to make them go naked on the bottom. I put a longer shirt on them and tell them they can have their pants when they go in the potty. I also have given chocolate for it. Usually they will not do #2 on the floor. Keep up the patience, you'll be over this hump soon. Just as I was typing this, my 3yo (today) came to me and said he needed to poo pee. Last week, when we started undies, I wouldn't have imagined it.

We have not covered ratios yet but I tried doing it this way earlier just to solve it myself and I could not get it straight in my head. I like your solution. My dh called with another solution from work and he basically turned it an algebra equation. He is not really into the modeling approach no matter how much I try to explain it to him. Thanks

Your model works except that 480*2= 960 not 760. Using these numbers you get the correct answer which is 480. Thanks so much. Now I get to explain it to 9yo.

This is in the level 4 book. I think I can do it algebraically ,but I need the modeling approach. Here it is ... There are three times as many ducks as sheep on a farm. All the ducks and sheep have 2400 feet altogether. How many more ducks than sheep are there? I sure the answer is right in front of me but my model isn't working.

Right now our van is half buried in snow and it will be a bear to get going. Between dh working a ton and everyone being sick, we have not been anywhere for a long time. Come spring, little league and soccer will have us out a lot plus we will go more places in general but for now its easier to hibernate. That said, I do sometimes worry about my boys needing to be around more than just their brothers most of the time. BTW, I am an introvert and my home schooled dh is just the opposite. He would be thrilled to have people over every night or go places but as much as I like getting together with others, I feel drained when its over. I need to go out by myself to feel normal again. I am looking forward to the warmer weather but not the HAVING to be out all the time.

I have been going around in circles over what I want to do for math next as my oldest is also finishing up RS E. Originally, I thought I would use CLE which seems to be straight up, fairly independent math, most of which would be stuff he already touched on but needs to do more of. I am also still seriously considering Singapore because it seems more to be applied math and not just pages and pages of laid out plug and chug problems. I have also looked at BJU several times but the materials just seem distracting and more classroom orientated. I also have not totally ruled out doing the RS Geometry because my oldest really liked the drawing portion of the earlier levels. I have not done any fraction or decimal supplementing but I have been using Challenging Word Problems from Singapore Math. These have been great and were what turned me back to considering their math. (We used Sing math very early on but switched to RS). So, I'm not much help. Let us know what you decide.

Blossom is delivering flowers today..He loves it. We have a friend who owns a flower shop and ever year she asks him to do V-Day deliveries. He probably won't get home till 6:00 or 7:00 but I always get some of her garbage - a big bouquet of flowers, usually roses. DH knows I am not a "buy me flowers" gal but they are nice. Even better is wine and chocolate.:) I am planning on fixing some steak for us.

We live in NY and get Media Power Plus for free through the local school but I have found I really don't like watching stuff on my old computer and we cannot burn dvd's. I have found that most videos I want to watch are available through Netflix. Not only do we get educational videos but we can also get stuff just for fun. We are currently watching a History Channel video about Teddy Roosevelt and it has been so nice to be able get it quickly and not have to return it till we are done.

My guys just watched "The Newsies" which is a musical but the cast is almost all boys. It is based on the true story of the newspaper boys strike in the early 1900's. We watched it for school because we are studying that period right now. We don't watch a whole lot of new movies but they did like "Cars".

I have two boys in RS. The oldest is in Lev. E and just completed CWP 3 and is starting 4. I started him in book 3 this year. My younger is in 2nd grade doing RS C. I started right in CWP 2 and he grasps the concepts fine but unfortunately we ran into problems with him needing to do subtraction with trading and he had not learned it yet. It would probably be a better experience starting with CWP 1.. I also recommend the book " The Essential Guide to Primary Maths", I got mine from Rainbow Resources. This book is pretty mathy but it gives the big picture to the word problems and how they are solved.

I heat up my stones in the oven (like 500 deg). I make the pizza on thin pans with the holes all over them. I put these on the stones. Sometimes, I pull the stones out with the pizza after the top starts to brown. I put them both on a cooling rack and the hot stone helps get the crust good and crispy.

the Glass Museum is great. Did you know you get a big discount if your local? We've done this and wandered the Rockefeller museum all for just the cost of the parent passes. Very family friendly. Nice to meet another local.

Next year, my oldest will have to do something else because he is in the last primary level.

My boys were in 1st and 3rd grade. Our library had in on cd so we listened to it together at bedtime each night even on weekends. I'm glad I didn't have to read it - it's quite long but we all liked it.

Ball Rollers. I'm not talking about the ones you buy but the ones you create. We make them out of anything that will hold a golf ball (usually outside) or marble (inside). My boys use blocks, books, old tubes, kitchen items, or even their toys to make neat ball rollers. We also own a store bought ball roller but they have a harder time with that even though it is neat. Here's something we like to watch although much more complicated http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bdk5m5IT8NY&feature=related

I want to restart my history rotation when my oldest is in 6th and my 3rd ds is in 1st grade. I decided next year when I will have a 5th, 3rd, and K'er, we will do a world geography / cultures study. I will be using Trail Guide to World Geography and the student pages as my foundation and will add books to that as I see fit. I am in the planning stages now. It is very easy to get book lists for country studies and I am actually enjoying picking what I want us to read from what is available instead of spending all my time and money doing someone else's choices. I bought the Trail Guide Package special at Christmas when they had them disconted even more. The student cd seems important to making this work. HTH Michelle

I have been reading the WTM board since 2003 and never made it first to a new board. Now I see I was 1 of the 1st 15 to register and get a book. YooHOO!