My kids love Sheppardsoftware.com and National Geographic Kids Games,

I don't shred because people don't need your mail to know about your life With the internet today you can find out anything about a person with a little digging. Just this summer we had someone harassing a family member on facebook over a situation that was not their fault. Even though the person making the threats had her facebook account was locked down tight, and her facebook name was just her first and middle name I found out more than enough about her. I had a bunch of previous addresses, her parent's names and dates of their deaths, her siblings names and addresses and business names, her boyfriends name, her best friends name and address, the arrest records of her siblings, the date her brother lost his house for not paying taxes, her brother's ex wifes name and address etc. All this without paying a dime and being 12 hours away from where she lived. Had I been in the same county I could have gotten even more as this is a small town county with very little information online. A little bit of time, some very basic info and the internet can get you much more than an envelope in the trash.

At their age I would leave it up to them. I tried to get my DS to sort out his legos but he would rather have them in a big bin of random legos. The only thing we keep sorted out is the Technic pieces. There are a few sets that he wanted to take apart but knew that the would want to rebuild another time so those sets are in individual plastic shoe boxes.

For my DS we had to go a very visual route for him to understand the steps of long division just like we did when he first learned basic division. I had a large number of 1, 10, 100, and 1000 number discs and bowls to represent the groups we were dividing them into. It took using a white board to show him the steps and the number discs to be a visual of what we were doing. We talked our way through multiplying to figure out how many total were in the bowls, why we subtracted them, why there were so many left and how they joined into the next place value and dropping down the next digit. The first day we did several problems that way and he was off. The next two days he would ask to use the discs and bowls for a problem or two and then the steps would be back in his head and he would go on without them. The visual/tactile part of it is what really helped him cement it in his head. He went from doing long division by just 2 or 3 to 9 in just a few days with very few mistakes. Reading through this post by Maria Miller helped me to understand the best way to explain it to DS. http://www.homeschoolmath.net/teaching/md/long_division.php

You could skip ahead, but I did find that my daughter who was about the same place in reading eggs did have some trouble with some of the blends that either the accent difference with Reading eggs or that they just didn't cover tripped her up. We flew through the first 20 or so lesson in about 2 weeks, It wasn't until the 40's where there were some blends that we had to slow down and make sure that she had correctly. She was guessing some words rather than sounding them out since they looked similar to words that she had seen in Reading Eggs. I would see if the Library has the book and then look around and see where you think he is at. If she could read the words with the blends when they were introduced (without me saying them first like the book tells you to) then we skipped right to the next lesson without reading the sentences. It let her get up to a lesson that was work for her, without boring her, and still allowing me to make sure that she had all the basics down since she taught herself .

My daughter is in the same place as your son. She just turned 5 and taught herself to read using random websites and reading eggs and "reading" herself lots of books. I had used OPGTR with my older son so we just jumped right in. I did a quick 10 minute review to make sure that she had all the letter sounds correct and then jumped right into Lesson 27. It was incredibly easy for her but we just kept going through lessons for 10-15 minutes daily until we got to a lesson that she had to work to read. Then we slowed down to one lesson per day. OPGTR will have them reading on about a 4th grade level when they complete the book.

If you are going during the slow season yes it is completely possible to go and not plan out everything. We went last year in October. The only planning I did was to make sure we went to parks on the days that we had parades that we wanted to see and that we avoided Magic Kingdom on the days of Mickey's Halloween Party. I also had a basic plan for Magic Kingdom (Basic in that I knew that we were going straight to Space Mountain and then going to Fantasy Land) We also had an app for our phones that told us line wait times so that we wouldn't walk across the park to get to a ride that the kids wanted to go on and then have a long wait. I also read up on how to use rider swtich passes and fast passes to our advantage. Other than that we just enjoyed our time and wondered at will. The parks were quiet enough that we easily did all the rides that we wanted to in one day at Magic Kingdom. We went back for a 2nd day just to re-ride a few favorites. If you are going during the peak season, then having a plan in place will help you so you don't spend most of your day waiting in lines and only riding a few rides.

:grouphug: I don't want to start the day over but I'm willing to fast forward to 7pm when my kids will be heading to bed and I'll be heading out to dinner and drinks with friends. I'm counting down the hours until this evening.

Laundry is slowly getting there. - Found out that the cat peed on my bed :cursing: so now I have my whole bedding set to wash School with Pre-k done School with 2nd grader almost done Kitchen still a disaster. Walmart got pushed over to tomorrow because I'm going out for dinner/drinks with friends tonight and leaving early to get some Christmas shopping done.

I tackled most of the laundry on Monday, now I just have to finish the last few loads Clearing the kitchen counters is the biggest project today. Our homeschool/playroom/my office room is currently being remodeled so EVERYTHING is getting dumped in the kitchen. Also need to run to walmart with the little monsters ;)

We've done 90 since July 1st I stop counting at 180 since that is what most of the cover schools around here recommend. We pretty much school year round with our new year starting the beginning of July. We seem to finish up most of our planned work for the year in May and then we just do basics through the summer. This year we had a move in the fall and DIY remodeling going on so we are behind on days from where I had planned. We are ahead on basic school, but WAY behind on the science/history due to two moves in the past year.

We are having the exact same thing :)

What about this from Kohls for the boys http://www.kohls.com/product/prd-1036669/oshkosh-bgosh-striped-fleece-pants-boys-4-7x.jsp

Try this one http://oldnavy.gap.com/browse/product.do?cid=82974&vid=8&pid=478838012

Look for the Performance fleece pants. The ones under Jingle Jammies have flame resistant stuff on them in the children's section. I believe the proformance fleece do not because they are not intended as sleepwear.

I have an 08 Sedona and I have had many problems and a very annoying dealership :( Brakes wear out quickly. All the cv boots had to be replaced in the past year and I still have two making noise. Also had a problem with the rear heat which is still a problem but the dealership would not admit to the problem and fix it under the warranty. The rear heat is either HOT or cool. Nothing in between. My kids tend to roast/freeze in the back seat if I forget to keep turning off/on the fan for them because changing the temperature control does not help. We've had both door motors go out. One under warranty and the other after so it has not been fixed. The 08's also have a problem where the accelerator stops working randomly (mine stopped the first time the day I drove it off the used car lot with 18,000 miles on it) It's happened three times now and it's been a few years so they may have finally found a solution to fix it. The tire sensors are finicky. Mine randomly tells me that either the sensors aren't working or that all my tires are low and then two minutes later are not. Despite all that I love the way my van drives and all the features that I got for my $. We are going to sell it soon because I don't want to be the one owning it when more major problems start to occur. I think we just got a bad 08 because I know other people who have 08s and have not had any of the problems that we have had.

Love this idea! I told my DH that he was moving outside to brew once my new appliances were in after Christmas.

My DD is using an app called Teach me Kindergarten. It has simple math problems along with other things like sight words and basic phonics. It has interactive manipulatives to help with the addition/subtraction problems. My older DS is using a program called Splash math. He's using the 3rd grade program and they are expensive, but it was something that he enjoyed and was willing to play and I could adjust exactly what he was working on.

Now that the hover is back there is a link in the hover box to go the first unread post.

Does anyone have kids that are playing Piratron 4 Friends on Ipad/Iphone? It's a qwirkle type game. My DS is addicted to it and was looking for some more kids to play with him.

We are pretty relaxed schoolers. We concentrate on the basics and everything else is a bonus. This year DS is doing Singapore Math 3 - Works about 45 mins daily between WB, Reviewing with IP and CWP books Growing with Grammar and FLL - 10 mins daily between the two. I like FLL but DS is a workbook kid so using GWG allows me to check his retention from FLL. All About Spelling - 15 mins 3 times a week Writing with Ease - We are hit or miss on this program. He is very pencil phobic and this is generally the first thing dropped on a day that he is fighting me on seat work. Explode the Code - 15 - 30 mins daily - He is only doing 2 pages a day but he fights me on this one quite frequently so it takes some time to get him to finally sit down and do it. Story of the World (Ancients) We are mainly just listening to the CDs in the car and reading extra books at home when we get a chance. We tried History Odyssey and he didn't like skipping around so much so we just bought the activity book for SOTW and will try a few more activities out of there in January Science - We have random science kits around the house that he plays with and I try to have him check out some sort of life science book every week from the library that he reads through. Memory Work - He has a lot of prayers that he needs to learn for Sunday School this year so we are working on all of those.

I don't mind the smell but I was ready to sell his brewing stuff when he had a MAJOR boil over of adding the hops in our rental house on a gas stove that I had no clue how to get into all the nooks and crannies to clean it all out of there. My house smelled like beer every time I cooked something for a week or two. I'll have to let DH know about the champagne bottles. I'll also have to have him change my cider keg to carbonated water when I get PG again. That is a great (and much cheaper option) for the sodastream mixes!.

Thanks it seemed VERY appropriate for this board ;)

I checked their catalogue and my husband started with the Brewing Starter kit. This is what it included and at the end says what you need to add. Brewing Starter Equipment Kit List: $99.99 • Instructional Homebrewing DVD • 5 Gallon Glass Carboy • 6.5 Gallon Plastic Fermenter with Lid • 6.5 Gallon Bottling Bucket with Spigot • 4 Oz. of Easy Clean No-Rinse Cleanser • Drilled Universal Carboy Bung • Airlock (Keeps air out of the fermenter) • Hydrometer (Determines alcohol content) • Bottle Brush • Carboy Brush • Black Beauty Bottle Capper • Bottle Caps • Liquid Crystal Thermometer • Bottle Filler • Fermtech AutoSiphon upgrade • Siphon Tubing • Shutoff clamp This kit is great for those who have a few of the other items to brew with already.You still need an ingredient kit, at least a 4 gallon brew pot, beer bottles, and a thermometer. Check out our related products section to the left to add any items you might be missing.

Things I get monthly Lots of fruit and veggies - Apples, oranges, strawberries, grapes, raspberries, spring mix, mini peppers, potatoes and onions Cold foods - Talapia, cheese (lots of cheese), milk, butter, eggs, frozen fruits and frozen whole organic green beans Meats - Chicken breasts and thighs, Pork loin, Bakery - Bread/Tortillas I get a few more things in the dry good section but I can't think of them now since I only stock up on stuff from there every 4 months or so.