With very little kids, we played and we read stories. We went to the park and the zoo and the grocery store. We colored and we painted and we made messes. Basically we lived life. And most definitely we took naps. Structure? Sure, sort of. We always went to the library on Thursday for story time and we went to the grocery store on Friday. We played at the park in the morning and took naps in the afternoon. But more structure than that? No. Age appropriate is entirely dependent on your kid. I played blocks with my daughter at six months old because we both thought it was fun. I liked stacking them and she liked knocking them down. We did what worked for us. Someone else's child might not have liked playing blocks at six months and that is okay too. You parent the child you have.

I liked: Dancing Bears for reading All About Spelling for spelling Handwriting without Tears for handwriting Right Start for math Five in a Row for history, science, and art. I needed short and simple. Tons of projects just didn't get done. Complicated didn't get done. This was just enough to get everything done without any fuss.

Dick King Smith was popular in my house. Farm animals talking and having adventures.

My kids start on January 28. There is a winter session that is going on now and it needs to finish. I think the break is super long, but it is nice to get all the appointments done without fighting for time slots.

What are the job prospects in the new area? We moved from Phoenix, AZ - a relatively low cost of living place, to the San Francisco Bay Area - a very very expensive cost of living place. We had little more than a relocation package, a job, and the knowledge that the job we were looking for just wasn't in Phoenix. We knew that if we moved that we would not have to move for the job again. There are plenty of computer geek jobs here. It was rough for the first about three years, until the raises in salary caught up with the cost of living. We were in a great place with lots of stuff to do and we didn't have money for most of it. The library was our friend. The local park was our play place. We mostly enjoyed the sunshine and didn't go anywhere that cost money. Then things got better. And I know that it was the right call. There are people that got similar offers to ours that chose to stay in Phoenix. The job that they were hoping for did not appear. They ended up moving too, but without the relocation package and the job at the other end.

I would get a stack of picture books from the library and let her read them. They are short and have pictures, but the reading level is higher. And most of all, the books are fun. I don't know anything about AAR, it came out after my kids were reading well, but use any program as long as it is working and then stop.

I didn't know it was a real major! Could you give me some more information? Like the name of the major and some schools that offer it. He would love to find some other people who could talk to him about it.

My twelve year old wants to write role playing games as a career. He reads about them all the time. He thinks in stories and lore. He spends nearly all of his free time studying games and the way they work. He worries about balance between different types of characters. And weapons. And spells. And everything else. He has ideas and he wants to show them to everyone. This afternoon he play tested his role playing game with two people that he didn't know and had never met. He walked them through character creation and then played a mini adventure. And everyone had a good time. The two play testers had fun and so did my son. He has been bouncing off the walls in happiness since they finished. A happy kid is the best thing ever.

No, but I strongly suggested. Older son is taking and doing well in Spanish 1 this semester. He needs to take Spanish 2 sometime. I strongly suggested that he take it next semester rather than waiting and doing it another time. The advisor had him waiting until he was a junior to take it and that didn't make any sense to me. I also helped him with the art of dealing with the catalog and finding classes that fit his time slots. Then we found a class that he liked in those time slots. He ended up with a music theory class for his find art credit because it fit neatly in his schedule and wasn't something he hated.

Uno is the surprise hit here. I don't understand it, but my 16 and 12 year olds are playing it and having fun.

This is just my twelve year old's schedule. The older kids go to the community college and mind their own time. I don't know if this will be helpful, but... At 9:00 am starts his Japanese homework. At 9:30ish we do math, one lesson from videotext algebra, takes anywhere from thirty to sixty minutes Then we go for a walk, takes about forty minutes. Then he does his unit study, currently Lighthouses, this covers all the writing and history/science/art He finishes that and eats lunch. He usually spends the rest of his day writing his role playing game or reading D&D manuals. Then he goes to water polo or swimming in the evening.

It didn't start that way but it seems to have become very important to my kids. We moved away from Arizona about eight years ago. We had spent the day with my parents on thanksgiving when we were there but it wasn't a huge deal we saw them on most major holidays and just spent the day and came home. But after we moved it took far more effort to visit my parents that are now 14 hours away by car. So going just once made more sense. While we were strictly do it yourself homeschoolers we just took the week of thanksgiving and went. But my older kids are now at the community college and things are more difficult. It turns out that they really really think thanksgiving at my parents and spending the week there is important. So the first year they took only Tuesday/Thursday classes and made arrangements with the teachers to miss only that one class. This year my daughter was able to do the Tuesday/Thursday schedule but my son wasn't. He still made special arrangements with all the teachers that were affected and is going to Arizona for the week. It is important to them. I am both happy and kind of amused by it. The thanksgiving trip to Arizona was never supposed to be this big of a deal. Thanksgiving was never that big of a holiday for me or my husband growing up. It wasn't even that big of a deal when we lived in Arizona. But it is now. I don't know how this will shake out when they are away from home and away from the local community college. I guess we will figure it out when we get there.

Are you talking about San Jose, California? If you are then the housing problems you are imagining are very very real. Land is very expensive and commute times can be very long. I would start by finding out exactly where in San Jose hubby is going to work and then go from there. Please don't be too scared it is a wonderful place to live. But it is expensive.

I am not allergic to milk/cheese/dairy but I am very intolerant of it. I just skip anything that contains those things when I am out. It is hard but not impossible. The biggest issue is pizza. It feels like it is at every get together because it is cheap and most people like it. (I am over 40.)

It depends on what time of year you are going. We go in the off season, usually in January. It is important for us because some parks close really early and we wanted to play more so we would go to another park for their night-time shows. We could open and close animal kingdom and then go into Epcot for the night time things. But if the parks were all open late, then we could play in the same park all day and be happy with that.

Snowflake Bentley by Jacqueline Briggs Martin (About a man who photographed snowflakes)

Wedding ring, all the time. Like taking it off before the ankle surgery was emotionally difficult. Engagement ring, never, since we were married. For me, it was a placeholder until I got the real thing.

We were very broke college students. He got a ring from his mom. It happened to be from his grandmother. I wore it until we got married and then switched to a much plainer wedding ring. The biggest reason we used that ring was because he had no money to buy a different one and we wanted to get married. Sentiment and history was not a big deal. Just practicality.

Congratulations. You guys played a good game. Good luck.

So, I found out tonight that my daughter wants to apply to some schools using the common app. This is news to me. The last I knew she wanted to apply to only one school and it had its own app. That one is done. It didn't need anything other than a transcript. I have a transcript. I know I will need course descriptions, but what are they really. She took most classes with online with outside providers. I didn't teach them at all. I can look up the details on the classes, but what do I need to put there? And a counselor letter? And a school profile? She is a class of one and she is an intense kid. We homeschooled in large part because of her anxiety and intensity and giving her space to learn to be a person. I am not entirely sure I can say a bunch of happy glowing things about how she would be a great asset to the school. She might not be. She is hard to figure out. Silent screaming going on here.

Can you get the assignment info at pick up time? That is what I do and did for Japanese school for my son. Some teachers are better about sending email than others. I have not seen that it makes a difference in what class they teach. It is a personality quality instead. We seem to get more email friendly ones in alternating years. This is a not good email year, but he is better about remembering and taking notes. And I ask his teachers before we leave every time now.

I will cheer for the Tribe until they are playing the Dodgers. Then things will be different. :)

No. After you fill out the form it sends you a link to the PDF of your filled out form. I save that. In all the years we have homeschooled here, we have never been asked for it by any government official. I did need it to prove I was homeschooling a couple of times but that is it. We used it to get a teacher card at a local museum and we used it to prove we were homeschooling to sign up for the CHSPE. I hope that helps.

I am sorry your mom broke her ankle. At my one week post op visit I found out that the pins and plates were doing fine but one little broken piece was still shifting. Thankfully it wasn't shifting very much and I didn't need more surgery. I am sorry your mom needs more surgery. I was told not to use the knee scooter until I got the fiberglass cast and the swelling was down. I hope she does well and is on her feet again soon.

Thanks for the sympathy. I have a special chair my husband bought for the shower. He has been a saint for this whole time. I am really looking forward to washing my hair.