Most Mormons I know are perfectly fine with gosh. :) I grew up Baptist (before joining the LDS church in my twenties) and my parents did not allow gosh, darn, sheesh, butt, sucks, or crap. The Mormons don't seem too strict about soft swears like gosh or darn. It's more the words that would normally get beeped on tv that bother us. So your kids should be good! ;)

We live in North Carolina (originally from Montana). The vast majority of people here, and all the home schoolers, have been very welcoming to us as an LDS family. One of the first things people ask here is "Have you found a church?" when they find out you're new to the area. Not one person has been anything but positive when I tell them what church we belong to, which is an improvement over Montana where there seems to be some hostility from some evangelicals towards Mormons.

Haha! My son did that once to me! He was six though! :)

First time I got married, my wedding band was a wrap like this: http://m.kay.com/en/kaystore/engagement---wedding/diamond-enhancer-ring-1-3-ct-tw-round-cut-10k-yellow-gold/100006/100006.100007.101013 So it had to be soldered to the engagement ring (solitaire). Now I have (second marriage) a princess cut solitaire and my wedding band is a plain white gold band. It's simple and pretty. I'm glad I kept them separate. After I had my first baby, I got really puffy from the fluids they pumped me with, and my wedding band is just slightly smaller than the engagement ring, so I took the band off but kept the engagement ring on.

So interesting, I too had very restrictive parents (no video games allowed ever, only G rated movies, and only one movie per week). I am definitely not restrictive compared to them. My kids are really young though. So if they are on the Internet, we are doing it together. I've seen first-hand what a terrible thing a pornography addiction can be. I know I can't protect my kids from everything, but at this age I can try to keep them safe. ETA: that being said, reading over your first post about your son's Internet use, it sounds very similar to how I plan to handle things in a year or two! :)

Absolutely agree with everything you said. My oldest DS is very prone to screen addiction, particularly with video games. We've had to be very restrictive about screens with him. If he is allowed to watch/play daily, even if it's only for 20 minutes, that will be all he talks about or cares about all day.

I don't think ANY 6 year old is going to go looking for porn (except maybe in extreme cases of abuse), but that isn't what OP is worried about. It's more about what he might accidentally stumble upon. At this age, it's not about whether or not she trusts her child, it's about protecting his innocence.

Oh, and my kids aren't allowed screen time during the week, and only very limited amounts on weekends. Just in case someone thinks I'm advocating the boy be on the iPad daily! :)

Download educational games and put a password on your wifi that son doesn't know. That way you can control when he can get on the Internet and if you want him to be able to entertain himself for 20 minutes or whatever but can't watch him every second, he can play the already approved games and not be on the Internet.

We love RightStart. :)

So glad you found it!! ETA: changed "them" to "it" LOL. I had just read the other posters comments on wedding rings and accidentally said them not it. But I truly am so happy you found your son's Ipod, OP!

No judgement! Thanks for taking the time to answer! I appreciate it!

Can you explain the last sentence? I am reading HP for the first time ever with my kids (we're on Book 5) and I've never heard of this! Fill me in! :)

I am cracking up at this thread. We're making our way through HP now (currently listening to the Book 5 audiobook) and my kids looooove playing Harry Potter. Just tonight while we were getting them ready for bed, DS7 told DS3, "Now you point the wand at me and say 'Expecto patronum!'"

Our realtor told us that over-priced houses in the neighborhood would help sell our house! In addition, if I was buying a FSBO house, I would want the price to be competitive considering they aren't paying a seller's agent commission!

I voted it depends. I think I probably would eventually remarry but maybe not until the kids were out of the house. Even though I am only 30, I lost my uterus after youngest DS so I wouldn't be able to have kids with a new spouse. And it would be hard to find someone as awesome as my DH. We just clicked from the beginning, and even though we've had our ups and downs, it's been a totally different experience than being with anyone else (and I was married before....) If I died, I would want him to remarry. And quickly. He should not be alone. As long as she was nice to my kids! And if she wanted kids, they should have them. That wouldn't bother me at all. As long as she was good to my kids. :)

I haven't been there yet! We're moving from NC where it's also very green. This move will take us closer to family which makes us very happy. Can't wait to get there and explore our new city! 2 more weeks! Good luck selling your house!!! I'm sure if it's a hot market, it will go fast! It's the perfect time of year to list a house, I think!

Yes, I can totally relate to the loss of control. Thoughts like "what if the people from showing A tracked mud in and the floor looks bad for showing B?" But in our case it worked out! That's awesome that you are headed to the PNW too! We are moving to Vancouver, WA!

Yes, we did that last month when our house was on the market. I was tired of having to keep it perfectly clean for showings. So we cleaned it all really well then hit the road. It went under contract a few days into our trip, it was great! We have nothing of value that we were worried about, though.

My 7 year old DS started that this year. I don't think he does it to be rude though. I explained to him what it implies and he hasn't done it as much lately. I can't get too annoyed about it though, I am a notorious eye roller myself! :)

Thank you, everyone! I guess I realized that phonics and spelling technically aren't the same but kind of had lumped them together in my mind. I suppose what I was asking was if we could just move on to spelling or if we needed to keep working on the phonics. It seems like the general consensus is to continue with the phonics (ETC or AAR) until she is a strong reader then worry about spelling, is that right? I definitely think The Wand will be a great tool but ETC gets done consistently so we'll probably continue with it as well.

Thank you, barefootmommy!!! I agree that The Reading Lesson doesn't go into a lot of depth, I've been more using it as our spine, if that makes sense. I supplement a lot of what we do with games from another phonics program I have called Sound Town. I mostly use The Reading Lesson to help me know what to teach next, because Sound Town doesn't really have a set schedule of which sounds/letters to introduce first and my brain needs that LOL. I definitely don't think her phonics instruction will be complete when we finish the book. I keep going back and forth on AAR/AAS. I know it's a great program!

She really doesn't love ETC. She hasn't really learned anything new in it so far, it just feels like another chance for her to practice what she already knows (reading and writing basic CVC words). I thought about doing AAS with both kids, but they seem to be reading well without it. DS7 is reading at a 5th grade level, according to the tests I've given him. I don't feel like she's struggling with reading, it's a little slower with her than with her brother but he was an old kindergartener (Nov birthday) and she's a young kindergartener (July birthday). Maybe we'll finish The Reading Lesson, which introduces all the phonemes, and see how she's doing at that point. If I feel like she still needs extra practice and instruction, we'll start AAR or AAS...

My DD5 (turns 6 in July) will be in "first grade" starting in the fall. We've been working through The Reading Lesson and she should be finishing that up by the end of the summer. She is just about finished with the first Explode the Code workbook and she just finished the third set of Bob books. For Language Arts next school year, I am planning on doing lots of reading with her as well as start on The Wand (Brave Writer) with her. But I'm wondering what to do for spelling/phonics? Should we keep going with Explode the Code (which she likes but doesn't love) or switch to Spelling Workout (which is what my son who is a grade ahead of her is working through, he just started book B), or do something else entirely?? Any ideas or recommendation?

For my DS7 (turns 8 in November): Math: Right Start C Spelling: continue Spelling Workout B Handwriting: continue HWT 2nd grade level, he's taught himself cursive using the little supplement that came with it, so I'll let him continue practicing that as well. We'll continue with Keyboarding without Tears as well. History: Story of the World Volume 2 Literature: Classical House of Learning to accompany SOTW, also books from Quiver of Arrows Writing: Jot It Down and Quiver of Arrows Other misc Language Arts: continue Poetry Tea Time as well, and develop a plan for memory work and stick to it (still need to work this out, obviously! Science: TWTM-style Earth Science (Usborne First Encyclopedia of Our World and More Mudpies to Magnets) and Astronomy (can't remember the book we are using for that, it will be the second half of the year anyway...) Latin: Song School Latin 1 (just going for some fun and exposure, nothing too serious) Art: ArtTango and Simply Charlotte Mason picture study (three artists like we did this year, haven't selected them yet), hopefully a trip to an art museum at some point in the school year Music: piano lessons start when he turns 8, plus composer study (three composers, listen to select pieces and read a biography) PE: basketball and swimming lessons Home Ec: daily chores, plus I want to start having help more with meal planning, making the grocery list, grocery shopping, and cooking/baking (goal of having him involved with one dinner per week, I hope to start this over the summer so we get into the habit...) Religion: reading through the Illustrated Book of Mormon stories (we did the same with the Illustrated Old Testament stories this past year in our Circle Time and it was a really nice overview for them). Whew! That seems like a lot!!! Fortunately most of those subjects will be combined with his 1st grader sister and they still don't take too terribly long to complete!