I would move for sure. It sounds like 300 a month is affordable for you or you could downsize. Plus with all the gas costs and vehicle wear and tear it really won't be more. Gas prices will go back up. I would move for the lifestyle reasons. I would hate to spend so much time in a car. I personally also do not like long commutes for environmental reasons.

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I would pay a low cost like that. I go to the library every week and take out lots of books at a time. If I didn't have access to a good system in my town but a nearby town had a good one and allowed you to pay a fee that was reasonable I would. It is way more expensive to buy all the books I go through at the library.

I think we all evolved from different areas of the world and there is no perfect diet for any one person. The science for paleo, primal and Weston Price etc diets isn't really all that great. That said I know there are people who do well on those type of diets and who don't do well on any type of grain. I just don't think all people are meant or need to eat like that. Whole grains, soy, legumes etc can be a part of a healthy diet. I was a vegetarian for a while and considered going vegan but I am not for the moment. I eat game meat, local salmon and poultry now. I did it for environmental reasons though not because I though other ways of eating are unhealthy. I think there are a variety of ways to eat healthy. You can have healthy diets as a vegan,vegetarian, and as an omnivore. You can have healthy diets with or without grains. Some people don't do well with grains. Some people do well eating meat. Some people do well not eating meat or dairy products. The list goes on.

The Seven Principals For Making Marriage Work by John Gottman. He researched relationships and what marriages that worked looked like and what ones that failed looked like and gives advice on what works.

It sounds like your ds is a late bloomer since his voice hasn't changed but his friends' have.He most likely will end up a little smaller then average like his parents but he could end up taller. My family has a lot of late bloomers. My brother and I were near the shortest in our grade. My brother is now 6' and I am a respectable 5' 4". I have a cousin who was the shortest in his grade and he was red shirted. He grew to be over 6'. My dh also hit puberty late. In 8th grade he was smaller then the other kids in his grade and he looked like a kid still. He is 5'11 now. I know my kids will be late bloomers. My oldest is on the bottom height chart in like the 1st percentile and the 2nd shortest in her grade of over 60 kids.The shortest is catching up and younger. This will be more pronounced in the coming years once puberty starts hitting for her peers but not her. I am expecting all my kids to go through that.

Having been away from family I don't necessarily agree about establishing our own family and traditions and not worrying about extended family. The kids are going to grow up one day and they themselves may decide to do that. I always picture grandkids and family get togethers in my future. I feel guilty that my parents don't get to see my kids that often. Once a year just isn't enough. I think extended family is important too. I really wish we could be close to family. It is an absence in my life that I feel living so far away. We have extended family that love our children and would love to see them more often. They would also provide help and a relief. They would take them for a weekend or allow us to go out without the kids. They would provide love. I wish we could share meals and that aunts, uncles and grandparents and cousins could be a part of the little events in my children's life. I would love to see my nephews more often. That said I don't know that I could chose option 2 because I don't do good with money stress. Home for us is also a high cost of living area. If possible I would move closer but in a lower cost of living area that isn't as costly as home. If I could move closer to family if life circumstances worked that way I would in a heartbeat but I wouldn't if it meant we couldn't pay our bills and there was money stress.

I don't have an answer to your question but I am glad you bumped this. My kids have a lot more interests now then my response from a year ago. My son loves astronomy now and we read a lot books on that topic. I find it funny he wasn't interested a year ago. He likes so many science topics now. My dd has expanded her interests too and we have been watching a lot of good documentaries which gets them more into topics. I try to stay on an interest for a while but we also get side books. I am just an afterschooler but their school doesn't do much in science so I make sure to do a lot of reading so they have exposure.

In my area you don't do a special needs preschool class if the only delay is speech. They have a class where they just work on speech skills but that is for a certain delay and you don't have to do that if you don't want to. My ds went through speech through the school district in preschool. He just saw a speech therapist one on one. He had a really good speech therapist who I credit to helping him learn to be articulate. It is worth looking into. It isn't hard to get out of if you feel you don't want to anymore. I tend to err on the side of caution but I am glad I got speech for my ds.

My dad was for my siblings born in the 70s and me in the early 80s.

He does really good nature documentaries. They are well done and full of good information. Some of the examples are The Life of Birds, The Life of Mammals, and The Blue Planet. BBC dinosaur videos are leaving too. It looks like all BBC stuff is leaving including Dr Who which has a lot of fans. I hope they are able to renew with the BBC.

I did a live email chat and told them that I would like to see them stay and they said thank you for your feedback. I don't know if they really listen or not.

I just saw that all of the David Attenborough videos are leaving Netflix in February 1st. We love those videos and watch one every week at least. This will be a huge loss for us. I am not sure if writing helps like some people did when Magic School Bus videos were leaving but I really hope they renew it.

It is for an 6 and an 8 year old. The 6 year old loves science and history and tends to listen much better. He is very perceptive when it comes to history and science for his age. My 8 year old has a tendency to tune things out more but she does like engaging things and has been getting into more science topics lately. We don't have a kindle or an audible account. I get things through the library and can use ILL. I heard George's Secret Key to the Universe is good. http://www.amazon.com/dp/0743571614/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=29BFWK4T1H7A4&coliid=I3RRYIGCHHZU10 Thanks for the suggestions so far. Some of them look good. Too bad the child's version of the Short History of Nearly Everything isn't on audio cd. That sounds good. It takes me a while to read books like that to him. I might get the adult book for myself.

I go to a UU church and I have found this to be true. I started going for my kids for the RE program because I wanted my kids to be exposed to all religions in a non biased way. I was an atheist and I didn't think I would like the services but I actually find they are fine and it isn't like a religious service at all. Our first pastor talked about religion more when she had talks but the next pastor didn't really bring it up much. He actually had a talk once about how the word Jesus makes people uncomfortable and if he talked about him even in a general way people would be squeamish and then people talked about that afterwords. He wanted to be able to mention Jesus. Because of that aspect I can see how people would be really uncomfortable with UU even if they are looking for a liberal religion. I actually have no problem at all with them mentioning Jesus. I know a family was there checking it out and that Jesus talk was the 2nd or 3rd service they attended and they never came back. It is funny how it is suppose to be welcoming of everyone's belief but that some congregations have that issue. This month he did have a talk about Jesus and not just for the Christmas Eve service. I would have no problem with them doing that more often or having something where people can discuss religion more. That is what I imagined a UU church to be like. I hope they make an effort with the kids for them to be comfortable with Jesus and Christianity and the history of that. It seemed to me like they do at our church but I only sit in once a month or so. I have observed them doing stories from the bible though. I like the UU church but it also wasn't the best for fostering community at least mine. I don't really feel like I get to know very many people even though most of them are people I think I would really like. I feel like my kids' teachers really care and get to know them but there isn't as much for the adults. I hear a lot of kids saying that once RE ends they don't feel the same sense of community they had once they try to join the church. I hope you find a place where you feel a sense of community.

I have started getting audio books from the library to listen to in the car. I take turns with fiction and non fiction. Right now we are listening to SOTW2 and then I will get the next Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place. After we finish the Incorrigible Children I want to get a science audio cd. Does anyone know any good science audio books? I also would add other non fiction topics to add to the list for a later date like on US History or Geography etc.

When you first put the pronunciation the way I was sounding it out did not sound like oddly and I wouldn't have thought of that, When you said it would rhyme with bodily I do see how it can get pronounced more like that instead of with the t sound. It still has the extra syllable so it doesn't sound like oddly but it is close.

I got an 18. I usually overthink these things but I tried to go with my fast answer this time. I don't completely agree with the description. I definitely prefer small groups of close friends but I actually could use a few more friends. I am very introverted though and need recharge alone time that I do not get very often and it starts to get to me and drive me crazy. I don't like having a lot going on. It really drains me.

Academically he sounds fine. I would not be concerned that he isn't reading at 4. Knowing his letters sounds and counting to 10 is perfect for 4. As far as the other stuff if you are worried I would get it looked into.

My oldest read it this summer at 7.5. She did good in the first half of the book but then got bored. She had no interest in continuing to read any more in the series. I have been debating doing it as a read aloud because their "church" (UU) is doing a several week long Harry Potter unit. They are making it like the kids are going to wizardry school. It sounds fun. I think ds might like it and he does reread stuff. That is interesting about the series getting better in later books. I never been into it myself but I don't like a lot of pop culture stuff like Star Wars, or Lord of the Rings and I was older when they came out. I am fine if my kids do not like it so I am not concerned about what age to introduce it or if they read it too young they will be turned off by it.

My local elementary schools uses Houghton Mifflin for language arts. I wasn't crazy about how they described what they did. I am not sure if it is implemented differently in different places though. I have no idea what they do for preschool just the elementary level.

Wow 2000 for a week for a minimum of 6 months!!!!! That is crazy high for tutoring. I had no idea it was that outrageous. I have gotten some of the manuals and it isn't super hard but for me it also wasn't easy to follow. I could start but it was hard to know what was good and it was hard to continue because I had to go searching for the book and rereading. http://www.wyzant.com/This site has more reasonable tutors and some of the ones in my area work with those methods but the rates are more reasonable. They actually were priced high for me but not that high. Maybe that would be a better source for your friend.

I read the Lion Witch and the Wardrobe to my kids last year but only that one because only one of my kids really loved it. None of them read it on their own yet. I haven't read them LOTR.

In the situation you described there is no way I would bust into your families emergency fund to help them. Do not do it.

I don't think it is unusual for a kid that age to still get comfort from sucking. I think that is normal. I had a blanket I sucked on in childhood that took me a while to give up. I only I took the gradual approach when oldest got hooked on a certain type of sippy cup with a soft straw after weaning. I was worried about her teeth but didn't want to abruptly change it.