YAY! This thread was exactly what I was looking for when I entered "portland" in my WTM search window ;-) - We are moving there this summer...from KS. I've never even been the Pacific NW, so I'm totally flying blind here. But I think we'll like it there! Seems like a good fit on paper anyway. Any of you helpful folks from Portland have any great dance studios to recommend? We are tentatively focusing our search on the west side of the city (like Beaverton area), but we aren't committed to that, and would welcome thoughts and suggestions! We also found Village Home Education Resource Center, and the girls want to try out a few classes there (which is sorta why we were looking in the Beaverton area - the Beaverton campus seems to have a wee bit more to offer) - anyone know anything about that or have any suggestions, thoughts? Feel free to PM me if you'd rather. I've also joined a few yahoo groups, but they seem to be mostly announcement based...which is great, but the kids would like to maybe meet some other homeschoolers, etc., so smaller groups or something could be nice. But I figure that may come later, after we find a house and all ;-) TIA!

if there are books available, but no purchase button, then look for a link that says something like "5 new" and "4 used" or "buying options" or "Available from these sellers" Does that help?

I've heard good things about WalMart's newer family plan and it seems pretty affordable - I'd probably go with that if my husband's phone wasn't covered by his work, and if mine wasn't on a friends' employee discount plan - for my kids' shared emergency phone I did a prepaid - I went with AT&T go phone, and just bought them a cheap $10 phone with $100 card - with that big of a card, you don't have to worry about losing the minutes if you don't use them for a year (the smaller cards you lose the minutes after a certain period of time...like a month for a $30 card or something - unless you add more to them) - so for a year of service I spent $110 - so just over $9 a month - and they get about 20 mins a week of talk time, on average.....they share the phone and its for emergencies only, so that's absolutely fine for them - I told them that they can use it for other stuff, and pay for extra minutes if they wanted, but they haven't done that yet :-)

This has been my experience as well. :lol:

I just signed up for the free trial - is there a way to have it increment your lessons automatically? Like if I wanted them to do a lesson every day, is there a way I can put Lesson 1 in and set it up to automatically go lesson 2 and lesson3, etc., on subsequent days? What if I wanted them to do 2 lessons a day? Or maybe in the middle of the series, I wanted them to double up on some lessons - is that doable, and would it automatically adjust following lessons? I saw on their twitter that they are working on lesson sharing? That would be sweet! So far, and I've only used it for like 15 mins, :lol:, but so far I like the simplicity - seems like it might be just what I was looking for..

Based on the information you've given, if I were in your shoes, I think I'd stay where you are - it seems from your pros and cons list that your current studio is mostly positive. I'd keep her in level 3 with the teacher she likes (a good teacher is going to challenge her, no matter what the "level" of the class), and take this next year to check out other schools - watch classes, sit in on recitals, or talk with the director of your school about the situation, and see what happens over the next year. Maybe the teacher that plays favorites will leave, maybe they can talk to her, maybe your daughter won't care as much next year. It just seems like you have a pretty good thing going with that studio right now, and if it won't hurt your daughter to do another year at level three, I think that's what I'd do. I've been a "dance mom" for 6 years to two serious girls and one dabbler, so not an expert, but a bit of experience at least :001_smile: And there's nothing stopping you from changing studios midyear if you find a studio that you love. Most places will let your daughter try out a class, so can at least get an idea of what you are getting into before leaving this pretty good situation.. If you made the change now, you're right, you may be jumping into another situation that isn't any better...or perhaps even worse.

I left my oldest alone starting at age 9 - she's very mature and responsible and my decision was entirely made on that rather than her age.. My middle child is now 9, and I'd leave her too, but it hasn't come up :-) - she always either wants to go with me, or her sisters are home too. Now my oldest is 12, and I have no problem leaving all three of them home - the youngest is 7 - they are all three very mature responsible kids, and I make sure I'm no more than 15 mins away - the most I've left them has been a few hours, but usually I keep it to under two hours. However, I cannot imagine my 7 year old would be ready to stay home by herself without her sisters at the age of 9 - she's very anxious and while I think she will likely be able to handle it in two years, I don't think she will feel comfortable with it for a long time. That's her personality.

I just got one of my weekly orders yesterday - 680 gumballs :lol: My new kitchen scale should arrive tomorrow though.

I was a member for a while - I really liked it and felt it was worth the money - I only suspended my membership because I had some catching up to do on listening to all the books I got :-) And I was trying to cut some things from my budget... I keep thinking about rejoining. It seems like maybe the terms have changed though? I think I got two credits a month for that price. Although maybe my monthly price was higher. I can't remember - nope, I just checked my quicken files, and I paid $14.95 a month and got two credits for two free books a month - I also got the amazon $100 credit when I signed up - they've been doing that a long time - I bought an MP3 player with it - a decent midrange mp3 player but with the credit, the mp3 player was completely free.

I have a related question - if I unfriend someone, will my name reappear in their suggested friends list again? Because if they see me there, then they will know I unfriended them :-)

My lefty did the same thing as a toddler! She's fine now (she's 12) - we still had a lot of reversals by K and 1st grade - she would write entire words backwards and/or mirror image without even realizing it. Especially words she knew very well like her own name or "I love you" It was funny and cute, but I'm glad she grew out of it :lol: ETA - she still sometimes does artwork upside down and then just turns the paper around when she's done :-)

Yeah, I'd pay for it too. In a heartbeat. $1 or $2 would be nice, but I'd pay $5 without pause. Since I use the tiles so much and plan to use this curriculum for many years, I'd even go higher if I had to, but I think much higher might scare off customers...especially non AAS users. So you guys think you can have this ready for me by August? :lol:

There are ways to override your toner alerts - I did this with my Brother MFC-9320cw (which I LOVE) and it worked like a champ: 1. With power on, open the toner access main door (You will get a "door open" message in the LCD.) 2. Hit the "Clear/Back" button and... ta-dah!!! you go right to the "Toner Reset Menu" (cue Vienna Boy's choir sounds here). 3. Using the up ^ Down > "Search" arrow buttons, you can then scroll through reset options for each of the printer's [4] toner cartridges! Code: B. = black; C. = cyan; M. = magenta and Y. = yellow 4. For each for these cartridges is the option to reset for low yield = S (small?) or High Yield = H 5. Using the number keypad, select option #1 (to reset each to the size you have installed. 6. Hit the "Clear/Back" button to get out of the menu, close door ad the problem is FINALLY solved. you can also google "toner override" to find other solutions. I also found this tip on a forum, but I haven't personally tried it.

Ooh keep us posted! I'll check out Magnabet too - but it doesn't have the blends, etc. does it? But I can see it being useful! Thanks!

I just thought of it last night :D And I agree, if you could set it up for different students depending on what tiles they needed for their lessons, and just leave it that way for the next lesson. Oooh, it would be SO nice :w00t:

wouldn't it be nice if there were an ipad app for the All About Spelling letter tiles? So the kids could move them around on the ipad rather than either getting magnets and a big board for them or setting them up each time? Just sharing my dreams for this upcoming school year :lol:

oh my gosh, I want copies of all ya'll's files - NOW :lol: - I also want info on ipad apps (just got an ipad) along with OneNote and how you use it - and those pictures posted in this thread? Yeah, I've totally got the shakes now and am jonesing for a planner fix! Evil WTM pushers :w00t:

I've never rented movies with itunes, but don't they just expire at the end of your term? And then you can't access them? So you rent them just like you purchase anything from itunes, but after a certain period of time they stop working. Another option may be Amazon if that's available outside of the US - they do movie rentals, and I have rented from them with no issues. I had access to the movie for a certain period of time (I think it was 24hrs?) and then no more. Will you be watching these on the computer? If you were wanting to watch on the tv, you'd have to have a way to get the media to the tv - some blu ray players do it, video game systems, roku boxes, AppleTV or depending on the tv and the computer, you can just hook a computer to the tv directly - I have a small computer hooked up to my TV via HDMI cables, so I can watch through that. If you have the right cables, you can also hook your ipod to the tv...

You can get a free video to MP3 converter - I use this one - its super easy and just as quick as downloading MP3 files.

:iagree: This exactly except the point about DH being a postman. But everything else I could have written (and was about to)

Hey, I'm glad ya'll are talking about this. I am seriously interested in OakMeadow, but my only concern is the time involved in doing it with multiple kids in multiple levels. Can any of you veterans speak to that? I'll have a 2nd grader, 5th grader, and 7th grader. I might have the 5th grader do the 4th grade curriculum because of the literature choices...she's a young 5th grader anyway and hasn't done much formal writing.

Where are you located in Missouri? I may need her number if you're near me :lol::lol:

LOVE my brother MVC-9320cw - we had another brother black and white that I used for years, and I never missed the color - we still have it, its just been moved to my husband's basement office - I wanted something with wireless capabilities, and decided to go with color. I'm glad I did, but seriously, was fine with monochrome for years. In fact, I think my oldest daughter has that printer that was linked to in the OP, and she and her family love it. I just needed the scanner/copier, etc.

I adore my Brother Laser printer (MFC-9320cw). Toner is expensive (much less if you buy it online though) although so is inkjet cartridges... but the toner needs to be replaced much MUCH less frequently than ink jet cartridges. Its much more cost effective. I no longer worry about the kids printing off tons of coloring sheets, or full color pictures of their webkinz :lol: Also, if I have a lot to print off, especially before I got the laser printer, I would often upload my document to staples or some other office/print place and they would print it and I'd go pick it up. All of those places will let you upload documents and then pick up the copies later...office max, kinkos, etc. It doesn't cost too much for black and white, double-sided copies, and they can bind it for me as well.

:iagree: The first time I saw it, I went blind - didn't know a thing about it except it was supposed to be very good...I came home and immediately purchased the soundtrack from amazon MP3 store :-) The second time I saw it, I knew all of the songs..the kids went with me and they already knew the songs. It was great going in and already knowing the music, but the first time I saw it without having any prior knowledge (although I had read the book) was equally amazing. Either way, you're going to LOVE it. I'm jealous! I wish it would come back here soon, so I can see it a third time :D Have a good time!