You know, they can probably get it fitted with a lock.... A lot of undercounter fridges come with locks for that very reason! We keep our liquor in a locked upper cabinet, but the key is on the rack with all the other keys. Basically we're not keeping DS out of it (he's 8 and doesn't care) but reserving the right to remove the keys whenever it would suit us. If we're leaving him with a babysitter, for instance, or if he has friends over that we feel compelled to keep out of there. Or if we're ever concerned about it being an issue for him.

Keep us posted!!

You should be able to get a credit report free (once a year only) via the FTC site at http://www.ftc.gov/ -- I always go through that because the site they link to (the real free one) is very very similar to a lot of not-really-free sites. The FTC site has a link marked "Identity Theft" which has links to the free credit report site, but also a lot of very useful information for someone in your position. Hope it's not as bad as it sounds!!

Soap should do it, but it might take several goings-over... And I think I'd go with a fairly "harsh" soap -- dish soap like Laurie recommended, or a cleaning type detergent (Pine Sol maybe?) Use gloves, warm water and lay out plenty of towels or something to catch drips so the floor doesn't get too wet. New paint isn't going to stick if you don't remove the oil first, so you're going to have to wash it off either way!

We've only actually had it once here, a couple years ago, and DS didn't get very sick at all (he never seems to no matter what it is, lucky kid!) DH and I were down for the count though. We do wash our hands and all that, but nothing special. We don't sleep enough, we don't eat especially carefully (she says with two empty Diet Coke cans and a coffee cup next to her), and we're always out and about. So in our case it's probably either luck or generally good immune systems. DH sometimes gets the flu shot, but only if it's extremely convenient (like he was at the doctor for something else, or his office does them).

Yay!!! Glad you're enjoying it!

This is exactly what I think of it too! I was just so thrilled to see a physics book that had the experiments so neatly tied in to the text and the concepts in just exactly the order I would have put them in. Hope you enjoy it as much as we have!

We mark the end of the year (end of May) and start claiming the next grade at that point, even though we don't really follow the grades as far as what we actually DO, and we school year round..... So end of May we go out to dinner to celebrate the end of the school year and DS gets to pick where we go. He loves that part. :p

Took me a couple days to see this! Sorry!! :) We do have the book (not the subscription), and we're using it with a group, so the group does the experiments together and DS and I read and do the end-of-chapter questions on our own. The group is all 8 and 9 year olds and it's working out great. With an enthusiastic kid you probably could go younger, but there is a bit of math (skippable math) that really aims a lot higher. If you're not "there" on the math it's fine, you don't have to do it, but it fits in very neatly. There is another group of older kids (11-12) using the same book, but separately... I assume they're doing all the math. Since it's a group (scheduling...) and young (and almost all boys.... LOL) we've not gone very fast. We're about halfway through the book having done about 20 weeks of actual work. If it were just us (and doing science daily) I think we'd have gone twice as fast, but with the group it's been about two weeks per section. You can probably tweak it to fit whatever length you need.... I know most of the moms are counting the group as their science for the whole year. I think it could easily go older too... the math that is in it is probably around early algebra 1 level. Not super super difficult but using variables and formulae. If you were using it with a high schooler I think maybe I'd beef it up a bit, and it would be of the "conceptual physics" family (9th grade) rather than the calculus type (12th grade/honors/AP). But it's lots of fun, solid science, and approachable by the very young and/or science-averse ;) I sound like a commercial, don't I! LOL

For my DS, what worked best was for him to start with a vowel and then not move his lips, just his tongue (curling it back but not touching). Like aaaaar, eeeeeer, iiiiiiiir, ooooooooor, uuuur. It's not exactly right (you do move your lips a little) but it helped more than anything else. After he managed the final R it was easier for him to correct the initial R. I wasn't terribly impressed with his SLP and her thoughts on it at that point, and actually she gave up and I had to do it myself at home... but that's another rant for another day ;)

I loved Tom Sawyer! All the ridiculous superstitions (and just the sheer number of dead animals that figure prominently in the plot -- DS and I discussed how much more important to the story the animals were than the grownups!!) Are you using Lightning Lit? The lesson in LL7 that focuses on Tom Sawyer is about subplots, and I can't think of a better book to replace it with... there are so many "episodes", some kind of disconnected and some all strung together but all of them feeding into the main plot so well... It made an excellent lesson here! :) Have you gotten to the cat taking the medicine yet? or the dog in church? There are some extremely funny parts that are worth getting to before you give up. I've heard that Huck Finn is a "darker" book -- my mother (the librarian) said DS wasn't old enough yet, but I've not read it myself...

I don't remember which years/book it is (it's been a few years! LOL), but in some cases there will be questions in the workbook that refer back to activities in the activity book.... So I would at least buy them to have on hand, myself.

We did without any of the teacher's editions and were fine.... The only things I see you're missing are the workbooks. Basically you read from the text, do the labs in the activity book, and do exercises in the workbooks. Some of the activities are workbook-y, but that's the general idea... and they all go together very neatly. There are also "Higher Order Thinking Skills" books for some levels, but they came out after we were finished with the series, so I don't know any details, except that they look great! Hope this helps!

Yup. Like when I was in a workshop a couple weeks ago where every single other person there was a PS teacher, and one of them asked me what I had to do to keep up my homeschooling credentials. <giggle> I figured she meant "whatever it is you have to do... how does that go?" so I just said we had to do a standardized test every year and submit records as requested. And that seemed to be what she wanted to know. :)

Honestly, DS has to take a standardized test every year and it is almost never a surprise how he does. I do like the comparison of all those statistics (I'm a statistics geek... LOL) but really I know a lot more about what he can do based on what I see him do every day. And what's a lot more useful to me in terms of "is he on track" is to measure him by his curricula. If he is doing well in a curriculum that works at a particular level (or range of levels) then I consider him "working at that level". If we're using a 7th grade science book and he's doing great, keeping up with the workload and producing all that's expected of him, then he's "working at a 7th grade level." If he's struggling, then I wouldn't say that... but wherever he is comfortably producing is where I count his level. So I guess if people ask how we know, we know because we are right there. And we know the level because (unless you were completely curriculumless... LOL) most materials are labeled with some kind of grade level(s). That said, I generally don't think it's any business of a random stranger what level DS is working at in anything, so I tend to be vague -- "doing fine", "working hard", etc. and spend more time talking about whatever interesting project we're doing, or book he's reading, or whatever, rather than levels.

I would correct that, and preferably before the other kid stomps off... I think it's a better lesson when they can still salvage the situation rather than when it's already a lost cause and I'm just telling them why. Same as above -- something like "You need to be more polite than that" or "If you're going to be rude then I'm going to assume you're tired and we need to leave" No sibs here, but in theory I would go with the "rude" answer above, but possibly also encourage the younger sib to find something else to do, if it's an ongoing issue. Wild clothing doesn't bother me. That's the only age when they'll be able to get away with it. Take pictures. ;)

In the cabinet with the coffee. It's the only way I'll remember to take (or give) any of it. :rolleyes:

And was admitted overnight. I had had a ton of phenergan early in that pregnancy because of long-term morning sickness (lost 15 pounds I didn't have to spare, and ended up seriously dehydrated), so I didn't have any qualms about taking more. It helped, rest helped, keeping as much liquid down as I could helped. And he was none the worse for wear. ;) My OB (whom I called at home! eek!) said that that sort of thing doesn't affect the baby at all except to the extent of the mom being badly dehydrated, which they fix with IV fluids if it comes to that. If you're still getting contractions I would call and see if that might be an issue they need to address.

If you want just Physics for a year, I really like Bite Size Physics. There's a website and a book (from lulu.com) and the materials for experiments are very "grocery store" when you even need to buy anything...

Study of Exceptional Talent... I don't know what they do, really, but the criteria is 700+ on the SAT (math or critical reading) before 13 years old.

I don't watch a ton, but DS and DH do... only they'll watch as much as they can with or without cable. We have a huge DVD collection (two bookcases nearly full) but I swear if we only had one DVD they would both watch it over and over. :p Getting cable didn't increase our viewing time, but it did increase the "good" options, in my opinion.

I've not used PP for Shakespeare (I vaguely remember one PP guide for something... but now I can't remember what it was. It was good though...) Okay I found my notebook and what we've used for our group is: Teaching Shakespeare (excellent excellent excellent!) Shakespeare Set Free (wonderful handouts about language and lessons on staging) Folger Shakespeare Library (themes especially) and something else that's escaping me at the moment... We've listened to parts of it on CD, and we've watched excerpts from three different productions but mainly one with Antony Sher as Macbeth (and Harriet Walter as Lady Macbeth)... which is unfortunately only available from the UK as a region 2 DVD, so you have to have a region 2 (or region-less) DVD player for it. Many computers can handle it... Hope this helps!

Not super-wonderfully-amazing, but not bad at all. It depends on what you want of course. I have the Tragedies guide, because we're studying Macbeth this spring with a group. I've not actually used anything from it, but I read through it pretty closely as we planned the group activities. The summary is good, the comprehension questions are excellent, and I like the treatment of themes and characters. The symbolism section isn't bad, but could go much farther... and I would say the same about the stage directions section (how actors could handle key scenes). I do like the chocies in writing assignments and we will almost certainly use one of them when we're done with our group. Given that each Shakespeare guide is meant to be a semester, and each covers four plays and some sonnets, I would say the treatment of Macbeth is excellent. But then again I would generally not want to run through quite that quickly... I'd rather wallow for a while in one play. ;) So if you're looking for a good brisk run through at a rate of about four weeks for a play, I think LL would be fine. You'll hit all the high points, have some good discussion material and some excellent writing assignments. However... If you want to really dive in and soak yourself in Shakespeare, I would add a lot to what's there. Our Macbeth group is at the ridiculous extreme, but the kids are loving it and they are really immersed in the stuff. We have spent eight weeks on it so far, with three to go, and it has been really amazing... If that's what you're looking for, then you'll want more than LL will give you, but LL is a great starting point. The two things we have added the most to are the symbolism and the stage directions, and if you want I can probably post a list of the references we've used. It's a long list, but if you want to go completely nuts with it, they've been fantastic. :)

I think it means you should look fabulous, but as though you could always dress like that. :D Silky, strappy, slinky all come to mind... nothing frilly or poofy, nothing heavy or stiff. Black, bold colors, maybe metallics... I think.

I think you can keep punching it down and letting it rise, over and over until the oven is ready.... Not absolutely sure, but it's worth a try anyway! :)