I can't answer the poll. My kids have never slept as late as 8:30am, and I wouldn't want them to either. We usually have a lot done by then, and we have several outside lessons that start at 8:30. Mine are usually awake around 6/6:30, although my nearly 3yr old often wakes at 5:30 :glare: They go to bed 7pm-ish. DD went to bed at 8pm last night - still woke at 5:30am...

Oh dear. I wondered if they might... That might be why the previous owner didn't have a vege garden. We are in Queensland, but I guess the kangaroos are the same here about eating stuff! I have absolutely no knowledge on it, we've always lived in the suburbs until now. So I will need a high fence? What about fruit trees? Would they be safe? (sorry to the OP asking these questions on your thread!)

Melissa, where do you live? We have just bought a house with kangaroos everywhere and I have been wondering if I will need to fence a vege garden!! Six feet?!

I'm surprised how many think it would go over a 2yr old's head, or they wouldn't be paying attention or "get it". My 2yr old would easily sit through the whole movie, completely attentive and engaged and would be guaranteed to be extremely frightened at all the scary parts. My 5yr old would be too, and ask questions for days about why things happened etc. So, I am not of the opinion that it doesn't really affect them. Maybe not scar for life, but certainly significant enough to really bother some kids. There's no way my 2yr old, or my 5yr old would be watching this. Luckily my husband would agree, so no issue there!

You could start with either Little House in the Big Woods or Farmer Boy, but it may be helpful to know Farmer Boy is quite a bit longer, which may be relevant or not depending on your DS's age. We've read these both with my 5yr old DS and he liked them both (we read Little House first)

The thing is if you have kids that need to sleep early, outings will not be fun or enjoyable at all if it is way past their bedtime. My kids have never been ones to sleep places other than their own beds, and DD gets overtired and is impossible to get to sleep when we take her out late. We will go out on occassion, but it's not fun for any of us when we get home. And the next day is a write off. I don't like going out at night anyway, because MY bedtime is around 830-9pm! :lol: Kids in bed by 7pm, we get a few hrs to ourselves in the evening. We are all up at 6am. BTW it's winter here and dark at 5pm :)

:iagree: My 5yr old and 2.5yr old both go to bed around 630-7pm. If DD has a nap during the day, she won't be tired and I let her look at books in bed for around 30min and lights out 745 ish.

I also have no idea what you are talking about. I'm 34 and was born (and grew up) in New Zealand.

I am saving Charlotte's Web for that reason too, so you're not the only one :001_smile: My DS is 5yrs. We've read and enjoyed quite a few on your list. He's also enjoyed Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, George's Marvellous Medicine, Dr Dolittle and Farmer Boy. We're doing Stuart Little at the moment. We might do some more Oz books, because he liked The Wonderful Wizard.

5.5yr old - I spend about 15-20 mins, not every day, probably 5 days a week doing an active "reading lesson" from 100EL. This is the only time he thinks he practices. In addition I encourage lots of opportunistic life based reading, get him to read to younger DD, let him take turns reading lines with me in picture books etc. So bits and pieces of extra in there too. He has lots of readers from the library too and he probably reads one every second day on average.

Wow. An eye opening thread for me. I never would have thought people would let 10yr olds watch Criminal Minds! That is often very freaky even for me (even though I enjoy it). There is no way I'd let my kids watch it. I totally consider it an adult program (16yrs +). There is no way ever they will have TVs in their bedrooms either. We have one TV in the house, mainly use it to watch DVDs/movies of our choosing, hardly ever TV itself. We won't be getting another TV and I will never quite understand the culture of multiple TVs through houses, especially in children's rooms. But to answer the OP - don't know cos we aren't there yet, perhaps 12-13yrs they would make most of their own viewing choices.

I took German (and French) throughout highschool. I have been to Germany on a school exchange (attended highschool there), and then been back to both countries as an adult. Germany is a very interesting country and culture, and German is useful travelling around Europe. I loved all my time there and would love to go back. I'd let her take German, 1)Because she wants to 2) Because there is no compelling advantage over French IMO (agree with other posters if you want usability then go for Mandarin or Arabic or something else)

Just wanted to note that this could be very dangerous. Giving acetaminophen every 3-4 hrs for 24 or 48hrs could kill some children. It shouldn't be given more than 4 times in 24 hrs. Yes, it can be given 4hrly, but not over and over again. (My DH worked at a liver transplant unit and they saw a run of children in liver failure because parents had followed similar advice to this) I agree with the posts above which say not to fear a fever and often you can let it run its course. Having said that if your (OP's) baby is less than six months old I would go straight to a hospital because it is much more likely to be serious in a baby. I'd be pretty cautious with an under one year old too. Over one, I'd agree with you, giving something to get through the night is what I would do too.

My 5yr old and 2yr old are exactly the same as you describe OP. We haven't done anything about it for our 5yr old, but it's good to read the different ways people have gone about dealing with it.

How interesting! I grew up in New Zealand and have made scones many, many times. They are a quick morning tea to make for last minute guests. I would never use the word biscuit to describe it, but that's because to me, a biscuit = what you would call a cookie in the US! So a scone is nothing like a cookie! :lol: A scone can be (very mildly) sweet, or savoury, non yeast baked item, with a bread-like texture, most definitely not fried!! My recipe would involve rubbing butter into flour (with baking powder) and adding milk. The success is mostly in the mixing (not too much and with a knife). I wouldn't usually add sugar, but maybe dates or sultanas, for a sweet one, or just sweeten by topping with jam and cream. Savoury ones would often have grated cheese/herbs added, mixed in and/or on top. Love scones! (as I know them!) I know them like the UK scones I guess, though a bit different to what some described earlier in the thread.

Totally fine in our household. I would do (and have done) exactly what you did with no hesitation. Our 2yr old DD takes off ALL her clothes every time she goes on the potty! She never wants to put them back on so she is very often running around the house without clothes, and I've taken her out the front like that when necessarry for brief periods.

Yeah - I was amazed to read that thread today and see how many people hated it! I'm glad I didn't read that thread before I bought it, because it would definitely have put me off! We are using this now and DS loves it. We've been very similar to the OP and taught all the letters and letter sounds before starting. DS has flown through it so far up to lesson 65. The first 1-30ish lessons we only spent about 10 minutes to get through them (doing the whole lesson) as it was easy for him and came together quickly. Now since around lesson 60+ we are slowing down and at an appropriately challenging level, the lessons take more like 20-25 min. I think the easy start and getting it all correct easily at the beginning gave him a sense of satisfaction. We do the writing about 1/5th of the time only. We never read the story twice as his comprehension is brilliant and he hates having to do it again. But the book has been a great success and he loves uncovering the picture! I was hesitant to use something scripted like this, that and the type were both off-putting, but it has really worked for us and I'm glad I got it. My DS has just turned 5yrs, and has been wanting to read, and ready to learn for a while but it really wasn't clicking at all until we used this book :001_smile:

I'd love to know what school if you don't mind sharing? We are HSing on the GC, but keeping open minds about the possibility of school.