I can't say that I have any words of wisdom for you. The first thing I thought of was that your mind is being prepared for an unexpected birth situation.. that you want things to go one way, but your mind keeps telling you to be open to something different. I think one of my first thoughts after seeing a positive pregnancy test is "Im gonna have to push again!!!!", and it comes to me from time to time during pregnancy, and a lot there toward the end when the pushing is imminent. I will be praying that you come to a place of peace about where to birth, and that wherever you do birth, you feel the support and love you need, and that as a result of this particular labor, you don't feel the way you have before in your child's first weeks.

My girls are enrolled in the Classical Conversations co-op for a 4th year in a row, and I would say that the CC curriculum is the core of what we use. I am also influenced by Charlotte Mason and WTM.

I think...... Grace (3rd) Math U See Delta or A Beka Math 3 Handbook of Nature Study A Reason For Handwriting Classical Conversations Foundations incl. 100 Veritas Press History Cards Classical Conversations Essentials incl. Essentials of the English Language and US Based History Writing Spelling Plus Dictation Plus Lots of Ambleside Online Year 3 recommended books for narration and reading incl. A Child's History of the World, Trial and Triumph, Squanto, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Through The Looking Glass Lily (1st) Classical Conversations Foundations incl Veritas Press 100 History Cards Handbook of Nature Study First Language Lessons, First Grade Phonics Museum Handwriting Without Tears BOB Books Math U See Alpha or Abeka Math 1 Spelling Plus (we will see how reading goes!) lots of Ambleside Online Year 1 recommended books for narration incl The Red Fairy, Blue Fairy, Holling C. Holling, D'Aulaire, Milne...

muffinmom: I read celebrity-babies too! I only remember a few times a week, Saturday is usually the only day I manage to get there with any regularity (unless Im stalking someone who is overdue or the Jolie/Pitt annoucement or something (: ) 1) I still have a crush on my first crush! Embarassing! 2) I think Zac Efron (HS Musical) is just about the cutest thing.. see crush on my first crush bc he lookes like him! LOL 3) Nora Roberts, Diana Gabaldon, Stephenie Meyer mindless romance novels. They do need to be really well written fluff though! 3)

http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/chrysostom I just started and would love to get to know some people here better through their blogs! I am a lurker and a not very regular poster here.. but I am a real life friend of very regular poster 3lilreds who blogs at sunflowerhouse.blogspot.com if that gives me any Hive Mind street cred :)

1.) How many kids do you have and what are their ages? 4, their ages are DD1 8 1/2, DD2 51/2, DD3 2 1/2, and DS9 months. 2.) What is your favorite food? chocolate :) I like a lot of Thai foods. 3.) What is your favorite movie? Much Ado About Nothing, LOTR, Star Wars, Matrix are also favorites 4.) Coke, Pepsi or neither? Water, Lemonade, or Dr. pepper 5.) What is your favorite book? Bible, the HP series, Outlander Series by Diana Gabaldon and The Book of God by Walter Wangerin, Jr. 6.) What is your least favorite household job? laundry 7.) What is your favorite season? Autumn 8.) What is your favorite sport? gymnastics or ice skating 9.) What is your favorite holiday? Christmas 10.) What is your least favorite store you have to shop in? Our local Kmart

I have four, three girls and one boy. My oldest and second are 3 years apart, and my second and third are 3 years apart. My third and fourth are 2 years apart, and I totally prefer the 2 year spread. Having only had it once, it may be that my two youngest are just really easy children... but it seems to me that age 3 has been the hardest age so far for my girls. And having a newborn and a 3 year old at the same time, at least the 2 who have been three so far in my house, it was much much harder on me.

I have one son and 3 daughters. Our son is intact. I researched circumcision and decided that I did not want my son circumcised. I asked my husband what he thought, and he (though circumcised), said that he did not feel it was medically necessary and that the New Testament seemed pretty clear to him on the fact that circumcision was no longer necessary as far as a biblical arguement. And we are not Jewish, so we were not going to have him circumcised for a religious reason. I dont know if anyone posted about this, but very many men who are intact suffered at the hands of uninformed doctors when they were forcibly retracted as children. Many older men have issues with phimosis. There are two kinds of phimosis, natal and acquired: Acquired phimosis happens when the skin has been forcibly retracted and tears in the skin result from that forcible retraction. Over years, the skin becomes harder on that scar tissue than on the rest of the skin. The highest rates of aquired phimosis happen to be found in the US. Natal phimosis is very rare here and in other countries, where there is a true inability to retract that usually requires surgery.

we have used CLE Math for First and Second grades, and are starting on Third grade with my oldest. I am starting my 5 yr old out on CLE Math first grade this fall. It works really well for my oldest daughter. She has done very well and likes it a lot. I am hoping it works well for my second, too.

We were in OT for a year, and the first two items you listed about how to spot a potential meltdown and how to calm your child pronto, along with providing ideas for a sensory diet were totally NOT my experience. *sigh* You are really fortunate. I so need to get my 8 yr old back into therapy. We could find no OT in our area certified in SPD or anything I had no idea that certification in SPD existed until I read your post. And we live in the Raleigh NC area, a large city! We couldn't really even get an OT who had much experience with sensory issues. Grace got a lot of help with her fine motor and motor planning issues. But sensory, not so much. And Sensory Therapists were not covered by insurance. We have recently had another very serious spiking in sensory overload stuff in our house, and I feel like Im losing my mind. I have the OOSC and the OOSC has fun and I even have Raising a Sensory Smart Child. But I just dont understand how to put a sensory diet together for her... and I totally dont know how to calm her down right away. My younger daughter has opposite sensory issues, and weve found that we can give her deep pressure to calm her. But still no idea with our oldest. Thanks for psoting this. I need to make some calls on Monday.

Thank you!!

what text are you referring to in the suggestion that they read pages 1-8 of the text to go wirh the history sentence?

I am finding myself to be fairly overwhelmed in teaching my 2nd grader... I have a K4, a 2 yr old, and a 6 month old as well. I *love* how my teaching portion is scripted in the First Language Lessons Level 3 grammar book, and I was wondering if I could get some curriculum recommendations for other teacher's manuals like that? Im not sure yet if we want to continue with an eclectic mix, or if we want to get a boxed curriculum for 3rd and Kindergarten next year, I am pretty open to ideas. We do Classical Conversations co-op, and I was told that we only needed to do language arts and math outside of their curriculum. My husband, however, would like for me to do Bible, Math, Science, Spelling, Handwriting, History, and Grammar in addition to Classical Conversations. So I'm wondering about a boxed curriculum being easier to deal with than many different types plus Classical Conversations. I'm very confused. We currently love Christian Light Math and FLL Level 3. I don't love but Grace does great with Spelling Plus and Dictation Plus. We have done OK with Christian Light science, but I'd be open to more suggestions for science. I assume we would go back to SOTW for history, though with our co-op, she gets history sentences and 100 history cards, and it seems like enough history to me for right now. Classical Conversations seems to recommend Shurley Grammar, but I'm not sure if she'd transition to level 3 or level 4 after doing FLL Level 3 this year. Sorry if Im babbling, the baby has me distracted. Hopefully someone can give me some suggestions and description of curriculum.

My daughter Grace asked at 7, and little sister Lily said "me too, me too!"... so they got pierced at 7 and 4. Grace kept hers. Lily opted to let hers close. We've had no problems with Grace's ears, using highj quality earrings only, washing when we brush teeth twice a day.