I don't have any three-year-olds right this minute, but the two- and five-year-old boys in my house loved this; it was at least as big a hit as the dancing fox.

My kids really enjoyed Boy of the Painted Cave. We did not get around to the sequel last time around, though.

Last year the sale ran around mid-January. I found out about it here and am anxiously waiting for it again so I can get the next year's program. We're really liking the chemistry this year for third and sixth grade. I'd rank it around a fourth to fifth grade level. It's very easy for my sixth grader but is giving her the information. The review sheets are harder for my third grader, but I think that is largely because I read it out loud to them, and he is not an auditory learner; I think his mind wanders. (In contrast, he quotes SOTW and the Usborne Encyclopedia to me after he reads them to himself for history. I have offered to let him read Mr. Q himself, but he wants to do it out loud. We find it helps if we go over the vocabulary words for several days, but maybe I'll write down the words and have him listen for them for the next chapter.) It would make great rabbit trails if you want to extend any of the topics. But most importantly, science is getting done, and everyone likes it. The experiments are fun, and even the littles can enjoy them -- after all, who doesn't like making molecules out of gumdrops and setting things on fire, LOL? :)

Parenthood. And The Office and Parks and Rec. Community and Raising Hope if you like more than a little offbeat. I'm glad for this thread; I need some shows to fill in when I'm folding laundry/nursing the baby/knitting, or I get bored.

New pajamas, if you know their tastes pretty well. I also love when my MIL gets me something that's a step up from what I would buy myself -- like slightly upscale socks or nice shirts because I will buy the cheapest stuff for myself. MIL keeps me supplied with shoes; about every two years, she buys me a new pair of the same style shoe I've been wearing for a decade, and while it's not much of a surprise, I really appreciate having them. For a while, she also picked out a new pair of earrings for me every Christmas, again, nicer than I would buy for myself. (She probably still would buy them, but I tend not to wear earrings often anymore.) If they're fairly young, perhaps there is something they would really like to have in their kitchen (or the rest of the house too) but won't splurge on for themselves -- nice plates, a good cast iron skillet, specialty dessert pan, small appliance. . . Or something for a hobby that they wouldn't buy themselves.

I completely understand and am exactly the same way. Thankfully, I have been blessed with children who are not prone to gagging or carsickness, and we have only had a few stomach viruses, thankfully mostly mildly. DH turns over all dirty diapers to me if at all possible (he has only ever changed a couple of them despite five children), and in return, he handles all vomiting. It is a completely equitable trade, IMO, even if I had had to change a dirty diaper every day. I would barely have made it out of the pool area myself. I hope your son does not get sick!

And oh, yes, there is always a pile of stuff that I need to check. I have been pleasantly surprised that SWB gives such good directions in WWS that I don't generally have to do a lot of correcting to DD's writing, but I still need to check it. And check the math problems and everything. It is very easy to get behind on that, but when I just don't have time to sit with them as they do the work, I have to check papers. I end up doing that a couple of times a week while nursing the baby to sleep or watching TV. :)

It IS going to busy, and YOU are going to be busy, but I am trying to prioritize where I need to work with them and where they can work independently. We have just started using History Odyssey, and honestly, I really love it. It is all written out for me, which means it is all written out for them. All I had to do was to go through the lessons and draw lines to show them what I expect them to do in a day. For instance, my third grader was able to look at his history list for today; he is directed to read a chapter of Story of the World, do a map page (I may need to help him with that a bit), and write two things he learned. The downside to them working independently on history is that I am not learning alongside them, but the upside is that while reducing my timeload a bit, the two big kids are discussing what they're learning with each other (same topics, different levels). We use Saxon math for my sixth grader and Singapore/Miquon for my third grader. Saxon and Singapore can both be self-taught, and I often hand them the books and let them see if they can figure the topic out or not. Often they can. (I should say that third grader is in Singapore 3A, and it is largely multiplication; he knows the concept just fine and is working on learning the tables, so the work doesn't require much input from the teacher. As well, DD is in Saxon Algebra 1/2, and as of 24 lessons, she really has only seen one new concept; the rest is review. There HAVE been times when I have needed to teach them directly a bit more.) I do Latin with each of the big kids, but alternating days. On the days that they don't do Latin with me, they do a different language independently via Mango. Currently, science is a very hands-on subject; I read out loud to them and run the experiments, and the kids do the review sheets on their own, with help from me as needed. WWE3 is a mom-intensive subject for my third grader, but it doesn't take too long. DD can generally do WWS on her own with just a bit of help occasionally. I do spend a fair amount of time doing geography, picture study, art, Shakespeare, and religious biography with the whole group (even the toddler and preschooler -- they LOVE picture study), but only one of those a day. I use workboxes -- six per older kid, plus a couple for group subjects -- so every morning, they know to do whatever of their boxes they can. Usually that's at least four subjects that don't require any input from me unless they get stuck. In return for having set the boxes up the night before, I have some time to attend to small boys or to spend with my preschooler before I do the subjects I need to do with the big kids. Science and art/etc. are often after a lunch break. The biggest thing I have worked on in the past year with my older kids is: do the next thing that you can do; if you get stuck, go on to something else until Mom has a chance to help you.

In the younger grades, we did a few projects that were particularly applicable to the subject, and I occasionally had the kids write a short summary and draw a picture. We also did maps -- my kids loved doing mapwork. If I needed more output for history, I might have them write a couple of sentences about a documentary or even a field trip. (Actually, I think I included DD's paragraph about a historic field trip in the writing section of her portfolio. I also include brochures from places we visit.) Not a lot of output compared to the time we actually spent reading and discussing. I did have DD do a project last spring -- a travel brochure on the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, to work on the skills of using the computer, taking notes, and doing bibliographies. Since DD is in sixth grade this year, and I feel that she needs a bit more, she is working through History Odyssey and learning to do outlines, summaries, and timelines, plus there is mapwork. DS1, grade three, is doing mapwork and about once a week or so, he writes two things he has learned in the recent reading. I think this is very reasonable, and I really like that it jives well with our writing curriculum (WWE/WWS) by getting them focused on finding the important parts of what they've read. It is still not a ton of output, and I am okay with that.

I use the workboxes, and it's pretty easy. Some books just stay in the same boxes, like their copywork notebooks, so I just write or check off the quote I want them to copy. Or, DS's books for History Odyssey stay in his history workbox, and he just looks in the notebook for the next thing to do. I really like the workboxes for things that rotate -- DD knows that if she has a card saying "Logic" in her "general skills" workbox, she's to read a chapter of her logic book, or if I've put the book Figuratively Speaking in that box, she knows to read that, and if there's nothing but her copywork notebook, she knows to do copywork that day. Or for language -- the children either have their Latin materials in their box or a card that says "Mango," so they know that they either need to get the computer to do Mango or wait for me to do Latin with them (they alternate who does Mango and who does Latin). Workboxes really cut down on what I have to tell them to do, without me having to write everything out every day in a checklist, and it does let me put materials together. (Although, not everything fits in the workboxes, so we have a plastic basket where we can put binders standing up.) For group subjects, I keep the workboxes for those on my desk. Each child has a stack of boxes (two for the pre-Kers, six each for the big kids: history, math, general skills, literature, language, and writing), and there are a couple of boxes on my desk for science and rotating subjects like art and geography.

I suggested a digital picture frame; I have zillion photos of my little ones on the computer, and a digital frame would let me enjoy a continually rotating selection of them whenever I walk into the kitchen (which is a gazillion times a day). I probably could use a new pair of the same shoes I have been wearing for the last decade or so; they last about two years before they wear out. Oh, and I do want a second 10" skillet, so that I can cook eggs for my growing bunch of munchkins without it taking so long, since they like them differently; with a second 10" skillet, I could cook scrambled eggs in one pan and fried in the other and get them all done quickly. That's not really for *me* though so much as it is for the family, but that's okay. Other than that, I don't really want any stuff; I have asked DH to please work on the house projects for which we have had paint sitting here for quite a while, and I have a request for a very specific set of shelves I want. He is a professional carpenter; this is not beyond his abilities by any means, but he needs time to do it (and time when it's relatively convenient to have some of the house torn up/out of commission for a bit). But that's what I really, really want -- to work on the house.

Yes, I can see this being important as well. I was a very unusual student at my school; I wasn't an engineering or science major (when many, many of the students in my dorm were), and I had a bunch of transfer credits and thus didn't take the required English course that all of the freshmen took (and I already had my math credits, so I also didn't take the introductory calculus class that the freshmen were taking). (And I arrived already having a boyfriend who was a junior, so I was rather unmotivated to attend the social activities designed for freshmen to meet each other.) Living off-campus would have pretty much guaranteed that I wouldn't have made friends at all, given those circumstances. I did make some, but I noticed that it's really hard to be a different freshman; my engineering major roommate had study groups coming nd going, and even in my senior year, I noticed that other kids were still hanging out with the friends they made through study groups and the honors section of the English class. (Had I realized that would be the case, I would have taken it. Even my boyfriend, who was [is!] not at all interested in making friends, knew kids from that English class or from intro calculus.) So I can see that dorm living could be an important part of the social process -- you can work around it, but I can see it being difficult.

I don't know. On the one hand, I do see what Quill is saying, but otoh, there is a lot going on while you're at college; not needing to worry about preparing meals or cleaning bathrooms can help alleviate some stress, so that you're able to focus on schoolwork, dealing with professors, getting yourself to class, etc. I think it highly depends on the dorm, and what the alternatives are. When I attended a very large state school, I lived in a very nice dorm, the one designated for honors students. I know there was drinking and hooking up going on, but it wasn't a party dorm by any means, and quiet hours were longer for this dorm and were strictly enforced. (I almost never went anywhere else to study, and I had a single room my last year for way less than I could have afforded to live in an apartment by myself.) You also had a bit of recourse for true roommate problems. Otoh, the majority of the freshmen lived in a large dorm complex in one corner of the campus, and it was known for parties. But -- living off campus was generally worse. My dorm overlooked the main avenue between campus and town, so there were lots of cheap student apartments just on the other side, and lots of bars. At least on campus, they could assume that most of the freshmen weren't old enough to purchase alcohol and could enforce the law a little more -- would be much harder if freshmen lived in town. Given the choice, I would want my young college students in a dorm like mine.

Labyrinth. And Ticket to Ride.

Topical folders work for me, but then I also break those folded down even more -- I might put all earth science stuff in one folde, all chemistry in another, etc. I have also heard of using pinterest boards but have not (yet) personally tried it.

I joined a club that he was in when I started ninth grade; he was a junior and was very polite to all of the new freshmen. His family had also started attending our church recently, and my mom knew his mom vaguely from some school committees. I had actually met him when we were in sixth and eighth grade but didn't really know him. (Actually, it turns out that we are in a school picture from sixth and eighth grade; I happen to be standing right in front of him. He was a foot taller than me then and still is.) A friend set us up for the Homecoming Dance. It was only meant to be one dance, just as friends. My parents were okay with that. No big deal, not really a date. I was fourteen! Nobody expects their fourteen-year-old daughter to get very serious with a boy very quickly, especially when that boy is going to go off to college five hours away in two years, back before the days of cell phones and Facebook. Hahahahahahahaha! Yes, well, anyway. Twenty-two years, three houses, four states, and five beautiful children later. . . DH and I still specialize in defying odds, in both good and bad ways (mostly good, except for vehicles -- our saga of vehicle issues is rather unbelievable, starting with being in a major car accident fifteen minutes after he officially proposed to me). ETA: We have been together twenty-two years but only married for fifteen of those; we kind of had to wait until at least one of us finished college and had a job! He went to college, we racked up huge phone bills on the weekends, and only presenting him with positive pregnancy tests has been more exciting than the day I called to tell him I had gotten my acceptance letter to the same college. I took some extra classes and graduated from college a year early, and he changed majors a couple of times and took a fifth year, so we graduated on the same day and got married a couple of months later.

Yep, activities and fun stuff do not happen if schoolwork is not done, and done with a pleasant attitude. But I also sometimes wish I could just take them to school for one day, so they would see how good they really have it. I mean, four or five hours of work sounds terrible -- but not when you compare it to six or seven plus homework!

I make heavy use of filters on FB, and while I generally will accept friend requests, I make very few of them myself, so my friends list is actually pretty small compared to a lot of people's, and even that list is filtered. If you post too many political posts that annoy me, or otherwise are irritating/too full of drama, I may not un-friend you, but I will take you off of the filters that I see a lot or that see the majority of my posts. I also have a personal policy of not friending men who are not relatives, even if they are friends of DH or if they are my friends' husbands. I also tell FB not to show me game posts. I like recipes and meal ideas, so those do not bother me.

I do recall reading that about no more swaddling. I think it is the very tight swaddling that makes the baby stiff and stretched out that is the concern, because newborns naturally want to curl their legs up, some more than others. (My nine-week-old just now stretches out when we lay him down; he really wanted to keep himself tucked up for a long time, but he was in a funky position at the end of the pregnancy, so I suspect that has something to do with it.) I think that is why my first few babies would kick off the swaddling blankets; they were on the big/long side, and I was never great at getting a very tight swaddle, because they wanted to keep their legs curled up. Really love the wearable blankets and sleepsacks, though -- warmth and ability to keep the arms from flailing around but still allowing the legs to curl together. ;) I think moms are also told a bit of a lie when they are told that babies should sleep several hours straight. I think it is biologically normal for babies to wake a lot. Moms tend to have higher milk supplies at night, for one thing. I think moms would feel less frustrated in general if they were told that it is normal to be feeding and cuddling a newborn a lot at night. It might not help with the exhaustion, especially if they are trying to put the newborn down separate from Mom, but it might help with the feeling of "what is wrong with me that I can't figure this out?"

Honestly, I have had five good sleepers (some of them better nappers than others, though), and I really think it is because we cosleep. A couple of my babies slept seven hours straight at a couple of months old, just sleeping next to me. For the ones who woke up more frequently, they pretty much just nursed while I fell back asleep. And for better naps, I wear them, especially when they are very little, or I put them on their tummies *right next to me.* I do not put them on their tummies if I am not right there AND awake (so not at night until they start doing it themselves). My DD (my first) was not a great napper at all, but she was my best night sleeper. My last several babies have just napped in a wrap for several months. Today, my two-month-old slept for several hours straight, all cozy in the wrap against my chest; I actually took him out so I could get him to nurse some. We have never let a baby cry at night (sometimes in the car or when I am showering, there is no other option, but we remedy it as soon as possible); that just never sat right with us. If I am really not sleeping well, it is because of an older baby or toddler, usually teething or sick (or maybe just wanting to play when I really need some rest), and occasionally DH will take them out of the room for a bit. That has happened only a handful of times ever, though; it is generally just easier for me to nurse them. We had some of those velcro swaddle blankets for DS3 and they were nice for babies who like to be tucked up.

Yeah, $35 is probably not going to be a big deal for me either. I can generally add a little something, or toilet paper, that we need anyway. I actually don't buy a lot of books either; I buy things like batteries or Lego sets most often. Mostly I get books used or in e-form, or I just buy a big chunk of our curricula at once, so it would easily be over the $35.

Yes, I think it is a rude thing to say too, and you're right; we would never say, "oh, I could never do that" to anyone regarding public school, much as we might want to. I would just smile and say, "well, it works for us" and secretly think of it as a compliment, that the person was noticing all my hard work. Because it IS hard work and DOES take a lot of dedication and effort, and not everyone is able to do that (for various reasons, including not really wanting to). To them, it is easy to put their kids on a bus to go off to school all day and not have to worry about scope and sequence and whatnot. I find that idea hard, but to each her own. :)

Yeah, that's the hardest thing for me too. My baby and 2yo get attention, because they need so much from me still. My 11 and 8yos get my attention for their schoolwork. It's my almost 5yo, who is a cheerful, happily-playing little guy, who gets lost in the shuffle sometimes. I spent a lot of time over the summer printing preschool packs of activities for him, and he likes those, but I also really try to spend a bit of time every day working with him. He adores MEP reception level math, and it doesn't take very long, and we often do some phonics work too (I honestly don't he is quite ready to read, but he is highly motivated to try). I also try to spend some time reading picture books to him and the toddler, but really, I understand, and it's honestly probably the biggest drawback to homeschooling to me. It is the right choice to have our older kids here at home, and my middle child gains the benefits of having them around all the time, but it's just plain true that I only have so much time in the day, and the kids who have portfolios to fill do come first.

My four kids went as various Star Wars characters (the then-infant got an R2D2 hat), so DH and I could have chosen characters to be ourselves. This year, the kids are going to be various superheroes, so DH and I could be a couple of them. I keep lobbying for the boys to go as hobbits (four boys, four hobbit characters -- seems obvious enough), DD to go as Galadriel or Eowyn, and DH and me to go as Aragorn and Arwen, but so far, they haven't taken me up on it. A collection of Pooh characters would be so adorable; each of our babies has been nicknamed after one of the Pooh characters while in-utero, and it would be fun to dress up as the gang.

Some moms have had success with giving the child a certain number of tokens to use -- whatever number is acceptable to you -- and every time the child nurses during the day, he/she gives Mom a token. When all tokens are used up, milk is asleep until the next morning. I don't know that that would work with a not-quite-3yo, but you could try. You might also limit nursing to a specific chair or something and then just happen not to be in that chair very often. I've been a very extended BF'er myself, but I've also been pregnant/had a new baby by the time each of my older kids were 3, and they've naturally mostly weaned down to a couple of times a day during my pregnancy, so I don't have personal experience with limiting a 3yo, but I wish you the best of luck as you find what is the right balance for yourself and your daughter! (And talk to me again in a few years when my current newborn is 3, and we'll see!)