That's cool! I've requested my library buy books a couple of times, but as far as I can tell, they never bought them...which didn't encourage me to keep trying. It's a large system and they specifically say they won't tell you if they decide to buy it or not after you make the request/suggestion.

Here's my "no landline" secret -- I have a google voice number that actually used to be our landline number. It goes right to voice mail and I get an email if there is a voice mail. Any place I think I might get "telemarketing" calls from (Bank, credit card, political party, automated reminder calls from various places, etc) gets that "home" number as well as anyone I think I need to give a number to but don't want to talk to very often. I get a voice mail if there is an actual need for bank, etc to speak to someone...otherwise all the telemarketers don't leave a message, so I never get bothered. It has been a great solution for us. I can still screen calls on my cell phone if someone calls that I am not in the mood to talk to. It's pretty easy to send those to voice mail.

I really like this! I guess part of what made me slightly uncomfortable with the, "Will you call my mom..." situation is that I felt a little bit like when older boy sends younger boy to ask, "Can [older brother] play minecraft right now?" Or something like that. It feels like I'm getting in the middle of what could be a conversation fraught with expectations. I don't know what parent told visiting child previously about how long to stay, if it was okay to play video games, etc, and sometimes I feel like I might be opening a can of worms to be the one doing the asking...LOL! When it happened last night it was like "no big deal" -- I just called my friend (visiting kids' mom) and said, "hey, I know your girls just biked down here to drop off a note, but they are wondering if it is also okay to stay an extra 15 minutes to play." It wasn't too weird. But when it was a neighbor kid I didn't know as well, and they asked me to call to see if they could have permission to play minecraft with my kid, I felt....strange to be the one asking because I didn't know them well enough to know how their family handles stuff like that.

Ok, that reasoning makes a lot of sense! The one time I think it was maybe borderline of reasonable was when a neighborhood friend came biking up as I was leaving out the door with little DS to pick up the other boys at an event. DD was around the corner playing with another friend. I honestly had no idea if the other friend's parents were home or not where DD was, because DD is old enough to stay home for the short amount of time I would be gone, and she knew I was leaving for a few minutes. Friend on the bike asks to play with DD, and I say "She is around the corner with _____". The friend yells as she bikes off around the corner, "Please text my mom and tell her I'll be at ____'s house!". I was like what?? Why do I have to do that when I am already running late to leave? But I did it...LOL. We are good friends with the family and I didn't want them to be worried about where their kid was if they came looking.

For us, "vacation" has usually been a once-every-two-years big event with two weeks of travel, so I can't imagine taking another kid with us due to the cost of adding another person to all the vacation expenses. I would definitely consider taking a friend with us for a weekend camping trip or something like that. Maybe when our kids are older and we would have to get two hotel rooms anyway I would even consider taking a friend along for a weekend away in a hotel situation. Right now we barely fit into one hotel room (usually it involves a pull out couch or roll away bed), so we couldn't realistically really take a friend anyway without adding the expense of a second room.

I voted "other" for my kids since I couldn't select two votes. My older two can and have passed a similar swim test. My younger two cannot yet. We have done lessons for DS6 including one round of private lessons, but he naturally seems to sink so it has been a challenge for him to learn to swim. He's improving, but can't figure out how to swim and also take breaths while swimming, so he can't go 25 yards in water over his head yet. Little DS will start lessons when he is 4, though he is already making some great progress when I work with him at the pool. I think he'll be a natural swimmer.

This is one of those "common" or "no, that's weird" questions...LOL We don't have a land line phone and neither does most anyone we know. Let's say kids friends are at your house without their parents (kids young enough not to have a cell phone, and they live farther away than shouting distance). They need to ask their parents something -- May I stay later? Am I allowed to play video games? May I eat dinner here? Or whatever. So, kids have now more than once asked me, "Will you please call my parents and ask if I can...." vs. what I would have done as a kid which is asked my host, "May I use your phone to ask my parents if I can..." Is this normal in the cell phone age because kids think they won't be allowed to use someone else's personal phone? Or do most kids still ask "may I use your phone?" Should I just tell them "no" and hand them my phone to use? (Except then I have to show them how to use it because it isn't a common model, and make sure they don't drop my expensive phone, I guess? Or I could let them use my DD's super old phone...assuming I can find it and the battery is charged...) Just to be clear I have no trouble with these friends hanging out at my house...I just can't figure out if it should be bugging me or not that they are asking me to call parents on their behalf... :lol:

Have you seen this site?: http://www.guesthollow.com/homeschool/history/awesomehistory/awesome_history.html I thought it was helpful in making my Middle Ages list. I also used this list: http://www.classicalhouseoflearning.com/logic-stage-literature.html#MiddleAges Sorry, I am not sure off the top of my head which ones fall into the categories you are looking for, but I think you might find some things on one or both of those sites.

My DD really loves history, and I did MOH 1 through part of 3 with her at a young age (1st - 2nd grade). Then we did a couple years of American history. Last year I did MOH 1 through the first quarter of 2 with the two older kids (sometimes the K'er listened in but I didn't require it). I like how MOH 1 in particular goes through many of the books of the Bible and makes the connections between the Bible and what else was going on in history. Since I am trying to pull in DS6 more this coming year and both DS8 and DS6 like history but don't love detailed general history like DD does, they will do SOTW with me while DD reads the rest of MOH2 and part of 3 on her own. The lessons in MOH 2 and 3 get to be longer and more detailed. One thing I really like about SOTW is that it lines up better with how I want to do history cycles. I have to break up the MOH books in odd ways to get it to match with my idea of what the 4 year cycle should look like. :-) So I don't really have a 'vote' for you but maybe my reasoning will help you think through what makes sense for you.

I want to buy so many of these! Does anyone know if any of them are cooperative games? We really like Castle Panic and Forbidden Island, mostly because of the cooperative element.

Here's my story about eyebrows. I have naturally very shaggy eyebrows. Not a unibrow, but not really what I personally find to be an attractive eyebrow shape. My mom has tiny, thin eyebrows. So tiny and thin that she actually added eyebrow pencil to make them bigger! So, I never heard about other eyebrow shaping options at home. And I wasn't the type to read beauty magazines either. Maybe I was the world's most clueless teenager, but I would actually go around looking at people's eyebrows and admiring their beautiful shape and I was sad I wasn't born with such beautifully shaped eyebrows. I didn't even think to ask anyone, because it never occurred to me I could do anything about it. It wasn't until my second year of college I finally asked a trusted friend why almost everyone had such beautiful eyebrows. It was starting to dawn on me that maybe everyone was not born with eyebrows like that. Luckily she didn't laugh at me and told me about waxing and plucking. True story. I felt like such an idiot for not realizing I could have done something about it. I guess all that to say that I made sure my daughter sees me plucking or getting a wax every now and then, so she realizes that if she ever wants to change her eyebrows when she is older (she inherited my eyebrow genes!) she knows there are options!

We do gmail as well. For my 8 year old copies of all are sent to me, for my 11 year old I just check her account a couple times a week to make sure everything is okay. I actually signed both my older two up for these gmail accounts when they were babies (weird, I know, but I was worried at the time that there would be no nice gmail addresses by the time they were old enough to sign up for themselves). So I consider myself the "owner" of these email addresses and they know that until they are 13 and legally old enough to sign up themselves, I own their email accounts. :-) We've had zero spam problems.

Check out this free recording from the Well Trained Mind Conference: http://wtmonlineconference.com/shop/phonics-for-everyone-phonics-ideas-for-beginners-older-children-and-remedial-students-recorded/ Elizabeth has some great suggestions for tutoring older students!

We got in for an audiology screen later next month. And I called the insurance company and they were extremely helpful in getting the step by step of how to figure out what my cost is going to be. I'm not sure the steps work very well without going further down the road toward an actual appointment some place, but at least it wouldn't be a surprise when I got the bill. So, I am feeling good about making progress here. :-)

Thanks, Targhee. That's good to know. I'll probably at least try the screen for the CAPD just to see...Since I don't actually know for sure at this point what we are dealing with, I don't want to rule anything out. Unless it turns out that just doing the screening is super pricey...I am hoping it won't be though.

I found a place that will do an auditory processing screening, and would do the full test after he turns seven (really, only six months from now) if the screen warranted it. I don't know how soon they can get me in -- I left a message for scheduling but no call back, but I am assuming it won't be too long of a wait. First two places I called to see what the wait is like for an adhd eval were about six months and I have two more places to call tomorrow. I am definitely not in a rush, but if one had a shorter wait I might go for that. What is the best way to figure out what my actual out of pocket cost will be at each place? Do you suppose my insurance company will give me a list of tests they do or don't cover? Or do I need to get a list of what the provider wants to do and run that list by the insurance company? I've never had any medical situations like this before where we could really take our time figuring out where we want to go, how much we might spend. Emergencies you don't get to choose who/where you get care typically and pregnancy/birth was going to cost about the same no matter where we went...but it seems like there could be some vast differences in cost here potentially. I tried to ask about cost at one place and they really wouldn't say much of anything about it and just suggested calling my insurance company.

Yeah...too Christianese. I'm not sure anyone has actually said it to me though. In writing, I feel like I am imagining someone saying it with a flippant tone of voice. Or like it was something you would just "say" without real meaning because it sounds better than being honest about not liking the task or being too busy. I've had people say IRL, "I prayed about doing xyz and I don't think it's the right role for me right now." Same meaning, different "tone." I guess I was also imagining someone saying it to a really basic task, and it not really matching. Obviously it takes a lot of thought and commitment to chose to teach Sunday school all year. If I am asking someone, "can I sign you up to help with snacks on Thursday at VBS?" And if their response was, "I don't feel called to do that." -- That would just be kind of silly, because in my mind it doesn't take much "calling" to come put treats on plates for an hour. Maybe no real person would actually say that in that circumstance. When I am trying to find volunteers for VBS, people generally either say, "sure" or "sorry, I can't because I am busy/out of town/at work/etc"

I don't feel like I've ever "made" my daughter read, but when she was already choosing to read independently at an easy chapter book level, we added it as kind of a check box on the schedule. She probably would do it anyway. At the beginning of this past year I added it for DS in 2nd grade. (Oh, whoops I guess he was only 7 then and I voted 8...oh well). He was at maybe a harder "easy reader" or easier chapter book level at the time. Reading some of both. He wasn't choosing to read on his own so I was kind of "making" him do it. He is doing it much more on his own now, but it will probably still be a checkbox of sorts in our school day this next year.

Quill, I agree that you are just fine. I need to fill volunteer positions at church all the time and I ask a lot of people. I know that many will say "no" and a few will say yes, and it typically all works out in the end. I will agree with you on this Marbel. I don't think I've actually ever had someone say this to me, but it would drive me nuts if someone did say it. While it may be the truth (someone prayed about it and God led them not to serve in a particular ministry), the flippant sounding response of "I don't feel called" just comes off sounding like an excuse somehow. I too prefer if people just say "no, I won't be able to help out." Or even "I'm serving in other areas right now." Or "I'm too busy during the week of xyz event this year, but maybe next year." I guess I have had people say (when I am recruiting for a particular age Sunday school class), "That age kids drive me nuts. I am going to help serve coffee instead." Or something like that. :lol: It was honest and I knew not to ask them about that age group in the future. Maybe the "I don't feel called" thing comes down to my feeling that it takes everyone (or almost everyone) pitching in to make a church work (I guess unless it is a super big church? I've only attended small to medium sized churches). I doubt anyone "feels called" to sweep the floor, but someone still has to do it. It is between each person and God how they are going to pitch in (certainly everyone doesn't need to pitch in by serving in Children's ministry -- some people will pitch in through floor sweeping, bulletin folding, or prayer). I've done things I didn't feel specifically "Called" to do simply because someone needed to do it. It is nice in the grand scheme of things if we could all serve in our areas of gifting and preference, but on the other hand we are also called as Christians to lay down our life and serve...which might include doing a task you don't like for at least a certain period of time to help the church to run smoothly. There's a balance, for sure.

I haven't seen the math one of these books, but the English one has some nice summaries of grammar, punctuation, etc. There are penny copies on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Everything-Need-About-Homework-Evertything/dp/0590493590/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1438001539&sr=1-1&keywords=Everything+you+need+to+know+about+math

I bought the zombie math book too for DS8...the hive is going to send this book climbing up the Kindle sales charts!

That's interesting. There's a lot to consider! I put in a call to a university dep't that does apd evals, but they haven't called me back yet either. Nobody returns calls on a summer Friday I guess...LoL. While I feel like I have ideas and things I am trying (ideas from "smart but scattered" etc) for behavior issues that appear attention related, what is driving DH and I even more crazy on a daily basis is the fact DS is mishearing so much of what we say. I feel like this has gotten worse if anything in the last few months. He passed the standard hearing screen at the well child appointment, but I suppose those are about as accurate as the vision screening in the ped office is? I haven't really felt like he can't hear us...just that he isn't hearing us correctly. I dont really understand how the hearing screen works, but I did find it curious that the nurse said to DS, "you're missing the beeps. Pay more attention and raise your hand when you hear them. We have to keep doing this until we get all of them." I was thinking that it sees rather odd and like he is having some trouble if he was missing the beeps. But ?? The nurse was in a hurry to run off somewhere else after the test so I didn't ask her, and the doctor just said, "well, he passed it."

I've been thinking about evals for my DS6 for a few months, and we finally got in a well child check with a primary care doc we liked and who listened to my concerns. She agreed we should seek further evals. I don't think she has a lot of experience referring for evals though. She listed 3 places, and one was totally off -- it wasn't a clinic or a place for evals at all. I did some googling and I think she meant another place with a similar name. That place didn't do evals but did at least offer services for kids who already have diagnoses. LOL! The other two places were clinics within a large university hospital, and the doc said she didn't really know the difference between the two - and sure enough, only one did ADHD evals. I'm waiting for a call back from the scheduling desk of that place right now (I guess they all went to lunch?), to find out more info. I know there are plenty of other choices too, but I want to at least try talking to these people first. When we discussed DS's auditory symptoms vs. the attention related symptoms, she said it was hard to tease out what was what and we would probably have to evaluate both...but she thought that the adhd eval would address the potential auditory issues too. Does that sound right? I am thinking that what I've read here and elsewhere is that an auditory processing eval would be with an audiology clinic of some sort.

We've all heard people say, "I said I would never let the TV babysit my kids" (until you discover the joy of an uninterrupted shower or time to cook dinner) or "I'll never say 'because I said so'" - And then you have a 3 year old who says why a thousand times a day. Here's my funny one I was thinking about this week. When I was growing up, I would often spend a couple weeks in the summer with extended family. I was an only child, and my mom is both the frugal and environmentally conscious type who hates excess packaging. This family was in a different income bracket, more kids, busier lifestyle that involved lots of sports practices, camps, clubs, etc. I was always appalled at the number of pre-packaged snacks, individually packaged items, etc. I always said, "When I am a parent, I am so not going to buy all these convenience snack foods! Think of all the waste! I am going to make homemade snacks or have my kids eat fruit and veggies for snack!" (Haha, I think I was kind of a weird kid that I wanted fruit and veggies and not sweet snacks!) I was looking in my pantry as I packed my daughter's lunch for camp and packed a snack bag for the boys and I to take to the pool. Goldfish crackers! Pre packaged Trail mix! Granola bars! fruit strips! Animal crackers! Individually packaged meat sticks! We eat plenty of fruit and veggies too but I totally get it now...LOL. With four kids someone's always hungry just as you are about to leave or as soon as you get someplace. In the summer I just keep a bag filled with snacks to grab when we are on our way out for the afternoon. :-) I would love to make homemade snacks but who has the time...or wants to turn on the oven in the summer? I feel like I am doing well if I mix up my own trail mix. ;-) What did you say you would never do or never say when you had kids?

In 4th grade my DD was in tears every day with Right start math even though it had worked in the past. She wanted math instruction she could read for herself. CLE has been a much better fit We used a textbook for science last year (Science in th Ancient World), and we stuck it out for most of the year but didn't really like it. We're going back to more interest led/topical units approach with a couple of shorter spine texts, library books, and projects selected from DIY.org So far we've always done history together. My DD loves history and the depth in Vol 2 and 3 of MOH is a good fit for her but will be too much for the boys, so we will separate them in history and be in the same time period but they will do SOTW.