Well, I'm probably no help. I spent years sending gifts etc. to dysfunctional family members (including mom). The issues all came to a head a few years ago and I went no contact. It just seemed absurd and hypocritical to continue to send cards and gifts expressing a sentiment I didn't feel. The fact that I didn't get any reciprocation wasn't helping either. That was when I decided that it wasn't serving any purpose for the children to see me continually being discounted by those family members. It was more important for me to let them see me choosing to spend my time with those family members that really count.

SAT 10-administered privately by a state certified teacher.

Sure you can! Just make a generic Wilton Buttercream recipe but add in the cocoa powder until you get the taste you like. Personally, I prefer a whipped chocolate ganache but I've made chocolate Wilton Buttercream before when I want a more stable frosting. :)

:thumbup: AWESOME!!! Thanks!!!

You have every right to be proud!!! Your daughter is an example of the kind of people we need in the medical profession!! :hurray::hurray::hurray:

Yale has a fantastic Roman Architecture opencourse. We're working through that one. It is awesome! http://oyc.yale.edu/history-of-art/roman-architecture Open courseware is like Christmas for me. I love all the free classes we can take.

http://www.ucopenaccess.org/ This site has high school courses but I used them with my middle schoolers. http://www.freelyeducate.com/ Go through the archives and you'll find a lot of great free courses!

Oh boy! Based on that history, I'd have no problem whatsoever calling off any trips and I think MIL needs to know it is completely because of the way she has treated the children. I wouldn't trust her around any of them without being there to monitor. MIL made her bed, let her sleep in it. You're doing the right thing and your 12 yr old will admire you for it.

Oh my! Mine is only in my word processing. Have you tried googling the problem? Whenever my mac gets weird, I have good luck with that.

Pressing the command key and u at the same time turn the underlining on and off for me on my mac. You have to hold the command key down then press u while it is still down. Maybe you have overridden that and it isn't working for you?? Hope you can get it fixed. That would drive me nuts. :(

Have you tried the 'command + u' ?

Since mine are in middle and high school, we do a full load year round. We do make time for the fun stuff though and time off for vacations and holidays.

I noticed that hslaunch.com and teacherspayteachers.com have some nice resources too. :)

Nice!!! Thank you!! :001_smile:

We did both and you should start with the middle school one for a middle schooler. Educacion Espanola (ms) starts at the beginning and is a full program. The elementary one is a full program but just geared to younger viewers. You can buy the teacher guide and workbooks at the University site but Unitedstreaming offers the same thing as a pdf if you go to the supplemental materials section...free! :)

:lurk5: This idea sounds interesting! We're starting our Year of Shakespeare in mid September so I'm rounding up ideas and making plans. Here are some of the things I've found so far: We're using No-Fear Shakespeare and Nesbit's Beautiful Stories From Shakespeare. Nesbit's is free on Project Gutenberg. I found a great interactive site for Romeo and Juliet: http://www.canadianshakespeares.ca/folio/folio.html We're going to make the Globe Theater from Paper Toys: http://www.papertoys.com/globe.htm Shakespeare Timeline: http://shakespeare.palomar.edu/timeline/timeline.htm BBC Animated Tales: http://www.squidoo.com/shakespeare-animated-tales

I feel so sad for your 12 yr old. Teen years are hard enough without having to deal with grandmothers like his. Being excluded like that has got to hurt a lot. :( Honestly, I would cancel the visit and reimburse MIL for any $$ for tickets. It is all or nothing in our house and nobody plays favorites. MIL can handle the rejection better than a 12 yr old. ;)

:iagree:

Try shaking some kitty food/treats. This always brings our fur-babies running out of their secret places. :)

No secretarial duties here. It is more the opposite. I have my dh doing my errands. :D

Ran across this link recently: http://www.marinebiology.org/science.htm

We did the Kitchen Chemistry and hope to soon continue with Advanced Kitchen Chemistry. We also want to do the Japanese Popular Culture course at some point this next year. We love open courseware!!! Adding: The way I use the classes that has worked best for me is to consolidate the online syllabus into a word file. I match up the syllabus info with the text reading and any video lectures. Including links in the document helps too. That way it is easier to keep track of what needs to be done without having to jump around in the site. I also include any add-ons to that document. Once I have the lessons all matched up, I can work that into a schedule. Hope this helps!

I rough plan on my calendar program in the computer so that I can stagger projects/units. For example, I want to do Shakespeare but I want to do it after LOTR so on my rough I pop in in after we are sched to finish LOTR. It just helps to keep from jamming in too much all at once. I have a lot I want to do so this just keeps me sane. Then, every week I plan a detailed daily schedule from that rough schedule. That is when I scour the net etc and add in all my extras, get my copies and folders in order, and do whatever else needs to be done so that things go smoothly during the week. I can see the week at a glance and can tweek it if we have a day that needs more or less going on. I have started putting clickable links on my weekly schedules so that during the week I can keep it in the background of our TV/computer and we can instantly pull up videos, text or interactives as we go along (we have a link from the computer to the big tv).

We're non-religious yet have studied the religions. We read a wide variety of subject matter and do not exclude the HP type books. Our viewpoint is that it is important to understand where others are coming from and respect their beliefs even if we do not agree. We've been part of religious and secular homeschool groups and the only rules I've given to my children is to respect others beliefs, do not engage in any debates about it, and be honest about our beliefs. I try very hard to avoid any stereotypes/lables and their application to either our family or to families that have a strong religion.

That looks kinda like a Black Racer. We see those all the time in FL.