:lol: I don't know why, but being popular in the retirement community made me laugh! But maybe a good endorsement?!?! I have discovered that the Hyundai Entourage (owned by Kia) is being dropped in favor of allowing the Sedona to take over the market. Minivan sales keep on lagging, so they say, but I don't think they can be beat for all they offer in practicality. The Kia is a strong runner at this point. I'll update as we get out and test drive. This all still may be a while off as we are in the process of selling dh's very collectible 66 Mustang in order to make this purchase. My Exploder is not worth anything at this point, so him selling his precious baby was all there was to do. :crying:

Hmmmmm...... the plot is thickening..... A few of you love your Caravans, a few want it over a cliff. Seems about 50/50 so far. Not too good. I already knew the Honda/Toyota owners are happy. Even at CarMax they are all close to 90k miles and up, and none less than $13-14k in my area. While I know that there's still a lot of life left after that, it's taking a chance...to me anyways. The T&C seems to be winning. Many good reviews and affordable enough with lower miles. Strange since the Caravan and the T&C are essentially the same. Still looking at the Kia. Pretty good reviews, and certainly crash test ratings are high. Also has a high transferable warranty. Not sure I could get used to the Nissan. Kinda weird looking on the interior - the way the dash is laid out. :confused: Add orange seats to that...:lol:

I used this one from my friend Stefani's Blue Yonder blog. It was yummy! I didn't have the organic shortening, so I used regular.

Yep, I know that's an option and one that we will do if the "perfect" van we find doesn't have one. It's not a "must have" or anything. And leather is unbelievably hard to find! I guess most people that buy vans are families on a budget and don't want to shell out for that option when the kids will just ruin a van with their messes, but leather is SO EASY to clean, and so much more comfortable. I've seen it most often in the Odyssey's and Sienna's that I find, but just another reason why they are $$$$$$. Thanks again for your advice/opinions/experiences!:)

I enjoy the HoD forums and "see" people from here over there. The author of the program and her sister (aka her editor) are on there a lot too and do provide valuable insight. It's just not as busy as here and I enjoy all the varied conversations here a lot.:tongue_smilie:

Ah! Thanks Michele, better to test drive it than rule it out! They are made by Ford, right? Some I've seen used are pretty nice! No transmission problems on yours? I've read something about this being a chronic problem.

I have a friend who is a homeschooling mom of 4 and pg with her 5th. Her dh has stage 4 metastatic melanoma and is 36 years old. He has been in treatment for a couple of weeks in a new clinical trial, but now has to stop because something isn't responding right and his tumors are growing too rapidly. I fear he will not live to see his new baby in September. 36. years. old. Not trying to be a big ol' Debbie Downer, but please do hug those kids tight and run in the rain if they want to! :grouphug:

Thanks again for the great responses! This is exactly the kind of info I was looking for. Been doing some research and I find that the Mazda MPV has been replaced with the Mazda 5, and it's called a "compact" minivan, or a mini-minivan. So that's out. I'm 5'11", and dh is 6", and my kids are tall, we need the space. I do like the look of the Nissan, and it might be a good way for me to get that Japanese reliability that I want, without quite the price tag of the Honda or Toyota. The Kia has excellent crash test ratings I'm finding. So that's good. Just don't think I can trust a Ford or GM. Oh, if only I just had a couple more thousand, I might be able to find one with leather and a DVD player! *sigh*:tongue_smilie:

This is ALL excellent so far! Keep it comin'!!! I have looked at Edmonds.com and lots of other spots with reviews and am of the mind that if a person is satisfied with a consumer product they generally go happily on their way, and may comment to friends and family about their happiness. If you are p*ssed, however, you will find a place to get your rant on. Especially about cars. Book reviewers, a la Amazon, seem okay, but I have yet to read many good reviews of cars, People keep buying them, so someone somewhere is happy, but tis hard to find reviews. That's why I thought to ask the hive. Good advice too, to look at the safety ratings. I also assumed the Kia was 5*, but maybe not. Will check. I do like the Nissan, seems a little space-age design wise, but I guess that would make it unique! Again, keep it comin'...please!:D:bigear:

We are looking to getting a *new to us* minivan. The kids are very excited to get the "super cool sliding doors!" :001_rolleyes: I'd like reviews from those of you who own one. I'm talking later model, like 04-07 years. You may skip posting if you own a Toyota or Honda because I am sure you love it, and I would too, just can't afford one. Looking at Chrysler/Dodge, Nissan, Mazda MPV, KIA, even Hyundai, and anything else you can think of. We're not GM people but maybe they're great? Had a Ford at one time that was older and it was crappola, but maybe they're better now? Your wisdom and experiences are sought! :auto:

HOD recommends a program called "Cheerful Cursive" to teach it. I haven't used it yet because I was trying to save money and bought a cheapo workbook, but I am getting it for next year. My understanding is that it will have the child work on reading a sentence in cursive and copy it in manuscript, and vise versa, so it helps them to learn to read cursive. Maybe check it out!

Quick question on Speech Therapy. My dd is 8 and is having stuttering/stammering issues. It didn't start until a year or so ago, as far as we can remember, but it's getting bad. She has never been in speech therapy and I am wondering how I'd pay for it. Does your insurance cover such a thing? I don't believe we'd qualify for any assistance from the school district. As far as modeling, I assume you read aloud a lot and have her read a lot too? I would guess that adding in narration would be a good tool for modeling as well.

And Rebecca, remember in the book she does rec DITHOR! I love this book too. I tried to read the reviews and recommendations section before reading about what kind of learner my dd is. I still think I have a ways to go in learning about learning styles, but that part was SO helpful to this newbie.

Or for non-science, my dd loves her American Girl magazines. We get them from the library but I'm going to subscribe to it for her 9th b.day this summer.

I tend to avoid those "overheated" threads myself because I dislike confrontation. I tend to get my feelings hurt. I remember one time I was lurking on board about a particular vacation destination and the general threads were filled with "please pray about this..." so I naively thought I was amongst like minded folks - ya know... Christians. So I posted a *warning* about an upcoming movie that had content that was disagreeable possibly to said Christian mindset. Oh. my. The thread turned in to about 15 pages of flames against censoring movies and books, book banning, book burning, losing freedoms - like freedom of speech and freedom to make a movie that has whatever content and intention you want. :blink: Talk about feeling unwelcome. BUT, it was my own fault. I assumed that everyone would agree with me and so instead of querying about the content of the movie and would people find it concerning, I ASS-U-ME-D. Lesson. Learned. I agree that sometimes it's best to avoid certain threads, but more often than not respectful responses are sought. I haven't been around long though and don't poke my head in where it doesn't belong! ;) Oh, yeah, I want World Peace too.

He might also like Heaven for Kids by Randy Alcorn. It's specifically about Heaven, and an incredibly researched book. But I think a kid with big questions might really like it.

Encyclopedia Brown Come On Seabuscuit Homer Price Stone Fox Justin Morgan Had a Horse Mr Poppers Penguins The Cricket in Times Square Mountain Born By the Great Horn Spoon Balto and the Great Race Concord Cunningham: Scripture Sleuth Ben and Me Rabbit Hill matchlock Gun Twenty and Ten Mystery of Pelican Cove

i really liked the Times article. Thank You for sharing it! :D

Angela, You asked if any of us plan to use Preparing after Bigger? I definitely plan to do this. I already have many of the books for Preparing and just need to order my guide. I also have every confidence that we will like it and will move on to the 4 year cycle after that. For me it fits perfectly as my dd will finish with the HoD guides at the end of 8th grade, then on to...who knows for high school! I can't even imagine that far ahead! Then I'll have all that for my son coming up behind her. I know myself, if I start looking too deeply into other curriculum I instill all kinds of doubts, and it's better for me to be content - which I am - with what God has led me to.

Hmmmmmm..... A fluke maybe, BUT bananas and toast are on the BRAT diet for upset tummies, so they should have helped settle it, I'd guess. If I were you I'd stay on the down low for a while this morning to see what happens. No fever? Is he still nauseous?

OH! I didn't even think about all the wonderful sites you are so close too!!!! I would totally do that!

How about as part of your reading you find some fun biographies they can read. I'm not so convinced that history *always* has to be taught in a chronological way. You could read about anyone or any time period they enjoy and there's so many ways to find books that relate. That way they'd have some additional history exposure and the reading practice as well. For science I'm going to just get some fun books to "play" with. We're going to do some bug and bird watching, make an ant hill, draw trees, you know...the nature stuff in summer. Pretty much watch it all dry up around here! Also my dd really wants to study volcanoes and some earth science, so she and her dad, with little brother tagging along, will do some stuff with that and we'll probably build our own volcano. We will probably also explore some caves around here since they relate to earth science and geology, plus they are cool in the summer!

For me it's more about "exposure". I certainly don't expect my children to memorize everything they are being taught, and I too enjoy seeing the mastery in certain subjects. But what I like is the ability to expose them to so much literature, philosophy, culture, music, etc, so they become well rounded individuals. Then they can decide for themselves what to study further. I have very poor long term memory. I only remember snippets of my childhood and often think I don't remember anything I was taught in school. But, as I'm teaching my children I find that a lot of it's still there, locked away in my brain or subconscious. And certainly we can all agree here that being well read is one of the greatest gifts we can give our children. Instead of spending countless hours on mind numbing busy work at school, our lessons are short and we can explore so much more!

Would something like MS Office work, but without having to buy Office? I am in that situation. My laptop died earlier this year (:crying: RIP) so I am now on dh's Mac. I needed office type software and can't afford to buy the real thing. So I downloaded OpenOffice. It's free shareware that is document and spreadsheet friendly, like office, and can even read Office docs (although you do lose formatting). Just a thought.

We're still trying to decide if we can do it. Of course we can, but do we want to? We don't go out much for entertainment, don't spend much on eating out, so TV is kind of "it". I do watch a little trashy TV (Grey's Anatomy - I know, I know:blush:) But I would miss the kids programming, HGTV, Food Network, the Discovery-TLC shows, and the biggie is NFL. Now that we switched to Directv, dh gets NFL Network and he's in heaven. Our plan is to start now with one day a week where we don't even turn the set on, then increase to two, etc. And whatever days we pick to not turn in on, we can't watch anything that records. Otherwise you're not really "doing without". My goal is to not start back in Fall with any of my bad shows and habits. Then maybe after NFL season is over in January we can get rid of it altogether. Kudo's to you for getting rid of it!!!