Elisabeth Joy (I'd have said Abigail Joy, but you have an Abigail) Susannah Lily Joanna Ruth

My upstairs is almost all carpet -- warm, but a pain to keep clean. My first floor is linoleum in the kitchen -- hate it. Too hard to clean; it has little "pocks" that trap dirt if I don't clean it by hand (as opposed to with a mop). My living room is beautiful old wide plank hardwood -- needs some refinishing, but I love it. The playroom is old (not as lovely) hardwood with a big rug over most of it so that the children have a soft, warm place to sit while playing. My schoolroom and dining room are Pergo laminate. I'd prefer real hardwood, but the Pergo is really nice. It cleans up so nicely and easily, moreso than the old hardwood -- food, paint, etc. all are easy to clean up from it. It's a little cold but not terrible. For that in a family room, I'd probably go with a rug if people will be sitting on the floor.

I'm pretty sure they don't see you as a freeloader; they probably know you would bring something if you could, and it's less stress for them just to do it themselves. I'd shoo them out of the kitchen after the meal while I cleaned up. I'd also see if I could do anything beforehand to clean or otherwise prepare (iron tablecloths, polish silver, etc.). And I think asking if you could bring soda/juice/apple cider would be a nice gesture. Also, ask if you and your children need to avoid those allergens that morning, or wash your hands when you enter, or whatever. (And if your children don't see their cousin regularly, they may not be familiar with her allergies, so maybe you could coach them ahead of time in case they're wondering why familiar favorites aren't on the table, or why Grandma didn't include nuts in something.)

Congrats!

Spanakopitta! Delicious! (I can't get my recipe right now, as I'm nak'ing an almost asleep baby.)

A few months ago, the shipping from Nallenart was also pretty high to the US, and the only downloadable items were entire packages (mp3s, flashcards, student workbook, and answer key), so it was about $35. She has now changed it so that you can download just certain parts of the curriculum. I studied French for five years myself, so while I bought the full package for the first book, I think I'm going to get just the student workbook for the second book. I can pronounce French fine, and I rarely look at the answer key anyway, so I appreciate the option of downloading just components so that I can save money. If you don't speak French, I'd get the rest of the stuff. Also, we have not used the flash cards; there is plenty of repetition in the workbook for DD to learn the vocabulary. (I did copy the verbs onto index cards, for French and for our Latin book, so she can refer to those quickly.)

I agree -- regardless of what JoePa did or did not do, unless more comes out about his involvement in this fiasco, his finances are nobody's business. Also, I hardly think transferring his house to his wife constitutes "hiding his assets" -- he's made half a million dollars a year for how long? The house is, I believe, a fairly modest one. His wife is also, IIRC, quite a bit younger than he is (10 years, maybe?), and since he's had some injuries and such, maybe he was just concerned about what might happen to her if he died or was otherwise incapacitated. I suppose it does seem like an ominous coincidence, but we really do not know.

We LOVE the Nallenart French materials. We're using L'Art de Lire, which is just the right blend of written and oral French for my 9yo (and my non-readers are picking up some of it too.)

Ugh. Ridiculous. Fwiw, I think University Park police *do* count as real police. They're more than just "security guards," according to their website. It certainly sounds like someone reporting a crime to them would not also need to contact the State College police (though maybe the UP police would turn it over the State Police; I don't know).

I would spend some time really drilling the routine. At my house, this would mean that we'd stop school (or at least not fret about what doesn't get done) for a few weeks. We'd drill the morning routine (getting dressed, making beds, bringing down laundry, feeding pets/unloading dishwasher, taking out the trash) until it was ingrained in their heads. Mine hate for me to stand over them, since they are sure they're not babies, so if that's what I had to do, I'd do it. Once that routine was down, I'd move on to adding a couple of school subjects -- maybe three, including one must-do, and one that they really like (here, it would be math and history). I would be on them every second -- remove all distractions (as much as possible) and just be on them. If I needed to go change the baby (assuming I couldn't do it in the schoolroom so I could be next to them), they'd come with me. Every time they got distracted, I'd be right there to redirect them back to their work. Then when they got that routine down, I'd in a few more subjects, and a few weeks later, more, until we had everything.

:iagree: This. We've had such a hard couple of years, financially, ourselves, and we've had some friends say, "I want to give you X." It's such a blessing, and I don't have words to say how much it has meant. You are a wonderful friend. :)

This is pretty much my thought as well. We usually alternate days, one day French, one day Latin. Right now, the Latin is all oral (we use Getting Started With Latin), so it's only a few minutes; the French varies but isn't usually more than about 10 minutes. The GSWL people have a GSW Spanish book, so that might be a good compromise -- no writing, but still the exposure to the language in a slightly structured way. None of us (DH and I included) know more than a handful of words in Spanish, so maybe it would be a good round-the-dinner table sort of exercise. Yes, that's what I'm afraid of as well. Strike while the iron is hot, and I think a basic understanding of a language in elementary school would make it easier for them to teach it to themselves later. I'm vaguely concerned that they'll confuse the Romance languages, but maybe they won't. (I'm basing that on my own study of French for several years in high school and then Italian in college; French was so ingrained in my head that occasionally I'd automatically put the French word on an Italian test.) Thank you for the thoughts! I wish they could learn a lot of languages (and tbh, I am really enjoying learning Latin alongside of them), but I suppose if they know two (plus English) very well upon graduation, that will be good, and any more are a bonus. :)

We started with the Nallenart French program this past spring. DD (4th grade) loves it and wants to do more, so I think we'll continue it. I'd like her to go through the whole program, in hopes of becoming very proficient in French, at least for reading/writing. We also started Latin in the spring (both were DD's strong requests). We want to continue that as well. I want to know when we can add another foreign language. Maybe "Hey Andrew, Teach Me Some Greek." Maybe Spanish. DD wants to learn Italian too. I personally love foreign languages, and DD seems to as well, and she is picking them up quickly. I think I would rather them have more proficiency in a couple of languages (one classical, one modern) than a smattering of several, but I don't know. I want to capitalize on the interest and ability, but I don't want to overwhelm them. So, intending that you'd be studying both French and Latin from now through at least eighth grade, would you make it a point to add a third or fourth foreign language anytime in there? Would you add one or two more, but wait until high school, and if so, would you drop one of the other two, or do more concurrently? Am I crazy for even asking? :) (DH's answer, when I asked him when he thought we should add another, was "whenever they've finished the first two." I didn't think that was very helpful. What is "finished?" Maybe study formally until eighth grade and switch to something else for high school, but continuing to read in the earlier language(s) to keep up/develop proficency?)

I have three boys, and they're all different from each other. (Well, we don't know much about the baby's personality yet.) My older son is shy, sweet, gentle, very very snuggly. He wouldn't leave my lap when we went anywhere until he was about three. He's my most compassionate with the baby and is someday going to be an amazing catch of a partner (me, biased? LOL). He does move and play and everything but is definitely not my most active child. My middle son is busy and curious and active; the world is his oyster, and by golly, he's gonna take it on. He's much more typically "boy" than his older brother, ready to roughhouse and wrestle and GO. (In fact, he tries wrestling with DS1, and DS1 backs off because he's afraid of hurting his little brother.) (Now, my DD is my most active and pretty darn rough-and-tumble. She's more likely to try to do something with the baby, like change him or play with him, than just to pick him up for a cuddle like DS1 will.) Boys are awesome. I love having a daughter, because she's girly along with the rough-and-tumble, but the single greatest surprise of my life has been just how amazing it has been to be a mom of boys! I always figured I wanted a boy of my own, but I truly had no idea how much I'd love it. And little boys, oh, goodness, little boys love their mamas!

I would try the yeast stuff, but also, I like to use coconut oil (softened/melted) with a few drops of grapefruit seed extract -- the two together are anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, and anti-viral. GSE is too harsh on its own but works nicely with coconut oil.

I'd let him sleep. At his age, even if the nap does keep him up, he should be able to read or something so that you're not up with him. My DS1, in particular, sleeps a LOT when he's got a virus. Typically, he'll sleep for most of about 24 hours straight.

My poor DH doesn't have time on the weekends to be bored! He's got hobbies and interests of his own, plus house/yard/vehicle maintenance, plus he spends a lot of the weekend time with the children, especially since he has limited time with them during the week because of his work schedule. This weekend, he spent almost the entire weekend gathering firewood and working on the yard (and doing a small repair on my van); the children did work alongside him, so they got a lot of good quality time with him too. He also took the three older children to a movie last night. Typically, my DH gets up with the kids on the weekends, or at least on Saturday, to let me sleep in a bit. (Less helpful when we have an infant who tends to prefer me anyway, but it's still something.) So doing breakfast, dressing, etc. takes up some time.

Around here, the kids tell me they can't find something. I tell them to go look for it. They respond, "But I don't know where it is." Well, yeah, that's kind of the point and not productive.

I learned crochet first and can do it, but I prefer knitting. There seem to be more patterns available for knitting as well. I found that crochet made my hands hurt, but knitting does not. That could be because I used metal crochet hooks, though, and I've always used wooden knitting needles (which are supposed to be better for your hands), so I don't know. But I vote for figuring out both. Or finding a pattern that you want to make and then learning whichever method will make that pattern.

My 4th grader typically covers about 4 pages of math a day, and the time is 20-60 minutes, plus more if she's doing review practice. Her book is split into lessons of 2 pages each, where the first page is direction and examples, and the second page is practice problems. We typically do 2 lessons a day. We discuss the concept, and I may or may not explain it how the book does, depending on what works for her. Then we do as many of the practice problems as needed for her to show me that she gets the idea. Math is not her favorite subject, and she doesn't like to write, so if we can do the problems orally, we do; things that require writing are going to take more time. Then for things that we have covered, but where she still needs practice to become fluent in the steps (currently adding and subtracting fractions with different denominators), I assign some written practice problems for her to do in addition to what we do together.

We don't have satellite. We barely have a TV! We don't get any broadcast TV at all; our TV is only used for watching movies on DVD (and occasionally VHS). DH and I watch a couple of shows online, and that is plenty for us.

Never mind -- other people already mentioned it.

It also drives home how slick Sandusky was -- fooling everyone, not being "off" enough to raise huger red flags. Even that poor mom in the article -- she could tell something was up but didn't know how bad it was. That's the take-home message to me -- don't be fooled, and keep digging with your kids, even if their answers seem okay.

This is a slight aside, but I really want to know what was going on. This article is scary, because of what the school allowed: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/45254478/ns/sports-college_football/ HOW did Sandusky leave the school with the child, taking him out of classes, without the mother's knowledge and permission?? The school district apparently banned Sandusky, but did they also report to proper authorities? I sure would love to hear the school's explanation for why it was okay for an unrelated man to take children out of classes and off campus -- wouldn't some legal guardian of the child have to sign for that?? Those poor kids. So many opportunities to protect them that didn't happen. Such a tragedy.

I hope so! *That* is the Penn State spirit there, along with the students who raise money to fight childhood cancer, the student who wrestled a gun away from a shooter and prevented more deaths, and so many more students who do good every day. They are proving that they are so much more than this tragedy. As for the rioters, it really is only a small portion of the students, very far from the entire student population. And I don't think that most of them truly think football is more important than children, but I suspect they aren't really thinking it all through very well and realizing how it looks.