We are too.

I think it looks fine also. Especially when you add in a second child, it definitely takes more time. I have two first graders. We start at 9:00am and we probably spend about 2.5 hours in the morning, take a break and have lunch and then probably another hour or hour and a half in the afternoon. Much of it depends on how cooperative one of my sons happens to be on a given day. Lately he has been complaining about writing and math and throwing fits about it so it drags things out much longer than they would have to be otherwise. And, you never know, when your K'er gets a bit older, she might catch up to her brother in some areas.

7:00 - 900am The boys and I all wake up. They sit around quietly and read library books until they wake up a bit more. I put in a load of laundry, clean up any snack dishes/cups around the kitchen from the night before and pick up the areas we use when homeschooling, which are mostly our large kitchen island and the living room that is open to the kitchen. We all eat and I get online and catch up on a bit of reading news, WTM, blogs and/or email. 9:00am Start school. The boys pick through our subject cards and decide what order they feel like doing subjects each day. Usually history and science are always picked first, although not today. Today they picked Read-Aloud (I'm reading Because of Winn-Dixie to them - I think it was 40 minutes today), Math and then Bible Study. Then it was break time and stopped to have lunch. During lunch, I also put laundry in the dryer, clean up the kitchen after we eat and sit down to take a short break while they play. Sometime between 1:00 and 1:30, we started back up and did science, spelling, read to self (30 minutes - we rotate this with assigned reading on various days), Writing and English. So that is what it looked like today. Normally though we end up starting with History or Science. History is Mon/Wed and Science is TTh. Fridays we go to homeschool co-op. There we have the following schedule: 9:00-10:00 P.E. led by a local YMCA 10:00-11:00 Spanish 11:00-12:00 Art 12:00-12:30 Lunch with everyone in one central area 12:30-1:30 We have a break; reading time 1:30 - 2:30 Drama Tomorrow will be our second day for our new homeschool co-op. If the rest of the year is anything like our first day, we are going to have a blast.

Wow, I wish I had seen this advice when mine was smaller. She is a bit too big now to be able to give treats all the time without her getting fat (I think). I agree also with the idea of getting another Bengal. As long as they are about the same age and they are young, they will likely do well together. Our problem is that our kitten attacks our 14 year old constantly and he is now too old to really deal with it anymore.

We tried the squirt bottle too and it totally didn't work...or I should say it worked but very temporarily. These kittens are very smart. They know that it takes a person to run the squirt bottle so they know when to stop and run and when they can get away with something. I even went so far as to carry the squirt gun around the house with me at all times (attached to my shorts pocket) where I could easily grab it and squirt very quickly. I tried it over a long period very consistently. These cats are just too smart for this tactic.

Actually, when I talked to my vet about my Bengal kitten's aggressive behavior, he said "time"...."she will grow out of much of it" and after only one year I can already see a big difference.

:iagree:This is very good advice.

I would not advise this at all.....because I have tried it already and it made the situation worse. I have had three Bengals. One of my 14 year old Bengals died so last summer we got another Bengal kitten who has turned out to be a little terror, compared to my first two, although not compared to the OP's Bengal, by the sounds of it. My one year old sounds very much like your kitten, although she has already mellowed out a bit over the past year. She still has times that she will go after one of my 6 YO (almost 7) sons. It usually only happens when they try to play with her. Even though I have tried to tell them over and over, they just don't do it the proper way. They want to jump around in front of her, get in her face a bit (playfully) and touch her feet or tail or ears. She has even attacked me when I have picked her up and she did not want me to. I have tried swatting her. She fought back and actually became more aggressive with me EVERY time. Here are some things I have done to help the situation at our house. For myself, I am more careful to read her body language before picking her up. I have also spent more time crooning to her in a sweet voice, petting her gently while she is on the floor or on a chair, etc. I have spent more time gaining her trust. I am also more careful about how I hold her and I can now better tell when she doesn't want to be picked up so I am very careful when I have to pick her up so she can bite/scratch me. But, since I have started playing with her more (always using a toy), petting her and talking to her in a sweet voice more, she is calming down. She is also getting a little older which I am sure helps. For the boys, I have told them over and over never to play with her unless they use a toy. They still can't resist teasing her at times though and sometimes she will go after them like she would another kitten. 99% of the time, they were doing something to bring it on. For the more rare (these days) occasion when she instigates it and goes after them, first they are now able to more clearly see her getting in that mode. They recognize how her the pupils of her eyes get real big and she gets in attack stance. The best thing they can do is to tell her no, move away quickly and ignore her. But make sure you are teaching your children not to interact with the kitten unless they are using a toy. If the kitten is very sleepy, then they could possibly pet it safely, depending on it's age. The adults can show the children how to use a toy to play with the kitten (you probably already have) but I have found that young children and Bengal's really don't mix all that well. Now, by the time your soon-to-be infant is a toddler, the Bengal will likely have calmed down considerably. I will say this though. I have had many cats throughout my lifetime and the Bengals have been, by far, my favorites. And they make wonderful companions as they age. My first two were a female and a male (actually I still have him). Both of my females were definitely MY cats. They wanted to be with me, would follow me from room to room and spent more time with me than they did with anyone else in the house. My male is a love bug with anyone and everyone. He has never met a person he didn't love and he is the most gentle cat I have ever seen. When my two sons came home from Russia, they were 14 and 15.5 months old. This cat would let them crawl all over him. He would army crawl over to the ottoman and stick his head under it so they wouldn't squish his head but they would be all over the rest of him. One of my sons would lie next to this cat on the floor, holding the end of the cats tail, while sucking his thumb. This cat seems he is really half dog:). He has even stood on his hind legs, with his front legs on the window sill, and growled at someone coming in the squeaky front gate. Anyway, they are awesome and I hope you are able to work out a solution.

My ds (6YO) started taking piano lessons a couple of months ago (we pay $80 per month here for 30 minute weekly lessons). He is using the Faber books, which seem really nice to me. He has a performance book, a lesson book and a theory book. My other son (almost 7) has been taking violin for about 2.5 years now. Because of the complexities of playing the violin, I have had to play coach/teacher when he practiced at home. I was not patient enough:tongue_smilie:. Eventually, we instituted 'the candy rule'. We each had a line of 6 M&M's or Skittles. If I was not being nice enough, he got to eat one of mine. If he started whining or crying, I got to eat one of his. It was a good reminder for me and it lightened the atmosphere and made it more fun for him. He never really whined or cried as long as I was being patient and nice.:001_smile: My advice is that if you REALLY want him/them to take lessons and you REALLY want them to start this year, go ahead and teach them yourself, but I would only do that if I felt sure I could do it patiently and nicely. You might want to first find a teacher in your area that you like and find out what books he/she uses. If it were me, if I tried it and found that it was not going well because I could not be patient enough, then I would probably wait another year because I wouldn't want them to hate piano because of me (which I almost had happen with the violin, until we started using the candy, which we no longer need these days because I don't have to do much anymore:D).

We are schooling 4 days a week but we school more days than the PS. On our Fridays we will be going to co-op for P.E., Spanish and art classes so I guess that means we are really schooling 4.5 days a week but we have to get everything we do at home finished from Monday through Thursday. My two guys are in the second half of 1st grade this semester so I am sure it is easier to get everything done in four days at this age.

LOL....... and I switched from a relatively easy maiden name to dh's Czech last name that is misspelled and mispronounced by pretty much everyone.:tongue_smilie: I'm very traditional too.

I was thinking the same thing. They said they always started at 8:30am, schooled until 11:30am, took a break for lunch and started again at 1:30 (I think) and I don't remember when they normally stopped. They also said they covered 3 days of material in one day of schooling.

You are all so loving and caring and I so appreciate your response. You really have blessed me tremendously today. Thank you all so much.

Thank you all so very much for your condolences and heartfelt posts. It is soothing to the soul. And thank you for sharing your stories. I am so sorry for those of you who have been through this with your loved ones. It is so very hard but it definitely helps when we lift each other up.

You all have really blessed my day. Thank you so much. The boys are not quite seven years old. They seem to understand that she is gone from a factual perspective but they do not seem to have any kind of emotional understanding or response. They are asking to go to a park and I think it will be good for us to get outside, even though it is hot. Otherwise, I will want to just sit in my chair all day and read various things on my laptop and that is probably not good for any of us. So, off we go to a park. Thank you all so very much for blessing me today.

My mom was 75 years old but she had fought breast cancer a number of years back and the chemo had really aged her considerable. This is kind of long but, for those who might be interested, the pastor read it at her funeral: Our dear mother was raised in Vinita and she had one sister. There was a large age gap between her and her sister and, from the sounds of it, she may have been a little bit spoiled. I guess that is why she loved to spoil others. When she was young, she enjoyed riding the train from Vinita to Terrell Texas to visit her aunts. They loved to spoil her too. They wanted her parents to name her Jerri. Her parents named her Mozella after her grandmother so her aunts just called her Jerri anyway. So, all her life, she was known as Jerri when she went to Terrell. The other day, I called an old friend in Terrell to let her know mom had passed away and I heard her tell her husband in the background that Jerri had passed away. Mom never cared for the name Mozella very much, although she did like her middle name, Marie and sometimes she would go by that name. Towards the end of her life, she would say she wished her name was Rosella. She was so funny. She would even write Rosella on various notes or when journaling sometimes. She loved Jesus and she made sure we were brought up going to church. We have found countless notebooks and pieces of paper where she wrote and rewrote scriptures that were most meaningful to her and also prayers. She did a great job of ensuring her children were raised with good morals and values. She had quite a busy job when we five kids were all little. When the youngest was born, she also had 14 month old twins, a four year old and a six year old. I’m sure we kept her pretty busy. She enjoyed telling us about the time when the twins were little and she had just returned from grocery shopping. She was putting away the groceries when the phone rang. While she was on the phone, the twins were trying to help and they dropped a carton of eggs on the floor. When she came back to the kitchen, one of them was on the floor with a sponge, wiping around and around, smearing the eggs all over the place. The other one was scooping up egg shells and taking them to the sink, dripping egg over the floor on the way. She had quite the mess to clean up that day. She was a very hard worker and, for many years, she worked nine hour days, six days a week as a cashier at Don’s Grocery. I know she was often tired but I don’t remember hearing her complain about the number of hours she had to work to support her family. She taught us to be hard workers also and, when we were old enough, she expected us to keep the house cleaned up and the laundry done and, eventually, to also have a job after school and during the summers when we could. Mom wanted us to go to college. When she was younger, she finished high school but did not go to college and she always regretted it. I could not count how many times she told us that her mother tried to tell her to go to college and she sure wished that she had listened. She so badly wanted us to go. When Kathy was in nursing school and met her future husband, she wanted to quit school. One evening Mom got on her knees next to Kathy’s bed and begged her to stay in school because she had always wished she had gone to college and she thought it was so important. For those of you who don’t know, Kathy is one of the best nurses anyone could ever have. Mom loved people and was the most thoughtful and generous person I have ever known. She loved giving cards and gifts to others and greatly appreciated receiving them. Her love language was most certainly gifts and thoughtful acts, as that was definitely how she showed her love to others. I believe she kept every card she ever received and, in her later years, she really enjoyed going through them, re-reading them, framing some of them and telling us all about them, and with such excitement, as if she was seeing them for the first time. She greatly appreciated the beauty around her. She could not throw anything away if it had any beauty about it at all. And to her, beautiful things did not have to be expensive. She would even keep an empty box or an old calendar if it had a pretty picture on it. She always had a special attachment for roses and angels and anything with roses or angels on it. She was fascinated with angels and read about them and collected them for many years. The Lord took her home so suddenly that it is very hard for us who remain and miss her so. However, in doing so He also answered many prayers. She said many times that she wished she could go in her sleep. She did not want to end up in a nursing home and she would have hated to go through extensive rehabilitation. The good Lord knew all of that and He answered her prayers. She was already very sleepy when the ambulance came and she was no longer feeling pain. By the time the ambulance arrived in Grove, she was asleep and did not wake again. The entire time she was in a coma, she had a peaceful expression on her face. But there was an instant, just before she passed away, when a smile flickered across her face. I’m sure she was either seeing Jesus, angels or someone she knew or maybe she was just hearing the angels sing. We are thankful that she went very peacefully with her children around her, holding her and loving her. She was well loved by many and she loved many very well. What a special person she was. We will miss her beyond words but we will rejoice for her because we know where she went and that she is now happy, healthy and singing with the angels and we know we will one day see her again.

Thank you all so very much for your thoughtful replies and your sympathy and empathy. It is greatly appreciated and it does so help to be able to share and know that people are praying. My mom was such a caring and thoughtful person and there were a ton of people who came to the visitation and funeral. There are so many who loved her and will miss her. Thanks again for your replies. It really is healing to the heart. Going through this has given me a whole new understanding of how to respond when someone is going through the loss of a loved one.

She called me Thursday morning to tell me she had fallen and hit her head. I live about 1.5 hours away from her. She wanted me to call my brother, who lives in her house but was dog sitting for a friend, and ask him to come home asap. I didn't realize she was still in the floor when she called. My brother was only about 15 minutes away so he hurried on home and was able to help her get up and get into her chair. Her head was hurting but she did not want to go to the ER because they had been rough with her the last time she had to go in and have an XRay. My brother needed to go back to his dog sitting so he called me and let me know he did not feel comfortable leaving her alone. We were homeschooling so I gathered our things and my two sons and I took off toward her house. When we arrived, she was in considerable pain. Her head was hurting so badly that she couldn't sit still. We called an ambulance and they took her to a local hospital. The last time we heard her speak and saw her awake was when the EMT's were putting her on the stretcher. When we arrived at the hospital, she was already in a coma. They took her for a cat scan of her head and said she had two bleeds in her brain. She was taking a blood thinner so this was really bad. They lifeflighted her to Tulsa on a helicopter and she was being taken into surgery when we arrived. On Saturday we made the decision to take her off of the ventilator because the cat scans were showing that a large portion of her brain had been deprived of blood long enough to kill the cells. It was as if she had had a massive stroke and we knew, even if she could survive, she would never be the same and she would hate that. She lived for another 2 to 3 hours. She died with her children around her, holding her and loving her. Her funeral was yesterday. It is so hard to believe she is gone. If you could keep my family in your prayers, we would greatly appreciate it. This has been especially hard for my sister and brother, who saw her everyday and did so much for her, and also for me as we were all very close to her. I have two other older brothers also (I am the youngest and my sister and brother who saw her every day are twins, 14 months older than me). It was just so sudden and we were not prepared. This may sound kind of funny but it seems hard to figure out how to return to 'normal' everyday life. The twins and I all feel really lost without her. I know it will get easier but, man, this is so hard.

We got about an inch of rain here, just northeast of Tulsa, for which we are extremely thankful. On the news last night they were saying they were very concerned the lightening might start more fires. I haven't heard an update on the situation yet this morning. We have fields around our housing community and a week or so ago we had fires on two sides of us. They appear to have been started when the hay mowers hit rocks, although I haven't heard officially.

Many of the differences I thought of have already been mentioned. How about the driving differences? In the northeastern cities it is expected that people will honk their horn at someone if they are not happy with how that someone is driving. People were much more impatient with others (everyone is in a hurry) and you better be paying attention when the light turns because, if you wait in one second longer than what is expected, they will honk at you. People are also much more likely to try very hard to not allow others to merge or cut-in to a line of cars. I lived in the N.E. for many years and I really had to readjust my driving habits when I moved back to Texas & Oklahoma. Here, people wave you into a line of cars with a welcoming kind of wave. When I stop at a 4 way stop, people will wave for me to go ahead before them, even if they stopped first. Nobody hardly ever honks their horn, unless someone else is almost ready to run into them. If you honk your horn at someone here, they are offended. In the N.E. it was just the norm. I can remember being in Boston and NYC and hearing the car horns constantly.

I think it is great that you said something. Good for you! Maybe part of the problem with society these days is that not enough people speak up anymore.

Ours is just sitting on the grass lawn.

Yes, different priorities. I don't care about the sound system, as long as I can hear the radio/CD's. We are not car people here either. Our other car is a Honda Accord:).

I love our Sienna. I found it almost new at autotrader.com, it had leather and everything else we wanted and we got an amazing deal on it, plus it was still under warranty. (They guy had bought it and then decided he couldn't really afford it.) You might want to check there before buying something brand new.

Me too!:tongue_smilie: