This sounds like a good idea if you can make it work. At work, we've set up our internet access to go through a DNS server that you can block certain domains or sites, and track all usage, etc. It is actually a free service, or you can pay a few dollars a month for fancier features. I don't recall what it is called. Maybe Open DNS or something like that. If you could get someone to "help her set up" her computer and get something like that installed. . .well, it *might* hamper her quest for a while. Then again, it is probably ill advised to try to trick her, so if she doesn't WANT help limiting her access, it is probably a waste of effort on many levels.

(((hugs))) Gambling addiction is rough stuff. Having BTDT with close family members with gambling addiction, the best advice I can offer is that you can't fix it. Join Al-Anon or read some kind of book about enabling/addiction/family issues and try to keep boundaries. You aren't going to be able to stop it. I know it is heartbreaking and incredibly frustrating. Take care of yourself. (((hugs)))

Personally, I'd be mortified, upset. . . and probably overreact. Since dd now knows that you will discover any additional inappropriate viewing AND she had already stopped before discovery, I do not think you need additional "consequences". It's normal curiosity. She had the response I would expect -- arousal, curiousity, and shame. You talked about it and she was open with you. That is hugely awesome. I'd try to just let it go. Monitor carefully in the future. But, I personally think it is best to not punish right now.

Ask your vet about Bayer's warranty for GI parasites. Most (if not all) of the major manufacturers guarantee against ALL GI parasites (even thoe ones they are not labelled for, as a competitive marketing thing.) They will pay for all those follow up fecals and the Drontal! I've seen them pay for hundreds of dollars in working up a GI-sick dog who ended up having parasites. We don't carry Advantage Multi, but it is a decent product and Bayer is a big reputable company. I'd imagine that they warrant as well as the other big players. Call your vet and ask. (This is assuming your dog was on it b4 the positive fecal, and you bought it from your vet. . .) HTH

Well, we are doing Caesar's English now and I find they retain very well . . . But, every single test tests on EVERY SINGLE WORD they've learned so far! CE2, which we start in a couple weeks, also reviews all the CE1 words! So, they learn a set of words one week, and then every week from then to eternity (well, several months), they are tested on them again! Each week, we spend about 5 minutes reviewing the entire to-date word list. . . And the child studies ALL the to-date words when doing drill on Quizlet each week. This seems to be really solidifying the words/roots in their minds. (I think it also helps that MCT picks words that they are likely to encounter in their reading, and that the other MCT books of the same level reinforce the vocab words. . .) I have the first couple VfCR books and plan to do them during the months we aren't doing an MCT vocab book (as the MCT vocab books have just 20 lessons, so we could do one MCT level and one VfCR level in a single school year). Given our success with CE, I plan to replicate the comprehensive to-date quizes each lesson and also the to-date vocab review each week prior to the quiz.

You could also just blend the strawberries up with a bit of sugar and a touch of lemon juice and then strain the mush through a fine strainer. . . And have a spectularly yummy sauce for something chocolate. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Can you just order a huge number of pizzas? The kids would love it. . . I bet if you negotiated a bit, a pizza shop would give you a great price on that many pizzas. Or, you might be able to find a great coupon deal. . . Add chips and a huge green salad for the few healthy kids, and you'd be good to go.

You can throw them into anything else that is tomato based to can or freeze. Sauce, soup, salsa, etc. They tend to be a bit juicier than your typical tomato, but other than that, they'll work pretty much like any other tomato. They're labor intensive if you need to skin them by hand -- not worth the trouble in my book, but if you have a tomato press/mill/seive thingy, they are no more trouble than any other tomato.

If you have a smart phone and can shop rates from your car once you choose a town, I'd have little concern travelling that way. Especially if you have some flexibility about travelling on if the town you want is booked. If you get exhausted/stressed and MUST have a room in Town A betwee 4 & 5 PM and it MUST have a pool . . . well, that'd be more stressful to me. But, if you feel flexible, you'll probably be fine. Especially with a smart phone. :) I want to get a smart phone before the kids and I do our big road trip next summer for exactly this reason. Though I am leaning towards an iPad instead, lol. I've travelled that way cross country many times with no trouble in the day before cell phones. . . and with only a AAA guide (often a few years out of date) for the state I was visiting. . . One time we kept driving an extra few hundred miles b/c there was some massive sporting event or convention or something like that in the city we had planned to stay overnight in (on a cross country move). Obviously, we could have found a room within 50-100 miles if we'd wanted to, but we just kept going to the city we'd planned for the following night. My only hesitation now is . . . are you going to end up really overpaying for the hotel room if you just walk in? I am so accustomed to hotwire/orbitz/etc that I'd feel nervous that I was getting overcharged. . . But, a smart phone would fix that problem! You could also just travel with your laptop and book the next night's room from the last night's room, keeping a day or two ahead of yourself. (Seems to me that all hotels have free WiFi now.) Have fun!

DD13 and I will read Midsummer's Night Dream this year and I purchased the No Fear edition b/c I thought it looked like an awesome idea when I saw it. Did you read the original text aloud and just refer to the modern english as needed? Or, did you read both texts aloud? How? That's awesome that they are all online. I didn't realize that and have bookmarked them for future reference. I have the Lamb book as well and had thought I'd read it aloud to all 3 dc before reading the No Fear edition with my 13 yo.

I think it sounds like a blast! I think it is especially teen-ish if your alley has "cosmic bowling" or something along those lines, on a weekend evening. Our alley has Cosmic Bowling Fri & Sat nights after 8ish. They play music, have disco lights with glow in the dark images on the lanes, etc, black lights, etc. It is a very fun atmosphere, so long as you don't mind the modern rock music. . . Pizza, Pop & Cosmic Bowling is definitely a teen-friendly evening in our circles here in quiet WV. . . Daytime "matinee" bowling is less teen-friendly here since the lanes are mostly taken by little-kid bowling. . . Though I know all adult work parties (our computer consultants!) who had their staff holiday party there on a weekday afternoon. . . We take our staff bowling once or twice a year for pizza, beer, pop, & cosmic bowling for staff parties (their choice without fail, in lieu of a fancy dinner out!) The 20somethings who work for us (college kids and recent grads mostly) always choose bowling as our work parties, and they bring their dates/friends/families and we have a great time. FWIW, we make the staff parties extra fun by having tons of silly prizes. I wrap a few dozen small weird gifts that I have gotten free couponing (nail polish, cleaning supplies, shaving cream, candles, oatmeal, gum, diapers, you name it). . . and it goes. . . "First "One" on a frame gets a prize. .. then a "Two". . . etc . . . "Two spares in a row" "Same score two frames in a row" etc etc. It makes it wild and fun and the prizes are equally distributed among all skill levels. The sillier the prizes the more fun it is, especially if you have a couple gag gifts mixed in with some great ones (chocolate!) HTH

I don't know what these new 7th grade, etc classes are. I glanced at the tables of contents for them and they looked SMALL compared to PreAlg and IntAlg (the two we've used). I'd imagine that 7th grade is lower/more basic than PreAlg. . . You can print off the ToC of each of the courses and compare them side by side. Note that in general, if a lesson has an identical name to another in a different course, the two sections are likely to actually be identical. ;) I like to get a bang for my buck, so I choose the course with more content. <edited to remove my erroneous comment regarding current TW group buy. I reread the email and I had totally misinterpreted it!> HTH

++ You can ignore it. No response required. If you feel supportive, it would be nice to respond with something like (((hugs))) or similar. Or even a private message with the same sentiment. ++ You can hide her from your newsfeed if you don't want to see her posts, i.e., if they upset you. ++ Everyone grieves in their own way. Some people want to talk, be reminded, etc. I don't understand why you feel the need to judge her. Maybe you have some pain that her comments bring up. . . in that case you can hide her from your newsfeed. But, if it isn't that. . . then I would wonder if you really like this person at all. It seems so cruel to judge someone who is grieving.

Oh, my, you're including music lessons? Well, that throws a wrench in it, for sure. I don't budget for the kids b/c I just can't face it. :) That said, we likely spend $1500-$2000/yr on books/curricula for the 3 kids. We spend an additional. . . ohhh. . .. $10,000 or so on music lessons, music, workshops, etc. (4 serious instruments over 3 kids, so that is 4 sets of serious lessons/etc. . . Plus various competitions/workshops/fun stuff like fiddle lessons/etc) Do you see now why I don't want to add it up? And, well, I won't put a $ on how much we've spent on instruments. Dd13 plays the harp, so it is just obscene (more than our cars put together. . .). ;) I like to remind myself that tuition to this great little gifted kids' school where we used to live in NoVA was around 15k-19k per year per kid. Makes me feel like I am not as insane as I probably am to spend what we do on music.

Why don't they put some kind of plasticized coating on these things so that if they break, they don't shatter, and keep the contents contained? It seems like that'd be pretty easy! One more thing to worry about. . .

Too much, lol. I have always kept everything. Just last month I threw out a few things. I am going to go down to the cellar and throw out a bunch more. . . any minute now. I keep meaning to. . . and maybe I will do it now. . .

Our way of doing it. . . a) If you average one exercise (or review) per day in the WkBk, you'll get through a level of SM in a school year pretty easily. I have the child do an extra exercise or two (or more!) if they are crazy easy b/c it is something the child already learned elsewhere or whatever. This allows them to get ahead a bit so if you run into a slow review or a sticky spot you can take an extra day to work on one exercise and/or take a day to review. Daily: Do Text. . . (unless there is no new Text material for the day's exercise.) Do corresponding Exercise in WkBk. ALSO, spend 3-5 minutes doing drill if the child doesn't have total mastery on facts yet. My dc usually drop drill around 4A give or take, but until every fact is super-fast, I keep it in the routine. Personally, I use IP occasionally and do it between levels. I.e., dd just finished the 3B WkBk and she is going to do IP for 3A next, then IP for 3B. Then she'll move on to 4A regular text/wkbk. I don't use any other supplements. Obviously, if you use other supplements regularly, you'll need to add those in to your plan. I just like to count up the total number of exercises and then do a rough count for how much to get done each day in order to get done on my master schedule. So, if you add up all the various tasks and you end up with 150-180, then you need to do one a day. If it is 250, then 1 1/2 a day. . .if 350, then two a day. . . etc This always seems to work out OK for us. :) HTH

Is there some reason you can't order the US Ed. WkBks? They are still avail for sale, so far as I know. I just bought a couple from SonLight a few weeks ago. . .

:party::party::party:

I've never seen a TM or HIG and am half way through SM with my 3rd child. (Older two being SM grads). . . We do just absolutely fine w/o the teacher stuff. They didn't exist 5-9 years ago when many of us veteran SM users began the journey. I guess my oldest starting SM 9 years ago. Obviously, many of us did just fine w/o them! My dc are exceptionally good at math. Reasons? Some is genetic. . .Some is that I love math. Some must be the curricula (and manipulatives) we've used. That said, SM is very intuitive to me, so I suspect that many of the things the HIG & TM tells people to do. . . I already do. :) I can come up with a 10 min exploration based on a simple cartoon in the Text. . . We do these hands on explorations/demonstrations when needed. . . And, I can easily figure out when to drill what facts and we do that. . . I don't need a TM or HIG to tell me those things. So, I think it is probably a personality thing. The TM/HIG stuff might make it so that SM could/would work well for people who might not be able to make it work well without that additional support. But, I was one who didn't need that extra support. Don't worry if you are spending so little time on math. That's a good sign! That's the way it always is here. I think it is a testament to the effective teaching of SM! It is also why dd7 wrapped up 3B today and my 11yo starts full-on Algebra next week after a full year of preAlg. . . If the program is excellent, you can cover a great deal of ground w/o wasting time. My kids spend very modest amounts of time on math but rapidly accelerate. . . SM does not waste your time. It is like MCT in that way. I love it. If your child loves math and you want to spend more time on it, you can do side topics such as oragami stuff, etc. Or, you can accelerate. Or, both. We do all of the above. :) <ETA: We use the Text & the Workbook as our core. I would NOT skip the text in any case. Absolutely. You can search my prior posts for more explanation, as I've said this several times before. . . We use IP irregularly, essentially when I want to slow the child down and/or review something. With my 3rd dd, there is never anything she needs to review b/c I am really good at teaching this stuff now, lol. That said, she is accelerating ever more rapidly, so we are doing 3A & 3B IP over the next couple months as a break between 3B & 4A regular books. If it is really easy, she'll go through it in a couple months. If she has forgotten anything, we'll take extra time to reteach. In my ideal plan, I'd do a set of IP after 3B and again after 6B. My olders have always resisted much IP b/c they want to move ON to new topics, so they each did a book or so of IP a few times, but I didn't insist on completing my "ideal plan" as I really don't see it as essential. I have tried to create a sense of fun and excitement about the IP with my youngest child (after, again, learning from my failure to do that with the olders). . . so, hopefully, she will do my ideal. :) She sure does benefit from the practice I get with the olders!> HTH

I think Voyage would be a nice fit. You only need the Basic package, tho' we're just starting Voyage so I can't say for sure. I haven't seen Magic Lens yet, but I'd imagine it would probably work well as well given what you are saying about your son. I guess it just depends whether you want to push harder on the writing, etc. What are your goals? The vocab would be a lot more intense in ML level, as I think it includes many more stems and words than CE2. If I were you, I'd meditate on the writing books and make your choice based on which one would be most appropriate this year. I'd imagine that either one could work for the grammar, vocab, & poetry if you pick the level according to the writing book. Personally, my 6th & 8th graders will both do Voyage this year (after Town in the Spring), even though I could surely have pushed my 8th grader to ML if I needed/wanted to. I didn't want her to miss any of the great stuff in Voyage. . . and I really want her to focus on short essays this year, as I feel that is such a vital skill. I didn't see a need to push ahead to ML yet. We have time! I also have other writing I want her to work on this year (IEW's Elegant Essay plus some other essays in her literature study. . .) so I am happy that Voyage will be fairly easy for her. . . More time to digest and explore what she is learning about essays.

I am so agitated about this! It's backordered on Amazon and SonLight. I wanted to start Core 7 this week. . . put it off to next wk b/c of the backorder. . . and still I have no idea when this book will reappear! Anyone know what's up and when the vendors will get stock? THANKS!!!!!!!!!!!!

:iagree: Ditching a dog b/c he growls or nips is like ditching a person b/c he scowls or speaks harshly. These are very minor warning signs that can be dealth with effectively and easily now. They should not be ignored, but they are not YET serious problems. If OP ignores them or responds inappropriately, the problems could obviously escalate, which would be sad on many levels. Dogs communicate, and they are complex beings. I don't suggest keeping a dog that poses a known danger. BITING is different from NIPPING. There are effective ways to teach a dog to behave the way you want him to. Personally, I would have no problem knowing how to teach the dog not to do what he is doing (growling, nipping, being food possessive) and have dealt with similar behaviors in virtually every pet I've lived with. . . Because nearly all dogs will try out these kinds of behaviors at some point in life. . .when they face a toddler intruding on their turf, or when they hit a certain age, or when a new pet enters the home, or whatever. If you respond correctly, the experiment will be short lived and peace will reign. It's like being surprised or outraged when a toddler has a tantrum or a young child lies. . . These are problem behaviors but are NORMAL behaviors. You deal. You teach. They learn. No harm is done. Since the OP is obviously unaware of effective ways to teach the dog not to do what he is doing, and/or uncomfortable with doing so on her own, I suggest getting a behaviorist's help. It will be quick, easy, and the OP will not only learn how to solve this behavior issue but will also likely learn skills to solve any future problems with this dog or the next dog.

Nipping is not biting. Nipping is a warning. The dog is doing a lot of warning. Call your vet and ask for a referral to a behaviorist (NOT A TRAINER) and within one or two meetings and some simple behavior modification at home, your dog will be just fine. Meanwhile, you can keep your dog crated or in the yard or whatever when your toddler is loose and you are not on hand to immediatel supervise. HTH

I have two freezers in addition to the kitchen fridge/freezer. We buy a half-cow about once a year, so one freezer can be full of beef at certain times of the year. So, really, there is one other freezer for OAMC stuff and stockpile. Generally, I stockpile ice cream, popsicles, butter, cheese, meats, sausages/bacon/etc, OAMC stuff, froz veggies, froz fruits, etc.