I posted this in the 8th grade schedule thread and didn't get a response to my actual concern, so I'm asking it as a separate question. Ok, I am just working out my 8th grader's schedule and adding up the estimated time for everything I have about 7 hours/day! That seems like so much... She's my oldest and I'm not sure what to expect. What do you all think? Grammar 30 min Writing 30 min Reading 1 hr History/science 1 hr piano 30 min Latin 30 min spanish 30 min bible/memory 30 min logic 15 min math 1hr art 30 min 2x/wk vocab 15 min thanks! Jen

Ok, I am just working out my 8th grader's schedule and adding up the estimated time for everything I have about 7 hours/day! That seems like so much... She's my oldest and I'm not sure what to expect. What do you all think? Grammar 30 min Writing 30 min Reading 1 hr History/science 1 hr piano 30 min Latin 30 min spanish 30 min bible/memory 30 min logic 15 min math 1hr art 30 min 2x/wk vocab 15 min thanks! Jen

for an 11 yo. that is great writing!

I'm 5'8" and 125 is perfect for me. I don't think someone would be too thin at 5'6" at that weight. It depends so much on bone structure too. Like Scarlett was saying, I lost a bunch a weight about 8 years ago when I was going through a lot of stress and I was down to 110-115 and I looked scary and bad. My mom asked if I was anorexic. No one ever comments on my weight at 125-130. So I feel like that's a good range. Anyway, as far as weight loss jump start - I totally agree with the idea of keeping the food out of the house. I will eat whatever is around no matter how determined I am not to. But if it is just not available then I'll eat carrots or fruit or almond butter or whatever is healthier.

Ours got stuck all over the seats in the van and on some clothing almost immediately. So be careful. It was fun, but just too messy for us. (Or, we're too messy for it :)

We don't start until closer to the end of sept. Love our beautiful falls here in the nw too much.

Ds is much better this morning. He wanted to sleep outside on the porch last night since it was so stuffy in the house. I thought that would be a good idea since it's not pollen season right now. He seems back to his normal self this morning. Lots of energy and no wheezing. Very relieving. I will still be following up with a dr. because I don't want to be reliving yesterday's nightmare! Sandra - I am so interested to read about the choline connection! My son is also allergic to eggs - He cannot tolerate even a bit or his throat closes up. We also do not do soy at all. I never thought that he might be missing out on any nutrients because of this. Thanks so much for the links. I'll be checking those out. Chris- thanks for the link to the book. I love to read up on stuff! Jen

I've been out all afternoon, with errands and piano lessons. We got the spacer from the pharmacy. I'll be calling the dr. tomorrow morning to see where we need to go from here. My son said he did not need his nebulizer while I was gone - 4 hours. So that reassured me. He is still sort of down and I think he's running a slight fever now as well:tongue_smilie: Judy, I don't use any essential oils - (my dh really hates smells). I think my son tolerates the dr. bronner's peppermint fine. He's been using it for quite a while and I haven't noticed any correlations. I do know about the smoke. We briefly lived at a house with a wood stove about 6 years ago and it was bad. We won't be repeating that experiment! I'm happy to hear about any other suggestions you have. Sandra, that is so interesting about the epsom salts/magnesium. He used to be on a cal/mag supplement, but I have kind of fallen off giving it to him. I think I'll get back on that. Also, can you tell me more about choline and NAC? I don't know what those are. I generally do not give any cold meds. They don't seem to do much good and this particular child is super sensitive to colors/additives, which they all have. Thanks again everyone - I can't say how much your kindness and helpfulness means. It's been a long day. And it's finally hot here (we're in the NW). Bad timing. I feel like I'm having trouble breathing, it's sooo stuffy!

Priscilla - we did switch to the ventolin, because it seemed slightly better. I will look into the mini neb. that would be super handy. I've been worried about going camping or something.

Judy, thanks so much for your support and ideas. I wish we had some bad chemicals to blame and get rid of, but we are the most natural family I know. I haven't used any chemical soaps or cleaners for 10 years. baking soda and dr. bronner's is it for us. We also eat extremely healthy,make all the food from scratch. don't eat gluten, etc. my husband has severe fragrance/chemical/msg problems, so that stuff has been out for a long time. I wish sometimes that it would be that simple for us. I think the gecko situation will be ok. He had one for over a year and it had sand from the beach in the tank, which has zero dust and we didn't have any trouble with it. This was a new tank with sand stuff in it from the previous owner. So we are going to change the whole thing out, clean all the stuff (and the geckos) and try again with something natural. Or just use rubber. anyway thanks again, That is the first thing I would suggest for someone as well if I didn't know their situation.

thanks again you guys for encouraging me to get better care. I will see what we can do. I wish we lived closer to a metro center. We're just so far away from anything. And like I've said, it just hasn't been an issue before... But it's clear we need to do something. Poor kid.

Thank you all so much for your suggestions and help. It really means a lot to me. I'll work on getting the spacer back immediately. It makes so much sense. I'll also ask the dr. about the oral steroids. Also, I'm understanding the allergy/benadryl connection now. I guess we've always used it for food reactions. I never thought to use it for something like this, but he obviously did react to something, not just his normal "I have a cold thing". This whole thing is so frustrating. one week ago he was at the dr. and they listened to his lungs and said he sounded great. His airflow was great. Not using his inhaler very much at all. And now this. It just hit me so fast... Jen

He used to have the chamber/spacer. But they didn't seem to think he needed it anymore. Like I said, the older inhalers worked like a miracle every time. So I don't know what to do now that you can't get them anymore. I don't know how to see another dr. We are on state health care and there is only one clinic to go to. A lot of you have mentioned an epi pen. We have one. I had no idea you could use it for asthma. I thought it was only for allergic reactions to food. also, benadryl. I have only used this for food reactions. Does it help with asthma? The dr. has never mentioned this to me. And I'm feeling really dumb now. I don't even know what a pulmonologist is. Special lung dr.?

amo - when you say you give 3 back to back treatments, do you mean 3 nebulizer treatments? That would stress me out. Also, I don't know anything about oral steroids. Is it something that helps right away. I guess I'm realizing that there is a lot I don't know about asthma. We've just sort of coasted. Does asthma typically get worse when people get older? I just assumed (for not real reason) that it would get better.:tongue_smilie:

Yes, he has a rescue inhaler. It hardly works when he has a cold. Like just doesn't touch it. He used it twice before we used the neb. and it's just really ineffective. It's been like that since they switched over to the hfa kind. The older ones always worked instantly for him. That's why the dr. gave us the nebulizer. No, he's not on any steroids. His asthma's never been that bad. That's why this has really shaken me. He has all kinds of food allergies, pollen, cats, etc. So we're very careful about triggers. But this was a new one. and that's what I'm worried about. I don't know when something new will come along that will set him off. And if the rescue inhaler doesn't "rescue" him, what will? When I told the Dr. at his last appt. that he wasn't responding to the new inhaler well at all, she just sort of shrugged and said, well too bad, here's the neb. prescription. And yes, it's albuterol in both to whoever asked.

My 11yo son has a cold right now which always makes his asthma worse. He usually has to use his nebulizer once or twice a day until he gets over it. Well, this morning he had some sort of weird reaction to some dusty sand in his new gecko tank that he just got yesterday. He was messing around in the sand and all of the sudden just couldn't breathe. Like at all. I hooked up the neb. immediately, but he could barely even inhale the medicine, his chest was so tight. It really scared me. He eventually calmed down and by the end of the treatment was breathing better, but still not great. I talked to him and that's how we figured out the dust/sand thing. So obviously we got the tank out of his room immediately. I've cleaned everything in there and changed all his bedding, put him a warm steamy bath which helped as well. I think he'll be alright. but my question is: Is there anything else you can do for a really bad attack/reaction like that? I mean, he actually said "I'm going to die". I stayed really calm and just kept saying "you'll be fine". But I wasn't so sure. Taking him to the hospital wouldn't work - the closest one is 20 min away and someone who's not breathing isn't going to last that long. I'm pretty worried right now. His asthma has always been so mild - I just don't know what to think or do. Thank God for the nebulizer. Thanks for any suggestions. I know you all are not doctors.:D

all things bright and beautiful - james herriot. I also just finished reading the Brother Cadfael series by ellis peters. I loved them! I was so sad to get to the end. and I just finished reading Watership Down to the children. Best book ever.

For those of you who haven't read the book, don't give up just because a few people here don't like it. It's a beautiful book. Potentially life changing. Sometimes it's popular to not like popular books. :D I don't read most of the crap that the christian marketing machine puts out. But I have been really touched by ann's blog (yes, sometimes her writing is hard to get through) and thought I would check out her book. I am really glad I did. Despite a few theological differences in our thinking:D it made me think about some things in new and really positive ways. And comparing her book to the shack is wrong. Jen

Ok, I searched for dimensional analysis practice problems and came up with this awesome site: http://www.alysion.org/dimensional/fun.htm thanks again everyone!

that's a great video! thanks I just didn't know what to search for.

nm

We tried khan academy and couldn't find what we were looking for. Maybe we didn't know how to word it? I showed my daughter the explanation that regentrude posted and she had a big aha moment! So thanks again. I'll check the cpo. thanks again everyone

yes, actually that does help. I was not undertanding where to put the different items so that the cancelling worked out. Also the factor of one thing... thanks! we'll work on it. I'd still love a place where we could get some practice problems for this.

Hi there, My oldest is going through life of fred pre algebra. She's doing great with it over all. However, neither of us understand how to do problems that require using conversion factors. Like how to set up the problem properly. She just usually figures it out in her head, as do I. So we're wondering if there is a resource that would explain this in more detail. and maybe a bunch of practice problems to nail it down. thanks again Jen

Thanks for the hugs. We can't keep them indoors at all. My son has really bad asthma. We do have guniea pigs and he has a lizard and some fish. But my other daughter just loves cats so much. And so do I. I grew up on a farm where we always had cats around outdoors. I don't remember losing them like this. And my other parents have two cats that they have had for years and years and they are indoor/outdoor and they live in the country on a busy country highway. I don't think we have coyotes or foxes...we do live in town. but I guess you never know. I cannot believe that someone would actually steal a cat:001_huh: I mean there are so many unwanted cats out there. That is so bizarre. I thought about the poison thing, but again, I just hate to even think it. I guess it could be the case. Our other cat that we lost was spayed, etc. This little one isn't old enough yet, but of course we were planning on it as soon as she is. A couple more weeks, I think. I don't know anything about the microchip deal...does it have some sort of homing beacon on it or something? Is it expensive? Not that it help if the kitty was dead...but I guess it would be nice to be able to find it and know what happened. Thanks again. I guess maybe we will just have to say no to more kitties if we can't keep them indoors.