DD has had to memorize them for this upcoming test and what helped her was not just flashcards showing names, but also their electron configuration so she could place them in groups and visualize where they are. And, of course, repetition, repetition, repetition. Don't forget that Free Rice now has chemical symbols to practice with, and this fill-in table is frustratingly difficult!

I have one friend that uses rice milk for cooking and almond milk for drinking, and another that swears by hemp milk for drinking. I don't like any milk of any kind unless it's chocolate, and then it all tastes the same!:D

Some key words to use when searching for information are "concurrent enrollment" or "duel enrollment" or "running start". Here in Arizona, no one pays for anything, but in Colorado, if you are a junior or senior, the state will reimburse you the costs if you pass the classes with a C or better. I wonder if they will do that even at a private university...? Just because I was curious, I tried to find admission information to CC in Rhode Island. I did. It is here. If nothing else, I would be willing to bet that whatever CC you are looking at will have similar rules. HTH!

(I'm feeling newsy tonight) Green Bay Mom allegedly used daughter's ID to be cheerleader Associated Press — 9/12/2008 6:43 pm GREEN BAY -- A 33-year-old woman is charged with stealing her daughter's identity to attend high school and join the cheerleading team. Wendy Brown, of Green Bay, faces a felony identity theft charge after enrolling in Ashwaubenon High School as her 15-year-old daughter, who lives in Nevada with Brown's mother. "The defendant stated she wanted to get her high school degree and be a cheerleader because she had no childhood and was trying to regain a part of her life she missed," according to the complaint. She allegedly attended cheerleading practices before school started, received a cheerleader's locker and went to a pool party at the cheerleading coach's house. A high school employee, Kim Demeny, told authorities that the woman, posing at the teen, seemed very timid, told her she was not good in math and even cried when she talked about moving from Pahrump Valley High School in Pahrump, Nev. Demeny said she looked older than a student, but he believed her demeanor was consistent with that of a high school girl. A school liaison officer started investigating Monday after Brown only showed up for the first day of classes last week, the complaint said. Assistant Principal Dirk Ribbins later learned Brown's daughter was enrolled at Pahrump Valley High School. Ribbins also spoke with Brown's mother who told him she had custody of the girl. She also said Brown has a history of identity theft crimes, the complaint said. The complaint also said the $134.50 check Brown gave to the cheerleading coach for her uniform bounced. Brown made her first court appearance Friday by video-conference. The judge set bond at $8,000. If convicted, she could face up to six years in prison and a $10,000 fine. There was no attorney listed in Brown's online court records. Her home number could not be found. http://www.madison.com/tct/news/stories/304666 There is a picture of her on the site, also, and she does look a little "older than a student." Do you think 6 years in prison is an appropriate punishment?

Is that another euphemism I'm just not familiar with yet? (:lol::lol: sorry)

You know, that's an interesting point because, as we all now know, most people would have attempted to seriously injure and intruder, but this guy just hit him with a pipe. That he went all the way to the garage to get. So like most media stories, we don't really know everything we need to in order to sit on a jury panel (and we may never know the whole story), but at least it gave us diversion to speculate how we would potentially behave if we really believed our daughter was in danger.

OK, I posted the link to all of the dirty details, but you people were not listening!:tongue_smilie: http://www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJournalOnline/News/Headlines/frtHEAD02091208.htm Officials: Dad finds naked boy in daughter's room, hits him with pipe By PATRICIO G. BALONA Staff Writer A Deltona father ended up in jail Thursday after finding his daughter's teenage boyfriend naked in the girl's bedroom and hitting him with a pipe, sheriff's officials said.Raul Colon, 45, didn't even know his daughter had a boyfriend -- or that the youngster had been sneaking into the home for more than a year. So when he heard noises coming from his daughter's room early Thursday and saw a naked stranger standing on the girl's bed, he swung a metal pipe he had taken from the garage, hitting the 15-year-old, according to a Volusia County sheriff's report. Colon was charged with aggravated battery on a child but was released from jail later Thursday on $10,000 bail, a booking officer said. No one answered the phone at Colon's residence Thursday for comment. According to the report, Colon heard the noise in his daughter's room when he got up at 4 a.m. to let his dog out, as he does every morning. Colon told deputies he chased Lucas Contreres through the kitchen, living room and through the front door and out into the street and called 9-1-1. Colon's daughter later told deputies she had been seeing Contreres for 18 months but did not tell her father about the relationship. Contreres had sneaked in through a bedroom window at 3 a.m. Thursday to have sex with her, the 15-year-old girl told deputies. Contreres was found at Florida Hospital Fish Memorial in Orange City where he received staples to close cuts on his head. His injuries were not life-threatening, deputies said. Contreres told deputies a similar account to Colon's. He said Colon came into the room and started swinging at him with the metal pipe. He jumped out of the bed and began running through the home to get away from Colon. Once outside, he jumped on his bike and went home. His sister later took him to the hospital, deputies said. Although Contreres' father said he wasn't sure whether he wanted to press charges, deputies took Colon to jail anyway. patricio.balona@news-jrnl.com

:smilielol5::smilielol5::smilielol5: No, but seriously... :lol::lol::lol:

I just have to say that none of my reactions would have to do with my 15 year old daughter having sex, but only because if she were anything like me, I would expect it, and thank goodness, she is not. My reaction, placing myself in that father's position using facts from the newspaper, would be similar. Look, it's 4AM, I hear something from dd's room and I open the door, not to two kids frolicking in bed, but to a naked male stranger standing on the bed. Totally different than catching your kid in the act. I would not be able to tell if it were "just a boy" when I am bleary with sleep and freaked out, and there are PLENTY of cases where "boys" do horrendous things. The kid's story matches the father's with neither of them saying the boy had identified himself as an "invited guest", and the kid's father is not even sure he wants to press charges. I understand the need for sitting down to tea and discussing the proper way to handle a relationship, but that does not fit this particular situation.

I read this earlier and I was extremely surprised that they charged him and I would be SO PISSED at my daughter. Really, the kid is so lucky all he did was hit him and chase him out of the house because I don't think the strange, naked boy standing on my daughter's bed would be able to run out of the house...

My BIL worked on a cruise ship and spent 8 months in Hawaii before spending 6 months through Greece/Turkey. I told him I was SO jealous and he told me all the bad about the 90-hour work weeks and 4 men sharing a closet as living space. I thought it was a small price to pay for a single guy to see the world, but what do I know...:glare:

Just real quick, I do have to add a "translator beware" to the online translation sites. They are great for single words, phrases and some sentences but break down at some point as illustrated by this ... :lol::lol::lol:

The Larousse worked for me through 4 semesters of college French, then I needed a French/French dictionary (plus internet dictionaries for slang) for literature classes. There is also the huge Collins one, and another large Oxford one. "Best dictionary" is definitely a relative term here (relative to what you need/like at the time) and has little to do with which program you are using. That is to say that the vocabulary is usually gradually built through the program, not through a dictionary. My dd is in the third semester of college French and very rarely needs to use a dictionary. I would really recommend beginning with a "beginner" dictionary because they are easier to use at first, but honestly, it doesn't really matter. Heck, if you want to avoid the expense, use an online translator! Have fun!

FRONTIER I don't know when you are planning the trip, but Frontier has tickets from Wichita to San Diego for $210-250 each. Total, depending on the times. Plus, they offer TV if you want it to keep whomever busy for $5. BUT, there is a layover in Denver for an hour or two. Southwest is terrible (IMHO, of course). They feel like the Greyhound of the sky and the very idea that there would be any possibility whatsoever that a parent could be seated separately from their 6 or 7 year old child is WRONG. HTH!

I just finished Madame Bovary, which I was surprised to find quite excellent, am going through Tom Sawyer prepping it and have my eye on Walden and Civil Disobedience to prep next (which I obviously should have read before Tom Sawyer:glare:)

Fantastic! Videos and everything! And French resources! Thank you so much for this!:hurray::hurray:

At this house we have are using the formal dining room as a school area/office area and eating in the kitchen. However, at our last house, we double-used the dining room. I do not entertain often, and usually only have family when I do, so it was OK to have bookshelves and world maps in my dining room. Even when it was other people coming over I didn't make an effort to remove schooling items (plus, it was good evidence of schoolwork being done :tongue_smilie:) We just had to make sure that the table was (relatively) clean when we were eating. Sofa work was done in the living room and the computer was in my bedroom, but it all seemed to work out very well for us. If I had to choose, I would rather have a nice, spacious dining room with visible schoolwork than a dedicated school room and a slightly unsatisfied feeling.

Psh, just go ahead and dash my dreams...:svengo: Really, I wish I could just teach everyone to use the toilet. We have an extra bathroom that nobody ever uses! That would be ideal. Maybe.

CatGenie!! I wish I could have one of these, but we have WAY too many cats (and small bathrooms). Plus, you have to use the different kind of litter that some cats may not like :( OB told me (many years ago) that if you have had cats, especially cats that go outside, that you have most likely already been exposed to Toxoplasmosis. I think it was just a conspiracy to keep me changing litter boxes (which I did with a face mask and lots of hand-washing). So sweet of you, though, to think about buying someone something so wonderful!

LOL One of the biggest complaints I had about teaching in a ps was that the tests held almost no merit at all and the bulk of the grade was based on kids showing up! Seriously, if the kids showed up almost every day, they could be at a 20% average for tests and homework and still get a B in the class. Of course, it was a low-income school, so I guess they were just happy that the kids were there. FWIW, I have been giving this grading idea much thought lately since next year is 9th grade, and I believe that I will be basing 70% of the overall grade on comprehensive tests. This will mean that she must attempt to remember material from one moment to the next! I also think that I will continue to allow her to correct certain wrong answers for half of their worth. For instance, if she gets a score of 5/10 on one question, she can redo it for a maximum score of 7.5/10, but if she misses something like a T/F then there would be no correction allowed. I really like your idea of averaging grades, but I think I would be the horrible person that made the second test much more difficult:lol::lol: I do think that there have been some people who have abstained from letter grades for "home" work (using Pass/Fail) and used CC/outsourced grades only. I suppose ultimately, it will depend on the advice given by the colleges when the time comes!

DD - 13 - XBOX 360 Niece - 12 - Wii Female Friend 1 - 13 - XBOX 360 Female Friend 2 - 16 - Xbox 360 Male Neighbor - 16 - XBOX 360 Male Neighbor 2 - 17 - XBOX 360

LOL, you are so brave!:tongue_smilie: At least people are answering the poll, even if they are not owning up to their answers... As for me, I would be too lonely and begin to wonder what the point was:blushing:

Please remember that you have every right to dictate the rules of your house. If you see her with it on at the table, just politely ask her to remove it while she is there. There is virtually no way she will say no. It is a very large issue with me when I see kids using iPods everywhere, and then I have to remind myself that it is not the child, but the parent who is letting it happen. I suppose it's a pick your battle kind of thing, but still... We used eat dinner at my BIL's house nearly every week, and my niece was apparently used to wearing her iPod everywhere. Even in their own house, I asked her to join us, and she had no problem with it. There is no way that kids do not know it's rude, and will probably be more than happy to engage in conversation. Even if you think they will be surly at first, teenagers are not really as scary as they try to portray themselves:lol: DD has a video iPod and we only use it on the airplane, or when waiting for each other at the dentist, or whatever. She doesn't care that much about using it every second of the day like everyone else.

We had two tadpoles that were tadpoles for nearly 2 years before they died as tadpoles. No joke. I always thought it was just something weird in our house. They did get much bigger, just never became frogs. Maybe there was not enough room for them, or something simple like that. But then why would they have gotten so much larger...? Hm. Nature. Fun:tongue_smilie:

I have a cat that likes bananas, too! And two that ADORE yogurt, any flavor. And a couple who try and break into the cabinet for chips when we have them. And I think they all like corn, but only if it's on the cob! I always though cats were finicky. I was very WRONG!:lol::lol: