I was inspired by Daisy to do a month of thankfulness, so I've been doing that (albeit I did a threefer today, thanks to my cold). Click on 'Kash' in my signature.

Yes, I would agree that you don't need the DVDs. The Verbal Problems book is wonderful, though! Dd started using in third grade and finished it in fourth. If I had known about it sooner, I think I would have spread it out more - done level one in late second or early third grade, level two mid to late third grade, and level three in fourth grade. This will likely be what I do with my other two, eventually.

Thank you! And the same to you :)

A good friend of mine JUST had her baby turn earlier this week - she's either 34 or 35 weeks. She didn't 'do' anything either, but then, she also had the luxury of knowing her mw would attend a breech birth. Repeat this to yourself: breech is a variation of normal. Breech is a variation of normal. The *majority* of breech babies (especially at 32 weeks!) are just content hanging out right-side up a little longer. If you must get the baby to turn, I'd recommend seeking out an acupuncturist to do moxibustion (huge success rate), or a chiropractor trained in Websters.

I'd grab our boxes of work from past years, and the current year's binders. I would hate, hate, hate to lose all of our books, but with few exceptions, they are all replaceable. All of our pictures that are digital are Carbonite backed up, so I wouldn't waste time grabbing picture CDs. I would grab the negatives, and the scrapbooks. I'd also probably try to grab some of the storage bins of clothes - I have each of the kids' first outfits in there, etc.

We generally have ham, homemade macaroni and cheese, sweet potatoes, rolls, and a green vegetable of some sort (varies from year to year). We have gingerbread cookies, sugar cookies, and fudge for dessert. Christmas is a pretty small meal compared to Thanksgiving, we get the ham from Honeybaked Ham, and we only do both mac n cheese & sweet potatoes because I love the latter but the kids love the former. Then we eat on it for a few days afterwards.

Please tell me you are not equating someone being gay with someone being a pedophile. I prefer to read the Bible and study it myself, strangely, as that is how my Southern Baptist churches encouraged all members to grow in their faith and grow closer to God. While I am thankful for various books that I have read over the years, I strongly believe that ultimately we should not look to man.

Our week is done!

Well, hmm. My 10 yo does more than that caller's dd, and here I've been thinking I wasn't requiring *enough.* Now, there are days that she's exempt from a particular chore or another - i.e., on Mondays, she's gone most of the day, so she's not required to help tidy the playroom/schoolroom. On Tuesdays, she has trumpet lesson right after dinner, so she doesn't have to help clean up after dinner. I certainly make adjustments. That said, typically she has to: - make her bed - brush her teeth after each meal & before bed - help tidy the living room - help tidy the playroom/schoolroom - tidy her room before bed (reshelve books, clear the floor) - help clean up after dinner (usually involves sweeping or wiping the table) - shower or bathe (though she's still firmly pre-pubescent, so she can get away with skipping this some nights) And once a week, she has to clear her dresser & her desk in her room (they get piled up otherwise) and vacuum her room. See, I've been thinking she needed to help with the cooking more, and start learning about laundry. She does have to put away her clean clothes. My 5 yo is expected to help with the tidying and the after dinner clean up, and to brush his teeth with a reminder. He's also expected to help an adult clean his room, and put up his clean clothes that are folded (I hang his hanging clothes for him). He's taken on vacuuming the stairs as his personal chore. We still get quite a bit of school done, they play outside, and have several outside activities. *shrug* I honestly thought of myself as slack!

Yep. There's a reason I don't ID as Christian - too many Christians around me are eager to tell me I'm not.

Aww, your boys sound like my son (though he says he's waiting until he's older for long hair - "It gets in my eyes now!"). I know exactly what you mean!

Or, you know, five days before. :blush: Not that I know anything about that!

My opinion is that Shettles is most likely to work. Based on personal experience, yep. Definitely. We didn't deliberately 'aim' for one sex or the other at any point but once I had a definite ovulation date established, I could predict the sex correctly. Shettles' book is pretty clear, but to sum, for a boy, you want to aim for as close to ovulation as possible.

You could try the SBC's search for your area and see if they're listed as a member. And, I forgot, to further confuse you, some Baptist churches are SBC AND Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, or just CBF - their search page is here

Here, we have a homeschool marching band. I don't know how common it is to find such a creature.

What "type" of Baptist church is it? Primitive, Southern, American, independent? The answer to that question will make a difference. And, despite generalizations that can be made, there are still, of course, exceptions to every rule. I attended a church in the '90s that was nominally Southern Baptist, but was one of the most liberal congregations I've known of, and that was in a small town in north Georgia! That said, if it's a Southern or primitive Baptist church, it's likely to be quite conservative. Independent Baptists are either going to be even MORE conservative or a lot more liberal. American Baptist churches in the south, at least, tend to be predominantly African-American (i.e., Ebenezer Baptist in Atlanta).

This is definitely true. I will add that we 'sneak' learning. There are definitely things we do that I consider part of "school," but the kids have no idea I consider them that way. Dd has gotten old enough now that she realizes sometimes, but the point is - they're learning and having fun, it's just not labeled "learning." I truly feel that dd enjoys learning as much as she does because we have always limited her screen time. I don't think it's a magic formula, but I do think it would be harder had she watched more television or played more computer games. We're slowly introducing the computer as a tool now (one online class, working through a basic book on the computer & basic programs), but still not for games.

Pros: - I'm the decider. - The kids are getting a top-notch education. That, I'm sure of. - Sibling relationships Cons: - The driving. My kids have similar or greater opportunities than I had at their ages through my school, but instead of everything being located in just one or two places, there's a lot of driving to pull it all together. - Along with the driving, there's the tag-along issue. Ds spent more time in the car than oldest dd ever did at the same ages; youngest dd spends more time still. - My life has a "hurry up and wait" quality to it almost constantly.

I talk to myself all the time, though! :D

We're no where near done, but I'm a 'planner' by nature – my tentative plan is to find *something* for grammar review, and do writing a la the rhetoric study in WTM.

I think that this is too often the case. Even once, it would be too often, but I can look back at the people I knew in school. Many of the ones I would consider bullies? Are now teachers.

I'm just so relieved MY attic is fully furnished, with a working HVAC unit.

Everyone takes a daily multivitamin plus additional vitamin D. (I take additional iron and, when I remember, cal/mag as well.) Otherwise... Sodium ascorbate (vitamin C) a homeopathic "kids' kit" various essential oils occasionally we will buy over the counter meds, but they usually expire before we use them. I do try to make sure we have benadryl liquid, non-expired, on hand, but I don't always succeed. I don't keep lozenges but will go buy them when needed. Same with Robitussin or Mucinex.

Lots of rest. Extra sleep. The biggest danger with the flu is secondary infections, so whenever we have an illness, I make an effort for us to stay at home and do whatever we can not to be exposed to any additional pathogens while our immune systems are already busy.

She sounds like my daughter. :) DD has improved greatly over the last months, though spelling is never going to be easy for her. We have used AAS but, as you say, application of the material learned does not always follow. What changed? We had her evaluated by a developmental optometrist and she did nine months of vision therapy. We used Dr. Cook - there aren't a ton of them around, and we are lucky enough to live very close to his office. If nothing else, take a look at the screening and see if anything 'clicks' - for us, it was seeing that yes, there WAS a connection between some of her gross motor 'quirks' and her spelling - disparate issues that we hadn't grouped in the same category at all. The other thing I would encourage is improving typing accuracy & speed. Not everything in life can be typed, but typing some things makes dd's life easier.