We live in the same city as my ILs, and my girls spend time with them at least once a week (MIL usually watches them for me for part of Wednesday so I can get some errands run). Grammy and Grandpa are among their favorite people in the world. :)

$600-$900 per month around here. When DD#1 was in daycare, I think we were paying $650/mo at the first one, then we moved her to one that was nicer and closer to us, and it was just over $800/mo.

I am loving these stories! My 4-year-old and I were at a restaurant when an employee struck up a conversation with us. After listening to the woman's very southern accent (and we are in the south!), DD turned to me with a big smile and said in a stage whisper, "Mommy, I think she is from a different country!"

I don't have older kids, but can I still join in? I'm trying to get in the habit of doing this. :) Here's my post.

Thanks! It's helpful to see how it works out for others. :) AprilMay, we haven't done the K level yet, so if we run out of lessons with plenty of time that would be an option!

For the life of me I cannot figure out how to send private messages on this board, but send me an email - my username here, at gmail. I have the book and will be happy to help you out.

The title is pretty much the question - if you're using HAS, how frequently do you "do art"? We're using the first grade DVD (and enjoying it!), but there are only 18 lessons. I had figured we would do it once a week, but obviously that will only get us halfway through the school year. So I wondered what others do with the same curriculum. My DD gets way too excited about doing an art lesson to spread them out to every other week! The only thought I've had so far is that we'll go back through the DVD again after we finish all the lessons, but maybe make some little adjustments in the projects...I'm not sure.

Our library's summer reading program is kind of pathetic. The ONLY prizes are stickers in your reading log. You get one new sticker each week, whether you've added books to your list or not. If you miss any weeks, they will give you all the stickers you need up to the current week. They record your first name when you get your reading log, but that's it. There are weekly programs that go along with the summer reading theme; we happened to be at the library at the right time today, so DD#1 got to learn about ants from a professor, which she enjoyed. But the programs have zero to do with whether the child has actually done any reading. (Please note that I *LOVE* our library for many reasons. I just think the summer reading program could be much better than it is!) They also don't specify what "counts" as reading. I am on the "it counts if you encounter the material" bench, though I would not want my own kids to have ONLY audiobooks when they're old enough to do plenty of their own reading. I might set some personal limits. But if another parent is fine with only audiobooks for their kids, I don't see an issue with it. I do count audiobooks for reading challenges on Goodreads, myself! :)

We are just finishing up our first week, and DD#1 is very excited. :) In particular, she's excited because we're doing WTM-style science, and she gets to make an animal science notebook just like Diego does. ;) She's also really looking forward to the Home Art Studio art projects - we'll be doing the first one in a bit this afternoon; it's the only thing left for today. And she LOVES looking through her new workbooks and asking what she'll need to do on various pages.

DH is about a year and 8 months older than I am. But we were born in different decades, so I call him really old. ;)

I'm in Tallahassee, but since my kids are too young to be "officially" homeschooling, I haven't joined up with any groups yet. However, I do know a good many homeschoolers here who are involved with various groups, so I know they're out there! If you end up moving this way, let me know and I can find out contact info for you. :)

Your spouse cannot read your mind. Tell him/her your thoughts.

BS in History, Technology, & Society, plus teaching certification MS in Mathematics Education I actually started off as a math major in undergrad but switched over to the history instead. I taught middle & high school students in a private school, social studies for 7 years and mathematics for 2.

I'll also confess that the first few times I heard people talk about the Kardashians, I wondered where the sudden Star Trek interest was coming from. (DS9, even! My favorite Trek!) Even now, I mentally perk up and go, "The Carda-- oh." I still know very little about the Kardashians except that they are somehow associated with reality TV, which I don't watch.

I've been using Amazon GCs from Swagbucks to buy curriculum for next year! The $5 Amazon GCs are the best deal, but they do have a limit of 5 of those per month. I don't like their search results most of the time - they are not as good as Google's, and there are a lot of ads on the search results page. I only get Swagbucks from searches 2-3 times per day, so I do a few searches at different times of day but otherwise use Google. They have Mega Swagbucks Day every Friday, so be sure to try some searches that day because you have a greater chance of getting more Swagbucks rewarded. The biggest way I earn is through the surveys. But there are plenty of times I don't qualify for a survey - I just keep trying until I find one I do qualify for.

I hadn't heard of this before! My kids are too young to participate yet, but when they are older we'll probably take part. Thanks for the link! :thumbup1:

Overreaction on his part. I've never heard anyone respond that way to "drive safe." I sometimes answer with, "Well, I was PLANNING to throw caution to the wind, but since you mentioned it specifically, I guess I'll be safe instead. ;)" In my family, it's "Remember the rules!" My youngest sister is 13 years younger than I am, and when I was in high school and about to leave the house, she would yell out this litany of things I was supposed to do while driving, adding "don't get in a wreck" after a time I was in a fender-bender (not my fault!) and "don't get a flat tire" after the time I got one. Eventually she got tired of saying everything and would just call out to me as I walked out the door, "Remember the rules!" So that's what we say to each other. :)

I thought I remembered answering this recently - here's the thread where someone else was asking about a month ago! Lots of good ideas in there. For your kids' ages, the tree-to-tree adventures at the Tallahassee Museum would probably be a lot of fun.

My 1-year-old LOVES her Learn & Groove Musical Table: http://www.amazon.com/LeapFrog-Learn-Groove-Musical-Table/dp/B003NX72D4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1365335065&sr=8-1&keywords=musical+activity+table Right now the price on Amazon is $32, so it may be more than you want to spend, but it is seriously a favorite toy (and it was for my older daughter as well). On the other hand, a large ball will be quite beloved by a 1-year-old, looks "big," and doesn't cost much at all!

Like others have said, I don't know what your price range is, but my ILs gave us a garage door opener when we moved into our house. I know my parents had some curtains made for us, but I don't remember if that was a housewarming gift or not! But when they did the curtains, I picked out the fabrics and styles that I wanted, and a friend of my mom's sewed them for me.

I didn't walk for my BS, because I was getting married a week later and had other things to deal with. If I recall correctly, I think I had a bridal shower out of town the same day! It just wasn't important to me to take part in the graduation. For my MS, it was important to me to walk, but not for anyone else to be there except DH. ILs live in the same town and would have been happy to come, but we wanted them to watch DD so that SHE wouldn't have to sit through it (she was nearly 2 at the time). I'm hoping to begin work on a PhD this fall. Assuming I earn that, participating in the ceremony will be important to me, and for that one, I will want my ILs (still in the same town) to come, and the kids will be older, so they can come as well. When the time comes for that, if my parents are able to come in from out of town I will want them to, but if they can't I will not be hurt. I know they will be happy for that accomplishment, as they have been for others. I would say you should take her at her word. If you want to see the ceremony, find out if it's being streamed online (mine was for my MS, large public university), or see if a friend can be sure to get video and send it to you. Really, the part she'll participate in is not very long. ;) The next time you do see her, take her out for a special meal or something to have a little celebration.

Our tradition is that the kids each have a basket with special goodies (something edible plus a small gift), just on the table in plain sight. And then the eggs that got dyed are hidden in a separate basket that they work together to find. Except this year, I just had knee surgery, so there are no dyed eggs, but I think DH is going to hide the basket with some plastic ones. Everything has been purchased, but it's not yet assembled - he'll do that in a bit once they're in bed.

Mergath's reminded me - in my 4-year-old's gymnastics class, they do what the coach calls "L runs," where their arms are to stay close to their bodies and in the shape of an L. DD can explain to you what these are, including the "shaped like an L" part. But she calls them "elf runs."

I don't see it on the website now, but I thought the Brogan had closed for a while? Seems like I wanted to take my kids but couldn't... Looking around at articles, it looks like they've just announced a decision to run their camps one last time and then will be closing for good as of September 1. :(

I live in Tallahassee. We have a membership at the Tallahassee Museum and my kids love it. Mission San Luis is a really fun experience as well (again, lots of being outdoors, so pick a nice day). I looked up the FSU Circus, but they don't have any shows next week. If you end up coming at another time, though, you should check and see if they have shows then - they are really neat to see! There's also the Historic Capitol, which has been turned into a museum, and the Museum of Florida History.