I grew up in south Mpls. We are now in the north metro. I will write more later when not on my phone

I don't have one, but you could do club soda and oj 50/50 to cut the soda habit. That's what I did

Yeah, our machine was getting old and it started getting glitchy. I wish they continued on with media center

There used to be windows media center, but that went away. We just bit the bullet and switched to tivo. Bought the lifetime license up front on sale so it was $300 total.

Someone in a local fb group fount one on amazon...not sure if that is an option

Anyone?

I might be joining you. My goal is flying creature journal, spelling and math this week. We have a rescheduled co-op kick off, co-op, some other classes and 4h all having events. We had a delayed vacation this summer (last week) and I made a huge curriculum switch just prior to vacation and some of it is in my held mail to be delivered tomorrow. I feel way behind the 8 ball.

People are weird. Celebrate and enjoy the day how you want. As DIYers for home improvement projects we often labor and do projects on this day.

Does anyone have their "house" brand or tri ply pans? Curious to hear thoughts on them.

Our kids earn sparky/t&t dollars to spend on prizes in the store. If clubbers don't have a friend to bring, they can write a letter to a missionary the church supports for that section. I am now sure of the percentage, but the majority finish. If not they pick up where they left off the next year.

Yes. DH has always had a summer driver fun manual car that he stores winters. His daily driver (winter) was an automatic up until 2 years ago when we had to replace it. I let him get a manual knowing it would be my summer daily driver (2013 Ford Focus). I learned with 2 backseat drivers (ages 6 and 8 at the time). They would love to give "helpful" advice like "Killed it!". In the beginning they would keep track of how many times I killed it in a trip. It was awesome. This summer I am much more proficient. The only place I haven't gone is into parking ramps when we have to go downtown.

I am looking at getting the tk all clad from Williams Sonoma. The 7 piece set to start. I will keep my cast iron too as well as my stockpots

We just called it pudding dessert. I like banana pudding in it.

Rain boots for being outside when it us dewy in the morning or for if it rains

Taco turkey burgers

We went into xl twins when we needed new beds growing up and will likely do the same for our kids in a couple of years

Yes, we have them in all our vehicles. They vacuum up so much nicer than carpet. We will get them again

Would the 5 qt be good for 4 people? Or is the bigger size worth the extra $?

Does it cook meat from frozen? And it is good for dry beans and lentils too, isn't it?

What all do you cook in it?

I finally got some sample worksheets to look at. At first glance, there is not much to them. I am going to look at them more today, but if I am correct, I figure we can cover their topics quickly then do what we want the rest of the time. The options day is free, it doesn't get paid for out of any of the other funds provided. They are looking at Karate and Lego Robotics for 2 of the classes. Plus 2 more classes (art, music and drama were top picks). Those are weekly classes, and parent drop off is allowed. I could have 4 hours each week to run errands and grocery shop in peace! For example, the 4th grade language arts worksheet is reading a passage and answering a multiple choice question for the theme of the passage and then write 2-3 sentences to summarize the story. There are 3 passages on a worksheet. And they allow 2 weeks to complete it.

Yeah, I get that we would be schooling at home. To me it is semantics. I was hoping other folks who have used a similar program would chim in to say pros and cons of day to day use. Or if you have considered a similar program but decided against it. With it being a new option in my state, deadlines are approaching fast so trying to process it all at once and weigh the options in a short period of time is difficult. I am not looking for a debate, but rather constructive input for making a decision. I hope it doesn't sound too snarky, I am just on overload right now.

I can choose whatever curriculum I want for the year. But if it doesn't cover one of the worksheet subjects then we would have to do a mini unit on that subject so we could do the worksheet. (I haven't seen the samples yet, she is still going to get those to me). We still have control over the how the information is presented and what materials are used. The worksheets can be viewed as the scope and sequence for the year, I would just have to piece together what I wanted to use to teach it. Testing is a wash for me as we are required to test annually anyways. I will be looking into the states opt out policy though.

There is a new option this year in my state to join a homeschool charter school. For curriculum in each core subject area (math, science, language arts and social studies)you can either choose to use one of their online providers or choose the flex option and get a $125 curriculum allowance per subject you flex. The flex dollars can be combined too, so if math is only $50 you can use the balance of the math money towards science,etc. The catch, in each subject one worksheet gets turned in every 2 weeks. Science and social studies specifically are "Survey" courses, so the topic are all over the place. Annual testing would be the one the whole state takes. Versus as a regular home schooler we have to do an annual test, but it is of our choosing. They also offer an options day, co-op type classes, or we could do an elective through them and get an elective kit of materials. Oh and there is a $300 allowance for misc curriculum and supplies. So the grand total is $800. Would you do it for your elementary kids? I am trying to decide if the scattered science and social studies would help keep me accountable and on track or drive me batty!

Endless read alouds. My voice gets hoarse