I'm jealous. Would you like to trade houses, just for the winter, maybe? Because I HATE winter. :D

Well, I haven't sold anything here, but I've looked to buy something specific, and I did a search on it on the for sale boards and saw what the average going rate was, so I would know about how much I'd want to spend. So I'm sure you could do that for pricing yours, too...do a search on it, see what other people have sold it for/paid for it, and make it comparable. I would think how you handle shipping is up to you. You could round up a bit and say that it includes pp shipping, or you can say 'plus exact shipping charges' and determine them when you know what they would be or whatever.

I'm kinda surprised so many of you feel this way about a ROUGH DRAFT. If it's harder for her to make edits because she didn't double space, that's her problem. She'll have to work around that and figure out where her edits go. But in the end, it's the FINAL draft that matters. If THAT is unacceptable, sure, make her redo it. And that's when all those comments about how formatting is such a big deal in college/high school etc would be relevant, anyway (those teachers wouldn't come to a kid's house and demand they redo their rough drafts. They'd only be interested in the FINAL draft. And meanwhile this kid is NOT in high school or college, she's 10). ALL of you would really make a 10 year old redo a rough draft for not double spacing her lines....? That really does surprise me!

Well, at least he didn't tell her she had to stand outside the bar while he went in and had a drink! :lol:

Well, I hope so, because I'll be "WTB" TT6 for next year LOL. And they go so darn fast (from my experience in trying to find TT5 used) that whenever I looked at the "for sale" board and find one listed- someone else already took it. So the hope is that if I post a WTB, someone will PM me and I can just buy it :D

Are you saying the mistake was that she didn't skip lines between sentences for purposes of editing? Is that all you mean by the wrong format? Personally, for something like that, I would not make my daughter rewrite a rough draft. I know that when *I* hand write more than a few lines at a time, my hand starts to cramp and get really tired. So does my daughter's. If my daughter (who is also 10) had made this mistake, I would inform her of what mistake she made, and when she did her editing, she'd have to draw little arrows down to the bottom of the page showing where to fit edits in, and I'd point out to her as she went "do you see how much easier this would have been to edit if you had skipped lines?" Likewise, when she wrote her final draft from that rough draft, I'd say "Do you see how much easier this would have been to copy if you'd skipped lines and could fit your edits in more clearly?" And when she wrote her final draft, I'd be more picky... ...but no I wouldn't make her rewrite a rough draft over something like that.

:iagree: Violence begets violence, and all that.

:( I hope everything is okay with you!

http://homeschooling.gomilpitas.com/

Man some of these sound good! Here's another we got, I think from a Weight Watchers magazine, that's low fat and simple and tasty! Crunchy Chocolate Bark (serves 24, 1 "Point" per serving, WW points) 1 1/4 Cups semisweet chocolate chips 1 cup broken thin salted fat-free pretzels 1 cup rice chex cereal 3 tablespoons white chocolate chips 1 tablespoon of red nonpareils, colored sugar, or sprinkles Line a 9X13 inch baking pan with foil. Place the semisweet chocolate chips in a large microwaveable bowl. Microwave on High until almost melted, 1 - 1/2 minutes. Stir until smooth. Add the pretzels and cereal, stir to coat. Evenly spread the pretzel-cereal mixture into the pan (it will be a thin layer). Place the white chocolate chips in a small zip close plastic bag. microwave on high, gently squeezing bag or turning it every 20 seconds, until chocolate is melted and smooth, about 1 minute. Snip a tiny hole off one corner of bag. Decoratively pipe the chocolate over the pretzel-cereal mixture. Sprinkle evenly with the nonpareils. Freeze until the chocolate is firm, about 15 minutes. Holding the foil, lift the bark from the pan. Peel off the foil and transfer the bark to a cutting board. Cut into 24 pieces. -------------------------

I know I'm not a Christian, but I did spend two years living in a Methodist foster home, during which time I went with that family to church, attended Youth Group, and although it was many years ago, I did read the bible from cover to cover. So I'm not TOTALLY ignorant. And... I agree with you. I think the phrase "the rod" means more of a shephard's rod and refers to guidance, not beatings. Many religious leaders WITHIN the Christian community will say the same thing. I cringe every time I see/hear/read someone say "spanking is biblical"- if you want to look at it that way, so is stoning someone to death and a bunch of other things that would be totally unacceptable in today's society. The bottom line is, violence is wrong. It's illegal to go hit an adult out in the street. It's illegal for a man to beat his wife. Aside from hitting being illegal in most cases- it's also immoral. I mean, who teaches their kids to hit people? Nobody! Any good parent teaches their children "Don't hit. Hitting is wrong." Hitting. People. Is. Wrong. (and pssst...children are people, too)! So why is illegal for a man to slap his wife, or for someone to go smack a stranger in the bar, or slap their neighbor over a dispute- those things are assault. You can get arrested for that. But taking the smallest, and weakest, and most defenseless among us, the children, and hitting THEM...and that IS legal? That's kind of mind-boggling. And disturbing. And to do it in the name of religion is somehow even more so. And it doesn't exactly model to them that "hitting is wrong." It models to them that hitting is okay. That hurting people smaller and weaker than you is okay. That hitting is tied in with love. That authority must be unquestioningly obeyed or you might get hurt. My father abandoned us when I was ten years old. I've never seen him since. And I still vividly recall the few times (it didn't even happen often) that he spanked me with a belt, and it makes me feel queasy to my stomach just thinking about it nearly 30 years later. It was painful, it was unnecessary (there are other ways to go about disciplining a kid), it was a horrible indignity to have to suffer, and it was wrong. No two ways about it.

Yeah, when you put it that way, I don't know. I mean, I almost NEVER go to the doctor, if I get sick, I will usually let it run its course or treat myself with over the counter meds. If I feel like I MUST see a doctor, I pay the office fee which is maybe 75 bucks or some such, and if I need a prescription, it's usually just an antibiotic or some such and a generic brand isn't that expensive. It's rare that I ever feel I have to do that (I've gone to the doctor four times, including for this thyroid thing, in the past almost 5 years. Once was just to get established as a patient so I would HAVE a doctor to go to if need be. Once was for some bad sore throat kind of thing that lingered for over 3 weeks and finally made me think maybe I needed prescription meds. Once was for bad sciatica that lasted weeks without clearing up like it usually did- and I then found out a chiropractor was more effective AND cheaper for that- and once was for this thyroid thing. I am able to be on some sort of plan where I don't have to pay for my annual gyno exams through a "maternal and family health services" type of place, due to a low income/uninsured program. I pay for my own dental exams which is maybe $45.00 twice a year. If I need a filling or something, it's not that expensive. I pay for my own eye exams which isn't all that much, since I only go like every two or three years. If I tried to pay for insurance, 1) it would be unaffordable and/or cause a financial struggle every single month, and 2) I don't think it would be worth it unless there was some sort of crazy emergency that came up- and I'm just hoping that won't ever be the case! I mean I can't even IMAGINE being uninsured and then getting cancer or something! But I can only hope that nothing that earth shattering will never happen. And if there's something that comes up that requires an emergency room visit (as has only happened to me once in my adult, uninsured life), then I go, and they have to treat you, and then they bill you, and even if you only pay them $10.00 a month or something, they can't put you in collections as long as you ARE paying. So you get on a payment plan, or see if they have some sort of deal they will offer for 'charity care', and you pay it off as you can. In this case, I guess I might have to pay four or five hundred bucks for this thyroid thing but then hopefully that's the extent of it and it'll be a one time thing so to speak... if I had to pay $350 or more every single month for insurance... yuck! (Although when I last looked up how much it would cost for good family insurance I seem to remember it being way higher than that, even!)

Not me. Sometimes on mild evenings I'll go to a local track but just walking around my neighborhood isn't all that scenic, or effective in terms of real exercise for me when walking with a small child... and it's getting cold out there! I did join the Y though and try to go to the gym there two mornings a week (which is when they have childcare) and to an group fitness class one evening a week.

Well, I heard back from the hospital. She said it costs $324.75 for the ultrasound, plus whatever the cost is for the outside radiology doctors to read the x-ray (which I found out is $100.00), so we're talking $424.75. She said I could do a payment plan. Or I could call back on Monday when the person who handles 'charity care and discounts' for uninsured people is in. She THINKS, but is not sure, that that person can offer me either 20 or 25 percent off a bill over $250.00, but she also thinks that's only if it can be paid off sooner than a payment plan would be, or some such. But she wasn't very clear on the details. So I will call that person back on Monday and find out. She also suggested I call those radiologists back afterward and let them know "the hospital gave me such and such a discount for not having insurance, can you do the same" to see if they would read the ultrasound results for less than $100.00. So yeah I will call her Monday, but in the meanwhile, I will see if either of the other two places I called this morning get back to me at some point today and if they give me a better price.

Thanks for the advice! I just looked up "imaging center" in my area and found a few possibilities. One place transferred me to their outside billing office and I had to leave a voicemail. One place got me a live person who said she would have to look into it and will have somebody call me back. (After a conversation that went like this: "Hello? Oh, let me transfer you to billing." "Hello, this is billing..oh, let me transfer you to x-ray." "Hello, this is x-ray...oh, let me transfer you to billing...oh, billing told you to talk to us, you say? Hold on let me find a supervisor....hello? Can I have your name and number? We have to look into it and call you back.") One said they were just an outside billing office for doctors who READ the results (which costs $100.00, by the way), but they do the readings for the hospital, and aren't sure what the hospital charges to actually DO the ultrasound. And I called the hospital again and left a voicemail for somebody else since the first guy didn't call me back. So basically I'm still just waiting. Everybody wants to transfer me to someone else or give me someone's voicemail and no-one seems to have a clue how much an ultrasound will cost. I guess they aren't used to potential patients/clients calling them up personally, rather than dealing with insurance companies! Apparently, I'm throwing a lot of people for a loop :lol:

That is fantastic!! Good for you!! :)

I guess because when I've had insurance in the past through jobs I've had, everything was covered with me only having to pay small co-pays. So I didn't think/wasn't aware that even if I had insurance now, it might be a type of plan that would require me to pay so much out of my own pocket. But by several of these responses, I see that it probably wouldn't have done me any favors anyway, which is unfortunate (for me, and for you guys, too!) ETA: Also I was thinking of insurance being useful more for the ultrasound than for the office visit, but I see that even that might not be the case once deductibles come into play!

My kids don't wake up very early, either. Well- my oldest goes to school so I have to get up at 7 and get her up and out the door. Then the younger two don't get up til anywhere from 8:30-9:30 most of the time. I love that time... that's MY time of day, to sit with my coffee, sit at my computer, relax, wake up, maybe start laundry, answer emails, update my blog and so on and so forth. If my daughter's not up by like 9:30, I'll get her up, she'll have breakfast, and we'll start the day (usually) with me reading to her while she eats breakfast, and then after that we start our regular schoolwork, often around 10 or 10:30. Sometimes we have somewhere to go in the morning or something to do and it ends up being later. You're starting with breakfast and exercise, which sounds great. I don't think there's anything wrong with your routine. It works for you guys, and that's one of the perks of homeschooling. I don't think you're doing them a disservice, I think that "waking up early and being productive" is something that will automatically come with age and out of necessity depending on what direction they take their lives in (college, jobs, whatever). They'll find out what they want to do, and they'll do what it takes to make that happen, because they'll be old/mature enough to do so, and self-motivated. And they'll probably even get themselves an alarm clock lol. Trust me, they're NOT going to grow up and go "man, I really want that job, but I'm so used to not starting work until 11 my whole life, so nope, I'm not going to take it!" You know what I mean? :D Relax. Do what works for you now.

LOL! I must say, I do love that name!

Do you mean there is someplace else I could go that is NOT a hospital...? As an aside, the supervisor I left a message for never called me back yesterday, so I guess in an hour or two I will try calling the hospital again. I'm not sure if there's anyplace else I can call unless I'm going to start looking into traveling much further, but depending on what he tells me, I might end up branching out some to see if I can find a 'better deal.'

I don't think the sentence was technically incorrectly punctuated or technically a run on sentence, but, like someone else said, it was "clunky." Kind of awkward. So I would condense it. I wouldn't bother saying "when the sun is down" because I think that could be assumed if the room needed to be lit. I would say something like: "Lighting the room are four long, golden candle stands, each with a grand amount of candles, and a matching clover-shaped chandelier embedded with blue and white gems."

Do you mean it's like an alternative draft of the story that is still fictional? Or more of an informational thing as to what the book might have been like?

Thanks for the suggestions! He does hear me reading through the Little House series with his sister and has never been interested enough to stick around and listen, too. I did order a couple more of the shorter Roald Dahl books from my library (one about a crocodile and the Mr. Fox one mentioned here) to see if he likes more of those. I do have Charlotte's Web and Mr. Popper's Penguins on my bookshelf, so maybe I'll give one of those a try! I read Stuart Little with Alexa last year and I don't THINK that will hold Ben's interest yet.

Of course you didn't! How could you? Either did I when I started K with my son. :) It's not your fault that you didn't know in advance what it would be like. And it wasn't mine! But it is definitely to your credit that you realize NOW that it just isn't working the way it should and that you are willing to make changes/slow things down. Like Oak Meadow says, "Childhood is a valuable period, and nothing is gained by hurrying through it." :) I would just tell him, "You know what? Mommy made a mistake. I've been giving you schoolwork that I think you will do better with and have more fun with when you are 7. So we're going to make some changes and do other work instead, that you will have more fun with NOW" kind of thing. You could! You know him best, whatever you think will work lol.

My daughter is doing TT5 currently and she absolutely LOVES it. She's doing very well with it. She "gets" it, she finds it fun, she finds it easy to understand, and I love it, too because I'm not overly mathy myself- and now, nobody dreads math around here! :D We're up to like lesson 24 so far (so she's done 24 lessons plus 3 quizzes so far I think) and every lesson introduces new material AND continues with older material, so there is a good amount of review, even though there is not a lot of busy work, and TT is really good about explaining AND showing step by step how to do things in easy to retain and remember ways.