Can I just say I'm happy to be in Canada when it comes to the gun ownership laws. There are people here with registered firearms primarily for hunting. (My dad had a few) I was attempting to find stats online that are not slanted one way or another but I think this issue is one where stats get interpreted in different ways. Here is a link to an article which states that the US does not have the highest gun violence rate compared to all contries but it does exceed most other industrialized counties. http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2012/jul/23/facebook-posts/the-us-is-no-in-gun-violence-is-it/ I can't see that arming citizens so that they can do the job of trained police would necessarily help. It won't deterr those who are mentally unstable and may increase accidental shootings. I would think that tighter control on at least the assault-type rifles would at least make it a little more difficult for an unstable individual to do as much damage in so little time. (People do kill with knifes, blow torches, cars, etc but they are not usually successful in killing so many in so short a time.)

I was doing some investigating on the Once A Month site. It does look a bit overwhelming. I would love to be able to do a big cook/freeze day (maybe not a month's worth) and put some things aside for them as well as for my own family. Of course, I always have issues finding recipes for my own family as they are sooooo picky. My boys are still primarily in the stage of mac and cheese, chicken fingers, pizza (most veggies are shunned) and my husband doesn't like peas or mushrooms. I think I'll continue looking over the recipes on the Once A Month site but if anyone else has suggestions/recipes that they really like (that maybe I could coax my kids to eat...and send off to the outlaws) .let me know.

My fil just came home from heart surgery and we aren't sure how capable my mil will be of keeping him fed. *long story* My initial thought was that I could pay to go to one of these places that provides you with recipes/ingredients/containers and allows you to prepare freezer meals. It sounds fun but very expensive. I'm wondering if there is a website that anyone knows of that could be of assistance with recipes and directions for healthy freezer meals. I've never done this before and would appreciate any assistance that you could provide.

I forgot to mention that we also watched all of the Psych seasons as a family. It should be noted however that we did preview the episodes first as there is some sexual stuff in there. It is a really great show. Big Bang has a bit too much of this for our youngest (age 11), actually our oldest (age 14,16) haven't really been cleared to watch it. (Maybe we are a bit too strict :glare: )

We also loved Eureka (own the all), Top Gear (own many of them) and Robin Hood. We did watch Alphas and we really enjoy it as a family as well. My older two love to watch Castle, Monk and Lie 2 Me.

We watch Once and Warehouse as a family. We are enjoying Revolution at the moment. Apart from these, we are a real BBC family and love Dr Who, Sherlock and the old Primeval. Unfortunately, many of the shows we enjoy end up getting cancelled after two or three seasons. We liked Oucasts until it disappeared.

I don't know if this has been reported yet. I didn't see it anywhere but sorry if this is a repeat report. In trying to access the site I am given the warning message that it is using an invalid security certificate. Apart from that......no problems! :hurray: Thanks for the great work!

We have it very easy here in Ontario. I just send in an intention to homeschool my son each year. That's it. No other reports are required.

Yeah pretty slow here too. At times it loads quickly but other time extremely slow. Hopefully it's just one of those kinks that will be worked out soon. Apart from that I really like it so far.

We are also a little annoyed here with the dwindling offerings for the Wii system. (We owned the GameCube previously). I would also encourage you to take a look at the WiiU especially if it will play all of the Wii games as well.

I agree with others who said No. I remember having a psychology professor who went into prisons and worked with child sex offenders. He did not believe that they could be "cured" of their attraction to children. As someone stated before, it is possible that a sex offender could live on my street now but I wouldn't knowingly move in next to one.

Love the ood!! :hurray:

I didn't know that was what these were called. They have some at Stitches here that are animal heads with paws on the end of the scarf.

Last year, my dd who was 15 walked with me and her brothers (13,10) but did not trick or treat. This year, I believe she is opting to stay home with me, hand out candy and watch a chick flick together. My ds14 is a little hesitant to TorT this year as he is very tall and someone called him sir last year. :lol: We have told him he can go. They all have great costumes. Our biggest annoyance with the teens is when they do not come in costume or are very impolite. We turn all of our lights off at about 8:30 and don't answer the door after that to avoid the late treaters.

Ugh...yup my ds11 (grade 6) essentially doesn't like doing school work. He would much rather go for a walk (which we do every morning), go shopping, go on a field trip..... Once I get him to work, he has no issues with it. He does get frustrated very easily. At the moment, he is enjoying writing Nanowrimo and he actually doesn't mind IEW writing (first time trying it this year). I see him gaining confidence in this area. The subject he dislikes the most is french.

I also use Singapore. I pulled one of my sons out in grade 7 and we started back in book 5 and sped on to Discovery 1B before he started back to high school. He hasn't had math yet (2nd term) so I can't say how he is doing. I did have to supplement a bit to make sure everything was covered (i.e. Pythagorean Theorem). I also had a book from Chapters which was for Grade 8 just to make sure nothing was missed. He actually ended up learning some of the math that my daughter didn't learn until grade 9. My other son who came home last year (grade 5) is finishing up Singapore level 5 probably in the next month and will then go on to 6 and the new 7,8. We use the California editions of the Singapore books. I should let you know that my kids where both very strong in math and it is my favourite subject so this curriculum was a great fit for us.

Ahhh I am sooo jealous!! We have stayed at the Polynesian around 5 times. We have never really had a room that we didn't like.:party: Enjoy!

What was the one with the cards with pipes on them? Was it waterworks or something like that?

I'm sorry! I agree with others that you may want to give it a little while to decide on the bc issue. My last pregnancy ended due to some horrible circumstances. Unfortunately, my husband had just had a vas. before I found out I was pregnant. Although at the time we were both very heartbroken and glad that it wouldn't happen again, there were many times after when we wished that we were able to have one more child. Take time and take care of yourself! :grouphug:

I agree wholeheartedly with the immediate and consistent correction of parents. Although I agree that saying please and thankyou is not the be all and end all of good behaviour, I do believe that being respectful and kind to other people, as well as respecting elders and rules, is something important to model for children. With respect to schooling, one of the annoyances I had was that often the "squeeky wheel" gets the attention. There have been other times, for example, when the skipping ropes are thrown into a pile and kids told to run and grab one. Invariably, the polite kids end up with some old broken rope while the pushy, agressive ones get the good ropes. This is just an example but it is very frustrating when you try to teach your kids to take turns, not push and shove, etc...this behaviour is not always rewarded in the school system. It has been interesting having an older son who has just started back to ps in gr 9. He has been given group projects with kids who say they will do the work and don't, or kids who have actually taken his work and presented it as their own. The frustration is that there are no consequences for this and in one instance, his teacher actually blamed him saying that he was the "leader" (note that the rest of the group just pointed to him after the fact and said that he was) and should have made them work. My mil says that he needs to learn these things as he hasn't had to deal with them being homeschooled. I think to myself ....great so he needs to learn to be lazier, lie, and cheat. Don't forget to incorporate that into your lesson plans at home!:glare: Sorry for going a bit off topic...I think I needed to get that off my chest. Anyway, I guess I believe that homeschooling provides a better opportunity to encourage and reward good behaviour.

I remember playing a game which I believe was called Cooties where you built little plastic bugs. Ants in the Pants Don't Break the Ice There was another game that was like a long plastic runway with two sides and two elastics at the top. You have these pieces like marble shooters that you hit down one lane, it rebounds to the other and you see where you can get the marble piece to stop for points. (Ugh...hard to explain) It may have been called Rebound.

I think parenting and modelling has alot to do with it. We say "please" and "thank you" all of the time. We have even been known to thank the people at fast-food restaurants on our way out - after a meal. My daughter's teachers (she was in PS) used to comment that she was the only kid who said "Thanks" as she was leaving the classroom. Our kids have been taught to address adults as Mr and Mrs. They treated "stupid" as a bad word for a very long time (teens now so it does get read in books etc). If they were acting "out of line" we would be sure to walk over and intervene (not just say "stop doing that" and then ignore it). My kids aren't perfect but in general are very polite and respectful of others.

My dh agrees with this completely. Tennant's goodbye always gets tears from my daughter and I but dh just gets annoyed. He really hates the "I don't want to go" line. dh says it was Tennant's choice to leave the show so that is just a cheap shot at pulling heart strings. (I think he's just upset about David T leaving :tongue_smilie: )

My favourite things..... Singapore - I found I actually improved on Word problems using their methods. IEW (new this year and I actually feel like we are getting it done)

I made these fudge wreaths once for Christmas gifts. I put nuts in one part of it, marshmallows in another, etc... It was pretty tasty. I don't know it somehow you could use the recipe to make mini-wreaths. http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/rachael-ray/five-minute-fudge-wreath-recipe/index.html