I definitely do not get fully dressed every day. Our baby sleeps in our master closet which is also right next to the shower, so I sneak a shower in when she isn't napping. My husband sleeps later than I do so if I want to get dressed when I wake up I would have to do so in the dark. Or have the forethought to get all my clothes out the night before, BEFORE I put the baby to bed which is around 7 p.m. It used to bother me but now I view it as just a season, it will be over one of these days and I guess I can go back to worrying about my appearance then. :) Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk

My kids are voracious readers. Ds7 is especially. It's a hard season of life for me right now and I'm not getting to the library as often as I'd like to. Our library has a great selection of children's ebooks which you can borrow through Overdrive which you can then access through kindle or epub (I really don't even know what epub is). I have borrowed via Kindle to read on my phone though and it works great. So here is what I'm looking for. I want to be able to select books for him and borrow them for him to read. However I don't want him to have unlimited access to all the library books (or kindle books, or whatever) available, lots of mature ebooks etc that I do not want him browsing and reading or even reading the summary of. Also while it's reading time I want him to be actually reading, not playing games or otherwise dorking around on whatever device he's using. Simple is better in this case. So. Any thoughts on what to use and/or how to meet both of these requirements?

My kids are voracious readers. Ds7 is especially. It's a hard season of life for me right now and I'm not getting to the library as often as I'd like to. Our library has a great selection of children's ebooks which you can borrow through Overdrive which you can then access through kindle or epub (I really don't even know what epub is). I have borrowed via Kindle to read on my phone though and it works great. So here is what I'm looking for. I want to be able to select books for him and borrow them for him to read. However I don't want him to have unlimited access to all the library books (or kindle books, or whatever) available, lots of mature ebooks etc that I do not want him browsing and reading or even reading the summary of. Also while it's reading time I want him to be actually reading, not playing games or otherwise dorking around on whatever device he's using. Simple is better in this case. So. Any thoughts on what to use and/or how to meet both of these requirements?

This is our first year home schooling. I started our year in July because the baby was due in September and I wasn't sure how much school we might miss. We are doing school 4 days a week most weeks. We've been pretty consistent, missed a few weeks for the baby and missed a few weeks for Christmas plus a few other days here and there. However, it looks like our math books will be finished up by the end of March. I don't like taking too much time off of math because they "forget" everything. We are doing Saxon and I like it so far. I planned on more of a year-round model for school. Do we just forge ahead to the next books? Take some time off of learning new math but still review using worksheets or flash cards in April? Slow down to maybe doing math 3x per week so it takes a little longer to finish? What do you guys do?

What about Telestrations?

Seven Wonders is really fun. The first game takes a long time because you are figuring out what the heck you are doing but after that each game is something like twenty minutes. Up to 7 players. It's a game night favorite at our house.

We have rest time at our house every afternoon. The older kids can read and the youngers nap. I found a Magic Tree House book in my book stash and told DS6 he could try reading it if he wanted to but cautioned him it might be too hard and that if it was it was ok and to just read something else. Well... he read the whole thing in one sitting. He told me all about what happened so I'm confident he did actually read it. He was super excited about it. I'm amazed and feel badly that perhaps I've been underestimating his reading ability. So besides the Magic Tree House books what else is out there that might be good to try? I know at his age I was reading the Nancy Drew mysteries but I'm thinking those might be too advanced? I don't know. I feel very out of my element and just don't know what is out there.

If you want a more portable version of Ticket to Ride you can download the app on a tablet or smart phone. There is a "pass and play" feature and you can play with up to five players. You can also find random opponents if that's your thing. We love that game. Sometimes DH and I play on the tablet when we just want to sit on the couch and are feeling too lazy to get the board and pieces out. :)

When my son was born 11 weeks early he wasn't able to nurse. So I pumped, and pumped and pumped. Ten times a day including at least twice in the middle of the night. A few weeks after he was born he got very sick and my supply tanked, I can only assume from stress. I was getting 3 to 4 ounces total in a 24 hour period, not even enough to feed my 3 pound baby. A nurse at the hospital who was also a lactation consultant told me that since I have PCOS my milk was drying up and I should decide if I wanted my son to be fed my frozen milk now or stretch it out. I got mad and went and had hormone levels tested (they were all normal), got a prescription for Reglan, started taking some other herbs as well. Kept pumping ten times a day. And I'm not saying this happens for every one, but little by little my supply went back up. Once I started actually nursing it helped a bunch. I was able to take him home after ten weeks in the NICU and nurse exclusively until he was about 14 months, when I had to wean because I was pregnant (risk of pre term labor). I just don't respond well to the pump. At all. I didn't know that was possible until I went through it. Also when I told our pediatrician at my son's 1 year visit that he was nursing still she said I needed to start giving him cow's milk so he would like the taste of it. ...? I ignored her but I thought that was really strange advice! Also fwiw I'm nursing my new baby now, at her 2 week check up she was 8 ounces over birth weight. Nursing instead of pumping has made a huge difference.

I forgot to say that we don't even do side B of the worksheet because everything else takes so long!

I'm not sure. I will try it.

I'm having a problem. We are doing Saxon 2 with DS6. We are several weeks into the school year already, he just completed Lesson 31 yesterday. We have learned the doubles, doubles plus one, and the single digits +2 facts. He understands the other concepts that we are learning and is doing great with those, he picks it up very quickly (word problems, the shapes, patterns, clock, etc.). So there are the timed fact worksheets, where they see how many they can complete in 1 minute and then once the minute is up they finish the rest. He is doing horribly. Many days he gets 4-6 done and correct. When it is the doubles only he can usually get around 10. The teacher's manual said to shoot for 15. Last week we took two days off of formal math and just practiced with flash cards, going over how to find the answer to the problems (the "tricks" if you will), working on worksheets with no timer. Yesterday we did a timed doubles +1 worksheet and he completed 2 problems. Yes, two. That is the worst he has ever done. It's not that he does a bunch and gets them wrong, it's that he just doesn't do them and moves as slowly as molasses. This was right after doing flashcard review and reviewing how to find the answers. Then I asked him to finish the rest of the worksheet and I went upstairs to change the baby's diaper. I also washed my face and changed my clothes. I was up there for probably at least 10 minutes, if not more like 15. When I got back he had literally written the number 7. That is all that he did. I got back and asked him what he had been doing and he said "Um, putting my pencil in this hole?" At least he was honest! :laugh: He knows that there will be no playing until his school is done, and he also knows that if he doesn't finish up in the morning then he will be doing it in the afternoon when everyone else is playing. I can't figure out if this is an issue of him not knowing or understanding the fact concepts, not wanting to do it, or just dawdling/getting distracted. FWIW he generally moves at the speed of a glacier throughout life, math a lot of times takes him 1.5 hours or longer. Yesterday it took him 45 minutes to do the stuff in the meeting only, not to mention the lesson and everything else. So what do I do? Do I take more time off of formal lessons and just review fact cards and the concepts for a while? Do I not worry about the timer thing, as long as he's getting the answers right then it is OK if it takes him forever? My fear is that he is not understanding, and as we build on these concepts he's going to be behind.

I send my kids to their room for a break and tell them they are free to come out when they are ready to do their work without whining. They usually spend ten minutes or less in there and come back with great attitudes. My 6 yo is very very pokey and easily distracted, and today I finally let him know that I was setting aside an hour to work with him on his math, and if it didn't get done in that time then that was ok but that we were going to move on to the next thing and then he'd have to finish his math this afternoon while everyone else was playing. He amazingly finished it in the hour (seriously a miracle for him) and we got all done with all of school before lunch which hasn't happened in a week! So not sure if something like that would work for you too. Fwiw his math is the only thing I've had to put time limits on, but definitely not the only thing he whines about.

I'm an introvert. I am terrible at small talk, never know quite when a small talk type of situation is over (do I walk away now? Say goodbye? Try to think of something else to say?). Being in large groups of people is so draining, even if I'm not even talking to anyone. I despise shallow relationships, I'd rather just avoid them. I prefer texting or emailing over phone calls, I do not like talking on the phone unless it's to someone in my close family. My 6 yo and 15 yo drain me because they never, ever stop talking. Ever. I am socially awkward for sure, but I do feel I've gotten better over the years. I'm slowly converting my extroverted husband to the dark side of introversion, but I know he'll never be as extreme as I am. He's good for me; he makes me leave the house from time to time :)

There are great tutorials on knitting on YouTube, if that's something you are interested in then it is something you can teach yourself pretty easily. You can make a scarf for the upcoming winter if you live somewhere cold. I made lots and lots of scarves when I first started. :) Hope you get to feeling better!

We have some close friends of ours who are appointed to be our kids' guardians. DH and I each have two siblings, and all four of our parents are still alive, but our friends were closest to us in parenting style, and we don't feel any of our siblings would be up for the job (and let's face it, it would be a BIG job!). We have made sure to provide for them financially with life insurance and all other investments going to care for our children. My parents are second in line in the event that our friends aren't able to do it, but they have of course already agreed to. Do you have any close friends that you would feel comfortable asking?

When we moved and had to find a new doctor they gave us forms to fill out for each child. Then when I took each child in for their first visit, they had magically lost all the other forms. So I filled out literally ten sets of forms. And transferring medical records, don't even get me started. I hope we never move again, at least while we have kids in the house!

My three oldest boys are circumcised because their biological mother wanted it done. DS5 didn't have it done until he was 18 months old; he was in my care so I had to take him do to it despite my objections (foster parents have no medical rights!). I was scarred for life but I'm sure he doesn't remember it at all. Bio mom didn't even bother showing up to the procedure so yeah, I'm a little bitter about it. DH was pro-cicumcision, but I asked him to please research it, maybe watch a video or two. He decided not to and said I could just do what I wanted, so DS1 is not circumcised. If DH would have insisted I would have given in but refused to take DS1 to have it done, also refused to care for it. Not as an act of defiance, but I guess if he wanted it done badly enough then hopefully he would have taken some responsibility for it.

I got Spelling Workout A for my 1st grader. I hate it. I feel like it is mostly busy work and my son just isn't really learning anything from it. He doesn't mind doing it, FWIW. He's just not learning anything from it. He is also a pretty bad speller but I'm sure most kids his age are. So I was looking into All About Spelling. It looks like something that might be good for us. Then I thought hey, maybe I can do Level 1 with my K and 1st grader together, kind of kill two birds with one stone. My kindergartner can read, he can read most K level readers on his own and most of the 1st grade ones with occasional help with words. He is slow but he can do it. But on the website it looks like they say don't start spelling instruction until after 1st grade. Sooo when would you start? Should I skip spelling altogether this year? Do it with both boys together? Do it with first grader only? Time is valuable around here (as I'm sure it is everywhere!) so I don't want to waste time with things that aren't needed but I do think spelling is important!

We went into foster care asking for one child...took three, because they were brothers separated, and we wanted them to be together. So we've never had only one or even two children. That felt like a sacrifice, not that it wasn't worth it but it was very hard for the first six months. There are so many things I'd like to do; garden again, play soccer, run. Those things are being sacrificed for now because I don't have the time or energy. I had to quit college when I got unexpectedly pregnant with DS1 (I was supposed to be infertile, ha ha ha!) and the money that was to pay for my school paid for prenatal care and delivery (we had no maternity coverage). I have about one year of college left to get a bachelor's degree but I really don't see that happening anytime soon. When DS1 was in the NICU for ten weeks I pumped ten times a day to try to produce milk for him, as well as taking care of all our other kids. 4-5 hours a day just pumping and sterilizing parts, not to mention everything else. They said that was the best thing I could do for him and so I did it. All sacrifices, but all ultimately worth it. I wouldn't change any of it. But I will be glad when I don't have so many little people relying on me and have maybe a little bit more time for myself. :)

My children are driving me insane today. I am tired, I took a rest on the couch after we finished school today (it wasn't restful at all) instead of cleaning the kitchen like I normally do. So my kitchen is a wreck, I don't see that changing anytime in the next few hours. I have dealt with more tantrums in the past two days than I can count, apparently rain makes children into lunatics. But my DH has been pretty awesome lately so no complaints there really! :) Bedtime in 8 hours, I can do this!

We've started school already since we're planning a break when the baby comes in September. My 6 y/o went to public school for K. The more I work with him the more I realize that his handwriting is atrocious! Many of his lowercase letters are backwards, almost all his numbers are backwards...pretty much the ones that can be backwards, are, but 6 is definitely the worst followed closely by 7. For lowercase letters like p, q, b, d, a he just draws a circle and then adds a stick to wherever he thinks it should go, he usually picks the incorrect side. U is the same, J is backwards both upper and lowercase, etc. I feel like maybe he never learned to form letters and numbers correctly which is causing the mix up. Unfortunately he has been writing this way for almost a year now and I am wondering how to break old habits. I have been having him correct his work when he writes something backwards, and he is agreeable enough to do it but you can bet that next time he just makes the same mistake. FWIW his reading is great in my opinion, he doesn't seem to struggle with recognizing the difference between b and d or p and q. It's just the writing that is the problem. So, what do I do? Would it be better to keep having him correct his mistakes as he's making them? We aren't doing a ton of writing, he has some math (we are using Saxon) every day and then maybe 1-2 sentences of narration/copywork. Or would it be better to take a break from the copy work and use something like Handwriting Without Tears for a while to try to get new habits formed? Should we be doing more writing overall? I do have the HWOT My Printing Book which I actually bought for my K-er to use later this year, but I don't mind ordering another one. Also, not sure if this is relevant, but he holds his pencil so weirdly that I can not even make my hand mimic his because it's so uncomfortable. Again, this is how he does it and how he holds his crayons, markers, etc., so I'm not sure if that ought to be addressed also? Any other thoughts or suggestions are much appreciated!

My Mom never refrigerated hers, it was always gone in a day or two though. I have never made any since I've been on my own...shameful! And now I'm going to have to make some blackberry cobbler. Care to share your recipe? :D

We inadvertently did so, we committed to adopting a group of four before we found out we were pregnant the first time. We could have backed out but did not. So far there have been no problems whatsoever. A little bit of a different situation, but I'd definitely consider adopting older kids again if the right situation and kid(s) arose.

We just finished our first week of homeschooling. My kids are mostly younger than yours, but the first day there was a ton of whining. I had my DS5 pay me one quarter every time he whined; he paid me about $1.50 and hasn't had to pay me since then. And a few days ago he asked if he could have some more school work to do when we were done for the day! So I guess the work wasn't that bad. ;) DS6 whined when I asked him a question, I sent him to time out for a minute and then talked to him about being respectful, and that once he knows the answer to the question (it was something we were working on, I can't even remember what it was) that I wouldn't ask him anymore. He has been fine since then also. So just a different perspective I guess, not sure if that is helpful or not. Hang in there, I'll be hanging in there too. :)