There are some great suggestions here! We have an Xbox Kinect. It's great for those days the kids can't get out for whatever reason. A bit expensive, though! I have a Leslie Sansone DVD - the kids usually join in when I put it on for my own benefit, so that's a win-win.

Ha! At the usual time of about 7:30am, God willing!!! Maybe a little earlier - they're pretty excited about Christmas this year, but they know that we'll be going to church before we have the big present binge. I'll probably let them open one small gift each before breakfast, but otherwise there's no reason for them to be bouncing out of bed before the crack of dawn! (Plus, Mom and Dad wouldn't cope too well with the early rising!)

DD (8) is getting: Hello Kitty cross-body purse, with matching lipgloss and compact mirror (if it arrives in time!!) Klutz Cat's Cradle book Subscription to "Ask" A large Lego set (joint gift with little brother) A book on space "Emily of New Moon" Spirograph (joint gift with little brother) Story Cubes Doodle Robot (That list is cumulative - not just from us, but from aunts/uncles and grands also) DH is getting: a box of his favorite See's Candies (which are only ever available at Christmas time) a disk-drive plug-in thingy that he really wanted

My dh used to mountain-bike. As an introvert, he loved it. It's something you can do alone, or with others if you want, and you can totally geek out on the equipment if you want to. Not really cheap, though! He can't ride any more, and there's nothing that's really been able to take its place for him. I took him out to a trial fencing class (that's with swords, not posts and wire!) for his birthday, and we both really loved it, but I haven't been able to persuade him to continue on with it. My next effort will be directed towards trout fishing, which is also appealing to an introverted nature, I think. Any options like that where you live?

My kids have always known Santa isn't real (yeah, I know) but this year, for some reason, my 8yo dd has totally gotten into the fantasy, even to the extent of sending him a letter. So to keep up the fun, I wrapped up a small gift, signed it from Santa, and wrote a little story in the card about how the reindeer were messing around with the gifts and broke a bunch of them, including the remote-controlled everything (including rockets!) that she asked him for! She'll get a real kick out of that, even knowing that it's all make-believe. She just *loves* story-telling. Maybe the OP could have Santa write a letter to her dd, telling her that he had to deliver the gift to the Grandparents' house, due to an unexpected blizzard at the North Pole or something. Could be fun to play it up a bit! :)

Sounds like Aesop to me, but I could be wrong.

Hershey's chocolate is foul and disgusting. They should be banned from making it at all, and leave it to the experts, like Cadbury's, Lindt, and the like. Root beer is just cough medicine in disguise, and there is no good reason for drinking it. Vegemite, on the other hand, is a staple food. ABBA was the best band ever. I have no desire to participate in any form of social media beyond an occasional forum such as this. No Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or Pinterest going on in this house. I really don't care what everyone else is doing at precisely this second, and I don't believe that they want minute-by-minute updates on my life, either.

I love our mail carrier! He's the sweetest, most cheerful guy, and very personable. I think I might cry when he retires! We give him a Christmas card containing a gift card (Applebee's this year, since we found out he doesn't drink coffee!), and make sure to put his name on the envelope. I'm never sure if he's going to be taking a day off, so this year we were lucky that he had to knock on our door the other day to deliver a parcel. My son ran out and handed the card directly to him. We got a thank-you card from him the next day.

How sweet! That brought tears to my eyes. My MIL is like that too. :001_wub:

I have the exact same setup - and the exact same problem at the moment. The playroom part of the room has exploded, and I really wanted to get it cleaned up before Christmas, but my chances are fading by the day... For projects that the kids make, we have a drawer where they go, or if they're larger, a particular table that they can be put on, but it's only for a while. The kids know that the table is temporary, and that once the drawer is full, we will go through it and toss enough to make space for the next lot of projects. They know that unless there is a permanent space available, the time will come for photo-and-toss. They've gotten used to this, through practice, and are quite good at letting stuff go. I think the key is that there is a space for the projects to hang around long enough for the novelty to wear off. (And then the clutter drives Mom mental and she threatens to throw the whole lot out herself if they don't cooperate with the cleanup!! :lol: ) Good luck!

Refreshing to see something like this in The Age! Great article. The author is spot-on. The knee-jerk reaction to throw more and more money at a failing education system, without really examining *why* it's failing, seems to be universal. This line struck me: And I'm sorry to say that I do not have the knowledge to explain to them why their expression is wrong - because I, too, was part of a generation that was denied access to the laws of the English language. I was educated in Australia, and although I'm older than the author, (my education spanned the 70s and 80s), my experience is the same. I know we learned some basic phonics, but I learned minimal history, and never learned anything in grammar beyond object and predicate, and maybe something about nouns and verbs. As my children are learning these things, I am learning right alongside them. The "new" pedagogy and the idea of change for change's sake is not that new, unfortunately, and it's been failing for years.

I had planned two weeks, but we've been hemorrhaging school days this past month or two, with lots of bugs doing the rounds of the family, so I'm going to take as few days as possible. We will probably do school a day or two the week of Christmas, and maybe take NYD off, but that's about it. Boo. :thumbdown:

I keep track. It's a budget category, so I try to be realistic about how much the things we need will cost for the year. I usually go over that a little, but I find it really helpful to have a ballpark number in mind. Stops me going crazy buying all that curriculum that looks soooo nice, but isn't necessarily what we need! :001_smile:

Reflexmath.com. They *beg* for it, and my ds is getting ahead of his curriculum. Win!

Haha! And my English-born-but-Australian-raised mother almost had a fit the first time she heard "Bach" being rhymed with "rock". :lol: English is such a fun language! (Although sometimes I wish I was teaching my kids German or Spanish...)

Coloring! Love it. That's what I do in those short moments while I'm waiting for the kids to finish up their work - on the rare occasions that they are both employed in independent work at the same time! But I don't have any talent or any special pencils - sometimes the kids have to take *their* pencils away from me! :001_smile: "Moooommmm, I need the colored pencils!!!" Oh, and someone mentioned dot-to-dots - those are fun! I bought a book for my dh's birthday this year...some of those pictures have over 1000 dots! Pretty cool. Have you tried coloring mandala designs? You can get books of mandala mazes that are totally fun to color! You could pick one design and color it about a hundred different ways, and they'd all look awesome.

You know the kind I mean: when, after several of *that kind* of day (or week!), something small happens that reassures you that you really are on the right path. A couple from my week: *When you come home with a load of library books and your kids cheer, drop everything they're doing, and immediately sit down on the couch to read them all. *When the docent makes a point of coming up to your children after the tour, to tell them that they're awesome because they're not afraid of asking questions. :thumbup: How about you??

Buy yourself a butternut pumpkin, boil it, mash it, and go for it! (And if you're like me, you'll use it to make a pumpkin fruit cake...oh yummy yummy!!) :001_smile:

Quick, I Just Caught Lice! F G V S O

This is a great thread, and I am learning tons! I need to file this away... My ds, who is only 6, already has an Eeyore tendency. I'm trying to train him to focus on positive things whenever he gets negative on me. If I hear him say something negative about a situation, I give him a sentence or two that highlights the positive of that same situation and make him repeat it after me. Of course, I have no idea how that would go down with a 13-year old, but I do like the "listen" advice, too. Oh, and boredom in this house gets two responses: (1) chores, or (2) "Really? With all those toys you have? Well, I guess they're no use to you any more so I'll just go gather them up for donation to someone who will really enjoy them!" Either response is generally very effective!

I love my mum - but she's half a world away, so it's hard to hang out with her. But I have been blessed with the world's best MIL, who lives a few houses away, and we all love to hang out with her! I'm having one of those days when I wonder how my daughter will answer this question in about ten years time...if we go on like today, she won't be answering in the affirmative!!

Full disclosure: I have no experience with a Kobo. But I would go with the Kindle every time. It is so broadly used that most e-books are targeted to that format. Have a look at the format that the Kobo uses, compare it with the Kindle, and see if you can get an idea of how many e-books are published in the Kobo format vs the Kindle format. I think you'll find that the range of books easily available for the Kindle will be vastly more than for the Kobo (without having to jump through the hoops of converting formats.)

I'm sorry, but.... :lol: :lol: :lol: You are so patient. I think I'd have lost the plot with the bathroom, let alone the washing machine to follow it up! Mention of the bathroom reminds me of one occasion when I had my ds in the shower, while rinsing his hair. I heard words come out of my mouth which I had never, ever thought would be put together in one sentence: "Don't lick the walls!!" :lol: Ah, little boys are so much fun!

Frozen berry mix with plain yogurt. Yummo! I think there was a cup of tea in there at some point, too.

Oh my word. That is my life. I've actually got used to it now! :lol: