I guess it depends on where we go... althought being a trunk keeper for Matilda Jane my girls are almost always "dressed up" in other peoples eyes and they often come up to talk to me- like everywhere we go, lol. But we don't own any flower girl type dresses. And I do let them pick out combos from the closet because everything "cordinates" but not always matches. I see kids in all sorts of clothing and never comment. My middle son loves to put on a tie when we go to eat. I don't think anything is wrong with a child that likes to dress, they have so few choices right now that I don't feel it hurts :) As long as they aren't running around in skimpy clothing as a young girl I don't judge, but if you 10 year old is wearing shorts where her pockets are longer than the shorts...

My 5 year old loves to paint, color, draw, etc. I would invest in some prisma color colored pencils for the long run, a membership to a zoo or museum and do some of the programs. I would also buy an ipod or ipad because I love the games and librivox app for free ebooks. Classical music CD's. And a few games.

I think you will be fine skipping adventures, it is very very watered down IMO. I don't see why it wouldn't work because it is made for 2nd grade... MFW is very gentle. I love that I can just get by with it as is or beef it up if I need to :) I will not continue in jr high school though.

CLE, it is also black and white which was a HUGE relief for my son. He found the color too much and distracting. We had used MUS, but it was so boring and was mastery based, which meant we kept forgetting everything we learned. CLE is spiral so he is constantly doing review to keep those skills up. When he started CLE after a few weeks he came over and gave me a huge hug and told me he loved it. First time he'd ever said anything about loving math, plus the books are broken down smaller. He just finished a book and was so excited to be done with a book because we have struggled so much :)

Thank you! I will be at convention in March so I will pick up the book for next year and see closer to the start of the semester if he is reading it well before comitting. I know we will do foundations, but I'm trying to see if it is worth the extra money, I hate to hold him back too long or rush him ahead too fast :)

I know that Andrew Pudwah has a dyslexic son and he's done well with IEW, but I'm trying to decide if I will enroll my son in Essentials next year. He is 8 years old and will be 9. He is still reversing some letters no matter how much we go back over and is almost a perfectionist in that he will not write anything if he knows it's incorrect (spelling wise). It's a huge hurdle for us. He knows verbally grammar rules pretty well, but reading is still a struggle for him. He is reading Clifford books pretty well on his own and a lot of the Frog and Toad type books. He will read Gerinomo stilton if I am with him to help. I'm on the fence because I don't want him to struggle, but I feel at this pont if we don't start somewhere we will be in the same place forever! Do you think I can work at his pace because we will go over the material more than one year and add onto it each time?

Which way USA from highlights is what we have, my boys love it. Problem solving and plenty of puzzles.

I don't have time to read everything, but we can homemade salsa and use it in place of ketchup. So for eggs we'd use salsa. I always do avacado for breakfast with any type of meat or egg. Another idea for vegetables is to make a stew and serve for breakfast, we do this and the kids don't seem to care that it isn't a breakfast food :)

Aw, I love that it was helpful :) I still am meal planning for the month and we are down to around $500 for a family of 6 for the month, worth taking the time!

Me!! We've planned out and will order with tax refund. I'm ready to start growing things and and over this winter more than ever! My son is doing gardening in 4-H and we've been in major planning mode, along with dates.

I'm really hoping Cincy this year. Although Indy will have Pudwah this year so I am hitting it for sure!!

My boys have started to settle down, that is until they are around other kids and feel the need to show off. For the most part... however, around the "witching hour" they seem to get everyone up running around and playing. It's hard, boys have so much more energy, that's why I send mine outside to play a lot :)

I'd figure out the square footage you want and start designing. I do this all the time, just for fun.

Working out? A gym membership? Or even how about just running as a hobby, cheap and helps with stress.

I would want to know. I can't stand secrets, I don't even make purchases (even for a few dollars) without discussing them with my husband each day. We don't keep anything from each other, he's my best friend. Can you talk to him and get him to tell her? That's a sticky situation.

We do not have a credit card and don't intend on using one, we do mostly cash. We do have a debit card and it's mostly for paying bills. I try to use cash as much as possible.

I'm not expecting independence so much as my oldest has dyslexia so we would do most of it together. My daughter will be in first grade so I figured we could all just listen in. I guess I'm not sure what to expect, lol

I'm looking into this next year with my two boys, they will be 7 and 9 when we begin. I'm wondering if preparing is really that heavy on material and hard to get through. We've been doing CC and MFW this year. MFW seems very easy to get through. I do love the MFW format of everything being on one page and I know that HOD is a page each day which can make it hard to flip through. Has anyone had trouble with this format make a planner on one page for each week? If so I'd love to see it! How heavy is the material? I know for our LA/grammar we will be doing essentials so I will not need that portion.

First, I'm very sorry about your health issues!! Praying that you can get better and continue on. However, in your situation I would focus heavy on getting them to ready. I would also focus on a math program that would make it easy to transfer into school. I would focus on these two things and maybe see if you can talk to some parents or a teacher at a local school. I always ask my friends what their children are working on just to make sure I'm not too far off course with mine. Honestly, it's never a guarentee that something could happen and we'd have to put ours in school so I keep up on that type of things myself.

For that age you should be fine. We usually do only three days of everything, but on the other days we attend a CC foundations class, and also just usually do math and some reading together another day that I have to work.

We tell our children they can ask, but Santa will not always give them what they need. I've said this since they were little because I know they will change their minds, that some things become impossible to find, or they ask for something I don't feel they need. Therefore, I've preped for many years. This year my youngest is getting both items she asked for, my middle daughter will not be getting either thing, but things better :), and both boys asked for guns and I told them no and not to expect them. So... we shall see! I do have a rule that they can only ask for two things, one big and one small. I also don't hound the being good and Santa because I don't want them to feel they were bad if they only get a few more expensive gifts, or if they get only smaller gifts, etc.

DD 5 is getting: The newest Leappad with 3 games and headphones, A bunkbed for her AG dolls, AG doll clothing, a homemade blanket, A new cheer jacket, Cake pop maker, coloring books, lip glosses and nail polishes, perfume, a few movies for the van, overnight bag with her name to take for overnighters, doll head (for hair/makeup), mermaid bath set to share, a few board games, and one of those hair loom braclet things. Spirograph too. My husband is getting a lot of clothes and some tractor stuff. Flannel sheets.

My husband works a lot too, but when he isn't working for his job he is working around the farm. So I guess for fun he takes care of all our animals, builds fence, cuts hay, cuts firewood... His most looked foreward to activity each year is maple syrup, he's already counting down the days, lol. He loves to hunt and fish and just walk around outside. He isn't much of a reader or TV watcher. He is great about taking all 4 kids with him too, so that is nice! Usually one night a weekend we get a babysitter and go hang out with all our friends and just talk and shoot pool. It's nice to get adult time :)

Where do you buy the cards for $12? We will have one under our tree too :)

Oh another thing that most people don't realize going in, CC isn't who gets the fees (at least the $325) that is broken up going to your directior and tutor because they do all the work for your CC, this made a difference in my decision. I was wondering why it's so expensive, but I can tell you a LOT of work goes into prepping and tutoring. More so than any other coop I've done.