I've lived in a cuntry with socialized health care and was horrified by the condition of punlic hospitals. True, the care was free but- ew! At the time, I was also shocked by the fact that C-sections were strongly encouraged because they could be scheduled and fit into the system's structure better than natural labor. A family member close to us needed to be admitted to the hospital, and paid for care in a private hospital, rather than chance the public one. Here in the States I have several friends from Canada. Nearly all say (when I've asked them) that the people who rave about socialized medicine there have never had a seriously ill parent or child. That changed their minds about the system, and they prefer it here.

Calvin and Hobbes books and the "Sideways Stories From Wayside School" series. After reading those over and over and over again, he asked the librarian to recommend books like those and off he went!

My first son hit 40lbs. just after his 5th birthday. Then he got a nasty ear infection and lost 5 lbs. He was very tall for his age, but extremely skinny. He was obviously healthy, though, so Dr. wasn't worried. My 3rd son is 5 and a half, and he's maybe 38 lbs. (He was 35 on his birthday.) But he's always been small. The Dr. explained that as long as the progression on the height/weight chart is moving forward consistently, he's happy. I've noticed that so many children are heavy now. (Have you tried to find pants for skinny children lately? "Husky" sizes are everywhere. Slim sizes are like gold!) I wonder if doctors have just become accustomed to heavier children as well?

I had mono as a teen and it was awful. I missed 3 weeks of school and had to take my finals when I got back. I had gone on vacation to DisneyLand with a friend's family over Christmas, so I couldn't be grumpy and impolite. But I was miserable. I had on-and-off fevers, rashes that came and went, headaches, exhaustion, swollen glands... I was a mess. When I came home, I went to the Dr. who diagnosed me with: mono, a double ear infection, strep throat, and (the creme-de-la-creme) a yeast infection. Yeah. That was a great vacation. :glare: I doubt your son has all that. It's probably just mono, in which case he needs to rest as much as possible.

It's my understanding that the Philosophy is for the Rhetoric level, so don't even worry about that now. :)

My in-laws are celebrating their 40TH wedding anniversary in February, and we kids would like to throw them a surprise party. I am a planner, however, not a partier, and need some party ideas. Have you been to a creative anniversary party? Or have you seen something really neat done and filed it away in your mind for future use? Would you send your creative ideas my way, please? Thank you!

I love the Bible Studies by John MacArthur. Each study covers one book of the Bible. The ones I've done are solid, thorough, and convicting.

Oh! Very cool! This will save my vocal cords! Thanks for sharing the link.

10 out of 10! That was fun! It's amazing the feelings and memories those theme songs evoke! :)

LOL! His name is Dan. So... "Nad?" or maybe "Leinad."

I think I started getting spammy comments after the first 3 months. I haven't had any since adding the verification.

:scared:

These are all great! And sort of..umm.. scary ... to think that some of them are real. :001_huh: I'm adding "Fleishman" and "Elisha" to the list, solely because they soudn so very bad with the surname.:D

My college roomie and friend for 20 years is having a baby. She's been walking around dialated to a 6 for the past 10 days, but shows no sign of labor. She and her dh have not picked out any names for their new son, and have rejected all the cool ones I've suggested. :glare: As a joke, I'd like to inundate them with really bad names. Can you help me? Their last name sounds like (but is NOT spelled like) Lye'- shnur. Thank you!

This happened to our door as well. It was maybe $80-$100 to fix. I watched the repairman a while, and it didn't look like a repair I'd want to attempt myself. :)

Michelle, when Mr. Humphrey died I was in 2nd grade. I spent the day in my room listening to sad, sad classical music on my Winnie-the -Pooh record player. After my tears dried, I wrote a letter to his widow, and received a very nice thank-you card back. I laughed when I read your post, as I've never heard of anyone else who wrote to Hubert Humphrey (or his widow). Presidents, yes, congressmen, yes. But not Hubert. :) You must be some sort of kindred spirit. :)

I second the recommendation for "The War Against Boys." I also just finished "Boys Adrift," and thought it was fantastic.

Thanks for posting this! I needed to feel "above average" today! :) I've read 36, which is not spectacular, but it's better than the average. :)

THat's it!! Thank you! :)

:blushing: I read the OP and thought Zelda was being HORRIBLE. I completely thought she was serious, and laughed at her attempts to post hyperlinks. "Why should I think she knows anything about politics when she cann't even post hyperlinks,for heaven's sake!" It wasn't until well into the second page that I figured out what was going on. :banghead: Well done, Zelda! :) :hurray:

OK, not knowing *anything* about this boy or what his teachers have tried to do, I can only recommend what I'd do if this were my son. I'd work hard to address the reading fluency first. To address the reading fluency, I'd recommend having him read (as much as possible after school) at a lower reading level than what he tests at. If he tests at a 2.5 level, have him read ANYTHING below that. Were it my son, I'd probably adopt a "let's start at ground zero approach" and back way up. Start with letter sounds, etc., and progress until he gets stuck. I'd also try to find some way to ease the discouragement. I'd have him start reading to me for 15 minutes each night, and increase it to an hour....slowly. Very slowly. I'd set up some sort of incentive system for at-home reading: stickers, points, whatever. Depending on his reading level, I'd try to find comic books, etc. to read with him, either together, or me reading them aloud to him after he's read aloud to me. (My boys all love comics.) I'd also read aloud as much of his homework as I can, for a while. In social studies, I want him to know the concepts of the lesson. While we're working to bring his fluency and academic confidence level up, I'd read homework directions, assigned reading, story problems, etc. aloud to him, if he's not able to do it himself. I'd also talk with his teacher and see if she'd be able to send some reading-heavy work home in advance, so we could go over it together before it was assigned in class. (If he's going to have to work with a partner on a science experiment from their book, for example, maybe she could send the directions home the night before. Then they could go over them and he'd be familiar with the directions in class.) Also, when I taught school, I had a couple of non-readers every year who had their own spelling lists. (Either phonics-focused, or frequency of usage-focused, depending upon the child.) If this boy is studying and still failing every test, his lists need to be altered. Either shorter them, or change them completely. Studying and failing every test does absolutely nothing except show this boy that working hard will get him nowhere. HTH!

It was probably a mistake. I can see YP simply copying something from the workbook, assuming that nothing untoward would ever be in there. BUT!!! (And it's a big but...) I wouldn't e-mail. I would speak with him face-to-face. Or call, if I absolutely couldn't go down there. E-mail is for questions or simple topics. Concerns like this need to be dealt with face-to-face. And I absolutely agree with the poster who said to wait and see how YP responds before bringing in the senior pastor.

There's a site out there that has lessons like this. I've seen it, but I can't find it. We used it in the FIAR co-op, because most of the kids had done FIAR at home and knew all the stories. This site had new stories, so the kids were more engaged. Thanks! Hillary

For many reasons, both medical and irrational-fear-based, I cannot bear the thought of putting tiny clear plastic things directly on my eyeball. I'm stuck with glasses. :glare: Which is why the idea of Mr. Brokaw's invisible glasses seemed so cool! :001_smile:

Wait - He was wearing glasses? Really? I had no idea! I would LOVE glasses that no one else can see! Where do I find those??