My son Noah has used the MiniMed pump for just over a year. I chose that pump because my mom (also T1) has a MiniMed and was getting the updated version at the same time. I was somewhat familiar with her pump (saw her use it) and liked that she would be able to answer my questions and she could care for Noah easily. For these reasons, I didn't even look at any other options. I am happy that we chose the MiniMed. I don't know much about other pumps, so I'm not sure if what I am going to say is unique to MM or not. First, there are a variety of infusion sets to choose from. Right now we use one that is a plastic cannula that goes straight in, but there are other options like one where the needle doesn't come out, and one that goes in at a 45 degree angle. We've had some issues lately with the plastic cannula getting bent and not delivering the insulin so we may change to one of the other infusion sets. Having these options is nice. I like that we are linked to the One Touch meter. Saves time. We don't have to enter BG's. I like that we can be linked to a continuous glucose monitoring system. We've had a little trouble getting this to work but it is very cool when it does. There are some things that I don't like, but I'm not sure if another pump would be any better. I don't like the tubing, but Noah doesn't seem to mind it. Being a boy, he doesn't have any issues with clipping the pump on his pants and tucking in the tubing. We have had a lot of trouble with the sites failing. I'm not really sure what is going on, but it is frustrating. For this reason, we don't have great A1C numbers. I have heard that pumps often do not improve a1C's but do make having D a little bit easier. Well, I feel like a wrote a book. I hope that something I said was helpful!

my ds has a pump. I'm nursing baby so I'll come back to tell you about it.

I spend $400 a month on groceries for the 6 of us. It doesn't get me very much. All we get to eat today is peanut butter and bread. No other food is left.

I felt like I spent more than I saved. (My membership is free through my husbands work and I still don't go.) There is no way to compare prices while you are in the store. They often sell only name brand items. There are too many temptations. For these reasons it didn't work for me. (My only experience is with Sam's Club). But.........I do miss all those samples. And getting my pictures developed for a great price.

I really like the Green Thumbs book. We did supplement with a lot of library books though. I did a week on soil, a week on seeds, a week on roots, then stems, leaves, flowers, and fruit. We did projects and watched videos, and read a lot of books. Our favorite project was building a model plant: * Make a model plant. Straight cut a carpet tube into three-foot lengths. Drill holes around the bottom of the tube. Thread light brown yarn through the holes and tie knots, making roots. Using the top of the tube for a pattern, make a cardboard circle. Cut wire filament for the stamen, using the heavy gauge wire you buy off a flat spool at the craft store. Glue cotton puffs or clumps of polyfil material onto the ends of the stamen for anther. Dip in yellow chalk dust for pollen. Make a stigma from a green plastic bottle and hot-glue it to the middle of your cardboard circle. Stick your wire stamen down through the cardboard. Now make petals and a calyx from posterboard or construction paper, painted newspaper, or whatever. Assemble with hot glue gun (be careful!) all the way down to the stem. Now paint your stem green, glue on some leaves and there you have it! Draw and color some little bugs. Write the plant part names on your bugs. Cut them out and put them where they should go on the plant. The First Animal Encyclopedia was too simple for my first grader. We had actually bought the book for him when he was 4 yo. We followed the WTM reccomedations by choosing library books about animals we were interested in (we just skipped the encyclopedia part). I bought a science fair display board from Wal-mart and we divided it into 6 sections. We used construction paper to make 6 different habitats and placed pictures of the animals in the habitats. We had lots of fun with this ongoing project. I've never looked at the Human Body Encycolpedia. I picked about 10 different topics and we read books and completed projects. Our favorite books were by Seymour Simon This was probably more than you were asking for! Hope it helps.

:iagree: My friend's children irritate me and my children irritate her. We just tune out our own chidren's noises/voices.

I don't have a child in 4th grade, but I did just finish SOTW 1 activity guide with my 7 yo ds. Since I have younger children we will be going through it again in 4 years. I remember reading some of the project ideas and thinking that I am glad that we will be going back through it because some of the activities are cool, but to advanced for a 1st grader. So, my answer is yes, a 4th grader would enjoy the activity guide. Examples of projects: Make Cuneiform Tablets Make a Hieroglyphic Scroll Make a Chicken Mummy Make Joseph's Coat Compose Your Own Fairy Tale Science Project: What Does it Take to Make a Brick Art Project: Make a Blue and Whte Ming Bowl Craft Project: Paper Bead Necklace Cooking Project: African Feast Make a Monkey Doll Play Tomb Discovery Make a Red Sea Diorama Famine Experiment Make Purple Dye

On our last long trip I wrote activites on index cards. Many of the activities have been mentioned, but also: - puppets - create a story and write and illustrate a book (just pieces of paper stapled together) - sing songs Then DH would let us know when we had gone a certain number of miles (25, I think) and we would change activities by drawing another index card. It worked well because we didn't just pull something out when everyone was getting cranky.

We are finishing RS Level B this week. :D My ds and I have really liked it. He really understands math and has a lot of strategies for solving problems. The concepts are presented so logically that I often don't even have to teach him the next thing, he can figure it out on his own. (And he is just a normal kid-not advanced or particularly good with numbers. ) I decided not to supplement, but to be diligent about playing the games and doing the practice sheets.

This is my second time having a child in K. This is what we have planned for this year: Right Start Math level A OPG and easy readers Mom-made handwriting stuff Five in a Row Leading Little Ones to God And Because she has an older brother: SOTW- volume 2 Earth Science stuff: Exploring Creation with Astronomy and The Earth Science book by Dinah Zike Song School Latin

Thanks for organizing this. It sounds like fun!

I waited with my DS until he was in 1st. Since he has an early birthday he was already 7. I really, really wanted to start earlier but decided to stick with the WTM recomendations. I;m glad that I waited. Even at 7 I felt like he was too young for some of the activities in the activity guide. We ended up using FIAR for K and really had a great time.

I kept forgetting to care for it. I'm not good with long term projects. Although we didn't finish it, my children really did like it. I will probably do it again when we come back to this time period in history.

Good job! Here's a thought: They were offering you gas money... Think how that may bless the family that does end up taking the girl to and from school.

We are starting this in the fall. I was leaning toward the ecclesiastical pronunciation because if they were to ever hear Latin it would probably be that pronunciation. (But that is just a wild guess on my part.) :001_huh:

Thanks for the reply. I have been trying to regularly do the games and I will try and add the drill sheets in next year.

I've noticed that a lot of RS users supplement with Challenging Word Problems from Singapore. I really wanted to do this next year (level C) but we are to the point in our budget where every penny counts. What if I didn't supplement. What would I be missing? Why are so many of you using this workbook? Thanks.

Thanks, these are great explanations.

I'm looking ahead to 2nd grade in FLL and I'm confused about the difference between a linking verb and a verb that shows a state of being. FLL presents these as two separate things (even mentions that children may have trouble identifying the difference). However, when I tried to look up more information about the difference, most web-sites consider them to be the same thing. Is a state of being verb a linking verb? Where can I go to educate myself about grammar? Thanks!

We spend about 15 minutes each day on the games.

13 months 18 months 15 months and still waiting (10 months so far) i had a friend at LLL go 26 months

We have a few "Homeschool Academies" in our city. The children go for a half-day or full-day once a week. What about organizing a science or history co-op to meet a few times a month?

I passed someone who needed help. I think I did the right thing, but I always wonder and feel guilty about it. At the time we lived in the inner city. We had a car and drove, but many, many people took the bus and there were many homeless people on the streets, so the sidewalks were a busy place. On the way to the grocery store I saw a man laying face up on the sidewalk and people were just walking around him. (Not even looking down at him). He was probably homeless, but I didn't see any bags or a shopping cart around him to indicate for sure. To help I would have had to turn around and then also keep an eye on my 3 year old and 1 year old. Plus I had no cell phone. I still think about this often. Am I just making excuses for not helping? Or did I really do the right thing for my family?

I started in 5th grade when I saw that my piano teacher did it. About 6 years later I noticed that the knuckles that I cracked most often were bigger than the others. :001_huh: I quit then, but it was hard. My knuckles hurt soooo bad. I really, really, really wanted to crack them. I can't remember exactly how long the pain lasted and if I did give in a few times. Good luck!