I bought mine used but I've had no cause to want to return/resell it or whatever. My daughter is loving TT5 and I'm very happy with it, too. I'll be buying TT6 to use next year. I have a review of it up on my blog if you want to take a peek: http://nancextoo.livejournal.com/124221.html

Alexa (age 10) and I have now finished the following books together so far this year: 1. The Phantom Tollbooth 2. Skellig 3. Ida B and Her Plans to Maximize Fun, Avoid Disaster and (Possibly) Save the World 4. The Gawgon and The Boy 5. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets 6. The Girl With the Silver Eyes (We also read "Ben and Me" for school reading). We are currently reading: Tuck Everlasting On my own so far this year, I have read: 1. Rose, by Martin Cruz Smith (although I was halfway through it already at the start of the year so it doesn't really count, probably) 2. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes 3. The Virgin's Lover by Philippa Gregory 4. The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood 5. Mary, Bloody Mary by Carolyn Meyer (Young Royals series, YA) 6. Beware, Princess Elizabeth by Carolyn Meyer (Young Royals series, YA) 7. Doomed Queen Anne by Carolyn Meyer (Young Royals series, YA) and I'm currently reading: Patience, Princess Catherine by Carolyn Meyer (Young Royals series, YA) and Deconstructing Penguins: Parents, Kids and the Bond of Reading by Lawrence and Nancy Goldstone. On her own, Alexa, age 10, has read: Five or six different Nancy Drew Files books All three books in the "Wright On Time" series Streams to the River, River to the Sea, A Novel of Sacagawea Thunder Rolling In The Mountains ...I am SO pleased with how much reading we've BOTH been doing, and really enjoying doing this challenge WITH her. :)

first.. I'm sorry. :grouphug: Second.. you're the mom, he's the kid. There is no "he won't let me." For his safety I still think you ought to talk to the guidance counselor yourself and just explain to him that you have to, it is your responsibility as a parent to do whatever you can to ensure his safety there.

This. But I don't mind so much. If he's willing to pitch in when asked, I'm not going to hold a grudge over whether he takes it upon himself to clean things on his own the rest of the time. He's great in other ways. He's the one who earns money (and lets me spend whatever I want on school stuff, which I get to decide upon), he's the one who mows the lawn in the summer, he's the one out there shoveling snow in the winter, he is a great cook and makes us breakfast almost every morning and dinner on every one of his nights off, he's very affectionate and is always complimenting me (even when I look/feel like crap) and saying "I love you" all the time and so on and so forth. None of us are perfect, right? :)

Never. Ignoring, redirecting, patient explanation, brief timeouts, understanding of normal developmental behaviors as toddlers explore their independent nature and so on are all appropriate responses to something like this with a toddler/young child. But spraying something foul, bitter, or "hot," or whatever in their mouth? That's on the abusive side to me.

Funny name! We've only used the "unscented" lotions, are the scented ones supposed to be just as "safe" to use on eczema? I've been afraid to go near anything scented! Anyway, I know I already gave the link above but in case someone doesn't want to bother clicking a link, the main things that are working for us right now are: Using a humidifier every night (this is HUGE, I see a noticeable difference the morning after if my daughter forgets to turn the humidifier on, which has happened like three times) Using the unscented CJ's BUTTer lotion several times a day Using a soap free cleanser and then using the steroid cream only as needed if she gets a small patch, just to get it right back under control quickly before it gets bad. This isn't needed very often at all.

Good ideas! I'd also add: preschools- they might allow a "story hour" for little kids Meals on Wheels assuming you drive of course Doing some sort of clean up- either at a park/playground, a nearby stream/river, alongside a road, etc. The local Salvation Army A homeless shelter A Ronald McDonald House if there's one near you Contact your state parks and see if they need help with anything Political Campaigns Some sort of teen mentor/helper 800 phone number type thing or some other sort of peer counseling situation Fundraising for a charity of your choice (either trying to raise money, cans of food, clothing, etc) Join walks/runs for charity Start corresponding with a soldier, senior citizen, etc who could use a "friend" Tutor younger students

We're going to use Meet The Masters next year for 6th grade. It is PARTLY appreciation/history but it IS also actually creating different styles of art, it's like a multi-media presentation thing and it looks great. It was also recently available for half price at homeschoolbuyersco-op.org and might still be, I think I paid $44 or so instead of $90 (and I'm pretty sure I'll be able to stretch it out into a two year curriculum).

Well, when we studied PA history we: Read books about PA and its history Went on field trips to places of historical interest (including our local Historical Society) Made a landscape model of a particular area near our house and then gradually added to it- we read about which Indians were in our area and which animals were native to our area back then, and formed Indian lodgings and those animals out of clay which my daughter painted and added to the model. Then we read about which settlers came after the Indians. We live in PA so we also tried PA Dutch recipes and crafts and so on. Have fun with it, there are a lot of different directions you can go in :)

We're kind of back and forth with it. We did like the first 7 or 8 lessons and decided to stop because he was just too wiggly and would lose interest or get silly and I'd get annoyed and I didn't want it to turn into any sort of negative situation or pressure that would make either of us unhappy. We stopped for quite a few weeks, then very recently he said he wanted to do it again and that I didn't let him lol. So we started again, did a few lessons (went mostly well but still a bit wiggly at times), but now we're just so busy trying to get ready for vacation that we haven't done one in a few days, and it will probably wait til we get back from vacation (more than three weeks from now) before we pick it up again. Anyway, we've only done like 10 lessons so far I think. The last one we did was the one where it actually had him read a word ("Me") and he was kind of excited about that.

9 more days... lol. I'll take any good vibes any of you want to send my way :D

My daughter had HORRIBLE eczema that would come every winter, and which was getting worse and worse each year. Last year it was SO bad, and when it started early this year, and I didn't feel like the doctor or the dermatologist had helped much, I did some more research on my own and put together a routine... ...WHICH HAS WORKED! My daughter has had NO BAD FLAREUPS for almost three months now, and you have no idea how HUGE that is for us! Please see my blog here for how I did it, before and "after" pics and so on: http://nancextoo.livejournal.com/160161.html

Thinking of you and hoping you get good news after your surgery! :grouphug:

Alexa (age 10) and I have now finished the following books together so far this year: 1. The Phantom Tollbooth 2. Skellig 3. Ida B and Her Plans to Maximize Fun, Avoid Disaster and (Possibly) Save the World 4. The Gawgon and The Boy 5. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets 6. The Girl With the Silver Eyes (We also read "Ben and Me" for school reading). Today we will start: Tuck Everlasting On my own so far this year, I have read: 1. Rose, by Martin Cruz Smith (although I was halfway through it already at the start of the year so it doesn't really count, probably) 2. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes 3. The Virgin's Lover by Philippa Gregory 4. The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood 5. Mary Bloody Mary by Carolyn Meyer (Young Royals series) 6. Beware, Princess Elizabeth by Carolyn Meyer (Young Royals series) 7. Doomed Queen Anne by Carolyn Meyer (Young Royals series) and I'm currently reading: Patience, Princess Catherine by Carolyn Meyer (Young Royals series) and Deconstructing Penguins: Parents, Kids and the Bond of Reading by Lawrence and Nancy Goldstone. On her own, Alexa, age 10, has read: Five or six different Nancy Drew Files books All three books in the "Wright On Time" series Streams to the River, River to the Sea, A Novel of Sacagawea Thunder Rolling In The Mountains ...I am SO pleased with how much reading we've BOTH been doing, and really enjoying doing this challenge WITH her. :)

I let it go. By the way, here's a picture of my daughter, age 10, wearing an outfit she just HAD to wear to Girl Scouts one fall night. It involved: A pair of jean capris winter snow boots a Hannah Montana teeshirt her Girl Scouts vest a fancy little beaded purse and a pair of sunglasses (mind you, Girl Scouts is at night).

So you made an agreement that he could go if he wanted to but then he had to stick it out no matter what... but I'm guessing "no matter what" was MEANT to be: "you don't like your teachers. The work is boring. You have too much homework." That kind of thing. I'm assuming you didn't count on the fact that people would be laying their hands physically on your son, spitting at him, calling him names, causing him to be afraid to so much as talk to a guidance counselor or he might get "beat up," spending his time thinking about how he can learn to defend himself... That poor kid. This is NOT a safe or healthy environment. I would ask him, "Do you want to come home now? If you want to, you can. I don't care what we agreed on, I don't think either of us anticipated that things would be this bad." If he wants to come home, I would absolutely let the kid come home! If he wants to stay, I would do everything I could to make things better for him for the duration of his stay there. That would probably mean going and talking to the guidance counselor and principal whether he wanted me to or not and demanding that they put a stop to this, signing him up for those boxing lessons if that made him feel more empowered, letting him know he has the option to change his mind whenever he wants to, asking him if there was anything else I could do, and so on and so forth. ETA: And if your husband says something along the lines of him needing to learn to deal with bullies in the future, you now have some responses from this thread to fall back on. :D

I said desktop- but then again, that's all I've ever known. I've never had a laptop. And I'm resistant to change. lol. I like having my large PC monitor and my full sized keyboard and my wireless mouse and my desk to spread papers out on and put a cup of coffee on and so on and so forth. I guess a laptop could be convenient at times though!

No offense but I find attitudes like these dangerous. We do not need to allow our children (and this boy IS still a child) to be bullied because hey, they need to learn how to deal with bullies, and hey, they need to learn how to take care of themselves, and hey, what are they going to do when they're grown up... ...he's not grown up. He's, what, 14? He's still a minor, he's still a kid, and he still needs and deserves his parents' protection when necessary. What he needs to "learn" is that he has that. Adults have more maturity, more logic skills, more choices, more of everything that is necessary to "defend" themselves if they run into bullying types then. He'll be able to choose whether to ignore an office bully, whether to go to human resources about it, whether to put his foot down, whether to call the police if someone shoves him, or, yes, whether it's bad enough to switch jobs. This boy wanted to try public school, and he did. He's being emotionally abused, harassed, physically assaulted and he's not happy. If he's not happy at school, and he WANTS to come back home to homeschool, and his mother WANTS to homeschool him, then it's foolish to let anything stand in the way of that. Be it a verbal agreement mother and son made, or some misguided attitude about "Well, he has to learn to deal with bullies someday!" Just my two cents.

I don't personally equate what a soda can looks like to body image. I do, however, associate diet soda in general with body image, which is a shame, because diet soda truly is bad for you. People ought to just drink water instead :P

:iagree:

Well, if your daughter is old enough to get her period, she's old enough to say to her: "So, Grandma was asking about this. I told her it was personal but she insisted she wanted to talk to you about it herself, she thinks I won't give you all the information you need- ha ha. Do you feel comfortable with letting her talk to you about it, or do you want me to tell her you'd rather not?" I mean, I'd have no problem saying something like that to my 10 y/o dd. If your daughter is fine with it go ahead and put her on the phone. If she's not, you politely but firmly tell MIL, "I'm sorry, but I asked dd if she is comfortable with speaking to you about this, and she is not. You're just going to have to leave this between mother and daughter and let it go."

Oh, wow. Well, I guess I'll see what happens since I already have them! I've heard several people say they worked just as well as name brand and even registered a positive sooner. I guess you never know! I'll see how it goes!

Thanks for those links! I checked out the MyMonthlyCycles one. It says my cycle is an average of 32 days and that I am most fertile yesterday and today and still somewhat tomorrow (it shows ovulation as being today, but who knows). Hopefully I will get good news in 10 more days. <Impatiently watches the clock. I mean, the calendar.> haha.

I am in current possession of two cheap dollar store tests... so I can try twice. Of course, I could always buy a couple more lol. But the first negative might be a little disappointing so I don't want to jump the gun too much. I don't want to wait longer than I have to either. I wish I could just know already haha. I will have to do some reading up about charting to figure out when I ovulate, so I can try it next month if it doesn't happen this month. I've never even thought about it before now since my daughter (age 19) was unplanned, and my daughter (age 10) was conceived very quickly when I started trying for her, and my son (age 5) was unplanned, and the end of last month was the first time my husband would agree to trying for one more. If you would have asked me a month ago I'd have sworn he'd NEVER say yes to another! :) Maybe I'll try on the 22nd. That's just ten days. I can wait ten days, right? (Especially since I leave in three for vacation and will be very busy until then with laundry and packing and getting ready and so on, and then two days will probably be spent driving- from PA to FL with kids, wish us luck haha- and then we'll be catching up with family and everything- ten days should go fast, right? Blah, I hate waiting for anything. I am ALL about instant gratification!!!) :lol: If I get a negative on the 22nd I'll try again on the 25th, I guess!

Hm. Spent one day doing a lot of reading of various books and very little of anything else. Probably because I was stuck in bed with a heating pad not wanting to move thanks to sciatica and I really couldn't care less if, say, math got done. Went to the bowling alley two different days this week (once for homeschool bowling league, the other to make up games for the same league since we will miss a few weeks by going on vacation). Went to see a guide dog presentation by a blind gentleman and his dog. Need to do a short book report and a simple science experiment this weekend because we fell a bit behind (but we leave for vacation Tuesday morning and I have a million other things to do, so we'll see how it goes.) :P