Sorry for your loss. My oldest dd has lost 5 of her 8 mice in the past 6 months. The first one was the hardest, and the second one was pretty bad two since she was holding her at the time. Equally distressing was the 3rd. By the time the 4th and 5th passed she didn't shed quite so many tears. She loves her pets and is sad when they die. Mom gets sad, too.

I don't take a specific probiotic. I just eat good quality yogurt.

I just discovered it this week. I have been using SOTW since 2003. I was part of a Yahoo group, but it hasn't been very active. I presume that is because everyone is here.

We found the Chorepacks that are part of Managers of Their Chores by Steve and Teri Maxwell the most helpful. They children wear the chore packs on their person during chore time. It helps me because I can see what chore they are on, and it helps them keep accountable to all their chores. We have since stopped using them, but they worked very well in the beginning. We have morning chores that are established each day and then we have chores that are specific to the day of the week.

We have pet mice. They are fun for my daughter who is 12, but there are a few things I wish I had known up front. First, I wish I had know how common it was for female mice to be pregnant when you get them from a pet store. Needless to day about 3 weeks after our purchase we had 5 more mice which we kept. All these mice meant that my daughter had 4 tanks to clean. One of them was a 20 gallon tank that all 5 girls lived it. Thankfully she was excellent at sexing the babies, and we had no further litters. I also wish I had know how common mycoplasmia is in rats and mice. 3 out of our 5 girls got it and died within the first year. Tumors are another issue that we dealt with in one of our girl mice. I guess what I am saying is that it is important to know up front what you are getting into. If we were to do it all again, I think we would just get one boy mouse. Boy mice can't live together like rats can. Best wishes with you decision.

Marie, I can relate to what you are saying when you mentioned you should know this already. My youngest has had some language issues. I had not had anyone evaluate her until this year, but I can tell you somethings that helped us. Another poster mentioned sight words. If Brianna has not learned sight words I think reading would have been a HUGE task for her. She has struggled and struggled with phonics. She still mixes up short vowel sounds after 4 years. When Brianna learned to read, she would pick a book and then we would sit on the couch together. She would read along (a couple of words) until she reached a word she did not know. Then she would elbow me. I would supply the word and we would move on. I never made her sound out words. I think she would have disliked reading if I had done that. She loves to read now. Phonics is still an issue. We continue to work on it. It is still hard for her. I wish you the best.

We use Emergen-C. It has saved me from so many common colds in the past 2 years. I would not go through the winter without it.

I agree with the PP who wrote that it is a commitment. I have worked with both Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts. It is important that the children attend if they have said they will.

Hi Vicki, I am new around here. We used R&S for grades 1-8, but not with the same children. One of my twins had issues with the review in grades 1-2 of R&S. We now use Christian Light Education math for all 3 of my daughters. This is a spiral approach and not a mastery approach. I don't know what you prefer, but I have been very pleased with the content of the program and the presentation of the material. Jennie