My DS is 8 yrs old and has more Legos than any single child should ever own. :tongue_smilie: While he likes sets, they never stay together and are usually broken apart by the second or third day. Since he likes building so much, I was thinking about getting him the kind of sets that are less "themed," and more engineering based. I can't find that type in the Lego catalog though. Anyone know the name of the sets or website where I can find them? Note: Kinex are out. He doesn't like them at all. He likes his snap-on set, and really enjoys inventing new contraptions. I'd love to hear any other ideas you might have for a boy who wants to be an inventor when he grows up. :001_smile: Thanks!

I think it's more important to teach my child to read, do math and THINK. (Of course, we cover other subjects too. :tongue_smilie:) It doesn't matter what standards they use if the student fails at those basic skills. Although I'm not sure how many kids graduate gov. school these days with critical thinking skills. :glare:

Ooooooh, I love that look! We have old, nasty carpet that really needs to be replaced, but I can't decide between tile or laminate flooring. This would be the best of both worlds! I wouldn't have to worry about the dog destroying the laminate, but could soften it up with area rugs. The walnut color looks yummy.

I'm planning on having a trash the dress photo session for our 20th wedding anniversary in a few years. It will be Hubby and I in a beautiful outdoor location. Heck, we might even include the kids! (This is assuming I lose enough weight to fit back ino it. :tongue_smilie:) My favorite memory of our wedding day was the impromptu carriage ride we took through downtown after we left our reception. It was so much fun wearing our über fancy clothes out on the town late at night. It was magical. :001_wub: My Dd is never going to wear my dress, and my kids are too old to make christening gowns. If the dress is still in decent shape after the photo shoot I might consider having it turned into a pillow, or incorporated into a quilt. Either way, it's been sitting in a box in my closet all these years, taking up space. I'd much rather make fun new memories with it (or out of it) than have it sit in a box until I die.

I respectfully disagree. The Young Living essential oils are thereputic grade, and can all be used topically, and say so on their labels. They are also safe for inhalation, and many of them are considered and labeled GRAS (generally regarded as safe) for internal use as defined by the FDA. They are pure essential oils and are never adulterated with synthetics. There are currently over 50 hospitals that use YL oils exclusively such as The Cleveland Clinic in OH, and The Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in NY. It appears, however, that you and I feel very strongly about our positions and may have to agree to disagree on this particular issue.

What I meant is that some bottles of oil will say explicitly on them not to use topically, which can mean they are blended with a synthetic. That's different than saying to use a carrier.

Check the label carefully. Many oils bought off the shelf are stretched with synthetics to make them more "affordable." They can smell off, and many times they will say not to use on skin, take internally, etc. I use Young Living oils because they are pure. Having said that though, sometimes even pure oils don't smell good to different people.

If you don't want gory/scary movies, the classic Arsenic and Old Lace is pretty fun, and The Ghost and Mr. Chicken with Don Knots. Other favorites of ours include It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown, and Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein, Meet the Mummy, and Hold that Ghost are all good.

Maybe there will be a whole Star Wars theme park! :lol: (I heard Lucas believes the world will end in 2012. :tongue_smilie:)

My Dd had a hard time with magazine and escalator. It was always "maz-er-een" and "esclavator." And for the longest time, the bad guys on tv/movies were called "BooYuckies." That's because whenever we saw them she would yell out, "Boooo! Yucky!" :lol:

Never mind, I answered my own question. :p

DS gets to eat a few pieces on Halloween, then picks out 10 pieces to keep. The rest he puts in his bucket outside his door and the Great Pumpkin (ala Charlie Brown) comes and takes the candy away leaving a toy or several smaller gifts behind. The toy/gift cannot be junky. It has to be reasonably nice or educational because the last thing I need is more crappy dollar store stuff in the house. :tongue_smilie:

This. We also use Essential Oils to both boost our immunity and to use when we do get sick. Many essential oils are antiviral and antibacterial. I use Thieves specifically, which is antimicrobial, antiseptic, antifungal, antiviral and anti-infectious. It also amplifies immunity and promotes lymphatic functions. We use a drop or two a day for prevention and more when we're sick. DH and I both recently had bad colds (chills, aches, coughing, sore throats) and we knocked it out in 24 hrs. Of course, good nutrition and hygene goes a long way towards helping prevent illness. I'm constantly reminding my family to wash their hands and keep them off the T-zone of their face (the eyes, nose and mouth).

Our whiteboard. Here you can see a mix of spelling/reading using AAS tiles. Math using part/whole figures to learn the "trick of the fives" from RS. And a diagram explaining the concept of parallel universes as presented in the Star Trek episode "Mirror Mirror." Guess which subject was the most popular? :lol: (Don't all homeschooled 8yr old boys have a working understanding of the concept of parallel universes? :tongue_smilie: )

Many years ago DH and I watched a scary movie set in a museum. It was suppose to be the natural history museum in Washington D.C., but when they were running through the museum to get away from the monster they were clearly at the natural museum located in Chicago. When they finally escaped the building the were running down the steps of the Chicago science museum. :glare:

Don't beat yourself up over it. It's a *good* thing that are trying hard to be careful, but sometimes you have to choose yourself first. And I mean that in a "put the oxygen mask over your face first, and then help your child" kind of way, if you KWIM. :001_smile: I had a really, really rough pregnancy with my DS. I had a lot of medical things happen that I won't bore you with, but at one point my OBGYN told me that I was one of those crazy this-never-happens-to-anyone cases that doctors talk about at conventions. :tongue_smilie: Even after all of that, plus being born a month early, DS turned out okay. Chances are, your little one will be fine too. :)

In my house, the more screen time (tv/computer/ipad/wii) that 8yo DS gets the worse his behavior becomes. When it's a smidgen too much I get some mild whining. A bit more screen time and there starts to be some arguing back about getting off when I ask, some "there's nothing to do's" and requests for more time. When there has been waaaay too much screen time it's often a full thermonuclear meltdown with everything else listed above going on for about a week. It's my fault when he gets too much screen time, so I work hard at disciplining MYSELF. When I'm doing my job he is a much happier person, spends lot of his time creatively, and is more pleasant to be around in general. YMMV of course.

Our kid's urgent treatment center sent DS home with a 103.5 degree fever. Granted, they did give him some medicine and checked him out, but generally they don't do much for it because it's not considered that high. (It worries me though.) Keep them in loose clothing, but not too cold. If the body feels drafty or cold it will make the muscles shiver, driving up the fever even more. (Found that out the hard way.) Light clothing and a sheet would be good. Also, a damp wash rag on the forehead helps feel more comfortable. Do not give *cold* baths as it can shock the body or drive the fever higher.

Ugh...I'm trying so hard to eat whole foods, fresh and organic. However, I blew our grocery budget this week (and then some) trying this week's menu. Do you think eating fresh and whole but conventional has enough benefits to help overcome the hazards of conventional food? (Not processed/boxed, but fewer/whole food-ish ingredients which are probably not organic)

:grouphug: and prayers

I read that the whole thing is a pitch black tunnel with employees inside making noises and grabbing people as they go through. A total head game. The part where they take the picture is where they somehow make the people think a car is about to crash into them, and the headlights are the flash of the camera(s). Don't know if it's true, but if it is, I would be a basket case. :lol:

Updated on the first post.

What he said is you make a line. On the left side is the number you are starting with, and the other is the goal. Back to the left, you make a dot and write the number to the nearest tenth, and inside the loop you say how many ones it took to get to that number. Then you make a big loop from that tenth to the goal, and write the difference inside the big loop. Then you add the two loop numbers together to get the answer. (If I understood him correctly) I don't have anything against using timelines, I love timelines! But this seems kind of convoluted to me. Then again, we're using an abacus in RightStart and learning math an entirely different way than how I was taught in school. So what do I know. :tongue_smilie:

The neighbor kid just asked me to check his math homework, and I've never seen an equation like this before. Is this new math, or am I just out of the loop? :001_huh: We've been using RightStart so it might just be me.

I'm not a very prolific poster, but I'd like to ask for prayers for my family please. My cousin and his mother were found dead in their home yesterday, and had died an unknown number of days ago. The police are investigating and we are still waiting on the coroner's report on the cause of death. All the uncertainty and unanswered questions are probably the most difficult part of this whole tragedy at the moment. ETA1: My cousin is my same age, 43. He's had a tough life, but was always a happy-go-lucky kind of guy. He was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Disease when he was only 4yrs old, and battled it through most of his childhood. He survived it, only to end up with some pretty severe heart damage, either from the cancer or all the radiation treatments. We almost lost him a bit ago, but he was able to pull through. He only moved in with his mom a couple of months ago. ETA2: The situation is quite baffling. According to the coroner's report, my cousin died of natural causes sometime Thursday morning. His mother also died of natural causes, but several days later. What nobody can figure out or understand is what happened between his death and hers.