I've got one of these (hooray for Amazon prime): https://www.amazon.com/Al-Sharifa-Womens-Swimsuit-Islamic-Swimwear/dp/B00D5CJJYS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1471898016&sr=8-1&keywords=al%2Bsharifa%2Bswimsuit (no idea if that link will come across okay, but you can search Al Sharifa swimsuit on amazon) I'm an American muslim and I've tried a few brands of swimsuit, but I like this one the best so far. For women who want to wear it as coverage from the sun and not actually use the hair covering, you can just kind of flip it off of the head and it will sit easily at the back of the neck (it's not too much fabric in the head covering). It's not bad to swim in either :) I find the ban in those cities in France sad. I look back at pictures of women's swim attire in the early twentieth centuries and you can find beach police measuring the length of women's swimwear to make sure that it was long enough. Now we have to ask exactly how much coverage is too much? Wet suits are okay, but not Islamic swimsuits. It's always women whose agency is taken away, and it is my understanding that it was an altercation between men that served as the trigger for the latest ban on Muslim women from public beaches. *sigh*

Amazing! I only know what a muscle up is because of my parkour/fitness obsessed children, but those are tough! If you can do a pull-up I can imagine that a muscle up is somewhere in your future if you stick with it :) I would be totally thrilled with the ability to do a chin-up or a pull-up. For now I'm going to continue to muddle along with my couch to 5k jogging and maybe set a chin-up goal of completing one in 5 years :lol: Some of this extra weight is going to have to go somewhere first :laugh:

No good advice, but it sounds like you are on the right track. In working through medical issues with my extended family I am constantly amazed at the vast difference in care between a good doctor and a bad one. Switching sounds like a great idea and I hope you find one who will listen. Regarding autoimmune issues, don't they stink? Prior to potentially trying again, getting your clotting condition under the best control that you can is a must. Seeing a hematologist/specialist and being in the best place you can be can help improve your outcomes. I have an autoimmune blood condition and pregnancy only exacerbates the problem, so you have to really make sure that you are getting good care from a competent medical "team," which will include your specialist and OB. I like the advice about really taking your diet in hand and eating the best that you both can (we often forget that dad has an obligation too :) ) to improve the health of your reproductive cells. Good luck to you!

I am a Muslim woman who chooses to cover my hair for my faith. I live with my mother-in-law who chooses to wear a burqa for what she believes. She only started doing this at age 60 because of some personal convictions that she developed. No one in our family was happy with this choice. Let me tell you we have some "fun" times here in the US when we go out in public as a family. My father-in-law would love for her to stop wearing it, her children would love for her to stop wearing it, and I would love for her to stop wearing it because I don't agree with her personal convictions about doing so. However, she is free to make her own choices and we support her right to choose attire, even if we disagree with it. I always wonder when we start heading down the road of prescriptivism regarding "she shouldn't wear this" or "women shouldn't be able to wear this" or "wearing this surely indicates coercion" or "she must be an abused woman to be wearing this." It sounds all too reminiscent of the mentality of "I, the enlightened Western woman, will help you, poor, abused Eastern woman to be 'free'" Is your cultural norm to be forced upon others? Is there only one single cultural norm? Are long skirts okay? Are loose shirts okay? Is covering the hair okay (and is it only okay for some religions to do this and not others)? Where do we draw the line? Women continue to be vilified for all kinds of clothing decisions. "Her skirt is too short, she was asking for it." "Didn't you see the revealing dress she was wearing?" We have a long way to go as a society towards accepting all women and all of their choices regarding attire.

Just wanted to mention (don't know if it came up further down thread) that hormonal birth control is often used as a treatment for other conditions like menorrhagia (heavy periods). When things go wrong with your period it can be really hard to stop bleeding and taking away the option of things like hormonal treatment and things like endometrial ablations (could be considered a form of sterilization) severely compromises your health care. I have a rare blood condition that results in very low platelets and while I haven't had to result to hormonal birth control yet (I don't want to for many other reasons!), in scary situations where bleeding just won't stop I want to have all options open to try to manage the condition. At the time of a medical crisis, I don't want to have to be thinking, "if only I had a different employer I would have more options now." Anyway, a very interesting discussion with lots of good things to think about. Just wanted to throw out the idea that there are really many medical conditions that use things like BCP or sterilization for reasons other than non-emergency pregnancy prevention.

For older girls (13/14 up to 18), venturing is a branch of the Boy Scouts of America that can be co-ed, all boys, or all girls, depending on the venturing crew sponsors. It tends to cater to more "high adventure" type activities, and the secular nature depends on the group. Some are church sponsored and some are through public schools, etc. Good luck finding a good scout group!

I literally just throw in the dried beans (I've done all of the ones you mentioned) and put in a pretty good amount of water (the beans absorb the water and expand as they cook, so make sure they are well submerged... maybe water to 3" above the beans? 4"? I really don't measure, lol) I then seal and set the IP for high pressure for anywhere from 30-45 minutes (smaller beans like navy beans take less time, and the age of your beans can affect cooking time). I do a quick pressure release (qpr) and drain the beans. There are surely some real recipes with volumes and quantities, but I haven't needed them. Throw it in and let it go. I love to leave things cooking while we head out to a class or the library, and it's never been a problem if whatever I've cooked sits around in the cooker on the "keep warm" mode. So if you don't catch the beans right away they will be just fine. Good luck!

I'm sorry that it hasn't been a big hit at your house yet. Maybe it depends on what you make and use it for. For me lots of times I'm using it to simplify preparation of parts of meals, but not necessarily always doing "one pot" meals. A few things that I find it indispensable for: Any legumes! Pop in dry beans and have them ready with no soak in less time, lentils of all kinds (we eat lots of lentils), wheat berries, farro, steel cut oats, barley, etc. Whole grains are easy and fast in the IP. I love doing a big batch of boiled eggs for salads/breakfasts/etc. in the IP. It's not that it's faster, but using the 6-6-6 method (6 minutes steamed on metal tray on high, 6 minutes natural pressure release, then 6 minutes in the ice water bath) they peel soooooo easily and I don't lose so much of my egg in the shell. They are also consistently perfect and not overcooked, love it! I do potatoes in the IP, 4-5 minutes at high pressure then peel them after for mashed potatoes, use in potato salad, etc. I love it for making haleem (a Pakistani wheat/meat dish that usually takes ALL DAY). All my pulses and grains in and forget about it. Egg custards, cheesecakes, flan, and anything that needs a water bath in the oven is way less of a pain in the IP. Cover the ramekins, put on the tray, and ready in a few minutes. For homemade broth it is truly awesome, and so many kinds of soup are so easy (beef and barley ready in 25-30 minutes from scratch). Pot roasts, long cooking kinds of meat, all are well suited to the IP. Steaming vegetables, rice, etc. I'm always reading about new things that I can do with my IP (going to give yogurt a go one of these days), maybe there are ways that you can incorporate it into your family cooking without doing the whole meal. Good luck finding the IP love :)

I love my Breville too. Between that, my IP, and my Blendtec I feel so spoiled in my kitchen, lol! I don't have the Bluetooth IP, just the 7-in-1, but from what I understand it just allows you to program in "recipes." Now maybe I'm doing it wrong, but I don't see how much benefit you'd get from being able to hit a button on your phone and having your pot cook for x minutes at y pressure. When I use my IP, I'm almost always cooking at high pressure and I just set it for however many minutes I want by pressing a button. It's not hard to hit a button if you needed a low pressure setting for some reason, and hitting a few other buttons to change the time setting on the display is really trivial. When I use my IP, it's really just about time settings. Having my phone set my time for me isn't going to save me much and potentially introduces error if it doesn't connect/function properly. Someone with the actual bluetooth pot would be a better source of info, but when I looked at it before buying I didn't see much benefit from having the app. Happy researching! I love my IP!

A bump to see if there is anyone else.

Okay, so I love my Plan to Eat (plantoeat.com) and have a little over 400 recipes that I've imported over there, the vast majority of which are from Cooking Light. I figured that an easy way to get a larger "pool" of recipes from which to choose would be to get some friends on the site, so does anyone here use PTE? Send me a PM and I'll try to figure out how to add you as a friend. Thanks!

Hahaha, definitely not an "overload" in comparison with what you have going on over there :) I have a tendency to overload and try to "do all the things!" so I'm fighting that natural inclination. It sounds like we may have a good year in terms of getting into the high school groove and maybe even wiggle room to add another class. Thanks for the feedback.

I am guessing that this was for another thread? Either that or I am totally clueless (definite possibility :lol: )

I hope it continues to increase in popularity. There seem to be lots of new parkour gyms popping up in certain markets... maybe you will get a gym someday soon! My 3 boys used to do gymnastics prior to parkour, but we were just doing it for exercise 1 or 2 times a week (so recreational, not competitive). Honestly, the kids spent most of their time waiting in line and never came out of class sweaty. When we jumped over to the parkour side, the changes were immediate. They came out of classes dripping and totally motivated to do more. It's kind of like the dream activity for boys who want to climb over stuff and jump around, lol. Now that my oldest is 14 and my middle son is almost 12, I can say that doing parkour has helped us navigate all of the early puberty stuff better than I ever could have dreamed. They get all of their testosterone out with "the guys" and are much more emotionally even at home. Huge win! I keep eyeing those 401PK (parkour for middle aged people) classes with interest. They make an effort to have it be less impact than regular parkour, but I still haven't quite gotten brave enough to jump in. I'm happy with my couch to 5k progress for the moment.

Yes indeed, the yahoo group is MCTLA and he does himself often respond to inquiries and parent questions. (There may also be a message board where he replies as well, but I am on the yahoo group and know about that from experience)

I'm guessing she's referring to Wallaby yogurt, an "Australian style" yogurt generally available here in the states.

Yes, our county allows homeschooled students to take up to two core curriculum classes (no electives) at the local public high school. My rising 9th grade son wants to try this, and it seems to be an easy way to get a free Spanish class. It is hard to find decent, secular options for languages locally. I like your idea, just a basic listing of classes without grades. He'll only be taking Spanish I and a history course, so it really is just a basic formality, most likely so that they can start a file on him prior to him enrolling as a part-time student. Thanks for the input!

When we meet with the registrar at our local high school to sign up for part-time enrollment for our two classes, we will need to provide a middle school transcript. I was wondering if anyone has a link to a template for creating such a transcript? I found plenty for high school and will modify one of those if I have to, but I am definitely not a Word expert. It would be ideal if there is one out there for the three years of middle school that already looks decent. Once I start hacking off the 4th section on some of these high school ones, things look wonky. Thanks in advance.

When we meet with the registrar at our local high school to sign up for part-time enrollment for our two classes, we will need to provide a middle school transcript. I was wondering if anyone has a link to a template for creating such a transcript? I found plenty for high school and will modify one of those if I have to, but I am definitely not a Word expert. It would be ideal if there is one out there for the three years of middle school that already looks decent. Once I start hacking off the 4th section on some of these high school ones, things look wonky. Thanks in advance.

Your mentioning of ropes courses leads me to suggest Parkour. My 3 boys all train at a local parkour gym and are totally obsessed. There are lots of varied classes for adults and even ones for adults over 35 called 401 PK. That one is filled with middle aged moms :) The parkour gym also features aerial silks/acrobatics classes that are very popular with women of all fitness levels. Just some out of the box suggestions for interesting fitness ideas. Maybe you have a parkour gym in your area :) The gym we go to www.urbanevo.com has more info on what parkour is in the event you haven't heard of it (like much of my family, lol)

Oooh that is a brilliant idea! I've been wringing my hands over getting in the fine arts requirement. Spacing it waaaay out would be much less painful for my fine arts averse son. Thanks for the tip!

The big snag with these classes was making them fit into our schedule (three fixed times a week is tricky!), and they do fill up. However, sometimes there is a wait list available if you really want the class, and people may drop at the beginning of the year and free up space. I had one son who would come immediately out of the woods after completing a five hour survival class, and jump right into his math class while we tethered our laptop to my phone data. A bit tough to make the schedule work, but we are so glad that we did. Good luck in finding a geometry program that works for you for next year :)

This is something to consider for subsequent years if we want to beef this up for a credit. That is a really clever idea for adding in content in a fun way. Because of the scheduling with the local high school, he really wants to take spanish during that same block period in the morning because it makes sense to just use that time he already has to allocate for history. It would probably make more sense to just continue with the Arabic, but I can't really say no to another language. Language learning is my hobby, so more is better with that :) Thanks for the feedback! I think we are just going to leave the Arabic and Survival Skills classes alone for the moment and then either "add up" the credits for future years, or look at them as potential "future credit expansion" in later years if we need to. This is a very useful tip! It hadn't occurred to me to accumulate the hours over multiple years. If we add a little bit more with the Arabic, I think we can easily get to a half credit class in Arabic this year, and that may be a good way of capturing his work in that subject. So 0.5 credits per year as long as he continues, definitely a good idea. This is also something good to consider. Because of our outsourcing, some things are fixed, but for the things we do at home (and he's really itching to add in some programming), if I get creative with scheduling the English I can work it in on alternate evenings/etc. We go year-round without holidays, so that gives us some good wiggle room too. I appreciate all of the food for thought!

We use liveonlinemath.com My oldest took the Geometry class this year, and my middle son took the Pre-Algebra class. Both boys had John Bovey (the owner of the company) as their teacher and he is really great in the online format. Doesn't allow distractions in the chat, really engages the kids and forces participation during the class, and even manages group work and projects among the students. A really great experience for us this year and both boys are continuing with the next level for the upcoming year. Feel free to ask if you have any other questions about the classes!

So thanks to the advice received here I think we've got a reasonable plan for English I next year, but I wanted to throw out the whole shebang with my assumed credit numbers to get some feedback from the pros here :) Background: This is for a rising 9th grade boy who has always been homeschooled. We have been more eclectic and relaxed than classical in the past, just for reference. 1.0 credit - Algebra II - Live Online Math (continuing with this company because his online Geometry class this year was a great success. 3x weekly live class with homework and assignments to be completed in the interim.) 1.0 credit - Biology I (Honors) - Local Homeschool class - Preparation for the SAT subject test and tons of labs. Most of the work (quizzes, tests, readings, videos) is completed by the students at home and then the substantial lab portion and in-depth discussion is completed during class. Heard good things about this course so we are excited for a great year of biology, but have heard that the workload is substantial, so I expect lots of effort to go here. 1.0 credit - English I - Planning on using WWS2 and continuing on with WWS3. Will alternate WWS with Bravewriter's HHS for variety. Various selected literary works. 1.0 credit - World History and Geography - Local High School - Our state allows high schoolers to take 2 core classes at the local high school as a "part-time" student. We are going to try this out and see how it goes. Because of the wonky block scheduling he's going to be alternating two classes during the morning block period to better utilize the time that we have to set aside for this anyway. 1.0 credit - Spanish I - Local High School (see above) 1.0 credit - PE - Parkour - he trains at the Parkour gym for 3-4 hours daily, so waaaay more than enough for a PE credit. ------------ 6 official credits He also takes an online Arabic class (3x per week with a tutor on Skype) and an environmental science/survival skills class (1 day/week 5 hour session) I didn't know what to do about those because the Arabic moves at his pace and doesn't have tons of homework or complete an official "Arabic I" curriculum. Maybe if we continue both semesters I can count the whole year as 0.5 credit? I'm really still figuring out the whole credits thing so I'm not sure what to do about these classes that don't fit the typical mold. I'm not sure about the survival skill class either, maybe some kind of an elective? They do tracking, shelter building, edible plants, outdoor knife skills, fire starting, environmental studies, field ecology, etc. etc. Such an awesome class that he has taken for years and learns so much from, but I don't know what to categorize it as or how to quantify it as a credit/partial credit/etc. Maybe if we supplement it with some book work at home? Any ideas on that would be much appreciated. I am scared of overloading him and think this will be a lot of work for him to adjust to. At the same time, I read about 9th graders with 7-8 credits in that first year. Any opinions and feedback welcome and I'll continue to read old threads to get more of an idea of the ways people structure their year. Thanks!