:iagree: absolutely

I love that idea, and when dd begins to date, it will be something that I make sure she has the money on hand to be able to offer. I would expect her to make the effort to contribute to the date. Having said that, with my boys, I will expect them to pay for dates. I will expect them to open doors and let the girl go in first. I like traditional attitudes/values/actions/whatever you wanna call it. I will expect them to walk to the door of the girl's home, meet her parents, say ma'am and sir. I will expect my sons to ask/discuss/state intentions to the girl's parents before proposing. While there are lot of people talking about gender equality, when it comes to romance, I still think *most* women enjoy being treated in the more traditional/old fashioned style. I personally wouldn't think too much of a guy who asked me out and then expected me to pay half the bill.

mei tai - I had 3 and LOVE them. swaddlers - like this but you can also find some cute handmade ones on Etsy. swing that has the papasan like seating and goes left to right instead of forward and backward.

I have 4 also, almost 2, 4, 7, and 9. My 4th sent me over the edge with being overwhelmed. There are times when I still feel like you do, but mostly it has gotten waaaay better. It will, don't worry. And if the baby is getting in 6 teeth at once, once they come in, you will get a great break!! Just make sure that once they are asleep, do something peaceful and relaxing. It is so easy to use their sleep time as a time to finish a load of laundry or 2, clean up their toys, catch up on school type things...etc, etc. It can all wait, trust me. I am pretty anal about a clean and organized house, but I had to let go a little in order to maintain my sanity. Give yourself a break when you can, or make sure that you MAKE time for a break. :grouphug:

chicken that has skin on it....even fried. There is something about that layer between the skin and the meat. The feel of skin in my mouth, the thought of it being skin......:ack2: I wasn't like this until being pregnant for the first time. Every pregnancy, I had a complete chicken aversion, and the skin thing stuck and got worse over the years. Now, even typing this I am on the verge of severe gagging....

Wow, lots of responses! Ok, well, for us, uniforms work well. As far as laundry, I would *think* we do less laundry than those who wear regular clothes. They each have 2 shirts, and one pair of khakis. They wear that every day, then I wash on Saturday. We have church clothes, and play clothes, and their play clothes stay nice enough to wear out to b-day parties or restaurants or whatever. After school, if we are not going anywhere, or they don't want to play outside, they just put on their pajamas. Ironically, for field trips, they wear regular clothes! I like "looking like" a homeschool family! :tongue_smilie: Home attitude vs. school attitude ~ well, I have 3 boys whose "home" attitude is to wrestle, tease, fight, yell, and run around w/guns, light sabers, playing soldiers and whatever else. W/O uniforms, they had tendencies to be loud and have way, way too much talking and bantering going on between them. Uniforms puts them into a "school" mode where they really do seem to pay more attention, try harder, and concentrate better, and, quite honestly, learn better. The difference between last year's "wear whatever you can find" and this year is AMAZING. So much less frustrating. So it works for **us**. I grew up wearing school uniforms until high school when I went to public school. I don't think it makes much of a difference if you GO to school, but at home, I feel like they need to be accountable for their personal appearance and adherence to an educational schedule, just as if they were leaving the house to go to school. eeeek, battery about to die, about to shut down...........gotta go for now.....

:lol: sometimes I miss the obvious!

I instituted a uniform policy this year. I think it has really helped them concentrate better and have more of a "school" attitude than a "home" attitude.

:bigear: ds-7 is still doing that. I have to say that ending this year, he is waaaaay waaaaay better, and does it much less now. Usually now it is only w/10's numbers (02, 03, 04, etc. for 20, 30, 40). This year I would have hiim complete a 100 number chart (about 25 - 30 numbers blank) at the beginning of math M, W, F. That has helped a lot....

sadly, I can only mooch off the wonderful ideas already being shared. I have 2 more weeks of school, and am doing all I can to get through it. I do not have an ounce of creativity or anything resembling a neat idea right now! I have received *most* of my curriculum for next year, so once I start the actual planning part here in another 2 wks or so, maybe I will have something worth sharing. BTW, to the OP, your ideas are sooooo *not* dumb!!!!!! I, for one, plan on stealing BOTH of your ideas! I am "taking" w/o contributing :tongue_smilie: (for now anyway!)

a few weeks after getting married, I wanted to make fried chicken for my husband. Got my chicken ready, put the oil in the frying pan, turned the gas burner on high, and waited. and waited. and waited..... for the oil to come to a boil..........

Make sure you cool him down well with cool, wet towels (not cold, just cool) on his head, wrists, and chest. Get him PLENTY of fluids. If you can, pure coconut water (you can buy it at nearly any health food or natural food store) is the most hydrating fluid, but of course Pedialyte will work fine, too, or if you have nothing else, plain water is perfectly fine. He may end up with some diarrhea as well. There really shouldn't be anything to be too alarmed about as long as you do the following and he is acting normal. If he is lethargic or acting out of character, take him to the Dr. Remember, if it is heat exhaustion, you will not see him sweat, so don't be tricked into thinking that he is not hot.

I have been feeling like this for quite some time myself. I was a "wild child" back in high school and college, and so my strict Catholic, homeschooling, AP, co-sleeping, selective vaxing, organic-eating, self does not fit into the mainstream type friends I used to hang out with. But, I still have a lot of those tendencies, so I have a really hard time fitting in all the way with my Catholic home school group of moms that live a lot more conservatively than I feel I will ever be. I am too liberal for conservatives and too conservatives for liberals. I know how to go out and party and live it up w/the best of them, but the times I actually **want** to do that are maybe once a year at best. So b/c I decline a lot when invited by the more social group of moms I know, I then get dropped off the invite list. And then of course there is the typical stereotype of a home school type mom, so I think that alienates me even more. My bff of over 20 years and I have absolutely nothing in common anymore and we don't even speak anymore....and when you are at home 7 days a wk, and not meeting other parents through school, it is hard to meet new people. Sooooo, I am for the moment trying to be content w/the current season in my life, though it is a lonely place at times. But no matter what, I will live as I feel is best for my family and I, and to all those who want to judge, they are not the people I want to waste my very limited time off on anyway!! Love who you are and be who you love. Don't spend precious moments wondering if it is you. If it is you, it is b/c you are confident and being the person you want to be that is best for your life and your family. Hugs to you!!!!! :grouphug:

Katy Perry: E.T., Part of Me, The One That Got Away, I Kissed A Girl Rhianna: We Found Love, Cockiness Brittany Spears: I Wanna Go Ke$ha: Blow, Blah Blah Blah Avril Lavigne: Take Me Away, Fall To Peices Limp Bizkit: Getcha Groove On, My Generation AC/DC: Shake Your Foundation, Who Made Who Carrie Underwood: Undo It Nine Inch Nails: Head Like a Hole, Sanctified Adele: Set Fire to the Rain

of course it does! at least, it makes you *feeeeel* like you are more intelligent! :lol:

lmao :lol:

http://www.worksheetworks.com/geography/usa.html great new and upcoming website!!!!

agreeing w/others, when they show an interest. ds1 wanted to when he was 2, and was pretty good at correctly forming all print letters by 3 years old. ds2 showed no interest at all until he was about 4, late 4 closer to 5. Now, at 7 we are doing D'nelian and he loves doing it and has gotten really good. He took interest when older brother started learning cursive. He wanted his own special writing, too! ds3 is 4 and loves learning to write letters. He started when he was about 3 1/2.

Thanks!! :)

THANK YOU! Ya know, I think I do this at the end of every year, start having doubts that I covered enough of the "right stuff." "Right stuff" being what did the public schools cover. In my end of year panic, I forget sometimes to look and ask instead, what did **I** cover that the ps did not?! Anyway, I think that the way we are doing things right now actually does work. And I like the suggestion of throwing in some folklore as leisure reading or bedtime reading for good measure, and I may do a 1x/month famous american type study or just add that to our summer reading/bedtime reading. Either way, I feel better about it today, after reading these posts, than I did last night!!

What books/curriculum do you use? What is your schedule? I am getting overwhelmed trying to know what to teach. There is so much SS encompasses: map work, geography, history, cultural studies, government.... This year I did SOTW 3x/wk. On the other 2 days, my 1st grader did a state study, and my 3rd grader did government. It worked out great, but looking over "standards" I realized we had not done any cultural type studies (American Indians, famous/notable Americans, Black History, folklore, etc.) Trying to figure out what I will do next year and how to incorporate...well...everything! Obviously I need some advice/guidance! Thanks!

I have been looking at buying this and have some ?? for those who use it: Is the teacher's manual necessary? What about the online subscription? Do you get a lot out of it? Recommend it or not? Did you purchase the I Love Chinese kit and the MFCW kit, or just the MFCW? Thanks!

Oh yes....sort of going through that now. My bff of over 20 years and I speak only every other few months or so now. I was close to her and her entire family. Her niece lived w/us for 2 years when she went to college. For 5 years, before moving, we lived right next door to her oldest sister. But, things have changed. I am married w/4 kids and she is still single. Our lives too different directions. Then once, in a very rushed and hectic conversation, apparently something I said was taken the wrong way. She never once brought it up to me, but her sisters dropped me as friends on fb. I asked her about it, and after months, she finally explained it to me. I was pissed. After being friends for over 20 years, I was never given the chance to explain, apologize anything. When living next door to her sister, she would come to town to visit, and her whole family would be next door, she nor anyone else would ever call and say hey we are all here, come on over, anything. It was as if I didn't even exist. Once, she came over and said can she use my bathroom b/c they were all full at her sister's house! So she stayed and chatted for a few, then one of her sisters came in the front door of my house calling for her, saying get back over there, and never even said a word to me! In my house! After not even knocking or anything! anyway, she has become so dependent/focused on her sisters that she really has no room for anyone in her life. It's sad to be very best friends w/someone that long and then it is just over. I called her once in March and asked if we were still friends. She said yes, she still considered us friends, but she has never called since. So there ya have it I guess. I guess we all grow and change and sometimes that means growing apart, sadly enough. :(

We grill fish a lot....my favorites are grouper, tuna, and mahi. A small tip is to never over cook/over grill tuna. Grouper is also **excellent** fried ;) I do it rarely b/c I can eat my weight in it! It is THAT good.

I have often wondered the same thing...most recently b/c I was looking for a copy of SOTW 2. I saw used copies being sold for as much as $15 (for just the book) and finally purchased mine new off Amazon for $10.81 w/free shipping. I tend to trust most people when they say like new. I know it happens so often that curric gets purchased and never used for one reason or another. I have wasted copious amts of $$ doing this at times myself, and would like to recoup as much as I can when it happens. If I can get like new from another seller for a price that includes shipping and is only about 10% off, then I will. It just helps other homeschoolers. We all have to spend a lot of money on curric and it absolutely S U X when you spend money on stuff that doesn't end up working out. As much as I prefer helping out other homeschooler's, I still absolutely refuse to spend MORE than what I can get something for new.