I love down, but hate the fact it has to be dry-cleaned. We bought ours at Ikea as well, and touched every sample there. We went with the Lyocell. Here's the factors we considered: Didnt' want the down....the dry-cleaning issue. Also, feathers do occasionally poke out. Didn't want polyester....eh, it's just polyester. We wanted it to be heavy...like you could feel the weight on you...love that! We also wanted it to be stitched boxes....this keeps the filling in place...meaning it can only move around in that box. We've had a down one before (from Pottery Barn), and it wasn't stitched boxes...and all the feathers tended to clump up in one corner. We were forever fluffing it..annoying.

Yes, I watched her performance. Yes, it was gross...sexually explicit....not even sure if she sings well. Her outfits were horrifying. Her makeup and hair....a beautiful girl ruined. I get all that. If that's all the debacle was about, okay, I agree. But people are acting is if Miley is the next Lindsey Lohan, and just turned to pure evil. But here's the thing....it's SHOW BUSINESS. It's a PERFORMANCE. It's not by far the yuckiest performance put on at these types of shows. It's been like this for years. Madonna raised eyebrows when I was a teenager, with her "Like a Virgin" performance. Years later, Madonna and Britney Spears kissed and gyrated. Britney, for that matter, had a similiar debacle, when she first tried to break out of that "teenager" to "adult" star..and thus wore the apparently mandated skimpy outfit while gyrating on stage. So I get the performance itself was eh. But what I don't get is the big uproar I see all over FB and the news..."poor girl is lost"..."she needs help"...etc....as if this performance is part of her personal life. It's part of the business....to keep your name out there. I mean, from what I've seen of her personal interviews, she's seems pretty grounded for a millionaire famous 19 year old raised in the public eye. I don't read articles about her out partying all the time, aka Lindsey Lohan. I mean, I've seen pics, etc where she goes out...that's normal for a 19 year old...but it doesn't seem excessive. And the whole "she was an idol for my 13 year old daughter, my baby LOVES Hannah Montana and this performance just RUINS that."....I don't get that either...I mean, Miley hasn't done HM for a few years now..and in those years, she's done nothing but try to break away from the HM mold and show she's growing up....with alot of risque photo shoots, music about drug use, her music videos are close to R-rated, and just overall "normal 19 year old trying to find her way" type choices. So THIS one performance is what finally indicated that she's not exactly role model material? I mean, why is an actor ever role model material??? I just don't get why this one business move, this performance, has people in an uproar about how Miley is going down the wrong road, turned evil, disappointing, etc on a personal level.

I don't think "giving up crap" is going to have a full effect of detox. While, of course, stop eating junk will be better overall, toxins stay in your system for a good long while. The intestines are looong, and the nooks, and crevices of the intestines are often when toxins nest and take root...and then "leak" out to your system. Even if you stopped eating all "crap" it would take a good while for the toxins to get out your system. An actual detox method/system...that one does over a week or longer, is a way to rid those toxins out quickly. Thus the bathroom issues that usually come along. They can be physically demanding, but once it's all over, you'd feel results and feel better much more quickly then just letting the body detox over a long period on it's own.

My laptop is on the verge of death. It boots up and functions about 1 every 10 times, if I'm lucky. That is where I had HST+. When I realized the laptop was dying, I stored a few of the most recent HST+ files on to a USB drive. Since we can not get another laptop for a few months, and my main computer is a Mac, I was considering just going with the HST Online...then no worries about computer death, lol. I went to the HS website, and I see step by step instructions about how to move your HST+ files to HST Online...but it specifically talks about doing it from a .zip file. I can't zip my HST+ files cuz I can't get to HST+. So can I import my HST+ files saved onto a USB drive, into the HST Online? Any since we are talking HST Online....any things I should be aware of, differences from HST+...which I've grown to love in the last four years, btw.

No, my children have no concept that "back to school" means new clothes and new supplies....pfft...for that matter, they don't even really get "back to school"....since we do schoolwork yearround-ish. Now all that being said, I DO get it...years of public school have ingrained the fall back to school shopping urge. I fight it, and my budget requires me to fight it...because there are good deals to be found, if I have the funds. My oldest DS went to public school for 9th last year...and we did go get him a few things....because his wardrobe was lacking...but he didnt' really care one way or the other. This week was his first week back for this year, and we did not go back to school shopping....his wardrobe is fine...we tend to get him things throughout the year as we find it on sale..and he got new shoes last April and another pair in June so he doesn't even need new shoes...so he "needed" nothing. And he had no urge, or requests to go shopping...again, it's just not ingrained in him to know or think he needs new clothes for school, ya know. We'll probably go get him a few things in Sept-Oct as the weather starts to cool. He does need a new winter jacket.

Same exact response here at 1st grade. I know this was the authors first book...but it's definately not for most younger elementary students.

Have you asked on the Queen's Facebook page, regarding grade level? Sandi Queen is on there answering questions daily.

I disagree, that you couldn't skip over those parts in the Apologia books if used as a read-aloud. It's definately not "woven" in. It's very much flat-out statements in their own sentence. We used the Swimming Creatures one year. Statements like "And God created this creature with this feature". (I'm being random...obviously it named an actual creature :). So as a read-aloud, you'd simply say "This creature has this feature". It's not alll the time either. For example there may be a whole page about a certain whale, and then, in the summary "So now you can see why God gave this creature a dorsal fin". Easily edited, by "Now you see why this creature has a dorsal fin". We used the Apologia book because they ARE beautiful. Visually stunning, at least the Swimming Creatures book is. We moved on because it turns out, Apologia wasn't very hands on for us. But if I was just looking for a read-aloud aspect, and frankly, the library becomes extra work for me, I do Apologia (and I'm secular!)

You go to your Lesson Plan, and on the far right there is a box, that you check. I forget the Label of that column (though I just did this today, different computer than I am on now)...then you hit Submit. A box pops up, and it asks you what days you want to assign, and what student. You can do multiple days at once. For example, History. I'm going to assign five days of Lesson Plans to Mon-Fri. I click the box on the far right for the next five lessons. Hit Submit. Box pops up. I select both student names (History is a group subject so I want it to show up on the schedule for each child, because this always means it shows they did the work, once I mark it complete, and give a grade). I select that I want to assign it Mon-Fri. Another box pops up, showing me that it will be scheduled for Mon, Tues, Wed, Thur, Fri. I like it, so I click Submit. DONE. Now my weekly schedule shows that History is assigned each day this week. Really about four clicks and it's all assigned :).

I just can't shake the feeling of something being "off" here. News said she had went on trips alone with him...out of town trips. The day he murdered her mother and brother....cell phone records show 13 calls between the two of them, to each other. I have to wonder.......and while I know she's a minor, and I know he's at fault regardless, and I know adults can skew minds of children aka brainwash..........I get all that.....but I do wonder if there's more to the story than a simple "he kidnapped her". Time will tell I guess, as facts come out.

I've used the Walmart ones. They are good for about two days of scent (that's being on from morning to bedtime). I've never used Scentsy, but I imagine, and have heard, they last much longer than 2 days.

You have to pursue it. I know when I once one a judgment against a lady who I was babysitting for, and she never paid me (after about two months and she was getting state funds to help pay for it...which is why I waited so long because she kept saying she was waiting for the funds to come through...this was years ago, I was 19).....I had to go through the court system to have her wages garnished. I know another friend who won in small claims court...and she had to go to further lengths to actually get the $$$ (not sure what she had to do).

Eh, if the dog wasn't on my table, and wasnt eating my food.....I've got bigger things to worry about....and frankly if I'm that worked up over what other people do in public, I just dont go out in public. Can't control other humans, or their dogs...only myself. Frankly, I've seen humans do more disgusting vile things in comparision for a human, than a dog could ever do....and then they touched the door handle of the store I was about to walk in...and that was only the things I actually saw them do.

I have three white Expedits, as well as two white desk tops from Ikea. They look white to me. I mean, unless you have something else, say something NOn-Ikea, right next to the ikea stuff, it would be very hard to notice a differenc. We've not seen any fading or yellowing.

What everyone said. The workbook IS the student pages (as well as teacher pages). You can purchase the student pages on their own...I guess in the case you purchased a partial workbook, that had just teacher pages....or in the case you used the student pages and need a second copy.

I can not find the student pages for SOTW AG...the originals and the copies I paid for. I went to a small mailing/copy place because they are the cheapest place to make copies. I wanted to do it myself but their one machine was acting up so the man working took some of my stuff over to the fancy machine and did some. (I was copying several other things, not just AG pages...allowed by copyrights :). I came home and let it sit for a few days. Then put away the other things I had made. They are all in their proper binders. Now, about two weeks later, I can not find the AG pages anywhere!!!!! I didn't have a binder for AG at that point. I have no clue what I might have done with them. My next stop is to go back to the copy place to see if I left them there...embarrassing. Cross your fingers for me...I do not want to have to,purchase the student pages again and have to pay for two copies :(.

I bought the workbooks because I don't want to have to go find suitable passages, think of good narration questions, copy work, etc. That's the benefit of the workbooks. There's been a few passages from books we have already read. There's been only one passage that my children asked to read the book, The Happy Hollisters......on my to do list...gotta figure out which book is first...apparently it's a whole series. The Complete Writer WWE, that book is the basis of WWE and tells you how to use passages, etc and I guess if I was going to try to do the work on my own, I'd have gotten that instead of the workbooks. It would be cheaper in the end to go this route. More work though.

Deserts, hot, and many Mexican natives...both legal and illegal.

We read aloud as one of the first things of our school day. After breakfast, we are usually sitting around on the couch waiting for last eater to get done (normally DS7). So as soon as he's done, or sometimes as he eats (our family room/eat-in kitchen are one just space) I'll start reading. Normally our read-aloud is part of our history studies. In the rare circumstance that we are reading something that has nothing to do with history AND have a read-aloud that does go with history, I'd save the history read-aloud for our history time. This is just the reading I am doing to them. Many of these books would be above the reading ability of my children. They read aloud to me as part of their school time, to practice their reading skills.

Of course. Sure, we should all just do what our children can do, and let them work at their own level. Grade level isn't a big deal. Sure, that's a common philosophy of homeschoolers, myself included. But the question is what makes a math be considered "ahead" or "behind". So regardless of our personal philosophies, this question isn't about that. So our personal philosophy of letting the child work at the level they are ready for has no bearing on the conversation. OP wasn't asking that. No one asked if we should push our children to be on grade level. Or hold them back to make sure they stay on grade level. And in fact, the grade level on a math book DOES come into play when one goes and buys the curriculum. If you are starting with a 2nd grade level student, it's helpful to look at the grades levels of that curriculum, that match up, as a starting point. So I'd start at the 2nd grade math book and look at it to determine if my child was ready for it, or needed to start a grade level, or a grade higher, based on the child's abilities AND based on what that particular curriculum has the student working on at that grade level. So that is why it is important to note the grade levels a curriculum is marked with. Any curriculum shopper who says they DON'T pay attention to the grade level of a curriculum especially Math, when shopping is confusing, frankly. So you just pick up any ol'Math book and dig in? Or you try to find a book that is where your child is ready for....and if I'm teaching a 6 year old, it just makes sense to start at that grade level as a jump off point of shopping...to see if my child is ready for that. I'm not saying you must purchase the exact grade level that your child is labeled for.

Fantastic info! Plansrme thank you! My DH works for a private company, not government. It's a company based in another country, a German car maker, and they've been in business forever (and do tend to have a different mentality in terms of employee care than many U.S. based companies).....though I'm not naive to think that predicts the future. But we are planning on this being my DH's long term job, he's going back to college (they are paying) to get a 2nd degree that allows him to move up the ladder there. His current college degree has NOTHING to do with this job, and thus is of little use to him at this point. The pension is 100% funded by the company. They also put $$ in his 401K, a match to what we put in, up to a certain percent. He doesn't have to work the full 20 years, to get pension...but if he does, he'd get the maximum amount. I am under the impression it was the average of his highest paying 5 years....but it does make more sense that it's a percentage of that....so I'm going to need to go dig out his employee handbook to verify and see if I can decipher. They did stop the Pension for new hires last year. I think they get some sort of different retirement plan...DH heard grumbles it wasn't as good as the Pension. Thankfully he got in before that change, so he gets the Pension. But all good info....thanks for helping clarify for me!

I'm kinda financial dumb, when it comes to retirements, etc. I'm just trying to see if I'm missing something in relation to Pensions. My DH's employer offers a pension, funded by them. Once he's completed 20 years of service, he'll be eligible for the full pension (he's got 18 years to go). They will take his top five years of pay, averaged, and pay him that for the rest of his life. Once he starts to collect Social Security (assume that still exists then, lol), they'd reduce their payment by the amount of his SS. It sounds amazing. I'm not sure if they'd continue to pay me if he passes away though, as his surviving spouse. Something we need to look into. Anyone have any experience or knowledge of this scenario (I know it may vary by company, but just looking for generalities). Is there a down side to Pension that I'm missing? Your experiences?

Just don't have him do the all the writing. Orally discuss. Require one major paper a month, maybe, if needed.

The best way to compare is to look at the scope and sequence of the programs being compared. If most maths in a certain grade level are teaching this, and this other math taught it sooner (and other things sooner) then it's considered ahead. For example, let's say Math A teaches mutliplication/division in 2nd grade....but most other Maths don't bring those up until 3rd grade....and Math A would have taught higher level addition, in order to have their students ready for multiplication, very early 2nd grade, if not 1st grade, etc......so Math A generally introduces and teaches topic earlier than other maths....it's considered "ahead". Teaching Textbooks tends to get the label "behind" because when comparing Scope and Sequence, it's generally not introducing topics, and getting in depth, until a year behind other Maths.

It completely depends on the curriculum you choose. For us, I choose not to focus on those types of things in the elementary years, instead to just read good books for the sake of instilling the love to read. In 7th grade, we started CLE Reading, which is essentially reading short stories from their reader, and then answering workbook questions, and all of these literary terms were taught. That's the curriculum I choose and it worked well for us. My DS was able to comprehend and understand some of these abstract terms. There are many other curriculums out there, some that take different approaches, more like oral discussions, essay type stuff. Progeny Press is another one that offers book studies...you read one whole book and study it chapter by chapter.