Now that would be weird in my family. I was still a member of the family and still needed my room on weekedends, breaks and summer.........and after I graduated.:001_smile:

Playing well isn't a requirement. :D Why do you think I always sat immediately in front of the percussion? I always played 3rd clarinet. :lol:

I find that a Roomba keeps me from having to be constantly sweeping. Not that I would.:lol:

For food, if you buy it from the store, repackage it. Generally, avoid canned foods. They takes too much room. Look for dehydrated foods. I like to pack individual dehydrated soup packets for the hungry so I don't need to pack a lot of the main course, just in case. If you can, dehydrate your food. I've just found a decent web site for thishttp://www.budget101.com/dehydrated_foods.htm A good book for dehydrated recipes, along with many others, is The Hungry Hiker's Book of Good Cooking. Repackage oils, seasonings and other bulk items into smaller bottles and zip lock baggies. Pack dense foods instead of "fluffy" foods, such as spaghetti instead of macaroni and oatmeal instead of cold cereal. Get pots that nest inside each other, and use pots as wash basins and shaving basins. At the vary least, flatten a roll of paper towels. I've also found paper towels pretorn in a box. That takes less room, or you can pre tear them yourself, but that generally doesn't pack as tight. For bath towels, wash cloths, dish towels, etc use the tiny man-made fabric towels used by backpackers, or as replacement chamois for car enthusists, etc. They soak up a lot of moisture and dry quickly. You can find them at REI.com as backpacker towels. For showers, take turns so you don't need as many shower shoes, aka flip flops. Also try to reduce the # of toilet kits. Use Dr. Bonner's soap for shampoo, showers and dishwashing liquid. For sleeping pads, go with thin, deflating backpacker pads, at least for the younger ones (under 30-40). These are available in 3/4 lengths. No cots are needed. Duffle bags, stuffled with clothing, doubles as pillows. Rather than take a large screen house, you can substitute a tarp or ponchos for rain or wind protection. It doesn't work for bug protection. For toys, inside take a deck of cards. Outside look for a collapasable kite, frisbee or squeezable ball. Also go into a good backpacking store, like REI, and look for ideas. Backpackers are masters of packing with small bulk and light weight. And they also bring toys at times. :D

Our dog is allowed on the beds, because the covers are washable. He's not allowed on the other furniture because the fabric is'nt washable and I refuse to have throws over them. We've never had problems with dominance issues, even when I had a super-alpha dog. But then I'm super-super alpha. :D

My experience is also indirect. But in college, a classmate would smoke weed while working on his design projects. He always thought it was his best work. Two sober, "A" students next to his desk said it was his worse. Then as a freshman, I was invited to my first college party. I didn't have any idea what type of party it was. It was the most boring, ridiculous party I've ever seen. No activity, no talking, nothing. But I didn't partake of the MJ. Who knows what the others thought was happening. The college parties I've been to where responsible drinking (mature grad students not trying to get blitzed)occured had dancing, laughter, talking and fun -- and I was stone sober when I made that judgement. I don't drink either. So second hand, I have observed that it impares your judgement, at least while high, and leads to boring, inactive parties. I have heard that it's good for killing pain, but I'd like a good, non-political, scientific study on that. But from what I've seen of its effects, it would have to be heavily regulated as many other pain-killers are.

My ds has the answer! Sit through church.

Michelle, I agree that people love to gripe that things aren't the way they used to be. I love learning for the sake of learning, and I can see the advantages for a classical and rigorous education. But modern education is trying to do several things that educators didn't do in the past. And the rest of this post is more directed at people who constantly grip about how poor today's education is to the *idealized* image we have of education of a hundred, two hundred and more years ago. And I want to stress that it's an idealized view. First, today they are trying to educate everyone. Even in the late 1800's, an individual with an 8th grade education was highly educated and was the exception and not the rule. That level of education took dedication, availability, the parents' willingness to support education and an ability to learn fairly easily. My grandfather dropped out of school because math gave him problems. Today my ds WILL master algebra and other higher level math. My ds would have been considered an idiot, and would have sat in the corner with a dunce cap a hundred years ago. (Thomas Edison's teacher gave up on him) Today my ds gets the therapy and specialized training he needs. Second, there is so much more to learn. When you combine increasing what must be learned with many children not being as academically inclined, education must take longer. And somethings must be dropped from the basic curriculum. Thirdly, I have a feeling that people first started complaining about lower standards as soon as the next generation came along. I know that letters have been found at least 2000 years old complaining about the younger generation. And I have a feeling that those complaints will still be made 2000 years from now. I went to school with a kid who flopped miserably in the humanities, but was a genius in the sciences. He even helped teach the science classes, which included some true brains. But he didn't get to college to ustilize his abilities because he didn't match the standard college profile. These days with so many jobs and fields "requiring" college degrees, it's probably better that we DON'T require Latin or diagramming for everything. Now just to convince the colleges that my ds doesn't need calculus to major in history. :tongue_smilie:

I keep hearing this strange rumor that people in NC think that they're into basketball. I just don't get it. Are NC parents finally teaching toddlers how to do lay-ups? :D:D:D Kathy born and bred in the land of Hoosier Hysteria.

I've had a few legit questions. One was how could I cover math and science at the upper levels. The funny thing was, that it's writing and the hummanities that bother me, and the person asking was in the humanities. She was afraid of the sciences. :D Then my mother, knowing my weaknesses, pointed out that I was going to work hard to overcome them to be successful at it. I still struggle with them.

The buses I was on were a lot of fun, as long as we weren't on it for a couple of hours a day. Bouncing in the back, fun bus drivers, pitching the occasional snow ball WHEN THE BUS WAS STOPPED at the driver, racing the other kids down the road for the best seat, watching the horses, livestock and countryside, getting stuck in an inch of snow, visiting with friends. We usually had a great driver and a lot of fun.

My sister had a practice pad she used for the one year she studied drums. She used the real drums with the school's drums for class.

Having spent most of my band career sitting directly in front on the drums, aka percussion section, that won't fly! I was thinking mostly of the school band requirement, but then I remembered the bells. Look some more for a reason. :tongue_smilie:

I haven't taken any classes at the National Zoo. But you might look at classes offered by The Audubon Naturalist Society. At the time ds was taking them, they weren't aimed for homeschoolers but for schoolchildren, families and preschoolers, depending on the class. Some classes are a full series, some are just a one evening affair. They tend to be more affordable than the Smithsonian offerings and focus on local wildlife. The class offerings are greater at Woodend (Bethesda) but there are two facilities in VA (one's in Leesburg) that also offer classes. They also have excellent summer camps.

Now that one's different!

To tell the truth? As much as I admire the Montessori system, we do more traditional school at home ala WTM. :lol:

A side note about Montessori school. My ds was in Montessori from 3.5 - 13. Because of my ds's LD's, I became far more involved in Montessori than the average parent. Montessori is not at all unstructured without guidance or assignments. Elementary students do have a fair amount of freedom **within very strict guidelines**. The teachers do assign work and lessons that the child might not request or even want. But the child typically can select how much time to work on a subject and also has plenty of time to explore his interests. And a child is given the freedom to make mistakes within those guidelines when he has the most time to recover, early childhood. And the as the child matures and ages, he is given less freedom as academic demands increase. He is give more responsibility but less freedom. And when the dc enter puberty, their learning style changes and the program is no longer child-led. Young teens typically don't want to work and explore like younger children. At my ds's old school, Jr high is closer to a traditional school with a schedule (it's 9, its time for math). I see Montessori as I see good unschooling. It's deceptively simple and seems to the efficiency expert to be unfocused and undirected. But it's not. It's carefully planned and is hard work for the teacher.

For cars, we generally find Alamo, followed by Enterprise to be the cheapest national chains. Enterprise's fleet does include mini-vans and they will deliver to your hotel. The one time I tried the discounters, for something besides car rental, I found them overpriced and didn't offer the better and cheaper alteratives. Come to think of it, I may have tried them for airfare.

I missed that one!

Is it time to resurrect the Brazilian wax post?????? :lol:

Brick laying and masonry in general also tends to be seasonable. A few trades he might be interested in are electrical, plumbing, HVAC (heating, AC and ventilation), carpentry (if you can get the shell up before winter), and steam fitter. This trades will have their busier times, but they aren't as seasonal as others. Also he might want to check into working in the trades for an institution. The pay isn't generally as good per hour, but the work is generally steady, as in a minimum of 40 hours/week, and he won't need to travel as some trades require. These institutions would include hospitals ad school systems. HTH

Why would you want to accept the challenge of something that apparently is not healthy for you? Is it because you think you are now getting too many calories? Is it because of the mess and time in preparing more meals? Is it because the rest of your family wants your snacks plus 3 large meals? Is it because you think it would be healthier because that's what we've been taught? Is it because someone dared you? There are ways around the first questions. The last 2 need a new brain set for you, because you've learned that for you multiple small meals are better.

Check into getting a cheap hotpot of some sort. My dh got me a quart size pot with a built-in heater to use in the hotel. We've also used the in-room coffee pots to boil water for instant oatmeal or soups. But sometimes, even after a cleaning run, they still taste of coffee.:tongue_smilie: But for meals, you can dehydrate a lot of foods. This reduces the space they take up and the need for refrigeration. Some things don't need heating to be eaten after rehydration, such as coleslaw or a shreaded carrot and raisin salad. Of course many things don't need rehydration, such as dried fruit and jerky.

I couldn't be a decent unschooler because *I* am not organized enough to ensure that my ds learned what he needed to. A good unschooler has to work much harder than I do, be far more creative, able to leap onto unexpected situations, set up the house and environment to learn and have a secret, underlying organization. A good unschooler would need a system similar to a Montessori classroom, but maybe a bit more subtle. Also it helps if your child likes to learn and learns easily. Unfortuately mine had too many LD's early in life that killed all attempts to work and learn.

I have two issues, or perhaps I should say I'm not worried about one of your concerns. I've taken adoption classes, known singles who've adopted and those who've considered it. I've also had a placement fall through and had one successful adoption. There are thousands upon thousands of children looking for a permanent home. They aren't always of the type that are in high demand, but they're there. It's hard to accept when you're desperately wanting a child, but it's better for there to more demand than supply. But from what I've seen, there's still more supply. Adoption is also a highly subjective process. One of the reasons my dh and I didn't even try to adopt in the US was because of the stories of how birth mothers would arbitrarily reject hopeful parents because of the couple's age. Religion, lifestyle, race and other factors can also come into the decision. Here and in some foreign countries, birth mothers do select the adoptive parents. So allowing gays to marry doesn't automatically put them at the front of the adoption lines. Also it is very acceptable for single women to adopt. How they have the courage is beyond me, but some do and they are able to start their family with a child looking for a home. Now single male who adopted at the time were adopting ran into far more prejudice -- from the social workers preparing his home study. And I would add that single women and lesbians in stable family situations are usually able to have their own children. And life is uncertain. Many children start out with a traditional family only to have something go wrong. So by denying marriage to gays, you aren't really keeping children from from being raised in non-traditional families. Don't let anyone's ideal get in the way of finding a good, loving home for these children. Now, the item I do take issue with you is that the primary reason for getting married is for the welfare of the children. If that is true, then a couple who doesn't want to have children should just live together? In sin? I can just see the reactions of many to that. Or if an elderly couple want to get married, they should just shack up instead? In fact, if they aren't careful with their wills and soforth, they could actually harm their children from a previous marriage by by marrying a second time (having their children lose the inheritance from the first marriage when their second spouse survives them.) At one time, marriage primarily for children may have been true, but there is far more reasons for a marriage today than only raising children.