I second Miss Moe. My best friend gives a nice selection of books for the new baby (especially if they have most all the basics already). Usually she puts it in a nice basket or container that will work for the gender and whatever decor they are using for the room. You could also give the older child an age-appropriate book or two, as well. She said no one else usually ever brings anything like it, and it gets the baby started with a nice collection of books.

You can make sauce and freeze it. Then you are one step ahead of the dinner game--tomato sauce at the ready for spaghetti, lasagna, manicotti, etc., etc. I planted a ton of tomatoes this year as well for that very purpose. I load up on spaghetti sauce, salsa, and red enchilada sauce. You can dry the tomatoes in your oven as well for recipes using dried tomatoes. A tomato salad is great, too: Sliced tomatoes, sliced fresh mozerella, some fresh basil, and a little balsamic vinegar. HTH!

Great! Thanks for your help.

This year I plan on using GWG 1 for my son. I have never used any of the GWG series. How much time should I schedule for his lessons? TIA!

See if your library has Frozen Assets by Deborah Taylor-Hough. It will give you some great ideas on how to get started with freezer meals. Lots of recipes and just some good advice on practical ways to get started.

They just moved their site. Here is the new link: http://www.guesthollow.com/homeschool/curriculum.html

I, too, have only had a great experience with McRuffy math. Used K for my ds and 3rd grade for dd this past year. Kids absolutely loved the programs. Brian is great! I e-mailed him a couple of times about questions I had and he was quick to reply. He is hoping to have 4th grade LA and math ready for this fall. He said I could e-mail him later on in the summer, and he would give me an update as to when he thought they'd be ready.

Thank you! I even called the CLE customer service and they couldn't answer for sure whether or not manipulatives were used!

Thanks! I couldn't find anything specific on that anywhere!

I just recently saw that you can print your own. Several sites have free printable handwriting paper. Here's one: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/TC060901001033.aspx You may be able to just purchase a ream somewhere, but mostly I have just seen templates for printing your own. Not sure if that helps or not...

Does CLE math for 4th grade use manipulatives? I am trying to decide between CLE and Horizons, and I see that Horizons uses manipulatives still at this level. I could not find anything showing there were any manipulatives needed for CLE 400. TIA!

I don't have an infrared grill, but my mother bought one when they first started coming out. Don't know where she bought it or exactly what brand, but this one didn't work well at all. It could be that it was not a very reliable brand or she got a lemon (not sure), but it didn't work very well. I don't know of anyone else that has tried one.

Thanks for the link! I'd never heard of it before.

They are called rash guards and now that they are more popular you can find them at Target and Old Navy. Both stores are comparable in price, although sometimes you can get them from Old Navy online in discontinued colors/styles pretty cheap--got some last year for $5 each.

I used to just work up our wish list and then buy it in one fell swoop, but this year dh wants me to break that down into 3 increments and space out the buying over the summer.