My daughter was a 35 (almost 36) weeker. She was a big baby, 3.5kg & didn't have any breathing problems (I didn't get the steroid shots) but she was absolutely smothered in vernix, had very fragile skin, was jaundiced & required a week of phototherapy, anaemic (we avoided a transfusion but she needed folate/B12 supplements for 6 months), very sleepy & difficult to feed (initially tube fed). Now at seven she's perfect - tall, strong & bright - she hit all her motor developments ahead of target but her speech was a little delayed, she'd caught up by three though. Good luck - IME the extra few weeks between 36 and 40 weeks make a big difference, I didn't realise how easy 'normal' babies were until my son was born ;)

Here in the UK everyone hangs their washing to dry, driers are a real extravagance (energy & money).

Oh I've had this too! Except with my group it is who has had the most natural birth .. you know squatting in a field by moonlight or something :rolleyes: I'm too busy being profoundly grateful for any live children at all to care about how they came out.

We use SM & supplement with Miquon (my dd enjoys the different approaching) and mental arithmetic. I'd be perfectly happy to use it without the Miquon though.

My daughter has a couple of friends called Hussein (and indeed one called Osama), incredibly common names if you live in a multicultural area. Why is his name a problem?

Well there's a woman I know who comes up with statements along the lines of you're not even a real mother with only one child :confused: so I know to some extent what you mean. There are six years between my two & I was involved in the home educating world for a long time before ds was born. There are people around who don't believe you have the right to an opinion about child rearing or home schooling with 'only one child', those who believe that you should never complain because you've only got one, those who refuse to see the different challenges that educating 'an only' at home brings and, of course, those who rattle on endlessly about the joys of their children's sibling relationships :rolleyes: Still there are annoying people in every walk of life! My relationship with my daughter (as a mum & educator) is very special, those years we had alone together were very different from what most people experience with their first born & I treasure them. However, I must admit I find education (& life generally ;) ) easier with two than one - your relationships are so much less intense & I don't have to be at the centre of everything. I have a friend who educated her three at home for many years before the older two decided to return to school - eventually her youngest did as well & she admitted to me that she found having him at home on his own extremely hard as it was so intense. It's like everything I think, people just love to stereotype!

That's how my daughter learnt. She hated reading programmes and started with Bob Books, then just carried on! We did so some phonics (a UK programme Jolly Phonics) informally, but mainly she learnt by just reading.

I go nuts when it's rainy ... I've spent most of the day muttering & biting my tongue. The children seem fine though!

We don't use anything in particular at the moment - dd does lots of narrations & some writing exercises with her English programme. I'm planning to try Classical Writing later this year.

What do you use for spelling? I haven't even looked a spelling programmes before, so I have idea where to begin. I'm looking for something for my 7yo newly fluent reader who loves writing. She's somewhat idiosyncratic ;) in her approach to spelling - I'm looking for something gentle, with British spelling (obviously). I don't want anything that's too time consuming, I don't want to damage her enthusiasm for writing, spelling isn't a top priority at the moment. Is there any point in carrying on with phonics at this point?

Well, I registered ;)