I'm not sure if this has been mentioned yet, so, if it has, forgive me. For IEW users who have TWSS, the company has made a new recording of Andrew Pudewa doing the lessons to update it. For $30, you can mail in your old DVDs and receive the new set complete with notebook. Here's the link for more information: http://iew.com/help-support/blog/great-2015-twss-upgrade

Christianbook.com has apologia materials, normally cheaper than the apologia website.

After a fitting, I was introduced to this model, and I really like it. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002R9QJOS/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=349TXXG0GU9CW&coliid=IBZINT9Y7LDCG&psc=1 It comes in the sizes you're looking for. I know they had it in a 34DDD(which is the same as an F, I think) at Bealls. JCPenny carries the style, but only in more standard sizes.

Ds asked DH about it the other day. He knew babies developed inside the mom's belly, but he wanted to know how kids ended up with the dad's genes as well. Because they were at the checkout counter at the library, Dh said he didn't want to answer right then. Ds suggested, "If you don't know, maybe you can google it."

On our old table, which was scratched and discolored, we used a vinyl table cloth so we could just wipe off spills. They're not as cheesy as they used to be. On the other hand, they aren't amazing either. I used the vinyl ones for everyday with just the family and switched to a fabric one when I knew people were coming over.

I've made ice cream cakes in spring form pans (the kind you use for cheesecakes). That works well.

My oldest hates to write. We started using IEW last year, and it has helped significantly. I like the program a lot, and definitely recommend it, but if it's not for you, you can always create your own variation. I think what makes it work so well for a reluctant writer is that you use a checklist for writing. It gives the kids something to aim for. And it starts small. For example, you might begin with "Write a paragraph about XYZ. It must include an -ly adverb." That's it. Let them write it how they want. A week or two later, you add another requirement, "Write a paragraph about ABC. It must include an -ly adverb and a who/which clause." The child then has very specific goals which help guide them in writing, and it doesn't seem so overwhelming. By the end of our first year using it, my daughter was writing using 5-6 "dress-ups" and 5 different sentence openers. Her writing became more detailed and, by necessity, longer. It was a gradual and measurable change. She still doesn't love writing and balks when I give her a writing assignment, but the checklist keeps her on track and improves the quality of her work.

Devilled eggs?

You are not going to ruin him. There are a lot of people who choose to do a delayed or gentle start to formal schooling. You are providing your child with opportunities to grow and learn through reading, play, etc. You can choose to fight with him now and get to point ABC by the end of this school year, or you can choose to wait a year, and then get to point ABC in 6 weeks next school year. It's similar to potty training. With my oldest, I started when she was 18 months old, and we were actively working on potty training for a year and a half. With my youngest, I waited until she was older, and she potty trained much faster. End result: two children who were potty trained by age three. One thing to think about: if it is simply a case of maturity, you can expect that he will be ready in a year or two. However, if he is resistant to things that are not his idea, will that personality trait resolve itself by next year? You might want to take steps toward creating excitement for school so that he wants to do it next year. Or you might want to matter-of-factory prepare him for next year. Tell him frequently, "when you are six, you will start start like your older siblings." No discussion, no arguing.

This is our second time through the TOG cycle, and we are tweaking the scope and sequence a bit. Last year, we did Year 1 as written, but for Year 2, there were some weeks that I wanted to spend more time on, so we are going from Fall of Rome to 1750 (which actually lines up with the WTM suggestions a bit better). We'll start next year with week 29 of Year 2, so I plan to omit or double up some weeks in years 3 and 4 to make up the difference. Overall, I didn't find years 3 and 4 to be slow since there was so much going on during that time that shaped our modern world and politics (as a PP mentioned). On my third time through the cycle when my kids are in high school, I plan to spend a full year on each of the last two centuries again (as written in TOG plan). Since they are younger right now, I wanted them to really enjoy and dig into topics like the Middle Ages and the explorers. I like having a curriculum rather than just following the WTM outline, but the curriculum is just a tool to be used, not a master to be followed.

I think it would be fine to reply with "Thanks for the friend request, but I like to keep my facebook friends list limited to out of town family and friends and a few local friends. See you at church on Sunday." It's truthful, to the point, and friendly. If you feel compelled to add more, you could say, "otherwise my facebook feed is too cluttered, and I find it overwhelming/can't keep up/whatever."

My MIL strongly believed that children were more likely to be born on a full moon and would constantly tell me the story how each time she was pregnant, an aunt of hers asked for her due date, looked at the calendar to find the nearest full moon, and then told her what day her babies would actually be born. MIL loved to point out that her babies were exactly on the day the aunt said, right on the full moon. Consequently, when SIL and I were pregnant, we started getting the same predictions. Finally, I looked up everyone's birthdays and the full moons for those years. None of MIL's grandchildren have been born on a full moon, neither of her sons were born on a full moon, and she was not born on a full moon. When we shared that information with her, it did make her stop telling us those tales (although I don't think she fully believed me).

My dh and I are discussing adopting, and I would love to hear from others who have gone through the process. We are looking at adopting from within the foster care system (not being a foster family, but adopting a child/ren whose parents' rights have been terminated). Can anyone share their experiences or advice they might have? Here are some specific questions, but we are so new to this that any information would be appreciated. How old was/were your adopted children (at the time)? Did you already have other children? How old were they? How did they respond? How would you describe the transition period for the adopted child? If you were in a similar situation, did you go through the local DFCS or a private agency? What have been the main struggles? What have been the main joys?

Here's the link http://www.colonialwilliamsburg.com/plan/groups/homeschoolers/ I have only been once, and that was during the Homeschool days, so I can't compare, but I thought all the programs were all very good, and the prices were great. We spent 2 days at Colonial Williamsburg, one day at Jamestown, and one day at Yorktown. Jamestown and Yorktown have programs for homeschoolers during those weeks as well, and my kids had a wonderful time. It's been 4 years since we went, and they still talk about that trip.

For the people who feel unwelcome because they are not invited back to someone's house: I don't think it's unreasonable for a hostess to realize that their house is unsafe for certain people. 2 examples: my stepmom loves knick knacks and breakable things. I hated taking my kids there when they were toddlers because I was afraid they would break things. Also, she kept pills on low tables (we had to take a bottle of sleeping pills away from my two year old once). Her house was not safe for toddlers. Secondly, we have had friends with severe pet allergies. We can not invite them over to our house due to the dog and cat. It would not be safe for them. That does not mean we don't like them or do not want to hang out with them; it's just that our house is not a good environment for them. For the OP (or anyone) to recognize that their house is not safe for certain guests is not rude and unwelcoming; it is realistic. In all of these cases, the guests have special needs (mom with a toddler, dad with allergies, parent with autistic son) - not every house can accommodate all of these needs, and there's no reason to get feelings hurt over it.

When I was a public school teacher, I did some private tutoring at the school, but it had to be before the official teacher clock-in time. Once it was teacher hours, I could not accept pay to do a side job. If this band director has a break during the day, I assume that would be his planning period, and the school is paying him to plan and prepare for his school job - not make extra money with a private lesson. I see this as a question of ethics, and I would not do it.

My DH and I are turned off by overly-enthusiastic greeters. When we moved two years ago and visited many churches, some had greeters who were stationed in the parking lot to meet new people and direct them where to go. Others had a greeting system where one person would greet you and then walk you to another person who took over and then guided you to where you needed to go. Seriously, we're adults. We can find our way. I do like having a couple of people to stand out front, shake hands, welcome people, or even direct visitors to the nursery if needed. That way, visitors know who to ask if they have further questions but have the freedom to make their own way into the church and find the seats they want to sit in. When we visit, we don't want a big fuss made over us.

School supply scavenger hunt. I buy supplies like binders, folders, pencils, etc. in each child's favorite color and then I put color dot stickers to identify the things everyone gets (boxes of markers, index cards, etc). We hide everything in the backyard and give the kids a list that they have to find. They have a lot of fun running around the yard putting their new supplies in their backpacks. (Which is pretty much the only time during the year that they will use their backpacks for school-related purposes).

We used it for my dd when she was 6. It was great! Her bed wetting cleared up pretty quickly and never returned. This is the one we used. https://www.sleepdryalarm.com ETA: we were in a very similar place. Our daughter was wearing and wetting pull-ups most nights. We would wake her up when we went to bed and take her to the bathroom; we even tried setting our alarm and taking her again at 3:00 every morning. There was also a hereditary issue as well; I was a bed wetter for a lot longer than she was. When we started her with the alarm, we used it exactly as the instructions indicated and it took maybe 2 weeks to start seeing results, but it was waking her up as soon as it got wet, and she was then taking herself to the bathroom. It was loud enough that it woke us up as well, so we met her in the bathroom and helped her change into dry clothes as needed. After about three weeks, the number of times the alarm went off each week dropped off significantly. We kept her in the alarm for about three months, and she has not had a problem since (she's 11 now, so I think we're good ;) )

I did something similar last year, but the picture packs were more money than I wanted to spend. I bought six out-of-date calendars on Amazon for less than $5 each featuring works by famous artists (Monet, Van Gogh, Norman Rockewell, Degas, and two others). I cut the pages out and we spent 6 weeks or so on each author, looking at and discussing one painting per week. We supplemented with information from Wikipedia and books to get biographical information.

We do something we call "OSAP." We pick a book of the Bible and each day, the kids (and DH and I) independently read a chapter. If the chapter is longer than 20-25 verses, we will do half one day and half the next. After reading the chapter, we write down "O" - observations we saw in the chapter. Observations can be anything - a new word, something we didn't know before, how someone in the Bible responded to a situation, etc. We try to go for 3 or more observations. Then we do "S" - scripture. We write down the verse that we find the most meaningful. Then we do "A" - application: how can we apply that scripture to our lives. Finally is "P"- prayer. We write down a prayer specifically related to the chapter. After everyone does their Bible time indepedently, we come together and read the chapter aloud and share all the things we wrote down. In our house, we do the Bible study portion in the morning when we get up and then we do the sharing and discussing in the evenings when everyone is home together. We started this last summer, and it was a bit of work to get it going. Seemed like a lot of writing initially. However, we've kept up with it for a year, and everyone likes it. One thing that's nice is that we can pick whatever book of the Bible we want; there's no program to follow. We just work our way through the book going chapter by chapter. Also, it's free. I just buy each child a composition book to keep their "OSAP" in. If you're looking for less independent work, you could always just go through each chapter together with the same process: observation, scripture, application, and prayer and skip the independent writing portion.

Can I get a copy, too? That would be very helpful!

We added on to our last house. It was on the small side and only had two bedrooms. Originally, we had also thought about trying to add a second story, but that didn't happen. We did add on 300 square feet to the first (and only) floor, which essentially worked out to be a hallway, a third bedroom and a family room (we used it as a school room). Our house had a large porch in the back, so we took down the screens around the porch, framed it in, and added siding that was a close match to the house. The siding wasn't a perfect match, but it was in the back, so not noticeable from the curb. I always intended to put in a tall trellis thing on the side of the house where the two sections of siding came together to cover up the line, but I never did. My husband did most of the work himself including pouring extra concrete for a footer and to raise the floor height to match the house, installing AC ductwork in the ceiling, framing, dry way, etc. We applied for a permit from the county, so work was slowed down a bit as we had to wait for inspections in between each type of work. Definitely glad we went the permit/inspections route because it made me feel much better about selling the house down the road. It took about 3-6 months and cost between $5,000-10,000. Because we weren't redoing a main area of the house, but rather adding on, it didn't interfere with daily life, so the construction wasn't as stressful as I've heard they can be. In the end it was completely worth it, and I was always very glad we did it.

When we sold, we went with a realtor who was one of the top-selling in the area; she was also extremely busy, and it felt like we were low on her priority list. If I were to do it again, I would pick a slightly less popular agent who has fewer houses on the market so that we would get more of the agent's attention. So, in your case, I would look for a different agent.

This is what I have. http://www.amazon.com/Brother-Feature-Rich-Built-In-Auto-Size-Buttonholes/dp/B000JQM1DE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1400195341&sr=8-1&keywords=Brother+sewing+machine It has way more features than you will need, but it is easy to use and works well. I sew quite a lot and it has held up to that. One thing I like about it is that it has a speed setting so that you can set it to slow and even if you "floor" the pedal, the needle will still go slowly. This has been very helpful in teaching my daughter to sew since she has a tendency to put full pressure on the pedal.