I think (no, I know) I will be too exhausted lol. The day before is when I plan on going to Hershey Park for the day. The day of, I am probably leaving my house at 6:30 in the morning to get to field day by around 8 (registration starts at 8, pics at 8:45, games at 9, and even though I can prob get there a bit after 8, I want to leave a little extra time for getting lost, traffic, parking, etc). Field day goes until 3 PM, I volunteered to stay and help clean up afterward, we'll have an hour and a half drive to look forward to on the way home... And the following morning is my homeschool group's annual picnic and presentation day and I have to put stuff together for that lol. It's going to be a crazy few days! Aw, I was hoping to meet up with a few of you guys. It would have been cool! :)

Glad it all worked out with your husband! Good thing you fed your daughter first, and that's great that she was so highly praised as such a young volunteer! :)

No, she didn't! She ended up emailing me and saying that was fine as she didn't really have a lot of time because of personal issues anyway (I don't want to repeat her specific personal issues publicly here). I said I understood and hadn't been aware of her situation, but reiterated that if she ever wanted to rejoin in the future, she was welcome to do so, and left it at that.

We're pretty relaxed over here. It varies for us. I get up early, my 6 y/o son usually wakes up by 8 or 8:30, and I usually wake my 11 y/o daughter up by 9ish. They'll get ready and have breakfast (sometimes with a read aloud), and then if it's mild enough, which it has been lately, we've been going for a walk. When we get back, we hang out with daddy for a bit before he goes to work, and then we start school. Other times, we don't go for our walk until after lunch/after daddy's left for work, as by then it's had more of a chance to warm up outside. We've been walking on this paved walking and bike path that runs in the middle of a wooded nature area. They've got signs identifying different plants and trees, and we bring unsalted peanuts and the kids stop and feed the squirrels for a while, we bring some dog biscuits and when we pass people walking their dogs they will sometimes ask to pet the dogs and will then ask if it's okay to offer a treat. We walk about a mile and a half, and get to do the fresh air, nature, and socializing thing, it's been nice. :) We don't have a strict chore routine or schedule (other than the litterbox has to get cleaned immediately in the morning), we just sort of all pitch in and do things as needed/requested and as we can fit them in. We just kind of make everything work! :)

Aw, sorry. PA's pretty big! I got one of those "Kids Love PA" books and there are so many cool things in it but a lot of the ones I mapquest thinking, "That sounds great!," I'm like oh man that's 2, 3 hours away. I just signed up to "help clean up after" as it seemed the easiest thing to volunteer for! Carlisle is a hike for you though! It's about an hour and a half drive for me! Have you ever been? It's fairly close to Lancaster too, there would be plenty for you guys to do, especially if you've never been to that area! :)

Hm. Tough one. See what happens when you get his vision checked. Then you could maybe try telling him there's going to be 30 minutes of independent reading time per day. That he can read anything he wants during that time, you don't care what. Take him to the library and let him pick something. Anything. See what sparks his interest. Don't make any negative comments about anything he chooses, regardless of what it is. Ask him to give you input on what time of day he thinks would be best for that independent reading time and give him leeway on that. If it works out to be bedtime, whatever. If it makes him feel good to do it first thing in the morning before any other schoolwork, maybe that would be a nice way to wake up. See how it goes. If he chooses to sit there and stare blankly at one page for 30 minutes, don't even comment on it. If he wants to do that every night for three weeks until the library book is due back, don't even comment on it. At the end of the three weeks, or whenever, ask him if he wants to renew that book or select a different one. Hopefully eventually he'll pick something on his own that will spark his interest enough that he'll actually start reading it instead of just staring at it, but the key may be for him to pick it on his own rather than you picking it/suggesting it for him. Hopefully he'll find something that'll get him enjoying reading again. And if he doesn't, maybe it's just not his thing. Some people, odd as it seems to me lol, just don't love to read as much as I do. :)

I just voted for it. I see Mystery of History is a bit ahead. Hope SOTW gets more votes. :)

It's $26.50 for age 3-8, $29.50 for 9 and up. You should check out their website, I plan to go on science day, but they also have math day, physics day, entertainment day, ed-zoo-cation day, marketing day.... let me know if you end up going on science day. :) I actually thought entertainment day sounded really neat, too, and would have strongly considered that, but I had field trips the day before and after that date (there's Hand On History Day at the Daniel Boone Homestead, and an Alpaca Farm tour with my homeschool group) and it just would have been way too much even for me to do three kind of long/far field trips three days in a row like that. lol. ETA: I edited my original post to include the website with the different descriptions.

If it's something that's relatively cheap anyway, I'll buy it new, but if it's something that's expensive, like my Oak Meadow or Teaching Textbooks stuff, I buy it used. It's taken some patience...browsing the for sale boards, posting and bumping on the want to buy boards, but if I can save a decent amount of money that way, I will.

going to the Greek Games 2012 Crazy Olympics Field Day? http://www.trussell.info/tlc_004.htm It looks really cool. It's in Carlisle. And what about any of the homeschool days at Hershey Park during the month of May, which is their homeschool month? Ticket prices are greatly reduced that month! Instead of $56.95, adult admission is only $29.50! (We're probably going on "science day"). http://www.hersheypark.com/groups/schools.php Just wondering if anyone else from here is planning on attending any of those events. :)

:lol::lol::lol:

Ah...well in that case, you may have no choice but to force them to be jealous of the bacon. (And they will be, there's not much in this world that smells better than bacon! LOL).

I have no idea, actually. If it were me, I would probably just call over to the Y and ask your questions. "Hi, I was wondering, are you guys serving any protein with the pancakes tonight, or is it just pancakes? Oh, okay, thanks...also, my daughter is helping to serve tonight, should she be eating supper at home first, or are the kids eating pancakes, too...?" If you don't feel right asking about her food, then, yeah, just feed her at home just in case. If they aren't serving anything else and you want to give him something that's protein, I don't see anything wrong with bringing something along to meet his needs, especially for a medical condition, but if you're wanting to be somewhat subtle about it, I'm not sure "a bunch of bacon" that no-one else has is the most subtle thing lol, I would probably have string cheese or some such, rather than wanting everyone to be looking around smelling bacon and wondering where I got it and why they don't have it, but up to you! :D

Why would they care anyway? If the renewal is going to cover a year period or something and they're getting their money, they shouldn't care if people just renew when they need it, they should just be glad they got the renewal, and the payment, and say, "Yes, wife, we'll be glad to send somebody out, yes, we're sorry (not really) that your husband is on his way to work two hours away and couldn't come help you (his loss, our gain)!"

Well, my son was a late potty trainer, but the one thing I can say for him, is he's got great aim. He doesn't pee on the seat, on the floor, or anything like that...he gets it right in the middle of the bowl every time! :D

:lol: Men!

I'd explain my viewpoint and why I thought my way was a good idea and why I thought the other way wasn't, and I'd hope that would be the end of it. If it wasn't, I'd probably say that since I was the one teaching it I'd like to at least try it my way but that if it seemed it wasn't going well, I'd be willing to try it his way instead. And if, in fact, my way didn't go well...it didn't seem to be having much success, the kids hated it, whatever, I'd say why not, and give a try to his way. Who knows, maybe it'd work or the kids wouldn't hate it so much after all.

Perhaps this will cheer you up. WHY MEN SHOULDN'T WRITE ADVICE COLUMNS Dear Peter: I hope you can help me. The other day I set off for work leaving my husband in the house watching the TV, as usual. I hadn't gone more than a mile down the road when my engine conked out and the car shuddered to a halt. I walked back home to get my husband's help. When I got home I couldn't believe my eyes. He was in the bedroom with a neighbor making mad passionate love to her. I am 32, my husband is 34 and we have been married for twelve years. When I confronted him, he broke down and admitted that he'd been having an affair for the past six months. I told him to stop or I would leave him. I love him very much, but ever since I gave him the ultimatum he has become increasingly distant. I don't feel I can get through to him anymore. Can you please help? Sincerely, Mrs. Sheila Usk Dear Sheila: A car stalling after being driven a short distance can be caused by a variety of faults with the engine. Start by checking that there is no debris in the fuel line. If it is clear, check the jubilee clips holding the vacuum pipes onto the inlet manifold. If none of these approaches solves the problem, it could be that the fuel pump itself is faulty, causing low delivery pressure to the carburetor float chamber. I hope this helps. Best regards, Peter

I don't think it's crazy. We asked my husband's brother and sister-in-law years ago because they seemed the most physically (young enough, good enough health) and financially fit (can afford to take on kids). Fortunately they said yes, it wasn't even that hard of a conversation. There's no-one else I could even imagine asking at this point or would feel comfortable with or close enough to, so hopefully nothing happens to us AND them!

What a beautiful picture, and story! Congratulations on your daughter's wedding, and on your husband's accomplishment!

What about Scene It? It's a TV Trivia DVD game. http://www.childrenssoftwareonline.com/scene_it_tv_trivia_dvd_game.html (It can be played with a board, or it can be played without one if you put it on "party play" where you just shout out answers).

I'm certainly not saying or implying that your home is anything like an abusive, bullying, concentration camp or anything of the sort. But this mother said that it is a "struggle" and the child does not want to do it, and you basically said do it anyway, several times a day, and in part because you wouldn't want to risk having a late reader, and because education isn't optional, which I just don't understand when we're talking about a not-yet-five-year-old. Yes, reading can be gentle and fun, but not every child will be interested or see it as such regardless, and if the OP's young child is one of them, I just don't think it's worth pushing at this stage. We'll have to agree to disagree on that, I guess! I have certainly seen fun and gentleness weaved into life, I base my entire curriculum on it as much as possible. :) I don't know enough about what the OP has tried to know whether she has only tried more workbookish stuff or just HOW "gentle/fun" she has tried to be, but regardless, if I couldn't get a 5 y/o to do it willingly, it wouldn't be worth a "struggle" for me personally, and all I know about the OP's situation is that it is being described as a "struggle." I'm sorry if you took that as me implying you were mean or whatever.

DD11: Library book club (once every two weeks, we usually just do it over the school year) - Monday evenings Girl Scouts (once a week over the school year) - Thursday evenings Guitar Lessons (once a week, ongoing) - Friday afternoons Homeschool Bowling League (once a week in sessions- we do the fall league and then the spring league, each runs about ten weeks) - Friday afternoons, after guitar Judo (once a week, ongoing) - Saturday mornings And then in the summer there will be no book club, no girl scouts, and no bowling, but she'll take swim lessons (just for two weeks) and a couple of different half day montessori camps. DS6: Homeschool Bowling League (see above) Teeball (summer) Soccer (fall) And he also does swim lessons and the few different half day montessori camps in the summer. He had the option to take judo classes with his sister but decided not to for now.

voted again!