:iagree:. The Rugg's Guiude has been very helpful to us.

HOw the Earth Works has many different works recommended. Almost all of them are for only one class. I am using it without extra books but as an addition to other work we have done and will do.

I did Chemistry Biology Physics in that order for the first two (and one had an extra field biology class and the other has marine science and earth science as two half credit extra courses). Now with my youngest, most science loving child but one who doesn't like biology much- she will do physics, chemistry, biology and then a second year of physics that require one to have calculus. Now for social sciences my oldest did well trained mind sequence plus an extra class in geography which took two years and government for a half credit. My second did geography, US History for two years, half year of government, is doing half year of economics now, and will do world history next year. My youngest will do world history, US history,government and economics in 11th, and geography in 12th.

I just looked at the sample and I will have to buy this. THere are some literary terms in the sample that I have never heard of. I took AP ENGlish and received A's. I took extra literature classes in college as part of my non designated credits. I have thought two children literature in high school. Well I still have one and half more years with one and four with my last and I will get this book and learn along with them.

WE are doing fine. I had the weirdest power outage yet. My alarm was set to go off at 6:30 am and it did and immediately shut off. I thought that was really strange since I didn't even have a chance to shut it off and dh is in Australia. I get up and finally get to the kitchen were my oven light is blinking and showing almost the exact time that it still is. We must have had a electric trip at 6:30 right when my alarm clock was ringing. SO far we have dug out almost to our trucks front door. THe snow is very heavy. I didn't want anyone doing too much and I can't do it at all. My snow removal goal for today is a path to the cleared driveway that a neighbor did with his blower. WE won't be getting out for a few days since the street is completely not plowed and the snow is deeper that my trucks wheels.

Your child can work in college even if they don't qualify for need based aid. It just won't be Work-study but that is what they will be doing- studying for college and working part time.

I'll be praying.

University of Cincinnati, Peabody

Dogs don't hear consonants. They hear or at least pay attention to vowels. If she knows her name, the best thing to do is choose another name you like better with the same vowel order. Like my dog's name if Fluffy. I can also call him scruffy, buffy, muffy, etc. since he responds to uh-ee.

One statistic you may want to know is that although there are many homeschoolers who choose to homeschool for reasons other than academics, the ones who choose to homeschool because of academics often have children who are not getting satisfactory education at a Brick and mortar school. Why_ maybe because the kid is gifted or has special needs. Some fairly recent studies of gifted children found that 50% of them are being homeschooled. I believe that the proportion of children with special needs of any kind (including medical) who are homeschooling is higher than the proportion of average kids. In my two classes at co-op, I had a total of 12 kids. So far, I know that 1 child had a brain injury that still affects her, one had cancer at a younger age adn suffers from lingering effects of the chemotherapy, one had nonstop headache for 7 months (my dd) and still has frequent medical issues, and another had a kidney transplant and has ongoing medical issues with that. I don't know if any of the other eight have any medical issues. These are simply the ones I was told about by the child themselves or by the parent. I actually suspect that at least one additional child has a chronic medical issue but haven't had the opportunity to ask the parent yet. Just those 4 make the proportion of kids with major medical issues now or earlier to be 33%. WHat I am saying by all this is that while average kids occur with great frequency in homeschooling, non-average kids who are behind, ahead or just differently abled, occur much more frequently in homeschooling arenas than in regular schools.

I live in a house like you described Rebecca. It is somewhat over 3500 sq. feet. THere are two fireplaces but they are both in huge rooms next to windows. The bottom floor is already a lot colder. THe middle floor is warmer and also has a fireplace but the wall nearest the fireplace is actually a wall of floor to ceiling windows. WE only have one interior room and that is downstairs where it is colder anyway and far from the fireplace.We do have sleeping bags and down comforters and regular blankets and thermal underwear and all that. I think our temperature would fall a lot sooner than we would run out of food or water. WE did buy gallon jugs of water which was a good idea since I hear that they are requesting people going to shelters to bring water and food. I live about a mile and half from hotels. Are hotels like Residence Inn likely to have their own generators? Even if they aren't I think that the power outage is most likely to happen right here in my neighborhood with it being in a forest and having overhead lines. Branches have fallen but so far non on the power lines. One other question, how do I tell if the fireplace opening is open? I have never used the fireplace because I am asthmatic and don't like wood fires.

I have no idea how well it is insulated since it isn't our house. It was built in the late 1960's as an upscale home and has continued in that fashion with different owners doing upgrades. I have no clue what the insulation standards were back then or whether anyone increased the insulation in the last 40 years. I think I would have to be leaving before 45 degrees. I have temperature regulation problems from my chronic illnesses and I can get hypothermia (or hyperthermia) much easier than healthy people. I will just pray that we continue to have power. We do love only a mile from the hospital so I guess we can all walk there and hang out in the lobby.

We didn't get mail for two days with that Dec. snow here. I didn't blame our postman. OUr street was not cleared and even 4w drive vehicles were having major problems or were giving up. I am glad they made that decision.

WIth all the power outages being reported and with living in a forested area, I am very concerned about a power outage happening since we have had probably close to 20 inches so far of very heavy snow. I have never been in this situation before and don't know how long a house stays warm if the power goes out. Yes, we do have a natural gas furnace but it is controlled by an electronic thermostat. Others have told me that that means if the electricity goes out, our heating stops. OUr outside temperatures are either very low 30's or high 20"s. Anyone have any knowledge of this? I am also worried for frozen pipes. THis is a rented home but it is very large and there is no way even lighting a fireplace can keep up the warmth throughout the house. Our oven is electric too though our stove is gas.

I didn't push writing much with my oldest, He hated it, had him do it when it was necessary- Boy Scout requirement, essay for summer camp, etc. In high school, he wrote mostly very short commentaries- one page or less- on what he read. He took two online writing tuturiols. So his is he doing- he is a senior in college in philosophy writing four papers this week. That has been his life in college. And he is doing well. Child two is my best student but what does this mean? SHe works incredibly hard, doesn't give up, and is quite smart. But she has learning issues- poor memory, and something else I can't quite figure out. SO while she can write very well, her science work is something else. SHe can't remember vocabulary hardly at all. We are doing conceptual type of biology rather than memorization. No Apologia here because it would be too difficult for her. So she does a harder text, BJU along with DIVE CDs and mostly uses the CDs with some reading of the text as necessary. She is mostly using tapes or CDs for both science and history because that is how she remembers. Then we have child three who is incredibly stubborn and now is 13 and hormonal. Enough said.

I also agree with Hornblower completely about the designer dog problem. I don't even see why so many are done. I saw a show on Animal Planet about this and while the breeders tried to make it all sound positive, what you actually get is dogs with health problems from both breeds if not also behavioral issues from both. The program did show some of that side too while they were talking to breeders or owners. Actually like Hornblower said, at least two of the five dogs from these various mixes were rescues or shelter adoptions. The new owners admitted the issues whether health or behavioral. I think it is actually worse that a regular mutt= the offspring from two mutts. In that case, you probably have a lesser chance of health problems. One so-called designer breed they showcased was the labra-doodle. It was supposed to be great for allergic people. Well there is a great bigger dog that is wonderful for allergic people who live an athletic dog- that is a standard poodle. But it wasn't one of the ones which was highlighted for problems. Those were chihuahu mixture and I think some type of other little dog mixture.

Hey Holly, is your mother in Florida too? If she is, can I recommend Coastal Poodle Rescue? They are a wonderful rescue group for poodles and poodle mixes and that is where I got my miniature poodle Fluffy. We have had him for 3.5 years and what a great dog. They do an excellent job of matching you to a suitable poodle or poodle mix for your lifestyle. Like I wanted a non yappy poodle that did bark at doorbells and got along with kids and cats. It had to be housebroken since we lived in a rental and not be a high activity needed kind of a dog since I have chronic illnesses and my kids will be out of the house in five years. I got exactly that. You can visit their website and see some of the dogs and descriptions they have. If we end up retiring to Florida, I will become a volunteer for them.

My two oldest and my dh have read the Hobbit and love LOTR. I do not. But my kids are different than me. I don;t know whether the fact that they have a different sense of humor than me has anything to do with it. While I read a lot, I tend to like movies of classics better. Someone mentioned Steinbeck- I really like his writing. I don't mind listening to more stories than I will read. DH read Pilgrim's Progress aloud and I really liked it. And the funny thing is that I can read complex articles and complicated modern plots but I seem to be partial to reading books that were written in the last two hundred years and weren't trying to be written in an old style (like LOTR).

HI Tracy, I have a very long experience with this since I have been homeschooling since 1994 pt and 1995 full time along with having several chronic illnesses for that entire time. First of all, I am very happy you are seeing an endocrinologist since a goiter definitely has to do with the thyroid. Could be another issue with the thyroid but it needs to be addressed. Once you get proper treatment, you may end up feeling much better. NOw about the cyberschool- iot sound like its way to much for you and probably for the kids too. I would definitely pull the youngers out and maybe even the older. A first grader needs reading, math and handwriting. You don't need a curriculum. Give math problems on your own or print some from the internet. Read library books together. Have the child copy easy sentences to practice handwriting and proper sentence formation.The child can listen to the the older children's history and science. Fourth grader needs a bit more but it doesn't have to be very expensive. Again the library can meet the reading, history, geography, and science needs. Math can be a relatively cheap workbook. Writing and English can be done with internet assistance. Their are plenty of grammar worksheets out there and depending on the level of writing your child needs, they could be either doing narrations from their reading or writing paragraphs about their reading. I would not continue doing a very rigid stressful program where you have authorities breathing down your neck. Gather the children around you, get a book tape from the library, and listen to a interesting children's classic together. The school work for them does not need to take five hours particularly for a first and fourth grader.

I graduated public high school and both my geometry and my physics teachers allowed corrections on the test for half credit. This was not taking the test over again, just correcting errors. I do that with my kids who I grade- only high schoolers. Now there is a separate issue of what is the test testing? IF you give a test designed to test learning and a child gets many wrong on the test, you could decide that they didn;t learn. You may not be right. The test may be invalid- namely if you gave the test to many students, most wouldn't get it right not because they are stupid or lazy but because a given test is not testing their knowledge but something else. I took graduate level research methodology classes and learned quite a bit about this problem. FOr example, do you know why so many colleges are going to test optional? Because whatever the SAT and to a lesser extent the ACT tests, it isn't how well you will do in college. Study after study says you can figure that out much better by grades and courses taken in high school. NOw there is a large group of kids who get good grades and good test scores and take good classes. SO there is an overlap there. But if a college comes up with one student who is doing better in school and has a lower test score than the second who has done somewhat less well in school but aced the test, they should pick the better student every time if they want people to graduate from their colleges.

They just extended the blizzard warning to more areas. We are not in the area but they say we will be in near blizzard.

We are having incredible amounts of snow falling. And we are not yet in the biggest part of the storm. Praying for everyone's electricity and heating to reamin.

I would have very strong reservations because of the two things he thinks most problems arise from. Heavy metal poisoning is very rare and the way to treat such a condition is a very heavy duty treatment. It is not something I would like to have casually diagnosed. The fact that he finds so many patients having this is very troubling. Then the parasite issue too. In the US, there are not very many people who have parasites unless they traveled to certain areas. My belief is that even though you have such a long list of pros, your gut feeling is one of hesitancy and skepticism. Not about Naturalopathy doctors but rather about this specific doctor. Otherwise, you would be simply asking us whether we think you should accept a gift to go to an expensive doctor and travel there. Here is another issue: if you go and do get a bad feeling about what the doctor is suggesting, are you going to take medicines or do procedures you wouldn't otherwise do because someone else paid for your visit and you feel guilty for using their money when you won't follow the doctor's advice. So I would strongly urge you not to accept.

My girls were supposed to take it tomorrow but since we are getting what may turn out to be the worst snowfall here ever, they are postponed.

Well one think they do wrong with the calculations other than not considering living expenses are very different in different areas is that they seem to think you made the same amount of money all along and so should have been able to save a lot all that time. I don't know how it is in civilian world, but in the military, we spent many, many years making much less than average. Yes, now we make more. But it hasn't been very long. Also, we have been paying for another child in college for four years. I doubt many people who have EFC over 10K can pay that plus save enough for other children. BUt that is the way the system is set up. The very rich can pay and the quite poor get aid. The rest of us have to either win the merit award bonanza or made a killing in something like real estate before it crashed and kept it away from the stock market that crashed or borrow a lot. I think the people who have the worst outcomes are those who live in expensive places to live.