This caught my eye, because I say this, too. And I only have four kids.

I was raised with very traditional values, and I value the salary my Dh earns. My issue is this: My Dh gets home from work at 5:30 and sits on his behind (most of the time). I never mow the yard. I don't pay bills. But when we moved when I was 5 months pregnant, he hung a few pictures after I'd nagged him for months. "I" moved and organized almost 20 thousand pounds of household goods. I stripped wallpaper off the walls and painted. We've been here for 18 months and he still hasn't fixed the shower in the downstairs bathroom. If he doesn't do more with the next move (which is related to HIS job), I won't do another one. I will take the kids and go to my parents until he sets up house. I just. can't. take. it. And if he can kick a toy out of his way, he can pick it up. Dh is a great guy in most ways, but he is truly selfish. Truly meaning that he honestly thinks other people should be happy to do for him, but it doesn't occur to him to help others.

No.

Well that makes me feel better. I was about 6th grade. Dad laughed and laughed:glare:. Unfortunately, I learned a lot of my vocab through reading. I've made more than my share of mistakes.

Me too. Okay, now I listened to the earlier link. That is close enough to how I say it that I wouldn't have heard it and thought "Oh my goodness, I've been saying that wrong." You know, like when I realized Colonel was all wrong.

lunch = lunch supper = supper dinner = whichever meal is the main meal of the day

I'm not as stressed as it probably seemed from my post.:001_smile: My main concern is logistics. As far as preparedness, he was ready for a full kindergarten program this past fall as he was turning 4. At the time, my homeschooling sister told me it was time to start him, and my response was, "Nope. I don't have time for that." Now he is asking to start, and I find myself reevaluating that stance. He has picked up a lot by being around the other kids, doing activities I have around, etc. If I do start him in K, it will be the full Kindergarten program with Phonics Museum, Saxon 1 and, hopefully, FIAR. The problems, in general, are time and time. :tongue_smilie: I know there are a lot of families with many more kids than I have, but doing school with the older two while watching the baby fills my days. I often feel that Ds4 gets the short end of the stick as far as my time goes. Selfishly, I'd like to start him in K next fall. I'm concerned that isn't what is best for him. Like you said, I don't want to wait to start and then have him not be as excited. Right now, I have about 1 1/2 hours a day when the baby naps where I could really work with the kids, and of course times when I am more distracted. I'm also concerned about Dd7's time. She does a lot of school for her age. She is not exceptionally smart, but she is quick and bright for her age. She is also tall and mature for her age. She is doing work at her level. But looking back, I wish I'd done something like FIAR with her when she was in K or 1st and had more time. I'd like to include her now, but I don't know if she would be interested enough or it would be worth her extra time at school for what she would get from it. Happily, Ds6 would be easy to work around/with whatever scenario I choose. Neither of the logistics issues I'm struggling with relate directly to Ds4. I just have to decide if what I think he needs is doable for me right now. Or maybe I need to think about how to make it doable.

I'm glad it is going well with your daughter; that is encouraging. He has spent a lot of time in the school room, and we've already read to him a lot. I will sometimes give him Horizons K math sheets to do or projects, but I don't work with him. I just give him the instructions. For the past two weeks we've been doing HOP for 5-10 mins. a day. This is why he wants to start school. He wants his Phonics Museum and Saxon like his brother has. He wants the face-to-face instruction from me. I think he'd love FIAR for the cuddle time/interaction, but he doen't know about it yet.

Another poster also mentioned doing K4 and K5. Selfishly, I don't want to spend two years on K'er. I'm toying with the idea of starting now and doing 1 1/2 years, though. We do Phonics Museum. He could do both the Kindergarten and the 1st grade Phonics Museum and Kindergarten math for 15 months with time for FIAR and preschool type activities, too. That would have him starting 1st as an almost 6 year old.

Dd7 is on track to graduate early, too, and I've thought about it a lot. There is NO WAY I'm sending my 16 yod to school with 22 yo young men. But for years I've been mulling over the idea of having them "apprentice" in a trade for 1 or 2 years during high school. They'd graduate at 18 with a life skill.

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He turned four in September, but he is ready. He is usually in the schoolroom with us and has picked up quite a bit (he reads some and is pretty good with adding numbers up to 10) although I've barely done anything formal with him. He has told me every day for two weeks that he wants to start Kindergarten. The thing is, I am tired. And busy. And I really want to do some fun things for his Kindergarten. When Dd7 was four she begged to start and I let her. It was fine, and she is doing really well. The problem, for me, is that she is just 7 and her school is so serious. I like academics, but I have a year of FIAR that she probably would have found fun (I didn't get this until she was almost 6, but by then we were moving again and she had so much other school to do). We just didn't do things like that. Ds6 was doing Kindergarten during a move and a baby, and I didn't do fun things with him either. Questions that I'm pondering: Should I start Ds4 in Kindergarten? If he was an only child or the oldest, I probably would since he's been asking. Should I start him in Kindergarten only if I have the time and energy to do everything I want to do? Should I include Ds6 with FIAR activities if I'm doing it with Ds4? - We could do this, Ds6 is doing 1st grade work and he would have plenty of time. Should I let Dd7 participate in FIAR? I don't know if she would be interested in the books and activities now, because she is working a bit above her age, but she doesn't like to be left out of things. She is in 3rd grade and does a lot of other school. I won't list everything she does, but just as an example: in her freetime reading bookbasket for this week (she helps me fill this, so please don't think I'm being mean) she has two Mandie books, one Magic School bus chapter book, The Whipping Boy, and a picture/science book on aviation. After these books, would she like FIAR? She will sometimes still listen when I read picture books to the younger ones, but not often anymore. Should I wait to do K'er with Ds4 until fall? Ds6 and Dd7 would both be busier then, and I probably would do FIAR with just Ds4 at that point.

All of mine were down to one nap by about 12 months. But then, my first three stopped napping altogether between 18 and 24 months, so I don't know if this is normal.

Ya know, I am a 32 year old mother of four who is really, really big on personal responsibility. If I found myself in a situation where I was being repeatedly assalted at my job (and my husband wasn't around to provide for us), I would bundle my kids up and head down to my daddy. I wouldn't live off him a day longer than I had to, but I would go. The really nice thing about having a family is having a safety net.

This is me, too. I would let Dd7 have more latitude than I do matching wise if she wouldn't (almost) always put on play clothes that are ripped, stained, or terribly outdated to go to town. She has stacks of nice clothes, and I just can't let her out of the house in her grubbies.

When I taught, I was responsible to meet our department goals. There were 8 or so Spanish I classes. All teachers used the same textbooks and covered the same (generally) material. My lesson plans were my own.

My 3yo nephew was heard saying he was going to cut his brother's three-head. Sis was reading about Greek myths, so she was thinking he meant Cerberus or something like that. The 4 year old brother understood him though; he very patiently explained that it was a "fore"head

Dd7 wasn't planned (well, most of them weren't), but when we added up the numbers, she cost us about $70,000 before she was even born.:tongue_smilie: I was thrilled, though, with all of them.

This is lovely.

Legos. Without a doubt, the legos hurt worse. But Playmobil is much more interesting to the baby, who likes to try eating the pieces, so I'm still not sure which is worse.

1 C warm water 1 pkg yeast (I use a T) 1 tsp sugar 1 tsp salt 2 T oil 3 cups flour Knead and let rise 45 minutes. It isn't fancy but it works for us.

I buy 4 workbooks for every teacher's manual I buy. If I ever get to the point where I just don't want to use it anymore, I'll sell the workbooks with the manual.

Oh, :iagree:with this, too. That didn't work so well for me though. I knew Liam was a form of William, but that wouldn't stop me from using it unless it would provoke drama in the family.