I had an Avalon five or so years ago, and it was expensive to get work done on it even then. I can only imagine how much more expensive it would be now.

My daughter started needing deodorant at 5. I asked her pediatrician and he assured me that she was still within the realm of "normal." We use Tom's deodorant, mostly because I don't want to put an anti-antiperspirant on a kid that young. Some of the scents are kind of girly, but the unscented roll-on kind is nice. Edit: I first noticed it after she got really upset about something and got all sweaty from that. If she sweats, even right after a shower, it stinks. She doesn't want her friends to know she uses deodorant, but she's not embarrassed about it around family.

Congrats!! We moved in February of this year from Mississippi, and it was certainly a shock. I think we spent our entire first week here clothes shopping! I'm not terribly familiar with the Eastside, but I do know a nice little homeschool consignment store in Kirkland. http://hspbooks.com/ The owner is really nice and almost always has flyers and info about activities lying around.

I agree with the previous poster about benefits- wait and see what all they will offer before you get yourself too worked up. We started with Amazon this past winter, and they made everything incredibly easy for us. Amazon provided us with a relocation consultant who quickly became my favorite person in the world. Real estate moves very fast here, but she was able to find us 30 or so options in our desired area and price range. She arranged all the appointments with landlords, and we signed a lease less than 12 hours after their flight landed. Since I sent my husband and oldest daughter out for the house-finding trip while I kept my pregnant butt on the couch with the toddler, having her do all the research and give it to me was invaluable. As far as homeschooling resources, I second the suggestion of the Eastside PTSA. I went to an event they held a few weeks ago, and it had a surprisingly big turnout. Another group we've been involved with is the HEARTS homeschool group: http://www.meetup.com/HEARTS-Homeschool-Group/. They have stuff going on almost every day of the week.

That makes sense. She's pretty good with most doubles and decent with making 10 already.

My six year old (starting First soon-ish) is nearly done with Math Mammoth 1-A, and I'm trying to decide if we should move on to 1-B or practice addition and subtraction drills first. Oftentimes she has to use her fingers to get to the answer (though she can model problems with manipulatives or solve using a number line). She does have some immediately, like 4+4 and all the +/- 1s, but she doesn't know much else by heart. I'm leaning towards thinking that's still developmentally appropriate, but I'm wondering if not having the facts immediately there will hinder her. Do you think we should continue with MM 1-B and wait for memorization, work on both at the same time, or focus solely on memorization until she has it? Or something else entirely? Thanks!

My five year old daughter (birthday in Feb, so a young 5) and I have been working on phonics regularly since last August. She is very good at sounding out words with short vowel sounds and consonant blends. Consonant digraphs are still a bit shaky, but not too bad. I haven't introduced long vowel sounds yet. She is awful at blending, though. If I were to tell her to read "The frog rests on the desk," she would be able to, but she would sound out do it as "f-r. fr-o-g. frog," and so on. There is usually about a one-second pause between letter sounds. Her ability to remember what she has just read seems to be about five or six words, tops. Should I continue teaching new phonics skills or hold off until she is able to smoothly blend the sounds? (The difference between fr-o-g and fffrrroggg)? We were using OPGTR, but she absolutely hated it. We're now using Progressive Phonics which she enjoys, and I also have Phonics Pathways (which I got in the mail today). Any help or guidance you can offer is much appreciated!

I considered this, because her father can't even find his glasses if he's not wearing them, but she doesn't seem to have any other vision problems. I'll keep a watch out for it, though. I really like this idea. I have a few old issues of Family Circle with lots of pictures of cakes that would work perfectly!

I got my 4.5 year old daughter a few new 25 piece puzzles today. She eventually gave up, saying "They make puzzles because they want kids to be bored." She's pretty bright, but apparently not very good at spatial reasoning (DH can't do a puzzle to save his life, either). Even if I tell her a piece is an edge piece, she doesn't "get" that they edges have to go in a straight line, and when she finally gets a piece, it's either by luck or after exhausting all the other options. Any ideas on how to help her learn the critical thinking and spatial reasoning skills she needs to do them?

4.5. We started on the 13th of this month. We have about 45 minutes of "school" at the table after breakfast.

We live near what's practically a forest of Bradford Pears. DD calls them stink trees.

Yep. DD plays it on ours, but a few of the things are a little annoying to do on a touch screen (for example, when you have to click and drag things).

I had a very poor relationship with my mother when I was growing up (it is much better now that we haven't lived in the same house for seven years). She says her biggest regret raising me was treating me like I was a bad kid, when in fact, I was pretty awesome :tongue_smilie: (church kid, good grades, never home more than ten minutes after curfew, etc.) I highly suspect my mom has borderline personality disorder, so that was another issue. With my daughter, I make an effort to do the opposite of what I think my mom would have done. I'm fairly strict, but I'm not critical of DD. I don't allow things like running in the library, but she would never get in trouble for accidentally spilling paint on the kitchen floor. When she gets disciplined, I try to make it calm and matter-of-fact instead of yelling and getting overly emotional about it. She is always invited for a hug after I explain why she got in trouble. We do spank, but we haven't had to for at least a year, since she's old enough for time-outs now. Before that, I would ask myself if I was spanking her because I was mad, or because she genuinely needed one to correct her behavior. If it was because I was mad, she would get a hug instead. I make sure to give DD lots of hugs and snuggles, and tell her how proud I am of her every single day. I tell her she's a good girl quite often, and try to find positive traits I can compliment her on daily (pointing out when she has very good manners, etc.). If she's being bad, I make sure I tell her that she's *being* naughty, not that she *is* naughty. I do realize that I may be setting myself up for a self-entitled child with an over-inflated sense of self-worth, but it's a risk I'm willing to take.

Perk (Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College in Perkinston- just south of Wiggins) has a page specific to homeschoolers: http://www.mgccc.edu/admissions/home_school_students.php I don't know if they have a nursing program, but I know Hinds does (in Raymond- just outside of Jackson/Clinton). Hinds doesn't say anything specific to homeschoolers; it just says to send an official transcript. If in doubt, call PRCC tomorrow and see what their admissions counselor says. I just can't imagine it would be harder for a homeschooler to get into a community college than one of the most expensive private schools in the state.

From USM's web site: Applicants who have not graduated from a regionally accredited high school and were not home-schooled must submit qualifying scores on the General Education Development Test (GED) and any transcripts reflecting academic performance in high school. Home-schooled students must present portfolios summarizing his or her home-school education. Submission of ACT or SAT scores is strongly encouraged. Applicants may be required, at the discretion of the university, to appear for an on-campus interview. http://www.usm.edu/admissions/other-routes-admission MSU says: Home School applicants are required to meet the same requirements as other freshman applicants. Official ACT/SAT scores and transcripts (or portfolios) are required. http://www.admissions.msstate.edu/freshman/requirements.php From Mississippi College (MC)- For Homeschooled Students In additional to general admission requirements, the following items are required for homeschooled students: A self-reported transcript that demonstrates completion of a high school equivalent curriculum. A personal interview with a Mississippi College admissions representative Mississippi College reserves the right to require additional proof of academic achievement determined by the Director of Admissions. http://www.mc.edu/admissions/undergraduate/requirements/

I just started using this with my daughter (who turns four this month). She's done up to lesson five, but when I worked with her on those skills on a chalkboard, she wasn't too clear on the sight words. She kept wanting to say that "at" was "sat" and "am" was "sam." I'm having her redo those two lessons. She did, however, get "I" down well, and that was a letter we haven't gotten to yet. I can tell this won't be a magic bullet kind of thing, but I do really like it (especially with all the promo codes!).

I had never heard of this before, but it's awesome! I did the first lesson with my not-quite four year old, and she insisted on doing the second lesson by herself right after that!

I have this: http://www.amazon.com/Children-Just-Like-Me-Celebration/dp/0789402017/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1328331908&sr=8-1 that I'm planning on using. I've read through it- it looks really good.

Replace the oil with sour cream. It works wonders on boxed chocolate cake.

Dollar store. Believe it or not, they are among the most sensitive tests, and they're only a dollar.

I have all four SOTW in a box somewhere, along with the Usborne World History encyclopedia, Kingfisher world history, and then another one for high school. Granted, I got them all used or on clearance, but still. Don't even get me started on free PDF curricula. Oh, and my oldest turns four this month.

If you are 35 weeks pregnant and want to be induced because you're uncomfortable (but no medical reason), you're out of luck.

I would help with the immediate physical things right now- have the kids help her cart laundry up and down stairs (if applicable), take in and out the garbage cans, and stuff like that. If you or your husband is able, maybe offer to check her tire pressure an fluid levels in her car- typical "man of the house" kind of stuff. She's probably going to be too overwhelmed to even think about taking of that kind of thing. Depending on when she's due in April, she might be starting to nest already (I'm due April 4th and it's starting to hit pretty hard). Maybe see if she needs help putting the crib or swing together. See if she's having any sort of crazy nesting compulsions- like wood polishing every surface in the house- and just help her with that. If her family is really supportive, they probably have the emotional side covered pretty well. It might be helpful to her to have someone remind her that something fun and awesome is going to happen in a few months whether she's ready for it or not.

I know a woman who has had two abortions- the first was when she was 17 for the typical reasons (family disowning, disinterested father, etc.) This happened in the mid-seventies, I believe. The second was much more complicated. She had a young daughter and was going through a divorce when she got pregnant. At that time, in that state, she would not be able to divorce while pregnant. Her husband was extremely physically abusive, and the environment was not a safe place for her daughter. She had been having an affair, and was quite certain the baby was the other man's. If it had come out that she was pregnant with another man's child, it would be very likely that her husband would get custody of her oldest daughter. It is also very likely her husband would have caused great harm to both of them. She did what she felt was necessary to protect herself and her daughter. I know this woman still struggles with the guilt, some twenty seven years later. Fifteen years ago, she became a Christian, and though she knows God forgives her, she can't forgive herself.

I doubt most people think of divorce as "no big deal." I truly believe that for most people, it would be a heartbreaking decision only made after very careful consideration, especially if there are children involved. I don't understand is why it matters to others why a couple gets divorced. If you (general you, not anyone in particular) can accept divorce under some circumstance (adultery, for example), what practical difference to you does it make if my husband and I divorce because we don't like each other anymore? The outcome is the same if he cheated or not- we would still be getting a divorce. Or, would he have to actually cheat to make it acceptable for me to divorce him?