I'm tempted but not sure yet. DS 7.5 would love it but I wonder if it would be worth it for him as he is in k12 5th grade math. DD 6.5 is finishing up k12 2nd grade math so maybe it would be worth it for her and DS can just have fun with it?

I can't remember when my kids started drawing 'people'. I'm sure I have them scanned somewhere, lol... I did find this from when my dd was about 30 months. The picture on the left was me giving her an example, the one on the right was all her. https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/DMUIx81Ss9KpzjT3bxJjYmpWMWoeTIRR5Wo6inOMH5E?feat=directlink ETA: Thanks for this thread! I'm going through old pictures the kids drew and it's just too fun! I found a whole bunch of people from ds when he was almost 3.5 - he drew lots of relatives and it's so amusing!!!

I used my iphone to scan the books. Then I just sent it to my eamil and imported it into librarything. Worked really well to do that. I believe I usually scanned about 40-60 books at a time as I didn't want to risk scanning too many and then having it not work. I use librarything to keep track of the books I own as well as the books the kids have read. We have many collections and the kids are tracking books by year (as well as school books by year). I do use an app on my iPhone to track the kids books we own - Home Library, it also lets me track movies and video games so I can keep one list.

:hurray::hurray::hurray:

This - Canada many times as I grew up in Vermont and my grandmother lived right on the Canadian border. Mexico once I think and France for 2 weeks :)

We only have Snap Circuits of those listed but a 6 yr old should definitely be able to do them. We have the 300 set and my 5 yr old (at the time) was easily able to do them himself. My current 6 yr old has been able for most of the last year to do them by herself as well (she's not as inclined to stuff like that so it's not as easy for her)

interesting question! I loved that book when I was a kid, I may have to reread it soon to see if my dd would be ready for it. I'll be watching for people's answers - especially since my dd though only 6 has a high reading and comprehension level. It's hard to find books that are appropriate for her as she seems to prefer higher level books but I don't want them over her head topicwise.

We keep a bin of books near the stairs - we also have 2 library bags. One for each library. As they finish books they go straight into the library bags to be returned. Each kid has a small bin near their beds for their library books - so the only place other than the big bin is their beds. Sometimes I do find them on their desks but they are pretty good about keeping them in safe places.

We got to one library on Mon. and a different library on Thurs each week. I would say the kids get out 20-40 books at both each week. My daughter reads quickly so we need to get a bunch of books for her - she took out 25 or so books on Thursday and has already read 3 geronimo stilton's, 5 Real Kids Real Places, 1 doll hospital, 2 club penguin, 3 pokemon, 1 allison dare, and 1 Franny K stein. She almost always runs out of books before we go each week!

At one library we have 1 card with 39 items checked out. We can check out up to 100 but only 10 can be DVDs. They have a 5 item hold limit so I just started the process of getting the kids cards solely for hold purposes. I have 5 holds and have several more I would like to place!!! I think all items are 3 weeks with 2 renewals as long as there are no holds. Entertainment DVDs can not be placed on hold or renewed :( At the other library we use we have 1 card with 48 items checked out. I believe they have a 99 item limit and only 5 holds as well. ETA: They must have changed it recently, it's now 10 holds!! New books have a 7 day checkout all the rest 28 days. DVDs are also 7 days. I believe you can renew 3 times but the renewals are for 2 weeks. Kids books are always 28 days.

If we really really want a book i will request it even if it says it's on the shelf in order to guarantee we get it. Now that being said both libraries we use have a limit of 5 books on hold - I guess I really need to get the kids cards so I can put more on hold! I never bothered as they allow 100 items out. The old library only allowed 25 so both kids had cards there.

Make sure it is the Advance as the prior versions of the triumph only went to 40 lbs. The Graco Nautilus is what we had for my current 6 year old (7 year old has one as well). It harnesses to 65 lbs with a high top shoulder slot (both of my kids still could be harnessed in it and the 6 yr old has a long torso) and can then be used as a booster.

It depends on the car seat itself. If you can give the brand of the seat that might help people give you better answers. For example: most convertible car seats would typically go to 40 lbs but they may possibly outgrow by height first. One way to tell if they are outgrowing any forward facing seat is that the should straps MUST be at or above their shoulders. If it is below their shoulders at the highest slot they have outgrown the seat. Also I believe if the tips of their ears are above the top of the seat they have also outgrown in. Some seats have higher height/weight limits though so knowing the seat is important. i think I would assume it's a 40lb limit if you don't know the seats details. Also seats do expire so check the date of manufacture (usually on the bottom or back of the seat, sometimes it is an expiration date instead) I think it's usually 6 yrs from manufacture that it expires.

We set it to about 68 during the day - old thermostat so not completely accurate and about 62 at night. The lower level is typically 5 degrees cooler though so right now the kids don't play down there all that much as it's typically low 60s until mid-afternoon. We usually cool to about 78 in the summer but this will be our first summer in this place so I can't say for sure yet as we don't know how it cools. I want the kids to be able to actually play downstairs so we may cool it lower if needed. I NEED blankets so it has to be cooler at night or I'm super uncomfortable. DS seems to feel the need for blankets too and won't uncover himself if he gets too warm.

We had the same issue with two Speedo's from Costco last year. We had NO issues the prior year so I was rather disappointed. DD currently has a 2 piece tankini from Target that seems to fit well - it's shorts instead of a bikini bottom so it stays put with no gapping which we rarely get from a regular suit or 2 piece.

We've always refrigerated it once opened. Growing up my dad would buy the gallon jugs and then transfer it to several smaller bottles (fake syrup bottles) and then freeze 3 of them. That way it took longer to go bad but we always had a nice manageable size container to get our syrup from :) Being a Vermonter I grew up on real syrup and much prefer it to the fake cheap stuff!

Wow thanks for the warning. That is one of DS's choices for novels for Literature. I think I will preread before he picks that one.

we got Fun with Roman Numerals by David Adler and another one I'll have to figure out what it was

Hmm - My son was diagnosed with Developmental Coordination Disorder but no therapy was really recommended. I wonder if we should pursue that more. He basically told me to encourage him to do sports but definitely do not push him if he resists team sports, just search for a solo sport he can do instead as he will just never be that coordinated and it may bother him eventually (he was 5ish at the time I think). I do see he has a harder time coordinating things like armstrokes AND kicking at the same time but he does eventually get it, it just takes much longer. So we'll see. At this stage all he's really done is soccer, swimming, and some gymnastics. I'm curious what OT was recommended to you though as we may want to pursue something for him as well.

We currently drive about 45 mins to swimming and the library once a week. I love that library and don't want to give it up (though the ones here aren't bad either). I always buy books in the Library Bookstore (kids pbs are .25) so i often spend $2-3 on a large selection of great quality books for the kids - that is missing at our new libraries :( If we didn't have swimming there I probably would only go to the library if we happened to be out that way for something else as driving all that way JUST for the library wouldn't be worth it.

We have a Sony and love it. We bought at Costco when we could get a great deal 2 years ago I think it was. The prior TV (not flat panel) was also a Sony and we had that one for almost 10 years I think. Since it is our only TV we probably spent more than we would if we had several tvs in the house. If we ever buy the kids their own tv for the playroom it will probably be Vizio as they get decent reviews for their price.

:iagree: We used Reading Eggs with my son when he was 4 to give him the confidence he needed to prove to himself he could read. He started reading at 3 but didn't 'think' he could and we saw a huge improvement in confidence with RE. With my daughter we used it along with teaching her to read and it gave her the confidence that she really could do it. She loved it and asked to do it almost every day (she was 4) and is a phenomenal reader many levels above her age. She is enjoying the Eggspress part now as well but hasn't played it too much right now.

We've only used Timez Attack and X-Germs (k12) so far. I just started them with xtramath today as while my son knows all his facts when put on the spot he has trouble answering quickly so I thought occasional short bouts of practice might help get over that. He loved Timez Attack and at 5 learned most of his facts. My daughter is just starting multiplication so I have to find something that helps her - not sure timez attack will do it or not. We'll see I guess.

If you refresh the page it will update the dates. It did that to me too so after a couple codes I would refresh the page to make sure it had worked and it did.

We taught the kids our address and phone number by talking about it regularly and quizzing them. Of course now we've moved so I guess I get to start over! I *think* they actually know the address though, guess I'll check tomorrow! I only taught cell # as that is the one number (well 2) that won't change. i don't even know our new home phone #!!!