Have you considered joining some type of scouts? We do American Heritage Girls and my daughter loves the social time. Some groups meet throughout the summer and she could work some badges and track some service hours on her time off. My daughter is in her second year and has never been to building school, but it is one of our main "socialization" activities. :001_smile:

My kids are much younger, dd6, ds4, ds3, and baby. I find after a free day of play mine are a little slower the next day. I try to just focus on basics, like math and reading, and then take some time for a read aloud. Usually by the following day we can get back to our normal routine. :001_smile: Eta: Sometimes we might also use that day for a history project or science experiment. It just seems to help get them excited again!

Have you tried Coldwater Creek? I don't know how many prints vs. solids they offer, but their displays always have a comfortable, casual, yet classy, look. :001_smile:

I started my dd6 in kindergarten, but it was Song School Latin and we mostly did the songs and some of the exercises orally. Now in first grade we are repeating the same year and she is using the activities for copy work. I think it is building her vocabulary nicely and at this point it is not about grammar. It is fun to hear my ds4 and ds2 singing the Latin songs around the house. My dd6 also enjoys picking up vocabulary she hears at Mass. :001_smile:

I like the activities at http://www.starfall.com as a fun supplement to reading lessons. We also enjoy catching episodes of the Electric Company and Between the Lions for some phonics reinforcement. You could probably find them at your public library if your PBS doesn't have them in their line-up.

I was worried about this particular issue when I looked at Apologia. I've been using Singapore Science for the last two years and have not had to edit at all. :001_smile:

Where my family is the classes in the school system are scripted, to the point that teachers are audited by what page number they are on in the textbooks. This is supposed to help weed out those bad teachers, you know, the ones who might take more than one day on a concept if their students needed more help. As for the math problems in the newspaper story, I think the teacher crossed a line. It would be one thing for a calculation to be made about how many years slavery was legal for with given dates, or how many states had legal slavery, given total number of states and number where it was not sanctioned. But a question about how much labor a group of slaves could yield in the field trivializes the injustice of the situation.

Maybe you should think about why it bothers you that your mother disagrees with your choice. Are you afraid she might say something to your daughter, or is it the first time you've had a difference of opinion about the choices you are making for your children? I wouldn't try to punish her by excluding her from your daughter's activities, but if your relationship would permit it, I might speak to your mom about her concerns. Who knows, you might be able to easily diffuse her worries, or even discover that you are both approaching the same problems from different angles. I, too, have recently realized that not all of my closest family and friends agree with my choices, and it takes some getting used to. :grouphug:

My ds2 had a lamp fall out of his closet onto his head a couple of weeks ago, resulting in a deep cut. We kept the wound moist for the first week, using antibiotic ointment and warm washcloths to clean it, and it is healing up nicely. But, there was a ton of blood when it happened, and I did text my husband pictures for his input. Hope she feels better soon :001_smile:.

We have a branch that seems to do this every time I drop off materials there. When I complained at the central branch they recommended getting a "return receipt" every time I checked materials in - which translates into having to wait every single visit until I can be helped by a staff member. Funny thing is, all the other branches know about the problem branch, and will comment on it while you are asking them to create your paper trail. The most insulting encounter I had at the problem branch was when I walked in, pulled the unreturned book off of the shelf and asked the librarian to check it in. She looked me in the eye and said, "How do I know you didn't just sneak this in so you won't have to pay the fine?" I used to work in this library system before having kids and I cannot believe how customer service has declined over the last few years! :glare:

Have you considered that you may not be eating enough? If you take in less than 10 calories per lb. that you actually weigh your body can go into starvation mode (and then nothing will budge). Also remember to throw in that extra 400 calories a day for nursing. For your weight of 205 that would put you around 2450 a day, just to make sure you get enough. I would recommend filling in those extra calories with fresh fruits, veggies with dips, and maybe even some nuts.

Our newspaper just ran a story in the last week or so about seat assignments and plane reservations. They said that if a seat assignment is not given when you make the reservation that you do not have an assigned seat and may be bumped. That's how they do the overbooking to keep flights full now, according to the article. Not too helpful in this case, but good to know for future trips, since they said it can be a real hassle when multiple legs or a cruise ship may be affected by being bumped.

I use it, but only in e-mail when I find I have wandered a bit off topic. And I spell it "anywho," not "anyhoo." I don't think I know anyone who actually says it out loud, so maybe that would be annoying. :001_smile:

I vote sell them! I bought a bunch at our spring library sale. And I get mailings a couple of times a year from Cobblestone trying to sell me old issues. Great resource!:001_smile:

We did borax and vacuuming. We would apply the borax overnight, and work it in with a broom. Then vacuum in the morning being sure to discard the vacuum bag afterwards. It can take awhile because it only gets the live ones and you may have some eggs that will hatch. So, check on the length of the flea life cycle. I know for palmetto bugs they suggest it takes three life cycles to completely kill off an infestation and since each of those is two weeks, it can take awhile.