I have one DD who reacts badly if she goes too long without food. I've tried to help her recognize her symptoms early and to get a small snack and drink before it gets bad. She's 15 now and manages pretty well. For a younger child, I would just try to schedule regular mealtimes and snacks. I feel for you. Maybe give him a small amount of juice so that the sugar hits his system fast and he can calm down enough to eat properly.

Yeah, it just sounds like his usual routine was disturbed and it will take him a few nights to settle back down. We've always crated our dogs at night but have done a few different things over time. When one dog died, we had to move the second dog's crate to our bedroom because he didn't want to be downstairs alone. Once we got another dog, he happily returned to sleeping downstairs. So. . .maybe you need a second dog. :tongue_smilie:

Wow. Yes, you are done. :001_smile:

Just to clarify, the quadratic formula is taught in MUS Algebra II. I didn't want future readers to think that MUS just leaves it out completely.

I'd be interested in hearing about things that you have done recently, for the first time. For me, that would include: 1. Eating an avocado, and realized how good they are! 2. Getting a professional massage. A couple's massage was DH's idea as a way to celebrate our anniversary. It was great too! It's nice to know that there are still so many new experiences waiting for me.

Take a look at Frode Jensen's Format Writing. It is about $20 new but you should be able to find it used. It starts with paragraphs, goes through many different types of essays, covers business writing, and details research papers. It can easily be stretched over a few years of high school by simply requiring a higher number of each type of essay/assignment. Good luck in finding the right resource!

Yes, we had some major work done last year and spent as much time away as was possible. It was loud and dusty and blocked off a large section of our living space. I don't share the concern of the others, especially if you just need to be away for an hour or so for an appointment. Pegasus

If you are staying at one of the All Star resorts (I wasn't sure if ASM meant All Star Music or All Star Movies), you can use the pools at the sister resorts (Movies, Music, Sports). You are NOT allowed to pool hop to WDW resorts other than that. Otherwise, the nicest pools would be overwhelmed with folks staying at other resorts. They DO check and it wouldn't be worth the embarassment of being caught and asked to leave. You CAN take any and all Disney transportation. You are welcome to visit and walk around any and all of the resorts, eat in their restaurants, food courts, shop in their stores, etc. It is a nice way to spend some time. That said, there are no buses that go directly from one resort to another. You would have to take one bus from your resort to a park or Downtown Disney and then transfer to a bus that is going to your destination resort. This can eat up serious time. However, if you take a bus to the Magic Kingdom, you can then use the resort monorail to go and visit each of the monorail resorts. We've stayed at the All Star resorts several times. The buses run pretty frequently but you can wait up to 20 minutes for a bus to show up. The longest trip is to the Magic Kingdom and that takes about 20 minutes. So, go to the bus stop about 40 minutes before you want to get to the park and you should be in pretty good shape. Animal Kingdom is the closest with Epcot and Studios being a midling distance. You will see plenty of adults without kids visiting the parks. Have a great time! Edited to add that the All Star resorts are side by side so you can easily walk from one to another. It is neat to just walk around and see the different theming.

He will be fine. I shared a bedroom with at least one sibling until I left for college. . .and then I had a roommate there too. I don't see a real need for each child to have a private room for sleeping. However, some peace and quiet alone each day IS helpful as kids enter their pre-teen and teen years. How about reserving the room for him alone for an hour or so each day? He could read, listen to music, whatever he wanted to do without younger siblings interupting. As he gets just a little older and you are comfortable leaving him home alone for short periods of time, let him stay home while you take everyone else to run errands and do the shopping. You are doing the right thing, minimizing living costs and paying down debt. Keep your eye on the prize. :grouphug:

I think you are fine so far but why not boil it and then make something with the boiled chicken and broth (chicken & dumplings, chicken chili, chicken stew, etc.) Putting a partially boiled chicken back in the oven doesn't sound appealing at all.

My favorite state park has walking trails to interesting sites (look out over a valley, waterfall, etc.). My DC, who would whine about being made to march around our boring neighborhood, will happily hike through the woods and up the mountains to reach these locations. The "treat" is built in with a beautiful view or a pool at the bottom of a waterfall to wade in.

Another southern gal here wondering why the poll didn't include fried egg and mayo sandwiches, a true classic.

I recommend declaring a major - whatever is closest to his intended area of study. Two reasons not already mentioned include the possibility of departmental scholarships that wouldn't be offered if "undeclared." Also, the assignment of advisors is often by area of study. You want your son advised by someone who is at least familiar with the area of study he is heading toward and not just a general advisor they use for undecided students. Finally, you should realize that most merit scholarships target freshmen and much fewer scholarships are available to transfer students. That may or may not affect your decision making. P.

:iagree: This is very good but try using corn meal instead of the flour.

We still haven't yet and my DDs are 12 and 15. We also don't believe a cell phone is a safety device.

:iagree: A regular firm pillow worked for me. I definitely didn't need any more "baby clutter" sitting around.

Have you looked at Write Guide? I wrote a review of it here: http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=377223&highlight=write+guide

Sorry for the delay in responding. I don't have as much time on here as I would like. :001_smile: To answer your question, I will include a portion of the syllabus I gave my DD for this course. Completion of this course will satisfy 1 credit of high school fine arts/performing arts. The program is titled “Discovering Music: 300 Years of Interaction in Western Music, Arts, History, and Culture†and consists of 17 units. The first unit is set up slightly differently as an introduction to listening to music. However, most of the other units have the following components: • List of figures, places, vocabulary, and dates relevant to that unit • Lecture from the program DVDs with viewing guide (lecture notes) • Listening assignments from the program CDs • Online resources • Putting it All Together: Questions and Projects • Unit quiz We will spend 8 school days on each unit. The schedule for each unit follows: • 2 days reviewing the figures, places, vocabulary, and dates in the textbook, listening to the unit lecture, and filling out the viewing guide. Be sure to review the textbook information and read over the viewing guide notes before viewing the videos. The videos vary in length from 25 minutes to an hour. • 2 days listening to the selections on the CD. Each selection should be listened to more than once and multiple times is best. The selections in bold are on the listening CDs. This should be an isolated activity so that you can focus on the music – no multi-tasking. • 1 day reviewing the online resources of interest. • 2 days on the questions and projects. Read through all of the choices and choose 2 to complete. • Take the unit quiz. Be sure to know the vocabulary words and definitions before attempting the quiz.

They probably won't want to start slapping the braces on at the July 13th appointment. If they evaluate her and decide she is ready, they may start by taking pictures and molds of her teeth, etc. You usually have to make another appointment to come back to start placing the braces. It would be no big deal at all to postpone that appointment until after her singing event. It takes a while to get used to braces and I could easily see it affecting her singing at first. So, yes, I'd have them put on AFTER the singing event. I completely lost my ability to whistle while my braces were on a couple years ago. I'm only just now starting to whistle again.

Oh my! This book was included in my high school DD's Lightning Literature course and I felt so bad for her that I let her SKIP reading it and had her read one of those online summaries instead. What are you normally making those poor DC read if they find Moby Dick so good?!? :confused::lol::lol::lol: As far as what is in Moby Dick: detailed descriptions of whaling and butchering, obsession/insanity, and death. So, good stuff! :D

We used it for a fine arts credit in 9th. DD didn't claim to love it but she is still sharing things with me that she learned from it. I consider it a booming success.

We are using Rosetta Stone but I am giving my students zero credit for it. I've tried to work supplementary materials into their study but those seem to flounder and fall away. So, we are using RS for exposure to the language, not for credit. We plan to sign them up at the CC for dual enrollment to get the credits they need.

Have you considered Ellen McHenry’s two middle school level chemistry books? That would be right at the level of your 5th and 7th graders and only a bit light for your 9th grader. She might appreciate something a bit easier for science for a little while, at least. Some of Ellen's activities require multiple students, which we just had to skip, but may be fun for your group. Anyway, Ellen's "The Elements" and "Carbon Chemistry" would be a great introduction to chemistry. Your high schooler could then follow them up with something like Suchoski's Conceptual Chemistry, which is very light on math, along with a Thames and Kosmos chemistry kit for experiements, to finish off a high school credit of chemistry with lab. This would probably take into her 10th grade year to finish but since you already have a high school credit of biology, that should be fine.

Is this the 7-year-old in your signature block? Honestly, I would accept your ped's comment and not worry. My eldest DD was under 5% on the weight curve, picky eater, the whole bit. As long as they are growing well and you aren't making eating a battle, all is good. Some kids will just stay thinner than average. My DD started putting on a little more weight as she developed curves.

We incorporated the following into DD's 0.5 credit economics course: 1. Ten publications related to economics offered free from the Federal Reserve Bank - these are comic book style and serve as a gentle introduction into a topic many people find dry and boring. 2. Economics for Dummies by Sean Masaki Flynn - This is a solid book on economics but written in a style that isn't arduous to read. DD actually liked it pretty well. 3. Series of lectures on microeconomics from Khan Academy - they also have some on macroeconomics but we didn't include those. 4. Freakonomics by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner - the subtitle is A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything and it is a very interesting and sometimes humorous read We finished it off with a comprehensive final that I found online from a college level economics course. Hope that helps!