I didn't know of it until recently. It makes me shocked that the first generation of kids--whose parents presumably knew she was a prostitute doll--was allowed to play with her. I guarantee my parents, and most other Bible Belt parents, would never have allowed me to play with her if they thought of her in those terms. She's such a cultural icon now that no one will stop allowing their kids to play with her based on that, but I'm surprised she ever became popular.

I would check after 75 but expect it to take a little longer. Not twice as long though.

I can't judge ages from any of the pictures, but they all would make me uncomfortable. I'm uncomfortable with any male over toddlerhood being in the women's locker room, unless the norm in that locker room is to go into private stalls/curtained areas to change. It's not necessarily a sexual thing. It's that the kid is old enough to notice differences, be curious, ask questions, make comments, etc. And I would be uncomfortable for the sake of my daughter--she's 5, and she's just beginning to develop modesty. We're teaching her that she gets to choose who sees her body. She's still ok with mom and dad, and she seems to be ok with other women still, but she's started being careful to ensure that men other than Daddy and boys don't see her undressed--or even in her pajamas, which are perfectly modest pants and shirts. I think that having a boy near her age in the locker room where she was expected to change clothes would confuse and embarrass her.

It may not be the technical definition of the word, but when I hear "amnesty" in a political context, I think of the forgiveness of the criminal act of entering the country unlawfully and the granting of permission to stay and to be treated as if the entry were legal.

I love anything with olives, so that's what I'd prefer. If I were serving it to others, though, I'd prefer to have an idea of what they do and do not like--my husband would politely eat it, but he hates olives.

I'd definitely ask for it back. I'd be wary about loaning anything to her again, since she's proven untrustworthy in this area. I'd also be on the lookout for another pencil just like that one--purple and all--so I could have a spare favorite. I'd keep other pencils in my bag for loaning out. I'd probably not keep another purple one in there, so I could loan out all the others and then if someone asked for the purple one, "Oh, sorry, it's my last one and I'm using it" would be an honest response.

Language Arts: Continue with LOE Foundations (we'll just keep going over the summer, starting Level C in 3ish months) Continue adding in AAR readers Add in ELTL 1 As time and interest permits, add in literature reading to correspond with history or anything else I think she'll enjoy Math: Over the summer, we're going to use LOF and some Kumon workbooks (money, math games) for a fun math just so she doesn't regress. In the fall, I'm debating between Math Mammoth and Singapore. I feel like I *ought* to use Singapore, and I think my husband wants me to, but I kind of feel like MM would be a better fit. Science: Continue with BFSU Continue adding in books about other topics of interest (mostly animals) History: Continue with TOG, moving into year 2 this fall Bible: I'm leaning toward Telling God's Story, but still considering Bible Road Trip Will probably add in the "Buck Denver Asks: What's in the Bible?" DVDs even if we don't use BRT (which recommends them) Art: Continue with Artistic Pursuits--we did preschool this year, but we'll continue with K-3 book 1 this summer and then use book 2 as recommended with TOG2 Music: There are a few options I'm considering here ... maybe Maestro Classics, but I'm not sure that's enough for a full year; maybe Zeezok's Music Appreciation for the Elementary Grades or Confession of a Homeschooler's World's Greatest Composers. I think the latter two options would be better in another year or two, though, so probably Maestro Classics with something else (who knows what) added in. I'm open to suggestions! Health: Something workbooky--something open-and-go, easy to get done, covers the basics, that I can point to and say "see, we did health." Maybe A Beka, maybe the Healthy Choices series I saw at CBD. I'm open to suggestions! PE: I'd like to find a local class--dance, martial arts, gymnastics, anything that would get her exercising and help with body control and self-confidence. If I can't find anything locally, we'll stick with Family Time Fitness and daily walks.

Praying for your nephews, their parents, the doctors, and all of you who love them.

I would report it to the staff, each and every time it happened. Agree with the policy or not, it's the policy. Only the owner (or the person the owner has put in charge of the facility) has the right to make the rules. Once they're made, those who disagree should either comply anyway or not participate.

"I'm not in favor of homeschooling because it increases the stress on the parent." No joke, that was the reason.

I'm sorry. It's perfectly ok to be sad in a situation like this--knowing the right thing to do, and doing it, doesn't mean that it's easy to let go of or put on hold the good things you want to be doing. I hope you're able to go back in the fall.

Based on what you've said, I'd start wondering if the teacher violated the rules of the bee--if the words are *supposed* to come from that list, then she did something patently against the rules by drawing words from a different list. You could potentially make a case to the principal to force her to redo the class bee. However, that wouldn't leave much time for studying for the school bee, and whatever student was declared the winner in the class already would be put in a difficult situation as well. I doubt I'd take it that far.

When I participated in spelling bees, the words for a class bee usually came from our spelling books. I have no idea where the words for the school bee came from. We were not told anything in particular to study for class or school bees. For the regional bee, we were given a booklet with a long list of words and told that they were "representative" of what we'd have to spell. In reality, they were much harder than the words that typically showed up in the regional spelling bee--I think they were much more likely to show up in the national one. I agree that words should not be taken exclusively from a list that students were given to memorize--that's a memorization competition, not a spelling bee. However, if students were made to understand that they'd do well by studying the list they were given, and then it turned out that students didn't do well unless they'd studied a list that some students had access to and others didn't ... that's not the same thing as just using a random set of words that weren't on the list but that were of equivalent difficulty. I would be upset with the teacher but would not expect her to invalidate the results and do it again. The best I'd hope for was that she wouldn't do the same thing to another group of students next year.

We're almost through Math-U-See primer (lesson 22 of 30). I intend to start either Singapore or Math Mammoth level 1 with my daughter in the fall. I do not want to start either of those before this fall. However, I also do not want to take a complete break from formal(ish) math this summer. I'm thinking that I'll order a couple of Kumon workbooks for skills my daughter will find fun (one with math games like dot to dots, one on money). I'll also order at least the first Life of Fred book to see if she likes that format as a supplemental math for continued use. Because of our funding situation, I need to order all of my summer supplies before April, but I'm not sure how long it typically takes to get through a LOF book. If we do it on average 3 times a week (more if she truly loves it) from June through August, would I need to order more than just the first book? (My daughter is doing well in math--she obviously struggles with a concept at first but usually gets it after doing just 2 or 3 practice problems. If she goes a while without working another similar problem, though, we have to start from scratch. She'll turn 6 this summer. Just in case any of that affects your recommendation.)

I gave up caffeine during my pregnancy. I simply started mixing decaf in with my regular coffee during brewing--on day 1, something like 20% decaf, keep that up for a few days, then 40% decaf and so on. I didn't get any headaches. I did have to limit the number of cups I could drink--no point in having less caffeine per cup if I then increased the number of cups so I was still getting the same amount of caffeine overall. It wasn't long before I was drinking only decaf coffee ... and then it wasn't long before I no longer saw the point and wasn't drinking any coffee at all. I'm pretty sure it was the day after my daughter was born that I gleefully resumed my habit of one or more cups of fully caffeinated coffee per day. I really should go off it again; I'm having sleep issues that could only be helped by eliminating caffeine. Unfortunately, those same sleep issues make me so tired in the morning that I can't conceive of foregoing my morning pick-me-up. Personally, I'm of the opinion that if caffeine is an effective medicine for your migraines, you shouldn't withhold that medicine from yourself. Wean yourself off of it as an everyday drink, but don't feel any compulsion to forego medicinal caffeine when it's needed. Who knows--maybe avoiding it most of the time will make it an even more effective medicine.

For my rising 1st grader ... LA: Continue with LOE Foundations+AAR readers; probably add in ELTL; include some TOG literature if we have time/desire after ELTL lit History/Geography: TOG year 2 Bible: leaning toward PHP's Telling God's Story, year 1, but possibly Bible Road Trip--but probably add in What's In the Bible? DVDs just for fun even if we don't do Road Trip Math: debating hard between MM and Singapore ... my gut is leaning toward MM but I know so many who love Singapore, and I know it's what my husband would prefer we do Science: continue with BFSU, additional books about whatever topics spark her interest (probably animals) Art: Artistic Pursuits Music: still deciding ... maybe Maestro Classics, maybe Zeezok's Music Appreciation for the Elementary Grades book 1 (though that may be better if we wait another year or two), maybe World's Greatest Composers (though again, that may be better if we wait) ... my concern with Maestro Classics is simply that there aren't enough of them, and I'm not one to just play music all the time like I really should Health: some kind of open-and-go workbook that doesn't take much time, just so I can point to it and say (for regulatory reasons) "See, we *are* doing health!" PE: maybe Family Time Fitness lessons, maybe a paid class if I can find one she'd be interested in. I really want her in some kind of dance, martial arts, or gymnastics class, to learn self-confidence and body control and to give her the chance to meet/interact with other kids her age. Extras: Kiwi Crate, bimonthly field trips, hopefully a park day/playgroup once or twice a month

I love their statuses! I'd love to work with that group of people, but I'm afraid I'd be the stick in the mud of the group.

You can create a burner email. Pick a service you don't really want and create it using your old email. Then pick the service you do want and create it using the burner email. Then delete the burner email if you want to, though it is a good idea to have a backup email in case you get locked out of your primary one: you can have it set to send password reminders and such to the backup.

That's ridiculous. The purpose of a well visit is to screen for potentially developing problems. How is that supposed to happen if as soon as you mention a problem, it's no longer a well visit? That would annoy me to no end, and I would find a new doctor ASAP ... but in your situation, I'd probably bow to the practical reality and get what I needed from him first.

Congratulations to the whole family!

My father divorced my mother and married a much younger woman who swore she didn't want kids. She's now in her 40s, and my half sister should be born in 2 months. Of course, my cynical side says that she may have just been willing to lie. But even if your three children all decide to forego children of their own, please do find some other little ones to shower with love. Those whose grandparents live far away or who can't be in their lives for other reasons could use a surrogate grandmother.

I read the article a couple of days ago. Although I largely agreed, I couldn't quite get on board with it fully. I love both forms of children's literature--the wonderful fantasy and the more true-to-life morality tales. But there was more to it that I couldn't articulate well. Maize just articulated it perfectly.

Music. (Not me, I was never taught, but I'm told that musicians usually do ;) ) Weather signs.

Tell the parent of the 2yo. I'd be hesitant to even give the grandparents warning that I was going to, although my preference would be for them to tell first. Too many people would take that opportunity to poison the well, so to speak--to tell lies about you to the child's mother to make it less likely that she'll believe you. I'd be on the phone with her this instant, and I may or may not tell the grandparents afterward that I'd told. If I became aware that the child was over there again without a responsible adult present, I'd call CPS. They may or may not get involved if you couldn't say definitively that the grandparents were drunk at that time, but when it comes to a toddler in the care of (non-recovering) alcoholics ... yeah, I'd make both of those calls.

We don't intend to give away or sell any of our DVDs, which is why we didn't keep the original cases or papers. However, if we ever were to give one away, we'd use a plain, clear jewel case. We keep a few on hand for those rare instances when we need to transport a single movie to a movie night away from home. We also keep a couple of smaller zip binders so we can take our daughter's movies on vacation with us, especially when we know we'll be doing a lot of driving and intending to rent a minivan with a DVD player. Yes, those spare jewel cases and binders take up some room, but nowhere near as much as jewel cases for the whole collection.