Thanks so much, everyone! I've been starting to panic, and now I feel fine with continuing with SOTW 3. I feel like if I'm using it for both of them, I'll have more time/energy to incorporate some of the extra activities and more of the extra books.

My dd will complete SOTW 2 this year (2nd grade). My ds will be ready to start SOTW next year (1st grade). I'm not sure what to do with the history cycle. Should I just go on with SOTW 3, and let him absorb as much as he can from it? I know he won't be ready for the outlining in SOTW 4 in 2nd grade, but I guess I could just skip that part for him. I briefly thought about starting over with SOTW 1, but I can't stand the idea of doing the ancients again when we just did them last year! It would be really nice to have them both on the same history schedule, though! Anyone have any experience with this? What worked for you? Thanks!

I bought McRuffy Phonics K for my son this year. I really like the program, but he is young and he really didn't know all of his letter sounds as well as I thought he did. It was too difficult for him pretty quickly. I set it aside and we've been going through the Get Ready, Get Set, and Go for the Code (ETC) workbooks to cement letter sounds for him. Once we've finished that, we'll go back to McRuffy K. I really like the program, but for us it feels like you need to know letter sounds pretty well before you're ready for it.

My 11-year old dd uses the Burt's Bees Natural Acne Solutions. She doesn't really have acne yet, just a spot here and there, but she'd like to keep it that way! http://www.amazon.com/Burts-Bees-Natural-Solutions-Full-Size/dp/B00394DVS2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1294074562&sr=8-1

We periodically have that happen at our house, too. It seems like it happens when we haven't had a fire for a while and the fireplace is completely cold. (It doesn't *always* happen when the fireplace is cold, though.)

I'm waiting for an ipod touch (that I worked hard to qualify for!) from a Bank of the West promotion for my dd11. It was supposed to be shipped by the 15th. It's been in Sparks, Nevada (about a 3 hour drive from me and in another state) since Monday night. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it arrives today or tomorrow! It's her main gift, and she won't have much of a Christmas without it. But I can't go buy one, only to have this one arrive next week...

I love mine, and I didn't even want it at first. (My mom got it for me last year.) I'm sure he'll love it!

I'm starting to have a panic attack just reading what everyone else does! I had to skip to the last page before I got even more stressed. Close the bedroom doors, clean the floors and bathrooms, and clean off the counters. That's about it for us.

I make tamales for a group of friends and family at our house. This will be the fourth year, I think, so now it's a tradition!

My girls have loved the Corolle dolls and Bitty Baby (from American Girl). I think Bitty Baby has such a sweet expression on her face. I'm with you, though, the dolls in the big box stores are such poor quality!

I agree about the Pilgrim's Progress passage. We worked through it a few weeks ago, and I found myself looking ahead to see what was coming. (As in, "Please tell me there aren't many more like this!") Luckily, we have enjoyed most of the passages. That was an especially difficult one!

You're contagious for 24 hours after you start antibiotics for strep. We just had it.

I know you said you've already tried RS math, but did he like the games in the Games Book? My dd7 will gripe about practicing the math facts, but as soon as I pull out a game she's thrilled to play. I'm constantly amazed at how fun some of the games are! It's an easy way to drill the facts without her feeling like I'm drilling the facts.

I love my Kindle, but I agree, the text-to-speech is not at all like listening to an audio book. It's very robotic, and I've only used it on long car rides because I can't read in the car. It's not very good, but if I'm bored enough, I'll do it! My mom first bought a kindle and kept telling me to buy one. I didn't really think I'd like it, but I love it!

I love it! I say use it, as long as you know you'll have to correct the pronunciation sometimes.

I have a Border Collie mix and he's the best dog ever. I think a Border collie/lab mix will be great! Now I want one! Please post pictures of your new puppy!

Well you took my advice because I voted Beagle! We had one for 13 years and she wasn't very "houndy" either. She wasn't a howler or a barker. We loved her! Yours is adorable! I hope your family enjoys her!

I bought my iPod touch just because I wanted a portable calendar. I love it! I do have my calendar on my computer and it syncs to the iPod. I'm not sure if you can sync your contacts to your computer, but there is probably a way to do it?

You can sign up yourself if you want to receive it. I did, because I teach a Kaplan SAT course and I like to see the questions of the day. Go to www.collegeboard.com, click on "For Students", then click on "The Official SAT Question of the Day". Then click on "Sign Up" next to "Join! It's Free". There's an option to receive the question of the day in your email.

I had it with two of my pregnancies. I was very careful with what I ate. (It's easier when you know it's just temporary!) I had to test my blood sugar a couple of times a day. I figured out pretty quickly some things that no one told me. Potatoes are awful. I couldn't even eat a baked potato without my blood sugar shooting up. Oatmeal was great. It seemed to help lower my blood sugar. And exercise helped lower it as well. If I realized I'd eaten something I shouldn't have (or too much of something), I'd start walking right away to bring down my blood sugar. All of my kids were under 8 pounds, so there was no problem in the end!

I supplemented RS B with Singapore 1A and 1B workbooks. I didn't feel like it was *needed*, but it was nice to have something different to do on those crazy days when we just couldn't get to a RS lesson. And we've only every done the "Yellow is the Sun" song. None of the others.

Glad to know I'm not the only one! Although in my house I can't blame them on thick carpet- we have all hard floors! We do have 2 dogs and 3 cats, though, so lots of pet fur to be sure. I specifically ordered my last one from the Home Shopping Network because I could get a 2 year extended warranty on it for a good price. That gave me a total of 3 years for the warranty (with the 1 year manufacturer's) and I figured it was worth the price for a guaranteed 3 years. When my warranty is up, I figure I'll have to buy a new one or do without.

I'm on my second one and I would agree you definitely need an extended warranty! My first one died once during the warranty and the company was very good about replacing it. After the warranty was over, it died again. I finally bought another one with an extended warranty. It's already been fixed once, and I need to check if it's still in warranty to be fixed again. When they're working, they are great, though!

There's no actual sex in the first book, but there's a lot of sexual tension between the two main characters. I'm not letting my 6th grader read them. A lot of her friends have read them, and she wanted to, but I just feel there are better things to read. She can read them in high school if she wants to!

I used FLL for my oldest dd before WWE was available. Now that I use FLL and WWE with my middle dd, I skip the copywork in FLL. I *thought* I had read that somewhere, but maybe I just made it up! It seemed to me, though, that the copywork was in FLL because there was no WWE program when FLL first came out. I feel like the writing in WWE is much more extensive than what is available in FLL, especially now that we're in WWE 2 and we're learning to summarize stories, so I do like to use both.