So my iPad 2 streams TV (using the NBC and ABC apps) very nicely. I want to know if there's a way to make it play through my TV so that we don't have to watch our shows on the little iPad screen. I got a connector cord from amazon; it has the iPad plug on one end, and the other end has a USB plug and three RCA jacks (red, white, and yellow) -- all of those (including the USB) plug into my TV nicely. But I can't seem to make the TV understand that the input is coming from the iPad. Any suggestions on what I need to make this happen?

No, as a general rule; it's terrible for them (for anyone, really). Even when we go out, they don't get soda, but they're usually allowed one glass of juice, fruit punch, or flavored milk (all of which are big treats). We do indulge in craft root beer occasionally (like around the holidays), and I'll pour small glasses for the kids (not the baby). Once in a while, the older two have had Sprite at a function when out because there was nothing else (including water). We don't generally keep it in the house, anyway, so it's not an issue. I remember being allowed to have it as a kid only when I needed to take medicine, at least until I was a teenager. I developed a strong taste for sweet drinks, though, which is really hard to break, so I was determined that my kids would drink water. And they do. They appreciate the occasional treat but drink water happily.

My kids like them just boiled and sprinkled with salt and pepper. (They got that idea from reading one of the "All of a Kind Family" books.) I usually toss them in a curried dish with sweet potatoes, broccoli, and yogurt or coconut milk. Authentic Indian cuisine is better, but it's pretty good.

We usually put a balsamic vinaigrette on Greek salad. We do bleu cheese, walnuts, and balsamic vinaigrette a lot (DH likes balsamic). Our grocery store carries lettuce mixes that have suggestions on them (goes well with "X meat, Y and Z veggies") and a recipe for a dressing. I've gotten a lot of great ideas from those.

I have (and prefer) a large single basin sink, with a dishpan that I can set on the counter next to the sink if need be. I use large cast iron skillets and griddles (my big skillet is a 15" plus a handle) and cutting boards and really need the ability to get them fully down in the water. My MIL has the standard double basin, and that just would not work for me at all.

We finish the year's curriculum in May or June (and officially promote everyone to the next grade; they like that finality) and have off for a few weeks, until the beginning of July. July 1 is when my state allows me to count work and days for that year, so we start the year's work then. There's no special summer work. We do full work in the summer (though I take a few weeks to get up to a full schedule), and we work until we've finished what I want us to finish, with breaks whenever needed.

Fluticasone nasal spray in the winter to keep stuffiness down for my almost 8yo. In the spring and fall, when pollen counts are high, he and I both take Zyrtec (generic if we can get it), and it makes a HUGE difference. Sometimes I still need Benadryl at night, but not usually, if I take Zyrtec in the morning. We both take the pill form; he originally got the liquid, but his allergist okayed half a tablet (which took him some practice to learn to swallow, but he's proud that he did), because it's a lot less expensive than the liquid. I know not everyone responds well to Zyrtec, but it works well for my son. I originally tried it (over others) because it seemed to be the safest while breastfeeding, and it works well for me too.

Oh, it takes so much effort to try a new church! It's one of my least-favorite things ever. I sympathize with you. We usually just try a service and that's it; if we like that, we'll try more. We try not to talk to a lot of people, because we've been to churches where they latched onto us immediately and really were kind of pushy. That was a turn-off. We also have a terrible knack for picking "special Sunday." Guaranteed, the first time we try a church, the pastor will be on vacation, or they'll have a missionary speaker, or it'll be children's Sunday, or something. It's almost become laughable. And in today's society, families of all types come to church. I would just smile and say, "it's just me today" or something. People work odd shifts, families look non-traditional, whatever.

I "only" have four, so I can't offer too much advice, except to say that there is a time when babies just make it hard. Newborns/young infants just nurse or sleep in a carrier a lot, and after a while, they play, but there's an in-between time where sometimes you just have to accept that a lot of bookwork might not get done. I do keep my schoolroom baby-and-toddler safe, so that the worst they can do is dump out all of their toys -- but I gate them in there with us, and they can't get to the Legos and spices and other stuff. And if the schoolroom doesn't get cleaned up every day, eh, no big deal; we'll step over the stuff. ;) My 4yo is welcome to play in another room if he chooses; the rule is that he is very welcome in the schoolroom (and he did ask for a box of "school stuff" of his own, so I keep things in that box and rotate them occasionally), but he can't make noise when someone's reading out loud, nor can he pester his big brother (he likes his little brother very, very much, but big brother is his playmate, despite the age gap, and he often wants to show the 7yo something when the 7yo is working). Stay and behave respectfully, or play in another room -- his choice, and both are acceptable to me. I also reward him for appropriate behavior whenever I can by taking some focused time (even just a few minutes) to read whatever picture books he wants -- but that comes after he shows me that he can behave while I work with the bigs. My oldest often complains that it's distracting to have so much commotion, whether it's the small boys playing, or 7yo and I discussing math or whatever; she either puts on noise-canceling headphones or takes work to another room. I will often send either her or the 7yo to the kitchen table to work uninterrupted. I think I'd be looking at some more unschooly ideas for the season. That might mean educational videos; have them draw a picture or write a report about what they watch. I know when my third child was born, my older kids were 6 and 3, and though we didn't need to report to the state then, we listened to some opera and watched various "Magic Flute" videos on youtube. Were I doing that now, I'd have the 10yo write a comparison of the various actresses, and maybe read some additional library books. I like the idea of more independent work for the olders as well. Maybe pick one subject that you know they can do consistently without a lot of input from you, and really hammer that one. For me, it's reading; the two big kids know that every morning after breakfast and brushing their teeth, they're to get their reading and start it -- regardless of what I'm doing. Math can wait. Formal writing can wait. Your littles will only be little for a short time. One of my favorite memories is when my fouth child was a few months old, sitting in my lap, with child #2 discussing math with me. Child #1 was working at her desk nearby but not paying attention to us, and child #3 was playing in the room. Baby did something funny, which made child #2 laugh, which brought the other two over, and soon we were all laughing and enjoying our baby. So math got interrupted -- but the family took advantage of a chance to connect and create a memory together. Be gentle on yourself, and don't stress too much. :)

It says ages 8-12 for the classic courses. The information in the chemistry course (the basic one, not the advanced) looks fairly meaty for my sixth grader -- the kind of stuff I learned about in 8th, if not 10th, grade -- but the text itself and follow-up sheets seem like they'll be on the easier side for her. I think they'll be a good fit for my third grader, though, especially since I will probably read it aloud to everyone.

We have used the online CAT from Christian Liberty Press as well and will use it again this spring. We were very pleased with it -- easy to use, scores immediately, DD said it only showed her one question at a time (a big bonus for easily distractible kids). It only tests math and English/verbal, no writing, science, or social studies. The one thing to note is that the same test is given to kids finishing 3rd, 4th, and 5th grades, so it is expected that the younger students will not even have seen all of the material, much less know the answers, especially on the math sections. They're only scored according to their grade, but I did warn my DD that if she saw something she didn't know, she should make her best guess, or skip it and come back to it later if she had time (the test does allow for that). I didn't want her panicking or wasting valuable time that could be used to do problems she knew.

Definitely yes to this. And her blog (ebeth.typepad.com). She has particularly great ideas for incorporating several children.

Yes, in a queen. We have the little guy too, occasionally two little guys. DH wasn't sure about co-sleeping, but then when he's gone, which is rare, he complains that he can't sleep because he's lonely.

Yes, this. Mine is not huge, but it's perfect for me and my very tiny hands. Except for a short period of time during my first pregnancy when the rings got a little tight, necessitating removal, I wear both rings every day. DH, otoh, does not. First it was because it wasn't safe when he was working around machinery a lot, and now, it's because it's too tight. It's a super wide band and too expensive to have sized up right now. :(

My second grader gets handwriting practice only from doing the copywork in WWE. However, his writing is extraordinarily neat for a second grader. I have not started him on cursive yet, but it's coming in a few weeks. My older child needed some extra handwriting practice after finishing HWOT; I'm not sure my current second grader will. I think it depends on the child and how much other writing they're doing in other subjects; if they're getting a lot of practice otherwise, that might be enough, but if they're "pencil-allergic," I might have them do some specific practice/copywork, maybe using quotations from favorite books or something.

It, unfortunately, looks like the Glencoe site only has some of the workbooks online -- like the spelling, I think, but not the actual grammar one. (The grammar seems to have just the table of contents.) I think that I'm going to run through the spelling with my sixth grader and then do the diagramming workbook from english-grammar-revolution.com with her. Then maybe we'll hit one of the simple grammar workbooks as a review of punctuation, capitalization, etc. We use WWE/WWS, so that hits a lot of stuff too.

I just bought Mr. McQ's Chemistry for next year with my third and sixth graders (and my kindergartener, who won't be left out!), and I'm really excited about it. It is a little textbooky, but it seems like an easy read, though a lot of information crammed in. I took honors classes, and I see stuff in Mr. McQ that I didn't learn until at least 8th grade, if not 10th. I'm interested in it because it's systematic and has all the stuff done for me already. Science is not my strong point. I think we'll probably supplement with library books. I find it really difficult to hold a paper book myself; I have really tiny hands for an adult and am often holding at least one little guy in my arms. Being able to read on a tablet has made things SO much easier on me. So PDFs are really appealing to me. (Mr. McQ is something like 900 pages, between the student and teacher books, so if you print, you have to take that cost into consideration.) I don't know anything about the other program; this is just my impression of Mr. McQ. I think if you're really science-y, it may not be for you. But I'm really excited about it for my needs. :)

I like the AG somewhat. I like the maps a lot; they're worth doing. I also like the lists of supplemental books; we do a lot of those, and the AG save me a ton of time. My kids don't like to color (draw, yes, but color, no), so the AG isn't worth it for the coloring sheets for us. As for the crafts and projects, it varies. Ones that involve cooking, we often do (we had a blast making the African feast from SOTW1's AG!), but my kids are kind of picky about other crafts. They don't care for the "make a beard/cloak/hat like So-and-so" stuff, unless it's really authentic. We've enjoyed some of the games, though. So I think the AG are worth it, but if they had a map packet that was sold separately, I'd probably just have gotten that.

It does seem unfair to me; my daughter will have nearly a decade more with me than my third son will, and I'm more likely to have more time with her children than with his. Such is life, though. My one grandmother died when I was twelve; my sister was three. I have real memories of her; my sister probably doesn't (not many, anyway). It's just the way it is.

I don't get that either. I understand getting together with and having a baby with a guy who has a child already -- if he's a good, involved dad already. But I guess women are convinced he'll change? Or maybe it's a status symbol in some areas? (My MW works in the inner city sometimes, and she sees it all the time; one time a guy showed up to see his girlfriend and his newborn -- with his *infant,* not even a toddler, from another woman in tow.) It's very sad. I do know a lot of educated women in their mid-30s who have gotten divorced in the past few years. Many of them are ones I never would have expected, at all. DH and I wonder what makes the difference -- why them, for instance, and not us? Similar education levels, no family precedent for divorce, etc.

I'm not near enough to help you either, but I totally understand your predicament -- btdt twice, though not the c-section part. Is there a grandparent who can come for a while?

I think they came out when I was about ten, so I was just a little on the old side and didn't read the books until my DD got interested in them a few years ago. But I was a HUGE Little House on the Prairie fan; I begged for a sunbonnet and for my mom to braid my (long dark) hair all the time. Not surprisingly, Kirsten was my favorite AG doll. DD got interested in pioneer times, and she got a (non-AG) doll with brown hair and pioneer clothes. The following year, she saw that Kirsten was being discontinued and asked for her, so that that doll could be the blonde-haired sister to her other doll. Can't say as I was disappointed that Kirsten came to live here :) DD and I both like her Saint Lucia outfit. Felicity is DD's other favorite doll, as she likes pioneer times but loves colonial times; given the choice, though, she wanted Kirsten, so we got some of Felicity's clothes separately, and she has the best of both worlds. :) But yeah, that article pegged me about right re: Kirsten. :)

I also recommend Getting Started With Latin. I knew zero Latin myself, and GSWL let me learn right alongside my daughter. DD is in Latin's Not So Tough now, and I think it would also be good for a beginner, especially Level 1. I think GSWL has more explanation about what you're doing and why, though.

I do need both the Instructor Guide AND the Student Workbook, right? It looks like it from the samples, but I wanted to double-check.

Thank you! Free is good. I think I'll give those a shot before I spend the money for Rod & Staff.