The only one I have taken apart was my copy of OPGTR. The binding was falling off anyway and pages were coming out of the book so I just tore the pages out and put them in page protectors. My biggest problem with it is that by putting it in the page protectors it went from a 1 inch book to a 3 inch binder. Things I do like - I like that my kids don't freak out when I pull the book out. They do much better when they just see one sheet of paper. I like that I can pull just a few lessons out and put them in my binder for the week or take just a small portion when we are travelling. I like that it is harder for my toddler to destroy a whole book I wouldn't do it again... but for a book that was already falling apart it was the best solution.

I got a Boston one from Amazon around Christmas. This is it

I would say the exact opposite. I am hating the attitude I am getting from people in New Mexico (especially people originally from the area) Although the area we live in Alabama is a large population of people that are new to the area. People are a lot more accepting and loving toward outsiders when not many of the people you meet are truly from the area.

I have an older version of that same set. It's 9 years old and has held up well to the limited traveling we have done. It's probably made 8-9 flights, 2 cruises and 20+ car trips with some of the pieces. This set is pre-spinner wheels so if the complaints are about them then I can't tell you anything. The material hasn't worn down at all and all the zippers are working despite the bags being overloaded many times.

I don't cut any fat off a pork shoulder when I am making pulled pork. We smoke ours and then finish it in the oven. All the fat completely melts into the meat so any rub what was on the fat goes with it to coat the meat. So the way that I cook it the rub is not wasted on the fat.

I saw one without the Hitler reference. I'll see if I can find it again on Facebook. Nevermind - Rebecca posted at the same time as me with the same picture.

My 6 year old who is finishing up Singapore 2b is the same way. If he can't figure out the answer in his head before he starts writing down his work he gets frustrated and says he can't do it. We do a lot of talking about how he is doing work of kids 1-2 years older than him and about how it's okay to ask for help if he can't figure out exactly what the problem is asking. His biggest fits come from word problems when he gets things jumbled around in his head. When I read the problems it helps because he can just think about the math and not concentrate on reading. He also gets frustrated while reading when he comes to a word that he doesn't know. He's finished OPGTR but still won't always take the time to sound out a word or just comes across a word that he's never heard of in his reading and can't sound out. He gets so mad and starts crying when he has to ask me how to say it.

I got a 79. I haven't taken a single history course since high school. I'm surprised I scored as high as I did considering I generally have a great dislike of all things history related. I'm hoping to learn and enjoy history with my kids as we go through the history cycles.

When I started with my son last year at 5 we took about 3 days to complete a whole step. First day we reviewed cards, did the new teaching and spelled with the tiles. Second day we spelled about 5 older words with the tiles, a few of the words from that week with tiles and then he wrote all the words for that step on paper. Third day we wrote a few phrases and sentences.

I would add a small amount of copywork on days that WWE doesn't have any. I tried using only the copywork in WWE this year with my 1st grader but he regressed on a few letter formations. I had to add in more copywork specifically for the few letters that he had trouble with on our non-copywork days in WWE.

My 6 almost 7 yob did the same thing. As the year has progressed and he is getting closer to 7 it is improving. Occasionally he still has to ask which way a number goes (but I will say we have not worked on handwriting as much as we should have this year) As his reading increases he has slowly stopped adding in extra letters to some words. When we started the year (in the middle of OPGTR he did it several times during a lesson. Now as we are finishing the book he does it occasionally but mainly in words that he has never read before and he's guessing or trying to make them sound more like a word that he knows. So I correct him and have him read it bit by bit a couple of times until he reads/says it correctly.

Here are our current plans for 2nd grade - They will probably change several times between now and May when I order books again. LA - ETC 7+8 - AAS 3 and part of 4 - Grammar and Writing - a mix of FLL2 and GWG2 along with WWE2 - Lots of free reading - Handwriting without tears 2nd grade book Math - Singapore 3A,3B with IP and CWP - Primary Challenge Math - Maybe some LOF SOTW 2 RSO - Earth and Space Still debating on Latin or Spanish

For my DS we really liked SM and Miquon together. If you want to keep him from getting to far ahead I would work with Singapore and Miquon together. My DS was like yours at 5. We started with SM 1a (standards edition) and Miquon at the same time. The combination has kept his mind occupied and kept him from flying through math. He really has a mastery of all the concepts in SM 1 and 2.

My son started AAS during the 2nd half of K and loved it. He was only using OPGTR and ETC at the time and it went great with both of those. We are now working through levels 2 and 3 for first grade while using FLL and WWE. Edited to add - We started AAS in K because my son was constantly asking me how to spell words. He is a perfectionist and would not try to spell something unless he knew it was right.

Yes - Thirsties covers are workhorses. I've used them for 5 years. I have some of my original covers that are still in good condition. Also pick up a few packs of snappis. Much easier than pins and cheap.

We have had UHC for 6 years and have never had a problem with them. They have always paid all our claims quickly and have never denied anything. We mainly have routine healthcare stuff except for DS#3 and his NICU stay. Even then they didn't question anything and paid the whole thing minus our copay. My DH works for a large company and we have a great plan through UHC. I think more depends on the plan your company pays for than UHC itself.

love my beco butterfly. The best thing about it is that you can take it off and switch who is carrying without taking the baby out of the carrier. It is great for long days at places because we can switch who is carrying the baby without having to have a place to set him down. It also makes it a lot easier to swing them onto your back. I can carry my 25lb toddler around for hours without it hurting my back.

We had a pair of Red Bellied woodpeckers in a tree in our yard in Huntsville. They got so used to the kids playing in the yard under their tree that they would land on the swingset while the kids were playing on it. Never could get a good picture of them though because as soon as they saw me with the camera they took off :glare:

Heads to his room around 8:30 - asleep by 9. Wakes up around 7:30 if his younger brother doesn't wake him up sooner.

Since I have young ones Reading/Phonics and Math are the main focus of our day. Ds is almost finished with OPG and is cruising through ETC at a nice pace so hopefully this spring/summer we can finally cut back on that and enjoy some time doing history and science.

For my 1st grader our LA looks something like this OPGTR - 10 minutes - 4x a week - We are almost finished with it and it will be replaced with a vocabulary program AAS2 - 20 minutes - 2x a week FLL - 15 minutes - 2x a week - We do 2-3 lessons at a time and a quick review of a memorized poem. WWE1- 10-15 minutes - 4x a week - This would take less time if DS would pay attention and I didn't have to read the selections multiple times. ETC - 15 minutes 3x a week - He is in ETC5 and completes one lesson a week Independent Reading - 30 minutes 5x a week- He reads for 30 minutes everyday during our quiet time. I use this to check his reading comprehension by talking about what he read during that time. He is reading books like MTH for this reading Reading aloud to me - 15 minutes - 4x a week On our longest day when we have a lot of things overlap our LA time is about an hour to an hour and a half. I break it up and we do a few LA things and then switch to some math, then back to LA, then on to a math game etc. He would complain all day if I forced him to do all his LA in one sitting.

The Publix and Krogers in our area will help you out to your car. I never have trouble if I decline their help and generally I don't even have to push my cart to a cart corral because there is a bagger heading back in that will walk by my car and take my cart back inside. Generally I don't have them help because my car is always full of cr@p and it's a balancing act to get all the groceries in the back of the van with the multiple strollers/bikes etc in there. I will have them help me out if it is raining, cold, or kids are just being miserable so I can get them in the car quickly while the bagger loads everything in the back. If they are busy managers are always jumping in to help and I will decline their offer of help if there are a lot of people in line behind me because I know it will make the line longer for them if the checker has to both check and bag. No one in our area bags their own groceries unless you are at Aldi's.

That is annoying but it could be worse. The person who had our number before us is in major debt to lots of people. For 6 years we have been getting phone calls for her. The first year we also got calls when her child skipped school at least 3 times a week. Years later we still get calls for her and the people don't believe is that we don't know her since the accounts were opened in the past year! So years later she is still using the wrong phone number to keep creditors from calling her ;( Makes me so mad.

Your little one and my almost 3 y/o boy would have a great time together. My house looks about like yours at the end of every day too!

We have quiet time but different than SWB - We only have a three bedroom house and 4 kids so they split 2 rooms. The two bigger kids who don't nap are in one room and they are free to play legos, playmobil, color, read or play dolls. If they get too loud and rambunctious than they lose their video game time. The younger two both nap so they share a room and nap during quiet time. Since we recently moved quiet time is anything but quiet lately since the kids are out of routine. Hoping to get things back under control shortly because the lack of them behaving during quiet time is making my long days even longer!