Names I like for a boy: Lyle Ian Lukas Blake Zander Xavier Names I like for a girl: Ila (also spelled Isla) Grace Selah Aurora Gwen

Technically, it's the seller's responsibility to buy insurance for a package to protect themselves. BUT, in this case, the package was "safely" delivered by your inept mailman who left it out in the rain. If it were me, I'd go down to the PO with my package (or what's left of it) and complain about it to them. Not that it will do much good probably...this is so sad. I'd be so bummed if my package got destroyed like that!

That looks awesome! :)

I've been pregnant five times, have four babies. I found that the BH contractions started earlier and earlier with each kid. By the time I got to the last one, they had started somewhere around 20 weeks. I tried to be unproductive and relaxed as much as possible because they were painful. I also had to enlist the help of the other kids for a lot of things so that we could get things done. DH was also super helpful.

I typically go to bed around 11pm and get up around 7am. And I am up a lot at night as well because a) I pee a lot and b) we just recently found out we have bats and that's freaking me out!

I would check out lots of different sites about cloth diapering in addition to asking around here. You can google some good ones as I'm not sure if I can link to them here (still new to this particular forum). You should also consider what kind of diapers you're interested in. I liked one-size pocket diapers, personally. It was a bigger initial investment but they were easy for everyone to use and lasted us from birth to 2 years old. I liked that about them. Some of my favorites were bumGenius and FuzziBunz. :)

I do not have a 12 YO girl, but I do have a 12 YO boy. These are my thoughts: 1. If she's bored with the math, move her up to where she isn't bored anymore. Boredom equals frustration and more hatred for school. 2. I remember when I was that close to AF, I was extremely hormonal all the time. I'd bet you're right about it being soon. 3. Try to add LOTS of free time and time for her to choose what she'll do. Is there anything at all that you can use for school that she loves to do? DS loves the computer and making games. I plan to use it in some way for school this year. HTH somehow!

Thanks for posting that list! I've been wondering about it myself since I'm so new. :)

Our fourth grade plans: -SOTW/MOH combo for history -Christian Kids Explore Earth and Space -Learning Language Arts through Literature, the orange book (this covers vocab, reading, grammar, spelling, composition, etc) -Math-U-See delta -A Complete Guide to Drawing and Illustration -a free keyboarding program I found online (don't remember the name now)

I'm glad I checked out this thread! I was considering having my own DS read that and he's 9. I think he'll need to wait until next year or even the following one to read about that. He's my questions kid and will pull that apart like crazy.

This sounds very much like my daughter, who is 6 and just finished K. She really struggled with learning to read this year and I know she doesn't read as well as her brothers did at this same point in her school life. But she is still struggling along. I like the suggestions you've gotten above. Some of the things we do: 1. I choose books that I know she will succeed at reading (Bob books, for example) so she feels good about her ability. 2. We practice reading aloud as often as possible. 3. I make a "window" for her to read in if she is getting overwhelmed by the number of words on the page. I simply take some scrap paper and cut a rectangle into it so that only one to two words is showing. I think it helps with fluency if she can see two words at a time. 4. We try to time practice for her best time of the day (she still naps, so right after her nap or in the morning first thing are her two good times).

I love the above suggestion! We are using MUS for my middle two and LOF for the oldest. DD is doing MUS alpha, DS2 is doing MUS delta, and ODS is doing LOF Fractions/Decimals and Percents. We're doing what I feel will work best for each of my kids. :)

Honestly, for preschool, we tend to do exactly what you're already doing. I just let my kiddies play and work on different things with them in a fun way. We watch "movies" about letters like the Leapfrog Letter Factory DVD. He plays on his sister's explorer sometimes. We have letter, number, and shape puzzles. We have some fun with patterns. And he's 3. We likely won't start trying anything to do with reading until he's five. If he's ready to start before then, great. Otherwise, I'll work with him on it in kindergarten.

We are doing Life of Fred with my seventh grade DS. I got them used for a decent price and they have a decent resale value as well. I wouldn't buy them new, but if you can find them used, that would be worth it in my opinion. I've also found a bunch of things to supplement it with for free. I'll have to find my list of sites...there are a bunch of free video sites. MUS (which I'm doing with the middle two kids) also has a free worksheet generator that I'll likely use alongside our LOF stuff this year as well.

I am just beginning to use my blog (that used to just tell kid life stories) for some middle school stuff. Today, I'll be posting on the first chapter of "A Wrinkle in Time." It's here: http://themommywriter.blogspot.com/

Personally, I would just do what you know you and HE likes. I would stick with the R&S because he likes it and learns from it. I wouldn't let the number on the cover bother me too much (of course it would, so I would try not to look at the cover, lol). Just my two cents. :)

Thanks for posting these! I'm new(ish) to this forum and was just coming here to look for this exact thing! I have a 7th grade DS this fall and was hoping for some blogs talking about middle school. :) I also will have a 4th grade DS, a 1st grade DD, and a PreK DS (mostly just wants to be involved so he'll have pics to color and will work on shapes, colors, letters, numbers, etc at the same time as the bigger kids).

It looks like the PP already answered. I was going to say that you have 48 as well. It says it on the right side just under "location."

I have circled around the Ambleside curriculum several times this year as well, considering it for my boys. I struggle with it for many of the same reasons. No textbooks. A lot of freedom. But then I sort of like it for that as well. I think you should try it! We may follow some of it this year too. :)