Acquired taste. It's the one thing I learned in college. :D

We have a pencil box for each child (pencils, crayons, markers, colored pencils, glue, scissors) that sits on top of my kitchen cabinets. There's also a separate basket up there that houses community property (broken crayons, misc. markers, pencils with bad erasers) for when they just want to play. Our sideboard has a cube shelf for construction, drawing, writing, and copy paper, plus a few workbooks. Next to that, we keep most of the textbooks and binders, and a printer to hook up to the lap top. There are shelves in the kids' rooms full of reading books, and our landing has a book shelf for reference books, text books for "later", and most of our supplements. Oh, and all my hs magazines and catalogs. The bulk stuff- tons of notebooks, papers, art supplies for a later date- are boxed up and kept in our loft. I've seriously considered turning our loft into a school room, but I just don't think it would work well with a toddler running around!

I considered keeping my name. Dh's is weird. ;) My 10 year old has a different last name, and I just figured it would be a pain to put 3 last names in 1 house. Now I kind of feel bad that he's the odd man out. Still, I don't really have much association with my paternal family (other than my sisters who, I assume, will change their names one day), so I guess it would have been silly to keep it. I miss it though.

Without a doubt, see the doctor. That said, my 5 year old does the same thing. Our pediatrician insists that it isn't a big deal. In a way, I find that reassuring. In another way, I'm glad our insurance is changing and I have to find a new pediatrician. None of my kids have been easy potty trainers. They wanted nothing to do with the toilet until they were at least 3. They weren't even close to consistent before 4. DS was 99% reliable by 5, DD#1 was 99.9% reliable by 5, and DD#2 is at about 85%. We've survived it. Just barely! I'm keeping my fingers crossed on ds#2.

I agree about trying not to scare people, lol. For my 5 and 6 year olds, I've probably spent around $500, even though they're using a lot of the same materials. I expect to spend another $200 over the course of the year. I also prefer to have everything planned out for me, and then "riff" off of that. I purchased a lot of real books, since utilizing our library system to it's maximum potential involves a lot of planning/driving/nagging staff. I did compromise by buying a lot of second hand books. I know I could have gotten away with $200 or so, total. For my 10 year old, I've probably spent about $250-300, even though his main curriculum is supplied by the cyber charter school. I'm just really excited about having him home this year!

My name is Carrie, and I'm a compulsive list maker. :rolleyes: It's genetic. My grandmother is a list maker, my mother is a list maker, and even my girls are becoming list makers. (DS is not. He memorizes everything. EVERYTHING.) I almost never complete my lists. Usually because I lose them. I try to keep *one* list notebook on hand, but I'm often too lazy to put down whatever I'm working on, so I'll start a new list on whatever is handy. I wind up with about 3 grocery lists each week, I have 2 to-do lists floating around right now, and at least 4 different lists of things I want to pick up before we start school next week. I also have a Day Runner, a weekly white board, a monthly magnetic calendar, and an online calendar. They're all marked for different events. Yes, I have ADHD. Yes, I am off my medication right now. Yes, I need to refill my prescription before we start school! It's on my list. :lol:

Trader Joe's sells TTO (and most health food stores carry it), but the smell makes me gag. Blech.

I'm going to plug Keurig again. http://www.keurig.com I drink 1 or 2 cups every day. Dh has 1 cup a few times a week. I like super extra dark. He likes wussy brown water. We both get our favorites in a matter of seconds.

I vote Keurig, lol. Coffee on demand is priceless. Taste is secondary!:D (It does taste fabulous, imo.)

Not that I would ever claim that the public school model is one to cling to, but even ps usually chooses between 45(ish) minute classes with 6 or 7 subjects and longer classes with 3 or 4 subjects per day... at the high school level.

That seems like a really long day, to me. We plan to do history 3x's a week and science 2x's a week, and spend about an hour on each, different days. 90 minutes for both math and LA (not even including penmanship) seems like a very long time. I don't know how you get them to sit still for that long! We've designated 30 minutes for each of those subjects. I expect we'll do more than that most days, but *I* may lose it after more than 45.

Don't take it apart!!!! Microsoft will send a box to ship the whole thing in. Just be warned, you'll probably lose a lot of the hard drive. And you have to be a real PITA with them to make sure all of your paid for downloads/memberships are restored properly.

Turn off the water under the sink.:) Duh to me!

Oh, I like the idea of a self-assessment! Last year, for dd6, the cyber charter made report cards, but I never showed them to her. I'm not a big fan of most grading systems. Ds will get a report card from the school this year, but I'm hoping to downplay it as much as possible. He was never really challenged in regular school, and made straight A's despite some learning disabilities. They just didn't grade on the things his disabilities affected, so he didn't feel a need to work on them. I would love to get him to come around to the idea of grading his own efforts, rather than sticking to 10/10 spelling words = A+.

What do you do with a barn? You turn it into a school room! :lol: Seriously though, we're looking for land to raise chickens and the vast majority of our fruits and vegetables, and we'd like to keep it between 2 and 3 acres. Having more than you need just means more taxes and more work. I can't really answer the dog question, since I'm not a fan of letting dogs loose. Even The Pioneer Woman, who lives on a cattle ranch, has met heartache that way. I know some see that as just another part of country living, but it makes *me very sad. For chickens, you're probably going to want something smaller than a full sized barn, anyway. Chicken wire along the corral would (imo) make a great dog area. In Storey's Guide to Country Living, they share an illustration of their 2.5 acre property, which includes all sorts of livestock, all fruits and veggies, plus wood.

When your 5 year old's Webkinz is stuck in a tree, so she rigs a catapult from a shovel and rocks. And you know you need to focus on critical thinking skills when she winds up smacking herself in the face with the handle of the shovel.

I'd like to aim for 3.5 hours for my 5 and 6 year olds. That would include reading. My 10 year old is required to work for 25 hours/week, but he and I need to have a chat about what qualifies as work. We have too much going on to glue him to a chair for 5 hours/day.

I'm sorry, but that's funny. Of course, we have a history of toddlers locking themselves in the master bedroom, preschoolers locking themselves in the bathroom, and adults locking themselves out of the house and cars. So it feels good to laugh at someone else!

I'm going to assume that you know Catan has a gazillion add on options. :) We enjoy quite a few of the Trivial Persuit Jr. games. The kids loved Cranium, but I did not enjoy it. Scrabble has been a big one for ds for a couple of years. I like to play LIFE. That was always one of my favorites. Ds is very interested in chess and checkers, but he doesn't have very good multi-step planning skills, so it gets frustrating for him. He understands how to play, he just can't win unless the other person lets him. Now that you have me thinking, I'd like to try Scategories with ds, and maybe with dd6. Not exactly a board game, but fun! Without looking it up, I think it's pretty safe to assume that LOTR has its own Monopoly, Trivial Persuit, Scene It, and who knows what else!

Sweatshirts Fewer bugs Apple cider Nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, etc. Candy :D I really do prefer summer, b/c autumn nights are COLD here, but the days are just so yummy, I can't help but look forward to them.

Yup. They're almost exactly one year younger than each of my girls (Mine are 5/30/02 and 7/1/03). It could just be us, but I know with 100% certainty that my kids would go bananas. One trip to the bathroom and it'd be all over.

Maybe it's because my girls probably have ADHD. Maybe it's because *I* have ADHD. That schedule would make me bonkers, lol. For us, it takes a few minutes to "get into" what we're doing, and it takes a a few more minutes to wrap up what we're doing. 15 minutes of math or 15 minutes of anything, really, would never let us accomplish anything. Plus, with 15 minute switches, getting delayed for even 2 minutes between topics would have the entire schedule out of wack before even getting half way through the day. I need to go take a nap after reading that. :lol:

I am extremely pro-braces. It took 3 years of braces, plus 2 years with a retainer to fix my teeth (age 13-18), and they weren't even all that bad. I had a slight overbite and 1 crooked bottom tooth. My sisters, otoh, didn't get braces when they were younger. One is spending a fortune to correct a few crooked teeth, and one is considering some major mouth work. It makes me feel pretty guilty being content with my whitening toothpaste!

I haven't found one that hasn't annoyed me with it's heavy-on-school perspective, but I do understand why that's the case. I don't have the one you mentioned, but we do use this one: http://www.amazon.com/Social-Skills-Activities-Special-Children/dp/0876288689/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1219682276&sr=1-2 For ds, I still think that writing our own social stories has been a more useful tool than any activity-type book, but the books help us out when we're lacking inspiration.

I placed an order on Aug. 17th (Sun.) On Aug. 19th, I got an email telling me that one item was back ordered (the one I really placed the order for, of course.) I don't know if that means my order shipped on the 22nd or today, or not yet, nor do I know what exactly would be in it. The website still says "less than 1 week" for getting orders out. Does RR send tracking information out when the order is shipped?