If you want to try stripper, it HAS to be warm out. Stripper will NOT activate in a cool / cold environment. Be sure to read the bottle for temperature and believe what it says. Stripper is great if you have nooks and cranies and detail in the wood like trim, etc.

You hit the nail on the head. We lived in CT for 5 years before moving to TX where fences are status quo. Yes, the perception is uninviting to have a fence, regardless the reason. I will have to figure something out for sure. Hmmm....

Okay, we are moving out of the burbs to beautiful Connecticut. I have ALWAYS and I mean ALWAYS had fences around my yards, growing up AND now that I am raising kiddos. I have an 8yo, 6yo, and 14mo. The houses up there don't have fences! Okay, this is no big deal to, probably, half of you. I am used to being able to let my kids play out back while I casually observe from the kitchen while making lunch and dinner. They've been confined by a fence. It was no big deal. (I swear I am not a neglectful mother - I was keeping an eye on them while cooking). Okay, now the fence is gone. Um... what do I do? The joy of CT is months and months of beautiful weather for playing outside. I can't be out there every minute. Do the kids just learn boundaries? Do I need to build a fence or play area? I really am not as dumb as I sound right now, I promise. :lol:

YES - at the very least, put water in the bottom to keep the sugars from burning to the side of your crockpot PLUS it puts moisture into the ham to make it extra yummy. Adding brown sugar, ginger ale, all a matter of preference - I never do. I was raised in pig country (Virginia) and I like my meat smoked so I only add water to my crockpot. *MY* favorite part, keep the bone afterwards (if it you bought a ham with a bone) put it in cheese cloth with the extra fat, skin, etc. Put it in a pot and fill it with water, a whole onion cut up (if you don't want onion pieces in your soup, put the onion inside the cheese cloth), toss in some pepper (not much), maybe celery and bring to a boil. Let it simmer all night. The next day pull and pitch the cheese cloth, add the left over ham cut up and beans (I like navy or great northern, my mom likes lima), maybe some diced carrots and you have one yummy soup the next day. Okay, so I am a little frugle and believe in using it all up. My hubby and our checkbook loves it! :)

Behr, no question. It is usually Consumer Reports favorite, though I haven't checked this year's rating. I have had trouble with other paints running, not being true to color, fading, blah, blah, blah. I am never disappointed with Behr. In fact, I just sold my 5 year old house that we painted when we first moved in. All of my touch up paint spots blended perfectly because the paint never faded in my SUPER UBER sunny house (windows everywhere).

Actually, there are only 52 episodes so the link you posted is everything. Now, if you know of other adored kid series like this or Liberty Kids to help us out, by all means, let's share!! Sharing is fun! I like sharing. I need a piece of chocolate now.... but I'm not sharing my chocolate. Lol. :lol:

okay, I've tried twice to space out the titles and topics and the extra spaces keep getting pulled out. Argh. I guess we'll just have to deal. At least the info is there. The format is episode number, title, topic.

We managed to record every Magic School Bus episode on our DVR so I took the time to list each episode and the topic the episode teaches about so I can tie the episodes in with lessons. Everyone has been so helpful to me so I wanted to return the favor. Here is the list: 1 Gets Lost in Space Solar System 2 For Lunch Digestive System 3 Inside Ralphie Immune System 4 Gets Eaten Food Chain 5 Hops Home Frogs 6 Meets the Rot Squad Rotting Objects 7 All Dried Up Desert Plants and Animals 8 In the Haunted House Sound / Spooky 9 Get Ready Set Dough Baking 10 Plays Ball Friction 11 Goes to Seed Plant Growth 12 Gets Ants in its Pants Ant hills 13 Kicks up a Storm Weather 14 Blows its Top Volcanos 15 Flexes Its Muscles Body Mechanics 16 The Busasaurus Dinosaurs 17 Going Batty Bats 18 Butterfly and the Bog Beast Butterflies 19 Wet All Over Water 20 In a Pickle Microbes 21 Revving Up Engines 22 Taking Flight Flying 23 Getting Energized Energy 32 Shows and Tells Archaeology 33 Makes a Rainbow Color 34 Goes Upstream Salmon Migration 35 Works Out Blood Circulation 36 Gets Planted Photosynthesis 37 In the Rainforest Rainforest 38 Rocks and Rolls Water and Erosion 40 Meets Molly Cule Molicules 41 Cracks a Yolk Chicken Eggs 42 Goes to Mussel Beach Tides 43 Goes on Air Air Pressure 44 Gets Swamped Wetlands 45 Goes Cellular Cells 46 Sees Stars Stars 47 Gains Weight Gravity 48 Makes a Stink Smells 50 Gets Programmed Computer Programming 51 Gets Charged Fix Ms.Frizz's Doorbell (Electricity?) 52 In the City City Zoo 53 Takes a Dive Treasure map / Coral Reef Hol Holiday Special Recycling

Okay, you are awesome! Here I was ready to go buy one more thing for school. I love freebie and sensible ideas. Thanks!

Any particular brand/composer/titles that you liked more than others?

Okay, supposedly grammar kids thrive on memorizing and reciting facts. Does this include math facts or just the weird stuff? My dd is 8yo and has never shown a natural ability to memorize- though she can solve puzzles and manipulate stuff in her head pretty well. As a result, she still has to pause and think for basic math facts, to spite the fact she multiplies with carrying and divides with remainders. I've never understood how multiplying and dividing comes easier to her than addition and subtraction. We are boarding the classical train in 3rd grade. Memorization of lists and such is a cornerstone. So, any suggestions on helping her with this agonizing task of memorization?

I agree. it was a big help for me to understand the respect thing. it helped me understand cycles in marriage and how to recognize them and break out of the bad ones.

pencils a sharpener for the pencils (mine kept breaking the tips to the mechanical pencils) erasers lined paper printer paper ink 3 ringed binder, composition books, and or spirals depending on how you intend to organize your stuff crayons, colored pencils, and or markers for drawing, notebooking, art, something always needs coloring it seems and I have a 3rd, 1st and baby scissors, glue, stapler, basic stuff index cards (I like 4x6) dry erase board dry erase markers dry erase eraser/spray/something a good library card I love the chocolate idea I also swear by my trampoline, scooters, bikes, and Wii Outdoor and Wii Fit to burn off excess energy. Good luck! I hope our lists help.

I like the idea of a homebaked good - but not a homebaked good. I suggest a meal to make the evening he is dropping off or picking up the Yukon easier on his family. Auto repairs are a pain if for no other reason than it takes 2 vehicles to drop off or pick up 1. That means his wife will be involved in the solution as well which makes it tougher for someone to cook dinner. Bringing them a dinner, that your ds helped make (and maybe that is the part he pays for), with the note shows remorse and respect for their time.

4 months BUT we, like other posters, made the house move in ready. We followed everything our agent said: 1. Make sure there are stunning photos of your house online - at least a dozen. 2. All paint touched up. 3. Declutter, even your beloved bookshelves - pack away what you can. 4. Put extra furniture in a storage unit, friend's garage, where ever you can find a place. 5. Update the light fixtures - no brass chandeliers, etc. 6. Plant some flowers in the front. 7. No personal pictures. You want them to imagine their family in the house, not yours. This was a tough one for me. In the end, our realtors evaluated what WAS selling in our market by looking at photos of homes sold in the past 60 days. 10 houses sold and every single one had granite countertops (suburban Houston). We bit the bullet, spent $5 K to put in new counters, sink, cooktop, and faucets (I had a HUGE kitchen - most kitchens would cost half that from Lowes, grade A granite). The house sold 2 days after we put in the counters, full cash offer. I suggest you ask your agent to look at what IS selling. What are the trends? What do the houses look like? I know how mentally difficult it was for us to drop $6K on preparing the house to sell (lighting, paint, countertops, clean carpets, etc) but in the end, my family doesn't have to be apart when my dh goes to his next job (we are part of the NASA cut backs - yippee). In the end, $6K was well worth it to keep our family together. You may not have to spend NEARLY as much, and maybe you do, but again, worth it in the end. I wish you luck. I understand your fears. May I pray for you and your family? We have our own cross to bear but I won't bore you with our details. :)

My dad does woodworking for retirement fun and income. I am uber impressed. The table looks great!

I have been a devout Homeschool Tracker Plus user for 5 years. And for 5 years, I have had a lot of textbook style curriculum which has made planning inside HST+ a cakewalk. Now I have grown more ecletic, classical, CM... I have a beautifully written instructors guide for Elemental Science Biology that I just bought last night (whoo hoo!). I have to plan out SOTW1 when the stuff starts arriving tomorrow (again, whoo hoo!). Math, spelling/dictation, R&S grammar, etc would continue to be easy to schedule through HST+. But transferring over Elemental Science and entering everything for SOTW1... yikes. And before I continue, I should mention my kids like receiving an assignment sheet on Monday morning to get an idea of what their week looks like, what has to be accomplished each day, etc. For better or worse, that is what we've done this past year. How do you guys plan your year, lessons, assignments, etc.? I am not overly concerned with grades... anymore. Lol. Yes, I'm letting go... a little. :) Ideas?

:ditto:

Honestly, I am not worrying about a timeline until 2nd cycle. I've read too many articles about young ones not really "getting" timelines. I figure we are learning enough at that age: reading, writing, math facts, manners, blah, blah, blah. I don't share to sound critical but sometimes I think it is easier to give myself a break when I know others have given themselves a break. Ultimately, I wish you luck finding what you are looking for. ;)

Okay, now I have a minute. The east coast is where I grew up with my history lovin' mama. :) So, here are the must sees: Williamsburg Fredericksburg Mt.Vernon Monticello Arlington National Cemetary is humbling Lurray Caverns Washington DC (the whole mall - museums, not shopping :D) Philly Boston NYC (it is all about the musems, broadway shows, etc) We are waiting to hear about a job in Connecticut so let's just say I have been thinking about the best of the best of the east coast a lot. Enjoy your trip!! :driving:

You are correct. I researched this a lot when my dd was younger. You explained what I learned very well. :001_smile:

What about skipping that year of BJU Science and doing the year after it? Or not use a curriculum - let HIM explore science on his own this year. Just come up with some requirements (so many reports, so many labs, whatever makes sense to you). Sometimes the greatest lesson we can teach is self directed learning. :) good luck.

We don't have schedules as much as we have routines, especially since my dd struggles with some ADD issues and we have a 1yo. Planning? Oh heavens, yes! I do lesson plans for each subject and pop them into HST+ (yes, I am one of those :D). But HST+ makes it super easy to reschedule forwards and backwards for when life happens, we need more time, they decide to do several lessons in a day, etc. This helps me make sure we are achieving our academic goals for the year. I do love the other poster's idea to only do 6 weeks of copying at a time. I need to remember that one. Thanks! I hope this helps?

Check out www.lakeshorelearning.com http://www.hometrainingtools.com/Default.asp?camid=&bhcd2=1273011833 and www.rainbowresource.com There are TONS of do it yourself kid science kits. Have fun shopping!

We have been using Dictation Day by Day, an old spelling primer from the '20s (free online if you google it). Dictation, in itself, is the only spelling "program" that has worked with my dd. She would pass all of her tests with flying colors but 2 weeks later, she didn't remember a thing. We started Spelling Wisdom just before the end of the year - same premise as Dictation Day by Day. I really like it, but the words became more challenging faster than DDbD. We will attack it again in the fall after the move and life settling back down. :) I have a dear friend on the board that has only used Spelling Wisdom and she and her ds both enjoy it. Overall, I would say dictation is the way to go. Spelling Wisdom is great because it fills the child's mind with quality statements instead of silliness like "Suzy gave her grandmother a new hat." Okay, so the passages were more challenging by the end of the year, but I did like how they eased into everything which my dd needed. HTH.