I love cooking/baking too, and thought that a good candy thermometer would be nice to have. How bout some new silicon baking things. I bet if you check your kitchen for stuff that's looking old, tired or worn out you'd find things that would be fun to have new. Or how about gift certificates for extra luxuries...a night out on your own, a massage, pedicure, shopping trip, netflix, etc...

I've let my 4 yo plug things in since he was about 3. But he's a responsible kind of kid and tends to be naturally careful about things like that. I say show him how to do it responsibly and he'll be fine.

We're doing breakfast for dinner tonight. Pancakes it is...I make a healthy whole grain kind. I'll make some fruit sauce to go over and maybe some sausage to go with. DS requested it and I didn't have a better idea, so we're going with it! When we have pierogies, we make turkey burgers or kielbasa to serve with. Or I saute them with onions, add some kielbasa, canned diced tomatoes and some herbs and maybe some other veggies if we wanna be healthy.

My son used to have quite neat handwriting, for his age that is. But it seems to be getting worse. Not sure if it's because I've slacked off in expecting neatness, of he's getting lazy or what. But what I noticed is that he often makes the printing smaller than the space. So for an O the top and bottom will make quite a gap between the bottom line and mid-line. He did Seton Handwriting to learn how to form all the letters, but once he new how I just made up things for him to copy and practice each day because he absolutely abhorred doing the same letter over and over. I'm just wondering how you know which size lines you should use. He's 6 and first grade, but has been writing and doing long copywork selections for a long time. He loves to write his own stories and stuff (actually writing them on his own), so he's not the kind of boy that isn't into handwriting. Right now we've been using 5/8" wide lines.

Advent is a time to prepare our hearts for Christ. Focus on that and everything else will step into place. When we do each little job for Christ, he multiplies it and makes it grander! Wake up a few minutes earlier and spend some time in prayer to prepare your heart for whatever God wants you to hear from Him today. Now I'm off to go follow my own advice! ;) Also, you can check out my book blog in my sig line, I'm reviewing Advent and Christmas kids books, might give you some things to meditate on!

sorry you have to go through that. I'm hoping things get better for you. I was a social worker in my pre-homeschooling days and part of my job was helping people wade through the medicaid messes. Feel free to PM me if you need any help!

I started at 6 with my son, and I think it's a good age. He seems to really get the connections between some of the cultures. And there are many of the extra literature and history suggested reading that he can read on his own, which helps quite a bit.

I don't think it's that wierd. My kids know that stuff in Mom and Dad's room is not to be looked in without permission. They are allowed in all the time, can use our bathroom, snuggle in bed, whatever, but I have let them know that bookshelves, drawers, closets are off limits to little hands without permission. We often leave gifts in store bags on the floor in our room and have no issues with peeking. They are really bad at being sneaky so I know they haven't tried. :)

My kids loved My Father's Dragon. You can check my blog for more details about it! There's no magic, just lots of animals and a dragon.

I'm no expert, as my oldest is only 6 and I'm doing the same thing as you...however I do think that what you describe is ok, the example you gave. I think these exercises are just to help them get used to recalling stuff they've read (or had read to them)....then learning to put it into a sentence to put on paper.

my kids are always trying to listen to the Classical Kids Christmas cd in July...so it's a big hit here!

I'm a bit frustrated and lost as to what I should be doing too. We're just about to start WWE and need a little more help... just going to lurk here for some ideas!

Do you mean like an Ancient Egypt lapbook? One for Ancient China, etc.?

peace hill press sells a test booklet to go along with SOTW. Otherwise, the AG also has the cards that are like review cards for each chapter. you could somehow use those as a test.

I have no idea what it is but sounds like something my son would enjoy...hope someone has the answer! :)

We loved UP, but I think it's better for older children. I took my 6 yo to see it in the theater and didn't know it would be 3D he was completely freaked out by the huge bird and the thunderstorm. But I loved the movie how it was made, and that it was true life lessons. Probably the better parts though, need to be explained to younger children. I plan to get it for the kids when they are older.

ah...thanks so much, saved me a lot of time! :001_smile:

I know it was posted a while back but now I can't find it. We are doing the blends and starting dipthongs in OPGTR and would like that game to do with my son. I could make my own...but...don't want to reinvent the wheel! My ds really enjoys making words with index cards. I had -ing, -ang, -ong, -ung on each card and he put single letters in front to make words, and it helped him immensely. Thanks!

just to second what others have said about SOTW, although we are only in the Ancients. I love how flexible it is. We can go as in depth as we want or skim the top if we want, and I do that based on how crazy life is in any week or based on the interest of my son. At the bare minimum, we read the chapter (broken up into 2 days), do narration and review questions from the AG, do the coloring page while I read aloud. Map work and literature throughout the week, often the extra books become bedtime stories. Then if there's a project that looks interesting in the AG and we have the stamina to do it with a crazy toddler around we do it. Otherwise we skip it and move on the next week. I think the only part that might be a challenge with a newborn is the library run (but we could do it every other week and still be fine) and the extra craft projects. But you could also do those in the evening or saturday if you have dad home to help.

I'm in the process of starting one...it's in the beginning stages but building it slowly. Link is in my signature line. :001_smile:

I'm having some of the same issues with my son. We are just finishing MCP phonics B. It's ok, but if your son doesn't have a good grasp of phonics, it will require a lot of input from you to teach it. I'm frankly not thrilled with it, but maybe because I don't have any TM and thought that it was more independent than it actually was. We are finished with it in a couple weeks then just going to spend some time each week picking out lessons from OPGTR (although he won't know it because I won't use the book since his little brother uses it and he's going to gripe about that! :tongue_smilie:) just to make sure there aren't gaps. Then probably do spelling workout, and continuing with FLL and starting WWE. I also allow my son to spell things how he wants to when he's doing fun stuff. He often writes stories or letters to a friend or cousin. If he's doing it for school, I have him check spelling, and require correctness. But for fun, I'll only bring it up if it seems it won't frustrate him. I also always remind him if he wants help with spelling something, he can ask.

don't know if someone already mentioned this, but we often do fried plantains on taco night. Kind of iffy though you have to get them the right ripeness and depending on where you live it's difficult.

The copywork is very light and optional in FLL 1/2. Months of the year, date, address and phone number. It also usually goes with a picture. For instance, a few weeks ago we did the seasons thing where the copy work was something like: write the season and the 3 months that go with that season then draw a picture of things you do in that season. Very simple. You could even have the words written out, they cut them out and paste them with the right season, and draw a picture if you wanted to do the lesson without the copywork. Sometimes, the optional thing is to write the months of the year or something. If my son has done too much handwriting already that day, I just have them written out on slips of paper, I mix them up and he puts them in the right order and reads them back to me. I love the way grammar is introduced in FLL and the lessons are very flexible.

hmm...don't have any suggestions, but can I lurk and get ideas for my kiddo? :001_smile: Would he like Mouse and the Motorcycle? I think the level would probably be ok for him.

purse and wallet lotions and body splash hair accessories journal small cd player for her room duffel bag/backpack throw pillows for bed alarm clock craft kits...jewlery making, crocheting, etc. art supplies for older kids. books on cd What a lovely idea for friends to do!