Same here!! I sent ours out last week and thought I was late! We've only received 3 cards so far.

My oldest dd has her finals at the community college on Monday! Then she doesn't go back until the week of January 12th! She'll be taking public speaking and a literature course this coming spring. She's doing very well (3.0 gpa) and she's made several friends. Right now, she's anxiously waiting to hear from her 1st choice college! She applied early action and the results should be coming in the mail by mid-January. She'll also be graduating this spring! It's exciting and yet bittersweet for me, as she's been homeschooled since preschool, although she's been taking dual enrollment classes for over two years now. Busy times are ahead for us!!

I would say somewhere between 8 and 10 is a good age, for both books. My oldest started reading the girls book around the age of 9, give or take a few months! And my 9yo son is now reading the Boys Body book. If it helps any, Sonlight uses the books in their 5th grade science program, so maybe that would be a good time frame to consider.

I found the same one at Wal-Mart for around $60. It was originally priced at $90. I can't wait for my boys to open it!! :D

I think it's cute! For our Christmas picture this year, everyone wore Washington Redskins jerseys! I'm sure this went over really well with our relatives in New Jersey who are Giants fans! :lol:

Well, the word 'congress' in general refers to both the House of Representatives (Congressmen) and the Senate (Senators). Senators are elected every 6 years, vs every 4 years for Congressmen. Hope this helps!

Congratulations!!!!!!! :party:

You're welcome! :D

First, here's a big :grouphug: My oldest son was diagnosed with high functioning autism / asperger's when he was 6. Homeschooling has helped him tremendously!!! He's able to learn at his own pace and every year, he continues to make great progress!!! We were told that he would never learn to read, or write, or do math, etc., yet he has learned all of those things and much more! Every child with autism is different (our youngest daughter also has autism, although she and my son have completely different personalities!). My son's autism has definitely improved with age! If you're dealing with any sensory issues, I highly recommend "The Out of Sync Child" and "The Out of Sync Child Has Fun". The last book especially gives you many tips on doing your own occupational therapy to help with sensory issues. I also highly recommend allergy testing, just to see if they could play a role, or experimenting with removing potential allergens from your child's diet (my son is very sensitive to artificial colors and preservatives and those things can still send him into a tizzy). But try not to panic. When our son was diagnosed, we were devastated. We wondered if he'd ever learn to drive a car, get a job, live on his own, etc. Now that he's 14, we have a much better grasp on his abilities. We CAN see him doing all of those things...just maybe a few years later than the 'expected age', if that makes sense. There's also a great book out there on homeschooling your child with Asperger's Syndrome. You should be able to find it on Amazon.

My oldest is at the community college and her finals are next week and she doesn't return to school until the week of January 12th. Our last homeschool day for the 3 youngest will be the 19th and we'll be back at the dining room table on the 5th of January.

I have two children on the autism spectrum. I know that for my youngest, it's helped her in regards to therapy. We live in a small county and the school system doesn't employ their own therapists, therefore, my youngest daughter receives private speech and occupational therapy, and it's paid for by the public school system. When we were paying for it ourselves, it was costing us nearly $200 a week, so it's quite a savings! Now, not all school systems offer therapy to homeschooled children, but they might. For my oldest son, having that label will help him when he reaches college age (granted, it's a few years down the road!) but it will enable him to receive any special help that he might need (be it extra tutoring, testing modifications, etc.) It's also helped in my homeschool because I'm able to know what areas they each need help with and where to find appropriate materials.

I got 29% and 5% and the DH got 16% and 2%. Guess we're pretty safe! :D

I have a few ideas...and, yes, I would definitely explain to the older ones that money's tight, so they can understand why this Christmas will be different than ones in the past. Something you could do is to print up little coupons to give them. Maybe one coupon is for a trip to the ice cream store with mom or dad or a promised visit to a park / skating rink / bowling alley -- whatever it is they like to do. Another suggestion, esp. if the "tight money situation" is going to be temporary is to plan a vacation, perhaps for next summer, and that would be their present, if that makes sense. Maybe it's to the beach, or camping at a national park, or a trip to a big amusement park, etc. The older ones could help with the planning (making destination maps, places to visit, etc.) and then the entire family will have something to help to save toward for the next 6-8 months. I like the dollar store idea also! Another great store, if you have one in your area, is Five Below. I found Dora the Explorer computer games there for my 6yo for $5 each. They have Lego kits, puzzles, games, etc.

We're putting ours up Sunday!

New cookware!!! My hubby and I both cook so that's something we have to buy together! We'll be hitting the stores between now and Christmas, looking for the best deal.

Only 26 people here at almost 7am EST!!! I guess everyone's out shopping!! :D

CONGRATS!!! :party: Love the name!

It depends on how much she likes gymnastics. If it's something she likes just for pleasure, then allow her to just take classes for the sheer enjoyment of it, without worrying about what track to put her in. My youngest son did gymnastics for awhile, but stopped when it became very intense. He enjoyed it, but he just wanted to have fun with it. Once he reached the age of 6 or 7, it was as if they wanted him to make a career out of it, so maybe it's something gymnastics schools do at that age?? He switched to Tae Kwon Do two years ago and LOVES it. So that's become "his sport". He's just a few months shy of his Red belt (which is the last belt before Black). TKD has numerous "forms", which is sort of ... choreographed martial arts techniques and he loves that part of it the best and it appeals to his artistic / gymnastic side.

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!! :party: Enjoy your sweet new one!!!

My kids also love Boomerang -- and I find myself watching along with them! Reliving my childhood! :lol: No commercials and Pink Panther, too! :D My youngest watches Nick Jr and I haven't noticed anything objectionable. It stops airing in the early evening though -- I think around 6 or 7. Then it switches to Nickelodeon. Before then, it's shows like Dora the Explorer and Blues Clues.

I had a similar experience when my youngest was a baby! My youngest son was 2 1/2 when she was born and he had weaned at around 18 months or so and, when my youngest daughter was born, he wanted to start nursing again. I told him that he would have to wait until the baby was "done" and then he could try. He climbed into my lap and giggled more than anything else. He latched on a few times and would sometimes nurse, but it was very rare and didn't last for more than a minute or two! And the whole 'tandem nursing experience' only lasted for about 3 or 4 months and it was over.

Well, you can belong to a homeschool group ... or more than one! It doesn't mean that you have to be there every time they open the doors. ;) I belong to two homeschool groups. One is in our area and I attend the monthly support meetings / moms night out functions, and my two boys take art classes. As for the other co-op classes, field trips, play dates, etc., we usually skip all of them. The other homeschool group that I belong to meets "in the city" and has over 500 members, if I remember correctly. I do a few field trips a year with this group, often because they have really unique opportunities...field trips to places that aren't even open to the public -- if it's just a trip to the zoo, I'd rather go with just my own family, even if I will save $5. The large group is also terrific now that my oldest is a senior. They have a prom and a graduation ceremony and a yearbook and all of those "senior things" and that's very nice! My dd is on the planning committee and having a ball! And my oldest dd has been taking classes at the community college since she was 15. She'll have 30 college credits under her belt by the time she graduates this spring. It's been a wonderful experience for her! She has an official transcript, professor recommendations, and she's made many friends -- not to mention experience of taking college level courses and making all A's and B's. I definitely plan to do the same thing with my younger ones, when they're older.

My 6yo has a language delay (as well as autism). She also has trouble with the syntax of language. She has no concept at all of sentence structure. (So "The pumpkin is on the grass" comes out as "Grass the pumpkin is on the") My daughter has been in speech therapy for 4 years now and it's helped tremendously!!! At home, we write out sentences all the time. When she says something that's out of order, I have a stack of sentence strips that I purchased at a teaching supply store, and I'll write out the sentence in the correct order and then she'll read it back to me. I cannot begin to tell you how much this has helped!!! Her syntax has improved tremendously, just since the beginning of this school year -- and it helps with her reading level, too! ;) So I would highly recommend consulting with a speech pathologist as soon as you're able to do so.

I read about that!! Your proffers are high enough as it is! Why they wanted $90K is beyond me! We're hoping to move into the Fredericksburg area proper and we're just waiting for the market to improve a little more so we can break even on the sale of our current home. Right now, we live about 30 miles outside of Fredericksburg and we were afraid that your county would be off our 'potential counties' list because of the 'impact fee'! Happy house planning!!! :D