Great info. Pretty much the only shoes I wear are Brooks running shoes because of an old injury in the other foot. They aren't the most stable but they are better than going barefoot. I do have it buddy taped to the middle toe and then all of the toes taped. And I'm walking mostly on the heel. DH went out and bought me a new ice pack (ours is toast) while I was at boy scouts with DS, so I can ice it properly now. I have it in Epsom salts now while waiting for it to get cold. Since I always have a sore back and feet on Thanksgiving anyway. I may milk it a bit by making the big kids do some of the cooking while I direct them. They need to start learning more anyway.

I want to be able to cook. I invited our favorite neighbor and his sons over for dinner. And I'm really picky about my food, so I prefer to eat my own cooking. Walking normally? Ain't happening. Can't do it. Hurts too much.

I think I broke my toe (the one next to my little toe) yesterday. It's only two weeks until Thanksgiving. What are the odds I'll be able to stand and move around in the kitchen enough to do that much cooking? Sure I'm walking now...hobbling is a better descriptive word. But the amount of standing and moving around when cooking a traditional Thanksgiving dinner is enough to make feet with unbroken toes hurt. I've never broken a toe that I know of so I have no idea how I'll be feeling in two weeks. How much should I change my usual plan?

I'm an extrovert so the more the merrier. :lol: I had between 6-9 people in the room with me each time. DD13 was a home birth transfer. At home, DH, the midwife, my doula, and a student doula were with me. They all came to the hospital with me, and we added the midwife working for the hospital and the nurses. We had great fun together; it was like a party. My father arrived unannounced just moments before my daughter was born. Because of the timing, they didn't ask permission for him to come in. Had I known, I would have let him in too. DS11 was a home birth. Altogether, we had me, DH, the midwife, the midwife's student, a doula, the doula's daughter who was watching my daughter. DS6 was a hospital birth. Altogether, we had me, DH, my midwife, the OB, the nurses, my two kids, and my friend. My friend was there to take pictures and take care of the kids. DD4 was a hospital birth. Altogether, we had me, DH, the OB, a student OB, the nurses, my three kids, and my friend.

MCT replied that it is an error. The word "after" is a preposition in this sentence.

I'll submit it. I really think it is a preposition though. There are just so many errors in the book that when the book and my kids disagree, I look at the problem and try to determine which is the correct answer rather than trust the book. If the book and the kids agree, I assume it is correct. Here's an example of another couple of errors, all from the same assignment: The geneticist's hobby was to study pathogenic substances. The book says that pathogenic is a noun. Cracked lengthwise, the object was discovered near the cascade. The book says that cascade is an adjective. Closing the door helped to reduce the cacophony. The book says that cacophony is an adjective. Rather than marking them wrong on my kids' work, I looked at the sentence and determined that the kids were correct and the answer key was wrong. I like MCT enough to use it despite the errors. However, when it gets up to the levels that exceed my knowledge, it gets more difficult to correct their work.

I'm thinking along the same lines as Beth. This sentence, btw, is in Michael Clay Thompson's The Magic Lens Vol. 1. I have found many errors in the answer keys at all levels of MCT that we've done so far. I love the curriculum overall, but I hate the errors....way too many errors.

What part of speech is the word "after" in the following sentence? After the surgery, it was a miracle to look in the mirror. Both of my kids indicated that it was a preposition. I think it is a preposition. The answer key says it is a conjunction. What say you grammar experts?

It APPEARED bigger on the inside.

Someone told me about it a couple of weeks ago, and I just happened to drive by its location and remember that previous conversation. So, we stopped for a look. (ETA: I guess you'll have to click on the thumbnail to see it better.)

Stopping in to say, "Hi!" I miss participating in these threads. Our school year has had a really rough start, and I was going from the time I woke up to the time I went to bed late with almost no downtime at all. It's starting to even out a bit finally.

We're a family of 6. My eldest washes her own laundry; I wash all of the rest. I've been almost entirely caught up on laundry ever since I bought this laundry center and a larger, individual matching hamper. They are kept in our laundry room. Everyone sorts their own clothes into the hampers each day. The center holds colors, whites, and reds. The individual hamper holds towels. Whichever hamper is fullest gets put into the washer in the morning. When the load is dry, I hang and fold clothing straight out of the dryer. Hanging items go on the hanging bar. DH's and my folded clothing gets put onto the shelf above the hanging bar. The kids' folded clothing gets put on the ironing board, which is always left open in the laundry room. When I'm done, I let the kids know and they put away their own clothing. The four year old can put away some of her own clothing. Occasionally, I get more than one hamper full at a time. I'll start 2nd or 3rd loads as needed. I don't worry about getting done before the end of the day. Anything left in the washer overnight, gets put in the dryer in the morning. Anything in the dryer overnight gets restarted for 5-10 minutes to de-wrinkle before I hand and fold them. I try to avoid having the dryer emptied into a basket because that's usually the beginning of getting behind. When it does happen (usually by someone else), I throw the load back in the dryer to de-wrinkle before hanging up and folding.

Do you have the space to leave the Play Mobile sets assembled? We don't, and no one has the patience to spend two hours assembling the stupid thing (large zoo set) every time someone wants to play with it. Legos have been a huge dud with my kids. When they do get them out, they build rectangles with them. I'm mostly looking for indoor ideas right now because the weather won't allow for much outside play for the next four or five months. Are Beyblades still popular? Or has everyone gotten bored of those? What about Skylanders on the Wii?

So what do 6 year old boys like to play with these days? What will help make my house a place where they will want to come over to play?

They do. I have it on hold. The only people who handle her during a tantrum are DH and I. At the library, the two big kids and I take turns watching the littles while the others look for their books. Usually the littles play on the computers or with the toys provided. They'll also look through the shelves for books they want to take home. "Watching" them usually involves making sure no one takes them out of the library and making sure they don't wander out of the children's area on their own (DD used to try to use the self-check out by herself). This is the first tantrum at the library, so it hasn't been an issue.

There are no indications that she has environmental allergies. When she was an infant, she had allergies to dairy. I had to eliminate it from my diet while I was nursing because it caused her to severe reflux. She seemed to outgrow the allergy when she was around twelve months old and went about about a year to year and a half without any symptoms or problems of any kind. The tantrums started sometime after she turned two and have continued until now. We recenly put her on a strict dairy free diet to see if there would be any difference. During that time she had two tantrums. We let her off the diet after two weeks for a friend's birthday at a restaurant. While eating dairy, she'll go anywhere from having no tantrums for 2 weeks to having them daily. So, dairy doesn't appear to be an issue. We don't eat soy at all due to allergies in two of us. No one in the family has any other allergies, and there are no indications that she has any....other than the behavior. So, I don't know, but I don't think food is an issue.

I have it on hold at the library. It's at the branch in our town so it will be ready to pick up tomorrow. Unfortunately, there is not a single Joy Berry book in the entire library system covering five counties.

This is standard behavior for her during a tantrum. I had to call DH to come help me on a field trip a week and a half ago. While trying to get her to the car at that time, she threatened to bite me and proceeded to try. Tantrums typically last between 30-90 minutes. She gets talked to when she is finally calm. She says she doesn't like having tantrums. She always apologizes and cries while doing so. She seems genuinely remorseful afterwards. Still she gets whatever natural (or made up to look natural) consequences I can think of. Field trip day she had to go home without finishing the field trip. I took the other kids out for ice cream without her to make up for them having to leave. Today, she didn't get more books. She doesn't get any of the books she chose that DD13 had checked out (they are in the car for me to take back to the library). She won't be able to go to the library next time we go. She doesn't get to play on the computer or chose something to watch on TV for the rest of the day since the cause involved a screen.

Ok, I'm glad to see that everyone is on a similar page and would handle it about the same what I did. I walked her over to DD13 who was sitting near the kids' area. The children's librarian was sitting nearby. I asked the children's librarian if she could show DD13 where the book I needed was located. I asked DD13 to go with the librarian to get the book, check out all of the books, and bring the other kids out to the car. Then I picked up DD4...well I tried to pick up DD4. She is impossible to pick up. She runs away, wiggles, and/or grabs on. So, what happened is that I walked out with her latched onto my leg and pulling my shirt. Once I got outside, she let go and I tried to pick her up. I was able to get an arm between her legs and the other arm around her torso. She wiggled until she was dangling between my arms by her neck. Yes, I did everything I could to keep a good hold on her. We were in the middle of the parking lot so I didn't want to let her go and risk her getting hit by a car. I hurried to my car and grabbed her tightly by the wrist while unlocking the car. Once I got her into the car, she bolted for the other side and get out of the car. I was fast enough to grab her before she got away, put her in the seat, and leaned on her while forcing her arms in the straps. When I finally got her in, I pulled the straps as tight as I could. Meanwhile, she was pulling the neckline of my shirt as much as she could, and I had to pry her fingers open. After several tries I was finally able to get away. About this time, my other kids made it to the car and we left. While we were driving, she was kicking and pushing my seat as hard as she could and screaming at the very top of her lungs. I had DD13 call DH en route to meet us in the driveway. When we got home, he took over. She told him that the fit was because she wanted more books. She neglected to tell him about the ipod or the fact that I gave her the opportunity to get more books. So, now...how do I get her out to the car in a safer manner? I don't like the risk of hurting her or her bolting. During a previous meltdown, I had to run down the street after her. Due to a foot injury, I can barely overtake her, and it comes with several days of pain and limping.

Here is today's scenario: We were at the library. I asked my 13 year old to keep an eye on the littles in the kids area while I went to hunt down a couple of books for school. I wasn't finding what I needed so I asked the reference librarian for help. Just as we were finishing up, I was heading back to the stacks when DD13 brought DD4 (that's age 4) to me, telling me that she was on the verge of a tantrum. DD13 says that DD4 demanded to play on DD13's ipod. The problem occurred when DD13 wouldn't hand over her ipod. DD4 claimed that sister would not let her get more books. I calmly explained that she would need to come with me while I got the book I needed and then I would help her get more books. She refused to come with me. I repeated my solution, and she still refused to come. I talked about making good choices and asked her if she was making good choices. She agreed that she was not making good choices. Still, she refused to come. I told her that if she didn't come with me, we would have to leave without her books. She refused and turned around to go back to the kids area on her own. What would you do?

I asked DH to pick up some graph paper for DS's math work. He brought home a pad of paper that has a grid on one side and is lined on the other side. It is stapled together at the top with an industrial strength staples. What we need is loose-leaf paper that has a grid on both sides. I would take it back (it was $10!!!), but DS tore the thick paper covering the staples trying to get the pages unbound to put into his binder. The staples are not coming out without destroying the paper. Since it is damaged, I can't return it. But I don't want to toss $10 either. So, what does one do with paper that is graph paper on one side and lined on the other?

Black-eyed pea soup is one of our favorites. Everyone in my family loves it. The sausage you choose is what makes the soup awesome. Unfortunately, we are having a really hard time finding our favorite sausage. We also love baked potato soup and cream of broccoli and cheese soup. Sadly, we have our youngest on a dairy free diet right now, so we can't have those unless her trial elimination diet proves dairy isn't her issue.

When we lived in Tacoma, the school district experimented with eliminating school bells. They said that it was too disruptive to the teacher to have lessons interrupted by the school bell and too hard to pick up mid lesson after recess. During the couple of years that they had no school bells, the teachers could take the kids out for recess if and when they had time, though lunch was still scheduled. My daughter's friend said they got one fifteen minute break in the afternoon. When driving by, we often saw the kids getting their recess during the last few minutes of the school day. After a couple of years, they realized that it was a bad idea and put scheduled recesses back in.

I have found that if I serve meat cut up I can get by on a lot less. A good example in our house is fried chicken. I do not fry whole chicken breasts ever. Instead I cut width-wise into 1/4 inch slices and fry those. I'm able to get by with only two chicken breasts for six people this way, especially if I make the side servings larger. I do the same thing with pork...never pork chops, always pork slices/chunks. A bonus is that it cooks a lot faster and more evenly too. When I make roasted chicken, I always make chicken soup with the leftover meat and carcass. I usually make enough soup for 2-3 meals. I rarely make meatloaf and meatballs because it takes up too much meat. My family loves meatloaf, but it takes two pounds of meat to fill the pan and there are never leftovers. Spaghetti and meatballs are a treat because I won't spare the extra pound of meat to make the meatballs when there is already a pound of ground beef in the sauce itself.

I grew up in CA in the 80s as well. This is how I remember school. We all arrived early to play before school. Then we had a morning recess. Lunch was an hour long and supervised by parents (my mom was one of them). Finally, we had PE every day. If it was rainy or if there was an air quality advisory, we had recess and PE indoors playing Silent Ball or Heads up Seven Up or some such game. ETA: We also have art and music frequently...all subjects taught by the same teacher.