Thanks for sharing! Just curious. What online planner do you use? Glad your school year is off to such a great start!

I really like my iPhone. I had the same basic flip phone for five years. I'm calling the monthly data fee my "teacher's salary". I'm now ready to get an iPad--less expensive than private school right? :001_smile:

I have my inlaw's KA that they received as a wedding gift in 1966. It's still going strong. Granted, I don't use it for bread dough. I didn't grow up with a KA and I love it for cookies, cakes, brownies, etc. It was originally green and my FIL painted it tan. If it ever dies, I'll probably get a medium to high end KA, but I'm not sure it's ever going to die.

I love that they wrote, "Dear" and "Love". Thanks for sharing.

I took chemistry. My highest math was something called Advanced Math, the highest one offered at my school, the pre-calc/trig combo.

I signed up for a half last night. It's on April 14th, so I have 15 weeks to train. It will be my fourth and I'm looking forward to it. I think the half is a great distance. It's a commitment and accomplishment, but doesn't take over your life with training. Cheers to goals, running, and a new year!

How fun! We had an AG party for my daughter when she turned 7. I got a lot of ideas from this website http://www.birthdaypartyideas.com/html/american_girl_party.html I think I made the invitation with pictures of the different AG historical characters on the front. We had three guests and asked each of them to bring a doll, stating that it didn't have to be an AG doll. (My daughter didn't have her AG doll then.) She got it for her 8th b-day. She had another special doll. We had our small kids table set up for the dolls with a little tea set. My daughter came up with my favorite idea. She wanted to portray Kirsten as St. Lucia. You'll have to read the "Kirsten's Surprise: A Christmas Story" book if you aren't familiar with St. Lucia. My daughter wore a white dress and we tied a red ribbon of some sort around her waist. We made of wreath of plastic greenery for her head and attached a string of white Christmas lights to the wreath. The lights trailed down her back. She carried a flat serving basket with handles that carried cups of hot chocolate (filled half full) and cinnamon rolls made from a tube. We turned down the lights and had the guests sit on the floor with their eyes closed. My daughter got into her outfit, we plugged the Christmas lights in, and she walked into the room. The girls opened their eyes and my daughter repeated the line from the book. The guests were very surprised and immediately remembered the part of the book as two of them had read the book. Then the guests each wanted to be St. Lucia. So, we re-enacted the scene three more times and I took pictures of each of them. It was great fun. My daughter originally wanted to put real candles in the wreath in her hair, but we compromised with the white lights and it worked out well. Have a great party.

I have used WWE 1, 2, & now 3 with my daughter. I am also currently using WWE 1 with my son. I use the WWE workbooks that provide the literature choices and dictations. Like the previous posters said, read the WTM and SWB's book WWE Strong Fundamentals. Additionally, I would recommend listening to SWB's mp3's on writing from the Peace Hill Press site. These will help you understand her writing philosophy. Just this summer, I also watched the YouTube videos of SWB doing WWE with her son. She does it differently than the instructions in the workbooks, repeating the dictations until her son can repeat them back. This has helped tremendously with the more difficult dictations in WWE 3 for my daughter. I also have to add that the literature choices in the WWE workbooks are excellent. Both my children often ask to get the book from the library after we have read an excerpt in WWE. I also do narrations in SOTW and science. I think this reinforces the concepts. I do skip the narrations and dictations in FLL because I think that would be too much and I believe I read somewhere that SWB recommends skipping them if you are doing WWE. Good luck!

I love this one with titanium blades. I bought it at Costco at least a year and a half ago. I'm not sure if Costco still carries them or not. Another homeschooling mom recommended it to me. It was around $18 at Costco. http://www.amazon.com/Westcott-Titanium-iPoint-Sharpener-Electric/dp/B002SOP9KW

Another vote for Elemental Science. We are using Earth Science and Astronomy this year. I wish I would have used it for Life Science. I tried to do it on my own WTM style, but it didn't work for me. I also think that narrations in science reinforce the narration skill that we are doing in SOTW and WWE. I love that Paige provides narration and experiment pages. I've been very happy with it.

Love it as well. It's doesn't happen all the time here, so it's a bit of a novelty right now. We got 8 inches of snow yesterday. I shoveled yesterday afternoon. Dh and I shoveled again at 9:00 last night after the kids were in bed. We called it our "shoveling date". Shoveling burns almost 400 calories per hour.

I did print out the lessons plans and had them spiral bound because I like seeing the plans on paper, just my personal preference. If you buy ES as an e-book (pdf), you can look at the pages first decide how you want to do it. I took the file to my local UPS store and had them print the teacher's manual pages and quiz book as double sided copies so my book isn't too thick. (My UPS store also has this program where you can pre-buy $.03 copies when they are on sale and keep them on a copy card.) I then took the copies to FedEx Office had them spiral bind them together with the title page provided, a clear plastic cover and black back. My husband thinks I'm crazy for driving to another office store, but I prefer the spiral binding at FedEx Office, it's cheaper, and it's not too far to drive. I just give my ds6 oral quizzes so it is handy for me to have the quizzes in the back of my teacher's manual as well as the answer key for correcting my dd8's paper quizzes. I printed out two copies (one for each of my kids) of all the student narration pages, experiment pages, quizzes for my dd8, etc., three hole punch them, and put them in a three ring notebook. As something gets completed, it moves to the back of the first tabbed section, the subsequent tabbed sections have the student pages all ready to go so I just grab the correct one for each day. HTH. I like ideas on how to lay things out so I tried to provide some detail. I then tweak things until I find out what works best for me. Good luck

I just wanted to add that we love Elemental Science Earth Science and Astronomy. We tried to do Biology the WTM way for first grade and it was too easy to just skip because I didn't schedule it out for the year. I like how the ES is laid out with what to read each day and the corresponding experiments in the Janice VanCleave books. We are actually doing the experiements as well. BTW, it helps that I'm not pregnant and don't have a nursing infant. We did paper mache for first time with the planet earth model. I downloaded the Elemental Science pdf version, took it to Fed Ex Office, and had it spiral bound with the cover Paige provides. I put the student pages in a three ring binder with a beautiful cover and spine label from http://barefootmeandering.com/homeschool/notebook-covers/ (I also buy covers and spine labels for our history and grammar notebooks from there as well.) Another important point: my kids love it as well. They often ask to do ES first thing in the morning. Two thumbs up for Elemental Science.

I love this pencil sharpener from Costco. It has titanium blades. http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?Prodid=11229703&whse=BD_827&Ne=5000001%204000000&eCat=BD_827|11111|63670&N=4024393%204294915057&Mo=0&No=0&Nr=P_CatalogName:BD_827&Ns=P_Price|1||P_SignDesc1&lang=en-US&topnav=bdoff iPoint Electric Pencil Sharpener Assorted Colors Item # 130631 $21.35 Electric Pencil Sharpener Space saving style Assorted colors: Black Cherry, Black, White (delivered color will vary) Each Features: Titanium bonded blades: Using the patented Westcott Titanium bonding process, the blades deliver excellent cutting performance and unparalled longevity before needing replacement Auto sensor shut off: Once the pencil is at the perfect point, the iPoint cuts off power, making sure you get the best result every time Unique design: The iPoint makes an iconic design statement about you and brings a sense of style to your office desk Space saving: With desk space at a premium, the iPoint has a smaller base than any electric sharpener in its class EZ View savings reservoir: Unlike most normal pencil sharpeners, the iPoint allows you to see when you need to empty the shavings reservoir, making sure you get great performance every time

Congrats on your new little one. I love my Maya Wrap and used it with all four kids. I brought it to the hospital with the last two and had the babies in it at the hospital. It bundles them tight and calmed my kids. I used it all the time. I bought the Ergo baby carrier new for my third child and I have loved it as well. I use it when the baby gets bigger. It can be used in the front and the back. I think I had my third dd in it when she was 18 mos. It is really easy on my back even though I don't have back problems. Good luck!

My daughter had an American Girl party for her 7th birthday. I got most of the ideas for the party from this site. http://www.birthdaypartyideas.com/html/american_girl_party.html We had a separate little table set up with our tea set and the dolls had tea while we had the cake, candles, etc. Have a fun party. Kristine

We have used Carbonite online backup service for several years. It backs up files automatically. Something happened to one of our computers and we had to get a new hard drive. It wasn't a problem because we just restored everything from hard drive. My husband used to sell data storage and back up systems (not Carbonite) so he sees the value. I'm glad to have it because all my pictures are on one computer. I would recommend Carbonite. Good luck with whatever you decide.

Those trees are so cute! Sounds pretty easy too. Where do you buy snow cone papers? Thanks for the fun idea.

I really like Ann Taylor Loft. I shopped there for the first time this summer when I asked my sister-in-law where to go to find a dress to wear to a wedding. I found a dress and got a $25 off deal to use at a future date. I went back and found a cute pair of pants, sweater, scarf that the sales lady helped me put together. I love that outfit. I bought a skirt at Macy's to mix and match. I told my husband I would love anything from Ann Taylor Loft for Christmas. I think it is a little less expensive than Ann Taylor. Happy shopping!

My kids play dress up a lot and add the rags from my clean rag box into the dress up mix. For some reason, they love using the rags as hoods, skirts, etc. My 3 y/o just lets the bigger ones dress her up however they want. We cleaned out my grandma's house this summer and found a lot of aprons. The girls use those for everything dress up. They also play library a lot, setting up a check out area, hold area, dividing the books into categories, making library cards with paper, taking turns being the librarian They pretty much recreate a lot of places we go including the "security" area after a recent plane trip. I love this benefit of homeschooling and limited TV/computer time. We went to the Chicago Children's Museum recently and they had a whole room dedicated to fort building. They sewed elastic tabs on the corner of sheets and knobs to the sides of chairs and hall trees. The kids could move the furniture and sheets around and make all kinds of forts. It was a popular place at the museum.

It was fun meeting Ree today and the cookbook is beautiful. I told Ree I heard about her on the WTM boards and we had a brief exchange about the boards. We waited in line an hour and 15 minutes, but the event was super organized. The sponsors brought us snacks as we browsed the store and waited. Now my kids are saying I have to make something from the cookbook today. Sounds like a good plan to me. My husband will also like that plan. aggieamy, have fun tonight!

I'm actually going to the one at 11:00 at Will Wyatt's Cowboy Couture. It would have been fun to see someone from the boards at the event. This one is sold out so I'm hoping the lines aren't too long.

I'm going to Ree's book signing tomorrow, actually today (it's after midnight). I'm excited to get my cookbook. I've never been to an author signing event. It should be fun. Has anyone gone to any of her other book signing events?

Thank you for the link to the guide. I have it downloaded. Now to try it. :)

We completed OPG with my dd 8 in a little under 2 years, doing it year round. We finished it in Jan. or Feb. of first grade. We started FLL and WWE in first grade when she was about 75% done with OPG. She has been doing Explode the Code since K and she is working through book 7 now. She did SWO A and B in first grade. We switched to All About Spelling for second grade. IMHO, I think the overlap of phonics has strengthened her reading skills. I also personally think it is important to finish OPG even after a child is reading pretty well. My dd 8 loves reading and picked up the rules in OPG pretty quickly even though we struggled at times with the length of the lessons with "Two Review and One New". We are going it again with my ds 5 and struggling more with the length of the lessons. We sometimes do half a lesson, but usually not. We're just plugging along, using jelly beans and a little baseball game as external motivators.