Will you share what you find please?

I agree that being passionate about something makes a person more alive. Staying home works for me because it just happens that the thing I am passionate about is teaching my children. The thought of sending them off to school sounds like misery to me--what, take away the part of mothering that I love and leave me with only the parts I don't find so inspiring (um, cooking, cleaning, grocery shopping, playing taxi driver....) I'm like you Diane, naturally happy and optimistic. I'm not sure I agree with your quote though, the "Folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be"--I've seen too many people struggling with depression who really were not capable of just deciding to be happy. I've also seen dramatic improvement in mood brought about through appropriate use of antidepressants, which leads me to the conclusion that in at least some cases there is in fact a physiologic element to positive and negative mood that may be entirely outside of the individual's ability to "choose." As someone who is happy by nature, it feels to me that I am just choosing to be happy and others could/should do the same, but my actual observations of others and their accounts of the way they experience life leads me to believe that that is only partially/sometimes true. To be honest, I don't think I could make myself feel depressed and miserable for a day if I tried...why should I think others could just make themselves feel happy and relaxed by choosing to do so? I believe we are meant to have joy, but in this life at least we are also subject to sadness and depression--some more than others. The path to hope and joy and love lies through faith and service, but sometimes it also lies through long valleys of depression that stem not from a failure to choose happiness but from physical and mental stress and illness.

Actually, the ability to transfer GI benefits is limited, and I don't think it is available to anyone who has already separated from the military. The transfer has to be arranged before separation. If you google something like "scholarships for veterans' children" you will see some possibilities.

I don't know of anyone with confirmed flu, so I can't vote. We've had plenty of other nasty viruses, but I don't think any of them were influenza. We did get the vaccine.

Nah, I just like the look of it sitting on the shelf. I bought it for decorative purposes. :lol: Honestly, I bought it thinking it would be a good introduction to formal grammar for dd9 we haven't done grammar per se in the past, and I liked the idea of killing two birds (grammar and Latin) with one stone. Once I had a chance to look through it I didn't feel like she was ready for it yet. I still plan to use it, probably next year. She could likely tackle it now, but we just added Greek to her schedule (her choice) and I don't want to add anything else at the moment. I bought it at least a year ago, with the intention of using it whenever it seemed appropriate. I know I didn't think my dd was ready at 8, I do think she would be ready at 9--but I think it's just fine to wait another year or two. So I guess my assessment would be 4-6th grade?

I haven't personally used either, but I've seen some people complain about the change and I'm curious to know why.

I wish I could see the survey results. Maybe we need our own version of the survey :-)

I have Bridge sitting on my bookshelf but haven't used it yet. Haven't even gone through it enough to tell you much about it. But at least I gave you another bump.

I think I've read Preschool in Three Cultures, it was interesting. Hm, what was it that I liked so much about the Liping Ma book? I think it was the educational aspect of it--helping me see what the foundation of elementary mathematics education really should be (profound understanding of the essentials), and definitely the comparative aspect. I think we get rather boxed in by our own cultural tradition of teaching and think that our system is the only way--when there is really a great variety across cultures. So not necessarily all of those elements together but maybe this: books about the essential elements of a discipline (mathematics, language, science...) or books with cultural comparisons related to education or child-rearing--or other things

bump

legos, blocks, k'nex, magna tiles, drawing, puzzles... Anything that doesn't require a lot of verbal processing. If they start playing with toy cars or dinosaurs or something where the play is basically an on-going story then they can't play and listen at the same time. Construction or drawing or visual puzzle kinds of things don't interfere so much with listening. I don't expect my kids to give 100% of their attention to listening, though.

No experience or opinions to share, but I'm listening in because the home we bought two years ago also came with an old, ugly gas fireplace. The previous owners said they had never tried to use it in the 10 year they lived in the home, and after sitting unused for that long I didn't even dare try. I need to have someone come out and look at it. I'm actually hoping that if the gas insert is removed we could convert it to a regular wood-burning fireplace, but I can't tell if it was designed that way or just for the gas.

I took a board break for awhile because I felt guilty about the time spent on here. I discovered that I was feeling increasingly stressed and on edge, and realized that this board serves as a stress valve for me--it allows me to escape mentally from the constant stressors that are an inherent part of trying to homeschool and manage a house full of children. I have other pressure valves, including talking on the phone with my sister and reading books (but only non-fiction because fiction pulls me out of my world completely and I forget to come back). I particularly enjoy these boards because they are interactive (unlike a book) and there are lots of people who share my obsessions with education, curriculum, and child rearing. It was good for me to recognize there was a real benefit to moderate participation (mom is less stressed) because now I don't feel guilty about stopping by several times a day to see what is going on.

I found Liping Ma's book about elementary mathematics instruction very interesting and informative. Can anyone recommend other books like this?

Thank you for the prayers. He seems to be on the mend, though I am sure it will take time. Sunday/Monday/Tuesday were pretty rough and I debated multiple times taking him to the ER. We've been checking in regularly with our family doctor and monitoring his progress, trying to get him through with home treatment. Today he has been awake and interested in his surroundings much more than the last few days. He is still wheezing but not as severely and the nebulizer treatments are helping.

I think adults often read this way--reading for the gist of the sentence and not every word. As long as she knows how to slow down and read every word when it is important I don't think it matters.

Ah, but I have a son with two differently shaped ears--both on the same head! He has one attached earlobe and one detached (isn't that supposed to be a genetic thing? How can he have one of each??) I looked at your picture--they are precious. The one on the right does seem to have a pointier chin/longer face. A bit hard to tell because the other has hair across his forehead, but it seems to me that he has a longer distance from his mouth to the bottom of his chin. I say do the testing just to satisfy your (and their) curiosity.

No spending yet this week except for dr. visit and perscription copays for my poor baby with RSV. I don't anticipate spending anything until grocery shopping this weekend.

:bigear:

It's interesting to me that so many talk about their RSV babies later having Reactive Airway Disease/asthma attacks whenever the later got a respiratory infection. My oldest dd was like this until she was about 6 years old--any respiratory illness would start her wheezing. I wonder now if she had RSV as a baby, maybe that first time she had to have breathing treatments? I don't remember them ever testing. She's the only one who hasn't been significantly sick this past week, which also makes me think she had RSV in the past. Something I noticed with her once when she was in the emergency room with an attack is that her oxygen levels went up when she talked and went down when she was quiet. I wonder why that was? My baby is doing OK, still wheezing a lot and very congested so we're definitely not out of the woods, but the overall trend seems to be better not worse.

Now there's an idea I hadn't thought of.

Thank you to everyone who has shared their experience. I'm really, really hoping to avoid the hospital. Thank you for that tip. It's so tempting to let him sleep if he is sleeping, but I really, really want him to get better.

My 4 month old has RSV--diagnosed yesterday, he's on albuterol with a nebulizer as well as oral predisone to keep his wheezing under control. He's miserable (has an ear infection on top of it all) but doing OK. We're going back to the doctor for a re-check this afternoon. I haven't dealt with RSV before, can anyone with experience tell me how long it is likely to take to get over for the baby? Also, the whole family has the virus and I don't want to spread it to other people--how long are we likely to be infectious?

The sky will fall if you don't supplement with at least three different programs!!! :D Seriously, if your main program is working well and you're happy with it, don't stress about supplementing. I know what you're dealing with: not wanting to miss out on something fabulous. I remind myself frequently that there is no way my children can learn every possible thing that would be good to learn, no way we can use every method that would be good to use, no way we can read every book that would be good to read. Someone on this board has the following quote in their signature: "The perfect is the enemy of the good." That has become my mantra. By all means, stick with what works for you and give yourself permission to stop worrying about other good things you are not doing.

I got myself a glucose monitor and recorded my levels a couple of times a day for two weeks (fasting in the morning, then an hour or two after breakfast typically.) My midwife was fine with that instead of the GTT.