Wipe down your counters w/a white vinegar an water solution (erases the chemical trail they leave). If you know where they're entering, put down some yellow cornmeal. They eat it, but can't digest it. After 24-48 hours they were gone.

strawberry bunchcake (strawberry shortcake) Germandy (Germany) wishy-scope (bionoculars/telescope) broccoliasaurus (brachiosaurus) meteor (medium) yurgul (yoghurt)

Neither of mine had problems taking a paci, but both girls started using them around 2-3 wks old.

I regularly highlight my hair (blond and red), and I've never had any problems w/the bs/acv wash. As w/a pp, I keep a large box of bs, and jug of acv under my bathroom sink. I eyeball the amounts, so it can vary. When I first started, I tried to make a paste w/the bs, but it didn't work. Now I make it very runny, flip my hair upside down, pour it through sections of my scalp, and rub. Rinse out, then pour diluted acv over it and rinse out again. To help w/shine, do a cold rinse. I wash my hair 2x a week. There are times, I'll use an sls-free shampoo when a quick shower is necessary. As for the adjustment time when I started (over a yr ago), it was about a month. My scalp overproduced and there was a bunch of gunk initially.

We came across chai/cinnamon chip ice cream at our university's dairy store recently. Haven't tried it, but it sounds wonderful.

Are you writing down the license plate numbers? My mom's neighborhood had a drug house in it ab a year ago. Her and other neighbors wrote down everything. The police ended up doing an operation and arrested a lot of ppl including several prominent drug dealers. My mom got really scared one night when one of the visitors went to her house by mistake and kept ringing her doorbell. She didn't answer, and her dog kept barking. The worst thing to me about that was that a 5-6 yr old girl lived there.

What about either Globetrotting w/Cinderella, or Globetrotting w/Folktales by Intellego?

I plan on teaching German to m girls b/c I sort of speak it, we have German heritage on both sides of the family, and it's a useful language. I started studying it in high school b/c it sounded more interesting than Spanish. Plus, if I ever want to go on and get a doctorate based upon my BA (Religious Studies), I will need to know German (French is the other modern language they would like you to know). I'll also do Spanish as well. DH and I both know a little bit of it. Heck. I'm hoping either or both of my girls are language-lovers b/c that would give me an excuse to learn more than what I know now. For the moment, we just read to them in German and Spanish from childrens board/story books. One of ODD's favorite books is, "Ich sehe was, du nicht siehst..." (I think I have that right, not at home at the moment).

We went to Yellowstone in May '09. It took us over an hour to get from Yellowstone to the Tetons as there was road construction. Even without that, it still would have taken us a while. If you want to spend time in Yellowstone, then you're probably better off basing yourself there for several nights. Yellowstone itself can take a decent chunk of time to drive across, esp if you're going there when a lot of other ppl are visiting. Teton-related - There's an interactive visitor center that was really interesting.

ODD just turned 4, and will be starting RS A once we receive it from the homeschool buyer's co-op. We've been working through Mathematical Reasoning Beginning 1 from CTC for the past 6 months.

What about 1st Step Starter History? I'm considering using this w/ODD when she's a bit older. http://www.currclick.com/product_info.php?products_id=32457&it=1

Has anyone used this? Is it a good program. I saw it on currclick: http://www.currclick.com/product_info.php?products_id=32457&it=1 It looks like a good price for the bundle. If it is worth it, I think I will buy it now for next year (or the year after, depending on when ODD is ready).

Yay! This means the closest TJs to me will now only be 3 hrs away! I don't know if it's sad that I would drive 3 hrs one way just to get items from TJs, but man...I miss it desperately. As it is, my parents send me care packages of the non-perishables I cannot live without.

This was the first thing that popped into my head as well. It was very enlightening. Though I agree it's probably best suited for slightly older children.

Wise Child and Juniper by Monica Furlong the Blue Sword and the Sword and the Crown by Robin McKinley Dealing With Dragons by Patricia Wrede Dragonsong and Dragonsinger by Anne McCaffrey

My mother read to me a lot when I was younger. I have memories of her reading Boxcar Children to me on the couch. I know it tapered off as I got older, but by then I was reading non-stop.

Suburb girl / country boy. Until DH enlisted, he thought everyone grew up with sev hundred of acres of forest and fields to roam around in.

I loved thunderstorms until I moved to NE. Now all I can think about is the possibility of tornadoes. Give me a storm in AZ or NM any day - they're beautiful (and no tornadoes!).

I read WTM this past Dec/Jan and have been lurking since then. I registered when I needed suggestions for helping my DD start reading, etc... Because I'm not technically hs'ing her, I still feel somewhat intimidated regarding posting. There is a wealth of information here that I've been slowly compiling into a spreadsheet (including thread links) for reference. My goal is to homeschool her, but I can only do that if I am able to telework. (At worst, I'll afterschool her) She'll go to ps for K (2011), and I'll start hs for 1st. I'm hoping two years will be enough time for me to move up the waiting list for telework. DH was an obstacle initially, but he's starting to come over to my thinking as we have had extensive conversations about why I want to hs. As long as I can make it work, he's game. I don't think he'll teach any of the subjects (I would like him to do math, since that's my weakest subject), but he'll do "daddy school" to show her useful things like how a lawnmower works and how to fix it.

Thank you for posting this! I was debating getting a membership at Enchanted Learning. I sent the pp this morning and haven't received a user name/password yet though.:confused:

I love the Baby K-Tan for young babies. It's a hybrid between a sling and a moby wrap. I'm using one now w/my 6 wk old. It's wonderful! I pop her in chest to chest, she falls asleep, and I get housework done. For older babies/toddlers, the Ergo is the way to go. I have one I used w/DD for several years. They are expensive, but well worth it. At 3.5 yrs old, I was still wearing DD in it w/o any problems or pain.

This is a wonderful thread! I've been looking for science experiment ideas as well for our almost 4 yr old DD. I checked out both Mudpie to Magnet books from the library, and I agree that a lot of them are geared towards a classroom setting and/or require items we don't need or keep around the house (ammonia and liquid bluing for example).

Thank you for your ideas! Some of games on Kelly's site should be winners. DD absolutely loves playing games. I had originally bought Phonics Pathways, but felt overwhelmed by the lack of guidance. I will pull it off the shelf and read over it again.

I just started using OPGTR w/DD. She already knows all of her letters and their sounds so I started with lesson 27. I don't need to push her (she'll dig her heels in if I do) because she's just shy of turning 4. While working with the cards, she told me that sounding out the letter combinations was too easy. I think what she wants is to skip the sounding out and building of words, and go straight to the reading. I pulled out a BOB book to see if that would be more palatable for her, but instead of looking at the letters, she'll make assumptions based upon the picture above - the word starts with "s" and there's a sun in the picture, so the word must be sunshine (not sat). Is there a way I can make this fun to trick her into paying attention to the letters?

Off the top of my head: books by Rosemary Wells the Llama, Llama books Goodnight Gorilla Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb books by Sandra Boynton Curious George books Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? Tumble Bumble Corduroy the Curious Garden DD is sleeping at the moment, so I can't look at her bookshelf to look through what she has.