Lol, Rosie. When my sister changed her diet to one of sweet potatoes, fruits and veggies, and not much else, it was a big change. But being able, within days, to move her joints easily and without pain (not to mention being able to realistically envision a future without a wheelchair in it) has kept her on it. And losing 20 pounds effortlessly didn't bother her, either.;)

There is a dietician who works with Dr. McDougall, Jeff Novick, who does private counseling. I don't know how much it costs, but he might be a good resource. Also, Dr. McDougall answers questions for free, though his answers are usually brief. The McDougall website has a discussion forum where you can ask questions of other McDougallers, as well as Jeff Novick. Maybe there would be some info there about metabolism of food and diabetes. http://www.drmcdougall.com/forums/index.php

I would stay away from nuts and other high fat plant foods. Is your MIL overweight? A diet of fruits and veggies, legumes and whole starches (really important not to eat flour products), with no oil and no animal products, should get her weight down quickly and cheaply. It's great that you and your wife care so much for your MIL, and have the authority to regulate her diet. She will be well soon!

I would give MIL lots of fruits and veggies, along with beans and whole starches (potatoes, sweet potatoes, brown rice, etc.). Avoid flour products and anything from an animal. No oil. A teaspoon of sugar on her oatmeal isn't going to kill her. Type II seems to be easily reversed with the right diet, and maybe some exercise (some walking after meals, for example). There are a lot of testimonies on the McDougall board of people who have reversed their Type II quickly, easily, and inexpensively with the diet described above. http://www.drmcdougall.com/stars/jason_wyrick.html

I think you'll be fine with Apol. Bio I and Bio II. FaithManor has said that her daughter used these texts and did very well in her paramedic/pre-med training. Apologia may not be perfect, but it's fine as a starting point. My daughter has used their Bio I & II, Chem I & II, and Phys I, and will do Phys II this fall. She's really enjoyed Apologia. She's also familiar with evolution, gets Odyssey magazine, and is totally on board with modern and progressive science. Really, you'll be okay. And TM, thanks for reassuring people. :)

We have traditional French music around that the kids are more or less familiar with, but some really good modern children's music with fun lyrics is that of Henri Des. Highly recommended. http://www.henrides.net/

Paul Krugman says we need a return to tight regulation. Have you read his Return to Depression Economics? He explains how, before the Depression, there were boom and bust periods in America regularly. There would be panics and people would remove all their money from banks. It was really unstable and people of course did not trust the system. Then, during the Depression, tight regulation of banking was instituted, and for 60 years U.S. banking was fairly stable. Then, in the 90s, with the support of Republicans and Democrats, deregulation began. People were told they could trust the free market. More and more deregulation, and all that belief in how the markets could regulate themselves, and look where we are now. Can you imagine living without some sort of law enforcement in your community? Well, that's what happened in the world of finance, and we saw the result: greed ran rampant and unchecked. A great read on how deregulation brought about the financial crisis we are still in is Freefall, by Nobel prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz.

Here's something interesting from economist Paul Krugman's blog yesterday: OK, here’s an unprofessional speculation: maybe it’s personal. Maybe the president just doesn’t like the kind of people who tell him counterintuitive things, who say that the government is not like a family, that it’s not right for the government to tighten its belt when Americans are tightening theirs, that unemployment is not caused by lack of the right skills. Certainly just about all the people who might have tried to make that argument have left the administration or are leaving soon. And what’s left, I’m afraid, are the Very Serious People. It looks as if those are the people the president feels comfortable with. And that, of course, is a tragedy. Update: To commenters saying that I need to have dinner with the president, or vice versa — been there, done that, didn’t help. If you don't regularly read Krugman's blog, you may want to check it out. He explains economic issues simply and clearly. http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/

Negin, you are so sweet! :grouphug: All the advice given is good. We live in an apartment complex, and it has been great for getting to know Indians, young and old. Our kids play with Indian kids every day, and Korean and Japanese kids, too, lol. I had grand plans for the baby's learning to speak Tamil, but it has not happened. I'm afraid I didn't try hard enough to get someone to speak to him enough of the time for him to absorb enough of the language to speak it, or even understand it, very well. My helper suggested letting her take him to her house every day for a few hours, but I didn't feel comfortable with that, and didn't want to go myself, either. He didn't want to attach to her, and I didn't really want him to, either. I speak English to our kids and my husband speaks French to them, and I guess that will have to be enough. There is too much in this culture that I disagree with to feel comfortable ever sending the kids to school here, which would be one way to get them going in Tamil. Once again, I'm afraid it's just a lost opportunity. Our landlord used to live in Bangalore, and he said there are a lot of complexes like ours there. I haven't heard from Cammie in a long time, but she seemed to be in contact with some homeschoolers in Bangalore, and had even found some homeschooling materials here in India. I'm sure you will be fine in Bangalore. Enjoy it!:)

Lol. It's too bad we can't just focus on what we have in common (educational freedom, as another poster just said), instead of our differences.

While religious fundamentalists may be the majority of homeschoolers (I don't know), they didn't start the homeschooling movement. Religion comes after reason, I think, as in Christians who say they believe in "theistic evolution". They believe in the truth of science, and try to reconcile it with their religious beliefs.

:iagree: Everybody judges, I guess. I remember one mom saying that she wasn't mainstream enough for the mainstream group, and not alternative enough for the alternative group.

A speaker at the IL conference, Dorothy Werner, who worked with John Holt, said that homeschooling grew out of the school reform movement of the 1960s.

:iagree:

:iagree::iagree::iagree:

We went with Apologia because I can't help with science, and dd can handle this program herself. In 9th she did Chem I and Bio I (she had already finished Saxon's Alg. I). This year she's doing Phys I, Chem II, and Bio II (anat and phys), and next year she'll do Phys II and Bio III (marine bio). She really loves science. She also reads Odyssey magazine and various other science info she finds in the paper or on the internet, and of course watches science shows that interest her on TV. I am so grateful that Apologia exists. One of the first fears I had about homeschooling was what we would use for high school science (followed by concerns about high school math, lol -- thank you, too, Saxon!), but Apologia has taken care of that. When we're home in America in the fall, I want to look for the texts that other moms have suggested here, like the Campbell and Giancoli books, and a chem text whose author escapes me, to see what Apologia is missing. Even if we get those books used for dd to read through, to fill in the gaps, I think she is glad we started with Apologia. She has really enjoyed the experience. :)

Another thing I've learned is the importance of following kids' interests as much as possible. Dd loves science, and is doing 3 Apologia courses this year (really, more like a semester, as she has only been doing schoolwork since Nov., took off 6 weeks around the holidays, and will finish the end of April) plus a lesson a day of Saxon calculus (finished adv. math recently). I could have said, no, no, you can't do all that science; you must have more balance in your studies. Instead, I said go for it! She did, loves it, and after covering half of each Apologia book, started incorporating more languages, lit, and history into her days. I think kids can often manage more than we think, when the responsibility is in their hands and we respect their choices. Okay, that's probably somewhat idealistic!:D A note on the emphasis put on grammar and mechanics: I am not against proper spelling, or anything like that, lol. I am just not sure it has to be studied year in and year out (though I could see how that could be fun!). Dd, with minimal study (never did a spelling book, did one 30 page word study workbook I found at Goodwill, lol), improved tremendously in those areas between 6th and 8th. I asked her why yesterday, and she wasn't sure, though she thinks it might be that she was just reading more and writing more in general at that time, and becoming more aware of those things. It does seem like kids just mature into things, and sort of naturally improve over time. It could be that you're right, Nan, and some kids are just more inclined to learn these things on their own, and some need more guidance. I wonder, though, even for the kids who need more guidance, if they improve that much with repeated instruction, and if it's sustainable. We all bring something different to the world, and maybe some aren't meant to bring great spelling, lol.

This is what we're thinking, too. The scratch, as we recall it, is perfectly straight and about 4 feet long! Ds5 would have to have a lot more skill than we ever would have suspected to be able to do something like that!:D Dh pointed out that the night before the neighbor said she noticed this scratch, someone took all of our bikes (about 5), that had previously been leaning against the walls in our spot in the garage, and threw them all in a pile. Some people then parked their own bikes and motorcycles where some of our bikes were. Dh said it is some helpers (drivers, maids, other workers) who own the bikes and motorcycles now parked where our bikes were. (He just picked up our bikes and put them against two walls, leaving some room for the workers' bikes.) Dh thinks one of the workers may have scratched the neighbor's car, and she knows this, but also knows she can't get any money out of these poor people, and so accused ds5 instead. I think when dh is home this weekend, he will mention this to the dh of the other woman. Chris, what I don't understand about the person who accused you, or the lady who accused ds5, is why they think, out of all the possibilities for who could have damaged their cars, it could only be one particular person? Cars are getting bumped and scraped and all kinds of damaged in the crazy traffic of India, but this lady is convinced little ds5 is some kind of super biker. We've never had this sort of thing happen in America, and I really feel for people who have. I was thinking about how I would handle this in America, and I think that unless I had absolute proof it was a neighbor kid, like my kid saw him, or dh or I saw him, I would just have to pay the damages myself, and then be sure to keep my car in the garage at all times, or something like that.

Giggle, giggle. I'm not worthy!:lol: You know, I should probably reread the book, keeping in mind what another poster said about Thoreau's hypocrisy, sigh. I guess I'm always swayed by arguments for living a simpler life. That's what really appealed to me about Walden. I was looking for that E.B. White essay online, but haven't found it yet. I'll have to look it up at the library in America in the fall if I can't find it. Thanks again for mentioning it, Nicole!:)

Thank you, ladies, for your replies. I shared them with dh and dd. He replied to the e-mail yesterday, stating clearly that between ds's bike being too low to make the scratch, and the story changing between the first time the neighbor lady told it, and now, we just do not believe ds5 had anything to do with whatever happened to their car. Dh said that they believe we are a soft touch because we are an American/French family, and that they wouldn't try this with another Indian family here in the complex. You know, while it can be a pain to live in a male-dominated culture, it's kind of relaxing to just leave it in dh's hands. If there is a confrontation over this, it will be between the neighbor's dh and mine, and I really don't have to be involved at all. That's probably a good thing, because it was dh who noticed the scratch was too high to be from ds5's bike, not I. Like you mentioned, Negin, my dh is far wiser than I am, too.:D I think in Western culture it seems reasonable to believe that when someone tells you there are witnesses, there actually are witnesses. But when we asked very specifically who the witnesses were, the neighbor refused to say, and fled away instead. Even if she comes up with some witnesses now, I think we would have a hard time believing they were not bribed or somehow put up to this. Dh said it's better to just state our position, and hold our boundary. He said if you start getting into details here, the argument will just go on longer. This way, they'll be mad for a few weeks, and then be on to another argument with another neighbor. :D Here's one bit of cultural experience I've gained here: these Indian moms really are not afraid to go after each other or other people's children. There have been some pretty strong fights among the Indian mothers in our complex, and nobody seems to give in or compromise. I'm pretty shocked at how free the moms feel to treat other children, too. As surprising and uncomfortable as this situation has been, it really is part of the learning experience of living in a different culture. Different cultures really are different. Morality is not the same everywhere. I'm learning to drop my rose-colored glasses here, that's for sure. I'm just glad I've got dh for support. I can't imagine being a single mother here. I think this might be why the Bible expresses such sympathy for widows and orphans. In those times, like still in India today, single women were vulnerable, and, I'm sure, at the complete mercy of men. I feel so lucky to have been born in the West.

:lol:

http://www.beyblade.com/splash.aspx

That sounds delicious.:drool5:

We have a neighbor here who has accused our ds5 of scratching her car. Last week she said he had scratched it with his bike, and that someone had seen him. Dh looked at the scratch, looked at the height of our son's bike, and pointed out that the bike was at least 5 inches shorter than the scratch. I asked her who saw it happen, and she said she didn't know. I asked her again, and she got flustered, said she didn't remember or didn't know, or something like that, and fled out of the common garage up to her apartment. Two days later I saw her, and she said she thinks ds5 scratched her car with his beyblade. Her son told my sons that ds5 scratched her car with his beyblade while riding his bike next to it. Her dh sent my dh an e-mail yesterday saying that someone saw ds5 scratch their car with his beyblade, and that he wants to discuss this with dh this weekend. We don't believe this woman at all, though we would have at least considered what she was saying the first time, had she just said she thought it might be ds with his bike, instead of saying it was, and that someone saw him do it. I think she has an idea in her head that she is trying to find facts to support. We have talked to ds5, and we don't believe he did anything to her car. We doubt the damages are going to be very expensive, anyway, like $100 or so here in India, but since we don't believe ds did it, we are not just going to be bullied into paying. Our other concern is that if we did pay, just to calm down the neighbor, other people would make up stories about things we should pay for. Another complication is that this neighbor's brother is the owner of our apartment. He seems very nice, but family loyalty is pretty important here in India. All I can think of is just to stand our ground, repeat the facts of the case, and refuse to pay for any damages unless they can prove absolutely that ds did it. At this point, I would have to see a video clearly showing him riding his bike along her car with a beyblade in his hand, scratching it. Do you think this is a cultural problem, or just a neighbor problem? Have you had anything like this happen before? The trust has really been shattered between this neighbor and us. Now I assume anything she says is a lie, or her version of the truth, anyway. Dh is much calmer about the whole thing, but I am the one who sees her in the building every day. It's pretty uncomfortable.

I loved that book when I was in high school! It wasn't assigned, and maybe if I had had to analyze it, I wouldn't have liked it as much, lol. I should probably reread it . . . Thanks for mentioning this essay, too. I'll have to take a look at it. :)