Absolutely The Secret of NIMH. I would add: Grease Fame

If you need an optical drive and an HDMI port, I would look at a MacBook Pro. I bought a Mac Mini a few years ago & never looked back. (I've since bought a MacBook Pro-- love it! I would like the Air... so light & fast, but needed more features for wedding photography) :-) You can load MS Office onto it, but I *think* it has to be Office for Mac. I use iWork & iLife. I haven't had any problem with portability between the two, though.

Also, that's what it takes to get better. Practice! If I don't shoot every day, I feel stiff & uncomfortable with my shooting. It's a skill you'll keep getting better at if you keep at it & are open to instruction.

White balance sets the point at which your camera sees things as white. There are different setting for different kinds of light (fluorescent, tungsten, daylight...) Your manual should be able to tell you how to change it on your specific camera, or a Canon user can tell you. lol-- I use a Sony Alpha a900 myself, so I'm no help with Canon-specific settings.

Have you been shooting in Auto mode? I would suggest switching over to portrait mode (the profile icon), and making sure your white balance is set right. Also, you might try using as much natural light as possible (shoot next to a mirror that's close to a window, maybe?) and forgoing the flash if you can. It's washing out the highlights in your bear.

How do you organize your schooling materials? Do you have a room set aside specifically for schooling to take place and to store materials/books? I need to have a system in place for DC's schooling materials/supplies BEFORE I start amassing uncontrollable amounts of books, papers, and supplies. I'm just curious as to how other parents tackle this.

I think the degree of Biblical slant varies from one product to the next. I'm new to this, too. But if you want a slightly different perspective, you might visit The Secular Homeschool Community. They helped me differentiate between what is slightly Christian-oriented, and what is, like all-Jesus-all-the-time.

We do Christmas really big for both kids, and tend to put birthdays at around $50 plus a 1-on-1 date night with mom & dad, and the party. DH & I both have fairly large, close families, though. So our families usually do a 1:1 name draw gift exchange at Christmas, and get something nice for each child for birthdays. Also, MIL is a major spoiler, and tends to go big for every event (or often no event...just shopping), so we try to balance that out & show them a little moderation.

:iagree: Such a great point! We live in what was my grandmother's house, and her parents' house before that. 100+ years of "family treasures" to sort through when we moved in when my gma died this spring. We had to rent a dumpster because there was just SO much, and so much of it meant nothing to any generation beyond my grandmother.

DS is doing Progressive Phonics right now & it's going great. We're still in the Alphabetti Series right now, but we're doing almost all of the exercises with each story. I cut the handwriting in half-- he's 4 and has vision problems, so his fine motor skills are behind. But he loves being able to learn to read new words every couple of days. I was planning on doing each story & its activities for a week, but he wants to work through the activities and we move on within 2-3 days. Hope that helps!

I know! My problem is going to be that I'm turning into a curriculum junkie. I want it ALL!

Next school year will be our first "official" year. (And by that I mean, we're starting kindy level work in earnest, but DS is young enough that we don't have to report to the Superintendent. We don't have to acknowledge that there's a public school system at all until he's 6. Hooray!) And I'm already pulling together materials.

I'm trying to prepare a K curriculum for DS to start in the fall. How do you choose a math? I'm not a very mathy person. With history & science, particular curricula just grabbed me. I'm not so sure with choosing a math program. I like the idea of Saxon's spiral method, but maybe the Singapore mastery approach would be better? But if we go Singapore, which materials do you actually need? They offer so much. Earlybird or Essentials? To buy the readers, or not to buy the readers? DH is no help. He supports HS 100%... he just doesn't want to choose the curriculum.

I'm in Delaware and have been looking for local moms, too. I have DS(4) and DD(2). We're preparing to start HS Kinder with DS in the summer/fall.

That's great advice that I really struggle to grasp on a personal level. When I do take a moment to step back & evaluate, I see the inherent wisdom in that philosophy. But when DH is working 45-60 hours a week, and DD(2) is largely sleeping less than 3-4 hours at a stretch, it gets hard to fit in a shower, let alone a breather. That's my goal for this last Pre-K semester. DS(4) starts K in earnest this summer/fall, and I need to have the practice of carving out some personal time down before we get to that point.