In the middle of the night I scared the crap out of myself. After already stubbing my toe on a toy and making a racket I was trying my best to not wake the baby as I returned to bed after using the restroom and putting the toy away. Just enough light from the computer room illuminated the hallway wall so that my body cast a shadow on the wall. I saw the figure on the wall and screamed and smacked the wall LOL. Don't ask me what I was thinking... I guess I was trying to determine if that was a ghost or a person?? before realizing it was my own shadow.

Couldn't stop thinking about this thread the other night when I was sitting in here and the lights were going on and off. This house has terrible wiring, though. I've complained to maintenance before about wiring but they brush it off. We've had light bulbs burst and they burn out quickly. Might be some of the ceiling fixtures. I feel better using our lamps. When dh was young his father sprayed the hose across the roof while the kids were inside and they were told it was the reindeer.

Are any of the topics covered in the other blue books? I know that wouldn't give practice for every chapter but maybe could help with certain topics. I'm trying to understand what is frustrating about the review pages? They don't have enough problems or ?? We use MM, but don't have experience with other math products except some supplements like math-aids.com, xtramath.org and the Two Plus Two is Not Five book. I just noticed your dd is much older so I probably won't be of any help. I have never tried the math page generator. This thread reminded me that we got some bonus pack (some type of program) with our purchase and it has a few subjects on it. We need to try it. I don't know if that thing would help if you have one?

I see. For the record we bought my son's seat when he was very young. It was one of those seats that lasts like 7 years. We had no idea what we needed to look for when we bought it. He was little. We also lived in an area that had a Wal-mart and a couple dept. stores but no Babies R Us or Bed, Bath & Beyond so not like a lot of places to physically sit in seats. It was our first child and our first time experiencing the car seat world. Do I know more now? Sure. But even with that knowledge you don't always predict everything. I'm done talking about this. I am getting defensive.

What do you mean by "right fit"? Do you mean best car seat? Or do you actually think that the parent is using the harness wrong? Yes, children get too tall for harnesses because that's what the user manual says once their shoulders are higher than the guides on the seat. And slots for FF need to be at or above shoulder. Only RF can be below. If you run out of slots then what? You've outgrown the seat. I was never discussing children that young outgrowing harnesses early. I was suggesting that by the time a child is anywhere near 80 lbs they are probably my son's age (7) or older and *might* have outgrown their harness measurements for height. That's all I was ever really trying to say. I'm not talking about 3 year olds or rushing kids out of a harness if that is unclear. Our Nautilus is the one my son outgrew and it had a high weight limit. Besides, the crotch buckle location isn't ideal on some seats once the kid gets older, even in the slot furthest away.

This is what we're doing. I just didn't know if anyone was talking about conjugating sentences. The workbook we're doing has things like making things possessive (there's a word bank with names and nouns) and adding commas in dates, between city and state, etc.

It sounds like you already have a curriculum. We've been reviewing phonics this week and what we've been doing is going through old flashcards I made and looking over the Logic of English phonogram chart and the one in our AAS book. I thought the site used to have more sounds for their phonograms, but maybe I'm mistaken. I still like to look at it since LOE adds a few (bu as in build, gu as in guide, cei as in receipt). I created my flash cards by using multiple resources, though a lot of the sample words came from OPGTR. One program might say "ai" just says long a, while another mentions short e found in "said" and "again." I don't know if I'm doing things "properly" but I include three sounds for ar (car, dollar, marry) using the link below as a guide. One of my favorite resources is from a poster on this site. You may find these charts helpful from their website. http://www.thephonicspage.org/Phonics%20Lsns/Resources/sound%20letter%20spell1.pdf http://www.thephonicspage.org/Phonics%20Lsns/Resources/letter%20sound%20read%20new%202011.pdf

I'm not really sure if I understand what people mean when they say grammar. We are doing 2nd grade this year. We are reading The Sentence Family and working on this workbook: http://www.amazon.com/Language-Arts-Grade-1-Spectrum/dp/076968131X/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1453443058&sr=8-2&keywords=spectrum+language+arts+grade+1. It says grade 1, but it was too much for us last year. The Sentence Family (to me) is not independent. The workbook, some of it could be considered independent though I find that I need to be nearby to get the lesson started or at least to check the work.

Yeah, several have high numbers for weight. The weight was never the issue, though.

I don't know if it would help, but some cars have a belt adjuster as part of the vehicle. I didn't even know ours existed til I saw it in the manual. It is tucked into the side of the seat (there's a little pocket). If they slouch a lot I'm sure it isn't super effective, though. I sometimes still have to wake ds to get him to straighten up in his high back (if he's leaning forward instead of into the wing on the headpiece).

I see. Well, I feel like it's often one or the other. A tall kid or an older kid. But it really depends on definition of older lol. It sounds like your seats have more leeway, though. I did google earlier to see what seats out there were best for height/harness and this old thread (http://www.car-seat.org/showthread.php?t=91383) mentioned that head rest adjustment on the last notch is for booster mode only, not harness. Can't say how accurate that is. I noticed some seats specify "harness mode height" though, so that is probably helpful for buying (I would hope that's accurate). Anyway, it is nice to know that at least one or two exist where it is the preferred option for a given family. I once saw a monster pillow someone used in their child's lap (child just held onto it, it wasn't secured to anything) that prevented them from slouching too much. Like this http://www.amibamonsters.com/assets/images/TravelBanner.jpg. Not sure if there are issues with that for car seat safety but I thought it was an interesting idea.

Ashton Kutcher put out a tweet about lack of changing tables in the men's restroom a while ago. One of the churches I attend (newer building) has a changing table in the cry room. There is a sink next to it. The church I go to for co-op has no changing table in the women's restroom (maybe there is one somewhere else on the premises). I end up changing dd in the car or one of the spare rooms. The only reason I can change dd in the car is because we have a big cargo area in this vehicle. The seat? Forget it. Tried that when she was very little and even then it wasn't very easy with the odd angle.

I was the youngest so my dad probably had one of my siblings with us to send in the restroom with me lol. But I don't know if he normally went anywhere with us without Mom when we were young. When I first asked dh this question I didn't specify an age and he told me he'd take her to the car lol. I don't think he's ever changed our kids' diapers in a public restroom. He's used the car for that many times.

I always say I'm going to do this and forget. Plus, I think dh thought it was weird. I do have holy water in the house, though.

ugh yeah I can imagine that as a problem! My parents have to think of these things for going out (Dad has to escort her to the restroom) and I remember we had a thread about this regarding adults. They basically think out the bathroom situation in advance, noting where there are Wal-marts and Targets because I think both have family restrooms. I'm pretty sure their church bathroom would be a nightmare to go into with her wheelchair but luckily they live close by.

I don't know why but for some reason I mentally do not ever picture handicapped stalls in men's restrooms. I picture one or two tiny stalls and a row of urinals. I wouldn't want to leave a child on the outside of the stall and if there isn't a handicapped stall I wouldn't want them forced into the stall. There's no room. I know not every public bathroom I've been in has a handicapped stall. I'm thinking like maybe they were built a long time ago and it wasn't required?

Yes, that's another annoying thing about car seats. Parents are expected to remember to do a switch at some point. I don't have a LATCH option on my HBB but I try to remember to buckle the seat in when ds is not in the car so I don't have a potential flying object.

My bad, I didn't know the mifold worked on the lap portion :) I realize a booster's real job is belt positioning, but I guess I was thinking if one model helped with more concerns than the other (say the knees), then one might be superior regardless of initial reason for being made. Just like one person might prefer the thick booster so their kid can see out of the window more easily. I was thinking safety-wise is the knee thing a deal breaker. I dunno.

I put weight info in red and height in blue (most of the info, anyway). While there was mention of both in some replies, I took away the focus as being on weight. I bolded the first thing from each reply to show that the first thing people mentioned was weight. That is why I am saying I felt like people were trying to suggest that I just needed a seat with a higher weight limit. My comment way up about a kid outgrowing an 80lb seat early was not to suggest the kid would be too heavy, but rather that they might be too tall way before weight was a concern. We did too, but I discovered later that the manufacturer date was 2 years prior to when we bought it in the store. It was purchased new, but sold well past the manufacturer date apparently.

One time I lived in a home where we heard scratching under the bathtub (calm down, this isn't really a creepy story). Turned out possums were under the house right there. This house does not have a slab foundation, either. So we've heard animals under the house before. Are you on a slab?

I thought some of the examples cited were implying that my child didn't really outgrow his 5pt harness options because they still fit a __lb kid. Yes, for your own child you know best and leggy vs torso height is definitely important. I don't know ds' height off hand, but he is tall. Dh's side of the family is tall.

Did you click the link? It does seem to make a difference in the example. A mifold wouldn't have a chance at helping with the knees. You are right that different boosters may help differently, but I still think the mifold falls short if we're comparing the run of the mill booster.

The main thing the mifold has going for it is that it's compact and it's meant to adjust the seatbelt over the shoulder. The problem I fear is that it doesn't help with the rest of the 5 point test. There's a test to help determine if your child needs a booster. Of course, this test was designed with the thicker boosters in mind. I don't imagine the mifold would help adjust the belt across their thighs for example. http://csftl.org/boosters-are-for-very-big-kids/ Glad these recent threads brought this to your attention. I don't remember ds' weight. I think he's 50 lbs.

I see several of you mentioned weight limits on 5 pt harnesses. My child is under 65 lbs. It's not the weight limit that is the issue. It's the height. Child's shoulder was taller than red guide slots with headrest in highest position. And like I said the back of the seat expired earlier than the rest so we had to remove it and bought a HBB instead. I watched a video the other day with two car seats set on fire. It was to demonstrate that the after market minky covering (it was a cover that went over the entire seat, with straps laced through) was flammable way before the car seat material was. But what I got out of it was, "great, now if we cover our babies in blankets, there's a flammable item across their lap." At least you can rip the blanket away.

My family went to France and I had on overalls (hey, it was the 90s). This place only had a hole in the floor restroom. I was like NOPE NOPE NOPERS. I held it til I found a western style toilet. I basically would have had to get naked to not have a disaster and I was not going to do that.