M&M's You know which ones.;)

tomatillos

Key Lime Pie

Watermellon favored Jello

moldy bread :D

I just thought of another I created from a shiskabob recipe I made over ten years ago. Fry some cut up bacon for a few minutes and add cut up chicken breast. Add crushed garlic and fry for a minute. Add a can of drained cubed pineapple, warm through. I served it over rice. Kids loved it. I guess I have a few odd ones but try them. They are pretty good. Also, you may want to look at my Vietnamese Chicken recipe in the social group for cooks. It is my favorite and it is made with skinless boneless thighs, so it is cheap. Tonight we are having plain grilled chicken breast with Ragu sauce on crusty french bread as a sub sandwich. Yummm.

My kids love the Russian Chicken recipe from the Sonlight cookbook. This is not low fat or spicy but you may like it and it is super easy to make. It would work in a crock pot but I bake it in the oven. About 2-3 lbs of Chicken breast. 1 small bottle of Russian salad dressing 1 envelope of French Onion Soup powder 1 can of cranberry jelly or sauce. In a heavy bottomed roaster mix the ingredients together (make sure it is big enough as it will be messy if it bubbles over). Place in oven at 350 degrees until it bubbles and is cooked through. It takes about an hour. Sounds gross but it is very good. You will have lots of gravy so make mashed potatoes. You could also cut the gravy ingredients in half. Enjoy!

Thanks for posting! My kids found it really interesting. So did I.

I would love to see them, too. With a warning, I think it would be OK. This city girl does not get to see a birth very often. Congratulations on your little bull calf!

:iagree: I dislike when people have their children make phone calls that are difficult and hide behind the adults reluctance to say no to a child or confront when the information seems burdensom. I would call the mom and expect her to give me the accurate info on the party. Then I would make decisions about it with her on the phone describing gently how it impacts my day and suggesting that more notice would have made the whole process better. I have been on both ends of the line. Being so stressd as to not be able to organize your child's birthday requires a very loving response that sets clear guidelines. Remember this is an opportunity to set a set of expectations that you can live with and that are healthy for both families. If you have a long term relationsip with this family birthdays will come up again. And maybe next time, not in this disorganized way. :glare:I must be in a fighting mood today because I just re read my response. But I still think you have an opportunity to make things clear. I would not easily give up my plans, especially since they are for your family and neccesary. Your daughter will learn something about organizing and planning if she sees the consequences for your friend's family. It is an imperfect way but the lesson will still be learned. Give her a hug and fit in a fun activity along the way. GL

MUS has about 8-20 questions for that age range. The median being about 15. My son (1st grade) can zip through it fast if he wants and sometimes does two or more pages. Beta level had 10 questions this week for my son. It did not take long and he understood it completely. Beta is considered about 2nd grade. My daughter struggles with her higher grade level (4th grade) and sometimes only completes half a page when she is first starting a new topic. I try to get her to finish some portion of it, whether it is half or the whole thing. My daughter is on a difficult lesson this week and her page only had 10 questions but each had two parts. She needs more review so she does math for a longer amount of time. I have found that it has more to do with my child's ability level than what they should be doing. I have pushed my daughter and it is not ever successful. I don't think there is any point in holding a child back to one page if they want to do more and can do so comfortably. For perspective, we do less each day and school all year long (except Christmas). Some people would find that they expect more then take a summer break. HTH

Good idea! My husband had to clean a freezer out once after he returned from Central America. It was full of mold and warm. Turned him off meat for a bit. Preparing the kids is also excellent. You statements were simple explanations but full of confidence.

Yes. The mayor is getting a bit of flack for that. I'm not sure if he has to follow a set of guidelines or not but clearly it is an early declaration. I think his intention is to help people understand the importance of preparing. I was pleased with the price of the insurance but we live in a modest sized house in a middle class neighbourhood. We are in a flood plain so many people are required to buy every year, which may reduce the risk for the insurance company now that there is a set of dikes. The insurance does not cover contents downstairs, only the basics, hot water heater, washer, dryer, but it is still better than no coverage at all. I'm fairly certain that it covers for flood water. But I do want to double check to be completely certain. Yes, read alouds are nice and portable. My daughter quickly tires of read alouds, although my sons love them. She would rather race through a book on her own. I wouldn't be able to guess how many books we would need for a week away from home. I have one needing picture books and two wanting chapter books and one that reads herself and one that does not. I wonder if a journal would be a good idea; a way to write it all down so they have some memories. I read a book in the library that was mainly poems written by a little girl that lost everything in the flood of 97. The poems were her way of resolving the issues. My daughter isn't much of a writer but if she did that once a day I would feel like we were still moving ahead. I think this is my worry, that we would lose ground. It would be understandable but stressful for me, considering my personality.

Your right, I am Canadian but we live in the US. Last flood was over ten years ago. A friend of mine was just telling me her story and she was pretty much on her own to find a way to her parent's house. We do not have family close by so we would need a shelter or hotel. For now, I'm hoping we do not have to leave. As the time gets near I wonder if we should take school or just leave it and start up later. If the kids get to bored all alone without activites and friends it would be worse than no school at all. I just want to get others ideas about what has worked for them so I can think it through and prepare.

I don't think I'm in a panic. Just looking for tips from people who have continued on as usual during emergency events. I think that is resonable on a homeschooling support board. :001_smile: This was my reluctance to post in the first place as I did not want "the sky is falling advice". If we have to leave we have to leave and I wanted ideas of what people would take and how they would work an emergency and homeschool through it. I'm going to look into the flood insurance. The papers have suggested that we get it and we did. It was under $400 and it covers all the appliances downstairs and the drywall but not the contents. I am going to call tommorrow about the details. We have a bin system for school so I could just pack that up but I wonder if it is worth it to do something different but keep the rountine of school.

I was thinking there was still hope. Did you have a routine when you went without power that you found worked? Was cash helpful? How did your downtown keep functioning? Did you just ignore the news and keep your own rountines? I'm tempted to do the fun subjects that we do not always get too. If I leave the 3 R's then school will seem like a break rather than a ball and chain. Are there any really good read alouds for survival skills that my kids would love to hear? My daughter reads like a fiend and the weekly trips to the library are almost not enough. How does one keep a kid happy with only a handful of books?

Yep. That's where we are. But we are on the USA side. Can't cross right now as we are in the middle of green card apps and two kids do not have a passport yet. Niagara would be a nice change. Dh lived on the escarpment when he went too school. He walked everywhere....up hill both ways. :D

Yes. This could take a month to fully realize itself. There is a good chance that it will never happen. The papers suggest 72% chance of reaching flood stage and it would require several weeks to melt the snow we have. The dikes have never been tested and the water could sneak through at places where there are no dikes up river. Nobody is evacuating now and people are going on business as usual. I will not empty my house as we have adequate flood insurance and building and contents insurance. Clearly, I have time to both worry and prepare. Last time this happened it was a 12 hour notice for the forced evacuation. I just want to be prepared and learn about what I have not considered. I did not live here the first time through 11 years ago.

I hesitate to post this but.... Our Mayor just declared a state of emergency in our town, floods are likely. Has anyone here homeschooled through a disaster? I have plenty of time to prepare as the snow has not even melted but I'd like to plan ahead. If it gets really bad we would just leave town and stay in a hotel. So some thoughts running through my head, What did you take? Is it ever smart just to stop school? What did you do instead (presuming you were out of town and safe)? What do you do if it is a testing year? I was planning to school through the summer anyway, now what? Should I sell some more books now (they are downstairs in the school room)? Anyone out there have pointers? Ideas?

My dh is 39 yrs. He plays Scrabble on line occassionally when the kids are asleep. He also plays Bejeweled but not very often. Most of the time he is interacting with famiily and doing work at home. He may give himself 20 minutes twice a week at the most. I know he does not crave it more, addictions seem to be easily avoided by him. We don't even have cable so that is his only screen time aside from work, unless we watch a movie together. He is a work horse!

I make Egyptian rice. Brown a pound of beef or lamb with one onion cut up. Add 1-2 cups brown rice. Stir around. Add two can of beef broth or more, 2 Tablespoons soya sauce and 1 teaspoon of worchestershire sauce. Boil until cooked. Top with plain yogurt or sour cream and almonds. It is nicer with lamb but beef is just as good. My kids love it.

We just finished Beyond and are five weeks into Bigger. I am really impressed with how easy it has been to implement. I like doing the notebook pages with the kids and it is fun to just sit and chat about the topics. Today we spent an hour chatting about bivalves and univalves and pouring over shells and shell books we have in the house. I tweek it a bit and on our day for vocabulary I add in a latin or greek word that goes with the week's topic. My kids *love* it and are always excited to go get their notebooks for school. It makes school fun and still they are learning interesting things. Just today my 6 year old was looking over his map in the History book and telling me it was his favorite page so far. They started talking about all the journey's that were drawn on it and where the captian's landed. Very cool. We would not be doing poems each week if it were not for HOD. My kids love guessing the title and rereading it has been a spark to some more interesting talk. The talking is such a relaxing way to do narrations, I almost feel guilty. But it see it helping them process the info and cementing it as they go. Bigger is a great progeam. I hope you enjoy it as much as we have.

Oh. I like this one! My contribution is .... "Treat your kids as if you only had them for one more year. Train them as if they only had you one more year." (Renee Ellison, but I'm not sure where she got it from)

I'll try to answer this one. I just click on the tab below the Send/Request Money named Withdrawl (it is a white/grey color). It gives you three options: Transfer to Account, Request a Check and/or Use Debit card. It is fairly easy from there. You must decided which you prefer then follow the prompts. Not sure how you set yours up so I cannot be more specific. If you want a check they have your address on file and everything. Clear as mud, I'm sure. Hope you get it figured out!!

Have you used the Request Money tag that is beside the send money tag at top of the page? It gives you a place for an e-mail and a monetary amount. Or, when in doubt, give the person your e-mail address and they can send it to you. HTH