For many years we couldn't afford to buy gifts. It started as a cheer up joke: we cut out things from magazines and put pictures under the table top tree. Then when we had kids and dh was still in school, I cut out magazine pictures for the kids. To this day, even though we are fairly comfortable now, when one of us wants to get an out of reach gift for another we cut out a picture or print out the grand gift idea and put it under the tree. Dorky tradition, but it makes us happy.

My grandmother always stressed the importance of beauty. She had elegant, gorgeous writing. It never occurred to me to not have my kids learn cursive. I have had varying degrees of success. I liked an Evan-Moor book called Daily Handwriting Practice. I used a book called Contemporary Cursive with my oldest. My middle self taught at a young age. I will use the same materials with my youngest. They are just practice books, not programs. Pretty standard stuff.

You have great suggestions. For a couple of solo game options, Twist and Lonpos are colorful puzzle-games. You mentioned playing with the Blokus shapes.

You are brave.

We spent two years looking at a lot of houses. I am in the clean, declutter, new paint and carpet camp. Just a good tsp washing of walls can look like new paint. Furnish sparsely so it seems bigger. Have large mirrors. We rolled our eyes at a number of places where an obvious remodel had been done in preparation for listing. I don't think it's a good strategy, especially if the upgrades stand out from the rest of the house. We wanted clean and move in ready, but the option to remodel to our own tastes.

Wow. Kind of aaww and eww at the same time. Was it particularly cold?

I'd like to share a number of videos with family, but have them private. I guess YouTube can have a private setting. What other options are there? Looking for free and ability to share about 20 videos. What do you use? Thanks!

RC aircraft, books, magazine subscription. For spy gear I'd look into real gear and avoid the overpriced, junky toys.

Ds is currently doing NT intro text. He loves it, says there is plenty to learn, and is moving through it rather quickly. He has a solid algebra background fwiw. Interesting idea about switching off with C&P. From the level of enthusiasm (working on it on thanksgiving) I would say it is very worth trying. Happy Thanksgiving.

Hi- not really new around here, but I rarely post. I have a weird family and even weirder life story so I have been hesitant to participate. Now I'm giving it a shot. :)

Sigh. Yes, this is me too. I could spend a month just thinking about where to start.

It isn't weird, but there shouldn't be a problem saying no. If teacher pressured you or had any issues at all with your decision to decline, then I would call it weird. Keep in mind that a lot of kids have their music on youtube or elsewhere. Pressure or not abiding by your wishes would be all wrong. Fwiw we choose privacy.

I wonder if my boys don't care because it is so common among everyone we know? We know a lot of big families where hand me downs and cycling clothes are the norm. My boys enthusiastically picked out and packed a bag of old clothes for a friend's new little boy last year, then got to see the boy wear their old clothes over time. Mom was expressively grateful to my kids and little boy was adorable in 'their' favorite things. I bet that if we lived and associated with folks who had the newest everything, my boys might have a different take on old clothes. I don't care much for shopping so it works out well. If I ever have a girl though....

Never a problem. My 3 boys share a closet. Most clothes make it to the third and then off to a younger friend. Hand me downs have always been.

Nothing really special about these, but maybe new to you so... For traditional green beans I will take breaded goat cheese and lightly fry it to set on or next to the green beans. A spin on traditional oil vinegar salad dressing is to add maple syrup. The actual recipe comes from Old Sturbridge Village in MA, but generally has onions, celery seed, salt and pepper to taste and maple syrup with the oil and vinegar base. For dessert my kids always like fresh strawberries and blueberries with hot honey poured over. It is very pretty when served in a wine glass or goblet.

I think it's important to keep your eye on the goal. Any type of instruction that gets the kid to understand the material is good! Please do not feel like you have to teach a certain way. Discovery (passionately independent) works great for one of mine, the oldest needs some scaffolding, and I am quite sure my littlest will require far more direct instruction than the other two. Same materials, different needs. Every kid is different. It does seem to me that discovering a concept themselves gives a more rooted understanding. I think you're doing great and will probably find that as she gets used to the more manipulative (meant in a moving numbers and equations sense) style, she will want less help. Perhaps she could use a whiteboard or large poster sized paper and leave the work up, visible, but move on to another activity when she's stuck?

When the kids are all doing independent work at the table we generally have music playing. We use pandora, which means we have tons of stations for any assortment of moods. Personally, I could live without the Romanian dub step and Gummi Bar stations. But I'm a sucker for Christmas music so yay for the change of seasons! Usually it is classical, classical guitar, guaraldi style jazz. I find that it makes the kids quieter and less probe to engage each other. There have been occasional disagreements over choosing music, but surprisingly few.

Yes, there is a good deal of homework outside of class. However, the class walks you through the problem solving process together, there is real time private discussion with the teachers and assistants available, there is a class forum to ask questions and have discussions, and kids can arrange to meet online in the classroom to discuss problems. It can be very social. Mine did not take advantage of most of these aspects, but they are there. I think the company shows great confidence in what they have to offer. The classes are not cheap, but you can drop and get a full refund up until the third class. Three weeks to try it out is pretty good!

Nothing useful to add. It sounds like you have it figured out. I just wanted to tell you that your hunch about the riding mower is right. My boys do argue over who gets to mow and sweep with the lawn tractor. This was their second summer of lawn maintenance and they still love it.

Your dd sounds like a good fit for the online AoPS preAlg classes. She'd like the social part and it would probably motivate her to stick with the puzzling it out part. Perhaps working through some textbook probs or alcumus from AoPS alongside SM would get her used to the style. You know, alcumus and the forums are free so anyone considering using these classes or texts has full access to a trial run.

Thank you so much for sharing this.

I haven't read all responses, but I'm another den leader who would advise you to report and switch packs. The lack of leadership, alcohol use and unsupervised knife play are dangerous. These boys can think up enough ways to hurt themselves on their own. We have gobs of younger siblings join us. Adults help supervise and discipline each other's young kids, but never in the manner you described. I think an adult behaving that way to a young child would get eaten alive by the moms in my pack!

Unfortunately, we have dealt with too much mean girl, queen bee behavior. And it's the moms I'm talking about. Assume the best. Inquire without suspicion. But in the end, there's no getting around that the girls who cancelled were rude. It really is the quality of the kids at the party that matters, not the quantity. I hope you guys have a great birthday party!

Hi Stacey, I do not have experience to share, but as we're in a somewhat similar boat wrt math, I feel compelled to help if I can. Can you elaborate on what areas of science your ds is most interested in exploring or what kinds of courses you are looking at? Have you looked at some of the Coursera offerings? We did do EPGY for math, but way early on so not useful to you. We will be doing CTY for a non-science class. Again, not so helpful, but I will say that I have already been impressed with how accessible the CTY prof has made himself...by email and by phone. It is sooo expensive, yet if it results in a professional/personal resource for your ds, that would be worthwhile.

Emily, not sure what kind of enrichment you are looking for, but this book can talk you through a math circle on your own...http://www.amazon.com/Mathematical-Circle-Diaries-Year-Curriculum/dp/0821887459 and similar idea- I also think this stuff is pretty cool http://www.jamestanton.com/index.php?s=%22math+without+words%22 or http://www.lulu.com/us/en/shop/james-tanton/math-without-words/paperback/product-12303272.html