You betcha.

I always make my own with MS Word. Sometimes, if I'm particularly inspired, I use MS Publisher. That's what I use for publishing our co-op's curriculum. (You can peek by following my link and downloading the curriculum.)

Why go through Winter Promise? You can get everything from Amazon in two days. Winter Promise doesn't even fulfill all its orders. Half the time they're going through Amazon just like you. Cut out the middle man -- they have lousy shipping.

We're teaching Latin and Spanish simultaneously. For Latin we use Minimus, and for Spanish we use Rosetta Stone. It seems to be working just fine. In fact, he now sees so many Latin roots in Spanish (of course) and he's very proud when he finds one. It's working for us.

Makes perfect sense to me.

I'm a hugger because that's the way I was raised. We live in Miami where at least half the population is Hispanic, including me. Hispanics hug -- it's like shaking hands for Anglos. My husband is Canadian (Anglo) and he shakes hands with his Dad. The first time I saw that, I was appalled at the cold, impersonal greeting after months of not seeing him. I learned that this is just a cultural thing -- they love each other very much, they just don't show it. My male cousins all hug and kiss their fathers when they greet, even after just a day or two. And of course, the women kiss and hug everybody. Now that dh has been thoroughly Cubanized after all these years with me in Miami, he hugs and kisses ds each time he comes from work and for every greeting. Actually, the hug is more like opening his arms and bracing himself while ds throttles across the room and throws himself at his dad, but you get my drift. Here in Miami, the Anglos have adapted to our huggy/kissy nature. When we entertain at home or go to someone else's house, all the American husbands know to hug and kiss their wives' friends. Half of them are married to Hispanics. ;) From time to time we have a new family in our homeschool group who has come from up north and hasn't been exposed to the Latin love fest. They learn quickly and no one seems to mind. It's just a quick hug and perhaps a peck on the cheek if you're close friends. Anyway - the point is that I've found hugging to be a very culturally-based thing. So even though I'm considered "antisocial" by some people's standards, I still hug and kiss my friends and their partners. As an aside, some months ago I saw a photo of John Travolta at the base of the stairs of his airplane, hugging and kissing a man. There were "gay" remarks and lots of snide innuendo. When I saw the photo, I thought, "Good grief -- I see this sort of thing all the time when my family gets together." Old friends hug and kiss -- even men. Then I remembered that Travolta is Italian -- Latin like me.

That could be me. I don't have any diagnosis -- I've never been to a doctor for it -- I don't think there's anything wrong with me. I don't pick up the phone when I'm busy or not in the mood for chat because the phone is there for my convenience, not the convenience of the caller. Innane chatter drives me nuts. I can't sit still on the phone while someone else disgorges their entire personal life on me. Some of my friends find that peculiar -- they live to know other people's secrets. I'm just not that interested. If a close friend has an issue they want to talk about, that's great. If they want to have an energy vampire session where they dump and I have to listen, they're SOL. I'm also not a social butterfly. I have a few close friends and that's all I need. I go out of the house much less than other people do. I stay at home and pretty much only go out when I have chores or when I'm taking ds to one of his activities. I also have great date nights with my husband and from time to time I entertain at home. I have full time help and it's somebody else's job to go grocery shopping, etc. I get teased about being anti-social, but I don't think I am. I'm just busy and I pick and choose my activities. My favorite one is to stay home with a book.

Outstanding reply. "Year off," indeed.

Yes! I actually did that myself years ago. Look through the list of CLEP subjects. I bet there are several things he can test out in one morning and get credit for. This is an actual question from my Analysis and Interpretation of Literature CLEP. I still remember it because it was so dumb. A homeschooled kid can smoke several of those tests. __________ "It was a dark and dreary night. The wind howled and the clouds scudded across the blah, blah," (You get the point.) The mood in the above paragraph is: 1. cheerful 2. boring 3. funny 4. gloomy _________

No way! Your instinct was right. What kind of message do you send a child if there are never, ever any second chances. You did right, and in the end your goal was achieved. More importantly, now *she* knows she's capable of handling herself successfully. That wasn't wimpy. That was wise.

It gets better. When he was little, my son put me through very similar situations. While I was reading your posts, I started clenching my teeth. But he's 10 now and even though he still has a strong will, he is much, much easier to get along with. As he matured, he learned how to be cooperative and go with the flow. I will tell you, it was not fun from 3 to 6. I'm sure I lost at least a week of life for each of those three years. Here's what worked for us. We went everywhere prepared to leave at a moment's notice. It was a chore, but it was a temporary thing and we just bit the bullet and dealt with it as necessary. We'd go to the library. I would ask my son to stay by me and offered to find "his" books first. He'd stride off and glare at me. I would instantly sweep him up, leave the books behind, walk out the door, into the car and immediately go home. No yelling, no big scenes (except the one he treated us to from the back seat when he realized we were really leaving.) Hours later, when he was calm, I'd find some time to bring it up and explain to him that the reason we left is because he walked away when I asked him not to. Nothing else. We did this for months. We found relief almost immediately. Little by little our trips out with him lasted longer and longer. By the time he was about seven, we could go anywhere you can go with a rambunctious 7-year-old boy. On the other hand, my sister had a son just like mine. She yelled and screamed, threatened and timed-out. And half the time she just gave in. He turned out fine too. ;) I think the thing to remember is that they get over that and things will get easier. Hang in there.

I have done it both ways. With my first, I went to the hospital and had my water broken because my doctor needed to make the opera on time. I had a subsequent delivery with a midwife in my home. Having given birth both ways, I can say without hesitation that I would never recommend that a woman go to a hospital unless she has a medical condition that requires it or women who prefer pain relief. It's a pity that midwives are not allowed to give women anything to ease their pain. I would have loved to have my son without pain, but doctors do not allow that. It would cut into their profits.

We did all that. Bradley, breathing exercises. It was a colossal waste of time and energy. Only a man who has never given birth would stand there with a straight face and tell you that if you breathe just so it won't hurt. The calamity is that so many women believed that and felt they were failures because they were not able to "control" their birth pain. I find that unforgivable.

We had terrible problems with ds when he was one. By then he had been weaned and cow milk made him terribly sick. The doctor immediately identified milk as the problem. He explained that cow's milk has a protein covering that is very bad for some people. He recommended goat milk. At first I thought it was gross -- it smells different. But ds loved it. All his symptoms went away immediately. After a few years (perhaps when he was four or five), we tried cow's milk again. His allergy was over and now he can drink milk as he wants. Last, I want to agree with the poster who warned about soy and little girls. This is a very real danger. Little girls should have soy very sparingly. When I was going through the change, my doctor recommended soy supplements, and I also started cooking with it. It made all the difference in the world -- put me through the whole process without meds or hormones. She explained that soy contains huge amounts of a vegetable based estrogen. Not good for little ones, especially girls. Hope you find something that works for your little one. Don't be discouraged. There are tons of alternatives, from goat milk, to non dairy drinks.

If we ban everything that pisses off some people, there would be nothing left to do. :001_huh:

Somewhere between $7 and $10 is appropriate in my neck of the woods. It's a lot of work and responsibility, regardless of whether Mom is there or not. I would be comfortable with $7.

That was me too. My first was a daughter who played with dolls. She would have been allowed to play with trucks and airplanes if she'd wanted to, she just never did. She loved her Barbies. Seventeen years later, ds came along and everything changed. Now I understand that many, many little boys love to play defender, run around the yard, cape flowing, nerf gun in hand while his dogs play his troops. When he has the chance to play with another little boy or girl who is interested, he loves it. My friend's fear that my son is going to turn into a deranged serial killer are unfounded in my opinion. When I was growing up, all little boys played cowboys and indians, they played with little plastic guns and swords, and asked for mom to make them capes and armor. All my male cousins turned out fine -- none of them are violent or mean. They're just sweet men, loving fathers. I do understand that my friend is in the same spot I was in before ds was born. She's never been around a typical boy (her ds is very atypical). I hate to lose a friend. I want to work around this, but I don't see taking ds's toy guns and nerf swords away so my friend will be happy. I'm kind of bummed.:sad:

Catholics did it until not so long ago. My mom was Catholic and she always wore a head covering at mass. Even after it was no longer required and none of the younger women wore them, my mom wouldn't walk into a church with a bare head. It was her thing. She has several beautiful scarves and traditional lace "mantilla" type coverings. If you look at old photos of Jackie Kennedy, she's wearing black lace head scarves in several pictures where she's in church or around clergy.

Oh, my gosh! These are gorgeous! I don't cover my hair, but I would so wear these. Thank you for the link.

What if you cut the point long enough that you can tuck it under the knot at the back?

Explain that you contact members exclusively through email, that you do not have time to call each mother individually. If she still refuses to do email, then let her miss dates and drop out of the group. I'm all for thinning the ranks of hangers on who cost resources and add nothing to the group.

He can't spell. :( Seriously, he misspells every other word.

My 10-year-old ds is bored with his spelling book. Each time I pull out the book, he sighs and gets that resigned look on his face. There's got to be something more engaging, more exciting for spelling than these dry old pages. :bigear: Any ideas? :bigear:

Yes! Excellent post, Moni.

It's a joke, silly. Nobody is going to actually call them. And by the way, the Duggars are public figures. They are paid very handsomely to be in the public eye and be praised and criticized.