The first 19 are the originals, and pretty good. The characters age and grow (the oldest ends up in college). Then the new-style sequels came along, and they were back to being little kids again, with cheesy plots. No thank you. I love the originals. There are some good mysteries in there. And lots of good character traits.

Thanks for the link! I tend to be the hypervigilant parent in any group. Mostly due to my anxious tendencies, past experience, and so on. I used to feel worse about it ... but it paid off at a co-op Christmas party this season. A toddler got hold of what looked like car keys, and was making a beeline for the nearest outlet. You can bet I ran faster than I've ever run before. LOL. On the other hand, this was also the same party where I finally felt safe enough (and that my kids were old enough) so I could really relax and TALK with the other moms and let us all enjoy the party, with my kids doing their thing and me doing mine. Yay!

I think that works. I will say, I found the hardback of FLL 1/2 for $15 ... two years of lessons times two kids, for $15, was a deal not to be passed by lightly. So that probably skews my view. :) I too was disappointed to find a few of the poems changed ... but then I've spotted some of the same revisions in other books recently, so that made me think more kindly of it. I'll probably still Google to check anything unfamiliar to me in future, but except for Monday's Child, so far it's not too bad (we're about half way through level 1). My daughter loves the Caterpillar one, an adapted Christina Rossetti, and that's one I spotted in another book too.

To be fair to the other Little House sets ... they (a few years back) decided to abridge them, go figure. One of the authors blogged about it, very upset, and stopped writing for them. So it might be a matter of which version your daughter got. I will have to say, I couldn't get into the Little House books until I read the other books about the other women ... so in that case it was good. But I got most of mine before the abridging went into effect. I'm not much for abridgments or adaptations of children's books, but there are a few I've liked ... I've got a good Robinson Crusoe and a Heidi and a Robin Hood and a Gulliver's Travels, without which I probably wouldn't have tackled the originals. But mostly I like to go to the source ... better writing (usually).

I didn't know there was a book ... link? I'd like to be more free-range but can't get past the fears. Would LOVE to read something that's not too harsh to help me see the other side. (I admire the free range idea but am just not comfortable with it yet ... )

It's working here ... but we skip up some of the repetition. It also helps that I am doing it with a 2nd grader and a pre-K'er, so it's doing double duty. Plus I got it at a good deal. :) They like the narrations and memory work, though, which make it worthwhile, since it was something I'd been wanting to add to our day but never got around to. Haven't seen 3, so can't say about that one. But with tweaking, FLL 1 has been a good fit for us this year. Grammar was sure not something I'd thought I could group them together on! LOL. (Pre-K'er ended up being a tagalong because she likes the poetry. My plan was to reuse it with her down the road, but something tells me that's not gonna be the result...)

And welcome to AL! It's a great place!

I have to admit, none of the options available make me want to fly on a plane. :( I have a panic disorder anyway, and ANY of the previously posted scenarios would do me years' worth of irreparable harm. And yet my extended family is scattered across the US, and were there an emergency, a plane would be the only option (I'm talking as far as Alaska and Hawaii here, not really within the scope of a car trip, even if I didn't get so carsick.) The scans don't detect what they need to detect, and they invade our privacy, as well as exposing frequent fliers to all that radiation or x-rays or whatever they use. It's just not a good idea. And if they want to see someone ready to destroy a plane ... just let us mama bears lose when they try this on our kids! I think that'd be more of a threat... LOL.

Yup, it's required hardware. Only one or two activities don't use it ... some of the stretches, I think.

Hmm, interested to hear about the Active one. We have the Fit and Plus, and the Plus is way more fun. In the old one, you had to 'earn' extra games and exercises by how much time you worked out ... the Plus unlocks them all (at the beginner level at least) for you. So you can choose more. Like the meditation one, which I thought looked fun but I could never get enough credit for. (Okay, so I don't work out much.) My dh would probably like the Active. We got the Your Shape game to test, and it's interesting ... definitely uninterrupted routines and an intense workout ... but not so sure the camera technology is as good as it could be. It's good to see yourself in the 'mirror' I guess, but I thought it would be more incorporated into the actual exercise planning ... the lag time makes it hard for the computer to accurately tell you when you are doing something wrong, and it doesn't seem to matter what 'your' shape actually is. Misleading name. But good workout.

I know my brain is in a fog for the whole day after a migraine ... and I know many folks who suffer far worse than I do, so I can imagine the effects lingering longer. My biggest usual triggers are sodium, stress, and my cycle. So I try not to line all those things up at once ... no salty popcorn (mmm!) during PMS, etc. Sigh.

On the other hand, at least SOMEone was supervising said child ... you wouldn't believe how many times I worked closing at the library, and children would be left there alone with no one to pick them up ... and our branch was out in the middle of nowhere, not even remotely safe to let them just wait for their ride. We had to call police to come pick them up sometimes, so they could reach the parents and we could finally go home. But yeah, that's not really tutoring. Sigh.

To be fair to The Great Brain, the first book or so is based on true recollections ... the younger brother is the author. And they always end up actually helping the friend or solving the problem. Pre-read if you're worried, but I read 'em as a kid and still like them ... they are good stories. But Tom *is* a scam artist, so lessons have to be learned. (He's referred to as a great brain and a money-loving heart, and is observed by younger brother John, who learns a lot. Even Tom gets 'reformed' in one book.) Einstein Anderson is a science mystery series like Encyclopedia Brown. Most of my other favorites were already mentioned. :)

I don't even have to do the test to feel the misalignment. Sigh. I've always had it. Never had migraines till the last five years or so though. I do have depression/anxiety issues (for good cause, not just jaw things), and definite insomnia issues. My poor psych. is sending me for a sleep evaluation (probably in a month or so) because all the things that are supposed to help me sleep ... don't. She can fix the panic, but if I don't sleep, it doesn't really improve anything. I'll be doubly interested to see what they learn now. Sounds like something I should discuss at the consult.

Merry Christmas y'all! We just took our stuff down from Epiphany. On a tangent, there's an Isaac Asimov short story mystery for kids that has this alternate Christmas date as the clue/solution to the mystery. It was pretty cool.

I'd like to hear it too. I have a jaw that dislocates itself if I yawn too wide ... very embarrassing, as it's gotten stuck before! Once I had to have a doctor ease it back in place; usually it fixes itself once I stop panicking and the muscles relax. My sister has this happen too. Never thought about it being tied to headaches before.

All congregations vary, but we're Methodist and find a lot of families join our church because it was a good middle ground for folks who came from different backgrounds. It's a pretty open-minded denomination, without being too liberal. Every individual church differs, of course. Our one drawback to some newcomers is that we rotate pastors ... so if it's the preaching you fall in love with, it may change in a few years! But we also don't get stuck in a rut so easily that way either. I do tend to find myself the conservative one in my congregation, but it's pretty cool. We use the Apostle's Creed as our basic statement of faith, if that helps, and we're liturgical (meaning we follow a church calendar through the seasons, though not as strictly as Catholic with all the saints' days and such), and there's a fair amount of ritual, but it depends on the congregation as to how much (older congregations will have more ritual, newer ones tend to less). We're all on the same page in a 3-year Bible reading lectionary plan, but every preacher will find something different to say on Sunday mornings. Anyway, might be a place to start.

((hugs)) I am so far less than thrilled with how my own church is handling a situation. I reported an instance where a teacher crossed a line (not with my child, I was subbing in the class) ... she didn't do anything really wrong, but it was an action that could have so easily been misconstrued, or been a lead-in to further wrongdoings. So I reported it, to protect the children and the teacher. How has it been handled? Well, they decided rather than confront her directly (since it was deemed to not be an urgent safety issue) to have a 'training conference' to remind all the teachers of appropriate guidelines. Half a year later, this hasn't happened ... because the person in charge of training for our district lives several hours away and they can't coordinate schedules. I can tell you, I am NOT a happy camper. If nothing else, we're setting ourselves up for a lawsuit. I think I will have to nag one more time, and then take it to a higher authority. Sigh. I hate always being That Parent.

This thread is a riot ... I can so relate to the movie embarrassment! I would've struggled too. I don't know about y'all, but I have a REALLY hard time watching British movies. Everyone looks and sounds the same, so I can't tell the characters apart. Is it just me? Anyway, I'm tempted to Netflix that Lost in Austen thing, and y'all have convinced me to give her other works a try. My sister likes them, which says a lot. Northanger Abbey, hmm? Is that my best bet? Now here's a confession that makes everyone in my circle of acquaintances gasp with horror: I canNOT get into Tolkien. There. I said it. I love The Hobbit, but the rest were slow torture to me. And I live in a city of rocket scientist fantasy geeks.

Ah, thanks, that helps. My hair isn't colored or otherwise treated, but it definitely is beginning to have grey. Well, as long as the money goes to help those who need it, I don't much mind if they sell it. A sweet little girl at our church is going through her second bout of leukemia. She grew her hair long and cut it off to donate before it would fall out naturally from treatment. Now that's sweet!

I think it's technically a violation to use others' illustrations. But in the case of a graphic for blogging, unless you have an enormous following and/or are getting rich off of it ... you're probably not going to be bothered. Fair use generally applies to educational purposes, and even then you have to have permission if you're using it in a work of your own that's going to be published and distributed.

Where would one find this group? And what kinds of books? (I love reading!)

which one had that? we only have a few... i'd be horrified if i missed that...

Tell them she's sold her 'hair footprint' (like a carbon footprint) to someone else who's donating on her behalf. LOL. I do cut and donate my hair, but only when it gets so long it's annoying. I like mine long. I would be mad/violated/upset if someone thought it was okay to grab my hair or tell me what to do with it. I'm not sure, though, that I would've known how to handle that as a kid. As for Locks of Love ... I'd like more information about that. I don't care what they do with my hair, as long as the end benefit is for the children. Do they sell ALL the hair, or just some of it that's not up to standards? Does the money go to wigs for kids? Because if it's not the best choice, I'd rather choose someplace else.

LOL!