This is our vehicle. We have the lowest height roof though, so I can park it in garages Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk

Big Max by Kin Platt (and the sequels if she likes it) Commander Toad by Jane Yolen (and sequels) The Princess in Black by Shannon and Dean Hale (and sequels)

Yes, sort of, but not in any organized way. I've considered having the kids use some of them in science experiments.

fancy ice cubes?

We enjoyed Ronia the Robber's Daughter.

Well, here I was all excited to tell you about the good and bad parts of Richmond and the surrounding communities... [emoji4] I don't know much about San Ramon. I agree that the commute from Oakland would not be good, although plenty of people do commutes like that (which is why there's so much traffic.) I agree that I would look at Walnut Creek first. Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk

Nice to hear from you again. What is your level of proficiency with Spanish? What was it when you started teaching your boys? Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk

Well, my oldest is 11, and I'm still really hand-holding with her. She and my two 8yos each get a daily checklist for their independent work plus the items that we'll do together in the afternoon. All the kids do their written work at the dining table (ear protectors are available for anyone who needs quiet), and they may go into the living room to read. So I can generally keep an eye on them and notice when they're doodling or reading Wings of Fire instead of doing schoolwork. (What is your daughter doing during the time that she should be doing schoolwork?) In the afternoon, we do some schoolwork together - generally read-alouds, discussion, and mapwork related to their literature, science, and history. What are you using now? Do you think your daughter is at grade level?

Yes, but not when my husband is home because it would freak him out. (Stuff like this has been tricky now that he's working from home most of the time. He is pretty in favor of free-range parenting in theory, but bothered by a lot of stuff that to me seems very minor.) Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk

Would it be possible to talk to him about the lack of veggies and then make sure that there are some super-easy, no peeling, no chopping vegetable options for the nights he cooks? Like a salad kit, or steam-in-the-bag veggies, or precut veggies that can be tossed with oil and popped into the oven, for example. Ideally, he would be able to add these on to the cooking he does, but if not, at least it would be minimal cooking work for you to make sure there is a veggie on the table those nights. Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk

My parents are in Maryland, and my husband's parents are in New Mexico and Texas. My mom has never met either of his parents, and my dad has met his mom but not his dad. Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk

Congratulations! Our 4th and 6th babies both evened out the gender distribution for us, and I remember being happy that it worked out that way. (And of course, it wasn't a big deal either way, and a couple of my kids are not very gender-conforming anyhow.)

Seconding olive leaves.

DS8 went right back to BA3B and did really well with it. He's just doing Prodigy at the moment and will start 3c in January. DD8 is working through the end of Chapter reviews from Math Mammoth as a pre-test and it looks like she will be doing the sections on estimating and measurement soon. Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk

I think I am the exact opposite and wouldn't recognize my husband if he got rid of his beard or changed his hairstyle. Well, I would recognize him by voice once he spoke, but I am face blind and pay too much attention to hair and clothing to keep track of people. Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk

My 3rd grade son has done BA3A and B, but we found it really helpful to go back and do 2A when it came out. Doing the star problems in that book where the calculations were super easy helped him get the hang of puzzling through and solving the tough problems. Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk

I've got a child in about the same situation - he turned 4 in September and misses the cutoff here by 2 weeks. I'm going with something like your options 2 & 4 - a one-day a week outdoor program plus homeschooling. I think the outdoor time is really good for him and the time commitment for homeschooling K is still pretty small. I

It seems like more complete numbers would help make the decision easier, so getting estimates and appraisals would be a good next step. I would shy away from option #2 if it really does mean you'll be flat broke with larger monthly bills to cover - it just sounds like a precarious position to be in if something goes wrong. I'd probably lean towards using the money to fix a couple of the most pressing issues with your current house while keeping some in savings for an emergency. If you can pick up extra work, you can use that money to keep working away at the list of repairs.

I was going to recommend the IKEA ones. But my kids didn't play with them much, and I'm not sure if that's something about my kids (way more into art, dress-up, and playing with sticks outside than most toys) or something better about other train sets.

I don't worry about it. I don't often eat fast food - it tends to be on rare occasions when there aren't other options available, and at that point I'll just have a burger with no patty and some fries. I am mostly vegetarian because I am a terribly picky meat eater and have issues around fat, skin, gristle, dark meat, organ meats etc. to the point where it just seems incredibly wasteful for me to eat meat.

Meringue cookies / forgotten cookies.

With a birthday right at the cut-off time, he will be older than most of the other students in his class, but by less than a year. The other choice is for him to be younger than most of the other students in his class, again by less than a year.

And the converse is true - some people just have genetically terrible feet without doing anything to "ruin" them. I've got large bunions on both feet just like my mom, but I never danced en pointe and have hardly ever worn high heels.

I only isolated our cats for a day or so to make sure they knew where the litter box was.

We're a family of 8 in a 10-passenger Ford Transit van. We bought the van when I was expecting our 6th child. We kept our previous car, which was a Kia Rondo that we bought when I was pregnant with our twins. Ours has the optional 3rd row, so we managed to use it as our only car as a family of 7. With all the carseats, it was impossible to access the rear seats the usual way, so the kids in the back climbed in through the hatch. Anyhow, that car is still going strong, and I use it whenever I don't have to take the whole crew along. The big van has certainly been nice for longer trips, and we've often made use of the two extra seats when family members are in town.