God works in mysterious ways. Perhaps this was his wake-up call to your dd. I sure hope so! *hugs* Rebecca

What a tragic situation and outcome. My heart, thoughts, and prayers are with this family. Rest in Peace, sweet Emme. :(

I think if your 4 y/o can get interested in them, they are great read-alouds. Just make sure you know the oreder of them and don't read out of the 6 book sequence for each set. Otherwise, I can see a younger child getting really confused.

My prayers for you and Cameron right now!

He definitely has a voice and he is cute as can be. I think he would have made a good Edward Cullen in the Twilight movie. ;)

I am from TN and I say "loy-yer." I think that is just the way it comes out when I talk. I don't think it is the southern accent, because most people I know say, "laaaaawwww Yur" LOL

My older son is using Explorer Bible Series, Beginnings II and he is doing really, really well with it. My younger guy is the problem. We tried Beginnings I with him and it just did not work. He was bored with the reading. We bought the little "Children's Bible Stories" and he LOVED them...but they were not in much depth. I decided I wanted something in story format for him...more in depth than the Beginners Bible stories, but still hold his interest. Right now, I am sticking with stories and I really don't want anything that tries to ask questions at the end, etc. Can anyone give any good suggestions with links so I can check out the items? Thank you so much in advance!

It will be clear...you will know when the time has come. I promise. As you see their health decline, their quality of life decline, you will know. My heart goes out to you and your dd. It is a heartwrenching decision to make for ONE animal...much less two in such a close time. :( I am so sorry.

I wouldn't buy the text book unless you are using the program as your core.

I am not sure...BUT I will chime in that I have had a paypal account for YEARS and never had a problem at all. Also, you can sign up for paypal using only a credit card (I think) which is much safer than giving out your bank information.

Giving the kids a lighter load on co-op day. We were rushing to get school done and then doing co-op for 3 hours. It was exhausting. Now I ujust could the three hours of co-op, plus the 1 hour of basic work we do and call it a day. It made things much easier for all of us!

I think I would go have a peanut allergy test done before you eat any more. The first reaction to pb can be mild and the second be deadly. You just never know. Better safe than sorry is my thought... Although I think it IS rare to develop an allergy to peanuts as an adult. Most people show their allergies to nuts very early in life. But I developed an allergy to Ibuprofen after taking it for over 15 years...so I guess it could happen.

Honestly, I find out on a need to know basis. My dh reads the paper each day and keeps up with current events. If I ask him, he usually knows. If I read the paper myself, I get very depressed. It is not good for my hypochondria/ocd to read about all the bad in the world...and, unfortunately, it is hard to pick up a paper and read it without seeing all the bad in the world around me. :(

Ahhh...that is when you know you have...arrived. LOL No really, get them the psychiatric help they need NOW before it is too late! ;)

I have always driven a stick - I taught myself when I was 16. My kids will absolutly learn to drive a stick!

Mine is "Bad Girls" by Donna Summer DHs is "In the Year 2525" by Zager and Evans (I have never even heard of this song) Ds9's was "Genie in a Bottle" but Christina Aguilera Ds5's was "Baby Boy" (how fitting!) by Beyonce featuring Sean Paul

8 weeks. I bought Calvert and used it for 8 weeks. While it was a HUGE waste of money for us, the one thing I did learn was how to make my own schedule. Just seeing it done and seeing how it fell into place helped me tremendously. Now I have no worries at all with scheduling our own ecclectic mix of curriculum.

I have an English degree (so English is my *thing*) and I am am using quite a bit with my son - but I pick and pull and do not make him do it all. We use LLATL (I like the book studies, the research introduction, and the newspaper section for 4th grade), Writing Tales II (I like the re-writing of the stories because it gives him a topic, makes him write, but does not require him to think it all up on his own just yet), Growing with Grammar (I just love this program all the way around and he does well with it), Calvert Spelling (he is a poor speller and Calvert is to keep him up with his level), and Spelling Power (this is to go back and get all the words that he may have missed during his time in ps and because he is a poor speller). On top of that, we do 2 pages of Pentime handwriting every day. That said, I lay it out so that English never takes him more than 45 minutes to do all of it - and usually he is finished way before that. Next year (5th grade), we will be using LLATL Purple, CW Homer/Poetry, GWG 5, and the same spelling and handwriting.

The only thing I would work hard on right now is math and writing. It sounds like she's got the reading thing down, she is a natural speller, Science and History can wait (or she may be getting that on her own in her reading). Focus on getting her math up to par. I am honestly *shocked* that TT5 is doing multiple digit multiplication and no division, but I digress. My son is doing mostly 4th grade work, but I started him in Singapore 3A in the fall because of what he had and had not covered in ps the year before. Singapore 3A started with multiple digit multiplication and then moved straight to long division. He *got it* pretty quickly and we moved on through the books at his pace. He is much better in math now than he was 6 mos ago and he is almost "caught up." Writing is still a struggle for us. The best thing to do to teach writing is to have her...write. You don't really need a formal program...just give her a topic and let her know what you expect of her (paragraph, sentence structure, etc). Over time, she will get better and better. :) If you prefer a writing curriculum, there are some great ones out there...Writing Tales and Writing with Ease are two of my favorites.

We are a family of 4 and were cramped in 1480 sq. ft. Now we have 3130 sq feet (with an open floor plan in the living/kitchen/dining areas) and we are finally comfortable and spread out. Our house never feels too small, but it doesn't feel too big either...unless I am cleaning it. Then, ugh! LOL

You can call him whatever you want. :) I am not sure as far as reporting him for your state with intent to homeschool though. Most states don't require reporting until a child is 7. We reported my 5.5 year old last year to the umbrella school as a Kindergartener (he was 4.8 or so then).

I am excited for next year and I have 85% of my curriculum already. Lesson plans. NO. LOL I actually only do lesson plans the week before. We change things so often around here that if I do them more in advance than that, I end up having to change everything all the time. I will make our first week lesson plans as we start to finish up things and know where we will be and when. Since i will be schooling over the summer (at least until we finish the curricula that we started later in the year), I am not sure yet where we will be in what by the time we start. Clear as mud? LOL

If my husband broke the sacred bond of our marriage by being with another woman...in any way, shape, or form, I would leave him. There is no going back from there for me. This comes from my mother watching my grandmother raise her while my grandfather cheated with whatever walked. This comes from watching my mother divorce my loser dad after he cheated on her with 29 different women and told her on her birthday..the day that she also found out she was pregnant with me. Sorry, for me it is just not an option. My husband has other choices - he can ask for a divorce, tell me things are not working out, seek counseling with me, etc. but when he reaches out to another woman, I am done. I refuse to ever let my kids live in that situation and know, like my mom did, that I didn't do something about it. I am sure that is not popular opinion and I think each situation is unique and different. I am just saying what *I* would do in *my* situation with *my* husband.

Notice ALL of them are living alone. That would be cool if I was out living by myself. Not so cool with 2 kids, a husband, 2 cats, and a dog.

I did think of my son's names. Both are named after their father and then go by their middle names. My oldest, I wish I had spelled his middle name differently so the name he goes by would make more sense, but oh well. My youngest was set to be named directly after his grandfather (my dh's dad who is now deceased) but the name was sing-songy and I didn't love either of the names. So, at the last minute (a week before he was born), I changed his name to his dad's first name and his grandfather's first name as his middle name. He goes by his grandpa's call name right now - but as he gets older, he will surely take off the y from the call name and make it the more professional name he was given. Same with my older son. As for funny names...my gynecologist is Dr. Box (my dh giggles everytime I mention going to see Dr. Box). And my mom went to school with a man named Harry Peters.