Yup. I find myself deciding not to read some threads that I want to read because I know it will take long to load, long time to change pages, then a long time again to get back to the thread listing. I find myself not reading because it is too slow to get to the content. Then I often don't post a reply because it takes even longer to do that. I hope something can be done soon to fix this problem.

This is our favorite white chicken chili recipe. People keep asking for it. White Chicken Chili 1 TBSP vegetable oil 1 onion, chopped 3 or so cloves garlic, diced 1 4oz can diced jalapeno peppers (we like it milder, so I don't include these) 1 4 oz. can chopped green chile peppers 2 tsp ground cumin 1 tsp ground cayenne pepper (I usually don't add this) 2 4.5 oz. cans chicken broth (I make my own, but cans work as well) 3 cups chopped, cooked chicken brast 3 15 oz cans white beans (I often cook my own from dry beans) 1 cup or more shredded Monterey Jack cheese (my dh likes to add jalapeno jack cheese) Heat the oil in a large saucepan. Slowly cook the onion until tender Mix in the garlic, jalapeno, green chile peppers, cumin and cayenne. Cook and stir until tender, a few minutes. Mix in the chicken broth, chicken and white beans. Simmer 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. 2. Remove from heat. Slowly stir in the cheese until melted. I usually have more shredded cheese so people can top their chili with it if they want to. This freezes well.

Please post pictures. I don't even know what some of those plants look like. I would love to see what you are describing.

You have some reasonable ideas on how to make hsing work,if you decide that is the best decision. It is important to have one on one time with all your dc, even the ones not doing school work. Another point is that as your dc get older, they will be able to do more on their own, even as second or third graders. They won't need you to sit beside them all the time, giving you more time for juggling those balls and spending time with your youngest. If you decide to keep your older dc in school another year, then you can still include history and science into your week. Pick some good living history books and make them your read alouds at night after dinner. They are not textbooks and won't seem schoolish or be extra work. That may help your dd to get her history fix and help her maintain her interest in history, which I personally would make a priority since schools spend so little time on history and science. You could alternate with science books, or make Saturdays science days and do some experiments or science activities on Saturdays since those take more time than is reasonably available after school. You can't do anything about the time the school spends on test prep instead of on education, but you can add some of that education at home. Math is harder to work in without it seeming like more schoolwork after a long day at school, but if you can find some computer games that teach and reinforce math, your dc may enjoy playing those, refreshing their math skills in a fun way. Go to the library often and be sure you check out some books your dc pick as well as some you choose because you know they are books you want your dc to read or books you want to read to them. It may be that after doing this for a year to give your youngest time to mature a bit more, you would be able to bring one or all of your dc home again and have a better idea of how to keep all those balls in the air most the time (none of us keep them in the air all the time!).

My ds is in a position to do this. He had two years of cc classes then transferred to a university. He was one class short of an AA, but didn't care if he got the AA or not because the university didn't require it. He has been at the university, but has decided to come home because he wants to change his major (grrr...but that's his choice) and his school doesn't offer it. The university doesn't award any AA degrees. He plans to go to the cc again and get into the EMT and Paramedic program. He wants to transfer credits from the university and ask for the AA so he has a degree while he is working on his EMT. From reading the website, the cc will transfer in courses so it should work out. It does seem like a backwards way of getting the AA, but ds has taken the courses and has earned it. It is only one course that he needs to get the AA and he took many courses at the university that should transfer in and count towards meeting the requirement. He may as well officially get the AA.

I'm so sorry you have to deal with this. We went through a horrible situation leaving a church with a controlling, lying, manipulative pastor and it was hard enough just handling people and identifying the pastor's spies. I'm grateful we didn't have Facebook in the mix. :grouphug: You will come out the other side eventually and life will get easier. That's one reason some people can get away with it. Many people blindly trust because of a person's position or title instead of looking at character and behavior. Some people are blind to it or choose to believe the lies, others are gullible and believe whatever they are told, others see what is going on, but don't want it to be true so they assume they must be the problem and must simply not understand, and others want to be liked or appreciated, so they choose not to see. Others see the truth but don't want to be treated like people who have confronted the person/situation, so they keep quiet out of fear. Many of those people are easily used by a controlling, manipulative person, and often the people don't realize they are being used as spies. They think they are helping and doing the right thing. That makes it hard for people trying to escape and move on who want to maintain their friendships.

My dc have never been in school until college, but I have heard this same thing from friends whose dc are in the ps. It is legal here to opt out, but parents are not informed of this very often so few know they can opt out. One mother asked about the opt out policy and was told by the school that her dc did not qualify for 'opt out'. This woman already knew the law and knew that the school was lying to her and eventually got the school to admit that she could opt out, but they used a lot of pressure and intimidation to get her not do so so. They also asked her not to tell other parents they could opt out. They told her that they need the number of opt out students to include students won't do well on the test and her dc would score high. Doesn't she care about the school? Doesn't she care about the teacher who worked so hard to educate her dc? Won't she feel bad if the school scores low because she opted out her dc? Why doesn't she care that her dc won't get to take the tests that they have prepared all year to take (one reason the mother didn't like the test because she preferred her dc be educated instead of prepared to take the test)? Others reported being told that if they care about their dc's education, they will let their dc take the test because the school will get to keep good teachers that way and may get extra money for additional programs. If they did not allow their dc to take the test, they would be personally responsible for the school not scoring well and maybe losing teachers and programs. Don't they care about children? Their dc were told that if the school loses the art or music program, they were the reason because they did not take the test. It's bad pressure, and most parents won't stand up to the intimidation and don't want their dc unfairly singled out and blamed in classrooms. Another woman told me that the school told her that if she wanted to, she could keep her child home sick from school on test days. Her dc was expected to score poorly on the tests. She sent her dc anyway and the teacher told her that her dc was not supposed to be there. I guess that is the other side of the testing problem. The tests are not about helping the students despite what some administrators say. They are a waste of instructional time and are causing unnecessary stress and illness in children. My dc didn't need to take any tests because our state doesn't require them, but I would have been one who opted out.

CLEP tests can be a good way to validate a hs transcript. They may get a student credit at a university, or they may not. The problem is that each university sets its own policies, so it helps to know where the student wants to go, then plan accordingly. My dc did not take any CLEP tests. One university did not accept any CLEPs. A couple others did, but only if the CLEP tests were taken after the student began taking classes there, so taking CLEP tests while in high school was not going to help. Another university did accept some CLEPs, but not in the student's major and only for a limited number of credits. My dc decided to take cc classes instead. All their cc credits transferred to all the universities (in state and out of state, private and private) that they were considering, and ended up transferring to a university they were not considering at the time, but ended up attending. It was the best option for them to get college credit that we were fairly certain would transfer. Articulation agreements are very helpful. That won't hold true for all students in all states, though, because universities set their own policies on transferring in cc credits, and the quality of cc courses varies as well. My dc did not like the one-test-decides-it-all route that many of their friends took with AP and CLEPs. They preferred taking cc classes. They have friends who did not like the cc classes, but preferred AP tests or CLEP tests. They have a friend who took 6 AP tests, but the university he attends would not give him credit for any of them, even though he scored a 5 on all of them. The AP scores may have been a factor in being admitted to the university, but it didn't help him gain college credits at all. Other friends did get to take more advanced level courses because of their AP test scores, but they didn't get college credit for them. They just didn't have to take the freshman level course. That worked well for some friends, but not well for others. So even AP tests are a gamble as far as getting college credit. My dc have friends who have taken a lot of CLEP tests. One finished two years with CLEPs, then earned a BA from Thomas Edison University with online courses, and is now at a university working on her masters in education. The CLEP test route was great for her because she hated the cc and loved online courses and CLEPs. She also got her BA in 3 years this way. It was a great option for her, but my dc would not have liked doing it, and none of my dc's majors would have allowed it. But it can be an option depending on the student, the major, and the university to be attended. So CLEPs, AP and cc courses are all something to consider, and none of them will be the answer or the best choice in all cases. In some states one option may be better than another, but that will change based on the state and university. I figure that in the long run, a student who has passed an AP or CLEP test, or has taken cc classes, will have learned a lot that will benefit him at a university, whether by getting college credit, going into a more advanced level course, or just by having knowledge gained through that course or test taking process which will make taking university classes easier. And all of them will help validate a hs transcript, if that is a concern. A decision needs to be made based on each individual student's situation, and that decision needs to be evaluated yearly because things change often with regards to universities.

One thing our hs support group did is have a planning day. We used a large multi-purpose room with loads of tables and chairs for an entire Saturday, 8:00 am to 5:00 pm. That way the dads could be home taking care of the children. Ladies brought their laptops, printers, bags and boxes of curriculum, took over tables, and had an entire day to plan. Lots of tables meant room to spread out as needed. The room was to be library quiet (except for occasional printer noise). All chatting took place in another lobby-type room next door with comfy couches. We wanted people to be able to plan and not be distracted, but knew that we all needed breaks and would want time to chat, so we planned for it. We asked people to bring finger-food type snacks to share and we had coffee and water available. Food was kept on a back table so people could graze as they worked. We planned a group dinner at a local restaurant that evening for anyone who wanted to come, which was a fun ending to a profitable day. Everyone paid for her own meal, and it was fun to have an evening out with other ladies, especially after a busy day planning. Most ladies worked for a while, then went to chat for a while, then went back to planning. There were small groups of ladies who went to lunch together, and others brought their lunch. Some ladies came to work for a few hours, then went home. Others came for the afternoon and dinner. This way they could fit planning time into whatever other commitments they had. It was a come and go as you need to type of day. The goal was to provide a convenient location to meet the need of a quiet planning space. Anyway, it was easy to plan and set up, and it allowed everyone a place to go to work without needing to pay to get away or to send the family away. And it was fun :001_smile:

My dd has not had a problem with her school's cafeteria. It is large, and offers a lot of options. She is allergic to peanuts and eggs. This means there is a lot that she can't eat, but there has never been a time when she has not had food available that she likes (or likes well enough to eat). The salad bar is very good, and she eats a lot of salad. She stays away from the Chinese grill because you pick what you want, then they cook it for you and one of the options is peanut oil. Because that may still be in the pans, she skips that food option completely. She can't eat a lot of common breakfast foods, so she adjusted her meal plan so she has fewer meals and she keeps breakfast food in her room. She usually has oatmeal, yogurt, fruit, and cereal to eat for breakfast. That way she doesn't need to deal with all the eggs in the cafeteria. There is also a kitchen available in her dorm and very few students ever use it. She often cooks for herself and her roommates. My ds attends a school with a much smaller cafeteria and far fewer food choices. His university allows students with severe food allergies or other documented dietary restrictions to live in an on-campus apartment with a kitchen. Other students are not allowed to live there and must have a meal plan.

Use your favorite chili recipe and make taco salads. We do this all summer and it is one of my children's favorite summer meals. Heat up the chili, then on plates or bowls layer: tortilla chips, lettuce, chili, cheese, salsa, guacamole, tomatoes (if you don't want the salsa) and sour cream. It is a yummy, quick summer meal that doesn't heat up the house.

:iagree: A private company should be able to spend its money the way it wants. If it makes wise choices, it will be profitable. If it makes foolish choices, it will lose customers and go out of business. That is how it should be working. I can choose to shop there or not, and that's how I will express my opinion on its business model. If a company wants to spend its money on bonuses, then that is its choice. It is their money. If the shareholders disagree with how a business budgets, then they can pull their monetary support. I don't think the government or other groups should be telling private businesses how to spend their own money, including how much should be given as bonuses. I also don't think the government should be bailing out any private businesses because that is wrong use of taxpayer money. I may not agree with the way an individual or a business spends money, but it is their right to spend it the way they choose.

Solid, college prep course of study Good grades Do well on the ACT or SAT - score as high as possible Some universities require SATII tests, so be sure you check into that and take whichever tests are appropriate at the end of 11th grade. Something else to verify home grades - community college courses or AP tests, or CLEP tests (my dc only did cc courses) Activities that show commitment, skill and leadership. It doesn't need to be a long list. It is sometimes best to have a few activities that demonstrate long term commitment and skill. My dd took lots of cc courses while in high school and was full time at the cc during 11th grade. This led to a full tuition transfer scholarship at an out of state university, based solely on her cc GPA. She would not have received any merit scholarships had she attended an in-state university. Be open to going out of state. One ds received his school's highest merit scholarship based on his combined high school GPA and his SAT test score. His cc courses transferred in to the university, but his scholarship was not based on those.

:lol:

That was unbelievably rude of her, and even more so after you went to so much effort to be sure they could eat the meal you cooked. You went above and beyond to be a good hostess. HHmmmm...I wonder if this is one reason they are not connecting with people.

I'm enjoying the show.

My dc have completed courses during the summer, and it worked well. I suppose the downside is not having a long summer break from school work, but my dc chose to complete the courses then, so that didn't bother them. They still had time for other activities. The benefit was completing the course, allowing more time during the school year for other activities or opening up time during the school year for a different course. It was never questioned on their transcripts. I would only do it if my child wanted to, though. I wouldn't force it.

There is a difference between an accident and something that happens as a result of disobedience or foolishness. But even if damage is the result of a complete accident, I want my dc to know that they will usually still need to take responsibility. An accident is not an excuse to relieve the person involved from paying for any resulting damage. Responsibility is also involved. In a situation that is an accident (unanticipated, unexpected), needing to pay for the damage is not a punishment for disobedience, but is simply taking responsibility for the result of the accident.

It is horrible, and there is no excuse for this teacher's behavior. But I have to wonder why the parents in schools that seem to put the almighty test above needs of students don't unite to bring about a change. Surely they love their children, just like we love ours. Surely they want what is best for their children, the same as we do. Surely they can recognize admin/teacher behavior that is inappropriate or prioritizes tests over students, just like we do. So are they so conditioned to believe that the administrators are always right that they don't recognize the reality of situations? Do they think they have no option than to give in and let schools do whatever they want to do? Do they believe it when they are told that they are the only parents who ever complained about a situation? Do they really believe that the teacher or administrator is always right and knows what is best for students? Are they intimidated by those who insist that 'experts' know what is best and mere parents need to accept it? Are they just used to believing that next year will be better when their child has a different teacher, or that their child just needs to grow up more? Have they just given up? Many people here express that they would pull their child from the class or the school. So would I. I would expect that opinion and action from the people and culture on this forum. But what gives? Why do parents in the ps system allow these actions to continue?

How sweet he is! And I agree with you about watching our dc make connections. Some of my favorite hsing moments were watching the light come on in my young ones' faces. No teacher would dance around the room the way ds and I did after my ds read his first word. Same with my other dc. These are special moments that I would not want to leave to someone who doesn't love my dc as much as I do! Watching these connections makes all the hard work worth it.

I agree with the other posters. It depends on the university. Check universities your dc may want to attend to see if they offer transfer scholarships, and how much money they award for the different GPA ranges. My dd does not qualify for any need based money, but did receive a full tuition transfer scholarship to an out of state public university based on her cc GPA (she got an AA at the cc). She would have received no scholarship money at all if she had transferred to an in-state public university. It does make it difficult to plan because every situation and university is different.

It is okay to bring this to the attention of those who are hiring the teachers and subs. You are paying for the class, and should be getting what you paid for, including the level of instruction. If no one says anything, the leadership will assume all is well. The only way they will know what is really happening is if someone speaks up. So inform them.

Photoshop Elements and Photoshop are the most versatile software packages for digital scrapbooking. Here are a couple sites where you can view examples of digital scrapbooking, mostly by people using PSE or PS. As you can see, PSE and PS are perfect for digital scrapbooking. They provide complete versatility that is limited only by your imagination. There are many online tutorials that teach you how to use PSE and PS for digital scrapbooking. Designer Digitals sells some excellent, step by step tutorials, and Creative Passion has great classes. Designer Digitals: http://www.designerdigitals.com/digital-scrapbooking/ideas/ Two Peas in a Bucket: http://www.twopeasinabucket.com/gallery/projects/digital/ Creative Passion: http://creativepassionclasses.com/

soup chili nachos - not really a freeze ahead, except that you can make and freeze the beans. But it goes together in minutes, so it's a quick lunch. Stuffed potatoes - bake your potatoes, then remove the top and all the insides, keeping the skin intact. Mix the cooked potato with milk and butter, just like you would make mashed potatoes, but it can still be a bit lumpy. Then add whatever you like. I usually add a bit of sour cream, pieces of cooked bacon, and shredded cheese. Then stuff the mixture back into the potato skins, mounded. Then freeze them, not touching, on cookie sheets. Once they are frozen, you can put them all into Ziploc bags. These make great quick lunches. Just thaw and heat. Enchiladas - these freeze well, and heat up quickly.

DS - lifeguard and assistant swim team coach at a gym. DD - teach swim lessons at a swim school, year round. DS - media department at church, filming and editing videos. Of course, then they went to college and two have not been able to find jobs because they are in a college town that doesn't offer many jobs, and the jobs that are there go to the returning college students instead of to new students. My dd earns money selling plasma. She is now considering that her income source.