At that age, a lot of hands on things. Math can be done largely with manipulatives, geoboards, pattern blocks, "real life math" (cooking, measuring, counting money and so on). Or with math stories. Like Waldorfy kind of stuff I guess. What are you using for phonics? Are you using something animated and interactive like starfall or something? What are you doing for spelling? Are you having her practice/review spelling words? If so those can be done in "fun" ways like writing on the sidewalk with chalk, drawing in the dirt with a stick, painting, using your finger in a tray of salt, tossing a ball or beanbag back and forth while you say them orally, making a simple "windsock" from a paper plate and crepe paper streamers and writing the words on the streamers, and so on. There are lots of fun board game and computer games that reinforce all sorts of educational skills. And I love frequent field trips and nature walks and "outside school days" and so on. :)

We always have opened gifts at our parties and the kids who attend always seem to enjoy that part. Usually other parties I go to are like that, too, but I HAVE been to parties where they collected the gifts to open later. I do understand that when you have a place you are paying for you get a limited time and the kids often want to play, eat, have cake and so on, and sometimes time really does just get away from you. Now, if they don't send you a thank you card, I'd be ticked off. :P

two words: Laser. Pointer. :D

I would have assumed she meant for me to walk over with my child so that we could see if a child roughly her grandchildren's ages/sizes would be a good fit for that particular tricycle, and I would have gladly walked over with her to help her out. (I too found LibraryLover's comment to be funny and didn't interpret it as being mocking).

We're using Teaching Textbooks 5. My daughter loves it because 1) It's narrated and animated, so it tells AND shows how to do the lesson (and will tell AND show the solution if you get stuck, 2) Because it's fun (she gets to pick a little buddy and she gets cute animations when she does well etc) 3) Because it will never lose patience like Mommy sometimes might (math is not Mommy's favorite subject :P). I love it for all the above reasons plus it allows more independence in math, keeps grades and scores for me, offers instant feedback as to whether she's done something correctly or not, etc.

There are some challenges that had specific date ranges in their titles so those would be closed if it's past those dates, but there are several that are ongoing, or repeating, and you can join those. Also if there are any old ones people would like to see revisited we can always run them again :)

lol I'm not afraid of balloons but I have a little bit of a rubber band phobia. If someone even pretended they were going to "shoot" a rubber band at me I would get really upset, and if I have to use a rubber band on something, I will only use one that has PLENTY of room to stretch or I'd be afraid of it snapping on my hand while I was using it.

Personally I feel that if it is best for her academically- have her repeat it. She can still see her friends. She'll be upset at first but she IS going to get over that- the feeling of being "upset" is not going to last anywhere near as long as the feelings of struggling to do work a year ahead of your ability. Better to do it now when she's this young.

While school isn't ALWAYS "fun" for us I do try hard to make much of it fun much of the time. We like it that way. I want us to enjoy what we do and the time we have together. (I don't agree that my daughter's public school teachers tried to make school fun when she was in school).

If you haven't already done so, please join our Weight Loss Challenge Social Group! http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/group.php?groupid=129 :)

I don't like them either, but then again my mom told me a story about how years ago one of her cousins (or was it her cousin's kid? I don't know, somebody in her family) went on a ferris wheel with his pregnant wife and two year old kid and the thing opened and the wife and the two year old fell out. The wife lived and somehow didn't lose the baby. The two year old died. The parents ended up divorcing. And the husband killed himself. Cheery story, huh? Needless to say I've never felt any burning desire to put myself or my kids on a Ferris Wheel ever since my mother shared that particular family tragedy with me!

My daughter is in 5th this year. We use: Oak Meadow 5 (this is for English, US History, and incorporates Civics and Geography) (I LOVE Oak Meadow- we used it last year for 4th, we're using it this year for 5th, and I'll continue to use it at least through 8th). Teaching Textbooks Math 5. (I recently bought Life of Fred Fractions and I'm awaiting its arrival; not sure if we will start it right away or wait a while). Handwriting Without Tears Can Do Cursive Workbook Sentence Composing for Elementary School: A Worktext to Build Better Sentences (we just started this this week!) Plus plenty of read alouds and silent reading and extra-curriculars. We use SOTW1 but we do it in the summer when we're not busy with other curriculum stuff.

Yes. And he was acting like an (ahem) if he kicked a cat!

If I've had several weeks in a row where I was eating low calorie and exercising a lot, and then I went and took a day off and ate very HIGH calorie and even took a break from the exercise for a couple of days- I'd find that it would shake things up and I'd lose better.

Today was my Week 19 weigh in! (I didn't have a Week 18 weigh in as TOPS was closed last week and my home scale's battery died). Here's my Status Report: 8/26/10, Week "0" Weight: 237 1/2 lbs BMI: 37.2 Height: 5'7" 9/2/10, Week 1 Weight: 235 1/2 lbs BMI: 36.9 Weekly Change: -2 lbs Total Loss: 2 lbs 9/9/10, Week 2 Weight: 234 1/2 lbs BMI: 36.8 Weekly Change: -1 lb Total Loss: 3 lbs 9/16/10, Week 3 Weight: 231 3/4 lbs BMI: 36.3 Weekly Change: -2 3/4 lbs Total Loss: 5 3/4 lbs 9/23/10, Week 4 Weight: 229 1/2 lbs BMI: 35.9 Weekly Change: -2 1/4 lbs Total Loss: 8 lbs (I'm out of the 230's!!!) 9/30/10, Week 5 Weight: 226 3/4 lbs BMI: 35.5 Weekly Change: -2 3/4 lbs Total Loss: 10 3/4 lbs 10/7/10, Week 6 Weight: 226 1/4 lbs BMI: 35.5 Weekly Change: -1/2 lb Total Loss: 11 1/4 lbs 10/14/10, Week 7 Weight: 224 1/2 lbs BMI: 35.2 Weekly Change: -1 3/4 lbs Total Loss: 13 lbs 10/21/10, Week 8 Weight: 221 1/4 lbs BMI: 34.6 Weekly Change: -3 1/4 lbs Total Loss: 16 1/4 lbs 10/28/10, Week 9 Weight: 218 lbs BMI: 34.1 Weekly Change: -3 1/4 lbs Total Loss: 19 1/2 lbs (I'm out of the 220's!!!) 11/4/10, Week 10 Weight: 219 1/2 lbs BMI: 34.4 Weekly Change: +1 1/2 lbs Total Loss: 18 lbs 11/11/10, Week 11 Weight: 218 1/4 lbs BMI: 34.1 Weekly Change: -1 1/4 lbs Total Loss: 19 1/4 lbs 11/18/10, Week 12 Weight: 215 3/4 lbs BMI: 33.8 Weekly Change: -2 1/2 lbs Total Loss: 21 3/4 lbs 11/25/10, Week 13 Weight: 215 3/4 lbs BMI: 33.8 Weekly Change: +/- 0 Total Loss: 21 3/4 lbs 12/2/10, Week 14 Weight: 213 lbs BMI: 33.4 Weekly Change: -2 3/4 lbs Total Loss: 24 1/2 lbs 12/9/10, Week 15 Weight: 210 3/4 lbs BMI: 33.0 Weekly Change: -2 1/4 lbs Total Loss: 26 3/4 lbs 12/16/10, Week 16 Weight: 211 1/2 lbs BMI: 33.1 Weekly Change: +3/4 lb Total Loss: 26 lbs 12/23/10, Week 17 Weight: 212 lbs BMI: 33.2 Weekly Change: + 1/2 lb Total Loss: 25 1/2 lbs 12/30/10, Week 18 N/A 1/6/11, Week 19 Weight: 211 lbs BMI: 33.0 Weekly Change: -1 lb Total Loss: 26 1/2 lbs Summary: Goal- to lose 60 lbs. 26 1/2 lbs down, 32 1/2 lbs to go. --- Check out my fun weight loss picture updates here: http://nancextoo.livejournal.com/139113.html And thanks again for your support and encouragement, and for letting me continue to be more "accountable." :)

:lol: I don't even care! LOL! Yeah this and whoever said the "Superman leap"- I have totally done this, too. And every now and then before I get into bed, I will have an overwhelming urge to get down on my hands and knees and look under the bed to make sure nothing/no-one is under there. Never mind that my bed is very low to the floor and probably no-one could FIT under there except maybe my 5 y/o son. Oh... shower curtains and shower doors- hate those. I am frequently peeking out of mine while I shower to make sure a psycho killer hasn't entered the bathroom while I'm in the shower! I know. :blushing: :lol: I've been known to peek inside closets before getting into bed, too, to make sure nothing is hiding in them. I have a bit of shark phobia, too. I'd NEVER want to go scuba diving or anything like that! On a cruise we went on these waverunner things and I just kept thinking the whole time "omg there are probably sharks under me" and I couldn't wait til it was over. Oh my gosh, yeah. I HATE bugs but I will NEVER be the one to kill one! Oh and Martha I was laughing at the smacking the head on the car thing, too. Sorry. LOL. And here's one more confession: I can't dance. At ALL. I dread being invited to places with DJ's (even weddings) where I might be expected to dance. :P

Yeah but then I'd never be able to pick that book up ever again. I'd be POSITIVE that as soon as I picked it up, the spider would POP up and come running directly at me with all eight legs waving in some evil, vengeful, you just tried to kill me kind of way and I'd die of heart failure on the spot.

Me, too! I hate spiders...I hate all bugs... I always check the shower before getting in to make sure there are no spiders... I'd have a full blown heart attack I think if a huge spider got flushed down my toilet and popped back out after the flush!

Oh, and to go in a totally different direction? I have a crush on Jamie. From Diana Gabaldon's "Outlander" series. Yes, on a fictional book character! :D

Well, you guys made me feel better that I'm not the only mom who feels like a little kid when it comes to this kind of thing! :D

I love these! I'm either laughing or nodding along with most of them. Oh and a week or so ago my husband had to work unusually late and didn't get home til something like 2:30 AM or so. I decided to let my 10 y/o come lay in bed next to me so we could both read and I decided to just let her fall asleep in the bed next to me figuring even a 10 year old for company would be less creepy than being in the room by myself. (That would make me about as safe as the other poster's 70 year old mother, right? LOL). (My teen was visiting her dad and his family out of state). Then I started getting sleepy (after 10 y/o dd fell asleep) and I wanted to doze off. But it would just be in the back of my mind that anybody could just walk in the door of my bedroom while I was sleeping. (As if that was going to happen). So I decided I would shut and lock my bedroom door. But then I got nervous that my 5 y/o would wake and I wouldn't hear him. (Not unusual for him to wake at some point). So I went and got him and carried him, still sleeping, into my room, laid him on a bed of blankets on the floor, shut and locked my bedroom door, and texted my husband to let him know that he would find the door locked and the kids shut in with me when he got home and that he should "tap lightly and try not to scare the heck out of me" when he got home. His response? "You're funny." Sigh. It didn't feel funny, it felt kinda pathetic...but I did manage to fall asleep feeling rather secure that particular night :lol:

:lol: I have done that, too!

Rachael, To the Brink and Back (possibly with a subtitle along the lines of "Surviving _____ (name of disease)"

Happy anniversary! :)

Sometimes, when I'm carrying a basket of laundry up from the basement, I get one of those creepy "something/someone's behind me" feelings and I run up the last few steps and quickly slam and lock the door behind me, feeling quite silly all the while. And sometimes when my husband's working late, every little noise will get me kinda spooked. And I really can't go to sleep til he's home. I don't like being home alone (i.e. without another "grownup") in the house at night. I'm 37 years old but sometimes I don't feel all that grown up! There you have it. Do you have anything you want to "confess?" :D