Happy Anniversary Heather and Christy. We'll be celebrating our 11th next friday. Yes on Friday the 13th, although that's a good thing for us as we were married on Friday the 13th as well. My dh calls it our "true" anniversary when it actually falls on a Friday. LOL

i still haven't gotten anything and I'm starting to wonder if my email to be put on the pre-order list went through. I don't remember getting anything back saying they'd received it.

We start back Aug 4th, but I haven't received any email about paying for WWE yet. Hopefully I'll get one soon.

We have a YMCA membership here in SE VA and we pay monthly instead of the large per year membership. It's $79 for our whole family and then that allows us to use the fitness equipment and the childwatch areas as well as the pools. It also allows us to get "Parents Night Out" where we can drop our older 2 off for only $8 for 3.5 hours. That's not per child that's for both which is a steal for sitting they have one about twice a month. At ours they have a little seating area off the main lobby and I've seen some moms drop their kids in the kidzone (think big McDonald's playland) and sit in the lobby reading a book while the kids burn off some energy. I would seriously look into seeing if you could afford the Y on a monthly membership. There is a $75 initial fee and then the monthly but you can cancel if you don't feel you'll use it. Just a thought. Just thought I'd add that our Y has both and Indoor and outdoor pool, our indoor seems to have a major chlorine smell but the outdoor one has almost none and I like that it has a sprikler area and is zero depth entry to only 3.5 feet on the "Playpark" side where my little guy and I are. I can still watch my older two and don't have to worry as they can both stand on the bottom without any trouble.

Every year out of our tax refund or my dh's bonus we set aside a hs budget. I usually make a list of what I want, the highest price I've seen (If I buy it lower woohoo, more money for something else) and then add a couple hundred dollars to that total for field trips, basic supplies like paper, pencils, art supplies etc. That amount goes into a separate checking account that is in only my name. It has a Checkcard that pulls money from which I use to make all my school purchases. Also anything I sell and am paid via paypal gets deposited into that checking account to so I make a little each year from selling in addition to my regular budget which is used for whatever fun school stuff I may want to try out. I feel very blessed to be able to do this.

I can't wait to get the email about payment. I know, what kind of weirdo looks forward to getting an email asking for money? LOL The kind that's been in desperate need of a good writing program to fit her child for the last 2 years. That kind of weirdo would be me:tongue_smilie:

That's a good one. I'll have to remember that as I have no qualms about making smart alec remarks to strangers that think they have the right to question me about things they know nothing. I don't mind if someone asks nicely but when they make snarky comments they can expect one in return. Sure the "Is it a school holiday" isn't really snarky but what makes them think they have the right to question people on it anyway?

My kids are young, they are 9, 6.5 and almost 3. They are allowed to watch their TVs and DVDs whenever they want as long as they turn them off when I call them for school (when we're in session). We've never had a problem with them and tv. They have about 150 childrens DVDs and they have weemotes which allow us to program in up to 10 channels they are allowed to watch. My oldest son loves the Food Network, especially Alton Brown, and my dd (the 6.5 year old) loves Animal Planet. She knows more facts about animals than anyone I know. My youngest loves watching Thomas the Tank Engine and Bob the Builder. They also get plenty of outside time and we have family independent reading time where we all spend time reading in our own spaces the youngers mostly look at books of their favorite stories, my dd is just starting to get reading on her own down so she's extremely excited that she can read certain books by herself. I'm one of those moms that feels if you think TV causes more problems than not for your family then by all means don't watch. I just ask that I not be judged for letting mine have free reign. Not saying that anyone here has done that but I do have family members that do, and they have the most wild kids that have no idea how to sit and listen to a read aloud, or to share toys, or play quietly when indoors, but they say my quiet, cooperative children are the "Bad" ones because they get to watch as much TV as they want.

My son just found "Hank the Cowdog" at B&N last week and loves them. He is my reluctant reader. He can read fine other than that he can't read silently, he has to read the book aloud, even when he's alone, but loves these books and there are plenty of them in the series.

Loved your response. I also think "did you happen to loose the filter between your brain and mouth" is priceless. I only have 3 kids and our biggest problem is that the first two are a boy and a girl so most people we run into think our 3rd (another boy) was an accident because as we've heard "You have one of each why would you want more" to which I usually say "He was very much planned and why wouldn't you want more" My kids are usually very well behaved and I in no way think 3 kids makes a large family. I truly admire those of you with more, we'd probably have more if we didn't have to move so much, it's already hard to find a house we fit in every time the Navy moves us. I've also noticed being military we tend to have what's considered "larger than average families" which I think is great. Congrats on your composure and to your son for what he said. Sounds like you have a really great bunch.

I know what you mean. We're in Chesapeake VA, so close enough to NC and it's so humid and hot out already. We're also having central air issues. Yes the house is cool, but both units (we have one for upstairs and one for downstairs) are constantly running just to keep the temp in the house at 75. Something isn't right. The downstairs was working ok yesterday and they recharged the freon upstairs but even 3 hours after they left the thermostat was saying it was 80 up there. It didn't feel like 80, so we're starting to think that maybe it's a thermostat problem now. Also the flow upstairs is pretty weak. I hope they get it fixed soon.

I have a female sharpei/lab mix who's 11 years old and a male pug who's 3 years old. I had the Pug neutered when he was about 6 months old. We have never had a problem with him peeing on anything except the usual puppy accidents. He learned to go outside quickly, much more so than our female dog (she was a shelter dog so came already fixed) he is very lovable and a real clown although I'm told that's a character of the breed. My parents always told me to get a female, they won't hump, pee on things, and wander off. Well I've had the exact opposite problem. My female is the wanderer of the bunch and she's always the one to try humping the male, although neither have ever done this to a person. My male does pee on things outside but very rarely and when he is just going to the bathroom and not marking something he actually squats like a female. It's kind of funny. We're definitely happy with our male.

We have an area rug on top of our living room carpet and use the little feet it came with. It was right on for us. My kids have seen my weight and I really don't care, they know I'm working on losing weight so to them weight is just a number and don't really know what "normal" should be. I do really like our WiiFit though I'm having a lot of fun with it and have stuck with it for a week already which is a record for me.

You absolutely did the right thing. I also have 2 boys one is still young enough to be in the women's dressing room with me but the other just turned 9 so he's too old to be in there with me. I understand that her dd may be modest blah, blah, blah. Just like you said she's free to use the family room, but she must get in line just like everybody else. Her mom can't reserve it for her and make everyone else that's already there wait. If she gets cold waiting in the hall, oh well then she should vacate the pool earlier to beat the rush and not have to wait in line. :hurray: I applaud you for speaking up.

We've been schooling in the afternoon for a year now. We love it. My ds is not a morning person and it really takes him until after lunch to be ready for schoolwork. So we run errands and have outdoor fun in the mornings. I've also found this makes appointments easier as well since it doesn't feel like a day of school lost when we have Dr. or Dentist appts in the mornings. We just school after them. We love this schedule so much better. We start at 1pm and are usually done by 4pm giving me plenty of time to get dinner ready. I also like that while the kids are playing in the morning I can work on cleaning and laundry. This all started when we lived in FL and it was just so hot come afternoon. You couldn't be out on our swingset from noon until 5pm because it would get so hot it could have burned the kids. We are in VA now and although it's not quite as hot we just seem to learn better in the afternoon so we'll stick with it.

My kids are 9, 6.5 and almost 3. Here's what they have 9y/o ds- 19" tv, DVD player, PS2 gaming system, nintendo DS and ipod shuffle hooked with speakers to hook it up at night. 6.5 y/o dd- 19" tv, DVD/VCR combo, nintendo DS and ipod shuffle with available speakers for at night. almost 3y/o ds- 19" tv, DVD player All three have digital cable on their tv's and a child's remote called a Weemote that has the 10 channels they are allowed to watch programmed in. We also have a 32" LCD tv in dh and my room with a DVD player and an Ipod docking stereo. The Living room has a 42" projection TV with DVD recorder, DVR cable service and the Wii. Kids play room has 27" tv with DVD player, Gamecube, Leapster TV and InteracTV. The kids also have about 100 DVD's to choose from including many Disney titles, Scooby Doo, Veggietales and many others. Almost forgot to add that my kids also have a desktop computer in the school room, which joins onto the play room they can use for whatever games they have. They've shown no interest in the internet yet, but I'm sure they will soon enough. My dd uses on online phonics program but my dh put a link to it on the desktop for her to connect right to it.

My kids are 9, 6.5 and almost 3. All of them go in their rooms at 8 but only the little guy falls asleep before 12. I'm usually up til 1 or 2 and get up about 9-9:30 My little guy likes to play with his thomas trains in the morning and will usually wander out to find me about 9:45. The older 2 usually get up about 10:30. We tried going to bed earlier and getting up earlier but it's just not us and we would all be cranky. My mom then said "You are a homeschooler who says school must be done in the morning" We switched the next day and it's been great. I also found that less people call my house between 1 and 4 pm so then I don't have the distraction of the phone ringing during school hours.

Kay that is hilarious.:lol: My oldest used to be like that until he was about 4.5 he though if you had on a shirt and underwear you were dressed. We don't now where it came from. We have some close friends (also a Navy family) and when we are fortunate enough to live by each other we have "kid swap" days. The minute my son would get in their house off came the shoe, socks and yes pants. They just laughed and said "well at least we know he's comfortable"

That's great progress. Keep up the hard work. I can't wait for mine to arrive. Unfortunatly the place I pre-ordered from was a new company and couldn't handle all the orders they took. At least paypal helped me get a refund and I ordered one else where. It shipped yesterday and I can't wait to get it. It sounds like so much fun.

I voted for Saxon. My dd was using horizons K and it was tears daily for her. I also didn't really care for the TM it didn't really give me the "how" that I wanted. I love that the Saxon manual is scripted even though I don't read verbatim from it, it's there as a back up if my way of presenting it doesn't get through to her. My dd loves that on most sheets she has to color something, thus adding the color herself. I also bought little stickers to use for the some, some more, and some, some went away "stories" they use to teach the basics of addition and subtraction. She loves it. My son also after using Horizons 3 asked to go back to Saxon for next year (we used it our first year for his 2nd grade, wish I'd just stuck with it)

LA: GWG (finish 3 and move into 4. We started in Jan with 3rd grade) Writing with Ease or Evan moor writing books (have to wait to see WWE in my hands first to decide) AAS zaner bloser grade 4 penmanship reading will be the many books the kids have amassed (sp?) through our many trips to barnes and noble ;) Math: Saxon 5/4 we tried many others this year including TT and he keeps asking to go back so we are. I'm happy about it too, I love Saxon. History: History Odyssey level 1 Early modern times, you could use this for Ancients level 1 as it's written for kids in grades 1-4 and it uses SOTW for the spine along with the Usborne internet linked encyclopedia Science: R.E.A.L. Science life science level 1 (haven't used it before but looks like just what I've been looking for) Geography will come from the History Odyssey and Evan Moor Daily geography practice.

Well we just finished our 2nd year so we're not far into the journey, but the one thing I wish I would have had was a copy of WTM. I didn't know about it when we started and just found it half way through this year we just finished up. I won't follow it exactly but at least it gives me a jumping off point. The other thing I wish I'd stuck with Saxon for math this past year. I got a bad case of the "grass is greener" syndrome and math this last year was a nightmare. We're back to Saxon and we'll stick with it until it doesn't work. I also wish I had found Growing with Grammar earlier, it would have saved me a lot of headaches from trying to do it with B&N workbooks since I couldn't find anything else that was secular.

I have pictures of mine in a slideshow on the upper left corner of my blog. If you double click on it that will take you to picasa web where you can see the pictures in a larger view. The blog address is in my signature

Jon Bon Jovi Rob Lowe Nathan Fillion (Firefly and Serenity. Oh and the movie Waitress) Although not a crush, I now at age 33 think that Rob Thomas (singer from Matchbox 20) is very easy on the eyes:tongue_smilie:

We just finished our 2nd year of hsing and we are a secular hsing family. We aren't teaching any specific religion in detail. We are getting general overview of them in our history though. My kids are going into 4th and 1st this year with a 3 year old tag-along :) This is what we use. Language Arts: Writing we use Evan Moor products for writing although we may be trying the new Writing with Ease that SWB is releasing soon. Grammar: we use Growing with Grammar. I feel it's a great program and covers things well, we've never tried R&S but I know many have switched from R&S to GWG. Spelling: We're using All About Spelling as I feel it will help with reading as well Reading is covered just using real books, no curriculum for it. Math: We're using Saxon, we've tried many others (Horizons, McRuffy, my own ideas) and this is what we have come back to at the request of the kids. I like it too. It just makes sense to us. History: I was using just SOTW with the Activity guides which are really good but I've now found History Odyssey which looks great and uses SOTW as it's spine but is arranged in a way that I think we'll get more out of it. Science: We tried Sonlight and Noeo. Noeo was nice but just wasn't our style so I'm trying R.E.A.L. Science (by the same publisher as History Odyssey) and it looks like it will be a lot of fun. Not sure what we'll be using for middle school but I hope this helps a bit.