I agree... but I've sent a message to the admin asking exactly this question, and never received a response. Then later I got anon neg rep reading... "Don't dis the board, man!"--but it disappeared when the whole thread disappeared. I do think there needs to be some more communication and openness from the moderator. Do we even know who the moderator is? I know SWB posts occasionally, but I'd be very surpised if she does it herself. I assume it's an employee who wishes to remain anonymous, and is not interested in replying to questions. But I think that a "this is me, these are the rules as I see them" post would be very helpful and take away a bit of the Big Brother feel of the new boards, at least for me.

Congratulations! I can't wait... glad to know that LP is a good way to go!

Bump again. Because it's so much fun!

Anyone else finish watching the semi finals? Only one homeschooler made it to the finals. I almost cried when Matthew went out... so sad. It was cute listening to my 6 year old chanting "Go, Tia!" Can't wait for tonight!

Well... some cheeses like Brie or Camenbert are supposed to have moldy rinds... they call them "bloomy". Those I eat. Blue cheeses obviously have mold all the way through. You eat those. Hard cheeses I cut off the mold, soft cheeses are then spoiled (like chevre with mold--bad).

"How do you know that he loves you?" I can't have been the only one who immediately heard the "Enchanted" song in my head, right? I agree with what others have said. Gifted kids generally have asynchronous development... so you just have to pay attention and assess each area separately. While testing or placement have value, I think that generally you just have to spend a lot of time with your child and get a "sense" of where they are. Some curricula are also better at allowing kids to self-pace than others. I find it difficult to not have my son live up to my expectations rather than his abilities. My desires are almost always way under what he can happily do.

Also... If they ALL have to go back, then doesn't Walt have to go too? I like that they introduced him again. They pretty much had to remove him from the show when he hit puberty because only a few months passed on the show, but he aged 4 years. Now that "time has passed", his appearance isn't a problem any more. Hopefully he won't keep growing like a weed and will be in the next couple of seasons!

The dates in San Diego are the dates of the Comicon... You know, America's biggest pop culture convention! They probably will have a panel (with the actors, directors, etc) and maybe even some preview material. http://www.comic-con.org/ Of course, well over 100,000 people go now, and you're going to have to wait in line for a looooong time to get into a hot panel like Lost--and they'll probably take only the first 5,000 or something, since the biggest meeting rooms only hold about that.

Bump! It's today!

Have you tried this? You have to find your region and click on it, then there are updated gas prices.. high and low. http://www.gasbuddy.com/

Is there a huge difference in editions? There seem to be 2000, 2001, 2005, 2007 and 2008 editions out there. Does it matter? Will resources for one work for all?

OK, so I'm a big spelling geek. I love to watch this and play along. And root for the homeschoolers. Don't forget to set your DVR! Broadcast Times: The Semifinals air live on ESPN from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. EDT on Friday, May 30. The Championship Finals air live on ABC from 8:00 to 10:00 p.m. EDT on Friday, May 30. Check your local listings for other time zones.

My ds 6 has the following chores: Morning: Don't wake us up before 7:30 (key at our house!), Make bed, Brush teeth, Get dressed, Do school Afternoon: Quiet time, pick up room (usually during quiet time), feed cats, silent reading time, karate (either behave in class or practice at home) Evening: Pick up toys (in living areas), clear dinner table, brush teeth, take bath, go to bed (and stay there!) Weekly: Dust, help fold laundry Always: Help when asked

Cd players, and they do have Nintendo Ds (handheld) that they can use if they have earned tickets to spend for screen time. They can earn up to 3 tickets a day by completing thier morning/afternoon/evening responsibilities, each one good for 1/2 hour of screen time. Today they have none... :glare:

This is why I won't join as well. I don't think a constitutional amendment against gay marriage has anything to do with homeschooling, and don't want my money going to support thier extraneous political activities. It would be wonderful if there was a similar group that focused only homeschooling issues, but there isn't.

Tell me about this, please. How complex/frequent are the experiments? Also, anyone figured out how to get a teacher's edition?

Sorry... wanted info, but I decided to post a new thread.

Been there and done that... there's a lot of trains around here, ya know? I will retire to my corner quickly before someone starts remembering "Kay's terrible posts of years gone by..." Search engines are the enemies of forgiveness. :tongue_smilie:

Thank you for the apology. Agreeing to disagree is fine, it was just the name calling I was upset about. All is well.

Think about it this way: Someone you know walks up to you in a public place and says loudly (so that all your mutual friends hear), "You are such a whiner!" I would feel hurt. Someone else might just be angry (another way of expressing hurt, really). Someone else might not react at all. Still, these reactions would be well within the realm of psychologically normal.

Ok.. I'll buy that. I was involved in other threads, and the OP was aimed straight at them. She even posted an announcement in one that she was staring a new thread about the "whining". http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?p=261640#poststop Of course I think everyone has a right to thier own opinion, I just don't like threads being started just to be mean. Peace would be great.

OP says that: "I feel that all the hullabaloo over this little contest has given homeschoolers a bad rep. It's reminded me of the time my daughter got invited to a girl's birthday party, and my little boy whined because he wasn't invited, too..." "But, I don't understand why the adults in this most recent scenario couldn't "get it"." "They didn't realize that many homeschoolers were a bunch of whiners. I imagine that, if they had originally set up the contest to include homeschoolers, but made the contingency that the winners had to give their prizes away, there would have been an uproar! What? My kid is the best writer in the country, and you want him to give his well-deserved prize to the local public school!?!?! Outrageous! Well, I never!" That pretty clearly is aimed at everyone who responded to Subway as "whiners". Even if they included homeschoolers, we (those who wrote letters) would want prizes, she speculates. You've said repeatedly that you agree with OP, then tried to back away from that statement when people got hurt. I suspect you and OP are using some hyperbole, but to sling arrows and then say "I wasn't insulting YOU" is either disingenuous or tremendously self-unaware. Words are real, in person or on the internet. I would never get up in front of a group of people that I cared about IRL (church, say) and characterize them as a bunch of whiners--or even complain about "others" who just happened to share the same beliefs and behaviors, "but I don't mean YOU, of course". Or sit quietly aside and clap as someone else said such a thing. I believe that true community is fostered only when we hold ourselves to same standards of behavior. I'm not mad, I don't give neg rep, nor will I for any reason. I just feel hurt to be called a "whiner" in public here in my internet home away from home. I'm sure I"ll recover soon, but I felt that it was important to speak out because I suspect there are others with hurt feelings who won't respond, they'll just slink off and feel bad.

I think complex schedules work best if everyone is part of the team. I work full time (mostly out, but I'm flexible), my dh works part time (mostly at home, 1 day out), and we share schooling duties. He does most of the teaching, I do all the planning/purchasing/etc, we design our life so that family time is the priority. I know that not all jobs are flexible, and that makes life difficult. The mental change that I had to make was that my work/home/school life is one. There is no "separate" time for anything. I might schedule a meeting for the morning, come home for family lunch, teach a lesson, do some work on the computer and make work phone calls, take the kids to karate, come home for family dinner, have a meeting in the evening and work after the kids are asleep. Contrariwise, my dh would then be home in the morning doing school, make the lunch, take some time to write while we are eating and doing school and at karate, make the dinner and put the kids to bed, then hop on the other computer and work at night. Right now dh's at work, I've got the kids for the afternoon, and we'll switch tonight. Of course, I'm using my valuable down time to cruise the boards--but I'm working in another window. I do try to protect some whole days where we can be together all day... we usually get at least 3 a week as a family... but I may make calls in the middle of that, answer some mail, etc. Our schedules are different every single day but are kids are never without one of us, and still have both of us at home more than most kids. It takes planning and commitment, and it's crazy untraditional. Just like homeschooling.

Please post how it goes... we've come close in the past to doing this, and I keep wanting to take the plunge.

Lots of public parks here, but school ground are locked and off-limits. We have 2 close parks in walking distance (the better one now closed for environmental clean-up), and a dozen we can easily drive to. Love those parks, particularly since we don't have a yard.