The book that Sara suggested Natural Childbirth the Bradley Way has many of the relaxing exercises for you to practice before you go into labor, the thinking being that if you practice them, you will remember how to do them during birth. If you could tape yourself reading those instructions (or have your husband read them to you) and practice every night, you will be ready for what comes! I also read The Birth Partner by Penny Simkin and found it very helpful. I had great luck using "imagery" during my first birth--imagining a place that I felt safe and happy, which for me is by the water (I imagined standing by a creek with my husband by my side; today I would probably imagine being at the beach). While using imagery, you concentrate on your breathe, breathing slowly "in through your nose, out through your mouth". Hurried breathing can induce panicking, which is not what you want.

I don't personally have experience doing this, but I have heard that many homeschooling parents with toddlers often spend a lot of time at McDonald's or other fast food restaurants that have playlands.

I was actually going to suggest this book, too. I took it out of the library some time ago, and really felt that it addressed "sports skills" that can be done in a very small group setting (ie. with a bunch of siblings).

There is a DANTES test on the modern middle east with recommended textbooks and additional readings. If your children are up to a college level course test, it could give them college credit if they pass the exam. The fact sheet for the exam is http://getcollegecredit.com/assets/pdf/dsst_fact_sheets/DSST_IntroductiontoModernMiddleEast.pdf and information regarding all DANTES exams is at http://getcollegecredit.com/testprep/.

Since your daughter is in eighth grade, she is probably just the right age for How Does the Show Go On: An Introduction to Theatre by Thomas Schumacher. It is produced by Disney and is focused on Disney Broadway shows produced in New York, but the information could be applicable to any live theater. Since you also mention opera, the book Bravo! Brava! A Night at the Opera by Anne Siberell is also mostly about how the operas are produced (technical theater), although there are also synopses of the various well-known operas in the book too. Since I do not know where you live, this is just a throw-out thought, but you may have a summer camp nearby which would give your daughter a chance to learn the ins and outs of technical theater. Here in Dallas, for example, the Dallas Children's Theater has a two week summer camp for grades 7 and up called "Totally Technical Theater," described as: • Are you ready for a completely new and exciting Theatrical Experience? • Work with Designers and Professionals from DCT and learn about what it takes to create the magic behind the scenes and on the stage! • Your class will learn about sets, props, sound, lights and costumes. • Work with Directors and Students from the Performance Workshop to get ready for the Show on the Final Friday! • A once in a lifetime opportunity for anyone who wants to learn more about Technical Theater and Design. • Returning students work on new and more challenging technical elements Maybe some camp in your area would have an offering like this.

I am from a very conservative religious background so I have no experience with any school dances, but I did read Miss Manners Guide to Raising Perfect Children where she does mention school dances. Miss Manners actually does not believe that boys should be wearing tuxedos at high school dances because of the financial strain on the students. She considers it perfectly acceptable for a boy to go to a school dance dressed in a suit. Your son's date is being very unreasonable in my thinking! Yes, she has a fantasy, but if she is old enough to go to the prom, she is old enough to learn that financial realities do trump what you may want ideally. What will happen when she wants X or Y at her wedding and her parents cannot afford to provide it? Will they have to go into debt for that? Part of growing up is realizing that you do what you can afford graciously. If she is going to sulk with your son's alternative prom arrangements, perhaps he should graciously say, "well this is what I can do. Perhaps you would like to find another date for the prom". Oh, I know, he will not want to do that (obviously!). But putting this bug in his ear of how if she really liked you she would not be forcing you to spend money you need for other expenses might make him think that that such a materialistic girl is not for him. Maybe this is her way of rejecting your son, in any case. That's a painful reality (no rejection is pain-free), but this may be this girl's way of saying I don't want to be your girlfriend anymore.

Keyboard Capers by Rebecca Doyle Stout (ISBN 9780898260519) may be good for you if you have a keyboard of some sort available (a piano or a keyboard).

The number one regret my husband and I have with our 21 year old daughter is that we did not find out earlier what her passion was and what she was good at! She had so many learning difficulties that we were always doing remedial work. We would have been better off focusing earlier on her strengths.

If you can get past the self-righteous tone of this book, Young at Art: Teaching Toddlers Self-Expression, Problem-Solving Skills, and an Appreciation for Art by Susan Striker has good ideas for projects with preschoolers. Another idea book is Encouraging the Artist in Your Child (Even If You Can't Draw) by Sally Warner.

Ann Rachlin wrote a series called Famous Children about the following composers: Mozart Tchaikovsky Bach Beethoven Brahms Chopin Schubert Handel Schumann Hayden These may be out of print, but your library may have copies of them.

I love Earthways: Simple Environmental Activities for Young Children by Carol Petrash. There are great seasonal craft ideas in here(inspired by Waldorf school traditions but can be used by anyone with young children). The crafts are categorised by season and inspired by nature, so you could tie them into a nature study or social studies (where does food come from?). If you want to get more formal, there's always Artistic Pursuits.

What High Schools Don't Tell You by Elizabeth Wissner-Gross points out that prospective art students need to focus on portfolio development: "[p.p. 168-169] Students who attend private art schools or universtiy art 'institutes' after school, weekends, or during the summer, tend to have significantly stronger portfolios and applications. That's the word from the admissions office of UCLA, the art programs that claims to be the nation's most competitive, since it only accepts 10 percent of its applicants...students who attend private programs...after school, weekends, or summers, learn how to talk about their work, and this becomes extremely helpful in writing their application essays and in interviews. (Regular high school art programs do not teach students how to discuss their work.) In addition, high school students who attend private programs and institutes sometimes get the opportunity to work with accomplished artists and can cite these experiences on the applications...[p. 170] A fine arts student's summer should be designed around serious summer activities that contribute to his or her portfolio....A fine arts student needs to have plenty of time to create, and unless the art form specifically requires the use of an art studio, much of the work can be done at home." So on the one hand, these summer programs may contribute to your daughter's artistic development and give her training she may not otherwise have received. On the other hand, if she already had this training during the school year, she may just need the time during the summer to actually produce art. Obviously, if she can get into the summer program at the National Museum of Art and get a stipend, that would be an amazing opportunity for her!

I'm not really a natural teacher either. So I am one of those people who goes page-by-page through a textbook with my child: read through this page, answer these questions (orally), move on. Not the most creative or exciting teaching, but through and efficient. Obviously, if there are some parts of the textbook that are "too hard" or are enrichment that does not excite the child, we skip it.

Kalmia has listed some great resources. I would like to add a great field guide for children, Seashells in My Pocket, 3rd: AMC's Family Guide to Exploring the Coast from Maine to Florida by Judith Hansen, if you live near the East Coast of the United States.

I have done Montessori at home with two of my children. The easiest guide is Teaching Montessori in the Home: The Preschool Years by Elizabeth G. Hainstock because it does not assume you have unlimited cash for supplies! I have also used Montessori Play and Learn (which is great for photocopying templates) and Basic Montessori: Learning Activities for Under-Fives. Didax makes the best sandpaper letters on cardstock. Ideal School Supply also makes very sturdy sandpaper letters on cardboard. These are much cheaper than sandpaper letters meant for schools and are available on Amazon.com. I have also bought from http://montessori-n-such.com/ and http://michaelolaf.com/store/. Tradition Montessori starts with practical life exercises, like teaching your children to sweep the floor and mop, clean windows, etc. You can also get your children to vacumm, clean bathroom sinks, etc. Preschoolers love to help in the house so take advantage of their enthusiasm! Teaching Montessori in the Home and Basic Montessori have instructions of how to teach sweeping. Michael Olaf (mentioned above) has quality child sized mops and brooms to get started with (and a broom stand to put them in--I've had mine for over ten years and still use it for all the mops and brooms in our house). Berea College Crafts has an amazing child's broom of great quality. My local library had a copy of a video Montessori in Your Home with Jacqueline Fogg which was very informative, but they no longer own it. It really gave ideas for practical life exercises and how to do them with your child.

I have used My First Classical Recorder Book and My First Patriotic Recorder Book by L.C. Harnsberger, both of which have great songs for someone who has gone through a first recorder book. The other thing is, what music are you or your children interested in? What movies? There are probably recorder song books available for them. There are recorder song books for the Beatles, Star Wars, Disney movies and so forth.

Since your daughters are so young, have you considered The Complete Book of Starter Spanish?

While Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah are theoretically separate holidays from Sukkot (also known as Tabernacles), since they are the 2 days after Sukkot, most of us consider them an extension of Sukkot. Shavuot is also known as Pentecost (=50th day from the second day of Passover).

I did not go to university in the UK, but an early edition of How to Get Into the Top Colleges by Richard Montauk and Krista Klein did have a chapter which describes how university in Great Britain compares with going to college in the US, who would benefit from going to university in the UK, and how to apply.

Reya, I do not play violin, but I did have my son take violin lessons for a few months. Some people suggest G'dae Music for teaching young children violin. I have not used it, but it seems like if you already know how to play violin, you could use it to teach your 4 year old.

I am in the plus sizes, and I have had great success with Lauren Ralph Lauren clothes in plus sizes and clothes from Eileen Fisher. Neither one of them is cheap, but they are widely available in department stores and hold up very well to hard living.

Same here! I went to a very religious high school, and we read the short story "Flowers for Algernon" in our literature anthology. When a couple of us (who were inspired by the short story) got the novel out of the library, we were more than a bit taken aback by the sexual content of the novel! However, that may have been the point of the whole novel--that Charlie was happier as an innocent, child-like person than he was as a full-fledged adult.

I read in Rebecca Rupp's The Complete Home Learning Source Book about The Physics of Star Trek by Lawrence Krauss. It sounds like a good source book for what you are planning.

Is kissing allowed in the squeaky clean movies? If yes, then my husband and I really enjoyed The Last Flight of Noah's Ark, which was a Disney movie from the early 1980s (produced for the Disney Sunday Night Movie). There is some kissing, but not anything too passionate. Most Disney movies are good, including Pollyanna. The Apple Dumpling Gang is pretty good, but the kissing in that movie gets a little passionate. Most of the Herbie movies are good--I especially liked the last one, Herbie Goes Bananas (only one kissing scene). Star Wars just barely got a PG rating, so it may pass. The Happiest Millionaire was a good Disney movie, but you may want to pre-view it to make sure it would meet the squeaky clean clause for your group. This is not a movie, but I just re-watched Highway to Heaven, a television series from the 1980s that I saw as a teenager, and one episode called "The Monster" is fascinating (with just a bit of kissing and a little bit of "What the Hell"). It was a two part story, so it takes about 1.5 hours to watch the whole thing.

First of all, it seems to me that your child's lessons are based on the Suzuki method. So if you want to "do" Suzuki right, step number one is to get you child to listen to the tapes/CDs of Suzuki book 1 everyday at least once a day. Play it in the car, play it when your daughter is dressing, play it before she goes to bed (or all of those times) at least once a day. If you have a safe place to keep the violin out of its case (on a table or somewhere where it won't be sat on or stepped on), leave it out so that way whenever your daughter passes the violin she can play it spontaneously. There are many great books on Suzuki, including Suzuki's own books Nurtured by Love and Ability Development from Age Zero, which will help you understand the philosophy behind Suzuki. For practical advice, there's In the Suzuki Style: A Manual for Raising Musical Consciousness in Children, which is absolutely brimming with ideas of how to get you child to play more.