I wipe them with a spong or dish cloth. My husband thinks you can just dump food in the dishwasher but I think that pretty gross especially in the summer. Super dirty stuff I leave in the bottom of the sink while I hand wash dishes that don’t go in the dishwasher. Then I put them in the dishwasher and they are basically rinsed/soaked.

One thing that I didn’t realize would be an issue when we moved to a low COL area was heating costs. If you move from a moderate climate to say upstate New York or any other place with bad winters you are going to be paying hundreds of dollars more to heat your house. We went from a $60 /month bill to hundreds of dollars a month and we had to keep our house at about 55 degrees because we couldn’t afford to heat it any hotter. So although our housing was a fraction of the cost we made up for paying for heat. Prices for heating can very too. For example electric versus gas versus oil, which would depend on the house or apartment and how it is heated.

I get the receipt, I don’t know if it is worth it but I write down something along these lines: bag -kids cloths $5, bag-shoes $ 10, misc kitchen $5. If it is some big thing that might be worth more than I would list that but mostly it’s just general. My understanding is that is enough.

So I don't know about rehab facilities, but if your mom has a fracture or fractures in her spine, she should get a referral to an interventional radiologist for Kyphoplasty / Veterbroplasty. It is a super simple procedure, don't have to spend the night or anything. It should help enormously with the pain usually immediately, and reduce the need for pain meds which may help with the cognitive issues. In any case, there is no reason for her to be in pain and only getting pain meds, her injury should be treated. Good luck!

Some babies and toddlers mouth everything. My baby always tried to put my Mil necklaces in his mouth. There is really no reason for cadmium or lead to be in any jewelry even if it is not meant for children. OP: Thanks for the warning. Anyone who has further interest in cadmium and lead in jewelry or other household objects should look up Tamara Rubin, lead safe mama. She tests various things for lead and cadmium and other heavy metals and blogs about it. She also has several lead poisoned children.

Oh thanks for the information!

I’m giving you a bump because I was looking at this last week and was interested in it too and the saw this post about it. Please post your experiences if you do decide to get it. Thanks!

This thread is a fun read. Although I was not homeschooled I used Saxon Algebra and calculus and I find it fascinating that so many remember hating Saxon. I thought it was fine and I used to to pass the credit by exam and so skip algebra in high school. I didn’t do a credit by exam for calculus but I felt the book helped understand calculus and do well when taking it later. I’m not sure what that says about my school’s math curriculum or about me. ?. In any case, I don’t use Saxon with my kids but I have thought about using the Saxon algebra book after Right Start G. We will see. There seem to be so many great options now though.

If I catch it early, lots of vit C and lots of water works for me.

Which side is the safe side? Thanks

Oh thanks! That was a very helpful review.

Can anyone give me their experience using this? I have a 1st and 3rd grader. It looks fairly straightforward but it was designed for a classroom. How effective did you find it. I did try searching here and could not find any threads on it. (There may be some, I just couldn’t find them). Thanks

Sorry about that, Fidelity Investments is what we use. We have a checking and savings account through them. Now that I am looking at their website it may not be what you are looking for We started using it because of a work retirement account through them and now we use it for our banking too Www.fidelity.com

We have had good service with Fidelity and we have used them long distance without issue.

When we lived around Philly I was shocked by it too. They don’t stop for children trying to cross the street (with a walk signal), they don’t stop for anything. I have never seen anything like it in other places I have lived including the NE and West.

I know this is individual but would this be fairly independent for the average student? Thanks!

But the only children with a right to a Free Appropriate Public Education are children with disabilities in need of special education services. Even with these children, accessing a FAPE is a challenge and often requires a lawsuit. I’m not convinced giving that right to every child would actually change things for the better for children. I just know that it would be expensive and lawyers would take home most of the money. Not that I agree with the judge ... I’m just not sure what the answer is.

I would do FLL orally and then do WWE 1. That’s what we did anyway. It seems to work well to do FFL2 and WWE 1 at the same time. Unless writing comes easily for your child.

Oh this is great. My girl wants a hula hoop too!

Obviously it really depends. We have a small garden but with some trial and error we save quite a lot of money. And we wouldn't be eating nearly as many blueberries, strawberries and raspberries if we didn't grow them. The strawberries are basically ground cover in our front around a couple of small trees. It is probably two 5'x5' plots. And I get enough strawberries to freeze and make 20-30 half-pint jars of jam and share with neighbors and friends. I have blueberries plants in pots as well as on the ground and they are very productive as well. I don't do hardly anything to the berries, just trim the raspberries and strawberries back. I also plant cucumbers, winter squash and tomatoes but those need to be replanted every year. I would say plant things you like and are expensive to get at the store and keep experimenting if you like doing it.

My kids have to take a standardized test per state law. I just want to give them a sample or something so they have some idea of what to expect. Does anyone have ideas about resources. They are taking the Terra Nova. When looking online I saw some really old stuff, 15 years old, but nothing recent. Any ideas? Thanks! Kids are K and 3rd

Is there someone besides you that can go in at night? That was the only way I could get my daughter to sleep through the night and wean at night. It was pretty brutal for two weeks but then she started sleeping through the night and it wasn’t like she was alone screaming. Good luck.

We have done RS B-E. We are starting F soon but taking a little break and doing some Beast before really getting into it. Before starting RS B, we tried Singapore and math mammoth and MEP. The geometric drawing is a challenge for my kid but we have worked around or skipped a bit when it got to be too much. We do Beast a year behind as a fun supplement and review and a chance to practice doing some independent work.

There is a book called Superflex takes on Braineater and the team of unthinkables that we have used. It is from It includes worksheets, where you can break a chores down into steps and then say how long each step should take. If you think the book is to corny for her, you might use it as a guide to create with her a chore list that breaks the things down and give a time estimate. We have found it really helpful for my 9 yo. We got the book at the library. After we figured out how long each activity should take we then set a time for each chore and “beat the clock”.

This is good to hear. Thank you for the responses. Maybe I will give us another month break, to do some review, solidify some concepts and and then start anew.