We also time ours to coincide with the afternoon after the Trader Joe's run.... so easy to grab a tub of cookies or scones or something. I would love to bake everything, but if I tried to line everything up like that we would never do it!

My kids are 9, 7.5, 6, and 4. The 7.5 and 9 year olds are the ringleaders for the poetry teatime though - it was one of those things that I tried once as a neat idea from reading about on the Bravewriter website and it just took off. We do it every. single. week. Its like snack time on crack. I bet they would do it every day - I will have to think about that. We are on the Charlotte Mason inspired side of Classical, and to me Bravewriter seems very much Charlotte Mason inspired, although I haven't read all of her material. I don't see any reason older kids wouldn't like doing this as well, as long as it was framed correctly. I think the key is not to over- analyze the poetry and make it tiresome. Just reading / hearing it read / reciting in a fun environment is enough. Who wouldn't like eating/drinking something fun while reading something new and interesting? I mean, at least as far as homeschoolers go?

We have a little kid tea set - it actually belongs to one of my girls, but she is always excited to share it - its like fiesta ware. We use juice usually instead of tea, but in our house this is quite a treat. There are cookies or some kind of baked good. We set it up like a tea party. Then the kids take turns reciting poems they either have newly memorized or have known for a while. Next they take turns picking poems to read from our poetry book - The Child's Anthology of Poetry - often finding old favorites, so then frequently I will take my turn to find some new ones. Its very informal. They really looks forward to it, to the point that they have insisted on doing it even when I've had a doctor's appointment on the normal afternoon, and their babysitter was there. She was very amused!

I don't know if you'd be looking at preventative meds after just having one, but I'll tell you what has worked for me. After trying a number of things, I've finally been able to manage my nearly constant migraines with Topiramate. It has a very scary list of side effects, but the main thing I experienced was an increase in anxiety during the starting out period (they gradually increase the dosage over time). I already have mild anxiety, so if you have issues with that, I would just be on the look out. And a some hand tingling, but that's about it. But it pretty much knocked out my headaches. The ones I do get I can just take an Excedrin Migraine and that takes care it, which otherwise would not touch it. I did not have any weight loss or other appetite side affects, which some people seem to be super excited about. Oh well. :)

I would love to do something like a Forest School: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forest_school_(learning_style) My kids love to play in the woods, but we live in the suburbs. I can dream...

_Three Days On a River In a Red Canoe_ is one of my favorites.

Oy, that sounds awful. I've had migraines many years (now on topiramate to manage) and can't remember having a fever with them apart from having some other infection. I can think of times when I've had a killer sinus infection and gotten a migraine on top of that and it was horrid. I hope you're feeling better soon!

Nice Derek! Are you guys on the local homeschoolers facebook group that's popped up lately? https://www.facebook.com/groups/519630511385912/ There are some good park days that have been going. I have girls ages 9 and 7 that are always up for meeting girls their age to play with! Fridays at Via Paraiso have had some older boys as well. :)

My experience was that they ran WAY big, I had to eventually go down a whole size from my regular shoe size. If you can try them on at a Whole Foods that would be a good option - I didn't realize when I ordered mine online that I could do that! But they are good about returns - if you are exchanging, it is free shipping, etc.

YAY!!!! :hurray: :grouphug: :laugh: Praise GOD!

Just letting you know she is especially on my heart. My daughter is just about her age and your daughter keeps popping into my mind at odd times. So we are really lifting her up. :grouphug: You've gotten some good advice here. Such a bad time with all the craziness going on here - we're in CA too ,and I have some friends trying to navigate stuff with their insurance switching over. Hang in there!!!

I only buy these, and they are about $60, but worth every penny. Incredibly comfy and flattering. If you get them from zappos they are easy to return too if you end up not falling in love.

I would vote trying Sonlight first - if you are trying to ignite a fizzled love for reading, I don't think heaping Omnibus or another heavy classics program is going to be a good idea. Its not fair to kids to dump them into that kind of thing suddenly! You can gradually transition to a heavier Great Books list.

We have 4 kids ages 9g,7g,5b,3b. My little babies always stay in my room for the first year or so, usually in a pack in play or crib in my room (though in one house we had a huge master closet that became the baby room). But as far as kid rooms, we have never had a dedicated play room - two kids per room and we limit toys / clothes big time. I use the Simplicity Parenting model for inspiration, and it helps a lot. I would still do it this way, even if their ages/genders did not split so nicely. I would just put whoever would together best together. I guess I could see how some mellow, laid back kids could be 4 in a room together, but for my kids, I could not have them all in one room, it would drive them (and then me) nuts.

Praying here.

I'm sure its not you! People really are just busy, and coordinating schedules is a nightmare. We've never had that many friends - part of it is that we don't do co-ops, and live in an a very transitory area, so people move away often (often right as we're getting to be really close! Arg!) What has worked for me is posting park days / support groups meet ups in local facebook / meetup / yahoo groups. Park days are way less stressful for people (especially busy people) than play dates, since they are way easier to blow off, more kids to disperse the drama, no cleaning the house, etc. Its harder in areas where the weather is not as nice, I know, so maybe now that spring gets rolling it might be a good time to give that a try? If the co-ops are not accepting new families, there have GOT to be other people in the same situation as you!

Passionflower has worked great for several people in our house. We use these. I recently read this article about from Dr. Oz comparing it to Xanax, which I thought was interesting. Two others to look at - DD also takes Rainbow Light Brain & Focus multivitamins and Busy Brain Release which have some of the supplements mentioned on here, like l-theanine, coenzymate B, b-complex, ginko, GABA...

What she said though was specifically that Princeton women needed to marry men who were their intellectual equals, and that they won't have as high of a concentration around them after college, which probably is the case. Makes sense to me. I'm not sure I would say it to a large audience, but I would probably give my daughters the same advice as far as looking to marry someone who they can respect intellectually. Not so much the plastic surgery bit...

Ugh. I see stuff like this so much. I'm sorry. Its so hard not to get involved. :(

I just found out we have to move since the owners of the house we're renting are selling. So my spring cleaning this year will be decluttering for that! Such joy...

Yay for it being up on hulu! Going to save it to watch as a family when DH is home, but its a challenge!

I don't mean to derail, but I just wanted to throw out there that I just read _What Your Explosive Child Is Trying To Tell You_, and I found the strategies in it much easier to implement than those in _The Explosive Child_ (which I thought was great, btw, I just wasn't always sure of how to implement the ideas - I wonder if it works better with older children?). I think it might be helpful for you as well.

Well, that was just about the best way to describe the pronunciation, ever... :laugh:

Ugh, its just people not understanding that its a really, really broad genre. I've had people flip out over it too, since our family loves anime - its one of the few things our kids watch, actually - but they are obviously not the R rated violent kind. There was a lady who came over from our church many years ago when one of my youngest kids was born (now 4) who saw one of our Miyazaki films and flipped her lid over it. Yikes. So a lot of people seem to have a really negative connotation, but its just because they're only familiar with the non-kid friendly stuff.

Literary Mom, This is *kind of* what I do with a friend's family right now - we meet one day a week at the park in the afternoon, one of us brings stuff for a project - usually art, but sometimes science or history, or sometimes we just have the kids bring their nature journals (we're both more Charlotte Mason types). We've been slowing trying to pull some other people into it with us, but not had much luck so far, I think partly because we kind of like it cozy. But we know that our kids would appreciate more kids to interact with. I think keeping it low key is really a good thing. Most of us do not need one more high stress thing to add to our existence! ETA We've also hosted Brave Writer-esque poetry tea times where the kids have read or recited poems, or shared their own compositions, drank cocoa or tea, and eaten generally too much sugar and eventually gotten sent outside while giddily reciting Emily Dickinson way too loud for polite company. I have no idea what my neighbors must think of us. :huh: