Maroon!

:iagree::iagree::iagree:

My children are born 2004,2006,2008 and2010 (similar to yours). I consider us 'homebodies' as well. We do try to get out of the house once a day though - sometimes for an organised activity, sometimes for a play at the park or beach. Mostly I do it so we can get some exercise,although they do spend a while most days on their scooters in the back garden. My usual time for venturing about is about 3ish after all the naps are done and before teatime. My oldest is also very sociable. I do let him play on the street with the other kids around- usually cricket at the moment.

Anybody managed to get black permanent marker off cream wallpaper?!:glare:

So is it just exhaustion and small kids?? Mine are 6, 4, 2 and 11 months. My baby has not yet mastered sleeping for longer than a few hours :glare:.

LOL! I always wondered if bangs meant fringe. You learn something new every day!

Most mornings I wake up and groan that I don't want to do today! I can't face the whining, the mess, the tidying, the mess again, the frustrations etc. Once I'm up and going the day passes quite happily usually, but I'll still groan the next morning! Am I alone in this??

do you cut their fringe? My 3rd boy is 3 next week. His hair is growing quite long now (like a little surfer!!) and it looks great on him. But the front keeps going in his eyes - with my little girl I put clips in until it grew out- what to do with a boy??

Thanks that's a great help!

We have been blessed this week to witness the lifecycle of a butterfly in front of our eyes. Amazing! I want to do something with the kiddies to solidify what we've learnt, but don't want to kill the joy by faffing about with lapbooks or whatnot! (Plus we're moving and I can't be bothered!). We've read lots of books and talked a lot, but nothing more concrete. Does anybody have any suggestions of useful and fun activities? If it makes any difference they're monarchs.

I'm interested in answers to this also. We are moving across the world in a couple of weeks, and I agree with you that we will absolutely need time off, but I can also see how easy it is to 'let things slide'.

Very similar issues here. We just kept plodding along; some days rereading the section for every question, sometimes not. If it went REALLY badly we did the same work again the following day. My son also had significantly more issues on the passages with unfamiliar vocabulary, nonsense words, and long names. Currently, we are on week 8 of WWE2. To be quite honest I think it is easier than some of the passages in WWE1. I don't really want to advise you because I am a total novice at this, but I would just say to go with your gut instinct. For me it was important that he master this skill so we kept going. If he failed the end of year 'test' then we'd just do more and more until he got it. Some days were truly painful though!! And sometimes it just helps to know that you're not the only one - you aren't!

That's all :glare:

So many people with so many crazy family members! So how do you learn to deal with it all so that it doesn't drive you crazy??

We are going through this exact same thing at the moment - you are not alone. We are moving literally to the other side of the planet. Not sure if you pray, but it helps me tremendously to remind myself that this is God's plan for us. At the end of the day as long as our family remains together then everything will be ok - human beings are very adaptable. I'm sure you will find that your new place will have many unexpected blessings. I do hope it all works out for you :grouphug:

:iagree::iagree::iagree:!!!!! Thanks for the :lol: Remudamom

For me I always like to look upon Judaism, Christianity and Islam as if on a timeline. Judaism came first, and with it many, many of the Prohets and Messengers. I would actually calls those Jews 'Muslims' in that they 'submitted to God' (the linguistic meaning of the word). Next come the Christians, the people who followed the Messiah (yes, Muslims call Jesus this too). Those people who truely followed Jesus (upon him be peace)then I would also call them 'Muslims'. But it also causes a big split! Many Jews did not accept Jesus as the Messiah and continued to wait until this day (current Judaism). Many of the followers of Jesus began to say things about him which I do not believe (current Chritianity). If you wait another few hundred years in history then you come to the last in a long line of Prohets; Muhammad (may God's peace and blessing be upon him). Neither the Christians nor the Jews accept him as a Messenger of God (the sameas Abraham, Moses, Noah etc etc),but if you do then you are today's Muslim. I hope that this shows how I came to believe in Islam. I always believed in God. I always believed in the Prophets and Messengers. When I found Islam, it felt like I had found the perfection of all that I already believed in. Just as an aside, I hope this is not offensive to anybody. I hope that this information goes some way to showing how highly the Jews and Christians are thought of - the Quran calls them 'The Peopleof the Book'. I also know that I have made many generalisations for the sake of simplicity!

Age 23/24. I was raised Catholic. I have always had a strong faith in God, but I lost my faith in the 'Christian' God (as Audrey said; 'the whole story fell apart'). I am now a Muslim. I do not think my beliefs actually changed, just what I call them! Not sure if that's what you're after.

Have you thought about letting them play with 'real' things? My almost 3 year old boy will play for hours (literally) in the kitchen 'cooking'. He uses all my real utensils, and even puts them on the hob or in the oven (switched off of course). Ditto the hoover, cleaning stuff (with a spray bottle filled with water) etc. I also second the outdoor stuff - digging holes, mudpies, scooters, skateboards, park.

We are using MM. I started it as a break from Singapore when my ds needed a bit more practice (Singapore was moving a bit too fast). I was so impressed with the standard of teaching and the simplicity of the program that at the moment we have no plans to go back to Singapore. MM is teaching maths 'conceptually' so ds knows WHY he is doing something, not just how to get the right answer - ala Liping Ma. The steps are taught in small increments so he never gets overwhelmed by new material, and there is lots and lots of practice included.

But, just to make things more complicated the Libyan accent pronounces qaaf like a hard G! (normally a throaty Q sound)

Can't help you with the dried coconut, but might be able to help with the spices if you find them.......I've become a bit of a pro since I married into a Pakistani family :D

Love this!! British here, and yep very snobbish when it comes to the 'proper' way to pronounce things!;) Having said that, now that I have taught my children phonics I have to say that I think American English follows more of the 'rules' than the English that I speak - but don't tell anybody.:D

I found a green caterpillar inside a corn on the cob today. Can I keep it and watch its metamorphosis? What do I need to do? From a brief google images search I think it might be a green looper caterpillar, so it will turn into a moth if my prediction is correct.

Thanks Nikki. That's a great help.