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Seeking Squirrels

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  1. I'm glad you asked this because I was wondering the same thing. I knew from the SL forums that the BB were not loved, but didn't know why. I loved the berenstain bears growing up and I have a very large collection of the books. We read them to DD all the time. I guess they do often portray papa bear that way, after seeing it pointed out. I've never thought anything of it in the stories, though. Honestly, it doesn't really bother me. And DH reads them to her all the time and has never been bothered by anything. I read them all the time as a child and I never had the feeling that fathers were supposed to be bumbling idiots. And I didn't have an awesome role model of a father to thank for that. He was horrible, but in different ways. He wasn't/isn't an idiot.
  2. I voted before looking at replies so I may have voted wrong. I voted tv with restrictions. We do not have cable or regular channels, but we do have a netflix account. So I don't know if that counts or not since it could also be watched on a computer. We watch a half hour show in the morning while we eat breakfast. Honestly it's so I can have a chance to check email, fb, forums, etc... in the morning while she watches so I'm not itching the rest of the day to get on! She can pick whatever she wants from allowable shows, so sometimes it's educational, sometimes not. We sometimes watch something else later if we need some down time due to being on the go a lot. But I usually make her pick something educational. She can pick Signing Time, Leap Frog, Munchkin Math, or sometimes Veggie Tales. DH watches documentaries a lot in the morning or late at night. About once a month he and I find a movie or something to watch on a Sat night after DD is in bed. I never turn it on for myself.
  3. I say two thousand twelve. I never hear anyone say twenty twelve. I can see how that would be just as correct, but I don't think the thousand way is wrong or that it needs to stop being used.
  4. DD used to do that really bad with ranch dressing and sometimes ketchup. It didn't seem to bother her, but her pedi warned that if it was doing that to her skin on the way in, it could on the way out, too. So we limited her because she was too young to make such a connection if it did hurt later. I was also told she should outgrow it. She still (almost 4) gets it sometimes, but not as bad as when it started at about 1.5. I never did find out exactly what it was that caused it.
  5. I've read the first two and really liked them. I plan on reading the others. DD is only 3 so she hasn't read them, yet. I can see making it a read aloud in a few more years.
  6. Thank you all for your suggestions! I like the look of RightStart but can't do $100 for math. Has anyone done level a without getting the starter kit? Can I do it with just the abacus and make any other materials? Or do I really need all of those things? I'm thinking maybe we'll just play with the MUS blocks right now and if she *really* insists on a workbook I'll either print off some from MEP or get one of those Summer Bridge ones. We don't have a sam's or costco membership to find what they have there. I'll see if we can do okay with just that for several months and then maybe we can get the RS set. I'm going to set aside the actual MUS lessons for now.
  7. DD was 2y9m and nursed at the same times as yours when I decided I needed to be done. I first cut out the morning one by changing our routine. I got up before her and got dressed so I wasn't as accessible. Then when she woke, I just got us moving on to the next step. If she asked, I would say something like "Mommy's hungry, let's get breakfast first and have some num nums later". I would put her off instead of flat out saying "no". Two year olds don't like "no". For the other 2, instead of cutting out the session, I gradually reduced it. I timed how long she nursed on each side, then I lowered that amount and stopped her at that point. Then the next time I made it shorter, and shorter.... The one before nap went away completely first because she happened to give up napping about the same time, so she lost interest faster so she could get back up and play. So the one before bed was the last to go. To help give her a countdown as I reduced the nursing time, I would sing short songs. So she knew that at the end of the song, we were done. I used shorter and shorter songs. Finally I got so that we were literally nursing for about 10 seconds per side. Then one time she latched on, I took her off before my milk let down and said "Was there no milk??" and she said "no" and I said "num nums must be all gone". She asked for about 2 weeks, but I reminded her they were all gone. I let her try one time a few days after, but again only for a couple seconds so she would be sure not to get anything. That convinced her the milk was all gone. It didn't take nearly as long as it may sound like it did. I reduced time by about half each night until about 3 min per side. Then I probably cut around 20 seconds off each night. Probably about 2 weeks total.
  8. We are Christian. We celebrate Easter, but not religiously. I do not associate Easter with Jesus' death and resurrection. But that doesn't stop us from having fun with Easter. We do egg dying, egg hunts, baskets, a big dinner, and most importantly, get together with extended family.
  9. We are LESS likely to go on a religious holiday. Because we are likely to have our day full of plans with family. I can connect with God at any moment of any day. Getting a large family together around work/school schedules and each members visits to other family is not nearly as easy to do. We go out of our way to make sure we can all get together at the same time for holidays and this will often mean skipping church. I have no hesitation over missing church on a holiday.
  10. I've been looking into the different curricula mentioned in this thread. I'm trying to figure out what I would need for Right Start. Do I need all of the items in the sets? I'm not wanting to spend $100+ on math right now, so if all of those things are really needed then I don't think that direction will work for us. For MEP, do you all generally print everything, or do you do some from the computer screen? It seems like a lot of printing! She saw the sample pages from Singapore KA & KB and got excited about those. I think she likes the color and busyness. I haven't shown her the other sample pages yet, though. I might just see what she likes the most. I'd rather her just have fun with it right now.
  11. Oh I don't mind that she doesn't finish the worksheet, I never try to get her to. And when I pull it out the next time I go on to the next, not pull out the half done one. It just seems like she stops because it's the same thing again, not because she's truly tired of doing it. I've even considered cutting them up to give her just one "problem" from each page! I know we don't *need* a curriculum or workbook at this age. But she loves workbooks. I even did my best not to introduce them for a while because personally I don't like them! At least, I don't like them from this side of things. I never wanted my preschooler or kindergartner bogged down by one workbook after another. But I also loved workbooks when I was younger. It was something about the sense of accomplishment seeing the finished page. I like the idea of using the MUS blocks to let her figure things out on her own. We do a LOT of manipulative play. I have a ton of materials and set up her shelves each week with montessori-inspired activities. I don't know why, but I've never pulled out any of the MUS blocks beyond what we're using in MUS at the time. I don't know how they compare to C-rods, I've never used those. I wasn't referring to any specific Singapore level, TBH. I'd have to look more at each level to know which one is right. I've heard a lot of good things about Earlybird A&B, so I was going to start there, but I don't know if that would be right or not. That would have been the next question if the consensus was to switch :) I think I'm going to have to look into MEP more, it was hard to get a good feel for it with what I saw. If I can find the right place to start with it, maybe I can print up several pages and then do them with her. That way I can see if it's the repetitiveness of MUS she loses interest in, or if she just doesn't have the attention span for any math worksheet right now. Which would be fine with me. I only want to follow her lead and find things she enjoys to keep her interest up. I hated school because I was bored out of my mind from K onward. I don't want the same for her. ETA: I also will have to look into Miquon, I've never checked that one out, either.
  12. She'll be 4 in just a couple months, so she's not a young 3. She's doing basic addition and subtraction in her head. Only numbers under 10, at least that I've caught her doing. Simple things quickly, like MIL told her she could have 5 of something and she'd already had 2, so how many more could she have and she instantly said 3. She does simple math like that all the time. She can tell up to about 6 at a glance without counting out. She also does this quickly counting people and always remembers to include herself and her still in utero sister. She used to be able to count to 20, but for some reason regressed on that and has forgotten 15. So I have to give her 15, then she goes on to 19. She then needs a prompt at 20, 30,... but does fine between. We already do a lot of playing with math in everyday life. She loves to help cook and measure things. She's starting to get the hang of basic fractions by recognizing what the top and bottom numbers represent. I can show her 1/4 and she knows it will take 4 of those to make a whole. She likes doing 'real' math, I just think the repetition of MUS is boring her. On one worksheet it's the same thing 5-6 times and each problem looks just like the last. She excitedly does the first 2 and then looks at the 3rd like "again?" She may or may not do that one and then stops before turning over the page for the others.
  13. Now that you say that I realize there are a few workbooks I'm getting for DD that are like this. They aren't available at our b&m store, but between the publisher and other online, I'm going other. I'm already ordering from the other place for something else and I'd rather just do 1 big order than 2 smaller ones.
  14. I've been reading here for a little while and I notice a lot of mention for Singapore but not for MUS. Is Singapore generally a better fit for advanced kids? I already have everything for MUS Primer, but DD(3) doesn't seem to like it at all. She wants to do math, but then when I pull that out, it holds her interest for about 10 seconds. She loves workbooks, so I don't think that's what stops her. I'm wondering if it's too boring to look at and too repetitive...? Should I switch her to Singapore? Or is there another program that might be a better fit? She does WANT to do math with school. I always play math games and activities and such with her, but it's not quite enough to keep her happy. She really wants math school work. I never require anything from her at this age. Having school time and what we do is always completely up to her.
  15. Would he be happy with "schoolwork" that wasn't workbooks? I started with DD around 2.5. I set up several shelves and put out montessori-type activities. She loved it. She'll be 4 this summer and we still do the shelves though the activities have changed. You can do so much with them and it can feel like doing school work. I teach her how to do each activity and it's to be used the right way, not just thrown around like toys. Oh, Kumon! Kumon first step workbooks. I held off on most workbooks for DD, but these are different. She loved them and still does. There's Let's color, Let's cut, Let's fold, & Let's sticker and paste. Interactive workbooks lol. They're geared for ages 2 and up, so he should be able to give them a go even if he doesn't do them perfectly. After those, any of the early Kumon workbooks. I think the tracing one starts out pretty easy. They're much more than coloring books, but they're not like traditional workbooks, either. It won't feel like pushing academics. We love Kumon.
  16. I voted for large online store. It's hard to picture your scenario, though, because I don't think I've ever found a book that was the same price from Amazon and the large chain book store local to me. Price always wins out for us right now. If I did find one the same price, I would still probably just buy online. Plans always end up changing and I'd find myself not making it to the b&m store and wishing I'd just ordered. If I was AT the store and found the book, I would just get it there. We do still end up spending a fair amount at this particular store, so I don't feel too bad when price or planning drive me online.
  17. I bought the core from SL for P3/4. I just wanted to increase our home library, so it was worth the money. Picture books are read over and over around here, so I'd rather own them than check out from the library. In future years, we may check out what we can from the library. We went back and forth with P4/5 for a while between only buying what our library doesn't carry, and purchasing all of it. We finally decided we wanted to own all the books to add to our library and so we would have the option at least to follow the IG. Some of the books are so spread out we couldn't do that from the library. But we decided against ordering new from SL. I've been piecing together from Amazon and e-bay. So far I've saved $50 on 6 books. I've found deals for another 5 books that will save me $36 if I get them. It's taking a chance buying from e-bay/Amazon used because you could always end up with a bad deal. I only go for buying used if I can save at least $5 on that book. Less than that and I'd rather not take the chance and I'll just buy new. There's a handful of books in P4/5 that won't be worth finding used unless there happens to be a lot on e-bay because they're only $5-$6 new from SL. I found the Developing the Early Learner books on Timberdoodle for about $15 less than sonlight. I'm going to be ordering some other things from Timberdoodle so shipping won't matter. So I guess so far my answer is that yes, they books are worth the money, but not necessarily bought as a core from SL. Depends on if the extra money is worth not having to do all the footwork to get them piecemeal. We're planning on a gap year when she's 5 to save Core A for when she's 6.
  18. My DD will be 4 this summer. She LOVES school and always wants more. So we decided to go ahead and get pretty much whatever I thought we might like this upcoming year. If we use it, great, if not, we'll still have it for next year. I've still had to do a lot of tweaking and cutting plus looking for what I can on e-bay because money is tight. But it's worth it to us to cut in other areas to make it work. My excel spreadsheet is currently at $573.00. I keep trying to cut it back more, but instead when I go looking I find something else I want. :tongue_smilie:About half of that is picture books, not curriculum. I can break it down by subject or by exact items if you're interested.
  19. I'm new here, but saw this thread last week when I was lurking :) Our house is finally listed. We wanted to a year ago, but kept waiting for things to maybe get better. We had about 10 showings in 3 days the first week it was listed and the second week we found out we had 4 offers. So we've signed for one of them and now we just have to wait to see if the bank accepts it or not. Thankfully they stopped showings until we get an answer on this offer. That week with so many showings was hard! We basically had to be out of the house all day when there were showings because they were spaced so perfectly that we'd have to time it just right to have enough time at home to be worth it.
  20. I wouldn't notice. If somehow I did notice, I wouldn't assume anything. I haven't worn my wedding ring since I was pg with DD (almost 4). I sometimes try to put it on if I'm going to be in a situation where it might matter, but I often forget. I work with an organization that produces Christian concerts. I wondered if anyone noticed at the last show because I was obviously pregnant, working with a Christian org, and not wearing a wedding ring. No one said anything, but I was worried about giving the wrong impression to tour management. Then my 3yo showed up, but also with my husband (wearing his ring), so hopefully anyone who may have noticed and assumed saw them and figured it out. Most of the time I don't care what people may assume, but it does matter when it comes to what a tour manager thinks of a production company.
  21. I'd run with it if he's liking it. With DD I was super cautious about only introducing one new thing a week and only giving her basically mush for a long time. She took to solid food really slowly. Now at almost 4 she is a really picky eater. I don't know if how she got started has anything to do with it or not, but I think it's possible. With this next one, we're doing baby led weaning. It sounds like less work than the hours I spent making baby food anyway!
  22. We love ours. We got it for DD for her 2nd birthday. She'll be 4 in June and it still gets used every time she sets foot in the backyard. Yes, they're messy. If you don't mind sweeping up sand after every time he plays and you have a big enough area of non-carpet you could let him use it inside. Ours is kept outside on the back patio. We have the kind with 2 sides so that she can do all sand, all water, or sand and water.
  23. Pretty much in a class of it's own because besides being so narrow, it is tall with high weight limits so it will last longer. The closest to it would probably be the Evenflo Tribute and the Cosco Scenera, but neither will keep the child rear facing or harnessed as long as the Radian. I've heard the Complete Air can fit pretty narrow, but I've never put that one in myself in a narrow situation to really test that out. Do you have a vehicle where you can buckle your 1yo in from behind instead of crawling into the back seat? If she's rear facing in the back row, most have found that to be the easiest. Otherwise one of your older ones will have to wait to climb in until you've moved out of their seat from buckling her. Unless one of them can be trusted to learn how to buckle her in properly. If she'll be over 2 and you choose to forward face her, the Evenflo Maestro or Generations are probably your narrowest options. But your other 2 will have more room if she stays rear facing and that's safer for her anyway, so I'd stick with a convertible.
  24. What do you have your 1yo in now? Forward facing or rear facing? Is your 7 yo in a booster? Lots of times it's just about getting them to puzzle well together, so it's possible you can make what you have work. The Radian is definitely a good narrow seat (though Sunshine Kids changed their name, it's Diono now). You can easily get 3 Radians across a back seat. The Radian fits newborns well, too, so it's also an option to put your baby straight in to a convertible rather than an infant carrier. The Coccoro is also a narrow seat great for infants. It won't last as long as a larger convertible, though and it is not a removable infant carrier. Infant carriers are all pretty close in width. The most popular, easy to find ones are all within an inch of each other for width across the base. The Graco Snugride is about 16.5", BabyTrend FlexLoc 16.75", Chicco KeyFit 17", Safety 1st Onboard Air 17.5" (My personal favorite is the KeyFit) What vehicle? Do your center seats have a shoulder belt and head rest? What's the current arrangement? I'm a car seat tech, so feel free to ask me any questions, I love talking car seats!
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