Absolutely beautiful!!! I loved the hospital stay. Especially with my second. I knew getting to be by ourselves would be a rare event. I just stayed in bed and enjoyed him. When I went home it was crazy -- no more bed rest for me!

:grouphug: I can ' t say I understand because my dc's are just turning into teenagers. I am trying to ease off on the help. Instill self organization. Dd and I both belong to a patchwork group. We need to put our supplies together before we go. I got what I needed. I actually grabbed extra fabric for Dd in case she had cut things out wrong so I did help her. Anyway we got there and part of the meeting is showing completed block. She had spent most of her free time finishing 2 for that meeting. Did she bring them? No. Who did she blame? Me. It was actually pretty funny. The women cracked up. Dd couldn't believe it when they weren't sympathetic. Will she forget again? I doubt it. All I can say is we have to let them learn. You have done a great job explaining what his options are. He will have to take responsibility eventually.

:iagree: You may want more eventually with 2 kids. But this set is plenty for now. Perfect for Minquin if you go that route. Should work with any book that say it uses cuisiare rods.

I didn't do much before. Very minimal- just 3 or 4 sleepers, a pack of onsies, and receiving blankets. Waited on diapers to try hospital samples. Same for other products--lotions etc. We didn't know what we were having -- Dd was very shy. Large item wise just car seat, crib, and changing table. I will tell you that newborns can have opinions on their clothes. DS screamed when in sleepers. He could not tolerate his feet being covered. New newborn stuff was needed. I didn't have much so didn't care.

Welcome Baby Dylan!!! :party::party::party:

I divide it into much smaller notebooks. I use the cheap colored cardboard kind. I colour code. Dds are labeled and blue. I have a different colour for each subject area. I put all the weekly schedules in one. Then separate the history guides from the lit. Other "stuff" gets one -- how to write a research paper etc. Then anything which will be used more than a few weeks gets one-- Westminster Catechism this time. This way we have everything in easy to carry bundles. Can grab what we need and go. The big binder was a nightmare! We just mark our current pages with sticky notes.

Dracula is Not that bad. On the Vampire fiction scale really mild. That being said neither of mine --12 and13 have read it. Both wanted to when they were your sons age. DH said no-- I reread it -- but they haven't asked again. They haven't read other vampire fiction either! Just Bunnicula!

Gymboree or any store with a good mark down policy. Easter dresses should be marked down. Also the larger sizes at Gymboree tend to sit unsold. Sorry-- I didn't see the long part.

If possible have another adult there so you can have bathroom breaks. Dh stayed home for our moving sale. He worked in the basement and was able to take the money frequently. I sent a wad in everytime I had about $100. That way I couldn't loose it. Also I managed to sell a lot of my donate items. When someone said do you have a crib mattress? I said $10 and yelled at hubby to find it. We had our basement full. He was able to restock as the day went on.

I just wanted to let you know that my kids like to use the dummies books to supplement Fred. We bought a huge stack of them when Borders went out of business and they have been really great. They are easy to use and easy to find the definition/example in. My daughter is doing the LOF calculus course and is finding dummies to be the best way to answer any questions she has. Yes, Khan would work but it takes at least 20 minutes!

I spent a few weeks driving with a professional driving instructor last summer. I needed to get a UK manual license. It is definately someplace in the 2/10 or 3/9 range for safety. I learned lots and after I broke the hand crossing habit actually enjoyed myself!

Thank you!!!

:grouphug::grouphug::grouphug:

We really like it now. It has done the job with both kids. Another advantage is it teaches different writing formats very clearly. I just want to warn you that it completely overwhelmed me when I first got it. I just couldn't spend the time to figure it out so l set it aside. Someone asked me about it several months later. I pulled it out, looked it over to answer question, and started it the next day! It is really easy to use after the initial time spent figuring out how to implement the parts.

Praying :grouphug:

Recently I attended a party in my home town. I saw many classmates that I hadn't seen for 30 years. Many had adult children and grandchildren. They acted really old. Thanks to home ed some of my best friends are in their 30's. We do young things! Frequently by accident -- I have ended up doing some really steep hikes up mountains. I am so glad my kids are still home. I don't t want to be that old now.

We like Apologia. It is easy to use. Well designed for homeschool. Both Dh ( chemistry BS) and I have decent science backgrounds and are happy with it. Christian content wise -- when something that the author explains as particularly incredible -- the reason is that it can't be coincidence it must be God. This is a frequent theme. When several theories are possible he explains them all well and concludes with his beliefs. We are Christian. Overall I am glad that they are getting that perspective because they won't later or anywhere else. Both of my dc's will be taking some sort of university level science. I am certain they will get plenty of other perspectives. They really do now. Lots of science related activities with people that are serious about evolution. Another major complaint is how chatty the books are. My Ds basically reads the books. Looks over the study questions. Memorizes the definitions. Tests. If they weren't chatty he would never survive! He actually is doing great. I am not sure he would do well without the chatty style. But he definately gets this style! We aren't on the AP track necessarily. I think it would better to have their first university science class be easy! I hope this helps your decision.

I got one of each type. Dd13 can easily function well on less than 7 hours of sleep. Was on 1 nap a day at about 6 months. By 18 months she was on our schedule. We would beg her to sleep so we could! Ds 12 needs 12 hours minimum and still naps in the car! He would take 3 naps a day when he was 3! Ds always feels like he is missing things and trys to stay up and spends the next day nodding off. There really isn't a great compromise. Dd reads in her room so he can sleep frequently, but we do not expect her to.

Edith Nesbit books are really good. Our absolute favorites are The Wizard of Oz series. Lots better then the movie.

The only program we are familiar with is First Start French. It is very similar to the Latina Christiana programs. Because it is already familiar dd13 is moving very quickly through it and some language tapes. The aim is to have her handle the language requirements for a family trip to France in September.:lol:

Candid What I was looking at are on a website in Singapore -- I know nothing about the company. I do think I ended up there from a post on this forum but I have no idea whose. The company is SGBox.com. -- sorry I can't do links. They have 5 different texts at $59.99. That is as far as I have gotten. I am not sure about the answer key and there must be one. Probably fine with just answers not complete worked. Anyway that is what I have found. I wish it was a lot more!

I just asked Dd -- she says 15 to 30 minutes usually.

No advice to give. I hope you get your questions answered soon! :grouphug::grouphug::grouphug:

The really odd thing is in the UK people use plain old milk to make scones! No buttermilk or sour cream! That is probably the big difference. I don't have a recipe to share but I watch a good friend make them all the time. She almost fell over when I asked about the buttermilk! I just eat hers--yum!

Dd 13 is using it. So far we like it. I bought it because it was inexpensive and supposed to be good. That seems to be true. :001_smile: