:grouphug: I will definitely be praying, for all to go well, and for answers.

We never "got" Goodnight Moon around here, but both DD and I enjoyed The Going To Bed Book very much!!

Aw... thank you! :D It's always wonderful to be complimented... especially on the best part of me, my sweet girl! (I'm SUCH a bad blogger. :tongue_smilie: I actually have new posts waiting to go out, but I've been having computer problems and can't upload my pictures. arg.)

I have to say Prince Poppycock. He has been a favorite around this house since his very first appearance. I think he is just wonderful, and DD loves him also. Although, she is very interested to know why that boy (giggle giggle) is dressed like a girl (gigglegiggle) and WHAT kind of name is Prince Poppycock? :lol: (The giggles are hers, not mine!) I do like Michael Grimm though, so I hope he gets a recording contract. I was really sad to see Anna and Patryk go, I was hoping to see them in the final round.

I (respectfully) disagree. Especially since just recently there was a post about a (I think) 10 year old's writing, and I did comment, with my 4.5 long years of experience of a parent. Just because I only have a 4.5 year old daughter doesn't mean I haven't been around/taught/cared for other children, of varying ages. In the same vein, I have taken advice from parents of infants (and not-even parents yet!!) and given advice to parents with children much older than mine. You don't necessarily have to have the same exact experience as someone else to give valuable advice. But... in answer to the original post... I love when people list their curriculum, children, and ages in their signatures. Especially if they have a blog linked also. If I see that they are using similar curriculums to me (or curriculums I have been considering) I am very likely to check out the blog. (And yet, I have my blogs listed and no curriculum. :lol: In my defense, I did just recently make all the final decisions about what to use!! :D

I just wanted to inform everyone that I will not need to read this thread, since I've already informed DD that she will not be growing up for a long long time. My denial and I will be over in this corner. :D

It depends on if she needs it. On soccer days, park days, playing outside with friends... we take a bath that night. On Tuesdays she takes a bath after lunch to get ready for dance. On Saturdays and Sundays she almost always takes a shower with me in the morning to get ready to go out. (We usually always are doing things on Saturday, and then Church on Sunday.) I put her in the bath less during the winter. But she LOVES taking a bath, so when she asks, I let her get in to play. So sometimes 4 a week, sometimes 9-10 a week. lol.

ack. I had to do this when I was pregnant. I forgot about that nightmare until this....:tongue_smilie: They wanted me to collect it. I did. For 19 hours. And then I spilled it.... !!! So I had to start all over again. (Not to mention cleaning up icky old urine. lol) Then I had to do it AGAIN a week later. -sigh- Good luck! Hold on to that bottle tightly. :lol:

This is why I think the cut-off dates should be gotten rid of. I guess I understand that they need some sort of guideline, but couldn't they just do evaluations? I mean seriously, how is a child born AN HOUR before yours more ready for school? lol.

It helps me to learn the entire conjugation together. I always put them in the same order. So no matter if it is German or French I always have; infinitive form of verb written at the top I We You (you-all)(you formal) smooshed on top of one another on one line He He-group She She-group It They Then I just put the translation of the verb on the back. Since I already know what order the conjugations are in, I don't need that. When it is time to recall them, I can easily recall the entire set. I tried just doing one form per card, but then I had a hard time remembering entire conjugations together. I also tried not using translated cards, because translation isn't my goal either, but for me it didn't work. I needed the translation to learn it good, and now that I know things through and through I'm not translating, just understand right away. ETA: I think it is just a matter of finding what works for each person. I've seen others cards in my language classes, and everyone has a different system. I'd play around with the suggestions offered here and see what works and what doesn't.

What timing... DD and I had HH for dinner TONIGHT! :lol: Beef stroganoff. Yum. I am (1) a horrible cook, (2) have a horrible memory (lets not list everything I've burnt, including a pot of water, and setting some ramen noodles on fire..) (3) an extremely picky eater. I often feel inadequate on these type of posts... you guys are so intimidating!! :lol: DD is probably lucky she's still alive. :D I'm donig good though... she eats MUCH better than I do. In fact her lunch for tomorrow is salad, grapes, yogurt, and a mix of pretzels/choc chips/peanut butter chips/and marshmallows that we make a batch of once a week. And all that was her choosing!

Hm. Not liking football is a deal-breaker... I don't think I could marry someone who didn't like football. And soccer. :D Sorry to you and OP... I am THIRLLED football season is back! Even if my team did lose today.. :001_huh: I watch highlights over and over again also.. lol.

Even if they aren't becoming fluent, children exposed to foreign languages have a much easier time picking them up. I definitely think it is worth it. A child who is exposed to the language (through the written word, through textbooks, through videos and music...) is more likely to have the right accent. My daughter does French now, and in about 2 years will start German. I am not fluent in either, although I am passable in French and just started studying German. But even if she doesn't get fluent, she will still have had plenty of exposure, and it will make becoming fluent as an adult easier. (Hope all this made sense... I'm on a time limit... told DD she could have the computer in 5 minutes! :D)

This gets me too. Public schools are forcing younger children to be more and more academic, but by 11th/12th grade the same kids are barely doing enough to constitute an education. Kids are passed through middle/high school even without meeting the very basic requirements for those grades. :confused:

Right now DD is in dance and a homeschool soccer group. She'll do those two pretty much year round. And I just found a local place that does music lessons fairly cheap, so we may add that on. This is another one of those things that can be so different depending on the child/family. If you are feeling stressed out over the activities, it is time to pull back. If the children start being very reluctant to go, it's probably time to pull back. If schoolwork/play time is suffering.... it's probably time to pull back. I could foresee a time when DD was in an activity a day. (Well, since she will most likely be at her dance studio 4 days a week next year, plus 2-3 days of soccer... that day will come sooner rather than later!) As long as she wasn't getting burned out, schoolwork was getting done, and we still had a reasonable amount of family time, I'd be okay with it.

One thing you might want to think about is... what's next after SSL? I decided to wait until 2nd grade or so to do SSL because there isn't much after that until 3rd grade. And languages are one of those things you need to use regularly in order to keep it, so doing a year of Latin, followed by a year or two break wasn't ideal for us. Just my 2 cents, since you asked about waiting. :D

"Here is my best piece of advice: Don't listen to other's advice!" This has worked out well for me. I tend to go against the flow. Most of the other parents I know are very mainstream. Vaccinations right on time, public school in kindergarten, having a "life", spending loads of time without their kids, babysitters and daycares without a second thought, medication at the first sign of illness.... Not that there is necessarily anything wrong with all that, but I've chosen to question everything, and make decisions for my daughter based on my research and sometimes my gut feeling. Living a life that doesn't fit the standards of society works for us.

We are doing Galloping the Globe this year. I am sitting here planning things out, figuring out if we are going to do a year or two years. I finally decided that with doing 2 weeks for a county (3 for some) plus taking a week to introduce the entire continent we could spread it out for 2 years. But in taking a look through the book... it feels like the Middle East has been completely ignored. Other than Israel, which doesn't really have the Middle Eastern feel to me. There are some fairly important countries in there, and that region is significantly different than the rest of Asia. I'd like to add in at least a week to study at least one of the Middle Eastern countries. I was thinking I'd be most likely to find stuff about Saudi Arabia. So I guess, the entire point of this too long post is to ask if anyone knows any resources for children about Saudi Arabia? (Or other Middle Eastern countries, I'd even be happy doing a week or two on the whole region as opposed to doing nothing.) Books, suggestions on what to cover, interesting places, good food to make, etc. would all be very welcome suggestions!! :D

We are on day negative 9, or negative 23, depending on when we decide to start. :D We were planning on starting on Oct 4th, but now I want to start on Sept 20th because DD is chomping at the bit to get into all the new books, AND I've been planning our US history and I want to get through Native Americans, Vikings, early settlers, colonial life, and Pilgrims before Thanksgiving. So we are doing pretty good. lol. Today we had soccer (PE!) and library (Language Arts!!). :tongue_smilie:

Godparents are different from guardians. Godparents are supposed to be there and help in a child's spiritual upbringing. Sort of like an assistant coach to mom and dad. My daughter's godparents are my best friend and her husband/DD's biological uncle, who share *very* similar views on religion with me. DD's godparents are also the people I've chosen as her guardians should somethings happen to me. This isn't always how it is though. They are very close to DD, although even if they weren't her godparents they would still be just as close to her.

If it is a cultural thing, I must be in the wrong culture!! :D I took (and still take!) DD everywhere with me. Stores, restaurants, movies(child appropriate of course), Church, school events, meeting with professors... Then again, I am a single mom. If I don't take her, I'm not going. She has also always been a pretty well behaved child. In 4.5 years I have dealt with (public!) temper tantrums and such only a handful of times. (And... I only had one! lol. I'm not sure I'd have been as brave with two. :tongue_smilie:)

This would be the perfect schedule for DD and I!!! Unfortunately.... I have class, and we are up and out the door by 8am Mon-Fri. Ugh.

DD is 4.5, and we are calling this year kindergarten, even though some of her work is 1st grade. So next year she'll be starting 1st grade at 5.5. (January birthday) I think it is hard to make generalizations about children. Some children don't need (and aren't interested in!) things like formal math study, grammar, spelling, etc. Other children are ready and eager to do formal studies. I don't necessarily think either way is wrong. As far as retaining things, I think as long as the child continues to use it, they will hold on to it. But I'd never study grammar for a year and think I was done. It is an ongoing thing.

We use BOB Books, Nora Gaydos books, Starfall, Reading Eggs and Progressive Phonics. Approaching it from so many different areas really works for us, plus DD enjoys feeling like she is really reading with the BOB books and Nora Gaydos books. OH, and we are starting AAS soon. DD loves to spell words, which is why I started looking for a spelling program, and I like that AAS seems to help with reading also.

I just wanted to add to my opinion. For those with children that have special needs, it is different. I tend to give the benefit of the doubt when I'm out in public, but honestly a lot of times you can just tell when a child is flat out misbehaving (the ones that are running around the restaurant, speaking back to the parents, etc.) This is completely different than an autistic child who is given the wrong food or gets overwhelmed by the noise and has a meltdown. And you can often tell the difference in the parents. The ones who would geniuinely like to help their children and know there is nothing to be done, and the ones who are annoyed with the interruptions and just want to talk to the other people at the table/on the cell phone/concentrate on their food.