Another vote for ES. We are using it 2 days a week for kindergarten. Easy and fun!

:) Yeah, that's why I generally don't say anything. None of my business. But this really irks me.

I don't know, I hope so. She said that it's time to just put him in the other side of the house and let him cry. Makes me sad. And this is her 4th, so she's a seasoned mama.

Tomatoes, cucumbers, potatoes, onions, carrots, broccoli, celery. That's about it for the old standby list. Sometimes zucchini. Some of this is in the garden, so it's not always bought.

Yup. DH flew from In to FL this morning. It's currently about 15 degrees cooler there. He says it's nice! We are well over 100 already.

Oh goodness, I feel sick. Totally. I read on FB that someone was sleep training their baby starting this weekend. Personally, I'm not a fan of CIO, we've had to work our way through some attachment related issues. Hey, I know it works for lots of people. Whatever works, although I am happy to share my thoughts on it if asked. I keep my mouth shut otherwise. But this baby is 2 WEEKS OLD. Time to start letting him CIO, I guess.:banghead::banghead: Newborns get HUNGRY, people!

The Andy Griffith show (:crying:), Star Trek, McGyver, Magnum PI, The A-Team...that's what I can think of off the top of my head.

"I've witnessed firsthand these writers' dedication to improving their craft. Some of their work, in my opinion, is breathtakingly good." I am on Safari on the iPad, that may be the problem. I will check it out on the pc later.

Weird. This is what's at the bottom of the little blurb of the article: "ACCESS THIS ARTICLE IMMEDIATELY AND RECEIVE ONE MONTH OF ONLINE ACCESS AND TWO ISSUES OF WORLD'S PRINT EDITION—ALL FOR JUST $5. SEE THE NEW SUBSCRIBER BOX BELOW. IF YOU ARE ALREADY A PRINT OR ONLINE-ONLY SUBSCRIBER, PLEASE LOG IN BELOW. The complete article is ~999 words long"

Yep, that's it!:D

The Francine Rivers trilogy about first century Christians-A Voice in the Wilderness, maybe?? is incredible!

I can't see the entire article without subscribing and paying money. Is there a way to read just the article without subscribing to the whole shebang? I haven't read Christian fiction in a long time. I did devour a Randy Alcorn book a few years ago, I wish I could remember what it was called, I would read it again!

Thank you, Ellie, I appreciate all your reading wisdom you share here. I guess what I mean by "it" is the fact that he thinks that he doesn't need to learn to read because mom will do it for him. ;) I'm considering shelving the formal OPG lessons and just read for a few months. He has his letter sounds down pat. He is eager to do other work, just not so much on the reading. After I posted this, I did find a few old threads and read through those too. Good advice.

(I know, I'm sorry. It seems all my posts lately are about reading.) DS1 is 5 1/2. He's convinced he can't do it, doesn't want to do it (because, hello, mom reads books to me!) and cowboys don't need to know how to read, they need to know how to wrangle horses and cows. :lol: Our daily lessons are super short. SUPER short. He just can't take it. I am patient (outwardly, at least) and we are just working on CVC words. He's not making much progress. He has made big strides with the b/d confusion I asked about earlier this week. BIG strides. He's just pretty convinced that this isn't necessary. Do I just keep plugging along? Give the lessons a break and just read books with him? (But I feel that fuels the fire of "mom will do it for me"?)

I can't make a meatloaf that is edible. No matter what, I just can not do it. I can't stand on a step stool without getting dizzy. I can't swim or whistle. I can wink my left eye but not my right. I also can't seem to keep up with blogging!

I remember a neighbor mom across the street. I remember her yanking me put of the way of a car and the stern lecture I got about bike safety! It was the same neighbor I remember being at our house after a tragedy at my next door neighbor's house. Her kids were just a bit younger than my brothers and I and we all kind of parented each others kids/siblings.

I've tried the b-e-d trick and it just didn't sink in with him. Yesterday afternoon, however, I did try the trick from the All About Learning site (b is a bat and ball, d is doorknob and door) and we spent time working with pipe cleaner letters making b and d and figuring out if they were bat and ball or doorknob and door. I think perhaps I saw a small amount of progress yesterday. That's a new trick for me, and one that I think may stick. Glad to know we just need t keep pressing on with it!

Thanks, all. I have been just gently reminding him of the letter/sound. And we are just working on writing the letters, still learning the strokes. He does wear glasses and is under the care of an optometrist, although not a dev. one. He has an eye exam next month. I will mention it then and see what they say.

My new k'er is having constant, as in every. single. time. he sees a "b" or "d" confusion. We've been working on it for months. We paint them on the sidewalk, we look for them in real life, we practice their sounds, we write them, we use a salt tray...over and over and over. He can't tell them apart. Explaining it as a bed, with your head at the b, hasn't helped. Making them with our hands hasn't helped. I am out of ideas. He's frustrated and it's hampering reading. Phonics is a struggle for him anyway, but he gets so upset when he constantly and consistently gets them confused. He shows no other signs of learning problems. It's been since early spring since we've been working diligently on it, and I am at a loss as to how to help him. Any other ideas?

Our local Kroger milk is hormone free. I am pretty sure our local brand name milks are also, but I am not certain.

We are using A Reason for Handwriting K right now. While I like it, I have found that it doesn't really have enough review for DS. We do a letter, maybe play with a salt tray or wikki sticks to practice, do the letter page, and then do review pages that I have made. We try to do 2 letters a week.

Vinegar soak? (that's my standard go-to)

Wow, I'm so sorry about all that. I am glad you have thick skin! While I like MFW for sure, I certainly haven't drank the koolaid.

Thank you, Crystal. That makes perfect sense to me. It's nice to kow that there is still plenty of time for my own science with MFW. I like most everything about MFW, it's just that I like BP too. And you're right, I am planning on using MFW K with my youngest. I just need to quit looking at other things! Your point #2 resonated with me. That is how I want to teach history and geography. We are covering geography very very lightly this year and I enjoy it. I went to our local convention last month and spent hours at the MFW displays. I liked chatting with the people. However, I was NOT impressed with a certain speaker...ahem. Way to brash! If I didn't know from reading here to expect that, it would have turned me off of MFW completely. I will shelf any BP thoughts for now and possibly consider them later. You have been so helpful to me! (because I have totally stalked all your MFW posts)

DH surprised me with a 64 GB iPad for Christmas. I have 5 pages of folders with tons of apps, a few small videos, music, and as much school stuff as I can on it currently (Progressive Phonics, Expedition Erth, a ton of prek and k worksheets). I have used about 27 gb so far. I don't regret having the largest size.