Used to sleep starkers, but DD starts every morning by crawling into bed to cuddle with me. So now it is panties and a tank top. DD almost always chooses to sleep in her daytime clothes. On the occasions where she chooses pj's, she does not wear underwear with them.

Really? All you have to do is wander into any Victoria's Secret to discover the existence of $60 bras. I'm small chested, can fit into most brands, but every time I try to go cheap on bras I end up throwing it away after wearing it a couple times because they're so uncomfortable. And I hate hate hate sports bras for anything other than actually running both because I don't like anything that tight and because they completely flatten me out.

I've used these for years, including for potty training times: http://www.amazon.com/Protect-A-Bed-BAS0111-Basic-Mattress-Protector/dp/B004P1I2V4/ref=sr_sp-atf_title_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1379442474&sr=8-2&keywords=Protect+a+bed+twin I would make up my daughter's bed with one of these, a set of sheets, then another one of these and another set of sheets. When she would wet the bed in the middle of the night, I could just pull off the top layer of sheets and mattress protector and settle her right back into bed on the clean, dry setup underneath.

My mother has never had a dishwasher and never plans to have one. I first had one 10 years ago and never plan to be without one again. When we sold our house last spring and moved to a rental, a dishwasher was on the short list of non-negotiables for where we rented. I'm still sad that, even though it is a very good dishwasher, it is not as phenomenally silent and quick as our Bosch had been.

I have a three year old now who is an only. We do academics only as she requests/initiates. She is an academically-minded little girl, though, so that is a notable part of our day. For non-academic stuff, she has a sandbox and a water table outside. She has a trike, scooter, and balance bike. She also loves water play in the bathtub and will spend ridiculous amounts of time in there. She has a dollhouse, a variety of building toys, a dress-up bin, balls, a bin of fabric scraps for whatever pretend play she wants them for, and an art table. And other odds and ends - a magnifying glass, doctor kit, and such. All the art supplies are kept in ready reach except the ink pads for stamps, paints, charcoals, and white glue. Those will eventually transition into her reach, but I like the heads up that she is using them now so I can remind her to clean herself up before tracking the aftermath through the house. They are available to her whenever she requests them and I usually make a point of getting something of those things out 1-2 times per week. I will admit, even though I love to watch her play pretend, I have zero desire to be part of her pretend games. I work hard at encouraging her to involve her dolls, stuffed animals, etc, instead of including me. I know which things hold her attention and will direct her towards those. I keep a mental inventory of what hasn't been played with in a while and pull those out and place them somewhere conspicuous. She loves to help with any baking, so we plan a baking project weekly. Some chores I do while she is in the bath, others she is included in. Which are which depends on my patience level and how many things we need to get done in any given day.

We are using the books Science in Seconds for Kids and Nature in a Nutshell for science. They are oth written with science demonstrations and experiments designed to be done simply and quickly, great for shorter attention spans. I also have the Learning Resources Primary Science Kit and the Primary Magnet Set to round out our supplies. We plan three experiments/demonstrations per week plus a weekly trip to the children's science center. We use the Melissa and Doug US puzzle and the GeoPuzzles world puzzle to work on geography. Before that, we had the states placemat and would talk about the states at breakfast. As we read stories, we talk about where they take place on the maps. We aren't doing history yet; I plan on introducing SOTW in K or 1st.

I like the cornbread itself not sweet. But I always like to drizzle honey on it.

Thanks for all the information! I need to think on this more and try to figure out what will work.

I never had problems with leakage. But after months of using one intermittently, I had to give up trying. It hurt. I tried cutting the stem of it short and it still was poking me much of the time. I could barely sit with it in, it would always be poking me. I went back to mainly using pads with the occasional tampon when needed.

I work three days a week and my daughter is in preschool two of those, with her father the other. For the four days a week she is primarily with me: Get up, eat, bathe, dress. She likes to play in the bath, so this takes much more time than you are probably imagining. She is in there so long I've started adding bath paints or science demonstrations involving water to this time. She is allowed to watch one tv show while DH and I are getting ready for the day. Sometime during each day we find time for me to read aloud to her, her to read aloud to me (it was working on letter recognition and letter sounds before she was reading), number/math activities, some form of science demonstration or experiment or observation, some form of art, and some worksheets from Kumon fine motor skill books and Critical Thinking Company. This is all surrounded by lots of playing, especially imaginary play. On Wednesdays, we usually go to the children's science museum and to a dance class. Fridays, to the library and spend time in their play room. Sundays and Mondays are at home or maybe to a park; we often do a baking project together on one of these days.

My preschooler is finishing up Bob Books. From there I intend to move into leveled readers. She is such a natural reader that she has flown through and I'm not thinking of using a formal reading program with her, but would like her to have a more firm grasp on the phonics rules. She has also requested specifically that we start to work on teaching her how to spell, so I was thinking a phonics-based spelling program would meet her needs. We're working on fine motor skills but printing letters just isn't a possibility for a while yet so many workbook programs are out. She does write words with magnet letters or on a computer keyboard. I've looked online at All About Spelling. I really like it in some respects - very rule based and systematic and I could tie it in with their readers. It seems overly complicated for a child who picks things up quickly, though. And it has an awful lot of fiddly-seeming parts. I just started considering Logic of English Foundations. I don't know much about this yet, but the spelling also seems to be very rule-based and systematic. We'd start with Level B if we do this. It ties in handwriting and I would be skipping over that. I *think* I can adjust the spelling to be done on a computer or with letter magnets rather than printed. It appears at first glance to move a little faster than AAS and be less fiddly. My two non-negotiable are that the program must be secular and must be able to be adjusted for not printing. Any suggestions or input?

What we actually eat is heavy on whole grains and proteins and far too light on fruits and vegetables. I didn't vote because I'm to sure that we "aim" for this or anything else; those are just the foods we are drawn to. M weight has crept up so I'm gearing up to restart Atkins induction in a week or two. So then I'll swing to proteins and vegetables, no grains or fruit.

I am happy to pay to support public schools as I certainly prefer to live in a society where every child has the right to a free education. I was happy to pay those taxes when I planned to not have children and I am happy to pay them now that I homeschool. This guy is just being a jerk.

I've had my hair colored more often than not for the last 20 years. I just like to have fun with it. My rule for myself is that if I want one color within a few shades of the color I'm starting from, I'll do it myself. It's easy and cheap. If I'm doing multiple colors (such as highlights or lowlights) or anything that requires stripping the color out of my dark hair first, then I pay a professional. For what you are talking about, I'd go to the store and buy one of the decent boxes in a color that comes closest to matching the original color and just do it. It'll take you under an hour total, cost about $10, and it's surprisingly hard to mess up if you aren't changing the color much.

If you're wanting to follow Well Trained Mind, they actually don't recommend much of anything formal before 1st grade. A age 4-5, they suggest reading (both you reading aloud and starting to teach your child to read), handwriting if your child is ready, and some everyday math. That said, many people do choose to use formal curriculum. I personally don't think there's any harm in using a preschool and/or kindy curric that you and your child find enjoyable. It won't "mess up" doing the trivium later. If you want to know what I use for preschool, I pull stuff from Five in a Row, RightStart Math A, Kumon fine motor skill workbooks, Critical Thinking Company pre-K workbooks, Bob Books for reading, science experiments pulled largely from the books Science in Seconds for Kids and Nature in a Nutshell, and lots of art. And lots and lots of play and developmentally appropriate toys.

We started FIAR a few weeks ago. We do 4 days per book instead of 5, choosing just 1-2 activities or discussions each day. We always skip the math because we are already using RightStart and I don't see any good reason to double up.

Paraguard. However, to correct the poll, Paraguard does NOT have hormones. The IUD with hormones is Mirena. Hormonal birth control does awful things for me.

I swear by my Sleep Number bed. I had low back pain for years, tried stretching, massage, workouts to strengthen my core, painkillers, everything I could think of. Three days into having the SN bed, the low back pain was gone and it hasn't returned in the three years since.

I have lived in "interesting" neighborhoods and "very good" neighborhoods. We actually just chose this year to move back to an interesting neighborhood. It may depend on what you mean by interesting. I would vote against, but that is because our main reason for selling our house and moving was having lived house poor for a few years. Gorgeous house, gorgeous large yard, actually too much space for my small family, but financial stress that wasn't worth it. And do remember that more space equals more housework, which was at a level I found overwhelming in the larger house. I would look more toward saving that extra money (or getting an affordable loan) to renovate and possibly add on to your existing home.

I am certainly not the money saving guru. My grocery budget gets killed by wine :). But I'll pass along the two things I have managed to stick to: Homemade laundry detergent. This is the recipe I use, subbing in Ivory soap for the Fels Naptha. It costs me about $25 for about 500 loads of laundry. http://happymoneysaver.com/making-your-own-laundry-detergent-worth-the-cost/ Homemade yogurt in a crockpot. Super easy, I've only ever had one batch fail on me. Ingredients: 1/2 gallon milk, 1 cup instant nonfat dry milk, 1/2 cup plain yogurt for starter Instructions: I start this about 4:00 pm, adjust for your own usual routines. Combine the milk and dried milk in the crockpot on low for 2.5 hours. Turn off crockpot and just let sit with lid on for 3 more hours. Add in the starter, wrap a towel around the entire crockpot for insulation, and leave for 8-10 more hours (until morning). You'll want to stir it or run an immersion blender through it in the morning. It will keep for 10-14 days easily in the fridge. This makes a thin, drinkable yogurt. You can mix in fruit (frozen works great) for flavored yogurt or smoothies. For the first batch, you do need to buy plain yogurt as a starter, for subsequent batches, just set aside 1/2 cup from your current batch.

My oldest sister has been a teacher and principal in public schools for 20 years. She is one of the strongest advocates of my daughter being homeschooled.

Exactly! I only go to Target once every 1-2 months now, everything else comes from Amazon. I don't do much food from Amazon since I need to go to the grocery store anyway, but do save myself frustration by getting hard to find items from Amazon.

We lined te floor against two walls in DD's room with bins and milk crates and keep all her books in those. Reasonably space efficient and she can easily flip through them to find what she wants. We have a display shelf in a main room to put the library books on. I used to buy... well, everything. DD easily has 300 or 400 books. It was when we ran out of space that I started relying on the library more. About twice a year, I also sort through her books and donate ones she has outgrown or I never want to read again. Now, if we check something particularly good out of the library, I put it on the Amazon wish list for a while to see if I still want it later. What I end up buying is more often nonfiction books with some depth that will open up discussion topics like the Flip Flap Body Book and The Amazing Pop Up Book of Geography.

I see very few pictures in my head, and only when I'm concentrating on doing so. They don't just flow in there when I'm reading a story. And then the pictures in my head are still fuzzy and vague, like it's out of focus - more a sense of color and shape.

I have never had plantar, so big grain of salt. I was taught ways of relieving plantar fasciitis in massage school. I was also taught how to use kinesio tape for people to self treat at home. K Tape is inexpensive and there are lots of sources online showing common ways of taping. I've had many runners swear by K taping.