The library where I live has a bank of computers with internet access for free. The colleges in our area also have times where computer rooms are open to the public for free access. And, the parks department here maintains two sites (on the public transportation system) where computers provide access to the internet for free. I doubt my little town in the middle of nowhere is the only one with this level of service.

I'm pretty new around here, and this thread is most definitely an interesting read. I have to wonder, are you an employer yourself?

I do use some coupons, but tend to be very selective since I don't want to buy something just because I have a coupon but won't use it or eat it. I'd say the majority of the coupons I use are for health & beauty, baby items and cleaning supplies, all are expensive and the savings from the coupons does add up to quite a sum at the end of a year. This year I've gotten quite a few office supply coupons that have resulted in lots of free school supplies (pens, dry erase markers, copy paper, scotch tape, 3M wall hooks, etc.). So far as fresh produce and other higher quality food coupons....they exist, they're out there, your best bet to find them is to RSS a blog dedicated to coupons so you'll know when they're available and where. Right now in my little coupon file I have coupons for driscoll berries, dole salads, a pound of tomatoes (no specific brand), sun sweet tomatoes, a pound of California cheese (no specific brand), California avocados, organic foods, organic valley dairy & cheese, etc., so the produce coupons are out there and so are coupons for organic foods. You just have to look for them and know where they are. I spend an hour, maybe two tops, each week to clip and/or print coupons, file them, purge expiring ones and go through the sales circulars or online weekly ad pages. I know what I have in the house, what we need and what we're running low on, and what coupons I have, so when I see something is on sale, I'll add it to the list and pull the coupon. To me, if it is something we'll use, the coupon is exactly like real money...if HP copy & print reams are on sale at Walgreens for $3.99 (as they are this week), why would I not use a $1.00 coupon? It's just like a dollar sitting in my wallet, except it's not green and it leaves the real $1.00 I do have in my wallet right there, in my wallet! Better in my wallet than in the store's cash register! All that said, I also do clip coupons for things we don't eat, use or want. Often you will stumble on something that, while you or I don't want it, someone does want or need it, like the food pantry. So I keep those types of coupons in another little file and when I see on the RSS feed where a match-up is free, I'll grab some and add it to our food pantry donation box. Even if I can't use it, someone else might and free is free.

Sec. 81.090. DIAGNOSTIC TESTING DURING PREGNANCY AND AFTER BIRTH. (a) A physician or other person permitted by law to attend a pregnant woman during gestation or at delivery of an infant shall: (1) take or cause to be taken a sample of the woman's blood or other appropriate specimen at the first examination and visit; (2) submit the sample to an appropriately certified laboratory for diagnostic testing approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration for: (A) syphilis; (B) HIV infection; and © hepatitis B infection; and (3) retain a report of each case for nine months and deliver the report to any successor in the case. (a-1) A physician or other person permitted by law to attend a pregnant woman during gestation or at delivery of an infant shall: (1) take or cause to be taken a sample of the woman's blood or other appropriate specimen at an examination in the third trimester of the pregnancy; (2) submit the sample to an appropriately certified laboratory for a diagnostic test approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration for HIV infection; and (3) retain a report of each case for nine months and deliver the report to any successor in the case. (b) A successor is presumed to have complied with this section if the successor in good faith obtains a record that indicates compliance with Subsections (a) and (a-1), if applicable. © A physician or other person in attendance at a delivery shall: (1) take or cause to be taken a sample of blood or other appropriate specimen from the mother on admission for delivery; and (2) submit the sample to an appropriately certified laboratory for diagnostic testing approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration for: (A) syphilis; and (B) hepatitis B infection. (c-1) If the physician or other person in attendance at the delivery does not find in the woman's medical records results from the diagnostic test for HIV infection performed under Subsection (a-1), the physician or person shall: (1) take or cause to be taken a sample of blood or other appropriate specimen from the mother; (2) submit the sample to an appropriately certified laboratory for diagnostic testing approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration for HIV infection; and (3) instruct the laboratory to expedite the processing of the test so that the results are received less than six hours after the time the sample is submitted. (c-2) If the physician or other person in attendance at the delivery does not find in the woman's medical records results from a diagnostic test for HIV infection performed under Subsection (a-1), and the diagnostic test for HIV infection was not performed before delivery under Subsection (c-1), the physician or other person in attendance at delivery shall: (1) take or cause to be taken a sample of blood or other appropriate specimen from the newborn child less than two hours after the time of birth; (2) submit the sample to an appropriately certified laboratory for a diagnostic test approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration for HIV infection; and (3) instruct the laboratory to expedite the processing of the test so that the results are received less than six hours after the time the sample is submitted. (d) Repealed by Acts 2009, 81st Leg., R.S., Ch. 1124, Sec. 7, eff. September 1, 2009. (e) Repealed by Acts 2009, 81st Leg., R.S., Ch. 1124, Sec. 7, eff. September 1, 2009. (f) Repealed by Acts 2009, 81st Leg., R.S., Ch. 1124, Sec. 7, eff. September 1, 2009. (g) Repealed by Acts 1993, 73rd Leg., ch. 30, Sec. 3, eff. Sept. 1, 1993. (h) Repealed by Acts 2009, 81st Leg., R.S., Ch. 1124, Sec. 7, eff. September 1, 2009. (i) Before conducting or causing to be conducted a diagnostic test for HIV infection under this section, the physician or other person shall advise the woman that the result of a test taken under this section is confidential as provided by Subchapter F, but that the test is not anonymous. The physician or other person shall explain the difference between a confidential and an anonymous test to the woman and that an anonymous test may be available from another entity. The physician or other person shall make the information available in another language, if needed, and if resources permit. The information shall be provided by the physician or another person, as needed, in a manner and in terms understandable to a person who may be illiterate if resources permit. (j) The result of a test for HIV infection under Subsection (a)(2)(B), (a-1), (c-1), or (c-2) is a test result for purposes of Subchapter F. (k) Before the sample is taken, the health care provider shall distribute to the patient printed materials about AIDS, HIV, hepatitis B, and syphilis. A health care provider shall verbally notify the patient that an HIV test shall be performed if the patient does not object. If the patient objects, the patient shall be referred to an anonymous testing facility or instructed about anonymous testing methods. The health care provider shall note on the medical records that the distribution of printed materials was made and that verbal notification was given. The materials shall be provided to the health care provider by the department and shall be prepared and designed to inform the patients about: (1) the incidence and mode of transmission of AIDS, HIV, hepatitis B, and syphilis; (2) how being infected with HIV, AIDS, hepatitis B, or syphilis could affect the health of their child; (3) the available cure for syphilis; (4) the available treatment to prevent maternal-infant HIV transmission; and (5) methods to prevent the transmission of the HIV virus, hepatitis B, and syphilis. (l) A physician or other person may not conduct a diagnostic test for HIV infection under Subsection (a)(2)(B), (a-1), or (c-1) if the woman objects. A physician or other person may not conduct a diagnostic test for HIV infection under Subsection (c-2) if a parent, managing conservator, or guardian objects. (m) If a screening test and a confirmatory test conducted under this section show that the woman is or may be infected with HIV, hepatitis B, or syphilis, the physician or other person who submitted the sample for the test shall provide or make available to the woman disease-specific information on the disease diagnosed, including: (1) information relating to treatment of HIV infection, acquired immune deficiency syndrome, hepatitis B, or syphilis, which must be in another language, if needed, and must be presented, as necessary, in a manner and in terms understandable to a person who may be illiterate if resources permit; and (2) counseling under Section 81.109, if HIV infection or AIDS is diagnosed. (n) A physician or other person may comply with the requirements of Subsection (m)(1) by referring the woman to an entity that provides treatment for individuals infected with the disease diagnosed. (o) In this section, "HIV" has the meaning assigned by Section 81.101. http://www.statutes.legis.state.tx.us/Docs/HS/htm/HS.81.htm#81.090

Where is the archeology game online? That looks like fun and I think my son might enjoy something like that.

This is how my husband views things too; we're a team and what I do enables him to go out an earn what he does, and what he does enables me to do what I do. Neither of us could do what we do without the other, so the money is ours.

Crackers topped with goat cheese and a half fig are awesome!

Sometimes we'll do the coloring page to add to the time line. My son then colors the page and gets to cut it out and doesn't mind coloring it if we're going to use the picture for that. Sometimes I'll copy the page and shrink it so he can use the picture in his notebook, to add to other things we're doing on the notebook page. That too helps him see why coloring the page is a good idea!

I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who replied. I am feeling much less stressed this afternoon. I was paranoid I was doing something wrong because my son seems to be taking a while to learn how to read. His friends in public school are reading, or so I'm told by friends, so I was getting very worried I'm doing something wrong. I'll keep plugging away and go at his pace and see how things go the next month or so. Today, the underlining was a great add-on, it worked so well with him, he did great! I have our lesson for tomorrow laid out and used two different color markers for the words I'll introduce with the ending consonant teams since he did awesome with the th, sh and ch today. If he needs to step back and do more, we will, but he aced the spelling test today and asked for more, so we did more words and so I'll move forward tomorrow to lesson 13 with all about spelling.

Looks like I intuitively did something right! I have skipped most of the sight words hooked on phonics has with each unit because most, to me, could be sounded out. I think the ones my son knows now as sight words would be one, is, of, the and if since they happen so often in text. But most of the others on the list I have taught him to sound out when it worked phonetically. Your pages are very helpful Elizabeth!

The level 1 isn't going to be ready until, I think, October? I did buy the readers though and they're really good. I wish level 1 was already done!

Will just doing all about spelling work on it's own? I just got the three books for reading that goes with the program that's coming out in October and I wish it was out already. My son does really like the spelling program and the readers we got are nice. I think I'm just worried because we're new to this and I don't want to mess him up. It does feel like he's taking a long time to get reading, but I have no idea how long it takes or how it goes or how it is supposed to go?

oh doh! I am new here, sorry I forgot to say what we're doing. We started all about spelling last month and are also using hooked on phonics first grade, right now the first workbook and dvd that goes with it. We're up to lesson 12 in all about spelling and in the first section of hooked on phonics (th, sh, wh). I looked at what's coming up and all about spelling is taking a big leap in the next lesson with a lot of the consonant blends at one time, where hooked on phonics does the same, but in a bunch of lessons, through the rest of the first workbook. I just feel like I have no clue what I'm doing here. Do I stop all about spelling and do the hooked on phonics to have him get all the blends, then do all about spelling for practice? Do I just keep moving on with all about spelling and keep going with hooked on phonics even though they're not totally lined up now? Is there something out there that lines up with all about spelling? I really like it and so does my son and I do think it's helping him with reading some, but like I said, he's taking forever to learn to read and I''m not sure if I'm doing this all right or not and don't want him to not be able to read!

Thank you Elizabeth. I'm off to read the links!

The underlining worked! I read your reply and took out the reader, underlined the th, sh, and ch in the two stories and we read them again today. He missed only one word today and wasn't going nearly as slowly as yesterday. I just sometimes feel like I have no clue if I'm doing this right or not. How quickly should a kid be advancing through phonics and reading? Are we supposed to do a lesson a day, a lesson a week, every few days? I just can't figure out how to pace with the phonics and reading - I feel like we're going painfully slow and that he should be reading by now, but it seems like he's struggling to get even the basics. Yet he's really bright and doing well with math, science and history. It's like this one thing, reading, is just not clicking for him and everything else he's speeding along with. How does that happen and should I stop doing the other stuff and just concentrate on his reading until he's better with reading?

I'm stumped about what to do with DS. He's seven and we've been working on phonics for almost a year and can't seem to get past the CVC words. He knows all his letter sounds in and out and reads the CVC words well, but each time we move on to the next step, he just gets frustrated and has difficulty with the additional material. I'm at a loss as to what to do and getting worried. He can read almost any word in isolation when we do the lessons. For example, yesterday we worked on sh, ch, and th. We did lots of work, he did really well with the new words and then we moved on to read a couple of short stories in controlled readers. He didn't do so well. He stumbled on the new words and was making mistakes with the CVC words he knows like the back of his hand. Is this a problem? Is it that he just needs more practice? Any suggestions?

I have a part-time nanny and she is paid $10 an hour (25 hours a week); she doesn't live-in, so she has to pay her rent, car, gas and get herself here each day she works. I don't think it's unreasonable, she's great!