Montessori has the student ideally stay with the same teacher for at least 3 years, sometimes 6. Unfortunately my ds's 4th grade teacher left before the 5th grade so he lacked the continuity that he had in grades 1-3. However his new 5th grade teacher was the better teacher. I also understand that in Italy, the teacher's stick with their class for many years. The parents do have the option to switch teachers and schools, though.

Are you talking about federal employees? Or state and local? If it's federal, which insurance program are you on? My dh has been in two different federal health insurance programs, and neither one was anything like what you're describing.

Several years ago, a local radio station increased their power. We heard it on: the land line (phone) the computer the cell phone (when it would work at all) People closer to the towers had it also interfere with: home security systems baby monitors Technology and power cause strange things to happen.

Just encouragement to Go For It. And don't let anyone talk you out of it! :grouphug: PS, and if 3 weeks is too expensive, go for what you can!

Sometimes I wonder about the questions. Is it really important to know that it's the FIRST amendment that bans an official religion? I don't think so, it's just important to know that the Constitution bans an official religion. It is nice to know that it was an amendment, but I don't think even that's necessary. Ad I'm puzzled by their statements that civic conversations and activities give a greater knowlege of gov't and current affairs, yet elected officials, who are discussing this stuff regularly do worse than those who watch TV news?!?!? There's a problem here that needs a lot more research. I'd like to know, are the tests the sort that are designed to trip people up? Are the questions clear or confusing? Are they overly detailed and nit picky for someone who hasn't taken a course in the subject for several years? Are the test takers serious about answering the tests? Who did they test, was it truly a representative sample? (Side note, a top notch professional pushed for passing a required test as a prerequisite to becoming registered in his field. He couldn't pass the test, yet he was tops in his field. ) I don't see how, given the quality of many of the documentaries and news programs I've watched, how some one who is PAYING ATTENTION to the programs, couldn't be learning history or current events. If they're veging out or multi-tasking, I can see how they wouldn't. Or if they're watching the 5 second sound bite programs, but there's a lot of good in-depth stuff out there. I may have too much faith in my fellow man, but I just can't see how that many could be that oblivious. Unless they're like my ds, can know the stuff solid and blow the test.

PBS was the only reason we got cable when we moved here, and we had THREE PBS statios in the area and couldn't get a single one from the antenna! BTW, having cable doesn't mean you have TV today either. One of our PBS stations went digital early and the cable company didn't changing the signal back to analog! We had to have Comcast install THEIR converter box, use THEIR remote and after a year's usage we start gettinng charged for it. And this is after months of being reassured by programs and ads about the switch that if you had cable you didn't need to worry. How many cable customers are now scrambling for those boxes?!?

We haven't seen hide nor hair of them.

Tuck Everlasting and Hatchett may be a bit too mature for a 9 yo. Tuck Everlasting deals with a fountain of youth where the individuals never mature beyond the moment they drank from it. There's a lot of discussion about the ramifications of this, but one issue is that the immature 17 (?) yo is interested in marrying a teen girl who hasn't drunk from it yet. We listened to it on a car trip, and I think much of it passed of ds's head but you may not want a 9 yo reading it. Hatchet in the first chapter or so deals with divorce and a drawn out death scene where the pilot dies of a heart attack and the teen has to land the plane himself. It was too intense for my ds who was well over 9 when we started to listen to it. It's a good book, but not for a 9 yo. It's written for mature teens. ETA Across Five Aprils is an excellent book that shows how the Civil War tore a small community and a family apart, though the family wasn't greatly ruptured. Sons just fought on opposite sides and still tried to hold on to the family bonds and loyalties. Because the war is reported on from a distance, the book isn't too intense for a 9 yo. I just think she might get more out of it if she waited a couple of years. But I would have no qualms if a 9 yo selected on her own.

Our T&C has FWD with traction control. The traction control has come in handy since only one of the front tires needs grip to pull the car forward. I've needed it on occasion. It also is less expensive than 4wd to maintain and gets better gas milage. so you might see if you can get that option, or something similar. I've never had AWD to compare it with.

Do you think our children should be independant thinkers? Only when they think just like me :lol: Seriously, some teachers aren't prepared for kids that think differently. Other teachers don't like kids that challenge their opinions. (But this characteristic isn't limited to teachers.) But I've had one teacher who pulled me aside after class to explain why she couldn't call on me all the time. she had to give the other kids a chance to answer. More importantly, I had many, many teachers that welcomed challenging questions and having to defend their answer key to the tests and, on occasion, even crediting our arguments. But in a third /fourth grade class, teachers are probably less likely to run into challenging questions. They're probably more used to planting iformation and asking leading questions to guide the burgenging thought processes. Remember, your dd is still technically in the grammar phase of learning. She, by age, isn't yet in the early stage of logic. So her teacher possibly hasn't developed the skills for teaching the logic stage and definately isn't in the mind set for handling it.

Nope, the swine flu is the common name and H1N1 is the more specific, scientific name. Similar to Europe otter ad Lutra lutra

All too often people try to make things overly simple, either because they don't grasp the complexities, they don't think their reader can grasp the complexities, or they don't want their readers to take in the complexities and disagree with the author's basic opinion. :tongue_smilie: But what I read into some posts was that the posters were not going in as an educated consumer to discuss health care with a professional and come to a the best decisionfor their families, but rather that they were going in with a chip on their shoulder to do battle with the doctor. It may be a bad mood they were in, they may not have explained their general attitude toward medicine completely or......? But how that is how some posters came across to me. And that's what I was objecting to.

I can see why you are upset with the OP's article, because it doesn't allow that for your dc react badly to vaccines. I'm also not thinking that those who are advocating a slower pace of vaccination or even picking and choosing which vaccines to to use. It's the individuals who keep talking about how the medical establishment is out to make money and doctors are paid off by drug companies,etc and parents are too lazy to take care of sick children that I think are indirectly driving parents away from any vacinations. But those childhood diseases AREN'T as benine as we remember. I do remember that German measles (or mumps?) frequently caused blindness. I remember because I had to sunglasses inside and couldn't even look out a window for over a week. I, as a compliant 1st grader, still got into trouble because I couldn't bear not seeing what was happenning outside on one occasion. How much more difficult for a toddler with the disease and his exhausted mother, especially if the toddler was an escape artist as some are.

Because some of those simple childhood diseases do permanent damage as soon as the child hits puberty. And it's sometimes difficult to time puberty.

Ours went up in Jan at the same time benefits were reduced. However since ours is through retired dh's former employer, it's subsidized and we're much better off than the self employed. But with my medical bill's, it's a lifesaver.

There are people who do have adverse reactions to some drugs and vaccines. But there are also people who have adverse and life threatening reactions to wheat, fish and other common foods. Do we recommend that ALL people avoid these foods based a a small populations reaction? No, we do require complete labeling (not always followed) to protect these individuals, but we don't ban these nutritious foods for the vast majority. Sometimes I get the feeling that many would scare all parents into boycotting all vaccines because of a small percentage of bad reactions. Yes, parents and doctors should be aware that some in the population have adverse reactions and be on the lookout for them. But the conspiracy theories and other things that float around get out of hand at times. Yes, the newer vaccines often have unanticipated risks. And they often are for diseases that were common childhood diseases that most of us survived with no lasting damage. But many didn't survive these common diseases as carefree as the majority, and researchers have detemined that the initial risks of the vaccines are lower than the risks of the disease. Ten or twenty years may prove them wrong, but they are trying to reduce the immediate risks that they can observe and see NOW. What we do need are ways to determine who are at greater risks for adverse reactions, so they can avoid the vaccines. Doctors can identify some individuals already. Ad they're working on other screening tests for all sorts of drugs and protocals. It may be that a slower vaccination schedule is called for, but it may mean leaving small children and infants at home for far, far longer periods than Americans tend to. In several foreign countries, I noticed that small children were rarely seen in public. When we were abroad adopting our ds, we would take him, 6 months, with us as we explored the country, the capital city and it's major food markets. And we never saw another child even close to his age away from the orphange!!!! It wasn't that children weren't loved, ds recieved all sorts of attention and offers to hold him and take care of him while we enjoyed ourselves. But young children were not seen in the market place or in other public spaces! Can you imagine never going grocery shopping or clothing shopping until your dh or another relative was home to watch over your toddlers and preschoolers? No toddlers or infants at Disney World? No free meals for the under 3 crew, because they weren't taken out? No taking your toddlers to homeschool conventions? It's just not done! That may be why other countries' medical establishments are comfortable with a slower vaccination schedule than ours.

There are several Roman Legionaire re-enactment groups in the area; MD, PA, VA and WV. They often have a civilian auxilary group for those not strictly into arms and battle tactics. Apparently the big Roman gathering will be in Sept at George Mason Uiversity in Fairfax. There are other gatherings throughout the year, often in conjunction with reenactors from other time periods, especially the middle ages. Try this link for more info: http://www.reenactor.net/Ancient/roman/us-can_units_list.html From a slightly later time period than te ancients, will be the terracotta soldier exhibit at the National Geographic exhibit hall. More info is at http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2001/11/ancient-china/hessler-text If you're willing to drive to Indy, and for this you might be willing to, The King Tut exhibit will be at the Children's Museum this summer and early fall. http://www.kingtut.org/home There are lots of other things you can do in the area to make it into a long weekend or week trip. It'll just be of a more recent period.

I just thought!!!!! If you're headed out on I-66 on a Friday morning and good weather is predicted for the weekend, leave early!!!!. One Friday morning it took my dh hours on I-66 because everyone was trying to get to the mountains early. The following Sat. I flew up I-66 because I missed the weekend rush.

I know of one local church that does tutoring. Your friend might check with some local churches to see if they tutor on a sliding scale or even for free.

I've haven't read all these sites, but this is what I was wanting.

It could be something in the enviroment as another poster stated, or it could (speculation) be something genetic. Some groups have developed the ability to digest milk as adults when other groups develop severe behavior problems from drinking milk. Other diseases tend to occur in specific families or small groups. So it could be genetic related. It might be interesting to find out the genetic background of the severe cases the developed in the US and other parts of the world.

That's strange, I wonder if it was only a rule pertaining to that particular practice? My family has three different doctors that prescribe different vitamins and food supplements depending on the patient and the problems. Only one of the three is into alternative medicine in a big way. Now I've also had a doctor who warned me away from specific vitamins because they interferred with another drug I was taking.

I don't think this was established as a fact. One person stated it without backup evidence. Of course, I've read of many incidences of vacinated children still coming down with the disease. I haven't seen statistics on this, though.

Why not have her read both? She's old enough to start evaluating various view points and this practice should lead to some interesting discussions and deep thinking.

Farm land is also higher priced due to its development potential. So the closer you are to cities for shopping, jobs ad hosptitals and other services, the higher the land costs. Also the greater the chances that you'll find a housing development going up on the farm next to yours. Of course, that also increases the value of running a truck garden, u-picks and riding stables :D