FLL and Shurley English

We've used Evan-Moor for the past three years and still love it.

DS is learning both Mandarin and Spanish. We feel that it is going to be essential to be able to communicate easily, in the future, in both those languages, but especially Mandarin. Many job opportunities will be available to those who can easily assimilate themselves into China (and their culture) as well as speaking English and the same with Spanish. Since DS is Chinese, we feel fluency in Mandarin will be one of his greatest assets as he gets older.

QValencia, You must live near me because DS participated in HEARTS last year! We just had our wills redone this summer. I have the name of a great estate attorney that is near us if you need a recommendation. He was the one who really helped us decide where our money should be allocated. (We have a very - um- unusual family dynamic.) An estate attorney really knows the ins and outs of the financial decisions that need to be made. Going in, we thought we knew what was best and it turned out we were completely WRONG. We were also told that a will should be redone every five years because things change soooo much. Let me know if you need that recommendation.

Another vote for the Exploratorium. Also Chinatown. California Academy of Sciences, too.

To a friend who called and asked us over for the evening: "Sorry we can't come because DH is taking DS to the bank since he has seen him all week!" My friend: :confused::glare::001_huh:

I feel your pain. DS is in Horizons 6 math and it has lots of repetition. However, like yourself, I don't want to leave any gaps. We have come to a compromise. We are continuing through the grade 6 book (usually doing 3-4 lessons a day). If that day goes well, we do ONE lesson from Horizons Pre-Algebra. Makes both MaMa and DS happy. Oh, and how we love Life of Fred fractions here, too. :)

Nutella and marshmallow fluff!

I'll be almost 63 when DS turns 18. DH will be 66. Though we plan to travel a great deal when DH retires in 2 years (with DS tagging along), by the time DS heads off to college, we will be traveling again as just a couple and able to stay extended amounts of time in international locales.

My happy dance is that I only have to be out of the house ONE DAY this week. It is a welcome respite from the past couple of months where I feel like all I am doing is :auto: :auto: :auto:.

Super Easy Pumpkin Dip 1 can pumpkin pie filling 1 lg container cool whip - defrosted Mix the two together. Serve with gingersnaps. Watch it disappear :D

My KA is old, too (17 years) and it will whip 1-2 egg whites without any problem.

We have had two done by Canvas on Demand (Groupon Deal). Both turned out great. They have wonderful customer service. The first picture we selected for the canvas apparently was a little blurry when blown up for the canvas. They informed us of this and we said we would choose another photo. Somewhere along the way the information got confused and we wound up with a canvas of the first picture. I personally think it is beautiful and no one has said anything about it not being sharp. Anyway, we called them back and reported the snafu. No problems. We sent in another picture and received a canvas of it at no charge. They apologized profusely and were very pleasant to work with.

Regular, but always dipped in ice cold milk :drool5:

That's how we do it here, too.

DS is doing Rosetta Stone Mandarin. However, he had a private Mandarin tutor for over a year before we started RS. With all the tones, RS would not have recognized his speech without the great foundation he had acquired from the private tutor. Also, the writing with RS Mandarin is very difficult. I have watched DS become very frustrated (and then finally persevere) through the writing portions.

Oh, that is nice to know. We just started SSL 1 and LOVE it!

Just tell the school you are taking your child out of school. You will have to fill out a few forms and that's it. Send in your letter of intent immediately and enjoy having your child home.

I have Red Hot Root Words and Rockin' Root Words. Red Hot is good - lessons and short and sweet with words that children use/hear in everyday language. Open and go. Rockin' Root Words divides out the workbook by themes, i.e., numbers, quantifiers and size, time, etc. Words are more abstract, but still great content.

I had NO idea this existed! Thanks so much.

No, DS never has. We tried the Elf on the Shelf for his first Christmas home (DS is adopted from China) and the second day he informed us that there was no Santa and that BaBa was moving the Elf. Ugh.

Ah, yes, I can remember singing it at the top of my lungs as a tween going out with friends after playing softball. Sweet memories!

DO NOT come to the metro ATL area. We have friends who have been laid off as school psychologists and RTI coordinators. The systems are just keeping the bare minimum of personnel in that area and the poor ones that are left have huge caseloads.

Laundry is done on Friday night/Saturday morning. Before bed each night, DS and I do a 15-30 minutes 'sweep' of the house. Everything gets put back in the right place and disinfectant wipes are used in the kitchen, bathroom, etc. Toilets are cleaned each night. I have an Ergorapido Cordless Vacuum that I also run on our tile while we are putting things away. Just that light cleaning seems to keep things pretty straight and clean enough that I can have students over that I tutor in the afternoons and evenings. I was fortunate enough to find an online discount offering for housecleaning. It was a fantastic deal (3 hours of cleaning for $25). They came for the first time today and I have the cleanest house in town. I bought several of these coupons so I don't have to worry about deep cleaning until late spring. :party:So worth cutting in other places in our budget to afford this.

:iagree:We live on the West Cobb/Paulding County Line. DH is a teacher for Paulding County. He has at least 8 furlough days this year. He has lost his funding for National Board Certified Teachers as well as his extended day teaching. Over the past 4 years, his salary has decreased by about 30%. Many teachers in his county have been non-renewed (for teachers with less than 3 years in the county.) The climate for teachers in the metro ATL area is not good.