Your experience of the trades is very different from ours. Are you union? My spouse is. You have to pass a test in order to get into the apprenticeship, so at least you are literate. You have to pass a drug test to get into the union and many jobs require random drug testing, so it's harder to have a drug problem (other than alcohol) than many white collar jobs. I know at least some of the employers do background checks, because my spouse has had them when changing companies.That said, the apprentices digging trenches are making significantly more than $10/hr. My spouse does not make six figures. He's probably at the top of where he can go without college. It did destroy his back. However, we are a single income family (and always have been) and home owners. He now works an office job related to plumbing. I really love the apprenticeship model. I really love that his company takes estimators and project managers from the field rather than people who have never worked construction. I would love to see this model implemented in more occupations. In the mean time, though? I would recommend my kids look hard at the trades.

SWeaters can include sweatshirts, especially hoodies

I'd get Catan Jr. for the four year old, as it's one of my favorite games for little kids, and then normal Catan for the older kids.

I don't carry snacks for the kids. Snacks are only at home. We have an anytime drawer that they can get snacks: it has fruit, boiled eggs, nuts, veggies..., but it's not formally served

I just gave table food whenever I was feeding anyone else. I didn't nurse on a schedule, so sometimes they ate food first, sometimes they nursed. It didn't affect my supply.

So, we are the only family with children at this point, and somehow, it became a game among extended family to try to find the loudest/messiest/most obnoxious toys they could find to give to the kids. They give other things, too, but this is part of it. I try to be a good sport, and most of those toys I just dump back at the giver's house after the initial enthusiasm for it abates in my house. However, the pet took this way further, and I've wondered if I should have nipped this game in the bud way earlier.

Last year, one set of grandparents gave one of my kids a pet for Christmas, even after I explicitly told them that no pets were allowed, that I wasn't up to taking care of a pet. It took me months to get them to take the pet back to their home, and it definitely upset my kid (but I was pregnant with a bunch of kids and just couldn't care properly for this creature). I really don't want a repeat of last year: so, how do you enforce rules about gift giving on extended family?

We took off a couple months when I had a baby. We tend to take off days my spouse is home. We are going on a trip this summer and won't do school then. However, we don't take a lot of long breaks just because: some parts of the year are lighter than others, but they don't tend to do well with long periods of unstructured time and starting school back up then is painful, so mostly, we don't completely stop

So, I do have a baby and other small kids in the home. Our heating situation also really needs to be revamped. I set my thermostat between 70-74, with the goal of keeping my bedroom above 65 degrees. Being cold really negatively affects my mood.

We daily as a family walk and do some yoga. I had a baby this summer too little for biking, but it's something we'll probably pick up again once it warms up. It's the higher intensity workouts that we struggle with more and have outsourced to sports

I will have to look more into this. We have not tried martial arts.

We actually do a "hiking club," but I have small children, as do others who participate, so it does not end up high enough intensity. We've looked into rock climbing, as she loved climbing trees when she was younger, but it was pricey and she was unenthusiastic.

My daughter is competitive and likes the social aspect of team sports. She just doesn't like the physical activity aspect of it. Keeping her moving as we approach the teen years is important to me. We've tried dance, but a lot of the dance programs around here get pretty serious by eight years old. She did skating last year and thought it was okay. She doesn't like running, though she will run for soccer or basketball or whatever

My tween is not especially into sports. I think team sports have a lot of side benefits, so we've encouraged dabbling in them. As she reached upper elementary school, the number of sports the park district offered started to dwindle. By next grade, there's very, very little. I don't want the expense, travel, or time commitment of club sports: she's just not that into it. How does everyone handle sports participation for older kids who aren't especially sporty?

Yes, I have definitely changed my opinion on many things as I've encountered new ways to look at things in the course of a light-hearted debate.

Anyone administer the IOWA Basics through Seton? I just received our test results: the norms are set to November 2005! I didn't realize this would be so old. Are these test results even useful?

When we had fewer kids and they were much younger, we used to do toys.Our gifts were always overshadowed and lost in the huge quantities of gifts from relatives. Our family has grown: our home has not. I already dread finding homes for the new acquisitions and the huge fights getting rid of stuff to enable the influx of new stuff brings.

I actually have a different child who has loved, loved, loved playing violin since he was very, very little. After seeing how many of his teachers have masters degrees in music but are now teaching tots to play violin and struggling financially, I definitely hope he doesn't opt to do it professionally. Still, there's something priceless about watching a child play who absolutely loves it...

If your tween has played piano for several years casually (practices every day but it's not a main interest), how long is their lesson? We recently switched piano teachers, and again, this new teacher wants my kid to take longer lessons. They are expensive. She's not passionate about it. I'm not sure if my expectations around lesson length for this age is off. So, how long is your intermediate tween's lesson?

I'm not sure. I'm not even sure he'd qualify: my oldest had/has more severe speech issues and went to public kindergarten but did not qualify for services (but did qualify for private services). The articulation errors has would be perfectly normal in a child who was three, which are most kids in his grade level at this point. I know the public school only does group therapy, so I'm not sure if it would help or not.

This kid definitely struggles with self-control and following directions... but I definitely wonder if putting him with a bunch of less mature kids will really foster him to act more mature, since odds are a lot of those kids are more immature than him, you know?

My oldest went to the public kindergarten with a more severe speech issue (but the SLP still decided it wasn't severe enough to qualify - though I still regret that I didn't take her privately then!) and academically advanced: reading chapter books and being able to do math with regrouping and square small numbers... and kindergarten was a complete and utter mess and ultimately led us to homeschooling. I really want this child to have a more positive experience, and I do think the lack of academic accommodation played a large role in why things went poorly.

So, my firstborn obsessively read Little House on the Prairie from about the ages of four until 6/7 years old, and I loved what Ma said so much that I read this every year to my kids, even though none of the others found the series anywhere near as compelling.

From us, yes. They will get a bunch of toys from other family members on that day, so we don't do toys: I just don't find they appreciate an additional toy from us when they will get so very many from other family.

None of the kids will get toys under the tree from us: they are the only grandchildren on both sides of the family, and the grandparents, uncles, and aunts tend to give them so many toys that we don't feel it necessary for any toys to come from us.