FWIW, I know of a family whose son (about 13 at the time) was diagnosed with Tourette's. His mother had him tested for allergies. He was allergic to corn. When she removed all traces of corn from his diet, his symptoms went away. If he ate even a tiny bit, they came back.

Having done 5 years of in-hospital medical transcription and 6 years of at-home medical transcription, I would say, in general, that medical transcription is not the place to go. Many, many of us have lost our jobs to computer software that transcribes what the doctor says, which is then edited by a human. I lost my job to a computer in 2010 - the year my husband was on unemployment for nearly the entire year! There are transcription jobs available, but they are becoming fewer with each passing year. I have read that it saved five particular hospitals a total of seven million dollars per year to use computers and editors rather than transcriptionists. I would recommend editing over transcribing, but this, too, has its downfalls. The local hospital transcription dept was dissolved and moved to eScription software. Some of the transcriptionists hired on with the new company as editors for the hospital's account, figuring it would be fairly simple because they were already familiar with the hospital's work. The report is the workload is NEVER consistent, and they work all day to get the required number of lines done, which, if the work had been steadily available, would have taken them half of the time. They sit around at home waiting for work rather than getting it done in a certain chunk of time and having their lives free the rest of the time. This, of course, likely does not happen in all companies, just the few I have heard about personally. My neighbor went through a full-year, several thousand-dollar medical transcription course which guaranteed her a job when she was done if she passed. I encouraged her to do so because at the time, I was making $35-$100 per hour transcribing - really. She finished the course, and they have not found her a job yet after several years. The market just flopped. Another poster mentioned general transcription, and I do not know anything about that - I am speaking only about medical transcription.

:lurk5:

I make and sell quilts in an Etsy shop - wall hangings, table runners, lap quilts and some bed quilts - in addition to pillow covers. It pays for my addiction to fabric and some of our school books. My shop name is BusyHandsQuilts.

We are more the git-er-done philosophy and encourage fun play afterwards. Not that we don't have fun doing school, but the focus is more on getting through it and moving on. It's just the way we have always been. When we do hands-on, they are into it for 1-2 weeks and then ready to get down to the bones of school and getting it done and moving onto free play time. For example, when I bought science kits to go along with their texts, they did the first few experiments and then no longer wanted to do them. When I bought hands-on craft kits for history, they did one or two and then shelved it.

I have had two dreams within the last ten days that I was pregnant and didn't know it. In the first dream I was six months pregnant before I found out. This is so unrealistic because I am so short there is no way I could hide a pregnancy for more than 2-3 months. In the second dream I am not sure how far along I was. In the dreams my cycles apparently kept coming even though I was pregnant. One can hope dreams like this come true, as I'd take more kids in a heartbeat! So what does this all mean? I have NO idea!

Turnips are the secret sweetness in stew without adding sugar. I just recently learned this from my mother.

:lurk5:

I feel best and don't get hungry before lunch on days that I have a smoothie for breakfast. I use orange juice, spinach, banana and 1 tsp of Bio-10 (a pre-digested food product).

Maybe she has it in for your DH and it has a laxative in it. :D

Let your kids have it. They'll likely really enjoy making things with it. Get some books at the library for ideas on what they can make.

* A Kindle * An AccuQuilt Go! with accessories *Dansko shoes * New color printer

BJU Spanish 1 on DVD teaches the J sound for "yo" and for the double l in "ella", both of which are different than the three years of Spanish I took in high school. I don't know yet if the Spanish 2 and 3 teachers do this or not. We are loving BJU Spanish DVDs after having tried the big R. My kids say it is a much easier way to learn it and comment that they are learning so many practical things right from the start. They like it much better than R even though BJU is a 45-minute class five days a week! I am doing the class together with my 10th and 8th graders. I have my own workbook and take quizzes and tests right along with them! Kinda fun!

I have very recently heard excellent reports for using the herb Black Raspberry in treating cancer, specifically bladder cancer is mentioned. You can find info online about it. It is getting more difficult to find the product since it is becoming more known as an anti-cancer herb.

My first recommendation would be to consign them in a store, if you have one in your area. Even if you get less for them, you don't have to pay fees or ship anything. Craigslist? Then eBay - the eBay and Paypal fees are quite high. Group like items together. I am more likely to buy a group of things than a single item. For example, If you have a bunch of tights, sell them as a set. If you have a group that coordinates well together, sell them as a set. Be very descriptive because if the info isn't there, chances are your listing will be skipped over. If it is size S, then give a number size, as well. List measurements of chest and length. As a general rule, sell only in-season items. Use Priority Mail shipping as supplies are free to you, and you can get a lot into a Flat-Rate Envelope or Box. You can print postage from home and mail the packages from your mail box. The postman will also come to your porch to pick up boxes that won't fit in the mail box. I have a laminated sign I put in the mail box when I need the mailman to come to my porch for a package. Offer a shipping refund if the system charges more than $1 above actual shipping.

I have not used Odyssey, so I can't answer to that. We have used BJU Science grades 1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 & Biology on DVD and love it. It is the one subject I have pretty much set in stone for the rest of our homeschooling years. The videos are top-notch and add a depth to the textbooks that only a real science teacher could add. BJU Science is very anti-evolution. It teaches scientific reasoning for why evolution can't be true, rather than just saying evolution is incorrect. If this bothers you, be warned there is that underlying current throughout.

It might be something physical. I'd try a chiropractor who uses kinesiology. It might also be a nutritional deficiency. Here is a thread on babies/children and chiropractic. http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=336097

If you want to use the same stitch throughout, the hdc (half-double crochet) is very nice. I find the dc (double crochet) looks like I was just in a hurry to get something done whereas the hdc has a bit more character.

A good remedy for fighting any illness is to take a warm bath and add 1-2 cups of apple cider vinegar. It draws toxins out through your skin. Our kids voluntarily take an apple cider bath when they are feeling grumpy or emotionally out of sorts, and it always helps.

:bigear:

You can find lots of free lapbooks at http://www.homeschoolshare.com/Lapbooks_at_HSS.php but that doesn't satisfy your requirement for it being open and go. You'd have to plan when to do what.

Our plan is to use BJU Science DVDs for the remainder of our homeschooling years - which is from grades 5 up. We are currently using BJU DVDs for Biology, 8th Space & Earth, and Grade 5. They really enjoy their classes, and they are getting a lot more info than just reading the textbook. DS is preparing for the CLEP Biology exam using this class (which will earn him college credit). If you can't use the DVDs for both grades, I would recommend using the DVDs for the older grades for sure. They are very interesting and truly college prep. FWIW, a fellow homeschooling family used BJU DVDs for many classes, and when their son was in college, his comment was that college was easier than BJU.

We have done some of each (MFW ECC and HOD CTG). We found the HOD schedule harder to keep up with because if we got behind in a subject, it was hard to keep track of where we were because the schedule just keeps going since it is so scheduled out. MFW's schedule has more flexibility because there are boxes you fill in. We used some of HOD CtG, and I would think that would be too much for an 8 y/o unless she was very advanced. I wonder if HOD would be easier to use at the older levels if it had been used at the younger levels so a family would already be used to its less flexible schedule, but I didn't use lower years so I'll really don't know.

I posted about learning multiplication facts on my blog: http://heartsforhomeschooling.blogspot.com/2011/10/learning-multiplication-facts-in-seven.html

There are lots of videos on You Tube that do a great job of teaching beginners. I'd start there!