Last Christmas my boys (early elementary age) got these things called an EZRoller. They love them and play with them almost daily. You sit on them and shift your legs on a bar to move. Kids who come over also love to play on them. They go up to a pretty high weight limit if I remember correctly.

My husband and I both have the Garmin Vivofit. My youngest son has been begging for one since we got ours months ago. I'd like to get him one for Christmas but when I looked on Amazon there appear to be a few different ones aimed at kids. Anyone have one they recommend? My son is 6 so I don't want to spend a lot. Chances are this will be a short lived want, but he hasn't asked for much and doesn't need toys.

Mine both want to be race car drivers. I don't foresee that happening but I guess you never know.

My boys both have them and have for well over a year. They only have them though because my parents upgraded and passed down their old ones to the boys. Admittedly they play on them more than reading. My oldest occasionally reads on it. My youngest is not a good reader yet. He's a little over halfway through AAR1. I'd put more books on there but we're on a budget and just end up using the library most of the time.

In addition to LEGO and Playmobil my boys love Imaginext stuff.

My boys are 2 years apart and I can see ways I "baby" the younger one and push my older one. I really try to keep a check on it though. I am the youngest in my family and often things I do with/for/to my youngest are based on my memory of being the youngest. My mom was the oldest and that came into play a lot in growing up. When she was a kid her younger brothers could do things at a younger age than she had been allowed (so they all did it at the same time regardless of age at the time). She was a stickler that I had to be whatever age my sister had been to do things. I HATED that because some things just needed to be done then and not later when I aged. That makes no sense I'm sure! For example, Glamour Shots were huge in my area for awhile. My sister got shots done but I wasn't allowed, I was told I had to be _ age because that's how old my sister was. Well by the time I was that age GS were not an in thing to do and I didn't want them (now I'm thankful not to have those floating around!) but at the time I was really upset. So anyhow, I try to keep both perspectives in mind when dealing with my kids. I try to think about what the given situation is and not have a blanket rule about things. As far as chores, I'm probably unfair there as I expect equal work. My boys are VERY similar in ability when it comes to things like that. For school, I expect more out of my 3rd grader than my 1st grader. That's based on age and ability.

So sorry!! That sucks, I know cause we went through it too. I remember that AWFUL sinking feeling and the fear. My husband didn't get anything from his job, no severance. I wasn't working, we had 10 month old. He found part time work with maintenance at a golf course because he couldn't bare the thought of NOT working somewhere, we sold our house and moved in with my in laws. Thankfully it wasn't long before he found a job (the job he has now). We moved down to FL (from NC but I am from FL). It ended up being a really great thing for us. It was an awful, scary, trying time but we came through it. You will too! Praying for your family and that his time out of work is short lived.

My oldest is like this. He's so confident and just doesn't worry about what others think. He is so polar opposite of me I can't wrap my mind around him. My youngest is more like me and my heart breaks for him because I've never felt comfortable with who I am. The only times I've seen my oldest lack confidence was the year he was in school (a private Christian school). Kids often laughed at him for not being the most athletically inclined. I'm glad he quickly resorted back to his old self when he came home again.

I have nothing to contribute other than, this totally made me think of that FRIENDS episode with the old man neighbor that would bang on the ceiling.

I'm surprised your mail carrier still delivers. At our last house the garbage men alerts dropped our can directly in front of our mail box. Mail was never delivered on garbage day. I wouldn't be surprised if yours stops soon when it becomes chronic.

Our night was relatively uneventful. At the last house the family was so excited about my boys' costumes I heard the Dad say "give those boys another handful of candy!" My kids (6 and 8) were huge hits at most houses. They went throw back with Gilligan and the Skipper. They entered 2 costume contests. Took 2nd in one of them but the other contest only gave out a 1st place which they didn't win. But I was so proud of them cause they got on stage and hammed it up. My youngest was Skipper and he did a great imitation yelling "Gilligan!" and hitting him with his hat. My oldest did a great Gilligan body shake thing (hard to describe in words). Anyhow afterward the announcer saw them and came over to say they were his absolute favorite of the contest! Made my day.

Ditto this! We moved at the end of Sept from one close to the other. I'm so glad it went well. It was really stressful, actually the entire process was (long story that thankfully worked out in our favor). We weren't new to buying and selling but had always sold in one state and moved to another. This time we were moving within the same area. Anyhow, we did request a few things fixed, 2 broken windows and an unsafe garage door closing mechanism. We have a list of other things that need work and have already had a plumber fixing things. Kitchen and bathrooms are outdated but totally functional so we'll live with those until we can afford to make them ours. We actually moved from a VERY open floorplan to one with more room segregation. I had a very specific idea of how open/closed I wanted. This house is the perfect combo for us. My realtor asked if I liked to entertain and I cracked up. I've always laughed at the tv shows who all claim they constantly entertain. I avoid it at all costs! Although I do occasionally host for Thanksgiving or Christmas but only close family which is just not the same as true "entertaining" in my eyes. The buyer for our house made no improvement requests but it was a much newer house and we had already fixed the small issues before listing.

Done

Our actual city is roughly 20,000. We live in an area that is 3 cities so close together and so connected to one another that I feel that number isn't accurate reality wise, if that makes sense.

My youngest has asked for the Lego Ninjago four headed dragon for 3 years straight. He talks about it literally everyday. We have already bought it and I can't wait until he opens it! He's my enthusiastic gift opener so I think this could be epic!

It took falling in love with a series (for him out was Geronimo Stilton) to get my son reading regularly and by choice. My younger though I think will always be less of a reader. Growing up my sister devoured books and I avoided them at all costs. Now I enjoy reading quite a bit.

My boys (6 and 8) are going as Gilligan and the Skipper. I don't dress up; I just wear a Halloween shirt.

I added Pentime and Ancient history task cards but haven't stopped or switched anything.

Thanks all. He put in a call to the dentist. He didn't have the missing piece, guessing he swallowed it cause he didn't even realize at first what has happened.

So scary! I'm finally thankful insurance was too expensive for it and we had to stick with epi pens.

He kinda chipped a side off I think. I HATE tooth stuff so I didn't get a good look.

My husband chipped his tooth at dinner tonight. He says it doesn't hurt. Does he need to do anything tonight or can he wait to call the dentist in the morning?

My son does 45 min of Beast. We started with 60 mon but determined 45 min was the right mix of enough without being too much for him. He also does 10 min of Xtra Math online a few times a week.

My youngest does the baby talk thing. We broke the habit once but he's just started again. When he does it we don't respond with anything except "talk like a 6 year old." He gets no positive reinforcement on it. When it was at its worst we told him if he wanted to be a baby again we'd treat him like one which meant 2 naps a day, no tv/video games, pureed food, etc. He wasn't on board with that!

My boys are younger but we're using and enjoying Home Science Adventures by Stratton House. We do science on Fridays, all the supplies come in the kit and it is an easy intro to the topics. It could easily be expanded with additional books IMO. Not sure it would be sufficient for middle school without additional reading and assignments.