Whenever I have a choice, I go to full-service stations. We have one in my town and I love it. The weather here is horrid for much of the year and being able to stay in and toasty is great. It is especially great when you have a baby or small child. We always keep a few $1 bills in the glove box. I am not sure if tipping is the norm, but I always do. Now that the regulars know me, they always wash my windshield and check my tire pressure (after asking me if it is OK first). The gas costs the same as the self-service stations so I am not sure how that works out.

We do a lot of camping and camp with many friends. I would never buy a Coleman. These tents are meant to be set-up and used no more than 10 times then disposed of. They do not hold up in wind and most will leak during hard rain. They are inexpensive and tons of people buy them, but in the end it costs more when it has to be replaced after a couple of years. I cannot even begin to count how many collapsed Colemans I have seen after a night of rain in a campground. A good tent should last for years and years. A good tent that will fit 6 people and gear is going to be very expensive. The trouble with big tents is that the larger you go, it is exponentially more difficult to design it to be robust enough to handle wind and rain, so the cost for a quality tent goes way up. You will probably be able to get more for your dollar by getting two smaller tents. I second the Campmor recommendation. They sell close-outs and discontinued gear so you can often pick up a really nice tent on the cheap. Kelty is a good name for smaller inexpensive tents. I would avoid anything sold at a discount store like Walmart or Target.

The half-gallon size is really nice because it holds a half gallon but does not take up much "footprint." Our local hardware store sells them in a package of 6 for $10. Can't get cheaper than that. I know they make one gallon size too but have never bought them.

This might be totally irrational, but I cannot seriously consider any curriculum with a person's full name in the title. It might be the very best curriculum in the world but I just cannot do it. This applies to universities as well. Other than that, I don't rule out anything at this point. I have been pleasantly surprised too many times by things I thought would be total busts. I do avoid religious material, especially creationist, but even that can be bent if I cannot find something that works better. I am baffled by people saying that Singapore is confusing or overwhelming. We have used it from day one (on 6A now) so I have nothing to compare it to. But I cannot imagine anything more straight-forward, especially with the aid of the instructor guide (which I stopped using around 3rd grade). It is far simpler than what my friends with schooled kids are grappling with.

I should have made clear that not all of the athletics at my school are Division 1. The most high-profile sport is, which was the student-athletes I had in mind when replying. Others compete in Division 2. It was not until his topic came up that I even knew a school could have a mix...I thought you were either 1 or 2 or whatever.... But whatever the case, you are right, the practices and travel make labs difficult for all of the athletes. However, the school has done a great job making it possible and many of our athletes are engineering or science majors. All labs have morning and afternoon offerings.

I am still watching this topic over here carefully. My dd is only 10 but this could be an issue for us down the road. My understanding is that even athletes who do not receive scholarship money must adhere to the eligibility rules to even walk on NCAA Div 1 and 2 teams. I teach at a university with a couple of high-profile sports (and lots of not-high-profile). I have had many NCAA athletes in my classes over the last decade. What I teach is NOT easy and the students who take my classes are seeking degrees in engineering. Over the years, every single one of my athlete-students have been excellent despite missing a lot of class for travel. There is a pretty extensive university procedure for ensuring students are doing well throughout the semester. They are required to inform me well ahead of travel and to turn in any work they will miss before traveling. They are so organized and professional.....because if they are not, they are not allowed to play or practice. This extends to the community. We had trouble with some athletes who lived near us. One call to the coach and the problem was solved immediately. Given that, this whole situation is baffling. Of all of the NCAA athletes involved, the vast majority are not in the "big money" sports and most are riding the NCAA train to get an affordable education. It is such a pity that the behavior of a small minority is requiring everyone to jump through these hoops. I agree with other above that this is something that should be addressed at the college level, not high school.

We are forecasted for 6-8 inches of new snow tomorrow. I am starting to think the bugs and heat would be OK......

The average age of the housing in my area is very old and most houses are poorly insulated so heating is expensive. Despite the climate, most people here are very active outdoors, whether for work or recreation. When your indoor temperatures are lower, it is easier to acclimate outdoors. That is my not-so-educated theory anyway. We set our stat at 60 day and 50 night which we all find comfortable enough. But we are also a casual community so most people wear hats indoors and even scarves, wrist warmers, etc.... Long johns are part of the daily clothing for 1/2 of the year. I have more sets of long johns than I do shoes.

I'm with you on the slippers. I always bring my own. And I guess no one would really wear them without socks but I still wouldn't be too excited about it. My neighbor's basket is filled with thinner washable slippers (Dearskin, I think) and she washes those after every use. The big wool socks are a different story. I do offer those to people but again, they are usually worn with socks and I wash them between wearings. A boot porch is the catch-all term for an enclosed porch. Most people here have them. Some are part of the actual house (that is the case with ours) while others are temporary plywood structures that people add to their main doors October-May. They serve mainly as an air lock so that when you open the door you are not getting a direct blast of cold air into your living space. But this is also where people put on and take off boots/shoes and cleats. You usually store them there as well. Ours is nice and big so we have seating to make putting boots on easier, a few hooks for really wet/snowy/muddy outwear, and I also keep our garbage/recycling bins, snow shovels, gaiters, snowshoes, and such out there. We do not use any other doors during the winter (except in an emergency). Very elaborate ones have closets, boot heaters, and other goodies.

I wish I could show you my house right now. A mat is not even going to touch what we are walking through to get around. Our whole boot porch is lined with mats. The floor of my car looks like a mud pie with sprinkles right now. We are still wearing winter boots every day but plenty of standing water and mud is mixed with the melting snow. And those darned PINE NEEDLES. Those will be the death of me. Despite not wearing our boots/shoes indoors, those needles are everywhere.

It is the general rule around here to bring slippers when visiting people. I always do because my feet get very cold and most people do not heat their houses above 60 degrees in the winter. Many people have a basket of slippers and/or big wool socks for guests to wear if wanted/needed. I will say that I have never asked anyone to take their shoes off. Because it is the general local practice, everyone just does. In fact, more than once we have had elderly visitors and I thought it was probably too much trouble for them to take off their shoes. I told them they were free to leave them on and that it was fine, but none ever took me up on the offer. If someone did leave their shoes on, I would never ask them to remove them. The mountain of shoes and boots piled on everyone's boot porches is sort of the implied "request." On a funny side note, I threw dh a surprise birthday party many years ago. I had about 40 people in my home waiting for dh to come so we could surprise him. It was winter. It was easy enough to hide the cars.....I had them all park on different streets. But I did not even think about the boots until people started arriving and asked what to do. There was no way dh was going to miss 40 extra pairs of boots piled on the boot porch. We had to do some fast work with a couple of empty garbage cans (with lids) to hide the evidence. So, there are definitely logistical downsides to the no-shoe policy!

I think you took my question a to a bit more of an extreme than I intended. I was really just curious as to how the inevitable tracking was handled. We have had the occasional repair person come into the house during the winter who did not take off their boots (of course) and cleaning up the tracking of slush/salt/mud was more than a minor chore. Obviously the climate, layout of house, floor material, etc.... will result in different amounts of tracking. I honestly do not have any emotional attachment to the practice either way. I swear!

Well, FTR, I did not say I was disgusted.....just curious. :001_smile: In our case, it is a moot point because we where huge knobby winter boots for 6 months of the year and "wiping them off" would do nothing to stop the tracking. Plus, who wants to wear those indoors anyway? I don't even have a dog but we live in the city and the snowplow is always dumping things in our driveway, sidewalk, and yard that come from other locations. I realize people have different experiences, I just wondered what people who lived in less harsh climates might expect to experience. It rains everywhere sometimes. I wondered if people tended to clean their floors more often than I do or if there is a different tolerance level for dirty floors. We are used to very clean floors and we don't clean them often, so walking in with shoes on even just a normal day would require more effort on my part to keep the same standard we are used to.

I have never encountered any sort of conflict over this issue IRL, but I have a burning question for all of you who always wear your shoes indoors: Are your floors always covered in water, mud, sand, pine needles, and gravel?!?!? My house would be a horrible mess after one day if we wore shoes inside. On any given day, there is a 70% chance that the ground right outside every door of my house has either snow, slush, water, road salt, mud, gravel, pine needles, dog poo, or a mixture of some/all of the above. I cannot fathom cleaning that up every day. Nor can I imagine how uncomfortable it would be for kids to play on the floors or for someone who chooses to go barefoot. I could see it in an apartment or somewhere where it is always dry and warm, but not in any locations I have ever lived. I do not know anyone IRL that wears shoes indoors so it is never a real discussion, but every time this topic comes up, I so want to ask!

Thanks. And that reminds me, the program needs to work on Macs!

I am looking for an independent typing program for an almost-11yo to use over the summer. She needs to be typing well enough to be able to take timed quizzes/exams for an online course in the fall. We have tried a few free typing tutor programs and have not been impressed. I do confess that we were not consistent so that is surely part of the problem. I don't mind a reasonable cost and we will have a schedule to fix the consistency issue. I am hoping to get some recommendations so we do not waste time on a program that is less-than-great.

I will add that we bought the experiment kit for the Logic Stage Biology and it was not all-inclusive. So, if you go this route, you do still need to plan ahead and check on what items you may still need to gather.

I also agree with this. It might be great for people trying to write across the curriculum or combine writing with science, but that was not our goal so I felt like we were eating up valuable "science time" that could have been used to experiment or play with ideas on writing, grammar, spelling, etc..... There is also a memorization component. I do not find this a good use of our time either. I think this is all an attempt to make this fit well into a "classical education," and it might work well for a lot of people. But I want our science to be SCIENCE so take my opinion with that in mind.

We are finishing up Biology for the Logic Stage right now. The dissecting is only one experiment and honestly, I did not think it was in-depth enough to even be worth it so you could probably skip it. I am really picky about science and found ES to be the best program we have tried so far but I am still not happy with it. We are seeking a new program for next year. I have not found that new program yet so I am willing to fall back on ES if I cannot find something that appeals to me more. My beef with the program is that the experiments are a pain to find all of the materials for, many don't seem to work, and even if they do, I found that most did not really illustrate any sort of real point. I am told the Biology year is the worst for these complaints so I might be happier with Chemistry or Earth Science.

We drive older vehicles so none have had the necessary tether points. We have had them installed in every car for FREE at dealerships. This is several different makes of car so has involved several different dealerships in different locations. None charged anything (although we were prepared to pay) and each time it was done in a few minutes while we waited. And we were not even regular customers. And, yes, check the LATCH limits. They are very low in some cars. I share your frustration about the lack of center LATCH. Same thing with no headrests on the middle seats of some SUV third rows. Why not just have all of the safety features in every seat?

Dd (10) just finished LFC Primer C yesterday! So it is with some sadness that I can say we are done with it. When we first started Primer A, it took a few weeks to get our groove. Memorization is not dd's (or my) strong point so we had to spend more time practicing the chants and vocabulary than most. This is how we broke up LFC over 4 days a week: Monday: Put in the DVD but repeat the chant/vocab portion 3X while singing along then listen to the grammar portion of the DVD. Dd would attempt the first exercise of the chapter knowing that she might miss some of the memory stuff the first time around. Tuesday: Put in the CD and chant along 3X, do second exercise. Wednesday: Repeat DVD procedure from Monday expect skip the grammar if I felt dd was solid (which was very rare, actually), do third exercise. Thursday: Repeat Tuesdays CD procedure and complete the quiz. We bought the flashcards and ran through them or played games with them once or twice a week. Halfway through Primer A, dd started the history reader translations and spent about 15-20 minutes a day translating in addition to the above. The 3X thing was really important for dd. The first few times of the new chapter often went partially over her head so we would often go through it once, turn off the DVD and go slower with the book, then go back to the DVD once more confident. It does get easier. Those first few chapters were quite the ride.

My dd was also small and used a 5-point until she was 8 even though she was ready for a booster. In our case, we had an older car with only lap belts in the back seat so it was a 5-point harness or basically nothing. Luckily we replaced that car before she got too big for the 5-point. That said, one thing to consider is that a booster really cannot be installed incorrectly while a 5-point can....and they often are. So, in my mind, if the kid is big enough and mature enough for a booster, it is probably the better choice. We used a high-back because we did not have side-curtain airbags and dd likes to sleep in the car. By 10, she was big enough to go without a booster in most (but not all) cars.

We went right from FLL4 to Analytical Grammar (in 5th grade) and it was a very easy transition.

This was helpful. Thanks. I will stop panicking for a while (about math anyway....science is a different situation.....)

Yes. What she said.