The B&B hotel chain is great value. We have recently found it. A pp mentioned it. The ones we have stayed at in France have been near a Auchean Hypermarket which has saved us alot of money on food. This chain is in several countries and has non smoking rooms €55 a night pre booked for 4! In the UK we do well at Premier Inn. Sleeps 4 with separate beds for dc's our main requirment. Between £39 and £99 prebooked normally. A great breakfast for all at about £16 (2 children who eat free). No need for lunch when we stay there because all you want. Afternoon snack is plenty. Passes are great. If doing London the Royal Palace annual Pass will get you into some of the must sees on our list. Great £80 for 4. Kensington, Hampton, War Rooms, Tower, Kew Palace(not gardens which have to be paid for to use). I have a suspicion the pp that said Paris was not a favorite was right, at least for our family. We just returned from a rather imperfect(to be polite) trip to Versailles. We have a much much better time away from Paris to be honest. Long lines, huge crowds. Really not fun. The staff was nice just not worth the time. We have a great time in smaller towns.

Coursera has both micro and macro courses. Dd is doing the micro from Illinois??? and likes it.

There are virtual youtube dissections -- we did similar things from butcher watched "proper" ones.

http://www.gpb.org/chemistry-physics/students/physics This is a good Chemistry course. Lots of printables.

We have a microscope because dh searched ebay. The kids love it but use it for their own investigations more than for formal science class. We did Apllogia Biology last year and we did make slides for what was easily available. I think I found every item on the internet nicely magified for their drawings. It is not absolutely necessary to complete the course.

This is exactly what I have been wondering throughout this whole thread. There is no way I am careful enough or keep a "clean" enough kitchen to feed someones super allergic child. I do not want to be assigned that responsibility. I will happily do my best to keep another child safe but please don't ask me to feed them. Ds spent the day baking in my kitchen. Nut products are everywhere. Months before things could possibly be nut free after today. I kept thinking of this thread.....

Ok, Stacia and Storm Bay, I will chime in on Angelmaker and the Steampunk issue. Please be forgiving of typos -- I spent 12 hours helping DS with his entry for a baking contest tomorrow. Lots of dirty dishes and my kitchen has been in shambles a couple of times. I have moved on to wine........ Angelmaker is not Steampunk because techniycally it should be a very Alternative Victorian London to be Steampunk. Not just clockwork but advanced science like genetic engineering gone a bit wild. Things like talking (swearing) delivery birds carrying messages between people verbally, knowing everyones address(these are in Mark Hodder books). There are no creature like that in Angelmaker. Lots of fabulous machines and clockwork but no world gone wild scientifically. The thing that had me confused is London in the book is not the London I know at all. Close but not quite right. This London seemed covered with fog and riddled with tunnels -- both things do exist but the Angelmaker world is far better. :) The underground crime gangster element was a large part of the book and enjoyable.imo At the point I read the book I declared it Steampunk because of London and Clockwork. Probably should have classed it as a thriller with unusual elements, clockwork. I have since read the first Mark Hodder book and more of the Soulless series. Steampunk needs impossible creatures I think. Really needs Victorians. Please chime in because I am still defining this. I hope this helps. Angelmaker was wonderful and I don't want to keep someone from reading it by having classed it as steampunk incorrectly.

I really like who she ended up with too. Overall satisfied with the ending. I can't tell you how much I loved that series before I watched the show. Just ruined the last two books in the series for me. :( I like her other series (all three of them) and plan to start rereading them soon. :)

I know this won't make you feel better but Discovery of Witches is far better then the sequel. I enjoyed the first and had looked forward to the second. What a disappointment!

The cd-rom book version has them as printables on the disc with the tests.

I haven't bought them in awhile but so could be gone but Aldi sells a variety of trail mix/high nut content snacks for under a pound. I think I have bought them in US too from Aldi. A bag of roasted peanuts is always a cheap snack.

I am on the teach the phonics if possible side. Dd could read very well on her 4th bday but we still did the phonics. Foreign languages and spelling in all languages are very easy for her probably because of her early phonics background. I always asked both dc's "What do you think.....means" for the enviromental reading. Frequently they understood the main point just not the details I would have originally offered. Generally they were satisfied to simply be told they had the right idea. If not a simple answer was usually adequate. By asking the question I knew what level of answer I needed to give.

:grouphug: praying

Interesting, thank you.

I do wonder why so many are allergic in the US. Several of dc's US friends have nut allergies. Only one in UK so far. We eat peanut butter sandwiches on group outings here with no worries about others. The only conclusions I have are many wait til five to introduce peanut butter here and it is not popular because the non US brands are odd. :grouphug:

No!!!

Now you have me curious about their marketing. My kindle is on a different amazon account then the dc's. I was the only one with the diaper ads. We do buy household goods(no diapers ever) out of that account. I haven't gotten the R rated movie ads on either. We are not buying our Dvds at Amazon much anymore maybe thats why. The City of Bones was the scariest cover imo on either but I couldn't complain because dd was reading it already and I had approved it.

It is generally an upcoming movie or book release. I have never noticed anything offensive about the ads. Most you won't want to buy for a 6 year old but something amazon sells. City of Bones featured for a couple of weeks. For awhile I had a new themed diaper ( tiki huggies I think) frequently offered. Currently The Disenchanted Widow's book cover is featured on my 3G. My kids like the ads. They actually discuss who has what ad wise and how often. Sort of an informal marketing class. No one wants the boring no ad kindle. :lol:

I found another site to bookmark on this thread so thank you.

I went ahead and finished the last Sookie Stackhouse book ever according to Charlaine Harris, the author. I adored the first books in this series when they were just books. My friend convinced me to watch some of True Blood which even my friend admits isn't like the books--True Blood characters now invade my pages and they are very distracting. I can't quite get past them and see the characters anymore. My imagination was soooo much better. This one didn't thrill me, honestly she should have made the last book 100 pages longer to conclude the ongoing stories and skipped this one altogether.

Glad you had fun!

Kate -- I am so sorry. It sounds really trite but I know how you feel in many ways. I wrote most of this and have been trying to decide if I should post it. I know I am overly emotional right now. This weekend the last event I planned with my friend will happen. A cancer charity event, she won't be there and it really is upsetting me. But here is the original post: Last year one of my close home ed mom friends died from cancer. I didn't know how to handle much of it. Stayed away longer then I should have. Was afraid to take my dc's along because of the sadness but had to because our son's are good friends. I finally got my act together and went. No other way to phrase it since we had always been welcome. My friend always ran a continuous open house. She loved her friends hugely. We spent lots of time together last summer. Really wonderful times. It doesn't have to be sad. My friend prayed for a cure, at least a reprieve that would allow her children to grow up a bit more first. We all believed with her. She was so strong and positive. She tried every cure available. We planned happy things and she managed to do many of them with help. Go to your friend and enjoy your time with her. Trust me when I say you will treasure it later. The after is the really hard part. :grouphug:

I am so glad you love it too! Now I just need to find a new book to love. Reading several - nothing special. Ho hum.......

Eliana - I loved reading about your daughter's wedding. It is lovely that you were able to really experience the community where she will be living. I know your dd will really appreciate the fact that you spent the time there. As someone who lives someplace my family has never been I am so glad for you both that you made the effort. Once again you have added to my list....

Whenever one of mine turns into a complainer I take a good look at the company they are keeping. Generally (for us) it can be traced back to too much time with a couple of "friends" who seem to set them up for this behavior. I generally try to limit exposure to the source (friend) for a while without making a issue of it and explain that we don't behave this way. Asking them to stop whining when they start. The other thing I do is bring in the positive influences, as in I plan time with their friends who don't whine.