That's exactly what I was going to say. We studied European history from the fall of Rome onward, and plenty of American history, in middle and high school, but we never even touched ancient history. We'll be doing our first run through ancient history next year with our 10, 7, and 4yo's, and *I* will be learning right alongside them, even having had a good history education.

We use GSWL and love it! Why we chose it: -inexpensive -- great way to try out Latin -easy for the non-Latin-speaking parent to teach and learn alongside of the child. -entirely oral, but with a book in front of us so we can see the words (I didn't want something that was only spoken.) -incremental, spiral approach -- this is a really good fit for my daughter (so is Saxon math, for the record). -really teaches the Latin language in a systematic way; we have seen other language programs (not necessarily for Latin) that teach things like numbers or colors or whatever, and those are fine, but we wanted something that would translate well into how to compose in the language. We'll move on to Latin's Not So Tough, and I feel like GSWL gave DD a solid foundation. (I could have started with LNST right away, but it was more expensive and just seemed like more than we wanted right off the bat.) -it's serious but not dull or dry. DD doesn't care for cutesy or pun-ny; to her, that's not lighthearted and fun but babyish. GSWL has humorous sentences sometimes (DD finds it amusing when the sentences translate as "We are poets, but we never carry writing tablets"), but it's not cutesy. I didn't really look a lot at other Latin programs, tbh, because GSWL just seemed like it would fit us well. I could not be happier with it and really wish they'd come out with it for more languages than Latin and Spanish.

There are some anesthetics that are safe for use during pregnancy, and the risks of untreated infections are not good. Go to the dentist. You may need your midwife or OB to write a letter stating what is safe and what is not.

I've never posted on this particular board, but the title of this thread happened to catch my eye. Yes, absolutely, protein for breakfast makes a big difference to my children! (And for me, for that matter.) Cold cereal, even oatmeal, makes them hungry again in an hour, and they can't focus or sit still at all. If they have good protein and fat, however, especially eggs, they do much better. ETA: Google says eggs are a good source of choline, and choline supports brain function. It looks like it might be helpful in managing ADHD. Focus Factor for kids has choline in it, and though I am still trying to get into the habit of remembering to give it to her, it does seem to help my DD focus.

Another happy user of the Sansa Fuze! We have a smaller Sansa mp3 player as well. . . not the Clip. . . the little one, the m230, 512MB. Obviously, it doesn't hold a huge selection, but if you like to listen to one audiobook at a time (as opposed to a large selection of music), it might be fine. (However, it looks like amazon has it and the Clip for similar prices, so in that case, I'd probably go for the Clip.)

Yes, check Gander Mountain, and look in the shooting supply section. There should be some earmuffs there that are designed for shooting that should fit your little one.

I don't think you're being unreasonable at all. I'm a softie, but this repeated flakiness would drive me nuts. Everyone has their moments, but this is too much. If she had a history of being reliable and asked this time if she could pay on the 5th, that would be different, especially if I knew there was financial difficulty; maybe this Friday is payday, and she won't have the money until then (and when things are tight, things are tight, regardless of how the dues are only $12), but she should have said something like, "my DH gets paid on the third; I can't pay until then." And I feel that you save those sorts of favors until you really need them; you don't "waste" them.

That sounds like a positive to me. It doesn't matter if the line is darker than the control line. (I have two children for whom the test line was way fainter than the control line -- both times, the test appeared negative after three minutes but positive after about twenty.)

We had been using Calvert for DD (because we had it and it was free), but we recently switched her to Saxon, and she's doing well with it. The spiral approach is really working for her.

Henry Huggins (Neil Patrick Harris's recordings of 5 of the Henry books were really good, great for the car.) Wayside School (maybe a bit above a 5yo though)

I can highly recommend Getting Started With Latin. It is *fantastic!* I took French and Italian myself but never had any Latin, so I'm learning along with DD. GSWL has been the perfect introduction for both of us. It's only about $19 for the book, which has, IIRC, 130 lessons, and each lesson's vocabulary and sentences are available via downloadable free mp3s.

I believe that school and life are intertwined, and there is something to be learned every day. But for purposes of this poll, and with regards to what I'd put in a portfolio, 5 days. One day a week is reserved for co-op on some weeks, and on non-co-op weeks, it will be for special projects, art, funschooling, etc.

Boscopup, thank you so much; your posts (here and on other threads) have been such a help to me as I figure out the best ways to use WWE! I am using the instructor text; I just got it, so I haven't had a chance to look through all of it and didn't know that by Level 2, they switch some of the days around. So it sounds like my plans will work perfectly. Thanks also for the reminder to be sure that I use fiction, poetry, etc. for narrations as well!

We'll be using SOTW1 next year, for our second and fifth graders, and the second grader will be working through WWE, either the latter part of Level 1 or the early part of Level 2. I want to have him do copywork, narrations, and dictations based on our history readings. Originally, I had intended that we'd read the SOTW chapter on Monday (and do the map page, and the coloring page if they want), and then Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, we'd read supplemental books and do projects. With WWE, I was anticipating that being a Monday-Thursday thing as well. Fridays are co-op/errand days or "fun school" (games, etc.) days, no formal work, so I don't want to carry WWE over onto Fridays. However, in looking at WWE, it looks like that plan would have us reading the SOTW chapter on Monday, but the first narration wouldn't come until Tuesday. So he would not be able to do the narrations based on SOTW. Would you: -Move SOTW to Tuesday, and use Monday for a supplemental picture book? That would have the advantage of a picture book providing a little preview to pique interest, and then he could do the narrations based on SOTW. -Keep SOTW on Monday (because it makes a nice thing for Monday morning, as it's already here and ready to go, even if I don't get a lot of time over the weekend to plan), but have him use a picture book for the Tuesday narration? -Move SOTW to Tuesday, do narrations based on that, and use Wednesday, Thursday, and the following Monday for supplemental books and projects? (This seems the least likely to be successful, tbh.) -Something else? (What?)

I actually didn't really care for Hakim very much; I thought she was very wordy and that her tone was patronizing, even to my elementary level children. We, even the 5-6yo's, have preferred H. E. Marshall's This Country of Ours for US history; it is generally pretty understandable without talking down to them (I do need to stop to explain things every so often to the 5-7yo's, but largely, they get it). We use a lot of picture books and read-aloud novels to supplement things too. Marshall only goes up to WWI, so for the rest of it, we'll be using selected excerpts from SOTW4 and A Child's Story of America. (ACSoA seems okay, though it is very conservatively-biased, and it has more detail for things like Bill Clinton's affairs than I think is needed, so I will be editing those things as I read.) Marshall is British, so occasionally she will leave out things -- like, we just read about the Mexican-American war, and that was great, except that the Alamo was never mentioned. So we added a picture book about the Alamo.

Most of my maternity clothes are from Motherhood or Old Navy, mostly very basic tees and the like. But they've lasted through four pregnancies and still look good. As for diaper bags, I bought a SkipHop bag from Target when I was expecting #3, as I needed something that would hold my stuff, the baby's stuff, and multiple water bottles. It was affordable and is still going strong. It routinely has my wallet and stuff, cloth diapers/cover, a baby outfit, a small blanket, handful of baby toys, extra pants for my 3yo, and a small knitting project. And several water bottles.

Generally, when I baby-sat, the parents of the children would pick me up and drive me home. Occasionally, my parents would drop me off, but that happened more often when I baby-sat regularly over a summer, so it was more like a real job (like McDonald's or something). For occasional evening jobs, the parents of the children would almost always pick me up and drop me off. I have not hired a sitter yet, but if I did, I would probably expect the same -- for the occasional evening job, DH or I would pick up and drop off the sitter, but for a daily thing, I'd probably expect the sitter to find her own transportation to my house so that I didn't have to drag all of the kids out first thing in the morning.

Our friend who is currently deployed appreciates toiletry items that are hard to get in some locations, snacks like jerky, and books/DVDs. We just sent him a box, and he had a few special requests that DH was able to fulfill, but he also specifically asked for pictures from the kids.

We live in the country, but the local police station (which has like 3 officers) is not too far away, and we see the police chief drive by on his patrols fairly regularly. We're a whole passel of kids, and he just stops and waves to them and drives on. I'm pretty sure he assumes they're homeschooled and doesn't even blink, as there are lots of homeschoolers around here. I do let my kids go outside during school hours, without me, if they want. They're still young enough that they're not to be off of our property, though. If we lived closer, I'd let DD walk/bike to the library; the small local branch wouldn't mind her, and I send her in there all the time to pick up or drop off something so that I don't have to unload sleeping babes for a two-second stop. Other branches are bigger and have signs prohibiting children under 12 from being in there unsupervised, which I do generally understand.

I would not expect doctors who don't deal with infants very often to be up on every current medication vs. breastfeeding, but I think that doctor's response was ridiculous. I'm glad they found one you can take! (Also, what does it say about breastfeeding in our culture that she didn't assume you were breastfeeding your small infant?) My experiences have generally been pretty good, but I've never had a reason for controversy either; I've not needed any medication that was incompatible with nursing. My peds/family docs have all been happily pro-breastfeeding for my babies, but I also don't ask for their advice. The family doc who sees me and all of my children is really sweet and young, and she seems to know that I know what I'm doing and that she works for me. She asked at the first visit when I like to start solids, and when I said, "a year," she just nodded.

I have heard that credit unions sometimes offer good account deals. Our local banks (handful of branches in a couple of counties) offer free checking accounts, no minimal balance, no fees. The downside is that you don't earn interest. You might check into those.

Oh, shoot, I routinely do that! I live closest to one tiny branch of one county's library, but DH passes by another branch (the bigger, main branch) on his way home from work. In addition to him not wanting to spend a lot of time rooting through the shelves for a list of books, that particular branch is downtown and has meters with 15-minute time limits (and a local police force that is strict about the time limits). So I often have them pull a big list of books, even if they're on their shelves, and then DH goes in and picks them up for me. The times I've been in there, the libraries never seem to mind at all, and the ones at my tiny closest branch (who know us by name) are always happy to pull books for us. I think it represents job security for them; it's numbers of people who are requesting their various services. There are also a couple of other small branches, and I request books to be sent to various ones, depending on what's closest to where I need to go. Our county has a three-day hold limit too, and the small branches generally do like to enforce that, because they don't have a lot of storage space. My closest branch (which is still 10 miles from me) will let that slide occasionally, but I try not to take advantage of that too often.

Andrew is my favorite NT boy name, but while I have one of those, you have some less common names in your family, so Andrew might not fit for you. Luke? Paul? (Two of my boys have those middle names.) Simon Peter Philip Thaddeus Bartholomew Simeon Jude Nicholas Alexander Matthias Zacharias/Zachary (I have one of those too.) Rufus! Not NT, but my husband thought Moses was a cool name for a boy. It was a little more unusual than I wanted, and since my first three kids had Presidential/First Lady names, I didn't want to leave out the fourth.

My kids LOVED the Celtic one and the Norman one, and we're looking forward to reading more of them when we study ancient history next year! They are a lot of fun to read and are packed with information about how people lived. Many of them are available for free from mainlesson.com too.

I failed the first one and passed the three-hour one with both of my first two babies. My second was still almost 10 pounds. I skipped the GTT with my third and fourth babies.