My sister is an N.D. who has studied the science behind the hcg diet and has now overseen quite a few people on it, including myself. I do believe that it works. The first time I did it, I lost 35 pounds and kept them off for about a year, then gained 15 back. I’m on it a second time and have lost 8 so far, only looking to lose about 15 this time. Here’s the thing about the very low calorie diet. No one can eat like this and be healthy without the support of the hcg. The hcg burns the belly fat, which makes the body be able to function. Without the hcg, it’s a starvation diet which will slow down the metabolism, resulting in NO weight loss, and simply will not work. Changing my diet long-term to eliminate most white flour and sugar is the challenge. Being ON the diet is pretty easy actually. I know ahead of time what and when I will eat, and I do experience more energy. Although on this second time around, I have more stress in my life, so it’s not quite the same as the first time. The trickiest thing I have to deal with is that I get light-headed when I get up from a sitting position, and I’’m not sure why that happens, but I could probably ask my sister. The mental piece of hcg is truly huge. It has worked for me very well, but I have followed the diet exactly, and have fat-loaded on the front end exactly as I was directed. The reason I went on it this time is that I allowed my stress over the past couple of months to result in emotional eating and hence a weight gain, and it wasn’t until I felt ready to stop that I could start hcg again. I am currently trying to decide how I am going to handle going off of it and how I am going to eat after this is over. But I know for a fact that it did reset my setpoint and i truly lost fat and inches and that hcg was more than a placebo in my case.

My daughter is currently IN Ireland studying and one of her texts is How The Irish Saved Civilization. Reviews on Amazon are mixed, but I am trusting this is probably a good source as my daughter is there with a Christian liberal arts college. http://www.amazon.com/Irish-Saved-Civilization-Hinges-History/dp/0385418493/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

We live near the intermediate school in our district where they offer a runner's club. My daughter is not permitted to participate in the actual runner's club since she is homeschooled, but I know the route (it actually goes right by our house!) and we have instituted our own version of runner's club. I believe it is about a 3-mile route, but what we are doing is daily jwalking (jogging/walking combo). We rode our bicycles last week to get familiar with the route, plus she is not really a runner. This morning, we did our jwalking for the first time. My 17 year-old daughter wanted to go along, and I had my 4.5 year old in the jogging stroller. It is my intention that we will work up to five days a week jwalking this route, and probably ride our bikes in the evening. I have a bike seat for my little one, so that works well, too. For me, there's nothing like exercising alongside my kids. The two girls, and my two high-school aged boys, and I all take karate twice a week as well.

Can't remember back that far as to whether or not my kids did that, but here's what I would do. I'd get a couple measuring cups or something out of the counter and then do a demonstration of what is left when you use one negative, and what is left when you use a double negative. And then I would make it into a game -- every time she used the double negative -- I don't have no -- I'd reply, "Then you DO have some!" and just try to keep things light. When my kids were little, I tried to use every single minute for teaching (I didn't, obviously, but there were an awful lot of teaching opportunities).

Thank you for posting this! I just signed my family up -- this will be fun!

I called to ask when I lost one, and they sent me a replacement. I don't think there was a charge, but I don't remember for sure.

I always buy too many notebooks when they are 10 cents, and two-pocket folders, so I'm holding off this year. I love having a plethora of scissors to choose from, even if all the same size. They just seem to disappear with an alarming regularity. Can't get enough glue sticks. One bottle of Elmer's lasts forever. It's nice to have pencils on hand. My kids prefer mechanical pencils. I'm still trying to get organized with that, so I have the right size lead and erasers on hand. I love Prismacolor colored pencils, but I will buy sets of Crayola pencils and markers when they are really low-priced. Whiteboards are awfully handy to have. They can turn a bad day into a fun one, instantaneously. Don't forget the dry erase markers! I try never to run out of printer cartridges. We love scotch tape. One thing I'm forever out of is index cards. So, I usually stock up on those at the beginning of the year. They come in handy for all kinds of things. I do agree that shopping for office/school supplies is GREAT fun! My parents used to laugh at how excited my kids would get with their NEW supplies!

At four, we did no workbooks, just fun math. Whatever I could dream up, we did. Used plastic silverware to make addition problems on the floor -- always fun to make those big giant "equal" signs with the knives. Cooked and discussed fractions as we measured. Added and subtracted with toys. Counted. Played with numbers. We had a "shapes" party and learned all about different shapes. Kept my eyes open for anything that looked fun that would help us do math together. Making collages of shapes cut from magazines. Finding shapes in the house or outside. Counting how many pieces of mail are in the mailbox. Anything is fair game. Is it possible that it's too early to be overwhelmed about math? She's only four. At that age, learning opportunities are absolutely everywhere. Taking walks, going to the library, drawing what you see. No formal curriculum is needed for that age. Just read a million books and have fun.

We just recently read "Wednesday Wars" by Gary D. Schmidt. An excellent story which really captures the flavor of the era. Not heavy on historical details, but many things are mentioned. We loved this book. (We = dh, myself, ds16, ds14, dd11)

My kids loved Zoombinis, and also Read, Write, and Type. They enjoyed the Madeline programs -- it's been a long time since anyone was in first grade here ...

I was 43. I had child #4 at age 37 and didn't think twice about my "advanced maternal age." As wonderful as it is to have all five, pregnancy was hard on my body, especially afterwards. I certainly could not go through another one. Full disclosure: the child I gave birth to at 43 was born with Down syndrome. He is a wonderful child and I'm glad to have him. I had no idea how high the risk was at my age -- 1 in 29 -- and it hasn't always been easy. But he is a huge blessing to us in many, many ways. Three of my children are out of town this week and I remarked to my daughter who is still home that some families have this number of people all the time. Can't even imagine how uncomplicated and simple life would be with two. :001_smile:

I miss my 17yo dd who is away at ... an honors program for high school students at Taylor University. I'm so glad she has the opportunity to do this, and I know she is having a wonderful time, but I do miss her. Surprised me a little actually, but this is making me realize she will only be home for one more year before she is off to college for real. My two oldest boys, 16yo and 14yo, just left with dh this morning for a great adventure in the UP. I do not miss the boys yet, but I think that is because I have been wanting them to be more involved outside our home for quite some time and I am just delighted that they are getting to have this adventure together. Still have my youngest two with me this week. Life is so full with five children and I'm always up for a break from the kids, but just really missing my dd.

Just listened to this over the weekend. My 17yo dd, 16yo ds, 14yo ds, 11yo dd, and 4yo ds (lol) loved this. We got it from Audible.com. It's about 7 hours long. We've also loved The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald on tape. The kids were younger when we listened to that one, but they would like it even now. And you can NEVER go wrong with Hank the Cowdog books on tape. They are loved by kids and adults alike. Susan

like Ohio, where we live. The classes were very boring for my daughter, but she learned a few things, and reminded me of a few things I had forgotten! With the requirement of 50 hours of driving practice, I certainly had multiple opportunities to teach her plenty. But the actual "driver's ed" would not have been legal without the certified course. The only part of that that bothered me was the cost. She's a great driver at 17. :auto:

probably because I am committed to Verizon. We have six lines with Verizon (5 on family plan and 1 extra for my mother), and four of us are huge texters. I have the Env2. My daughter and husband have Env3's, and we all love them. I can get internet and email on my phone (cannot send email though). If iPhone becomes available through Verizon, I will look at switching to one, but Verizon is the best. Our plan has unlimited texting, and internet capacity on my phone and my husband's phone, 400 minutes per month. The internet is $10 extra for our plan, per phone, and the unlimited texting for five lines is $35/month. Because my husband travels so much, we have become very frequent texters as it helps us keep in touch throughout the day. I have had my Env2 since Dec 2008 and absolutely love it.