Mine is a crumb thing. I don't think the little crumb tray fits tightly, but there are always crumbs by the toaster unless I have just wiped the counter and then no one touched it afterward. It doesn't have to stay out, but I'd rather not have crumbs on the counter, the floor, and the pantry. There are 4 of us who eat toast daily, if we ate toast less frequently, it wouldn't be out. Plus my toaster is pretty (as toasters go) and my frying pan isn't.

I have plenty of counter space and storage space. I do keep my counters fairly clean, but I don't want them bare. I think her bare counters look sterile, like no one lives in the home. Yes, the toaster is only used 5 minutes a day, but it only takes 10 seconds (if that) to wipe up the crumbs. If I moved it to the pantry every day I would have to wipe the counter, pull out and wipe the crumb tray, carry the toaster across the kitchen, then sweep whatever random crumbs landed on the floor. That's way more effort that could be spent on something else. When we moved our realtor suggested we limit ourselves to 3 things on the counter. That's pretty much what we still do even though we have twice the countertop space now. Actually I just counted, it's 4 items. Nothing is to the left of the sink, the Kitchenaid is to the right. Then turn 90 degrees. The fruit bowl is to the left of the stove, the knife block to the right. Turn 90 degrees and the toaster is near the knife block. Then there's about 2 feet of empty counter space before you get to the fridge. I would guess we have about 12 feet of counter space not including the sink.

My 4 year old hit my 2 year old yesterday morning when I wasn't looking. I did hear the aftermath of my 2 year old crying. When I asked what happened, my daughter told me, "I just thought about that verse 'do to others as you would have them do to you' and thought since he hit me, he must want to be hit."

7 years. I still like my hairstyle but I do wonder if it's time for it to be updated.

:)

If you sew you could make her sheets with custom fabric through Spoonflower.com. She could pick exactly how she wanted them to look that way.

We are doing it, my kids each put a box together for a child similar to them. We go to the dollar store and I also add school supplies that I picked up earlier in the year. I generally try to add extra toothbrushes and things like that so the kids can share with their family. Anything that won't fit in the box I donate anyway in case someone else's box is a little short on something. I think the baseball gloves and soccer balls are an excellent idea, I'm going to keep my eye out for deals this year.

In my husband's family everyone usually takes home what they brought. We usually get together at his aunt's or grandmother's house. I don't mind to leave my food with the hostess but usually there is so much leftover food it won't get eaten. If I notice that someone really liked a particular dish, I'll leave a portion for them. My MIL will frequently send her leftovers home with us because she usually fixed the food with my husband in mind.

My nearly 7 year old has just stopped reversing letters but he struggles with numbers. I have found keeping a number line handy helps. I usually remind him to look for an example as he is about to write one of the numbers he frequently reverses. He is getting to the point that he will look before he writes certain numbers, but not every time.

Not a homeschool alum, but I'm loving this thread.

I've worked as a cashier in a grocery store and in retail. It isn't horrible, I would guess it's less stressful than being a server but probably doesn't pay as well. Not everywhere has an employee discount, I worked for two different grocery chains in different states and neither offered a discount for employees. I'm not sure about Traders Joes but the employees do seem to enjoy working there.

My husband said when he flew last week that the last 4-5 times he has flown he has been asked to gate check his small carry on suitcase. If the buldges prevent the suitcase from fitting in the overhead bin or if the bins are full you'll have to gate check. He mostly flies on small regional flights, it's probably different on bigger planes.

I think in general people stay in their own neighborhood. Especially if there are a lot of young families and it's a subdivision. However some people will try to go to as many neighborhoods as possible and some neighborhoods do have a reputation for giving better candy. There are also people like my sister who don't have a neighborhood, so she drives to town. Our old neighborhood didn't have a ton of kids so in years when the weather was nice we would have tons of people stop by and if the weather was crumby hardly any. ETA. I don't think it's so much about better candy as much as more houses passing out candy. In neighborhoods without a lot of kids there won't be as many people going around.

I never knew about the porch light thing until I moved further south. I think it's a great way to let people know if you are passing out candy.

My daughter would only meow at the doors a couple years ago. She was 2.5 and dressed as a cat so I didn't insist on her saying trick or treat. Most people thought it was pretty cute. We had miserable weather this year so we took the kids for pizza and arcade games instead of trick or treating. We left a bowl of candy on the porch and there were still a couple pieces left at the end of the night, so it appears no one stole all the candy like I feared would happen.

You can use just the workbook and cd (around $20). However I have the entire kit (around $65). On Monday we watch the new video and listen to the new song. Tuesday my 6 year old does the workbook. Later in the week he does the workbook sheet from the teachers manual. I haven't really needed the manual but the extra worksheets are nice. We have just added in the Monkey Match game cards. They are basically color coated flash cards which you could easily make on your own. I've been using them as flash cards and to play memory, they are nice cards but pretty pricy for what they are. There are a couple other game suggestions as well but we haven't played those yet. We listened to the songs a lot at first but now we only listen to all of them a couple times a week. There are a couple videos and games at headventureland.com that my son watches/plays on occasion as well. Overall we spend about 20 minutes on Mondays and 10 minutes on SSL the rest of the week. Even my 2 year old is picking up some Latin. My 4 year old really likes it but she isn't ready for the workbook yet. She greets people with salve now instead of hello it's kind of cute but I usually have to explain what she said.

My children love Song School Latin, they are picking it up pretty easily and it isn't too time consuming. It's a very gentle and fun introduction to Latin. We don't know any native speakers of other languages, so I intend to wait until they are older to study Spanish.

Is being super tired not a normal symptom of pregnancy? I've had 3 children (5 pregnancies) and I've always been super tired. With the exception of my 1st pregnancy my husband has always known I was pregnant before I did because my energy levels plummeted. I've had borderline low iron and platelets, but nothing my OB was concerned about.

Just pmd you. Thanks!

My kids love The Cat in the Hat I Can do That game. We just have the card version but there is a board version as well. The best part is they can play without me, part of why I forgot about it earlier.

One thing that has helped my son is to cover the dots and smileys at the bottom of the screen on the assessment section. He was so caught up on seeing if he could answer before the smiley that he couldn't focus in answering the question. That doesn't help in Race the Teacher though. The 6 second option does help too.

We play traditional games like Memory, Hi Ho Cherrio, Candyland, and Jenga. These work well with my 6&4 year olds. I help my 2 year old. I don't have any ideas for the 10 year old. I've been thinking about Battleship for my 6 year old but I'm not sure he's quite ready for it.

I would love to have that list too. One of my friends keeps talking about doing this. I think it's a great idea, I just haven't had the time to research ideas.

Following.

She does sound like a high needs baby. What does your going to sleep routine look like? I have had slightly different routines with each of my 3 but have found that they all needed consistency. As you know, with the more kids you have the more difficult it is to be consistent about anything, so do your best. Maybe until you can get the baby going down for the night easier you could have the older ones do something quiet (read together, play a board game, watch a movie) just to keep from adding to the chaos. I don't really believe in making the others tiptoe around just so baby can sleep, but maybe that needs to happen for a brief period.