Do you have the option of going and visiting one before signing up? The ones here had an open house day. That was really helpful to me to see if I wanted to do it. In the end, I decided not to although I liked the people a lot and some aspects of the curriculum/day. Seeing it helped me with visualizing how it actually worked.

Ok, please tell me I'm not the only one that initially thought "jail cell". And I'm even a bio major !

Love the house swap idea. Count us in for that one... For staying in Little Rock...have you tried Craigslist? http://littlerock.craigslist.org/ A lot of times people post apartments for short term rent or other vacation options there. Another idea is to see if any local colleges rent out dorms or apartments when students are away. We are going to St. Paul, Minnesota in June and found an apartment to rent for an amazing price (much cheaper than any hotel). We'll have two bedrooms, our own living room and a kitchen. It's an apartment owned by a college and the students are away for the summer so they rent it out. ETA: Just thought of another option. You could write to churches in your denomination and see if anyone who lives there has ideas. When dh and I were engaged we went on a cross-country trip for a family wedding. We didn't want to stay in hotel rooms because too expensive for two rooms. We were able to plot out a course staying with friends and family and family of friends :) except for two spots. Dh e-mailed to two churches in our denomination (we're PCA, not that it matters) in those areas and there were people who put us up for the night. They ended up being the most memorable stops on our trip. Now, I wouldn't do that again with kids for many reasons (noone would take us being one of them), primarily safety. But we live near Washington DC and it's not unusual for our church to get requests from people looking for a place to stay. Often someone has an idea for them (knows of a cheaper local place, offers their house for house-sitting, etc).

My son's favorite is the "Animal" game. Like 20 questions only the thing you are thinking of has to be an animal and then you ask questions to figure it out. Sometimes we play a numbers game where I'll think of a number and then he'll guess numbers and I'll say bigger or smaller until he gets it. We look for letters on signs in the order of spelling the names of all our family members. Mostly, though he wants stories. Either me telling them or books on CD. If I'm telling them sometimes I'll try and make it a game where I'll tell a little...then he tells a little...etc.

Wow! I love clilantro but I've never been created as all these ladies with it. I'm going to have to remember this thread.... Dh makes a pesto with it. Lots of garlic, cilantro, parmesan and olice oil. It's pretty easy with a food processor. In the summer sometimes that and a loaf of French bread is dinner.

My kids are little so this isn't much of an issue yet for us. I'm pretty unsentimental and am good at throwing stuff out, so I don't have a huge stack of artwork either. I keep a little but not everything. So I'm not really asking about that kind of storage. I'm more wondering how much you keep of things like workbooks, notebooks of schoolwork, etc. And for how long? I imagine that high school stuff should be kept because might need to be shown someday as a portfolio and I imagine that noone will ever really need to see the ETC Book 1 that we just finished (Right?). If we end up sending our kids to public or private school someday will we need to have samples of all their work going back to K? At what age do you save schoolwork and for how long?

I did a butterfly unit for my son (4 yrs old) about a month ago. Raising the caterpillars and butterflies was great! That was definitely the highlight. Some books we liked: Hurry and the Monarch by Antoine O'Flatharta Monarch Butterfly by Gail Gibbons Caterpillar, caterpillar by Vivian French Butterfly story by Anca Hariton The Butterfly Alphabet Book by Brian Cassie and Jerry Pallotta Butterfly House by Eve Bunting The Butterfly Alphabet by Kjell Sandved (this is real photos of butterflies with what look like letters on their wings, it's pretty cool) Waiting for Wings by Lois Ehlert Becoming Butterflies by Anne Rockwell Other fun things we did: Watched DK Eyewitness video on butterflies and moths- my son really liked this video. I made a life cycle game/craft. I just drew the different parts of the life cycle and my son had to put them in order and glue onto a piece of paper. My son usually hates to color in coloring books but I found this Stained Glass Coloring book of butterflies that he loved. We still have the butterflies from it on our windows. http://store.doverpublications.com/0486430618.html Also, there is a free lapbook on butterflies on Homeschool Share. http://www.homeschoolshare.com/butterfly_lapbook.php. I'm not much of a lapbooker, but the site also has a good library list and may just give you some ideas of things to do.

This is a fun Math one: http://www.rainforestmaths.com/

He is also fun to watch. He just seems like a kid in a candy store. I loved when he was jumping up and down with his brother. I appreciate that he seems to really appreciate the experience and just be loving it. (He's playing the game too...but so often the contestants are whiny about being out there. To me that's just annoying.) Erik is refreshing. Also...I'm so glad to see that there are other WTMers that share my guilty love for Survivor! We don't have TV so I watch it online on Fridays. My dh thinks its such a waste of time. I tell him it's shorter than a golf game. :D

My 18 month old loves to put things down the front of his onesie. He'll walk around with a collection of small toys around his tummy. Now that he's wearing more big boy clothes like T-shirts and pants it just doesn't work for him...:)

You should have seen me when I tried Pilates...:scared: I think one thing I've learned from these kinds of things is that...yes, everyone else looks and feels foolish when they first start. And the people there are more focused on exercising than what you are doing. They probably don't even see what you are doing. I say if you like it...keep trying. I bet you'll be one of the pros that some poor uncoordinated newcomer is awed by in no time. :D

Also, if you rent you can deduct all money spent on the house on your taxes. (You have to claim the rent as income but you can deduct all money spent on repairs, taxes, etc from that income.)

I'm currently using the following with Ds. He will be 5 in November, so would miss the ps cut-off for K. I'm kind of considering this his "K year"..starting about Jan 2008 and going until Fall 2009. When we get there we'll see if he's ready for 1st grade or whether we do a more official K year. Reading: OPGTR, Bob Books, ETC (just finished book 1), and phonics games. We probably do 30 min at the most 3-4 times a week. I switch around what we do each day. It seems to keep him more interested. Writing: Handwriting Without Tears. About 5 minutes a day when we do it...maybe 3 times a week. Math: Singapore Earlybird. We are starting Book 2b. He likes Math the most and will try to plow through it. I've been adding in games and using Power Math K by Singapore to review some topics and make it go a little slower. Maybe about 20 min 3-4 x a week. FIAR: We do this 4-5 days a week. I use it to structure our week around. Using it we talk about a little geography each week and do some science and art. This is completely fun for us right now and ds doesn't consider it "school". I usually do it at a separate time from the other "school" time. I would also say that I try to only spend about 30-45 minutes total doing the reading/writing/Math. Some days he's really into it and we might do an hour. I've learned though that he likes school but I can tell when I do too much he starts to get tired, he's still just a little guy. We're spending the most time on reading because I think right now it's the most important. And lots of puzzles, legos, Playmobil, free play, looking at bugs, being outside, reading together, cooking together, playing music, painting, playing with chalk, watching birds, etc. :)

I've never done this, but someone told me marigolds deter them. They told me to plant marigolds around the edge of a deck or patio and it works sort of like citronella.

Yes! Just me and dh...we're planning it as a date while on vacation at the beach. We go with my parents so we have babysitters! I'm going to try and re-read the books first.

Beautiful!

Just finished Shakespeare by Bill Bryson. Reading A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini Reading aloud to ds: Little House on the Prairie and Pagoo

No, it is more than one strain. Gardisil protects against the two strains that cause 70% of the cancer (strains #16 and 18). It also protects against two strains of HPV that cause most of the genital warts. There are other strains of HPV that cause cancer but I'm not sure how many, as they are less common.

I sent you a PM, so I don't hijack the thread. :001_smile:

I apologize, Cynthia. I realize I made it sound like you got your stats from the Gardisil company. What I was actually thinking about is the times I've talked to the Gardisil reps. (I'm a pediatrician and talk to them when they visit our office.) They always bring up this stat about rate of infection and include it in their literature but don't always include the info on the rate of clearance. I don't know where the reps get their statistics, and the stats of infection rate do agree with what I've seen on other sources so I'm not questioning if they are correct. But it just bugs me that the reps usually don't give the whole picture. I'm about as pro-vaccination as they come but I do believe that patients should be given all the info and not mis-leading info (not saying you are doing that...again just thinking of the reps I know). Again, I do believe in vaccines but Gardisil has troubled me because of the push to make it mandatory which I don't agree with and because I feel like if we want people to vaccinate we need to be completely honest with them. If we (speaking of myself and the rest of the medical community) are misleading about one vaccine...who is going to believe us about the others? (Really really not saying you are trying to mislead people. :D The info you posted is helpful and obviously coming from a place of wanting to inform people.) KidsHappen...aw, thanks! :blush: Beansprouts...here is some info on numbers of cases of cancer from the CDC. I don't know how many people are in the US so can't convert this to rate of infection..but it might be helpful. One thing to know in reading it is they mention that 1% of people have genital warts. The strains of HPV that cause warts are not the same as the strains that cause cancer. However, warts are usually viewed as a "red flag" as if you have been infected with one strain it is thought that you may also be infected with others. I should also add as a final disclaimer since I mentioned that I'm a pediatrician...cervical cancer is obviously not my area of expertise at all. Thankfully. :D HPV infection. Approximately 20 million Americans are currently infected with HPV, and another 6.2 million people become newly infected each year. At least 50% of sexually active men and women acquire genital HPV infection at some point in their lives. Genital warts. About 1% of sexually active adults in the U.S. have genital warts at any one time. Cervical cancer. The American Cancer Society estimates that in 2008, 11,070 women will be diagnosed with cervical cancer in the U.S. Other HPV-related cancers are much less common than cervical cancer. The American Cancer Society estimates that in 2008, there will be: 3,460 women diagnosed with vulvar cancer; 2,210 women diagnosed with vaginal and other female genital cancers; 1,250 men diagnosed with penile and other male genital cancers; and 3,050 women and 2,020 men diagnosed with anal cancer. Certain populations may be at higher risk for HPV-related cancers, such as gay and bisexual men, and individuals with weak immune systems (including those who have HIV/AIDS).

First off...Cynthia I'm not attacking you at all. I thought your replies were well said. But I've heard this statistic before and it bugs me. I know you didn't make it up though, so I'm not blaming you. :) The thing that bugs me about this statistic that is often quoted is that although it is true (or at least it is true that a high percentage of adults are infected with HPV, I've seen different numbers quoted)...90% of the time the virus is cleared within 2 years of becoming infected. Saying 80% of women have it sounds like 80% are at risk of cancer...which is not exactly true. The rate of clearance of the virus is true of high-risk strains and low-risk strains. Also, I believe the 80% infection statistic is of all strains of HPV not just the high risk ones so it is a little mis-leading when thinking about risk of cancer. I'm not against the vaccine, but this statistic quoted by the company that makes Gardisil always bugs me. The flip-side is that we can't predict which 90% of women will clear the virus and which won't and be at risk for cervical cancer. Also, the vaccine is thought to prevent 70% of the viruses that do cause cervical cancer. Just a few thoughts for those considering whether or not to give the vaccine to their dds. This is a good site for info on HPV and the vaccine. http://www.cdc.gov/STD/HPV/STDFact-HPV.htm#preventrelated

I included state refund too...might have skewed the poll incorrectly. :)

I don't know 100 EZ lessons. OPGTR is working for us. Initially, ds hated it but I think I tried too young. I put it away for awhile and got it out again when he was ready. I do write the words on a white board as the page layout overwhelms him. Other than that I find it really easy to use and it seems to be working. We also use Bob books and ETC.

We have a 2006 Kia Sedona. It was so much less expensive than the Honda Odyssey or the Toyota Sienna. We liked getting a newer vehicle with less mileage. Dh is crazy when it comes to car researching. He researched for about 6-9 months before buying and had spreadsheets comparing all sorts of items...and the Kia was the winner. We have had it for a year and really like it. The only downside is that it doesn't have a name that holds value. The car itself is great but for resale most people want Hondas or Toyotas. For us this is fine, because we tend to drive our cars for a long time until they are basically not resellable. We're not expecting to get much for it, but probably wouldn't get much for anything we had so this was not an issue for us. I could see if you plan on reselling in the next few years where this might be a bigger issue.

Talk to the MIL directly and if no change...call Animal Control. If the cat is coming into your house and attacking your cats I think you would be in the right to call. I would do that over trapping the cat...just to protect yourself both physically and from MIL's ire.