Yep, I have days like that! I agree that you should have more protein in the morning. Then add more fruit and veggies to your lunch and breakfast. Drink extra water. If you feel it's not true hunger and you want to curb it, try chewing some gum in between.

I'm sorry. I know how hard it is. My 18 y/o is in a special needs school and it is SO very rare that she EVER has anyone to be friends with or interact with outside of school. I would: 1) Search Meetup.com and see if there is any sort of aspie support group...I'd also ask your pediatrician and/or local hospital if they know of any such thing... or start one yourself! And see if you can connect with other moms and kids who might be in the same boat. It doesn't matter if they don't homeschool, too. 2) If you belong to any homeschool groups or homeschool programs, reach out to some of the other moms. Talk to one at that enrichment class. Email one. See if you can arrange a playdate of some sort for her. (btw my 10 y/o does have friends but she still gets giddy with excitement when she gets a pen pal letter, too)!

To me, this DOES sound like a lot of chores for kids of that age. The caller on that show, based on what was posted here, does NOT sound like a lot of chores for a kid of that age. My daughter is 10 and she doesn't have a 'chore list' per se, here it works more like "if I need your help with something and ask you to come help, you come help." The things she helps with on a regular basis include: Helping to set/clear the dinner table Helping to unload the dishwasher (silverware usually) Taking out the kitchen trash when it gets full Picking up toys in the main living areas Putting away her own laundry (after I wash, dry and fold it) and sometimes her younger brother's laundry. These things are usually at least a few times a week. The things she helps with on an occasional basis include: Vacuuming the living room Sweeping the kitchen floor Wiping the kitchen table and chairs Cleaning her room. These things are maybe 2-3 times a month.

LOL I'm glad I inspired you. I'll tell you, I was kicking myself in the butt for not having printed mine, especially since we'd already filled up the whole first page of lessons and had moved on to the second section. My daughter was proud of those grades (mostly 100's with a few 95's) and was a bit disappointed that we lost ours, but there was nothing I could do about it. Yes, print your gradebook! :)

I got a variety of tips from you guys and online as to how to help my daughter with her eczema, which gets so bad in the winter, and I compiled a list of which things I wanted to try first (there were so many suggestions and I thank you guys for them!) and I put together a little routine that we've been sticking to for the past 2 1/2 weeks or so, and she has had NO BAD FLARE UPS! NO MISERY! NO DISCOMFORT, NO COMPLAINING, NO HUGE RED PATCHES, NO ITCHINESS, ETC!! I know it hasn't even been three weeks yet but this is HUGE for us because this is normally a daily battle once it starts, and now it seems to be all under control!! I am SO HAPPY! Here's what we are doing and a couple of before and after type pics if you feel like taking a quick peek: http://nancextoo.livejournal.com/160161.html :)

Well, all Teaching Textbooks could tell us was to try installing it on a different computer. So my husband went back to trying to research and find out how to fix whatever issue was making that particular file or whatever be missing. After a lot of time and reading and trying different things he found a place where he could download the dll file and the steps to replace it on the computer... ...and it worked! I was able to reinstall Teaching Textbooks! Yay! The only bad part was that our "gradebook" is now empty. 36 lessons and 5 quiz scores/results all gone. Which is kind of a shame, as it was nice to have, but not a HUGE deal as I didn't really NEED the gradebook feature or anything. At least we have the ability to continue our math lessons!

To do the multi-quote, I hit the multi-quote button for each post I want to quote- and nothing will happen at first- and when I get to the LAST post I want to quote, I hit the regular "quote" button (instead of the "multi-quote" button) and then a window pops open with all of the quotes therein. :) And it took me a long time to figure that out lol.

Welcome. :)

A different kind of update: I know a few people on this board have been asking about the 'new' Weight Watchers plan recently. I just want to say, I started that new plan recently. I started it on Tuesday, 11/30 when I went to the Weight Watchers center to rejoin just to get the new materials and plan details. I followed it that Tuesday (plus walked on the treadmill for a half hour) and that Wednesday (walked on treadmill for one hour) to a T and ended up having a 2 3/4 lb loss at TOPS* that week (Thursday 12/2) after following the new plan for only 2 days. That was very good because prior to that I'd actually been UP a bit on my home scale from Thanksgiving. So this new plan helped me get rid of that unofficial gain and still have a decent loss! (*I go to TOPS for my support/accountability/weigh ins because it's MUCH cheaper than going to Weight Watchers meetings. But Weight Watchers is the plan I follow, previously using the materials that I owned from when I was a WW member in the past, and now using the new materials I own after rejoining WW for just one meeting to get the info). On Thursday, 12/2 I had my official weigh in and weighed in at 213 lbs (that was that 2 3/4 lb loss). I then proceeded to be totally off plan all day because it was Hanukkah and we were having our big celebration (latkes cooked in oil and served with applesauce and sour cream, enough said, right? lol). So on Friday, 12/3 I took a sneak at my home scale and it said 214.6. OK I wasn't surprised I was up some after Hanukkah. I followed the new WW plan all day Friday but when I went to make dinner, the meat smelled "off" to me and I ended up throwing up my hands and ordering Chinese food instead of figuring out something else to cook. I did NOT eat more points than I otherwise would have, so in that regard, I was 'on plan' but the sodium in Chinese food definitely tends to affect my weigh ins for a day or two, so I sure wouldn't eat it right before an OFFICIAL weigh in! Anyway, Saturday morning, 12/4, I took a sneak peek at my home scale and it said 215.0. Yuck! But I followed the plan all day Saturday, eating all my new daily points, no outside food, watched the sodium, walked on the treadmill for about 40 minutes Saturday, and to my amazement, on Sunday morning, 12/5, I took a sneak peek at my home scale and it said 212.4!!! !!! I followed the plan all day Sunday (and did the Biggest Loser Challenge Wii game for my exercise, for probably about 45 minutes), and Monday morning, 12/6, I took a sneak peek at my home scale, and it said 212.2. I followed the plan all day Monday and walked on the treadmill for one hour Monday morning, and this morning, Tuesday, 12/7, I took a sneak peek at my home scale, and it said 211.0! ETA: Wednesday, 12/8 it was up a tad...said 211.4...but I did have a decent amount of sodium yesterday (ate one of those "Smart Ones" meals for lunch for example). I did not end up exercising at all on Tuesday. Today (Wednesday) I will watch my sodium, follow the plan, and exercise, and hopefully tomorrow the scale will be down some more for my "official" weigh in at TOPS. It'd be great to be out of the 210's! After being at this for nearly 15 weeks, and starting at 237 1/2 lbs, I can't WAIT to be out of the 200's entirely, but for now, each time I go down a 'decade' in numbers (out of the 230's, out of the 220's, and now soon to be out of the 210's), it feels pretty satisfying! So I want to say that so far although I haven't followed the new WW plan for a whole week straight yet, it seems to be working great! I feel pretty satisfied throughout the day, I'm not starving all day, and I think knowing that fruit is free has me making better choices and eating more protein and stuff at my main meals (rather than skimping on proteins at lunches and dinners so I can stockpile points for snacks, and then said snacks might end up being a 100 cal pack or some such- now I'm eating more protein and feeling relaxed about it because I know I can grab fruit whenever I want and that I'm not going to starve to death by bedtime. And I find myself reaching for fruit for my snacks, which I really only end up doing maybe 1-2 times per day -I'm not like stuffing myself on fruit or anything- and it seems to be working)! Yes they raised the points that you get- but they also raised the points for some of the foods (mainly stuff with a lot of carbs) and I like that now they are not just taking fat, fiber and calories into account but instead are taking fat, fiber, protein and carbs into account and how your body processes different things in different ways... Whatever the science behind it, I'm trusting it, as I've always trusted WW and thought it to be a good, safe, realistic, healthy, effective weight loss program, and it seems to be working! :)

That's a good point, too. "Music" is a required "subject" here in PA but that doesn't mean we have to have paid music lessons or even necessarily play an instrument at the moment. I decided that when my daughter got a little older if she had a serious interest in learning to play an instrument, maybe I'd look into some form of lessons but that in elementary school it just was not a necessity. Last year for music (4th grade) we used the site makingmusicfun.net which has a 'meet the composer' section, and each week, we'd read a mini bio about a different composer and then listened to samples of his music on Youtube. This year we're using the same site, but using the "meet the orchestra" section which talks about all the different instruments- their history, how they're made, how they're played, fun facts about them, and then we go onto Youtube and watch/listen to them being played. We also have a bin full of simple musical instruments that the kids can play with whenever they want. Sometimes we make our own simple instruments. We've got Rock Band and American Idol and DJ Hero games. We have a Kids Tunes station and CDs and radios. We sometimes attend live musical performances (a band playing at a park for charity, a musical/play at a small local theater, going to watch marching bands perform, etc). When we go to my brother-in-law's house, my oldest nephew has drums and a guitar and he'll let the kids play with them and teach them a bit here and there. There's only so much we can do at once outside the home anyway. Like I said, my daughter's already doing Girl Scouts, Soccer, Judo and a Book Club on a regular basis right now. At some point you just have to decide that enough is enough and the rest can be learned at home/more informal. And the little one in question is only 5. And a 2 year old has to go along to every activity. P.S. As an aside, I do like the dance idea mentioned in this thread by someone else though when it comes to music and doing that instead of some other physical activity so you're getting two for one! My 5 y/o did gymnastics for a few months, now he's doing soccer for a few months, and when that ends, I was wondering what I should try next with him so he has something to do...maybe I'll look into dance for him!

Thanks for the responses...I will call them today, after my husband gets up and I can get a better feel for what else he tried/found out. Cross your fingers for me!! I'll update later!

"The Power of Play" by David Elkind "Better Late Than Early" by the Moores "The Unschooling Handbook: How To Use The Whole World As Your Child's Classroom" by Linda Dobson "How To Talk So Kids Will Listen, How To Listen So Kids Will Talk" (not really a homeschooling book per se but very interesting/informative, especially if you're going to be around kids basically 24/7). I also like Holt and Gatto. P.S. I don't unschool but I'm a pretty relaxed homeschooler and think it's good to have a balance of ideas instead of only very rigid ones in mind, especially if you're prone to being a perfectionist or pushing too hard and so on.

Hanukkah and New Year's Eve. I just found out, though, that: December 4th was/is National Cookie Day. And December 5th was/is National Volunteer Day. I think we'll start celebrating those, too :D

We're on the second disc of TT5, about 7 lessons into it. We last used it on December 2nd then didn't do math for a few days as we were busy with our Hanukkah preparations and celebrations and family from out of state and so on. Then last night I went to have her do a math lesson, and I couldn't get the disc to open. I kept getting an error message that said something about Error, icmp.dll not found, this application failed to start because icmp.dll was not found. Re-installing the application may fix this problem." We tried rebooting the computer. Didn't work. We tried seeing if Disc 1 would open (nope). We ran a virus scan. No virus. We uninstalled TT as suggested- and can't reinstall it. It still won't recognize the disc to reinstall, just keeps saying something is missing. I finally left my husband working on it and went to bed. This morning I came down and see no TT icon on my desktop, which means he still couldn't reinstall it. And when I opened firefox some windows popped open, one of which was trying to find out what icmp.dll not found error could mean, one of which talks about what to do if a System Restore is not working (so apparently he couldn't do that either?!) He's still sleeping, and I am not happy to not have our math program working and I don't know what wrong with my computer. I've noticed no other problems with it. I don't know what to do. Would there be any point to contacting Teaching Textbooks if this problem has to do with my computer and not the product? Anyone ever experience this before? I have the workbook but I want the CDs and animated lectures and buddies and show and tell kind of descriptions, darn it! <cry>

Personally, no. I would not sign a five year old up for a second activity if he's already doing something that takes 6 hours a week- that's how many days a week? 3? 4? 5? No, I wouldn't add another one for him. Especially when the poor 2 y/o has to sit through all of these things. My 5 y/o does extra curricular activities 1-2 days per week (1-2 hours per week). Right now he's in a "indoor youth soccer league" at the Y which runs for one hour, one time per week. Before he started that, he was doing gymnastics for a few months- again, for one hour, one time per week. Once a month, he does a homeschool PE class at the Y for an hour. And that's about it. He usually only has one activity at a time which I think is enough for his age. My 10 y/o daughter does a bit more. She also does the Youth Indoor Soccer (once a week for an hour) (the league only runs for a few months btw), the homeschool PE class (which is only once a month for 7 months), Judo (once a week for an hour, ongoing), Girl Scouts (once a week for an hour and a half, ongoing over the school year), and a library book club (once every two-three weeks for an hour, only goes for a few months).

I love Weight Watchers. I am always successful on it, when I'm following it. I consider it one of the most safe, healthy and realistic weight loss programs out there, because in the end, it's about eating healthily and portion control. You don't substitute meals for shakes. You don't take pills. You don't eat 'special' pre-packaged diet food. You don't cut out entire food groups. It's all just normal food. Yes, each item has a point value, like the other poster said, it is based on the fat, fiber, carbs and proteins in each food. They give you a booklet that lists a bunch of foods in it and their serving size and how many points it is, and you can also buy a little electronic calculator thing that you plug that info into to find out points like if you're reading off a label or shopping or whatever. As already mentioned, points vary according to your height and weight and age and gender and activity level; when you go to a meeting (or sign up online) they will tell you how many points you get a day. The weekly points, everyone gets the same number, and they are optional. And you can earn activity points (although personally I never swap them for food points, I just exercise to try to lose weight faster lol). If you join meetings, at least around here right now, you would pay either A) $40.00 which covers a registration fee and the cost of the first meeting and the paper materials, followed by $14.00 a week thereafter for your meetings. As a meeting member, you can attend as many meetings as you want but they'll only weigh you in once per week. Or, B) $55.00 which pays for five weeks of meetings at $11.00 per meeting (it's the "commitment plan") and in that way you forgo the registration fee and save some money per meeting. You can purchase that at any time, the five week plan. If you wait until around the New Year they usually have a "special" (which will mean No Registration Fee to join). If you go to weightwatchers.com there will be a "find a meeting" button somewhere on there, and it will tell you what centers are near you and what time their meetings are. You can also find information about becoming an online member. The message boards are free for anyone and everyone to use at any time, but as a paid online member you get "etools" which will allow you to enter your food and exercise and look up point values and it will track your progress and track how many points you're using and how many you have left and will allow you to use the "recipe builder" and the "points calculator" and so on and so forth. It costs a bit less than actual meetings; you can find the info on the weight watchers site. You CAN try a meeting free at any time but they won't weigh you and hand out the materials unless you join. Hope this helps! :)

:iagree:

I'm thinking if you really do want to cut down some, try something like: Limit SonLight history and reading to 30 minutes per day instead of 60. Limit Spanish to 2X a week instead of 5. To me, a foreign language is just not that important in a situation where something has to give. So if it were me personally I'd consider dropping the tutor and limiting the Spanish to just a couple of days a week, or even dropping Spanish entirely and focusing on it over the summer or something instead when you're not doing other curriculum stuff. Or doing it in less formal ways like with audio CDs on car rides and whatnot. Limit Science to 3X a week instead of 5 (on the days you aren't doing Spanish). See if you can pare MCT down to 30-60 minutes instead of 60-90 minutes. Stop Story of Science for now (you're already doing another science program and you're already doing another history program) and if the kids really enjoy Story of Science, then do it over the summer for fun or something (that's what my daughter and I do with SOTW- we do it over the summer for fun, but we don't do it over the school year when I'm focusing on my main curriculum, which is Oak Meadow). Or, let him read Story of Science on those car rides to Cleveland instead. Sure it would help.

heh- a while back, I asked this question, too, because my 5 y/o wanted to see Star Wars. After reading all the responses, I ended up letting him watch the first one. He enjoyed it!

Your oldest kids are 11 and 13 and you're saying that if you "radically" cut subjects your kids will STILL end up with 7-8 hours worth of work a day- and after that they'd have free time? My jaw is on the floor. No wonder you're burnt out, stressed out, and always "behind" (not that I think you can really call it behind by any means because I think you're already WAY too far ahead of yourself!!!!) I think you ALL need to relax and start enjoying life some. Cut your hours back, pare your subjects down, give them more time to follow their interests and be kids...right now it sounds like you're expecting too much, giving them too much busywork or doubling up on too many subjects or adding in too many unnecessary ones or something- I'd cut down to giving your 11 y/o maybe 4-5 hours per day of school and your 13 year old maybe 5-6 (preferably the lower end of that spectrum for a while). (And maybe 3 or so per day for your 8 y/o). Make a list of THE most important things. Then look at it again and ask IS THIS REALLY IMPORTANT?! Then make a list of the secondary things in order of importance to you (and hopefully taking your kids' interests into consideration too) and then make a very set school time going by how many hours you're going with, and they stop when that time is up. Anything they didn't get to on that secondary list- forget about that stuff for now. (And if you have to stop school for an activity or errand keep track of your hours). See how that goes for a while.

Have your dc completed any materials? No, not yet. We've completed 13 weeks of our school year so far, starting week 14 today. What are your favorite subjects to teach? We've been having fun with science and social studies (OM5). And I love when we read aloud together. How about the kid's favorite subjects? Science, reading, math, social studies (in that order). (OM5, TT5) What changes really paid off this year? Dropping OMK and deciding to wait until next year to do K with my very young 5 y/o. He wasn't ready. I haven't really made any changes with regard to my daughter. Do you predict changing materials next year? No. I love Oak Meadow and bought it used from K-8 in one lot. So far we've used part of K before deciding to wait til next year (I'm looking forward to giving it another try then), all of OM4, and we're 13 weeks into OM5. I'm committed to using it at least through OM8. This is for all subjects but math. For math, TT5 is going VERY well for us this year, so I will continue with TT6 next year. I MIGHT also introduce LoF 'for fun' and see how my daughter likes it because I think it sounds like a cool concept. In what area has your dc grown the most this year? My daughter (10) is becoming more independent with writing assignments. And since starting TT this year, her attitude toward math has changed in a very positive way. She LIKES math now! And I don't dread math now! (math isn't MY strong point either). What areas are you still trying to find that match for? I don't think this is relevant to us. What we're using is going very well. What is your biggest homeschooling challenge this year? Hm. If this means what is my child struggling with the most, that would be knowing which exact page to find definitions in the dictionary, and she's still kind of weak with multiplication table memorization- we've tried reviewing in many different ways, but a lot of them don't seem to click. We've tried Timez Attack, Times Tales, a chart on the wall, index card review, spending a couple of weeks on each table and doing it very gradually (she remembers for a while but it always ends up going out of her head again). What projects or activities stand out so far? There are so many with Oak Meadow, which is what I like about it. For science, she's made a cool multi-media forest mural, buried things in the backyard and dug them up weeks later to see if they changed, started a simple worm bin, and more. For social studies, she's made her own compass and done a variety of hands on projects and handicrafts (making a wooden sailboat, a paper bag Pocahontas puppet, a diorama of Jamestown by making popsicle stick houses, her own butter, a cross stitch initial, a sock doll, and more).

This one's online and free: http://webinstituteforteachers.org/~gammakeys/Lesson/Lesson1.htm

I loved that book, too! I remembered it had "stairs" in the title but couldn't remember the rest!

A cute healthy snack- cut up a banana into thick chunks and stick the chunks together with peanut butter to make it look like a caterpillar shape. Give it raisin eyes and pretzel stick antennae. :) My kids love yogurt, cheese, frozen grapes, granola bars, all kinds of fruit, applesauce, smoothies, hardboiled eggs, (and they also like using veggie sticks as a 'spoon' haha).

:iagree: So far I'm loving the new plan. I've always trusted WW and found them to be one of the safest, healthiest and most realistic weight loss programs out there. They've put a lot of research into this and I think the changes are for the good and make a lot of sense. So far I'm doing very well on it- in regard to weight loss and how satisfied I feel hunger-wise- although I'm still trying to get used to it and it's taking me longer to plan my menus etc (I knew so many of the old points by heart on the old plan and i'm not there yet with the new one). ETA you guys should come join the weight loss challenge social group! :)