by the time I spent the money to make photo copies and the time to do it...I feel like I have paid for a new book. So, I buy my kids new workbooks. Not to mention there is something special about having your own book...we hand down lots of things in our home...workbooks are not one of them.

we bought a cheap chalkboard and put a sticker in the corner. We used play-doh to make our letters. We also used short-stubby crayons (you know...the 1000's of broken ones in everyone's home) instead of their little pencils. A friend of mine had the wooden pieces, so I traced them onto fun foam...and those were our pieces. I did buy the CD...it was fun and my son liked it. I bought, but didn't use the teacher's book...and my son used the workbook. We are doing just fine with his handwriting. i would think if you are dealing with special issues, more would be helpful. Hope that helps some.

OH, I have one of THOSE sons too...he's the one who opened his second story bedroom window and convinced his (at the time 4 year old) brother to join him on the roof...reguardless of the fact that there is concrete below....he is also the one who thinks there is absolutlely nothing wrong with climbing to the tippy top of a pine tree ...even though it is taller than the church steeple right next door....yes, Matthew would do the cable tie thing... I am at least glad to know first your son is ok...and second what to do WHEN Matthew figures this out...and I am sure he will...UGH!

I never knew Mad Libs had a card game version...have to check it out. Kathy

these are all awesome ideas...thanks.

thank you very much!

please help me!

I am looking for the best of geography, math, grammar and phonics games from personal expereince. If you have a winner or a loser at your house and want to share the pros and cons, I would love to hear what you have to say. My kids are 6, 8 and 9 1/2. Thanks.

This is a personal question that spawned off this thread...many of you advised not to do extra geography with SOTW....but I can't understand why, really. I mean, is it not important for kids to know continents, oceans, countries, major rivers, mountains,etc...? I know the mapwork in SOTW is excellent...but only in a small part of the world...my kids loved learning about the states and capitals last summer...my kids are still talking about all of that...so I am confused, I guess.

I have a daughter like this too....and oh, the frustration!!! I feel your pain. This is what I do with her...every day or at least every other day, I first tell her to tidy up her room...she goes in and does what she thinks needs to be done...then I go back and I go around the room and gather everything and dump it into what we call "a messy pile"...and she then finishes up the job...and this has been a lot easier on the both of us. At first, we just did the messy pile thing right away because otherwise it was too overwhelming...but she has now "graduated" onto the next step. YIPPEE!!!!!!! Hope that helps.

If only we could be so lucky...we live in rural Nebraska and we have to drive 2 hours (one way) to meet the truck...as big of a pain as it is...we still do it...monthly...LOVE their stuff!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Kathy

thanks so much for all of your posts...I really appreciate them. I hope and pray that he, will indeed, feel better after it is all said and done. What would be a "normal" recovery rate for someone like my father-in-law??

thanks for your story...that does give me some comfort...this grandfather is known by my kids as "the fun Grandpa" because he plays with them almost non-stop while we visit...and I it would "kill" him not to be able to do this, plus all of the other stuff he enjoys doing. So, thanks again....I appreciate it.

that is a gerat idea...never thought of that...thanks.

My father-in -law, who is in relly great health for an 81 year old man (I mean, he camps, he plays golf, he mows the grass, he goes for walks with his wife, etc)...had his annual drs appointment last week. He was told by his family doctor that he must have had a heart attack some time and that they wanted to do the dye-test to see what his arteries look like. We got a phone call last night and they said they had good news and bad news...the good news is that his heart is in very good condition and the bad news is that 4 of his arteries were about 90% blocked and that they want to do open heart surgery. He has never had any major health problems, no high cholesteryl, nothing like that....so we are wondering whether or not this really is a good move for him...we have never had any expereince with this sort of thing before...and they live 14 hours away from us....should we encourage him to get a second opinion? Is there a more natural thing he can do first to see if it makes a difference. Right now, he is active and happy...and open heart surgery on an 81 year old will totally take everything out of him...we are afraid. PLEASE guide us here...we don't know what to think. Kathy

I am thankful for this thread...lots of great ideas.

you guys are amazing...THANKS a ton...will be trying some of these things...for you who told me to mix it with ground beef...is it 50/50....or more one than the other (and if so, which one should be more)....I was sort of thinking one pound of deer to 2 pounds of beef...but maybe that isn't right. THANKS again. Kathy

you can go to their website and it has a link to help you find stores in your area...try that. thanks too for all of the responses...I appreciate it and I am glad so see that there were others that liked their cereals...

interesting...so do you have recipes???

recipes ladies, recipes...I NEED the freezer space and I can't fathom wasting the meat either. THANKS!!!!!!!!

yes, PLEASE give me recipes...I have about 25-30 packages of ground meat...that is A LOT of jerky...hoping someone else can give me an idea...PLEASE!!!!!!!

We were given a bunch of deer meat for Christmas and not having a clue as to how to fix it or use it...I stashed in our freezer with the intent to figure that out...and I just remembered it was there. We have mostly ground meat and steaks. I fixed up one package of the ground meat and used it in a spaghetti bake last night, but I wasn't too fond of the flavor...it seemed a little game-y to me...I have heard that you can soak the meat in milk or tomato sauce to remove some of the game-y-ness..but that just seems so weird to me...I would like to be able to cook up several of the ground packages at once (like I do ground beef) and freeze it for future use, but does someone know..do I soak the raw meat in milk while it thaws, for an hour...what exactly. I would ask the people who gave it to me...but I don't want them to feel bad becasue I haven't used it in 5 months... So, if you can, PLEASE help me!!!!!!!!!

thanks for the abbreviation help...and we mix cereals here too...my 5 year old had 4 different kinds in his bowl this morning....not a weird thing for our family. I used to buy Honey Nut cheerios, but they have HFCS so I stopped and found mom's naturals. My CO-OP sells this brand and so does Hy-Vee...at a really good price...$2.39 a box...this is in Nebraska

what does AFAIK mean??

anybody else?? I was wondering if the packagaing was 100% honest...if anybody has heard anything to the contrary...thanks.