We don't tend to have much money this time of year in any event, but I've been planning subtle changes for this year. We usually give store-bought chocolates to the folks at the bank, library, and post office, but this year they will be getting homemade cookies. I started baking and freezing them a couple of weeks ago, and I have picked up attractive tins as I came across good deals. I got a fantastic deal on some very nice tea last month, so my younger sisters, all in various stages of grad school and college, will be getting tea and cookies in the mail, with postage being more expensive than the gift! I am actually getting everything out early enough this year that I can save a bit on postage as well. No studio picture of the kids this year -- I'm having copies made of ones I took during the year. There will be a tiny gift exchange with the sisters who have families, with a $5 per child limit, so that won't break the bank. My mother and grandmothers will be getting tea and books that I picked up on sale, and my father and his new wife will be getting something local, probably an ornament, and a picture of the kids in a nice frame. My in-laws will be getting something similar, plus a bunch of homemade goodies since they live nearby. We don't usually go overboard with the kids, and that will not change this year, and I am planning just a few small and useful things for dh. Don't tell my kids, but a couple of their presents are for school -- more blocks for my preschooler, and a science encyclopedia, instructional chess set, and book of Greek myths for my 1st grader. I convinced one grandmother to cover the cost of dance lessons as her Hanukkah gift to them, and the other sends a check each year for me to use as I please, which always means a museum membership. I wish I could say that we would come in under $100, but I think when I factor in postage and baking supplies, $150 would be fair.

We are doing a light day tomorrow, mostly reading about Thanksgiving.

I memorized "King John's Christmas" from Now We Are Six by A.A. Milne when I was a child, and I still love that poem.

I baked a couple the other night then slipped them out of their skins and mashed them with a very tiny bit of molasses and a sprinkle of cinnamon. It was very simple and a nice twist on what I usually do, which is to use brown sugar and butter.

Tonight we had rice topped with a Hungarian style stew that I usually either have the ingredients for, or already have in the freezer. Add cooked ground beef/ground pork/ground turkey/crumbled tofu to 2 onions, 1 or 2 green bell peppers, a large can of crushed tomatoes, and a sliced head of cabbage, and cook it all down until tender, and season with plenty of good paprika. I sometimes use the crockpot, but the stovetop works fine, too. This is great over rice, mashed potatoes, egg noodles, or (my favorite) homemade pinched noodles. One pound of ground meat/tofu makes enough for three meals of this for our family of four, so it's quite a good dollar stretcher, and I never get sick of it. I usually add a dollop of sour cream on top, and serve it with a simple salad and homemade bread.

Every year my dh tries, but holiday shopping is not one of his strengths. I told him that I want the new J. K. Rowling book to go with our Harry Potter collection (and I very rarely ask for books since we have access to such a great library), and babysitting coupons for the gym. I can think of plenty of nice things I want for the kitchen, but I think he worries that I'm not being serious when I bring those up.

I've had this happen when I had only light cold/allergy symptoms, and it's turned out to be a secondary infection (ear/sinus/uti) that my body was trying to fight off, and wasn't really showing many symptoms aside from the fatigue. I've had thyroid issues in the past, but my symptoms there tend to come on more slowly (I notice gradual increases in fatigue and body ache over a couple of weeks when my thyroid dips).

I think it's just genetics. I have always had those circles, and they are getting more pronounced. I just started using concealer about 2 weeks ago in an effort to stop the "you look so tired" comments, and the effect has been amazing. People keep saying that I look great, look younger, etc. It's a big ego booster for me, and it only takes a couple of minutes, so I'm just sorry I didn't give in sooner!

Our library system (really the one we use in a nearby city, not our local one) has lots of gaming systems at the various branches. The teen room at the main branch has special gaming activities twice a week. It also has a stellar reading collection for teens staffed by amazing librarians. Teens may be drawn in by the gaming and digital media classes, but they end up being regular library visitors who seek out the advice of librarians on what great books are out there. The same branch is running an exercise program for seniors called "A Wii Bit of Exercise."::) I would worry if they weren't doing an excellent job of providing traditional library services, but I have zero complaints. In fact, the more people they lure through the door with Wiis and the like, the more money they have for other programming, including their classes especially for homeschoolers.

My mother did the labeling thing, and it was very detrimental for me and my sister, who is 17 months younger. I was an early reader and a bookworm, and she turned that into me being "the smart quiet one," while my sister was left with "outgoing and more physically inclined." It's pretty bizarre to us now, because my sister is very bright and needs her downtime away from people, while I am pretty extroverted. Neither one of us is terribly athletic, although my mother seemed to feel that one of us ought to be, and one ought not to be.... I know she thought she was being helpful by giving us each a role and a place that fit in with her view of the world, but I make sure I do not label my kids. I try to praise them for being kind, observant, etc., but I try not to go much beyond that for fear that they will end up trying to act out scripted roles the way I did growing up.

I don't have a recipe for it (since my kids won't eat this, I don't make it myself), but my father makes jalapeno cornbread to bring to breakfast and brunch events. He's always looking for something to counter all the sweet stuff and this usually fits the bill.

$350 a month for a family of 4. The kids are little, but one of them eats more than I do, so that doesn't seem to be a big factor. That amount covers food, toiletries, paper goods, and even a bit of wine and/or beer, especially when we have company. I bake our bread and sweet treats, cook most things from scratch, and plan everything around what I can get on sale. We could cut down a good bit if we bought less fresh produce, but I'd rather not have to make that change. We are fortunate to live near an independent market that has stellar produce and egg prices year-round. The increase in dairy prices has been a bit difficult, but with gas prices heading lower, I'll probably go back to making a monthly trip across state lines, where a gallon of milk is over a dollar cheaper.

My ds is that age, and he loves floor puzzles. When dd was that age we had some success with book/cd sets. They both loved sticker activity books featuring animals, as well as the aforementioned play food.

You might want to try the Unitarian Universalist Association. I know that Christianity is presented alongside other world faiths in a very non-dogmatic way in their religious education classes, and I think they offer a lot of their materials for sale on their site. I don't know which titles might be useful, but it might be a good place to start looking.

One thing that I love about using TWTM with my 1st grader is that it lays things out in order, but does not place strict time limits on subjects, only suggestions. So my dd is able to delve deep and learn a ton about butterflies and worms, but might end up learning more about woodlice and leeches on our next time around the animal kingdom. Right now we are so enjoying studying Egypt that we might run low on time for something else. I'm not worried, though, because I think it will definitely all even out, and I think that it helps me to have some structure to follow, and helps her to see that I'm willing to slow down when she finds something that fascinates her and isn't ready to move on. You could always incorporate your dd's interests by making language arts units out of them -- finding books on the topics that interest her for her oral and silent reading, and using those books to generate vocabulary lists, spelling words, and writing prompts.

I have posterior blepharitis. Basically, I have rosacea, and the main area that is affected by that is the interior of my upper eyelid.

I would let him choose sentences he wants to copy from whatever he is reading and enjoying. One thing my daughter enjoys is copying a line from our current read-aloud before I read the chapter it's taken from -- then she has to listen for what she just wrote, which keeps her listening!

I don't use too many of the things they print coupons for, but I still find it worthwhile. We have lots of places around here that double coupons up to 99 cents, and one local Sunday paper that costs a dollar -- that means that as long as I redeem one 50 cents off coupon, I've broken even. I also clip coupons for every name-brand dairy product because I shop at a store that marks those itenms down drastically when they get near their sell-by date. They still accept (and double!) coupons on those items, so I am always able to bring home things like yogurt, cheese, and sour cream for free or less than a quarter.... I once even managed half a gallon of milk for 15 cents, and I found the coupon for that on the milk itself! I used to marvel at those news stories about people who save a fortune each shopping trip, but I know that they are filling their shopping carts with things like canned soup and processed foods. I'm willing to accept saving 10 or 20 percent off my groceries for relatively little effort invested, so I do still coupon. My real savings, however, are from shopping at places like ALDI and the farmers' market and from stocking up on items we always need when they are a deal.

My dd is 5, and we read a bit from a chapter book most days. Some of her favorites in the past year include the first 3 books in the Oz series, the first 2 Narnia books, Ursula LeGuin's Catwings series, all of the Jenny Linsky books by Esther Averill, Little House in the Big Woods, and Farmer Boy. I really enjoyed My Father's Dragon and James and the Giant Peach, but she did not.... and she loves Magic Tree House books, while I can pass on those:001_smile: Although we manage to fit in a lot of chapter books, she actually prefers nonfiction and poetry. We read lots of science and biographies, plus tons of R. L. Stevenson and A. A. Milne poetry.

I have not had my dd memorize addition and subtraction facts yet, although she seems to have memorized quite a few just from using math. We are nearing the end of SM 1A, and I let her use her fingers or manipulatives to figure out what she cannot do in her head. The end of 1A has a lot of lessons that are review, patterns, shapes, measuring, etc., and I find that I can either let her do several pages a day, or do just a couple pages from the text/wkbk and an additional page of either addition or subtraction practice. I figure we will work on getting those facts down before and during 1B, or will stop to solidify them if she seems bogged down by having to solve for answers as she progresses.

Because 1/4 equals 2/8, and 1/2 equals 4/8, so the pattern if switched into all 8s for a denominator would read 1/8, 2/8, 3/8, 4/8.

My dd has a July birthday as well. Last year when she turned 4 she was already doing a bit of reading and had started the Singapore EB math, so we just went ahead and started what we called our K year, but unsure whether it would be a K4 year followed by K5, or end up being her sole year of K. It was defintely the latter -- she was into Singapore Primary 1A and pushing to go through it faster when I finally called a break in June When we resumed school two months later (the week she would have started K in ps), she was reading a grade level higher than in June and had figured out new ways to do addition. All we did over the summer was daily oral reading with the library's summer reading program. And we never did more than an hour of "school" a day for K, four days a week, unless you count me reading aloud. We do a bit more this year for 1st, but she is still pushing for more. It sounds like your ds has a fantastic memory and a drive to learn, so I would take advantage of it, just with as little pressure as possible. For reading we used a mix of ETC and Headsprout. When we started ETC I did not require her to write out answers, although she quickly decided that she wanted to do that on her own. ETC is black and white line drawings, but very to-the-point and thorough. Headsprout is pricey and bright, and I was hesitant to go with it, but she enjoyed it very much. The only challenge that I have now is that I think other parents of kids her age assume that some sort of serious hothousing must be happening in our home for her to be learning so much. In reality, it's just the wonderful teacher-student ratio, I always say:001_smile: Some of those other parents spent well over an hour a day last year drilling with flash cards to make sure their kids would get accepted to the "right" private school.

Welsh rarebit!

My kids are similar ages, and I decided to split the day into two big chunks. I would prefer to be "done" by lunchtime, but this approach seems to be working better for us this year. The kids have about an hour to eat, dress, and watch pbs or play, then my 5 year old dd (doing 1st this year) sits down to do her math (with me) while my 3 year old ds works on a floor puzzle nearby. Once she gets working on problems, I do a counting activity with the 3 year old. They each have a page of copywork, although the little one really just traces his name and draws while she copies a sentence and her spelling words. Then he's allowed to wander off to play or practice using the computer, while I sit with her to do some phonics and grammar. Then we all snuggle on the couch and she reads aloud from a chapter book, then I read a picture book to both of them. Even on a rough day, that usually takes no more than an hour and a half. Then I give them a snack, and we head outside for a walk and "recess." We take a long break (two and a half hours) for this recess/lunch period, and that's when I get some housework or reading done and get dinner prepped. I give them a late lunch, then we get back to work. In the afternoon we spend about another hour and a half on school, and I have the kids do as much together as the younger one feels up to We start with about 10 minutes of Spanish, then either do history/music (2 days per week), or science and art (also 2 days per week). The Spanish lesson always involves a movement activity, and the music and art sessions are pretty active and unstructured as well, so the afternoons are usually lots of hands-on fun. One day each week I make sure I have an interesting dvd to go along with either the history or science so that they get a break from hearing me:001_smile: We finish the day with silent reading, then they join me for another snack and some milky tea, and we use this "tea time" to discuss their reading and review what we did during the day. If my dd had any work in math/phonics/spelling that did not get finished in the morning, she knows that it has to be done now as homework before she moves on to any other activities. I still also spend about an hour each evening reading aloud to both of them, but I don't count that as school, so I guess you could say that school for us is about 3 hours a day, 4 days per week. We spend another day doing field trips and classes, and I only require a chapter of oral reading and a review of spelling words on that day. Physical education is done through dance classes, swimming, and a weekly playgroup at the park. I intend to add in more structured grammar and some Latin mid-way through the year, but so far we seem to be covering all our bases doing this.

There was a thread on here not too long ago in which folks confessed which classics they secretly disliked. It was a fun thread to read because someone's least favorite book was invariably top of someone else's list of most cherished titles. I think having access to a wide range of reading materials helps us develop a sense of taste so that we don't become cookie cutter readers, or end up totally turned off by books. Twaddle may not add much to your child's life, but eventually she will tire of predictable plots and choppy sentence structure. I subscribe to pretty much the same philosophy for both food and books/other media exposure: it's better to focus on getting the good stuff in than to fixate on keeping the bad stuff out.