:iagree: What you want is babydoll style. It is two piece, and the top is not clingy. Great camouflage. :D

I think Regina is really just shocked when Emma mentions Jefferson because Emma and Snow got out of Jefferson's house and made it back to town to court in time. Regina expected that if Snow used the skeleton key to get out of her jail cell, Snow would not have escaped Jefferson after he captured her. I am guessing that Jefferson never revealed their failed plan to Regina, so she didn't know that Snow and Emma met Jefferson, so it came as quite a surprise to her that they did know him.

LCII is being phased out; the recommended sequence (which was completed after the most recent edition of TWTM) is PL, Latina Christiana I, then the four Forms (First Form Latin, Second Form, etc.) and then the student should be ready for Henle II. The four Forms are designed for younger students; they cover the content of Henle I but at a slower pace. My oldest has done PL, LCI, and is currently in FFL, and with the DVD's we have found it to be very much an "open and go" program, and definitely easy to use by someone (such as I) who has no prior Latin experience.

I had hyperemesis gravidarum while pregnant with all three of my kids. With my first child, I didn't have any responsibilities so I just lay on the couch for several months. With my second pregnancy, my doctor prescribed me phenergan, which didn't stop the vomiting...it just put me on a sleep/wake to vomit/sleep/wake to vomit cycle that made me miserable and unable to care for my first baby, so I just tossed my prescription and suffered through it. With my youngest child, it was even more severe. After losing 6 lbs in 48 hours I was given an IV of zofran, and a prescription for it to start taking the next day. I experienced one of the rarer side effects (extreme jitters, to the point where I literally couldn't sleep and was moving about because I was shaking so hard) until the zofran wore off, so my OB told me not to fill the prescription and gave me a prescription for a sea sickness patch, which WORKED! No side effects, I only vomited once or twice a day, and I could eat again! I just kept reapplying the sea sickness patch behind my ear (it works for 3 days) until I was a couple weeks into the second trimester and I had gone for days without vomiting. I have never met anyone else who has used that sea sickness patch for morning sickness, and I am surprised because it worked really, really well. I would think it would be the first thing that an OB would try, because there were no side effects, there is no pill to swallow, and it didn't ever wear off - I didn't have to wait for it to take effect every morning. (Ok, I just googled it and apparently there just haven't been any studies on its use during pregancy, so until studies have been done OB's are recommended to prescribe what is known to be safe.)

My two older kids are signed up to do it this year for the first time, and the registration confirmation includes the statement that papers will be scored immediately with presentations of (local) awards done following the testing. It may be different by testing site; check your registration confirmation to see if they included a schedule.

It would be a blessing if you would pray for them and ask them what their prayer needs are. Everyone brings their prayer needs to the pastor and his wife, but very few reciprocate. My husband does not mind at all praying for the members of his congregation, but it really touches him when one of the church members offers to pray for him. Invite them into your home for dinner; so often they are expected to show hospitality to the members of the congregation, but so very few show any hospitality back. Hmm, not do...there is a can of worms! :lol: Don't hold the pastor, his wife, or their children to higher standards than you would any other member of the congregation. They are human, too! Their children will throw tantrums, the pastor's wife will shriek like a harpy at them, and the pastor just might cuss if he hits his thumb with a hammer. Don't ask the pastor for money when you are having money problems; in many churches the pastor is not the treasurer and doesn't have access to the church's money so any money he gives you will be from his own pocket (if your church does not have elders or deacons who are in charge of the money, then disregard the previous). Don't assume that your pastor has all kinds of free time during the week to help you load your u-haul/give your kids a ride somewhere/help install your new appliance/fix your leaky faucet/etc. If he offers to help you, that's fine, but he does not sit around all week waiting to do odd jobs for the congregation (not to mention that there are 50 other families also trying to fill up his time with their odd jobs as well). Don't bring every little problem in the church to him; bring those problems to the people who can fix them. If there is a problem with the church bulletin, tell the person who does them; if there is a problem with the building, tell the person in charge of maintenance; if Suzy is dressing like a floozy, tell Suzy; if the music is too loud/quiet/modern/old, tell the person in charge of worship; if someone upsets you, go to that person. And above all, please do not call during dinner time unless it is a *true* life and death emergency. Respect for their family time is one of the greatest gifts you can give them.

:iagree: Both of my accelerated kiddos were preemies, so they hit their developmental milestones months later than normal. I wouldn't rely on that as an indicator of giftedness (neither of mine are PG, though, so that may be a factor). For me I began to suspect it when they were between the ages of 4-5, when their skills shot past their peers. Other indications were my oldest being able to hold a conversation at 13 mos. (although my youngest didn't say a word until almost 3yo), and my youngest's memories of events that happened when he was less than 2yo (spontaneously mentioned, clear, accurate memories). All of the normal stuff...read to her, play lots of different types of music, talk to her like a person (not just baby talk), provide toys that can be manipulated, no TV (it is not interactive, so it is no more educational than blinking Christmas tree lights)...all of these things will help any baby develop and grow, regardless of giftedness.

Every single ear infection my son has had has only had one symptom...almost total loss of hearing. That's it. No fever, no pain, nothing else. I am questioned every single time I bring him in about *why* I would think he has an ear infection when his temp is normal and he has no pain. I absolutely despise the eye-rolls and condescending smiles I get when I say that he has an ear infection, yet they don't see the typical symptoms so they think I am imagining things or overreacting. Then they take a peek in his ear to humor me and their jaw drops. Yes, his ear drum is so swollen from the infection that it can't work, leaving him temporarily deaf in that ear. Duh.

Yes, it was only during the summer for students on the day shift. I was there in the fall, so we started out with PT in the early AM and after a couple months it was switched to afternoons after class. I thought it quite funny when I was stationed at Ft. Hood that no one there seemed to take the heat seriously...there were no "flags" dictating how much outdoor activity was safe. If someone got a bee in their bonnet and thought that the unit had too many PT test failures and wanted everyone to do PT in the afternoon as well, no one thought that it would be a safety issue.

My middle child was like this for years before we found out that red 40 food dye caused her insomnia. We cut it out of her diet completely (I read the ingredients of everything before it ever goes on her plate!) and she now sleeps all night, every night. It would be worth a try. It is in some of the most unbelievable foods; just because a food isn't red doesn't mean that it doesn't have red 40 in it. For our daughter it was like a light switch...she fell asleep right after going to bed and slept through the night the very first night after we cut out red 40. Just to make sure that it was the red 40 we tested her...we gave her a popsicle with it one evening, and she couldn't fall asleep that night...I gave her some benadryl and it didn't make a difference, she still was up until after 1AM! ETA: We thought that it was anxiety issues with her for a long time. It really, really upset her that she couldn't sleep and she would come out of her room with all sorts of excuses and fears, and cry for hours.

I agree with the other posters; the only safe place that I have is another pastor's wife. I have tried joining yahoo and facebook groups for pastors' wives, but they all end up being either cliquish or just a place to vent about your job or your kids or your neighbor. Little Nyssa, this other pastor's wife and I have discussed having a get-together for other pastors' wives in our area, but we don't think that would work. She and I don't really fit in with the others. In the 6+ years that my husband has been pastoring I have met quite a few of them, and I am definitely not made from the same mold...there is no parking space at my church labeled for the "first lady," I don't drive a Lexus, and I don't own clothes as dressy as they wear. My husband has been mocked to his face for not showing the prosperity that a "true pastor" would have, and their wives wouldn't deign to speak to me. The few pastors' wives that are not like that are more than a bit appalled that I home school; there is such strong loyalty to the public school system among the clergy in this town that it isn't funny.

I am glad someone else remembers doing this!!! My husband always thought I was making it up - in all his years in the Army he NEVER did PT at 3:30 AM.

Monterey is definitely awesome! The language school is very hard work, but if you have to go on a 7 mile run, it might as well be down Cannery Row or along the beach! Although I would recommend joining the Navy or the Air Force...they had better barracks and MAIDS to clean them. I kid you not. Same story with the Air Force at Goodfellow AFB. Options like going into MI aren't even going to be discussed until after the ASVAB is taken. But if the score is high enough, it is a good option. You are right, there is a VERY common misconception about MI soldiers, that they have a "cushy" job and aren't true soldiers. It isn't just officers, though. Many other MOS's feel the same way. I used to laugh whenever my husband (he was a mechanic in the Army) would accuse me of having the "cushy" job, because whenever we were in the field doing training, he would stay at the base camp with the hot food and port-a-potties, and I would be the one way out on the forward line for days at a time eating MRE's and sleeping on the hood of my vehicle. The only advice I have for the OP is for your son to give serious consideration to the Navy or the Air Force. They both have easier physical fitness tests, easier basic training, better standards of living (and a substandard living allowance when the minimum standard of living is not met, meaning when they are living in equivalents of Army or Marine quarters), and the Air Force at least has shorter deployments. My BIL just got out of the Air Force, and in the time that many of my acquaintances had three year-long deployments to Iraq, he and his unit had two six-month deployments to Quatar.

Delaware outlaws spanking :ohmy: Then I will be avoiding the state of Delaware from now on, because it would be awful to encounter an outlaw who intended to spank me!! Thank you SO much for the warning!

I usually start the phonics a few weeks before the reading so that I don't run into this problem. By the time we encounter the words that are intended as sight words, my children already know the phonics rules and can read them properly. If you were to pause the reading program until you had progressed further in the phonics, I don't see why you would need to add something else in the interim. Phonics is the basis of reading, so there is nothing wrong with working on it alone for a while. It will definitely help give your child confidence in her reading when you pick it back up and she can do it, which is an added bonus. :001_smile:

:iagree:I have heard that TT walks the student through the problems that they miss, so that would be my preference in this situation. I am using R&S with my oldest, and I have noticed that they stopped giving answers to some review questions during the teaching time. It definitely keeps me on my toes!

My parents were married in the early 70's and "lover" was their pet name for each other. They didn't use it outside of the house much, but I heard it enough growing up. :ack2: (I use the past tense because they are now divorced. Now I have to hear my dad call my step-mom "lover," which really makes me want to :ack2:)

:iagree: Unless a judge declared my friend an unfit parent, then it would not be my place to decide that they shouldn't home school. And if it were just a case of them doing a poor job at home schooling, then I doubt they would take my advice...if they really wanted to do a better job home schooling, then they already would be; nothing I could say would change that.

It came up when I googled the ISBN; it had a funky title on the ebay auction page so it might not have come up during a search directly on ebay. :grouphug: Don't beat yourself up over it. I don't even belong on this board, I am just sitting here with nothing to do (well, except wash the supper dishes, but who wants to do that :tongue_smilie:) and I like to google things, so I thought I would give it a try. Are you looking for any used textbooks? :D

Here is a copy for you on ebay. It says in the description that it is the TE. :001_smile:

We did a cleaning "boot camp" this summer. Every morning after breakfast we all started cleaning every room in the house until the entire house was satisfactory. Every morning. Five days per week. I discovered that it took at least two hours of hard work for the four of us (three kids and I) to get the house clean - some days as long as four hours. I do not have two extra hours to work on housework every day during the school year, which is why my house was always messy! And that time did not include cooking meals or doing cleanup after meals. This was just tidying every room and keeping bathrooms and floors acceptable. Eventually the kids figured out that if they didn't drop food on the floors during a meal, they didn't have to sweep as often, and if they put things away after using them, they didn't have to come back later and put the things away. They figured out that it was actually more work to pick something up and put it where it belonged than to put it where it belonged while it was still in their hands when they were done with it - it was less effort to drop the dirty clothes directly into the basket than to drop them on the floor and then pick them up later and put them in the basket. They also realized that I meant business, and when I told them to clean a room they had to clean it, and whining just made the job take longer - it never got them out of doing the job. By the end of the summer we were down to about half an hour daily, if they kept on cleaning up after themselves as they went about their day (and kept the whining about cleaning to a minimum). So besides the usual tidy before meals (common areas must be tidy before food is set on the table) and wash table/counters and sweep kitchen after meals, we do a quick clean of the entire house most days of the week and it doesn't take too long. I have six areas that need to be cleaned (3 bedrooms, the school room, the front bathroom, and the dining room) and three children, so they each clean two areas. They separate and each clean their assigned area, and I go behind them and vacuum/sweep/mop floors. Extra stuff (i.e. washing walls around the kitchen table) is done when we have extra time, once every week or so. Occasionally we will get very busy and the house will get out of hand, so we take several hours and get it back in shape. It takes practice and consistency to get your house clean and to stay on a cleaning schedule. Oh, and cleaning supplies. Get everything you need and put it in a carrier or bucket or something, anything to make the supplies handy.

We are on week 6-ish...I don't remember exactly when we started. The only thing we changed here was math for my 3rd grader...we went from R&S 3 all the way back to MUS Alpha, and it is going very well, so far. Not a change, but it took a little time to find our groove with the MP items. We discovered that we aren't the type that feels it is important to memorize lots of facts and question/answer sets about every subject under the sun (just poetry, Latin, and Bible verses), so that helped streamline things a bit. Apparently my 5th grader's brain switched from grammar stage to logic stage this week. Out of the blue she is asking questions (deep questions, not just why the sky is blue) and discussing things. For example, there was a question in her FMOR study guide about veto power as used by the American government (as in, how is veto power used by the government). She started asking questions about the legislative system and comparing it to what she had read about the tribunes in her chapter that day. That turned into a very in-depth discussion that lasted for about 30 minutes! :blink: We are having discussions about all sorts of stuff, and it is no longer just regurgitating information when she answers questions. She is actually evaluating information and pondering things.

I think 10+ kids is a big family. Less than that doesn't really phase me or seem very overwhelmingly large. Could be because I grew up in a large family. :D

I wrote a very similar post about my 8yo daughter recently. We switched to MUS for the reasons that you stated, and it is working wonderfully. We began back in Alpha, because she had a very shaky grasp on the basics (like place value, and that a number +1 is just the next number). The instructor in the videos explains math in a way that my daughter understands, and the manipulatives are helping her understand the concepts. And as a bonus, there are very few problems on each page, so she doesn't look at a page of math problems and get very overwhelmed. :001_smile:

R&S teaches the rules for when they are open or closed syllables. Yes, the beginning reading sounds are short vowels, but then they cover the long vowel sound along with the rules for why they have a long vowel sound. "Ba" is only pronounced /bay/ in specific conditions. Since "ba" by itself does not have any of those specific conditions satisfied when it is all by itself (i.e. followed by a consonant and a silent e, or as part of an open syllable), they teach it with the short vowel sound. But yes, I am sure you would be fine if you just skipped the first few lessons and started with the full words. :001_smile: And R&S will give him the lots and lots and lots of practice!