Nope, I don't use 3" binders. They're enormous and unwieldy. We use 1½" binders, iirc. I put the kids year-end paperwork ALL in a 3" binder. We have a history binder, reading binder, and a science binder.

Billy Bob would be great for the role too! :D Oooooh - what about Kevin Spacey... or Matthew McConaughey (he can pull off the drunken sleazeball pretty effectively)... I think a lot of actors could pull off Haymitch pretty well.

Okay - I DO know Peeta, then! I feel very modern all of a sudden. Hugh Laurie would be fine as Haymitch - but he won't bring the crAYzy that Alec would bring to the role. :D Maybe David Hasselhoff would work too.... (um, totally kidding... :hat: although now, just watch... they'll cast someone insane and campy. Maybe they'll hire Charlie Sheen for the part! :smilielol5:)

I think when you see pictures of her not all glammed-up (because she sure cleans up nice!) she makes a pretty decent Katniss: http://images.eonline.com/eol_images/Entire_Site/2010516//425.lawerence.winters.lr.061610.jpg http://www.daemonsmovies.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/WINTERS-BONE-9-550x372.jpg Love the castings for Peeta and Gale, even though Peeta was supposed to be a blonde - I think this guy captures that "aw, shucks" persona perfectly. And Gale is supposed to be a big, strong, hunky dude - so whoever this is looks the part. (sidenote: I do feel ancient, though. I have no idea who any of these people are... :001_huh: ) Now they just need to cast Alec Baldwin as Haymitch and I'm happy. :lol:

Took my 12 year old and am planning to rent and watch with the 10yo and 8 yo when it's out on DVD soon!

No. If you didn't LOVE Wicked - definitely skip Son of a Witch. :lol: It just gets... weird. lol The musical most definitely is loosely based on the book. :lol: Thank goodness. Just can't imagine a Canon interpretation of the book-as-a-play. I keep wondering, if they ever make a movie - will it be based on the BOOK - or the PLAY? :mellow:

A book that I pretend never existed was the 4th Twilight book. I have the other three on my shelf and read them from time to time, but that 4th book has just gone missing... lol Felt sucker-punched by The Time Traveler's Wife and My Sister's Keeper, and have forsworn similar books forevermore. I LOVE Martin's Game of Thrones series and think he is brilliant. Funnily enough, I cannot (canNOT!) read gruesome material in books, so I do skim over certain sections through the series because I can't handle it. But, the story itself? Genius. :D And, am now intrigued by the Life of Pi ... off to reserve it at the library to see if I have the same reaction.

Thank you - this is wonderful!

Dh & I had one before we had children. He was awesome. He did sleep during the day, but in the evening, we'd turn out many of the lights in the house (he had a heat lamp that didn't add light to his cage, iirc). That's when we'd pop a few crickets into his cage and watch him hunt - which was always entertaining to see him stalk and *pounce*. :D We got him out of his cage often and he'd hang out. You could scratch his head and he'd start to get droopy-eyed and then fall asleep. Total cuteness. The most exciting pet? Nope. But, he was sweet, gentle, cute, easy to care for, healthy (and easy to keep him so). Definitely one of THE easiest reptiles to care for. Easy-peasy. We wound up giving him back to the breeder once we had our first baby. I was paranoid about handling any reptile since our daughter had some health issues when she was born, so he didn't get much attention. The breeder found him a good home, so it was all good.

n/a :)

:iagree: Yep.

Ahh, so many wonderful names... too few babies! :) DH buzz-killed many of my favorites. With ds, we had to go with family names because neither of us liked the same boy names! It was a good thing we had two girls first... Clara Gwyneth Genevieve Vivian Luke Owen August DH has a boy name (Castle) I wouldn't agree to. He still brings it up from time to time. :D

My girls usually call me "Mom." My ds calls me "Mother."

What is up with that? I have seen zero timelines or estimates for the 4th book. It's as if it's been forgotten. I could barely get through the 3rd book. to the OP - there were violent, gross scenes that I have had trouble putting out of my own head. yuck. Redwall, on the other hand, is wonderful!

I have a 12yo 7th grader: How much time to you spend on the following subjects with your 7th and 8th grader who works on an average to above-average academic level: Mathematics She spends about 1 hr a day on math Language arts (excluding literature) Anywhere from 20-45 minutes, depending on the assignment Literature approx an hour every day - either reading, or doing the assignments related to the reading, or discussing what was read History 3/5 times a week. We're using AAH and SOTW and do history with the 5th grader all together. I give the 7th grader more reading/research assignments to do each week. So, we "do" history 3 times a week, but the other two days are spent researching and writing up a report, or reading a book and handing in a report about it. These reports are usually left in rough-draft/research format - I just want to know what she's learned. Science usually 45 minutes a day. Foreign language n/a We're still Latin flunkies and haven't settled on anything else yet. One of these days... Fine arts This happens when it happens. Usually once a week, sometimes more. Just depends on the week. We will often do an art project over the weekend if it wasn't done during the week. We also do a daily writing/reading workshop that lasts between 60-90 minutes each day. Do you have particular things that have to get done in a given time frame or do you just work for a specific time and move on? I give her an hour to do science, and an hour for math, an hour for lit. Anything not done in that timeframe is done later that evening. We definitely move on. We didn't always do this and were quite frequently bogged down. Any "extra" time in that hour, she's free to read, write, daydream, whatever. How many times in the course of a day do you transition from subject to subject? When the hour is up, we move on. Not sure how often it happens. She usually does certain subjects before lunch, and the "easy" ones after. Do your children transition well or is it it a struggle? It used to be a struggle, but I found that, as long as **I** stay firm on the routine, they fell into place. Now it's just... easy. Also - my kids get up earlier than I do. They all get their own breakfast, do the dishes/morning chores, and get started on their school work with no help from me. The girls have a schedule for some subjects, others they just move to the next lesson. they read it on their own. If they just flat-out do not understand it, they wait for me and move to another subject. If they understand it, they do the assignment. We go over it (understood or not) once I'm up and had my morning caffeine. I will often crawl out of bed @ 9 am and my 5th grader is pretty much finished with any/all of the school work she does on her own. Do they get out and put away their own materials or do you do that for them? They know where all their stuff is and can get it all at any time. Some days, if we're short on time, I'll gather the materials just because I can do it in half the time they seem to manage. ;) What are the consequences if they don't get their work done? They have to miss out on fun time in the evenings after Daddy's home. We all work hard to get all our work done before he's home in the evenings, because once dh is home, we try to make that our FUN time. They play video games (with daddy), go to the gym, go swimming, build stuff in the garage, etc, etc, etc. Missing out on fun-evening-time is a big deal around here, so it keeps them motivated. ;) Do your kids have homework? Yes. If something isn't done, it's done that evening. If a weekly assignment (such as a writing assignment) isn't completed by its due date, they work on it over the weekend. sometimes I will assign something to be due on Monday morning. This is usually worked on over the weekend. We don't do mid-day snacks, etc. The kids each have a huge water bottle they keep near them. They make their own lunch at 11 and have a free hour/hour and a half. If I let them get snacks and/or drinks all day they would never get a single thing accomplished.

:iagree:

Thank you for all the kind suggestions! Will spend the next few days looking through links and such -there are websites and books and building toys that I've never even heard of. I knew this would be the right place to ask, lol! :D DS will be very happy to have some new things to try. We want to continue his love for building these things - but - our funds just cannot keep up with his busy hands! LOL :lol:

First, thanks for the book instructions. I've reserved several from the library - I didn't realize there were books ('doh!! :laugh:) that weren't just "Lego Collection" and/or MindStorm books out there. He'll like going through those. Odd??? Um, okay. :001_huh: As I said, he DOES spend hours dreaming up his own creations. We have a gazillion Legos for just that purpose & just disassembled an entire Hogsmeade village the kids created a few weeks ago. But, sometimes he wants to sit down - with an instruction "manual" - and make exactly what is in front of him and he wants it to look exactly like the finished product on the package. Same with his wood creations. Sometimes he likes to just... create. Other times, he wants to find pre-made plans and read and follow the instructions. And yes, he realizes that Legos are much more than they're packaged to be. And I don't think he's odd in any way. :glare:

lol, he constantly "rescues" things from the recycling (it's his job to take the recycling outside, so he sees it as first-dibs). We have a big Rubbermaid kept in the schoolroom with oodles of ... STUFF. It makes me crazy sometimes, but he simply must have that creative building outlet or he is just a miserable little guy. It's definitely hard-wired into his personality, lol.

Thanks for the ideas! Off to google some things! I do think the whole "end goal" thing is what makes building a kit so different for him than building "whatever he wants." He doesn't see building "whatever he wants" as much of a challenge, because no matter how it turns out, it's okay! Whereas when he's building with a kit, there's a right-and-wrong and he sort of thrives off that energy. I've tried finding pictures of Legos online and having him duplicate those himself (without instructions). The girls LOVE this & have come up with the coolest creations (usually varying from the picture once they have gotten into it creatively), but him... notsomuch. The colors were never "just right" with the pictures and that really irritated/distracted him. He wants it just. so. :glare:

Oooooohh, thanks for this post! I reserved a few CDs from the library for the kids to listen to before we order some from Amazon. :001_smile:

Help! I have a just-turned 8 year-old who is a Lego fanatic. We also have K'Nex and Snap Circuits that he is likewise obsessed with. During the warmer months, he spends half his life in the garage working on this-or-that creative project with his toolbox and scrap wood. In the wintertime, it's creating space stations made from recycling & Duct Tape (all through the house, ugggg!). We buy him the large Lego kits and he is finished within a couple of hours, tops. All the Lego kits from his birthday last week have been finished for days and he's fidgety already. What is a next step? To spend this kind of cash on these huge Lego kits for a couple hours of fun... well, we could have paid for a trip to Disney at this point, lol!! I want something that will at least slow him down some, but don't know what's available out there. :huh: I know there are some kind of robotic Legos, but are those too intricate? My girls weren't quite this... enthusiastic. They enjoy their Lego kits, and they build them quickly, but sort of pace themselves. DS, on the other hand, once the box is opened, he is a Man On A Mission. He also spends a lot of time building his own projects with the huge amount of miscellaneous Legos we have, but he REALLY enjoys following those instruction sheets.

If the William is one of your parents (I think this was said earlier), I'd have to think long and hard on it. There is a chance that the non-William parents will feel you've named a child after the William-parents and their feathers might get a little ruffled. And the William-parents might take it as an incredible, and yet unintended, sign of respect/adoration/affection. Now, all this might be okay with you guys, so.... that might be a moot point. Just a thing to consider. So. With that said, love the name Liam, and I am one who definitely associates the name with William (both for the Celtic/American same-name thing and for the possibility of Liam being a nickname/shortened version of William). Also - we named one of our daughters a "version" of my mother's name. We meant it as a compliment. She never saw it that way, because we changed one of the letters in dd's name. My cousin named her daughter another "version" of the name (NOT meaning it as a compliment, necessarily... she just liked the name), but kept the "y," and my mom is still telling people about her great-niece who has nearly the same name as her. :001_huh: So, maybe the william-parents won't notice the similarity at all! lol

Loved The Help (and agree that the audio of this one is almost a must-listen-to). Another book I highly recommend in audio-version is the Book Thief. Listening to that book vs reading it was an entirely different experience - the audio is brilliant and it haunted me for a few weeks. I h ad trouble reading anything else until I had gotten that book mentally out of my system.

:iagree: Yep - without hesitation.