I'm glad it works. I bought some online a few days ago, but it hasn't arrived yet. Thanks!

Ellie's post reminded me that I've been meaning to post this question. Here is my all-time favorite. I just wish the guy talking would shut up. The WEG2006 Freestyle Dressage Final performance of ANDREAS HELGSTRAND on BLUE HORS MATINE What are your favorites? RC

My DS, grade 8, spends 2 hours on math, 2 hours on language arts, 1 hour each on history and science, 1/2 hour on typing, 1/2 hour on Spanish. He goes to karate 2x (sometimes 3x) a week for an hourlong class. He spends another 2 hours a day doing things like reading literature, geography, and studying to master the material he has been working on. He has started going to a lunch group at the public school which is geared towards 8th graders who are not interested in sports, and I am hoping he will make some friends from this group. Right now, every boy we know is interested in sports, Family Guy, and video games, mainly, and DS is made fun of for being a geek/nerd. My other 3 DC spend 6 hours a day in classes at their school, have 2 hours of homework & studying a night and spend about 4 hours every weekend doing homework and studying. They are in grades 7 and 8. DS doesn't think I am requiring too much of him. The dear boy has always been a compliant child, although outspoken when he feels his needs, wants and rights are being trampled upon. Next week, he will begin learning to build his own literature website. He is interested in anything to do with technology and is very excited about this. We also plan to begin a study of the book of John, at DS' request. He also wants to write a term paper on ancient Rome. Something's got to give, so it will probably be the 2 hour session at the end of the day & I'll make time for lit discussions during language arts. I would like to add logic and music/art appreciation, but there isn't time for it yet. DS is completely uninterested in learning to play an instrument and in applied arts. Right now, he's behind in math and wants to get caught up, which is why we spend so much time on it. RC

PrairieAir, I think you handled the situation just right. RC

One of the benefits of DH being self-employed is that he drives me to the doctor and all the kids come along. They read in the waiting room. DH drives me to Boston because I just about have a nervous breakdown when I have to drive there -- only done it once and never again. When we used to live there, DH had more minor car accidents than you can shake a stick at, and none of them were his fault. People just rammed into him! I took the T everywhere so I wouldn't have to drive. The thing that gets to me the most is all the people who turn left from the right lane. I never saw that in my life until I moved up here. RC

Glad to hear it. We are joining an organic CSA this year and I am very much looking forward to all those fresh, healthy veggies.

I figure people who do this are either retarded or have some sort of character disorder that makes them 100% self-involved or are substance abusers or some combination of all of these. Normal, loving, mentally healthy, halfway intelligent people do not do things like this, IMO.

My evening from 6 pm until 11:30 pm: I loaded and ran the dishwasher and washed 3 skillets, 4 pots and 4 pizza pans. This was before dinner because I am a lazy so-and-so who did not get to it last night because we had to go to a science fair. I have been supervising homework. DS1 had to re-do his history assignment (answering questions from the chapter) *six* times before he finally answered the questions fully. I told him it would not be long before he turned this 3 hours of work into the 30 minutes max it should have taken him, because he will do it correctly the first time. I gave him a Saxon math test to see in which areas he needs help with algebra. He made a 40%, so he definitely needs some home tutoring. DS3 needed me to go over his vocabulary flashcards with him for tomorrow's unit test. DS2 got lost in the shuffle, but he is homeschooled and I will catch up with him tomorrow. DD finished her homework and earned several demerits along the way, which means she will spend an extra hour doing chores on Friday afternoon (she has a half-day at school). I made sure that DD brushed her waist-length hair until there were no tangles in it, and then I braided it for bed. I made sure that DS2 and DD took showers and washed their hair. I made sure everyone brushed and flossed their teeth and washed their faces. I made DS1 put toothpaste on a big pimple to see if that remedy works (I read about it a long time ago and he is my guinea pig to see if it works.) The dog licked it off, so he had to go through the face washing and applying toothpaste again. I made sure the parochial-schooled kids laid out their uniforms and found their ties for tomorrow (so I could tell whether I needed to do laundry and to keep them organized). I made sure they put their homework and schoolbooks in their backpacks and their lunch boxes in the kitchen. I made dinner. Hot dogs and garlic bread. Such a balanced meal! But I made everyone eat a banana and have a glass of milk when they were hungry before dinner so some nutrition made it into their systems. I forgot to take meat out of the freezer to defrost last night. We are in the middle of boot camp and I am the drill sargeant. Making sure everyone does what they are supposed to do, when and how they are supposed to do it, takes up every bit of my time from 2 pm until the last one finally goes to bed (namely, DS1 who took until 11:30 to finish his homework to my satisfaction). Hopefully in a month or six weeks, my minute attention to every detail of the kids' lives will not be necessary. Meanwhile, my husband picked up 3 kids from karate, ate dinner, discoursed at length to me about Japan opening its borders to trade with the U.S. thanks to Commodore Perry, and went to bed at 9 p.m. I manicured my fingernails and put fresh polish on them. I never did like supervising people, and I always did need a secretary (well, nowadays a personal assistant who is extremely organized and for whom it comes naturally). RC

We used to give vaseline to our cats so they wouldn't throw up hairballs. I think chapstick is basically petroleum jelly, too, and you'd have to ingest a lot of it to have a major problem the vast majority of the time. Better safe than sorry. I'm glad you called poison control and that your baby is okay.

Thanks. My avatar is my sweet dog, Ted Williams (a/k/a Teddy, Dog Breath, Hey Guy, Sweetheart, Dog, Doggie Dog, and You Dumb Dog -- he answers to all of them). That's not a good pic but I have to figure out how to do this without my kids' help before I change it.

Call National Poison Control Center (1-800-222-1222) and they can tell you. This is a free and confidential service. All local poison control centers in the U.S. use this national number. You should call if you have any questions about poisoning or poison prevention. It does NOT need to be an emergency. You can call for any reason, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

We gargle with very warm salty water. It helps, but doesn't last very long.

It is hard to weigh the demands of being part of family life and our desire for our kids to learn that they have to work to make money and they have to learn how to budget it. My kids get paid an allowance for the chores they actually do. But I also ask them to do things that they do not get paid for. Starting this year, we are giving them 50% of their clothing budget at the beginning of each season. We are going to teach them how to budget their money, to make a list of necessary wardrobe items that must be purchased, and so forth. My aim is to have them completely responsible for buying their clothes within a budget by the time they are midway through high school. We are going to do the same thing with groceries at some point. We are also going to play a game with them, over a period of months, in which they earn money and have to budget it or stretch it to cover things like rent, utilities, car payments, insurance, and the usual things people spend money on when they are living on their own. It is going to be a game and the winner will be the one with the most savings.

My kids did not expect to win, although they hoped to, because I said it was rare for a first time science fair participant to win. DD is upset because the experiment that won was also a microbiology experiment -- one that was simple and not nearly as well done as hers was. She get over things she cannot change quickly, though. her brothers (usually her sworn enemies) are more upset than she is. One cannot get over how unscientific the projects were that did win (except for the 2nd place one). The other is taking the bright side -- when they go to high school next year (except for DD who will be in 8th grade), they think the science fair there will be judged more fairly and that the older students will produce, on the whole, better projects. They are also upset because only one boy won (2nd place) and the girls had substandard projects, in their views, and their display boards had lots of glitter on them. We will get over this starting now. Life is too short to waste on ruminating over perceived injustices that we can't do anything about.

DD is 12.5 and in 7th grade, but I see your point. She is really, really smart.

Photos were required. I took pictures of the incubator, the 20 contaminated lulria broth tubes in the incubator, the 20 agar plates in the incubator, a chart made up of 20 agar plates with captions for rows and headings (the results), and of the lab DD visited. The only picture of DD was at the lab. I put 6 lab pictures on one sheet of 8.5 x 11 paper, and the 3 incubator pictures on another, and the chart picture took up the entire page so the judges could see the bacterial colonies that had grown on each plate. I didn't help DD too much, I don't think, because I ran all that by the principal and the science teacher. The principal wanted me to get the lab director to help judge the younger grades science projects. I tried, but he wouldn't do it. The principal was desperate to find someone, and she said it was really hard to do.

My DD and I spend time alone doing something she wants to do every Thursday after school and every Sunday afternoon, at her request. Despite her attitude and behavior, she seems to want to spend as much time with me as she can -- as long as we are alone. I can't figure out why, since everything is a battle unless she gets her way. I don't understand why she doesn't hate me since I stand between her and what she wants to do more than half the time. DD is in 7th grade and when she is in high school, her grades will count. I hope I can get her to study and to see the value in it before then. My kids just don't like having to learn anything they don't want to. Yet they all have big plans for their future careers, all of which require that they go to college and graduate school, that they make great grades, and that they learn things they aren't interested in to build the foundation for what they want to learn about. Well, except for one kid -- he wants to be a writer and is always in the middle of writing books -- yet he hates to learn grammar and punctuation and fights me every step of the way!

Oh yes, she signed a contract with me. She has to do schoolwork for 2 hours a day -- be it homework or studying. I get her homework off the internet site where her teacher posts it and I have to check everything to see if it is done, and done properly. I bought the Saxon solutions manual so I can check her math. For everything else, I read the assigned chapter so I know the answers to the review questions. We are now on a regular routine that is set in stone. The kids look at the chart to see what they are suposed to be doing and when so they will stay with the program. Otherwise, they get grounded from one thing at a time until they are willing to obey. I have several free time periods dispersed throughout the schedule and the only way privileges are earned is to have completed everything required between free times. I personally check to see that the requirements are met and I personally check them off on my master chart. I have a list of expected behaviors and the consequence for each that will result if my expectations are not met. It is posted on the refrigerator. I hope after a month it all becomes habitual so I don't spend all my time supervising 4 kids on every little thing they do. Except for the homework and studying, of course -- that I have to clamp down on until the next report card (they come every 12 weeks). DD is not happy about this. My sons aren't either, but they have to toe the line until conduct and study skills improve. I have one compliant homeschooled son, two willful, demanding and argumentative kids, and one seemingly compliant but actually passive resistant child.

I agree that if a kid can't explain why he used a particular equation, he shouldn't win -- his parents were not competing in the science fair. I wonder if my DD did such a good job that the judges assumed she could not do it without parental help. In fact, I did help her. I paid for the supplies, I ordered the e.coli and other science supplies. I took the pictures. I put her in touch with the 2 M.D.s (friends of ours) and I arranged for her tour and interview with the director of a large hospital lab, and took her there. I tried to find a professional incubator we could use. I suggested she make her own incubator. She asked her experts how to do it and ended up finding precise directions on the internet (she looked there in case her experts were wrong, and they weren't). I took her shopping for the supplies for it. I figured out how to use Picture Project to put 3 or 6 pictures on one sheet of paper. I supervised her doing the experiment step-by-step to make sure she did not spread e. coli all over my house. I printed out her report and her father bound it for her. I printed out the pages for her display board and bought science fair labels for the different parts. One thing the judge asked her was how she choose the project. She told the truth. She choose it because she has, since first grade, been worried about foodborne illnesses and how to keep her food supply safe. When we renovated our kitchen over the past two years (it still isn't done), one of the things I was concerned about was kitchen hygeine. I ended up with Formica because we couldn't afford the stainless steel I had my heart set on. So DD decided to test countertop surfaces because of this, and the results were so horrible for the different cleaning methods on the Formica that she may never eat at home again. Actually, we are going to test a Clorox solution to see if that works better than the Lysol did on our counters. DD wants to re-do the experiment to see if maybe her results were wrong because of something she did wrong. This is not just a matter of DD not winning, because there were several other projects that did not win that we thought should have. Of the top 4 projects, only one was scientific and done properly and it came in second place. The others had fatal flaws that, in my view, should have kicked them out of the running, like sample sizes that were too small to be statistically significant, which nullifed the results. There is no way I would call the judges. The science fair was judged during the school day and the parents came to see it that night. I spoke to the teacher, and I'm regretting that now.

My DD followed every rule to the letter, plus some. The only other microbiology experiment won 1st place, otherwise it would not have bothered her that she did not win. It's not just a matter of sour grapes here. It's a matter of the best *science* projects didn't win -- except one of the several projects I thought could have won 1st place came in 2nd. The judges were a bit odd. One judge told DS his project was very CSI (bloodstain pattern analysis at homicide scenes) and asked him if he was copying the t.v. show. DS said he wasn't aware of the show (true - we don't watch network television and hardly ever watch t.v.), and that he chose the project because his parents are criminal defense lawyers and the issue comes up in his father's murder cases and is a matter of serious debate among the experts. So the 2nd of the group of 3 judges asked DS why, *if* that is true, he didn't shoot his father so he could get real blood to use! That comment totally shocked DS. Aside from the comment, DS did think about using real blood from a cow but we decided that would be too gory for both the school and the judges to stomach. he used synthetic blood instead.

If other homeschooling parents had been there, they would have been appalled -- it was a situation, about 50% of the time, of where's the science? This is a *science* fair! The only info I have about the judges' choices is third-hand. The winners had a meeting with the judges and the principal. The girl who won 4th place told my DD that the judges told her that it was hard to choose between #3 and #4 for 3rd place and they decided it based on which title they liked the best.

We have 6000 books here. They are not catalogued. I take pictures of the bookcases every few years for insurance purposes, but a special rider is not required. I can find all my personal books because I only own the ones I definitely want to keep, maybe 100 books. If my book packrats want to find a certain book, it takes them quite awhile. Too bad. If we lost them, I would not care. I read a lot (4-5 books a week) and I love books, but I look at all this as clutter. I get books from the library, buy them and pass them on, or buy them and throw them away (no point in passing on a poorly written or boring book). I rarely read the same book twice. My book rats would probably have heart failure if they lost their books. My husband owns about 4,000 of them and he would recall the vast majority of the titles and order replacement copies pronto. Those books take up a lot of space. When we retire, I told my husband I wanted to get a small Cape Cod house with 3 bedrooms to be used as master, guest room and study. he said we can't because there would not be enough room for his books. After God, me, and the kids, he loves his books. he actually worries about what will happen to his books if he dies before me. Like they are people, for goodness sake!

When my husband goes out of town, I rely on my cell phone, my landline, and most of all my big, noisy dog. Also, the kids and I all sleep in my room when we are home alone. Funny, all 4 used to fit in our king-size bed with me. Now they take turns, with 3 sleeping on the floor. Our dog, for no reason I can see, will not go upstairs in our house (although he will climb stairs elsewhere with no problem). So I look at him as the first line of defense. he barks loudly, weighs 90 lbs. and looks a lot bigger than that because he has a ton of fur. hopefully any burglar would think twice about messing with him, and either way it would give me time to call 911. It also helps that we live in a town in which there has been no serious crime since we moved here 12 years ago.

Tammy, can my kids come and live with you?

Well, I am probably the nether region of a horse anyway because I told my opinion about the various projects (the best and the worst) to the science teacher. There were some outstanding projects -- but most fell woefully short of what I expected. You'd think the science teacher would have caught some of the most glaring problems -- like statistically insignificant sample sizes -- but she didn't. I did not point out that shortcoming of hers, but now that I think about it, she sure could have accurately infered it from what I said. The worst part was I told her if she goes home and thinks about it, she'll see that my points are correct. And if she didn't, she could just stick her head in the toilet. Mind you, the last sentence I said jokingly and laughed -- but I'm pretty sure I wasn't kidding. I should have kept my big mouth shut. I warned my husband not to get started on any of this and to keep his mouth shut. he majored in physics undergrad and I just knew he'd analyze those projects to death and start yapping about it to someone. I didn't take my own advice. So I am the official horse's behind of this board. Should I apologize to the science teacher? She did suggest at the end that I tell my concerns to the principal, but I stuck my foot in my mouth there, too. I said, "Why bother, she is only concerned about maintaining the status quo. It won't do any good." I also told her that next year, I won't let my DD participate. Oh, I got a head of steam up, that's for sure. I know why, it's because I thought the situation was unjust. And being 1/2 Irish and 1/2 German, I couldn't let that go by without comment, could I? Oh, I am a fool! I try so hard to be a nice, polite and pleasant person when I am in public, and I go and blow it all in one swell foop.