't take too long to pick up in reality. ETA: My kids are all 5 and under. Once we split up girls and boys, we won't be able to keep a separate toy room, and I don't know how we'll do things.

I think the problem is that she wants a closer relationship than I can offer. I'm not necessarily asking for tips, although I am open to them. I'm happy to try to make it work -- we'll be a part of each other's lives for a long time. But it's also hard, and this is a safe place to vent. :)

Three English muffin halves with butter and two cups of tea.

I will forever be known to some family friends as "Princess [Cottonmama]" because in second grade, class picture day was on Halloween, and I wore my princess crown for the picture. IMO that's on my mom, but I get all the flack for it. ;-) So I say don't let her do it if there will be pictures.

I bet my sil would like a sil like that also...

My very extroverted SIL lives on the other end of the country, so although dh and I have been married for 6 1/2 years, as an introvert I don't feel super-close to her. (I've seen her face-to-face four times in my life.) But SIL likes to chat and Skype and talk on the phone like we're best friends. .... I never feel like I know what to say, while she is gushing about how much she misses me. I just don't feel the same connection she does. :sad: :sad: Anyone have a family member like this? Do you eventually develop a close friendship over the years? Or is it always... awkward and one-sided for you? :sad:

When we first started school in September, we were able to start around 9:30 and finish school by lunchtime. She had good focus in the mornings back then. I can't say which causes which, but I will say that the later we start school, the more it seems like I am fighting for her attention with school. It's so frustrating; we had a beautiful first month of school, then we got sick and let school go, and I cannot get it back. The last two days of school have been especially miserable, and I've been blaming it on how late the day has started. Maybe there's more to it than that. Mostly I just want the smooth and easy days we had at first.

I definitely don't just rely on the door hangers to remind her... I might start by telling her she needs to go do her morning routine, and as she does it, I ask what she still needs to do. In our home the bedrooms are on the same level as the kitchen and the school room, so I can tell that she has gone to her room to get dressed, or to the bathroom to brush her teeth. Unfortunately, the trouble is that she doesn't come back from doing those things very quickly. And then (maybe this is the root of the problem...) when I go back there to help her stay on task, I feel like I have to make good use of that time; so while I am making sure she gets dressed, I will fold laundry or clean something nearby. Maybe that just doesn't amount to enough oversight for her. We really have a lot of trouble with her dawdling and getting distracted. One of the folks here mentioned Ambleside Online... I think the CM answer would be to let other things slide a bit to work on her staying on task, just as you do when you have a sick child and you need to nurse them back to health. It is a temporary thing that deserves some extra attention for now. Later on, maybe I can spare some attention for chores nearby like I'd like to do. Absolutely; I would not consider delaying breakfast so long. My intent is to use this as a natural time limit on her morning routine.

We are having trouble getting started at a reasonable time. Getting up earlier is not a good option for me right now because the baby still wakes frequently at night, and I get sick if I go more than two nights without 9 hours of sleep. So I'm trying to look for ways to streamline the mornings. We have door hangers that list a morning routine for my oldest two: Eat breakfast, brush teeth, go potty, get dressed. (We are not particular about order, but I do tend to feed them breakfast first.) I am not too picky with my 2yo... he already brushes teeth at night, and he'll get his pants at least changed when I change his diaper... but my 5yo is expected to do this before school and she just. drags. her. feet. every. morning. By the time she is done with everything, she is hungry again. I told her this morning that in the future she will not get breakfast until she has done the rest of her morning routine. (Is that mean of me? But it's almost 11 and we STILL haven't started school!) Anyone here great at getting the kids moving in the mornings? How do you make it work, especially when you have lots of littles? (I have two in diapers here, so *I* have trouble getting ready for school in a reasonable timeframe, too!)

Yeah, I'd been hoping to use it with Savannah, but even if she slowed way down, I don't think it would be out in time. At least this way we have more time to (hopefully) get to the point where we can afford it... :D

I'm curious... does anyone else have subjects that seem to be time sinks? Savannah can just go on and on with math, and before I know it we've spent an hour or more on it. She loves it, so maybe that's good? But if I'm not careful, we end up with too little time to do anything else, or we end up hungry and eating lunch at 1:30. Other subjects (except maybe science... we've just done one lesson from BFSU so far) don't seem to have this problem, but I really find math to be a balancing act. It does take time to do it right, but I can't let it go on and on without limits. What subjects do this to you? Do you do something to rein it in, or do you go with the flow?

I try to make simple whole food meals for everyday dinners, but in a crisis, I let myself have a little less conviction about whole foods, and we rely more on prepared foods. I would also be willing to switch to paper plates because part of what makes cooking at home stressful is the dishes. Line everything with aluminum foil or parchment paper. Frozen meatballs with spaghetti and jarred pasta sauce Frozen meatballs with an easy Swedish meatball sauce. (there's a good one on Allrecipes.com) Frozen meatballs, baked plain, with rice and a frozen (or easy) vegetable. Fish sticks with french fries and a vegetable Hot dogs with sliced apples and chips Black bean burgers (morningstar brand) and sweet potato fries Homemade sub sandwiches Homemade meatball subs Chicken parmesan made with frozen breaded chicken breasts Baby lima beans cooked with salt, pepper, and olive oil; and sweet potatoes or sweet potato fries Tacos. Ideally I freeze up some shredded chicken before the crisis. If not, we will probably use ground meat. If your family will eat it, use beans/lentils instead of meat. Rotisserie chicken with rice and a frozen (or easy) vegetable. -or with a baked potato/sweet potato and a salad (a whole roast chicken isn't that much more work; depends on the crisis) Frozen pizza Frozen lasagna (or make an easy meat-free lasagna) Bagel pizza Ham soup (country ham bits, tomatoes or tomato juice, water, and frozen soup vegetables in the crock pot) Chicken soup (shredded chicken, tomato juice, chicken stock and frozen soup vegetables in the crock pot) Chili Pot roast done simply. I find cutting potatoes to be too much in a crisis, so we would do baked potatoes or rice with this. Curried lentils with rice Chicken thighs in the crock pot with rice and a frozen vegetable

My mom got me the Classroom Friendly Supplies one (this) for Christmas. Haven't used it super-frequently as my dd is still doing lots of her work in crayon or golf-sized pencils, so I can't speak to durability, but I love how sharp it gets the pencils. I almost can't give freshly sharpened pencils to my dc.

All facial tissue counts. :-)

We have a box in every room except the playroom (because it would get played with :-P), the kids' bedroom (same reason), and the kitchen. Our room and our bathroom each have two.

Okay, silly poll, but our family took a trip recently where we stayed with some other families, and I was totally surprised that neither of them keep many boxes of kleenex in their homes. I wondered if that was normal, or if we just got an odd sampling. Soooo... if you added up all the rooms in your house, and all the available boxes of Kleenex/tissue in your house (i.e. opened boxes), what is the ratio of boxes of kleenex to rooms? ETA: include bathrooms and kitchens, but not hallways, closets, or pantries. If you have an open box of kleenex that people use in one of those places, you can still count it. ETA: This is not a brand loyalty poll... all facial tissues count. I just tend to call them all kleenex.

Not directly. My dad always described college as "certifying my brain." I certified it in technical areas, but I could have just as easily certified it in humanities. And I think without that certification, I would still be basically as capable of teaching my kids as I am now. I just have a piece of paper that helps me convince other people that I'm capable. That being said, I think it's possible that for some folks who didn't get things the first time around, going to college and being required to take a remedial class or two, or have a little more practice in something or other, might have made them a better homeschooler. But then, college isn't the only way to get that. (And it's an expensive way at that.) Well, it depends on what you mean by "educated." My goal in going to engineering school was to become proficient at the technical things I would need at my job. I think it speaks well of my education that I was able to take a job fresh out of school at a respected research center and make valuable contributions right away. I think people who worked with me would consider me well-educated. My college education was very targeted, though. The humanities portion of it was sorely lacking, and as a result, I imagine I have some things to brush up on before I teach them to my kids. Or to learn alongside my kids. But I'm not sure one is more valuable than the other. Learning is fun to me, and IME that attitude can make either kind of education work well. Here's a question for anyone who's still here: how much of your self-education these days is targeted to your teaching (preparing for a lesson, reading aloud, investigating questions your kids ask), and how much of it is intentionally filling in your own educational gaps, with no direct idea of when your kids will learn it?

I have a BS in computer science and a minor in math. DH has a BS in math, a BS in computer science, and a master's in math.

We're studying addition in Singapore Math 1A, and Savannah needs practice making ten and counting on (adding 1, 2, or 3 by counting up from the other addend). I have found plenty of "make ten" games, but just one "counting on" game (I'm adapting the ladder game in Games For Math by Peggy Kaye to work this way). We also count on with c-rods. But I'd like some more ideas -- does anyone have any game ideas for us to try?