Since you said she gets distracted by the pictures, have you tried OPGTR? Not for everyone but no pictures to get distracted with and you can get a copy at the library. We love All About Reading here.

I am on another board and we run every registration IP address through stopforumspam.com. If there are reports of spam activity with that IP address we ban them and don't let them on at all. Maybe they just haven't found us yet but we haven't had an issue like that with spam. Would something like that be a possibilty?

We are in a similar boat in that our denomination does not ordain women ministers or have women elders. Women deacons is left up to the individual churches. Neither myself nor dh agree with this but looking at other denominations we can't find one that fits 100%. This is as close as we come. So because we love our church and have strong ties to the denomination we stay. Our church though is very hands off about it. No sermons about it and there are some like us that are in favor of women ministers and elders. Its not viewed as a core issue though so lots of leeway for different beliefs on it. If they were more explicit about it or I saw heavy handed patriarchy we would leave. But for us right now its not enough to leave. Only you can make the decision on if this is enough for you to leave.

We are currently touring all the private schools in our city along with the assigned public school just so we know what our options are for next year. The principal mentioned reading levels assigned by letters. By the end of K they are supppsed to be at level D. I looked it up and it looks like its just sight words and figuring out the unknown word by the picture. One example had snow on the house and ground and the child is supposed to see that the word starts with h and then look at the picture to find the item that begins with the h sound. How is that reading? If that is the standard, my son has been "reading" since he was 3 (he is now 4). Is this REALLY how they teach kids to read??

I started with Usborne at the end of July. I have tried direct sales in the past and was a miserable failure at it. So I asked a ton of questions. Tons! I joined for the lifetime discount and no sales minimums. I figured I would hold my kickoff party on facebook, make enough to cover the cost of my kit and be done. Well. Within a matter of minutes of announcing I had joined on Facebook someone contacted me about hosting a party. I had other friends contact me about hosting. I didn't ask them. My sons preschool approached me about doing a book fair for them-they usually do Scholastic but don't love it. In the month of September I have had 7 facebook parties which take no time. Guests on one party will contact me about hosting their own party amd so on. I am very introverted but love the boks and promoting literacy is huge for me. My upline is amazing (she joined just for the discount too) and I have 2 wonderful recruits. Who just want the discount too. I am all about not being pushy and have my sisters on standby to tell me if I am being too salesy. I don't post about it on my personal page except like the other day when new titles were released. I won't make a fortune with it and I am backing off a little in Oct. But right now its paying for my sons preschool so I am happy. And we have a ton of new favorite books!

I think you have gotten some good advice and have a solid plan. So no advice from me-just that in a small way, I understand. When I was young, we had a close family friend whose son drowned in a family pool (not theirs, a relatives they were visiting). Even that long ago, I am still affected by it. I am nuts around water and put my son in swimming lessons the first second I could. I insisted he learn to swim early and swim well. I also will not give him a bath unless 2 adults are in the house. I refuse to look at any houses that have pools, or even that have neighbors with pools. A friends cousin drowned and this friend does the same things I do. Its bound to change you, especially since you were there right after and its still fairly recent. So no advice, just understanding and hugs.

No. Absolutely not. We are looking for a house and I will not even look at it if it has a pool. We looked at one that I loved otherwise but said no because the neighbor whose backyard backed to this backyard had a pool. I have a family friend that lost their 3 year old to drowning. It was at a family party with a house full of people and no one saw him slip outside. They had every precaution. It takes just a minute. We only have one child and he is a great swimmer-I insisted he learn how to swim and swim well at an early age. And even then I wouldn't feel safe. We belong to a swim club and he gets lots of swim time there. I don't have to maintain it and he gets to swim on their swim team which he loves.

I LOVE L'Engle. Serious love. She might want to check out Ring of Endless Light if she hasn't already. Adam from Arm of the Starfish is in it. Its my favorite of hers (and I love them all!). You might want to check it out first though since it deals with things like death to see if she is ready for it. I loved it at that age. Has she read any Shannon Hale books? I find them very enjoyable and not your typical teen fluff at all. Books of Bayren are fantastic (Goose Girl, Enya Burning, River Secrets and Forest Born). Princess Academy is amazing-and I promise its not a normal princess book! At all. Girls in a remote mountain village are sent to an academy to learn for a year and at the end of the year, one will be chosen by the prince. That's just a minor point of the book -its really about the girls and what they learn and change throughout the year. The girls are taught things like diplomacy and economics and use what they learn to turn the lives of their entire village around for the better. if Shannon Hale writes it, I will read it.

I have found Shannon Hale YA books to be enjoyable. No sex, some violence as they are usually retellings of fairy tales (Goose Girl for example) but lots of hope and redemption. OP-I can certainly understand where you are coming from and agree with you. I'm sorry this took such a turn :(

Our iPad got a cracked screen a few weeks ago. A full 3 months after we bought it-grrr. Apple said it would be $300, Best Buy where we bought it couldn't help and the local Batteries Plus store will replace the screen for $150. We may go the $150 route or the Apple route or just chuck it and keep our Kindles. I'm still angry about it if you can't tell ;) Right now its on top of our book shelf and I think bad thoughts towards Apple every time I see it... We have 5 Kindles and never had a problem-ever. They have been dropped down stairs many times and in general fully abused. 3 months after getting the iPad and it breaks? It was completely fine one night and the next morning a huge crack? Ugg. So... no advice, just that you have my sympathy

This is what I am worried about if I read it. TKAM is pretty near perfection IMHO. I am suspicious of the way it came out as well. From the things I have heard already, I can't imagine she wanted it out. I may get around to reading it at some point but I don't think that will be for a long time. Why mess with a good thing? And I don't want my view of Atticus to change either. She wrote a perfect novel. I am OK with reading only one Harper Lee book if its To Kill a Mockingbird.

If you have extenuating circumstances such as loss of income or medical expenses you can ask for a Professional Judgement. This will allow them to look into the situation a little closer and possibly adjust the EFC. A family can also always talk with the financial aid office and politely ask if there are any additional scholarships available. Don't phrase it as negotiations, be exceedingly polite and explain that although your child would love to attend X college, you are just not seeing a way to do it. Do they have any suggestions or any scholarships your child may apply for? Be polite (This can not be overstated-seriously, you would not believe the number of parents or students that come in yelling and curse you out and then want you to give them more money). Remember that sometimes there is really nothing else they can do even as much as they want to. This usually works better with smaller, private colleges than large state schools just because the smaller schools have more wiggle room and more random scholarships available.

I know it sounds awful but its really not so bad. My sisters were on the summer league swim team and I have lots of great memories of swim meets. Many of my friends were on the swim team so I would hang out with them, read, play cards, glance up to cheer on my sisters or others I knew, buy something yummy at the snack bar, play ping pong and generally have a good time. Afterwards, the entire team would go to McDonalds and stay way too late (these were evening meets) with more talking and hanging out. Kids running from table to table. It was great. Some of my best memories growing up were around that pool and at swim meets. I could not wait to sign ds up for swim team. I cry every time he finishes a race I am so proud-he is tiny and young and just getting across that big pool is a huge deal still. His smile when he gets out of that pool and is handed his participation ribbon makes me cry all over again. He loves practice (cried all the way home last night when practice was cancelled due to a storm). While he is with his team under the team tent playing with his friends, I am relaxing and chatting with friends we made this summer and some I was friends with when we were that age. And now we get to watch our little ones swim for the same team. Its awesome.

Anatomy of a morning swim meet http://www.huffingtonpost.com/julianna-w-miner/anatomy-of-a-swim-meet_b_5509910.html?ncid=fcbklnkushpmg00000037 Thought this was appropriate :)

Ds joined a summer league swim team and thankfully they have a 6 and under group. This group has their own separate meets so they don't last nearly as long. We can leave after he is done. As he is the youngest on the team and its his first year, we get done pretty quickly. :). Our association has the rule that you have to be in a certain number of meets to compete in the last, big meet with all the teams in the area. For the 6 and under crowd it's only have to be in one meet (they have a total of 4). For the older kids it's maybe 3 meets (they have a longer season with 2 meets per week). It really depends on the team, coaches and what type of swim team you are on if they will let you miss. If it's a general, local team meeting with other local teams just for fun and become a better swimmer summer league, they tend to be more lenient. If it's more of a year round, very competitive team, they will be more strict on attendance.

Exactly. No tipping involved. They will also take it out to your car for you-no tip then either. I always took it out to my car myself. So so spoiled by HT

I grew up going to Harris Teeter. And then moved out of the area for a while. I remember complaining to coworkers that I couldn't find a grocery store that actually took groceries out of the cart for me and I was forced to put them on the conveyer belt myself. Oh the horror! ;). I still can't stand doing that. Totally, completely spoiled by Harris Teeter! I moved back and had a few years of wonderful Harris Teeter shopping and then they closed the stores in my town. I think I cried. They have realized the error of their ways though and are building another one here next year. AND we are getting a Publix. Can. Not. Wait. All we have now is Walmart, Aldi, a yucky Bi Lo and a pretty good Food Lion. I refuse to shop at any one of our 3 ( count them 3!!) Walmarts. I think if you have only known Harris Teeter or Publix prices, it doesn't bother you. With sales and coupons it's really not bad at all and I trust the things I get there. Plus there is something to be said for clean, nicely lit stores that have what you need and fantastic service. I will probably go to the new Harris Teeter when it finally opens mostly with occasional visits to Publix. After all, HT will unload the cart for me while I have to do it myself at Publix ;)

You just described our church and we are Presbyterian. A pretty conservative branch of Presbyterian but not quite PCA. I would suggest checking out some other denominations. And no, I would not attend a church like the one you are describing. Good luck finding a great church home!

Yes, some require it, however, many do not. In fact, I have never worked at a college that did. One of those included a private, Christian LAC that was close to $40,000 a year. However, we gave significant scholarships and it ended up being cheaper than other schools including Public U in many cases. Definitely call the Financial Aid Office and explain your situation. We really do want to help I promise! :)

I was watching Property Brothers recently and one of the houses they showed the couple needed some paint and maybe replace the shag carpets but it was really in decent condition. Certainly livable. The couple went on and on about how much work had to be done on that house. I would have bought it as is and updated when I could. They gutted a lot of the house and put in all new high end things of course!

We watched the second season finale last night. Still not sure how I feel about it. I enjoyed the 2nd season but don't know where they could go with a third season.

Love love love Wilderness Lodge and refuse to stay anywhere else-which explains why we don't go very often ;)

Daniel Tiger, Backyardigans, blues clues, Curious George, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Little Einsteins, Bubble Guppies. All cute and sweet. Curious George, Daniel Tiger and Mickey Mouse are the current faves around here.

For state aid, the placement of schools does matter in some cases. For instance, a state school would need to be in the top 3 slots to be eligible for a certain state grant. You would need to find out for your specific state. The problem with changing the FAFSA for each college (removing one and adding another) is each time you make a change to your FAFSA you stand a chance of being selected for verification. At some schools it's a fairly easy process, and at other schools it's a pain. Also schools can see where you made corrections. So a school may not see that you had Duke for instance in the top slot but they can see that you changed it multiple times. None of the schools I have worked with have adjusted aid due to placement on the list except in the case of state aid. However, schools have limited resources. A previous school I worked made the decision to focus our attention on the students who put our school in the first 3 slots as we believed those were more likely to attend than someone who put us in the tenth slot. Now if that student reached out to us, of course we treated them the same as any other potential student. But we didn't make the same effort to cold call, send brochures, that kind of thing. It doesn't have to be a game. Find out what your state aid requires in terms of placement on the FAFSA. And then list in order of preference.

Thanks everyone. He will be 4 next month and asks to do his "sound book" all the time-he goes looking for it too if I say not now. He is an only so its not a problem of keeping him busy but since he is asking to do it all the time we will probably continue unless we hit a point where he seems stuck and not ready. Actually I got this book from the library to try it before buying about 6 months ago and he clearly let me know he wasn't ready (closing the book after I opened it and saying The End :D were pretty clear indicators lol) so we shelved it. I have no problem shelving it again if needed. He picked up letters and letter sounds when he was 2 very very quickly without us even really working on it. So far I like 100 EL but will definately keep the other programs listed in mind in case we grow to hate it :) It looks like after we finish it or no longer need it, we would move to spelling? Thinking WAY ahead here but I like to plan.