I am wondering what is the best way to teach my two sons to write in cursive. My school district no longer has cursive writing as part of the curriculum. DS9 and DS8 both have trouble with the spacing of words in print that I think would be eliminated because of the flow of cursive writing. I want a painless method that we could do in maybe 10 - 15 minutes a day. Should I just teach them one letter at a time or blends or words. :confused1: Any help would be greatly appreciated. BTW, I have already decided I will be teaching my DD2 to write in cursive before she even goes to school. I just feel like with my boys I have so much un-teaching to do when it comes to cursive writing as compared to print. Anyway, thanks for any help you can give.

50... I don't feel so bad now that I see some moms going longer than me. :)

I printed each chapter in booklet form...two pages on each sheet and front & back. Also printed in draft mode. They came out pretty nice btw and still writable (is that correct form??? :D ). I'll just say there is still enough room for the questions to be answered on the booklet itself.

Oh my!!! :) I was looking for this same info. A friend of dh have us a desktop today and now we just need a printer. I definitely want one that is easy on ink because right now we are using math mammoth and kiss grammar, which will all be complete print outs for 2 dc. With that in mind I really need to try to save my pocketbook a little. :D Anyway I'll be following this thread for suggestions. ETA: Okay, so I'm assuming this is the printer you are talking about. It's seems like the only laser jet that is 109.00. it is the Brother HL-2240DW. The question I have is what is the replacement toner. All the ones I see say they are compatible with the 2240 and the 2240D but I don't see DW. Do you think it would be the same toners???

:iagree::iagree::iagree: Yeah...this.

Okay, fine I'll be the odd man out here. I constantly tell my children how beautiful they are. Self-esteem must start somewhere. I had never thought of myself as pretty until I had my first child. And although I knew I was smart and talented, I was always looking for validation that I was pretty enough. He was absolutely gorgeous and everyone would stop and tell me. They also said he looked like me, so by the associative property, I too, must be pretty, right. :p I don't want my children, specifically my daughter, to hear some random guy be the first to tell her she's beautiful and she doesn't know how to react our she thinks it's something special. I also tell my children how smart and talented and kind and thoughtful and well-behaved they are. So if complete strangers offer up any of these compliments as well, my children will know, that I'm not just saying this because I'm there mom. We just say thank you and keep it moving. No harm done. Shoot now if you must. :scared:

I'm going in to my DSs room right now to do this. I am not kidding! I have never thought of this but it's perfect. I really appreciate you posting this. Their room is always a mess but there is nothing but clothes strewn about. I will take a picture and upload it (if I can,I use my phone so I don't know how to upload, but if I figure it out you'll see what I mean.) They clean up one day and the next every article of clothing they own is on the floor again...smh Here we go!!! ETA: Less than 20 minutes later and Operation: Clothing Boot Camp is in full effect. Oh my you should've seen the look on their faces when I explained what was going to happen. ::D:

Wow!!! It's really interesting to see al the different views on this subject. Keep 'em coming ::-) :

You must have met my niece! :glare: I love her but I try to limit the amount of time my toddler spends around her because obviously at only one she is way too easily influenced by any personalities she's around and she had already picked up some extremely undesirable traits. Oh did I mention my BIL and his family live here! I cannot wait until they move out so I can have my children back. So I say limit the amount of time they spend around each other and in the meantime try to counter the influence with a positive home environment and discipline when necessary so that your daughter realizes HER actions have consequences even if this other little girl's actions don't.

Wow!!! I must have written this is my sleep. I try very hard to control my yelling but sometimes it just takes over. And I do believe I'm getting better but I'm not perfect. And I never yell mean or hurtful things it's just raising my voice seems so disrespectful. I cannot get a babysitter because I'm nowhere near my family (8 hours away) and dh's family (the ones I would trust) always seems too busy. So I suffer through. I feel like if I could get a weekend to refresh I would be much better for my children. Part of my issue is that I'm stressed because dh's brother and wife and their three (completely spoiled, disrespectful, disobedient) children are living here and at the slightest inkling of my children acting like them, I completely snap. I love my niece and nephews but I don't want my children to be anything like them. But I digress, at the end of the day I realize must do better.

This is an excellent idea. We are trying very hard to squeeze in everything because this is our first year afterschooling with formal curriculum and I realized everything that we've missed out on, â€playing it by earâ€. However, I'm now realizing that I may be in overkill mode, so I'm trying to scale back my expectations a few notches so that neither my DSs or I get burned out and this is an wonderful way to prioritize that I think will really benefit my family.

I was just thinking about my afterschooling plans. I will continue to afterschool until the kids reach high school and then we will stop. We work very hard at afterschooling (even though we've just started using formal curriculum). And I started to wonder if it would be an extreme challenge to continue through high school. This is not like homeschooling, in that, there will be pull from outside sources and friends from school for a high-schooler's time. For us we have a found what seems to be perfect solution for our family. They've started up a rigorous nw high school in my city that will have the students learn a second language (arabic, chinese, or spanish), it will be a third language for my DSs, because they are in a spanish immersion program now. They will also earn 60 college credits (via the state university located here) and of course a high school diploma all at the same time. So my goal is to get them ready for the level of work that will be required for success in that program. So I guess my question is what is your long-term goal for afterschooling? When will you stop?

:lurk5:

My DS9 got all his shots because I was in the army and was used to being told what to do...the end. DS7.5 started his shots on time and by 5 months old had developed rsv out of nowhere less than a week after getting 4 month shots. After 6 month shots he broke out in hives and had trouble breathing, they admitted him to the hospital with bronchitis. The doc informed me that it ” could not” be a reaction to the shots because it would have shown within a few hours after getting the shots, not almost 12 hours later. :001_huh: say what?!!! :confused: it was then that I decided to do my own research about these shots. My DS now had asthma and we discovered at 1 year old that he has an allergy to eggs and whole list of other things, why take that chance. So that he doesn't get chicken pox??? No thank you! I did not want my soon to become THAT one in a million, So my second DS has yet to receive another shot and my DD1 has not received any either. I contemplate selective vaxing for them on their way to middle school but haven't fully decided.

I personally think Math Mammoth Blue Series would be exactly what you guys would want in a math curriculum. It's broken down by topics instead of grade level and it's meant to be used as a supplement although you could use it as a complete curriculum if you ever change your minds. The Light Blue Series might even work, as that is a complete curriculum that IS broken down by grade level.

My sons are in an immersion program and they don't even allow kids in after 1st grade because by then the kids are already pretty fluent. but I believe with excess help (i.e. A tutor) I think it could work. I think it world be a worthwhile experience if you're willing to give her some assistance to get caught up.

Well my mother strictly forbid us from coming up with a name for her. She insisted that my DS come up with his own name for her when he could talk I'm not sure what we called her until then but once he started talking he called her Gram and so it was and still is 3 grandchildren later.

I am not a montessori parent but in my opinion I would give it a chance. Worse case scenario, it doesn't work and next year you pull her and place her in the Catholic school. Best case, she loves it, you love it and she grows with the program. My ods was a part of the first group of spanish immersion students in his school. It was rocky that first year and a few parents pulled their children which was to be expected. For the ones who stayed, our children are now in 3rd grade and we all love the program. My yds is now also in the program now and dd will be in 4 years. There's still some growing pains that's happening because they are the first but I wouldn't trade it for anything. I say give it a chance.

I'm glad I'm not alone my friends make me feel like I'm the only one in the world that is married and use wetsuits while swimming. :-) But we definitely do some early skinny-dipping but always finish up with a wetsuit. If there's no wetsuits available we just splash around with our hands our maybe blow bubbles in the water...lol

Yes I do and yes it does. Especially when talking to the kids because when we say Uncle Chris they really have no idea which one we're talking about and we have to specify my maiden name or dad's last name. When we talk to each other we say ”my chris” or ”your chris”...it's a handful...lol Btw: So they are also the same age as well, they were born 6 days apart...lol

Lol...no you do not get to say anything but I know what you mean. But you would nut appreciate anyone telling you what you should or should not name your dc. With that said you would love our family. My brothers are identical twins and the are named Christopher and Kai and my dh is alsoan identical twin and their names are Alexander and christopher...no matchy-match names here.

:iagree: Exactly!!!

Hmm. This seems very interesting to me I'm going to go check it out. Brb. :-)

I know...I know you don't want to hear about minis so I'll just say those sliding doors are a lifesaver when you are trying to get those little ones are out of carseats without denting up the car parked next to you...lol...I just had to say that and I only had 3 in carseats and was 100% against minivans. (when my friends were trying to talk me into a minivan I, oh so kindly, explained to them that I was entirely too young and cute for a minivan...lol) just had to share that little slice of my mind...don't hate me :-D

Slowly.back.away.from.the.curriculum... Lol I know exactly what you mean I've already decided on all of or curriculum but then I'll read a good review about another program and I automatically go into research mode so I've decided that I'm allowed to look at other curriculum but under NO circumstances am I allowed to change our current course of study. Let's see how well this turns out.