:ohmy: glad my SIL broke my MIL's "just dropping by" habit ~ I can't believe she'd drive 3 hours to "drop by" - crazy!! I put other - I don't think it's rude, but I don't like it when people stop by because my house is usually very messy! I am NOT a housekeeper, and things are normally in a crazy state here.

we used molding from Lowes and used square decorative corners so we wouldn't have to use a miter saw and get the angles right :) We screwed our board in then nailed the molding around it. HTH!

i know you said no paint, but I wanted to point out what I did, just in case you don't find what you're looking for. We took a think piece of plywood (1/4 inch or so), I primed and painted it with chalkboard paint (several coats). DH cut it to my specifications, hung it and framed it with molding. I had it hanging in my kitchen for a while, and I got the most complements on it! We would often write "welcome Jones family" or "Happy Birthday Jane" when we had company or celebrations. We've moved school to another room, and we were able to easily move the challkboard. you can see pictures on my blog (they are on the first page) www.lifeofadairyqueen.blogspot.com HTH

that does sound fun! I've thought about hosting a tea at mother's day with my mom, MIL, and grandmothers - and let my girls help put it on. I hope you have a great time!

just thought about this - last year I laminated a bunch of car bing-o games, scavenger hunts, and mazes to use on road trips.

I laminate file folder games that I make (because I am usually making them for my oldest, and have 2 coming up behind her. . . then I can pass them on when we finish them) I have a morning meeting/calendar time type set up that I use with my Kindergartener, so I have a laminated calendar; a chart to fill in a number sentence, tally marks, place value, and coin count for each day; a sentence strip to write the date; a weather graph. . . we reuse these over and over. I laminate other activities that we re-use (like file folder games, but more like activities that we write on) tags that I use to label boxes of toys, manipulatives, and other supplies chore charts I love mine. I could live without it, but I'm glad I don't have to! oh, and my dd LOVES to use laminated sheets that she can wipe off - it's a change from pencils and crayons :)

It's so funny that you see it as the Baptist's way to get people to church, because i grew up in a Methodist church and this was a common practice. Now I am a member of a Baptist church and I told dh that I was SO glad that our children wouldn't be taught that "inviting a friend to church" would be the replacement for witnessing to them! I guess it really just depends on the church (or area?) I agree with you - the Holy Spirit will prompt you :)

wow. i am so sorry for all the negative experiences with awana. My dd just finished that section of the book to bring a friend. Honestly, all of my dd's friends are either in our church or another church. I went and watched her during game time and they signed off as her bringing a friend. I don't disagree with encouraging kids to invite people to come to church with them so that they can hear the Good News of Christ. HOWEVER ~ I don't think a young child should be invited from a different-believing background in order to be swayed. I think it's a great way to possible bring people to a relationship with Christ who do not know of Him. I think a contest is ridiculous, because it does cause kids to invite for the wrong reason, and I'd hate to feel that I was invited for that sort of ulterior motive. Our church doesn't do that, and I am grateful. And, to the poster who had to pay all the money and then didn't get any of the stuff she'd paid for - WOW. I can't imagine that. Utterly ridiculous. I love the AWANA program at our church. I love the focus on learning scripture at a young age, and I feel it has been very valuable for my children. I think if I'd faced some of the situations mentioned in this thread I wouldn't be so fond of it either.

If you have a sunny spot, let them research, plan, and plant a butterfly garden - that will give them lots of fun! You could also plan a garden to attract birds. . .

:bigear:

my dd writes all her letters, and writes them pretty neatly, but she doesn't form them correctly (ball and stick a, for example, she draws the circle the wrong way) should I do a handwriting program so she will do them the right way, or just wait until cursive?

i've lived in the same state all my life. I've lived in the same town since I was 6 months old. It's a small farming community, and I thought I would likely never find a husband since I even stayed here and commuted to a nearby college. Our county if full of "good ole boys". Luckily, my now-husband's family moved here when I was in college and they are a farming family. I met him at my part-time job (in a agricultural business no doubt).

yes! that's what I wanted to say - being 8 months pregnant and the intense board games going on here fogged my mind! oh, and I want my kids to be able to clearly write their thoughts out! :tongue_smilie:

I have just read TWTM. I love it because it gives good goals and suggestions. I need a plan of where I'm going and how to get there. I like that they don't push all thier suggestions on us, but give good reasons for what they suggest. I've done PreK and K too "fly by the seat of my pants" and I've realized that I need more structure in my plans for the long-term. I tend to cover a topic then it takes forever for us to gear back up. hope all that makes sense - i'm refereeing and intense fancy nancy game while i'm typing :lol:

do they have consignment sales near you? I've bought lots of books at those - I've seen them packaged up and sold in groups. I would may be try some of the better authors/titles on half.com or something, but if you can put them all in the consignment sale, you don't have to mess with shipping - just package them and tag them. The ones around here pay the consignor 40-60%.

I use delicious.com for sorting online resources - you can tag sites that you find (If I find a great site to use for worms, and I am planning to teach that next year, I would tag it homeschool, science, 1st grade, worms) that way I can find it from a number of tags. I am also planning to use file folders for each topic that I plan to teach over the year - and when I come across something I can make a note of it in the file folder so I can remember to pull it off the shelf or get it from the library when I am pulling out all my stuff for that topic. (I hope that makes sense.) I also have drawers that I use for different things - a drawer for math manipulatives, one for science stuff, one for language, etc.

how many weeks will you do? may be you could divide the study by regions - New England, South East, etc. then spend a few weeks on each - make a notebook with a page for each state that has the state flag, when it became a state, interesting facts... have each student do a specific state study from each region to provide interesting in-depth facts about the state what age group? guess that would make a difference too

we are expecting number 3, and people think we're crazy - or they are at least certain we are going to stop after this :)

I keep my inserts dated and in an accordian file. On Sunday afternoon (usually, we had a family outing yesterday, so I'll do my shopping on Tuesday) I go to www.southernsavers.com (though I think you can find other sites like this). I click on the stores that I shop (I always go to Bi-Lo and Walgreens. Sometimes I go to CVS, our other little grocery store, and some weeks I'll make the drive to Kroger, 30 minutes, if there are enough good deals) Souther Savers shows what is on sale at each store and if there is a coupon available for it. She might say that peanut butter is on sale, and there was a coupon in the 1/10 SS (Super Saver). If there is a printable coupon, she provides a link to it. You can click on boxes next to the items you want and print your list. I cut coupons as I make the list. . . so I have all my coupons and my list divided by store. I also keep up with things that I need even if they aren't on sale (cooking spray, pull ups, etc). I always buy things that are on sale even if I don't need them now. It takes me about 3 hours to make my lists, clip my coupons, shop, and put away groceries. (that's not the case if I make the drive to Kroger) HTH

I think each mom has to do what is right for their stage of life. I'm expecting baby #3 - a boy after having 2 girls. I am going to cloth diaper this baby (didn't do it with the first 2 - no real "reason" other than I'm more settled now and we're home more for schooling, and I am hoping it will save us some money :) ) I am going to breast feed. I breastfed #1 for 8 months - love it, was so glad I was able to do it successfully. #2 was breastfed for 6 weeks, but I gave it up for antidepressants to help with my PPD (which by the way is another hot topic :confused:). I stay at home because I'm able and I feel like it's what God has called me to do. I went back to school for a year between my first 2 dds, but I couldn't stand being away. Oh, and don't forget about delivering the baby (I guess you miss this one since your adopting. . . ) - natural or epi? I had an epi with both the first ones, but I'm taking lamaze this time and am thinking of all natural. No real conviction to do it that way, just want to try it. My MIL has been the worst on telling me what I should do and shouldn't do - she wanted me to do lamaze from the beginning - she was very insistent, which is probably the reason I didn't do it (call me a rebel). She was also very insistent on breastfeeding, and talked about how she was never depressed after any of her babies were born. Imagine how it was to go on family vacation 10 weeks or so after dd2 was born - I hid my formula and nursery water in our room and washed bottles as discreetly as possible so no one would know that I wasn't breastfeeding. I told dh that no one was to know that I was on antidepressants. It was horrible. I just didn't want to deal with what they all had to say on the matter. I think this go around I will be more secure in thing sthat don't go as I have planned. It's really none of anyone's business how our children are raised. I have a dear friend expecting her first baby in a few weeks. She will not breastfeed. She is going back to work and her mom will be keeping her baby. I'm sure the thought of cloth diapers and natural child birth freak her out. But, she will still be a great mom. She will do what she feels is best for her family. It looks a lot different from my choices, but neither of is any better.

Do you think your kids would drink smoothies with yogurt and frozen fruit? You can get frozen berries of all sorts and they won't go bad. Then you're getting a good healthy breakfast (or snack) in them without worrying about fresh fruit going bad. you can also try to get them to eat the frozen berries mixed with ff cool whip - we love that! We keep grapes, banana, pears, apples, oranges on the counter right now. In the summer we will keep some o those and canteloupe, honey dew, strawberries. . . For breakfast, my kids love eggs - scrambled or fried are thier favorites - I cook those 2-3 times a week. We have toast, biscuits, grits (occasionally), cinnamon rolls (occasionally), bagels w/ cream cheese, yogurt, grapefruit - or any combination of the above :)

the prices aren't always that great, but I often don't mind paying a little extra to not have to make the trek to the store. . . www.alice.com - free shipping is just gravy :) they don't have all groceries, but they have quite a bit of stuff and you can shop by deals and can get some pretty good stuff that way :)

i'm not sure where you live, but I plan my shopping trips using www.southernsavers.com www.moneysavingmom.com is also a great site to help you save money

wow! those are great ideas! Here's what I'll add to her ideas. . . build a sensory table from pvc pipe - make it fit a clear, plastic, shallow box (buy several of the boxes). This will be an inexpensive way to be able to change out the boxes from time to time to keep it interesting. You can google "sensory box" for tons of ideas - rice, dried beans, water, cotton balls, shaving cream (my girls love shaving cream!). . . you can get an alphabet puzzle and have them dig the letters out of the rice and put them on the puzzle. In the water they can wash their babies, cars, or dishes; scoop and pour, etc. Oh, and my dds love the nuts and bolts - dh got them some huge ones (way too big to choke on) we have a smallish basket of them and it's quite heavy. It's great entertainment! My girls have also enjoyed a set of pipe joints I got them - I got a box at Lakeshore learning, but dh has brought them some pvc fittings and short pieces of pipe, and that has been a big hit too! here are some of my blog posts about preschoolers - towards the bottom are lots of ziplock bag ideas. hth http://lifeofadairyqueen.blogspot.com/search/label/preschoolers

I started reading in the 1999 WTM from the library, and now I'm reading in the 2009 version. The 1999 book recommended Usborne book of world history for first grade history, but in 2009 it was removed because "many parents found the encyclopedic presentation choppy and hard to follow; the book did not lend itself to narration practice." So, I was wondering if anyone used this for first grade, and what your thoughts were. . . TIA!