prayer and fasting :lol:

Only have read the ReadAloud HB (which was given to me as a baby gift BTW). Best advice I took out of it was purchasing the www.tvallowance.com as the TV time was getting out of control (which is the greatest risk to raising a reader).

I would have called myself somewhat computer saavy before this. But, I know it's going to be awesome once I get the FULL hang of it.

I bought HST recently and I'm not learning it as fast as I thought so I thought about buying the user's manual. What'd you think of the user's manual? worth it? useless? your thoughts/guidance please.

self-bump

In my state, if you opt to homeschool you are given a check from the state for $2000 annually per child you homeschool and are allowed a tax deduction of $4000 dollars since you are not using the public schools.... (ok....so the above isn't at all true....but it sounded REALLY good, eh?). Seriously......I teach a night class at a local college and use this money for homeschooling stuff.

An acquaintance of mine mentioned using the book Reading Reflex to teach her son to read; (her son was 4). What is it? How's it different from OPGTR? Success? Recommend it? Thoughts?

thanks!!!

this will help. thanks.

Does this exist? I'm looking for a series of readers that introduces vocabulary as kid progresses, which would introduce a few NEW words, and have many of the words the child JUST learned in the previous book. Any ideas? (I already have Bobs books and this isn't what I'm seeking). Thanks.

I've bought my son two pair of KEEN sandals and they are by far his favorites. (got both in practically new condition from a Goodwill!).

Well......I would agree to have fun and see what happens, but the issue with that is that by NOT specifically aiming for a girl, we would TEND to have a boy. Girls (per Shettles) are harder to conceive. We had s_x four days before my egg and still had a boy, so the odds are seemingly stacked in the boy camp. My husband is one of four boys and all of his siblings (except one who isn't married/has no kids) have boys (my son has 7 boy first cousins on paternal side). So, odds are MALE in our case, especially given my fertility signs and my hubby's health status (per Shettles). So.....if I want to go for a girl, I will have to try hard and have s_x 5 days pre-egg. That's why I asked the question also ----- if I just have fun and go with it, I feel that by default that in and of itself is shettling for a boy. As for having a girl to do girly things with, I'm concerned I'm too boyish myself to be a good girl mom. I have ZERO sense of style, I wear no make-up, I don't decorate, I loathe shopping, I shave my legs once a week to not hurt my hubby.....I just fear being a bad girly mom and her showing up to functions and being as unstylish as her mom and taking heat for it. But at the same time, I love the relationship I have with my own mom and sisters and long for that type of comraderie. Also, I feel that given the age gap, a girl will be more mature, my son (being male) slower to mature and that they'll meet in the middle more with things in common. Then I wonder given the opposite genders if they'll have nothing in common as he won't care a lick about playing dolls, etc. But....around here she'll have to be a country girl, so they can do those things together. Then I think with a boy, that he'll get into the habit and babying him and bossing him and that the younger will grow up to be a henpecked, indecisive kid. But, when I try to imagine a 10 year old boy playing with a 5 year old boy....I just can't envision it either (I never had a brother; I'm one of three girls). Thus my asking for your "visions" of how the combos may look. A few of you asked what my son was like....so I'll try to answer: My son is a social kid. Loves talking to kids of all ages and perfect strangers. We'll be in Walmart and he'll initiate conversations with adults we pass, "Hi. My name is ___; how are you?" He's very sensitive. Very cautious. Not a juggernaut kid. Type A. Tends towards perfectionism/detail-oriented. Likes science projects. Jovial. Cuddly. Hates being/playing alone. Loves being outside. Is neutral about sports (at this age). Slow to warm up to new ideas. An overall sweetie. Not mean to others. Plays well with others.

Picking up from my last week's thread.... I won't be disappointed with either gender as I have no leanings one way or the other -- thus my posing the question. But, I would like the kids to interact well together and I wanted to hear from you all as to how your various combos work and whether more of you had more positive things to say about the older boy, youngest girl combination than did the older boy younger girl combo or vice versa. Thanks for the input! Any more input's welcome as well.

Ooooppss.... posted this thread twice. Please see other one.

Ok. I'm tired of debating this, so can you all please offer some input/thoughts to help steer me here. Here's the deal: My son (my only child thus far) turned four on July 26th, so he's almost 4.5 years. We're going to try to "target" my Dec 29th egg in hopes of conceiving. And, if we're successful, we'd be due in September. If you've heard of the SHETTLES METHOD, you know that it's a scientific way of TRYING to choose the gender of a child. Last I heard, it supposedly had like an 85% "success" rate. I know several ladies who swear by it. So, given that my son and this (potential) child will be 5 years and 2 months apart, should we "shettle" for a girl or boy? FWIW, we plan to homeschool K-12. Any thoughts?