One thing you can look for is alarms marketed for pool safety (if your backyard had a pool, for instance). I tried googling "pool safety door alarm" (with no quotes) and turned up gazillions of hits. Hope this helps!

I think of the work week and the weekend as two separate things, so the "week" starts on Monday and ends on Friday. Saturday and Sunday are like their own little island of time. ;)

I'm a "suck it up" type of parent too, provided DS hasn't moved beyond the point where he can learn from a situation. So I agree, but instead of a standard of whether you've tried fixing it first, my standard is one of whether he's so overwhelmed that he can't pay attention to the matter at hand. I don't think it's my job to make his life easy (I think sometimes it's my job to make things harder!), but if a situation is overwhelming then I don't hesitate to yank him out. By then he's not learning anything, just panicking. So my ideal learning situation for DS is a "low simmer". Just bubbly enough that he needs to be in the moment, engaged, and dealing, but not boiling over. Challenging but not crushing. So I definitely agree with "beyond their comfort zone", in many different directions (difficult people, challenging schoolwork, high expectations of behavior and character), but I think the best situations to learn from are the ones that are only a little uncomfortable.

I blame church! LOL There's always coffee after the service, but just that and water, and if everyone else is drinking coffee.... Given that we live in the South and everyone here drinks sweet tea (iced tea), caffeinated, year-round and in great quantities, I don't think coffee is any worse than that. I wouldn't give it to him after about 4pm because I think it does affect his sleep after that, but in the morning when I drink coffee he's fine with a cup himself. So having said all that, he decided after about a year that he didn't really like coffee that much after all. He'll sometimes try a sip of mine, but he's thoroughly unimpressed for now. I almost wish he would go back to it now that he's older, because he gets up before me in the morning and he could make it himself... ;)

That would be me too. I get tired and crabby and don't sleep well, which leads to being more tired, and crabbier... If he's in the country it's not too bad because he can call (or skype) and chat, but if he's out of the country and the internet connection isn't great and the time difference is significant, then it's not really the same easy conversation. More like a series of telegrams. I do have friends, I do get to chat with them at least as frequently when he's gone as when he isn't, but I want to chat with HIM. So I emailed him last night with a veritable laundry list of trivia. He got to hear about someone I ran into that I haven't seen since grad school, and who said what at a party, and the link my mom sent, and that we bought two seedling trees and a little rosemary plant, and that the trees are planted but I can't decide where to put the rosemary, and that I'm doing our volunteer hours for the neighborhood pool next week, and that a friend of ours slipped up and said she was celebrating her "40th decade" instead of "4th decade" and so I just had to send a "happy 400th birthday card", and that I cleaned the kitchen, yay me. It was all very trivial stuff, but the sort of trivial stuff that I'm used to being able to unload at random intervals instead of one big long list! Oh well... I shouldn't complain -- he doesn't travel half as much as he did in previous jobs! (But then that was before DS!)

We just got back from Gettysburg! We did a bus tour, which was very nice (although I think if we hadn't been with a group we would have done the CD-in-your-car tour for cheaper and been just as happy with it) Actually I'm not surprised that 3pm was too late, because the bus tour is 2 hours, and apparently the private tours are meant to be more in-depth (like if you have a particular interest they can change their route to see exactly what you want to see), so I would definitely aim for earlier. You really could go all day and not see everything!

LOL!! Way to go!!

I burn super-easily, so I wear a short-sleeved rashguard (could be long sleeved but I don't like having the fabric down to my wrists in hot weather) and board shorts. It covers everything I don't care to show off (really... no one wants to see me in a skimpy suit!) and it minimizes the amount of sunscreen I have to put on. REI has board shorts that are longer than the Lands End ones and slightly cheaper too. I got my first rashguard at a store at the beach, but I copied it and made myself another to fit better. :)

But I do hoard curriculum... LOL!! I've actually got a few years of math, science and history at hand because when I found something that worked for both of us I bought the whole set. Literature I only have next year bought (and not all the books themselves, just the curriculum/ guides) but of course I could wing that with library books if I had to. I guess I could get DS through about three years before I really needed to buy anything else, but I wouldn't enjoy it half as much as I do the spendier way ;) (says she who just blew through three months of budget in two days, on books and various paper goods.... LOL)

We have a carbon monoxide and gas leak detector that plugs into an outlet with a battery backup for power outages. Just one floor, and we have it in the end of the house with the bedrooms.

I did go early when I got mine done (like 2pm) and it was VERY QUIET there. Just two or three employees, no hangers-on, no other customers. There wasn't anything terribly weird or disturbing in the decor (okay I don't know that I'd actually call it "decor" though... LOL) There were tattoo pictures on the walls like you might choose from, and there was a big glass case of jewelry. There was probably skull jewelry, but not really huge or obvious, kwim? Like Tap, tap, tap said, the guy was very decorated himself, but nothing particularly objectionable. When I came in he was on the phone to his wife talking about their toddler and teething problems... LOL I think if I were thinking of taking my child to get earrings, I'd definitely drop in first a couple days in advance, just to ask about it. They should be happy to tell you all their procedures for sterilizing things, and they should appreciate your concern. And at the same time you can be judging the "feel" of the place.

I tend to be a cynic about a lot of the panic around things in general (plastics is only the latest...), and I really truly appreciate a well-cited reference like this. "Plastics" covers so many extremely diverse materials that I find it irritating when they are thrown out all together. The potential problems with polycarbonate have very little at all to do with other plastics (which might have their own problems but not BPA!) At least this link has them enumerated and all the claims about adverse effects cited to their original studies. Thanks!

LOL... sounds like my family. They all lived into their 90s (unless they die in a farming accident) and remained healthy right up to the end, and almost nobody took good care of himself! But they're tough people... it's like the gene pool was culled in much harsher times and what we're left with is the people who can survive about anything.

I agree with the others, but also wanted to add that when the curriculum is written to be done without a calculator, I would do it without a calculator. One hopes that if it's written to be done with a calculator (or partly with), that the authors took that into consideration when designing the problem sets. I don't have any problem owning a graphing calculator early and having time to play with it, but I wouldn't use it in regular daily work in a curriculum that is written to be done without.

I would have to counter that in both sides of our family the European ancestors spoke a bunch of languages because they were cattle thieves of no fixed address (not quite welcome in many of the places where they had previously resided... ;)) And more recent generations speak several languages because they were either soldiers or refugees. I do think that our educational system is modeled on one that primarily served the wealthy in the past (since poorer people frequently didn't have any formal education outside of the home), and that foreign language is one of the things they have in common. But then if you were growing up as a peasant in a village, you might not have any formal education beyond religion and taking on your parents' occupations. No reading, writing or math even. I wouldn't count it as a left over class attitude though -- just a different world now than they had back then.

I'll list... :) 1. Just from a practical standpoint as a "mark of an educated person", I think it really does make a difference in college admissions... first to meet the requirements and second to indicate that your education was "rigorous" (whether it really means that or not, it gives that impression) 2. Improving your English -- it is only when I learned other languages that English made logical sense to me... if it's the only language you know then the structure of it is just "there" and not really something you necessarily think about in logical terms. Comparing it to a dissimilar language shows more of the structure of our own language than just our native fluency does. And I mean that in terms of not just grammar, but also phonics and sound... and of course the word root thing too. As much as people say there are more exceptions to the English spelling rules than there are words that follow those rules, if you know where all the words come from you realize that there is a lot more regularity than appears at first glance. It's just not all from the same language. 3. Even if you're not fluent, knowing a little of a couple languages is an excellent thing when you travel. That's our major reason for language study in our family (because we do travel!) -- you don't have to be fluent to get by, and to make a good impression with the locals. My high school French is unbelievably rusty, but it's good enough to pass as "cute" when I'm stumbling through checking into a hotel. And if you can stumble through that, you can stay at the more interesting (cheap) places where they really don't speak English at all, and not just the Novotel or whatever that hires multilingual staff. 4. I think there's a certain sense of ease you get from knowing that you can learn another language. I found my first foreign language difficult, my second much easier and my third a breeze. I'm not fluent in any of them, but I don't panic any more. I know that given time and effort I could pick up just about any language. I know what I want to start with when I'm looking at a new language, and what I can skip for now. DH travels for work, and to the most unusual places... He's in Ethiopia right now. He doesn't speak Amharic (!?) but he knows enough about languages in general that he can pick up the bits and pieces he needs very quickly. There's a chance he'll be going to Nepal soon, and it's the same thing -- no way he would have happened to have learned Nepali just on spec, but knowing that he can pick up the necessary phrases makes it just that much easier to deal with a multitude of languages. 5. You might be surprised at how many native speakers you can turn up in some areas... We have lots of native Spanish speakers around here, and the universities nearby have a lot of foreign students from different places. And people I've met seem to be almost-universally thrilled to find someone who wants to try to speak their language, even very very badly (LOL)

I'm reupholstering the sofa! DS helped me strip off the old fabric this morning and I'm about to start sewing! Just as soon as I stop posting.... ;) Yesterday I did a little spackling on one wall of my bedroom where it was kind of lumpy (previous owners did something to it... weird gouges and bad patching jobs) and I need to finish that and get a gallon of paint... and if everything else gets done (ha!) we might pick up a second gallon and repaint the family room too. And I have about a dozen little seedlings that desperately need to go in the ground today or tomorrow.... Better add that to the list! DH is on a business trip and I'm just a little hyper... LOL

"Chica" is girl, so "chiquita" is sort of like "little girl" or "missy" -- it's like saying "honey" in the south here.. the sort of thing a random grownup will call a child whose name he doesn't know. But now I've got the banana song going through my head! ;)

I agree -- there's really no reason they should think they can just make late changes and insist you live up to them when they weren't agreed upon before. Our dance studio has the exact same schedule every year -- not only do you know when the recital is by the time you sign up, but you know exactly when and where all the rehearsals will be. The desk clerk can quote them off the top of her head because they never change. I think if you want to try to appease everyone, you could ask if there was any way you could bring your DS for an extra private ballet lesson (reasonably paid for) to make up for the one he misses. It's not the same as being in class, but since you've already pointed out that it's impossible to be in class that one time, it would be a gesture of how seriously you take the committment. kwim?

I mean literally ;) Think about who suffers in the story -- people who take themselves too seriously, people who take life to seriously, people who don't like others having fun... And think about who comes out ahead (everyone else! LOL) The "fool" (Feste) is wise and the lady (Olivia) is a fool. Only when she lets go of her seriousness and mourning does she start to find happiness. And Malvolio's undoing is his self-importance and disdain for silliness. Everything is topsy-turvy... people aren't who they seem, everyone falls in love with impossible mates, silliness is rewarded and seriousness punished, tricks are played on various characters at one point or another... I really like the Trevor Nunn movie version because I think Ben Kingsley's Feste is perfect -- the fool, but also the only person who knows what's going on. And the Cesario-Olivia scenes are hysterical. This isn't one to think too hard on -- it's a very silly play, and while it's by far my favorite I don't think I'd call it terribly "deep"... Twelfth Night the holiday is meant to be a time of silliness, and the play goes along with that. If you want to really delve in and wallow in it, though, there's plenty you can discuss about gender in there!

Us too!! Weird! Maybe spring is just a good American Revolution time of year ;) Looking forward to a real answer... LOL!!

He will probably slow down later. Either way, I'd let him fly through arithmetic, and worry about the rest as it comes up. My DS is 8 and doing fine with Algebra (and Geometry and Statistics -- we're juggling all three), and not finding it difficult at all, but he did slow down a bit when we got here. He might still hit Calculus around 11 or 12, or he might not. We could end up sitting at Algebra/Geometry/Statistics for quite a while (there's a lot to do with those three!) My general thoughts on the matter are that if you have a kid who might hit some really high level maths really early, then a lot of the standard advice isn't going to apply. You have to start with the kid you've got and go from there. If he's capable, then you're really not going to have anything like a "standard" progression or timetable no matter what you do... If he hits Calculus at 12 years old, you're going to have to do something, but what that something is will depend on what you've got to work with right then, and that's hard to judge from 6 years out. So if he's enjoying it now, let him fly with it. If it gets to be too much, branch out to other things. Do what's right for right now and deal with later as it comes up. I do find it much easier to branch out now that he's finished arithmetic, just because there's so much more that's interesting at this level. That's part of why we've slowed down... Algebra, Geometry and Statistics just have a lot more meat to them! :) And I should add the caveat that I'm in an unusually comfy position here, not too far from some rather good universities and research organizations -- plenty of friendly neighborhood mentors I could draw on if needed to fill a gap between what I can do easily at home and how old I'd like him to be in college. So I might sound more at ease with all this than I might be elsewhere, just for having resources and a plan in mind. But if EPGY can fit the bill for you, then I wouldn't worry too much. Make sure that today is working smoothly and let him run with it! :)

I had my own done at a tattoo parlor for similar reasons -- both because I trusted them more and also because I have a long history of difficulties with earrings (and a lot of scar tissue where they had been pierced before) and wanted a) the neater hole made with the needle rather than the piercing gun, and b) the better quality earrings. I have a larger gauge hole than usual because of all that (removed some of the scar tissue) but it's been three years now and I've had none of the problems I had with the previous piercings. Most people don't have any problem at all with Claire's or whatever mall place they choose, but if you have a history of allergies or infections I would highly recommend a good tattoo parlor, and particularly one that is happy to let you watch them disinfect everything. It does hurt though, and quite a lot more than the piercing guns!

A couple different things here... First, I don't know about the assumption that 8th grade work won't count for high school credit. I know I've heard that before about some colleges, but then we had a college admissions officer come to our homeschool group meeting a couple months ago and he said the exact opposite -- no matter what age, he wants to see all the high school level courses. So if you have a particular college in mind, it might be worth calling them to ask, just so you know what the deal is now (even though it could change before you're done) Second, there may be another way to deal with the science -- instead of a more advanced class his senior year, maybe a different topic? Like astronomy? or ecology? or another specialization? It doesn't have to be AP just because he's done the big three already... kwim? And third, I'm not completely clear on one part... what is his math level like? Generally speaking, I would not advance science without the math coming along too. If he's a year ahead in math, then go ahead, but if he's doing fine with his grade in math (not needing to be accelerated there), then I'd probably take an early year to do some fun science and save the high school science for when he's doing high school math. They tend to track together pretty well, and especially in high school it can really make a science class too hard if you're not "there" mathwise. In a general not-specific-to-your-situation sense, I don't think the same answer will do for every child... Some kids should not be accelerated. Some don't need to, but could be fine. Some would do better accelerated but will survive without it... And some really can't be served well at their "age-based" grade level no matter what inconvenience it might cause down the road. DS is radically accelerated, and fair or not, it's really the only way he's going to make it through the next five or ten years with his (and my) sanity! It might complicate things for college -- we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. If it does, it will still have been worth it in our case. Really seriously worth it. In a case where it's absolutely necessary right now, I wouldn't worry too much about what happens in eight years... but if it's not vital to your current situation? I'd probably not do it.

In our house it doesn't matter if something is a "strength" or a "weakness", it needs to be a gentle challenge. DS is way ahead in some things, but that doesn't mean he gets to coast... and he struggles with other things (coughcoughspelling!cough) but that doesn't mean he has to catch it up any faster than he otherwise would. So what I define as a "low simmer" is that if it's easy it's not enough, but if it's so hard that it upsets him, then he's not learning the lesson (he's distracted by the upset). So I aim for just enough that he's out of his comfort zone, but only a little. He has to work at everything and he has to work hard, but I aim to never make it overwhelming or exhausting -- just hard enough to give him a sense of accomplishment when it's over. For some things that can be a very VERY narrow window! LOL And sometimes I have to re-assess halfway through the day, but for the most part I can judge it pretty closely.