We went last year when they had the Lego sculptures and that was so cool. I thought about going on Friday, but I was worried that the boys wouldn't enjoy it as much without the Lego sculptures and that with the hot day they would complain a lot...lol. I was deferring to J-Rap since she started the thread, but I would be willing to organize or help organize as well. Maybe a weekday in early June? Most school are still in session the first week in June so hopefully whatever place we pick won't be too over crowded.

At 10-13 I wanted to be a chemist or a computer programmer. My mom talked me out of my interest in either of those careers when I was in 7th grade -- she said that chemists only made evil things that ruin the earth, and that computers would program themselves by the time I grew up. :lol: :lol: :lol: It feels a bit ironic that I married a guy with a degree in chemical engineering who mostly does computer algorithm related research in his current job. :laugh: At 14-18 I wanted to be a civil engineer. I got to college and found I was sadly mistaken about being engineer material (at least that kind of engineering), since I just could not "get" college level physics. I finally figured out that my true passion was related to communication related fields, and I got a degree in English. Everyone who knew me well (including friends from high school and family), remarked that I had finally figured out what they knew all along, that I was much more talented in language/communication than in science/math. I know myself so much better now than as a teenager, it's hard to imagine the things I was passionate about then being the right career for me now. I think I was very influenced as a teenager by teachers, mentors and coaches who constantly said, "There needs to be more women in science! There should be more women in engineering! Pursue science or engineering because those are good paying jobs!" I got good grades in math/science classes but they weren't really my passion.

Ours is well stocked most of the time, though will sometimes randomly be out of one item I need...like last time, there were no kidney beans. Two times ago there was no Parmesan cheese. I do find there are certain bad times to shop though in terms of produce stock -- Sunday night near closing time is pretty bad because the store I shop at is super busy all weekend, but they won't get a new truck of produce until sometime Monday. I live in an urban area and my closest store has a security guard, as do many stores nearby. Suburb Aldi a bit further away doesn't have one. I also frequently get asked by random people in the parking lot if they can return my cart for me to keep the quarter for themselves. Every now and then I say yes, but most of the time I blow them off. This Aldi is near a transit hub, so I think people have figured out they can bum enough quarters in a short period of time to get a bus/train fair.

This. I think the expiration of copyrights in a reasonable period of time benefits freedom of creativity. I think most well-beyond-the-lifetime-of-the-creator copyrights benefit large media corporations more than individuals.

Here's an example of a freedom that has degraded over the years - copyrights used to actually expire in a semi-reasonable period of time with things entering the public domain. Over time, copyrights have gotten longer and longer. It seems likely that when the current round of material comes close to entering the public domain (I think we're getting pretty close again for that 1923ish material)...corporations will have the influence to make sure it never happens. :-(

Not sure what direction everyone is coming from, but the "Chutes and Ladders" playground at Hyland Park Reserve in Bloomington is a super large play area, but fenced in in such a way that there is only one way in and out of the whole play area. However at any one moment you might not be able to see where your kid is. You'll just know they must be there somewhere. ;-) Sometimes it is fairly busy, but probably less so if we did it later this month or early June before school let out.

I'd love to! :-)

Betsy-Tacy by Maud Hart Lovelace (she would probably like the first three or maybe four of the books in the series...the final six books are aimed at a bit older audience).

Great ideas...Thanks! I am starting to feel like I have a few ideas to run with. Of the books I listed, DD says the one she would most like to base a party theme on would be Book Scavenger, so I think I need to read it to see what I can come up with from that book!

DD11 wants a mystery-puzzle solving-treasure hunt sort of party for her 12th birthday. She doesn't want a "murder mystery dinner" sort of party where everyone acts or plays a character. Not a "crime scene detective" sort of thing. Not just a simple treasure hunt with a couple of lame clues like I've made for her little brothers' parties. :laugh: She would like a bit of a plot/storyline with puzzles, clues, riddles, etc to solve if possible. At minimum, I know I could just find a series of basic puzzles that could point to different locations (a code to crack that points to a spot in the backyard, a rebus puzzle in the backyard that points to the kitchen, a riddle in the kitchen that points to a neighbor's front step, etc. But I am less certain about how to work a story into it. Some of her all time favorite books are books with a puzzle/mystery/adventure mash-up of some sort -- Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library, Book Scavenger, Mysterious Benedict Society, Chasing Vermeer, etc. If a party could have a mystery/puzzle/treasure hunt that would reflect something like a story from a book like this, that would be her dream party. Any ideas for this? I feel like my googling is just not turning up the right things!

I'm not in tornado alley but we do get tornados here. The only thing I might think about doing differently in a watch would be outside activities in an area with few shelters. Or at least find out where the tornado shelters are located - something we've had to do a few times while on camping trips! It is also worthwhile to find out the geographic size of the area where sirens will potentially go off for actual warnings. We live in a large metro county and sirens will go off for the whole county when there is a tornado anywhere. One time the weather was partly cloudy and slightly breezy when the sirens went off. There was a tornado in the far corner of the county from us heading away from our location. Obviously we still checked the forecast before deciding what to do...but it helps calm down the kid to tell them that many times when the siren goes off, the bad weather may not really be all that close.

Minnesota has some great charter schools too, so they are worth checking out. I always said I would NEVER put a kid in school for the first time in middle school, but we are going to visit a charter in St. Paul that one of DDs best friends attends and frankly from everything DD's friend and friend's mom says, it sounds amazing. DD is super extroverted and is happiest when around other people (and not just her annoying little brothers...lol). If she could work on her homeschool work at the library or with a friend every single day she would be a lot happier...but those aren't realistic options for us, at least not daily. She is also less and and less apt to be willing to receive help from me, so I think more outside instruction will really be better for her. So, we are considering charter school as an option. If we don't do that, we are going to utilize one of the "drop off co-ops" we have here in the Twin Cities for middle/high school (I know, they are not really co-ops, more like tutorials) for at least a couple of her classes to increase involvement by instructors other than me.

"Mom, you ruined my day. My week. Actually, my whole school year." (I wanted to say, "You mean I didn't ruin your whole life?"). This was because she couldn't get out of going to an event with the family tonight that she is not super excited to attend...no, not getting your school work done is not an excuse to stay home. DD: "Mom, I can't get my work done because you are looking at me." Me: "Ok, go work in your room." DD: "No, because then you'll know I am doing my schoolwork and it won't be a surprise when I finish." Sigh. Pre-Teens.

I really wouldn't dismiss the babysitter ideas. I love male babysitters for my boys. When DD can be at a friend's house or with us, I much prefer male sitters when I can find them. Also, household "odd jobs" - for example, at times where my DH was pretty unavailable, I hired a teen boy to do things like help me bring in the yard furniture/equipment at the end of the summer. Even if there aren't lawns to mow, there may be other seasonal odd jobs people would want help with. A teen boy we know in the neighborhood made a little flyer of suggested odd jobs he could do with an hourly rate, and distributed it to people in the neighborhood.

This! Water balloons, water guns, spray bottles, buckets, maybe the hose....but everyone should agree up front so no feelings are hurt later.

This thread from the Logic Stage board has some ideas, including a book my DD is using: http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/600195-kitchen-chemistry-food-science/

My DD11 has done quite a bit of sleepwalking over the past few years (much less in the past year or so, but frequently from about ages 7-10), and she has slept in a loft bed with a ladder the whole time. She can navigate the ladder while sleep walking with no trouble. She started sleep walking after she was already in the loft bed, so we knew from the start that the ladder didn't pose a problem for her.

I used to do this by plugging the cassette deck into a desktop computer and using free software called Audacity: https://sourceforge.net/projects/audacity/

Yes, check these out. I get small "whitehead" type things along my eyelash line, and usually I can sort of "pop" them with a hot compress. Then one time I couldn't and it grew and grew...I eventually had to have it drained. Ugh. But yeah it was a chalazion not a stye.

My kids wear a lot more actual "pajamas" in the winter -- living in a cold northern climate in an old drafty house = cold at night. So all the kids still prefer footie sleepers or at least warm fleece shirt/pants in the winter. Summer PJs tend to be stretchy shorts and old t-shirts or "free" t-shirts from various events the kids have participated in. The boys always get their clothes dirty during the day, so I like them to put something clean on before bed. I guess they could wear the next day's clothes in the summer, but the next day's clothes might not be warm enough in the winter. We thrift store shop not because we couldn't afford to do otherwise, but I guess we would rather spend the money on other things. There are plenty of great thrift stores here and I try to go on holiday sale days where everything is 50% off. I find lots of cute, unusual dresses and skirts for DD (who much prefers dresses and skirts/leggings to jeans and a t-shirt)...and the boys just want athletic pants and t-shirts. We find some t-shirts at the thrift store, or buy funny or character t-shirts at Target when they are on sale. I can often get the athletic pants for $2-$4 on sale days, so I just buy a bunch and then I don't sweat it when they ruin them with holes and mud. :lol: ETA: If we didn't homeschool it might be different. I remember only having enough money for Kmart clothes growing up when all my friends classmates (hard to call them friends -- I had few actual friends in elementary) had brand name, super expensive jeans from the department store. I literally had a girl ask me, as a 5th grader new to a school, how many pairs of Guess jeans I owned. When I said I didn't own any, she said, "Oh, I guess I can't be friends with you then." And she refused to ever speak to me after that. If my kids went to a school where they were mocked for not having brand name clothes, I would probably at least consider finding a way to get them some...even if they were used. I am not sure any of my kids would care though. My daughter has a totally different sense of style than all her friends and seems to like it that way.

In our case "multiple phases" meant a whole process of getting whole mouth braces on, not having braces for a year or two, and then having them again a couple years later. We went in for a consultation, and they told us our daughter would defintiely need two phases if we started at that time (she was about nine) but couldn't tell us anything about what the second phase would cost or what it would take. I guess that kind of makes sense (hard to say what will happen as permanent teeth come in). But DH said no way in heck was he going to commit to starting treatment when the place couldn't give us a clear explanation of all costs up front. We decided that both of us were happy with the results we got with starting treatment after all baby teeth were lost for ourselves, so we would just do the same with our kids unless absolutely medically necessary. I had to have two permanent teeth extracted to make room for orthodontic work and it was no big deal...probably less expensive and less painful overall than palate expanding? I certainly don't miss them now! ;-)

Same here...still missing most of the threads I have posted in recently. :-(

So sorry! I agree with pp who suggested trying to get on a cancellation list. I've had good luck with that in various medical offices. It is a bummer that they aren't more proactive in trying to get you in sooner when it is their fault that you have to wait. My 7 year old ADHD kid broke a window last night. He was mad at his younger brother (who was being kinda annoying). But he just started flailing his legs around in anger, and he forgot that behind that curtain by the bed there is a WINDOW! Luckily no one was hurt (curtain blocked the glass), but wouldn't you know it, DH is out of town. A neighbor friend came over to help me move the heavy bunk bed out of the way so we could clean up.

A mom from our co-op just had triplets. i just can't imagine! My DD had an amazing day yesterday...really focused and got all her schoolwork done in short order. But this is following a week last week where she got super distracted every day, and was an emotional mess. And she claimed to never have learned ANYTHING about exponents, and "No mom, something squared or cubed isn't an exponent, you're totally wrong." Sigh.

We've never had a problem with Gmail either for the kids. I signed up with my birthdate, and I tell my kids that I own their email account until they turn 13, and I have their email accounts in my gmail app on the iPad so I can keep an eye on it. I'll give them more privacy/freedom with it when they are actually "legal" to have an email account they can sign up for. I think it helps cut down on spam that they never enter their email addresses anywhere -- I assume that is where most of my spam comes from!