I'm not at all saying that this is OK or excusable, but I could absolutely see my father doing something like this. He had a...selfish...sense of humor. Although he wouldn't have done it if he'd have thought it would have caused so much anxiety. He was always ice-cubes-down-backs and car-horns-honked-in-faces. His humor never quite moved past age 13. No wonder he liked the Three Stooges so much. I'm sorry it was so scary for you and your son.

I'm sorry, I'm really just making a joke. Bears do a tremendous amount of damage.

Right. I'm just saying I'd prefer an intact car with a bear inside to a ripped-door-car with a bear inside. Wait, is **not** having a bear inside an option? I'd prefer that one.

When we lived in Pennsylvania, raw milk was legal and - for raw, and especially compared to CA - reasonably priced. We drank raw milk for several years, until we had a batch with campylobacter. Everyone in the family fell ill, including DH who was travelling for job interviews. I decided that it just wasn't for us. http://www.about-campylobacter.com/campylobacter_outbreaks/view/your-family-cow-dairy-campylobacter-outbreak/#.V4xdJrgrLIU

I've noticed this too, and it seems to be only on items that aren't sold by Amazon but rather by second-party vendors. Anyone else have that experience? I suspect there's a glitchy way Amazon updates pricing in those circumstances. Is it the next Prime vendor? Does it sort by quality? I haven't investigated it enough, mostly because I'm not tracking the specifics of what I'm putting in my cart.

Hmm. If a bear can rip your doors off to get inside, I might prefer to leave the door unlocked so that the damage is minimized :lol:

I felt this pressure very much about 18 months ago. I made a giant list of the ways I could help contribute to our family income - lots of the ideas mentioned above. Nothing would have given me consistently a minimum hourly wage salary, and, frankly, my hourly contribution to our family is more valuable than that. (Meaning: the opportunity cost of hustling online, selling odds and ends, editing YouTube videos, was much higher than the income generated.) So, in the end, I realized I could contribute to our bottom line by being a good steward of our family's resources. I'm not bringing anything in, but I am keeping as little flowing out as possible. I know this doesn't add extra dollars to your savings account, but it is another perspective on how one can contribute financially without necessarily bringing in a second income. That said, there are a few side-hustles I'm always working. These require no real extra time on my part, which, with five small children, is important. I am always looking for free items to flip at semi-regular garage sales. (These sales support our homeschool co-op, but offset our expenses so it benefits the family.) Our local university often has research studies that require volunteers. Payment varies, and is often gift cards, but those can be used as Christmas or birthday gifts.

We request them from our library. Here's a list of the movies: http://nature.disney.com/ My children have liked the all, except Crimson Wing. That one made them cry, quite a bit actually. There's a bit of flamingo chick death.

I don't have optionals kids yet, but my older two are in their last year as compulsory. We quickly found that they outgrew the bigger equipment that we had. We still have all of the equipment up and around because we have little ones, and because the big kids use it in non-training ways. To do over, I'd have gotten a larger rectangular trampoline. Thankfully, our gym equipment was mostly second hand or gifts. Frankly, the best encouragement for your DD would be to open up as much floor space as you can and to turn a somewhat blind eye to the frequent handstands, cartwheels, forward rolls, and whatever else she uses as her forward momentum.

We are using the same books, with the addition of Steve Jenkins's Animals. https://www.amazon.com/Animal-Book-Collection-Shyest_and-Surprising_Animals/dp/054755799X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1468812965&sr=8-1&keywords=animals+jenkins We also have watched almost all of the Disney Nature movies, and are working through BBC Earth's Life series.

100 percent listening to podcasts. It makes the dumb things feel like less of a time suck, and it doesn't allow for that much resentment to build up.

Yes, kids get a cloth library bag (which is never large enough for the books we check out :lol: ) with a few coupons of the adult buys/kids free variety, plus a bookmark, stickers, and then a book. Books are...OK. Especially if you go early enough. My kids were motivated to get a "good" book and finished quite early. ETA: our old library gave out shirts, which was really quite nice. The year we could only get XL shirts, we turned the shirts into library bags...those were large enough to hold all of our books.

1. I don't prioritize housework. I have areas that must be clean for my sanity (kitchen counters, upstairs bathroom, living room), but the rest of the house can be in a fairly steady state of disarray before I would consider getting the kids involved. 2. We have an open plan house, so the kids are always in the same room as I am. So, even if I'm cooking, lesson planning, teaching - they're all within eyesight. 3. Use screen time and rest time very wisely. 4. Get OUT OF THE HOUSE. Into nature, preferably, where there are no rules about messes and fewer expectations about behaviors. When my oldest three were tiny (three kids in three years situation), we took a lot of hour-away field trips. The time in the car, where they were buckled, content, and often asleep, was a much needed respite. Friends would question our adventures (just to the zoo or children's museums, nothing outrageous - but we went often), and I always came back to the relative peace and quiet of the car. The days where kids would sleep, I could listen to NPR or a podcast, and there was a drive-through coffee shop...almost a vacation.

I attended BU as an undergraduate for two years before transferring to a different university for academic and personal reasons. I didn't realize until I transferred to my second undergrad how much a college campus meant to me in terms of having a "college" experience. BU doesn't have a campus - not really, in the traditional sense. I also found it to be a difficult place socially. There was a lot of money, experience, and expectation that I didn't have, coming to the school as a somewhat sheltered midwestern girl. Academically, the honors classes I had (and there were one or to a semester) were fine. The general ed classes were hit or miss, some quite dreadful depending upon the students in the classes. This could be a standard experience for any large, urban university. Take it for what it's worth :)

I also love chia pudding, but since we don't follow low-carb, I am free to add maple syrup. I use unsweetened almond milk, vanilla extract, and maple syrup. My kids will eat a TON of it, although one child started calling it "fairy eyeball food" which made me :crying:

For this age group, especially, I'd avoid the Crayola Factory. It's mostly a very loud building where you can try art supplies. There isn't a factory there, but you can see a demonstration of how crayons are made. Very underwhelming if you're expecting the "Mr. Rogers" experience. Longwood Gardens is beautiful. Nearby, Winterthur (the home of the DuPonts) has lovely gardens as well. The Art Museum is amazing. Not to be missed.

A lot of PBS shows (Daniel Tiger, Curious George) are leaving or have left Netflix. That was a big dealbreaker for my preschool crowd :(

I realized today that our page-a-day art calendar was one of the best homeschool hacks we've had. Sometimes, it's a dud, but at least once a week we have an interesting conversation related to the art featured. It's requires zero planning, we're always excited to see what's coming next, and the calendar pages have been fun for my kids to integrate into their artwork. So, as we're all preparing our next school years, share away! What easy, cheap, fun, or otherwise awesome hacks do you have up your sleeves? (This is the calendar we have, I'm sure there are many others: https://www.amazon.com/Page-Day-Gallery-Calendar-2016/dp/0761182764/ref=cm_cr_dp_asin_lnk)

We jump right into our morning basket activities after breakfast, almost always in pajamas, sometimes while kids are still eating. I've found that we get great momentum if we start right before anyone can get interested in anything else, when the kids are too sleepy to resist (ha!). From there, we break for snack, getting dressed, and then school work. I hope to be finished by noon. I admire people who do movement or chores before school work. I know that if we took a walk, that would be IT for the day. Everyone would come back overstimulated (me included), we'd all retreat to books or other alone time, and then pulling us back together for school would be a chore.

Thank you! I didn't use that combination of terms. I don't generally read science fiction, so I'm not familiar with the subcategories.

Yes, exactly this. Thank you for clarifying. I should have specified as this is a crowd for which "history books" is a common topic :lol:

This type of thinking makes me believe that left-wing conspiracies are responsible for *everything.* Did the left disenfranchise women so that they could then re-enfranchise the and obtain their loyal political favor? So bizarre.

My babies would wake if I tried to get up earlier than them, and the cranky baby would less helpful in school time.

My google-jitsu isn't working for me. I'm looking for an alternate history book in which women, rather than men, have always been dominant. I'd love something global and epic in scope (the entire history of the world?).

I had four or five recommendations but then kept remembering you said feel-good, no break-up songs... Try listening to The GO! Team's album Thunder, Lightening, Strike. Upbeat with a vintage sound.