Children of Men, Rebecca, Silence of the Lambs, Princess Bride, one of the many great Jane Austen adaptations, Ben Hur, Life of PI, Carrie, To Kill a Mockingbird, Stand by Me

I always like to bring lemon cookies or shortbreads to cookie exchanges. It's a nice taste break from the chocolate (that I love and love!) that seems to dominate the flavor palate. The shortbreads I make are almost savory. (No. Not savory, except for those with a minor sugar addiction.)

My mother was really nuts about making sure my sister and I had the same number of gifts and the same dollar value. She'd even group gifts together under the tree to be opened at the same time. It was a huge production for her, one that I hoped she found rewarding, although I question whether she did. She did it even as we grew into our late 20s. For my kids, we'll have around the same $$ amount and around the same number of presents, but I'm not going to stress out about it as much. In some ways, they're really not getting individual presents: the bigger ones (6, 5, 3) will all get new Playmobil sets, which go into a communal pile of toys. Since we tend to give "need to have" items for holidays, the kids have developed an understanding of why sometimes X gets a bigger/different gift. One year, my daughter got a new bike while my son got a puzzle. She needed a new bike; he doesn't really need anything. One thing we've been talking about a lot lately is that "fair" doesn't necessarily mean "equal." Our gifts will aspire to be "fair." Equality, however, is not a priority.

We love the games Lost Puppies and Hoot Owl Hoot. Both are by Peaceble Kingdom. http://www.peaceablekingdom.com/

lots of cured spicy Italian meats!

Nope. These days, I'd be thankful they didn't catch my naked preschooler running amok. Street view was a big help to us as we planned a cross-country move. We couldn't afford for everyone to fly out and scope out new homes, so we had to "walk" the neighborhood on the computer to get a feel of the area.

My 6-year-old son has been plowing through ETC. It really works for him, and we're all pleased with the program and results. But, every time we get to the end-of-book test, I wonder if we're moving too quickly through the books. He'll almost always spell every word incorrectly. He'll follow grammar rules, but the words are still incorrect. (For example: teech, chane instead of chain) My questions: Am I doing him a disservice by letting him go quickly through the material? Should he memorize these words? Or is his work in keeping with the expectations of the curriculum? He does reasonably well spelling CVC and sight words.

We've found a few of these Graphic History books at our library. I think the historical veracity is shaky in places, but they definitely captivate my 3 year old and my independent reader. http://www.amazon.com/The-Sinking-Titanic-Graphic-History/dp/0736852476/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

We found The Big Jump at our local library, and everyone in the family loves it. I believe most of his books follow a similar format (where there's a problem to solve and it's done in an inventive way), and I'd love to add more to our collection. Unfortunately, there are no others at our library (or in the system to request), and his books seem to be out of print/available used for $$$ on Amazon. So, have you read any? Any good recommendations? Or other books similar to this?

We use Singapore and love it, but I have to admit we're probably not using it the right way. My second grader has a natural math aptitude, so I've referred to the teacher's manual only a few times. When I checked into the manual for my first grader, I realized that there's really a lot of other activities that we've not been doing. I can't compare it time-wise to other programs, but the books/workbook alone don't give a full picture.

Just ask the pharmacist for it. No prescription needed, but it is a controlled substance. You'll need your driver's license.

Instead of paying for in-the-mail craft kits, I'm going to make my own throughout the year and give them to the kids or sneak them in the mailbox. If your kids are like mine, they'd want to start (and maybe finish, probably not) every kit in the box. Spreading it out would make it more fun...and last all year. I'll be sure to time the "deliveries" to correspond to days where we'll need a few extra hours of activities to fill our day.

I'm still very new to this forum and have really enjoyed reading all of the responses. I was referred to this forum by another homeschooling mother who said that even if you never talked about schooling, the thoughtful comments you'd receive were more than worth your time on the boards. Thanks for you feedback, and all of the different opinions. I am sure there are days where I grumble and scowl and snarl "I'M TIRED" when my husband walks in, and days where it's much more pleasant. I am sure I could be more respectful of the time we have together by choosing my words more carefully. I think this is the approach I'll take. We don't have that much time together during the week, so I may as well help make it more cheerful. His schedule makes it so he comes home at the worst time of the day. The kids are ready for bed by 6:30 (they all could be soundly asleep by then), but since he's home at 5:30 we still have dinner and some pretense of "Daddy" time before bed.

My husband's at work from 7 - 5:45 every day. I'm at home with four small children (6, 5, 3, and 4 months). We do some school, make lots of messes, romp around the neighborhood, and do a lot of play. Even when we're at home in pajamas all day (like today!), the days are full and busy - for me, at least. When my husband comes home, we have the typical "how was your day" debriefing. I confess I almost always say some variation of "I'm exhausted!" because I AM EXHAUSTED. I have a tiny baby and three crazy, lively kids. I'm still pleasant and cheerful, but by the end of the day I'm really thoroughly tired. Unfortunately, my husband interprets "I'm tired" as "I had a bad day." Is this a reasonable jump? I'm allowed to be tired, right? (You read that part about the 4-month-old babe?) Should I just brew an extra cup of coffee around 3 p.m.?

Pen and paper. I'm very tactile that way.

A lighted drafting table, or a lightbox.

When we lived in cold weather our pediatrician recommended Crisco. It seems you have two problems: preventing chapped cheeks, so a physical barrier (your petroleum-based creams and my doc's Crisco), and healing chapped cheeks (nourishing lotions like lanolin, coconut oil).

Oh! Great idea! I'm making these for my bunk-dwellers.

Another vote for Sudafed (real stuff, behind the pharmacists counter), Afrin, and Benadryl. I always have pains/clogged ears after long cross-country flights. I use all three unless I'm pregnant :) Is your flight at especially high altitudes? My pains are always worse on the cross-country flights because of the altitude. Could you break the flight into smaller/lower altitude segments? Here's a nice list of maneuvers for clearing ears: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ear_clearing

Love! And jealous, too! I'll never forget the day I arrived at the thrift store later than I'd intended, only to find a very happy mama with a HUUUGE box of Playmobil, all for $5. Better a mama than a dealer, I guess, but that one simmered for a while.

I'd love to have a kid like this! Can you scout out toys that have a high probability of being reassembled? If he's really "figuring out how it works," how about moving to the next steps of recreating toys from what he has? Some electrical equipment? I played with my father's soldering iron and transformers around his age - really fun stuff, especially as I knew that it was his REAL equipment and not a toy. Maybe if you set limits with your son over the toys? Set aside some that aren't for taking apart? At some point, all of the doors inside our house would fall of when opened, because my son thought it was really fun to unscrew all of the hinges. Fun, yes. Appropriate, no. I know that we often buy or request gifts to last through all four of our children. Perhaps that's at play, too? So even though the gift is for your oldest son, there's some unspoken assumption that play value comes from use from all children. Also, frankly, there are only a few toys in our collection that I really and truly feel we've gotten our money's worth from. It's why I try to buy used toys, to save myself from that icky feeling of "this was $XX and you don't play with it/broke it/gave it to your friend."

We have found some amazing dresses at the thrift store that have held up to all kinds of wear and washing. We've also been given some of those poorly-made Disney princess dresses. My daughter really wanted "the dresses with the face on them," and I refused to buy them new. The construction is really very terrible. The item that has gotten the most use in our dress-up bin was a girls-sized green corduroy jacket. I'm amazed how much play it gets! Especially since I'd purchased it at the by-the-pound thrift store to use for making beanbags.

Legos! Wish I could have invented them :) Other ideas we've put on the grandparents' lists: snap circuits geoboards running shoes, rain boots Schleich animals additions to our marble run good-quality art supplies I kid you not, if grandparents didn't live a cross-country plane trip away, I'd ask them to get my 5-year-old daughter a case of paper for her art/projects. She'd go nuts!

Trader Joe's makes a nice fennel toothpaste. It's not too strong, especially if she likes licorice.

Caffeine pills. I have them on hand for migraines, and when I'd need a cup of coffee to get up and make a cup of coffee. You know those days?