15th week and we changed things a couple of weeks ago. I dropped Plaid Phonics A to go back to ETC. I didn't want them to have extra work as they had finished the first of 3 ETC books I require for 1st grade and half of PP A. So we are doing the phonics of the 2nd ETC on the whiteboard together then will be doing the 3rd actual book. With my oldest two sons, we now do grammar/writing lessons daily on the whiteboard of topics I get from Sentence Composing for Elementary School by Killgallon and The Language Mechanic from the Critical Thinking Co. Shockingly, they look forward to this daily!

All of ours have been horrible sleepers from infancy until 2-3yo. The only thing I can think of that hasn't been mentioned yet is growing pains. My 3yo has had these since he was 1yo. He will wake screaming and take forever to stop. Rubbing his legs and feet helps some, giving him Tylenol eventually helps, but having him walk around works the fastest.

Messy usually. We have a king-sized bed, baby swing, crib, toddler bed, armoire, wide dresser, two night stands, two laundry bins, and a garage shelving unit for my husband's electronic equipment for this business...not including the small baskets on the floor for the constant sorting of each child's clean clothes. Today we moved out the toddler bed and moved in a desk for my husband. The plan was to move out the equipment.:glare: Darn it. We don't have a garage, so our bedroom is the safest place for it all.

I really want a big one. I use a 5qt old Tfal pot the most, but it's in terrible condition and a tad small for our growing family. I'm looking to get about an 8qt enameled DO.

Our system is simple and has been working for years now. We have a pin board with their names on colored index cards across the top. Under each name is one or two of the same 6 chores on index cards getting rotated every Sunday: Dish Duty (my 6yo twins share this when it rotates to them, the 4yo buddies with the 9yo to unload when the 9yo has this chore and DH and I help him and 10yo ds with pots and pans) Sweep Vacuum Counters, table, and chairs (gets added to an older kid's chore if they end up with something easy) Feed Pets (now includes dumping the compost bin from the kitchen out to the chickens) Pickup Downstairs (3yo and 4yo often help and this will be their chore soon) We announce "Chore Time" and it takes about 30min to get everything done. Picking up obviously gets done before vacuuming, so that takes the only planning. I can do any deep cleaning more easily after the basics are taken care of. All the kids clean and vacuum their bedrooms and the playroom, plus scrub the children's bathroom upstairs on Sunday evening. That takes about 1hr with everyone pitching in.

I don't know about 3rd grade but here in 4th they did a unit on a Science topic twice during the year and Social Studies was entirely homework, which rarely occurred, and answers to questions in the worktext were never checked. They did one added subject per day: Music, Art, Library, Computer Lab, and one other I can't remember. Each for one hour. 2/3s of the school failed to pass the end-of-grade (material from the grade below theirs) standardized testing...but don't worry, they were then tutored mainly by fellow students and received up to 2 more attempts.:001_huh:

I voted other. I believe that it's over-populated in a few places but not over most of the world.

Nope, but I'm envious.:D

I used to feel bad that out of all my kids, only the oldest of each gender would get new clothes. I solved that by buying everyone used clothes, even the oldests.;)

For me it's making sure all the kids presents are what they wanted, but what I agree to them having, that they total close to the same amount, and making sure Santa got them each something and their stockings are equally stocked. I'm planning with an Excel spreadsheet this year and buying early online one store at a time. Then I can leisurely double check equality and get everything wrapped (what I usually flake on and feel guilty over).

I wanted a heated pad and dh thought that is what he bought. We decided to use the blanket and I realized that unless I had prewarmed a non-heated blanket with the pad, my body would have a heck of a time warming the blanket above me with only heat from below. How's that work out with using a pad?

Thankfully not the Ghetto, but my dsd and other white children at her middle school here have a big ole target on them because of their skin color. It could be worse though, sadly. My mil should have hsed while raising my DH in Detroit. He was the only white boy in his school and had to fight every day (this was K-4th). He has scars from his years there. I admit I've thought less of her parenting for not finding an alternative.

After waffling back and forth while reading others' replies, I've decided on Math. If one can speak and read well, that easily translates into writing well...enough. With a lack of understanding of just basic math and personal finance, you're overpaying or worse. People lose their homes for lack of money management skills. They have their water or electricity turned off. They end up with no money left to buy food.

My husband got us a Sealy one from JCPenny last year and each side has a control with 10 settings, 1-9 and H. H really is hot. Here's a link to it. (Here's the search, it's the first one with a pic, the exact link's pic isn't showing up for me.) Regularly $250 for a king, on sale for $99. OMG, I sure hope DH got it on sale!:svengo:

1-2x per week. We shoot for twice, but it's only once a week about half the time. BUT, my husband does it about once every week or two and the kids either get it as a punishment or get paid in $ or candy to do it. I hardly ever wash the floors.

Yes! But basic cleaning gets done by the kids. We have evening chores. No games or computer time until it's done. We have many hands so lots gets accomplished...after the lot of them filthy it up! Glad Remudamom said it first, they don't eat if it's not done. I mean hair, bed-making, whatever morning things you expect before breakfast. We also do this for bedroom/playroom/kids' bathroom cleaning, but that's only expected on Sunday here and it's a big job that earns a big dessert for everyone afterward. I agree with those who've said to get rid of stuff. Too much stuff overwhelms kids also, not just Mom. Clutter=Chaos. I can only handle one type of chaos: Chaos from lots of kids or chaos from a cluttered and messy house. Well, I can't get rid of the kids.;)

My dsd experienced the exact opposite. She was the only girl in 4th grade to have breasts and menstruate, plus 6-12" taller than the rest of her class. She was miserable the entire year. Cried almost every day. Teased mercilessly by "tiny" classmates. We pulled her out and put her back in skipped ahead a grade for 7th. A much better fit.

But if we switched over to Yule/Winter Solstice, we could celebrate all the seasonal changes, harvest/planting, etc. What's that, 8 per year? We could go nuts with decorations to fit, some get a party, some gifts, some just candy. We could feel justified in doing presents for Summer Solstice if we're doing presents for Winter Solstice, right?!:D Hmmm, I'm liking this idea. If not, I'm on board with calling Christmas Consumer Celebration Day!:tongue_smilie:

We are atheists and we celebrate Christmas. Most of our atheist friends celebrate the season as Yule, but I think it's easier to use the name most of society uses. I have considered changing to calling it Yule though. I think it's fun doing all the seasonal stuff, the tree, the gifts, Santa and I don't want my kids to miss out.

A double waffle maker. That's all.

My babies start to think "mean" things are new and exciting about 6mo old. Pulling my hair, smacking my face, kicking me. These are just new interactions they try, not something they've learned from sibling example or anything. When they start these things I'll teach them to stroke my face with the hand they just hit me with and say what my German Oma used to, "I-ya, i-ya," or "gentle, gentle," and "be nice" while I stroke their forearm and hand. If they've kicked me, I'll stoke their legs and kiss their feet saying the same things. That's always the first experience with teaching kindness, ime.

I chose kindness because an infant can learn that. Respect and obedience take a bit more "brainpower."

I'm thankful to already have tomorrow's dinner planned with all the ingredients in the house. Simple, but the relief is obviously a sign I should be doing this all the time. Sounds like a New Year's Resolution for me.

I'm thankful the children and I have DH home so much. Our friend just left for Afghanistan yesterday, so today I'm especially thankful our family has so much time together.

We do and needed to live off of our food stores for 3mo last year because of lack of money. It was a life saver! What we're doing now is working on a 1 year supply that doesn't rely on the freezer. I planned 14 meals of foods we could store well, the amounts per meal we'd need, timed by 26 2-week rotations. Then started buying the ingredients, ie 26lbs of split peas, 78 cans of tuna, 39lbs of elbow mac, 78 cans of beef stew, etc. It would be smarted to buy it by 3-month amounts, but I can get better deals on bulk amounts. That's dinner. For breakfast, I planned 7 meals, mostly oatmeal, some biscuits and pancakes from mix, dry milk. We have chickens for eggs. We're pressure cooking jars of bacon and sausage, and the meats for dinners that didn't get bought in cans. We have syrup stocked and our own honey from hives. For supper, we are planning to make bread so have been learning various bread recipes and are stocking up on supplies for that and have jarred butter, stocked up on peanut butter and jams. We're not worried about things going bad because we are actually eating our supplies, at about half the rate. I have yet to buy a solar oven, but that's the next thing on the list.