The US Mint is offering a Boy Scouts of America Centennial Silver Dollar. I think that'd make a pretty cool gift.

I am always tired - usually so tired that I have to drag myself out of bed even after a full night's sleep. I don't have any problem sleeping; I just don't feel rested afterwards. I also often have slight headaches and "brain fog". My blood work is all normal, including vit. b12 and vit. D (which was 40). Anyway, in a last ditch attempt to see if anything would make me feel better, I completely overhauled my diet. I wasn't eating unhealthy before, but thought I'd try increasing my fruits and veggies even further. In the process of doing this, I found I feel much better eating eggs (scrambled with veggies) than a whole wheat english muffin with natural peanut butter. The nurse at my doctor's office said that I might have a wheat sensitivity. Since then I've reduced the wheat in my diet further, and I feel great! I woke up this morning before 7:30 - without an alarm. And my head wasn't stuffy and my eyes weren't puffy like they usually are in the morning. If you have a wheat sensitivity, did you cut out all wheat? Or is a small bit okay? If I cut all wheat out, will I become more sensitive to it? I guess the only way I can tell if I need to be wheat free (versus gluten free) is to eliminate all of it and then try adding it back? Any book recommendations? Thanks for any ideas/suggestions you have!

Got 'em - thanks so much!

I ordered some for my boys from Lands' End. They have different styles, including plain, solid colors. It looks like they still have some styles on sale.

Yep, I'm going through the same thing here. My dentist also said that composite fillings are better because they actually bond to your teeth. I guess this would (in theory) make the tooth less likely to crack than if you have an amalgam filling. I don't think my dentist or ped. dentist work with amalgam at all.

I'm not sure I can help much, but this will at least bump your message to the top again. Have you read the Writing With Ease book? It explains the process and has samples of what to do throughout each of the first four years. It also has an evaluation at the end of each year that you could use to decide where to start with your son. I hope someone will be able to chime in with more advice/ideas. Good luck!

:iagree: Run, do not walk, to your local library or bookstore and pick up the Lightning Thief. My ds, now 11, has always enjoyed reading and would pretty much read anything I handed him. But this book was the first book that he read nonstop, finished in about a day, and begged me to take him to get the next book in the series. He did the same thing with the second & third books. His streak was broken when he had to wait for the remaining books to be released :tongue_smilie:. But the excitement he got from reading these books carried over to other books as well.

Our desktop is a pc. It's almost 6 years old. We've done memory upgrades, but have had no major problems (unlike my Mac with the failed hard drive after only 1.5 years). We're planning on replacing it soon, but only because dh (1) really wants to build a new computer on his own, and (2) wants more speed, memory, etc. for video/photo editing. You can only upgrade to a point :D. There's not a thing wrong with the machine. I do think that the quality of pcs varies greatly by brand.

I bought my Mac lapbook (not the Air Mac, just the standard laptop) in 2007. There's really no reason at all that they couldn't put a current (i.e., larger) hard drive in - after, we did on our own successfully. I believe that they didn't want to because it then forces you to upgrade your computer earlier (the hard drive I now have in my computer was not an option when I purchased my laptop). The worst part was that the store didn't have the smaller hard drive in stock, so they would have had to order it, but they still insisted that they could only install (replace) my hard drive with the same exact one that was in my computer. My old drive was 160 GB, my new one is 300-something :D. My point is really just that any computer can have problems - buying a Mac doesn't mean the clouds are going to part and the angels are going to sing. :D I haven't had problems with my cameras or even printers, just the wireless router for some reason. But Airport seems to work like a charm.

Well I have Mac laptop, and its hard drive failed after a year and a half. Yes, that can happen to any computer, but I've never had a drive fail that quickly - and without any warning. And - even worse, in my opinion - when we went to take it to the Mac store, they would only replace the hard drive with exactly what was in there. My dh went to Best Buy instead (as the Mac store won't sell you any parts) and got a hard drive that was twice as large for about the same amount of money. Also, we've found our Mac doesn't always "play nice" with non-Apple components. When I first had my Mac it would drop the wireless connection constantly; my dh's pc laptop had no problem. We switched to Apple airport and it has been much, much better. But even then, it'll still randomly drop the connection. I don't hate my Mac, but I do think they've lost some of the stability & quality that used to make them so great. :auto:

Kids Discover. Some issues are on history and some are on science. They are very well done with lots of good information and no advertisements. I save every issue.

Definitely Kids Discover for your science lovers. Very, very well done and covers many different and interesting topics. I don't save much, but I save every issue of these. We also like Zoobooks. My kids like National Geographic for Kids, but I think it's a bit light on information.

For prevention, you could use Body Glide - I use it when I'm running long distances to prevent chafing. It glides on and is not greasy or sticky. I think it's allatoin. If you can't find that, Johnson & Johnson makes a product called blister block which might work, but I've never tried it.

Do you like shrimp? This is excellent: Pad Thai 3 TBSP lime juice (fresh) 3 TBSP Asian fish sauce 2 TBSP ketchup 2 TBSP brown sugar 1 TBSP grated gingerroot 1 TBSP reduced-sodium soy sauce 1 tsp toasted sesame oil ¼ tsp crushed red pepper flakes 8 oz. noodles, cooked (can use rice noodles) 2 tsp peanut or vegetable oil ½ cup very thinly sliced shallots 2 tsp minced garlic 2 medium red bell pepper, seeded and thinly sliced 16 oz. uncooked medium shrimp, peeled & deveined ½ cup chopped green onions ¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro ¼ cup chopped dry-roasted peanuts (optional) Do all the chopping first so you have everything ready to go. Then, whisk together lime juice, fish sauce, ketchup, brown sugar, gingerroot, soy sauce, sesame oil, and crushed red pepper flakes in a bowl & set aside. Heat the peanut oil in a large, non-stick pan. Add shallots and garlic. Cook and stir over medium-high heat until shallots are tender, about 2 minutes. Add red pepper and cook 2 more minutes, stirring often. Add shrimp. Cook & stir until shrimp turn pink, about 3 minutes. Add reserved sauce, noodles, bean sprouts, green onions, and cilantro. Toss and cook until mixture is hot, about 1 minute. Add peanuts and toss again. Serve immediately.

My youngest ds will be 6 in July. When he was 4 he went to preschool three mornings a week. I can't tell you how many times he came home with letter worksheets with barely anything on them. But now, he's doing WWE level 1, and Spelling Workout A without any trouble. What I'm trying to say is don't worry! Read, read, read to him and be glad that he enjoys it so much - the writing will come. If you do want to continue working on letters, what about trying shaving cream or play-doh?

:iagree: I think many times kids need to learn how to think - in other words how to recognize and approach different types of problems. I find it helps my kids if I ask questions: What is the question asking you to find? What information have they given you? How can you use that information? I don't give them the answer, but I try to ask questions that'll steer them in the right direction.

I'm not Erica, but maybe I can help. My dh & I started an FLL team last year. As far as I know, there is no curriculum. Each year they issue a challenge (last year's was climate connections) which has two parts - the robotics & a research project. If you want to do things at home (as opposed to joining or starting a team), you could get a Mindstorms kit (I don't think you need the Education set - a regular kit is less $$ and would work) and a book like the Lego Mindstorms NXT: Mayan Adventure. I *think* these books have small challenges that you can work through. You could check your library - mine doesn't have the Mayan adventure book, but it does have other books with Mindstorm projects in them. Hope this helps.

Well, I'll be the lone dissenter here. I have a Macbook, and I can't say I really love it. I've had it for almost 2 years. I find many things on the Mac to be more difficult than on the pc. For instance, if I download something from the internet, it goes straight into my documents (as I have it set to do), but I can't choose where in the documents file. While on my pc, I can select documents > homeschool > science > chemistry > experiments, for example, and put the file right where I want it. I also haven't found an easy way to print a selection. If any of you Mac lovers know how to do these things, can you clue me in? I will say, to be fair, I haven't yet used my Mac for some of the things it's supposed to be best at (movie making, etc.), and I'm running OSX not Leopard (not sure if it makes a difference). But I'll also say I think my mac crashes about as often as my pc. Additionally, My hard drive died without any warning a couple of weeks ago. Now, I want to stress that can happen to any computer, BUT when we tried to go to Apple to have it repaired (I was 99% sure it was just the hard drive, but there could have been additional problems), the guy at the Apple store wouldn't give us any information. My dh finally got him to tell him 1) Apple won't sell you any parts - you have to have them installed by their genius bar, 2) they will only install the exact same parts that are currently in your computer. For the same cost as the Apple store, my dh went over to Best Buy and bought a new hard drive with twice the memory. It was an overall frustrating & disappointing experience, and it killed any chance I had of convincing my dh to replace our desktop with a Mac. Now before you all flame me (yikes!) I don't hate my Mac at all. I'm just not in love yet. I'm trying -- I really do want to love it. Any pointers you Mac lovers have would be appreciated.

Yes, marshmallow guns are lots of fun! We used these instructions. Also, since your son likes to collect coins, what about some uncleaned ancient coins? You can get them cheap off of ebay. Most won't be in very good condition, and you won't know what coins you might get, but it could be fun to clean them and see what you end up with. I haven't tried it (disclaimer!), but I think it'd be neat.

I found this discussion about free books for the Kindle & where to find them helpful. If you're willing to wade through it, there are many posts explaining exactly how to do it from the different sites. Here's another site that lists places for free Kindle books. You can also find good information at Kindle Boards. Amazon has also started carrying a lot of the classics for free. This is especially nice because if you buy it from Amazon (even if it's free), they will store it for you. You can remove it from your Kindle, and then if you decide you want to read it again, you just go to the "manage my Kindle" section at Amazon & have it moved back onto your Kindle. Apparently Amazon is charging for the conversion of files to Kindle format (this has always been their policy, but previously people said they weren't actually being charged). My understanding is that you can still convert files free by sending them to <your kindle name> @ free.kindle.com. They convert the file & email it to you, and then you can use the USB cable to transfer it to your Kindle. I haven't tried it yet, though, so I can't tell you how well it works. Hope this helps!

Yes, this is the only one I'm aware of. But if you're looking for something fun to do near Asheville, Sliding Rock looks neat. We haven't been yet, but I've heard that it's lots of fun.

I have the ebelskiver pan from William-Sonoma. It's very nice. You may want to check out their recipes. Their cinnamon bun filled pancakes are to die for!

I haven't tried it, but I've heard that people just put it in a gallon size zip lock bag. Same thing if you want to use it on the beach. ETA: Looks like they make some waterproof covers too.

Looks like they had to call it off again due to weather. I think they'll try again tomorrow night.

You can watch the live webcast of the launch of the Minotaur I rocket here. It was supposed to launch last night, but was rescheduled due to weather (& may be again tonight). The launch window is 8pm -11pm. Looks like they're looking at a launch time of about 9:28 eastern.