Thanks for the info. I had heard about the age being lowered but I had not heard about the opt-out.

I use the same thing. Link to pictures here The only thing I don't like with them is that they can tip easily if you have little ones in the house. We ended up having to use a couple of pieces of a play-yard to gate the baby out of them.

I'm happy to hear that your DSs were able to play those games. I have been wanting to get one for DS but DH thought that the puzzles would be too hard for him to solve. I guess those will go back on his Christmas list :)

If he is a playmobil fan my DS has enjoyed the playmobil Knights game.

http://www.homeschoolcreations.net/2011/10/our-new-home-schoolroom/

My 4 year old goes to bed between 8 and 8:30 most nights. When my older son was that age he was in bed by 7-7:15 and slept 12 hours. DD(4) would be in bed at that time but she likes to stay up with DS(7) and play games with us before bedtime. She doesn't require nearly as much sleep as DS did at that age so she gets to stay up the extra hour. Plus we have the two little boys that go to bed at 7 so trying to get 2 to sleep at that time is hard enough, making it 3 going to bed at that time is nearly impossible.

We had no problems with Singapore 1. Yes there are a few instructions in the HIG that say not to move on until they have certain things memorized. The only thing we stopped and worked on was knowing the number bonds that made 10. Memorizing the other facts we worked on all year long. There was one point where we got stuck in book A but what we ended up doing was jumping ahead and working on a few topics in book b (Time and measurement I believe) while still working on the topic we were stuck in on A. My 4.5 year old DD is halfway through with book B of Essential Math and will move right into book 1A.

I don't think the stores normally carry it. I think this was an online purchase that happened to be returned to my local Walmart.

Devan - Once I get back to your area in the fall we'll have to let the boys have some lego time together and play with the robot :)

I was complaining that I had to take all four kids to Walmart this morning until I came across a few carts of clearance toys. There were 5 women fighting over a whole bunch of large lego sets that were all priced at $10 a piece. I was watching the madness hoping that I could reach in a grab a set or two when they moved a box and I saw the most wonderful site. A Mindstorm NXT 2.0 priced at $99! :w00t: The women all thought I was nuts for grabbing it but they obviously had no idea what they were looking at! The box is a little beat up but still completely taped up. Can't wait to get to play with it with DS. We were going to wait a few more years before buying the Mindstorms but at that price I wasn't about to let go of the box! I was also able to get a large Cars Lego set and a large knights lego set for $10 each. I guess occasionally we get rewarded for doing the no fun jobs of motherhood :lol:.

I have a 3 year old and a 20 month old sons who are just like your DS. A few things I have done to help our school day go smoother -We go to the park first every day that we can. Giving him time to run around and get his energy out helps keep him from all the hitting/tackling. If we can't go to the park we do a lot of running into the couch, bouncing on the bed etc. On my wish list are a few scooter boards for him to race around the house on. - I took away almost all the toys. The only things they have free access to are our wooden trains, a bin of play food, some puzzles and a small bin of duplos. The rest of the toys are packed away into 5 bins. Each bin holds 5-6 toys in it. The little boys get a bin as soon as we start school work and that will keep them occupied for at least an hour. The 3 year old know that in the afternoon he has to help clean up his bin of toys. They all get dumped back in so it's easy to have a race to clean it all up. - I also have bags of quiet activities that he can do at the table while I'm working with the older two. Things like pattern blocks, a magnetic dress up boy, c-rods, lacing beads, foam blocks and a spray bottle to stick them to our window etc. - We are in a rental house with no yard at the moment, but when we are home he has a designated dirt pit to dig and play in. He will spend an hour just playing in the mud with his trucks. - He really seeks large movements so even taking a five minute break and rolling around on the floor with him, swinging him up in the air, or just giving him a good tickle attack really help to keep him from bugging the other kids. He also really likes to be smushed so putting our large throw pillows or couch cushions on him and letting the other kids roll across him makes him so happy.

http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=380051&highlight=pinterest

We also love xtramath.com If you have an android tablet it is great on there. (not an app but just go to the website) They have a number pad that you can touch the numbers rather than type them like you do on the computer. DS did much better when he didn't have to type the numbers. Also while it is timed they there isn't a timer that they can see. They are racing the "teacher" who if he gets it first gives them the answer for them to retype and then they move on. It also shows them their progress at memorizing the facts. My son loved watching his board slowly turn all green.

Here are our current plans for 2nd (which better stay the same since I've already ordered everything) Explode the Code - Books 7+8 AAS - Book 3 and start 4 FLL 2 + GWG 2 WWE - Finish book 1 and start 2 Singapore Math 3a and 3b Science - Last half of RSO Life science and then move onto Earth and Space History - Finish STOW 1 and then move into STOW 2 Latin - Prima Latina We school all year and we put some things off to concentrate more on math and reading the past year. We are about 1/2 a year behind on some of the stuff that we put off.

I've been on it for all 4 of my pregnancies from 5 weeks until giving birth. Like everyone else said it helps with the vomiting but not the nausea. The best thing I found was to take my zofran, and then eat some protein. With the zofran in my system I was likely to keep the food down and the protein helped stabilize my blood sugar to keep the nausea lower. The constipation from it is HORRIBLE! Although I was happy to trade being constipated for not living on my bathroom floor throwing up stomach acid all day.

I'm glad that you all enjoyed the pictures. I almost forgot about it tonight and quickly made a pin hole box for the kids and grabbed my camera at the last minute.

Very cool - I wish I would have thought to bring out my zoom lens. I just had a prime lens on because I was only planning on taking pictures of the kids.

We had a gorgeous view of the eclipse from southern New Mexico tonight. Here's a link to the album of pictures that I took Here's a few of the ones that I took

My just turned 7 year old is making me crazy. He has decided that whining and crying is the only thing to do when I mention doing his school work. His biggest complaint is about the amount of writing. He has no trouble doing it. He has nice writing and colors for hours without complaining so it is not a physical reason for it. He is using the writing as an excuse to stop doing his school work. I do write for him sometimes but I force him to write for his grammar (GWG), writing (WWE) and phonics (ETC). None of them are an extreme amount of writing and we generally don't do all of them in one day. Right now I tell him that if he is going to whine and cry then has to be in bed. The only thing he is allowed to do in bed if he is throwing a fit about writing is to read a book. Any other time he is sent to his bed he is allowed to color to calm down. He also knows that he doesn't get to do anything electronic until his schoolwork is done. It still doesn't stop the whining and crying and then I hear about it all evening when his younger siblings get to play computer games or play Wii and he is forced to sit about because he didn't do his work. For the past 6 weeks it has been like this everyday that we try to do schoolwork (which haven't been many of them considering we went on a 3.5 week trip and only did school a few days that we were gone) I don't know what else to try with him. Taking things away doesn't work, rewards don't work. Some of it could be that he isn't challenged enough because we are winding down our year and a lot of what he is doing is review. At the same time he is constantly crying that he can't do it even though they are skills that he has done all year without a problem. Help!

I would look at the Maclaren strollers. They are super lightweight, hold up well and fold easy. They are more than your range but you might be able to find a good deal on one. ETA: They hold pretty good resale value so you could always sell it when you get home to get some of your money back.

I had low Vit D with my last pregnancy and my OB put me on the prescription VitD. It did nothing. Two 8 week rounds barely increased my levels. Once I had my little one I started taking 3000-5000IU of D3 daily (depending on if I get some midday sun or not) and my levels finally started to increase.

If you want her to still work on the addition and subtraction at the same time as doing multiplication just make two accounts. My 1st grade DS has two accounts one where he is working on subtraction and one set to multiplication only. That was he can speed up his subtraction facts at the same time as practicing his multiplication.

For MTH resources I have found a few lessons on Currclick, a title or two on scholastics $ Days, and also the research guides that go along with specific books giving more information on the topic of the books. We haven't used any of the Currclick ones and I have looked through the Scholastic books, but haven't gotten my act together to do any of the activities. My DS also loves the puzzle book and likes to do the puzzle after reading the book. We have an older version of this dictionary

:lol:

Have you thought about using a mobile groomer so you can watch them trim him so they don't trim him wrong. Then after that they will have a better idea of what you want. Also with the constant ear problems you may want to switch his diet. I had a dog that showed it's food allergies in the form of a constant gunky ear. Once we switched her food to a turkey and sweet potato food her ear cleared up.