"I like being weird. Weird's all I've got. That and my sweet style." ~ Maurice Moss, The IT Crowd. I totally want to watch The IT Crowd again every time I see your posts! It's such a bizarre show!

I haven't looked into LDS curriculum, but I'd be very put out about it teaching YE! The Christian curriculum I'm using gives an option and it gives me the opportunity to discuss YE vs. OE. I'm personally in-between! I apply LDS doctrine of the creation to YE a bit. I explain to my kids the different views so they understand. I kinda feel like its the current Christian fad for lack of a better word. I'm glad to hear a positive view of mfw k! I've been thinking of using it with my boys, but only know other Christian denomination families that have used it and loved it. I haven't seen it in person yet.

Thanks! I'll look into them! I want the religions to be presented in a truthful and positive light. It's my job as a parent to point out differences and direct conversation until my kids have a solid grasp of doctrine. I want them to see the truth in other religions and the good people that believe in them! There is so much religious intolerance in the world already!

My thoughts exactly! I want my children to learn about other religions, but this source isn't trustworthy! I can catch and correct differences in Christian views, but Asian and Middle Eastern descent religions are out of my comfort zone to teach. I wouldn't know if it was true or not! Is hate to unwittingly teach my kids something false! Anyone know of a true book of other religions without a religious slant toward one denomination or group? The above book by John Hay I believe is non denominational Christian, but is too biased to even get correct information!

The construction is finally done! Until next week when I'm sure they will rip up a perfectly good road! Some parts of Lehi have that outcast if you haven't lived here for 5 generations. North Lehi is good, but you will smell cows and hear trains! I'm not a huge fan, but did enjoy living close to Thanksgiving Point. I enjoy the shopping in Draper/Sandy. I'm almost positive that the Adobe building is in Lehi. It's right next to Cabellas on the same exit as Thanksgiving Point, but on the other side of the freeway. My DH has thought of applying there, but he really loves his current job! His commute would be laughable though!

We were wondering how it got past an editor! I want to tell them to watch a Mormon ad on utube! Would have cleared up a bit!

It's not, but it feels that way. The writing style is unique and seems so sincere! You almost want to believe anything it says. It seems like its putting a religion in a positive light from a familiar perspective of a child living the religion. It's honestly quite scary and easy to see how someone with less knowledge of LDS doctrine and lifestyle would buy it hook, line and sinker!

I missed 4!

Who am I? And What am I doing here? By John Hay. You can view the offending and disturbing while almost entertaining pages on Amazon. I almost wanted to make my girls blue, knee length skirts in a twisted sense of humor after reading it. My DH thought they might be traumatized by our laughing though! I wanted to hug the poor imaginary girl in the book. She is sooooo messed up. The whole family lives in fear of being excommunicated at any moment. You'll laugh at the family living in a huge house while the father works a blue collar job in UT! In SLC too! Maybe its a family owned property being passed down for generations? I'm still wondering why a church official is staying with them vs. a church owned hotel. I did like how the oldest son is saving for a mission as his parents can't afford to send him. All the doctrine is really messed up! I've read my fair share of anti literature, but this is unique in how complementary it seems.

Paraguard IUD. I'm beyond fertile and its been great. It did make my period heavier at first (or could have been having a 4th baby) and then leveled out to light average. I had the Mirina before. The hormones are lower, but still there. I had spotting like hormonal bc does for me and taking it out was horrible! The actual taking it out was fine, but then I had hemorrhage bleeding to reset my system. I. know several others that had the same experience. I haven't had the copper IUD removed. They were both easy to have placed. My OB that put in my latest one used Ultrasound to make sure it was placed in right. I'd recommend finding a Dr. that uses ultrasound for placement!

Okay, I totally laughed! Great discussion ladies! I can't wait to get my hard copy of conference in my hands. My little ones are too distracting! I used secular or Amish/Mennonite curriculum until last yr. I use Heart of Dakota as its Christian while not going into doctrine. Last yr it wasn't an issue. This yr I've only come across one doctrinal issue. We looked up our second Article of Faith and compared our beliefs with other Christian views. My girls were shocked that others believe little children are sinful by being decendents of Adam. These topics being brought up is exactly why I'm using a Christian curriculum. I want my kids to understand others beliefs and gain a testimony of ours. Our neighbours are not LDS and our kids play together. I don't know what religion if any they are. I want my children to have a more rounded religious view then the local culture has. I got that sort of education by my step mother who took me to all sorts of different denominations as an older kid and teen. She was trying to convert me to anything but LDS, but it was a great experience that made me stronger in my faith. So I use a non denominational curriculum now to make my children well rounded. Plus we have excellent historical and doctrinal discussions! It helps that I can pick things out and elaborate on the fly. HoD does use an anti-LDS book in its newest manual. I'm quite upset! It's written in such a sweetly deceptive way that it is almost complimentry as it tells absolute lies about our beliefs. I'm sure the person has never met a member of our church! I've emailed the publisher with no response! I need to write a formal letter of complaint. It's very irresponsible to publish flat out lies about any religion! Of course lies taught from my grandmothers preacher (I always thought it was odd that preachers do this!) is what got my grandparents interested in the LDS church when they met a member as young parents. The "new guy at work" seemed so nice and normal. They went to church with him and converted soon after. A few yrs later my grandfather was called as Bishop in that struggling area in CA. It's a.common tale of children taught lies and converting when they find out the truth. Still upsets me as I don't like people being lied to in the name of Christianity. Feels like the Crusades in a more intellectual/less graphic way. I was all excited for the book until I started reading it too! I can't trust what they say about other religions I know less about when the only thing they got right about mine was correct spelling! Sorry, this is a topic I feel passionately about! As a religion, we seek the truth in all things. It's very important and it upsets me to have children taught lies about any subject or religion.

For homeschooling, there are lots of options. From concurrent enrollment, charter homeschools, co-ops and regular on your own homeschooling. Every yr you fill out an exemption form, get it notorized and send it in. The district offices are in AF! Pretty painless and they stay out of your hair. This yr. they even mailed me the form so I didn't need to print it out.

It is a really good area. We have lived in Orem (just started to feel grimy and the traffic was awful!). The library was great and there is lots to do! Moved to Lehi and it was nice. I never made it to the actual library as we had this cute extension building that we went to weekly. I miss it! It's a nice area for being close to SLC and UT county. Now we live by Highland and its my favorite so far. The commuter lane to the freeway is complete and I can zip along for quick freeway access. The library is nonexistent! You can pay a yearly fee for access to Orems library. I go to the Draper library which has access to all SLC libraries. I don't go often as its a bit of a drive. When my girls had art lessons in Sandy we would go after them weekly. My DH works in AF. He has a 20 min commute now. The cost of living is quite high for wages in this area! Make sure you look into that! We have found that the neighbours we've had have been more down to Earth the closer we get to SLC and away from the city. We like a nice community feel while living outside the city. I'm 30 min to Orem/Provokes and 30 min to downtown SLC. When I'm home I enjoy being tucked into the mountains. Our area is about 50% LDS, but everyone has been respectful and kind. We have a great homeschooling community with tons of activities to choose from. I go North into South SLC county then South into Orem/Provo for most of our needs. I love living above the inversion level where the air is clean. We get more snow though. My raised on Texas DH is still trying to reconcile himself to the snow! AF has a good mix of old and new. The hospital is good. Lots of everyday shopping for families. I'd look into the high schools for the boundaries if you want that option available for your kids. Thanksgiving Point is right off the most North freeway exit in Lehi and its great for kids of all ages! They have lots of activities for families and collectors. Farmers markets in the summer, car shows, lots of fun fall activities. Tulip festival in the Spring. Lots of musical and cultural events. We had a great time learning at the wool festival this yr!

The key idea statements are there for a help. You don't need to read them to your children! I find them nice to keep my focus, but rarely read them to my kids! They do fine by themselves, I'm always pulled in different directions and its nice to have a quick refocus statement. We are using Preparing this yr for 4th and 5th. We are using the free notebook pages for science and history. My girls books are beautiful! The science is a little light, but it gets done daily! My girls read science books for fun reading, so I don't stress it. Now that we have a routine established, I'm adding in the extension reading for my kids. My 4th grader is an advanced reader where my 5th grader is average. I think they will enjoy the readings. They are broken into manageable chunks. Besides adding Latin to our day, I don't tweek the daily schedule. We found the studied dictation to work so much better then any spelling program we used. We are enjoying it and its a good fit for our family. I would try it like written before tweaking it to see if those needs are met first. That is what I did last yr and I found that I didn't need to add like I thought I would like to. My girls grew so much and begged for the next level.

My kids loved Bigger! If you go to the yahoo group, someone made notebooking pages for Bigger. I'm using her Preparing pages and they are fantastic! We are loving Preparing this yr so far. Bigger is quite teacher involved. Preparing is more independent as they were taught well in Bigger for this step. As we went along in Bigger my girls started asking to do their Science by themselves.

Its totally possible to get WC even if vacc'd for it. I would take my kid in for a bad cough. My boys have needed steriod shots several times for croup. I was worried it was WC the first time. The steroid shot works quickly and they are able to sleep. My 3 yr old was hospitalized for 5 days last yr from a cold that swelled his throat closed. I'm quite proactive with him to get a steroid shot after that experience!

I hope things continue to look up. My last baby measured weeks behind for some reason in an early U/S. If I hadn't had blood work at 4-5 weeks they would have changed my due date. He is a healthy two yr old now! He was always very small until this Summer and now he's average. His Pediatrician was confused at the huge sudden spike in growth.

Congratulations!

We did Bigger last yr. My kids are similar ages to yours. I found homeschool with a baby pretty easy, its the toddler that makes things hard! If we were at the table, we were all there! I had all sorts of table activities for my little ones. I like to chunk activities. We always start with math, then did dictation and poetry. Then we moved to the couch for English, science and history. Then back to the kitchen for science experiments or the rotating box. We ended with their reading books. My kids would take forever sometimes on the rotating box activity. They love crafts and the like. Having it last was best for my sanity level. I didn't need to stay close while they went crazy making it perfect. I could play or work with my little ones.

Twice while exclusively nursing and planned pregnancy. Both of my "sets" are 16 months and a week apart. I bf until my baby was a yr old and self weaned in the second trimester. I delay solids until at least 10 months. Some have been closer to 12 months. All single pregnancies and births.

I would prep them for childbirth at the very least! I'd go so far as to show them childbirth videos! The last thing you want is an unplanned homebirth with your kids unprepared. My girls were planned to be at their brothers births, but it would have happened anyway with my youngest! I'd prepare them for the baby coming and go from there. During my pregnancies we would read pregnancy books for bedtime stories. They loved learning what the baby was doing and developing every week! It was a very natural process.

Can I suggest you look into Preparing? I'm using it for my 9 yr old and nearly 11 yr old. It is a great fit. CtC is quite advanced from what I know. Many feel its middle school level and wait to start it at 6th or 7th grade. Preparing is a sweep of history. You could add the extension books for your oldest if you wanted. We are enjoying it! It is a good 4th-5th grade curriculum and right on their level.

I rear face as long as I can. My barely turned 2 yr old is happily rear facing. My 3 yr old was over 35 lbs before he turned 2 and needed to be turned around as it was the seats limit. My 2 yr old will be rear facing as long as I can manage it, but hehit a major growth spurt and gained a lot. I'm hopeful to rear face him for another yr. He is average size vs. peanut size he was as a baby.

My 95% 3 1/2 yr old is in a Britax Frontier. Love his seat! He has lots of room in it and it turns to a huge booster when he is ready. My girls are in hbb for side impact protection. They were in a 5 pt harness until they outgrew their Brirax convertable seats height wise. At the time there weren't the better options we have now. My oldest was small and nearly 7 when she got her hbb. Every step up you make gives less protection to your child. Everyone is safer rear facing, then in a 5 pt harness forward facing, then hbb, then lbb and the least protected in a normal 3 pt seat belt. Keeping your 4-8 yr old harnessed as long as possible is the best thing for them! Get the biggest seat you can afford!

Spelling matters and I always think boy.