I agree, and my parents felt that way, too. I have never used my degree (in Music) directly, but I use my education, both formal and informal, all the time. It's surprising how relevant many of those G.E. classes turned out to be, both in employment and as a homeschool mom. On the other hand, DH went to college, but never finished, and he works in his field (Computer Programming). He also uses his minor, Music. He sings with our local Barbershop Harmony Society chapter, and is assistant director. Does everyone need college? No. If you have opportunity and motive, you'll be successful. College can create opportunity, but sometimes opportunity finds you elsewhere.

I'm not a nurse, but I am the wife of a diabetic. (And SIL to two who had gestational diabetes.) The common name is the "A1C," so if you ask about that, they'll know what you mean. (The full name is the "hemoglobin A1C," or the "HbA1c".) Monitor diligently and take really good care of yourself if you have it.

DS8 had/has very similar asynchronous development to the OP's son. As he approached age 5, he was already halfway through the Earlybird Math books (Singapore, old version), all done orally; he'd already made a good start in our phonics readers; etc., but he struggled/struggles with small motor skills. He also has some speech issues. We split up the skills, doing everything orally, while we worked on writing slowly. (We used/use Donna Young's free handwriting sheets.) (Also, he started piano lessons when he was six, and that has had surprising handwriting benefits. I suppose it's strengthened his fingers, and helped with coordination.) Now, three years down the road: He's a great reader, often checking out train-related material from the library meant for adults. Huge vocabulary. His handwriting isn't great, but it is legible. For the first time, his handwriting is pulling ahead of his little sister, two years younger. (We are still working on it. We hope to transition to cursive by fall.) His spelling is pretty good, EXCEPT he tends to spell new words the way he says them until he's seen them in print. (He struggles with "th," so we get things like "somesing.") We've only been doing copywork for six months or so. It's still a slow, tedious process for him, so we're moving at his pace there.

Yep. We taught negative numbers to DS (then 6) and DD (then 4) on the back of Dennys placemat by drawing a line, telling them that was the ground, and then saying, "If I have a hole as big as two boxes, but I want it to look like I have four boxes, how many boxes do I need?" DD got it almost instantly; we had to tip imaginary boxes into the hole until it reached zero for DS, but that's all it took. I think I heard it explained similarly by Anna to Flynn in "Mister God, This is Anna." Our food took a really looong time to get there, so we were getting desperate to maintain good behavior, but it worked! We haven't tackled subtracting negative numbers yet, though.

It's hard to think in the stress of the moment, of course, but there's nothing to stop you from trading seats within your own party. I would have sent mom up the ten rows, put the 5 y/o and 2.5 y/o together, and taken my seat two rows back. The lady stuck with two kids probably would have volunteered to switch in short order.:lol: ----------- My DH, MIL, our DS (then 10 m/o), and I traveled to Europe eight years ago; we went again three years later with DH, DS (3.5), DD (1.5), a niece (12), and I. Each time, after the first leg where we had chosen our seats, we found ourselves split up. At each gate, we just pointed out the littles and said quite firmly, "He (they) can't sit by himself." They always agreed, and swapped things around on the computer before we boarded. The "worst" was a leg in which I had one little, DH had the other a few rows back, and our shy niece was on her own across the aisle from DH. Or maybe it was the leg from Paris to Vienna on the first flight, when I was alone w/ baby DS, with neither DH or MIL anywhere in sight, and new attendants kept coming by and insisting that the flight was full and I'd have to hold DS (we'd bought him a seat and brought his car seat). I had to show his ticket to several different attendants, and insist back, "No, I bought him a ticket. He gets his own seat." Finally, the first attendant I'd shown his ticket to realized I was being asked continually, and she stepped in when other attendants approached. __________ It wasn't always our preferred arrangement, with all of us together, but at no time were our young children left on their own.

DS8 wants to be a "train engineer" (driver) and a "train engineer" (designer). He's never wavered on this. He's also talked about his future wife since he was quite little, and even designed a Mii for her. DD6 is consistent only in that she wants to be some type of dancer (usually ballerina) and some type of scientist (usually vet, but sometimes "one that studies pancreas" so she can cure Daddy's diabetes.) (My MIL gave up a career as a ballerina to get a degree in Microbiology, so maybe it's in her genes?) DD1.5 just wants desperately to be 6 or 8, so that she can play with the big kids.

Just because you research them doesn't mean you have to like them/hang out with them. ;) I've researched both my mom's dad's line and her step-dad's line, and, same for my MIL, both her dad's line and her step-dad's line. I'm glad I did. Knowing the whole picture just kind of helps explain the whole family dynamic. And, in my MIL's case, she's found something she can embrace in her biological father's line. She's always resented him terribly, because he signed away his parental rights allowing her step-father to adopt them. She knew he was part Native American, though, and she's always been drawn to that. As we've traced his line, we've learned she has enough Native American ancestry to qualify for tribal enrollment. Just this year, she applied and was accepted.

My extroverted DS(8) has a harder time with this than introverted DD(6). I'm not sure why, and it's kind of funny really, because he's the one that will go along with whatever the other children are doing and she's the one who quickly gets bossy and takes over. Maybe because her introversion naturally makes her hang back and that gives her enough time to assess the game and rules of engagement, while he charges right in? He does really well with the "Hi, I'm "J", what's your name?," (which we worked on) but some how picked up. "I'm very pleased to meet you," (which is a little off putting).

Other good sites are: genforum.com http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi http://www.cyndislist.com/ And just plain old google. There are a lot of original records out there on the net that haven't been "collected" to one site, not even by the pretty thorough Cyndi. Try lots of different iterations: for instance, I have this orphaned ancestor we are quite stuck on - we can't find him any earlier than when he shows up in another family at age 16. I've googled him all the following ways: "james irvin crane", "james i. crane", "james crane", "irvin crane," by location, by ethnic group, by spouse's name, etc. I've found newspapers or local history societies who have posted all their historical obituaries, states like Illinois who have posted their historical marriage indexes, local town histories. It's wonderful when you can go to one source and there's your ancestor, all neatly documented; it's far more common to have to piece together the information one little clue at a time.

We use KOA and/or Good Sam a lot. We used to tent and now we have an RV. They vary in quality and maintenance because they are individually owned and operated, but I think there is a certain minimum standard they have to have to be able to say they are KOA (or Good Sam). A big plus is that they have showers, and almost always a small camp store with basic groceries and stuff for simple repairs to your tent or rig. The sort of people that stay there (families and retired full-timers) make them feel very safe, and I actually feel more secure there than at cheap motels. I wouldn't even think twice about staying at that kind of campground alone with my kids. (The only reason I have not yet done so is because I have not yet mastered backing up our rig, so I haven't gone solo with it.) Make friends with two of your neighbors who don't seem to know each other (or who don't seem to have known each other prior to meeting there) and then there will be sort of a cross check going on with both of them keeping an eye out for you.

Mid Utah County.

The big mine is Kennecott (or sometimes called Bingham Copper Mine). Haven't been since I was 12, but I was impressed then.

Oh, I should add a couple of museums not mentioned above: The Hill Airforce Museum, which, in addition to lots of cool planes, has an exhibit on women in WWII, and a children's room with a number of hands on activities. Watch for both along the left wall in the 2nd? (maybe 3rd?) of the three connected hangers. My son loves the Odgen Union Station train museum so much that we bought an annual pass even though we live in Utah county! We buy a UTA group pass, and ride Trax, then FrontRunner. It's a short walk from the FrontRunner to the museum. We just visited Golden Spike (a National Park) for Memorial Day. The kids did the Junior Ranger program, and even my "train expert" learned a lot. I also completely second the Shakespeare Festival recommendation. Well worth the trip down.

I'm a native Utahn, Utah County. If you happen to live in a newer subdivision, which has recently displaced nature, you are more likely to see critters. I've only ever seen three rattlesnakes (outside a zoo, etc.) and all were in the canyons. (Two in Provo Canyon.) All were doing their best to mind their own business, despite boys with sticks poking at them. We did see garter snakes fairly often in my childhood, when there were more orchards and less subdivisions. I did startle a snake that had taken up residence under my brother's porch in St. George just last week when I was down for his daughter's graduation. They called animal control because its markings looked like a rattler, but it was just a desert version of a garter snake. ---- In addition to all the great places to visit, summertime along the Wasatch Front (Ogden to Payson) is full of festivals. This Friday and Saturday, for example, Thanksgiving Point is hosting the Scottish Festival. Payson has a smaller, but free, Scottish festival on July 8th and 9th. The Provo area has some educational events taking place for the 4th of July (Freedom Festival). Our favorite is Colonial Days. We've taken a look at Milestones of Freedom, which is about Ellis Island, but our kids were a little too young last time we tried. The Utah Arts Festival is coming up in Salt Lake later this month. The Greek Festival is in the fall.

Oh, I totally missed that! Probably just as well, as we already had: two funerals - one in Salt Lake and one in Provo; free fishing day, which my cub scout has been begging for; and neighborhood clean-up, which we also missed. How was it! Any highlights?

I've been on LibraryThing since Sept 2009. I have all my settings on private and have never been contacted by anyone. I chose LibraryThing over making my own spread sheet, etc. because it is accessible anywhere I have internet access (or by calling my husband and having him logging in - our next phones will have internet access), and I needed a way to not duplicate books when I go to "Friends of the Library"/Thrift stores/etc. I love LibraryThing for that! Also, we have a LOT of books, even by homeschool standards, so the option of entering by ISBN is wonderful!

My older two children came to the ultrasound for my youngest. DD, who was about to turn 5 at the time, watched with great interest as the tech pointed out various parts of the baby. Right after she pointed out the spine, the tech moved on to making measurements. DD said, with great disappointment, "Oh, I couldn't see her iliac." The tech did a double take and said, "Most adults don't know that one."

I don't know why we are thinking about this already, since the kids are 6 and 4, but we're considering using online college classes and possibly even online high school courses as offered by some universities.

We went to a local janitorial supply store and asked what hospitals and hotels buy to get urine out of laundry. The guy recommended an enzymatic cleaner originally designed to sanitize drains, but you can use it in the washer or in your steam carpet cleaner or directly from a spray bottle. Our local store sells Push from Betco. It's about 18 dollars for a gallon, but it doesn't take much (quarter cup in a full washer load, etc.) We have two kitties and a four-year-old who gets so "busy" she "forgets" to go potty. (Well, actually, her latest excuse is "I fell asleep for a few minutes, Mom, and I tinkled while I was asleep.")(Asynchronous development strikes again!) The janitorial supply stuff works great. We were having trouble with DD leaving her wet stuff on the bathroom floor, and the kitties feeling obliged to re-mark the territory, but this stuff gets it all out and is fairly pleasant smelling itself.