Each child has his/her own box with scissors, gluesticks, pens, pencils/crayons, pencil sharpener, and eraser that stays at his/her workspace (and is easily portable for co-op). That really cuts down on a lot of wasted time, looking for something. Art supplies live in a big, wooden jelly cabinet. I keep most things in plastic bins or plastic pencil boxes, which all stack nicely. Paintbrushes, extra pencils, stuff like that live in glass jars, which I keep in the cabinet on a turntable.

I think that's so sweet that Wolf is so excited that he's telling everyone! But I can understand why that might be unnerving for you. We tell people early, like a day or so after we get a positive. In our case, my parents have already had the Unthinkable happen (death of a preborn grandchild), so we figure that even if we were to have an early loss, we want to give them every chance to be excited and happy first. (It helps that they've been as thrilled about their ninth grandchild as they were about the first.) We gradually tell family and close friends fairly early, less-close friends and coworkers gradually, usually sometime in the second trimester or so. I think last time, I had told a few people but made a more general announcement to a lot of friends, including local people, as part of a Happy New Year FB post, which was about 10 weeks (but I show pretty early).

Yep, start with askpauline.com. It's really not that bad (mostly just a few minutes of extra work now and then), but I would look into the particular school district. Some are friendlier to hs'ers than others; ours is very friendly, but there are others near here where the district has been difficult. We pick the evaluator, so you choose one who fits with your philosophy of education. That has NOT been a big deal at all for us; our evaluator is a friend of ours and is familiar with our children and our educational philosophy anyway, so sitting down with her once a year is not a big deal. The nice thing about being required to do the portfolio is that it makes sure I do it, so that I have it for a keepsake. (My DS1 isn't old enough to require a portfolio/evaluation yet, and, unfortunately, I've not gotten around to making his yet, sigh.) Testing could be worse. We use the online version from Christian Liberty Press, and it's fairly painless. The good thing about hs'ing in PA is that most people are very friendly to hs'ers -- plenty of us here, plenty of support groups and activities. The regulations really are not so terrible.

We switched to Latin's Not So Tough for DD (5th grade) after finishing GSWL. I started with Level 3. I think she could have gone into Level 4 just fine, because the grammar is not new to her, but the vocabulary is. I figured it was better for it to be easy and comprehensive than overwhelming. We really like LNST a lot and plan to continue using it. We typically do about 4 pages a day (I did skip several at the very beginning, because they were more review than DD needed), but we do it mostly orally. It's a little confusing because, unlike GSWL, LNST doesn't explain the grammar principle; it just tells the rule. But it is working for DD very well, and she's reinforcing the grammar she learned in GSWL, as well as learning the new vocabulary well.

Formal science is hard to get to around here too. (It doesn't help that it's my least favorite subject, so it's even harder to motivate myself to do it when we're busy.) My kids learn a lot from reading Ranger Rick and Big Backyard. Those things could then spark interest in topics, and then you can check out more books from the library.

What is this "pushing buttons" thing y'all speak of? LOL! Our little township still has paper ballots with little bubbles to fill in. (I'm kidding; I do know what the buttons are. I have voted for President once with the screens, and once with the voting machine thingy. And once absentee. But as of tomorrow, it'll be twice with the little bubbles.)

:grouphug: I understand.

Well, that's really nice! I'm sure it means a lot to your son; it would to my kids.

OPKs work by detecting the spike in Leutinizing Hormone that occurs just before ovulation. If she does not have any reason to suspect anything like PCOS, then yes, the OPKs are likely to work for her. (PCOSers tend to have chronically high levels of LH, which makes the OPKs inaccurate, because they'll always read positive.) If her cycles are pretty regular, then her fertile time is almost certainly about 14 days before her period starts. In cycles that vary in length, it's the first part that can vary; ovulation to period is almost always the same (and usually 14 days). However, if they don't have fertility issues, drinking teA regularly will likely result in pregnancy fairly soon. There are other signs of peak fertility times that can be very helpful too. When the woman is fertile, the cervix often feels soft, like a lip; otherwise, it feels more like the tip of the nose. The other big sign would be fertile cervical fluid -- lots of it, and it will look/feel like egg whites. Get her to read Taking Charge of Your Fertility; it's very helpful and informative. Also, if she charts her temps, some women find a small drop in temp right before ovulation. That's not foolproof, though.

That was definitely rude of her! People are welcome to think my children's names are boring. I think of them as "classic," personally. ;)

I have zero desire to wait until my DH gets home to go vote, so I'll be taking all four children with me. Four years ago, the line wasn't too terrible, and I was doing it with two children plus a 10-day-old newborn in tow.

DH wears a goatee and a moustache. I don't love them, as I prefer clean-shaven, but I'm used to them now. He keeps them neatly trimmed so they don't scratch me when I kiss him. :) A while ago, he grew the sides in more. I didn't like that and did tease him about it a bit. I think it keeps his face warm in the winter, but it's also not really as flattering to him, IMO. It's his face, but I was awfully glad when he got rid of that part. I keep my hair long (like, extremely long; it's almost to my knees), partly because I like it that way, but partly because I know he likes it like that. Not sure what I'd do if he really didn't like it long.

Seriously! I've gotten calls on both my landline and my cell, and it's annoying. You would think they'd coordinate a bit better. I keep joking about all the famous people who keep calling, but it is irritating. Non-PA'ers -- that maybe the real reason not to live here. Not because of the HS laws, but because of the political calls. ;)

We use the 1970 CAT, available online from Christian Liberty Press. $25, and it could not be easier to do it.

Thanks for this detailed help -- it's exactly what I need to help with the decision! I think we're going to get the iPad3 with 32G. I do tend to be very tidy with stuff and don't want to put a lot of movies or music on it (we have really good mp3 players for music/audiobooks and don't see the iPad really replacing those), so hopefully the 32G will be plenty. As for the iPad4 and the double WiFi speed, I think the 4 is way out of our budget, but also, we don't have the highest DSL speed at home anyway, so there's a limit to how fast the WiFi can get anyway. :) (It is generally good enough to stream nicely from Amazon/Netflix/Hulu, though.) Thank you!

I don't want to get an iPad with the 3G or 4G. Don't have a data cell plan; don't want to get one. WiFi should be sufficient most of the time. DH wants to know: if we did have an iPhone with a data plan, could it be a hotspot for using a WiFi iPad? I think it can, but I'm not 100% sure.

My husband says he wants one with the better display, even if it means smaller space, so I suppose I will check out the 3. :)

Thank you so much -- that is really helpful! I don't think I'm going to store a lot of pictures on it, and we'll probably rotate videos, so maybe the 32G would be fine.

I was all set to get an iPad 2 when the iPad 4 came out. That's way out of my price range, but now I'm wondering if I'm just asking for trouble to get the iPad 2 instead of the iPad 3. It looks like they've discontinued the iPad 3 but still have the iPad 2, so it looks like I could still use most apps if I got the 2? I'm not too concerned about the camera, which seems to be one of the improvements on the 3 and 4 over the 2. I think we may watch movies/TV on it occasionally, or read books on it, but those wouldn't be our main uses. Mostly, I think we'd use the iPad as a second computer, a portable complement to our desktop machine (which is pretty good but not top-of-the-line) -- checking email, a little web surfing, educational apps, portable notepad, minimal word processing/spreadsheets, stuff like that. So, do you experts think the iPad 2 would work for us just fine, or should we continue to save until we can get the iPad 3? Also, I was planning to get the 64G one, so that we wouldn't run out of space easily, but maybe that's not worth the extra price either? Thoughts?

I think I'd keep one (probably the glider, if it's comfortable), for the future -- maybe one of your children will want it for his/her babies, or maybe you will want a chair in which to rock your grandbabies or to offer to your daughter/DIL to rock the grandbabies in at your house. But as for the others, I'd let them go. You could have a chance to bless TWO young mamas who couldn't afford their own rocking chairs! (If the one isn't comfortable, could you add an inexpensive pad or something to help?)

That was fascinating -- thanks for sharing it. I knew ASL used facial expressions, but that article did a great job of explaining parts of the youtube clip. She does seem very good, and I'm glad they thought to have her there. Tamara, I'm sorry that the media doesn't seem to get it; I also think you should send your post to someone.

I agree with "with whom I will wake up." But it might be even more accurate to say, "some random number of small people will be in my bed in the morning!" ;)

That's how it was when we lived in MD -- it just didn't matter. No matter what side we were on, it was so overwhelmingly a blue state that we could have skipped voting. We did still vote, however (I stood in the sun in line for several hours, pregnant, with a 2yo to cast that vote!), because I feel it's important to register my opinion. PA was a swing state last time, so I dragged all the kids, including a 10-day-old baby, out. And I will take all four of them to do it again this time.

Legos. More Legos. Some Transformers. And more Legos. That's all they really seem to want (other an iPad -- and if anyone's getting an iPad, it will be Mama!). DD wants more of the pink Legos, DS1 wants Technic Legos, and DS2 wants the LOTR set with Gandalf. Oh, and they asked for some Legos. I am totally at a loss for the 1 1/2 year old. He's #4, and the third boy in a row. We seem to have everything a toddler could want, but I want him to have something to play with. Ah, yes, I nearly forgot -- all of them want some Legos. :lol: :lol: :lol:

I think it's sweet that Grandpa could get the doll for her. If it's more than his budget, since she hasn't asked for much else, could you tell him you'd contribute some of what you've budgeted for her as well? I'd just be really specific and tell him that she wants this particular doll. But if he's likely to be unpredictable and get something different, or balk, I'd just get it for her yourselves. Then you could suggest accessories/clothes for the doll to people for gifts, and your DD could have the fun of choosing some things for the doll herself with her birthday money. I think your DD isn't going to realize that Kit costs 2/3 of what you've budgeted, and if that's what she really wants, I'd get it for her, since it's in your budget. If there is something your son wants that is also pretty big, I'd go for that this year too. I think there's going to be nothing wrong with having "Santa" go big for Christmas this year. (I got a baby sister one year for Christmas, literally; she was born very early Christmas morning. She's been, without a doubt, a pretty amazing Christmas gift.)