Wow! This has some great stuff. And it works perfectly for us since we're starting our quarter of animal studies! Thanks!

My husband had bad asthma and used albuterol often. He didn't have the side effects (or was so used to them it was normal for him). My son had some breathing problems and was on a nebulizer. When we used albuterol he got really mean. He doesn't have the same problems with Xopanex - treats the respiratory distress but without the squirrelly behavior. I don't know if there are quick inhalers that would use Xopanex though, but it could be worth checking with your doctor about. Hope you feel better!

Welcome! You can homeschool your daughter and do it well. Trust yourself. I really have liked David Guterson's book Family Matters: Why Homeschooling Makes Sense as a motivator and a good way to help convince other people about ways homeschooling can work. He was a high school English teacher while he and his wife homeschooled their 3 sons. It addresses the socialization myth and may be helpful with your mother-in-law ;) I found it really easy to get overwhelmed with curriculum choices and homeschool approaches. The important thing to keep focused on is that you're making the right choices for your family. This board is a great resource with lots of people with loads of experience. Take the information and ideas that sound good, ignore what doesn't. Start slow - lots of reading and add in as the year progresses. You can also check programs in your area. Here we have homeschool classes at a few museums and at the zoo. That may be a way to meet local homeschoolers too. You're on the start of a great journey!

You can also get the Dell Logic Puzzles books. The one star puzzles are about the difficulty of A2 Mindbenders. I haven't checked other MindBender books, but once we finish up the one we have, I'll be moving to the Dell puzzle books.

No blasting here, just very grateful as a fellow driver on the road that you're making the change. Thank you!

First couple weeks are the worst. I also always hate it when I have to apologize to my son for my attitude. He does get a kick out of knowing that he's not the only one to be in a bad mood. Class was okay, but I'm behind already. Oh well. Now to eat dinner at 10:30 and get ready to teach my son at about 8 tomorrow! (Beats being up for the bus even earlier though!) Have a great day tomorrow!

:iagree: I was thinking of this as well. Could even do "homeschooling approaches". If you end up sharing sources, it could be helpful to someone else. Any homeschool topic you may be teaching in the next year would be useful as well.

:lol: I've had quite a few of those days! Thankfully today wasn't one with homeschool, but I'm off to teach my night class in an hour and I don't wanna!!!! I'm hanging on to the idea that we've got two half days for the rest of the week and one of those is a field trip! Hope tomorrow is better for you! (And that I make it through the night!)

Disclaimer: I teach part-time at a community college. Let your children handle the situation. If they feel the instructor is a bad fit, it may be possible to switch to a different section. If it's past the add/drop time they can talk with the department chair and explain the situation. That will generally stay private and they may be able to switch sections still. As far as slamming an instructor on evaluations, depending on how long the instructor has been teaching, the evaluations may not even be looked at. The suggestions about noting dates/times/specific incidents is good, but the evaluation really isn't the place to get anything changed. Keep the records (if not talking with department chair earlier) and then after grades are submitted, mail a letter to the department chair. If the semester was particularly egregious, you can also cc the division chair and/or dean. RateMyProfessor may be generally useful to get an idea about an instructor, but anyone can log in and rate any instructor anywhere, so you do get only really good or really poor reviews. Take anything with a shaker of salt.

You'll never see one for $30. In our neck of the woods the sales were this week. Generally the TI-84 on a good deal will run about $90. They're required at our cc. I had students tell me last semester that you can get great deals at the pawn shops. If they're around your area, it may be a good place to check out. You'll find user manuals online so there isn't the need for it. What you do need to be sure you have is the cables that'll let you download programs from the TI site or other sites - or from other calculators.

I used hotmail until the spam and ads got to be too much. I've been with gmail a couple of years now and am very pleased with it. Depending on what sites you visit and where you post your email, you will still get spam. Gmail's engine has done well with moving spam in a spam folder and letting through legitimate emails (even if it's from a person not on a safe list) through.

If you've got a 5-year-old, you're probably just getting started with more formal schooling. Our first year (last year - 1st grade) had an amazing number of tough days. I think I behaved badly quite a few times ("I'll send you to school!" may have even come out of my mouth once or twice). Hearing from many different sources that the first year is the toughest helped me often. My husband's perspectives on what our son is learning was also very useful. We're about 35 days into 2nd grade now and today was a GREAT day! Yesterday, not so much. I keep working to recognize what I'm doing that adds to stress. My son is an early riser (rotten kid) while I'm a night owl. I'm working to get up early and work with him while he's fresh. I try to keep the computer entirely off during school time because it's far too easy to do a quick email check and then surf for an hour. Deep breaths help :) I've also used Orlando Bloom's quote from the original Pirates of the Caribbean... when Kiera's character asks him how many times she has to ask him to call her by her first name, he says, "At least one time more." I've thought that many times as I've been ridiculously frustrated and wondering how many times I have to tell my son something and how many times I need to let this go. "At least one time more." (Well, it helps me! :tongue_smilie:) Good luck on the journey. It's worth it. It gets easier - over time. And you're not alone!! Sometimes try a hug and then start over. (We also did a lot of half days, although we're trying to stop having them as often now.)

I'll dissent :) I have left my son (age 5 at the time - and maybe once at age 4) in the car while I ran into the library and picked up books. I've left him at times of the year when heat isn't a danger and have left him on the phone with his father or grandparents. I've been in and out in under 5 minutes (yes, I time it). There is a danger with thinking you'll run a quick errand and getting delayed, but I also do think that depending on length of time (like gas station example above) and location, it may be fine. If you're concerned, keep a watch on the child and note the time. If the parent isn't back within 5 min (depending on weather and environment), then call the police or have an announcement made, but give a bit of time.

I have my son draw them freehand on the pages in the books. I've been finding the IP books (2A) have models already drawn for them to fill in the numbers. I found the iExcel books to be very helpful with learning the model method. iExcel 2 has models for all operations - first with numbers, then with word problems. It's been very useful for me.

I'll second the Tamora Pierce books, although I'd start with Alanna rather than the Protector of the Small series. Also, Anne McCaffrey would be good (start with Dragonsong/Dragonsinger/Dragondrums, then move on to Dragonflight etc... although there is some sex in Dragonflight etc - but the first 3 books (song/singer/drums) are young adult). Pratchett is definitely great. Maybe Mercedes Lackey (I'd start with her first books: Arrows of the Queen, Arrow's Flight, Arrow's Fall). Robin McKinley - especially Hero and Crown, Blue Sword, Beauty. (May want to preread her others, but these are fine.)

We've been using the body book recommended by Julie and it's great. I also picked up this body model with removable parts. It has a book that comes along with it. I think my favorite part about the model is the diaphragm. All the 2D models show it as a strip when its shape is closer to a dome.

I really liked Family Matters by David Guterson. At the time he wrote it, he was a school teacher who was homeschooling his 3 boys. It's good. Less about the how-to and more about the why. My husband was concerned about too much friction/stress with me homeschooling our son. Our first year went relatively well and we're in our second. This year he was fine with me ordering whatever I wanted for curriculum, "You're doing great work and you know what you need." :D

I got the WeDo kit for my son for this year (but he won't know it until about Thanksgiving, so I haven't tried out any of the activities). The kit itself is really pretty small. The software and activities look pretty good. It seems pretty organized from my cursory looks when it arrived. I don't think it'll last anywhere as long as the Mindstorm stuff, but we wanted to start small, see how things go, and then go with Mindstorm at about 4th grade instead of 2nd.

The clay used in the stoneware may contain small amounts of lead. Some clay glazes can also contain lead. After that thread, we got one of the home testing kits for lead and checked our Rival crockpot and our plates. Both were fine, so we're continuing to use them.

About 2 days here with prescription drops as well, but my son said the drops burned when we used them the first 3-4 times (2x day). We're now using earplugs and putting in alcohol/hydrogen peroxide drops when we get back from swimming.

This is only a single book, but I find it pretty good for the different sounds each letter makes: Merriam-Webster Alphabet Book. We have used it when looking for an individual letter or sound - so we use it just page by page rather than reading the whole book at one time.

My aunt taught high school. She did have the support of administration and made the rules clear at the start of school. She kept a pair of old (clean) overalls in her class (maybe a shirt too) and would have a student who was clearly inappropriately dressed (spelled out in advance) wear them during her class. I could see this being a bit trickier with a male teacher, but it could be a solution. It's definitely worth discussing with administration from the pov of not allowing a student to distract other students. Many schools have a dress code and policies for violations. (Enforcement may be trickier.)

My father has demonstrated using the Epi-pen in training and injected it through legal notebooks. If it'll go through the cardboard, I'd think it'd go through jeans. I'm curious because I've never heard that before. Anyone want to inject an orange through an old pair of denim to test it? :D

My son has had dairy allergies since he was 3 months old. His allergist prescribed the Epi. About a year ago, he was eating cashews and said he thought he was having an allergic reaction. We didn't see any of the signs we were used to from the dairy reaction and so gave Benadryl and Orapred and headed for the hospital just in case as he was saying his throat was scratchy. We still weren't sure he was actually having a reaction and didn't see any of the signs we were accustomed to which is why we didn't take an ambulance. I sat in the backseat with him while my husband drove. When our son threw up and was going hoarse, I gave him the Epi. We did get to the hospital (were admitted after the secondary reaction hit four hours later and the hives broke out). Next time, I'd give the Epi faster and call 911 for the ride to the ER. I learned: using the trainer is great, but practice on someone else. I had to jab him twice since the first time my angle and pressure was wrong for the injection. The Epi-pen does make a clear "click" sound when it auto-injects. Now if I leave my son with someone else, I have them practice on me with the trainer to get the angle and pressure correct with the jab. We'd practiced the list of allergy symptoms with our son and he knew what to tell us. We also knew what to watch for and when to give the Epi. That helped a lot. Get a twin-pack prescribed so you can have two Epi-pens and not just one. One was all we needed, but the Epi is only good for about 20 min. Sometimes one pen doesn't work, so that's another reason to carry two. ALWAYS carry the medication with your child. Don't think "it's just a short trip". We were certain our son wasn't allergic to nuts. I'm so grateful we had the Epi handy (always know exactly where it is) and that we listened to our son when he told us how he was feeling. It's good for me to hear that I shouldn't look at the needle :lol: I injected our son at night in the car and then put the pen back in its case and gave it to the doctor at the hospital - never saw the needle. I never practiced on an orange and the trainer did seem to be good enough for us when we needed it, but practice on someone else. (Sorry so long.)

I got the Miquon series this year and using some of its pages has really helped with place value and carrying/borrowing. Also base 10 blocks have helped. (And provided some motivation for doing the work by hand - for whatever reason my son hates using the base 10 blocks, so he really wants to get the problem correct the first time.)