That is a sweet find!

Thanks for the feedback.

The blog 100 days of real food has lots of lunch suggestions, including items to use when packing your lunch. Maybe you can find some hints/tips there.

We're looking at signing up for Latin 1a. Does anyone have a preference of one teacher over another for this class?

It's also not just the amount of cayenne but the intensity of the cayenne as well. The cayenne that I get from the health food co-op is much more intense than the cayenne from the grocery store aisle. Your friend and her family would probably benefit from legal counsel and an open mind about changing their disciplinary tactics.

I think the new aspect of the problem is that now it's nationwide and teachers are actually leaving the profession. The teacher shortages we experienced in the 1980's tended to be relagated to certain areas. Solutions focused on getting teachers to move to these districts. Now, instead of teachers moving from one district to another, they are choosing to leave the profession altogether.

This is my take-away, too. Most of the teachers that I know who have left the classroom have done it for one of two reasons -- to homeschool their own children or to escape the ever increasing burdens of the job. Other teachers that I know have taken other jobs as new industries with better pay have moved into our area. Regardless of the reasons, there are more teachers teaching on waivers in my state's school systems each year, especially in the STEM classes.

We used a lot of the same ideas that folks have already posted. My secret weapon, though, was small squares of carpet. Each of our children had a small square of carpet that we used for many different games and circle time when they were little. When it was time to leave they would hurriedly get ready to go, and then sit on their squares. The game part was to think up a story to tell, and the one who had gotten to his square first got to tell his story first in the van, then the second, and so on. They loved it!

Um, I just saw your addition, I'm speechless! What can you say to someone who infers that a tutor need not be proficient in a subject to use it as a tool to teach a skill? Please don't spend any of your time to answer my qualifications questions or provide a link. I no longer have any interest in giving time to this topic.

Thanks for taking the time to look for a link. Qualified can be an arbitrary term. I'm happy with a more concrete answer such as what does CC require for a person to tutor in its upper level programs -- experience, profiency, references, maybe degrees ( to me, degrees are not a necessity. )

I'll answer why I care. I care because of all those new homeschool moms you keep mentioning. You take these new moms who see multiple meetings listed multiple times on the local homeschool loops, and they decide to check it out. Maybe they like what they hear or see and join. At the foundations level, I have no issue with what or how your tutors present to the students. Some folks will like this method and some won't - to each his own. The problem for me comes in the older years where a qualified tutor, IMO, is a must. New homeschool moms don't always know to check the credentials of the tutors. After all, they wouldn't be tutoring if they weren't qualified, right? I'd love to hear more about the qualifications needed for your directors and tutors. Do you have a link that you can provide? It seems that CC lacks quality control in its business model which leads to inconsistent experiences from one community to another.

I think you've summed up my experience with those in CC. The appointing of tutors seems to be based upon the financial need of the tutor and not the expertise --kind of like in MLM where someone offers the "business opportunity" to customers so they can get products at a discount or for free. Then you add in the CC tutors, whom I don't know, but have contacted me for help in a subject that I have a reputation for teaching in our area; and I continue to have major doubts about the CC model. We are not part of a CC community.

too much detail

Thanks for posting this article. It was an interesting read.

I can relate to not being a naturally tidy person. The biggest thing that I had to learn to do, after getting rid of clutter, was to learn to pick up after myself and to teach my children how to do the same. It seems like a no-brainer;but if you grew up not doing it, then it just doesn't come naturally. The steps that helped our family the most were: Massive decluttering Finding a home for everything Picking up after ourselves Having a set time for general pickup/chores each day ( usually after lunch or before dinner ) finishing at least one load of laundry from beginning to end each day Best wishes as you find what works best for you :-)

I'm not sure if you're referring to my post or not, but I agree that arnica is effective and proven for healing. I should have added sublingually to my post when answering the OP since that was specifically the form of arnica that I was addressing.

I usually stay out of these homeopathic discussions since they're usually so divided, but I recently read an article on the proven effectiveness of arnica. It seems that arnica is only safe to take in a homeopathic ( diluted) form when taken sublingually . The link is from the University of Maryland Medical Center. I haven't researched the underlying research, but it includes several double-blind studies which purport that it's not a placebo effect. ETA: Forgot the link http://umm.edu/health/medical/alted/herb/arnica Hopefully edited to be more clear. I really shouldn't post while cooking dinner.

The Natchez Trace is a bit of a drive, but you could catch The Hermitage on your way to Mammoth Cave. It's only about about five minutes from Lebanon Road which you can take directly out of downtown Nashville ( total travel time about twenty to twenty-five minutes) and then about fifteen to twenty minutes to I-65 N. Agreeing with others that Franklin is nice and so is the Parthenon. If you were talking about the General Jackson Showboat, I'd skip it. We personally think it's a lot of money for what you get. Walking through the Opryland Hotel is nice, and you can park at the mall and walk over. If not, hotel parking is about $18.

I disagree with his advice. The kiddos are 7 and 9 so I wouldn't expect them to work independently for an hour or two as the mom wants them to do. If my dc were in ps and had an hour or two of homework, I'd expect to be involved at those ages.

I've attended our state gifted and talented conference in the past. It was interesting and informative.

I agree with this, but are you still speaking about the op's child here? Have I missed a previous post or thread about her son being autistic? To the op -- The budget sounds like a creative solution for the autonomy problems. The one thing I'd personally do if I were in your shoes would be to try to determine beforehand what parts of the problem( if any ) are discipline issues and which are related to an actual medical or developmental problem so I'd know how to handle issues that may crop up with the budget. I'd probably check with my spouse, the docs, and the therapists to try to determine this. For example, if he runs out of money/foods and still refuses to eat will he eventually eat or will you need to provide more of the specific foods? If it's a matter of having to provide the specific foods then then the budget idea will only work if he accepts it. Another example would be the fish -- if I thought it was a discipline issue, then I'd simply not allow him to cook the fish and possible only provide canned fish such as salmon and tuna. If I thought it was truly detrimental to his health and unavoidable, then I'd try to suck it up and deal with the personal discomfort. Whatever the reson for the issue, I wish you the best as you try to find a workable solution.

As to the manual vs activator chiro -- I prefer the activator for two reasons. 1) I dislike the closeness required for manual chiropractic manipulations. 2) I prefer the "zoning in" on an area that a chiropractor can achieve when using an activator.

We've not found accredited diplomas to be a need. The physics major also applied to top tier schools with no problem, but chose his current school based on its reputation and the money offered. To be blunt, college admissions and merit aid ( excluding the top tier where everyone is pretty much in the 99th percentile ) is largely based on test scores. Accreditation is not a concern as far as I've seen.

Comfort items that I like to have for long hospital stays are my own tissues and toliet paper. The paper products supplied at our local hospital are unbelievably thin and rough. I also bring a mug and tea bags for hot tea. Best wishes to you and your family.

I agree with this but only including the stats for the wealthy habits would have served the same purpose without knocking the poor who are often dealing with overwhelming circumstances such as food deserts, poor school systems, lack of intelligence (some not all), born with FAS, etc.