Oh good. So it's not just me...

How far north do you live???? Am I going to have to move?? :leaving:

I am married (happily so, have been for almost 14 years) and I have been known to call my father if dh is not within rescue distance. I am deathly, insanely arachnophobic. It's the way they move that gets me. All those legs... ::shudder:: Year before last was a bad year around here for spiders. We had several in the house, hiding in the laundry basket and such. I have only recently stopped scanning every room I enter for creepy-crawlies. I still make dh bring up the downstairs hamper on laundry day. We had one come in here that I swear looked like it belonged in a "B" sci-fi flick. It was MASSIVE. It was in the kitchen, and when I came around the corner on my way to the diaper pail, it was sitting there like it owned the place. It literally took a couple of seconds to register in my brain what it was. It looked like one of those cheap rubber toys. I snatched up poor little ds, who wasn't even 2 yet, climbed onto the back of the couch, and started frantically dialing dh. He had just dropped off dd at school and was headed to work, but he was only a couple of minutes up the road, so he turned around. Meanwhile, the nasty beast was crawling across the kitchen floor. Every time it moved, I screamed (and I am NOT a screamer -- it was like an out-of-body experience) and ds laughed hysterically. It crawled under the sliding glass door, and I thought it was going to see itself outside, but no. It returned and made a beeline for the HEATING VENT. When it disappeared down the vent, I thought, "That's it. We're going to have to burn the house to the ground." Fortunately, dh arrived on the scene and was able to extract it from the vent with the vacuum hose and take it outside to meet its doom.

Going to check this out! Thanks for sharing!

Seahawks! But only because the '9ers beat my beloved Panthers last week... :crying:

DD has shown some careless errors in her spelling workbook lately. After talking to her, I came to the conclusion that she is getting bored. She is a fairly natural speller, so I told her that if she could score at least 95% on a spelling pretest she could skip her workbook this week. She scored 93%. :glare: I didn't want to go back on what I'd said, so I let it stand. (She was okay with this, since that was our deal.) The words she missed all had the same error (not dropping the silent "e" before adding "-ing"), and after I explained this, I don't think she'll have trouble with it again. It got me thinking: I'm curious as to how others define "mastery" when it comes to skill work. And... discuss!

It's old, but I have enjoyed Kay Arthur's "Israel, My Beloved" several times. It's very unique.

Congrats!! We're hoping to go next year, maybe in late February/early March. Would LOVE to do one of those cruise/park combo deals!

Part of the problem is that, truthfully, the concept of the Trinity doesn't make "sense." :001_huh: I believe it because I believe there is more than enough evidence for the veracity of scripture, but it doesn't make good, logical sense. I'm not sure that you're really looking for evidence from scripture (as opposed to a theological explanation), but Col. 2:9 comes to mind: "For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form..." I would second McDowell's "Evidence That Demands a Verdict" as a potential source for information. Or Christian Apologetics & Research Ministry: www.carm.org. Also, you might try searching for explanations of the hypostatic union (the nature of Jesus as both fully God and fully human). It's a hefty theological concept, but you might get something more detailed that way.

Yeah, this concerns me a little too. I lived about 45 minutes away from the hospital with both of mine. Now, to be fair, my deliveries were not exactly "normal" in that I started dilating for unknown reasons at about 28 weeks, slowly progressing from there. If you're starting from zero (ETA: I just saw your post that you're 3cm), you certainly have more time, but an hour and 15 minutes is a looong ride. My doc tried desperately to induce me at 36 weeks with ds, but the hospital refused to admit me until 37 weeks. By that point, I was at 6cm. If my water had broken at home, I would have had him in the car. One of the office nurses told me at my postpartum check-up that at one of my last prenatal visits, she'd overheard the doctor mumble to himself, "I don't know what's keeping that baby in there..." I guess for that reason I'm pretty much always in the "better safe than sorry" camp. Good luck, OP! Hope you'll share some pics when baby arrives!

Princess Bride is always a good one. When I was in 6th grade, the go-to sleepover flick was Cry-Baby with Johnny Depp. I must have seen that movie 20 times that year! :lol:

I don't have any experience with SPD. But your ds sounds a lot like mine. He's also 3. I highlighted the point about eczema because I wonder if your younger ds has it too? My ds has pretty rough eczema, and we've only recently come to figure out that a lot of his behavior issues have been caused the medicine (cream) his doctor prescribed to treat it. We're in the process of trying different treatments now. I cannot even BEGIN to describe to you the difference! It is like night and day! Also, the change/transition thing. That has been a huge issue for us as well, especially before the switch. One thing that worked well for us was to be very specific and give lots of warning time for transition between activities. So, for example, getting ready for nap time: Before lunch, I might say, "We'll be having lunch in five minutes. After you eat, it will be time for rest time." When he sits down to eat, I remind him again, "After we eat, it will be time for resting." When he's finished, a two (or five, or whatever) minute warning. Then, "It's time for resting now." I have to be VERY careful with this one not to let him think he has any choice when he really doesn't. He does not like it AT ALL when he thinks he's got a say and then realizes he doesn't. That's a sure recipe for a battle. I've really had to train myself to think ahead and give him lead time, it's not something I do naturally. Anyway, just some thoughts. Hope you get some answers soon!

:lol: When I was about 12, my dad "grounded" me from bath towels because I had a bad habit of leaving them in wet mounds on the floor. It didn't take many nights of having to stand in the bathroom and air dry after my shower to break that one! And yes, I did consider him a complete ogre at the time... I think the color-coding ideas are genius!!

Another vote for Number the Stars. Lily's Crossing takes place during WWII but focuses on the home front, so no traumatic scenes. The girl's father is drafted. Might be interesting for a different perspective.

Well, I certainly don't see why not... :D

Yeah, that's where I quit reading. Pretty sure they stole that from A Game of Thrones... Or maybe it's the other way around? ;)

Just saw this and thought I'd share: 80% off educational Kindle books :laugh:

We're looking for ways to up the challenge factor for dd. We pulled her from ps at the beginning of this year, and I needed a semester to get my feet wet. But I've been noticing more and more errors in her skill work (grammar/spelling/math), and I know she's mastered the material. We're definitely going to drop dictation, and possibly WWE altogether. I loved the idea of it (and I'm still keeping it in my back pocket for ds), but dd is a natural writer, and WWE is the only thing she puts up a real fight about. We'll incorporate more copywork (she's learning cursive) and creative writing exercises. We'll keep narrations going for history. One thing I'm considering is looking for a mother's helper to come in an afternoon or two a week to play with ds3 so I can spend more one-on-one time with dd. I'm thinking a 10-13yo girl might be a good fit, since I will be on premises. So far, I have not been very successful in occupying him so I can focus on her. I would never hack it as one of you moms with 6 or 8 (or more!) kids! In addition to providing more challenging work, dh and I are brainstorming ways to encourage a stronger work ethic/initiative in dd. She's only 8, so I realize there's time for that, but it's becoming obvious that this is not something that comes naturally to her (we've observed this for a few years with chores, etc.). Coasting for three years in ps didn't help. I think this will be easier if she's not bored stiff with her studies, but ideas/suggestions welcome. :)

Me too! Actually more like 5 1/2. He especially seemed to enjoy reminding me that I'd hit 30 when he was still 29... :glare:

We live in a rural county, but I'm pleased with our library system. All county residents can get a card for free and have access to any of the (I think six) branches. I can search the catalog and place a hold online and have those books delivered to the branch closest to me for pick-up. I love that! We also have privileges at the library in the city closest to us (different county). It's not a huge library, but bigger than any of the ones in our county. We pay $40/year for it, but it's well worth it. Between the two systems, I feel like we have access to as many things as libraries in bigger cities. I very rarely have to purchase books (aside from curriculum) because most anything I want is available from one of the two. We can check out up to 50 items per card at each of the systems, so we don't max out! I was disappointed when I contacted the university library at my alma mater a couple of years ago and found that they charged a pretty substantial fee for non-students, even alumni. :thumbdown: It's about 45 minutes away, so not super convenient, but dh works nearby and could pick up and return for me occasionally. Bummer. My dad had a free card at the university where he got his MBA, and it was great, especially for high school.

Thank you to you both, these are great ideas! I have looked at Logic Safari before, and I think we may add that or one of the other critical thinking-type programs, along with Latin, for next year. I'm going to explore the other ones mentioned further before I pick one. So far, I have tried to make a wide variety of additional materials available on topics we're studying (especially science and history) for her to peruse at her leisure. We have a one-hour block ever day where she reads on any subject she wants (in addition to the reading she does in her free time), and I try to supply challenging material for that. She loves both science and history and devours those books. We definitely need to re-evaluate math, at least for next year. I do not see pre-algebra in our immediate future, but I think she could easily work one grade level ahead. Beast Academy looks like something she might enjoy for a change. Maybe we can take the summer to explore a few things and see what catches her interest. About dictation... My gut says that she is bored with it. She was writing 10- and 20-page, fully illustrated books in the first grade. Her second-grade teacher told her she probably should have skipped a grade. So I am not concerned about whether or not she will be able to write. And recently I have seen an actual decline in her writing (including more spelling and grammar errors). It scares me a little to dump it, because the WWE progression makes so much SENSE to me! :lol: But I am leaning more and more in that direction. I am a little concerned that she seems to have trouble remembering the sentences even to repeat back to me. But she is the kind of kid who insists she "can't" memorize something if she really doesn't see the need for it or isn't interested. (She claims not to be able to remember our address, for example, which is hogwash.) I think this is more of an effort issue than an ability issue. She memorized a big chunk of the prologue to the "Odyssey" a few weeks ago. But she also has more trouble with auditory information than visual. She doesn't easily pick up nursery rhymes or songs, for example. (It's kind of weird, actually, but dh is like that too.) I can't decide whether this needs more practice or is something that she will grow into or what. I mean, at some point she's going to have to sit in a lecture or meeting and take notes, right? She does fine with verbal instructions and the like, it's more when she has to remember something word for word. We definitely need to be more out of the box, which is a challenge for *me* because I like to plan ahead and have everything organized. But we'll keep plugging along and doing our best. Thanks again for all the advice!

:grouphug: :grouphug: :grouphug: Congratulations to you (and you dh, if he reads this!) on doing what is best for your family. I wish you all the best!!

Yes, I think both of these are true in our case. And I feel a little better after learning today that there are options for testing that won't completely blow our budget! I suppose I have felt a little guilty/inadequate after having been around the boards that I don't seem to have a better innate understanding of what dd needs. Thank you so much for taking the time to respond and for the encouragement!

This has been IMMENSELY helpful. If you think of anything to add, I would love to hear it. Thank you so much!

I was TERRIFIED riding the bus. Especially in middle school, when we had to share the bus with the high-schoolers. :willy_nilly: I swore my children would never have to ride one.