Thanks for the reply! Glad to hear it’s not so bad. It is expensive. This CC uses just the online book, enter all assignments online, so you need the code. Online is what I read the complaints about. I decided to drop the Spanish and put him in Psyc101. Going to give Homeschool Spanish Academy a try.

DS16 asked to take Spanish 101 at Ivy Tech CC. We’re in IN. They use Portales Spanish online book from Vista Higher Learning, ISBN 978-1-68004-195-8. I went looking on Amazon for a used hard copy to have on hand and found only scathing reviews of the Portales program. I realize students can complain, but many felt the program was very frustrating to work with. I’m hoping to hear from someone who’s used it. This will be his first CC class so I don’t want it to be awful. Anybody? Thanks!

My ds has done EP1-5. I think he was 13 when he started, which is probably a little old for the program. I tried to use the books that came with the Snap Circuits, but it wasn't getting done. I signed him up, not expecting much, didn't pay much attention to what he was working on, just happy the kit was getting used and I didn' t have to learn about electronics myself 🙃. Totally hands-off, casual approach. In the past few months we've had a couple repair guys come to fix the garage door opener and oven. When ds saw the circuit boards the men were replacing, he got all interested, telling me what the bits and pieces are called and what they do. He seems to have learned some things. Good enough. I think it was worth the $65 every eight weeks. Ds was entertained, he learned something new, Snap Circuits got used. He says he wants to do the remaining units.

A few years ago the kids asked for pumkin pie. I rolled a perfect crust, mixed up the pumkin filling, and baked it to perfection. Kids waited patiently for it to cool. Finally, we sliced it up, topped it with whipped cream, and they shoveled in a big bite. I forgot to add the sugar ðŸ˜. A friend of mine hosted a big Thanksgiving dinner and thickened the gravy with cream of tartar. Nobody said a word and she didn't realize till the next day when she tasted the gravy with leftovers. 😆

What about unsweetened Kool-Aid packets? I remember using them with Splenda and gelatin years ago. Should work with Stevia, too. I bet you could get actual recipes from Google or Pinterest.

Maybe try asking on the IEW Forum. There is a Fix-It section and the IEW ladies are very helpful with answering questions. You can sign up from the website, under the support tab, I think. We are working on book 3, and sometimes we have trouble figuring out where to end the clauses, too. What helps me is to go thru the whole sentence and mark all the Verbs first, then the Subjects, then underline all the prepositional phrases. The prepositional phrases on the end are included in the clause, then the next S/V are usually another clause. If I'm not sure where a clause ends, I leave it open and just look for the beginning of the next clause. That seems to make the previous ending easier to see. We are learning and improving. Yea, reading back over my advice, maybe you better go to the IEW forum ðŸ˜. Those ladies are much better explainers 🤓

LOL, I had the same experience, that guy is looney toones for sure! The Spice House has the same spices, even the amazing Vietnamese cinnamon, and no ranting emails. 😄

Years ago I took my 17yo son to the ER, turns out he had pneumonia. The nurse referred to me as his girlfriend 😆. Poor kid.

My ds had trouble keeping the columns lined up as the problem was going down the page, it stressed him out. I gave him graph paper, it all lined up perfect and he was able to focus on the actual algorithm much better.

My ds13 and I are really enjoying Lial's Introductory Algebra. I say we because I bought myself a copy too, we are both students :-). We sit together and work through the same sections independently. Jann, mentioned upthread, does online classes using Lial's. I am considering that for next year, but so far we are fine on our own. Ds chose Lial's after we used the pre-algebra last year. The book has very detailed steps explaining how to work the problems. Even a math phobic Mom can learn, Lol! I don't have to teach or explain anything. The problem sets at the end of the lessons indicate which section they are from, so if we get stuck it's easy to go back and take another look. These used texts are very inexpensive on Amazon, we just go ahead and write in them. Since you said your kids didn't want to learn math from you, with Lial's they could probably figure it out on their own. Depending on their levels, maybe they might want to team up and work together? Remember to have fun!

purina fortiflora? it's actually a probiotic, but it has digestive enzymes or something that makes cats go crazy for it. it worked for my fussy feline with kidney disease. https://www.amazon.com/Purina-Fortiflora-Feline-Nutritional-Supplement/dp/B001650OE0/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1471190178&sr=8-2&keywords=fortiflora

We had a pet Monarch last year. Rather than harvesting individual leaves, I cut the top portion of the plant and put it in a small vase. I recut the bottom every few days, just like you do with flowers, it stayed fresh quite a while. I also put plastic wrap secured with a rubber band across the top of the vase, poke the plant through, so the catapiller wouldn't fall in and drown. You could also use a small spice bottle or a glass, etc. When he got pretty fat, we added a small sturdier stick with horizontal branches so he could attach his crysalis. Right now we have two Black Swallowtail catapillers I found munching on the dill in my garden. They are now happily residing on a bouquet of dill and parsley :-) Have fun!

I like the maps on this site: http://www.d-maps.com/continent.php?num_con=5&lang=en Here is a funny mnemonic story we used to learn the countries of the Europe. It's actually from a YouTube video. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qdCu2sKhYfk I typed it out and we tell the story and point to the countries on a map. We laughed a lot, and now we know all the countries. Apologies for loss of formatting, I can't seem to attach a Word doc. Europe We are going to call Europe Tugal. Tugal is a pretty Russian girl. Italy looks like a fancy Italian boot with a fancy heel. Tugal loves to wear fancy boots. These boots are so fancy or francy – France that Tugal got excited and switched them - Switzerland. Because she had them on the wrong leg, she sprained - Spain her ankle. Poor Tugal – Portugal. You can remember Portugal because it has all the ports of Spain. As impulsive as she is, I hope she doesn’t open Pandora’s Box – Andorra. Tugal has a germy knee – Germany, see her bent knee? Her knee is germy because she writes on it with a fountain pen, pen mark – Denmark. Ok, forget Tugal for now. Let’s talk about Peter Pan. Where is Wendy? She flies by Big Ben clock, so she is from the UK – United Kingdom. Where does she fly with Peter Pan? To NeverNeverland – Netherland. There are a few things to remember about the UK, it’s actually several countries, Northern Ireland, Scotland, England, and Wales. The southern part of the Island of Ireland is called The Republic of Ireland, and it is not a part of the UK. Legend has it that Icelanders didn’t want people to invade their country, so they named it Iceland. They wanted people to end up on the icy plains of Greenland. Iceland is green and Greenland is icy. Back to Germany, think of Germany as Pac Man, see how it’s nombing on this country? Germany loves breakfast foods. The cereal it’s eating now is Chex – The Czech Republic. The cereal it already digested is Lucky Charms – Luxemburg. It also digested this country that’s waffled, - Belgium waffles, between France and Germany. Why is Germany eating all these countries? Because it is awesomely hungry – Austria & Hungary. The Czech Republic used to be Czechoslovakia but it split up into Czech Rep. & Slovakia. Some countries are on special medications. Germany is Bi-Polar or By- Poland. A common medication for bi-polar is lithium – Lithuania. You can’t take too much lithium or you might need laxatives – Latvia. If you take too many laxatives you might get kidney stones – Estonia. Remember the Soup Nazi from Seinfeld? No Soup For Russia. NSFR – Norway, Sweden, Finland, Russia. Russia is a great big country, but they gathered all the most beautiful parts and put them in Belarus. Bel is Latin for beautiful, Belarus means beautiful Russia. What do you do when you see a beautiful Russian girl walking down the street? You crane your neck – Ukraine. You might want to take her on a date to the ice cream parlor and get her a malt – Moldova. But she would refuse because she spends hours working out on her rowing machine – Romania. All that rowing gave her bulging muscles – Bulgaria. She eats healthy and insists on only Turkey. These next countries are easy to learn if you remember Slo Cro BoHe Mo, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina (one country), Montenegro. The last country looks like a grease spill in the ocean – Greece. anybody got a story for the rest? Malta, Liechenstein, Monaco Serbia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Albania

I'm sorry to hear your DD is suffering this. I have the same issue. My pain started after a dentist visit where I had to keep my mouth open wide for a long time. OMG soooooo painful. I had to blender all my food for several months 😟. My insurance also doesn't cover TMJ specialist, so I also had to see an oral surgeon. The oral surgeon made me a splint, not to prevent grinding, it is to keep the bottom jaw in a forword position in hopes the disc will slide back in place. This splint was like a custom mouth gaurd type device. It was hard to tolorate the splint, I ended up using mostly at night because I couldn't speak with it in. Eventually the inflammation went down and the pain subsided. We also tried some jaw exercises, but the disc didn't go back in. If I get in bad pain again, I plan to bite the bullet and pay for the specialist $$$$$$$$$. For now I am just very careful not to do anything to strain my jaw. No gum, chewy bagels, jerky, etc. Also avoid long dentist visits. I am doing ok. Did you find the TMJ yahoo group? http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TMJRealSupport-Information This would be a good place to get a doctor review/recommendation. Until you get to see the better doctor, try anti-inflammatory meds, like Advil, not tylenol. And rest it, no chewing, try not to yawn big or open wide. Get applesauce, yogurt, soup, soft food. Once the pain goes away, continue to be cautious, it is easy to re-injure it. For what it's worth, my Dr said he has better luck getting the disc to go back in place with younger patients. I know this is no fun and hope your DD feels better soon.

DH and my grown DS's always like to receive a nice Fenix flashlight. Lots of different models depending on your price. http://www.amazon.com/E12-flashlight-EdisonBright-alkaline-battery/dp/B00I9W7MRK/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1450755519&sr=8-3&keywords=fenix+aa

Well, I'm not very outdoorsy, and I haven't actually used this 🙄, but I did a bit of research on water filters and purchased these for my family to have on hand just in case of whatever. I chose this one because it can be used like a straw, or you can screw on a collapsable bottle and take some water with you. It comes with a syringe so it can be backwashed if it becomes clogged with sediment. You can hook an in-line carbon filter to it so the water will taste good. sawyer mini water filter http://www.amazon.com/Sawyer-Products-SP128-Filtration-System/dp/B00FA2RLX2/ref=sr_1_1?s=sporting-goods&ie=UTF8&qid=1450487503&sr=1-1&keywords=sawyer+mini+water+filter carbon filter http://www.amazon.com/Platypus-Gravity-Works-Carbon-Element/dp/B0075JKLFI/ref=sr_1_1?s=outdoor-recreation&ie=UTF8&qid=1450486884&sr=1-1&keywords=carbon+filter+platypus Happy Shopping

My son was experiencing pencil frustration. We switched to Pentel Twist-Erase III mechanical pencil, 0.9mm. He loved the weight and feel of this pencil, but the lead was too hard, driving him crazy. I threw out the lead that came with it and replaced it with Pentel 2B 0.9mm lead. This is the softest lead I could find in 0.9mm. This combination was a winner, the lead writes smooth and dark, rarely brakes, and the pencil has a terrific twist up eraser 😄. pencil: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0047CP6SI?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00 lead: http://www.amazon.com/Pentel-Hi-Polymer-Refill-Pieces-50-9-2B/dp/B000HF0GW0/ref=pd_sim_229_2?ie=UTF8&dpID=51A0vkxBxhL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR127%2C160_&refRID=0HK18Y9MEK7VNJ13EQST Good luck!