I do like a lot of books off the NOEO web site if you need some ideas for just regular books.

Yes! So glad to hear this. :hurray:

I typically don't even buy ice cream for at home because of the expense. We do like Cold Stone but only go for special reasons AND the kids received a gift card for Christmas or birthdays or something from Grandparents or Uncles.

I think there is a huge difference in saying the average NT child could do it and all NT children can do it. NT just means within a normal range. It doesn't mean all kids are alike and figure things out at the same speed even if taught the methods or tools. I would be cautious in blaming teaching techniques or worrying that everyone's kid could understand it except mine. Some children have very linear thinking. You might have to give them extra tools or specific steps to see the problem for what it is whereas some children would simply see the whole problem naturally. They will both get there in the end but one child will take longer for that type of problem. The big picture kid who can see that naturally may slow up in comparison when doing things that require them to slow down and do things step by step. I have had to give extra steps on how to have self control and do the tedious steps without making mistakes for those particular children.

One of them would be able to figure it out. One probably wouldn't have and one would have if I would have read it for him and I'm not sure about the other one. I think the debate comes simply from the fact that many adults can't figure out simple math problems and therefore they think a second grader can't. It is the same thing that I see with Common Core examples that people are making fun of on the internet. I often look at the problem and see what concept the problem is getting at and can or do (depending on the problem) teach my children that way. Many adults that I am around just see it as different and they don't understand so it's stupid of course.

I'm now picturing a Grandpa with fangs. "Go stand by Grandma and Grandpa for the picture" "Do I have to? Grandpa's scary."

I've had both and found both work great but if I had to buy again I'd pick the Shark because both the money and lift away feature. The only time it tips is when you are not using the power head. The simple solution is to use the lift away feature during those times.

Yes, people with Albinism have reddish- pink eyes. The degree is varying. My nephew and niece both have Albinism. Most people can't really recognize that they have it which is why they always comment and are fascinated with their hair, understandably since it is very rare. Often they are wearing sunglasses because bright light hurts their eyes but of course, coming in for a job interview would mean taking them off. I'm sure it looks more natural then red contacts though. I haven't seen people wearing red contacts though so it's hard for me to say.

I agree with the above. I'm curious though, would you all assume someone with red eyes was wearing contacts? Would they be discriminated against? Edited to add "all" despite my not being Southern. I wanted to make sure that it was understood that I was asking everyone and not targeting the O.P.

I simply can't afford to eat out much with my family. I would have to get a job to pay for just that. Not this summer but the summer before we were traveling long distance and all our food was packed under everything since we were planning on being at our destination to unpack and eat. We ended up eating at Taco Bell. My daughter didn't want to come in and ate a banana that we had out. The boys all left the place slightly hungry but I wouldn't buy more because I wouldn't after spending $70+ . If frozen food is not in the house though you would be surprised what is nutritional and filling that takes virtually no prep. My family on nights when we don't have real meals fends for themselves. The mantra is plant and protein. Apples with peanut butter or cheese. A sandwich with protein and some lonely veggie in the drawer that needs eaten. If there are no veggies cause its shopping time I might break out a frozen veggie. Or we make quesadillas with salsa. I guess you would call that my go to unhealthy convenience food. Cheap tortillas.

But really it isn't telling us anything without mentioning kw hours. My bill is bigger than many but according to google I'm using less than average kw hours. My bill before I weatherized and switched over a bunch of things was close to $500 in the winter months which is when Alaskans need the most.

Our bill was $263. Everyone's bill look so tiny considering our summer months are cheapest. Even not using electricity for heat we still cook inside more in winter and need more light since in Alaska there are few daylight hours November to February. August is a mild month for us but all our heat is natural gas anyway as is our hot water tank and our clothes dryer. I'm trying to figure out why ours is so high. We mostly use computers, light bulbs, microwave, and an electric oven/stove but I turn on the oven maybe 3 times a week in summer, if that. We often grill, make skillet type dishes etc. There is the coffee pot too but we don't use curling irons, hair dryers, or clothing irons really. I'm curious, could you post the number of kilowatt hours you used in addition to your bill. We used 705 kw hours and paid $227.71.

Wow, I had no idea this was the case. I would have expected every ambulance to have one.

Although this is true in some cases I have to say that my daughter started gaining weight at 9 and eats dramatically less than I or my 3 boys. I can eat ice cream, peanut butter, and doughnuts all day long and not be overweight although I try to keep pretty much healthy stuff in the house so I haven't tested this recently. 2 of my boys lucked out but the other is going to have to start being careful despite that fact he runs and wrestles and bikes pretty much all day if not being made to do school work.

So if we somehow gave them a mental picture of a car sitting in a gated driveway they might change how they respond?

You know I was joking around, right? I guess a winking smile may have given it away more. Although some things I have seen around don't seem that far off from the idea.

We need a dog food type pre-made pellets. Like cereal but it needs to have ground up veggies and some kind of protein in them. If it was all we had in the kitchen we might lose weight fast. :)

I don't know why you say that a medication isn't an idea. If I purchase ingredients to make the chemical formula those are tangible things that I can actually have possession of but if a chemical compound is made from them that heals or relieves than that is an idea or knowledge or fact but it is certainly not a tangible thing. What if another company found that same formula 2 days before the patent went through on the first company but they were not able to get their patent through fast enough. They did NOT get the chemical formula from the first company but it is now illegal for them to use their own knowledge. They lose all the money that they have invested in that research and people lose out big time by having to pay monopoly prices for that drug. Research and development is done in a myriad of industries. Medicine is not exactly unique in that aspect. I do think research would continue under a different model as it does in other industries. I think people would pay for research even separately apart from medicine. People believing that without monopoly power all research would end is definitely something pharmaceutical companies benefit from though.

I agree with this about prices. My insurance company covers one particular asthma medicine and I would have to pay $900 a month if I chose the other option if I didn't find coupons etc. They simply don't cover it. I'm not sure their whole purpose is to get the pharmaceutical company to bring down the price but that would be my guess. I do think the amount of health care paid for can decrease when end users pay. I have chosen to go without part of my asthma drugs because of cost. I used the older drugs and flatly refused to pay for the newer ones and though I suffered for it I didn't die. Not everyone has that option. In some cases you would pay anything which is why it is dangerous to give complete monopolies to companies. There are people who will overuse services if they are free. I think that is pretty common knowledge. That is different than the cost watch that you are talking about though. Things like crutches and wheel chairs are more likely to be found used if you are paying out of pocket, etc. So many drugs get dumped in the toilet every year. Having just moved my grandmother to assisted living and having talked to the nurses I wouldn't be surprised if millions and millions of dollars of drugs are just disposed of every year when elderly move in in addition to prescriptions that don't get finished in independent homes. On another note, I think we can no longer call "health insurance", health insurance as people use it to pay for everything. The point of insurance is to pay for the unforeseen costs. Would I contribute to insurance that would help to pay cancer treatment that I hope never to contract? Undoubtedly, yes. Just like I pay for home insurance in case my home burns to the ground but in general people don't have the attitude that they should get back everything they put into home insurance. There seems to be an understanding that everyone's policy payments pay for the one person's home who did burn down and that will be there for you if it happens to be your house. Somehow we lost that whole concept with health insurance although high deductible insurance could be a path to bringing that back.

Why do you assume I don't want people to profit from their creations? Of course, they should profit. Ideas can't be owned. They are not tangible material goods. There are industries that feed entirely off of copying ideas and changing them, for example the fashion industry. Somehow fashion designers still make money despite the fact that cheaper copies are sold to the masses. Really it is a leap of the imagination to assume that someone can't make any money off their idea because the government is not enforcing a strict monopoly on the idea for them.

The problem actually is government. If government didn't make and enforce patent laws then other companies could just step in and start making the drug. I have not seen convincing evidence that all the extra money paid for drugs goes back into research.

In addition to the aforementioned, check the maker of Ambian's website. Sometimes manufactures have them.

My son finished it. It is good conceptually.He definitely "gets" math, though I can't say how much of that is my son and how much is the Videotext teaching. My only frustration is that it takes longer than just one Algebra class (expected since it includes Algebra 2 concepts) but he didn't add the Trig into the Geometry program. Most programs mix the Algebra 2 and Trig concepts. I'm going to attempt to just have him do ALEKS for trig concepts and jump into a pre-calc class and hope it works. I'm not sure that every child would want to do that. So just a warning that the sequence and such is different and it looks like he doesn't plan on finishing his geometry/trig program which may throw off your future scheduling.

I wasn't advising it. Just stating it was done. :)

Or you would have given him a little whiskey to put him to sleep.