Interesting article. Thanks for posting it. Doesn't it seem crazy that toothpaste and shampoo now have expiration dates? Come on...it has always bugged me. I think it's just marketing...

Do you need a coupon code or is everything just 10% off?

Thanks for sharing, Jessica! The worksheets look great!

Ah...it gets expensive, doesn't it? Good luck. I hope you get some sleep tonight! (If it were me, I'd have a hard time sleeping!)

I'm not sure what type of newspaper you are looking to do, but here is a template that I've used for my kids to do writing projects before: http://www.educationworld.com/tools_templates/newsletter1.doc There are also a lot of other graphic organizers on that website.

Wow! It looks amazing! Good for you! (By the way...I enjoyed reading on your blog. You have a way with words!) Where can I get those fun math games?!?

If you were going to afterschool a bright, advanced ds12 in grammar and writing (not that he's necessarily advanced in grammar & writing...he's a quick learner and things come very easily to him academically in most areas), what curriculum would you use? He's had a bit of Shurley (gr 4-part of 6th) and we did Jump In writing curriculum last year. He's back in ps now with lots of writing assignments, little writing instruction, and essentially no grammar instruction. He's doing fairly well in school...my concern is that he is not being prepared for the more rigorous classes that will come in a few years. I'm considering R&S English 6 and 7 or Saxon Grammar & Writing 7. Then for next year, I'd move on to the next level in whichever one we chose...then in 9th I'd start focusing on some of the ACT/SAT prep type of workbooks. I'm looking for something ds can work on fairly independently with discussion and/or perhaps completing much of it orallly. As it is for afterschooling, our time is limited, and I expect to have a fight with him about it. He previously did Saxon (up to Algebra I), didn't necessarily love it, so I'm a little concerned that the similarities might be a huge issue with him--although I think it might be a little more independent than R&S. Have any of you used these programs for afterschooling? (Or homeschooling, of course). Are the teacher manuals necessary or helpful? Any input is appreciated!

Berenstein Bears on PBS Little Bear on Nick, Jr. Signing Time (haven't seen it for awhile though...might just be a local thing as they are produced nearby)

Sorry to hear your little piggy died. We are new piggie owners...it's been about three weeks now. We bought them off a local craigslist type of market. The websites listed previously are great references. We ended up making one of the cavy cages--it ended up costing around $30 total and is 9 square feet. We just use cardboard shoeboxes for little caves for them--they love to hide in them. I was a little worried when I saw this about the vitamin C. I haven't found the vitamin C tablets yet that I've seen recommended online, so ours haven't been getting any lately. (Although previous owners didn't do much for them...so surely their life here is an improvement!). They do have pellets w/vit C daily. Also we keep them with a supply of fresh timothy hay, fresh water, and they get a cup of fresh veggies daily. (lettuce, cilantro, parsley, carrots...they didn't like peppers or tomatoes). Due to my concern of vitamin c, we've given them an orange wedge here and there, but perhaps that's not enough. We are using towels & fleece as bedding...I didn't like finding shavings all over the place. Has anyone here had experience with both and would you be willing to share your opinion? I do have to say that these two little piggies poop much more than I ever would have imagined. I don't even like my kids to take them out because they poop every time we've got them out...yuck. I am so not an animal person, so this is a stretch for me, for sure! The poop scooping is done daily by the kiddos though...

Both dh and I played "slug bug" as kids...where you (playfully) punched someone when you saw a slug bug. (NM and CA kids) Nowadays my kids (Utah) play, "Slug bug...what color is it?" Everyone in the car has to look around & try to find it and shout out the color. I guess you keep track of points...and the first one who sees the correctly colored one gets a point. I would find myself shouting it out--even when it was just dh and I. :D (Same way I still point out fire trucks...) Sad to say, my kids ended up arguing & fighting about who saw it first....so the game got outlawed for a bit. Why do they have to each always be 'first' and 'right' about everything??? We do lots of games when we travel...ds12 has come up with some elaborate game where different kinds of trucks are worth more points than others...and has some running tally he keeps track of. A little insane, imo, but hey, it keeps him busy on the road.

Ah, this discussion is timely for me. This is one area that I feel ps is really failing in...there are plenty of writing assignments...just no instruction on how to write them. And then the expectations of the finished product are not high enough! (Punctuation, spelling, grammar, etc. don't seem to count, just as long as you get it done and it's at least two pages...) Ds12 was homeschooled last year, we used Jump In and had a pretty successful time. Up to this year, he has had Shurley English--although pretty haphazard and not very consistently at his previous school. Currently in 7th grade...no grammar program whatsoever. The high school ds will be going to has some fabulous honors classes that look quite rigorous, but I'm extremely troubled by the route from here to there...or the lack thereof! How can these kids suddenly be able to write & analyze when they haven't been taught?!? So...I've been doing lots of research on here trying to figure out a do-able at-home workbook type of grammar and/or writing program that would be easy to implement. Easy...as our time is quite limited and getting ds to do additional work after-school is always a bit of a fight. So I guess I mean easy to implement yet still covering the bases, if that makes any sense. I'm thinking it might become one of our summer goals, too. Recently I found out about Saxon Grammar & Writing on here...it looks like it might be right what I'm looking for. (We've done Saxon math for years, so I'm trying to figure out if the similar format would be a positive or a negative thing!) Any opinions out there?

:iagree: I live in the mountains in Utah...and we are having Spring-like weather (well, according to my kids, they don't even need jackets...but it is still cold) with sunshine. I know the reason though...we bought a snowblower in late November...so according to Murphy's law, we won't get much snow around here this year! :D (Dh is watching all the news coverage of snow storms with envy...he's only used his new toy three or four times and loves it...and can't wait until it snows again).

When I was teaching school, we actually had a snow-make-up-day on a SATURDAY! I still can't believe it...I only had 10 of my 29 students show up...so it was a pretty easy day for me. But, still...I thought it was ridiculous!

My absolute favorite place to go for help with gifted issues is www.sengifted.org -- although, I'm not sure if it will be what you are looking for...not necessarily about homeschooling, but there is a lot of amazing information there. SENG stands for Supporting Emotional Needs of the Gifted--and that is the area that I tend to need the most support as a parent of gifted, intensely-emotional kids. :D There are lots of articles to browse through...and they have a yearly convention and local support groups nationally. Hope you find something that helps!

Okay, let me see if I'm understanding correctly--you use Photoshop Elements as your software and then get the cutesy pages & elements from various places around the internet (some are free, some you pay for--but once you download you have them to use as much as you want, right?)--then use them within Photoshop Elements to create your cute pages. Then you print them off at home. Can you print them in 8 1/2 by 11 or just the square pages? Sorry for the hijack...just trying to learn the whole process!

Oh, my goodness...I am laughing so hard I'm crying. Love it! I can't wait to show that to dh!

Most of my meals have only a little meat-- Baked potatoes--w/toppings (chili, broccoli & cheese, cottage cheese & tomatoes) Mashed potatoes w/gravy & bits of roast cut up Refried Bean burritos Soups--with just a little meat or none (white chicken chili, minestrone, vegetable beef, chicken noodle) Breakfast meals--french toast, eggs, pancakes, eggs&potato scramble, breakfast burritos Casseroles w/mostly vegetables & little meat

:iagree: Especially--"I am not allowed to be cranky because the whole world collapses into chaos and ruin."

Oh, my goodness...my MIL, too! And that's a great analogy! I love it. This thread is cracking me up, because my dh is the same!

My plan is to finish the photos that I have already printed with traditional paper scrapbooking (also using up all of the cute papers, stickers, etc. that I have been hoarding for years). So...in my case, I have 2005, 2006, and 2007 left to go. Then starting with the photos in 2008 I will digital scrapbook. I got a color printer for Christmas with the idea to print out my own pages, but I haven't figured out which software program to use yet. I didn't know about the Photoshop Elements free trial--I think I'll try that out and see if it would be what I'm looking for. I *love* the scrapbooking/creative experience...and need to have the 'cutesy' type of pages not just slapping them in. What I found a few months ago, that kind of introduced me to this whole idea of digital, was Smilebox. It is SO much fun to just pop my pictures into cute, themed scrapbook pages and see a finished product. You can use it for free--and email pages/scrapbook/slide show to anyone or post on facebook. But in order to print an album or pages out, you have to pay (iirc it was $30-40 for a year). But there are things I don't necessarily like about smilebox--you can only make slight changes on the layout and I'm not sure about printing them out. The 8 x 11 pages are mostly in a landscape layout rather than portrait (which is what I'd like, so I can put in page protectors & a binder). They also have the 12 x 12 square format...but my printer doesn't go that large (it was a lot more money to be able to do so). I've heard you can print out 8 x 8 size and just cut off the top of the page, but again, then I'd have to buy a separate type of album, I guess. So, I'd love to hear any ideas or opinions on software & printing at home, if any of you have experience. Thanks for posting about this topic! Good luck figuring out what you're going to do!

Man...you had me worried there for a second! Since I've had a few little chats with you on here, you're one of those that I feel like I *know* a bit, (even though I don't!) :) But my heart sank when I read the title and saw that it was you. So glad that it's not the real thing! Hope your adjustment goes well! And hey, having him stop & pick things up on his way home from work just might make it all worth it.

I'd second the suggestion to just do more physical things as a family (maybe even having one night a week that is family 'sports' night and try out a whole bunch of things...swimming, hiking, roller-blading, etc) and then try to find a group experience in another area--cub scouts, chess club, church activities...

Can you go with dh and his father?

I live in Utah County, the county just south of SLC. Before we moved here, we researched quite a bit up up there, because we didn't know exactly where we'd end up with a job. There are four school districts you'd need to look into: Granite, Salt Lake, Jordan, and Davis. (Davis is up north in Layton/Kaysville/Centerville area; Jordan is south--Sandy, Riverton, South Jordan; I think Granite is more on the east, but I'm not entirely sure!). I couldn't say which is better at the high school level--when we were searching, we were interested in the Granite school district because of their strong gifted program. I don't know of any charter schools that give you money to homeschool. Here is the charter school website--http://www.schools.utah.gov/charterschools/directory.htm You can go there and click on individual schools to see their websites and check out their emphasis/curriculum, etc. Two of my kids are in a K-8 charter school. I would definitely recommend looking into charter before neighborhood public schools. I am much happier with the curriculum (Core Knowledge, Saxon math, Shurley English) than at the public school. A previous poster was correct--Utah schools are crowded. There are tons of kids...but you'll find lots of families who value education. We just tend to have more kids than most people. :) Some areas are more crowded than others...I taught 4th grade 15 years ago in South Jordan and had 29 kids in my class...and I had a small class! As for year-round schools--I think Jordan School District is one of the last ones to do this--and most families work it out so all of their children are on the same 'track' so they have holidays off at the same time. (Personally, I kind of like the year-round concept...longer breaks during the year rather than three months in the summer...and it's a logical way to use the same building/resources for more students). Utah is pretty homeschooling-friendly. I don't know about Davis county, as you mentioned, but in Utah county there is quite a community of homeschoolers and there is positive support within the community. (in my opinion and in my experience...) SLC is a great area! Lots of things to see and do. The University of Utah has some great summer educational camps that I would love to send my kids to if we lived a little closer. Of course, we are true-blue BYU fans, so we are bitter rivals of the red-hot Utes...but we have lots of fun in SLC--planetarium, children's museum, Hogle Zoo, aquarium, botanical gardens, aviary, natural history museum, LDS Temple Square, Living History farm, etc. Oh, just for the record, the commute on I-15 from Davis county into SL is pretty bad. We've gotten caught in it several times and thanked our lucky stars we didn't have to deal with that every day. If dh had gotten a job in SL, we would have looked into the Cottonwood area. (But we didn't look into it much, so my opinion may not mean much!) Best of luck to you! And congrats on a job! I can only imagine what a relief that is!

We love the books, too. My kids haven't even thought about the cards...so it hasn't been an issue at all for us.