If you are going to study Latin at a university level, especially if you major in it, Classical is the way to go. However, they made a good argument for starting with Ecclesiastical. It is easier for beginners, it is what the Latin music is based on, is sounds wonderful for poetry and music, is was good enough for Dante.... lol Since we don't know that we will go beyond 2 years of high school Latin and we are all beginners, we would love to understand Latin music and read prose with eloquence, AND since we can always learn the classical pronunciation later, we decided to begin with Ecclesiastical. Just my 2 cents.

http://www.memoriapress.com/articles/whichpron.htm I ran across this when looking up this same question online. Eva

Thank you so much Susan for your reply. That sounds pretty much like what I am hearing as I try to find out more about this. I also contacted Kate with Hands and Hearts as she had such a good page on the new law on her website. She has researched this and here is what she had to say - Hi, Eva! According to the newest info from the Consumer Product Safety Commission, resellers are fine as long as they don't violate any of the new safety standards. In the case of used books, the issues are lead and possibly phthalates. If the book was printed in the US, there is no lead in it. The lead issue only comes into play if the books has play value - a microphone, buttons, plastic gems on the front, etc. Regular books are just fine - in fact, the CPSC is saying that any book printed after 1985 will be assumed to be safe under the CPSIA **as long as it is a regular book.** Phthalates are strictly a plastic issue and would only come into play with books that have softened plastic like those soft plastic bathtub books. :-) I hope this helps - thanks for your kind words about our site! If anybody gives you a hard time and you need the actual CPSC documentation on the book issue, let me know and I'll dig it up and email it to you. Blessings, Kate

about books published before 1985 being banned. I wonder if we are ok to sell books published after 1985 if they are personal books?

I have read all about the law. One concise and informative source of information is at hands and hearts dot com. I have read some of the posts on WTM, but I want the bottom line. Can we still sell our personal books on WTM?

I need to know something very important. It seems that resale shops are pulling all their children's items, including books, from their shelves and will be trashing everyhting that doesn't sell before this law takes effect. Feb 13th I believe??? Are individuals going to be allowed to resell their books on WTM and other forums? What about ebay? Does anybody know? Eva

Thanks for both comments. I love the cute country graphics that are available online. I thought the bee would be cute...... until the theme and titles change around here, then I will change it. Eva

I used to stress over the same decisions you are making when my children were little. They are now 16, 13, and 11 and I wish I had not worried so about things like history and science when they were little. It is not necessary to do anything more than read some fun library books on the subjects and don't worry about a program at that age. Keeping their interest, excitement and love for learning will serve you far better in all the years ahead then they will ever get from starting history and science earlier. Don't worry about how much you cover either, as it is only for content, exposure, something to read aloud for together time, they don't have to master anything in those areas that young. Just focus on phonics. Math is not even essential, but I am from the Teaching the Trivium camp on that issue. You can do fun, light math if you really want to, but it isn't necessary. Just don't make everything tedious and discourage the child from loving to learn. On the other extreme, if everything is tediuous, tons of information is required to be learned, every subject in the world is studied in a boring way, things like this and it causes the child to dislike learning or doing school, you will be sorry later. HTH Eva

Hey! I hadn't even thought of the bins yet and we are only going to use the top 3 rows for 3 children's books. I should get bins for the bottom row! That would be a great way to store some things down there and keep it looking nice and uncluttered. Thanks so much for letting me know! Eva

I hope I am not repeating something already said, but I need to get to bed. We have been several times, once my boys were only a baby and almost 4 when we went. Here are some quick recommendations from having done this a few times........... 1. sign up for free newsletter called Mouse savers (mousesavers.com I believe) - main newsletter comes out monthly on 15th, but often one more per month if special deal comes around. 2. she tells you where to buy your tickets at a discount online. it is undercover tourist. com but I think you want her link to get the best price. email me if you can't find it. 3. we always stay in a house! We request to be close to disney, but once before we knew to ask for that, we were a little further, but still got there in about 25 minutes, all the way into the parking area at the Magic Kingdom. Other times, we have always been within 15 minutes to the parking area. There are several reasons we always do the house. It is so much nicer than a hotel and much larger. Think about how the children would have their own room (two twin beds), you have your own room, and then you have a complete kitchen, dining room, a whole living area for them to relax and play in, lots of floor space. You have a washer and dryer right there so you can pack a few outfits per person and keep things washed up and even go home with a suitcase of clean clothes and no laundry to do at home. If you have a spill or accident, there is your private washer/dryer. All cookware and dishes are provided and a dishwasher of course. You can eat inexpensive breakfasts at the house each day and easily take snacks with you for the day. You could eat a second meal there to save money as well. What we have found we prefer is breakfast at the house, then we head to the parks as early as we can, around opening time. Most days, we will have lunch in the park. We just budget this and make reservations where we want to go as that is part of the experience. We will go back to the house midday, eat dinner there or at restaurant outside the park, then head back to the park (same one, which I will get to next) for the night. Everyone lies down and rests while at the house. They can sleep or rest and read. We stay late at the park then, usually till closing. We are refreshed, got to freshen up, change clothes if necessary or whatever. We always go in early December, so sometimes need more layers at night. We stay late, enjoy the night life, all the lights, lighted parades, atmosphere and fireworks. 4. I found personally that it was not worth it to pay extra for tickets that do not expire or for tickets that let you park hop. We used to do the hoppers before the new types of tickets came out. We found it wasn't really necessary or worth our time to hop. It is no big deal to stay in one park for the entire day. It actually takes a while to travel over to another park and who just don't see the point in paying to do that. 5. You will notice in the price of the tickets, once you get up to about 4 or 5 days, you only add a couple of dollars per day to the price of the tickets. It may have gone up to $3 per day, not sure. It looks like it is a difference of $15 on an adult MYW ticket to jump from 6 days up to 10 days. It is hard to tell the price of 4 and 5 at the moment because they are throwing in free days on both, making them 6 day tickets. Anyhow, for 5 of us, it is $1105 for 6 days and $1180 for 10 days. It is a fantastic deal to get up to 10 days for only $75 more. Last time, we bought the 10 day tickets and then we just saw how it went as we were there. We wound up taking a day off mid-vacation to do some other things (and rest lol). We had up to the 10 days available if we wanted them. 6. When we stay in a house, we are usually convenient to many restaurants and one of the Walmarts for picking up anything we might need. The Walmarts there in Kissimmee have great deals on Disney clothes, especially t-shirts. There is a Samsclub as well if you want to shop. Homes range from $80-95 per night for a 3-4 bedroom. If you stay 5-7 nights or more, there is no cleaning fee. Some require a deposit, one we used did not. There are many companies who handle home rentals online. We have 5 people and when my mother goes, there are 6 people, so we cannot fit comfortably in a regular hotel room. "Suites" at the hotels cost more than the house and aren't near the size or convenience. 7. Our experience with potentially scary rides and young children has been to just avoid those rides. There is still SO much to do without taking a chance on spoiling the experience. The whole thing is supposed to be "magical", so keep it that way! ha 8. Check the dates of off-peak times. We always go the first couple of weeks in December and love that time! I know you are going in September and that is probably some sort of off-peak time. For those who might be interested in December, the parks are all decorated for Christmas and Christmas is everywhere! The weather is cool and comfortable, you never break a sweat. We have found what works best for that time is the light-weight pant sets from the sporting goods store, the sports pants with the zip-up jacket. We have t-shirts to match. I usually put my daughter in all pinks and purples and the boys in all shades of blues, just so everything we take matches everything else. We all wear the pants with a t-shirt and start the day with the light jacket on and tie it around our waist or slip it through our waist sack mid-day. At night we put the jacket back on. There have been a few nights that got cold enough that we added 99 cent gloves from WM and the little headband style ear covers, also 99 cents. We haven't needed those except the last time we went. We had hot chocolate those nights and had a great time. 9. keep the number for reservations on you at all times. I have called them on the spur of the moment several times and got in at a restaurant inside the park with very short notice. We make some of our reservations ahead of time, but if we run into a situation where everyone got hungry earlier than expected or something, we have done that with great success. By the way, kids meals are very good in all the restaurants. 10. If you decide to save the money and NOT park hop, all you do is pick which parks you plan to go to each day. I always planned a simple list before I go. i.e. Monday - MK (Magic Kingdom), Tuesday - Epcot, etc. We usually plan two days in each park, but will go to each one once before repeating as we can't wait. ha 11. If you go in an off-peak time, you don't have to make a plan for what order you will go to things inside the park. We have very little wait time and can go through rides twice. It is WONDERFUL to go at off-peak times. We did the fast-pass maybe twice the entire time we were there last as it just wasn't necessary. 12. I would only plan our my days (a little, don't make a big deal out of it), ONLY if I were only going for 4-5 days or less. In that case, you will probably go to most parks for only one day and you will want to make sure you see all the rides that are most important to you. You can't see everything in a park in one day unless you wear yourselves out trying and it isn't worth it. A few things not to miss with little ones......... 1. all the sweet little rides with familiar childhood characters like Peter Pan and Winnie the Pooh. I'll admit, 18 months ago, when we went last, we still rode most of these just to reminise. ha 2. the parades. My daugher was about 5 time before last and in the Magic Kingdom, the parade was full of princesses and "magical" sites and they had all the little ones join in at one point and she was in dream land. ha The night parades are beautiful, but make sure the kids are rested or all the dark and the bright lights *might* scare someone little. 3. if they like face painting, get it done first thing, so they can wear it around much of the day 4. keep them fed, comfortable, plenty of water. I know this is common sense, but the time will get away from you before you know it and a child will be tired, hungry and/or grumpy before you know it. If you keep ahead of this, everyone will have a more pleasant time. 5. Think about strollers. The parks rent strollers that are very convenient. Strollers are always parked outside the rides and I prefer to leaver their stroller there instead of mine, if you KWIM. Strollers can get "misplaced" or stolen. I have not had it happen, but have had trouble finding mine at times. The employees move them all over and around when you are on the ride, to save space and tidy up. Most people recommend you have something obvious on your stroller so you can find it in a hurry. Take a brightly colored scarf that you don't mind losing. My daughter was 9 1/2 the last time we went and I would still get a stroller at night to save her from getting tired of walking. If you are only getting one for a brief time like this at the end of the day, you can find them all over the park, deserted by people who didn't want to return them to the front. I read this trick in a Disney planning book once. You save the expense since you are only using it for maybe an hour or so and you bring it up front for them so their employees don't have to. The double strollers are great. Now, they are not padded, so for little ones we always brought our own blanket folded double that would go under them. If you want to have a stroller from the parking lot in to the park and back out again, plan to bring your own. We used an umbrella stroller one year and that was pretty quick and easy to fold up as needed. I must get off here, hope this is helpful to someone. Sorry to jump around so. Eva

Yes, that just ticks me off! ;) Seriously, they are just filling in their schedules and not considering that we need to be doing school in the mornings. I totally agree. Eva

I have the inexpensive one from WM too and love it! Another item we use allot and love is our spiral coil binding machine! Eva

No, we don't. Google this, there is allot of information about how fluoride is bad for you. Eva

Wonderful! Thank you! I already figured out that I need at least 12" for notebooks and any of our taller books like Apologia Science. Now, let me see if I can find an excuse to drive into town to Ikea! ha With the cost of gas, I need to hit up another stop along the way to make it worth the expense. :) Thanks! Eva

Hi Anita, I use AO for a book list, but I have not used their schedule. What have you thought of the schedule and do you alter it any? I have considered using it several times, but I can't get past one thing. It seems like they stretch each book out over such a long period of time, reading it so slowly, a little at a time. I know this might be more CM in method, but we would always get ahead of schedule and I feel like we would do so that we would be so far off it would be useless to us. For example, when we have used SL, we were always reading further along in the books, both readers and read alouds, so we were always weeks ahead of schedule in many areas. I tried just to do it somewhat evenly so we could stay on the same page, just move through the pages faster. Anyhow, I just know we could not read books that slowly. Any suggestions or thoughts on this? Eva