What an amazing gift! She will always remember this Christmas. I have my grandparents' old dressers purchased in the '40s. I commented to my mom about how nice and solid they are and that the set must have been expensive. She said her parents never had much money--furniture was just made better back then. You have a desk that is far superior to what you can purchase today. Nice job!

Whoever decided that decorating sugar cookies is best done with small children? I think the self-control involved is more suited to the over-10 crowd. Or teenagers. Two other cookie ideas that DO work with younger kids: peanut butter blossoms and the Andes mint cookies. My kids are a big help unwrapping the Hershey's kisses while the peanut butter blossoms are in the oven and they manage to get the kisses planted in the center of the cookies without burning themselves when the cookies come out of the oven. And they love it. Similarly with the Andes mint cookies, they unwrap the mints and break them in half, then get the mint halves on top of the cookies when they come out of the oven. They love spreading that chocolate minty-ness around with a knife as the mint melts. And both activities are actually a big help to me. For sugar cookies this year, they helped after the frosting was on by putting the little sprinkle decorations on. With a tasteful, light touch. That was it.

What a wonderful update! Praise the Lord! Will continue to pray for complete healing. This is so encouraging--Merry Christmas!

Is this your 8 year old? It's pretty impressive that he is working with all of this so young! I would also encourage a good understanding of fractions because they are a better way to understand some concepts like rates or slopes of lines. A slope of 5/4 is actually more meaningful than a slope of 1.25. On graph paper you demonstrate it by moving up 5 and to the right 4 from one point on the line to the next. It has a physical meaning. I might also try to convince him that working with the fractions is a more elegant way to solve equations than converting to decimals. And if he is using a calculator, I would just take it away for a few more years. If you have facility with fractions and no calculator to use, it should be the easier way to solve the problem. Sounds like he doesn't necessarily want the easier way, but then I would appeal to the mathematician within that is clearly there and push the idea of elegance. Mathematicians like the beautiful, elegant solution and 1.33333333333 isn't elegant!

Ooh! I can answer this question! I have kept track of all grocery spending by month for 2010. This includes groceries, paper products, farmer's market or u-pick or fruit/veggie stands, pet food, toiletries, and diapers for my disabled child. Our 3 kids are relatively small eaters and I think food is probably on the cheaper end here. I started the year thinking I could do $650/month, but it's looking more like $675/month. Some months are more expensive than others. I had a high (July) of $1030 and a low (August) of $427. I do a Costco run every 6 weeks, so months with a Costco run are always higher than those without. I do some fruit picking and freezing in July that explains a little of why it was so high. I think that's also when I turned some shelves in the garage into a food storage area and started stocking up. Like others, we don't do junk food or soda. Probably half the year we go out once or twice a month (something cheap like pizza usually) and during our busier months we might go out once a week. Dh takes leftovers for lunch probably 2 or 3 days/week.

We do both. There are books that my 10 yo has read over and over again--dozens of times. In fact, there are very few books that she reads only once. I like having a good home library where she can go on whatever little bunny trails she desires. She'll pull down books we've read in previous years for science or history just to go through them again. As we begin to do more academic writing, she knows just where to find the information she needs for the writing assignments I give her. Last week she did a comparison/contrast paragraph on Laura Ingalls and Caddie Woodlawn. She just pulled the books off the shelf to refresh her memory a bit. We don't watch t.v. or play video games, so I consider it pretty important to have a good selection of favorite books that are always available. I think that the constant re-reading is a fantastic way to learn. We use Biblioplan which is a lot like Sonlight in that it schedules a lot of books. I could not stay within our home school budget if I bought every single book. I buy all of the family read aloud books which are great books that take several weeks to get through. The books that the girls are supposed to read on their own I will typically get from the library if they are available. Any "great" book that is used in multiple curricula (like Biblioplan, Sonlight, and VP) I tend to buy. I think a lot of good learning also comes from going through this week's or this month's pile of library books, but it's different from owning the book and being able to go back to it time and again.

I originally scheduled through the end of this week, but this week is pretty light. We're far enough along in many subjects to take off this week. We're going to finish the first semester math books this week and get to a good stopping point in history--that will be our main emphasis this week. We might finish by Wednesday. We'll start up again after New Year's. I really could have used last week off--I'm far busier in early December than closer to Christmas (have to mail packages early, etc.).

Give the gift of time. Dec. 22 sounds like a lovely time to get out alone on a date. Doesn't have to be an expensive restaurant--just time to get away on your own and focus on your dh.

I too think of a reader as more than just decoding CVC words. My girls were both 6 when I began to see them as readers. At that point we had finished Phonics Pathways and they could read anything that they wanted to. My youngest was rather dramatic--she went from Nate the Great books to Sea of Monsters (2nd in the Percy Jackson series). We had listened to The Lightning Thief on a car trip and she got so hooked that she plunged into Sea of Monsters on her own. My girls were not unusually early at starting to read but they did progress quickly once they had the basics down.

I'm an introvert. I tell my introvert daughter that bubby outgoing extroverts make good friends for us. They do all of the "hard" work of keeping the conversation going. The one thing that would be uncomfortable would be to have too much attention focused on me. I don't want anyone trying to "fix" me or work hard to pull words out of me. The babysitter should just babble on, talk about things interesting to her or what's going on in the world or interact with the more outgoing dd. If she's like me at all, your introvert dd will enjoy being around the conversation without being the subject of it. She can then join in as she feels comfortable.

Happy Birthday! You are an inspiration to so many of us.

We're trying them as a group exercise. We're in chapter two now and just hit the challenge on pgs. 56-57 to write 4 stanzas in 4 different meters, etc. Yesterday we did iambic pentameter. We wrote it out on a small whiteboard which made it easy to change words as needed. My girls would suggest part of a phrase and it was often not iambic, so we played around with it to make it iambic. I think it's a good way to play around with the concepts and internalize them a bit. Today we'll try trochaic tetrameter. I don't think I will assign poetry writing as an individual exercise yet, but if they want to try it on their own that's great.

When we started LfC A two years ago, Latin took the place of history as my kids' favorite subject. They really enjoyed the DVD. They liked watching the kids chant Latin. I'm not sure how much attention they pay to the whiteboard lesson, but I am learning alongside them and it helps me quite a bit. But the best part for my kids are the silly extras at the end of the lesson. I think every other week is the continuing saga of How the West Was Unus, and the off weeks would be getting to know the chanting kids better. My kids do not watch t.v. or play video games, so they are probably more easily entertained than some kids, but the DVD made this course great fun for them. As far as learning from the black and white text, that just isn't even an issue for us. The text is logical, the skills sequential--it's a format that works well for us. I do not turn dd loose with the text--Latin is something we do together sitting on the sofa. In fact I am usually the scribe and most of the writing in the book is mine as I ask dd the questions and write down her answers. It is working well here. Dd has excellent retention and can help me on the things I can't quite remember as I help her understand some of the things she can't quite recall. We are very happy with LfC.

We enjoyed the challenge in FLL 2. I think that list was about 42 prepositions. And you know what? It *is* helpful to have that in our brain for a quick reference as we encounter prepositions again in our grammar studies. I am looking forward to doing them again with my youngest in the coming weeks. Can you get by without memorizing them? Sure. We never memorized such things when I was a kid. But having done it both ways, I think the best thing for my kids is to make an attempt at memorizing them, which they think is fun.

The nuts are great--cashews would be a lovely addition. I regularly get dh the dark chocolate bars (3 pack). Right now they have some boxed bars, I think 5, where each is 100 calories. Dh is getting those for Xmas. The Pita bite crackers are wonderful. I would think that would be good for the next generation up. I like the Spicy Black Bean dip and the organic tortilla chips.

Thanks for the update. From a selfish perspective, it's useful to me as I continually try to figure out my non-verbal dd with intractable seizures. I know that she has sleep issues and your posts are encouraging me to get her to a sleep specialist (after the holidays!). As you said, sleep affects so many other things. Hope you find a treatment or path that helps your dd.

My youngest was born a few days after Christmas. We still decorated that year, and when she hadn't arrived by Christmas we knew it would be any day. All of the decorations came down the 26th. It was just easier for me to have it all put away and know I wouldn't need to face it later. I would also recommend a good grocery trip to make sure you are well-stocked on everything. Check basic supplies like toilet paper and laundry detergent. Freezer meals would be great. Better yet, if you have friends or church family who can bring meals for a few nights, that might really help out. Hit the library before surgery. Return anything that's out and load up on some books or dvds that you would enjoy.

I usually put together lasagna the day before and just pop it in the oven. I do not want to be in the kitchen on Christmas day. Not sure what we'll do for Christmas Eve. We've been known to do KFC with some sides. The girls think that's a special treat. I'm tempted to do prime rib and yorkies (yorkshire pudding) which was the special dinner when I was a kid, but I'm afraid I would be the only one to eat it.

We chose LfC over LL. I have no familiarity with GSWL, but I can share a few things that tipped the decision for me. I would definitely print out samples of both and try to picture using them. Factors for us: 1) I like having a book and a dvd. I don't want to print anything myself. I do not want to find audio files on my computer. 2) LfC was described as more vocabulary, less writing. This fits my dd with an excellent memory (but slightly pencil-phobic) very well. 3) LfC focuses on Latin. No added culture or history lessons. Some folks would prefer a course with this info, but after doing some Prima Latina and Minimus, I really wanted to dive into the grammar and finally see the big picture. We cover the other stuff in history. 4) From the printed sample, I could see that LfC fit how my brain works. My dd learns a lot like I do, so picking what was easier for me has worked well for us. 5) My dds love the dvds. And since I'm learning alongside of them, it really helps me to see a Latin teacher explain the material. (Incidentally, that's not the part my dds like. They like watching the kids chant and they love the silly continuing stories at the end of the lessons in LfC A and B.)

We're in our 3rd year of R&S grammar. My dd can do many of the lessons independently, especially topics that we covered in R&S in previous years. We do lessons on new topics together and we go over the lessons that have to do with writing together. I think our first year we usually did it together. Now I have a good feel for what dd already knows and I can look at a lesson and see if she can handle it on her own or if we should do it together. It is not cumbersome for us--most days are 10-15 minutes. I assign a subset of the problems or we go through them orally when appropriate.

We did RSO Life last year with a 1st grader and a 4th grader. It was too light for the 4th grader. My impression was that it would be ideal for 2nd grade. My first grader did fine with it but got a little tired of writing--that's why I thought a 2nd grader would be the ideal age for it. It would not be my first choice for a 5th grader, but if you have not done any science before and just want something easy that will get done, it might work for you.

We're doing plates of cookies--pretty Christmas or winter holiday plate (haven't bought them yet) in a medium size that fits in a ziploc bag. And we're using the ziploc holiday bags. There are so many cookie recipes that I want to make this time of year, but I don't want our family eating 24 dozen cookies! So we'll give most of them away but have a dozen or so of each variety for us. Sugar cookies, the Hershey's kiss cookies, chocolate mint cookies, etc.

Okay, someone post a spiced nuts recipe please! We bought some in Williamsburg and I would love to learn how to make them. The ones I bought were "Wingnuts"--spicy peanuts that are supposed to be like buffalo wings.

I scrapbook, and each child has their own scrapbook with the story of their lives. Actually they're all in volume 2 now. On their birthday we get down their scrapbooks and read the whole thing. We all like that. They also choose a restaurant for dinner and pick their dessert. More often than not it is a homemade chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream. Sometimes it is a Baskin Robbins cake. Dh prefers pie. For my birthday I usually choose a restaurant with great desserts.

Alison--I would just start at lesson 1 with the new materials. No need to try to do what has already been changed up quite a bit. I will look it over this weekend. At a quick glance, I'm excited about what *I* am going to learn from the topoi stuff. I'm guessing we will start at the beginning, but not repeat things we have already done. We will start on Monday, maybe by first a quick review of what we did with lesson 1 last time, then try the topoi stuff (days 3 & 4). I need to print it out and read it carefully--I'm one of those old-school, need it on paper kind of people.