I write this way and people often complement my handwriting. However, I do have a writing bump and vivid memories of the pain of the first few weeks each school year when it had "softened" and had to harden back up due to writing demands. It was very painful. The bump is almost gone now, because I only write grocery lists and thank you notes now! Everything else is typing.

I did not know you could use the Regent as a booster? We have one and we are still using the 5 point harness, but I am starting to wonder if my daughter is old enough to just buckle and unbuckle her own seatbelt. I had been thinking of switching to a booster but was worried about safety. Are you saying she can use the Regent with a regular seatbelt? Just take out the harness piece? :001_smile:

We usually just find or draw a picture of the story, color it, then write the date under it and key points from the chapter. We then tape that paper to the wall, right after the paper from the previous chapter. This creates a running timeline, although I am not sure it is exactly what you had it mind... I find the picture drawing/coloring helps firm up the ideas in my daughters mind though.

I heard you can keep the process going by demanding ownership papers from the bank. Usually they sell the loan so many times it is hard for them to place those papers.

You must live in my neighborhood, b/c that's exactly what they said to me. And my neighbors- although they also told her that they had 24 kids per one teacher and no aides unless a parent volunteered, and they were cutting art and music next year :lol:

She/he did it to me too on the special needs board, AND posted links to a promiscuous escort service throughout the text!!! I think this is a spammer.

No, I don't want to go out that much. It's not my nature to have a routine that is inherently not a routine (one thing one day then somewhere else entirely the next). I think she enjoys the preschool gym, but it makes her tired, and I need the church. She enjoys the playtime at church and gets social interaction with friends that actually live close enough to invite over (unlike the gym). The church makes me a better mom and a better person, so we can't cut that. We used to do the "every other day" routine and that was good. I think we might need to go back to that. I do think it might be the commute to the gym that's the problem. It is a lot of transitions- a 40 minute drive is an activity unto itself, so she transitions into the car, to the gym, back to the car, and back home. I am wondering if maybe we should just cut our membership at the gym. It's too far. We'd save 200 a month if we cut it. That pays for a lot of activities closer to home... Also, we have a 2 mile loop trail in our neighborhood that I like much better than the treadmill while I wait for her to do her class ;) And I love walking that loop with her and hearing all the wonderful things she has to say when you get her out moving around in nature. I am glad to hear that some other people feel that might be a lot to do... I kept wondering if it was just me that thought it was too much. I do think it has a lot to do with spending too much time in the car. If the gym was around the corner going there for a couple hours would not be a big deal.

Hmmmm, I think my instincts were right then. I feel like I am trying to get her to all these things because we have the things WE want to do, and the things the SCHOOL wants her to do. I think I'm going to have to have a talk with the school. I've already told them we are homeschooling next year. It's too much to do all of this. I'm stressed out, how can I expect her not to be stressed out, LOL. Oh, and DH is stressed out b/c I can't keep the house clean;)!

I'll try it. It beats birth control pills, which I am seriously considering b/c my hormones are completely out of whack...

My daughter has nightmares. She had them a lot in preschool when she was in a special needs program for auditory processing/sensory processing issues. We took her out of the program b/c she had made enough progress not to qualify for it anymore. However, that does not stop the school system from calling me all the time to make sure I am taking her to the preschool program we pay for privately. This program is through our health club, and it's not a "sign up" type program. You just show up to work out and they take your kid up to a preschool class (learn about animals, or health or whatever. It's different everyday). While her nightmares are less frequent now, I am noticing that they usually occur on days we've done a lot. I'm wondering if she has too much on her schedule. Can you guys look at this week and tell me if you think it's too much? She's 4 years old, for reference: Monday- Up 7, leave 8:30, drive 40-45 minutes to gym/preschool. She does two classes so we don't leave until 12. We get home at 12:30/12:45. Rest of the day is relatively calm. Stay home and clean. Make dinner, bed 8 pm. Tuesday: Nightmare. Up 4:40 am. Stays up. Church playgroup 10-11. Target 11-12... Home for lunch. She falls asleep after eating half a sandwich and sleeps 1.5 hours. Now she's upstairs playing and will go to bed probably around 9 b/c I have a meeting tonight and Daddy putting her to bed is usually a disaster. Wed: Plan is: Up 7, leave 8:30 for gym/preschool. Playdate after preschool at 12:45 at Children's Museum. We'll get home around 4. Thurs: Church playgroup 10-12. I have another meeting so she'll be up late again (this is not typical- I usually have one meeting per week for church but this week it's two). Friday- Gym routine again. Home around 12:30 Saturday- Playdate Sunday- Church 8:30-11ish. Then my parents come in from out of town and the sleep deprivation really begins;) Is this too much for a 4 year old? We're basically out every day, and she's easily overstimulated. I'm wondering if I should get more assertive with the school lady and tell her to leave us alone and cut the gym preschool visits to reduce our outings. They know we're homeschooling next year already. I don't know why she keeps wanting to do home visits, etc. She said Grace is very advanced, etc. No issues there. Thanks in advance- I find myself coming to this board more and more for advice. I think I'm getting a little addicted to the instant feedback and ability to take a poll before I make any big decisions... That might be good, but it might not, LOL. Hailey

Just wanted to let people know I found a website called "sparkpeople" that is very similar to weight watchers online but free. www.sparkpeople.com I've been doing it for a week now and I really like it. I need something like this to lose weight. I want to lose 20 pounds, but I'd be overwhelmingly happy with even 10. This is hard.

I'm glad we like our neighborhood b/c I don't think we're ever getting out of it, LOL. We're 60K down right now, and I hear the markets dropping again this year. Thank God we can afford our payments, and we can just close our eyes to the value and keep living here.

I kept journals all through high school. I threw them all out when I met my husband. I read through some of them and was ashamed at how ridiculous I was, and I didn't feel like it was right to keep mementos and descriptions of old boyfriends, etc. I wanted to put my old life behind me and start again, and have my husband be the only man in my life. I didn't want even written memories to come between us. In truth, I wanted to erase every man I had ever met but him, but I know that every failed relationship I had only led me to understand more deeply how wonderful he is when I met him.

I think it makes sense that they might want to know the number of bathrooms so that they can compile info on future water needs for the area...

Does he have front wheel drive or rear wheel drive? My DH swears the people with rear wheel are the ones who run off the road in the snow/ice. 4 wheel drive is the best, but DH says some people with 4 wheel get too confident and also run off the road, LOL.

Just ordered Kids, Parents and Power Struggles on Amazon for 10 dollars. Totally shouldn't have spent the money, but I did.

:lurk5:There's a sequel? I'm so excited! I love that book and I can't wait to hear what else the author has to say on the subject!

I second the remove the nail idea. I know several people who have had a nail removed (or two) and they all say it's wonderful.

Let an adult eat it first so you will know if it makes anyone sick without giving it to a small child with a more vulnerable system... That's what we do at my house. Have soup for breakfast. You'll know by lunch if it is still good ;)

I looked at Zenni too. They looked good and had good reviews.

I love what Kirch said about presenting the options and backing off. I'm going to try that. I bet that would help us a lot. I feel for you with your son, we have the same types of things here fairly often. DD is an only child, so she tends to have more control over things than most kids. She's out of practice with things not going her way, LOL.

I feel for you with your mom! We get stuff like that all the time. The other day my dad was here and he picked up this ball that Grace has that looks like a planet. He asked her what planet it was and then seemed like he thought she should actually know that. She's 4!!!! Oh, then he started trying to get her to write out words. Ummm, again, she's 4!!!! He's on a crusade to get her into Kindergarten. I think all homeschoolers get this type of thing to some extent. I am sure your daughter is going to be fine. All About Spelling is a great program and will be an excellent foundation. Remember she's learning spelling rules that most children wouldn't even be exposed to...

Check out www.glassyeyes.com They have reviews of the online purchase stores. You just enter in your RX into the website and purchase. You can even upload photos of yourself and see how the glasses would look on you. I got two pair from www.goggles4u.com this past month. One is a rimless metal with scratch resistance and antiglare, UV resistance. The other has scratch resistance, antiglare, and transitions into sunglasses when I go outside. 100 total for BOTH pairs. That's 50 dollars per pair. I had a 10% off coupon code from glassyeyes.com though... Oh, and the selection is not what you would find in a Lenscrafters, KWIM? They have a good selection, but it's not designer or anything. So, mine shipped from California and seem to be a US company. Glassyeyes will tell you what's U.S. based, made in the U.S. and not U.S. in case you are wondering about those types of things. I think glassyeyes said goggles4u is U.S. based but not necessarily made in the U.S. There are others that are U.S. based, U.S. made, etc. Anyway, I had a great experience with goggles4U and will definitely return for more next time. I haven't had glasses in 5 years b/c we couldn't afford them, but this year we had money left in our flexsavings so I now have glasses to switch out with my contacts when my eyes get dried out from the contacts!

This is exactly what I was looking for! Thank you so much! I was going to make the Chocolate Torte from her website, but then I started getting worried that even though it's agave instead of sugar it would still keep her up all night b/c of the caffeine. I can make these with her cream cheese frosting recipe instead and there's no sugar or caffeine! Thanks so much. I kept looking through her recipes yesterday, but every one I opened had almond flour except the chocolate tart (which is EXCELLENT, by the way, we had it for Thanksgiving). I guess I must have missed that one! I wish she was not as excited about almond flour because her recipes are so wonderful!

I checked it out. I definitely need to buy that cookbook! Thanks for the tip. Probably won't help me tomorrow but maybe the next time this comes up I'll be more prepared! I dread parties for this exact reason.