My 7 year old does not need a play by play but my 4 year old still does.

Very strange!!

Mine is only 7 and she's like this.....are you telling me it gets WORSE????? :001_huh:

I had to laugh LOL. It would have scared my DD's too though. Your daughter will look back on this and laugh one day LOL.

Looks like someone's pet escaped! Definitely a fire bellied toad....we've had several. My sister had one escape a few weeks ago in her house.

We got a Maclaren Quest for that same purpose. It reclines for baby to nap. Our other stroller is a big ol' Phil & Ted's Sport Buggy and it is just too big for some situations.

Wow, some of these rules are crazy!!! Thankfully, we live in a neighborhood that does NOT have an HOA. We park our pop up camper on the side of our house...in the grass. And as far as parking in the garage, my van wouldn't even fit in there if we had to keep vehicles in the garage. Crazy!!

Thanks everyone! We may just go off on our own rabbit trails then. However, that does require more planning on my part....which I'm not the greatest at. Especially at 8 months pregnant. I think I'll take a trip to the library and see what I see.

A strider bike? I know a lot of younger kids do great with these: http://www.amazon.com/Strider-PREbike-Balance-Running-Bike/dp/B002SJWWO8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1316134679&sr=8-1

Thanks! I just went over and checked it out!

Good, I'm glad they are feeling it. It was insane to make that price jump. We are one of the ones who dropped the DVD option.

I have a 2nd grader (7) and a pre-schooler (4). Aside from the Three R's, I'm undecided about what we should be doing. We started with a science, didn't like it, and now I'm waiting for Apologia Astronomy to arrive in the mail (along with the Junior Notebooking Journal). So we'll definitely be doing science one day a week. Other than that, I'm not sure. We started doing SOTW 1 last year, but my kids just weren't into it. I tried making it easier by just playing the audio CD while they quietly played or colored....but they still weren't interested. I'm wondering if a different type of history would work? I really wanted SOTW to work. I'm not interested in doing anything like latin with them. We did try out sign language, which they kind of liked. What about social studies? What does that encompass? We finished a 1st grade map skills book this summer. We have the 2nd grade one but it is kind of basically the same thing. Just wondering what we should be doing at this age? I'm putting a lot of effort into the Three R's right now since DD7 is dyslexic. She's doing well though. DD4 tags along in all of our subjects.

If he's reading well, then I wouldn't do a separate reading program. DD7 is a struggling reader, so we *are* doing a separate program for reading (Dancing Bears). If she were good at it, we would probably just do spelling, grammar (FLL), and some sort of handwriting/copywork.

Okay, I think I'm going to shelf book #4 then...for now anyways. I ordered book #5 from Amazon this afternoon. I told this to DD7, who then looked through book #4 and said "Good, this looked hard." LOL

LOL!!! Kids are so funny!

No, definitely not a "must have" as far as life skills though, but we'd like to bike ride as a family during the cooler months and DD is getting a bit old for training wheels. Mostly it causes her to lag behind because they are slow....and they also make a TON of noise.

Temperature....which could mean year around here (FL).

The only fish we eat is tilapia. It's not very "fishy" at all.

Mini muffins? I get an organic boxed mix from Whole Foods (apple cinnamon kind) and throw in in some chocolate chips. My girls love them. You could throw some sort of fruit on the plate with it. Squirrel Wedges? I buy a bunch of different types of nuts and throw them into the blender and grind them until they are fine. I mix in peanut butter, a bit of honey, a bit of cinnamon, and Nutella with the ground nuts until it forms a paste. Then I take two whole wheat tortilla shells and spread the paste between it. I cut it into wedges like a pizza. Very protein rich! And the paste will take you pretty far when making the wedges.

The girls have had a Play-Doh ice cream making set for like 3 years. They haven't touched it in probably a year. It just sits there. They play with Play-Doh but never touch the ice cream making contraption. It's awkwardly shaped and wont fit anywhere so it's been sitting on the top of our dryer for years. Also, Play-Doh gets caked inside and it is impossible to fully clean out. Well, last week I finally threw it into the trash. I hate clutter and that thing has been driving me nuts. Today, the girls are playing with Play-Doh. As soon as I hand them their Play-Doh, DD7 says, "Where is that ice cream maker? I just saw it on the dryer last week." :glare: Seriously? You don't play with it for years and then some sort of 6th sense alerts you when it is no longer in the house?

Yes, DD7 is not very good at timing and rhythm either. She can't clap in tune to save her life. Her visual processing therapist said she needed motor therapy. We declined....I mean, some people are *just* not coordinated. She takes after her daddy! Those are neat! And for big kids and adults too!! I just ordered a balance bike for 3-6 year olds. My 4 year old will use that. I think it will be too small for my 7 year old to practice on. But if she really cannot get the hang of balancing, I'm going to go to a thrift store and get a really cheap bike and take the pedals off. DH is not too handy so I don't want him to have to worry about ruining the pedals/chain of her current bike LOL. We're in flat, flat Florida LOL. There's not many hills around here that's safe for her to practice on....especially none that are grassy. We live in a cul-de-sac so that's probably the safest place for her right now. LOL, this is what prompted DD to begin learning....$10! She's very motivated by money. She *does* want to learn....she's just very afraid of falling. I wrote on my blog (and have photos) of her learning on Monday. Just scroll down to Tuesday's post and anyone can check them out if they want. Her face is half fear/half amusement LOL.

Oh, thanks for this! I just ordered the God Gave Us Christmas one for $3.01 (used) from Amazon. I'm collecting 24 picture books so that my kids can unwrap one a day from Dec 1 - 24. I think I have 5 so far.

That would drive me insane! Yeah, DH would have to put a stop to that LOL.

DH is trying to teach DD7 now. He spent about an hour with her on Monday night and he's going to spend another hour tonight. He said that her balance is just so-so, but that it got a bit better as they went on. She's just not the most graceful child LOL. Any other late bike riders? Anything that really worked for your late rider? I looked on Amazon and I think I'm going to purchase one of those Strider balance bikes for DD4 to ride, and we'll be able to pass it down to our new baby one day as well. I think that if they could start out balancing, then learning to ride would be a breeze.

My word, I wouldn't know where to store 7000 light bulbs! And when he goes to use them 30 years from now, I'd be afraid they wouldn't work anymore or something. That would be a huge waste of money. That is a TON of light bulbs.