Ack. I do examine all left over bags before putting them in the collection. I presume if I miss something, dh just might see it before he uses it for a trash bag. LOL. And maybe for my 100th birthday he'll place a plate in the dishwasher instead of smack dab blocking the drain in the sink with his after hours snack plate.:lol: Hopefully it was a card purchase so another receipt can be printed.

How much is she trying to raise? In our area, the community discount card is a good fundraiser. The local guy that arranges it typically books different groups for different sales periods, so you have to get on his calendar. The group gets half the profit ($5 per card). Mother's afternoon out is always a good winter fundraiser..people drop off elementary age for a Sat. afternoon $10 donation. Teens have organized activity stations around a gym and group usually rents a bounce house as one of the stations. A mom that's a nurse is the first aid provider and adult on duty. If she or her friends can lifeguard, a pool party for local youth is a possibility. Some can run concessions too.

I plate like Laura C does; add a starter of salad or soup. ISBN0385422679 has some suggestions. I tried to lead in family activities, but ran into reality. I just cannot lead a workout for preteen boys (other than hiking all day) that give them sufficient sustained aerobic benefits, nor are they going to enjoy aerobics to a tape or exercise bike daily. They were too big to continue roller skating around the basement or playing roller hockey in the driveway. They were not interested in paddling me around a lake in a canoe. I can't keep up mountain biking nor would I be able to arrange for timely first aid in the event of an accident. So I budgeted for organized activities. It was that or get them a job splitting logs and stacking firewood. Swim club has been fantastic and I highly recommend. The price is a bargain compared to the price of a family membership at the Y and then throw in the instruction, access to the pool, and planned workout routine. The fitness change the first year is visible to the child. Watching the varsity boys high school team is impressive to a preteen boy - abs? A six pack? Hmmm, the possibilities. As another poster said, the trick here is eating healthy after the workout - ds usually splits his dinner with part before and part after. Hydrating during is a need also. One of my sons decided to run cross-country with his school. Fantastic. Role models, good workouts. Kid noticed his fitness change and how his already fairly slim body slimmed right down, his lungs gained capacity, and the changes in the composition of his flesh. So..my advice is to budget in organized sports or dance. Try a variety. Spring sports vary by area, but I'd look for tennis, swim club, soccer, orienteering & running. In the meantime, have daily gym class and weekend family outings. In the weather you have now, my dad was taking us hunting,ice-skating, hiking, and bird watching while mom enjoyed her peace and quiet on Sat. mid-morn to late afternoon. Biking, orienteering, and geocaching are also possibilities. Budget in dressing for the weather. With snacking, our pediatrician recommend dropping all snacking around the age of 10. I didn't have to, it just happened naturally. Any snacks should be a protein combined with a veggie or fruit..limit the protein so that the fat is limited. mypyramid.gov has all sorts of ideas and can show you the effect of changing your cooking techniques and your dish choices. Bake instead of fry, whole grain instead of white, limit the cheese, up the veggies etc etc.

Taco cups http://family.go.com/food/recipe-644459-taco-cups-t/ Egg or spring rolls

Corned beef, potatoes, and cabbage Pot roast Stir fry Chicken/rice chowder

For Group Battleship, use 2 poster size sheets of paper. Premake a grid on each and ships to fit grids. Divide group into two, each group positions their ships on paper. Each team shoots by successfully answering a question from you. Another group game for this age is Pico, Fermi Bagels, which is similar to mastermind. http://www.ciblearning.org/pdf/Exercise.BagelsPicoFermi.pdf Kim's Game with geometry objects or math symbols or knots http://www.usscouts.org/ab/ab2.cgi?action=view_activity&a_id=38 To Divide group: sort by some attribute - birthday month, birthday day,hair color, eye color, number of buttons, shoe color, ... Logic Puzzle solving http://www.johnpratt.com/items/puzzles/logic_puzzles.html Toothpick and coin puzzles http://www.gameideasforkids.com/printable%20game%20sheets/Toothpick%20Tricks.pdf Be gentle on these; some kids that view themselves as 'the best' get upset when a child whom they don't perceive as 'smart' gets the solution first. Simon Says with shapes: hand out different colored shapes (3x5 card with yarn to hang as necklace)...make up your commands in advance if you like "all blue shapes do 2 jumping jacks" "all shapes with more then 4 sides hop on one foot 3 times" etc Art pics.. give everyone a random shape on a paper and invite them to continue the drawing/painting with whatever art supplies Scavenger hunt...take a walk and have everyone find the math objects on the list (vertex, pyramid, line, square, etc) Play knot baseball...show everyone how to tie an overhand knot...once they have that knot and the shoetie knot, they can play baseball...pitcher ( leader) calls out the knot - shoe, overhand, or make your own- player ties it onto a shoe or a rope and throws the shoe or rope. Fielders retrieve, etc. Helping out the batter is fine. Marble Arches tournament: each brings a shoe or cereal box and cuts arches of varying sizes in it. Put number above arch to indicate value...large number for small arch, small number for large arch. Practice a few minutes, then play in pairs..shoot 3 marbles each, high score wins. Make mancala games and play: http://www.sinasohn.com/crafts/mancala.htm play online so you get the strategies:http://www.rocketsnail.com/mancala/

Oxford, NY as in Orange County? Rain rain and more rain in the last 24 hrs. A squall and a fleece or hoodie OR a 3 in 1 will take you through spring. Snowboots are needed for playing, but not going to/from stores. In Jan-Feb it is usually under 15F about 5 maybe 10 times in the a.m., to the point that those walking the mile in to school do need a facecovering. No long johns needed unless you are out in the woods for the day. Squall pants are actually too warm unless out camping or some cold Canadian air comes in and brings the daytime temps way down. Cheap big box snow pants work fine, especially if you treat them aftermarket. Mt. Peter is the local place to learn to ski.

We went to Dolciani Pre-Algebra: An Accelerated Course after SM6B, after trying NEM1. Ds likes both of them as well as he liked SM, but he likes the way Dolciani divides up the chapters better than NEM1. He works independently as I feel it is important to know how to read a math text. No troubles so far.

Are you looking to lead a large group in a game, or to provide games & activities for children to choose from and play quietly? How many children? I've done in large group: Battleship Mazes w/tape on floor

Mine was fine at a state engineering campus. Nephew at private engineering campus recently reports similar. We both think that those personalities that see play hard as sex, drink or drug hard have other issues; gaming is always available and so are nonalcoholic events. But , we are both military brats and have seen the long term effects and don't want to go there in our personal lives. Some of our classmates had no clue what they were getting into. Others were just dulling the pain of being brilliant but not having a passion or someone to give/return love. Women need to have an escape plan up front in case they attract a stalker or an abuser. Do discuss this with your daughters, whether they go to college or not.

Lots of hits .. the misses were all looney tunes: *red-dye containing bag o'candy for kid that is allergic (as in immediately breaks out in hives and has breathing difficulty) *a shirt with a large skull and (printed on) red blood spatters for my high schooler.. he says - not my style & would repel girls..and it's certainly not anything I want to see in my home or on any sweet child's body nor do the neighbors want to see that for trick-or-treat.

I take it all humorously. We had one of those bag o'red dye #2 candy presents too for our red-dye allergic as in he'll get hives shortly after swallowing child.. .the giver, a nurse, actually handed it to the child (in front of me) with the comment that he couldn't eat it...:confused: We have no idea why..child is so quiet and well behaved that we don't know how anyone could take that much offense at him. <<and the looney tunes theme plays on in the background>>

That problem set always made me think of optical illusions. Does the white triangle exist? (Figure taken from wiki article on op.ill.)

How's this for the start: Let A be the lower left hand vertex of the rectangle that bounds everything Let B be the lower right hand vertex of the rectangle Let C be the point where the left shaded figure touches the top of the rectangle Let D be the point where the two shaded figures touch Area of one shaded figure = area of ABC - Area of ABD

hoagiesgifted.org might be helpful to you

Definitely same dollar amount to all..they're all loved. I have seen it the other way, and it is painful. For example, one child getting an Xbox, a sib getting $20, reason given that the giver sees the one more often than the other. The latter was an honors student, tutors afterschool, plays varsity sports, and holds down a job, while the former does nothing but work for the giver on Saturdays for pay. I don't see Christmas as a time to give out relationship rewards, but if that's your family dynamic that's how it is and how it shall be.

Sounds like a fun idea. I wouldn't focus on Homeschooling..reminds me of that Mark Twain quote "Education consists mainly in what we have unlearned." I'd focus instead on the idea that families throughout history have used the resources they have available to educate their children at home. I'd lay it out like this Preparing to Educate at Home I. Intro II. What is Education ? a. definition b.-? different philosophies of education that you are prepared to talk about. If your sils use a school, perhaps describe Jesuit or Catholic as well as the homeschool philosophy you use. III. History of Home Education Chronologically....it's interesting to people who've never really considered that all but the elites were taught at home until compulsory schooling came into existence... III. How Does One Prepare to educate at home today? A. The teacher's preparation B. The student's preparation IV. Wrap-up

I think a lot of the walmart experience is feeling like you are a mouse in a maze that shifts unpredictably, with things you want not where they 'should' be. The sensory experience is bad enough with the flooring and the lighting, and over the top when the other mice bring their extended families and treat the maze as an amusement park while mama mouse chooses just what to put in her basket. Best Buy on a weekend afternoon is similar.

There is significant local variation. AP is college level, but high school grading is used. If the high school is using weighted GPA, then AP will be weighted according to the h.s. scheme. In my district, an AP class or an honors class gives you +4% bonus over a regents or below regents level course in GPA calculations. Other districts weight an AP class higher than an honors class, an so on down the line. Dual credit classes can be taken at the high school too. Whether they count toward the college degree depends on the college, the degree, and the mastery level shown. What's favored depends on who is doing the choosing and how deep their pockets are.

Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond Variable Star Heinlein/Robinson

a multitool (leatherman knockoff) bearings if he has a skateboard hoodie or sweats or flannel pj type pants with school district name (sold at local big box here) snap circuits kit am/fm radio kit model rocket kit fluxx or zombie fluxx (card game from game shop) venus flytrap

I've also found that understanding money is helpful in the transition from manipulatives to pictorial. Practice trading the dime for ten pennies, and the dollar coin for 10 dimes or 100 pennies and vice versa. Practice dividing a handul of dimes and pennies, with a bank to assist in trades.

While many boys are Christian, many are not. BSA is diversified and you'll find boys of different faiths within the same Troop, especially when the Troop is chartered by a community organization rather than a church. We currently live in a rural area, but commute in to a globally diversified workplace. We note it has been eye-opening for local leaders who do not work or live in highly diverse settings or travel in the course of their life to come to camp and see where their assumptions have led them. My scout has learned much from his non-Christian Troop members and scouts he's met at camp. It has made studying history and social studies quite personal. Here's an article from Scouting magazine that'll let you know how some councils have promoted religious tolerance: http://www.scoutingmagazine.org/issues/0609/a-ride.html

http://www.scouting.org/scoutsource/Media/Relationships/ascoutisrevernt.aspx

Is it for Scout Sunday in February?