Please call 1-800-985-5990 this is the Disaster Distress Helpline they are there for exactly this type of situation. What you are experiencing are normal reactions to an abnormal situation. You can call or text them and relieve support anytime of day or night. They are specifically trained in acute stress reactions after traumatic events. http://www.samhsa.gov/find-help/disaster-distress-helpline Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I've found that having many LDS friends and attending LDS events that we do not get added to a missionaries visit list because we have connections and if we were interested we would talk to those familiar to us before missionaries that are strangers. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I met with the Gym owner and director this evening. They have already started the process of making their gym latex free for my daughter. They have already checked the equipment and are researching several of the smaller equipment that they utilize. For right now until they hear back from the manufacturers they won't be using balls, etc. I always offer to purchase something small for any setting that is safe for my daughter, a set of 10 playground balls, a set of 200 ball pit balls, four new dolls for the church sunday school classroom, a new doctor kit for her pre-school classroom. My husband and I approach her allergy management as team work, we will provide certain things no questions asked and in return we ask that the location (chuch, pre-school, dance class, gym) make certain changes. We also know that our daughter can not live in a bubble and that she will come in contact with her allergen despite the best efforts to prevent exposure. The key is that most manufacturers have switched to using synthetic materials which are safe for our daughter. They will state rubber practice mat once you talk to the manufacturer it is a synthetic rubber. The same for elastic, newer clothing with elastic is a synthetic rubber. The key is natural rubber latex. She has outgrown latex fruit syndrome as a baby she could not have kiwi, avocado, banana, etc. Thank you for the heads up on potato that one is on the fruit syndrome list but we never encountered a problem.

My DD is 3 and has been doing a pre-school dance class it has been a disaster. We did a trial gymnastics class this past week and she loved it! She followed directions perfectly and it really gave her an outlet for her energy, I really want her to go ahead and start gynmastics. On the day of class her behavior was not off the wall and she took a nap and went to bed without issue. She loved the class and is asking to go back something she does not do with dance. The challenge is that there was a miscommunication most likely because it was a trial class and they didn't really "register" her that when DH took her to the gym for class there were balloons everywhere from the earlier toddler class using a parachute and balloons. The coach came over to shake DD's hand with a balloon, DH became protective papa bear and was very short with the coach that she couldn't shake DD hand due to the balloon. DD is anaphylactic to Latex, first reaction at 6 months old. I've been reading through the posts form gymnastics mamas about latex so I am confidant we can balance her safety and allergy management with gymnastics. What should a new mom to gymnastics know and where could there be potential problems that we need to find alternative products? I'm already thinking of talking with the director and providing the gym with ball pit balls or headstrom playgound balls in place of the balloons, both are latex free and meet the same intent as the balloons.

I was just searching through netflix for videos the accompany lessons for my pre-k little one. I thought maybe we could create a list of instant available videos. I like having a list in reserve for when other things fall apart. So far I have the leapfrog series: Numberland The Amazing Alphabet Phonics Farm Numbers Ahoy Magnificent museum of opposite words adventures in shapeville math adventure to the moon

I really like the Saxon K oral approach with manipulatives and have also seen many in favor of critical thinking company's pre-K mathematical reasoning. Can the two be used together? I've used the critical thinking company's books with the older kids.

Great discussion! Ticonderogas are the only pencil that is latex free for my DD it is good to learn about the variety in them before we are using pencils regularly.

I bought Shurley English for myself. English and Grammar are topics I have always struggled with.

I am looking at pre-k materials for DD to use over the summer. The local homeschool curriculum fair is in April right near our house (literally 5 miles away) so I *have* to go, right? I've been purchasing the sonlight pre-k 3/4 books over the past several years for DD. I'm looking at picking up the Critical Thinking Company Pre-K books. We really love their products for my older step kids and I'm toying with Saxon K to use at a very very relaxed pace. DH is a stay at home dad and has said he's willing to work with her as long as I provide the lesson plan.

This is an amazing tool! The bambinoLUK is probably more her speed. We tried several of the games on line and she really liked it. It also looks like it follows many of the same sequences as the Singamore Math Earlybird A. I don't want to go that route with her as we are looking into a classical charter school that uses that are their math curriculum.

If you are comfortable with mature movies I highly recommend Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. Watch it first and review the content for yourself you may want to skip some sections. It is very true to reality although parts of the main characters life were fictionalized for the move the overall concepts are accurate. On netflix is also a 30-days episode in which Morgan goes to live with a Navajo family. It is a good snapshot of life currently for Native Americans. It actually aired while I was living on the reservation and I made all of my family at home watch it to see what life was like for the people I was working with.

My daughter attends a 3 year old pre-school program 2 days a week for 2.5 hours a day. They recently conducted a knowledge check in during which my daughter was bored with the assessment and made up answers. She told her teacher that a rectangle is a octagon and that the heart was a diamond, in addition to other just off the wall responses when I know she knows the correct answer. She currently is big into wanting to learn to read and count. Any recommendations on something to challenge her a little bit and get her engaged? Her school will move onto the HWT pre-school program next year so I'm trying to stay away from something she will see again. I'm thinking All About Reading Pre-Reading and maybe BFIAR. We've purchased the sonlight Pre-K books over the years since she was born so if I could use those books it would be great, they are awesome classic stories that we can read together.

Look into the Kumon First Steps Workbooks, I give DD a couple pages from each to do at a time. It gives her something to do and makes her feel like she is doing school too. Have you looked into the scholastic storia app? It reads the books to DD with highlighting each word so she can follow along. I've turned off the interactive activities (she's 3) as they require reading comprehension and patience that she does not have.

Look into the series Worksheets don't grow dendrites http://www.developingmindsinc.com/books.html It has great activities and would help bridge the gap from what she was used to to the new thinking models you are expecting.

I am so frustrated with DSS school right now, he is in 6th grade and they just rolled out the new CCSS in our county. Suddenly he has gone from A's to D's and his self esteem is taking a huge hit. The CCSS for pre-k through 5 use base 10 and the manipulative to accompany it by 6th grade the kids are supposed to already have a solid foundation and the material is not being reviewed. After reviewing his homework for the past 2 nights I found his problem areas to the point I can look at his homework for tonight and know exactly which problems are right and wrong. If he has to carry over in subtraction with an ending zero it will be wrong, if he has to multiply by a trinomial it will be wrong. Two simple concepts that a base 10 set will hopefully clear up tomorrow and he can be back on track. Why on earth would they not sequentially roll this out so that the kids have the foundation?

I agree with the PP the questions are not the right ones for 3.5 year old even if they understand more of what is going on around them than the "average" 3 year old. My 2.5 year old is able to understand and respond to who, what and when questions. Why's and How's are much more abstract and are not yet something their brains are wired to understand. You're asking for an abstract understanding of meaning behind a story rather than a concrete understanding of the subject of the story. If that makes sense.

I think the response to this question really comes from each family's experiences. DH and I are in serious discussions with my parents to form a multigenerational home. We are meeting with builders and looking at home plans that will accommodate all 8 of us. My grandmother (96 years old), My parents, DH and I, bonus kids 12 and 10 plus our daughter who is 2. DH has also placed on the table that the house needs to have a bedroom available for his mother. My parents each grew up in a multigenerational home with their parents, siblings, grandparents and/or great aunts. My own parents had a multigenerational home from the time I was 10 until I moved out at 25, my brother, parents and grandma still all live together. We have very specific requirements for our multigenerational home to ensure that everyone can peacefully co-exist. We opted to not have a traditional two family home but rather to share some communal living space. There will be four bedrooms and two bathrooms on the upper level, we are hoping to be able to also have a second floor bonus room to serve as our family room. This will be our family main living area. The first floor will have a Owner's suite for my parents and the study will be a bedroom for my grandmother as long as she is with us. We will share the Kitchen, Dinning Room, Morning Room, Family Room and Living Room. The basement will be finished with a guest bedroom for my brother and his fiancé when they come to visit, as well as possibly become my MIL's room should she no longer be able to live on her own. As well as a rec room, and a few other finished/unfinished spaces. Multigenerational living can work with consideration to everyones needs as well as open communication about responsibilities and expectations.

20 years ago for my birthday party my parents took 2 friends and I to the observatory at the local university. The discussion that night was on Betelgeuse and how it was going to go supernova. At the time the thought was that the particles would reach earth and disrupt all electronic devices sending us back into colonial times. I was a nutcase about it for weeks and can still vividly remember this that as soon as I saw the title of the thread all of that came back. The teacher probably spoke matter of fact about the supernova and if they mentioned the particle disrupting electronic devices that would explain the deaths in africa and other dry climates as they rely on electronic pumps for water from wells for drinking.

Everyone else has provided great comments. I want to add a resource that was wonderful for me as a single person joining a uniformed service and helping my fiance to understand the life he was joining. When Duty Calls by Carol Vandesteeg is a wonderful checklist type book with a wonderful honest account of the way things are including deployments. I recommend it for any military family or considering military service. http://books.google.com/books?id=PAJSBmHQ6A0C&pg=PA16&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=4#v=onepage&q&f=false

We are a family of 5 and recently taacked this issue in our home. In our master bedroom we have one dresser in our closet and the toddler's changing table in the room. Each family member has 7 outfits each in a labeled plastic bin. (except the toddler who has spares in her changing table since she goes through clothes like mad). There are no longer dressers or clothes in each room. The dirty hamper is also in our room. We do one load of laundry a day. so the clothes go from our room to be worn returned to our room dirty then into the hamper washed and then returned to our room to be folded and put away. The kids closets have been turned into desk/study nook areas.

As the parents are the ones who are feeling conflicted about getting pregnant before marriage I would actually take a lot of the posts here are talk with the mom and dad to be. Bring some peace and grace in the joy of this baby to their hearts. Second, I would not say anything to DD at this point in time, I would hold off until mom to be is safely past the first few months. My two bonus kids at 8 and 10 caught on very quickly when I was pregnant because they were living with us and we only have one bathroom, there was no escaping the morning sickness. If you do want to use this baby as a springboard for the birds and the bees we found the It's so Amazing book to great for their questions without giving more information than they needed. http://robieharris.com/?page_id=215

I'm another one that says do not let this upset you or bother you during your honeymoon! You are not breaking any of the hotel's rules. In regards to young soldiers between 18 and 21 there are exceptions in these cases. Our marriage license my fiancé picked up which I was stationed out of the state. He called me laughing that we didn't need to worry about when he picked up the license because I was AD there was no waiting period, the license was good the day he picked it up.

I have just started extreme couponing and my challenge was always the organization when I tried before. I found the Krazy Coupon Lady site to be very helpful with organization. This is our first month trying the no spend challenge. We aren't fully there this month but I am learning a lot to apply to next month. This post helps to keep me motivated and accountable. I set aside $20 for our small shopping this week...I only get paid once a month so I do our large shopping at the beginning of the month, need to work on getting that cost down. We stick to the list on the fridge that we need, I grab only those pages from my coupon binder and head to the store. This week I bought 1 gallon whole milk, 5 containers of yogurt, 2 strips of yeast, kool aid drink mix packets and butter for a total of $13.77 DH just took the remaining $6.71 to the store as we started baking tonight and realized we needed more brown sugar and regular sugar. We have not eaten out this week! Have stuck to our meal plan and had pizza tonight made from fresh dough, left over sauce and cheese from wednesday's lasagna. We are baking sandwhich bread for the next week, zucchini bread for my MIL, and apple cobbler!

Depending on the age of the child liquids and juice are allowed. I brought through two sealed can's of juice for my 20 month old, they questioned me, threatened they would need to pat me down, etc over the juice, I said ok, please do my daughter has food allergies and I want to make sure she has something safe to drink. They put it through the sniffer and never patted me down so I do not know what that was all about.

DD is 20 months old, she has had oral motor skills issues so an OT has been coming out to the house, we were talking about homeschooling and that we wanted to use handwritting without tears with her so the OT said lets see what she does...Played a game with DD to draw lines up, down, left, right, around in a circle and diagonal. DD used the pencil with proper grip for a left handed child and repeated each movement. The OT suggested that we start with the crayon book of HWOT with her but it seems to early age wise to do that with her but at the same time if she enjoys it and we only do it for fun why not? We lately are pulling our hair out with this little one, she is climbing to find the tools, hiding the necessary allen key under her pillow then during nap time attempting to disassemble her crib. We can not even hide things in drawers from her she will remember where they are (even days later) and get it when she thinks we aren't looking. She loves us to read to her from picture books with real animals, right now her fascination is with an alligator book with a picture of an alligator on each page. She follows directions in the lego duplo read and build book to build duplo farm animals. DH and I sometime swear we are dealing with a child closer to three than almost 2. Any ideas to keep her little brain challenged?