Have they done x-rays to see if she has the adult teeth for the baby teeth that didn't come in? I have no idea what to do if she doesn't have the teeth. I guess then you'd be lucky because the crowding wouldn't be so bad. My DD lost her teeth in Sept 2009 and they still aren't in but she does have them. The dentist says they are slowly moving. If she has teeth, you'll need to see the dentist to create a space for them. My son just had 4 teeth pulled last week. He has crowding issues and 2 of his adult teeth were coming in behind the baby teeth and not loosening the baby teeth. They pulled those 2 baby teeth and then the teeth next to them to make space for the new teeth to move into. He will see an orthodontist as soon as we move and get settled so they can put something in place to save a place for the adult teeth of the baby teeth they removed early and they'll put a palate expander in to create even more room. I would look into getting the kids dental care through the state. I have lots of friends on our state's program and they get just as good care as what we pay for.

Zantac would be my first choice. My kids have also been on zantac, prevacid, prilosec, nexium, and reglan. I have done reglan, for a very long time, because it was necessary. It will be the only one to actually reduce the volume of spit up significantly. Everything else just makes the spitting up more comfortable for the baby. If zantac doesn't work, and it was nowhere near strong enough for 2 of mine, I would start with prevacid, then go to prilosec, and then nexium. Which is what we did. My youngest was on zantac for only a few months from about 4weeks-3 months and it was fine. My middle ones were on reglan and prevacid for about a year from 6weeks (although they were born 7 weeks early- so really a newborn age) to 1 year, and then prevacid only until they were over 3, and now they are on nexium at 6, almost 7. Reglan is a life saver if you need it but I'd avoid it because of potential side effects if I could.

When you turn the wii on you can go to the shopping area and look for Just Dance 2 songs or while you are playing the game one of the menu options takes you to the store to download songs. You have to purchase credits/ nintendo points ahead of time at either someplace like Gamestop on a gift card or I think you can do it at the wii store but not if you enter the store through the game. There is one free downloadable song right now. It was Katy Perry when I downloaded it. You can do that straight from the game. My son's favorite is Kung Fu Fighting since he is into martial arts and the girls love the Barbie Girl song.

We have Just Dance 2 and my kids love it! I don't know if you can do it with Just Dance 1 but with 2 you can download more songs which is nice. My kids' favorite songs are downloaded ones. It's not free but it isn't super expensive and for how much they love it, it was worth it. It definitely gets the blood pumping but is easy and low impact.

I like the idea of MFW for my younger students next year. The younger girls will be in 2nd grade and I have a 4yr old who I'd like to have tagging along for whatever she can. I don't want to do it with my oldest who will be in 4th grade, however. He already has his groove and we want to continue with what's working for him. It would require too much tweaking to fold what he's doing into either of those programs to be worth it. It seems the advantage of MFW is that you can use it for all the children in your family. Would it be too time consuming to try to do MFW with 2 elementary age kids and then have another elementary age child doing something totally different?

This has Greek: Academy of Ancient Languages

My kids also got Forbidden Island for Christmas and love it. It's different in that it is a cooperative game and it's a nice change of pace. I have littles who cry if they lose so we got it for them but my oldest is the one who enjoys it most. Yours could play it together without help from parents.

There is very little drill and kill in it. You read it, and you are expected to retain it without going over it again and again. The bulk of the seatwork is contained in the practice books where, in the Island level at least, you only do 1 sentence a day. There are a few quizzes and reviews in the back of the other books but they are more like unit reviews and not for daily assignments. If you are used to typical grammar instruction, you might read the books and wonder where the actual lessons are.

I thought Simon's comments were sleezier. Steven's seem more for show and more of a character while it seemed real and gross with Simon. And Steven is much nicer. If he doesn't like it, he just says no instead of tearing the people apart.

A Wrinkle in Time? It has a strong female protagonist and is very science themed. I loved it as a kid and just had my 3rd grade son read it. He really liked it and he never likes the books I make him read. He's into Percy Jackson which may appeal to her too. My friend's DD is into the 39 Clues series. I read the whole Black Stallion series around 3-4th grade too as a kid and loved them! I would recommend those too. I have no idea what reading level they are. Or a little easier would be the Bobsey Twins and the old Trixie Belden series.

We don't officially snack and never have. I don't remember having snacks as a kid either. If someone asks for a snack and I have time, then they can have it but I don't usually offer anything or get anything for myself. We are so busy that we don't have time to think of snacking. DH irritates me when he randomly passes out snacks they haven't asked for because I wonder what the point is? I have blood sugar issues myself so I do understand a need to eat regularly but our meals are pretty evenly spaced and if someone wants to eat they can. I think we might have a snack once or twice a week. It will be more often on the weekends and other times when DH is home because he's a snacker and if the kids see food, then they want some.

:grouphug: I don't have any tips but I'm so sorry for what you are going through. My aunt and grandfather passed away from ALS and I know it is an incredibly difficult disease. :grouphug:

Are Right Start and Math U See similar to Shiller Math? I thought they were the same style of math. That's what we started with last summer since I already had it and it worked well for my oldest but these kids hated it. Really, really hated it.

Is there a math curriculum that works similarly to All About Spelling? I think something like that, which focuses on rules, repetition, and gradual progression would be helpful for my kids. I know all math must include rules and repetition, but I'm looking for something a little more explicit with something like the key cards in AAS. I've thought about making my own but I'd rather just buy something already made if possible.

My DH used to work in Punxsutawney and we lived very close to there, the pp was right- Punxsutawney will never cancel Groundhog Day for bad weather!!! They are nuts. I know it is carried live on tv in PA but it is really early in the morning. It will probably be on youtube sometime in the afternoon if you don't feel like getting up at dawn.

DH and I have been watching Merlin (BBC series) and just watched the first episode of Robin Hood (BBC as well) and have liked them. Of course there's always Buffy the Vampire Slayer. My DH likes Stargate, Stargate Atlantis, and Sanctuary.

My son is 9, 3rd grade, and using Apples Daily Spelling Drills for part of his spelling curriculum. I have AAS for my 1st graders but he finds it too babyish. The Apples one was written for older kids but I think the content is appropriate for 3rd grade, or anyone who is a strong reader. The only problem we've had regarding it being for older kids is that he doesn't always know all of the vocabulary words. It is a Christian book so it uses Bible verses in some of the examples. It's not super preachy but definitely a Christian book. There are no spelling lists or spelling tests, but rather it has the student practice spelling rules. The rule is introduced and then he spends a few days working with that rule and writing the rule out. I think my son has learned a ton from this and he retains it because of the repetition and it only takes about 10min of independent work!

I am stunned they would act like that. I would take my kids to the office, sit in the well child waiting room and demand to see the Dr. Surely the doctor remembers you if you have been patients. My first thought is that someone screwed up and doesn't want to let their boss, the doctor, find out about it. Eliminating you eliminates the evidence. Maybe I just have an unusually good relationship with my doctor, and with 4 kids I feel like I should have my own chair in the waiting room, but it would be laughable for them to suggest that we have never been patients. They know me and my kids by name on sight. On the other hand, if that isn't the case with your doctor, it sounds like it would be no big loss to move on to somebody else but I think you should definitely let the doctor know personally what his staff is saying and I agree with reporting it to the insurance company. We had a very bad experience with one of the junior doctors and sent a certified letter to the senior doctor to let him know about our experiences with his partner and why we were leaving.

We start almost every day by 9, I aim for 8 and sometimes it happens, but usually it is 8:30. I am not a morning person!!! I hate it. But my kids are morning people so if we go by what works for me, they are squirmy crabs by the afternoon. I make it work by letting them get up on their own while I sleep a little and drag myself out. Immediately after they wake up, they are supposed to get dressed, brush their teeth, take a shower if needed, clean their rooms, my son does his quiet time (Bible reading), and then they are supposed to go down and get breakfast. My oldest is 9 and the others are 6 and 3. The 3yr old usually sleeps in a little more and I usually get her up, dressed, and teeth brushed before sending her down to the others and they feed her. Sometimes if she wakes early I will go back to bed after getting her dressed. I leave their clothes and the breakfast foods and utensils out for them the night before. The 6yr olds don't do showers in the morning either- that and the Bible reading is just for the 9yr old. When they can take a shower competently on their own and can read well enough, I'll expect them to do the same as their brother. Amazingly, almost every day they have everything done by the time I drag myself down at 8:30. The 3yr old goes to preschool twice a week at 9, so I have to be up before then and it is easier to do it every day. I also lay out all their work the night before and while I drink my coffee, the kids do their yoga DVD and then begin their easiest subjects that they can do by themselves. I'm trying to get up earlier because I think the kids would rather start by 8 and be done earlier. They usually have about 30-40min after breakfast to play before I come down and put their Yoga DVD on.

My kids all get along extremely well. They are 9 (boy), 6 (girl), 6 (girl), and 3 (girl). We have 6yrs between my oldest and youngest and those two are really sweet together. I sometimes wonder if they get along so well because the middle children are twins. We don't really have any of that "middle child" syndrome here. Other times, I think it is because of my oldest's personality. He really seems to set the tone for the group and is a wonderful brother. He has always been gentle and attentive to his little sisters and when the littlest came along, they followed his lead. He has always loved and played well with younger kids and he says when he grows up, he wants 100 kids. I can't take credit for his personality- I don't think it is anything we have done or not done. One thing I have noticed is that they play a lot better when we don't let them watch tv or play video games during the day. They play together all day long and rarely fight. When the tvs come on and the video games come out, they tend to fight about who gets to pick what to watch or who gets to play. I also have a rule that nobody who wants to play gets left out. You can play by yourself if you want, in your room, but you can't team up with a brother or sister and not allow another sibling to join you. The newcomer can't dictate that everyone play something else or follow his or her rules, but the other kids also must be flexible and let the person who comes late to have some input. When they were younger and I would go to take a shower, I would sometimes set them up with some big floor puzzles and tell them if they could work together to finish them by the time I got back with no crying or fighting and everyone having a part then they would get a prize. I try to have them working as a team to do something at least sort of fun regularly and I have a chart that they work together on to earn a trip to Chuck E Cheese. It is sort of like a marble jar teachers at school have for compliments. Any time they are especially nice to each other, or so well behaved (as a group!) in public that someone compliments them, they will get a marble colored in. If anyone is being crazy, we won't get complimented, and they won't get a marble. You don't get marbles for minimally obeying- it must be beyond my expectations or well enough that someone else says something. They love earning marbles!! My kids also do have outside friends and don't only play with each other but I think they truly enjoy each other's company and want be together. I hope that their friendships grow and last forever. I would be so sad if they drifted apart. My brother and I fought all the time and while we occasionally got along, my DH talks to him now more than I do. He's only a year and a half older than me but, while I'd consider our relationship good and not strained, I have a hard time thinking of anything to talk with him about. I hope my kids will be closer than I am with my brother.

I am so relieved to see this post. I was going through the exact same pages in MM last week and I thought I would lose my mind. I told them that "More than" was code for "equal and then plus" and "fewer than" was code for "equal and then subtract." I think the word "fewer" tripped them up and they did better when I changed it to less than. We struggled on the word problems and I had them give both people an equal amount, whatever they felt like, and then they added circles or erased circles to get the more or less than. They did it better that way a few times. Then, in desperation I took them away from the paper and I gave them candy. I said, surely you know if I give your sister more than you how much you will need to make it equal. You know what isn't fair, and you know how to make it equal, and you know how to give somebody more. We passed out candy for a while until they saw that the math was no different than their whining to me at snack time that "she got 2 more bunny cookies than me and it isn't fair!" :lol: I am too much of a by the book type and it didn't even cross my mind to skip that section when they were not getting it at all. I am not convinced that they will be able to do them without help on Monday but they did do some by themselves on Thursday so I am optimistic. When we got to the page where they made you do it with subtraction, they did most of it with no assistance. I don't know why MM didn't just teach them to subtract it from the start instead of torturing us with those more than and fewer than addition word problems! At least now, if they still struggle on Mon., I'll know it is a common problem and I'll just skip it and come back later. I had no idea this could be a difficult concept.

These two were paradigm changers for me and are the only 2 books that I have ever re-read regularly. Whenever I get in a parenting funk I pull them out, re-read them, and I feel empowered and reinvigorated. Families Where Grace is In Place by Jeff VanVonderen Biblical Parenting by Crystal Lutton.

The blueberry is my favorite! I was really surprised that I liked it but I'm about to spend way too much to buy some more since I haven't been able to find it cheap outside of the sample pack.

I think there are advantages to having them share. I would have girls' room, boys' room, and little kids' room, and have another generic room for whatever right now. As the little kids get older, you can move them into the big kids' room of their gender and possibly move the oldest of each gender into their own room at that point if you and they want to. My twins share a room and love it. They want their little sister (3yo) to move in with them but right now I think she is too young. At some point, I'll entertain the idea if they still want to. My son, the only boy, has his own room and is profoundly jealous of his sisters being able to share a room. I think sharing a room builds relationships. You can't just isolate yourself in your room if you are upset with someone and you are forced to cooperate and share. It may also be useful as they get older in preventing any sneaky behavior because they are more likely to get caught. If they share a room, then you'd potentially have some open space to create a play room, a study, library, exercise, or other kind of room for everyone to enjoy.

When I was at Bed, Bath, and Beyond last week I heard they would order k-cups for you with free shipping to your house if they were out of stock of something they carried. I just overheard them telling that to multiple shoppers who wanted k-cups so I didn't get into how it worked but I plan on asking the next time I need some. When I ordered k-cups online from BB&B in Dec I paid shipping so maybe you have to order it from the customer service desk at the store or they have changed their policy. I think they have a pretty good selection.