My 7yo never did FLL or any real "writing" program & I put him straight into WWE2 this year. He is doing great! His brother (5yo) does WWE1 and it is definitely easier (shorter sentences to write & no dictation as of yet) - but the stories are still interesting enough that the 7yo wants to sit and listen to them while we work! So - if she is doing well at writing and understanding material, then it should be totally fine to drop her in WWE2 but if she is having trouble with such stuff or you just want to review, I don't think WWE1 would be too boring!

My black lab/golden cross is 11 this year, and until recently he has been in excellent health!! Unfortunately, just last week I took him to the vet for a "weird moving of his leg" issue & they determined that he has a "neurological deficit". Sounds icky, and sad :( :( Apparently it can be similar to a pinched nerve, so we are hoping with steroids and rest he makes a full recovery - wish us luck! It hasn't been as difficult as I had feared keeping him totally calm this last week - we make the little young dog & the young kitty stay separate most of the day (my lab likes to join in the fun too much!) and don't let him chase after the horses when I turn them out. This actually makes me sad, though - he must really be slowing down & not feeling "with it" to have it be so easy to keep my always-going big guy down!! :(

I was thinking rheumatoid arthritis as well - sounds a lot like my MIL (80yo) and her hand problems...

Hm - my first thought was a binkie, but I guess that probably wouldn't have gotten stuck... Maybe a bottle?

Put a dust buster next to the wood working area & hand it to him whenever he starts up! :D

I wonder if the authorities are re-thinking the original arrest of the parents and removal of custody of the boy? Sounds like they were spot-on - "he runs away and gets into trouble" was their reason for tethering him to the deck when they were locked out of their foreclosed house... I wonder if there were any other issues that would cause them to remove the boy?

Sure! If you're interested in a new horse, a sound, mostly excellent health, well-trained younger horse with a known problem that will be resolved in a reasonable time period seems like a good find. Even if you wouldn't have bought another horse for the next 3-5 years, it's probably still a good idea - at 12yo, the horse has many years of solid use ahead of him. Obviously, if you can't afford another horse, that's a different story! :) (Or if, like me, you already have WAY too many according to your beloved but non-horsey hubby...sigh...)

Wanted to add - the part I DO remember most fondly from growing up and being forced to go to church weekly was that we always had a meal out with the family that day - this made it a special day to look forward to (even though church I honestly looked at and groaned about).

First, I'd look for a place where they did services at a different time of day and try that. I remember growing up I really detested being made to go to church early Sunday morning (my "day off" as a kid, since school was during the week and chores on Saturday). When we switched services to a Saturday night one, it became much more tolerable!! Then you will avoid the struggle to drag multiple reluctant people up out of bed -which can be difficult even when they WANT to go where you are asking them to go. Hopefully it will make church much less stressful just by changing the time, and perhaps the church itself - we went to some stodgy services that bored me to tears & then moved to a church where the pastor was actually VERY amusing & enjoyable to listen to, which made all the difference to me as a youth! If none of that works - I would honestly seriously consider just leaving your husband and kids at home if they aren't at all interested in going. My boss & I were having a conversation the other day about church, and I mentioned that up until I was 17 & moved out, I went to church with my parents & brothers every week. She asked me "Well why don't you go anymore?" My response - "I went with my parents and brothers every week until I was 17!!" Truly - as soon as I was out of the house, I stopped church entirely and have only gone back a few times since. Something about being FORCED to go somewhere that you have no interest in and desire about for so long really had the opposite affect from what I'm sure my mom (the only "church" person in my family) desired. Interestingly enough, I found out recently that my dad never liked going to church either!! He must have been very supportive of mom - I don't hardly ever remember him grumping about it (unless she volunteered him for stuff). She passed away 6 years ago, and I guess my dad hasn't been to church hardly at all since. Just to give you the alternative viewpoint - from those of us who REALLY didn't want our parents (spouses) to make us go! I love my mom, but I think she was better served trying to get us to be ACTUALLY religious (as in, treating people well, living a good life, etc) than forcing the whole church thing. She was a wonderful, godly woman - and THAT is what made me turn out better. The church thing only made me turn out a bit bitter... :D

My 7yo son (2nd grade) actually really likes Nancy Drew. We've done many as read-alouds, and so far I haven't found anything objectionable in them! We skipped Hardy Boys because the base crimes were usually pretty violent, so I'll wait until he's somewhat older to bring that in.

Hah!! I thought when I read the title that you were talking about a repair to a broken upper retainer and I thought "wow, cool - they can do that?? I wonder how well it works??"!! :) For the "hot glued" permanent retainer - I actually HAVE one of those!! hehehehe Never thought of it as hot glued, though... I've had it since I was a teenager - it is just a formed wire glued with white stuff to the inside back of my bottom teeth. Sometime the glue breaks loose (although it has happened a handful of times in the last 16 years or so) - in fact, right now I am rubbing my tongue against an open wire where the glue fell off several years ago and I never got around to replacing it :D. Too bad I can't really just hot-glue the spot!! The dentist actually uses a special white glue - I can't remember now if it was heated at any time in there or not (it's been awhile!). Fortunately the missing glue doesn't bug me or hurt my tongue, or I'd have to go in. For many years, I've been kicking around the idea of getting rid of that "permanent" retainer. I discussed it with a dentist once and was told that the teeth "might stay like they are supposed to or might not - no way to tell until you try it" (apparently everyone is different!). My mom had terribly crooked lower teeth, and she had done braces as a youth, so I have always been leery of trying! :)

Ooooooh, I love Princess Bride (and so do my young boys - hehehe).

I actually just bought a new Western saddle last week, and I spent several hours looking at used ones online & in the store. That is a totally reasonable price (assuming the saddle is in good shape, of course) - Most of the "sets" I saw were going for $200-250. I think most of the sets I saw didn't have a pad or reins, either. (I ended up with a very nice synthetic new one for $350, btw!) You might even try it for a week at, say, $250 and see what sort of offers you get. If it is too high, you will either get few/no offers or an offer for somewhat less (people like to feel like their getting a good deal!). Then you can drop it down from there. I also just bought a used English saddle last week (what can I say - I haven't bought a saddle in 6 years... I guess I went overboard! :D). She asked $150 and I got it for $125 - but it only came with stirrup irons (no straps and no girth, no extras either!). I had a set of brand new straps from years gone-by, but I had to dish out extra money for the girth.

They are the only place I've been able to find good Basmati rice!

I personally love the HP books - but I wouldn't let my 7yo read past maybe book 3 or so (I'd have to re-read to see where, for sure - it's been awhile!) until he gets older. Harry himself ages, so it makes sense that the books get more grown-up and darker as he gets older. It's just that you can read all at once instead of waiting a year!! :D So - I might read 1-2 now, 3 next year, and more as the years go by. Certainly by the time he is a tweenager I would not have a problem having him read them all. SciFi Fantasy is my favorite genre! :)

Very cute!! I sent it to my dad (the dentist)! :D

My kitty gets locked in the bathroom overnight so he doesn't try to eat my toes all night long - first thing in the morning he wants OUT!! Fortunately, I have kids - so I've already learned that if you let him do it once or twice he will always do it :D. Therefore, I refuse to get up and get him until after 7, and then only if he has been quiet for awhile (playing with his toys or looking out the window!). Requires some teeth gritting, but he's definitely getting better!

I work 20 hours a week outside the house - but I do it in 2 days (10 hours each), which is nice. I have a sitter come those 2 days to watch the kids (1st & 2nd grade) and she does a little bit of Spanish & workbook stuff. I spend an hour a day when I'm not working (up to 3 hours, some days!) taking care of my barn & horses. We do schoolwork 4 days a week. On Sunday, we take the day off and take a deep breath, getting ready for another week to start! :D As the kids get older & the schooling gets more intense, I plan to incorporate multiple independent work loads and have them do certain things while I am outside with the horses or away at work. Then I can do mom-intensive things while I'm home & check papers whenever I can squeeze it in!

Be careful when getting rid of all fluoride - my hubby grew up on well water without fluoride (and no add-ins in toothpaste, mouthwash, etc back then) and he has always had terrible teeth issues. The dentists indicated lack of fluoride in any form while growing up as a large reason behind cavity problems, at the least. I second someones post about about brushing your teeth CORRECTLY - I see many people brushing straight across for 30 secs or so & calling it a day! You are supposed to sweep away from the gums & brush for 2 minutes.

:iagree::iagree: oh... and... :iagree::iagree: :D I am 33 and I STILL remember angrily having battles with my ps teachers way back when about my pencil grip. In fact, I remember being ever more convinced that they weren't very bright & needed to mind their own business - and getting ever more likely to immediately do the exact opposite of what they said as soon as they turned their backs (I'm just that kind of person, apparently :D). Just reading about people struggling so hard to force their kids into the "right" grip makes me grit my teeth! I have a pencil grip that has caused dozens of teachers conniption fits throughout the years, and I use it proudly (now that I'm old enough to say :boxing_smiley: and :001_tt2:). If your kids are happy as they are, write clearly & comfortably, and are having difficulty changing their ways... I will always vote for just letting them be. Regardless of my "inefficient pencil grasp", I have managed to do quite well in life!

I second Google Calendar! :)

We sold our home on Craigslist 3 years ago or so and it went fairly well (although we did seller financing, which I DO NOT recommend!! :D ). We did not let anyone into our home until we had a fairly firm online "relationship" with them (through email). We sent out a lot of pictures & answered a lot of questions. Of course, we had actually purchased and mostly moved into a different house far away, so the house was basically empty with only enough stuff for a person to stay & try to sell it! :) (so we weren't very concerned with theft) We did manage to sell without a realtor, and for the price that we were asking, with few problems. The only real drawback was that we did the seller financing and have spent a lot of time dealing with slow & late payments. If we had sold to someone who got a mortgage right off & paid in full, I'd have called it a 100% success! Open houses let lots of strangers in, too... I agree with above that pre-approval letters for a mortgage would be a nice thing!

If you can get your hands on a used manual & an abacus, I'd say you could use it as your main math! You really don't need all the extras - they are nice, and definitely flow nicely with the manual, but can totally be worked around. Even not having the worksheets book is not a big deal (it's hardly worth having anyway - I supplement that part with Math Mammoth!). The card games are nice, but I'm not a big "game" player, so I've hardly ever done them outside of the handful of lessons that actually incorporate them.

I really like Supercharged Science - we just stared it last month with my 7yo science lover and he REALLY likes doing the experiments!! Unfortunately, most of the extra-cool ones I have to do with him - which means that they don't get done very often. We did, however, just spend a couple days making a neat hovercraft! I will probably drop it after this month (I am on a $ trial right now) and wait until next year when he is a bit older & more able to carry on single-handedly. By the time he is 9, I plan to save up the money to do the Science Mastery program through her website & get all the kits/dvds/etc along with the online escience - I'm so excited! What I like the most about it: - all online - no books to drag out & dig through or chapters to assign. - There are lots of units & he can start at Unit 1 and work his way forward or jump into anything that sounds particularly interesting. (Although you do have a supply list for each unit, so I had my son choose the Unit to work on & I bought all supplies for experiments to be done with that one) - Videos!! The program is online & all of the experiments (and some of the information) are done on video. This is fabulous - I get to watch her do it & just pause to catch up then continue on. I can ask my son "how long was that piece of wire again?" and he'll just back it up a smidge & review! - Written with lots of clarity & every-day, easy-to-follow language but not at all written "down" to a younger group. I find it as interesting & information as my son does. In fact, I'm using several of her info bits & easy experiments in a 1st-4th grade co-op class I'll be teaching :D. I can easily see a high schooler getting lots out of the program, but I can still use it for a 2nd grader. - I like Aurora - she is up-beat without being annoying :) - Even as I sit and consider dropping it due to cost & time, my son walks up to me wanting to finish our hovercraft project and tells me "I love supercharged science!" ... sigh... What I don't like: - Expensive - costly both for the escience online (pd monthly) and costly for the supplies to purchase for the experiments. (Of course, a lot of people will have lots of the supplies on hand - we had a fair amount, and she clearly says you probably can't easily do ALL the experiments so you should pick & choose based on what supplies you have. We just tend to go all out on stuff, and my son LOVES experiments - also, I was doing a month $1 trial & wanted to give it plenty of opportunity for success. By far the most expensive supplies were for the 1 "big" hovercraft project - motors, wires, propellers, etc - and that did turn out very cool!) - We aren't using it as often as I'd hoped to, and probably not often enough to make the cost worthwhile. That is really my fault, though - since he loves science, I end up scheduling it at the very END of the day as a "when you finish all this stuff" thing, so a lot of the time it gets booted to the next day... and the next... I really just need to rearrange our schedule better & set aside a time that he would normally do break/play for doing this. - Not as teacher-free as I had hoped; it is great that I can send him over to watch a video or two & read a little bit on any subject he chooses, but I was really hoping he'd be able to do most of the experiments himself. To be fair, he IS only 7, and he CAN do many of them himself - he just REALLY likes to have mom interact on everything! - Not as many educational videos as I had hoped - lots of experiment videos (LOTS), which are educational, but I was hoping more of the actual information would be in video format. I might just not have hit on many, though - the website is huge! - No way to track what he has done by marking it off. Not a big deal at our stage, and not a big deal if you start at Unit 1 and move forward, but difficult if you skip around to different units/steps. Probably it doesn't matter, though, since they would recognize the information or might want to see it again. Maybe there is some way that I haven't found yet, too! Shew. Before doing SS, we did Real Science 4 Kids (that I still want to work through, since I have all the books), Young Scientist Club kits (which were fun but very "mom-intensive" and no real "this is why it works" learning), Elemental Science (boring... boring), and living books (great, but expensive if purchased new & a pain to keep choosing & getting used/library). This is definitely the one I like best! Maybe I've talked myself into keeping it up for awhile :D