Yes, lap pads.

Thank you Ruth and OP! I am struggling with my oldest DD who is a strong writer. She does not like IEW and doesn''t want to stay with it even though i'm teaching it at co-op. Since she is a natural strong writer, she thinks it is too easy for her. Now thAt i hearWWS is more challenging with new lessons every week, I think we'll go for it! IEW is working wonderfully for my son, and I personally love the program. But it just isn't enough for my DD12. ETA. Sorry for my terrible typos...im stuck on my ipad.

I hope you find a great place. You'd love my co-op if you lived up north. My DH really wants to move to SC, so I may need to look you up some day.

Ellen McHenry's Chemistry and life of fred elementry and SOTW ancients and medevil come to mind. ETA my youngest LOVED RS Math B last year.

I ran into that and my DH made a gorgeous shelf for me, but since he's not a carpenter by trade (just plays one on tv) the shelf heights were a little off...he didn't consider the thickness of the actual shelves when dividing it up... So the very top is fairly useless and one of the shelves is only high enough for small paperbacks. If i wasn't so into categorizing by subject it probably wouldn't be a big deal....

Funny! Aparently my DD didnt know. ;) My DH was furious, but I blame us for not telling her. We dont lose power very often. But it just came back about an hour ago, so all is well here. I'm praying for everyone else who is still out of power.

First grade LA here consisted of First Language Lessons, All About Spelling and lots of wonderful books.

Don't flush a basement toilet that runs on an electric pump if you have no power! It's ugly...and stinky...and difficult to clean by flashlight. I really hope power returns tonight. Others in my town are back online since the big storm, but not my area. So much for living in a neighborhood with underground utilities.

Guess i multi quoted wrong... Thank you for telling me! Guess ill use the coconut flour for one of those other wonderful recipes on the other sites. But i did come across two or three recipes that said coconut flour could be subbed, glad i didnt ruin a crockpot full of stew!

I ordered some off of Amazon this week to us for thickening beef stew. We are mostly gluten free here, but sometimes I start making something forgetting that I typically use flour in it. So my beef stew was more of a soup. I can't wait to try it with the coconut flour. Good to know that i should just add a little at a time until i get used to working with it.

I LOVE unscheduled weekends. Last weekend was ridiculously busy. This weekend we had quite a few things as well, but everything has been blizzard cancelled. Love it... Although i'm slighly limited without power. Good thing we all have book lights!

I lost power at 11:00 last night, so it's a bit chilly in my home this morning. I'm concerned that i wasnt able to pull up the power outage map from National Grid...not a good sign, if their own "outage central" isnt working. DH and DS are out shoveling and snow blowing. It's hard to tell how much snow we have bc of the huge drifts. Certainly looks close to two feet and it is still snowing. Im only going to stay on my ipad for a bit, to conserve batteries. I really hope we get power back by tonight.

Looks fun and creative! Im going to show some of the examples to my DD8 who has been complaining about boring work. Id love to do this with her, i just hope it wont be too time consuming. I'm already feeling like we're behind this year. Following to learn more...(Big Ears...I hate that i cant access smileys on my ipad)

You're in my prayers tonight.

Under a Blizzard Warning here.... My DD8 was saying earlier "That groundhog was SO wrong! "

Yes, please share! I came on this thread tonight looking for ideas to add to our day during Lent. As I was reading through posts from the past two weeks, I've decided that reading from the Catechism daily would be a good start. I bought one last year with the hope of implementing it, but for some reason, we never even started it.

The teacher's guide has suggested living books to go with each chapter.

CPO Earth worked great for my DD last year in 5th grade. Because of its style and math component it is really aimed at middle school/junior high. Two reasons she is not using CPO again this year: she wanted to focus on just chemistry (CPO doesnt have a chem only book and i wanted to use a program that all 3 could do together this year. I wouldnt consider using CPO with younger than a strong 5th grader. My younger two were in 3rd and 1st, so they will use it when we cycle through again when they're in 5th and 7th.

My kids hardly watch any tv at our house. They'd rather spend their screen time on the computer or Wii. They all like to watch Chopped and a few other Food Network shows. Unfortunately they do see some of the Disney sitcoms at other houses...esp at MIL... I agree they are junk, but i dont think it will hurt them just seeing an episode here or there. Have to admit ive never seen phineus and ferb....maybe during the next snowstorm...

I am! My DD is will receive Reconciliation on Feb 9th. Then we'll be preparing for First Holy Communion! We are very excited, it seems like she has been waiting so long. Although my DD is ready, I do wish I had more time to prepare the other children in my CCD class. These second graders seem so young. I'm sure it doesn't help that only 3 of the nine children go to Mass regularly. We only have two more classes. I think that maybe it would be better if the two sacraments were in separate years- with more time to focus on each. Does anyone's parish do this? BTW- I'm very sorry that my posts from yesterday contained no response, just a quote. I was traveling and my ipad kept getting hung up.

No TM necessary...at least not at these levels. All three of my kids use Vocabulary workshop.

My DH eats a ton too. I go to the grocery store every two or three days b/c my fridges (plural) can't hold any more. He is on a pretty strict paleo diet, so that means lots of vegetables, meat, and eggs. One thing I do, so that we have "forced" leftovers for lunch the next day (for him and sometimes for me as well) is when I plate everyone's food, I purposefully take the amount necessary off for lunch and put into a container in the fridge. Meaty soups and stews work great for big appetites too.