Okay, sold even more, now! I have to wait a couple more months before I can buy curricula, but ES is on the top of my list, thanks to the wonderful reviews and comments in these forums, and a great website. So pleased the customer service is stellar, too!

We'll be starting home schooling after this current school year ends (June). My plan is a 2 week break after school is out, followed by home school lite to ease into things and give me a chance to acquire curricula and stuff. I discussed it with my girls, and decided we will home school 4 days per week, with the 5th day being put to other purposes. I plan on 180 days of instruction, and initially thought this would leave us 7 weeks for breaks throughout the year. However, twice each month the "other" day of the week is actually a school day (field trip, catch-up day), so they can be counted toward the 180 days as well. That gives us 12 weeks, then, for breaks throughout the school year. Certain times I most certainly want to take a day or week or two weeks off -- these are work holidays (Daddy is home), school holidays (cousins are available, often including the bunch who lives a 4-hr drive away), and our yearly trip to see family and friends farther away. In fact, this summer it will work out to about 3 parts home school lite to 2 parts breaks (one less week for me than for the kids), what with the home school convention and reserving a week for me to do teacher prep for the coming year. The "school year" had some lengthy stretches, but with reserving off the same school holidays that their cousins have most stretches get some small relief. I can add in extra long weekends or the odd day here or there to lighten things up. Thanks, OP! The 6-week stretch sounds like a good measure for breaks, so I'm now using that as a go-by.

Gee, that's just what it looked like!

Some people don't want to believe until they have a reason that strikes too close to home, and then they want to deny, deny, deny. And it doesn't help that overdiagnosing and claiming it for an excuse or crutch have been so much in the news. There's also fear of the label, and what someone can "lose" being saddled with it. Then there's the people who believe you can simply fix it with drugs. My own MIL told me I should get a new dr when I told her medication is not indicated for DD. "But it works for B--" (my nephew) -- never mind he's a boy, and has different issues (though diagnosed ADHD), and is having a different set of issues caused by the meds. MIL's parents were both teachers, and our decision to switch to homeschool is anathema to her, despite the fact that DD's slow processing speed is the biggest problem (something they can't fix with meds). The biggest problem is ignorance. I'm learning as I go, and I didn't know much to begin with. I would be interested to see if any homeschoolers would say ADHD is all fiction. Seems to me the vast majority have reason to know better, even if it is just an appreciation that different kids learn differently.

I just managed to April Fool myself. I have always been a bit afraid of spiders, but I'm quite proud of how far I've come. Most of the time I catch them and release them, and I teach the kids to also not kill them needlessly. Today I was working in the garage, trying to empty some boxes of stuff that had accumulated (old papers, toys, what have you). I turned around to see a HUGE spider right next to my foot. Yup, white mammas CAN jump. Clear across the garage bay. Turns out I still don't do so well when they take me by surprise at close proximity. Just when I was wondering how to catch the dang thing I realized.... It was one of the kids' plastic spiders, that had fallen out of a box. STRAIGHT into the donation box! Let some unwitting thrift store employee have the fun. *shudder*

Ah, the unenviable moment of weight loss, when you can be effectively pants'd because you are waiting until the warm weather is solidly here before buying new clothes! Anyone else?

My DH and DFIL both swear by Gold Toe. They fit well, don't slide around in the shoe, and last quite a while (and stay looking good while doing so). Theirs are mostly trouser socks (for office wear), but I've bought gold toe socks for my girls, too, and have been very happy with them. The socks are outgrown long before they start to look bad. I've had some pairs go through both girls (a year with each) and still be good enough to hand down. What I like about them is the toe seams are comfortable. All to many of my socks I turn inside out because of toe seam bulk. I guess I need to go buy some Gold Toe socks for ME now....

Hand-me-downs & Target for the kids. DH likes Sears, but they closed down where we are. Kohl's mostly for me, though some Penney's. Walmart and tourist attraction gift shops if we need something when we are traveling.

Hit post too soon. Rainefox, you are a real trooper. I am deeply impressed.

Rainefox, Couldn't figure out how to get your post to quote, so here's just my comment: My brother used to encourage other kids (on our street, so no getting away from them long-term) to pick on me, and would join in. He was, like me, a prime target for the bullies, and thought this way would gain him acceptance. It might work in the wild, but not with kids. They'd let him join in, then pound him later anyway. That ended when we moved out of state.

This is why I drop my kids off at the START of morning carline, 30 minutes before they go to class. It gives them some easy socializing time with their friends. Afternoon carline is not a good socializing time, since all of the students have to be quiet to listen for their names being called. The extra time in the morning also gives them time to switch into "school" gears -- this is something I'll have to figure out how to do when we are home schooling, since we won't have the change of scene.

When DD11 was in 1st grade (in a VERY expensive private school) we had her vision checked out, suspecting far-sightedness (despite her passing vision screenings at school). We found out that she was indeed far-sighted, and also had vision function problems. It would take 2 weeks for her new glasses to come in, and further evaluation to plan the course of vision therapy she would need. In the meantime she had daily headaches from eye strain, and many other problems. We asked the school immediately if she could take her spelling quizzes orally instead of written, JUST UNTIL HER NEW GLASSES ARRIVED (one or two weeks tops). We told them this was a TEMPORARY request to ease her eye strain and headaches until her glasses would come in. They refused, saying that they have to hold all of the students to the same standard. What?!? They would have let her take them orally if she had broken her writing hand. How is this any different? She still would have to know how to spell the words, and this was first grade. The words weren't complicated.

I'd recommend a leave-in conditioner. I use one from Garnier Fructis (sp?). Works well on my hair, DD11's hair (both straight) and DD8's hair (curly).

Kissing Disease! Perfect! I have a 13-year-old niece who looks 16. Her mother just had a birthday -- I should get her one, as a mother-daughter (or father-daughter!), um, "conversation-starter". :D Or I can give it to her myself. I'm always looking for a way to tease my niece!

April Fool's Day is TOMORROW! Not today! AAgh! I once won a handmade quilt, and had it on our bed for quite a while. I bought a pleated skirt for work at Foley's, and when I got it home the ink tag was still on it -- don't know how I got through the exit without sounding the alarm. I was going to make a return trip to Foley's later in the week to get the ink tag taken off, but DH (an engineer) was DETERMINED to get it off himself. He was SURE he could dismantle the tag without releasing the ink. I had to go to work before him, and I couldn't get him to leave it alone. I at least demanded he move off the bed and onto the floor, just in case. Later that evening he told me, "I got the tag off the skirt, and I didn't release any of the ink!" "Okay," said I, suspecting this was not all. "What's the bad news?" "Well, my Dremel slipped as I was getting through the casing...." MY QUILT! Nope. He had moved off the bed, as I requested. My quilt was safe. He cut a hole in my new skirt.

DS is 17, plus 6 years -- that makes DB 23 years old. Still very young, and likely to believe they know well enough. I am curious WHY your brother believed there was absolutely no asbestos (and I am sure he would not jeopardize his family's health by deliberately not mentioning it. If he was assured by someone he wasn't comfortable questioning (or really wants to believe is infallible) he might have not bothered to verify. This is going to be a HUGE life-lesson for your brother. My heart goes out to you all. I hope all of your family turns out to be unharmed.

I am about to pull my two, currently in 5th and 3rd grades. Elder DD has some diagnosed issues, and they are very key to our decision. However, we also are quite underwhelmed with our local school choices. The public schools failed to teach eldest DD in 1st grade (she had a bad teacher and the school was so crowded they couldn't move her to a different teacher). The private schools are either very expensive, very strongly religiously oriented, or both. The exception are the local Catholic schools, but they only go through 8th grade, and eldest DD still won't fit the classroom schedule well. Our current private school has become less "non-denominational" and more "fundamentalist" for our taste, and we don't like how to current administration is running things academically. I have written letters of recommendation for 3 outstanding teachers who are being let go for very poor reasons. The board and the administration have a real problem communicating good-to-know information to parents, and have said one thing and done something entirely different too many times to be trusted anymore. As a result, we are starting home school once this school year ends. My kids weren't thrilled at the idea of leaving their friends behind. However, the friends that matter most also happen to be leaving the school as well, so they won't be there next year, either. We are already reaching out to firm up friendships and stay in touch. We are making plans with many for get-togethers. After talking to our kids about why we want to home school the kids started seeing it more positively. After I suggested the schedule I'd prefer they were quite excited. We have decided together that we would home school year 'round, but 4 days per week. This would still leave us with 7 weeks (at least) to scatter around the year for breaks and vacation, and would eliminate the 2nd-half-of-summer boredom. The non-school day each week can be put to other purposes (some of them actually school): one day a month for field trips, one day a month for "home blessing" (catching up on housework), one day a month for shopping & errands (my eldest is all for this!), and one day a month for school catch-up and/or extra time for projects. A couple of times a year we can expect to have an extra non-school day per month -- these will be bonus days, and we will decide together what we want to do with them as they come up. I've heard from so many different sources that in making a switch like this it is helpful to "deschool" -- have an extended time period in which the kids are no longer in brick & mortar (B&M) school, but not yet homeschooling. What I plan for this deschooling period might seem short to many (a few months, or summer, is a commonly suggested length), but I've been doing so much work with the kids after school to reteach and get homework done I don't think the change will be as dramatic for them as it otherwise might be. I plan on 2 weeks of no homeschool, followed by a summer of homeschool "lite". During this light summer I will review math with them to firm up my understanding of where they are. I will also blitz through Story of the World (SOTW) Ancients -- I know they are written for younger kids, but they give me a spine I can build upon, and I want to cover Ancient History quickly this first time through (I have a degree in archaeology, so they already know more "old stuff" than most kids their age). We will start typing, Aikido, and piano lessons. And we will do "home blessing intensive" -- lots of instruction and practice in household cleaning, cooking, and home finances. (This last because they need it, and hands-on lessons need some time. I can cover them better when we don't have to worry about covering our academic subjects enough each day. My only regret is that we did not have DD11 tested BY A NEUROPSYCHOLOGIST earlier. She was tested back in 1st grade by someone our current school strongly recommended, but that gal was useless (unprofessional, and testing beyond her qualifications). Had we known then what we know now school would have been a lot less frustrating for her. Or we would have started home school earlier.

Anything in the scifi section of Project Gutenberg or Libravox should do. And you can get most or all of them for free as ebooks.

Lots of prayers. Best of luck.

Ah, channeling the 80's again, are we? : D

I feel for you. My eldest DD had cronic constipation issues when she was younger, which led to accidents, even in Kindergarten. It took years to grow out of that, even with Miralax, no milk, and other get-the-bowels-moving tactics. My youngest DD has the problem that whenever she has a growth spurt it seems her bladder is the last to grow. Even at age 8 she has accidents (mostly small), and can wet the bed if she sleeps very deeply (rare for her, but has happened once or twice). What helps there is no fluids (except a mouthful of water to rinse after brushing teeth) for a while before bed, bathroom right before hitting the hay, and a regular wake time with bathroom right away. Stress can be a big cause of incontinence or "overcontinence" (what do you call the opposite problem?). Medication changes could have something to do with it; also consider if there are other events or concerns causing her more (or recently fresh) worry or anxiety. It could be some breakthroughs or near-to-breakthrough stuff from therapy is a factor. What she needs most right now, which you and DH seem to be giving in spades, is patience and understanding. Your DH taking a walk was probably just the thing. Make sure you both get some breaks from the day so you can take a deep breath. She will need to hear from you both that you don't blame her and know it is not something she can control. Kids do blame themselves, even for stuff they can't help. I don't know what such trauma can be like, so I can't empathize fully. But you have my full sympathy. I'm rooting for you all.

Baby steps. If you have 15 minutes,or 5, or 30 seconds, pick something and do it. Don't try to get the time to catch up or do it right -- this is perfectionism that will cripple you. Just jump in where you are work with the time you have at the moment, and pick something. These are basic Flylady concepts. Please do check her out. I'm what some would call a 'Flylady failure, too, but I don't consider myself such. Each time things get 'behind' I just pause for a rest break (I've put myself in time out, which the kids understand to mean Mom needs a moment), quiet my brain for a bit, and think on what I can do in the moment I have. I don't think beyond that moment -- all I need is one short thing to do to get me going. Once I start my brain figures out some more of how to break down the bigger load and tackle it. And writing the above caused me to remember that I find routine physical tasks very helpful for thinking. Because I am partially focused on something that doesn't require my whole attention my brain gets a rest, and can mull stuff around in the background. It can be calming. While a lot of Flylady tactics are stuff I had done piecemeal before I knew about her Flylady put it all together, added stuff I hadn't thought of, and provides reality checks. People who feel they've failed Flylady have missed the point entirely. Please just go look: Flylady.net. It's free, and takes no more time than visiting these forums. Start with the shiny sink -- just do it even if you don't get it. Sooner or later you will.

I ran in to this problem, too, and this morning DH looked at my desktop computer (Windows 7) and fixed it. He removed the Internet Explorer 10 update (which had been on my machine) and installed Java (which somehow hadn't been loaded). Once this was done I was back to running normal in the forums when using Internet Explorer. This did not, however, fix the problem I had in the forums in Mozilla Firefox (my preferred browser). In that I no longer get the box to type in a post (haven't figured out this problem yet). Short answer: uninstall Internet Explorer 10 and go back to Internet Explorer 9, and make sure you have Java. I knew the problems I was having in Firefox and IE must be particular to the desktop machine, because my laptop (Vista) has no problems. After fixing the desktop machine we double-checked the laptop. Yup, was running Internet Explorer 9 and had Java. And Firefox works for me on the laptop, so whatever that problem is (on the desktop computer) it's again particular to that machine. Anyone have ideas behind losing the typing box when visiting the forums via Firefox?

I scored today, IMO. Family gathering for SIL's birthday and Easter (family from out of town has to leave tomorrow). Dear niece (13) was playing cards with several of us "adults". She was eating some chocolate, and declared, "I need something salty." I said, "Salty language?" and told her if she gave me a chocolate I'd swear in her ear (her Dad was playing with us, but was distracted at the moment). She looked at me funny, then pulled out a Reese's and handed it over, saying "I just want to hear you swear!" I leaned over and whispered in her ear, "I SWEAR, ... you are the best niece ever!" And promptly ate the Reese's! What got me was the part she complained about was the motherly kiss on the ear I gave her, too. Go fig.

Please please please. Prayers don't need words if the words don't come. We are praying please please please for you all, too.