Congratulations!!!! He is sooooo tiny looking. It is amazing how fast they grow up!! Enjoy him! :party:

:iagree: I think the landlord has some responsibilty here. Get the info and present it unapologetically. He should provide some type of temp. water supply until it is fixed. If it is bacterial, with kids your age, I'd forget about using it for anything except laundry. I'd go the legal responsibility route. Maybe find a swimming pool to frequent and get the kids showers for the time being. Monday morning would be a busy day for me!! Regardless of what you decide, I'm sorry you have to go through this.

I would probably need more information such as Why has it been deemed unsafe? Chemicals or bacteria? How old are your kids? How long will this last? How ofter do you want your kids to have a bath? What hardships would you have to go through to get safe bathwater? The reason being. I would have an older child have a short shower in water that was bacterially unsafe if it was going to remain unsafe for a long time (with strict instructions about no drinking). But I would not have a 6 month old sit in bath water if it was going to be just a week long ban and it was deemed chemically unsafe. Clear as mud I'm sure. Sorry you have to go to that effort.

.....your children start off Saturday morning in a bad mood because there was a fire in the library on Friday night. Yes, it was closed. Yes, they were upset. http://kxmc.com/News/Local/Grand%20Forks/320926.asp Your three year old spends part of the day happily chanting the Greek alphabet just for fun!

:lol::lol::lol: Very cute! Both of your kids sound like a blast to be around. Ria, you are banned from this thread until you heal! ;)

What are some funny things your young kids have said? Just last week ds (6.5 years old) asked.... Could we isolate grape juice in the Lego tray? :blink: He meant.... Could we make grape juice ice cubes in the Lego ice cube tray? :lol: Come on, I know there are more out there! :bigear:

Azure sells it but I do not use it so I don't have a good idea of comparison prices. I'm subscribing to your thread, since I'm interested myself. They sell it for $25.30 for 5 lbs. The only reason I tell you is that you could not access the price without a membership which I am not sure you have. :001_smile: HTH

I'm glad you are feeling better. I hope you find healing goes swiftly. I think Barbie is a great name for a dog. Maybe the other can be Booker. :D Laughter really is the best medicine! Sending prayers your way. :grouphug:

Thanks to everyone for the ideas and encouragement. Thanks, Merry, for the thoughtful questions. I spent some time working with my son these past few days and now I have some answers. He knows that c says /s/ before e, i, or y. He know both key cards but sometimes (20% of the time) he says "after" instead of before. I spent some time with him on Friday putting the blank blue tile before the vowel and getting him to spell the words in the word list. He was correct 80% of the time with the blank tile in place. This is an improvement but I still feel like he does not get it enough to use it reliably. He can *write* them correctly, if he spells the words first with the tiles (even if he spells them wrong with the tiles the first time). But then the next day he goes back to spelling it inconsistantly. I'm thinking that the next few lessons would be challenging enough for him that a break to reveiw would be timely. If the next lessons were easier, review lessons then maybe I would go on more slowly. He has not noticed that were are circling around for review, interestingly enough. He just does not seem to see that he has seen these words. In fact, the last word I did with him he said.."Hey, we did this one before!" So, I stopped to prevent the weariness that comes with review. Perhaps his mind is just not ready for that complexity yet. If that is the case, he would be better waiting. So, now the question...How do you review with AAS? Do you just redo the lessons from some point that makes sense or do you do something different? I love this program and will stick with it even if we take a break. I'm just not sure he should go on with it right now. Thanks again for all the help.

Whew! I'm glad to hear that. I have noticed a difference and just thought I was wrong or lacking in knowledge. I have even tried to figure it out by putting commas in place and looking it over...only to change my mind and delete them. Thanks for the book suggestion! It will be my next buy. :001_smile:

For all you AAS users, what have you done if your kids get stuck on a lesson? My son is 6 and a half years old doing first level. He is stuck....I mean he *cannot* get lesson 16 or 17 in the first level. We have been over and over it and he just cannot figure out when to use c or k to start a letter. I have had him memorize the rule...use the tiles for the word list....write out the word...given it some time for his brain to grow...repeat it over and over...nothing makes it clear to him. Half the time he spells it with the wrong letter and the other half of the time he gets it right. :001_huh: What do you do to help your kids when they get stuck on something and do not seem to learn it? BTW, we have been on this lesson since before Christmas and I am a bit discouraged. Kan you tell! ;) (At least I still have my sense of humor!) :tongue_smilie:

We grew one about a year ago. It sounded really hard but it was easy to get up and running. We had three crops off it, the last two being smaller. We ate them and relished them - all except my son of 5 years. He heard the word spores and has given up mushroom since. He did love them! It is not an affordable way to grow mushrooms yourself but I had the brilliant idea for putting the remains in a shaded part of my garden....we will see if the 'shrooms sprout next fall. We paired it with Katy's Book of Mushrooms...link below. http://www.amazon.com/Katyas-Book-Mushrooms-Katya-Arnold/dp/0805041362 For young kids I would recommend it. We had fun with it and it shaped our science for part of that year.

My hubbie is a prof. and he said that a Masters is confered as well (same as with a PhD). It may be a specific term for some universities that changes depending on where you graduate.

Have you looked into Yogurt and Kefir? It repopulates your gut with friendly micro organizisms (especially after numerous rounds of antibiotics). This will help your body to heal itself. Kefir grains can be bought on the internet. The process and taste take a bit to get use to but I have found that the pay off is great. I have found a few really good recipes and stuck with them. Google Dom and Kefir and you will find the guru of Kefir. OmegaBrite has been soooo helpful to us. It is pricey but man is the money worth it. You might be able to get similar effect with a flax oil. I just call it Tutti Fruit and my kids glup it off a spoon. There is nothing like good old fashioned rest! Extra sleep may help a smidge. If nothing else, it will give *you* a break to face the next day! I'm sorry you have been dealing with sickness. School is difficult to finish up when your dealing with illness.

I finished Blindness last week. I am now working on His Favorite Wife. Facsinating read. It is a life of which I am totally unfamiliar. Thanks for posting the update thread. It is good for me to set a goal and stay accountable.

When my oldest reached a certain level of reading skill (about 2nd grade) she did not enjoy being read to. She reasoned that she could read it faster. She still had good comprehension so I let it slide a little so I could focus on the boys. However, there are still words that I catch her saying which are clearly wrong in pronounciation. For example, when reading a package at the store she read diva with a short i, not diva with a long e. I chuckled to myself and then thought, hey she's right, phonetically it should be short i. I'm not sure any of the books I would read to her would help her with that particular word but I'm sure she is missing more complex words. So, I have a New Year's Resolution. As long as your kids will allow it, read to them. Perhaps if you get the chance to listen to Andrew Putewa from IEW you would even think it would be required no matter what they think. He believes, and I do not disagree, that writing skills are improved when you read out aloud to your children. Besides that, it's fun when you have great books!

Here are a few thoughts I have. Could you use it as a book list for getting books out of the library and spend the money on the Instructors Manual? Have you checked with Sonlight to see if you could arrange a payment plan spacing it out over the year? What grade or core are you looking at? I may have some second hand that I found at the used bookstore.

Yes, I have a relative like this. When his mother said he was going to "babysit" the kids this weekend, my dh and I looked at each other in astonishment. He actually had his mother come over to help.:confused: However, my dh has never cared for our three kids long term/over night. Mostly due to nursing kids and sleeping habits. We are getting closer to that as an option and both look forward to it. My dh will look after the kids for several hours, reading to them, cleaning up supper dishes, throwing on a load of laundry and such. Sometimes he can be a bit of a work horse and the kids complain when I get home but for the most part it is just him getting them to tow the line. It took him several years to build up the confidence to do this, again, mostly due to a nursing baby. But as they get older and our routines get clearer he can manage better without me. I think a father matures just the same way a mother does and mothers can hinder that by their lack of trust and encouragement. I was lucky, I was always looking for a stress relief break and he was the only one to fill my shoes. He fills then nicely now after 9 years.

Congratulations! ... no wait....that doesn't work here yet. :001_huh: Stress after the holidays? Bad test? You could get another one and check. I'd say menopause but that's probably not it. ;) Whatever it is...I hope you get the answer you want soon. :001_smile: Trina (who is probably finished and living vicariously through total strangers)

I'm going to post mine for my just 6 year old son. I have not read all of the responses but I'm sure it will be varied. 5-6 years can be extremely variable, depending on the birth order and unique personalities. My ds is second in birth order and a bit of an old soul. There are no LD or attention issues. He is in every way the opposite of my dd and has watched and learned as I have taught and re-taught his older sister. Ds is doing lesson 10 in MUS Beta. Lesson 6 in English for the Thoughtful Child (only because I have it here for free, FLL Level 1 is my next step) Lesson 17 in Level 1 in AAS All letters in cursive lowercase (not uppercase letters) HOD Beyond - 2/3 of the way through Noeo Chemistry level 1 - 1/2 way through He listens to all of our read a-louds. But he is not reading well on his own yet. He is half way through his Origami Calendar from Christmas 08. Lesson 5 in Prima Latin (ugg, I have to get back to that one!) What is he doing wrong....he will occassionally get numbers backwards when writing them...he trys to "read" by guessing the words not by using the phonics he knows. He refuses to practice piano so he has a year off for now. He keeps the messiest desk in the house. His bedroom is a sty as well. :tongue_smilie: If you had asked me three years ago what dd was doing, the answer would have been *very* different. She is coming along and is now not behind. But it took time for her to be ready and that was normal for her. Maybe your son is the same way. Kids are all different.

Yep. I have a blueberry story that has made a grown woman cry. Really. I'm sorry you are the unfortunate one this time.

Blindness by Jose Saramago It is fascinating and a little eerie.

Yes. This is what this particular relationship has *forced* me to do. Although, I think when it is repetative and one sided it tends to get a bit tired. kwim? It signals a thinking of disrespect which should have no place in holiday gift giving. One thing that has helped me is to reduce my expectations significantly. It will not help this year but it may fortify you for next year's gift. The other thing is to find the humor in it all. Waiting to see if said relative can be even more offensive the next year has it's funny side. Or the old, if you can't beat'm, join'm. I have had fleeting thoughts of buying sil's children "My Mommy, My Teacher". I will not ever do it but it helps ramp up the humorous side of things. Not pretty but it is what it is.

:lurk5: I'm just here to learn. My sil (who was a public school teacher) has given us several books about kids or letters heading off to public school. One even has the letters crying when it looks like they would not be able to attend since they lost the dot on the letter i. :001_huh: I'm sorry that you have to accept that from family. It is never easy for me.

I've have been thinking about his for the last hour. I suspect that Suzuki was influenced by the Classical method of teaching as they seem to dovetail nicely. The chanting and repeating that we are doing in FLL is the same reveiw that my dd does for her piano lessons. All of these things make mastery possible for my daughter. I'm afraid you are right. I didn't use my brain power while I had it. ;) What is the old adage...if you don't use it you lose it. Another aspect is that I tire of teaching the same thing over and over. My dd stills needs time to master it and I'm ready to move on. Boredom is my worst enemy as a homeschool mom. My daughter's Suzuki piano teacher models a patience that I can not fathom. She plays the same songs over and over again with all her kids, day in a day out. I do not know how she manages her enthusiasm.