I would suggest throwing one in your purse/bedroom and start reading. You'll get a much better feel for the stories than taking someone else's synopsis. Only you understand what would be clean for your family. BTW, cannibalism wasn't okay to the book characters, either.

1. We have milestone gifts. When a child reaches a certain age they get a special gift for Christmas and birthday. We also have routine gifts, like a book or a book set. I look to see what's coming out in the current year to see if it's something my kids would enjoy. And we often have add-on gifts, like Legos, because we like to keep the number of toys down. 2. The gift my children ask for is their Santa gift. :) We stress that gifts are given because it something the purchaser/creator thought they would enjoy and get use out of, and should be appreciated for that reason. My oldest never bothers to ask for anything and I finally asked why, and he said anything on his personal list is usually not as good as what we'd pick out, anyway. LOL The youngest doesn't watch commercials or know what's out there beyond the little toy shops we have here, so surprising him is fun. Santa is different, though. Santa is unconditional giving, a way to give the heart's desire. He gets the one gift that a child really asks for. That said, for family and friends that ask we do put together a list of interests and gift ideas. It's easier on them since they don't live with the kids and don't see them every day.

Yep. Dh and I do the 52 week challenge for our Christmas fund so we pick up hot deals all year round. :) We keep a basic list of what we want to get and then as we find them we check them off.

There is one dentist here that still accepts our insurance, the same insurance that 3500 other people use in our town (and since it is mostly a transient community, that number goes up to 10000 total over the course of a year, just 3500 at a time). There were two, the other one put his notice in during July. The next nearest is a 45m-1h drive away. Physicals are slightly easier to schedule, but until July this year we had 1-2 doctors at our clinic (that serves about 3500 at a time). There are supposed to be 4, but one had a death in the family, one was going through a transition period, one was being sent to a different location temporarily. Trying to get what my husband needed after surgery was a pain in the rear end! His files went through three different doctors before getting scheduled meds. The clinic closes at 4pm (except once a week when they close at noon to train), my son gets out of school at 3:56pm. His yearly physical (which can't be done on school physical day because it's not for school, but for scouts), is done during the school year because it has to be done before summer. Can't do it during their reduced hours over winter break (they only get Christmas week and New Year's week, and half of that is taken up by holiday hours), those appointments are reserved for immediate needs taken care of by the doctor on call. Doctors take vacation, too. :) I am lucky that we have a school that understands he will need at least three absences a year: physical, dental, and one for paperwork of various sorts. His test center now does 5pm slots (YES!) but at his age and our current situation, there will be times he will have to miss to take care of things. It's why I keep a copy of his schedule. I try to time appts during his 'fluff' classes, like art or study hall. Course, our schools treat their teachers the same way, allowing them to miss time but come back if they're able. Having a no-return policy makes me wonder what kind of duress the teachers are under. If students are badly treated, it stems to think the staff will be as well.

There is Latin For Kids. I haven't used the program but the videos are entertaining. :) http://dinolingo.com/languages/latin.html

Our schools do 192 days per year. There are 260 weekdays in a year. Most people get paid leave time at their full time jobs, or at the very least, unpaid leave time without a problem unless it's excessive. Schoolchildren have a full time job, work overtime (homework, school-based activities), and are expected to take care of all of their needs during the offtime? No, sorry. If we expect schools to run like businesses, we need to treat the workers better.

Alright, scrap everything I said. :P I have 4 sniffly, grumbly children today. All with sore throats and short tempers. I just plopped three of them down with lollies (Earth's Best, yummiest there are!) and set them to watch Willy Wonka. Getting two rare treats in one day seems to be enough to calm them down. We'll resume a light day afterward.

I have a child in a public high school. What you describe is insane. It wouldn't fly here. While the number of absences is a little low for my taste (and we chose the school with the most flexible policy) we've never had an issue with him checking out and back in. Lunch, yes, must be done online. My kid won't eat school lunch so it's a moot point here. I haven't even signed him up for an account.

My kids eat a lot more foods than I did at their ages. They cheer for asparagus. They love prosciutto, feta cheese (well, nearly all cheese!), oatmeal, hummus, various rices, fresh herbs...I think the only one of those I would have touched as a kid was the oatmeal.

A multivitamin, yoga, and a cup of hot tea changes things here. :) The vitamin because my iron and a few others tend to run low, which can affect my mood. The yoga because I probably didn't sleep well - stretching my back and concentrating on breathing puts me back on track. And the cup of tea because the rest of the house knows not to bother me until it's empty. :D

Use a ten-frame and/or double-sided manipulatives (ours are red and yellow). The ten-frame gives her something to visualize and you can make it out of anything. Plus it's still working with multiples of 5 so it's an easing away from the fingers. In addition (haha!) there's also an app called Archimedes' Roost. it goes through a Montessori classroom teaching basic math sequentially with the tools she's used to. Many you can make at home to flesh out the digital lesson if need be, but it lets you see what is already available to her.

Our idea of healthy follows very basic rules: -it has to be simple (know all the ingredients) -it can't masquerade (peanut butter is straight up peanuts and salt. No sugar or palm oil or anything else that shouldn't be called peanut butter) -it has to be real. We don't use margarine, Miracle Whip, Kraft american cheese..no low-fat, reduced sugar, etc. No flavorings for drinks like Mio. -there needs to be a fruit or veggie with every meal. Here was yesterday's Breakfast - cup of coffee, cheese, triscuits, and melon Lunch - quinoa/rice mixture with dried fruit and a light vinaigrette, leftover cold beef, carrot sticks, glass of iced tea. Snack - sliced apple with peanut butter Dinner - chicken chili (chicken, home grown tomatoes, chipotle peppers, corn, chili powder, cumin, salt, chicken stock) over rice with a bit of sour cream on top. I don't drink milk but I'm not opposed to dairy in its other forms, and none of us really like cereal. The kids will eat oatmeal (one likes steel cut with flax, the other likes rolled oats) and my husband will grab a granola bar if he doesn't have time to make an egg and sausage sandwich.

After reading the used books section and seeing it only has an ASIN (not ISBN)....maybe? Very hard to tell,though.

Great can mean a lot of things. Having a school district with small schools, involved teachers, and up to date online information is important to me. It's not important to the people who compile the Great Schools ranking. We're moving next year. Part of our list includes the above, with an elementary school that can be walked to. It's nice to have that fall back if/when life changes.

Here is one that shows the formation of each letter - http://www.lake.k12.fl.us/cms/lib05/FL01000799/Centricity/Domain/1137/DNealian_alphabet.pdf Because it's a one-stroke formation, there's not a whole lot beyond that. This one shows the difference between ZB and D'N with the stroke count, and how D'N transforms into cursive -http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED227474.pdf I use the OLD Scott Foresman books for teaching. I think I paid $4 on Amazon for each one and they're non-consumable after the first practice book.

The last Princess Diaries one talks about marriage to her long-term boyfriend and what they do in the meantime. I'd suggest Margaret Peterson Haddix books, and The Face On The Milk Carton (and sequels). It's old, but intriguing. So are others of Caroline B Cooney's books. She may like The Luckiest Girl, about a 16yo who decides to spend a school year in California with friends. It's by Beverly Clearly and I remember it being pretty tame. It's not dystopian, but good. In that vein there's also Schooled, about a homeschooler who is thrown into public school for the first time.

Scott Foresman & Co make D'nealian books, and there is a company called SchoolRite that makes stencil pages that fit over the standard child's sheet. (1in lines, I think) We've used both with a lot of success. There are a lot of free pdf tutorials available and at least one pdf comparing d'nealian strokes to Z-B. Donnayoung.org makes a set of worksheets that go along with the 100 EZ lesson book, too, and provide plenty of practice.

My son uses a Casio graphing calculator - http://www.shopcasio.com/product_detail.do?q=graphing-fx-9750gii-calculator&promoCode=CSOPAYPCWEBMACSS&gclid=CKeG6sCAz8cCFQEcaQodc5kFwQ It does everything the TI-84 does, is more intuitive, and is half the cost. We bought it because he needed a graphing calculator for a test but we couldn't afford a TI right at that moment. Two years later, he likes it much better than the TI ones and wouldn't take me up on my offer to replace it this year. He says when he gets into engineering he'll look at a TI for the math required, but why bother paying more for the same thing now? This will take him all the way through his high school maths.

Our shortest days were from 8am-2pm. Those were the years we really started using primary sources in history and delving deeper into literature. BUT, it's really going to depend on what you use. The year we used AoPS, it took an hour and a half for math each day. Science alternated between two very long periods (about 1-2 hours) and 2-3 short ones each week (about half an hour) depending on whether it was an instruction day, study day, or lab day. Writing was our shortest, or at least it felt that way to me, because it would take a few minutes of instruction, examples, and making sure he understood, then he'd work on his own and we'd go over it later together.

I don't have one anymore, :) but it was quite a bit of time each day. Writing - instruction/going over completed work Math & Science - working together every day History - discussion/instruction/going over completed work Literature - discussion On his own 80% or more of the time- grammar, foreign language, logic, and computer.

Do you have an Ikea near you? Their children's section will often have Swedish books, oddly enough.

Try Intellego, or Creek Edge Press. Intellego is half online, half off, so he'd be watching videos or playing games on the computer for part of the time. Creek Edge Press, though, gives both of you a bit more flexibility. Each task card is to last about a week and you can amend the assignments as needed. (For example, collages here were done digitally and we changed presentations to stop-motion animation creations or Powerpoint). Moving Beyond The Page has some good lit guides but may require more planning on your part in divvying up the assignments.

What grade?

Consequences take time. It takes a long time to hammer it into their heads. At age 9, we started the Single Buy rule. I will buy any item ONCE. I will only buy a replacement if it is defective, outgrown, or damaged through normal use. So far in our house, there have been 4 Nintendo DS's bought, 2 mess kits, 6 Klean Kanteens (4 insulated large, 2 insulated small), several pencil sharpeners, 2 Ipods, and 3 bike locks. My cash outlay has been minimal. His has been quite a bit. During the 7 years after starting that rule, though, my oldest has discovered: -the benefit of an emergency fund -the ability to do without -the resourcefulness to come up with other ways to fill that need -better ways to organize and find his stuff -that I'm willing to shut up and simply provide the ride to the store instead of getting on his case about losing something...again. It just takes time. And patience. And throwing the whole problem right in their laps without nagging and lecturing. Edited to add: there comes a point where you just have to repeat to yourself, "not my monkeys, not my circus". Letting the kid own the total responsibility (for the organization, the loss, the replacement, and maintaining the quality expectations of work) is a valuable life lesson. You can be there to brainstorm ways they can help themselves if they ask you to or offer the help if they don't, but you gotta let them own the monkeys.

This is normal 5yo boy behavior, too. :) Did you ever read the Louise Bates Ames books, Your ______ Year Old? (fill the year in the blank) There is a wide curve that kids go through during the 5yo year, swinging from one extreme back to the other. It usually coincides with a growth spurt, both mental and physical ones. 5 is a big year for growth. It's a year when a lot of kids have potty accidents, when they're gaining amazing new skills (riding bikes, blending sounds, etc)...they also swing back and revert in their communication skills just a bit. Depending on what sort of kid yours is depends on what you can do to help. If anger management were a class, how would you approach a lesson plan? What would you teach? What would you focus on? We're a big fan of time ins here. Take child to quiet spot, close the door, and be there to keep him from harming self and others. Be available for a cuddle - but let him know that the situation doesn't end with him being calm. The situation ends when he gets back to the trigger with a different response. Yesterday I picked up a wailing child who was mad over a toy. He had full right to be mad, I don't deny that, BUT, the way he displayed it is what we're currently working on. I got his help a while back and made an "Angry" poster for his room. He had me write down 5 different ways he can calm down, and I wrote the caveat at the bottom: AND TELL THE OTHER PERSON HOW YOU FEEL. He picks one (or more), calms down, and goes back to the situation to handle it better. Yesterday after gnashing his teeth for a bit in his room he decided to draw a picture while taking deep breaths, and then I helped him figure out what to say and helped him propose a solution to the problem. That's where the teaching situation ends - when he makes an attempt to fix what's broken, not before. I am under no delusion that this is a fast method. My total goal is that by the time he's an adult he will be able to practice these skills with ease. And I don't care how long it takes to get there.