You all are making me think I need to take a road trip to Staples!!

You're not alone. There are others. Like me! It's so hard not to buy glue sticks when they're 10 cents a stick...but really how many glue sticks can a couple of little girls go through in a year?? I've been to Office Depot three times this week. First to purchase everything that had rebates ($95 worth of stuff is going to eventually cost me $2.03) with extra coupons, next to buy a friend something she wanted (with my rewards card) and third, to have a bunch of maps printed out (brag: 10 double sided 11x17 copies for 15 cents each and 64 double sided b/w copies for 8 cents each!!). Okay, now I realize how sad this sounds that I've been to OD three times this week...hey at least the kids were with me-quality time, right?

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE KROGER!! I used to shop Wal-Mart, but since moving to where it's at least 20 minutes away it is so not worth the drive. Crowded, crazy people, totally useless employees (I know it's not like that everywhere, just here probably). Now, I do shop at Sam's Club...but I've totally lost my desire to shop WM. I go there maybe twice a year now. And dread it each time.

Can you deal-seekers out there help me find 200 sheets of 11"x17" tracing paper and colored pencils for about 35 kids to go with it?

In a co-op the parents are volunteering and doing all the preparation, work and presentation of material. In CC, the director and the tutors are paid, relieving most of the parents of that load. However, the director and tutors are 99% of the time parents of children in the programs. It gives a higher expectation and level of accountability than in a co-op where parents can easily feel overwhelmed and taken advantage of. As far as who is making money: CC receives a registration fee for each student. There is a supply fee which stays local and is used for everything from pencils, science/art supplies to toilet paper (if your location is stringent), then the tuition is split between the director and tutors. The Challenge level is a little different, I am speaking of the Foundations and Essentials programs here. I was a tutor last year and will be a Foundations/Essentials director this year and made enough last year to pay for my children to be involved in the program (I have two) and to pay for our homeschooling materials on top of that. This year it'll probably cover music lessons for the year, too (for which I am grateful). So, not big bucks but enough to make me want to work really hard if the motivation of the community wasn't enough. Other threads have great information from all sorts of folks who love, hate and are lukewarm about CC.

My son was having the same eczema reaction to something (along with loose stools) when he was 18-24 months. Okay, that's misleading. He's had issues since birth with growing, rashes and loose stools. It got really bad starting around 18 months. I figured out bananas (that's an easy one to eliminate and see if it's a problem). But we also suspected milk. So we put him on soy milk (but at the same time cut out bananas) and things got sort of better for a little while. Then the eczema took over. I wasn't being very careful about yogurt, cheese etc not knowing much about food allergies or a milk allergy in particular. At age 2 I took him to an allergist, thinking it was bananas and milk. We're lucky to have good insurance and it cost me $20 with no referral necessary. The allergist listened to my sob story/suspicions, observed the eczema and took notes. Then he had my son scratch-tested for the top 8 environmental allergies and top 8 food allergies + bananas. Results: allergic to cats (we have 4), cockroaches (seriously? what do I do about that??), bananas (I knew that!) and...(drumroll, please) SOY! So...we probably never would have figured out the soy. All this to say, if you can't get the kid to a doctor, then try eliminating one thing from his diet a week at a time. Although, the allergist did set me straight on milk allergies (for those of you who read above that milk allergy=yogurt allergy or milk allergy=cheese allergy, it is not necessarily true!). What was I saying? Oh yeah: eliminate one thing at a time. Don't go straight nothing diet because wow would that be hard and awful!! Start with the thing you think most likely (milk) and start reading labels. Do that for a full 7 days and if it's not better, put milk back in the diet and eliminate something else (like wheat or soy, etc). And good luck.

This past Sunday I had the exact pain and location you are describing! I'm very fortunate that I do not have the medical history you do. The first thing they did was a urinary pregnancy test to rule out an ectopic pregnancy. It was negative and the minor medical doctor said either appendicitis or an ovarian cyst. My bloodwork showed no sign of infection, but he sent me for a CT scan anyway. It was a ruptured ovarian cyst. They gave me pain meds and sent me home. Granted, I spent 5 hours in the ER with the staff around me thinking it was appendicitis because of the amount of rebound pain I was having (didn't hurt horribly when they pushed down, but when they let go..I came off the table it hurt so much!) before the CT results came back. I can't think of anything else for you to do but take a home pregnancy test and well, either way, go see a doctor! Ectopic pregnancies and untreated appendicitis CAN be incredibly serious. It could simply be endometriosis, but why risk it?

My pediatrician recommended giving my breastfed infant daughter the Poly-Vi-Sol (the one without iron) and we did for a while. He did it not because she was breastfed, but because she was low in certain vitamins/nutrients. I can't remember now what they were. There was bloodwork done first. He did not encourage it for an extended period of time. Once she started on cereal, he said to quit. My third child was a failure to thrive (just stopped growing at 6 weeks and wouldn't no matter what we tried-turns out he has food allergies, but that's a whole 'nother story!) and in addition to many adjustments to get him healthy, we did use the vitamins. Again, only until he was obviously healthy and didn't need them. If your pediatrician is saying give the kid vitamins based only on the fact that the child is exclusively breastfed, you can probably ignore it. Was there some other reason for the recommendation? Is your child low on the height/weight chart? Do you live in a place where you don't get much sun? Just make sure there isn't an *actual* reason.

Honestly, I wouldn't give money at all...please don't throw virtual tomatoes at me!! I would write the graduate a card/letter praising them for the accomplishment, with perhaps a personal anecdote to make them smile. If there is some way your family can assist the graduate as they head off to college or the workforce (maybe you're in a position to obtain interviews for them or have contacts at their college destination) I would indicate that in the letter. I would then cheerfully attend the party.

It's not a system, but what about plain old colored wood blocks in various shapes and sizes? We have hundreds in various bags around the house and they get used for everything... Stuff like this. I suppose Citiblocks are sort of like them, but I've never seen them other than on Amazon.

You find a woodworker/craftsman/super handy dad-type who builds one for you! I'm looking forward to the next house and having one made. :001_smile:

Our Mother Tongue rocks.

That's awesome! Thanks for posting.

I agree with the previous poster who said that Foundations is what you make of it at home. We do a middle-of-the-road review, spending 15-30 minutes every other day. We do listen to it in the van a few times a week (10-15 minutes at a time). Some families spend way more (30 mins a day) and some don't review at all. I think it would be kind of silly to do Foundations and not reinforce it at home at all...the point is putting the facts in their long-term memory banks so they have a framework to put information in as they learn "other" subjects. Even my little ones can do a lot of independent review now that they are reading.

There are tons of registered testing sites in the Memphis area. Many homeschool groups will allow anyone to sign up to take the Stanford (I don't know about the TCAP, you could call and ask) tests at their location. Can you use something like that instead of having to go to the public school for those days?

Her pounding on the table in January really resonated with me! :smash:

If you have student loans, you can call them and they might be able to grant you a temporary forbearance based on your income (or lack thereof). If it gets desperate enough, my rule of thumb is not to pay the stuff that won't end up on our credit report. Missing a credit card payment will show, but not paying the phone bill usually won't. The trouble with not paying utilities and insurance bills is that there are usually reconnect fees later...start calling them and tell them what's happening. The worst that will happen is that they'll say there's nothing they can do and you just won't pay them anyway! Here's hoping they get it worked out fast.

I really like A Mother's Rule of Life by Holly Pierlot. It's been very helpful to me.

I don't know what you're talking about. :leaving:

Those crotched (sp?) kitchen towels that you button on to your stove/fridge/towel rack. Someone gave us a set when we married and I love them. There are four-one for each season. With little kids I wash them constantly, but they're much better than the "normal" ones I find all over the floor because the 2 year old pulls them off and can't get them to stay on again. I'm sure they were handmade, but you could probably find them on etsy.

Last year I had a 4 and 5 year old in CC, like you'll have this fall. The tutor should definitely not expect them to sit in their chairs and be still for 2.5 hours! We're homeschoolers, after all. :D What we did was formal math (if you want to call Miquon formal, we did use some MEP for a while) and phonics at home (we used Phonics Pathways). For history and science, we simply checked out books that were loosely related to the recent memory work. We did spend 15-30 minutes a day reviewing memory work; sometimes it was games, sometimes straight drill, we listened to the cds in the van. I usually gave them time to ask questions, sometimes we'd pull out an encyclopedia and read more about a piece of memory work. We did do handwriting regularly. Reviewing the geography at home was a great jumping off point for pointing out places we'd read about from our library books. I had grand plans for formal history, science, etc but quickly realized that it would be overkill. At that age, besides laying the foundational frame of memory pegs, groundwork for math, reading and writing was all they really needed. Everything else was character/habit/obedience training and just having fun with playdough. And field trips. And lots of time outside. You'll find what works for you-but definitely take it slow! Don't let it overwhelm you.

My kids and I all get bitten by mosquitoes all year long! We've tried Avon, we've tried spray with Picardin, we've tried bracelets and necklaces, we've tried Citronella of all sorts. The only thing that works for us is DEET. Hourly application of 7% works, but we usually stick with much higher percentages so I don't have to catch all three each hour. Long sleeves and leggings certainly help keep the amount of chemical down, but it's just so dang hot down here it's impractical. The bugs love us so much that they bite our eyelids. :001_huh: Baseball mom, I finally figured out to keep an extra bottle in the van just last month! Good luck bzymama23 finding what works for your child. I have heard that there are lines of outdoor clothing made with some kind of bug repellent on them and are designed for hot weather. I think it's time for me to look into them!

I totally would have laughed...and then added "if you only knew what I was really doing..." :D

http://pharaoh.arkarts.com/ Little Rock, AR has the Pharoahs of Ancient Egypt exhibit until July 5, 2010.

I don't think anyone has mentioned Critical Thinking Company's various series for math and logic skills. They seem to appeal to a broad section of homeschoolers, Classical and otherwise. Having a handful of the big sellers for each subject seems like a great idea. For history, you could have SOTW, MOH, TOG and perhaps a secular title as well. As a history "resource" we love Laurie Carlson's activity guides. Don't forget Latin (I would suggest Memoria Press's Latin programs as highly popular), and modern languages. So for each subject have 4 major curricula new and then carry lots of reference books (Usborne, Kingfisher, DK, etc). I like how everyone is suggesting homeschool/parenting guides. Having a wide variety of authors (I've enjoyed Cathy Duffy, Laura Berquist, the Bluedorns, Wise and Wise-Bauer, Douglas Wilson, Maureen Wittmann, Gladys Hunt, Charlotte Mason, Maria Montessori) will ensure that there's something there to help everyone. BOB books are usually very popular and aren't common on consignment (they don't hold up to heavy use well). Good luck! Don't suppose you're near me?? We don't have a homeschool/curriculum store besides Knowledge Tree. :(