IF she has set up a contract with the insurance company... I've worked with dentists, and many of them will FILE your insurance as a benefit to you but YOU owe the entire bill. Whatever the insurance pays (be it all, a little, or nothing) is just gravy - you are responsible for the whole bill. I don't know how other claims might work...

It IS income, however, and whoever gives you income is required to get your SSN (or EIN) in order to provide information on that income to the IRS. This is usually done on a W9. I would find out if that is why they are asking and, if so, just tell them that IF your child sells something and IF a SSN is needed at that time you would be happy to fill out the (government required) w9 information, including SSN. Not being interested in giving out your SSN is a very good reason to get a Federal EIN, btw! Website regarding IRS stance on 4h earnings: http://www.national4-hheadquarters.gov/library/4-H_IRS_Livestock_FAQs.pdf

I wouldn't make deal with renters for lower rent - really, that is bartering & subject to taxes so you are setting up for potential future audit issues. Ie - A,B & C all pay $900 per mo but D only pays $400 because he does plumbing work for you. Really, you are supposed to indicate that you have rental income from D for $900 (fmv - what everyone else is paying) and contract labor expense of $500 (fmv of his services) - probably a 1099-misc should have been sent to him (because he is required to pay taxes on $500 per mo income as self-employment income), which the IRS is really starting to come down on hard now. Just saying... yes, it happens a lot... no, it isn't "safe" if this is your actual long-term, high-income business. Second - form an LLC and put the land in the name of the LLC. Have the LLC pay for the building. Have the LLC collect the rent & pay out the expenses. If you blend your personal & business items together (using the same bank account, owning the land in your own name, etc) then you can potentially be subject to a huge amount of liability if something happens. It doesn't even have to be something that you could have done much about - they could trip & fall over their own 2 feet in the house they are renting from you & sue you. People suck. Lawyers & lawsuits suck. :) I am a CPA, and the LLC structure is what my boss calls "the cheapest insurance out there" - if you have nothing else, AT LEAST have an LLC!

My 8yo last year jumped from an interest in completing all the Magic Treehouse books to desperately needing to read all the Harry Potter books! It was strange. lol :D We got to the end of the MTH set & I couldn't find book 17 (and didn't want to buy it alone to due cost) - so he didn't read much for a few weeks. Then he picked up HP & read through the series from 1-5 & REALLY wanted to read 6, but I wasn't ready for him to read it, so I said no... so he didn't read much for a few months. Now he is reading the Percy Jackson series, and seems to enjoy it! :)

We feed a mix of dry dog food and the "Moist N Meaty" bags (which aren't canned/wet dog food but aren't dry like the regular stuff). We also put hot water on the dry dog food 1X per day for our older dog & let it sit & soak for awhile - otherwise he tends to cough and choke on it, and he likes it better moister!

Same problem, but no answers!! lol I have a just-6yo ds who excels at reading & math and is on-track to surpass his 8yo brother within a few years. I'm trying hard to not hold him back (while not pushing) and not have the older feel like he isn't doing well - it can be hard! Fortunately, they have a great relationship & there doesn't seem to be any jealousy or anger involved. The older one is completely on grade-level with no actual issues in learning any of the material, but he still moans about how hard it is and how he'd rather do xyz, and he periodically calls his little brother over to help him with problems (J, what was the answer to that Spanish question? Look at this math problem - what do you think it is?). Really, in my case the problem is that the 8yo doesn't apply himself very heavily to the subject matter at hand (except in the case of science or building, which are his strong suits). He can take 5 times longer on a worksheet than it OUGHT to take him, because he is spending so much time staring around or thinking great thoughts about other things. The 6yo is VERY focused & therefore goes through work steadily & without fuss. I try hard hard hard not to compare them, but it can be difficult - it is all to easy to make commentary trying to get the 8yo to focus & speed up some that mentions how his 6yo has already done all his work...

I get holes in all of the shirts that I wear with jeans outside to the barn area. Nothing to do with granite, here! :)

First, I have to say that long-term it seems that you will have some major problems if he considers a clean house as more important than the education of his kids. That sounds to me like a lead-in to just plain not being supportive of HS - and without the financial backing of a supportive someone, I think it would be very difficult to do! Now, on to the actual "helpful" notes! lol :) 1) downstairs vacuuming - I would consider getting an automatic vacuum (like a Roomba) and setting it to run every day, maybe in the afternoon before he comes home & after you've picked up toys out of the way. 2) laundry - I wash the loads & move them to the dryer, but then I put them out on the boys' beds & send them in to put the clothes away in their drawers. My sons are barely-6 & 8, and they have been fully capable of doing this step for well over a year now. Insist that they get it done before any "fun" play can be done (around here, all required chores - separated into 3 time-frames - must be done before any screen time, since that is their currency). 3) bed making - again, have the kids do this! In our house, this is a daily chore that gets done as part of "required chores" each morning before they are allowed to do screen time. They also have a limited time for screen-time before school-work, so they might miss it altogether if they dawdle. I make my own bed as soon as I get out of it in the morning (and then several times a day I fix it, as the kids mess it up! :tongue_smilie:). 4) if toys MUST be picked up from EVERYWHERE, then I would limit the places they are allowed to be. If my hubby were nearly as picky as yours sounds, the kids would only be able to have toys in their bedrooms & possibly bringing one out at a time from there. I just couldn't do it. Currently, the living room is our play room - I require that they pick up the toys in there & dump them in toy boxes on the sides of the room twice a day (once after lunch, once before bed). We don't do a very good job - I am happy as long as I can walk by without stepping on anything, but it definitely doesn't have "visual appeal"!! Once a month or so I insist on very nice. 5) General deep cleaning - hire someone! That's the only way I could do it. I HATE cleaning house, and my beloved hubby knows it. We have a lady come out every other week & do deep cleaning for us (ovens, bathrooms, microwave, windows, etc). We started with her once a month, and it was SO NICE to have all of that taken care of that we gradually moved to every 3 weeks, then every 2. I work part-time and make pretty good money, and our "family decision" was that it made more time for me to work a little and pay someone than to work none and lose my sanity & happiness.. :lol::lol: I have 2 very highly active boys, ages just-6 & 8, and I have found that they CAN help! It requires a lot of hand-holding (especially at the beginning, and then periodically during the month), but they CAN be helpful! You might look into the "Accountable Kids" chore chart system - we used that for awhile & it really helped us get over the hump of "they won't do it". It wasn't ME pushing them anymore, it was "an outside force" that dictated what needed to be done and reminded them daily of those things. All I had to do was set it up & then gently remind them to go look at the chart ("mom, can I watch TV?" - "I don't know, honey - go see what the chore chart says is left to be done & how many tickets you have available from previous chores").

I was very happy with Exploration Education (and will re-do it for the same ds at a later date, because I feel he will be able to get a lot more out of it & still enjoy it!). I didn't like Elemental Science (lower level - Biology 1) - very dull & experiments didn't tie in very well. I LOVE Supercharged Science, but can't justify the expense until my science-y ds is a bit older & able to pursue more of it himself. I plan to order REAL Science Odyssey - it looks great, but you can tell I'm not fully committed (since I'm here checking out all of your answers... lol!).

Get the kitty used to having her claws clipped, pronto! It is way easier to teach them that when they are young, imo. We've had our most recent cat now for less than a year & he turned out to be HUGE (really ginormous!) but he still just sprawls out on a chair and lets me grab his paws & snip all of his "toenails". I just use my old baby nail clippers, although they do have special ones for cats if you prefer. That has helped me with the clawing & scratching things the most (although he fortunately hasn't really been bad about that). Whenever I play fight with him and I wince, the next day I catch him while he's napping & trim the claws! :) Seems to keep him from scratching on the furniture (although he LOVES clawing the carpet - I should definitely have NOT gone with a carpet scratching post...).

I followed 100EZ with AAS1 (I actually started it before I got to the end of 100EZ, but just because I had it and he was ready - otherwise I would have waited). At 4yo, I would just work on 100EZ and maybe throw in some workbooks of misc Kinder stuff - unless she is really, truly ready to move on. My DS6 started reading himself at 4 (after listening in to big bro's lessons) and I decided to do the 100EZ just to round him out, but he wasn't really ready for much else. At 5, though, I was getting ready to do Kinder & realized... he was 1st! So, we did AAS1, WWE1, RSA, and misc other items done jointly with older bro (Spanish, History, etc). He just turned 6 last week, a few days after finishing 1st grade. He is very good at seat work and was totally ready at that point to just begin doing the work. So - I guess my point is that for what turned out to be his K, I did nothing but 100EZ with misc reading and workbooks (the Walmart ones!). I found that he was completely ready at 5yo to do solid 1st grade stuff, though, and implemented a full curriculum (I had the advantage of already knowing what I planned to use, though, since his brother is 2 years older).

I relieved to hear that a dictionary is involved - since I was thinking that without either Google or a Dictionary I myself probably wouldn't be able to complete the assignment at all!! lol On a side-note, I think the "spreadsheet" aspect of this is kind of a distraction. This is not really a spreadsheet activity, imo, except perhaps for formatting purposes. If you just list 1 - 10 in the first column and the prefix in the 2nd, what do you do in the 3rd? Just put all words & definitions in one big line? More likely you insert a row for each word/definition - so now #1 has 4 columns (#, prefix, word, definition) and 3 rows (word/def1, word/def2, word/def3). Are you actually trying to work on that? It seems like adding that on top of the actual work of coming up with prefix, words & definitions is starting to make it pretty elaborate - I work with adults who can't do the insert rows & format "nice" (although I totally think they should get spreadsheet training!!). ETA - nevermind - I see that creating the excel spreadsheet actually IS the object now! lol. Spreadsheet creation can be super-fun, but honestly seems like a pointless side-note to an activity like the one you are describing. I totally thought that the definitions & prefixes were the object here. You could just as easily (and probably more nicely) display the information on a word document using bullet points. Is this an outside assignment?

Is it the actual WWE workbooks that you would think are an ideal lead-in to WWS, or is it just the style? If we could learn to use the WWE style of copywork, narration, dictation, comprehension questions in other things, do you think that provides the right sort of set-up? There is a WWE manual that is supposed to just have you do the appropriate steps with your own books, right? I like that idea, but just don't have the ooomph to create a full blend of questions, copywork assignments, etc on my own at this point. I like WWE and have used level 1 & 2, but for next school year I was planning on switching to something else. The main reason is that I will have 4 kids in 3 different levels, and I can't picture finding time to do WWE workbooks separately. A secondary reason is that we would really like to COMPLETE a book - not just continue to read small snippets of books. They generally like the books given in the passages, but find it hard to just read a little bit & move on. I looked into Sonlight - I don't like the LA part, but from the samples it appeared that you follow the same basic guided steps for the readers as you would using WWE. I saw comprehension questions, copywork, and narration (I think), and dictation would be easy to add if it isn't there. I had thought it seemed like a similar approach to WWE (barring the grammar, which I would NOT be using), and was excited that it used readers that I loved, appeared to go all the way through the readers, and I could probably use it across grade-levels (with some adjustments - I know each grade has different readers, so I'm not sure how I would end up doing this). I guess the readers are supposed to be read by the child, though, which would be different (so far in WWE I have read all the passages - does that change as you move up?). Any thoughts on this? Can someone who has used both WWE & Sonlight chime in and tell me the differences? :)

:iagree: I agree, except... I wouldn't be buying a house that you don't plan to keep indefinitely and fix up as your "nest". I'd just rent until I could afford to buy. If your Dad wants to buy & is willing to rent to you, and it isn't your "place I want to be in forever", then I would go with small, inexpensive, less work to do inside, less yard to take care of outside. None of the ones you describe seem to match that description...

Look hard at current care, but also keep an eye out to long-term decline & the care associated with that. My mom had MS & had a rapid decline in abilities over the course of 10 years or so. My dad constantly moved, trying to stay "ahead" of the disease in terms of housing & care, and it always won in the end. In the "dream house" that they had built on his retirement funds, he revised the spiral stair into an elevator when she went from cane to walker to wheelchair, but eventually she needed more accommodations than that. They moved to a 1 story house after awhile, but the doorways were too narrow for the electric wheelchair to fit through very well and she couldn't drive it very well - I remember when they moved out they had to re-do all of the doorways because of how beat up they got. They went into a "designed for a wheelchair" house after that, low counters & easy access bathtubs, etc, but she went from being able to handle basic daily tasks to being pretty much unable to handle them so he had to hire a caregiver (he was working full time to pay for things). Then she needed a caregiver full-time (she'd try to get up out of the chair & fall and lay there until someone came, etc). Eventually he moved her to assisted living & from there to full-care nursing. Anyhow - I would keep in mind limitations associated with the probably long-term care that he will need. If he can currently operate basically on his own (since he is in an apartment), then for awhile you'll probably be fine with just general support. Determine what progress his medical disability will make, though, and consider what you will be willing/able/required to do in the future. Things like: remove all rises/falls in the house & put ramps at all doorways, put rails in bathroom, enlarge doorways, replace regular shower with handicap shower. Also personal care such as changing, cleaning (I still remember coming in on my mom one day when she fell down going to the bathroom & somehow managed to smear ick all over herself, the walls, the toilet, EVERYWHERE trying to get up - I had my under-1yo with me, too!), daily stretching exercises, feeding, etc. Oh, and a car capable of carrying a wheelchair, if that is where he will end up. I think if I were in the position that I'm in today & my mom were still alive & in the nursing home she ended up in, I would be willing to try and take over her care - but I accept that it would have been extraordinarily difficult & heart-breaking & exhausting. I would have needed the full support of my family & I would have tried to farm out as many of the "extra" house things (cleaning & yardwork for sure) as I could to others, & I would have wanted a set respite care each week to get a mental break. Honestly, the hardest part would have been her slipping mentally. :( We do live with my 81 yo in-laws (fortunately in excellent health!) and from an in-law (non-medical) view - make sure he has a sanctuary - a big, comfy room all to himself set up with all the things he would like to do privately (watch a show, read a book, work on the computer, etc). My in-laws love the boys, and do interact with them lots, but find them absolutely exhausting & by the end of the day just need to spend the afternoon alone in the privacy of their room with no stress! :)

Lol - definitely!! I was thinking "You wanna piece of this??"... :D :lol:

Wow - that's terrible! How sad for her :( I probably wouldn't have corrected the girl, because it sounds like it was a huge surprise & all happened fairly quickly. If I were the parent, though, I absolutely would have come down on her for inappropriate behavior! As a spectator, I would make it clear to my kids that this was hurtful and unlikeable behavior. Heck, I might have done that right in front of the guy - I don't know if your kids were there, but if so I would have spoken with them (loudly) about how terrible it was that the little girl was so rude & hurtful. As for actually speaking directly with the little girl about it - THAT I don't think I would have done. I don't know that it SHOULDN'T be done, I just can't picture actually doing it myself. I might have said a loud, general, "wow, that was rude & mean" or something, but I wouldn't have been comfortable giving a 6yo I don't know a lecture about it. A 6yo I DO know, absolutely! :)

Apparently it is VERY specific to what club you end up in. I almost started this week, but got enough information from our local club to realize that it wasn't for us at this time. The only club near us has very few Cloverbuds & no adult to lead them (they basically just "hang out" while siblings do the real stuff). I got the distinct impression from my conversation with the leader that she wanted me to volunteer to lead the Cloverbuds!! No thanks - not without more info, or at least KNOWING someone there! lol. She was saying that another club pretty far North of us (way too far to drive) consisted almost entirely of Cloverbuds and had a full program for them. Since both my kids would be Cloverbuds, I decided to wait a few years to check it out again! :)

We just finished our "school year" today for my 2 boys, in 1st & 2nd grades!! :) WOOHOOOOOOOOOO Things we finished & I would totally do again: RightStart Math (A&B) All About Spelling (1&3) Writing With Ease (1&2) Things we finished that I will not do again: Shurley English (1) Math Mammoth (1&2) - some of this I really appreciated, like the cost & the setup, but my 2nd grader in particular REALLY didn't do well with it and we had constant battles on focusing and not spacing out. The 1st grader is apparently a worksheet lover & had no problems, but he took to complaining just because his big brother did... sigh. I MAY do this again in a few years, or if money becomes an issue for math programs, but my son & I are about DONE with what we are willing to do with it!! :) Things to do in future years: Rosetta Stone - I will definitely re-visit this program, but it will probably be a few years. I determined that we really need more hands-on work with everyone working together, both so I could learn it myself & so they could get more out of it. It is surprising how capable even a young'un becomes at sneaking by the system... Exploration Education - I loved it for this year, and even though it is really just a 1-year program I do plan to re-do it in 3 years or so. He enjoyed it, it was very teacher-free but educational & involved, and I think he can get more out of it (in a good way) in a few years.

Starbucks!!! Or one of those gift cards you can use anywhere - like the Amex ones from the mall. Once I realized you could use those wherever took Amex, I was SET! lol I don't shop at Target (it is too far away to go to very often), so I wouldn't vote that - lots of people do, though. I shop almost exclusively for random things at Walmart, since that is what is close to us. I got a Christmas gift card to Marshall's, which I have never even set foot in. Not sure when to go, because I'm not sure what they have, what I'll want, what the prices are... bleah! Wish it had been a Starbucks, but I know the lady who gave it probably loves the place.

:iagree: I actually insist that the kids fast forward through commercials even on their kid shows, because I just don't like the "media hype" of whatever it is they are selling this week. We DVR everything I plan to let them watch - then we can watch it at our own convenience, stop it if needed in the middle (I told you to take care of that!! Go do it RIGHT NOW! lol), and skip commercials.

Creative writing I let him do entirely on his own, with no correction for any mistakes included. "School" writing is all copywork (no coming up with his own sentences at this point, and no dictation until next year). I expect the school writing to be neat, properly capitalized and punctuated, property spelled, and correctly written between the two lines (since it is right there in front of him!!). He is a young ending-first grader (6yo) but fully capable of doing the above as part of his schoolwork. I expect my ending-second grader (8yo) to be able to do all of the above with full, fairly lengthy dictation as well as regular copywork. His biggest problem is actually the writing neatly part (he tries to go too fast!). He also needs to be able to spell the majority of the words correctly (assuming we have covered the rules related to them). If I know we haven't covered that rule, I spell that word out (aloud or whiteboard). If he spells one wrong, we go over the related rule again. With the 8yo, I am gradually adding in creative sentences as well, and I expect the same things of them (however, they are not that involved - for instance, here is a picture, write 2 sentences describing what is happening). I won't be trying to have them do a lot of creative writing until they firmly grasp the writing rules on standard copywork & dictation. We plan to move up to creative writing more fully in future years.

I would take a book of a higher level in a genre she enjoys and read it to her - and explain it page by page, recapping what happened & WHY that is interesting. My 8yo reads at an advanced level, but for our read-aloud I try to go above that level. For instance, he reads Harry Potter (up to book 5) on his own, but we read "Hound of the Baskervilles" together. He doesn't understand a lot of what is going on in it right off the bat, because the language & wording is different from what he is used to. So he reads a page out loud to me, and I make excited comments about it ("wow, do you see what happened there? He THOUGHT that x was going to happen but then y happened instead. Do you think that means that z might actually be the case?") then I read him a page and recap it as well. Then we do a general recap ("A just happened today - what do you think might happen tomorrow? Do you think B will actually come true?"). It takes a long time to get through a book this way, and we have to take periodic breaks away to read other, lighter stuff, but I think that he starts to grasp the elements of a mystery novel written in old English! :) ETA - I forgot my book recommendation!! "Secret of the Unicorn Queen" is a very fun series for young ladies - I don't know the recommended grade level, but I read it around her age, I think... and it is still interesting enough to read again as an adult. Possibly the "Pony Club" books (or something like that - I don't remember exactly what the series name was - but it was about young girls and horses).

My kids always loved how Papa Bear gets right in there and does things with the kids, even if he does end up messing it up. He flies kits, makes kites, runs races, hunts for honey - all sorts of things with his kids! I would way rather have a bumbling but involve role model than a "too busy to play, have to go now" one...

So many of my gluten-free attempts are fails that I dread making anything for ANY meal other than breakfast (at least gluten-free cereal is easy to do...). Sigh. I don't like cooking that much anyway - cooking with restrictions & ingredients I don't know much about is just... depressing. ETA - add into the mix a 6yo who doesn't accept that he is probably gluten-intolerant, a granny who lives here and also has trouble accepting, and an 8yo brother who has no known gluten problems & doesn't want to "play"... then remove dh, who is the one who has been trying to get us all gluten-free & has been doing the cooking (and who left to go out of town working for awhile)... and meal time around here is a very unappealing time!! :(