[Wedding Costs - let's chat, please.]

My sister got married last year. My mom opted to purchase the table linens from an online company. It was so much less expensive then renting and she sold them to a friend whose son was getting married. The only issue with that was we had to iron and transport them ourselves. It took some trial and error to figure out how to do it without making them super wrinkly. But it saved them several thousand dollars. I can ask her which site we used if you’d like.

 

 

[Math club/circle that's easy to host?]

Crazy 8’s is a math club that has free materials and free kit.

[Spanish curriculum for 3rd grade]

Honestly the best Spanish we’ve done is the Duolingo app. My 4th grader acxwnt is perfect and he knows a ton of Spanish after only 15 minutes 4 days a week.

[Favorite co-op classes for k-1?]

I"m teaching a full day of K-1 at our homeschool resource center this upcoming year. I have some plans already, but I'm always curious what outsourced classes everyones kids have taken, and what you've liked or disliked about them. 

[Book club book suggestions?]

We read pretty much anything. 

[Book club book suggestions?]

It's my turn to host book club again and I have no idea what book I'd like us to read. Usually I have an idea, but this time I"m stumped.

Anyone read a good book lately?

[Thinking through math and need help...]

Honestly I tried doing multiple chapters of Math Mammoth at once, for the same reason and it didn’t work out well. It was frustrating and in the end I switched programs entirely. 

[Can you help me brainstorm some ideas that tick all these boxes please?]

Rock climbing!

[Costco, Eagle Scout cakes & more]

We did a desert bar for DS’s Eagle COH. I made brownies, cookies, and rice krispy treats (with red, white, and blue sprinkles). I also bought cupcakes from Smart and Final. The bakery lady air brushed the frosting red, white, and blue and stuck flags in them. It turned out really great and everyone liked having different options. 

[I am not over-reacting. I am not! (foot stomping temper tantrum ahead)]

Formers pastors wife here. No, no and no. Her response was over the top. You need to involve someone over her. She shouldn’t be teaching Sunday classes if she’s that easy to snap at a parent.

[Crazy house development]

Interesting development! Keep us posted. 

[LLATL?]

I have literally looked at it every other year and it never quite seems to fit the bill for us. We switched to Christian LIght Language arts last year and it's been fantastic as an All-in One program. My son likes it, and it actually gets done. 

[Getting Driver's License...pay for own insurance?]

We pay for insurance for our teen and college attending drivers. If insurance goes up because of tickets or accidents, they pay the difference. We don't have the big funds to contribute to college, so we help every other way we can.

[Independent curriculum for 2nd, 3rd and 4th grade]

I have my 4th grader doing CLE Language Arts and Math. It has been so great, it’s a solid foundation and he likes it. Most importantly, it gets done!

[What is your elementary aged kids sleep schedule?]

My teen goes to her room at 10, lights out by 10:30.

My 10 year old goes to his room at 8, lights out by 8:30.

[Boy Scout with Downs Syndrome article]

There’s way more to this story. BSA has very well written and clearly defined guidelines for special needs scouts. They have a road to Eagle, but it involves following the rules, which these parents haven’t done. There is no “family prepared the Eagle projectâ€. An Eagle project is a scouts alone. That article also said that he didn’t follow all of the requirements for the merit badges, which also isn’t allowed. Like I said, BSA has a clearly defined policy for SN scouts, but the parents have to be the ones who get the scout on that track, starting with having him officially designated as a SN scout.

[Anyone ever send a kid to school just for one grading period? UPDATED]

ITA with a previous poster. I wouldn’t send her unless you are okay with her wanting to continue next year. School isn’t an extra curricular class or activity to jump in and out of when you feel like it.

[Why most welfare "fraud" might not be fraud....vent]

That happened to us only when they finally DID remove my older two from Medi-Cal, they ALSO removed my youngest, who qualifies through the developmental disabilities waiver. Even though every correspondence I had sent Medi-Cal had it bolded and underlined to keep her on it.

 

Medi-Cal never notified us that they had removed our children and I only found out when CA Children's Services cut off my youngest's eligibility since she qualifies for CCS based on having Medi-Cal. Because we have primary insurance, Medi-Cal only picks up the co-pays and after we hit our out-of-pocket max for the year, nothing gets billed to Medi-Cal. So I had no idea that Medi-Cal had mistakenly removed my DD in June until CCS cut her off in October. And then because of all the red tape, it took  until April to get her back on Medi-Cal (they did at least retroactively make her eligible from October) :glare:

 

 

See I think my issue could have to with CCS too. One of my kids qualifies for CCS because of his birth defect, but we always had such great insurance, we literally never had to use it. I've heard similar stories from other people. It's so difficult!!

[Why most welfare "fraud" might not be fraud....vent]

Four years ago when my husband was unemployed, I applied for Medi-Cal for my kids. He got a job six months later with insurance and I have spent the last 3 1/2 years trying to get them off Medi-Cal. It really is quite ridiculous the llengths I have gone to try and remove them from the system with no success.

[BJU Life Science with Mrs. Gillenwater]

I thought only k-6 lessons were 15 min or less? I seem to remember 7th grade science being much longer. It’s been a long time since we’ve done it though.

 

Don’t they have a sale on the single download classes every once in a while? I watched a sample of 5th science and really liked it..

[My 9-year-old has terrible handwriting]

I really love Handwriting without tears for kids with messy handwriting. It made a huge difference for my kids.

[should I give up on having my kids do household chores?]

Gosh, no way give up. So you are supposed to all of the cleaning on your own? That's ridiculous. Families help each other. That's just how it works. Everyone helps. end of story. 

[Night weaning needs to happen]

When I might weaned, I told my toddlers that “nummies were sleeping†and offered a cup of water. They cried, but it was over in a few days.

[Comparing ELTL (barefoot meandering), Good & Beautiful, what else?]

The Good and Beautiful was a bust here. It was too disjointed and the younger grades don’t have a teachers manual. I tossed it after about 2 weeks.

[Trying to work up courage for first mammogram]

I haven’t done it yet either. My b***sts are usually tender anyways, darn perimenopause. I can’t imagine having them squished. I think I’d literally cry. I’m thinking of doing thermography instead.