For a very long time, I have felt moved to adopt a child. Currently, I have 3 children, ages 4, 2, and 2 months and we have talked a lot about adopting in a few years from now, but have just started entertaining the idea of fostering. I have always had a fear of fostering a child, for a variety of reasons: my attachment to the child the emotional impact it will have on my children to have other kids in and out of the house the safety of my children I am also not sure how to go about integrating (or not!) the child into our household routine. Does the child go to church with us? Homeschool with us? My initial intent is to only foster children who are the age of my oldest or younger, so homeschooling isn't really an issue at this point, but what about later? Has anyone fostered children? What are your experiences? Did any of you grow up with foster children in your house? What did it feel like to have the kids in and out of your house? Thank you so much for helping me wade through some of the tougher points of this decision. Heidi

I started out an anti-electronics mom, but as time has passed, I have slowly allowed more and more television and electronic toys in the house--so much so, that we got Leapster 2s for my 4 year old and 2 year old this Christmas. We borrowed them from the library first to see if they were worth while and decided to take the plunge. My 2 year old really loves his "Eat the Frog" (Leapfrog..) and plays it for maybe 10 minutes a day or, doing matching games (Chicken Coop, one of the downloadable games) and learning spanish from a Dora game. (We don't watch Dora, so he doesn't know anything about her other than the Spanish game). There are some games that we aren't fond of (fight this, whack that and then answer an educational question) but lots that we really like (mind bender, tangos, math puzzles, mazes, etc). Other than this, my 2 year old eats up puzzles--the 24 and 48 piece wooden ones from Melissa and Doug. He also loves to flip through books and to watch Math Circus and Brainy Baby ABCs. Playdough, pretend cooking, and much to my surprise--a jack in the box---are our favorite things.

Great!! Thanks! I am excited to look at these once I get the kids to bed...the ipod is my new secret obsession...

I got an Ipod for my birthday (yippie!) and in exploring the world of ipods, I found that itunes has an educational section in their store. Have you all found anything good for early elementary (first grade ish?) or anything worthwhile, for that matter? How about any podcasts (my first time listening to them, yay!) on homeschooling or education? Thanks!

Perfect! That makes MUCH more sense. :)

I saw a Listmania on Amazon which listed both of these books as part of their first grade curriculum. Do you use both? How do you integrate the two? I tried looking around and didn't find much chatter about using both at the same time. Thoughts?

Thank you all for your advice (though some were more kind than others, ouch you guys!) I really feel a bit attacked, and I consider this site a place of support and suggestions, not biting my head off. To the person who asked me why I was using Horizons 1 and FLL with my 4 year old--I feel like that is a real asinine question. Why do you think?We ended up where we are now with our choices of schoolng based on her abilities and we thought this was a good route to continue helping her grow and learn. I am now, through my experience, seeing that she really isn't even interested, even though she is capable which is why I came to ask your thoughts. Please don't bash me for that--first time attempt here! I have several friends, who were my first exposure to homeschooling, who are homeschooling (with textbooks and workbooks) their two and three year olds. They seem to really enjoy it, so I thought perhaps I was missing something somewhere. I wasn't looking for someone to tell me it was okay to do one thing or another, but more for a voice of experience to help me decide what to do next. We will certainly continue reading and playing and cooking and all of those fun things--we never really considered those aspects of child rearing as homeschooling. Thank you all for sharing your experiences with me. I am thinking the idea of taking the extended Christmas vacation and easing back into a different type of school is great. We might keep one or two things and leave the rest optional (great suggestion!)

but I also don't want my 4.5 y/o dd to think that just because she doesn't want to do something means that she doesn't have to. We are in what feels like a tough spot. She is reading very well and we have been doing FLL, Horizons 1, SW1, Bible stories, and some fun hands on coloring/cutting type things. She liked doing school when we started in August, but now she wants absolutely nothing to do with it. I know she is only 4 and there is no reason to push anything, so I don't want to. She is so advanced that to do anything less challenging seems to be a waste of time and boring to her. She doesn't even want to read and I wish I knew how to get her excited about any of it. I suppose I should just stop and not do anything and try again when she is older, but it seems like she could be learning so much if only she wanted to. Any ideas? Anyone been here before?

I think that the used book stores use an algorithm to determine the price of their book based on how many they have left in stock. I have seen that when they say "only 3 left!" the price gets higher and then when more comes into stock, the price lowers again.

Any other thoughts?

My sister in law just had her first baby, who is now just shy of 2 months old. She is a very empowered career woman who is having a difficult time adjusting to the selflessness and difficulty of motherhood. She was recently diagnosed with post partum depression and she is taking some anti-anxiety medicine to help her get some sleep at night. She is afraid to be alone with the baby (not for any real reason--not because she is afraid she will harm the baby, but it is overwhelming to be alone with the baby--it is her trigger for her panic attacks) and I am really trying to find a good God centered book to help her through her difficult time. When I went through my bout of anxiety, my brother gave me the book Captivating and The Power of a Praying Woman. They were fantastic and now I am planning on sending Captivating and The Power of...something to her and I am not sure if the Mother book or the Woman book or if there was another one that would be good. Any suggestions? Thanks!

My daugher is reading on a 1st-2nd grade reading level and we are looking for books that she can read that she doesn't think are scary! Magic Treehouse book are a bit much, abridged versions of Peter Pan, The Jungle Book, and even Beauty and the Beast are a bit too scary for her too. She doesn't like Captain Hook, Sher Khan, or the Beast! Hmmm..any thoughts on some nice, pure books that she can read and really enjoy without the element of conflict and "bad guys"? (I know it is tough, because most books are focused on a conflict of some sort--that whole man vs man, man vs nature, man vs himself business) TIA!

We also have one of these. It is our third treadmill (the first two were no good) and we LOVE LOVE LOVE it! It holds up great to my husbands marathon runs and maxed out speed sprints and my near everyday usage of sprint/jog training. We have had it for nearly 2 years and think it is one of the best treadmills we have run on (cushioning, etc).

How did you do this without making a huge mess? I can just see water getting EVERYWHERE!

I just had a friend recommend to try and eliminate milk from my diet. I am going to give that a go and see if it works. We haven't tried the diapers yet because we were hoping to not have to spend all the extra money changing diapers around (putting it off as long as we can in hopes it is something else!) and it very well could also be wipes. We have stopped using them for a bit, but maybe it could be that too. Thanks for the Maalox idea--haven't done that one either! Oh, the stress if diaper rash!!!

My sweet baby is 5 weeks old today, and he has had a crummy diaper rash since he was about 10 days old. This is my third baby and I have never ever had such a hard time with diaper rash before and I am at my wits end. We have been to the doc twice and the first time they thought it was yeast. We used Lotramin, Myconozale, and Nystatin, none of which worked. Then the second time we went to the doc they gave us perscription strength Neosporin type stuff, which seemed to help, but the rash is still there. He has open sores on his anus and then where his cheeks touch each other. We have been airing dry for about 6 hours a day, using a blow dryer between changes, cotton balls and RO water to clean his tush, every type of diaper cream known to man (butt paste, triple paste, desitin, regular vasoline, corn starch, A&D) and I really am just not sure what else to do for him. The redness is mostly gone, but those open sores just won't heal. Please, any help would be much appreciated! Oh, and he is EBF if that makes any difference. Thank you!!

I posted about this earlier on a different thread, so feel free to do a search under my name to find a more detailed, previous post. Some of the resorts are timeshares that people own. You are able to rent the timeshares directly from the people who own them, and it is much cheaper than going directly through Disney. There are resorts that are within walking distance to parks and others that are a bit more secluded, so you have a variety of locations from which to pick. If you would like to know more, I am happy to point you in the right direction. We are current owners and love the full sized kitchen and 2 bedrooms that we get, all within a 5 minute walk from Epcot. It really is great and it seems that so many people don't realize that you can rent a timeshare through an owner. (I would offer to rent myself, but we used ours up for the this year already!)

The DIS boards cancelled the ideas of photopass shares because someone went on the board pretending to start one, took people's money, and ran. So the DIS boards has banned them from happening on their site. Disney, however, was very happy with our being in a photopass share. Most every employee who took our photos suggested to us that we make a photopass share with the next people in line to take their picture. Since we were already in a share, we declined, but it came up often.

I didn't miss any part. :) Promise! I read the entire thread, and some people I agree with and others I don't. My point is, why bring up the slavery thing to begin with? I would think it is irrelevent. That the majority of people can't afford the luxuries we would like has nothing to do with slavery. Perhaps you could say "I am sick and tired of not being able to afford things for my family like I want to" just like you told me in your previous post. I say this with a smile, really. And I would give you a hug and say "Geeze, I know, it stinks, but it will be okay and this too shall pass and let's look on the bright side." Or we could commiserate together about how we have to both cut corners left and right. You asked what people thought about the statement and so I gave you my opinion. You can copy it and put it in an email and CC it to your brother. :)

The whole slavery thing really bothers me, even when you explain your brother's definition. Slavery means NO FREEDOM. I typically don't get bent out of shape too much about these kinds of threads, but I really think that many people can be offended with you comparing your situation (or many people's situation) to that of slavery. Go read the book Beloved or the book To Kill A Mockingbird and then have your brother say that he is slave and suffering likes these people did. People in this country are not slaves to the government. No one is keeping you in a rat race that you feel like you can't get out of. Every single person in this country is given the right of choice. You can choose to change both your lifestyle and more importantly, your perspective on your lifestyle. You should be thrilled that you have a job, that you can pay the bills, that your kids do have food to eat, that you have shelter. I know it sounds harsh, but I can tell you from my own experience that changing your perspective on your situation will make you much more grateful for the things you do have. And really, you aren't a slave to anyone or any body of government. As an aside, it really isn't a big deal if your teenagers can't drive. I didn't get my license until I was a sophomore in college when I could afford to buy my own junky car, teach myself how to drive stick shift (or drive period) in the parking lot, and then go get my license. It just isn't that big of a deal. You have the ability to be on the internet, and no one is cutting you off, limiting the sites you can visit, or anything like that. It just doesn't seem like slavery to me.

I could use some ideas too--36 weeks tomorrow with a 4 year old and 2 year old running around! Things that I HAVE found that work pretty well are chicken quesadilla (boil or grill some chicken, throw a tortilla on the frying pan, add some cut up chicken and cheese and tomato if you want, put another tortilla on top of it, flip a few times and you are set.) I used to cook a variety of veggies, but now we are just doing bagged salad. It is so nice to pull out a bag of salad and have the veggies covered. I will also make a batch of rice and have it to pull from for several dinners during the week. We have also done some hotdogs for the kids (AUCK! Never before now, but I am at a loss for what to do--the past few days my husband has been gone for a job interview and so I am really resorting to easy and as healthy as I can try and make it), tacos, spaghetti, and grilled chicken. I can't eat any of the tacos or spaghetti, so I am often having grilled chicken, salad, and rice. When I am up for it, I will marinate a flank steak and grill that. Yeah, that is about it. I am totally out of ideas of food to make for my family. We are going to be so sick of salad, rice, and chicken anyday now!!

This is true! Lots of people get together months before hand and put together a group. If you keep poking around, you might find someone who is happy to join your group! I have also talked to several people in the park who are getting their photos taken with a Disney person if we wanted to go in with them on a photopass CD, so you might find someone in the park if you ask other people getting their pictures taken. Good luck!

I have a 2 year old and a 4 year old. We keep all of the kids books, both ours and the library books, in their room. They each have their own bookshelf and between the two of them have between 200 and 300 kids books, about 50ish are from the library. It is an insane amount of books, but the kids have had it like this since they were born and so they are really good about taking care of them. They are both in their rooms for about 1-2 hours a day for quiet rest/nap time, during which time they both read tons and tons. As an aside, I think this is a big part of how both kids started reading so early. Just yesterday, I went to see my 4 year old and she pulled The Story of Ping off the shelf, read the whole thing to me, and told me she also read Chapter 7 of Mummies in the Morning and that it was very exciting. Rock out, girle!

Did any of you have the crazy cough that people are talking about? We had a crazy round of sick here in July and I wasn't sure what to make of it, because we never get sick. Out of NOWHERE my 2 year old came down with a 103 fever that I couldn't get below 100 for 24 plus hours. I had to piggy back motrin and tylenol to keep it down to 101 during that time. He had crazy chills and was miserable. Then he got the runs which lasted for about a week or so. 2 days after my son had the fever, my 3 year old daughter had the same thing happen to her. It happened SO quickly. I never really thought it was swine flu, though, because we didn't have any coughing, just a crazy high fever, the runs, and being run down for about 5 days or so. Hmmm..

We are currently using Do it Carefully for preschool and have a handful of similar other Rod and Staff activity books. Once we move past these sorts of books, which I anticipate doing this year, do you know of other sorts of activity books for Kindy and first grade with more advanced cutting, puzzles to solve, dot to dots, mazes, copywork, that sort of thing? We love the variety of activites that comes in these Rod and Staff books and I am hoping to find something that we can continue to include later on as well.