I have not seen that. I know one library that offers a "homeschooling 101" class once a year, but that's because someone that works at the library is a homeschooler and they host it. I have never been able to attend as it's not close to me and now I don't know if I'd get as much out of it. I don't understand how "programs" = "beneficial" necessarily either. I know of a martial arts class aimed at homeschoolers, but that's because the instructor was homeschooled and wanted to offer that to the homeschool community. In my particular community I am not aware of any homeschool specific events for Parks and Rec or libraries. There is the summer reading program open to all. Story hour open to all (which is during school hours so this is really daycare children and Head Start kids that attend from nearby centers. When we have attended I think we were the only homeschool family). Our library is open 2 days a week. I do know of homeschoolers setting up events and looking at libraries as a potential meeting place, but not sure how often they do that. I was under the impression that Parks and Rec classes happened in the afternoon/evening so not specific to homeschoolers. Another person mentioned something for younger ones. I didn't know that even existed. Maybe just certain areas.

Hmm the volunteer thing could go either way, depending on the family's precise available hours and interest in volunteer work that they find. Part of me hoped that I could volunteer at the public school sometimes on the mornings dh goes into work later. But in reality we are both needed home. Today he did school with ds while I tried to occupy dd. Even with me home it was hard. She wanted to draw on the dry erase board with Daddy, started to cry when I told her that she needed to let her water color book dry, etc. lol Depending on the ages of the children, yes, I could see volunteering working out well. The at home parent could take the child with them to a food pantry or nursing home or something. Of course that depends on the family's school obligations, the organization's rules about children, etc. Are there any benefits to making an area attractive to homeschoolers? Maybe if you're trying to draw up business during hours in which homeschoolers are the only client (or primary client). We have a bowling alley an hour from us that offers a homeschooling day. I know two homeschool groups that meet there in the morning at least once a month.

We are just going to watch the Mystery Science lesson they released about it. The kids and I all wear regular glasses and I can't imagine what a pain it'd be to supervise that.

I also live in a rural area with one bathroom. I don't imagine it's usually an issue. During the summer reading program they had the fire dept. come out and spray the kids with a fire hose like it was a giant sprinkler (I'm not kidding lol) and we were not prepared for that. No where in the itinerary did it say that water activities would be involved. So I lugged my drenched kid to the bathroom to change her clothes (had spare clothes in the diaper bag) and another child was knocking on the door to use the bathroom. I was worried he wouldn't be able to hold it. Story hours and such invite young children to the library. One bathroom when there are a lot of young children seems like a problem at some point down the line. *Eta: yes, I could have left the library before she got wet, but dd really wanted to join in the fun so I just went along with it.

I think it's a good idea to plan for the future. What if the community grows? Would be better to get the second bathroom now rather than realize it's a problem when a field trip consisting of 20 Kindergartners arrives. Also, I personally hate feeling like someone is waiting on me. If I'm changing my toddler's diaper and someone is knocking on the door it's not ideal for either party. Nevermind if I also wanted to use the restroom after I was done helping her.

You can look at certain topics/posts under your username, but often I can't find what I'm looking for there, either. I think it only keeps track of the last few.

I have a lot of trouble, too. I use a combination of google, old emails (email notifications), and using the ctrl F + keyword if it's been recently. Then I have to click through a few pages.

I laughed but eww. "new car smell" aka "chemical fresh" lol

I can just see someone turning them into one since they're real... "uh, why does it say I ordered 20 bottles of Tide, 30 packs of toilet paper, 15 bags of litter..."

:laugh: Not my cup of tea, but I guess someone might like it. Maybe someone that is looking for a speaker and decides to get this. I remember when I heard about the Amazon dash buttons. I thought, are you kidding me? But I found out a friend of a friend has one. To each their own lol

I wouldn't want it for myself or my children, but I'm more picky than most. My in-laws smoke and imo it ruins their cars. MIL's car had a fabric on the dashboard of her old vehicle. I thought ugh, that must really absorb all the smoke. Anything that has fabric (car seat cushions, carpeting on floor and/or trunk) I imagine harbors those chemicals and/or smells. It would be a huge turn off for me. Also, my son has asthma so whether right or wrong I would mentally think it's worse for him to be in contact with a vehicle like that on a regular basis. I have taken second hand clothing from relatives that I washed and I felt funny about that as well, but at least I could wash it. I wouldn't feel the same about a car interior. Same with homes. The stuff lingers on the walls and such. There might be a residue left behind?? I don't know. When we stay at my in-laws' home you can't always smell the smoke super well. But boy do you notice it when you leave and open your luggage (they smoke in one part of the home so naturally it floats through the vents). How does your family feel about it? One time my SIL sold a car and dh said I wish you would have told us. We might have been interested. Privately I told dh, no way!! Because of the smoke.

I love to plan, too. But yes, I agree, we'd need more info. IF they were into spooky stuff, I might go with that theme (thinking about the date Friday the 13th). But not sure about what they are permitted to watch. Not sure if Stranger Things is too intense for them (one scene I remember got a bit sexual.. more like PG-13) and there was some violence. Old school movies that are kinda spooky. Personally I have some Halloweenish decorating items on hand so I'd use them lol. Coffin tin (cake mix or brownie, or I suppose a mold for rice krispie treats), Halloween sprinkles, and cookie cutters. The next Friday the 13th I see is in October. You have a lot of time! :) Do you want a Halloween theme??

Recently I went out of my way to get the "American" (or so I thought) version of an Usborne book. Book Depository did not have this version. It's a compilation of books. One of the stories is called Llamas in Pyjamas or Llamas in Pajamas depending on which version you get. I ordered the one with the American spelling. I ended up ordering from a homeschool mom that had invited me to her Usborne party. I had not physically seen the book. When it arrived I came across something that threw me off. They used "row" to rhyme with "now." First of all, I thought "row" pronounced that way meant argument, but they were using it more like, "chaos" or "noise." I think of "row" pronounced that way as a British word, too. Next, this one stumped me. "Stoat." Is that a British term? Or is that just a word I'm not familiar with? It's describing an animal that either is or is like a weasel? Dh is not familiar with this word, either. I ordered the second book in the series from Book Depository without giving it too much thought and I have no idea what I'm going to come across. Oh well Lol.

Lol yes. Dh and I are actually really excited about the dishwasher and he said it may be possible to put the class on the credit card but we still don't know about him getting time off work so we'll see. I'm not holding my breath. They offer the courses different locations in the state throughout the year. I don't know too far in advance when we'll see another one in my area. I've been on a mailing list for several months and this is the closest location to me right now (class is in Sept. an hour away). He works at a school and doesn't want to take 3 days off in Sept. which is understandable and we don't really want to hire a sitter for three whole days. Plus, the college kids are in class so I don't even know who we would hire. The car seat tech is not a paid thing. I just really want to learn about it and get certified. A friend of mine is certified and we talk about car seats and she does free car seat checks periodically for the community. I don't live close to her, about an hour away. On the "find a tech" link there is no one in my area. I think it would be good if someone in this area was certified and when I offer advice to people they will take me more seriously if I'm certified. I don't try to shame people, but I would like to educate people. I have just seen many obvious no nos (like young children riding in the front seat). Most car seat techs I believe do the training because of a related job (ie. certain fire fighters). My friend and I are just really interested in it, but don't have related jobs. ---------------------------------------------- I don't know if anyone remembers dh had a horrible experience recently at a walmart with their auto dept. (I mentioned it somewhere on the boards). Well after he complained enough (mainly to tell them this should not happen to anyone else. He spent about 11 hours in WM that week between the initial work and follow up work that was the cause of someone not doing their job right) he asked what they were going to do about it and they said they are working to educate the staff and prevent this from happening again and will reimburse us half of our cost (we got 4 new tires). This is such a financial relief. If anyone is interested, there are a few of the "step into reading" books on sale on Amazon right now. Less than $2. Examples: https://www.amazon.com/Cooking-Cat-Hat-Step-Reading/dp/0375824944/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1502388111&sr=8-2&keywords=step+into+reading+step+1 https://www.amazon.com/Back-Dog-Gone-School-Step-Reading/dp/110193512X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1502388291&sr=1-1&keywords=step+into+reading+step+1+dog+gone+school

I was gifted some money. I had a few things I wanted to do with it, but I decided the most practical was to use toward a dishwasher. I was originally going to use some toward a car seat tech class, but dh isn't even positive he could take off work the three days of the class to watch the kids. So knowing that there was no guarantee I could enroll in the class it made sense to just place the dishwasher order. I am very excited about getting a dishwasher, though. It will be here later this month. Portable. If we move we can take it or sell it.

I don't know. It depends how often these topics actually come up in conversation I guess?? If I was friends with someone in real life and we didn't talk politics in person, I would probably just unfollow them online and see if that helped. Dh discovered our neighbors blocked him on FB. I was never friends with the husband. He did not block me. But I was friends with the wife and now she's missing and I cannot find her. So she either blocked me or deleted her FB account. Now we just feel weird. She did work for dh for a while, maybe she hated him as a boss? lol. But he brought over some homemade preserves with ds the other day and they were invited in and chatted with the husband and oldest child for a good bit. I think outright defriending people is awkward. When they notice it's like, "what did I do??"

I have seen two links for FREE ones. But I didn't know if I should sign up for them since I don't think I could keep them on my toddler and thus, we'd probably need to skip the viewing.

I have never asked but my skin can get really red and I hate that.

Good point! If ds went to brick & mortar school this year they would be doing a bug collection. Translation, I would be helping do a bug collection. Instead, we're signing him up for botany at the co-op which will entail him doing a leaf collection. Now I feel like I can mentally check off "did some collection for science" off a list lol. I'm thinking of buying the DK plant book to go along with that. Dh can probably be way more helpful in that stuff than me, too, so if we need to do any of the collecting at home he can probably be in charge of that or at least help us.

An AA can be for a trade program, but isn't always. I got an AA with an undeclared major. Just general studies type classes and some electives. Mainly in case something happened that interrupted my university plans and/or job hunting in which I wanted to say I had a degree. I went on to get a BA in Advertising with a minor in sociology. I personally feel like I have gaps in my education. There are so many people here very well read. I wouldn't say that about myself. I did take English and journalism classes and three semesters of creative writing (the CW for fun), but as far as knowing the classics, eh. There are many that were not required reading and so I just never bothered. I also feel incompetent and intimidated when it comes to research papers to an extent. I just want to write something, not have to double check an MLA handbook and fret about minor details. I still think it's stupid we add an apostrophe to say "As" for grades. It's not possessive. In the right context I think you would know it's not the word "as." Periodically dh says he just knows I'm going to go back to school for my Master's and I told him to knock it off. That is not on my wish list of things to do. I don't think it would really advance my career (if/when I return to work) and I would hate the writing component most likely. After graduating college I did enroll for an undergrad class twice. I took one and the other I had to drop after the first day of class because we found out we were moving. You don't get a full refund when you attend the first day. And we didn't do anything.

Dh has been making something the is a sauce for meat?? He's also eaten it on bread, but the main intent was used to cook with. I think it had figs, a little bit of strawberry and strawberry jello, and some lemon and cinnamon??

ugh that's awful!! I think the worst I've had is someone's beer in my can. The actual beer loose in the can, not just an empty container.

I never watched much of that show, but when I googled her I recognized her from the movie Just Friends and House Bunny.

Aw the Calvin and Hobbes idea would be cute. I have seen books/dolls sold by each other in Kohl's. I always thought it was cute (Curious George, Madeline and a couple others). My kids got CG last year. We have a million GC books. But I have never tried to make a stuffed animal. Does the sharpie bleed through badly? I have been scared to use that. But I guess you can put something behind it to not ruin the following page or tear it out.

I couldn't get into Parks and Rec, either. I watched him in Everwood back in the day. His character was unlikable at first and then became one of my favorites. Don't know too much about his personal life. Saw him in the Guardians of the Galaxy movies and the newer Jurassic Park.