:iagree:

:iagree:I agree with the bolded part 100%. During our first move, we visited approx. 20 churches. One time Dh had to go without me, due to an injury. He filled out the card.:glare: He thought I was crazy for never letting him fill out the others. Five years and a relocation later and we are STILL getting mail from them. The hardest part of moving (for me) is finding a good church. Churches vary so greatly. We just went down the phone book until we found one that worked for us - eliminating any that we knew wouldn't work from the list. You won't know if a church will work for you after the first visit, but you'll get a pretty clear idea if it won't. Happy hunting.

I fell on an ice covered cement driveway with Dd1 last year. I was 38 weeks, and she broke my fall. She was fine, but I started contractions 10 minutes later, so we did go to the hospital to have her monitored. So, I fell hard enough to start labor, but it didn't hurt her physically at all. I hope everything goes well.:grouphug:

Yeah, I know. But the whole premise of the game is based on taking out loans to make deals (I do not go into debt when I play - and I've only won once). Maybe it bothers me so much because of the housing bubble, but I'm rather anti-speculation and big risk taking with finances. It's not like I forbid the kids to play, but whatever good you might see in it, it isn't the model I would use to teach my kids about finance/real life. Quote from instructions: The time will probably come, however, when you don't have enough money on hand to buy a Deal - or to pay your bills, pay a neighbor, or make a charitable donation. Do what all investors have had to do from time-to-time: Take out a LOAN! I don't make charitable donations with loans, for starters. Not saying you can't have fun and practice math with it.

:bigear: Dd7 -7!- does most of her work independently. When I ask her if she wants me do something with her, she turns me down most of the time. Which is great when I'm busy, not so great if we are missing out on spontaneous learning situations.

All of it. Dd is doing 5/4 and she has to do everything. Sometimes (okay, several times a week) I forget to do her time test, but she's pretty good with her math facts. Ds does all of his Saxon 2, but I don't do most of the lessons and meeting book stuff. I always think I should do more, but he is getting it and I've got a pre-K kid that wants to read and a 1 year old. It he ever needs more help I'll give it to him, but for now... he has to make do. :blush:

Disclaimer: I like curricula. I would probably be content with just about any math program as long as my kids progressed. We started with Saxon and we'll probably end with Saxon. Some days are looong days, but that is 90% due to the attitude of the kids doing the work (in my house). Dd7 is in Saxon 5/4. She occasionally needs help with a problem, but she does most of the work herself. I haven't noticed major problems with not retaining skills. Occasionally, I will notice a pattern of missed problems, and I will work with her on that skill. For example, when she was doing Saxon 1, she consistently confused 12 and 20. So we worked on that. A few months later she had trouble putting numbers in the correct order from least to greatest, so we worked on that. I do plan to add in LoF to finish off the year before we start Saxon 6/5. It isn't that I have a problem with Saxon, I just want to slow down a bit. Ds6 is in Saxon 2. So far he is doing very well. I confess I rarely actually do the lessons with him. The incremental approach seems to be enough for him to grasp the concepts. He is naturally into patterns, though, so I wouldn't really recommend that approach. I'm fine with Saxon. I don't LOVE it, but it works. I think I would be equally happy with many programs, though.

The instructions say you win by going into debt. I don't care how great the math practice is, the real life implications make me say: Play it for fun.

My 3rd grade girl liked Misty of Chincoteague earlier this year. She likes mostly mysteries, so I don't have a big list of animal books, but if your daughter ever decides she likes mysteries, I could give you a great list.

Okay, now I feel like an idiot. I am totally blaming this on the baby not letting me sleep, but I was thinking Arizona. I KNOW better, I really do. I thought you meant a huge trip from the west. That's a long, long emptiness that way.

My parents live about an hour from Eldorado. Are you asking about the weather? They got between 6-9 inches of snow earlier this week, but the roads are okay now. The drive would be horrific, though, with two small kids. I don't know what route you would be following, but it is miles and miles of plains. It would be what...15 hours? 20? My kids are really good travelers and I don't know if I would do that with just two small kids and no other driver. Sorry, I misread, if your husband wants to go (and your older kids would be along, too) I'd go for it unless it will be blizzard conditions. Eldorado is on a four lane, they'll keep it clear.

Do you like the area or just the name? My brother and his wife lived in Idaho for a few months (way up by Canada). I wished we'd driven up that way while there were there, but they didn't stay long enough.

See, I don't feel the need to know about pop culture for life in general, but if I'm ever on a game show I know exactly what kind of question I'm going down on.:tongue_smilie:

the "country" of Montana. He just started Geography Songs recently. He was doing the northern border states and pointing to the capitals as he sang. When he got to Helena, Montana, he said, "Ooooh, I bet you don't like that country." "Montana? Why do you say that?" "You know Helena Montana. You don't like that show.":lol: Obviously, the kids and I don't know much about Hannah Montana (I don't know enough about her to dislike her, I probably said no to pjs with her face on them one time). I see the kids are growing up as ignorant about celebraties as I did.

(I'm out of the 210's!!!) :) Congratulations!

I've got a book from when I studied education that gives some time on task statistics. I'll see if I can dig it up. If I recall correctly, the 50% mentioned earlier would be high. The 200 hours would be closer.

That's great! I know one pp said they would eventually outgrow it on their own, but I have a nephew that would come to his parent's bed every night. They finally kicked him out - at 13. Dh and I have a rule - kids (most of the time) past nursing age go to sleep in their own beds. If they wake up at night they may join us if they can do it without waking us up. If they distrub my sleep, they go back to their own beds.

Hmmm, I have had to tell my son that I will throw out whatever toy he touches if he leaves his seat to play when he is supposed to be working. That might be mean, but I was getting really tired of looking for him each time I turned around to help my daughter with something. I have also told this child that he could not have a drink or get something to eat. He would be given time to get a drink but would be found playing instead. So, he'd have to wait for the next break time. Every. single. day. when it was time to start school, he would sit down, look at me, and say "I'm hungry. I didn't eat." It got to the point where I said, "Sorry, bud, you had breakfast and ________ minutes to get something to eat. Now it is time to work." I didn't read the article, but if this is what was going on, I guess I'm one of the mean moms.

milk, cheese, ziplock bags

Yes, that is what we have. Lots of fun!

:grouphug:Sometimes things happen. My brother had a beautiful show steer one year in 4-H. You spend hours and hours working with a show steer, so it was a bit of a pet. We'd had several grand champions (carcasses) and this one looked like the best we'd ever had. We were so excited about it. We had to have it into the fair early Sunday morning, so my brother brought it up close to the house Saturday morning and tied it to a tree. There was a storm that night, the steer spooked, wrapped itself around the tree and strangled itself. My brother spent the morning field dressing that beautiful steer. Now, my brother hadn't been disobediant, but the steer died as a result of his actions. It's a hard lesson for your son, but maybe he'll do better next time and save himself a bigger grief.

If you look closely at the picture in my sig line, you'll notice a pool table to the right. I was supposed to have two large tables there. Excellent bargainer that my Dh is (he is a merchandiser by trade), he got the previous owners to throw in the pool table when we bought the house.:001_huh: We've played it one evening. The rest of the time it is my paper/book/stacks of whatever dumping ground.

I read stacks of children's books aloud to my kids starting when my oldest was 3 mos. old. Stacks. For hours at a time. But they "hated" when I tried chapter books. I didn't know what I was doing to do, because our curriculum has a lot of books, some of which I need to read aloud. All it took was a stack of coloring sheets. Now they love storytime.

I'm in my early thirties, but I'm dealing with some of these emotions. Dh always said he only wanted 4, and my fourth baby turns 1 tomorrow. I'm still hoping he'll change his mind, so I am "kind of" giving the stuff away. Everything goes to my sister who will use it for her kids. If I ever need it back, I can go get it. There's nothing wrong with selling the things, but I'd probably give them away - just because I would, not because I think you should.

We don't do the Berenstein Bears either for the same reason. I don't hate them and wouldn't flip out if someone read them to my kids, but we've got a thousand odd children's books and we just don't need to read those.