Yes, that's what I was hoping for too, but I think I ended up being too sensitive that I even after treating the pollen, I had to still treat the fruit separately. I hope it works for me this time around after the pregnancy... I hope it works for you too! I know it's so frustrating to not be able to eat fresh fruits!

I have OAS also... It's related to an allergy to some kind of pollen. What you react to depends on what pollen you are allergic to. For me, it's birch pollen... So I can't eat most tree fruits (except the tropical ones) and some nuts. Regarding the exercise piece, I second the Needak rebounder suggestion. The rebounder is fun, detoxes your body, helps rehabilitate you from injuries, helps with ADD/ADHD, improves memory, gives energy, improves sleep, prevents cancer... All because the type of bouncing you do on it brings oxygen to all the cells of your body. So it's exercise on the cellular level. Oh and it helps you lose weight without any effort! In terms of food, I would cut out all sodas and sugared juices, as well as white flour and white rice. Start with that, and you will feel better... Lastly, depending on where you are, you may be able to visit an AAT (advanced allergy therapeutics) clinic to cure you of your OAS. Go to http://www.allergytx.com and read about it. Then click on the clinic locations to see if there is one near you. You can also try NAET which is a similar. Honestly, I've done AAT and it cured my birch allergies, but when it came around to curing my food sensitivities, it didn't work... Probably because I was pregnant at the time. I am going to try again soon. AAT cured my nephew's dust allergies in one session... It really is worth a try. Good luck!

My ds has gotten croup a few times already... Unfortunately, they say that if you get it once, later viruses will likely settle in the same spot (on the voice box) next time. Here's what I do for him... Warm lemonade (honey, lemon and warm water) during the day, plus lots of extra water. Humidifier at night. Sometimes, I plug in a PediaCare Gentile Vapors. It fills the room with some kind of soothing scent that helps to relax his lungs and allows him to fall asleep better. If he wakes up with a coughing attack, we bring him into a steamy bathroom, or downstairs in the cool garage (or outside). Sometimes the cool air relaxes his lungs also. I've read that warm pear juice at the start of a cough works to stop it, but I've never been able to catch it early enough to confirm this. I've never tried the Vicks on the feet+socks. Maybe I'll try that next time.

My husband and I lost quite a bit of weight last year, when we decided to eat healthier. Our goal was not to lose weight but to try to live a less toxic lifestyle. Basically, cutting out all soft drinks, sugared juices, white flour and refined sugars is a good place to start. In fact, try to limit processed food as much as possible and eat whole foods (check out Cynthia Lair's book about Feeding the Whole Family). You can eat all the fruits and vegetables you want... even meats are ok. Switch over to brown rice and whole grain breads (with as few ingredients as possible). Smoothies are great! We got ourselves a Vitamix blender-- it's a great way to get in all your fruits and veggies, and to feel satisfied. The more you feed your body healthy and nutritious food, the better you will feel, and you'll notice the cravings for processed foods start to go away. If you give your body "fake food" that is devoid of nutrients, you will end up craving more food in order to get the nutrients that your body needs... that's how weight gain happens. For exercise, get a rebounder (we have a Needak Rebounder). It not only detoxes you, but it helps with weight loss and provides a slew of health benefits such as faster rehabilitation from illnesses, better attention and memory (great for the kiddos), more energy in the morning, better sleep at night, etc. The book that comes with the rebounder says that by doing a health bounce (a gentle bounce) for 2 minutes every hour (I assume that's every waking hour), you can avoid getting cancer. I think that happens because the bouncing brings oxygen to all of your cells and detoxifies them as well. On top of all these benefits, you get to exercise in a way that doesn't even feel like exercise. Great for kids too! Good luck!

Thanks for all the suggestions! I will try the newspaper thing along with more mulch. When I say ground cover, I meant plants that are supposed to cover the ground to prevent weeds from coming up. I probably didn't plant enough of them, which gave the weeds space to come up. I was hoping I wouldn't have to go out there often, as it rains quite a bit here. Guess frequent trips out to the garden is still what is needed then. I also like the idea of sending the kids out there... they're a little young now, but once they're old enough to distinguish the weeds from the plants, I'm sending them out with little buckets! =)

I have to admit, I do not have a green thumb. My poor garden is being overtaken by weeds. I have ground cover, but the intruders keep popping up still! I don't want to use any toxic weed-killers... Is there any way other than going out there every week to pull them out?

Cellocoffee, I am so thrilled to get your suggestions! I will definitely look into getting the books, cds, and videos you recommended. Right now, my son watches muzzy and Pepe Pig cartoons in Chinese. The Pepe Pig series were bought from Taiwan and are supposed to teach Chinese kids English, but I play it In chinese for my ds so can learn Chinese! I just got back from Taiwan recently where I bought a stack of books that made my luggage overweight! While the books are cheaper there, it's so hard to be transporting them back to the States. Are you able to order you materials from the States? I can see what you mean about how singing can allow the child to be more comfortable with the language. My ds is definitely trying more recently. Yay! He definitely has a hard time with tones, though. I can hear his American accent (or is it the English intonations and inflections?) through his attempts to speak sentences in Chinese. He wouldn't have that problem if he had started speaking earlier, I think. We are in Seattle. While there are a lot of asians here, many of them don't speak their native language at home... Maybe because they've lived here for so long? Or perhaps because of cross-cultural marriages? My husband's family speaks Cantonese, but they lived in a Spanish-speaking country for most of my husband's childhood. His primary language is English now. It helps all of us to go back to Asia once a year. I definitely want to try the history suggestions you mentioned. Do you separate your history studies so that you have a time of Chinese history and a time of western history? I'll definitely be looking you up as a resource from time to time... Is that ok? On another thought... I see that your dd plays cello and piano. At what age did you start? And also I see that you are doing a combo of singapore, Miquon and Saxon. Do you do them on separate days? (sorry, this isn't what the thread is about... Hope that's ok).

My son had pretty bad eczema when he was about 5 or 6 weeks old... His naturopathic pediatrician recommended that I go on an elimination diet to cure it. I took out all dairy, eggs, soy, nuts, wheat, gluten, acidic fruits and tomatoes. Basically I could eat rice, quinoa, beans/legumes, meats, fruits and veggies. But I had to be really cReful with sauces and marinades... MSG contains wheat, sometimes tocopherals (vit E) are derived from soy, soy lecithin is in a lot of products as well. While on the diet, I used a tiny bit of hydrocortisone on the weepy eczema spots to keep it controlled. Once it cleared up,I reintroduced the foods one by one (in reverse order of how I listed them) very slowly... 4 days each. I kept a log of everything i ate, and when there was another flare up, I would try to figure out what it was that could have triggered it. It took a long time and a lot of trial and error, but in the end, it seemed to be eggs and milk. After a while, as his digestive system improved, he seemed to tolerate things better. It usually coincides with his starting solids too. He is 1 now, and I am still nursing & can now eat anything without causing a flare-up. It takes patience and a lot of sacrifice in terms of food, but tell your sister to hang in there. Babies often outgrow this.

Hi! I'm just at the beginning of my homeschoolong journey with my oldest son (5). I wish I had spoken only Chinese to him from the start, so that he would speak it more now. Unfortunately, I feel like I'm starting late... I do have a Mandarin lesson time. He learned his bopomo phonetics pretty quickly, and is now learning to read/write traditional characters. He is doing very well... But I wish he would speak more. We play Chinese children's songs in the car, and he can sing most of them... But I guess singing is not the same as speaking. My younger son is 1. I'm trying to talk to him more in Mandarin, so hopefully he will be more comfortable with it, and both boys will pick it up together. It is hard to keep them speaking Chinese when everywhere outside the home they speak English. I guess we can only do our best to give them an environment where they can hear it spoken and use it themselves, and hope they retain as much as possible as they grow up. I love the idea of teaching them Taiwan/Chinese history WTM style. Where do you get your resources?

Thanks for the input! It's good to hear from someone who's tried it. I guess we'll stick to FLL then!

Can anyone compare FLL with Sandi Queen's Language Lessons series? Does Sandi Queen's series contain grammar lessons? Is there a lot of overlap? I like that there are lots of picture studies in the Language Lessons series. It seems like both have short lessons, but will doing both be overkill?