Another vote for Danskos - flight attendants wear them as well. I substitute teach and am on my feet, walking around the room, all day long. Danskos are the only shoes I wear to the school. Once you find a style you like, look online for bargains - I never pay full price.

Justin - I see the fixed link, but I'm not seeing a list of books - is that somewhere on that page and I'm just missing it? Thanks so much!

My dd would have loved that! She ended up designing her own major but had to jump through all kinds of hoops - the upside is that just about all the faculty know her very well now :p

Wow that's amazing! And good on your ds for helping your neighbor. We lived in Melbourne for a few years, a Christmas tradition is watching Colin Buchanan's Christmas DVD. Jingle Bells - oh what fun it is to ride in a rusty Holden ute :)

FWIW my dd didn't decide till mid-junior to do APs - and that was based on the excellent PSAT experience she had at our local public high school. She did two APs each junior and senior year and entered her freshman year of college with 15 credits. So if he is at grade level age-wise, he doesn't have to decide which horse(s) to ride for a few more years. :) But as Elisabet1 stated above, if it is solely for admissions, the SAT II is the way to go. Students self-report AP scores till after senior year, when the colleges want an official report (and then you only need to send scores to the one school where your student will actually matriculate).

I don't have boys but I can tell you the school where I tutor has TWO outdoor times for all classes (preK-8th grade) every day because they know the boys need that outlet! I would definitely build in times for your boys to constructively get out their energy.

I would check with the schools where he's applying. College Girl did APs and SAT subject tests, since her college wouldn't give credit for CLEP. She tried to "overlap" (to the extent she could) by doing the SAT and AP of the same subject in the spring of her junior year - I believe she did Chemistry and math and maybe French that way.

We don't have TV here but a local indie-type theatre is showing it "live" (on BBC America, I guess?) at 8pm. DD and I went to the theatre this morning to pick up free reserved seating tickets (they're only giving out 2/person and we needed 4) - we'll still arrive about an hour early, just in case. DD was thrilled to get Tardis earrings in her stocking - perfect accessory for tonight :D As an aside, it took us two minutes to get to the theatre, which is normally about a 20 minute drive. Amazing what no traffic on the roads can do :)

Apples to Apples.

We have the following games that can be played by two players - MasterMind Five Crowns and Set Phase 10 Rummikub

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We did a lot of the exercises out loud, also a lot of the time we did every other exercise. If he's grasping the concepts, I would stick with it. R&S is great with "just the facts" and I love that their exercises are either science or Bible.

They're probably counting on your not following through with the AG. You need to document your side of the incident. I agree just make it short and sweet but give the dates documenting when they actually communicated with you. And I would ask the AG's office to let you know that they have placed your correspondence in their file. Then you can put it to bed.

In case you found something you liked at Lands End - they're having a 40% off that ends today - *How to get 40% off Regular Priced + 20% off Reduced & Clearance: Simply click any link in this e-mail and the Promotion Code and PIN will automatically be applied to your order. Or at checkout‚ manually enter the Promotion Code GLITTER and PIN 4020.

I'm not a great cook at all, but I always ask what I can bring whenever we're invited to a meal, it's just good manners. Could it be she doesn't know exactly how or where to buy organic? It's tricky trying to shop for somebody else when you can't just go to your closest neighborhood grocery store. I'm having a hard time seeing how this is different from her strawberry and grape request. They both involve going to the grocery store and no cooking/baking. I'm sorry you're struggling with this, and I hope you have a wonderful Christmas in spite of this!

DH read that it's much better than the first one, though PJ took more liberties with the book. College Girl saw it at the midnight showing last night with about 40 people from her school, and she wants to see it as a family tomorrow (she's coming home today). She NEVER wants to see a movie immediately after seeing it, so this is a first for her. All that to say, it does sound like it's much better than the first one.

Thanks! I ordered before Thanksgiving but College Girl saw some things she liked - it's nice to not have to order a dollar limit for free shipping!! :D

I read the Van Wyk book to a class of grade 2 students (age 6-7) at the school where I tutor and they loved it. I was amazed when talking with some of the students later that day how much they remembered of the book. I'm sorry for your country's loss, Hannah. My dc's best friend lives in Durban (they met when my dd did study abroad) and said all three of the main television stations carried the exact same coverage of Mandela, she said the last time they all had the same programming was 9/11.

I have purchased a lot of books for the school where I tutor from one particular discount vendor. They tend to have a coupon for $20 off $120 of books so I have placed a lot of orders that way. About this time last year, I had a LOT of damaged books - books were crammed into each other in the boxes, and their boxes were extremely flimsy. They gave me a credit of about $300 and told me they didn't want the books back. I've noticed they have much sturdier boxes now - I like to think I had something to do with their changing their boxes :D Really if it's a vendor (not an individual), they should know how to package their books so they're not damaged in transit. I don't think it's your fault but the vendor - if their business is to sell and ship books.

Jean, I haven't had a student take the PSAT in 5 years, so I don't know exactly what the paper says. But if you scroll down to the charts here, you will see that Commended has hovered around 200 for a long time - it appears it rose to 203 in the last year.

My dd loves her Uggs as well. She could have been in but now she's hooked. :D

I wouldn't do it. You have found that it's hard. My answer would be different if your children were older. But being the only on site parent of littlies is just hard. Four hours distance from your nearest family? They might as well live on the other side of the world, as far as practical day-to-day help is concerned. My dh has traveled on and off in his 22+ year career (same company) - the toddler/preschooler years were definitely the hardest.

To the teachers and staff at the inner city school where I tutor and sub (usually only once or twice a week) - who deal with every emotional situation known to man, who wake up day after day and do it all again with love, patience, and grace - YOU ROCK. I'm in the middle of a two week sub assignment, and I'm so thankful we had snow days Friday and today :D

She has two years to increase her scores. That's two more years of lots of reading and math skills that she'll accumulate. I would have her take it in 10th grade "cold" (with no prep) to see her base level aptitude. The summer before her junior year, I would have her take some SAT practice tests, even some sections that would be 20 - 25 minutes. You can get the College Board "Blue Book" with 10 practice tests of questions that actually appeared on previous tests. Other books (e.g. Princeton Review, Barrons) would be helpful for test tips but I would go with the official College Board book for test questions. And I would look at other sources for scholarship money. You might start with Questbridge and Cocacola, Toyota is another good one. They tend to have limitations (children of Coke employees are disqualified) so look closely to see what would work with your situation. And look at their deadlines - Questies have to have their applications in about a month before most EA or ED deadlines. And they "rank" all the participating schools, and if you "match" with any of the schools, you have to agree to attend that school. But you have more than a year to worry about that :D I agree with Barbara that you are on the ball to start investigating this kind of thing this early! :)

My dc's score increased about 30 points - it's been about 5 years so my memory is hazy. She took it cold in 10th grade and did a practice test to prepare for 11th grade. We also moved the summer before her junior year, and the school where she took it in 11th grade was WAY better for a testing environment.