Chicken broth will be just fine. :) I've been known to do both chicken broth and a ham bone, mainly because broth is just awesome. :)

We have 2 of these tables and chairs (I only put together 2 chairs, not all 4): http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/50178411/ They work well for us though they are a bit lightweight. I've babysat for a family with the Mammut chairs and tables and they bothered me, but it more because of the cartoon look and plastic feel. We tend to stick to natural materials, so that's just me. They were a sturdy chair to sit in. My preference would have been to buy he SUNDVIK table and chairs - but since I needed 2 sets, I couldn't pass up on the cheeper option and have been happy with it this past year we've been using them (children ages 2 and 4) -- Though, honestly, in another year I think my older daughter may be growing a bit too big for it. However, we have another table for school work, those tables are just in the living room for them to do independent focused play. :)

I was going to suggest items from this website too.

I am sorry your gift wasn't appreciated. But I say that if you enjoy making things, still make something and maybe your niece will love it - 3 and up is so much more fun for giving gifts. We give handmade gifts and I'm not sure if they're always appreciated but I enjoy making things and so that is what I give.

Thought of more... Fried Green Tomatoes Eat, Drink, Man, Woman Babbett's Feast

Anne of Green Gables Fifth Element Grease2 I sometimes wish there were others I liked enoughy to watch again.

What is your work plans? If you don't need a degree to run your own. Usiness then I would not spend the money on it. Era: this from someone that finished a degree because I was a single mom at the time but I always planned to be home if I had more children. I also run my own buesiness and my degree isn't needed for that. I have considered a masters but the reality is that it isn't needed for the self-employed work I will continue to do in the future. But if I was on my own, then I could see more benefit because I would be seeing traditional employment options most likely.

We love the dry erase crayons. They don't get accidentally rubbed off and don't stink. My kids love them. A damp cloth cleans them right off. One bad: red that was on the board for a week stained the board. Now we clean all drawings off daily.

There is a pre-k social group where I posted about us starting WFA; not that there has been any action in there. http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/group.php?groupid=35 It's not WeeFolk specific but I think it'd be a great place to chat along about it as well since I think a lot of people then have overlapping questions about other items going with WFA and different PreK plans as well. Hope it's not considered out of line suggesting it, I'm still new here. :)

I would love to convert my brain over to metric and just teach that - but it's a slow transition so far. eta: "just teach metric" would also mean that imperial would totally get covered because of the prevalence in everything.

We are! My kids love the Little Boy Blue poem as well, they learned it in one week and we are learning others now too. We're on the tractor week and went apple picking as well. :) It's a lot of fun.

Yes without a second thought. 1 month wouldn't raise an eyebrow. 12 months I would be scrutinizing them and then drinking if okay.

You'll probably be happy with either. We went with a Vitamix. I've done a few small batches of grain in my regular container because I don't need it enough to have a second carafe. I love mine, about to go make a smoothie (super smooth). I realized that I really liked the tamper part and when I first got it, I used it all the time. Now I'm just lazy and wait for the machine to get around to everything (which is only a couple more seconds, actually) and have gotten to the point where I prefer wetter smoothies versus needing a fat straw or sometimes a spoon to get it down. :)

I remember when my oldest (turned 17 today!) was in K4, the did a daily journal in a regular composition book. In the beginning it was mostly drawings and narration written by the teachers, maybe just some simple labeling, and as time progressed inventive spelling and phonics would slowly appear. I really loved seeing these and having them later to look through and am trying to think about how to work these into our days for my prek-ish 4yo. Do people have simple daily prompts or something for this? My dd is 4 and still progressing to drawing 'things' as opposed to just quickly scribbling a circle-dot and calling it something. She does get frustrated that she isn't able to draw what she wants to draw yet. I really want to add this to our day without introducing frustrating and also without us both just looking at a blank page wondering what to write/draw. We've started a little bit of narration of the books we're reading, done 1x a week, but I want something a lot more open and free than that. Any suggestions? Probably just a simple, just do it is in order most likely. But I'm reaching that point of doubting adding more to our days just because, but she is also asking for more to do and maybe this would be a nice addition.

Thank you - she is signing up for the PSATs for next month. Not sure how much extra prep she'll get in for those. I might see about a generic book or something to have her work through a little bit in the evenings. I feel like she really really needs to rock the tests if college is going to be easier. Our help/contributions will be minimal, like maybe we can cover a meal plan or something, so she needs to really push on those but also unsure of what prep would help as well. She's taken latin and seems to retain a fair amount, math she was challenged with last year and is going to retake Algebra 2 this spring. She is involved with several clubs at school and an officer in one this year (literary magazine club) and also active with the GSA club and getting started with the theater group (the stage crew part, versus the acting part). So I guess maybe I should focus on figuring out best test prep options available for doing at home.

I have a 17-year-old junior - that re-entered public school in 9th grade - and I am somewhat clueless on progressing forward for college. Is there a good checklist or calendar out there that can help me keep on my toes for what we should be doing? DD is not motivated in this department and I want to gently encourage but also be able to say 'now is time to do x' as well. DD has a vague interest in psychology. She has no interest in where to go or what kind of environment she would like. Guilford is the only school she has ever mentioned because other kids in the Quaker youth program have also gone there. Two big factors: she has a romantic interest in Canada and her current plan is heading there post graduation - I'm hoping the plan evolves because it is impeding other planning. Financial Aid is essential - we simply are not in a point of being able to offer much assistance and don't approve of large student debt. I don't know what our expected contributions would be, but I imagine that we wouldn't fall into a high-needs category but our contributions will be small and so far dd hasn't found a job to begin saving either. DD knows our finances are tight and I wonder if part of her lack of interest in planning is just assuming college won't be possible because we can't offer full coverage. She takes many honors classes and has her first AP class this year. Her grades are upper-average. She doesn't have any volunteer work outside of school and we live in a rural area and we really need to find something. She played JV soccer but due to an injury didn't make the team this year, hopefully next year she will try again. I don't recall what last year's PSATs scores were but they were a bit above average. It's time to sign up for them again - but maybe we need more test prep this time, or should we just focus on SAT prep instead. I'm not sure what to use for prep either - she is resistant to the idea with her other schoolwork already piled high, but I think something needs done to give her the best chance at aid. I am not encouraging the community college first option, though we could probably find that more affordable, because she is out and an active part of the LGBT community but we live in a very conservative, small rural community. I feel like she would do better in a more liberal and accepting environment with stronger/larger community network. I'm starting to think surviving this whole college process will be the biggest challenge we have to face in the next two years. :)

I am in the same boat at that time. We eat dinner late cause DH gets home late and hitting the park at 5pm is a daily life saver. I also moved my gym workouts to 4:30-5:00pm because they can play in the child watch and I get to recharge on the days we arent at the park. Or today I just kicked them out of the house to play cause they were crazy and I was done. Tv time during that period didn't help like I thought, it made dinner stressful but we often do a short video right before as an extension of quiet-nap time so that I get to recharge a little from the morning and early afternoon. My big saving point Is that DH takes over everything when he gets home but that can be pretty late at times.

I want to say Thank You to those who mentioned the Tumtum and Nutmeg books - we picked up one and it has been the first read aloud that has really captured and held my oldest littles' attention. She is just captivated by it and every time we have a free minute or two, she brings it out to read some more. :)

Doing a google image search, looks like they had a 25% off sale on Black Friday last year and they also seem to have a regular Birthday sale in May it looks like. :)

I just bookmarked the kids health website and we will probably go that route next year. We're in MD as well and I know that the reviewer we had (with my oldest) never really paid any attention to health. So I would choose either 1 topic per quarter or 2 per year and that is all I'd include. In high school, they take 1 half credit of health in all 4 years so it's not like you need health to as intensive as reading and writing. :) Basically just do a couple little projects that look nice for the portfolio and don't stress over it. I wouldn't spend $40 on a health element when you can really just get by with so much less. And I'm not a really a 'get by' kind of gal for learning, except I believe we do really address health in day to day living and I don't like that it is required either so I'd make it as easy as can be.

Seems to be working better than last time. And maybe the many out of stock items have been corrected. I saw one that was OOS before. I feel like I need something else to fill our day that isn't coloring or cutting or writing. Guess that removed most options in the pre-k range.

I would look into building more play and creative play. So how can you extend out the imaginitive play with the little house stuff you've read? Or whatever things does she have an interest in? We're struggling a bit with this because we've kinda started pre-k stuff and have our stories and songs and activiites and she really wants something to do like cut and paste or something. So I'm looking at add more art time and messy play but I'm really avoiding making anything more academic feeling just because she is staring at me begging for more to do - she doesn't really mean 'school' it's just 'mom, I am bored and want something to do'. But it's only our first week in. :) I love to encourage learning but I also what a fair amount of organic learning and need to avoid scripting too much of it where possible - but that's just my two cents. :)

My mama calls them whomp donuts or poor-folk donuts - but if you have canned biscuits, you can cut those smaller and fry them up. I just never have canned biscuits around now but I loved them as a kid rolled in sugar and cinnamon. You can also do fry bread which isn't a yeast bread either. Mine never turns out so well, so I have no good recipe to recommend.

I love my long skirts in winter, especially if I have my fleece leggins on too. :) I do like adding in a longer satin slip though, otherwise, sometimes my leggings grab at my skirt and that drives me nuts. :)

I would be happy it arrived at all.