WOW! I just got diagnosed with PCOS and was put on Metformin. I have cut back sugars (not completely) and am eating better in general. I never could loose weight before though. I have tried over and over again. Just being put on the meds, I lost 5 lbs and counting right off the bat. It's amazing...my body is working correctly again. One book to look into..is "The Insulin Resistant Diet" It has to do with teaching you about HOW to eat sugars...how to combine them with other foods so that they are absorbed more correctly when you do eat them. Good luck to you! Stephenie

The bad thing about an Ipad..for me...is that it's backlit. It's very bad for your eyes that way and gives me a major headache. I know that's not a problem for a lot of people, but it is def. a consideration. I went with the nook after a LOT of research. The main reasons is that I was able to download books from the library (my library has a LOT of epub books and PDF books) and you could lend to your friends. I would rather the page turner to work a bit differently. I like Kindle's page turner better than the nook. I have no need for a key pad so the alpha buttons on the kindle would just take up space for me. I think it's really just a matter of opinion. If you can hold both, I would. I have a friend with a kindle and another with a nook. I was able to 'play' with both of them before I bought it.

ROFL That's one of the words she missed. Off to watch the video.

I can't really tell where most of the problem lies actually. I'm pretty articulate and really made an effort to say the word properly. When she misses a word, do I not move on to the next lesson until she can get it right, or do I move on and keep reviewing that? I'm not sure how to handle it.

We are in the first book. My daughter (2nd grade 7 year old) Is slow with phonics and spelling...I am hoping this helps her. We are doing the short E lesson right now. She seemed to have gotten the lesson just fine then I 'tested' her. She got three of them wrong. She used an "i" rather than an "e" in the word. I know that it's probably how I say the word (I'm cajun..what can I say..lol) but how do I avoid this...no matter how I TRY to pronounce things, it'll still come out how my accent makes it sound. What do I do? I read through the directions and I couldn't find anything about what to do when they miss a word when they write them down. Thanks Stephenie

We started with AAS this year. We love it. I think it is really helping my struggling reader with reading as well as spelling. We are not very far along and I have seen improvements in her spelling AND reading already. My child is a manipulatives kid though...she loves stuff like that.

I used MBTP off and on for 2 years. I liked the activities and so did my daughter. I just couldn't handle the fact that there was no rhyme or reason to the lessons. One unit you would be studying animals and the next you would be studying measuring or numbers. There was NO flow to it. I needed flow.

Yum!!!! Crawfish pie, boiled crawfish. YUM You are making my mouth water. I am a cajun through and through and for about 5 months a year, I'm all about the crawfish. It's too bad we just finished a season up and our shrimp season went down with the oil :(

My blondie has this problem. A can of coke poured over her head in a shower works great. I have also used tomato juice but that's messier. HTH Stephenie

I looked at SS already and it's just not for us I don't think. My friend uses it and I just don't care for it. Thanks for the suggestion though!

You know, I was just looking at AAS. I like the looks of it. What is it that you don't like about it?

My rising 2nd grader is a terrible speller. She spells beautifully phonetically. I'm ready for her to learn some spelling rules and such. I have looked at many programs, but without holding them in my hands, I can't make a decision. One I'm looking at right now is Horizons. Does anybody know anything about Horizons Spelling? It's expensive, but if it works, I'm ok with it. Thanks Stephenie

We have a bark collar for our basset for when we aren't home. He sits outside and barks and barks and barks. He does not with the collar. He doesn't wear it when we are home. We also have an electric wire running around the base of my wooden fence because he is also a digger when we are gone from home...he has gotten out several times. We also have problems with our neighbor's 6 dogs digging under the fence trying to get at our dogs...that stopped that as well. It may not be perfect, but it works for our family and our dogs are no worse for the wear. I can't leave them inside b/c the basset tears up everything in sight. Can't kennel him when we are gone b/c he tears up the carpet under him and the bed that's in there and chews up the wood baseboards. He's quite destructive (he was abandoned as a puppy..he has issues..rofl.)

I'm a little late chiming in but I wanted to tell about my dad too and just saw this. One of my first, and greatest, memories of my dad was him taking me fishing at about 5 years old. It meant the world to me. He spent all day long out fishing with me. He told me to tell him where to stop the boat and we would fish wherever I told him to stop. I caught a lot more fish than my dad and was SO proud. I never forgot that day. A couple of years ago, I was telling that story to somebody and my dad overheard. He filled in the details for me that I never knew. Apparently my dad had been working 80-90 hour work weeks and I never got to see him. My mom had just had a baby and I was feeling awfully neglected. He had scheduled a day off to be able to take me (and took a pay cut for it..something they couldn't afford). So the night before..in the middle of the night, he got called. He said it was his day off and he was taking his little girl fishing. They told him he had to come in or he was going to loose his job. He still told them that he was not coming in and he would be in the next day to gather his things. He hung up the phone pretty sure that this fishing day got him fired. Turns out he DIDN'T loose his job but he spent 2 days thinking he did. He never told ME of course. When he told me about that, I cried and cried. I can't believe he took that risk and did something so memorable for me. It makes me proud that I have wonderful memories of that day....it wasn't a day that my 5 year old self just forgot. Another story....because of said job, my dad was a chain smoker. 5-6 packs a DAY. We all knew it would eventually kill him but was powerless to do anything about it. He got a bad health report back and the NEXT DAY he quit cold turkey. Never smoked another cigarette again. This was 2 years ago. I have never been more proud of a person in my entire life. In order to keep his hands busy, he built bird houses. He built me one and every day, I thank that bird house for giving my dad his life. All of my neighbors love the birdhouse and after they found out HOW I got it, they loved it even more. Here is some recent pictures of the birds in the birdhouse: http://cajunhomeschool.blogspot.com/2010/06/baby-birds.html Since then, he got a bad health report about his liver and quit drinking the next day too. He is an alcoholic....now recovering! As you can tell, my dad is very special to me. Thanks for allowing me to tell the world about him.

I had only planned on using the history part I think but now that I think about it, the science is coorelated also isn't it? Ugh...not sure what i want to do. My DD is really into wanting to learn about American History and I can't find anything else age appropriate for her. I have no problems picking and choosing.

Thank you guys so much for the encouragement and advice. I guess it's hard b/c her close homeschool friends are well ahead of her...and are reading chapter books, etc. It makes me feel so far behind with her but I guess she's right on track. It's hard not comparing. I just got back from a 3 week trip to Paris (with her) so we haven't gotten back on track with school yet (planned to school year round with LOTS of breaks). I'll start doing minimal things with her today to get her 'caught up' in math and reading. I have already been reading with her several times a day (library reading program keeping us up with that!) Thanks for the reminder to make sure she is reading something that's very easy for her in addition to her reading challenging things. I knew you guys would make me feel better!! Thanks Stephenie

I don't know why, but I've been down about homeschooling. I have a sneaking feeling that I'm not doing right by my DD (JUST turned 7). She's not reading well, her handwriting is terrible, her spelling is just as bad (she very much spells phonetically) and I KNOW she's 'behind' in math (although I know this is my fault b/c she picks up anything I introduce). She's in book 4 of ETC and doing quite well in it. She can sound out nearly every word she tries to read...but she is SO slow. It takes her about 15 minutes to read about 8 regular sentences. Because of this, her comprehension isn't all that great either. She WANTS to read chapter books in the worse way (all of her friends read them), but she's just not there. We are reading one together and it takes her so long to get through it. Tell me she'll catch up and that she'll be fine...that she won't hate reading forever and that it's a matter of time before she blossoms in this area (I have been told this but have yet to see any evidence of it). Or tell me that I'm messing her up and send her to public school...lol I guess I just need encouragement and stories. Thanks Stephenie

Is it possible to use this secularly? My friend has it and I love the way it's laid out. I don't mind teaching religion's role in history but I don't want 'indoctrination'. Make sense?? Thanks! Stephenie

We use a bark collar for our basset. He's a HUGE barker and we have tried everything for him. I got him a bark collar. He got shocked twice with it on right off the bat. He hasn't gotten shocked since (that I have seen). He has learned that when he wears it, he shouldn't bark. Now, when the collar is off, all bets are off. I'm thinking when he's older maybe he won't have to wear it all day long, but he's just a pup now (1 year old). He learned how loudly he can get away with barking also...he can do a low rumbly bark and not get 'hit'. The one I have has 3 levels of 'shock'. The first bark they get nothing. The second bark they get hit just a tiny bit (it makes my dog sneeze) and the third bark, they get more of a shock. I know many feel that this is inhumane, but honestly, it's much more desirable than my neighbor's having to listen to him all day long when I'm not home. He doesn't wear it when I'm home because I call him inside when I'm home and he barks.

I'll also say that you need to talk to them...and only b/c I have dealt with it just like you are describing. The owners were hardly ever home and they had NO idea 1 of their 5 dogs was barking all.the.time. I was like you...starting to feel violent...throwing antifreeze over the fence crossed my mind (not that I would EVER do that but that's what this stupid HUGE dog's barks had done to me). I dealt with it for well over a year. It actually brought me to tears. There was NO place in my home I could go to get away from it. I was walking around the block and happened to see said neighbor outside. I pleaded with him to do something about it. He apologized profusly and said that he had NO idea his dog was doing that and that he would take care of it. A week later, it stopped. I thought he got rid of the dog...turns out that he just got a bark collar for her and it ended. Fast forward 7 years...SAME dog starts barking. Driving me BATTY. I could see it was the same dog by just peaking over the fence. I dealth with it for 4 months or so and then went and knocked on his door. He said "Oh, well...I thought she had outgrown the barking so we took her collar off." I asked him if it was about 4 months ago. He replied that yes, it was about 4 months ago. I told him that she had NOT grown out of it. He said no problem and put her collar back on her daily. Now we have NO issues. Peace and quiet! Moral of the story...talking to them can't hurt. Just try it!

In Paris! Sorry...JUST got back from Paris and they are all over there...lol Hope you find what you are looking for!

I don't need 'date' nights very often. We only have 1 child so that may be why. When she sleeps out, we get our alone time (maybe once every 4 months or so). We have a 'date' on our anniversary usually..or close to it. Most of the time though, I'm content with just spending time with him after she goes to bed. I DO need girls nights frequently though...and I take those as often as I need them. Usually once a month or so.

I wanted to thank you guys 10,000 times for the suggestions. We are wrapping up our trip to Paris right now and all of your suggestions really really helped us. She loved all of the Katie books....we will probably be purchasing them (I had just gotten them at the library), and adored the Linnea in Monet's garden book. That book prompted a trip to Giverny and I teared up as she made the connection between the book and where we were standing. Everything you guys told us really helped us to prepare. I can never thank you enough. You can look at pictures from our trip on my blog, which I believe is located in my signature line. Thanks again Stephenie

The animals do not talk in text or their 'voices'. The text is only directions...things you need to do to complete the games, etc. My 7 year old was playing it most of the day today..lol HTH

I live in coastal Louisiana. Our area isn't DIRECTLY in the spill path just yet, but many in my area are dealing with the ramifications of it. Fishing cut off...tourism, oil field...that's a HUGE one with the moratorium. My husband is in danger of loosing his job. We don't have answer yet about it though. It is SO hard watching the places you grew up visiting and are bring your children to the same places is heartbreaking. However, the oilfield is our livelihood. I'm so torn about it all. I think everybody...from the president (it doesn't matter WHO is president...I don't think anybody would have been equiped to handle this.) on down to each and every oil field company...is at fault. Every oil company b/c this accident was BP but it could have easily been any other company. Anyway...thought you might like to hear from somebody that is directly in the area of what's happening (BP main US office is about 20 minutes from my house). I'm in Paris France right now on vacation so it's great to get away from all of it...but I'm also so far away and the only news I'm getting is rumors and that's not fun.