I can not stand them. They always glitch, my kids insist on 'helping', I'm buying something that needs ID that I didn't realize (like OTC cold medicine or spray paint - sigh), buying produce, want to use my own bags, - the list goes on and on. I actively avoid them and with choose to stand in line and then complain to the cashier face to face :-)

Yes, that must be it. The names Claudia and Flavia even sound familiar - I think I can remember some of those sentences. Thanks so much! And yes, I would love to get a copy - I will send you a PM katilac.

I took Latin at a public high school about 24 years ago. I am trying to find a copy of the text book that we used. Any suggestions on how to go about finding it? What I remember - I think our teacher said it was a new book, or at least it was a new book for our school. It was smaller then a normal sized text book. At the beginning it introduced words for families. Each chapter was about a Roman brother and sister and their family and life in Italy. I remember it having stick drawings on lots of pages. It was certainly 'secular' no religion mentioned, but possibly mythology as it pertained to Ancient Rome. The school was in WA if that helps in any way.

I agree that other topics lend themselves to using lost tools of writing easier. The idea is to write a pursuasive essay, and each new essay builds on the tools learned writing the previous essay. If I was going to try and build some issues with science I would probably use topics like 'should stem cell research be legal' or 'should scientist X receive public funding for research Y' or 'should animal A be housed next to animal B at a zoo' maybe. But I think I would be more likely to use history, current events, or literature as a tie-in subject personally.

We are Lutheran and the preference would be for a baptism during a service. That being said, one of my kids was baptized in a private ceremony. The situation surrounding it was that my husband was deployed and only had two weeks of leave that we were going to try to time with the birth of the child (because everyone knows that is easy to do and not stressful lol) - we also had a preferred pastor (who was a longtime family fried, and did my husbands commissioning and our wedding) and he came and did it for us.

My oldest went to a private school for preK and K and has wonderful memories. Every once and a while they mention going to school in passing. I just remind them that the one activity that she really loves (being at the horse barn) is only possibly because she is a home school student, no way could we afford the normal weekend rate, or even the time on weekends to take her. So my only suggestion is to find out what really makes homeschooling positive for them (and if 'nothing' figure out a way to make 'something') and accentuate the positive in homeschooling.

I met my DH at college. We had a class together one semester. Soon after it started he was dating another girl, so we were just friends. The next summer and following semester I did a study abroad - I came home for about a week in the middle and he and I ran into eachother randomly (he was still dating other girl at this point) but we ended up talking at the library and shared contact into. I left for Europe that fall. During the semester we e-mailed sometimes and he confided that all was not well with his girl friend. But we were really nothing more. I came home right before Christmas, we were able to meet up once for breakfast. He then went to officer basic and I finished at college. That semester things went much deeper, but we were technically just friends, we were able to e-mail ocassionally, write about once a week, and infrequent telephone calls. After graduation (for me from college him for the officer training) he was able to come back for a few weeks before being stationed in Germany. I spent the summer at home and we wrote letters back and forth (he was in the field and didn't have e-mail, and international long distance -yikes) I then moved to Germany in August, we were married in November, and had a big wedding/blessing back in the US the following July. And spent most of the Dec-June in between separated because he was deployed to the Balkans. We have done quite a bit of time apart since then, not what I would recommend, but it is what it is, it worked for us.

My DD - from about 5 1/2 - 7 years, with no real attempt to start earlier. With my DS - from about 7 to almost 9, and quite a bit of trying before he was ready on my behalf.

And I was thinking that finally, the moms of kids who refuse to eat things like spaghetti (with nothing crazy like olives) or you know, pb&j sandwiches, or cheeseburgers with American instead of cheddar cheese, insane stuff like that where going to talk. lol. Good luck!

I have a solar charger - love it - even a long day at the park/beach/outside sports tournament etc. I can charge a variety of things, phone, kindle, tablet. I have even used it to charge other people's electronics. I have a goal zero one.

I think I would have been a better and happier mom if I had had more when my kids were younger. One thing I and a good friend did do was run errands together. But, one of us would stay with the kids in the two cars in the parking lot, and the other would do the shopping. Then we would switch, then onto the next place of business. Once we even got massages this way. Sometimes all the kids would take a nap and we would get coffee and park the cars so we could talk with eachother and have adult conversation.

Very interesting!

I would buy the RV, camp with it until you gains a place,and have DH plan to work at a library/park/coffee shop if it is too small for him to have a 'home office'.

For those who have used the hot spot for classes - do you know about how much data you were using? We keep thinking about trying to do something like this, but have limited data plans on our hotspot.

Thanks! It's what's for dinner :-)

It needs to be gluten and dairy free. Preferably I can get ingredients and let them sit in car for a few hours. VERY Important: can not require oven or stove - do have access to microwave however. Any ideas? I'm stumped. We went out for dinner last night and don't want to go out tonight but . . . And my husband does not think of pb&j on gluten free bread as dinner which is all I am coming up with. Please help me, not enough time between now and dinner to do crockpot either.

I let my 8 and 6 year old walk the dog around our neighborhood loop. I could see the only entry/exit from my front porch and they knew not to dawdle. Sometimes I would walk the other way and meet them halfway. By 7 my youngest would sometimes go by himself (with the dog). Gender was not a consideration. Would they pick up any potential dog poo was :-)

I would not freak out about a level D not testing into Beast 4 - really, the BA books go really into depth and are great. I would start with the 3A, I honestly wish they had not put 'grade levels' on the BA books but had done something like, triangle, rectangle, pentagon, hexagon instead or anything other than grade level.

It is an option to just do Essentials as well, then it is only the afternoon.

Just walk in to my parents house. It is generally unlocked, but I have a key if it were locked. If they see us pull up they might come out to meet us, they would be upset if we didn't just barge in. My in-laws we used to just walk in (and knew where the key was kept) when they had a house. Now they live in a condo with a bunch of locked doors. My DH has keys, but even so, we generally buzz the outside door to have them unlock it for us, and then they open the door to their condo and we go right in or they are waiting at the elevator.

The geography will also be mainly Europe, then a little Middle East, Asia, and Central America.

We have done both - follow theirs and do our own. The Essentials class using IEW will be using the Middle Ages writing. The history sentences start at 800AD up to the 1990's. I have no idea what our family will be doing next year, I am in the thick of this year and still trying to figure out math now that the program we have been doing is ending and we need to switch.

I wear skirts often, almost all the time, dresses, hardly ever. I actually don't like dresses most of the time, I try them on but can't seem to purchase them.

Every once and a while I am shocked by the things I 'can't' buy on Amazon as well. It always seems so reasonable an item I am trying to get delivered.

My 8 year old is using it now with the 10 year old. This is not the first time, we have a gas stove you have to light with a lighter as well.