I guess I'm the only horrible that buys everything I can this month because I love pink! Raising money for breast cancer research is an added bonus for me.

In kindergarten I try to get the Phonics work done consistently. We always have math and handwriting, but those aren't crucial. If he wants to do school when the big kids are, I pull out Explode the Code, Developmental Math, or DK Kindergarten Math. I also let him play with C Rods and other manipulatives as much as he likes. This is the path I've taken with my last 3 K'ers and have been very happy with the results.

The best family dog we've ever had was a Great Pyrenees/Golden Retriever Cross. He was absolutely amazing. He would let the babies pull on his fur, climb on in, tug his ears, etc. He didn't mind sharing his food with chickens, cats, other dogs. He loved cats. He was fine with other dogs. He was very laid back and calm, even as a puppy. He would bark once when someone drove up and then stop. He was never violent with anyone, but stood by watchfully when strangers were around. I always felt very safe with him. He weighed 95 pounds. I think this combo is the perfect family dog. We now have a purebred Great Pyrenees, which we adore as well. She is very happy just to lay at your feet. GPs if not fixed aren't good with other dogs who aren't fixed. If they're both fixed though, they're usually fine, unless they perceive the dog as a threat.

It sounds like your big worry is your husband's implant situation. My implant was not covered by medical or dental. Dental did pay for the crown, but nothing else was covered. That might change your decision. FWIW, we have an HSA. With 8 people in our family, the most we would ever have to pay in a year is $5000, no matter what. We just make sure we get that amount in the HSA, and we're good to go.

I love Kinky Curly too and recommend reading the book Curly Girl. You can also read on the forums at NaturallyCurly.com. That was incredibly helpful for me dealing with my coarse, frizzy, wavy hair and my middle dd's fine, thick, curly hair. We've used the same system on my oldest dd's straight, super thick hair and have discovered its actually quite curly. The absolute best thing we did for our hair is to stop using shampoo. We use Suave Coconut conditioner to wash our hair and then use Tressemme naturals conditioner to condition it. My hair is much less oily than it was before and less frizzy and coarse as well.

At her age, I wouldn't worry about Odyssey of the Mind. I would have her choose between Park Day and Gymnastics. If the gym is important to your sanity, keep it, but only go on the mornings you don't have an extracurricular in the afternoon.

I can relate to this, but not as the parent. I've always been sensitive to correction from those I love. Mostly because I spend so much time beating myself up for my faults, failures, and shortcomings that to have someone else throw fuel on the fire is just too much. It doesn't bother me as much when acquaintances or friends criticize, but my loved ones reduce me to tears easily. As I grow older, I'm getting better at telling them that I'm fully aware of the problem they've mentioned and I'm working on it, without getting as emotional. It still hurts though, and I feel like nothing I do is ever good enough. So there you have it, the flip side of the coin... On another note, I've been reading Barbara Coloroso's Kids Are Worth It and finding it very helpful in phrasing things in my parenting. It's an easy read and worth the time. It's amazing how you can get the same results without the kids feeling criticized. It's more about helping them solve problems. It sounds like she recognizes the problem, but needs help implementing a solution.

We are at the pool 4-5 days a week for swim practice, depending on the season. I've never not had a toddler to watch there, so I feel your pain! My best advice, get the toddler to sleep for a nap before swim lessons. I did that with my last toddler and have started with my 2 year old now, even though it puts his nap really late in the day. It's worth it to not have to chase him for some of the 3 hours we're there. Bubbles have done well for us there too. I usually try to take a toy they don't have at home and rotate it out every few weeks. Trains, cars, etc. work well because they're moving them, but staying in one spot for the most part. Snack time in the stroller sometimes helps buy a few minutes of not chasing them around. If I think of more things we've done, I'll come back and edit.

How is he now?

We've done binders for a couple of years. I did recently get tired of loading them weekly, so I switched to pronged folders. I bought about 20 per kid, and load 20 weeks at a time. For the younger ones, I separate it by days. For the older ones, I let them work in the order they like. If they want to do all their math in one day, they're welcome to. I put the subjects we do all together in there too, like the map pages for SOTW. I tried to find things these past few years that I could file this way. Now that my oldest 2 are needing actual textbooks, we're moving away from that a little bit. For the younger years though, I love the system.

I haven't read through all the replies, but I'll throw my 2 cents in anyway. I had to drop AAS. There just wasn't time in the day to make it work. I have 3 natural spellers and 1 horrible, horrible speller. We tried AAS, but it just didn't get done. So we switched to Sequential Spelling DVDs for him, and I'm so happy we did. I'm a lot like you. I'm a perfectionist and have this idea in my head of what would be the perfect schooling. However, the reality is with this many kids I just can't do it all. I'm having to pare down and limit the teacher intensive subjects. I'm trying to make sure the things I choose to be teacher intensive are worth the time spent doing them or if that time could be better spent on another subject. I adore Writing With Ease workbooks. No, they don't always tie in to what we're doing in school, but they get done. They've also hooked the kids on a few books they wouldn't have otherwise been interested in. For Memory Work, I get anything I can on audio and make a weekly playlist. We review it in the car as a family. I love having a captive audience LOL.

I'd like to think I can discern when a comment would be hurtful and when its appropriate to the situation, especially since I've had a number of miscarriages, most before I had kids. I wouldn't say that to anyone who says that, but there's a wide range of people I get that comment from, some very kind and some not so nice. You learn to read the sentiment behind the words when you hear the same words so many times. I think what's not being said on this thread is most people with lots of kids get these comments several times a day in a variety of circumstances. There are certain comments that seem innocuous when written on an online forum, but in a real life situation you can read nuances and see the attitude behind the words. When you've had the same conversation 200 times before, you kind of know where its going with the phrasing of the first statement. There's so much you can't communicate online, and this is one of those things.

I always say, "I don't know. I take them one at a time." DH has started saying, "Well, we've always planned on 8, but now that you mention it 10 might be better." I have a cousin who has to talk about new forms of birth control every time he visits. He's an OB, and I think really believes we don't know about birth control. LOL... What really bothers me though, is the constant speculation over whether I'm pregnant or not. I don't tell people until I'm through the first trimester. I've had enough miscarriages that I don't want to deal with people knowing about them. This past summer, people kept asking me if I was, and I really didn't know what to say or how to deal with it. I was pregnant, but I wasn't comfortable telling anyone, not even my mom until I thought it would stick. I just happen to start to look pregnant as soon as my fertility returns, so I look pregnant before I am. At the time, I was only 5 weeks and had just found out. It really upset me that people were forward enough to ask me about it. I mean, I'm overweight, so I could have taken it really poorly. People should know that as soon as a woman wants people to know she's pregnant, she'll announce it. Until then, DON'T ASK! Am I alone in this? BTW, sorry to hijack your thread... I also get a lot of, "Boy, your hands are full!" and I always reply, "Better full than empty!"

Yellow eyes generally mean something is affecting the liver function. I would call sooner rather than later.

My 12 yo ds has never enjoyed reading for pleasure. He likes to listen to audio books, but reading just hasn't interested him. The rest of the family devours books, so I was a little worried. He has always liked nonfiction better than fiction, so at the library he would get informational books. This past week though, he discovered a series he enjoys and has just been reading non-stop. For the first time in his life, I caught him up at 1AM reading in the bathroom. I was so happy, I couldn't be upset LOL. Long story short, don't give up yet on him becoming a reader. It will probably just take the right author. The one ds likes seems to have a lot of science in it, which he enjoys.

I like Wedgits too, as they involve a different kind of spatial reasoning than most building sets.

I highly recommend the Activity Guide, for the review questions, the map work, the book lists, and the correlating pages in a history encyclopedia. I think its completely doable with a 7th and 8th grader. Mine at that age listen to the text. It gives them a starting point for the other work they do, reading and working from the encyclopedia. They should be outlining either SOTW or the encyclopedia. My kids are not hands-on at all, so we skip all of the hands on stuff in the activity guides, but they're still well worth the expense.

Math Mammoth 2 SOTW 1 Apologia Human Body Handwriting Skills Simplified B FLL 2 WWE 2 Life of Fred Elementary Series

I think Donna Young has one. Have you looked there? http://donnayoung.org/forms/planners/term.htm

I think someone should start a trading site for impulsive curriculum buyers. It would only be for unused curriculum and would be run like bookmooch. You would get the retail price as a credit and things would then cost the retail price, but could only be paid for in your credit. Can you tell I have this problem too? I have way too much unused curriculum on the bookshelves.

My dh is salaried, but he has to work 40 hours per week. He's not docked in pay if he's not there 40 hours, but I imagine he could lose his job if he missed 40 hours too many times. He doesn't punch a time clock, but records his hours online. If he has an appointment, he'll go to work early, come home late, or work longer the next few days. He can take lunch whenever and for however long he wants, as long as he gets the 40 hours in. His only limitations on which hours he works is his co-workers. He needs to be in the office for the morning meeting and for any other scheduled times.

You just need the right geese! We have Buff Geese, which are no more aggressive than our chickens. They are so pretty, I just love them! Now, I we haven't had them in the spring when they're protective of their eggs, but for now they're quite fine free-ranging. I don't worry about the kids out there at all, and I would with another breed of geese. In the spring, I plan on penning them up in the blueberry patch to take care of weeds and keep them away in case they do get aggressive. Which leads me to your next point. I have the same philosophy about animals. We use animals to make our lives easier. We have LGDs, so we don't have to worry about the sheep and goats. We have cats, so we don't have mice and rats. We have sheep and cows, so we don't have to mow. We have goats, so we don't have to weed eat. We have pigs, so we don't have to clear the woods of brush ourselves. They also clean the garden up very nicely in the winter. We have guineas to take care of ticks and chiggers and ticks. The chickens eat other bugs that would ruin our garden. My next animal will be ducks to clean the pond of lily pads. I have found that of all our animals the sheep are the easiest to care for. They do need shearing once a year, but I like that part for the wool. DH is building me a spinning wheel at the moment to process our 80 pounds of wool from the last shearing. They don't test fences. They follow a feed bucket anywhere. Their births are pretty easy, and they aren't too noisy. Even our rams are docile and much nicer than our buck and bull. If you can't tell, I love our homestead. Some of the kids like it better than others, but I think its good for all of them.

Stack the States is easy and painless. 10 Days in the USA is fun, even for Mom and Dad. We like the Twin Sisters cd as well.

If you're just buying chicken and eggs at the grocery store, it won't be cheaper to grow your own. If you're buying all natural, hormone and antibiotic free, free range chicken and eggs (not necessarily organic) it will be cheaper to grow your own. We have had chickens for 7 years and the year we had to rent a house and not have them wasn't fun. We get to have an Easter egg hunt every day LOL. Pros: I love that my kids know where their food comes from. I also love the responsibility they learn taking care of the animals. I adore the number of bugs they eat and those bugs make their eggs yum-o. They make me feel calm when I see them out free ranging. I never waste any food. They get everything we don't eat, except poultry. Some people feed them poultry too, but it doesn't seem like a good idea to me. Cons: You will have the occasional death. That's hard for the kids and us. It's hard to leave to go anywhere. However, most of our friends are quite happy to come take care of them in exchange for keeping the eggs they collect. If they free range, you will have poo in places you don't want. Its not stinky and its not big, but it is a pain at times.

OPGTTR doesn't use pictures, I think for that reason.