I'm just the opposite of the poster above. I hate the elliptical lol. I have a treadmill and an elliptical and I prefer the treadmill and I'm much more likely to use it. And I can stay on it (the treadmill) much longer. The elliptical, I feel like I'm dying in like 3 minutes. It's a clothes rack in my bedroom at this point, basically, and has been for way too long. I should sell that thing! It's taking up space and never getting used :D

Thanks for all the responses, everyone! I guess we can't even say "on average" lol- of course I know that all kids are different but yeah that's a REALLY big variety of ages. Well, we'll see what happens! My oldest daughter was probably like 11-ish but she has had developmental delays since birth so I wasn't ever sure if it had something to do with that or not. My younger daughter was I think around 5-ish. And now I'm just waiting to see what happens with my son.

1. Because my daughter, at barely 5, was constantly losing her meager 15 minute recess for being too chatty in the Kindergarten classroom. Which might have been less of an issue to begin with if they got more than 15 lousy minutes for recess and weren't forced to sit through "silent lunches." 2. Because my daughter, at barely 6, was constantly losing her meager 15 minute recess for being too chatty in the 1st grade classroom AND got a "demerit" to boot, for the same reason (which prompted her coming home one day in tears- actual tears- saying "I g-g-got a demerit today, Mommy, and I don't know what that is (insert a sob here) but it's b-b-bad!" Oh and she also got an "F" in math on her report card one period. Not because she didn't know the work- she did. But because of some incomplete papers, some of which were from when we were on vacation or she was out sick and she was not given the opportunity to make up the work. (The teacher didn't "have time" in class and wouldn't send them home because...I don't know why. Because I might have given my daughter the answers or something. <eyeroll>) And some of which were not fully completed in the classroom which at first her teacher said was because of talking too much. But when confronted with the fact that she was supposed to let me know if that had been a continuing problem and hadn't done so, leading me to believe that it had improved, she admitted that it wasn't JUST because of that, it was also because sometimes they had to draw illustrations to show their work and my daughter liked to make her illustrations very detailed which took up too much time, preventing her from finishing during "morning work" time. So sometimes she'd get a good grade on the side of the worksheet she'd completed but she'd get a big fat "0" on the second side which she may not have gotten to, and in the end, an "F" in math. For a first grader. Lovely. 3. Because my daughter, at barely 5 and 6 was spending full days pretty much chained to a desk in school and would bring home homework on top of that. I could see her childhood slipping away with her having no time to be a kid, no time to focus on her own interests, our family time being intruded on by school, too strong of an emphasis on academics (or should I say testing) and not enough on imagination, creation, free-play, art, music, gym, and even that all important "socialization." And on top of it all, school wasn't even a positive experience in those earliest years of learning. On the contrary, it was quite negative (see numbers 1 and 2) and I could easily foresee her love of learning being sucked out of her. 4. Because my daughter, at ages 7 and 8, was no longer losing recess in 2nd and 3rd grades but instead was getting stomach aches all the time and feeling stressed out because of the heavy emphasis on standardized testing. And frankly I was tired of the whole thing. It felt like our lives revolved around school. Getting up early, making a bus, her spending like 7 hours a day there, bringing home an hour's worth of homework, getting up the next day and doing it again. And all the while, there were budget cuts and teachers teaching to the test and too much pressure on the kids to score well- I wanted my child to be a child. Not a score. 5. Because despite all of this pressure and emphasis on testing, my district (and almost every district in the immediate area) scored HORRIBLY when it came to the standardized tests results anyway. They were below average pretty much across the board, in nearly every grade, every subject. So obviously their way wasn't even working so well to begin with. They had a bunch of stressed out kids who weren't even retaining what they were "learning" well enough to have the school come out "average" in all that standardized testing. 6. Because my daughter didn't get to spend a lot of time with her father, who, due to the nature of his business, works every Saturday and every afternoon until late evening (at or past the kids' bedtime) and they weren't seeing enough of him. 7. And because after all this I started reading up on homeschooling and read about how much better it is in so many ways and thought "This is what I need to do. This will be better." So near the end of third grade I yanked her out of public school without even waiting for the school year to be officially over, started homeschooling her, and have continued into this year (we're just finishing up fourth grade now) and have loved nearly every minute of it. My only regret? Not doing it sooner. I wish I'd pulled her out of Kindergarten. Better yet, I wish I never sent her to Kindergarten. I won't make that mistake with my 4 y/o son- he'll be homeschooled right from the beginning :)

My son is 4.5 years old and fully toilet-trained during the day but still wears pull-ups at night. At what age did you find that your sons stayed dry all night and didn't need to sleep in pull-ups anymore? (without doing things like getting him up in the night to go to the bathroom or anything; I mean totally on his own). Just wondering! Thanks :)

Well, my husband is a tattoo artist and body piercer who owns his own shop here in PA and I've got a few tattoos myself. I also donate blood regularly. The only thing they've ever asked is whether you got one within the past twelve months. Which in my case I hadn't as I got all my tattoos years ago. They never asked where I got the tattoos and they never told me I couldn't donate due to having them. I'm not sure what would happen if I ever said yes, I got one within the last twelve months, if they'd then say "well, you can't donate until it's been a year." But I don't foresee getting any more tattoos either so I don't suppose it will ever be an issue. Thanks for the reminder on blood donation though. I'm due for it and as I'm type O neg, they're always looking for my blood type! I need to schedule an appointment :)

Marion, that's awesome! We are really excited about it and looking forward to it. I am sure we will have a lot of fun. We already have a four day camping trip booked and it so happens that one of the scheduled Fresh Air Fund trips coincides with that, so we immediately said we'd love to have the girl come camping with us, that would be a blast for the kids! I think it's sad that they don't ever have enough families, hopefully more people will hear about it and give it a try! Chris, I PM'd you! :)

Thanks for the response, Chris! I'm glad it was a good experience for you! By the way....that town, was it in Ohio by any chance? Because one of my brothers lives in Ohio in a town called Cuyohoga Falls...not sure if I'm spelling that right, but I remember him telling me that town was nicknamed "Caucasian Falls"! Just curious if there were two different towns with that nickname or if you by chance grew up in the same one haha.

Well, not sure if anyone else is remotely interested in this topic lol but I thought I would say that we had our interview/meeting today at our house with our area representative and it went great. She said she thought we would make a great host family and that she will be recommending us. We will hear back in 1-2 weeks after they have a chance to do the background checks and reference checks. I thought I would share something she told me, which is that they NEVER have enough host families for this program. There are always more kids than there are host families, and some kids never get to go and experience life outside of the inner city. She said there are kids who actually pack their bags and show up at the bus station in NYC on 'standby' so to speak, just HOPING that another kid got sick or backed out or had something come up at the last minute, so that they might have a chance to go in their place. So I'm really glad that we are doing it this year, and if any of you have been considering it but just haven't gotten around to it- you should! :)

I loved The Time Travelers Wife! My mother, on the other hand, said she had a hard time getting into it and was confused by it. I guess it's got pretty mixed reviews! I'm definitely on the loved it side of the fence though :D

Mine seems to do a pretty good job of staying drama-free, fortunately!

Kids, gotta love 'em! My 9 year old cracks herself up by reciting the alphabet, but skipping over and not saying the letter "P." Then at the end she goes: "Where'd the P go? Running down my leg!" I have to strongly discourage her from teaching it to my four year old, but I think it's already too late.

I thought I would bump this to see if anyone else had any input but also to update! I got a letter in the mail and it provided some additional information about the program and it gave me the name and number of my local representative. I called and talked to her on the phone and she will be coming to our house this weekend for the interview and to see the house and everything. I'm excited! :)

I'm going to be using TT starting in the fall (we're starting with TT5, we've been using Oak Meadow up through this year). My daughter and I (who are by no means math whizzes either) are both very excited about and looking forward to using TT. I love everything about it from what I've previewed so far. I know some people say it seems like it might be too easy. It seems grade-appropriate to me and it seems like they are making it "easy" because they demonstrate it so well! I love how clearly everything is explained, how they will tell you AND show you step by step exactly how to do each problem and get answers if necessary, there's no way that any textbook would ever be able to make things so clear to us- and there's no way that I'd ever be able to make things so clear to her by trying to decipher FROM a math text book... hence, the decision to go with TT. I don't feel like math has to be hard to be effective math, not if it's explained and demonstrated so well, and I will not be supplementing with other math curricula on top of TT... and I have to say my daughter is actually excited to start this program- and I have never seen her excited about math before lol. So yes I kind of AM hoping that this makes things "easy"- for both of us- this coming year! :)

Yes. :) I homeschool myself when it comes to any curriculum or formal things I do. But I also belong to a homeschool group. We do a lot of craft days and social get togethers and field trips and outings, and sometimes we have some sort of co-op "class" on some random subject or other (like a tinkering class, a puppeteering class, a planting class, etc) or we have people come and speak to our group about this or that. But not to the point where we are getting together to teach core subjects to a group of kids or anything like that.

This is interesting since we have a live egg case now; we're waiting for them to hatch. It will probably be a few weeks though for us. We've only had it for a few days (maybe 4 or 5 days) and it said that they should hatch in 3-6 weeks after we got it. We put the egg case into a mesh thing similar to a butterfly habitat, as someone else said. I read that you can feed them something like "pinhead crickets" from a bait or pet store if you can't catch anything small enough to feed them when they are very little. I'll have to see how it goes when our time comes!

My 9 y/o is using a free site online. It is working fine for her: http://webinstituteforteachers.org/~gammakeys/Lesson/Lesson1.htm We do one lesson per week but we repeat that lesson 2-3 times over the week for reinforcement before moving on to the next lesson the following week.

Congrats on the new baby :) I nursed my son (now four) til he was 19 months old. I started weaning him at 15 months and from 15 months on we were only nursing once in the morning and once before bed, and then after like a month and a half (I think) we cut out the morning one and only did it once a day, before bed, until 19 months when I finally weaned him off that one. Even though that was the third baby I'd breastfed, I nursed him wayyyyy longer than I did either of the girls (in part because he seemed SO dependent on it and would be miserable without it lol, and in part because I knew he was my last baby and I didn't want to rush things with him)... anyway, even though he was my third, I can't even tell you how much information and help I found at kellymom.com, things I'd never even known before. So I would HIGHLY recommend taking a peek at that site when you have time! With that said, I agree with the majority- nurse on demand :) Don't worry about schedules and feeding times. Your baby knows what he needs!

I second Oak Meadow :D

Don't eat anything fried, fatty, greasy, spicy etc while waiting for the surgery and then hopefully you won't have an attack between now and then. The attacks are AWFUL, worst pain I ever felt in my life, I think, and I felt like I couldn't even breathe. Be aware that after you have the surgery, you might experience a couple of times what feels almost like another mini gall bladder attack here and there while healing, it's actually trapped gas which you will have quite a lot of at first. But once you are through the recovery period- you should be fine; I had mine out over four years ago now. (Oh, it was fun, my first attack was while I was pregnant with my now four year old son, so they couldn't do anything for me other than tell me to watch what I ate. I had an appointment scheduled to meet with a surgeon after the baby was born but when my son was 10 days old I had another gall bladder attack, a bad one, and I ended up in the hospital for 5 days. Starting the day after we moved to a new apartment. With a ten day old newborn. Who was breastfeeding. And it was right before Thanksgiving. Fun, fun!) But anyway it was a relief never having an attack like that again so I'm glad I had it removed!

I'd have wanted to read tons of books, and written tons of short stories, gone out on my bike and explored the neighborhood and nature at my leisure, engaging in imaginative play (I used to have such a good imagination lol), and gone on interesting field trips in between. My attention probably could have been caught with educational games and shows and perhaps some interesting experiments and projects. I'd have happily done without math but if I had to have math, I'd have wanted it to be as hands on as possible. Life math, the kind you do with your allowance, at the store, while you're cooking or building something etc- not dry, technical math.

Hi Sarah, Thanks for that offer! Is she a regional representative from your area though...? I imagine I would need to talk to someone from my area... I'm really not sure how it works, exactly! I live in PA. I read a section on their website that says: "How do local Friendly Towns work? In every Friendly Town, there is a volunteer committee and Chairperson responsible for the program. The committee publicizes the program, screens applications, checks references, interviews families in their home..." etc. ...so I don't know if that means that my town has to be one that's already got an established committee; or whether as long as there is a committee in or around my county or what. I wish they made that clearer on their site! Then it says: "Friendly Town Chairpeople are supervised by regional volunteer Fresh Air Fund Representatives who report to New York City staff." So I'm assuming whoever I talk to has to at least be in my "region" (and I'm not sure if that means my state, my county, my town, or I don't know what).

Hm maybe I will ask for one a year younger! That is crazy about the paint job by the way!! lol, oh man!

In my homeschool group, the kids all call each parent either by their first names or by "Miss First Name." I've never heard any group parent complain about it, it's pretty common place for us. If an adult introduced themselves to my child as "Mrs Last Name," then I'd ask my children to call them that as it is obviously a sign of respect for "Mrs Last Name" but if the adults we know are fine with a more casual form of address (which they all seem to be, in my family, in my neighborhood, and in my homeschool group), then I'm fine with that, too. My kid's friends all call me by my first name. I don't mind it at all. I'm a pretty casual person in general. It feels weird to me if someone in a store calls me "Ma'am" lol. While we're on the topic, here's something kind of funny, what do you guys think of this one? I am going to be 37 years old next month. I have an ex husband who I started dating when I was 16, married when I was 21, split up from when I was 23, and had one child with. Said child is now 18 years old. I've since remarried and had two other children (ages 9 and 4). My ex father-in-law still to this day, every single time, without fail, when he calls to talk to my oldest daughter...when he gets me on the phone, or when he leaves me a voice mail, he always says: "Hi Nancy, it's Mr. C. Just tell Melissa I called." I always want to roll my eyes and say "for crying out loud, aren't we past this yet? Can't you just say "Hi Nancy, it's Mike?" I have known you for over 20 years. You used to be my father-in-law. I was married to your son. I am the mother of your first grandchild. I'm almost 40 years old. I am no longer the teenager first dating your son. Seriously, what is with the "Mr. C" crap?!?!" Or, alternatively, I'm tempted to leave him a voice mail saying "Hi Mike, it's Mrs. G. We're just calling so Melissa can say hi." LOL. But, of course, I don't. :D (If his wife were to call, by the way, she'd do the same thing and say "It's Mrs. C." but that really doesn't come up since he's always the one to call)

multiplication.com is a free site with lots of cute multiplication games. My daughter is 9 and really enjoys playing all the games on there- and she doesn't even feel like she's "doing school" while she's playing on there :) There are also math operations board games. "Totally Tut" is one. Or you can do it with card games- play a game of War and before the winner of each hand can take their cards, they have to multiply them first. Or you can pass a rubber ball back and forth to each other or bounce it to each other while 'chanting' the times tables (you could even put up one of those times tables charts where it can be seen to keep it flowing easily; it's still review!)

Good for you :) I consider myself to be a fairly relaxed homeschooler. We don't spend more than 3 hours a day on "school stuff" (with my 9 y/o 4th grader), sometimes less. I'm not one for tons of busywork. Of course that doesn't mean she doesn't learn beyond that- we do plenty of 'educational' fun things together outside of the curriculum stuff. But I am pretty laid back with our schedule and we try to do school around life, not life around school- we do lots of fun hands on stuff, go on lots of field trips and outings, we're very active in our homeschool group and we're always doing cool things with them, and i have no problem whatsoever saying "it's a nice day, let's go do this and get back to that later...." or "how do you want to learn this..." or "what do you want to do first..." or "what do you want to learn more about" etc. Like you said, we have so much fun! I'm not stressed out, she's not miserable, we're both enjoying school, I'm giving her as much opportunity as possible to just be a kid, and I can see that she absolutely is learning, so I don't feel like I'm depriving her of anything. It works for us :) Good luck and hope you have a wonderful year!