I agree, but the difference between normal and risky behavior is who is there with you. My daughters dance and the instructors are always touching their butt, stomach, back, etc. in class, in front of everyone with windows into the studio. The red flag would come up if the instructor wanted my daughter(s) to stay after for extra private lessons because "they are so talented". I think as long as the activity has plenty of folks present, there is no need for hysteria.

Future AoPS lovers here; I say future because the we're still on a big learning curve. Oldest DD, 7th grade is working through Chapter 1 at the moment and I have a concern. She's working through the text on her own, which she likes doing. However, she gets many/most of the problems wrong. I'm not concerned about her math ability, but I think she could have a bit more "grit". How should I respond? If we go through the solutions together, I think the discovery method is compromised. I'm guessing I should just send her back to the explanation and try again. How many times would you do that before giving assistance? Thanks for your insight!

Well, I was going to post about this in another thread and see what folks thought, but this seems like a better place for it. I'm working on a "Menopause Schedule". One week out of the month; my ultra-WITCHY week, we are going to follow a different schedule than the other 3 weeks. Here it is: Literature: The girls will pick a book to read and we'll discuss/write following Teaching the Classics. History: Watch a movie/documentary Math: LOF for a change of pace Latin: Games to review vocabulary, grammar rules we've learned so far Science: Another movie! The rest of the time: rabbit trails or projects they pick. That's it! Not only am I showing grace to myself by acknowledging my limitations, but I'm showing grace to my girls. During this week, we all end up in tears at least once. Since most of our week will be spent curled up with a book or watching a movie, I'm hopeful this will help. I'll let you know in 3 weeks. (Last week was the dreaded one. :glare:) Good luck to you!

I'm sure there will be more sophisticated answers, but think of it this way: if you divide 20 into individual groups of 1, you would get 20. If you divide 20 into individual groups of 2, you would get 10; the groups get smaller as you go up. Now if you divide 20 into individual groups of 4/5, you would have to have more than 20, right? The rule for dividing by a fraction is to multiply by its reciprocal, so the equation is 20*5/4. HTH. Rene

Thanks a million! You've saved my sanity!:hurray:

Can someone please tell me how I can remove friends from my news feed without de-friending them? I really, really want to check out until November 7th, but there are updates I get from the kids' ballet, homeschool groups, etc. that I don't want to miss. I love these people, but can't stand their politics. Please help me control my blood pressure!

Both of my kids had trouble with basic facts. I used Memory Joggers for multiplication, played some "make 10, make 100" games for addition, and moved on to the math they could handle. Drill and kill before moving on just about killed us all. I gave them plenty of additional time to figure out the "facts" portion of more difficult problems, I even let them look them up if necessary. It didn't take long working with long division, fractions, etc. before the facts became solid. Good Luck.

I'm glad to hear this - I'm off to the cable office today to shut off our service. We'll still have local networks and PBS, but everything else, I'm sure I won't miss!

I second the recommendation for probiotics. Really, you can't take too many in this case. If possible, get the kind that needs to be refrigerated and load 'em up. It should at least get you to have a little more warning.

This is a really stupid question, but has she been eating a lot of watermelon lately? I only ask because sometimes it can look like blood in a stool. ETA: If not, I would definitely take her in.

Don't know if this article made the rounds, but it's good for a laugh. Enjoy!

DD woke yesterday with a headache and low grade fever. We did a neti pot, thinking it must be a sinus infection. The neti pot was clear and it seemed to help her headache. Yesterday she slept several hours and her fever spiked to about 102; it was still high last night before she went to bed. She slept all night and woke this AM feeling pretty good, but still low grade fever. She has no other symptoms: no runny nose, no cough, no ear ache, no sore throat. Normally, I would not be concerned and would just let it ride. However, tomorrow is our swim meet championship prelims and she really doesn't want to miss it. So, do I foot the bill to take her in on the slim chance she has a sinus infection that she won't shake on her own or let it ride and hope she doesn't relapse by tomorrow? Thanks!

Perhaps. I know I'm not much help. I have purchased this for the fall and it does look quite complicated in that there is a LOT of information for teachers (in the teacher's guide) and several books for students. Cycles has the "textbook", which is more like a thick magazine, the activity book and the homework. I really like how the questions guide the student to infer and think scientifically and it is very secular. Looking through the activity book, it seems that the activities are fairly simple and could probably be done easily or "virtually" through internet research if the materials aren't readily available. For example, there is an activity looking at reproduction in ferns that require a fern leaf. I'm not so sure where I'll get one of those, but we can probably do the activity by looking at pictures on line; not as much fun, I know, but it will get the job done. There is also a homework book that has a mix of multiple choice and short answer questions. My feeling is this will be good prep for standardized tests. It does seem to be engaging and very thought provoking, but I know I will be spending at least 1-2 hours a week preparing the lessons. We'll see if it gets done; if so, we're better off than we were last year!:tongue_smilie: Good Luck!

It's amazing what happens when our government subsidizes sugar and corn. I have such a hard time reconciling this fact with the current state of our "sick" care system. It seems like this policy might be a big topic of discussion, but it's not. :confused:

This article in the Wall Street Journal is a hoot. Enjoy! Rene

I have a great big food dehydrator that I would like to put to good use before a camping trip in August. I would love to take some food for breakfast and/or lunch that can be heated with a stove and water. We're going to be a ways from a store, so I would like to use all our space for packing fresh fruit, etc. I'm just afraid to try it without any encouragement. Do you have any good breakfast or pasta/rice recipes that were suitable for dehydrating AND yummy? Thanks! Rene

Thanks everyone - good suggestions that we haven't seen!

I'm drawing a blank and my dd wants a movie that not everyone has already watched. She really enjoyed Whale Rider, Soul Surfer, Ramona and Beezus. Thanks for your ideas! :lurk5:

I would suggest you see a vet. Last Monday afternoon, our dog suddenly became very disoriented; like you describe but didn't actually fall over. Before Monday he was fine; I thought he might have had a seizure or stroke. He just didn't seem to know where to put his legs. I took him to the vet and it turned out he had a 7.5 lb tumor in his abdomen; he only weighed 52 lbs total. We did surgery hoping that he would have a few good months, but he had other tumors on his stomach and pancreas. We still hoped for the best that he would feel OK after the surgery. Unfortunately he didn't, so we euthanized him on Friday. I feel your pain; our dog was the resident rock star! I hope this isn't the case with your guy, but it is worth checking out. FWIW, our vet said our guy wasn't in acute pain, but just felt really, really lousy. Best of luck and :grouphug:!

I'm Rene, mostly a lurker. We just finished our 3rd year of homeschooling after a few years at Montessori school. I tell my IRL friends that the WTM board is my link to the outside world! It's my source for all news, health info, etc. I have learned so much here, but on the flip-side: if I spent more time teaching than reading about teaching (and kilts, shopping carts, in-laws, etc.) we would be much farther down the road. :auto: Oh well, it's fun.

I think that quote is a reference to this.

I wouldn't say anything to the manager, but I might say something to the teenager. I'm pretty sure my husband would. Not something like, "why did you come to work so creepy looking today?", but more along the lines of "When you're in a service position, making your customers feel comfortable is important and your eyes might trouble some folks. I would hate to see you get in trouble because of a complaint."

I also read Deconstructing Penguins and learned a great deal, but didn't really transfer the learning to my children. (I wasn't quite sure how.) I finally pulled the trigger and purchased Teaching the Classics videos and syllabus. It was expensive, but worth it for me. I began yesterday with the recommended children's book (Harriett, You'll Drive me Wild.) and we are going to discuss our second book today. I love the approach and I love the teacher's notes. (I also purchased the 1st level of Ready Readers PDF version.) I actually feel like we will be able to have a great discussion with grade level books soon! Good Luck. Peace, Rene

FYI, the Homeschool Buyer's Co-op has some great titles on sale from Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers until June 18th. Here's the link. I'm hoping for better pricing on some things I want to buy so I thought I would pass the word! :001_smile: Peace, Rene

I'm thinking about getting some kind of "web browser" for my husband for father's day. When he's on the computer he usually hits sports sites, watches horse racing and reads newsletters of all types. He's not interested in an iphone and an ipad is out of my budget. I was thinking about perhaps a Kindle which he could also use for reading books, but don't know about the browsing, etc. Here's my stupid question: Is the Fire the only one that you can use to browse the web? I've read about the problem of not being able to password protect the Kindle Fire; my dh is a little scattered and takes the bus to work, so that is a concern unless it has been fixed. My other choice would be a refurbished netbook. I don't think he would use the device much where there was no wi-fi. What do you think would be the best (and cheapest) option? Thanks! Rene