Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Llama Llama books Duck and Goose books Eating the Alphabet Spot lift-the-flaps books Hand Hand Fingers Thumb Barnyard Dance Goodnight, Gorilla Tumble Bumble

Thank you for your suggestions! I'll take a look at those sites. :)

We are going out to Minneapolis this September to visit DH's brother (single, no kids). Other than the zoos and Mall of America, he doesn't have any idea what we can do w/the kids. Any suggestions?

Thank you. :) I spent over an hour poking around on the GRE site. Does anyone have any recommendations for study guides? Or websites that help you figure out a study plan?

Does anyone have any recommendations for study materials, study schedules, and/or online practice tests? I found out this evening that I need to get the jump on this b/c if I want my MLS before the current librarian at our local branch retires, I need to have the degree done no later than 2017. (There is backstory to this, but I don't know how important it is to share, suffice it to say that becoming the librarian would be a dream job come true.) I'm getting the feeling that this is one of those moments where the Universe is kicking me in the pants to get my attention, and the first step in all this is the GRE. I took it 10 years ago, so my old scores are no longer valid. Has the test changed at all since then? Thank you!

We have a Toyota Corolla w/3 kids. It is a tight fit since all are in carseats. If you get a small sedan, you'll need to research narrow carseats/boosters. Radians work nicely, but they're not cheap. If you go w/a sedan, I would stay away from the smaller, compact cars. DH would like to upgrade to a lager one, but neither of us want a car payment!

I like it b/c even though it is a pita for me to get everything together to do (I have two needy littles), DD has a high retention rate with it. She enjoys it, and what she learns generally sticks. When she does the oral portions, she likes to swing on the coat bar in our hall closet. For whatever reason, she does better while messing around on it than when sitting at the table.

I used very few of the books suggested in the AG. I did subject searches, and generally found at least one book in our library system that went with it. Here is a link to some of the books, etc... that we used: http://plantplantelectro.wordpress.com/sotw-1-resources/. It's not complete, but it has the first 14ish chapters (I need to work on it this summer).

My father passed away from cancer at the very beginning of our school year this past year. For good or bad, he and my step-mom were visiting (he shares a birthday w/my son), and after their birthday, his health tanked the following day. He passed away a week later. The last thing I wanted to do was to start school, but my step-mom was there, and I wanted to make sure she was busy, so I forced us to do it, and I involved her as much as she wanted to be involved (reading fun books, painting/crafts...that kind of thing). Forcing normalcy helped everyone cope.

I guess the causes for the disaster (specifically the meteor shower) are speculative. From that perspective, it wouldn't be hard SF. I always interpreted both that and the triffids as man-made, and that the triffids did a great job adapting to the Amazon, but weren't from there originally. What about Mars by Ben Bova?

CHRYSALIDS,CHRYSALIDS,CHRYSALIDS!!!!!!!! It is one of my all time favorite books. I read it for the first time around the age of 12. Day of the Triffids is great too. It starts out slow, but builds up. It never reaches a frenetic pace, but is more of a character study set in a post-humans-completely-messed-everything-up-with-their-technology kind of way. I liked Hunger Games and Divergent. The Maze Runner trilogy was just meh. It started out alright, but then kind of petered out. Genesis (by Bernard Beckett) was interesting, as was Restoring Harmony. Maybe Mortal Engines? Thought that could be classified as post-apocalyptic steam-punk. ETA: I have The 5th Wave on my to read list at the moment.

I would consider it hard SF. Everything that happens in in the book is a direct result of human technology (genetic/plant engineering and bombs/missiles orbiting the Earth). I love this book b/c it's more of a character study than anything. On that note, it might be a bit slow-paced for a 12 yr old. ETA: The Chyrsalids was (and still is) one of my favorite books. I read it for the first time when I was around 12 yrs old.

Now that DD is getting older, people ask her her name. When they do, she hangs her head b/c she can't say it. She can't say the "L" sound, and that's half of her name. This is generally where my "she can't talk" response comes in. She loves the gymnastics so far. We did a month of "mommy and me" classes, but she seemed ready to do it her own. Last week was her first time doing the class on her own, and she did great! I also have her in swim lessons. And this fall, she'll start at a Montessori preschool at one of our local churches. They only had space for her to go 2x per week, but they're thinking of adding a second 5 day-a-week session since so many families wanted that option. I think she'll do really well in it since it's so hands on.

Thank you for your help and encouragement. :) I really do appreciate it. We think she's a smart, but very mischievous, little girl. She just can't really verbally share anything. Lecka - what do you say to children/adults? I usually just say she can't talk. It's not accurate, but I haven't had any trouble with it yet. DD just started taking gymnastics (I think her motor skills are compensating for her lack of speech), and she's doing well in the group setting - better than I thought she would. And since there's very little talking involved, it's easier for her.

Thank you! I appreciate your input. I will take a look at the sites/books you've recommended this weekend. I've read about PROMPT before, and we are lucky enough to have a woman in our general area who is PROMPT-trained. I need to call our case worker so I can get her phone number. I don't know if she's taking on new patients, but I would at least like to talk to her. I also do the fish oil (as suggested by you, OhElizabeth, several months ago in a different post). There has been improvement with that, but I admit that b/c it has to be refrigerated, that I am not as consistent with it as I should be. DD's therapy was bumped up to 3 weeks about two months ago, and there has been a definite improvement in some of her works, like she can say "daddy" instead of "gaga", and "mommy" instead of "mama." DH and I are working on getting her to say them consistently. We also try to get her to say words or parts of words when she asks for something. We'll say the word, and if she can't repeat it in whole, we'll start with the beginning sound. There are a few words she can say mostly correctly if you break them down, but she can't string the syllables together. She is also decent at mimicking, but if you point to a picture of what you want her to say, she'll drop syllables. A lot of times her words end up being whatever the middle vowel is. She also has a wonderful rapport with her therapist. DD is usually an ice queen when it comes to meeting new people, but this therapist is one of a handful she has taken to immediately. I think we're lucky in that regard. It is frustrating for us, and has to be terribly frustrating for DD. She has a lot chugging away in her head, but she can't easily communicate it. I'm sure she knows more than we realize. I catch glimpses of it when she plays jokes or tricks on us, or when she'll randomly tell us a number or color within an appropriate context. DD absolutely LOVES playing boardgames. I will take a look at the Busytown game. Do you think the Super Why ABC game would be good? I've also had Ravensburger Things In My House game on a wishlist for a while, would it be good as well? She also loves reading, and I must admit that I don't read to her as much as I should. ODD and school, and my 21 month old boy, take up most of my time. I need to figure out how to balance it all out. With summer coming up, I plan on setting aside time just for her to read picture books. She has a long attention span when it comes to reading, so we could spend several hours straight reading. As for teaching reading, w/ODD, I used OPTGR and BOB books. I don't think that will work for DD3. I do have a copy of Phonics Pathways, and that seems like it would be a better fit. I also am thinking of buying her the Big Red Letter Book from a Montessori site to help her with that (she is a very tactile learner). Thank you for your help with this.

We're getting him a book about the business side of microbrewing, and a gallon of Frank's Red Hot.

Does anyone know about resources or things I can do at home regarding phonological awareness? DD3 has been in speech therapy or over a year and was tested again this week. The results came back her having apraxia-like tendencies (or mild apraxia) and phonological awareness disorder. I'm going to talk to her therapist this morning, but I figured someone here has dealt with this and has experience on what works at home.

Thank you! I didn't realize it was tested for baseline. A co-op in my area does ITBS testing, but she's not old enough for it yet (they start it at 3rd grade reading level).

Is the CAT-E test easy? Does it accurately gauge what it's testing? DD just finished taking it, and it seemed too easy for her. I'm debating ordering the test for the next grade level up and have her take it again. (She doesn't need the test for reporting, I'm doing it to get a baseline.)

Buying next year's curriculum was/is really just an escape from the fact that some subjects will be dragging on until mid/late July (that means you, Math!). Why face reality when planning can induce manic insomnia?

Well...I've bought pretty much everything we need already. The only thing I'm lacking are Spelling (don't know what to do) and Art (waiting for Atelier to go on sale at HSBC again). I do have to do all of the prepping, like cutting the bindings, getting things bound, making reading/book lists, etc...

I'm working on a blog post for resources I bought or want to buy for SOTW1 (basically the books we thought were awesome). I would check to see if your library has them, or if you can ILL them. Below is a non-complete list of what we liked enough to buy. I haven't finished the list as of yet. Here's what we liked: Archaeologists Dig For Clues Stone Age Boy Maroo of the Winter Caves (read aloud chapter book) the Gilgamesh trilogy by Ludmila Zeman Rich and Poor in Ancient Mesopotamia True Books: Mesopotamia The Gods and Goddesses of Olympus The Orchard Book of Greek Myths True Books: Ancient Greece Tales from the Odyssey Parts 1 & 2 by Mary Pope Osborne

It does have an answer key in the front, along with helpful hints (I've never used it). I pretty much only use the TM for extra worksheets. It's not necessary, and you could figure out something to do on your own. I just like it b/c then it's one less thing I have to create. If you're not a worksheet person, then it probably isn't worth it.

Core for me was phonics, reading, handwriting, and math. We added in subjects as I felt DD was able to handle them. Some weren't added until January. Or we'd take a break of a few weeks (such as between ETC books).

Adding...this is what we did. We didn't start all of the subjects at the beginning of the school year. We started with what I considered core, then added things in as they worked (this is part of the reason some of the subjects fell to the wayside).