I went to grad school with Sharon!

Thanks! I went ahead and ordered it.

I think the woman who does Baby Name Wizard says that if you combined all the variant spellings of Aidan, it would be the number one boys name right now.

Have you talked to the older boys to see if they mind sharing a smallish room? If they're used to sharing a room with their little brother, they may just be thrilled to have him in a separate room and have their own space.

If you sign up for a Southwest Rewards card, you can get 20% off SeaWorld tickets--at least you could when we went in Sept. Undercover Tourist sells Disney tickets at a slight discount--nowhere discounts them very much, but you can save a few bucks over buying them at the gate (or online from Disney) that way.

I keep looking at the Michael Clay Thompson LA program for my 7 year old DS, but I haven't ordered it yet....right now he's maybe a third of the way through Growing With Grammar 4 (he finished the first 3 levels of First Language Lessons before that). Grammar comes pretty easily to him, but he's not loving GWG. My questions: does anyone use the MCT materials as a supplement to another grammar program, or only as a stand-alone? How much time do you spend on it? And would it be too repetitive for my DS, given the grammar he's already done? I'd really like to find something that makes language more interesting for him. We found the kids' version of "Eats, Shoots, and Leaves" at the library and he read it over and over again--so I think the problem is not the subject but the presentation with grammar right now. TIA!

My kids' names are sorta quirky, but I can definitely envision them all as adult names. In fact, judging from the SSA name popularity charts, August and Milo are best suited for 130 year old men ;). And Ari can grow up to be a press secretary or an NPR reporter. They also all have super common middle names--all except one in the top 10 (Daniel, Joseph, and David), so if they don't like quirky when they grow up, they can go with those.

I think it makes them happy when you spend a lot of time petting them and telling them how pretty they are, too :)

wow. We wear shoes in our house, but I'd say at least half of my friends prefer that people don't wear shoes in theirs. I try to pay attention to who cares and who doesn't and behave accordingly. I do think it's kind of a pain to take my shoes off plus have 3 kids take theirs off, but I don't think it's rude to be asked (actually, I'm rarely asked; I just try to observe the clues). Then again, I don't have any carpet downstairs in my house; if I did, I might well be cringing every time we had a playdate here. I dream of the day when we can replace the upstairs carpet, too. I loathe carpet.

I'm also thinking that a lab mix puppy is probably not the best first dog. I fostered labs a couple of years ago...it's true; they stay puppies for a LONG time. I'd spend some time researching different breeds and thinking about what kind of dog would fit in best in your family and then check out petfinder.com when you're ready and find a young adult dog that fits the bill. I definitely understand the impulse to help these puppies that you know need it right now, but there will always be dogs that need good homes--you can only help one of them, so you want to make sure it's the right one.

Too late for this year, probably, but for my grandmother who has very limited space for framed photos, we get her photo books you can order from shutterfly or kodakgallery or wherever. Maybe a healthier food gift? We're giving away lots of homemade applesauce and jam this year.

yeah, I would get an extra to be safe...you may have a lot of people who prefer white meat or something.

You can always freeze them for later! DH is a high school teacher, which means the baked goods are kept to a minimum, but he usually gets a couple loafs of banana bread or something and some cookies, and we freeze what we can't eat right away. I enjoy giving and getting homemade gifts...this year we're mostly giving homemade applesauce and jams, though--don't need to be eaten right away and not quite so bad for you.

If you sign up for Southwest rewards (you can do it online; you don't have to fly anywhere), you get a nice discount--I think it's 20%.

This is an argument I've never really understood. Certainly non-spankers also care about their children's safety. If you can point to any statistics that suggest that children who are spanked suffer fewer accidental injuries than those who aren't, I'd be very interested to see them. This isn't a subject I'm inclined to debate--I don't spank, but I certainly understand that many thoughtful, loving parents do, and I can agree to disagree. But I do object to the notion that I'm putting my children in danger by not spanking. I've got three boys who have never been spanked and have also never been run over by a car. I don't have perfectly obedient angels all the time, but they're good kids, and I've got a pretty good track record of keeping them safe without spanking.

We're planning the same kind of trip next fall (though we'll only have a week). We don't have any ideas that aren't already on your list, though--we'll do DC and then Jamestown/Williamsburg. Plus we go to Cape Cod every summer, so we'll probably try to spend a couple of days in Boston doing history stuff while we're up there. So I'm watching this thread, too--we might need to plan a weekend trip to Charleston when we study the Civil War next year!

Hmm...the mystery deepens! I assume we just have the basic membership....we get it free in GA, but I've never signed up for it as a homeschooler because DH is a teacher, so he already has an account. But, yeah, they were there a couple of weeks ago and now they've vanished. Might have to go the Netflix route, I guess...

I ordered stuff yesterday w/ free shipping, and it all shipped today...

bump...anyone?

Is Liberty's Kids gone from Discovery Streaming, or is it just gone from mine? And does anyone know why? The kids and I are not pleased. Now we'll never find out how the Revolutionary War ends :D

My 7 yo is a very reluctant narrator, too. We're working on WWE level 2 as well, and it's slow going but I am seeing improvement. When he's stuck, I sometimes suggest a first word for the sentence ("start with 'The horses...'") and that often unlocks his brain a bit. For right now, I don't do any formal narrations other than WWE and probably won't anytime soon. I ask informally when we read history or whatever, "so what was happening yesterday in the book?" but I don't put any pressure on it at all. I guess I'm just keeping the faith that it will come in time :)

My phD program (in English) provided "full" support (certainly not enough money to live on, but tuition paid plus a stipend) with no work requirement until the second year. Starting the second year we taught classes, were TAs, etc. My recollection from when I was looking around and applying (quite awhile ago now!) is that this was common with phD programs but much rarer with MAs.

Between 60 and 65 during the day, depending on how cold we feel. 58 at night.

I've only got boys and we read everything. Right now I'm reading The Secret Garden with my 7 year old. We've read all the the Ramona books, some Little House books, etc. etc. And I don't mind reading grown-up books with men in them, either ;)

Here's one I've seen--not exactly a poem, but it has sharing in it! Something to love Something to create Something to do Something to share Something to read Something fun