My dh works 3 hrs away. He lives with family near where he works. About 3 months a year he comes home every weekend then he will have a month or so holiday and the rest of the year he can be away up to 6 weeks at a time. Its not that he gets no time off during that time but it may just be a day a week and its not worth the journey home. It has always been like that since we had kids. He went away to work 2 days after our daughter was born for a few weeks. He was touring then which was a bit harder. I would say its killed our relationship. Although we get on we have no connection as such. We live separate lives. He works and does his thing and I do all the kids stuff. When he is here for a month in the summer it takes about a 2 weeks for us to get used to being around each other again. I am a naturally solitary person so it suits me except that I carry all the stress of the decision making for the kids, he has kind of opted out of that. And I get very tired with no-one to share the load.

I really love Green acre designs pocket diapers, they are fab. But there are a lot of new one size pocket diapers come out in the last year so maybe check those out. My kids are skinny and tall so I always find getting 2 part diapers to fit hard. I ended up making so much with my daughter. Maybe Fuzzi Bunz pockets or Happy Heinys those two are pretty popular. I used to sell diapers but in the 2 years since I stopped so many new ones have come out. I do think that pockets are the easiest, just hassle free. All in ones have their limitations because of the drying time. We never got on with prefolds they are so huge for really minimal absorbency and on my skinny kids are a dreadful fit. I do love wool wraps too and used them for a while over tots bots a night up to about 6 months.

We just treat Kale like cabbage. But there are different Kales, my mum always grows the curly kale that is as tough as old boots and needs a lot of cooking but I prefer the more tender ones like russian red. You can use it as a salad leaf if its small baby leaves. Its often in bagged salads.

could you try double boxing-box within a box and then wrap the books inside in a thick polythene mailing bag (can be bought on ebay). Try the thickest boxes you can get. Triple wall maybe? Would imagine that would survive most things.

Another thing is that if she likes opera but can't or doesn't want to be a singer there are tons of related jobs in Theatres/Opera houses. My DH and I have both done opera Stage Management.

What about the Dr who classic books that relate to the old series, there a huge number of them, like these and these Dr who was definitely more educational and there wasn't talk about the sexuality of characters as far as I am aware or any of the relationship stuff.

My friend who is an ex reception & year 1 teacher here in England had a look at the MEP Yr 1 curriculum that we were using and said it was a fair bit harder in a lot of areas than she has ever taught. I think my impression of MEP is that the Yr 1 could be suitable for 5 yrs to 7 yr olds depending upon the child. So maybe seeing Yr 1 of MEP as suitable for 1st grade is more accurate than seeing it as K curriculum. I know my friend's dd who has done Reception and half of yr 1 in school has found yr 1 MEP challenging beyond the first few lessons. I think she was a fairly average student at school maths wise. I don't think YR1 MEP represents what is currently taught in English schools in YR1, I am not sure if it is different in Wales and Scotland.

I have an astigmatism and am short sighted. Without glasses on the astigmatism tends to make me trip on pavement edges and when i read I can tend to skip lines or re read the same line again because its not straight to me. I always wear glasses although I can get by without them. My vision is getting better with age. I don't think an astigmatism is much to worry about. I know a lot of people with them.

I have organised a home education group for a few years and It really winds me up when people are late or just don't show. Its no biggy when people come in within the first 20 minutes or so, kids can make you late, especially young ones and it doesn't take much to get caught in a traffic snarl up. Its the people who wander in 1 to 2 hours late in a 3 hour session in a venue we are are paying for, to do pre planned activities that they have agreed to do, that really seriously annoy me. Its not only that they disturb everyone else by running late, its that they get out of the group set up. More often than not its the same people who don't pay their contribution to hall hire because they have forgotten their wallet that week, and the same people who bow out early, and get out of clear up. Because we are a really small community it can make continuing group activities really hard. I have spoken to other people who run home ed groups and heard similar things. I think its really common to have these issues, doesn't make it any easier. i have got to a point that I just don't understand why people bother coming so late. We have a couple of big families, one with 6 kids under 8 and one with 4 kids under 8 and they manage to be on time so why can't the others. Its just a total different mind set. I just think its common courtesy to turn up on time to a scheduled group session. I am starting a new Art group this week so will be interesting to see how many families turn up on time.

I think my just 6 yr old will end up like this. Clothes size wize She is a 3-4 yrs round and a 8 yrs in length. I have started making a lot of clothes for her to get them a good fit. Could you do this or get a local seamstress to make some clothes for your dd. You could have complete say over modesty then. I found a lot of the boden kids clothes to be much longer and skinnier in fit than they say they are, but not sure if this translates into their teen sizes.

Here in the UK you barely ever see top loaders. Every one I know has front loaders. We have a bosch excell wasing machine and its fab, a real workhorse, hasn't had anything wrong with it since we bought it about 6 years ago. We do occasionally get that damp smell. When that happens I just run a 90 degree wash and clean the pump (there is a drain thing on the front) and clean the seal every now and then. We also put a wash through with citricidal occasionally.

its a Maths curriculum. MEP

You could try looking through the scheme of work and see if you can find his level. This link is for years 1-6.

I think my inclination would be to encourage a menstual cup over tampons, at any age its a learning curve no matter what you choose so may as well get it over and done with. I personally found disposable menstrual products really stressful. The reusable options are a lot easier in my opinion. There is a really good livejournal site with lots of info about reusables, lots of teens have posted on it. http://community.livejournal.com/menstrual_cups/tag/age

Ours have done the same. Half eaten the paper. They have pupated (2 days ago) attached to whats left. 3 managed to cling on to it. 2 have fallen off. I think next time I will switch them to the mesh half grown, feed them nettles and let them pupate in the mesh house thing.

We found the lesson plans aren't really explaining how to do the sheets except in a few cases but were extra exercises. Lots of verbal things and things that involve manipulatives.

We use the Squigle toothpastes most of the time, they are very mild. I got squigle for my son originally as he has some dental problems but they suit our whole family pretty well. Not adverse to a spot of colgate if we run out and I haven't mail ordered any. But would buy a kids version too as the adults ones are so strong.

I love chuck too. Can't wait for season 3 to start in the UK which won't be long hopefully. Its just starting to be advertised but with no times. Just little teasers.

My son has reflex anoxic seizures. Although it doesn't sound exactly the same as your daughter there are similarities. However there are tons of similar conditions. My son has had blue and white seizures in the past, sometimes he will he be blue starting around the mouth and sometimes very pale and white. These days its mostly white Seizures/blackouts or near misses where he will not quite black out but be near and sort of obviously dizzy. It happens after pain, shock extreme anger touching strange textures. The vagus nerve is over sensitive. The website of STARS (the syncope trust) may be of use to you. There are lots of these dizzy/fainting/blackout type conditions. I have noticed that the people on the forum have all kinds of conditions that I hadn't heard of before. may help you with a diagnosis. Anyway the web addresses are here Stars us site The uk site (I think its easier to use) It may be worth reading the section about POTs as this has headaches, temperature control problems, dizzyness, blackouts and blurred vision as symptoms. The sites have lots of case studies too.

we are about 2 1/2 weeks from finishing SOTW1. We tend to read a chapter a week, reading the sections as we fancy over that week. We do some activities from the Activity guide and some colouring pages but not every week. We have done about half the questions, some times we just have a conversation about what we have read. We don't do the map work but aim to with the next volume. We tend to add in activities from the step into series and read those books. Also we add in other books and documentaries if I can find them. Some areas really caught our imagination and we spent a long time on Egypt. All in all it will have taken about 10months to do that one volume.

I have a sandisk sansa fuze, its fantastic. Its easy to use. Can just drop stuff over from windows media player and have a massive battery life. Personally very happy and have had no problems.

Is this any use? Its oxfam's education website and has lots of info on chains of supply of common food items. Profit, that kind of thing. There is a section on trade too.

I think its a great quick reference and jumping off point for research but the fact pages can be changed by the public is the worrying thing. I know there are several actors who have wikipedia pages and who have had problems with basic facts about them being changed by people with a grudge. There is this alternative started by the same people which may be of more use in the future http://en.citizendium.org

I have been told lots of times that flipping words and letters up to 7 is very normal, all that d,p, b, confusion too.

I do know one family who seem to be carrying some non home educating guilt. The mother at least seems to be totally pro home education and very negative of the education her kids are getting in school. I know they have made a decision not to home educate based upon lifestyle, they like the money made from both parents working and the break they get from the kids. The mum does seem really confused and guilty, like she wants one life and is living another. They do get in involved around the edges of our home education community and mutual friends have recently begun to home educate too so that can't be easy. I soften my views with non home educators as it is easy to offend. But I do meet a lot of people who never actually even realise its legal to home educate and they are often open to very deep conversations and its a real eye opener for them.