What fun :) I know LOF was THE curriculum for ds (now 14) when I found him reading it under the covers at night :lol: Karen

My ds didn't have any health issues, but he did not daytime train until his 4th birthday. He could ... for instance, he never had an accident during his preschool sessions ... but he would not commit. At last, dh had a big talk with him, privately, and ds decided he would begin wearing underwear on his next birthday. He did and never had an accident. It took longer for nighttime dry ... and that came very quickly once I implemented a policy of making HIM change and launder the wet bedsheets. :) So, it was definitely a willpower issue for my ds. I'm sorry you're dealing with the hassle :grouphug: Karen

We have done this for years -- for all gift giving occasions. I always thank dh for doing this (buying his own gifts). It is such a load off my mind. And we don't waste money and time on mistakes. Full disclosure: gift giving is not among our love languages LOL. Karen

Our state also requires public schools to accept home schoolers for any amount of academics -- but we cannot participate in sports, oh well, the sports my kids are interested in are not school sponsored sports anyway. We are outsourcing AP Biology and German for my ds14 at the public high school. It is going very well -- far better than I expected, in every aspect. The AP Bio course is being done rigorously (not true everywhere), and ds has stepped up to the challenge. I don't know German, but ds mentions grammar concepts that should be mentioned, so I'm good with that. He is glad to have both male teachers, and I think it's good for him. He works harder for them than he ever did (probably than he ever would) for me. I recommend becoming friendly with the head counselor at the school you're looking at. Go in and talk with them about what they have to offer, what your child needs/wants/plans, etc. Become an individual person to that counselor, then you can drop his/her name later if needed, as well as get the inside scoop from someone who ought to know what's going on (rather than the clueless 19yo office girl, ack). The registration process was a hassle and half. All told, it probably took me a month to get all the papers filed ... but once done, it's done. It's certainly worth some legwork to look into it. Karen

Well, not here in Utah, unfortunately ...

I've tried signs, but some just won't/don't read English, I guess. Most effective method I've found: stop answering the door for them. If your door arrangement is such that you cannot see who is there before you answer ... well, you really should be able to see, as a safety issue ... but if you can't ... once you see who it is, close the door and lock it on them. I don't mean slamming the door, just calmly closing it and locking it. There's no law that you are obliged to answer the door for or speak with any solicitor. So set a boundary and protect it. Karen

I agree with Parrothead that it sounds like codependency. The bolded part really jumped out at me, though none of the other posters seems to have picked up on it. She is not healthy, and I don't mean just physically. Eating disorders and codependency go hand in hand many times. So sorry you're dealing with this :grouphug: Karen

Well, my parents don't need anything material and I live 1700 miles away, so I can't do "doing" gifts for tham. And craftiness is severely sporadic for me, sorry. So ... I give them a lot of restaurant gift cards. Not very imaginative, but it is something they will actually benefit from. Karen

:iagree: Age 8 is way too young to be pushing careers. Learning to read fluently, just for one example, is a lot more important for an 8yo! OTOH, if your dd is interested and WANTS to shadow or otherwise learn what a vet does all day or whatnot, there's no harm in it. But it would be HER interest, not pushing careers, if that makes sense. Karen

Here's what made all the difference for me: "slapping" the meat. Maybe there's a culinary technical term, but I don't know it. After you have your recipe mixed up, with clean hands and countertop, pick up that ball of meat, pat it around into a manageable ball, raise it up a foot or so, and slap it down onto the countertop. Pick it up, fold it as though kneading dough, and slap it down again. Do this over and over. You will see the texture come together, and the ball will become more coherent. When it feels right, or when you've had enough slapping, shape it and put it in the loaf pan. Ever since I started doing this, I've had sandwich-worthy slices from my meat loaves. I cannot explain why it works :confused: Karen

:iagree: I went to my 25th; same deal. At the event, the old cliques even still hung out together. Some of it was because many attendees never left town and remained friends all those years ... but I left the state and didn't come back for 20 years, so I was coming from a very different place, both literally and emotionally. Also, some of the people I most wanted to see did not attend. Overall experience for me was a disappointment. Give yourself permission not to attend and to shake that dust off. :grouphug: Karen

Hmmm both appealing ... I'm considering using the 20/20/20 guidelines, but backing out 8 books to make 52. Thanks for the ideas :) Karen

:iagree:

:iagree: From the beginning of our relationship, all dh's family's gifts/etc. have been his responsibility, not mine. He usually coordinates with his siblings on gifts for his mother, though I never hear the details and don't want to. He does make a point of phoning her on special days. I take care of that aspect for my side of the family. It's just logical in my mind. Karen

Boundaries ... boy that can really set me off. You know, there is no law that says you have to answer the door ... or the phone, for that matter. Sympathies, Karen

:iagree: I think if I found out about that kind of questioning of my kids, I would be in that mother's face telling her "thank you for making this a painful day of remembering infertility and prenatal death" by failing to teach her children boundaries. Or that notion of large families being "more blessed" -- wow, is that Old Testament or what? Are those self-described Christians really implying that I'm somehow being punished with infertility and prenatal death? I don't need, want, or respect that kind of religion. Keep your assumptions to yourself, people. /end rant Karen

Christian Foundation for Children and Aging You can sponsor children or elderly folks.

Not exactly what you're asking, but fwiw ... ... I'm the child of an obsessive type-A mother. I learned a lot from her, lots of it negative, unfortunately. My attitude is "in ten years, who's gonna care?" If there's an answer to that, then it's important and I take care of it. If the answer is just "nobody," then I let it slide guilt-free. Much better way to live. :) Disclaimer: of course I am not talking about health hazards here. Sympathies, Karen

I love Singapore, but yes, that section did seem to really zoom over things too quickly. We added in Key to Fractions at that point. LOF Fractions didn't yet exist back then, or we might have gone with that. But, yes, I agree with the others that some supplement is a good idea. Also, if I'm remembering rightly, PM 5 & 6 both include lots of review of the whole fractions/decimals realm. Karen

:iagree: This is how it went for us. Yeah, it was a pain-and-three-quarters for Mom, but it was the only way to get the message across at last. Ya know when our parents told us "this hurts me more than you" ... well, this is like that ... more painful for Mom in the short term, but so very necessary for the long term. Karen

I probably have the quietest home on the planet -- background noise quiet, not kids quiet LOL. I cannot follow conversations when there is significant background noise. It's a combination of not being able to hear clearly and distraction from the TV/whatever. I have the same problem when it's not TV, but say, a large family gathering or party. I cannot follow along in a group that is having 2 or 3 cross-conversations -- like when 4 couples go out for dinner and the women and the men are having different convesations at the same large table kwim? I hate eating at most restaurants because the music level is so darn loud -- does it increase customer turnover like the infamous McDonald's booth design of yore? Whenever and wherever I go "out in the world," I can't wait to get back home to where it's quiet and I can think straight. It makes me feel like what I observed at my dh's grandfather's 90th birthday party. The poor man was half deaf at that time -- though still sharp as a tack mentally -- and a certain branch of the family arranged a giant party of all his descendants, and held it in a restaurant party room ... ya want background noise, ya got it ... Grandpa just sat there nodding and smiling and obviously totally out of it, through on fault of his own, poor man. I'll be there a whole lot younger than he was, I guess :( Karen

WHERE ARE MY SCISSORS AGAIN?!!!?!??!??!!???!!!! :willy_nilly: :cursing:

Yes, they need to be able to entertain themselves without electronics. We went through a phase that sounds similar ... my solution was to tell them they needed to find something to do with themselves or I would set them to doing chores to make good use of their time. Pestering me or anyone else was not acceptable. Moping around "punishing" me with their dissatisfaction was not acceptable. They needed to use their brains and figure something out. They managed. Books was a big part of the solution ... so I'd recommend making sure they have lots of books at hand. DD began doing a lot of creative writing just for grins. Legos came back out of the storage closet. It didn't happen overnight, but it didn't take too long, either. I think the chores were a big motivator :) HTH, Karen

From a friend who IS Appalachian, I learned that is is pronounced app-uh-LATCH-uh. Only ignorant northerners pronounce it otherwise. :) Karen

I chose other because ds14 is in a transition stage. He used to never trim his nails ... any nails ... ever :tongue_smilie: I embarked on a nagging crusade. Several months later, he is often noticing and trimming his nails himself. Maybe not as promptly as I would prefer, but he's getting there! And nowadays, when I ask him to trim, he no longer grumbles about it ... he just goes and does it. Light at the end of the tunnel ... hooray!