If you have a local health food store, they should sell clove oil in their essential oils section. They may even have Gum-o-mile from Herbs for Kids. It has other soothing stuff, along with the clove oil. (I recommend these only because ground cloves tend to travel around in your mouth, which can be sort of gross)

We don't let them win so much as help them strategize as the game progresses, until they can strategize on their own. Then, we play. I'm leading my 11yo by 100 points in a game of Words with Friends right now. She knows plenty of words, and can look at the board as well as I can. Beyond that, we're both constrained by what's already there and the letters we get.

That. When I needed a laptop for work, we had laptops. You have one for portability already, so that's covered. We went with a Lenovo all in one pc w/ touch screen last year and LOVE it. It's easy to move (only a power cord), but not what I'd call "portable". It's a monster. Nice for watching videos in the school room, though.

I think 12 in charge of siblings is the common belief here, but the law doesn't differentiate. I wonder why people think that. And I was under the same impression until I looked it up in reference to October, so I was misinformed for at least the past 23 years of parenting... I'm not casting aspersions, just wondering how that came to be the prevailing idea. Weird. Once outside of legal constraints, I agree that it's totally dependent on the individual kid.

Depends on the state. Here, it's 8 and a child watching anyone younger than 8 has to be 13, regardless of whether the charges are siblings or someone else's kids. In October, I will be leaving them alone for an hour while I teach a class across town (our town being about a mile across) every fourth week when my husband is at work on the day I teach. B is 11 and H&Q will be 8. Last year when I taught, I rotated with a colleague for those days. I have every confidence that they are able to conduct themselves appropriately for that hour. They could now, but it's just not legal.

I got mine the day after my 16th birthday (permit at 15 & 9 mos). I bought a car as soon as I had the permit (so I could test drive). In those days, it was relatively cheap to insure a 20 year old car, even for a new driver, and I'd been working since I was 14, so I had the income to do it. :D I couldn't wait, either, Scarlett. Being subject to my mother's whims whether she'd take me to work or elsewhere got old fast.

:iagree: I knew a couple years ago (no kids) who simply would not accept unannounced visitors. Period. His mother stopped by once, and they didn't answer the door, so she went back up the street to a pay phone and called. Then she went back and they happily let her in. They had to do that with a few friends who didn't take the boundary seriously, but only once. Nobody was particularly offended; they had been told. Of course, the point was probably better made when people had to find a pay phone, but I apply a similar "no drop bys" policy and rarely have someone stop by or call during school hours, and if they do, it's important and time sensitive.

Is he, perhaps, suffering from dementia, or has he always been an a$$hat? If its the former, I might want to speak to his family. If its the latter, he'd be getting an earful from me.

I love those "surprises"!

Uh, no... No I did not know that. In fact, the flyer (with the team name on it)is "less risqué" but features flavored body glitter, etc. Should the parents take that to work? Or is it just for US to order, so we can all sit around being creeped out by the massive funds raised? No, it's just yucky. Mattresses are just inexplicable, though. Who thought of that, I wonder?

Me, too.

Decadent yarn, a professional dejunker/organizer... Huh. I have no idea beyond that.

We dumped cable a few years ago. We have an antenna and get network stations from DC and Baltimore (as well as the "off" stations like Ion and some random re-run, old B movie showing channels), and PBS from DC, B'more and Philly. We have Netflix and Amazon Prime, too. If there's a Redskins game he can't get (Fox out of DC is fickle sometimes), he will either go to the Y and run while he watches, or walk down to the pub. I can't say we miss it at all.

Uh-huh. Ok. And just how would one send their children around with that flyer? I know, when my SIL used to do Tupperware fundraisers a few years ago, there was a catalogue, as well as the option to order through their fundraising link online. Call me old-fashioned but I think having U11 girls peddling goods that arrive in "discreet wrapping", regardless of how they do it, vulgar.

Geez. Tupperware is a much better fundraiser than mattresses.. Mattresses?! We had someone suggest (in all seriousness) an "adult toy" company fundraiser for a sports team (and said that she did lots of kids' fundraisers). It was declined but I couldn't help but wonder whether the kids were meant to go door to door, or sell to family or... :ack2:

Speaking only to GWG, yes, it starts in a 1-2 work text, then in the later years has a text & student workbook. It's very straightforward, and my now 11yo worked mostly independently from 2 on (with occasional questions answered or clarification from me)

Yeah, that. I'm not sure I'd be rioting in the streets over it, but I like my academics edited and/or peer reviewed, so I would be annoyed by a direction to go to such a site.

That's the classification system we've always used, too. I think the 'do should fit the context. e.g. when I wore a suit to work, my hair was always in a neat bun or twist. Now, it's usually in a messy bun, a more casual twist, or a ponytail. It I'm teaching, it's in a messy, loopy ponytail almost on top of my head or, when it was shorter, two ponytails, but that's because we always do mat work of some kind and a ponytail right there on the back of my head makes it uncomfortable.

The boys nursed until the summer before they turned 4. Literally, over the course of a week, they just "forgot" how. It was odd, especially after their older sister weaned with a "no. No, t'anks" shortly after her first birthday. (I thought it was a strike. It totally wasn't. :( ) No closet nursing for me. Perfectly normal on both sides of the family, and among my friends. No one ever batted an eye except one very young waiter who leaned over my shoulder to take my order and found himself looking down my top into another face. :lol: (To be clear, it didn't seem to be the nursing that there him so much as the face peering out.)

I'm not sure what you mean. I've handed money to very specific people I would see during my commute through DC, provided a meal, etc. I don't know what your question means, though. Are you thinking there's some assumption of continued support?

I was about to say "of course we had worksheets"... But no. No, we had workbooks in the early grades, and some mimeo sheets (usually of handwritten / drawn stuff), then we copied from the board or book. My kids have a mixture of workbooks (grammar*, spelling), worksheets (math for the boys), and printed pages they copy work to (algebra, logic, etc). *Grammar has a section review and challenge that they copy from the text book. I think it's one of those cultural things that just happens. You're given a damp mimeo sheet and everyone sniffs it. They still make paste (with the stick in the lid). I own some. No idea what I intended to do with it (probably save glue sticks) but I was quite tickled to find it. :D

Funny story: I was talking to one of the company VPs I did IT work for in the hallway one day. We talked about going to get lunch with one contractors on my team, yadda yadda, and, as we walked in our respective directions, I reached back and smacked him squarely on the behind. Totally mindless, something I would do with my husband or kids, but we each walked a couple paces as it sunk in, stopped, and turned around, horrified. All I could manage was "wow. That was inappropriate, wasn't it?" It was hysterical. And I'm certainly glad he didn't read anything into it, but he did tease me mercilessly for weeks.

I night weaned the boys at 2 1/2 and they fully weaned at 3 1/2. They're 8 and have no cavities or dental oddities. My 11 yo self-weaned shortly after her first birthday, and my eldest (23) was bottle fed. Neither of them have had any cavities, either. It's genetics. I have 3 fillings (all from those "difficult" early teen years) and my husband has never had a tooth filled.

Yeah, I am always drawn in (and yet saddened) by the Victorian mortuary photography I find in antiques stores. Saddened because the family is no longer in possession of this artifact of a loved one. I feel like one's mortuary photo should be an heirloom and remembrance, not in a box at a store.

Meatloaf, festive (i got tricolor potatoes yesterday) smashed potatoes & peas.