Well, I know it comes up in writing and stuff. I'm just wondering how long we need to keep up the formal curriculum. We'ee in the 7th grade book, and this is much more than I remember learning. I originally thought it'd be great that they learned so much grammar. Now, I'd kinda like to spend the time on other things. I'm not sure how imporant it is to know how to identify the complex tense of a word as long as you know how to use it properly.

If a kid has done R&S Grammar from the start and finishes the 7th grade book, is that enough? They just added the 9th & 10th grade books a few years ago, right? So are those really necessary? How about the eigth grade book? Could we just move on to forgien language and call that & writing good enough?

It really is hit or miss. I just bought two things that were junk I'd throw away, not try to sell to someone else. Oh, well. They were cheap enough to not be worth a fuss, though do make you second guess the effort next time. My most recent ??? Transaction was for an expensive menorah. The auction finished without reserve met, so I contacted her to see if we could deal. Her reserve was only $25 higher than my max bid, so we came to an agreement. Then she upped the price $25. Then fell off the face of the planet. Do you want to sell or not? You've got a buyer willing to pay what you ask even after you raise the price. Guess she didn't want to really sell it. Would have been nice to let me know.

Lol, making me twitchy, too! And I don't write a list or know the price of everything, but I do have a good feel of what the total is of what we usuallt get and how many extras I can get without going over. If I used a credit card to buy groceries, it'd be way too easy to not put stuff back when I go a little over or to indulge in more extras than we can afford.

We have a Save a Lot down the street and an Aldi 2 miles away. I shop at aldi regularly and SAL only when I've run out of something. Perhaps it's our SAL, but I don't find thier prices that great. walmart is bettee for many things and Alfi is better fir just abour everything.

We just had to get rid of our dog because he bit my dd. when we first got him, on our way home from the breeder, we stopped at Petco and a he was bit by a dog. He never fully got over it. So, it does bother me. The blatant disreguard for the rules bothers me, but there's a reason for the rules. Service animals are entirely different.

My baby has a touch of reflux and used to scream and scream in the car. After 4 babies that traveled well, it really threw us for a loop. Someone suggested trying the convertable carseat instead of the bucket carrier and she has traveled pretty well since. The first time she fell asleep in the car I wanted to cry happy tears.

If you're not picky and just want more legos, We did well this year on ebay. Got ds 5lbs of mixed legos for $45 and dd 4 lbs of bricks, trees, flowers and a large baseplate for $35. Oh, and we vaccuum sealed them for wrapping so the curious are left wondering.

I found quite a few lots on ebay for boosting the lego supply a little more affordablly. We did about $100 per kid with only about $20 on the baby.

Another thing I did was get some green smoothy stuff. I figured it might be easier to get good veggies into me that way.

Sorry you're stillmiserable, but yay that you're eating! :) I had thatfood lump in my stomach the whole time with this last pregnancy. My midwife said that it's caused by everything slowing down and getting sluggish. She suggested magnesium, saying that that helps things move along. I don't know if it helped. I had good days and bad days and it seemed to be related to how much I pushed myself. But perhaps it will help

My uncle showed it to us at Thanksgiving and the kids have been singing it since.

How are tou feeling otherwise? (sorry for all the posts. I don't see how to edit on the new forums.)

And a maternity belt. Can't live eithout that. But the pain where I couldn't lift my leg to climb stair or get into the car was helped with the chiro.

The chiro has helped with my last two pregnancies. Not perfectly and I was so loose from hormones that I had to go regularly. But it helped tremendously.

Are you in MI now? we're in the area. If you want to talk detsils, you can pm me. I served a few months in New Orleans when i was in college. It is a little different as part of a respected, established ministry. The center I worked in had done good in the community for about 50 years. It was respected and appreciated by many in the community. This kind of put a barrier around us as there were people in the community looking out for us even though we didn't know them or even know they were doing it. People would see us on the street and tell us as much. (we were white and young, so they assumed we were a part of the mission) I felt a bit safer because of this. (though we were still wise and cautious)

Interesting read so far. We're not in a neighborhood quite as bad as discribed here. I do have to be more protective of my kids and it's hard to feel so out of place in your own home. Our city is about half white, with the other half a mix of mostly black and a bi of mexican. But i'm out of place even with the white people. And my kids are out of place with the kids. That part is hard. They pick up some undesirable things, yes, but they also have no true friends or playmates. The people they do play with move eventually (and many times that's a blessing) Growing up in the suburbs didn't prepare me for the racism. I'm used to people at least pretending to want to get along. And black friends, who were few, but genuine. Here, not everyone, but many people are openly racist, on all sides. (except mexican. I don't think I've experienced it from them. Black, white and muslim/arabic though, yes) and it's hard when your kid is the only white kid in the boy scout day camp and he's picked on and bullied because of it and you don't find out until after that the adults didn't do anything to help him. And then it's no wonder he doesn't want to go back, even though his pack was wonderful and treated him just fine. My thoughts are kinda just flowing. I don't think I could do worse than here, as others describe. We've had drug houses, theft, homeless, ect. But much milder. Even so, it does get you down. When you save and budget and buy things to have them stolen again and again, it can make you wonder why you try. When people steal things you would have given freely, it's sad. But there's plenty of opportunity to be a light and uplift a drpressed area. Oh, and for homeschooling, no one ever gives you a hard time. They all understand- they don't want to go to these schools either. I'm tired. I don't know that I have a point. Just some things to think about.

Thanks for posting this! We got one of each for my dds. When I mentioned the sale, they wanted to change their lists. I told them that I already bought all their gifts, but if they wanted to save up for it, they could do that. So that's what we're doing. :) It'll be a great excercise in delayed gratification.

Sell it if you're not enjoying it. I compared the two and went with a Bosch because it had better reviews and I wanted something I could grow into if I decided to Do more bread in the future. I love it! I have yet to use it for bread, but I've used it for cookies many times. Anyway, I'm a firm believer in not keeping things you dOn't enjoy. As for price, I bought mine for $150+ship. It also has the blender and cookie paddles, but was used a little more than yours.

My dh says (and mil also) that he took forever to potty train. He just didn't want to, so he didn't. Then, Grandma offered to sign him up fir preschool, but he had to be potty trained to go. He wanted to go, so he started using the toilet. I think for some kids, you just need the proper motivation. Don't worry about what others think about this. All kids are different. My #4's inability to sleep through the night has shown me that some kids just have different struggles/issues than others. We just have to parent the kids we have as best as we know how.

My ped says not to worry about the height. It has the most opportunity for error until the can stand on the scale themselves.

Thanks for all the ideas! It's amazing the things you forget with just a 6 yr gap. Are there any good montessori idea books out there?

I really need activities or toys that would be good during school hours. Please!

Thanks! I looked a littlle at Staples this evening and I like that HP. It does both sides! That will be wonderful for printing out math books. And it's currently on sale.

Dh wants it to be wireless. I need a copier. Cheap ink would be nice. Our old HP all in one finally died. Thanks!