Here's the link I got in an email

I haven't used Singapore 3 or 4 yet. We are finishing up 2B this week. What we do is use the text book for teaching. I pick and choose problems and write them out for him to solve or do them orally from the book. Then he moves to do the workbook independently to show me that he understands the concept without any coaching from me. I don't think we have ever done all the problems on a page from the textbook since my DS hasn't needed that much practice. If he needed to do that much then we would work through the problems in the textbook one day together and then save the workbook for the following day to do independently. He also has two math times a day. One 30 min for teaching new material/doing the workbook and one 15min for independent work on a section from the IP books from a semester behind.

Take a break, play lots of games and learn the facts. My DS was at the same point around Christmas. He knew his facts it just took him awhile to pull them out of memory. So while we were getting ready to move we stopped most school work between Thanksgiving and New Years. All we did was play lots of games and play online games to help his math facts. His recall of the facts was a lot faster and he was much happier doing his math when we started up again after the new year.

I have a front loading machine and I have noticed that if I put anything with buttons or zippers in with t-shirts they will come out with small holes. I never had this problem with my old top loading machine with an agitator. I think its a combination of the less water and the machines being rougher on clothes along with the fact that the material clothes are being made with is getting thinner and thinner every year.

I know in my area that the almost 6 ft cedar fence planks are about $5 a piece. Not as cheap as she found them but still better than cedar boards.

This from Ana White http://ana-white.com/2010/05/hack-natural-rustic-cedar-raised-beds.html The pressure treated wood isn't good for growing veggies and the cedar will last longer than untreated wood.

I've been there with all 4 of my pregnancies. With each one my OB kept adding more drugs to try to keep me from throwing up all day everyday. I was hospitalized with one of them for a couple of days to get rehydrated. After that my OB just started giving me fluids in her office every other week for the rest of my PGs. What finally worked the best for me was to take the zofran and then eat protein. Any protein that tasted good to me was on my list. I got to be on a first name basis with my local Sonic manager because I would come in at 6am and 9am 3-4 days a week for a grilled chicken sandwich. They got to the point that they saw my van pull in and would start cooking my chicken. It was the only thing that tasted good to me and eating the protein helped keep my morning sickness at bay for a couple of hours. I know a lot of people think sugary things help with the morning sickness but I found that the rapid spike in blood sugar made me feel better for a short while and then it dropped again and I was hugging the toilet. So on the worst days I would take my zofran, eat something sweet and then quickly find some protein that sounded good to me.

I agree with Bill about using the HIGs with the standard edition. Even though my husband and I both have math/science backgrounds, I got the HIGs for 1a/1b. There is a lot of additional information and games in the guides that you wouldn't pick up from using just the textbooks and workbooks.

I have a Brother MFC-7840 also. Love it! The only thing I wish it did was double sided printing. If this one ever dies I will buy another Brother printer that does double sided printing. I've never had a paper jam with this printer that wasn't my kids fault (stealing paper out of the tray and getting a piece folded up in the tray)

Since I have an android phone I use google documents to create a spreadsheet for the books I want to get from the library. That way I can type them in on my laptop but still be able to access them from either my phone or the library internet computers. I've found that I have never been happy with any of the websites I try because there is always something I don't like. By using google documents I am able to design it perfectly for me.

My 2 and 4 year old love the Brainquest PreK and K books. They also love any dry erase books I can find. I have things like the Kumon shape and letter cards, and other dry erase maze books. The 4 year old does them all correctly and the almost 3 year old thinks it's great fun to get to use my dry erase markers that normally I don't let him touch.

Will definitely have to get a few more magna doodles. The kids have killed a few of our smaller ones lately Puppets would be perfect for the baby. I'm going to have him sitting between the 7 and 4 year old so they will love to make him laugh with puppets. I'll have to dig out our Etch a Sketch I know I have a loom in the present closet. I'll have to dig that out and teach the older two how to do it and then get them a big bag of loops for the trip. Thanks! I'll look into the Klutz books for my oldest I didn't realize that they still did this. I'll have to look into renting a few from there. Thanks for the link to the water bottle! I've been trying to find something similar for them. My kids have been making 12 hour trips 3-4 times a year since they were little so this isn't too new for them. It's just new for me since this is the first time that I am driving alone for more than 12 hours with them. I'll definitely have to hit the dollar store and put some toys in bags for them. I wish I could take a teenager along to help but we don't know anyone in NM and each trip we are going to be gone over 3 weeks. Kind of hard to take a teenager away from the life for that long. Right now the kids have clipboards in the car, but that looks like it would contain the mess more. Can a kid in a harnessed carseat reach it?

What would be your favorite toys/entertainment for the under 7 set for a cross country car trip. We do have a dvd player and will have movies with us, but I would like to limit that to 1 maybe 2 a day. Neither trip I can take out audio books from the library because we will be gone longer than the checkout time and could not return them if they are requested while we have them. It could cost up to $10 a book in fines to keep them out until we get home. The first trip is 1000 miles each way where one direction I will be traveling alone with 4 kids and a dog. The 2nd trip is a roundabout trip through the midwest. We drive 1300 miles to our permanent home in Alabama from New Mexico (2-3 days on the road), stay there for 10 days, then drive up to St. Louis to visit old friends for a few days (7 hour drive from AL) Then we drive 5 hours to my parent's in Kansas, after staying there for another few days we'll drive the 18 hours (2 days) back to NM. This entire trip I will be traveling alone with the 4 kids and dog! I think I may be insane :willy_nilly:, but thankfully DH has given me the go ahead to spend whatever to make the trip enjoyable for the kids. So if this was you what would be on your shopping list for amazon? :bigear:

I have 4 small children also and our first grade year with my young 6 year old (turned 6 just the month before we started 1st grade) was very similar to your option B. You can see what we have used this year in my sig. I have no experience with HOD so I can't say if doing B would be significantly harder, but I will say that if I was not relaxed this year doing what I have listed in my siggie would have made me nuts. We school year round so taking breaks or going slower because of the young kids was not a problem but would have made me freak out if we were trying to stick to a schedule. We concentrated on the basics for the first 2/3 of the year and are now spending the spring and summer working our way through science and history. My son started the year reading Henry and Mudge books and is now reading on a 3rd/4th grade level so it makes it a lot easier to do history/science when I can have him read some of the library books to himself. We are having fun with SOTW - but I will say that buying the audio cd is worth it. My son is learning a lot more from listening to it over and over again than he was from me reading and then doing the activities. He loves the activities but is still young enough that he doesn't retain much information without hearing it over and over again.

I'm the same way and it makes me crazy. If I get upset about anything and have to confront someone I start to cry. The latest was returning a laptop to Staples and having to talk to the General Manager. His assistant manager treated me poorly a few days before when I bought the laptop. I came home that night after dealing with the assistant manager spitting mad. Then when I am trying to tell the Manager how mad I was I start tearing up. UGH - not exactly getting my point across about how mad I am at the way I was treated.

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I agree with everyone else. It's fine to skip it. My own experience this year with a non-sleeping baby/toddler was to push of history and science. We concentrated on basic skills - phonics, math, reading, spelling, grammar and writing and put off science and history. We started 1st grade the beginning of July and we are just now getting to the point of doing more science and history. Now that we are done with OPGTR, have gotten as far as I wanted to in ETC and are almost done with AAS for the year we are working more on working our science and history programs. I figure since we school year round it's no big deal if part of ancients and life science are at the beginning of our 2nd grade year, we will catch up eventually. Enjoy the baby and concentrate on the basics. Pick up fun books about ancient history and the DVDs of ancient civilizations. Watch Beakman's world and Magic School bus and call that science.

Damage near my house. I think the neighbors said about one to two miles north of my house. We are living in new Mexico for the year but husband is home checking on the house and going into work this weekend. I'm freaked out with him staying in a house that has limited power, no TV radio etc. Thank goodness for streaming TV online. For the storms this morning he was hiding in the basement and I was telling him over the phone what I was seeing on TV from new Mexico.

My DS is in 1st this year. He is in the middle of AAS 2. My son requires more review to keep rules in his head so we spend two sessions on each step. The first day we go over the new teaching and spell with the tiles. The second day he reviews the new information for that step and then spells them on paper. If he gets any wrong or if he struggles at all I will give him a few from the more words section. Then he writes 2 phrases and 3 sentences from the dictation. It works well for him and gives him the review that he needs.

For legal reasons hospitals will not allow you to walk around the hospital floor holding a baby. If baby is being moved from room to nursery etc they have to be in a bassinette. Both for safety of the baby and so the hospital has an easier time identifying if a baby is one they are supposed to be in charge of versus a baby that is visiting.

that is a typical positive test for someone a week late. The test line used up all the dye that is why the control line is so light. :grouphug:

My Grandparents both donated their body to science - specifically a medical school. At the time we had several family members in medical school and they knew the importance of the medical school having bodies. Also both of my grandparents had cancers that they both hoped could someday be cured. They both wanted to help cancer researchers. Our family could have had headstones placed if they wished, but there would not be remains there. I do believe that both of my grandparent's have their names on bricks in a special memorial at the medical school they donated their bodies too. We still held memorial masses for each of my grandparents and I see nothing wrong with the choices they made. They both wanted to be cremated and did not want a grave/headstone. They just made the decision to allow their bodies to be used to help train future doctors or reasearchers before they were cremated.

TGIF, Everyone! Breakfast? Lunch? Dinner? Breakfast was Chocolate Chip muffins for the kids and a part of a muffin and grapefruit for me. Lunch will be whatever we can scrounge and dinner is still up in the air. I couldn't find the fish that I liked at Costco so I don't know what we will have tonight. What are you doing today? This weekend? Today - Having a long discussion with my 6 year old about listening and doing what he is told - repeatedly. Also we have park day with a local homeschool group. This weekend - not sure. DH's birthday is Saturday but he has to work all day. Do you have any pets? Too many - 5 cats and 2 dogs.

Yes it will most likely end as she get older and moves out of the puppy stage. It will take training - lots of training. I have had Irish Setters my whole life and they are higher energy than the English and they do eventually calm down. I would enroll her in obedience classes and ask the trainer about ways to stop the jumping. Depending on the dogs personality there are several ways to stop the jumping and biting. For now I would suggest that she is not allowed out to play with the kids without an adult supervising. When she starts to jump and bite she gets a stern No followed being put on a lead and made to sit with you until she calms down. Once she calms down she is released again to play. Repeat, Repeat, repeat. Remember she will most likely have the personality of a very strong willed 2 year old. I also agree that she needs more time to play hard without the children. Either playing with other dogs or playing fetch etc. when the kids aren't around. She probably sees the kids as her siblings and is playing rough like them. Puppies play rough until Mom steps in to stop them.

My 4th didn't turn until 34 weeks. Went to bed and he was breech - woke up the next morning and he was head down.