I've actually always done best on ebay...sold 4 big things there this week.

We love Atelier art.

$1 summer movies, play in kids area of the library/ read special books there, free summer bowling (can't think of the site offhand), maybe go to a park she likes, get ice cream, summer craft from michaels (usually half off by now), public pool?

Elemental science felt very repetitive to us. Read, narrate, read, narrate. Experiments did not always feel like they fit. Plus I had to gather all supplies. Not bad, just not for us. We did not enjoy it.

I would purposely avoid any homeschool coop that did fundraising. Ugh. I hate it enough in scouts and AHG. And I really haven't seen my kids learn much of anything from doing it there. The one we are in has a flat $35 annual fee. Then there are some other things we pay during the year.

I check at the beginning of the year how many of pages of mental math there are and divide that by the number of weeks we are doing school. Generally it works out to 1-2 pages of mental math a week. If it's a harder page we may spread one page out over two days. I say the problem to them and they give me the answer. They can look at it while I'm reading if it helps them.

Well I actually rent from Lowes or Home Depot and have been really satisfied. I think the brand has been Bissell. It costs $25 for 24 hours. $3 extra dollars for the stair/upholstery attachment. The cleaner is a bit pricey (I want to say $20) but it lasts me for at least 3 cleanings so I usually just spend $28 to do my house. It works out cheaper for me than having people out and I feel like my carpets look great afterwards.

If you add up the return value amounts, will it add up to the total you paid? If yes, I'd return it all, get all my money back, and tell them they had lost my business due to their return policy. If it didn't add up to what I paid them....well...they'd get an earful!

I used it a ton. I would not have gotten the same results without it.

Almost positive they are the Enjoy Life cookies. Same flavors, same ingredients, much better price. Taste exactly the same.

Did not work for us here. Listening to music CDs of them combined with flash master and xtra math finally did.

Just echoing others... Chewy necklaces and pencil toppers, lots of gum (find a couple she loves), headphones for books, exercise ball to sit on, thinking putty, mini trampoline, etc...

Definitely report. Way out of line.

Lyme is so so frustrating. You have to spend so much money, virtually nothing is covered, and treatment generally makes you worse first. Definitely worth crying over! I have lyme, bartonella, babesia, and erlichea. I am in pretty good shape now. Keep pressing on, keep using a great LLMD. I pray your daughter has a wonderful day despite it all and that all the treatment that is needed it figured out and effective. It really can get better!

Carowinds was recently offering some deals...I think adults for the price of kids?

Why not one of those dance games with the mat? Don't they have party mode?

I agree with your son! They are perfect ages.

It does get the job done. We just found it much too repetitious. Read, journal, read, journal. Not bad, just not for us or what we were looking for.

I would still call them. At least with mine, they have a number on their message you can call even when they are closed and tell you what to do. Generally they will either come in themselves after hours or refer to to the dentist that is doing their emergency stuff. I had that happen last Memorial Day weekend on Thursday night. They were closed til Tuesday. They talked me through everything on the phone I could do myself and at what point I had to be seen. I was able to wait til they opened but they would have come in if I needed it. Of course I do have a really nice dentist. :)

We have always paid out of pocket. It's not cheap but we go. And we don't have lots of extra money laying around. I just think it's important. Usually I stretch it out to every 7-8 months for the kids. My parents were more of the "let's wait til there are problems" type. Didn't work out so well for me. By the time there were problems...there were really problems! I would like to avoid that with my kids. I myself do go every 6 months since I have had problems in the past. I've just made sure to find dentists I like and trust. My kids love to go. We just went last week and they are so sad they don't go back til November :)

This looks like a lot of fun! I am looking at different "nutshell" kits on a delta education site...where have you bought them before?

As we look towards the end of our school year, I feel like overall we have done well and accomplished what we set off to do...other than in science. We did elemental science biology with extras thrown in and well...I think I didn't do enough extra! And the last couple months have done less and less of it. I should have known better...I tried ES before and it was not a fit for us so who knows what I was thinking at the beginning of this year. Anyway, we've got probably 6 or so weeks of school left and I thought I would love to do some sort of fun, hands on science pretty much every day for the rest of the year (usually we do history 2 days a week and science 2 days a week). I know my kids would love it and I would really like to. It could carry into the summer too. Science is my weak subject so "winging it" will not work well for me here. Kids are 10, 8, 6. Thinking something that involves experiments with some reading and discussion. I know there are different kits out there on amazon and other learning places...just would love to hear a recommendation of something used and liked. Any ideas?

I live in a state that requires yearly testing (but doesn't tell which one you have to use). Honestly, I would do it even if it wasn't required. We do the Stanford Achievement Test, and I administer it at home. My kids actually like it. They think it's "different" from what we usually do and fun. While I definitely know their strengths and weaknesses already, I really do find it valuable to get the results and see how they compare to their peers. I think it keeps me somewhat objective. I also like that they know how to take tests and are not scared of them either down the line for SAT/ACT and such or if we ended up sending them to school and they were required there. For me, it's really not been a big deal. They've also done quite well on them which has been an encouragement as well.

Active Life Explorer...kids love it. They have a couple others like it...we also have Active Life Outdoor Challenge. I think there are a couple others. You can really get a workout on the harder levels and several can play together in party mode.

I also know someone personally who had extremely persistent reoccurring skin cancer...like getting multiple new spots every couple months, very aggressive. She was young, prognosis was not good. She did the hallelujah diet too and the spots all started disappearing. It's never come back ( been about 10-12 years). I looked at going on it for my lyme but it is pretty intense! Lots of juicing. Otherwise, tons of raw veggies and such. Another friend with breast cancer just followed the cancer diet book....can't think of its name but something like that through her chemo. Basically very low meat, low sugar, lots of veggies and fruits. Just not as focused on raw as the hallelujah one is.