Funny, I was going to suggest Jousting Armadillo because it is like AOPS but on an easier level.

It is hard to say without having more information. At the most basic level, you can reduce expenses, increase income, ideally both but you know that already :-) We saved money by paying off debt, keeping expenses minimal and taking every gig we could for a few years. We bartered a lot. We are doing well now but it took a lot of work, several years and not doing/having things everybody else thought essential. Not having major medical expenses was our greatest luck.

My son is currently in the WH class. What would you like to know?

Thanksgiving

I think I missed that, I joined in May of 2012. I also missed the kilt thread. Two great sorrows of my life.

I am not sure I like the "... reacted to this". I keep imagining someone breaking out in hives or throwing a tantrum over my posts :-)

I found the theme button on the very bottom of the page. I clicked on "Default", works much better for me. My son also added an extension and I now have a much higher contrast between colors.

I find it very difficult to read. Not enough contrast between the colors and too much white space. On the other hand, now that we can add the signatures, I find the look becomes cluttered and I have an even harder time to read the actual post. I don't want to be a Debbie Downer, just personally find the look very difficult to deal with.

I am not sure, I can ask him. I do know his doctor had to special order it because it is not part of a normal allergy panel.

It is very rare (but then, histamine intolerance is rare, about 3% of the population and of the 3%, 80% are elderly women.) Microscopic blood can be a symptom but again,it is rare. He has been diagnosed by a team consisting of an allergist, gastroenterologist and his primary care doctor.

Soooo, dear Hive, what doth though knowest about histamine intolerance? My oldest had a physical recently and they detected blood in his urine. They excluded everything harmless and he still has a CT scan coming up to rule out tumors. I suggested a test for allergies and taking a closer look at his immune system. Luckily he has a very accommodating doctor who didn't pooh pooh my idea and today he received the results. My boy has a histamine intolerance. The immediate course of action is to go on a restrictive diet to get a baseline and then see what foods in what amounts are tolerated. After reading through the list of what he cannot eat anymore I am scratching my head as to what he can eat (any idea and recipe is welcome). I am also trying to figure out what the cause is. Might be genetic or there might be something else going on ( for example, could leaky gut or bacterial/fungal overgrowth be a cause even though stool tested negative for both). Any links to medical articles or experiences would be most appreciated. On the positive side, I am glad we finally have a diagnosis that explains all of his problems over the years.

Please, give him a break, us Germans need order. If the calendar says March, it is time for turning the garden. I guess you don't know the song "Im Maerzen der Bauer die Roesslein anspannt...) :coolgleamA:

Dirty dishes on top of the dishwasher, empty toilet paper rolls, milk cartons next to the trash can, 15 open cereal boxes (and yes, I generally only buy three different flavors), milk cartons with about 1/16 of an inch of milk in them, trash in the recycle bag and recyclables in the trash (we only separate plastics #1 and 2, glass and paper), and my absolute favorite " I can't take a shower because you forgot to put my preferred shower gel into the shower" :banghead:

Our oldest attends college in Germany where university is tuition free. We pay his living expenses but he lives with his girlfriend so expenses are shared. Our second oldest will attend the University of "Enter name of State" which is 15 minutes down the road so there are no room and board costs. Tuition is about $11,000 per year and he has a partial scholarship. #3 son will either go there or the Naval Academy if he gets accepted. Our daughter will attend the local university if she goes to college. We have saved up a certain amount per child and with the above plans, they all will graduate debt free.

I am currently living in one. Most of our walls are window which has the disadvantage that there is no space for book shelves.

It is hard to say for me. 10 to 15 hours? Part of that is that my son a) really needs to think hard about his writing from a technical point of view b) Mrs. Proctor assigns specific tasks for each essay and sometimes it is difficult to work those in without rewriting (i.e the student must have a simile, paired adjectives, a gerund... all at the beginning of a sentence in the body paragraph only). My son has to pay very close attention to cover all the specifications. The topics of the essays need thorough arguments ( i.e. In the story "The Necklace" is the main character's poverty due to fate or the decisions she made?. We can spend hours just discussing that part). Coming up with a solid thesis statement can be hard, coming up with a hook and coordinated topic sentence even more so. Mrs. Proctor seems to have a particular interest in transitions between arguments and paragraphs. It can take my son half a day to come up with a transition that makes his essay flow. Grammar is another part he spends quite a bit of time on. While we have covered basic grammar in previous years, I sometimes joke that when he is done with English, he can get a job as an editor. I never knew just how specific and detailed grammar can get until my kids took Blue Tent English. Annotating texts takes time because Mrs. Proctor asks for detailed remarks. Forum posts take time because the students have to give constructive criticism in a positive manner. Comments like "great job" or some such don't cut it. It would be more like "You have done a great job pointing out X by arguing Y" or "You need to change X because of Y and here is a suggestion how to do it." On days when he is an early poster, it is easier but when you are the last student to post, it can get difficult to say something that has not been mentioned before. We have decided to spend the time on English because it is my daughter's favorite subject and my son's weakest.

I put our musings on science with respect to religion, philosophy and society under "electives" :-)

I don't think you are in direct competition with WTMA. WTMA does not offer organic chemistry and the set-up of their classes is different (they require in class participation and group projects). They also need to read an approved text and write a summary and analysis of the book. That to me sounds like an English assignment, not chemistry. From what I can see, there is no Honors Chem and the textbook is "Conceptual Chemistry" by Suchocki. I happen to love Chang and like Zumdahl (I have no experience with Timberlake). WTMA has two lectures and the labs are not part of the course anymore. For mostly those reasons, I did not consider WTMA chemistry. I have no doubt it is a good class in the context of a classical curriculum but we are a STEM oriented household. We have ventured into the realms of something like "philosophy/religion and science" or "science in society" but those were extra rabbit trails outside of class. Biographies of scientists are interesting (I have a secret love affair with Marie Curie) but again do not belong into a science class in my opinion. I have no problem with a research paper but prefer deeper and more detailed analysis of lab reports in lieu of research papers at that level. My daughter learns a lot from failed experiments; I think more so than she would from writing a paper.

We like Blue Tent. The grammar quizzes are quite detailed and feedback on essays is very thorough. English is by far my son's most time consuming class. However, his writing has improved not only technically but he goes deeper in his analysis of texts. He used to try to get by with the least amount of effort that would let him get the grade he wanted. He quickly learned that Mrs. Proctor sees right through that :001_smile: She is kind, encouraging but also pushes her students to do better. My son did not take the Intro class (my daughter does) and while the beginning was rough, he is doing well now that he understands the expectations.

Nope, I am running out of boys, my youngest son is currently taking chem through Wilson Hill. He is mulling over the organic chem class for 12th grade though.

My daughter is signed up for Honors Chem but will watch the recordings. While Hawaii and Japan are great places to live, they don't mesh well with EST lecture times.

vegetable peeler

Lukeion, yes, my son never dared even to ask for it. AOPS, has a one or two extensions per class for whatever reason but you have to let them know ahead of time. My son used it once because he was sick and had several exams in other classes the same week.

I got a lecture from my vet about not doing it. Sorry, not going to happen, she is a disgruntled old lady and i have no desire to be on the wrong end of either her teeth or claws. It's bad enough I have to shove down her medication every three days.

I don't buy them but what my kids do with their allowance is their choice. However, I have two coffee drinkers, one drinks tea and #4 sticks to water and cold fruit and herbal teas. They very rarely drink a soda and none of them drink energy drinks. Hubby and I drink coffee and tea.