:blushing:Obviously, that should be "hundreds."

Here's a place where you can practice note recognition. My kids got the link from their piano teacher.

Yep, we've used duct tape, too. We only had to use it for a few weeks until she got out of the habit. She still takes off her diaper if she is trying to tell me she wants a bath or if she wants to sit on the toilet. (Not to use the potty, yet. She just likes to drop bits of toilet paper between her legs like she's seen everybody else do. :001_rolleyes:) But she doesn't take off the diaper just because she can anymore.

The problems with trying to find it by listening to clips are: 1) Bach wrote a LOT of fugues. (dozens, if not humdreds) 2) Fugues are usually paired with something (Bach wrote them that way) - Toccata and Fugue, or Prelude and Fugue - so clips usually don't get to the Fugue before they end. The suggestion to digitize it and see if someone recognizes it is probably the OP's best bet. The professor I had for music history years ago could probably nail it in one. He was the organ professor and so enthusiastic about Bach that we called him Dr. Bach behind his back. (I think Bach is his specialty.) If the web community can't identify it, you could try your nearest university's music faculty.

I'm too old. We still had a working air-raid siren on the playground, though they had just recently given up holding drills for that by the time I attended. Just fire drills, and we discussed earthquake safety, but never drilled for one.

Glad I stumbled across it. There is one piece of Thomas track that I have to enthusiastically recommend as a mommy sanity saver, even if you mostly have another brand. I can't even guess how many hours I spent down on the floor trying to make my son's creations connect up ("Mommy! Fix my track! It doesn't work") before we found this. It's called Wacky Track, and it's flexible, so you can get around strange corners. I haven't seen anything similar from any of the other manufacturers.

We've made these from Alton Brown, after watching the little video enough times to catch the ingredients, but they do have sugar. They were yummy!

Here's a nice analysis of various brands I just ran across while finding the links for my above post.

My oldest is a train lover. Brio can be just as expensive as the Thomas trains, but they aren't branded. He says the new Chuggington wooden trains are also compatible (but, again, they are branded, and just as expensive.) Melissa & Doug trains are also compatible (though we don't have any of these), as are the trains at IKEA. (Though the connection on the IKEA tracks can be a little snug when attached to the other tracks. My son says especially when attached to the other non-branded tracks.) He also has a smaller version of this set from Target, and it's completely compatible. (He is reading over my shoulder and insisted that I add "completely" before "compatible.") He says it's this one, though we got it at Target. He's even got some of these "Name Trains" alphabet pieces, though the wheels fell off right away. One advantage of the Thomas tracks is that they are scored inside the grooves. If you have a battery operated train, this does help the train not jump the track, especially on curves and hills. Lots of options, really.

We started with Earlybird Kindergarten (Singapore) done orally at 3ish and reading (McOmber phonics readers) at 4ish. Nothing formal, just when each of them asked for it. Oldest was about six when we first started anything formal on a daily basis. Second child, two years younger, immediately demanded taking part, so she was about four. I let the younger child opt out when she wasn't interested (which wasn't often, and she often asked for Starfall instead on those occassions). That's also about when we joined a co-op, too. That said, we've always been readers, and I've read them both fiction and non-fiction from the very beginning (like, in utero). Bedtime reading usually lasts as long as my voice can take it.

Oldest will be nine in eight weeks. Next will be seven in six weeks. Baby will be two at Christmas. Unless you count DH, and I'm often tempted. He's 42.

How is the niece's relationship with her parents? Is it possible she didn't really want to come and they insisted? It was inconsiderate to bring guests without asking, but she may have brought them for moral support because she's aware of the family dynamics and isn't ready to navigate them by herself yet. If that's a possibility, I'd be inclined to cut the niece some slack.

I wish you all hadn't told us about that. I just got back and spent way too much, even at a dollar a piece! :001_rolleyes::blush:

We use the US Edition. I don't collect teacher/parent guides, and haven't needed them yet, so that wasn't a factor. I had most of the basic books already when the Standards Edition came out, and don't see a need to reinvent a working wheel.

Our first day back, too. It went better than I expected. The olders cooperated. The WeeOne, though, was entirely not happy not being the center of attention. I tried to give her parallel activities, but except for "practicing piano" with her brother, to his great distraction, she didn't approve. That slowed us down quite a bit. She did like "sharpening pencils" (she doesn't have the strength yet to push the pencils in far enough to get anywhere). We had one or two things we didn't get to, but we got the three R and piano and science, so it was good.

She's got her cause and effect backwards! My public-schooled brother talked like that* at that age. He's gifted; he's never been officially tested, but the school counselors (old school kind that helped pick us pick a college, rather than an ADHD medication) estimated him at 145+, probably closer to 155. With all the cuts in gifted education funding, you have to homeschool kids like that now. --- *He still talks like that. It just doesn't stand out as much in a 38 year-old!

Leggings. I can't convince MIL and SIL to stop buying leggings for DD6. Sure, they look cute with the long, matching tunic tops they bought to match, but when she gets dressed in them, she pairs them with a comfy, short T-shirt. This leaves them stretched across her curvy little backside to the point that everyone can see the design on her undies. I also can't convince them that DD6 does not wear size 6 (she needs 8) and that DD8 does not wear size 8 (he needs 10H or 12). (They are not fat, but they are not skinny either, and they are both tall for their age. DS8 is the tallest in his cub scout den by a full head. He and I wear the same size shoes and hats.) The funny thing is, we are only 35 miles away from the ILs. We see them all. the. time, so you'd think they'd notice that DS8 is as tall as SIL's 12 year old. GMIL is very fond of polyester. Need I say more?

Wow! We need a club! But I have a theory as to why I don't like phones: Like many introverts, I'm a people watcher. I get my social cues from watching people's faces. You lose that on the phone. For some reason, I don't feel that on the internet, but it does take me forever to compose a simple message. I have to read and reread it until I'm sure I'm saying it right. Extroverts do sometimes get the idea that introverts are shy, but that's something different. I like this explanation I read somewhere. A shy person, and introvert, and an extrovert all get invited to a party. The shy person either doesn't go, or spends all her time in the kitchen/bathroom (away from everyone.) The introvert goes to the party and gravitates to one-on-one conversation or small groups. She goes home saying, "That was a fun party," but falls into bed exhausted from the effort of interacting with people. The extrovert goes to the party, tells jokes, talks to everyone, and has a great time. She goes home and takes on a two hour project because she is charged up from all those great interactions.

It would be the "probably getting married in a private ceremony" that would get me, too. Putting the reception first can just be logistics. In fact, my mom and her fiancé are having their reception at home today (where all their friends are), and are getting married here next Friday (where all her kids are), and for their honeymoon, are going to a medical center so he can start treatment in time to get it over with before they move south for the winter. Not traditional, but very practical. For dress at your bil's reception, I would dress as you would if you had been invited to the reception, but not the wedding. In my case, that would be based on the venue. If it's in a church cultural/rec hall, I'd probably wear a skirt and blouse. If it's at a restaurant or outdoors in town, I'd wear slacks and a blouse. If it's "up the canyon," nice jeans and a blouse. Etc.

No, huh, uh, not acceptable. With all the allergies and medical diets people have to follow, you CANNOT make a food substitution without permission. Even one pork product for another, because they are prepared differently, by different cooking methods using different spices. And the other poster who mentioned being asked "to pick it off." No. It leaves residue. If you are allergic, it is enough to cause problems. The only acceptable, professional thing to do is to contact the customer and ask if you can make a substitution, and if you've made a mistake, you need to ask if your proposed solution is acceptable. DH thinks I'm funny, because I am an introvert who hates confrontation in real-life (my online alter ego can be quite different), but the one thing that gets me up there talking to the manager every time is a mistake in our order. (I'm polite, but insistent.)

I have to chuckle about the bolded, as my response to classical literature when I was young was, â€Why are they always about orphans or invalids?†(or both) For example, Dorothy (and Ozma) from the Wizard of Oz, Sara Crewe from â€The Little Princess,†Betsy from †Understood Betsy,†pretty much every character Charles Dickens ever wrote, the children in †The Secret Garden,†Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn. I think the difficulty with contemporary literature is that too many of us as parents either don't have the time, or worse, don't have the interest, to pre-read the books before we offer them to our children. I've heard complaints from parents about how they've heard that some book or another teaches bad values (often a book I've read and loved) and my first question is always, †Have you read it?†Many of them look at me blankly like they've never heard of such a concept.

1. He has a marvelous first tenor voice, and sings with our local chapter of the Barbershop Harmony Society (formerly SPEBQSA), where he is also assistant director. 2. He has GPS built in. (DS8 inherited this.) Somehow, he just knows how locations relate to each other and never needs more than a quick look at google maps to find his way to a new place. 3. He can pack a trunk like nobody's business. Probably related to number 2, as he just seems to know how things are going to fit together. 4. He knows what the next track is going to be before it starts on any cd we own, and can quote the entire dialog, line for line, from any of the original three Star Wars movies. 5. He's a big Star Wars fan and was even a member of the 501st Garrison for several years, for which he created a movie quality costume. (He chose biker scout.) He reluctantly quit when it started affecting his health. (They do a lot of charity events, in very warm costumes, and one of his meds makes him sensitive to that.) 6. He talked me into letting him get a motorcycle "because it gets better gas mileage." 7. He is a fabulous cook. He might be a super-taster, because he can taste something in a restaurant and make a very passable copy at home later. (He also refuses to buy some brands of milk because they taste "different.") 8. He is very good at connecting with small children, so in our capacity as nursery workers at church, he is often able to distract, comfort, and soothe children we ladies can't. He's not at all embarrassed to sing to them, either, which helps. 9. He irons his own shirts, when needed (we usually buy the "no wrinkles" kind). Technically, I don't even own an iron, since the one we have was his before we married. (Or maybe I do. This is a community property state.) 10. He even sews. When we were Cub Scout Den Leaders, he hemmed his own pants and sewed on all his own badges. Way back when we were doing all the last minute stuff for our wedding, he even sewed part of the petticoat for my wedding dress. (My mom was on a different machine finishing my wedding dress, and I had a stack of paper work that had to be finished for work if I wanted enough time off for a honeymoon.) (Yes, he married into a family of procrastinators.)

2.2 miles from my dad (same town). 503 miles from my mom. 32 miles from my MIL, usually, but 7368 miles for the next 18 months. (She's serving an LDS mission in the Philippines.)

Hmm, I could say ”we were introduced by a mutual friend,” or ”he was a friend of my younger brother,” or ”we met in the university marching band,” or ” we ran with the same crowd” and they'd all be equally true. We usually go with ”marching band,” though we didn't start dating until a year later. The truth is, I was really shy, especially around marriageable guys, and he was too young for me to see as a threat (four years younger), so he felt ”safe” to hang out with!:lol: We celebrated 19 years last May. (Yes, our children are young!)

1-28 have short sentences. Mom combines the sentences when she reads. Dd6 reads them on her own. The second group, from 29 through the present 45, are written at a higher reading level. Yes, I read them ALL aloud to my older two.