I love, love, love my Kindle! I won't repeat everything, but just "ditto" what roughcollie said. I've had mine for, hmmm, a year and a half or two years? Still love it (and it's not even the prettiest, newest, shiniest version). My 12yrold uses it all the time as well. One thing I don't think she mentioned: make sure you hold each one in your hands before buying, if 'feel' is important to you. The Kindle has a good, high quallity feel that the others can't compare to, imo. There is a fix for borrowing library books in a certain format, but I haven't tried it. It would be a nice plus to have that be seamless, but no matter what, you still have to transfer the "books" from your computer to the reader, so hmmm, not seamless either way . . .

This is why it makes me ill to see posters blithely urging people to "call CPS; they'll straighten it out!" every time they witness questionable (to them) parenting.

It's not what I would have done (because I find buckets of candy nearly impossible to resist myself, *g*), but it's not insanely over-the-top. As long as you weren't, y'know, screaming like Joan Crawford while you did it, NO MORE BUCKETS OF CANDY!!

The chances of timing a move perfectly (and thus not having any time left on your lease, etc) are pretty slim. I'd start job hunting where you want to be, and thinking of ways to deal with the lease. You can always politely ask to be released, which very occassionally does work, or perhaps dh can move first and stay either with a friend of in some ultra-cheap situation? When I had to move states 6 months ahead of dh, I stayed with my sis and dh rented a room from someone (they lived in their house and rented him the extra room). It sucked, but it was temporary, and got us where we wanted to be.

thanks, I'll try that!

I'm tutoring a young man who is nearly finished, and we are trying to plan his last few weeks, but he forgot to bring his binder with the lesson plans today. When the lessons end, they say the student can do either a research paper or a science project, and I think they say they would like the science project to be on a certain topic. Can anyone tell me what they give as requirements for this project? Pleeeeeaaaaase, I planned on getting this planning done today!! Thank you.

To be strictly accurate, it isn't a food card, but an EBT card (electronic benefits transfer). If they are able to get cash off of the card, it is because they have cash benefits in addition to food benefits. Just as one could get a welfare check, cash it, and then use the cash to gamble. I would have no problem with restricting the withdrawal of money at casino ATMs, though. They could withdraw from another ATM and then use at the casino, of course, but really, should it be made THAT easy, lol?

An amazing resource, thank you! Did y'all notice the interactive, searchable constitution? Very cool.

Please tell her we are thinking of her!!

You do realize that you now have to go find them and compare, right? :D How much longer could it be? How many times can you say, Because you are MY little bunny?? Inquiring minds want to know!

You have the full version, it's just a short little board book, like Good Night Moon.

I don't know if it's helpful in introducing algebraic thinking, but the Singapore bar model problems had my dd begging for algebra, so she wouldn't have to do them anymore! :lol:

The Pencil Theory of Rigor, you should copyright that . . .

As an interesting aside, Glenn Doman does not have an academic background; rather, he is a trained physical therapist who first gained fame for his methods in working with brain-injured children. He founded The Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential in 1955, and his brain-injury methods earned just as much praise and flames as his baby-teaching methods. He works on the theory that an injured brain/body can be taught, via near-endless repetition, how to perform certain actions; peforming these action correctly helps repair the brain. For example, a brain-injured child might spend hours each day being 'patterned,' that is, having other people maneuver his body in the 'correct' format for crawling, etc. After so much patterning, the child would eventually be allowed to creep, then crawl, in therapy sessions. I know that, in the 70s, it was considered essential that each stage of physical development be done correctly and imprinted on the brain before the next stage could be achieved 'correctly' and the brain injury improved. Walking without crawling first? Bad, very bad. I'm not up to date with his institute, but I would imagine this still holds true, as patterning still has pride of place among the methods. Most of the criticism stems from two aspects: few professionals believe that physical development must go in a certain order, and few families can carry out a therapy regime that is the equivalent of a full-time job, and that cannot be done without numerous volunteers. Their stance on epilepsy is particulary controversial; they state that seizures are not, in and of themselves, harmful to the brain, and require their clients to be weaned off of anti-convulsants. The baby stuff is an extension of these methods: if the brain of a special needs child can be 'repaired' and improved, then surely the brain of a 'regular' child can be improved as well. Doman has stated that he believes every child born has a greater potential intelligence than Leonardo da Vinci ever used.

A prodigy is simply a person who does something in such an extraordinary way that other people are amazed or struck with wonder. Hence, a prodigy can be entirely natural, with no undue outside effort, or a combination of nature and nurture. A certain level of natural ability is required, but a completely 'natural' prodigy is pretty rare (the easiest example here is a math prodigy who can perform complex computations without being taught). Most famous (and truly wonder inducing) prodigies certainly had their natural talent nurtured, with much time, effort, and money being expended by their parents. William Sidis and John Milton, for example. Both were undoubtedly born gifted, but their early achievements may not have been nearly as startling if it weren't for the intense involvement of their parents. Even the genius of Mozart might have gone unrecognized till he was, oh, say, a teenager ;), if his father hadn't been a professional musician himself, willing to spend hours each day working with him.

Prepare to be disappointed, :D. My oldest is independent, over-achieving, and self-motivated. Her sister, born from the same womb and raised by the same parents in the same house? Eh, not so much! She does just fine in school, don't get me wrong, but she'd rather be playing than working. She does the lessons that are assigned to her; she's not setting a goal to finish the book early so she can work on an elaborate project of her own design. And you know what? That's fine! She's a different kid. I have no doubts that she will mature into a more independent worker capable of setting and achieving goals, but she's not there yet. It's not fair to expect atypical achievements from a kid, just because their sibling set the bar high in that area. It's something to work towards, of course, but for most kids it's a process that takes years and years. Some kids are born organized and independent; most are not. So enjoy your independent miss, but don't assume the others will follow her lead!

I don't think there's a problem with doing their daily work independently. My 12 yr old much prefers to work things out on her own rather than be 'taught,' and I'm fine with that. I don't think necessarily agree that 'students need teachers,' but I do think they guides, motivators, and, uh, whatever the word might be for someone who discusses interesting topics with them. My dd isn't going to gain anything if I insist on teaching her the day's math or latin lesson instead of letting her go at it, but she does gain something if I: *show an honest interest in her work; ie, not checking it (she mostly checks her own, lol), but asking her about it, and truly listening to the answer. she's an independent learner, but quite enjoys sharing what she has learned. being available is really key for this (I'm not teaching her the lesson, but I'm generally close by and I've learned to put other stuff on hold if they have some exciting comment about geometry or science, *g*). *encourage and make the time for discussion; history and literature are the easiest jumping off points for this, but it works in other subjects as well. and fo course 'non-school' discussion is valuable as well; learning to express yourself, and manage the give-and-take of ideas is a wonderful skill. *guide her to some degree as to what she should be studying, and how much she should aim to accomplish. this is not a big deal with my oldest, but my youngest is not going to set the bar very high if left to her own devices :tongue_smilie: Be involved, be interested, but don't feel required to conform to some expected standard/method of teaching!

And it only takes a tiny amount of effort to "wrap" an experience and watch the kids open it. You'd think so, wouldn't you? But some people simply won't listen, even when it's the kids themselves talking about what they like and what they're interested in. In my family, it's kind of a big deal if you like/want something that's atypical. They seriously canNOT believe you truly want it :001_huh:. As a matter of fact, I can still clearly remember not getting the chemistry set I wanted as a child. The reaction to seeing it on my list went roughly like this: Did you mean to circle that? You don't want that, do you? You don't really want that, right? Are you sure? Did you see the glowing balls of crap on page 67, wouldn't those be fun? And so on, until I mumbled I guess at the fiftieth thing they asked if I would like better. I was traumatized, lol, and now dd1 gets alllllll the books she wants for Christmas :D

dude, you do not know what a family fight is until you don't serve the right stuff at Thanksgiving!! :lol: Seriously, I would think it was a very odd choice for someone in my family to host Thanksgiving, and then not have traditional Thanksgiving food. I would at least want some warning, so that I could make and bring a dish or two if I chose. Or, y'know, stay home ;) You said that you've had people to dinner, and they haven't said anything, but keep a few things in mind: *hopefully, most grown guests know that it's rude to say stuff like, "dang, that was weird, are you on a diet?" *this is THANKSGIVING, not just any ol' dinner; it's about the food, yes, but it's also about tradition So, what are the 8 major food allergens, and what do you plan to serve (for your own family)?

A couple of people responded that they would encourage their children to live at home as young adults for financial/building wealth reasons. This makes a lot of sense, but can I ask a nosy question? How big is your house, lol?? My dds are 10 &12. The four of us live in a four-bedroom house, about 1,800 square feet (including the enclosed garage). Sometimes the house feels a wee bit small to us now, kwim? If the kids stayed here, they would have their bedroom and only their bedroom as a private space. Our 4th bedroom is a craft room that we all use, and the garage is a pantry/storage/schoolroom space. So, they'd have a certain amount of space they could use for hobbies and such, but it would definitely be both limited and shared. Also, no area for them to have friends over, etc. Their bedrooms are pretty small. Single bed, dresser, bookcases, and a desk, that's about all that will fit, so no bedroom/sitting room combos here. While I'd be more than fine with them staying for a while and not wasting money on rent, I can't imagine they would want to stay long-term. Hmmm, I don't know. I imagine the space problem getting worse as they get older. Does it get better? Stay the same? Do you have a bigger house, or do you think no one will much mind a snug fit?

I don't know about her sister's case, obviously, but my guess would be that dh just said/implied that he was signing for her. It's very common for married people to sign each other's signatures - not wise, mind you, but common!

Another vote for speaking to a non-recruiter. My nephew's recruiter did not lie to him (that we're aware of), but finagled his paperwork and medical history to get him in. How he thought severe, chronic sleepwalking, wouldn't be noticed during basic training, I do not understand, lol, but dn was home within a few weeks. The recruiter also left off other, significant aspects of dn's medical history that were not so easy to spot, that could have had much worse effects than having to endure a week of sleep studies before being discharge :glare: This was not Navy, btw. Edited to add that I think joining the services can certainly be a great decision for some people, especially those with no direction in their life.

That rec would certainly be enough for me to go visit that ortho, and if I liked him in person, then yes, I'd feel fine about going with him. My experience is that medical professionals will not badmouth each other, but neither will they rec somone they hear bad things about (and it tends to be a pretty small world; word spreads fast). If you ask about someone they don't like, it's usually hmmm, well, I really couldn't say or um, er, you'd have to ask someone else, I don't work with him. Depending on the doc, this may or may not be accompanied by a grimace or raised eyebrows :D. I'm sure your dd will be fine; it just may cost a bit more time and money to fix than if you had started earlier.

I gave up. If they don't want to take our space and the kids' interests into account, then they will just be wasting a great deal of money, and I'm trying really hard to not let that bother me :tongue_smilie:. We 'clean house' on toys every six months, right before their birthday and right before Christmas. This means that a lot of stuff is in and out within that time frame . . . and, yes, some of it gets quietly put to the side and donated after a while, without ever being opened. My kids rarely remember who bought them a particular piece of junk, but they WOULD remember a shared experience with a loved one. They appreciate the fact that someone gets them a gift, even if it's not to their taste, or won't fit in their room, lol, but junky gifts they never showed interest in just aren't memorable, kwim?

My answers are in bold above.