Lori, your information was invaluable! You have done a really great job showing everyone that "being a firefighter" is NOT as easy as it sounds. I would just like to clarify that it is not always necessary to be part of the fire department to be a paramedic. I know that in some states, you need only be an EMT-B for one year to be accepted into the paramedic program, although some of them may fill up faster than others.

Before leaving high school, he should have a very good grasp on chemistry, critical reading skills and algebra manipulations. An intro to A&P class would be good, because he will be required to take A&P as part of the program. They actually sell intro to A&P textbooks for college (usually called Essentials of A&P) and I think Apologia or Abeka or someone has one. He should be CPR/first aid certified and if/when he is old enough, he may want to consider volunteering time in a nursing home or hospital. Any experience he gets with associating with random people would be great, as well. Oh! You could begin looking at case studies, those are always fun. In every state I can think of, you have to be an EMT-B for a period of time before you can begin the paramedic courses. He could conceivably begin that coursework as a senior, depending on the rules of the college/hospital. Hope that helps, somewhat!

Karma from Lush. The spray perfume is pricey, but the solid smells just as wonderful. It is sort of patchouli-y though, so if you dont like patchouli... At least make it an excuse to go to Lush:D I swear, nearly every day that I wear it, strange men ask me what the scent is so they can buy it for their wives/gfs:tongue_smilie:

I was thinking the same thing when I was reading your post, it's just so interesting! I have been kicking around the idea of sending dd to France as an exchange student in a few years, and one of the things that I found out, possibly specific to France, I'm not sure, is that they warn you that unless you are an exceptionally strong student, you WILL be placed in a classroom with younger kids, because the schoolwork in France is much more advanced. Then they warn you that the school day is essentially 9-5 with study hours/groups/sports until 6 or 7 with half-days on Saturdays and Wednesdays.:D We have a friend who is hosting a student from France this year and her parents were so worried that she was going to essentially "miss" an entire year of school that they enrolled her with CNED. Of course, given that the school district here placed her in 10th grade (based on age), and we are in Arizona (48th in education, yay!), I cannot blame them!

I now feel so much better about our paltry $304 for July, our most expensive month. And that was with our a/c being broken for 3 days! This year we kept the temp at a solid 81 90%+ of the time and have so far saved over $100/mo from last year. However, the guy that came and fixed the a/c put in a smaller motor (why????), so who knows where the bill will go now. I live in Phoenix where they scoff at insulation and double-pane windows. I do, FORTUNATELY, have shade screens which surprisingly help considerably.

I'm 30, have dark hair, and have had gray hairs since I was 2. Just a few at first, but now they are quite a few at the crown. I suppose if I gather it together, it may be a stripe, but since they are at the crown, they fall in every direction. My daughter has light brown hair, and her first gray showed up at 5. Anyways... I do not color to cover them because I do not care in the least. I used to occasionally use a fun purpley color and the gray hairs went to neon, so I cant imagine even trying to mess with covering them. I say if you are uncomfortable being gray, try coloring, and if you don't like coloring then accept your silvery goodness! It's interesting to me how many women color their hair. Maybe you should have turned this into an anonymous poll, and we could have all learned what percentage of women color their hair, because I have the feeling it's fairly high!

It used to be that many of the museums had a regular free day. I think that has been changed to certain calendar days, so you may want to check and see if any coincide with your travel dates. I do know that in September, October and November, the free days for the aquarium are Mondays and Tuesdays. OK, and since I mentioned it... Field museum free days here and Museum of science and Industry days here. Dont forget to get anywhere you go AS EARLY AS POSSIBLE and, if you have a car, that parking can be $15-20/day. Have Fun!!:hurray::hurray:

At least she could have been called Talula, which I think is nice. What about Number 16 Bus Shelter? What do you call him for short? (Im only laughing on the inside, I promise:lol::lol:)

I know you said Gaelic, but I am jumping on the Welsh train to share a fun Welsh resource: BBC's Big Welsh Challenge (sorry) ETA: French is fenêtre, Spanish is ventana, Romanian is fereastră

Glencoe Integrated Science, Red, Green, Blue. They cycle through physics, chemistry, earth/space science and biology each year and include easy-to-implement (and fun) experiments and activites for each chapter. They are very straightforward, no teacher's manual necessary unless you are totally unfamiliar with the basic science. However, you must be certain that you get the same year for all three books because they moved the topics around for the 2008 versions. They do have pretty good support sites, as well, and the 2008 version has free virtual labs for each chapter! Glencoe's Science Voyages does not include all topics each year, just in case you notice that they have levels red, blue and green, as well. I have no idea what the difference is between Voyages and not-Voyages. Now, lets not be crazy, these are basic, public school books so the questions and assessments are very basic. I definitely made my own tests, added extra critical thinking questions and assigned essays. The information, however, is very thorough and is what is expected of middle school science. The physics and chemistry are not to the level of a physical science course, but I know that today, ps considers that a 9th grade course. Sometimes. Depending on the district, I suppose. HTH!

Wordly Wise and Word within the Word

Eliana, you rock! What an wonderful, comprehensive list! Im not the OP, but thank you!:hurray::hurray:

In both, Arizona and Colorado, any child of any age can take any class as long as they test into it and obtain permission of the department chair. Financial aid is not offered to anyone who is not a degree seeking student, and you cannot be a degree seeking student unless you have a HSD/GED. Since you are considering enrolling him in intro-level science classes, be forewarned that it is the equivalent of a one-year HS class condensed into 16 weeks. The CCs near us have the option of enrolling in the lab separately, which is AWESOME for us. That means I can use the book of my choice, but dd still gets the benefit of a "formal" lab experience, albeit only one semester worth, but better than nothing. Actually, now that I said that, I think it's only Chemistry and Physics that offer that :blushing: DD took her first science class in the spring and it moved FAST. She also needed to take copious notes and be comfortable with writing answers to essay questions. Overall experience has been wonderful with CC classes. Now, seriously, I dont know anything about you, but in this particular science class, there were a few girls who would spend the time before class started talking all about how drunk they were last night, and other... interesting... topics. Plus, they were not nice to her AT ALL, but since she was so young, and so passive, other people stood up for her, and everyone else was nice to her. The girls didnt even last halfway through the semester anyways, the class was too difficult. My point was, begin surrounded by adults, sometimes conversations are adult. However, I cannot stress enough that it was just a few girls in just one class who were probably just trying to embarrass the little girl.:glare: I really hope this post made sense, I got distracted partway through!

Since your in Arizona, I would definitely recommend trying Alpine . Especially since the hiring season is coming up. The shifts never worked for me, but there was always opportunity to work. They are a real company, so you are not a sub-contractor, but the pay is only $10-11/hr and some months are busier than others. hth! ETA: Dont forget about http://www.wahm.com/

I taught Algebra, Algebra 2, Precalc and Biology to 8-12th graders at a private school for 4 years. I started before I had even graduated with a BS because it was my dd's school at the time and they were desperate. I had never had any interest in teaching before, but I did afterwards, so I decided to do the post BS endorsement. I lasted 0.5 semesters. All the student teaching was done at inner city schools, and I became so flipping frustrated, I knew that I would NEVER be a teacher with a teaching degree. When students would come into the Algebra class and not know their times tables, that was frustrating. To find out that I am not allowed to cover the basics the kids needed to know from last year that they never learned was frustrating. But to literally find out that the teachers just pass the kids from year to year ("Im just curving the grades...") made me :banghead:, leave and never look back. I know this didnt answer your question, I was just sharing because it was sort of on topic... :blush:

Oh, Bob...:smilielol5::smilielol5::smilielol5: We hardly watched any TV anyways until I caught dd humming the song, then I had actually stopped allowing any TV with commercials at all until we ended up with the tevo. Now, I either wait until I know we can fast forward through all the commercials or I make sure someone hits the pause button. It must be the channels we watch because with only a few hours of tv each week, the commercials are embarrassingly ridiculous. ETA: Even if you mute it, it still has print!

:iagree: I really think that if a man is the "alpha male" of the household, that implies that the women are second best. If the mother is unable or unwilling to be the enforcer to her sons, she is showing that she is the weak one in the household unit, the one whose word does not go as far. Of course, if you go for that sort of thing, then that's cool, I'm not trying to judge. I know that there are families that believe that the man is the head and ruler of the family unit, no questions asked. I just really believe that both parents need to be love-givers as well as enforcers if you are trying to avoid that type of lifestyle. (I am really trying not to offend, but mucking it up!)

Sometimes, a place may seem cheaper, but will actually cost more in the long run. Allow me to explain. At our orthodontist, people who need braces for "normal" reasons (crooked teeth, mild/moderate overbite) will pay @$5200. This fee is slightly more than the normal fees here, but includes EVERYTHING. Every appointment as often as needed for as long as you live (seriously, they offer periodic checkups every 3-5 years), every bag of rubber bands, every bracket that pops off accidentally, toothpaste, fluoride, floss, wax, special Xmas tree toothbrushes, both retainers (one fixed), and even up to two replacement retainers. My dd has a friend who needed braces for these "normal" reasons, and ended up finding an ortho that charged them $3700. It has been 9 months, and they have already given him an extra $800 for various reasons, have to buy all the extra cleaning supplies and will have to pay for the retainers, as well. Of course, dont forget that depending on what course of treatment your dc needs, it will be much more than the average. My dd's overall treatment was quite near $10,000 :ack2: and her only problem was missing adult teeth!:ack2::ack2:

The University of Colorado has an online placement test. Only the name in required, no other info needs to be filled out and, of course, it can be a pseudonym. Most colleges will want an oral exam in addition to a written exam to test out of classes. http://webcape.byuhtrsc.org/?acct=colorado The code is: ralphie1 HTH!

Arizona does has an easy process, here is Pima county's specific information including affidavits and support groups and whatnot. As for paying someone else, unless instruction is done in your home, you may hit a snag (provided someone tells on you, that is) As prescribed in ARS 15-802, home schooling is defined as: "Section 1. "Home school" means a school conducted primarily by the parent, guardian or other person who has custody of the child or instruction provided in the child's home." As for easy to teach a jr high/ high schooler, who can say? It's so subjective. I can imagine it would be difficult to teach yourself higher math or science. Or literary analysis. Arizona Virtual Academy is pushing enrollment right now, and so is Connections Academy. I know little about either, just that they exist. Also, the big homeschool convention is next weekend up here, sponsered through AFHE. We know at least 4 or 5 girls from a couple of different gyms in Tuscon who are homeschooling, so I would be willing to bet (a very small amount) that since there are only a couple of gyms down there, at least one of them is at hers! Oh! Also, there are a couple of families at our gym who pull their kids out early and homeschool one or two classes. And beginning at junior high, they have zero-hour (or A-hour) classes - classes before school starts for kids who need them. So maybe that would be an option? HTH!

So many of us have said France, your the only one to have actually lived there! Would you care to share your bad experiences?

Has she been checked for PCOS? That would be something that many doctors miss, causes amenses and is often treated well with Metformin. However, if she wishes to totally avoid traditional meds, Chaste Tree Berry (Vitex) helps to naturally stabilize hormonal imbalances. I am under the impression that it is safer than some of the other alternative remedies, but I AM NOT AN EXPERT AND HAVE NO REAL CLUE. I only know it works for halping to regulate PCOS sympoms. HTH!

France. Northern, western or central but preferably near Paris because I like the city. If France fell through then Ireland or Scotland. The Faroe Islands sound wonderful, too (although I think there are less people living on all of the islands than within 5 miles of me) Maybe Buenos Aires, and I've heard Chile is wonderfully welcoming. Wouldn't it be great to live in Italy or Greece and be so close to ancient history? I have a good friend who owns a resort on Corfu and he is always telling me how wonderful it would be for us to live there and help him run the resort. However, I have heard that it is very difficult for foreigners to really ever feel at home there. I am almost certain I do not want to find out for sure unless I HAVE to, but I do daydream sometimes... I also know a woman who takes her kids back to Tokyo with her for 6 months every year. I have always, always wanted to spend some time there perfecting my Japanese and playing Pachinko... I know many people spend time in Japan from other countries, and I have never heard anything bad about living there. Oh! I know another woman who lived in Singapore during high school because her mother set up business there. Her mother is still there, and loves it dearly. However, I know a couple from the Philippines and they will not even bring back their children to visit their family because they hate it so much. Wow. I didnt help at all. Sorry :sad: Wait! I forgot all about places like Egypt or Saudi Arabia. Dubai? What about Africa? :willy_nilly: Too many places to choose from!

Do it. There is absolutely NO reason to pay an exorbitant amount of money to watch drivel. Did that help?:lol: I went from my parent's house, with every channel imaginable, to having no cable for 7 years. We watched very little TV, just pbs mostly. Then my husband and his directtv moved in with us, and I find myself avoiding the TV even after 6 years!

DD just turned 13 a couple of weeks ago and 1. Her own cell phone No, there is no need for her to have one. However, she is the ONLY child we know from 9-18 that does not have a fully functional cell phone with unlimited texting. 2. A t.v. in her bedroom Absolutely not, I abhor TV and she would never ask for one. 3. A computer in her bedroom No, there is no need for it b/c she hardly spends time online, but nearly everyone else we know has given their child at least a laptop. In fact, my niece has had her own laptop (with completely unrestricted internet access) since she was 10. 4. Hair that has been dyed blonde or any other color No, but she does have 3 friends her age that do this all the time. Temporary dye would be fun, and I would let her, but she doesnt have any interest. I would worry it would ruin her hair if it were permanent. 5. Ears pierced with 2 or more holes each (DD has one hole per ear) No, she does not want any piercings, but I had 2 holes by 12:blushing: 6. Clothes of her selection from the mall Sort of, but she is a VERY modest dresser and is embarrassed to even wear shorts. Therefore, I am very, very lenient with all of her clothing purchases. 7. Makeup -- all kinds (not just lip gloss) She has no interest, but again, she is the ONLY one I know who is not wearing any makeup. This is probably because I do not wear any and she has sensitive skin anyways. Seriously, though, there are 2 girls at the gym who are going into 5th grade and just love to show up with all kinds of make up. Which the coaches make them remove immediately after making fun of them :lol: I would not call your parenting strict, at all. Unfortunately, everyone we know calls mine strict, so who am I to judge?:D DD has never complained about not having anything "like the other girls" because she likes being different most of the time. Well, that and she knows I would either ignore her or get angry and possibly make life just a little bit worse!