Where do you find quality paper??? I need all types- college ruled for me, printer paper, writing paper for my 6 year old, index cards, cardstock, construction paper, drawing paper for DD.... we're on a very tight budget, (who isn't?!!? :lol:) so my purchases have to count, and I'm so tired of buying a package of construction paper (index cards, writing paper, drawing paper, etc.) only to find that it is as thin as tissue paper!! I mean, she's 6, she I don't necessarily need super high artist quality stuff, but I'll find the money in the budget for paper that will feed into her creativity, not discourage her from it!! :glare: (even if that means I'm taking peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to school for lunch this semester... :tongue_smilie:) Is there some sort of labeling on the package that I don't know about that will tell me? Or just tell me what brands you like. That works too. :D

Well... a couple days ago, DD and I had a water balloon fight. It was phys ed. :D And as soon as I get enough egg shells saved up we're going to have an egg-filled paint fight. Also phys ed, since we'll be running around. Maybe even art if I throw a piece of paper out there to catch a couple drops of paint. :lol: We do a lot of fun extras outside of our core curriculum though. Culture studies, foreign language, art projects, and more, all of which DD considers "fun" and not really school work. Even within the basics, we play math games (I just search for math games around whatever concept we're currently learning- pinterest is great for this! :tongue_smilie:), phonics games, logic games... What are your kids particularly interested in? That would be a good place to start for fun extras.

:lol: Okay. I was the one who made a comment about the "college experience." I should probably point out that I was being sort of silly there. There are parts of my college experience that I sort of feel like I missed out of, and that I hope DD gets to experience, but they aren't of the partying and drinking variety. More of the traveling abroad, on-campus clubs variety, which a 14, 15 year old wouldn't be able to do.

That's very interesting. I guess. I don't think I want my child having a master's degree at 16. I don't think I want my 12, 13 year old on a college campus. I know there are online schools, but I'd like DD to experience "college." It might sound a little silly, but one of the very few things I sort of, kind of, just a little bit feel like I missed out on by having DD so young is the typical college experience. You know, dorm life, going out all night, barely staying awake in class because I'm so hungover.... :D And the funny thing is, I hope to graduate her early. From high school. I'd love her to graduate at 16 or 17 and have a gap year to travel or volunteer.

I get them also. :grouphug: (I also get cold sores on my lips. Just shoot me when I get one of each... :glare:) It helps to figure out your triggers. I know when I've been sick, I'm particularly at risk for sores. Also, acidic foods. And anytime I injure my mouth (a burn, biting my tongue/inside of my lip hard enough to break the skin a little, chapped lips, etc.) For canker sores, one thing I've found to help me is swishing with hydrogen peroxide. It helps with pain relief and also seems to help them heal quicker. (And as a nice little benefit- it whitens your teeth. :D) I would definitely work on finding out what triggers them for you. That can make all the difference!

Well, we are going to do traditional word problems, but for now (with a new reader) what I've been doing is word problems out loud. Could that work for you? It's been pretty painless even. Driving down the road, I'll randomly say "Oh, the other day I went shopping and......" blahblahblah. I just make them up off the top of my head to practice the skills we're learning. No reading for her, but she's still learning how to pick out the important information in a word problem to create an equation and find needed information.

I'm not even bilingual, and it happens to me. I'd say I'm proficient in French, competent in Spanish, and just started studying Portuguese. English slips into the other three languages all the time (as you would expect...) French slips into all of my other languages also though, which really surprised me when it started. I'll be in the middle of a conversation with someone, in English, and suddenly come to a full stop- unable to come up with the English word I'm looking for, but know the French word for what I'm saying. It happens less often with Spanish, but over the last 6 months has been increasing. I've even written papers that turned out to be half in Spanish and half in French, and not realized it until the paper was returned to me with a large red circle. :lol: Oops!!!

(On a completely non-related sidenote, I just learned that if you press Ctrl + I in a post, it automatically turns on italics. Ctrl B and Ctrl U work also, for bold and underline. Wow! The things you learn by hitting the wrong key..... :lol: Yes, I'm aware that I am probably the very last poster to know this, but I'm amused anyway... ) I have a book of foreign language idioms, what they actually mean, and how they literally translate into English. Of course it's packed away, and I couldn't find it through doing some quick searching on Amazon, but tomorrow when I have more time, I'll look more. It's very funny, she might enjoy it. :tongue_smilie:Literal translations don't work when it comes to idioms, and sometimes they provide for very funny mental pictures. Although.... now that I think about it. There may have been some not for kids phrases in there. But maybe you could use it to pull out of. If I can ever figure out the title anyways.

I believe that there must be life out there somewhere. I find it highly unlikely that on all the planets in all the universes out there that Earth is the ONLY one that has developed life. I doubt life there looks anything like what life on Earth looks like. And I don't believe that life from another planet has ever visited Earth. But life on another planet, sure.

:lol::lol::lol::lol: Okay, I've managed to stay away, but come on. You two have me laughing now. :D DD is 6.5. We've already dyed part of her hair pink once, and 6 months ago she made the choice to cut off 15 inches to donate to locks of love. For the record, I was not happy about it. I loved her long hair, and she knew it. But she also knew that it was her hair, and her decision, so she made it. It turned out wonderfully... If you ignore the whole, my baby turned into a young lady with just a haircut thing. :glare: (Why does that happen anyways!??!?!!) She's cutting it again at the end of the month, and has been making noise about dying it again, if I can figure out a way to get brighter colors. (We didn't bleach before, so it was just a muted color, her hair is medium brown, so I'm not sure we'll ever get the color she's looking for without bleaching, and I'm not bleaching my 6 year old's head.... :001_huh: Expression is one thing, health is another!) This thread has been very interesting though. Some viewpoints that I'd never even considered before.

I think it is a great idea. If you wanted to look for someone with a little more experience- you could check a local university for music majors/minors. My daughter started learning violin last year from a university student (who, coincidentally, was homeschooled while growing up! :D). She was awesome. We went through my university, but only because they already have a program set up and it was just easier for me. We're doing it again this year.

In the little things- sure. But luckily, when it came to the big things, no, my parents weren't the type to get disappointed. And boy, were there some big things. :lol: Instead, they just accepted my mistakes, and most importantly, kept on loving me just the same. When I was single and pregnant at 19, never one time did they express even an ounce of disappointment. From the first second, they were both happy and excited about the upcoming birth of their granddaughter. When my Dad was dying from cancer, he told me that he was proud of the woman I had become. He was proud of everything I had accomplished in school, proud of the mother I was to my daughter, and proud of the kind of person I was. And made me promise to keep going, and do what made me happy in life. :001_wub: That was the best "inheritance" he could have ever given me.

Sometimes books are bundled specially for a university, or it can be a special edition for that university, yes. It sucks. Because that means you can't get it cheaper. :glare: As far as the choice books, I've had classes where we do get to pick which of the (3, 4, 5, etc.) books to use, because it is for an individual project and not in class discussion. But before buying I would either email the professor or wait until after the first day of classes when he'll have the syllabus and know for sure.

:grouphug: He's just 6. No big deal. But I completely understand how you're feeling. My daughter was a reluctant reader. Everyone expected her to be reading early. For all intents and purposes, she's very intelligent, most likely gifted. BUT SHE JUST WASN'T READING!!!! I, like you, felt like a complete failure. Everyone around me was telling me how smart my daughter was, but here she was, 5 years old, and not reading, at all!! Nothing. Nada. Zip. Zilch. :nopity::svengo: Then I realized that she was 5 years old. And did it really matter if she was reading right that moment? The answer I came up with was no. We had both gotten so frustrated with reading instruction that we were getting no where. DD was (and is) a bit of a perfectionist, and has a hard time handling frustration, so So I stepped back, and for 6 months we did no real phonics work, just lots and lots of reading aloud together. She *loved* that. And when it was time to start back into learning how to read, I took advantage of that. We use Progressive Phonics, a program you can find online (for free!) which has the child and parent reading little stories together from the very start. We also just use lots of library books. Starting out, I was reading most of the words and I would point to a word or two on the page that she would read, but now she's reading most of the words and now only needs me to remind her that "ight" says "ight" and she goes on reading that "the light from the moon was....." He'll read. You aren't a failure!!!!! :grouphug:

Hm. This is a fun thread. I love imagining what DD could be doing in 20 years. (Hypothetically of course. Because in reality, she's actually never growing up. :glare:) I just asked her. She said: a dance teacher, a dancer, an artist, a musician, a veterinarian, umm... what else is there fun?? :D She's going to be busy. :tongue_smilie: I could see her doing any of those. I wouldn't be surprised if she pursued something in music, she loves music of all types and enjoys dancing and singing and also creating her own music. Actually, I'd be more surprised if she DIDN'T pursue a career in music at some point. At least a minor in college, or a year in NYC or something, it's always been such a huge part of who she is (yes... even at 6.5... :lol:) She also has an aptitude and interest in foreign languages and other cultures, so, we'll see. I could see her doing pretty much anything at this point, other than a clear preference for music, she finds most subjects interesting and do-able.

I'm sorry, but I am harsh on her. I feel for her children- they didn't ask for this situation, and are now living the horrible choices of their mother, but I feel *NO* sympathy for this women. Seriously. She already had, what, 6??? children when she got pregnant with the octuplets. 6. Even if she did only have 1 child resulting, how was she going to support 7 children as a single mother?? This is just ridiculous. If she did have a job where she could financially support all 7 children, where would she have the time to be involved with all her children? And if she was a stay at home mom, how was she planning on financially supporting them? And clearly we know she's not independently wealthy... I have no sympathy for people like this. I understand wanting a child. I want another child. I never wanted DD to be an only child. I've always *desperately* wanted at least a couple of children. I struggle to deal with my own jealousy when my best friends have children, even though I'm very happy for them. But I'm also an adult, who has a child to think about, and knows that right now my needs/desires are less important than the needs of the child I already have.

Wow. Why did I not ever think of this as a good career choice? This would be... amazing. I'd love to be a FSO. I took the practice test. Out of 45 questions, I missed 3. :D Go me.

If it were *me* (and I'm a college student :D) I'd go with a MacBook Pro, with a wireless printer to go with it, and all the fancy upgrades she needs/wants. Go through the apple site and do the build your own computer site and read about all the different options. (You can do this once through without clicking buy at the end to get a feel for what there is). Don't forget: -a really good quality bag for carrying, she's going to want something JUST for her laptop and accessories. You don't want to throw your laptop in the same bag with a bunch of heavy books, or your lunch, or a leaky water bottle.... -a quality pair of headphones (no-this isn't just for listening to music, many of my classes have online components that include sound, and if you are on campus it's hard to hear without headphones- spending $100 once on a good pair of headphones is better than spending $20 over and over again on a crappy pair of headphones and being without in between). -word processing software. The macbook will come with the apple software, but she should go ahead and get the PC compatible programs also. - a couple of extra flash drives if she doesn't have any. These come in handy for transferring work to on campus computers, and more importantly, when you have to do in class presentations you can put the presentation on a flash drive and bring it to class with you. (But let her know this- ALWAYS have your presentation available in at least two methods. Flash drive and then email it to yourself, in case one way doesn't work.) -an extra power source could be really useful also if she thinks she'll be using her laptop to take notes in class and such. Some classrooms don't have many plugs, and the worst thing is getting halfway through class and your battery dying, or setting up in the perfect study place only to find that the nearest plug is miles away and your computer only has a half hour of battery time left. Obviously none of this is absolutely necessary, but if she has the money, these accessories will make life a little easier. These are the things that I use regularly on campus. If you have to pick, I'd say headphones and flash drives are the two most important- depending on the class, sometimes I use my headphones daily, and my flashdrives weekly. Before you buy a printer- you may want to check with the technology center. Many schools offer a certain amount of free printing to students. My school gives us 200 pages a week. A WEEK! And they up it during finals week. I use it for my school work and a bunch of DD's school work and still barely get close to the limit. :lol: It's black and white printing only, you have to pay for color printing, but it's cheap enough that on the few occasions I want to print something in color I pay. And speaking of checking with technology, before buying a mac, I'd talk to them and make sure she's gonna have an easy time switching back and forth between a mac and the on campus computers, whatever they are. If students have a lot of problems getting their papers and such onto the campus network from macs, it may be worth it to go with a PC. OH YEAH! One more thing, i promise :D, check with the school for a discount. My school offers discounts with a couple different companies for the purchase of computers. It's not huge, but if you're spending big money, even 10% adds up. Wow. What a novel....

My first thought was carpal tunnel, but I thought it was a little weird that it was showing up in both sides at the same time, and pretty much equally. As far as the ankle, I'm not sure if it's related- since I did trip and it's possible maybe I just hurt it then?? But you guys mentioned the two things I was concerned about. :confused: Guess I'll cart myself off to the doctor. I have okay insurance, although I'll have to see my primary doc to get a referral for a specialist. She's probably getting tired of me by now. :lol: Thanks!

My turn to pick the brains of you wonderful women. My wrists and hands hurt. The pain varies, from barely noticeable to intense throbbing. It's in both wrists and throughout all my fingers, but seems to be worse in my thumbs. Sometimes my hands get a tingly feeling, that falling asleep feeling, but I'm not sure if it is from the medication I'm taking or related to the pain I've been feeling. My right arm also starting hurting about a week ago. I thought I had slept on it weird, that's how it feels, but like I said, it's been a week and no relief. Anyone have any ideas what's going on?? More importantly, anyone have any suggestions for relief?? I have two soft splints that I've been wearing and have given me some relief, but not enough. I looked into the hard splints, but they're 20 dollars each, and I don't have that right now. (And on a very possibly unrelated note, my right ankle is feeling just like my wrists are. I *think* I tripped and maybe lightly sprained it, but is there something wacky that could be affecting my extremities like this???)

:iagree:I was just saying the other day when we were watching the trials that I didn't understand the point of the music. It never lines up to anything!! I was JUST coming here to mention her! She brought me back to some of the routines I remember as a kid. Fun, not just flip after flip. She looked liked she was having a really good time out there dancing around. :D

That looks nice! I need to figure out how to do a report card. We school year round with no scheduled breaks. Maybe just two grading periods? Before and after Christmas.... hm. And maybe just give grades for the main subjects, not all the extras.... DD loves getting grades. Anytime she does work on her own, I have to "grade" it with checkmarks, and a grade on the top, including a percentage and a letter. I don't even know how she KNOWS about percentage and letter grades!!!! :lol: I think she'd be really motivated by a report card.

:iagree:I think many competitive sports families homeschool, just because of the time commitment. I know how much more we're able to do because DD isn't in school 8 hours a day. I imagine it would be nearly impossible to be at that sort of level and maintain a regular school schedule. (Perhaps the question should be- are there any school-age olympians who go to public school?) I am loving him. We were watching the qualifiers last night, he's so... beautiful out there. No other way to put it. But his dad... :001_wub: He's so serious, but so fun at the same time. It makes me smile everytime they flash to him. (Another family I love- the family of Orozco. What a story. And his mom, that poor woman looks like she's going to have a panic attack every time he's out there! I just want to hug her! :lol:)

:iagree:The Canadians, the Americans, the Independent Athletes, they all looked like they were having SO. MUCH. FUN. But some countries were all.... :mellow:. Whaaaaat? I loved the Parade of Nations though. Always my favorite part, but I hated that it was so fast this year. My favorite countries are the ones that wear traditional clothing. The Americans looked ridiculous. Like overgrown Scouts. :lol:

:iagree: :iagree: I like what I've read about the European system of tracking in "high school" but from what I've read (and I could be wrong, because to be completely honest, I haven't done too much reading in this topic) once you are one a track, it isn't easy to change. I think a basic education could be finished around 14, and students could be tracked after that into those headed to university, technical careers, military careers, etc. But I think that if something like this were put into place there should be end of year aptitude testing, and options for changing your track. The government shouldn't force anyone to go one way over another, if someone who was originally headed for technical school studied hard and worked hard for a year, I think they should be given a chance to test into university. But I have controversial views on college education. It was never meant to be for everyone, or even for the majority. University was meant to be for the elite. Now that everyone goes, the standards have been lowered and courses of study aren't as tough. I believe that universities should be for the intellectual elite and the few who are willing to work hard to hold their own among that group. A society full of intellectuals does no good, and only produces a society where the people are unwilling to do the jobs they consider "below" them, because they have a college education. In reality, society needs people of all types, and no job is less than another. The man who cleans the toilets in my university is just as worthy of respect as are my professors. (SORRY, sorry, off my soapbox now!! :rant: Education, it's one of my hot buttons. :lol:)