I am in San Diego. The ground is still shaking from time to time. I can see my neighbor's house moving.... or is it mine?

I also speak cantonese. I learned mandarin when I was in college because I had to communicate with foreign students from Taiwan. I read fluent Chinese. I don't know about your situation. But I am teaching my son mandarin using a program called Stanford Chinese school by Lip-ping Ma (?). This program has CD that directs kids to practice everyday. It also has homework everyday. It emphasizes on reading/speaking, less on writing at the beginning. It has 10 levels. If you can read and somewhat speak mandarin (with an accent, like me), this program should be a good one for you. I used to use another program for non-native speakers that didn't not turn out so well. Here is the web address: http://mychineseschool.com/

You are not alone. We severed ties to my husband's parents. In short, they "cheat to live and live to cheat". The husband cheated on his wife. They both cheated us. They said because they were the parents, they had every right to do what they did. They also played favoritism. My husband was the most mild tempered, so they manipulated him to do tons of work for them. He resented them, yet afraid to say no. When we got married, they treated me as second rate citizen because they believed I was weak to marry their weakest son. They also believed we were too weak to walk away from their "cage". It has been 13 years. I am still grieving. However, on the bright side, my dh has become a much stronger person than he was. He learned to say no to things and to stand up to his belief. Our kids, 8 and 5, have never once asked about them in detail. We know one day this question will come up. Our lives have been much better without constantly worrying if we were lied to or if they had manipulated us to put our savings in their account or not (because they did that to dh before he got married and denied they had received money from him). Anyway, I had to keep reminding myself that not all family relationship is worthwhile. I just had to trust my decision 13 years ago that it was the right thing to do.

We got ours at the school district maintenance yard. They often have tables and school chairs that are still in OK shape. Tables are sold for only a few dollars each. Chairs are $1 each. I had to spray paint the chairs and they are good as new.

I had about 13 years of piano instructions when I was young. I started teaching ds with this series for kids. I understand you had this publisher before, but this is for kids, not for adults. As a mom, I am able to teach him for almost 3 years now.

I had problem 12 years ago due to my job because I had to stand 10 hours a day. I went to a podiatrist and got orthotics to put in my shoes. I finally had to quit my job. I have no pain since then.

I never have dogs before, but I had a boy and a girl guinea pigs. When the boy tried to show affection toward the girl, the girl would lift up her butt and shoot pee at him. Their cage had to be cleaned often. The cage can be smelly after a few days. This was years ago. Now I have 2 kids and they want a pet. I decided to get them a cockatiel. Birds are not as smelly. The lining has to be change once a week, food every day. I had birds when I was young. Taking care of birds are quite easy. When I go on vacation, my friends are more likely to take care of my bird than other pets. The cockatiel I got is different than the little birds I had when I was young. This cockatiel sings and whistles for attention, goes anywhere in the house with us, licks us on the face, preen my hair (it's kind of weird), sits quietly on our shoulders and follow us around and jumps on us whenever he has a chance. He cannot talk, but some cockatiels can. This is just another choice for you.

I know a lot of my friends in California file R4 (?) as independent and they never need to get tested and nobody ever checks on them. However, if you need a lot of support, in California, we have many free public charter schools for homeschoolers. They give you free money to buy curriculum and enroll in homeschool fun classes. Some even have academic classes for those who don't want to teach certain subjects, eg, history, science, writing etc. They are all free if you enroll in the school. The catch is that they will hold you accountable. You have to submit work samples every 5 weeks or so. They also want you to test, because that's how they get their money. In California, we have more and more homeschoolers, because we don't get enough funding in public schools. The classes are big as the result.

I had to test ds's. He was learning absolutely nothing in school. He was always advanced, different and quirky. He was also very active, like ADHD active, but he didn't have all the symptoms of ADHD. It turned out his IQ was very high. The hyperactive-like behavior was just part of it. It was a relief for us. However, that IQ test with the recommendation of the psychologist was the turning point when we decided to homeschool him.

We like MCT. We have finished Grammar Island and Building Language already. We are still doing Practice Island. MCT doesn't have language usage at this level. I am not sure if they have it in the future levels. In the mean time, I found it necessary to reinforce some concepts before we move on to the next level next year.

:bigear: bump

People are selling used EG where the grades are grouped together (3/4, 5/6 etc). When I go to the website, each grade has it's own book. I would assume the ones on the website is the new one. Are the old edition and new edition similar in content? Do I need both TM and student book? I read that the old edition has both TM and student pages in one book. Am I correct? Is this an open-and-go curriculum? Are you satisfied with it?

We went through a psychologist. Cost us $350. I am sure you can find cheaper ways to get the test.

I have a Bernina now. My Viking died on me after 10 years. Some parts in Viking are plastic, like the bobbin case and the rewind mechanism. Those are the part that did not last.

When my dh was young, he once sleepwalked down the stair, opened the refrigerator, opened the produce drawer and peed there. Fasting forward almost 40 years later, ds sleepwalks. We changed carpet one day. That night, ds sleepwalked and peed randomly in his room to "mark" his territories. The next night, ds sleepwalked and peed behind his door. And the night after, he managed to find his way to behind my door to pee.

We are actually better this year other than the H1N1 we had back in Nov. I got this book, "Superimmunity for kids", a couple of years ago. It gives you details of what to give in certain situation like asthma, cold, boost immunity etc. I boost my son's immunity when others in the family are sick. He used to get sick every 2 weeks like clockwork when he was 2 yo. Now, he learns to keep a distance from us while having his immune booster when we are sick and he doesn't even get sick. My daughter gets sick for 2 days and she is done.

I was taught by an Oxford graduate (old, old lady!) when I was in high school. "Practise" is a verb and "practice" is a noun (as -ice is a noun).

I think you can find a video about how to open a dragon fruit on U-tube. I opened one a long time ago.

Thank you everyone! We are actually done with MCT Grammar Island's grammar. We have half a year left and I want to expose him to a different way of learning ie workbook style, parsing etc. I think I will just get a student book see how it goes.

I am looking for easy, open and go workbook for upper elementary grammar. Does anybody know if Junior Analytical Grammar requires a teacher's manuel to teach? Is it easy to use? Any other suggestions? I prefer a workbook that doesn't require TM.

I added editing, SWO, literature and a writing class for my DS.

I am not planning to use the poetry book either. I have it. We started using the book and ds did not like it at all. We love Grammar Island, Building Language, Sentence Island and Practice Island. On top of that, I am adding editing/language usage workbook. We do not do writing exercises, because ds is taking a writing class.

The combination of antibiotics and the proton pump inhibitor (prilosec, prevacid etc) is supposed to cure the H Pylori infection permanently. It won't be a chronic infection. There are times, though, that the doctor has to prescribe another few weeks of antibiotics (different ones) + PPI to make sure all the bacteria is gone. Otherwise, once the antibiotics is done, then you should be fine, unless you get infected again.

Bump

I got Just Write 3 from Paperback Swap.com. The book looks a little old, but no writing, so I clicked "book received, no problem". Then I read through the content and I really like it, until I get to p. 25. Page 25-26 is missing! I tried to contact the other party to get my credit back, but she never reply me. Does anybody has that book and willing to mail or email p 25-26 to me? I would really appreciate that.