DD was 5 and DS was 3. We let them watch the original 3 and the first 2 of the newer movies. I think the last one (the last one released, that is) is too violent and dark for them. We just gave them the Cliff's notes version on that one and they accept it. They went through a phase where they wanted to watch them all the time, but right now, they're not that interested in them.

We are considering getting a cat. I have always wanted one, and we had an outdoor stray cat that "adopted" us for two years by living on our porch. We put food out for him and let him in when it was really cold. I really enjoyed him. However, I have never had an inside cat, so I have some logistic questions regarding a litter box. We have a dog and a 1.5 year old child. What are practical ways to make the litter box accessible to the cat but keep the dog and baby out of it? Can a cat be trained to go outside to go to the bathroom? Could we keep the litter box in the garage and teach the cat to meow at the door to go? (Can you tell I've only had dogs?) Those of you who have cats - what do you do when you travel? Do you find a cat sitter? Do you board it? Do you take it with you, and if you do, is there a trick to traveling with cats? Do you have any other words of advice? TIA

Making Brothers and Sisters Best Friends written by Sarah, Stephen, and Grace Mally when they were ages 22, 16, and 12, respectively.

No. And dh is even more private. He will not even talk through the door (not that I want to have a conversation, but sometimes you have a question that needs a quick answer.) Yes, he saw me give birth to our three children - heck, he even delivered one of them - but that's a very different situation than using the bathroom (in our opinion).

I also recommend Grace Livingston Hill and Gene Straton Porter. The Anne of Green Gables series is great, as are other books by Lucy Maud Montgomery (Emily of New Moon trilogy, for example). At that age, I was starting to read historical Christian fiction by Janette Oke, Judith Pella, Michael Phillips. There is a lot of Christian fiction - modern or historical - written today that I would call wholesome. It hasn't stood the test of time like some of the other recommendations, but I think they make enjoyable reads. Scanning my bookshelves, here are some authors I would recommend (for teen girls and adult women): Tamera Alexander, Lynn Austen, Lawana Blackwell, Karen Kingsbury, Beverly Lewis, Tracie Peterson, Marian Well, Lorrie Wick.

:iagree: I coordinate the children's ministry at our church. I would not expect younger children to always know what lesson they learned or even that they learned a lesson (if the teacher is a great story teller or the story was interwoven with the craft, the young kids may not realize that they HAD a lesson). However, at 9 and 10 years old, I would expect the kids to know if they had a lesson, even if it was part of the craft. And at our church, the 3rd and 4th grade classes don't really do a lot of crafts. They spend more time on the Bible lesson. So, yes, I would be concerned if a 9 and 10 year old did not do a Bible lesson. However, like many others said, there could be other circumstances (sub. teacher, continued lesson, etc). I would recommend talking to the coordinator of the children's ministry/Sunday school director/children's minister (whatever that person is called at the church). I get questions from visiting parents as well as emails from families who are interested in trying our church. They want to know things like: how are the classes divided? What curricula do we use? What do the kids do in class? Are the teachers background checked? I think it is perfectly reasonable for parents to want to know what the kids will be doing when they are away from them, so I don't have a problem with their questions at all. Does the church have a website or phone number? Contact them this week and get your questions answered before next Sunday.

We did TOG year 1 last year, and I don't know that I would recommend drawing it out for 2 years. The pace seemed OK to me. Most people seem to agree that TOG year 2 is the "fullest" year. We are going through it right now, and I tend to agree. There are definitely several weeks we could have slowed down in order to delve deeper into the topics. If you are simply looking to expand the TOG program to 5 years, you might look at expanding that year 2 instead. Or, consider doing TOG1 for 1.5 years and TOG2 for 1.5 years.

We are having a garage sale this weekend. I can figure out prices for most of the smaller stuff, but what would you expect to pay for these bigger toys? Little Tykes Foldable Kitchen (good condition, comes with accessories) Black and Decker Workbench (very good condition, comes with most accessories) Drop and roar dinosaur with 8-10 balls TIA

Before I had children, I taught at a ps, and my husband still works for the local school district. When people at work ask him about his family (what wife does, where kids go to school, etc), and he shares that we now homeschool, the general response from the educators is "Well, that's OK because your wife is a teacher." :glare: Also, when he gets asked the inevitable question "why do you homeschool?" His favorite answer is "For the socialization." That throws them for a loop.

Dr. James Dobson

We have a private insurance for the kids and me. We just changed to a high deductible HSA which has a $10,000 deductible. After we reach that (which I pray NEVER happens), then everything is covered 100%. Until then, well-child visits (including immunizations) and annual adult well visits are covered 100%. For sick visits, visits to specialists, and hospitalization, we pay the "negotiated lower insurance rate" for all services. The plan has its risk factors, but I feel comfortable with it for our family. We are never sick (except for colds and things that don't require doctors), hardly ever go see specialists, and have not been to the hospital. Our monthly premium for the 4 of us (1 adult, 3 kids) is just over $200.

Hi, Like many others, I have not read all the posts (I think I stopped around page 8 or so - I have to start school sometime;)). I won't offer any specific advice, but I do have some books to recommend that my husband and I have found very helpful in training our kids. And for the OP, we have similar values to you. We have taught our kids that obedience means do what we say, the first time, with a good attitude. If they haven't done all three parts, they haven't obeyed. Here are 3 books you may want to consider reading: What the Bible Says About Child Training by J. Richard Fugate Faith Shaped Kids by Steve and Valerie Bell and my favorite: Say Goodbye to Whining, Complaining, and Bad Attitudes in You and Your Kids by Scott Turansky and Joanne Miller This last book really speaks to the heart issues and helps with the whole family dynamics. It gives advice on what to expect from our kids, how to treat our kids, and how our kids should treat each other. I can't recommend it enough. Now that I have it off the shelf, I may have to read it again:D. As a note of encouragement, our oldest dc has been our more willful, challenging one so far (although I think the youngest may give her a run for her money). What we have noticed with her is that her willfulness goes in phases. Everything will be OK for a while, and then WHAM! everything becomes a challenge, the attitude comes back with a vengeance, and she ends up getting disciplined ALL DAY LONG. We have decided that she is testing her boundaries to see what she can get away with and if we have relaxed our standards. As long as we handle it consistently, it stops after a few days or a week and then she goes back to being a cheerful, helpful, obedient girl for a while. And then we start all over again. BUT, on a positive note, when she was younger, the bad phases lasted longer and the good phases were shorter. As she has grown, we can really see the effects of consistent training.

We have this one from Melissa and Doug. I like all the moving, working pieces (sliding doors, hinged shutters). It's a nice piece and has held up well. http://www.amazon.com/Melissa-Doug-Folding-Horse-Stable/dp/B000067BIE

We have been doing Dave Ramsey since the summer. Fortunately, we were not in bad shape. We had a credit card that we paid off every month, but we realized that we were spending more using the credit card than we would have spent without it, so we paid off the balance and have not used it since July. We use debit cards for online purchases and gas. We did keep the credit card for certain things (renting a car, for example). We have our $1000 emergency fund, and we are currently working toward paying off my husband's student loan, which is our only remaining debt except for mortgage. Ironically, just when we started working toward all of this, my car was wrecked and we had to purchase a new one. We took the money from the insurance company and added whatever we could from our regular savings account (not emergency) and bought the best used car we could get with that. So, we didn't add any other debt, but it did set us back in paying off the student loan. I think we'll have that paid off next summer, and then we'll see about the house. We're fairly frugal people, and like others have mentioned, we do most of our own home and yard care including repairs. We do eat out once a week, but we try to find low-cost places, and we take advantage of Kids-Eat-Free deals. We have never had cable or cell phones. We started making a budget a few months ago, and it made a big difference for us! DH and I sit down twice a month to figure out a monthly budget and then do a mid-month check to see how it's going. I'm now much more aware of where the money goes, and being accountable has stopped me from spending money on little things that we don't really need. Doing a budget together and not using the credit card has probably "given" us about $200-300 extra per month. Just two months ago, we switched to using cash as Dave Ramsey recommends. I think it's good, but I don't know if I think it's as wonderful as he thinks it is. I find myself "borrowing" money from one envelope if another is short. However, I have limited myself to only spending the cash we have, so if I budget X dollars to cover eating out, groceries, household goods, clothing, baby care, etc for the month, then I withdraw X dollars and nothing more. So, I may juggle the cash between the envelopes, but the bottom line in the bank account stays the same. So, in that regard, it's very good. So, there's my "being there, doing that" story!

I think it's fine for everyone, not just DH. Check out USDA's freezing and thawing informations here: http://www.fsis.usda.gov/factsheets/focus_on_freezing/index.asp Here is a summary: There are three safe ways to thaw food: in the refrigerator, in cold water, or in the microwave. It's best to plan ahead for slow, safe thawing in the refrigerator. Small items may defrost overnight; most foods require a day or two. And large items like turkeys may take longer, approximately one day for each 5 pounds of weight. For faster thawing, place food in a leak proof plastic bag and immerse it in cold water. When microwave-defrosting food, plan to cook it immediately after thawing because some areas of the food may become warm and begin to cook during microwaving. Once food is thawed in the refrigerator, it is safe to refreeze it without cooking. After cooking raw foods which were previously frozen, it is safe to freeze the cooked foods. If previously cooked foods are thawed in the refrigerator, you may refreeze the unused portion. Freeze leftovers within 3-4 days. If you purchase previously frozen meat, poultry or fish at a retail store, you can refreeze if it has been handled properly.

We follow the same principle as we do for Santa. The Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy are pretend, and our children know that. We can't avoid talking about them because references are everywhere, including grandparents who ask our DD "How much money did the Tooth Fairy leave you?" The first time she was asked this, DD just looked at them like they'd lost their mind. :D We don't have any teeth rituals in the house. They think loosing their teeth is exciting enough because it shows that they're growing up. As for the Easter Bunny, we don't "do" the Easter Bunny, and we don't make a big deal about baskets. We go to church and then have a big lunch with family and friends. My kids do think Easter egg hunts are really fun, so every year, my husband hides a bunch of plastic eggs in our yard and the kids hunt for them after we eat. They know he hides them, not the Easter Bunny, so we're upholding the truth about the situation. As for keeping the focus on Jesus, we've tried to tell them some kind of relationship between eggs and Jesus (new life, etc.), but we've struggled with that one. I guess the Easter egg hunt is one secular tradition we've kept simply because the kids think it's fun. On any other day of the year, a treasure hunt for items in the backyard would not be considered irreligious, so I guess that's my rationale.

:iagree:The more we add to Christmas, the more it takes away from Christ. My problem with Santa is not a popular one, but I'll state it nonetheless. When children are little, parents tell them "Santa is coming." They give gifts "from Santa." They take their kids to visit Santa. They are lying to the children. Santa isn't real, and when parents tell their kids that he is, they are lying. We don't let our kids lie, so why is it OK for us to do it? And then, when the children are older and find out that Santa is not real, they realize that trust has been broken. Can they believe what their parents tell them in other situations? One friend of mine explained it this way: As Christian parents, we tell our children that Jesus is real, but we can't see him. If this is the same thing we've said about Santa, what's to make them understand that Santa is make-believe, but Jesus really is real? You've tarnished your credibility. As it relates to the OP, if Santa is becoming elevated into a psuedo-religious figure, the lines of distinction are blurred even more. How can a child understand the difference between make-believe Santa and the real God? How can an older child believe in God after finding out that this other religious figure he was told to believe in when he was younger is not real? Do I dislike all make-believe? No, as long as everyone knows it's make-believe. I love the kids to play pretend, and we tell them tons of make-believe stories, but they know they're not real. When we go to Disney, the kids understand that there are people in the character outfits, just like the understand that the Santa they see at the mall is a man playing a part. How do we handle various aspects of Christmas? Our children know the make-believe story of Christmas, and they know that some families play pretend with their children. As for our family, we celebrate by making it a birthday party. We put up a tree and Christmas decorations, but those are our birthday decorations for Jesus. We give presents and explain that since it's Jesus' birthday, everyone gets presents. We read the Bible story of Jesus' birth (1/2 on Christmas Eve and 1/2 on Christmas day). We have a birthday cake and sing "Happy Birthday" to Jesus. We have tried to find a balance between creating Christmas family traditions and maintaining the truth and purpose of Christmas.

On the potty training / bed-wetting issue: My oldest was a horrible bed-wetter. We tried to get her to learn to wake up during the night by waking her up at 10:30pm and leading her to the potty and again setting her clock alarm to go off at 2:00am so that she would go to the bathroom. She would pee at both of those times and STILL sometimes wet the bed. After doing some searching online, we bought a bed-wetting alarm. Afterward, we said it was the best $60 we ever spent. You hook it up to the child's underpants and when it starts to get wet, it sounds an alarm. This wakes the child up and they go to the bathroom right away. She used it for a couple of months and it totally cleared up the bed-wetting. We used it later on our 4-year old son, and he responded right away. After using it for about 2 weeks, his body was trained to wake up in time to go to the bathroom. They are both younger than the recommended age for the alarm, but it worked great for us. Here is the link: http://sleepdryalarm.com/ On the budget issue: I find this site to be helpful: http://moneysavingmom.com/ She has a lot of great tips. She does most of her grocery shopping at Aldi's, and she makes exceptional use of coupons and online deals. She also encourages freezer cooking, or once-a-month cooking, to help stretch the grocery budget. There's a lot of information on her website, and she updates it frequently. If you're interested in the cooking method, there's a book called Once-A-Month-Cooking by Mimi Wilson. I just checked it out from our library. It's got some great ideas and a TON of recipes that are low-cost.

Thank you for the tips! I will take a look at the WAHM website, and I would appreciate any other suggestions that I can forward to her.

I was going to say "for those of you who work from home," but we ALL do that, don't we? Anyway, I have a friend who has a 2 and 4 year old. I won't go into details about the family situation, but suffice it to say that she needs to figure out a way to earn an income. She does not want to put her kids in daycare, so she would like to figure out something that she can do from home. She doesn't need to earn a full-time salary, but something to help out with bills would be great. Do any of you have suggestions? TIA ETA: My friend's husband is unavailable right now (meaning, he can't work, can't support the kids, can't watch the kids, etc. - it's a very long, sad story). So, it is falling upon her to provide for her family. She needs to do more than just cost cutting tips. Also, babysitting is not an option due to the unstable home environment. Something that she can do at night from home would be ideal.

That's a horrible situation. I am normally a firm believer in "babies will come when they're ready," but given the family history, I'd be very worried about it.

The weather can vary a lot in November, but it is usually quite nice, probably 70s - lower 80s. It's hard to predict because you might need a jacket one week and then shorts the next. However, my experience (as someone who has lived in central Florida for 30 years) is that November is one of the nicest months. Yes, you should be able to swim quite comfortably.

I had this problem with my oldest last year (she was 6). I dealt with it by telling her, "Obviously, you are too tired to do school. You need to go back to bed." I then sent her back to bed (with no books or toys, etc) for 20 minutes or so and then restarted the day. The first few times I did this, I had to send her back a couple of times before she was ready to do school. We didn't shorten the amount of school we did, so the extra rest time cut into her play time that she would have had later in the day. I don't think we have had any tantrums this year (so far), and definitely had fewer by the end of last year.

We also use Blue Cross/Blue Shield. Dh gets coverage through work, but it is too expensive for the family. The kids and I had a traditional plan with BCBS that was pretty good, and about 10-12% of Dh take home pay. We just recently changed ours to an HSA plan (still through BCBS), which means lower monthly premiums, and some really great coverage (like 100% on well-child visits). However, it is riskier because it has a $10,000 deductible. We're paying under $300/month for one adult and three kids.

OK, Our math journey has taken us through three different programs (so far): Abeka K4 (too easy), Horizons K (too little comprehension), to Math-U-See. DD7 completed Alpha last year and really enjoyed it, and we have really liked it too. It seemed to really boost her comprehension and grasp of math. She can do pretty advanced things (for her age) in her head, and I give a lot of credit to the manipulatives. Ds4 also picked up a lot last year. We have him doing Alpha this year, and he is breezing through the lessons. So, we are big fans of MUS. HOWEVER (you knew this was coming), I have read a lot of threads where people had problems with MUS because either it didn't cover enough variety or didn't prepare for advanced math, etc. I do think that MUS seems to be a little "behind," which is why we've started my K'er on Alpha. Also, we had dd7 work through Beta over the summer, and she will be completing that soon and starting on Gamma. Our goal is to finish gamma at the end of her second grade year. So, what do you think? Should we stick with a program that is working for us, or will we have too many problems later? And if we do change, what should we consider? TIA