Yes, definitely take advantage of the library if you can! One thing I used with my son to help give him ownership and pride in reading was teach him how to pick out library books. He would grab a book off the shelf that looked interesting. He opened it to a random page and tried to read it. Each time he couldn't read a word he skipped it and held up a finger. If the pages only had one or two lines of text, three fingers for a page meant it was still a bit too difficult. If it had a paragraph per page, five fingers meant it was too difficult. He loves being able to browse and find books at his level on his own without any help.

I third the Piggie and Elephant books. They have a few difficult words, but those are the books that gave my reluctant reader confidence to push forward. They are much more engaging than Bob books. He also enjoyed Word Bird at that stage. Some of the Word Birds are a story, while others just teach seasonal vocabulary. The story books use simple words interspersed with difficult vocab words, usually along a theme. He could figure out the difficult words because they use picture clues, like puzzle pieces, to break them down.

Keep in mind you usually don't have a mortgage payment the first month after buying, so if you close in April you may not have a payment until June. Closing also takes an average of four weeks, so if you find a house in February, you'll likely close in March and have your first payment in May, depending on the closing date. I would also talk to your current landlords about your plans and see if they are willing to go month-to-month in case it takes you longer to find something or close.

What are your qualms about sharing it? I know a lot of people are uncomfortable with sharing financial information with their children, but I have never understood it myself. The child needs the info to qualify for financial aid. My parents were secretive about their finances. They even chose to emancipate me rather than provide the info for college aid. Now they are older and I have complete access to their finances in case health fails and I need to take over for them, so all those years of "protecting" me or whatever are over. It all seemed very silly to me.

Our allowance is tied to chores. My feeling is you have to work for money in the real world, so you do at home, too. (No offense intended to those that do it differently, this is just what works for us!) My kids have the chores they do as being part of the family - putting away your own laundry, helping mom unload groceries or dad do yard work, taking the dog for a walk, etc. Then they have paid chores. They have a daily checklist and DS12 gets 50 cents per chore and DS7 gets 25 cents (it works out to about $10 and $5 each per week). If they don't do a chore without parental permission they are docked that pay, just like if they missed a day of work. They can ask for extra chores if they are need of more money. We work together to come up with savings goals, and we help remind them so they stick with them. We don't require any charitable giving because they both volunteer time with organizations they support or our family supports regularly, but they can if they want. Once they have jobs we will likely stop giving allowance.

I love seeing what everyone is doing, it helps keep me motivated! Kind of like a big cheering squad :hurray: We have a huge donation load being picked up next week. Mainly outgrown clothing and books, along with some old appliances my mom added to our pile (our donation place takes nonworking appliances because they train the people they help in repair - we aren't dumping trash on them!) i found some pretty fabric organizer baskets at the thrift store last weekend, so I decided that tomorrow I am going to reorganize our linen closet with them. I also noticed that winter has left our coat closet in disarray, so I'm going to try and add a bit more order to that with a few of the baskets to catch gloves and hats. My mom also gave us her very nice carpet cleaner since she only has wood floors now. DH is very excited to clean our carpet tomorrow. White carpet with two boys, a dog and four cats? Yep, it needs it! The crazy previous owners even put white carpet in the dining room! Someday we'll rip it up and refinish the beautiful wood beneath...

Why would every talent make money? I'm double jointed in my fingers, which translates to having a natural talent to gross out kids and adults on a whim. I'm not passionate about it, though! DH also has some natural musical talent (he can play almost any instrument by ear). He never developed it because it wasn't his main passion, although he does enjoy playing on occasion. Someone could be a naturally talented artist, but their passion is medicine so that is what they choose to develop. I think every artist that has a true passion for it, and enough passion to put in the sweat equity to get good at it and get through the hard parts, can make a living at it. Not every artist has that passion or they have other things they value more. I could have come right out of college, worked in my major, and owned a home, two cars and had the standard American dream life if I had wanted. For me it was worth it to struggle for years below the poverty line working at and honing my passion before getting the rewards, others find the rewards more valuable so they sacrifice the passion. There's no right or wrong, just different values and choices. Of course, the old adage is also true -- sometimes its not how hard you work but how you work. I have known plenty of novice writers that work hard marketing their stuff, but they don't work on developing their writing skill (often thinking it's already perfect, usually because someone once told them they are talented). If they were working on the right thing first -- writing skill -- they'd be more likely to find success later. Those in creative fields, in my experience, tend to suffer from this tendency more than those with more technical passions, such as nursing, science or math. Another false belief is that all talent must be innate, something you are born with. This simply is not true! I wasn't a born writer or born with a green thumb. I worked hard at it because I was passionate about it. I have no natural talent for languages, but I do honestly believe that if I had a passion for them I would be able to master one and become a translator. Of course, that's not my dream. Most people aren't born with talents. Instead, we find our passion which drives us to develop a skill, which is then looked upon by others as talent. Talent and passion are not the same thing. Things you are passionate about can make you money, if you find it valuable enough to put in the time and effort. A natural talent can pave the way, but is not a prerequisite for success.

If you go back, someone linked the Frugal Girl blog. She has visited Aldi's corporate headquarters and their test kitchens where they work out the recipes for their brand. All their products are their own generic line, they are not counterfeits.

A lot comes down to personal values, which are unique to each person. Some people value money more. Some people make mistakes young and that forces money to become more important for a time. Some passions you're willing to sacrifice for, others you aren't. I'm teaching my boys to embark on adulthood debt-free and with an open mind -- I've learned those two things give you the most room to follow those passions. My passion is and always has been a tossup between writing and gardening. I blended the two and found success (although not right away). Do I like every aspect of it? No! I hate the business end - accounting, dealing with publishers, marketing. But dealing with those are well worth it to me when I sit down everyday to write and realize someone is paying me to do it. As an artist, DH spent much of his twenties delivering pizzas. He kept drawing and kept researching opportunities and he now does book covers, magazine art, and some game art. He pads that with graphic design services for small businesses, which he doesn't adore but is a sacrifice worth making to work as an artist. Too many people use "pursue your passions" and "follow your bliss" to mean they aren't going to work at anything and just expect something to fall in their laps. That's not how it works. You have to work hard at it, you have to be willing to do some things you don't enjoy sometimes. But even those unenjoyable aspects are much more satisfying when done in pursuit of a dream rather than "just to get by." Sometimes we have to modify our dreams, but we don't usually have to stray far from our passions. Sure, if my passion was to become president it isn't likely, but I could still enter local government fairly easily and follow a passion for politics (an example, I have no urge to enter government :D ). Following your passion isn't a black and white, either/or proposition. There are many shades and degrees to everyone's passions that could be turned into viable career choices.

I'm torn on this one. There's employee rights, but then there is also patient health involved. The flu can kill my father. My dad is at the doctor's twice a week most weeks for normal visits so he is exposed to a lot of nurses. He gets his flu shot, but someone unaware of a developing health problem may not have their shot yet so nurse exposure could kill them or hospitalize them. By the time you know you have the flu you have already spread it. Nurses are exposed to every thing, all day, and I think it falls under their professional responsibilities to avoid spreading an illness using any feasible means. If they have a documented allergy, then yes, they shouldn't get the shot.

Although I agree with Watts on many levels, I also think he overly simplified it and didn't mention that it takes hard work and sacrifice. DH and I do what we love, but we paid our dues. My older son in particular remembers the sacrificing involved. He still remembers the four of us in a one bedroom apartment in an iffy area of town and he remembers weeks with spaghetti every night because there was no other food in the house. When I first switched to full time writing and DH became a full time artist, we had to deliver newspapers to ensure bills were paid. We switched off nights except for the big Sunday paper, when we stuck sleeping kids in the back of the car and did it together. DS12 (he was six at the time) would wake up and help us roll and deliver the papers. It was an awful but wonderful time. It brought us all closer and it allowed DH and I to finally become successful at following our passions. So yes, I teach my children passions first. I would be hypocritical otherwise. We also teach them to always have a plan B. You want to paint? Wonderful, go to school for it, though, so you can teach art to pay the bills until you get your breakthrough gallery showing. DS12 wants to be a nature photographer/filmmaker, his current plant is to major in biology/zoology and minor in photo or film. He figures a degree like that allows him to work a variety of nature related jobs in case filmmaking doesn't work out. DS7 wants to be an astronaut, been his dream for years. He knows how difficult selection is, so he is also perfectly content with the idea of being a physicist or aerospace engineer (granted, he's 7 and this can change)! I believe in teaching children to follow their passions. But, I believe they shouldn't limit themselves to one passion and they need to develop a couple so they always have a fall back position. Also, for some people, taking care of their family or having time for various hobbies is the passion. For these people, a job viewed as boring is just fine, because it's the means for following their passion.

Thanks for the awesome ideas, guys! I wrote some down for later! At dinner I was whining about it and DH reminded me that we have 10 billion jars of canned peaches and apples in the root cellar (okay, a slight exaggeration). I double checked the email and desserts are okay, so I'm going to go with cobbler because I already have everything on hand so don't have to venture out to the store tomorrow. Unless anyone has any amazing peach or apple recipes they want to share? :D

We do the bulk of the cleaning chores once weekly, with the whole family doing their chores at once so it rarely takes more than 1 - 1/2 hours to complete the whole house. My kids have chore clipboards I made. I laminated the weekly chore sheets so they are dry erase and reusable. DS7's clipboard: Sat: Set Table, Room Check Sun: Dust, baseboards and windowsills, set table Mon: Set Table, Room Check Tues: Set Table, Room Check Wed: Set Table, Sweep Kitchen, Room Check Thurs: Set Table, Room Check Fri: Set Table, Room Check DS12's Clipboard: Sat: Dishes, Collect laundry Sun: Dishes, Bathroom, Vacuum, Pet Cleanup Mon: Dishes Tues: Dishes, Pet Cleanup Wed: Dishes Thurs: Dishes, Pet Cleanup Fri: Dishes, Room Check The are paid for the above chores. DS7 gets 25 cents a chore and DS12 gets 50 cents a chore. If they skip a chore without parental approval, they are docked the 25 or 50 cents on their weekly allowance, so they tend to get them all done. They also have some chores they aren't paid for. For example, DS12 is in charge of collecting and taking out the trash and DS7 is in charge of getting the compost and recycling out. On our cleaning Sundays, DH does lour basement rec room/bar, I clean the kitchen and mop all hard floors. One of us also does laundry.

We have the annual potluck tomorrow for DS7's astronomy club. Normally I'm on top of these things but the cold here has stopped all brain function on my part! I have absolutely no inspiration or ideas, and Googling isn't helping. I need something easy and inexpensive. The club has one microwave and one microwave and one oven, but I'd like to avoid them because everyone will be trying to use them to heat up their dishes. So I guess cold food is preferred. Any ideas? What's your favorite potluck standby?

You have a few months. I've done this, so I know you can, too! Start with a list. List every room of the house you have to clear out. Then, rank the list in terms of difficulty. For example, bathrooms usually don't hold much and you need most of those items up until you move, so they are at the bottom of the list. Kitchens are usually stuffed with stuff and most of it you can do without until after you move, so they rank near the top. Then assign a week (or two) to each section of the house. Tackle each area on your list, working down. If possible, empty one room first (such as a spare room or even the dining room) and make that the storage area for everything as you box it up. Remember to label every box and be specific about the contents! My method was to number the boxes and keep an ongoing inventory of the contents of each numbered box. That way in my new home I knew that if I needed to find my blender it was in kitchen box #12, but you don't have to be as anal as me :) Make a second list for everything you need to arrange at the new location. Make this a running list. Commit to accomplishing or at least working on one item on this list a week, two a week if you don't have enough time. Remember that a lot of these things aren't permanent. You can always switch peds or find a new dance class if the first one you decided on doesn't work out. Separating everything out into bite-size chunks does help. And when you're feeling overwhelmed, knowing you only have to do one or two things that week and can then relax without falling behind really does help.

I gave up responsibility for clothing choices as soon as they were old enough to dress themselves by age three. The only thing I insist upon is weather appropriate clothing. My oldest went through the monochromatic phase from age 6 until last year, now he's a pretty sharp dresser most of the time. My youngest is a t-shirt lover, especially shirts that proclaim his love for something (his NASA, SpaceX and Astronomy club shirts are wearing out from use), so in winter I insist he wears them over a long-sleeved shirt. He also absolutely refuses to wear matching socks. I honestly could care less what they wear unless it's a very special event, and even then I don't usually care. I'm also kind of lax on bathing. I expect a minimum of two showers/baths a week and a shower after swimming in summer. If they are absolutely filthy or stink I may send them to the tub, but most days, eh, who cares? My oldest scraped by with the minimum until about a year ago (see a pattern here with hygiene and fashion sense all improving at once? lol!) and now he showers almost every day. Youngest still gets by on as few baths as possible. I do insist on daily underwear and sock changes, though. My kids don't need deodorant, etc yet. I can't stand stinky personal care products so I am keeping those things out of the house until they absolutely need them. I request twice daily teeth brushing but am not too worried if they only get one in before bed. They both have good, healthy teeth so I figure a good scrubbing once a day is sufficient. I hated brushing my teeth as a kid and avoided it, and as an adult I have no dental issues and have never had a cavity. The boys seem to be following in my footsteps. I do brush twice daily now, but I still avoid flossing and have never been called out on it by a dentist.

Cleaning and neatness is a habit, so you have to reinforce the behavior until it becomes habit. If you want it to be habit, she has to do it, you can't do it for her. I have one neat child and one slob. To be honest, my neat 12 year old was a slob, but now neatness is a habit. DS7 is still a slob, but slowly neatness is becoming a habit. Other than the the fact I can't abide a mess, I demand clean rooms for safety. If there is a fire in the middle of the night, they need to be able to move around their room without injuring themselves. Hygiene also plays a major role. My little sister was a slob and her messy room attracted ants every summer and mice on one occasion. (It was dirty clothes that did it, because food wasn't allowed in our rooms!) My children are also very imaginative, especially DS7. They have one reserved area for creations. They must clean up rooms daily before dinner, except for the creation area. The problem with creations is they build them, play for a few days, then move on to the next idea. The old one is ignored and slowly dissolves into a pile of junk. If my boys want to build a new one, they must put the items from the old one away. The daily cleanup isn't onerous and doesn't have to be perfect. We do a cursory check to make sure floors are clear and that shelves, bins and closet are reasonably organized. Once weekly they must do a thorough cleaning, including vacuuming and dusting, followed by a more complete inspection. We don't inspect DS12 often anymore because he is now fairly neat. DS7 gets daily inspection and is assigned a time limit for cleaning, complete with timer, or he'll linger and whine over it all day. I find this method, which takes about 15 minutes six days a week and about 30 min. one day a week, much more pleasant than the huge fits and arguments that occur if we allow his mess to range out of control.

We are pretty science and math focused, especially with my youngest. My youngest excels in math and my oldest has troubles with it, so a lot of focus is placed upon it with both. My youngest is also obsessed with all things science (especially physics and chemistry) and part of the reason we HS is because our local PS doesn't put much emphasis on the sciences. Although neither DH nor myself have hard science degrees, we are both science geeks so we are naturally drawn to those subjects. We do science every day, which doesn't seem to be the norm, especially with younger kids. My youngest also is involved in a couple of science-oriented extracurriculars. We also do history and language arts everyday, so we are probably pretty balanced.

If the items in your bin aren't in direct contact with the soil, you will also need to throw in a shovel-full of soil from your yard to introduce the microbes that do the composting. Keep the pile as moist as a wrung out sponge -- dry materials won't compost and overly wet materials rot. Temperature is important. In winter, our piles slowly grind to a halt because it becomes too cold, although the middle of the piles sometimes stay warm. As others said, frequent turning helps. It really depends. We fill up one bin with kitchen waste during the winter when stuff isn't breaking down quickly. As soon as temperatures begin to go up in spring and I can resume turning once or twice a week, it breaks down quickly. We usually have two bins going for our family of four -- one we're filling and one that is almost ready/completely ready to use. We could use a third one for fall when we clean up the garden, but that's because we generate quite a bit of yard waste at that time. Usually I just throw the overflow in a storage tub and wait a couple weeks for the bins to begin composting and settle, then I add the contents from the tub. We have no greens (nitrogen) in winter, except for citrus peels and coffee grounds. This seems sufficient for our pile to still take off in the spring.

Here's some highlights of what we do: Food: * Meat is a garnish or add-on, rarely the main event. I use about 1/4 lb in a dish each night, and that's to feed four people. * Same goes for cheese. I use sharp cheddar in a lot cheesy dishes because you can use less because of the stronger flavor. * DS7 is allowed 1 glass of milk a day. DH and DS12 are mildly lactose intolerant, so milk consumption isn't a big issue. It's mainly used for cooking. * I make a quart of homemade yogurt weekly (2 quarts in summer). I use it instead of fattening and expensive cream when cooking, to make homemade salad dressing, for smoothies, and to make yogurt cheese to use as ricotta or a cream cheese substitute when cooking. The boys also sometimes eat it for breakfast. * I make a big batch of waffles, muffins, muffin tin frittatas or pancakes on Sundays and freese them for our week's breakfasts. Waffles and pancakes warm up beautifully in the toaster. * We grow and preserve all of our own vegetables and herbs, and some fruits. We pick 90% of the rest of our fruit at local farms, then preserve it for winter use. We also have a root cellar in our basement that allows us to store some fresh fruits, like apples, for several months. * I don't buy condiments. I make them from scratch or we do without. * We raise ducks for eggs. * The only prepackaged food item I buy with any regularity is dried pasta. Otherwise, everything is from scratch and from homegrown whenever possible. Household: * No paper products, except for a single paper towel roll for awful messes (like cat puke) One roll lasts several months. We don't keep it out. * Homemade laundry detergent. Yep, you can use cheap soap, but avoid soaps with lotion in them. * All of our clothing, save socks and underwear, comes from thrift stores. Most of our shoes do, too. Our annual clothing expenditure for the four of us is less than $50. * I sew, so I can mend just about any cloth item. Even if you don't sew, learning a few mending skills is well worth it. I even taught myself to darn socks a few years ago. * We use shredded paper for cat litter. Our neighbor donates his stack of weekly newspapers to bulk out our normal weekly shredding. * We compost. A combination of composting and not buying prepackaged food allowed us to downsize to the smallest trash service can and get rid of our yard waste can, saving us $60 a month. * I clean with vinegar, baking soda, and hot water. * I use a clamp string mop and bucket. Can just toss the mop head in the wash machine when it gets dirty, instead of buying new mop heads. We use a bagless vacuum, too, so we don't have any real cleaning expenditures. * Nearly every item in our home is second hand. We have nice things, too. * DH and I learn to do things that need done, instead of paying someone to do them. We see something we want, we figure out a way to make it ourselves for little cost. The garbage disposal breaks? We learn how to fix it ourselves using the internet or library books. * We foster inexpensive hobbies and entertainment, when possible. Friday night is homemade pizza night and board games. We want to go to the festival downtown? I make some "junk food" snacks to take along, like caramel corn, so we aren't buying from overpriced vendors. Going to a fourth of July event? I pick up a pack of glow sticks at the dollar store so we don't have to buy the kids expensive ones from the vendors. I love threads like this!

We have the energizer docking station and batteries that sold for the controllers. We bought it four years ago and it's still going strong. It was the best $30 we ever spent. The controllers stay charged for at least 10 hours (that's the longest DH has ever played at once, they may stay charged longer.)

I use a plain notebook, the pocket size so I can carry it with me if need me. I collect all receipts at the end of the day and write them in along with a notation for what they were for (ex: mort-mortgage, ins-insurance, groc-groceries, cl-clothing). At the end of the month I add up how much we spent in each category. I just keep a running tally of how much we add to savings each week. I don't keep a notebook regularly anymore, maybe once or twice a year for a month when I feel we are losing control of our spending. I found the notebook makes it harder to spend, because I don't want to write anything down. It makes me challenge myself. It also shows me where we're slipping up. For example, in the beginning we were spending a mad amount on clothes for a quickly growing baby after moving to a much colder climate. I switched to the thrift store for his clothing and cut spending down in that category from $50 a month to $5 a month. I never would have gone thrifting if that huge number hadn't been staring at me out of my notebook, taunting me! It also revealed that I tended to give in to junk food/restaurants/purchased snacks in the middle of each week when we had outside activities. I knew this, but I had ignored it because I spent less than $10 on these excursions. Well, $40 a month suddenly seemed like a lot when I saw it written down! I started making a meal on the weekends to stick in the freezer so it would be easier to heat that up then run through a drive-through.

We did this six years ago, and it works. Of course, there were some set backs, but they were minor compared to how we were before! During that time we launched our own business, bought a new car cash and purchased our dream home, amongst other more minor things. My biggest piece of advice is to stick to it as best as you can for at least two months. After seeing how much your savings grows in that fairly short window of time, it almost becomes addictive to save money. My second piece of advice is to record all spending AND savings for at least three months. I would revisit the budget in the three to six month window, after you have a nice cushion in savings, and tweak it to fit any problem areas you identified and to perhaps add in a bit of "fun money." Good luck, and you can do it! It isn't lunacy at all!

I keep my house clean in about an hour a week, but it will require some habit changing. Granted, my entire family has cleaning chores and we do them at the exact same time, so only one person doing it may take longer. Daily maintenance is the key to keeping the time short. Everyone must sweep through the house before dinner and put away anything they have out. I don't know about older kids, but with youngers this is a must or within two days everything is wrecked. This takes about 5- 10 minutes depending on how much living we did at home that day, usually when dinner is cooking. As my boys are getting older, I see we may need to switch this chore to right before bed. This way there is no clutter out when we start the next day. Kitchen is cleaned after every use -- dishes put away (washed or in the dishwasher) and counters wiped down. The kids have been trained since they were toddlers to clean up after themselves in the kitchen, so it's second nature and doesn't add any appreciable time to our daily routines. I sweep the kitchen and entryways once or twice weekly so stuff isn't tracked all over the house, maybe takes 10 minutes tops. All papers are filed immediately upon entry into the house. As for my Sunday cleaning routine, if only I was doing it, it would be in this order and take approximately the following times: Dusting- about 10 minutes. We have few knickknacks and I only hit the trouble spots like the top of bookshelves and window ledges. Clean bathrooms (2)- 20 minutes, tops. Wipe down counters, sinks and toilets. The showers don't require much because we squeegee them after each use. Sweeping hard floors (Kitchen, laundry room, office, bar and two bathrooms) - 15 minutes Vacuuming (Dining room, basement rec room, living room, hallway, 1 bedroom. I also vacuum dusty corners, tops of door frames and ceiling fans)- 30 minutes Mopping (all hard floors) - 15 minutes Kids are responsible for their own rooms, although I do deep clean them once or twice yearly. I do more in depth cleaning about twice yearly (at the beginning and end of garden season, not much gets down when things are growing outside!) -- major dusting, cleaning windows, washing blinds, cleaning walls, scrubbing cabinets in and out, scrubbing out the fridge and cleaning the oven. I set aside a whole day for the deep cleaning. My house is always tidy and reasonably clean. I'm not too fashed by fingerprints on a light switch or dust on the fireplace mantel. I mainly insist on clean floors, toilets and counters.

I have a set of Le Creuset knock-offs from the 80's that MIL passed on to me after she upgraded to the real thing. I love them to death. I resisted using them for so long because they are a bit heavy, but broke down and finally pulled them out last summer when my last skillet died. I am now a huge fan of enamelled cast iron. No seasoning, even cooking, fairly nonstick, and cleans up easily. Can even use them in the oven. I don't foresee myself ever using anything else!