We just dropped my almost four year old's nap. We moved up his bedtime by an hour. He now goes to bed at 7pm. He is kind of a mess by 5pm, but by then it's really just dinner, bath, get ready for bed, read with mama, and then sleep. He's cranky, but we keep the expectation low.

So excited! I hope the actual book is out when we start the school year!

cross-posting to the accelerated learner board My rising fifth grader finished Beast Academy. While we waited for Beast titles to published, she played on Alcumus a lot. We did the "Do You Need This?" test for pre-algebra and she breezed through it. If we skipped pre-Algebra, we would probably do the middle school competition math book exclusively until her AMC8 test this fall and then start Algebra, which she would love. However, I'm nervous about skipping a formal pre-algebra curriculum. If you skipped pre-Algebra using AoPS, do you regret it? Did it work well?

cross-posting to the main curricula board My rising fifth grader finished Beast Academy. While we waited for Beast titles to published, she played on Alcumus a lot. We did the "Do You Need This?" test for pre-algebra and she breezed through it. If we skipped pre-Algebra, we would probably do the middle school competition math book exclusively until her AMC8 test this fall and then start Algebra, which she would love. However, I'm nervous about skipping a formal pre-algebra curriculum. If you skipped pre-Algebra using AoPS, do you regret it? Did it work well?

My husband is an estimator and project manager for a construction company as well as works construction in the trades. It has worked very well for us. If our kids wanted to join the trades, we would be thrilled, though we would strongly, strongly recommend that they only do it if they are doing it through a paid, union apprenticeship and are committed to living in this area or another area that has a strong union like where we live.

no ideas on how to fix the color?

My three year old just spilled coffee all over my seven year old's school binder (and some other stuff but this is what I mostly care about). Is there any way to salvage it? He put so much work into that stuff!

We already do "Fix your feet." He's already seen a podiatrist and a pediatric orthopedic surgeon last summer who just gave us a wait and see, that most kids outgrow it.

We were told he would outgrow this by three, but he still hasn't. Has anyone had an almost four year old who still in-toed? He has his well-child next month, and I'm wondering what to expect? It's mostly one foot.

I have four kids. There's always someone who doesn't like what's for dinner. That question is really just a way to start the whining about dinner hours before dinner instead of delaying it until dinner time.

Several weeks ago, my kid had a splinter on the bottom of his foot. We removed it, or so we thought. I was giving him a bath yesterday, and as I washed it, I thought I saw something. I pressed on it, and he said it hurt, so using a needle and tweezers, we tried to remove any lingering splinter but couldn't find any. He is three, so it's hard to say whether it really hurt him or if we planted the idea. Now he's limping slightly some of the time, I am guessing from us looking for the splinter. Should I call the doctor or give it a few days to heal from us messing with it?

My rising fifth grader has finished all of Writing With Ease 1-3 and is about halfway through the fourth book. She still struggles with holding dictation sentences in her head and spelling, but otherwise, she's done fine. (She does All About Spelling, and we're happy with that.) I am debating whether to move onto Writing With Skill in fifth grade or doing Faltering Ownership this year and saving Writing With Skill for sixth. Thoughts?

Does anyone have this? I've heard it's not uncommon for people to have multiple huge babies like me. My midwife said that I'm not at risk of prolapse, but consulting Dr. Google, it seems like cytoceles are prolapses? She said it's ideal to have physical therapy but also recommended a program I can try at home first. I'd love to hear what others have done that helped (or didn't help) with this issue. Thanks!

Does anyone use an alarm to alert you to littles slipping out of the house? If so, what would you recommend? It has never happened, but he can now unlock the door.

Between four and six as long as you have gentle expectations

We live about that far, too. We'd be going with only four kids, but the youngest will only be a few months old. Four hours away we will still get to enjoy a partial eclipse.

I used to lament about this, but I realized that when an extrovert adopts me, I tend to get burnt out on the relationship eventually. I prefer to get my social needs met primarily through texting, messaging, FB... if I see you more than once a month on a regular basis without kids, you are about as close of a friend as I want at this point. My kids and marriage eat up most of my social energy: I don't have a lot to spend on friendship

I go to the same library as I did when I grew up. When I was a kid, they had a big trolley in the children's section. I remember a lot of wildness there, but they are good memories. The play area is a lot more sedate now for my kids. The children's section is on a different floor than the young adult and adult section. I feel like it works.

Allegedly. In reality I found fitting four kids in a minivan challenging

Is this a neighborhood school? Are there kids in your neighborhood who attend the school who aren't already his friends? Has he had bad interactions with them? Obviously I don't know the whole situation, but if there's a chance that he might make new friends over the summer who attend this school, I'd probably wait on sending the letter.

My husband has a Honda Civic and I drive a Toyota Sienna. If we're in the city looking to park on the street, sometimes I can have trouble finding a spot big enough to park my van. But in terms of skills? I think it takes less skill to parallel park a minivan than a your car. The back of the van is the back of the car. I drove a Honda Accord before moving to a van, and while it did initially feel huge, I didn't find it hard to acclimate.

Thanks for the hugs. I wish I could sleep. I'm staying awake during the only long stretch of sleep the baby has worrying and feeling guilty, which isn't going to make things any easier tomorrow. Plus, it makes waiting for tomorrow take even longer. It's going to take a while to set things right, and I'm impatient to start. At least I'm slaying the laundry pile.

My kids mostly drink out of straws when we go to Chipotle and they have straws on the milks in the kids' meals. Most of the straws I use are from Starbucks. I've bought straws for birth kits and for science, art, and craft projects over the years, but it's not something I tend to buy for day to day drinking. However, pretty much by the time I need straws, we've lost all the straws I bought last time. Straws are cheap and can often come in a pack numbering a couple hundred. So, maybe I do?

I just realized that I made a big mistake. I feel awful about it. I want to fix it. In the morning, I will start to take the steps to do so. I'm scared of the consequences, though, and I can't sleep. Why does it have to be easier to keep ignoring the problem I didn't even notice for so long?

People post those types of articles to connect with like-minded friends, not to have a debate