I was going to say time too. Reading aloud and cultivating good family relationships have to be close behind. My kids are still young though so my answer may change in a few years.

I had posted a reply yesterday but it seems to be missing :( Something I found helpful to teach my son how to stay focused was to set out 5-10 small treats (chocolate chips, marshmallows, Skittles, etc). However many remained at the end of school time my son could eat. If he lost focus, he lost a treat. He quickly caught on and no longer needed treats while he did schoolwork. Often when he keeps losing focus he needs to move around. I will send him to get something downstairs or we do jumping jacks. It's gotten to where he will ask if he can do jumping jacks as he's losing focus. He is now a 2nd grader and usually stays focused for his entire school time regardless of what his younger siblings are doing so it does get better.

I'm not sure if you can get it without being a member of the professional society, but Mechanial Engineering is really interesting. I'm not an engineer, just married to one.

My kids just tag along with whatever we are doing on weekends. We usually have a lazy morning they might "help" my husband fix something around the house, clean, play outside while we do yard work. Afternoons are the usual rest time unless we go somewhere. My husband handles maintenance for our church building so they might go play in the church nursery or on the playground while he works. They are pretty good at entertaining themselves and when they aren't, I separate them and suggest a quiet activity. Legos or reading usually work well for that. Messy things like crafts don't happen if I'm busy with a project. When I went through clothes last weekend they played in the room and tried things on when I wasn't sure if something would fit. A couple weekends ago while my husband and I painted bunk beds in the garage, my 7 year old worked at his tool bench. My 5 and 3 year old ran around the yard all day mostly playing pirates. Our evenings are mostly fixing then eating supper, getting the kids to bed about 8, then my husband and I have freetime. He travels a lot and I don't vary my routine much whether he's home or not. Eta: on Sundays between church and life group, we just putter around the house. I usually read, sew, or catch a quick nap. The kids have their rest time but really only the 3 year old still naps.

I think a bob is great for fine straight hair. When you schedule your hair appointment, schedule time to be taught how to style your hair. Between that and YouTube I have finally learned how to blow dry and style my hair so that it looks almost as good as when my stylish does it.

I guarantee the other engineers aren't looking at what he's wearing.

Try you tube, you can learn anything on there. If it isn't an ink tag I would be inclined to use bolt cutters to cut off the device.

We have a dog who is an escape artist of sorts. My 7 year old tends to forget to close doors and our dog sees an open door as a chance to roam. We lived on a farm his first couple years of life and he liked being able to wander around. Our dog is 16, half deaf, and we live near a busy road (there is a fence). He no longer will come when called, because he can't hear. He also has arthritis and no desire to go anywhere other than down the street and back. He gets out about every 2-3 weeks, if we don't realize it, he comes back and sits on the porch until we do. Most of the time we have no clue he's roaming which is why we aren't out looking for him. Fortunately he wears tags and we have neighbors who recognize him who will bring him back or text us. Ideally he would never get out of the house but it's hard to get a 7 year old who is a bit spacy to consistently close the door all the way until it latches. I'm really not concerned when our dog gets out though because I do know he will come home and he has no desire to get close to other people or animals. He doesn't get into trash or dig anymore so I know he isn't going to damage anything while he's out. I would be shocked if he went into the street because he doesn't like re feel of asphalt anymore. Of course I don't expect all our neighbors to know that. The houses directly next to us and another down the street do know. All that to say, just because someone has a dog who has gotten out a handful of times in the past year doesn't mean they are neglectful pet owners. Ours has been loose way more than 4 or 5 times on the last year and trust me, I'm frustrated that it has happened. However, I don't know how to prevent it. If you know where the dog lives, you could get the owner's phone number and call them when you see the dog out in the future.

Following. I was coming to post about hives tonight too. My husband has been getting the occasional hive for several weeks. Beginning last week he has been getting more. Today he has them on his arms, legs, torso, face, and palms. Benedryl helps until it wears off. He doesn't seem to be under stress. At what point should he go to the doctor?

Thank you!

I'm not sure if this is along the lines of what you are looking for but my kids love the Classics for Kids radio show. There is a new show every week and in general the shows are about the same composer for a month. There is a breif question session at the end of each show and an activity sheet available if you are interested. It's available online or through iTunes. I'm going to see if my library has Story of the Orchestra.

The phonics readers from Usborne may work for your son too. My daughter can read most of Big Pig on a Dig and we aren't thorough the first 100 lessons in OPGTR yet.

This is a really old thread, but I found it helpful this morning. The Secret of Kells is still on Netflix streaming and goes along with what we are studying in SOTW 2 right now.

Hospice has free grief counseling and support groups in many areas.

He will be fine, please don't feel guilty. My current 5 year old had no interest in learning her letters until recently, so we never worked on them. She is now learning to read just as easily as her older brother who was eager to learn. I read a lot to my kids and really think that is plenty until they start asking for more. When they start asking, I'll work with them as they ask. My 3 year old has never asked but is managing to learn some here and there just overhearing what his brother and sister learn. I'm continually surprised but all that he knows. I'm betting your three year old will be just fine.

We just finished The Green Ember and started the prequel The Blackstar of Kingston.

It was cloudy here so we didn't really see the eclipse, when an occasional clearing occurred we could see the orange moon. I woke my 7 year old around 10:30 because he was really interested in it but fortunately the orange was enough for him. Around 2 am I woke up to a bright light shining through my window. The moon was incredibly bright, too bad the sky wasn't that clear earlier in the night.

I sort of have left a child in the car. I didn't actually forget my son but I locked him with my phone and keys in the car as I was getting out. It was January and I was no one near the building into which I was heading. I was terrified of leaving my vehicle unattended to go call my husband so I was flagging people down to borrow their phones. I wasn't worried about his safety as much as a random passerby calling the police. My son was fine and dressed warmly but the 20-30 minutes it took until my husband could arrive to help felt like an eternity. My parents on the other hand left me places more than once. I was older and my parents had the attitude that the kids (6 of us) need to pay attention to the parents when it was time to leave places. We lived in a small town and either my parents or grandparents home was pretty much walking distance from every where so it wasn't a huge deal.

We have a Little Tikes slide in our living room that helps burn energy. I bought it for $15 off Craigslist and it can be folded and stored away when I don't want my living room looking like a preschool. Your son may be a little young but beginning when my kids were 6,4, and 2 we have a family Olympics right after supper many nights. My husband and I would make up silly things for the kids to do: walk backward across the living room, crawl like a snake, circle the kitchen 7 times, run up and down the stairs 5 times, etc for about 20 minutes. This works well on days the kids can't get outside.

I tend to be cautious about movies with my kids, for a 7 and 12 year old I think it's fine. It is sort of a spy movie, there are bombs, I don't remember the shooting, but it's been awhile since I've really watched it. Finn and Sally (I think?) get tied up as prisoners but they do escape. My 3 year old has seen it and a couple parts are a little scary for him. It isn't graphic though in the same way it would be if it were humans being bombed. They are cartoon cars. I hope this helps.

I'm sorry! Don't be too hard on yourself, you are making the best of a difficult situation.

When I was younger I could work out on an empty stomach without a problem. Now I need a small breakfast. I think the intensity matters though. I could roll out of bed and go for a long walk or do a yoga video without breakfast. I could not go to an hour long spin class or run 6 miles without at least a banana and some water.

I'm not sure if anyone brought this up, but I think how easy it is to school for free or inexpensively partly depends on what resources are available in your area. There is someone on the board who has mentioned in the past that she has a small library that is only open a few days a week. That would make it nearly impossible to depend on the library. If you coupled that with living in an area without reliable internet access, it would be nearly impossible to school well inexpensively. Not to mention that if you live in a rural area you probably don't have as many opportunities to find used books appropriate for school. I live in an area that has an excellent library system, a lot of support for homeschoolers, many free programs, used book stores, used book sales, and even some free dual enrollment classes for older students. There is no charge for inter-library loans and there are plenty of computers at the library. It would be much easier for families in my area to homeschool inexpensively than in the rural area where my sister lives. She has spotty Internet and no library. Assuming she wanted to homeschool, she would have to get quite creative to find free or inexpensive resources. I know that isn't the case for everyone, but it is something to consider.

That may be part of the subscription site. Sorry, I don't know anything about it.

I'm not sure, but you can listen to the podcasts free through the website or on the Stitcher app.