I have to wonder about enforcement in our area, as I constantly see children riding in cars totally unrestrained-not even in a seatbelt. We do have the 8/80 law.

So glad for you! Welcome home:D

:iagree:

I can't verify for this year, but Ave Maria University had a booth at last year's GHC Mid- South Convention. I know that's not curriculum, but I took it as a sign of them not being anti-catholic. For Catholic curriculum, I would suggest trying a Catholic conference if you have one available.

It wouldn't matter in my family, because my daughter rarely eats all of her food, and my son usually eats her leftovers. I think, "Are you going to eat that?", is his favorite phrase right now! In your example I'd probably even it out if they have comparable appetites.

Is it possible for you to find a troop associated with a church? I'm a GS leader for my daughters troop, and I'm not crazy about all the materials that come from GS, but as a leader I can adapt them to meet our needs. We do the minimum required with their materials, focus on earning religious scouting awards, and do service for the service type awards. I like the values in the promise and law and that GS has a leadership focus. Some of the details don't neccisarily fit for our group, so we tweak them. It is all very dependent on your leader, moreso than in Boy Scouts, where the requirements are quite firm.

I agree with the chore suggestion. Mine know if they come to me bored, they will walk away with work. Sometimes they're actually bored and are happy for me to give them something to do. However, it cuts down on constantly hearing this!

We always get the hopper tickets when we go to WDW, so we got them this fall when we went to Disneyland for the first time. It was nice to have them, but I don't think they are quite as necessary there as at WDW. I would never do the World without hoppers!

We don't have Dance Central, but Just Dance 3 is fun and a workout. Dh, the kids, and I are playing for New Years Eve.

My ds11 likes Legos, video games, anything RC- 4X4, helicopter, etc. He also likes sciency stuff like snap circuits and robots.

That poll needs another category for dh and I. We met in MIDDLE SCHOOL! Seriously, we met at about age 11. We were just friends for quite a while, obviously, but knew we wanted to get married by 17. We ended up getting married during our senior year of college at age 21 and are celebrating our 17th anniversary tomorrow.:). My husband still had med school and residency to go through, but we didn't want to wait any longer considering we had known each other for ten years!

We are major Disney veterans. I'm not even sure how many times we've been. I actually overheard my 11yo giving a couple accurate transportation advice! We always do sit down, so here are my recs. If you arrive on Saturday night I would consider eating at your resort(I'm not sure what Saratoga Springs has-never stayed there), or Downtown Disney. DD is right across from Saratoga Springs and has lots of restaurants. Have you checked out the website http://www.allears.net? They list all the restaurants by location and include menus. I would not go out to a park that first night as you will be tired and it takes time to travel to a park, get to the restaurant, etc. I would consider eating at one of the MK resort restaurants on your MK days. There are some really good signature restaurants, but those are more pricey. Non-signature ones include Whispering Canyon at Wilderness Lodge(really fun,my kids love it), the Wave at Contemporary, or Kona Cafe at Polynesian. These are just a monorail or boat ride away. In the MK I would consider Tony's on Main Street or Crystal Palace(buffet style). For Epcot it depends on what style of food you like. We like the restaurants in the Italy, France and Canada(probably too late to get this one) pavilions. Also, you can exit the back gate at Epcot(between England and France) and you have access to restaurants on the Boardwalk. We like Kouzzina by Cat Cora, which is Mediterranean. It's a bit of a walk, but so is all of Epcot.:D If you want to keep your reservation for Boma, just take a bus over there from AK park. You can get back to Saratoga Springs by taking a bus to Downtown Disney then transferring to a Saratoga Springs bus. There might be a boat from DD to SS, I'm not sure. You can check that with the concierge at the hotel. we love Boma, so I would really consider doing it. Are you planning to go to Hollywood Studios? You could do that on Friday since you don't have plans yet. Mama Melrose is good there. Sci-Fi theatre is fun- you sit in cars and watch old sci -Fi movies while you eat. I would defiantly check out those menus as they are listed by location which might help. Also, if you are open to doing your table service at lunch you might have more luck getting reservations, which are the same as priority seating. Having reservations will definitely help your trip go smoothly. Just enjoy the rest of your day, and do what you have time for. Most of all have fun!

I don't know if this is the reading/difficulty level you are looking for, but my ds likes the Foster books. Christopher Columbus' World, George Washington's World, and Abraham Lincoln's World would cover much of what you listed. My ds is in 6th and reads these for fun(history lover), but they are pretty easy for him. I also am looking at a Book called Before Columbus by Charles Mann about pre-Columbus America. This book is for children, but it's based on a book he wrote for adults called 1491. I don't have specifics about these yet, but you might check into them. HTH!

Tirzah and Golden Goblet, which have already been mentioned, were hits here last year. We also enjoyed Hittite Warrior, which surprised me. It might be a little intense for your younger ones, though. We read these with 3rd and 5th graders. We also read the Children's Homer and In Search of a Homeland(Aenid) and enjoyed them.

I'm not a huge fan of guns or sales pitches in a Christmas greeting. I'm also never going to use a product from VP, so my opinion on their greeting probably doesn't matter much to them.;)

It is not necessarily a showing off or pointing out how good they are thing for the other child. It's possible, but it really depends on the type of personality that child has. My oldest is a people pleaser (I believe someone above called it a peacemaker). Lately my dd 9 and I have been arguing about her behavior during school, and my older ds reacts this way. He will immediately tell me all the work he has completed or ask me what I want him to do. He doesn't mean to brag while his sister is having a tantrum; it is just how he copes with disagreements. They make him very uncomfortable.

My dc know both presidents and states/capitals orally, but don't have the spellings memorized. Ds is in sixth and I'm having him work on the spellings this year. He is pretty close at this point.

We use both together, but if I had to choose I would say WWE. FLL is easy to start with level 3. The grammar in FLL 1/2 could be covered informally. It is all reviewed in levels 3 and 4, as well.

I have been looking ahead at transcript forms, and am wondering where do you record courses that are taken during the summer?

The first cycle through we stopped at WWII. That was enough history to get through that year, and contemporary history seemed very complicated for my 4th and 2nd graders. We will cover all the way to present day next year in 5th and 7th and again in highschool.

Same here. We are going to the Vigil, although I prefere Midnight Mass. The kids are singing in the children's choir so that's when we have to go. I didn't know a church could decide not to have church on Sunday.

The year I got married my sister took about half the wedding party with her to Vegas for two days just before the wedding. There was a winter storm and they all missed the rehearsal, but made it back for the wedding. I got married on Dec 30, so it missed Christmas, but was a white New Year! It was 60 today here, so not expecting a white Christmas. We had snow on Christmas Day last year, which doesn't happen too often. A white Christmas was all dd9 asked for last year, because she couldn't remember one. I was so worried she would be disappointed, then woke up to beautiful snow!

I assume SOTW starts this way to make it usable for those on both sides of the creation/ evolution debate. If you want to cover prehistory, many of the history encyclopedias have pages before the ancients section that include this information. You could cover it in the summer or plan it into the ancient year. I know some people who have covered beginning of the earth to the last ice age in K(a simple overview), since dinosaurs are an interesting topic to many children this age.

I wouldn't necessarily be concerned with finishing FLL2/WWE2 completely. There is a lot of repetition in these levels. I you feel like your kids are doing ok with them( I couldn't tell that from your post), I would suggest skipping lessons here and there to accelerate. You could do the same thing with WWE 3, and eventually you would be back on level, especially with summers. As far as FLL, my friend had her child start right in FLL 4 with no grammar before, so you might be able to finish FLL 2 then move to 4.

Look for someone who is board certified in orthopedics. Ask your primary care doc for names(if you value his/her judgement). Do you have any friends who have used someone? That's a good way to get a name, then you could follow up on that name with your doc. Also, our local homeschool group has a message board where people ask questions about health care rare references all the time. I don't know if you have anything like that in your community, but if so that's an option.