What a blessing you are, Jessie, to so many! May you have a wonderful birthday! God's best to you,

Wow, what a blessing your post is! I've been really struggling myself to get exercising, and it was GREAT to hear about the podcasts. That is really what I need! Congratulations to you, as well! I have 10 lbs that my last baby didn't nurse off me (5 years ago) that I'd really like to lose. I know it would do wonders for my self image right now.

We do best with the compromise plan (#2)

Name: Alane age of dc: My oldest is a 6th grader, 11 yo. I've got a 2nd grader and 5 yo trailing behind. how long homeschooling?: since above mentioned child's birth :) have you taught these ages/grades before?: No, my poor son is my guinea pig. Do you follow a particular style of education? We are classical in most things -- using TOG and IEW. Do you plan to homeschool high school?: Yes Any favorite quotes or wisdom that get you through the day?: Dory from Nemo: "Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming." It's the secular version of our homeschool motto: "Let us not become weary from doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up." Gal. 6:9

Whenever I go to the MCT website, my eyes just glaze over with all the books and trying to figure out where to place my 6th grader. :tongue_smilie: How do you go about choosing the right level?

I found the page about the benefits of early cursive instruction. Although it was written by a Spell to Read and Write instructor, I believe the main benefits of cursive being taught earlier pertain to any and all curriculum which propose early cursive instruction (I could be wrong, but I think A Beka introduces cursive in early elementary as well): http://www.swrtraining.com/id29.html

Not using CLE, but my 2nd grader's handwriting was average, but in starting to use Spell to Write and Read, we went ahead with Cursive First. He's doing great with cursive, and I think it may be helping his printing -- especially the d/b reversals he made. There's lots of research that cursive is of benefit to learners. ETA: for some reason he is more willing to practice and perfect his cursive than printing. I think its because he believes he's more "grown up" for using cursive, but honestly, I don't really care, as long has he's practicing and having a good attitude about it (yes, I have to tell him to stop doing his handwriting practice).

Thanks, Greta. You've given me much to reconsider. I appreciate your input.

Aylene, We ditched FLL4 because it wasn't ready for use when we needed it, and also because I had a Ker and 3 year old who needed me as well. I did like FLL3, however.

My son (6th grade) has been using GWG since 4th grade. Before that, we used FLL 1/2 and 3. Today, during another subject/ lesson, I had him tell me the parts of speech for this sentence he made up, "I went to a trial." What is the verb? I ask. *crickets chirping* "to?" uh, no. Do I need to tell you how disappointed I was? OK, so he *finally* gets that is was "went." But, he still had trouble when I asked him the parts of speech of other words in the sentence. We've never had to really take a sentence apart like this in GWG, so I know it was a new task for him, but I also know that he has done exercises to learn all the parts of speech in the above sentence (verbs, pronouns, nouns, prep phrases, articles, etc.). In light of this revelation that he is successfully completing his grammar work, but is not yet applying it, what resource would you recommend that I pursue? Or would you change grammar programs? I have often wanted to use Analytical Grammar, but have stopped short of purchasing it because of the price (I almost bought it this summer). Now, I honestly know that in my life, if it isn't in a book that he/ we can pull out and use, it will not get done. It is just the way my life and brain are right now. Relying exclusively on me to generate a novel sentence, write it on a piece of paper or whiteboard and do it -- it just ain't gonna happen. Pulling out a workbook, and hearing him say, "hey, mom, I gotta do this now" -- well, in that situation, it'll happen. I am open to totally ditching GWG or supplementing it (with said hard-copy book in lieu of relying on my memory:lol:) Any advice?

Thanks, Ladies. I also checked with a friend from college who has had his for 20 years, and it is a 300W. He loves it and it also chugs along. Hoping to get a good deal on one form Christmas!

6 cups of flour seems to be average for a single batch.

Kitchenaid's choices make me dizzy. Will an Artisan mixer be enough? or do I need 450 watts? I am making bread with the 5-minute a day recipes, which include whole wheat, so I need good wattage to mix it without burning out the motor. TIA

:lurk5:

Last Christmas we got the kids a Wii as pretty much their only gift. I will only get multi-player games (although for a birthday gift, a friend gave them a Star Wars game) that are sport-ish related. Wii Sport Resort is a huge favorite here. At first, they wanted to play to a lot, but we are pretty good about limiting screen time here. On icky days, I've let them pool their time for longer bouts on the Wii. We use it for family nights sometimes, when we all trade and play a game together. It really hasn't been too much of an issue here, and I'm grateful that they don't want to spend too much time on it. Like most things, moderation is key and the willingness to Just Say No.

Wow, that was great! And so true for my dh and I as well. As a matter of fact, I'm sitting here next to him, and I told him that "some other woman wrote this for her husband, but I feel th exact same way>>>" and made him read it. I cried. We kissed. I'm truly blessed. Thanks for sharing,

That is super helpful to know. I'll definitely try to see what happens with something like this.

Lawana, The 130s were before a meal. On both Sun. and today, I decided to check his pre-/post-lunch levels. Tomorrow I'm going to check his pre-/post-breakfast levels, to get more variety in the data. The pediatrician also wanted me to "stress" his diet and see how he did with a big fast-food lunch, etc. I'll pm you. Thanks SO much for responding!

We had a really chaotic, scarey week last week. My 5 yo had his well-child visit on Tuesday morning. He gave a urine sample, and the dr. found sugar and ketones in it. A few minutes later, a finger stick showed blood sugar at 256 or (I cannot remember now). The dr. sent us to the local hospital for a metabolic panel, which showed blood glucose at 239. Now, here I need to back up and explain what had gone on in the previous 24 hours. On Monday (day before appointment), my son ate a regular breakfast, only 1/2 of his spaghetti and meatball lunch, and ate *no* dinner -- he was whiny about the meal I was serving, so I stuck to my guns and told him that I'm not a restaurant and he eats what I'm serving or nothing until breakfast. He chose nothing.:tongue_smilie: Ds wakes up at 4 am to throw up. DH said it was mostly clear, but there was definitely emesis gagging going on in there. Son woke up at 8 and had 3 bowls of maple and brown sugar Life for breakfast (there's 8 g of sugar per serving, but I doubt each bowl was a full serving) as well as toast and butter. At 9 am, we're at the dr. and he gave his urine sample. The blood sugar test occurred at close to 10 am, and the metabolic panel at 10:22 am. So, our pediatrician (a really great doctor) sends us to the nearest teaching hospital a few hours away. As he's telling us the details I relay to him the craziness of ds's eating habits in the previous day and ask him if that mess could've prompted the blood sugars. He said no. At the hospital, they check his blood sugar in the afternoon, evening and the next morning. Each time, his blood sugar is getting closer to a normal range (and finally is normal) and they discharged us before lunch. There were no ketones in his urine except the first time upon admission. At discharge the dr. and intern (and med student) all tell us they think ds does NOT have diabetes, but just a weird reaction to some stresses: his eating the previous day, a crazy fall sporting schedule with his other brothers leading to perhaps some over-tiredness, and getting over a cold the week before. But, the have us check is blood sugars before a meal, and then 2 hrs. after a meal per day for the next two weeks. And continue to check for ketones. Our pediatrician called today to check and see how ds is doing. I tell him all pre-meal fingersticks have been normal (80s) except yesterday's and todays: 131 and 132. I made sure to test before lunch and it had been 3 hours or more since ds had last eaten. The after-lunch sticks were in the 90s. My pediatrician seems to think that ds is pre-diabetic and his pancreas is in the process of failing. As I mentioned above, the hospital's ped. and their pediatric endocrinologist (whom we never saw personally, but s/he talked to the admitting pediatrician) seem to think it was a blip. I just don't know what to think, and as I've gotten online to research more, I'm getting more confused. Certainly, I need to be patient and wait and see what will happen, but I thought I'd seek out some experienced people on my own. Thanks for insights,

So sorry. :grouphug:

Thanks for the suggestions. Chris, yes, I saw 1:4 ratios of vinegar to water, so I'll have to try that as well. I'd like to not *have* to buy any cleaners, but I'll check into that Bac Out for the bathrooms and during cold season.

I just replaced my Swiffer Wet Jet with a new no-battery no-disposable pad wet mop (Rubbermaid Reveal, in case you wanted to know). I'm not liking the results of the cleaning on my laminate floor -- very splotchy and streaky. I used a 1/2-1/2 water/ white vinegar combo. I figured I'd ask here to see if anyone has found the magic ratio for a streak-free floor.

A good friend from church is a professional piano technician (tuner). When we found a free piano, he suggested we pay about $60 for a tuner to go over to the piano and check it out -- so that you know what you are getting before you move it. We did as he suggested and brought home a good "beginner" piano, as the technician graded it. We had it tuned (on two passes just with the 4 1/2 of so octaves) after we moved it for about $250. We moved it with a couple hour rental of a U-haul. When we gave away the piano, yes, the moved it in a pick up.

I thought the history pockets were a bunch of busy work. I had heard it referred to as lapbook-esque, but found it to be not worth it. My son much preferred a lapbook at the time to the pockets.

Excellent post, OP! I have had the same concern as you. these are great sites to bookmark! TY...