You can get discounted tickets if you get them online here I believe: http://www.visitsealife.com/minnesota/ Be aware, the whole thing will only take you and hour or less to go through (if you don't stop and gaze much which we don't due to miss 4 year old). We go during homeschool days for cheap. We go through, eat lunch, and go through again. I go to the mall with 3 kids - 10, 7, and a very very much all over the place 4 year old. We do fine. Beth

There's this one in TX that's been open a few years : http://www.the-book-cover.com/ I've thought about the whole homeschool bookstore knowing that people would want to buy cheaper somewhere else. Now, I don't know if this would work, but I wonder if curriculum suppliers such as sonlight, abeka, even smaller companies would pay a store a "rental" fee to have their stuff displayed in the store. It would be like a curriculum fair only you don't have to stock merchandise and people can just look before buying. I would also for sure have consignment with an online option to move more material faster. Beth

I took it and think that income and a lot of those factors really depend on where you live. If I lived in a city, not having a car would not make me impoverished - public transportation is readily available. Now, if you lived in the country, not having a car could easily lead to unemployment because you couldn't get to your job. Similarly with air conditioning. I live in MN and a lot of people in our town living in older houses don't have air conditioning. Yes, it gets really hot in the summer, but it is fairly short lived. That in itself does not make one impoverished. Also, money goes much father depending where you live. On our income up here, we are doing OK, but if we lived in a similar southern town, we would be fairly wealthy with a huge house, new cars, etc. As it is right now, we are below the 50% income range in our town. When we were in Texas 13 years ago, $20K for two people was very doable. The same amount in MN would have put us at the poverty level. So, it really depends where you live. Beth

I have the BEST pumpkin pie recipe. Anything from a pre-mixed can tastes disgusting to me in comparison. I even like it after I found out it was from my old neighbor who was really mean to kids when I was growing up. I use "jack o lantern" pumpkin and not the pie pumpkin. Works fine. Here it is: 3 1/2 c pumpkin 1 1/2 c brown sugar 4 eggs 3 T melted butter 2 T dark molasses 1 1/2 t salt 2 t cinnamon 3/4 t ginger 1/2 t nutmeg 1/4 t allspice 1/4 t cloves 1 1/4 c evaporated milk Tips - make sure the pumpkin is room temperature otherwise the butter clumps and the spices clump to it. Bake at 450 degrees for 10 minutes and turn down to 325 Degrees and finish baking. (30+ minutes). It makes two pies. You know when it's done if a knife inserted perpendicular comes out clean.

My ds is 11 and 5th grade doing Algebra 1/2. He's my math guy. He dabbled in 7/6 for 2 months last year after finishing the Singapore series and because of his scores, Art Reed - Mr. Saxon, suggested he skip over 8/7 and go to algebra 1/2. He's done very well. I switched to Saxon because in those upper math levels, he was having trouble retaining what he learned with a mastery math program. It's worked well and he's been able to work through some issues about sloppy work because the problems he's doing are repetitive. I don't use any DVD's because I'm a math mommy. I just like that Saxon has such a variety of helps to choose from if I need it. Beth

I have the same problem. Not gaining weight, but my waist-line is expanding. No wheat low carb?!?! Maybe it's worth a try because I have a feeling I'm wheat intolerant anyway. I have had trouble with wheat in the past. I may try this, but I will miss my wheat:sad:. Beth

Pumpkin Butter - http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/pumpkin-butter/detail.aspx It's like apple butter, but with pumpkin. We eat it on bread and pancakes. Yum! Beth

My ds has been making simple computational mistakes in math (forgets to carry the one, adding wrong, writing the decimal in the wrong place, etc.). The last test he took, he got 60% because of all these stupid computational errors. He knows how to do the problems, but got lazy in the simple math. So, I bit the bullet and did the math problems with him. I got my white board and just did the problem on my white board while he did it on his paper. He wasn't looking at my board, but I was able to show him his errors right away rather than after the fact. Yes, it takes up time that he could be working independently, but this past test he got 100%! He hasn't done that since we started. I think I'll keep doing this for a few more weeks until he starts paying more attention. Yay! Beth

I had similar issues. I'm a math person and had no idea how to teach writing. IEW is expensive (with very good resale - you could almost get back 75% of your initial cost), but makes it easy to teach writing and evaluate it. With a 6th grader I would try student writing intensive A or B. You buy a teacher. Beth

I did Math u see Alpha until ds was ready (we started singapore when he was almost 6). He's almost 7 and is now ready to go back to Singapore. He just needed some time to mature. Beth

I started using Lemi Shine with my regular detergent (because I still have some to use up before I try the homemade stuff). WOW - my dishes are finally clean again. I thought my dishwasher was needing to be replaced. Nope--we apparently have really hard water that made food stick to our "clean" dishes along with limestone deposits. TOTALLY different results. Beth

Free shipping code 339121tf. Offer expires Dec 23, 2011 Beth

I saw it as favorable to American Indians. If anything, it revealed stereotypes through the reading of Robinson Caruso that the "natives" are not stupid or willing to be slaves. If anything, the Indian is portrayed as the one who knows what to do in the forest and the white man as ignorant. I was siding with the Indians in not having their land taken away by the white man. Maybe I'm missing the negative portrayal? I guess anything that may have been a negative stereotype was missed by me? Beth

In addition to what everyone said, I buy rice milk for dd. It's $2.60 per half gallon vs. $5.60 per half gallon at our local store. Just hearing about what everyone gets there makes me want to go by myself sometime and actually have time to look without the kids pulling at me to find the next free sample. Beth

I get overwhelmed being around people all day too. We have a co-op all day on Wednesdays and I am TOTALLY wiped out from it. I don't let kids come over to our home on Wednesday afternoons. Otherwise, my ds has made our home the "fun" home. I'm not sure how that happened, but it did. I've learned to tune out all the activity surrounding me. It's almost to a point that I've made myself this little cocoon and nothing can hit me there. I also schedule "mommy spa" where I make the family dinner and go hide myself in my room for the night with my dinner and Netflix. I wind up doing that 1-2 x a month just to keep my sanity. My DH also wants to entertain more and have all these people over with kids running through the house and lots of excitement and activity. I just can't do it. I do have people over every blue moon, but dh knows that if we do it too much (more than once a month), his darling wife will be crabby and will try running out of the house at random moments:tongue_smilie:. I love him and only do these things because I love him, but it feels like pulling teeth. Beth

This is my son. He's 6, but he's the type of kid who will only ask the question if he can't figure it out for himself. There have been things that he's thought about for days and only questions it out loud if there is no solution in his brain (like when his sister came and he wanted to know where her male weewee part was - he came up with A LOT of theories on that one!) Neither my husband or I can understand how he thinks. I'm not concerned about him or want him to change, I just am curious how to direct him. We want to encourage him in his giftings, but it's hard when he's just so content on his own. For example, we asked him if he was interested in doing a sport. He thought about it for awhile and said, "tennis or swimming would be nice." (non-group sports which came as no surprise) :tongue_smilie: I guess the only way I can see to bless him or encourage him is to let him be on his own away from his sister who considers him her favorite toy. Beth

My 3rd child (who happens to be in the middle of two extreme extroverted party children) is what I would consider a "loner". He likes to be alone. We are involved in a co-op type situation with recess and him being in a child-care situation with other kids while older brother and mom take a class. He plays mostly by himself. At recess, he wants to play by himself. I've asked him if he wants to play with the other children and just doesn't know how to get into the group, but I really feel like he just wants to be alone. He does play very well with his friends that he does have and likes to be around them, but this is a child who I think prefers his own company (or mine if he can get it). My question is this - this is who God has obviously made him. I'm not concerned about him because when necessary, he can get up in front of a group and give a speech without worry and he can be social when he wants to be, but does anyone have an older child who started out as a loner? I'm just wondering how God uses these type of children. He's the one kid I can't seem to figure out how to steer. Beth

I was watching the approaching storm in my ds 10 to easily go that way. I started a Classical Conversation group in my town so that hopefully by the time he hit 12, there would be the upper level grades around. Even so, he has really uppped his work load. Having a buddy doing the same has really helped. He has someone else to complain with about their work horse moms. Beth

I have a friend who was in a similar situation. The professional woman asked her what she did for a living. She said that she volunteered 30-40 hours a week to helping three children get a quality education. The woman was impressed with her act of service until she said, "Really, I homeschool my kids." Beth

We do every single lesson in Algebra 1/2. It takes ds around 40 minutes to do them. Saxon is designed to have the student do every problem in the exercises. If they don't, you are asking for problems further down the road. Art Reed has a bunch of newsletters that tell how to do Saxon successfully including how much time it should take and why they need to do all the problems. I highly suggest reading some of those articles. Beth

I would not have done that program with a 1st grader. It seems like it is geared toward older children with siblings tagging along. Last year, my 10 year old did that program and I felt it was right at his level. This would be a better anatomy program for a 1st grader. Apologia astronomy is better for that age group. Beth

My friend gets her eyebrows waxed ABOVE the eyebrow. I never knew that's how you keep all those stray hairs above there tamed. I always thought it was below the brow only. My mother was a no makeup low maintenance kind of woman. Now, in my 40's I'm still learning what many women do. For example, I found out that many of my friends get a pedicure in the spring to get rid of the winter/crusty foot. Who knew? Beth

I use it to keep a record of my children's work at the end of the year. It takes up a lot less space. I also use it to make student organizers and a teacher organizer (with pages from donnayoung.org). It just takes up less space. With three ring binders, the pages tend to start coming out toward the end of the year just due to wear. Not so with the proclick pages. I figured it's a one time purchase for almost 20 years of homeschooling that will eventually happen around here. It's a sturdy machine and should hold up. Beth

I have a son who's a natural with math and thinking mathematically. I have him in Saxon 8/7 mostly because I felt he needed more review with concepts (after completing Singapore 6a). As I am looking through the book, he won't hit a new concept until lesson 60 - halfway through the book. He understands what to do, but often makes computational errors (adding/subtracting incorrectly, etc.). They are just careless mistakes and not mistakes of not knowing his facts. Do I just keep him in 8/7 so he can work for more accuracy or switch him to something like Discovering Mathematics? Or, do I bump him up to Saxon 1/2 or Math u See algebra - both of which I have around the house for some odd reason. Beth

AND, I've noticed that ds makes more computational errors when he's doing easy problems vs. complex problems. So far, Saxon 8/7 is very easy for him. I'm wondering if I should just make him plug along to give him time to get accuracy on the little things. Beth