Our children struggle sleeping to a reasonable time on Christmas morning. The anticipation keeps them too wired. After the year where they started asking if they could get up at 3AM, we decided to let them open stockings and then play quietly in their rooms until a more reasonable hour. They actually tend to sleep later (or go back to sleep) this way. So, I generally put a few snacks, some sort of puzzle, a book for kids who can read, coloring books for kids who can't yet, matchbox cars, I did playdoh one year but I really regretted that...

My ten year old daughter is getting a subscription to Tinkercrate

I drill the kids on what to do if they are in a shooting, but otherwise, no. I am a worrier, and knowing the kids know what to do helps me.

This year they cut a portion moving the planned time from 2.5 hours to 2 hours, probably in response to parental complaints of how very long the recitals are. They put the most advanced students first most years: I think the idea is to have us preview the repertoire and have the kids see what they are working towards. It's just very hard for families with young children. My kids' teacher agrees with me that it's too long, but the director is the one who organizes the performances.

Both kids take group lessons, where they talk about and prepare for it at the group class. There's no way they wouldn't have known about it unless I skipped lessons for most of October and November.

I love this version, too! I love Silent Night, Noel Nouvelet, In the Bleak Midwinter, and Carol of the Bells.

After reading the choir thread, it made me rethink my plan of just popping in for the parts where my kids perform for their upcoming recital. I have a young infant who doesn't take a bottle and a young, antsy preschooler. The preschooler and his older brother have a group recital. The preschooler has only had lessons on his instrument for a couple of months, and the school expects me to get on stage to help him. I practice with the children every day and played the instrument for years: their father has hearing loss and does not feel confident helping him. The preschooler really anticipates his first recital. The school impresses upon us that we should stay for the whole recital, which is scheduled to last two hours. These performances always go longer than planned: one of the recitals ran almost 1.5 hours longer than scheduled. The children are expected to be quiet and still, even baby babbling is not permitted. My baby cannot do this at all, and my preschooler certainly can't do this for 2+ hours. If you were me, how would you handle the recital?

We very rarely use a compass. I set aside a compass for my tween for the AMC8 she will take today. One of my littles wandered off with it and won't cop to it (or doesn't remember). Do I need to make a special trip to the store for this? She hasn't used a compass for any of the practice tests, as far as I know, but the instructions say to bring one.

Thanks!

Sort of? I have a tween who is a mother's helper and got a few gigs through our music school. Through this, she now offers being "practice buddies" for some of those very young kids on her instrument. I don't think she'd have those gigs, though, if she hadn't been a mother's helper first.

Other than she got hit in the face? No. I just worry with her slight asymmetry that I could miss a slightly misaligned nose and it cause issues down the line. She got whacked Friday evening, and I had planned to call today when her doctor office opened, but now that it's already almost completely healed, I wonder if I should still call.

I have a child who got whacked in the face roughhousing with sibling. She has a small, superficial scrape on either side of her face that already (two days afterwards) looks like it will be gone soon), but no black eye, no swelling, no bruising, no bloody nose. She was born with slightly asymmetrical nostrils, so it's hard to tell if her nose is misaligned: if it is, it's very, very slight to the point where it just looks like her normal slight asymmetry. Would you call the doctor for this?

So, we really need to get our heating system fixed, as it is not moving air around well in the house. My goal is to keep my bedroom, the coldest main room of the house at least 62 degrees during the day, which often means setting the thermostat in the hallway at 75.

In my personal practice, I believe it to be a form of prayer. When reading with others, it can feel like prayer, it can feel like counseling, with hostile seekers it can feel like an awful test designed to see me fail... it really depends on the seeker.

Well, one of my kids is a preschooler, but even then, I'd feel uncomfortable asking the kids to keep secrets like that for me.

I do occasionally host homeschool meet-ups in my home. I often have cards out in my room, which is off limits but I've had a stray toddler wander in there anyway (and quickly ushered out). I couldn't guarantee that a kid would never see a book or deck put away on a bookshelf, but I've never had kids playing with tarot or oracles cards in my house that weren't my own. It's never been an issue, and if a parent or child noticed, they didn't say anything.

I read cards, mostly as a hobby but occasionally as a paying gig. I just got offered a very part-time job and am just trying to get a sense of how it might affect the kids socially if I accept and the kids mentioned it to some of our more religiously conservative acquaintances

If you homeschool for religious reasons, would you be comfortable with your kids being in a homeschool group with the kids of a card reader? Would you discourage a friendship with those kids?

Muffins, pancakes?

One of my kids takes a group music class at a music school. It's not expensive, but it's a requirement for private instruction that my kid takes concurrently, which is expensive. I noticed that we seemed to have a lot of substitutes. The teacher sent out an email today saying that she wouldn't teach again today, that she's had multiple mental health breakdowns over the last week, and is working to put her life back together. Is it likely that this teacher will reliably teach the rest of the year? Is it reasonable to pull my kid and ask for a refund? I feel sympathetic to this woman, but I definitely had the expectation of a consistent teacher for the class, not a revolving door of college students.

I don't like to parallel park, but I also don't like to park between two cars. Despite barely making it to story time today, I still managed to find one of my favorite parking spots. Is that too little of a thing?

My second kid got a gizmo at five, mostly because he and his older sister got them as gifts from grandparents. All they do is call me, my spouse, and grandparents. I've actually really liked them, and when my younger children start getting dropped off places, I'll probably get them ones, too.

I want these https://www.popsugar.com/entertainment/12-Days-Harry-Potter-Socks-Advent-Calendar-44229146

Maybe I'm being judgmental, but three moms I know admitted to having had a CPS investigation against them or their spouse. I was shocked. The reasons they gave seemed outrageous for an investigation. Is it really that common to have been investigated by CPS? Only one of them has ever homeschooled.

I think what I want to hear is other parents chime in that they have kids with asymmetrical tops of their heads. I spend a lot of time looking at people's heads, and while I definitely have noticed a lot of men with weird, bumpy shaved heads, it's hard to tell with kids. If I didn't know where my kid's bump was, I'm not sure I could see it. I know I didn't see or feel it for years, if it's been there all this time. So, if it's so normal - not a flat spot on the back of the head, but a bump or unevenness on the top of the head, I'd love to hear from other parents whose kids have this.