I like the last one. Tell your daughter that she is BEAUTIFUL (gorgeous eyes) and she should really consider SMILING! LOL

My 5 y/o just started having 3 y/o tantrums as of late. He never went through it at 3...guess he is making up for it now. :( When they get older (9, for instance, LOL) they just pout and slam their bedroom door. A little better, but the "mad face" really gets my goat.

Gosh, if you give her the boot, can you send her my way? LOL I don't work from home, but I would LOVE to have a nanny. Does she clean too? No way I would work from home and expect to get anything done with a toddler and an infant and no nanny. I guess, for me, the difficulty would lie in how much you have to really keep an eye on the kids when they are that small. My older son was never into much trouble at 2...my younger was always doing something he shouldn't be. If he had nothing to choke on, he would eat carpet fuzz and choke on that. It was insane. All kids are different.

Sure...believe that while you are eating it. LOL

I just made up my own thing to fit our family's schedule. I had planned to take off the entire month of December, however illnesses and such put us behind. We ended up taking the week of Thanksgiving off and then we are done until January 5th after school this Friday (12/12).

I think the dash works okay, but really, if I were writing it, I would try to trim it down a bit and separate it. It gets a bit wordy, in my humble opinion. I have definitely read long sentences that "work" but this one just has a whole lot of description and trails that make it seem a bit busy and hard to follow. Of course, if I was reading the rest of the book/story, then it may not seem this way so much.

The "Level One Kit" includes the materials packet and TM, so don't order the extra materials kit...I made that mistake myself. The tiles are essential. The CD is optional (depends a lot on whether or not you think you can correctly pronounce the words. The letter tiles are essential - the magnets are helpful, but useless unless you have a magnetic whiteboard or something to put them on. I bought the magnets and ended up laying them on a wood table instead.

I do all subjects that we don't do together and then we make up subjects that we do together on a different day. For instance, if we miss CHOW 2 times in one week, then we do CHOW all 5 days the next week to make up for it. And that is only if I feel so inclined. Heck, it won't kill us to be a bit behind. We'll catch up sooner or later! LOL

Not really, no (to all of those). I had a lot of tragedy in my childhood and highschool was just something to get me by till college. I think that sometimes I just still think of myself as being 17- especially in new or awkward situations. For instance, when the responsibility falls on ME to take care of my kids, keep my house clean, make sure things are done...sometimes I just have to remind myself..."hey, you are the grown-up here!" LOL It is more of a perception thing...I don't FEEL 30 (sometimes I feel 80!), I am not sure I always ACT 30...oh, but I am!

Erector sets are way complicated. We got them for my 9 year old last year (who is ADHD as well and VERY capable of building/putting things together...like a double sided 1000 piece puzzle he did last year) and he could not even do the erector sets. My dh ended up doing them for the kids. :( We were disappointed. How about puzzles, videos, and lots of craft materials that she can cut, glue, tape, and just be creative with? ...Her very own craft items to use as she likes...??? We are doing this for my 5 year old who is NOT adhd...he also loves to cut, glue, tape, and "craft."

That is what I did - I just went on the site and gave him grades based on effort, cooperation, and overall improvements. He got all A's. LOL I HATE assigning grades. It is not like I need to communicate to the parent how the child is doing! UGH! I really wish it wasn't required...and more than that, I really hope no one ever asks to see how I arrived at that grade! LOL

I don't get coldsores, but my best friend does. Her cold sores cycle too - sometimes she will have 2-3 back to back and other times, she won't have them for almost a year. We have been best friends all through school - I drank after her, ater after her, etc when I didn't know better and I have never gotten a cold sore. I think some people just don't get them and others just do. So your dh is probably safe!

If so, how do you do it? Are you rigorous and give tests and keep scores and such or do you estimate based on the work they have given you and how well you think they are doing in that subject (since you grade it daily and are with them most of the time when they work on it). When we were using Calvert, grading was easy because there was always something that you could grade. With the curriculum I have created, it is not so easy. I don't give a lot of tests, other than spelling. I am with the kids every single day and I know their struggles and their abilities. I grade as much on effort and retention as I would actual "scores." The issue is that we belong to an umbrella school that requires grades be sent in at the end of each semester. Blah! Should I figure out a way to figure grades and report or should I just give a fair score based on my one on one assessment?

For the most part, I still have to remind myself that *I* am the grownup! :)

I have never had to claim our child support.

My youngest would much rather make a fort from a water heater box than play with toys...

Had similar experience. No sick kids...but went to bed at midnight and let youngest ds sleep with me....just a treat he likes to have every now and then. So he sleeps with me and every hour on the hour he tosses his body in midair and flops around for a minute or two before getting comfy. No more sleeping with mom. I am in a fog today!

I staple into my walls. The holes are teeny and can't really be seen unless you look closely after it is removed. I am not sure a staple would work for plaster though. :(

The kids and I are planning to make all of our ornaments this year out of paper. We even made a paper chain to use as our garland. Ummm....would that be a fire hazard waiting to happen? Anyone have experience with this? I was really excited about doing it, but I also really don't want to catch the tree on fire! Ours will be a real tree (as always) and this year we will reuse colored lights that were purchased about 4 years ago and were not used at all last year. They have been stored loosely in plastic baggies (each strand has a seperate baggie). So....what says the hive?

That is why I bought clippers and learned to trim my cocker myself. No one does the kind of job I want! And I don't half trust groomers to be gentle and caring anyway! I would take her back looking like she does and ask for a refund. Her fur is not even! Were they claiming she was matted on her legs so they had to shave them? If not, then WHY did they have to shave the rest of her? My cocker gets his back shaved (stripped, actually, but it is short) and his legs grow out long. Why not the other way around? Who made that rule? :(

I forked over the money recently as well. :) I will use it where I can and be happy I got it before it went to over $100! LOL

We are finishing book 2 in ETC right now. We only do it twice a week and do ETC online during the days we aren't doing the book. The last page where they have to spell the words could definitely be used for that. Good idea! Thanks!

My son is 9 and has a yahoo account...that I have full access to. :) And only relatives and friends have the address.

I had not considered that approach. Definitely something to think about for me. We are doing ETC for phonics and I do plan to finish all of the books. My older learned to read by sight and not phonetically and it has really come back to bite us now (he learned in ps, not home). Hmmm......thanks for the suggestion. :)

My youngest goes to children's church. My oldest sits quietly and fills in an outline of the sermon. I also allow him to draw and he participates in all of the singing, prayers, Bible reading, etc.