My ds is going to be a Best Buy employee :lol: We already have the perfect color blue polo shirt and khaki shorts (we live in a hot climate, too). I'm going to print out a best buy tag to tape to his shirt. You could do Target employee if you only have red. The easiest costume ever!

Please add me, thanks! This is just what I need because DS is going to be in 7th next year.

I'm not sure, amsunshine, about your question, but I did talk to both Best Buy and Verizon. They're very helpful! I did the online chat with BB and called Verizon. There is no increase in line access fees. The only way you'd start paying more on your monthly bill is if you sign up for the payment plan instead of the 2-year contract renewal. That's the answer to my question. I hope you find the answer to yours!

Sorry, I'm one of the lurkers who only comes out once in a blue moon with a random question or comment. :001_rolleyes: Anyways, here's my question: Did they change your line access fee at all through Verizon when you got the phone? We're paying $40 per line right now. Would that stay the same or would it increase? Thanks for any help, y'all!

Chiming in with another option altogether: coconut oil. Warm a tablespoon of coconut oil, massage it into scalp, wash out (with shampoo) after an hour. You can put a shower cap or towel around your head during the hour wait. Bonus: the smell is tropical instead of salad-like! I think it does a good job. I do need to do it more often…I'm not sure what's suggested, but I only manage to do it once a month or so. I would benefit more doing it weekly, however.

Lol, I have no idea. I admit, I just posted the song because it's funny. I'm not committed in any way to a specific definition of barbecue. But yeah, the mayonnaise sauce does sound terrible! :D

I feel this video explains the differences in BBQ within the US of A quite nicely:

On the other hand, I'm on my third time through Right Start and am loving it and can't wait to take all four kiddos through levels A all the way through G. I enjoy the challenge. It's gratifying to "get" something that I didn't get last time around. Oh yeah, the kids learn stuff, too…that's always good.

I did jig a bit with Gus at the end of this. Too bad I'm on kid #3 and have one more to go... I can make it. Gus did help. Gus will help. Thank the pink pig. AN-TI-ES-TAB-LISH-MEN-TAR-I-AN-ISM!!!!! :willy_nilly: :willy_nilly: :willy_nilly:

This year I'm having DS read a chapter a day from a good book and copy two sentences from the chapter into his reading notebook. He's done this with Black Stallion and is working on Farmer Boy. We're starting out with copy work. I'm hoping to lengthen the copy work, and then eventually move into written narration. I guess you could start a notebook, then introduce literary terms that way. You could assign something like: read this short quality picture book and identify the protagonist and the antagonist. And move up and in! I keep it really low-key because he's aspie and doesn't like work! I don't judge what he chooses (he started out by finding the shortest sentences in the given chapter, but just today's choice of copy work was meaningful and a complete idea! Yay!) With the structure in place (read a bit each day and do an entry in the reading notebook), you could address all sorts of things!

I'm very, very sorry for resurrecting an old thread, but I'm on the hunt for a Sumo-type bag, too! What did you end up getting??? I was thinking about the Sumo bag, but couldn't make myself become friends with the Sumo himself, decorating the entire interior of the tote! Also, I don't want black or red. Have you seen these overly-expensive totes? http://www.loandsons.com/the-omg They look like they could hold a ton and not stress the shoulders as much as this: http://www.backcountry.com/dakine-valet-womens?CMP_SKU=DAK1298&MER=0406&skid=DAK1298-VIS-ONESIZ&CMP_ID=PLA_GOc001&mv_pc=r101&mr:trackingCode=A2610D1E-CCB3-E211-AFFE-BC305BF82376&mr:referralID=NA&mr:device=c&mr:adType=pla&mr:ad=48668486557&mr:keyword=&mr:match=&mr:filter=76847417221&CMP_ID=PD_GOc001&mkwid=s9UjTa2h3_dc%7Cpcrid%7C48668486557&mv_pc=r101&gclid=CLOe-57UoMECFVBffgodyioAQA I know this bag stresses the shoulder because I just got one today and after I added a laptop, a Bible, two other books, a wallet and a phone, it was hurting!!! The tote straps are very stiff. It might loosen up? The cross-body strap (what is it called?) helps…but I don't know if I'm going to keep it... I was also thinking of maybe the Haiku Commuter Tote... http://www.haikubags.com/commuter-tote.html Ahhhh!!!! Decisions, decisions!!! Does anyone else have a fabulous all-in-one miracle bag? Wah. I don't want to carry a backpack. Wah.

If you had access to a few gallons of blackberries but had to transport them 4 +/- hours... you'd probably arrive at your destination with only one gallon of blackberries and a bad case of diarrhea.

We do those ideas! :iagree: To teach which place value each card represents, when you introduce the cards, you point to the 0 on the tens cards and say "ten" (one syllable). Take a hundreds card and point to the two zeroes, saying "hun-dred", one zero for each syllable. Take a thousands card and say "th-ou-sand" for the three zeroes. (A little awkward, but it works!) Have DC also take turns picking up a card and reading it by pointing to the digits. 200 would be "two (point) hun (point) dred (point)" I was also thinking that having either base-ten cards or those 100-tiles and 1000-cubes would work well in conjunction with the abacus. The tiles and cubes can be printed on card stock, cut out, and folded. When you say a number to DC, they can 1. find the correct place-value cards to create the number, then 2. build the correct number with the tiles, cubes, and abacus or with just the base-ten cards. Then you can build a number with the manipulatives and have DC 1. find the correct place-value cards, then 2. read the number out loud. Oh and wait! You can also use the second side of the abacus (if you have one), too! So you can use the abacus to do numbers higher than 100. If you don't have these manipulatives or similar ones, then maybe you could bring them out when you're doing your regular math lessons and pause to build the numbers you're working with. When you're introducing the cards, RS suggests using dates that are meaningful to the family, like birth years or street address. They are fantastic on their own!!!

If you have a bulletin board and index cards, you could label index cards with a subject/time expected, like DC1's Math - 30 min, or your work hours, like Mom's work - 5 hours. Down one side of the bulletin board you could staple index cards with times, 7:00am, 7:30am, 8am, etc. Then daily you could pin the subject/work cards next to the corresponding hour for the day. It'd probably have to be made with either small index cards (cut them in half?) or a veeerrrry large bulletin board :)

I agree with the above! It's very useful in learning the math facts! For example, to learn how to add 9 to a number less than 10, say 7, you can use RS's 2-Fives strategy. To teach this strategy, you enter 9 beads on the top wire and 7 on the second wire. You already know from previous lessons that the 9 is made up of 5 blue beads and 4 yellow beads, without counting them. The 7, below the 9, is made up of 5 blue beads and 2 yellow beads. From just glancing at the abacus, you can see that the two sets of 5 blue beads (one set on top of the other) make up 10 and the 4 + 2 yellow beads make 6. 10 + 6 = 16 This is the method DD prefers. Even when adding without an abacus, she will verbalize the process, stating that the 9 has one five; the 7 has another five and that leaves 6, so 10 + 6 = 16. It sounds so complicated, but it isn't, if the student learns first to visualize quickly what a 10 looks like. The way RS teaches 10 starts with (in RS A) training the student to see 1 object and identifying it automatically as 1. 2 objects, as 2. 3 objects, as 3. Up to 5. You practice seeing 5 and identifying it as 5, as well as the other lower numbers using different objects: fingers, tally sticks, beads. You teach the student to internalize what 5 looks like by flashing 2 fingers or showing 3 tally sticks quickly, then covering them. Then once 5 is learned, you teach them through a cheesy but oh, so special song, Yellow is the Sun. We love it in our house! 6 is 5 and 1. 7 is 5 and 2. 8 is 5 and 3. 9 is 5 and 4. 10 is 5 and 5. Once these are internalized, you have taught your child that numbers are 3-dimensional. They have meaning; they're flexible, to be manipulated in different ways. Also, you have taught your child (without even meaning to!) that 9 is not only 5 blue beads and 4 yellow ones, but it's also 10 beads entered with one yellow bead left all by its lonesome on the other end of the wire. 8 is not only 5 and 3; it is also 10 minus 2! They learn this before they ever learn the word subtraction! When my kids are first learning all this, they do better when I personalize it. If I ask, what is 5 + 1, they may or may not get it (when they're first learning!) But if I say, you have 5 candies and I give you 1 more, how many do you have now? Instantly, they can visualize it and say 6. To me, this tells me (a stay-at-home housewife, who hasn't been a student for over a decade! IOW take this all with a grain-o of salt-o!) that kids learn well when numbers have meaning, depth. Why is being able to visualize amounts/numbers better than counting? Hmmm…counting is 2-dimensional…it's a flat number line taped to the student's desk that goes all the way to the left and all the way to the right. Which is cool. So I can learn that 9 + 7 = 9 (9+0), 10 (9+1), 11 (9+2), 12 (9+3), 13 (9+4), 14 (9+5), 15 (9+6), 16 (9+7)! It's not necessarily worse. It might be quicker to visualize than to count. But it might just come down to how the child thinks. As you can tell, I love RS. I am sure other programs do this, but I've only bought this one :)