If your two middle sons are mature and responsible, why not ask one of them to watch DD play in the backyard? You could even offer to pay them if they need the incentive.

I bought this program for DD13 and just started looking through it today. I was unsure whether to get Cover Story or the One Year Adventure Novel but finally decided that OYAN could wait a year or two. Now, having started looking through Cover Story, I think it may be too young for DD. The humor seems to be pitched to younger ages and the amount of worked asked of the student is light. There are 24 weeks of assignments. Our school year is 39 weeks long so it won't last us a full year as written. Each week, the student completes 3 lessons. One week's creative piece is 3 poems; later in the program, the student is given 3 weeks to write a short story. DD is already writing much more than this on her own so this will hardly challenge her. The journal is intended for daily writing (5 days a week). However, the student is only asked to write 5 sentences a day and are NOT provided with journal prompts. At least, I do not consider "write a paragraph of 5 sentences each day for 5 days" to be a prompt. Let me add here that I have browsed through the teacher guide, student book, and journal as well as watched the parent section of the video and the "how to use this program" video. I have NOT watched any of the lessons yet. Maybe the student is given more guidance on the journal writing during the lessons. I don't want to be all negative. A lot of thought and planning went into this program and it definitely attempts to be engaging. I think it would be great for younger middle school students or late elementary age as well as reluctant writers. The schedule is all planned out for the parent and the videos are very professionally done. We still plan to use the program as I have high hopes that DD will still learn a lot from the video lessons.

No, I wouldn't wake her. Sleeping is probably the best thing for her and I wouldn't want to disturb that. I don't usually treat to reduce fevers, I treat to make the patient comfortable.

Three math programs simultaneously? *gulp* :laugh: Nice schedule format! Thank you for sharing.

My absolute favorite is Norwegian formula hand cream (fragrance free) by Neutrogena. It moisturizes very well. I must admit that I put it on the back of my hands only because I can't stand for my palms to be greasy. I just rub the backs together to distribute it and get it to soak in. Don't get the similar looking foot cream or the package that says "creamy" or something on it. I have made both of those mistakes and the product is not the same at all. Edited to add: Ok, it doesn't say "creamy". ha! Checking for images online, I think the ones to avoid say things like "fast absorbing" or "light texture." My favorite is very thick, sort of like solid shortening, and not like typical lotion.

DH knitted one for himself when he was a teen. He still has it and now the DDs play with it. Good luck knitting your own!

I chose the same number of kids (2) and the same time (age 27 and 30). Fertility seems to end in my family by early to mid-thirties and I certainly wasn't ready for children before my late twenties. Before we had any children, I thought I wanted 5. I'm glad now to only have 2 with which to spend our time and finances.

Just a quick note that DD is loving the responses so far! I finally had to chase her up to bed. Keep them coming and I'll share them with her tomorrow. You are a creative group of individuals! Oh, and yes, she took flying for granted if you were a dragon.

:iagree: I used to much more of a stickler for proper usage. However, now I am more fascinated by how languages evolves. Like it or not, they evolve based on how language is used. Eventually, the new usage can become the standard usage. Isn't it just awesome that "awful" used to be deserving of awe? On the other hand, I have one DD that gets upset at how often "decimate" is used to mean "devastate."

I create a syllabus for each subject that covers the semester/year. Sometimes it simply suggests the pacing (e.g. one chapter per week) and sometimes it breaks it down in more detail. This way, my DDs know the total amount of material that is expected to be covered during that semester/year. I also provide a weekly schedule but this does not specify the assignments. It just indicates the frequency for each subject. So, if the syllabus indicates that 3 chapters of history should be read each week and the weekly schedule shows that history should be done 3 days a week, it shows my expectation that they should read 1 chapter of history each day that subject is assigned. However, they have the flexibility to read all 3 chapters on Monday and take the rest of the week "off" for history. I have one DD, especially, that likes to front load her week and coast by the end of the week. Similarly, if they work faster than the syllabus indicates and they finish the expected material early in the semester/year, they are done with that subject until the next semester/year. This provides incentive to work diligently and not slack off.

You can read; you can write; you have a desire to learn. The only other piece you need is access to information. Between the free public library and internet, you have more information than you could take in with a lifetime of study. Get to work! The key to social situations is to listen; people are invariably impressed with someone who really listens to them! Besides that, social situations rarely get beyond the weather and news unless you know someone well. Once someone knows you well, they will be much more forgiving of specific knowledge gaps.

So, DD13 needs some poll results for a question that she has created. I appreciate all the responses! If you choose, "other", please specify your chosen ability!

We've had a few incidences but not many. When we first started homeschooling, a co-worker of mine responded vehemently, "No, no, no! You are NOT homeschooling." and proceeded to try to talk me out of it. When it became clear that his opinion wasn't going to influence me, he let it go for several years. However, when my oldest DD started to approach high school age, he started a hard pitch for the public high school. He meant well and I never held it against him. DH, meanwhile, had a friend who was teaching in the public schools and strongly disagreed with our decision to homeschool. He felt that we needed to be IN the schools in order to try to make them better. A few years later, he had left the public schools and was apologizing to us over and over again, telling us that we were right to homeschool. He is now teaching the prison population and is so much happier.

You need to start by calling every credit card company. Ask to lower your interest rate. If you have typically paid on time and are late once, call and ask for the late fee to be forgiven. This won't continue to work but they are usually willing to forgive the first one. Same with the over the limit fee, etc. You have to ASK. Once you have done this, you really need to determine if you will be able to continue paying the current bills. . .and it would be best if you could pay more than the minimum on at least one of the bills. If this is not possible, you should look into a non-profit credit counseling agency. As long as you have income coming in, they should be able to help you make arrangements to pay off the bills over time.

Oh my! I am suddenly feeling a lot better about not being nice/more social with the neighbors.

Ha! It is good to hear that we are not the only ones to struggle with this. I found myself thinking that DD really needed some shelves on which to put all her supplies and projects (finished and in progress). Then I remembered that one whole wall in her bedroom is shelves. Yeah, they are full already so no help there. Thank you, everyone.

We finally got an Aldis where I live and DH and I have made several stops there. I'd enjoy hearing the impressions of other Aldis shoppers. Here is what I think so far: 1. Given the small footprint of the store, they give an unreasonably large percentage of space to junk food, frozen convenience foods, and non-food items. Why are they selling low-end yard tools and other similar sundries?!? 2. They do have some "wow" prices on items we want to buy, including eggs, which is why we've gone back several times. 3. Quality wise, we've found some items we like better than what we'd usually buy from another grocery store. However, we've also found probably a similar number of items that we've tried and won't get again. We are maybe averaging 50% satisfaction on the items we buy the first time. 4. Their stock is very unreliable. I understand that the brand name products they sometimes have are special buys. However, even their own products seem to be on and off. Each shopping trip is really just for browsing what they happen to have. 5. Organization of products is haphazard. For example, canned pineapple chunks will be on one aisle and canned pineapple slices will be two aisles over. While I appreciate the good prices on some items, I'm not overly impressed. We'll probably continue to stop there occasionally, when we are already planning to be in the area, but when I need to do serious grocery shopping, I'll head to a store where I know I'll find everything I need.

I am so not creative but want to support my younger DD's natural creative tendencies. She often has several different projects going on at the same time, from art projects, to story writing projects, to crafts. Between the supplies, the paper, and the partially-done projects, the clutter can get overwhelming. She'll jot sketches or ideas down on any little scrap of paper or napkin that she can find quickly so we also have these littering everywhere. I keep pushing small notebooks at her to at least record all of her ideas in one spot but that only works until the first time she can't immediately find the notebook and then she is back to using scraps of paper. I'll try to add a photo showing a sampling of her scraps that are immediately beside me as I type. Any tips for corralling the creative mess?

Wow, I'm a bit surprised by the answers that say 2 to 3 times a day. The dog really holds it for 12 hours at a time? We have about 5 scheduled outings for the dog on the leash (7 am, 11 am, 3 pm, 7 pm, 10 pm). Some of these are potty breaks in the yard, some short walks, and at least one longer walk per day. We usually let the dog decide how far he wants to go, unless we are in a hurry for some reason. We do not have a fenced yard and do not allow our dog to be loose so he is always on a leash while outside. We have "doggie bags" by the front door and always grab one or two when we go out with him. He will go stand by the front door if he needs to go out. . .if no one notices, he will start to pace between the door and a person until they clue in.

DD13 just started her 7th year of dance. She takes ballet, jazz, tap, and modern. The studio does offer pre-pro classes but DD is strictly recreational. She is happy taking the one ballet class each week and has no intention of ever doing pointe. Modern is her favorite but she really seems to enjoy taking a variety of styles. We are pretty happy with the studio so are not looking to change.

I believe that this value is misleading. It is the average student debt at graduation, generally primarily the direct student loans. It does NOT take into account additional PLUS loans that the parents have taken out, and many of those parents have expectations for the students to pay this balance off as well.

My DD is taking 2 dual enrollment courses this semester at a local community college. There is a state grant funded by our lottery that pays $300 per course (up to 2 courses) for dual enrollment. The CC then adds their own grant to bring the cost down to $49 total for both classes! So, I'd like to send a thank you note to let the CC know how much I appreciate the added grant and how helpful it is to open up the dual enrollment opportunity to many more families who wouldn't otherwise be able to afford it. Would that be weird?

We have more than we can eat before they go bad. Thanks!

Tennessee Green Chicken dressing (made from cornbread, never bread)

I think this happens more often than you would think. Not everyone is ready to go off to college right after high school. Plus, you never know what else might have been going on with the girl or her family: sudden money concerns, serious illness, anxiety or other mental issues, etc. Students are a mercurial lot. My first roommate left because she decided that it was not smart to be paying out-of-state tuition when she had fine schools back home. My second roommate (same school year) left because she decided that college wasn't for her and she just wanted to marry her long-time admirer and have babies. My third roommate (second year) moved out to live elsewhere. My fourth roommate (second year) managed to finish out the year with me.