:)

Has anyone heard of or has any experience with Aloha Math. Just came across this article http://www.aloha-usa.com/acms/MasterPages/..%5CCenters%5CANDOVER/News/Aloha%20Andover%20INDIA%20New%20England%20Article.pdf and it seems to be geared towards kids 5-12 and stresses on mental math. Do let me know what you guys think of it. Thanks Mariam

We are starting K. DD is turning 6 end of Dec. We've started K just after Labor day and so far so good. :)

:grouphug::grouphug:

Between 9-10 pm. :(

:iagree:

I was a morning person until I married my husband who is an insomniac and can't sleep. So now even if I go to bed early I don't get a proper nights sleep because I hear him coming in and out and then nursing the baby and so its hard for me to wake up early. Everyday I go to sleep thinking i'm going to wake up early but am unable to and then start off my day irritated with myself. :(

:lol: :iagree:

My daughter who is 2 now was also very non-verbal at 18 mos. She would sign everything and knew the vocab words and same like your daughter would let us know what she wanted but just didnt say anything. Well she would say mama, and think papa, and nana but otherwise all her communication was through sign language (her own :) Now she is two and she's stopped the signing and has started making broken up sentences and I would say is on track now for what is considered average. So I would say she should be ok. :)

:iagree: I love CA <3 <3 I'm from there and wish could relocate there....

:iagree:

:iagree: same here :lol:

:grouphug: I have one friend and she is very busy as she has more kids of all age ranges (baby to college) and I am always afraid that shes going to decide one day that she doesnt have the time to hang out with me. :sad:

I am hoping she is oblivious of this action. She is bully by nature though, but im assuming that because she is the oldest and has younger siblings that are boys so she needs to be to deal with them. My girls have often complained of her being mean to them, and I did gradually try to lessen contact with the family but since we have very few options of socializing, we did go to this once a month meet for all girls and moms to do crafts and hang out together. That meeting idea also has probably fizzled out and wont happen next school year, so i'm hoping even more to join a coop or something so my kids meet other kids their age and dont just feel sad that their older nicer friends didnt play with them because they found other friends. They need to learn that its ok for their friends to play with others and hopefully will learn that maybe all ages can play together i.e. if the older girls allow them to, and if not possible then they need to not take it to heart and not be waiting on the sidelines for their friends to be free to now play with them . :( You know this is the hardest part of parenting for me! Protecting your child from hurting, how do you do that? because you cant always be successful. I think thats what happened this past weekend is when their older friends found other friends then my girls played with the 9 year old and then got burned. :/

Well this 9 year old kid, (used to be my neighbor) always somehow manages to say mean things to my kids. Since they've moved we don't interact much but even when we do (once a month or recent once in three months) she initially plays nice with my kids (6 and 5) but then somehow manages to say something mean or bully them somehow every single time. Well the most recent incident is when as we were leaving she asked my girls if they knew who she likes most and my 6 year old answers her 5 yr old sister and the 9 yr old says yes and I look at my 6 year old and her face just got so small :sad: but then thankfully her mother overheard and for once stepped in and said something in her language (they speak a language I do no understand) and then the 9 yr old says "oh ok I like both of you" SO my concern is what should I do. A part of me thinks that my kids will eventually toughen up and learn how to deal with the world and not let the world walk all over them, but part of me (the part thats scared they might turn out like me which is passive aggressive) needs to know if there is something I can do to not let these things affect them. My girls don't have a lot of friends and the ones that they do are tweens who obviously want to hang out with their age group. So the basic scenario of our social life is that we "need" our friends but our friends don't really "need" us. Am I getting too confusing? My main concern is to just raise strong personalities that dont need validation from others to feel good about themselves. I tend to need that most times so I dont want my girls to turn out like me. If someone wasn't nice to me i'd take it politely but then of course it angers me but I internalize it and spend days or even weeks affected by it. Which I know is ridiculous but thats how I am , sometimes. Anyway , so any advice from you mothers out there? I am trying so hard to socialize and try to join homeschool groups and go on field trips with them so my girls can find a few "friends" but it is very hard.... we just end up making acquaintances not "friends". How do you make friends anymore? It just seemed so easy when I was in college myself but now I sometimes feel I may be lacking some serious social skills to be in this position. We've joined this homeschool group and their activities are sometimes a 45 min ride or even and hour ride away from where we live but I try to make it with my 7 mos old and my two yr old just so my 5 and 6 yr old can be around kids and somehow click but when we get to these trips most times we don't even get a smile from a few of the parents. There is just the moderators of the group who seem nice so I continue to go to these trips with them hoping that eventually people will warm up to us and let us "in". So again am I trying too hard to provide a social life for my kids? Am I doing something wrong? Thanks in advance for reading this long post and replying! :)