We were just there (Niagra Falls) over Thanksgiving. There are new rules that went in to effect this past summer, and the answer depends on how old you are and how you arrive at the border. Children under a certain age (can't remember if it is 16 or 18) who arrive via car do not need passports. The state dept. website provides a list of documents kids can use in lieu of a passport. Everyone arriving by plane, regardless of age, will need a passport. I don't remember the rules for arrivals via water:). My internationally adopted kids got in to Canada (and back in to the US) with their original U.S. certificates of citizenship. My niece (born in the USA) crossed with her raised-seal birth certificate.

My husband bought what he was told was the last snow blower for miles around this morning (so it probably won't snow now, LOL). When he called the Home Depot in Leesburg this AM to see if they had any they told him they sold out of about 100 yesterday. They are all sold out of snow shovels, too. The local tractor store said they sold more snow blowers yesterday than they had in the past 5 years combined. Guess I better go to the grocery store sooner rather than later. I'm assuming that is going to be a zoo.

Our family has used www.soldiersangels.org to "adopt" a solider. They ask that you send a weekly letter and one or two care package monthly (I can't remember which). We have also used www.anysoldier.com This is more of a one-time letter or care package than an "adoption". You get the name and address of a contact person within a deployed group or unit and they dole out letters and packages to soldiers under their command who don't receive much mail. You can search for soldiers by deployment dates, branches of service, what state their unit is from, or by how many times their address was requested. Hope that helps!

For our neighborhood exchange, you bring how ever many packages of 6 cookies you want, and that is how many you go home with. We randomly draw numbers to determine what order you get to pick cookies in, and then go from 1 to whatever, and then backwards from whatever to 1, etc. until everyone has selected how ever many packages they came with. This way, you can participate even if you only have time/energy/desire to bake a small amount of cookies. We also have appetizers and drinks at our party. We vote for the prettiest packaging and the winner gets a prize (our neighbor who hosts this party makes jewelry so there is usually lots of beautiful packaging because everyone wants to win :))

Mine does this, too. He will proudly proclaim "I've straightened up the whole downstairs!" What he means is that he has put things away that are 100 percent his. But if something remotely pertains to anyone or anything else, they go in "my" pile, which sits on the kitchen counter. I currently have 5 such piles in my kitchen right now. Sigh.

My 8 year old/second grader uses Spelling Workout, and it is very hands off. On day one of the week we read a 3 paragraph "story" that contains several of the spelling words (most kids could probably read this on their own but we have some reading/speech/language issues), and then do a short pretest of the words to see where we are. That is the extent of my involvement. I supplement with Spelling City (www.spellingcity.com; it's free, and you input a list of words and it creates games, tests, etc), and between these two I do no other hands on work with spelling other than giving the spelling tests. Congratulations on your upcoming addition! Just wanted to say that we love your science program here! And I've just recently started using all those great files you provide on your yahoo group - thank you so much for sharing all of that!

Have a wonderful trip! We adopted our two boys in 2005 from Kazakhstan and spent 5 weeks there. We loved our time in country - it was strangely relaxing... We don't live too far from Dulles and my boys are obsessed with 4 engine planes so we'll wave to you from the ground;)!

My son was in PS for first grade and we did Rod & Staff Math 2 over the summer. We spent 2 days on each triplet, which for him was plenty. We skipped lots of the assignments (or would do one-fourth or one half of the triplet problems; he only wrote the triplets out once on the first day I taught it), but I made sure that I hit parts of each assignment regularly. For example, I made sure that we got equal practice with word problems, the fraction problems, the clocks, the money problems, etc. I did do flash cards with him each day. At this pace, we got through R&S 2 in a little less than 3 months. He is currently working on the review lessons for R&S 3 now that we have started homeschooling and so far I haven't seen any issues with not remembering what he learned. He has a very good memory and is pretty mathy, and this pace worked well for him. Hope that helps.

My neighbor passed this blog on to me - the author cooked dinner for an entire year using her crock pot and blogged about it (including what her children thought of each meal). I am typically not a huge fan of my crockpot cooking, but I've made a few of these dinners and they were all very good. I am not sure if I know how to add a link properly but the site is http://crockpot365.blogspot.com (that's crockpot365 dot blogspot dot com). Hope that helps!

As a big plan-aheader, thank you so much for posting this! I can't wait to use Part One next year with my son, followed by this the next year. Thank you so much for sharing! Terrie

Thank you so much for posting this. What a great resource! Terrie

Oh, this makes me sad, I hadn't yet heard the news. I enjoyed his books so much, and his personal story was so touching. Terrie

My 8 year old and almost 5 year old boys love these books. If we read one that sort of fits an "issue" my kids have (the figther-quarrelers, anyone?), each will nod and say the kid in the story reminds them of their brother... Terrie

First of all, a big thank you to your husband and your family for your service to our country. Pre-kids my husband and I went on a cruise to Alaska. My only cruise I've ever been on and I would go back in a heartbeat. The scenery while on board was fantastic and the ports we stopped in were great. Low key places where you could do (overpriced, IMO, but fun) excursions or just walk around the towns and sit somewhere for lunch. There were many, many multi-generational family reunions taking place on board. We didn't have kids, but I did run into someone I had gone to law school with, and her young children (6ish years old) were having as much fun as we did. Obviously you can't go on this cruise in the winter...we went the week before Labor Day and it was sunny and almost as warm there as it was here in Northern VA. You could lay out at the pool, it was warm enough. Good luck with your decision, and thank you again to your husband and family. Terrie

My husband thanks you for saving us the money to have to purchase these:) Thank you for sharing! Terrie

We aren't too far from the convention site so I plan on going at least one of the days (haven't looked over the schedule too closely). Terrie

I am afterschooling my now-first grade son (who turned 8 last month). I pretty much followed WTM, and this is my plan for 2nd: Math: R&S 3 (still undecided though) Grammer: FLL2 Writing: WWE2 Reading: books listed in Sonlight2 History: SOTW2 and AG, plus literature from middle ages Science: Astronomy and Earth Science per WTM Geography: world geography (focusing on physical geography, capitals, where countries are located) Art/music/PE: hope to get involved with local HS groups Unsure for spelling/phonics. My son was adopted from Kazakhstan when he was 4, and has some speech/language issues as well as borderline low phonological awareness (our PS doesn't teach phonics). He is going to an intensive phonological awareness program for 6 weeks this summer - we'll have to evaluate after that. Terrie

I recommend Siblings Without Rivalry. I found it to be a huge help in how I deal with my kids arguing/fighting/bickering. Terrie

Same at our Northern Virginia school. Sound it out is the fifth (out of five) strategy my first grade son is taught to use. Look at the picture and "guess" are the "strategies" his teacher prefers. This is why we started afterschooling this year and will be homeschooling beginning next year. The teacher insisted that my teaching him phonics is what was causing his reading to regress. Terrie

We live in western Loudoun County near Purcellville. Terrie