I would be honest about your reason for looking for employment -- you have been a SAHM and with all of the expenses of living and the fact that your kids are older, now is a good time to earn some money. I wouldn't just mention the college education factor, because it may sound like more of an "elective" expense thus meaning that you may be a short-timer if you don't like working. I would use your local friends as references if possible, just because as someone who hires people, if I see the name of someone I recognize, I can immediately call them and find out if the applicant is someone that I could be interested in. It may help you get an interview. worth it. I have heard of attorneys who have taken clerical work. Especially with the job market for attorneys right now, I don't think that it would be that big of a deal that you are looking for other work and people also understand about not wanting to have a "high powered" career. Many employers may feel that they are getting a bargain. I think that a key here is to appear to be personable and ease any concerns that they may have that you feel that you are accepting a position that requires less than your qualifications. I would emphasize that fact that you are excited to get back in the workforce and be part of a team and work outside the home.

My son is a Lego fanatic and he loves to build creations. He has attended several Lego Robotics camps and he didn't like them. He felt that they were boring because they were about programming and very little building. I sincerely wish that he enjoyed Lego Robotics but we tried 3 different camps/classes (same instructor who is an engineer and seemed good) and it was a no go. Legos are his primary interest and I would love it if he could be involved in a Lego group. The robotics programming seemed very easy and the robots seemed so limited. Is there something that I am missing here? I am hoping that someone with more experience can give me further insight. DS is definitely not interested in computers but he loves remote control stuff. I am wondering if even though it is Lego Robotics, it is ultimately more of a computer club than a Lego club. Anyway, any thoughts or input on this would be appreciated!

I am also a book lover with loads of books and my sons are good readers but are not big on novels. We have free reading during the day for a set time and the only rule is no comic books during that time. Any other books or magazines are fair game including ones that I may think are too easy. We also have a separate assigned reading time for more challenging books. In the WTM the suggestion is to go to the library and require one book of each of these categories to be checked out "poetry, hobby/craft, science, history, children's classic, art, biography". They are not required to read them, just check them out. Oftentimes they end up reading them even if at first they think they might not be interested. They are frequently surprised at what they find. I didn't see any nonfiction mentioned in your post. One of my son loves nonfiction, including Sports Illustrated, Kids Almanac, biographies, Guinness Book of World Records. My other son likes humor and poetry. They both love Garfield books (easy to read but it is reading and they get a huge kick out of him) and Calvin and Hobbes (one reviewer said Calvin has the vocabulary of a Yale graduate!) Also, if I have a book that I really want them to read, I ask them to read it to me. E.g., I asked one son to read Heidi to me and my other son. That worked great and we all really enjoyed it. It would have been a push for him to read it by himself. The shared experience made it fun for all of us and he read the whole thing. Anyway, a few ideas -- hope this helps. I love to read everything I can get my hands on and I love to collect books, so I can relate to you! ETA: Also, if I think they might enjoy a book, I ask them to read just a couple of chapters and tell me what they think of it and then they don't have to finish it. If I REALLY want them to read it, I read a few chapters to them to start them off.

I think that this looks appropriate for journaling and is comparable to what my kids did at those ages. My goal in journaling is just to get some free flowing writing on the paper without getting bogged down with right answers etc. It seems beneficial just for them to be able to share what they are thinking and what they have been doing and just enjoy writing and communicating. I believe that it helped my kids with the flow of their writing in more formal assignments because they were used to getting their thoughts down on paper.

I like his opening sentence -- it shows his voice and personality in the writing. As previously mentioned it definitely depends on the formality of the assignment and the topic, but assuming that it was supposed to be a fun story, I think that it is fine -- it catches one's interest. I see how the blank is a problem though. Maybe just call it a dipping sauce and leave out the blank. For a closing sentence, he definitely needs to tell what the sauce was! He could go down a couple of lines and then maybe say something like " BBQ sauce -- it was plain old BBQ sauce. How goofy is that? I have had lots of BBQ before but since my tongue was expecting ketchup, my brain couldn't figure it out!" I know that this uses a casual tone but I was actually discussing this with a teacher friend of mine the other day and she was emphasizing how important it is to let personality etc come through in writing and not be overly formal since oftentimes that isn't what is needed and personality is what makes the story fun and interesting. Anyway,it definitely depends on the formality of the assignment. I would help him keep the tone in this one and then maybe work on a more formal assignment in the future so his enthusiasm is dampened over this one. Fun!

I think this sounds good. I would definitely have been satisfied with this from my kids. I am especially impressed with the correct spelling!

I agree with this. Regarding the spelling, I have one son who struggles with spelling and so often I will write some of the key words on the white board before he starts writing so that he doesn't have to continually stop to ask me how to spell things and thus start getting frustrated and losing his train of thought. This also helps him to focus on some of the key points of his topic. This would work well with Dee's idea too because as you discuss the topic with your child you can write down any other words that she mentions such as "fantastic" etc as this will help with the spelling as well as a reminder of what she is going to write.

I am working on preparing a lesson on Renoir for our co-op (5th-6th grade). Does anyone have any suggested resources for this? I have some Sister Wendy resources, a Renoir coloring book and some Renoir post card sized paintings but I don't have a good story of his life or paintings. Any suggestions? Thanks!

Thanks for the help! I am going to give him one pill and check into Ibuprofen for the future. I didn't realize that there was such a big difference re side effects.

He is 105 pounds, so the dosage calculates out to 640 mg. The adult acetaminophen comes in 500 mg caplets, so he could take one and be well under the limit. The instructions say not to give it to anyone under 12 due to overdose and liver damage. I am wondering if there is something different about the children's acetaminophen that makes it okay to give to kids. I don't have any kid's medicine on hand and would like to avoid a trip to the store. Thanks!

Ok, this is going to drive me nuts until you find it, so you HAVE to let us know when you do and where it was! Pretty please!

No holes in the wall here, thank goodness! I went with the $20 for each of them and they seemed fine with that. Thanks!

That is a good one! I frequently mis-read thread titles too and come up with some doozies! :)

We are having our new (refurbished) baby grand delivered today. Should we tip the movers? If so, how much? I want to do whatever is appropriate. Thanks!

I haven't heard of the Duke program. Is it worthwhile and is there anything comparable for the west coast?

Star Wars lightsabers (non-electronic). My husband bought them for my kids when they were 4 years old or so. I thought they were boring toys but the kids have played and played and played with them and still play with them and they are 11 now.

I like the idea of bringing a board game for the adults and kids to play together. Apples to Apples works great for my family. Even if the cousins don't want to play at first, they may see how much fun it is and want to join in This gives everyone a chance to enjoy each other and since adults are participating it helps to smooth any issues out that may occur with the kids.

Is there such a thing? We carry ours around (upstairs, downstairs, home, office)and are generally rough on it. We have one from Target and the base is broken and it is fading and I would love one that we could really USE. Anyone have any ideas? The National Geographic ones look nice but they are pricey. I would be willing to spend some $ if it was going to be sturdy. Any ideas?

We do butter as well. I was really surprised to see the results of the poll -- I thought that margarine would be a lot more popular. My grandma used to call margarine "oleo" because was originally called oleomargarine and it was white and came with a packet of yellow coloring to mix into it.

entrepeneur

I have always wondered how many people use the reading lists in the WTM. We have followed them very closely (we skipped Hunchback and a couple of others due to sensitive kids) but I don't see much discussion of the books on the boards and I am wondering if that is because most people don't use them. If you do use them, what has been your experience? And if you don't use them, what do you use instead and why?

She lives in Okanogan and it woke her up. She said it felt like a herd of elephants going through her house! We live in Spokane area and I didn't feel anything.

Darn! That is a disappointment! My kids play piano and we just went to see one of friends in the local youth orchestra and I can see how fun it would be. Keep us updated -- hope he finds something!

This was absolutely our favorite history project. Now the kids want to make everything in history out of rice krispie treats -- pyramids, famous buildings, you name it. We molded them while they were still hot/warm. It was a bit of a sticky hot mess but fun. Butter your hands really really well and also use buttered wax paper. We held the wax paper in our hands to grab the rice krispie mix. It turned out well, although not exactly a work of art! We used Cocoa Krispies to achieve a brown castle.

I agree with 2nd or 3rd grade. It also depends on how much the student was asked to write.