I have a metal detergent container with a handle that I fill with dishwasher detergent. I bought it from Martha Stewart's website years ago. I tried to find a link for you, but I couldn't find one anywhere. I guess they don't sell them anymore. I did find this though. That is kind of like the plastic version of what I have.

I just dug one out of the trash and it is condensed soup. I used myself as a guinea pig and tasted a spoonful. It tastes like my normal Hamburger Soup... My dh has warned me that when he was still living with his folks they once got a can of green beans from Aldi with a pickle in it. A cautionary tale. :lol:

I threw together a batch of Hamburger Soup in the crockpot this morning. I use canned tomato soup as the base. I opened up three cans of condensed Tomato Soup from Aldi's that I purchased on Sunday. They were oddly runny. Usually canned tomato soup is kind of thick and viscous. I generally use a spoon to scoop it all out. Today it just poured into the crockpot. I kept going anyway because I was in a hurry. Now that I have time to sit down and think about it, I'm wondering if there could be something wrong with the soup. (Please tell me there's not...otherwise I have to come up with something else for dinner.) Could it be the heat? Our house is air-conditioned, but the cans were stored in a warmer area of our kitchen (cabinet between the stove and a very sunny window).

I agree with Sue G in PA. I hope your family gets some peace soon. I hate drama, too.

I bought the National Geographic Visual Atlas of the World this past year and I really like it. It is very thorough :001_smile:. We had been using a Student Atlas which really didn't have the detail the kids needed. They are pricey (I found one Used for a good price.), but I was getting tired of looking things up on the Internet for the kids, or hitting the answer key for their map assignments. There are also gorgeous pictures inside of different historical and natural landmarks around the world. My kids have even browsed through it for fun.

I enter Lesson Plans into my kids' Assignments about 9 weeks at a time. Sometimes I need to reschedule if something comes up, but this seems to work pretty well. I print out assignment sheets each morning. If there is a test or quiz, I enter grades into HST+ as soon as I correct it. If we are doing school, HST+ is open on my desktop.

I've gone through 1A/1B with two kids without them.

93.94%

For my dd10 (who straddled UG and Dialectic last year and is fully dialectic this year): I assigned the readings for the most part. I read a few things aloud. My dd is supposed to look through the Accountability and Thinking questions as she reads to get an idea of what she is supposed to be able to discuss. I read the notes before our discussions each week. I like to do discussions on Mondays, so I have her read all the resources in preparation for the discussion during the week prior to "Discussion Monday" :001_smile:. The only writing she has been doing has been for the Student Activity Pages. I intend to ease her into outlining starting this year. Our discussion consists of going over the Accountability and Thinking Questions. If there is anything she didn't pick up from her reading the prior week, I try to fill in the blanks in a lecture-style.

Do you have any resources/books you'd recommend for this? :bigear:

:lurk5:

:iagree: And the connection to "worldview" is that everyone goes in with certain presuppositions. Depending on where you start in your argument (what premises you assume to be true), you can end up at a very different place than someone else in the end even if you are both "logical". (I've only ever studied symbolic logic and it was several years ago, so forgive me if my terms are confused :001_smile:.)

No idea. I don't think there is an online etiquette book... As an evangelical Christian, I generally try to ignore it if one of my FB friends posts something offensive. I haven't had a problem with anybody posting any debate-type things on my own page either. My dh has though. He just deletes any comments he doesn't like and "unfriends" if necessary. <shrug> If one of my "friends" on FB annoys me continually, I just turn off their Newsfeed. Then if I wish to check in with them, I have to do it manually.

I am Manga-ignorant, but I saw this on Abebooks yesterday in their Weird Book Room and this thread reminded me of it.

Evolution: A Theory in Crisis by Michael Denton Socialism by Ludwig von Mises The History of the Medieval World by SWB Catherine, Called Birdy (pre-reading for my dd) by Karen Cushman Le Morte D'Arthur - Malory and Damsel in Distress by P.G. Wodehouse loaded on my brand-new Kindle (insert squeal of delight here)

:iagree: This is my experience as well.

I just Googled myself and found one comment I had made on a friend's Facebook page :confused:. Most of the hits were for another person who shares my name. She is a competitive figure skater :lol:. ANYBODY who has ever known me would know that was not me.

2 yo's are hard... I try to stagger my two oldest kids. My 10 yo is mostly independent now. For the few subjects where she needs me, I try to set my 6 yo up with independent seatwork. His schoolwork load is much lighter than hers, so I put off all of his Mommy-intensive work for the afternoons when she is doing her reading. I only do a little bit of phonics and math with my 4 yo. I let her color at her desk in the schoolroom after she is done with her work if she wishes. Oh, and we do assignment sheets. It is very helpful for my older kids to know what they can move on to next when they finish an assignment. I print out a checklist for each of them each morning from HST. They each get their own bookshelf. I have no suggestions for 2 yo's. 2 year olds are hard...

We've never had cable, so I'm not sure what rates are like. We have Netflix (3 movies at a time). I don't remember what that is off the top of my head but I think it is less than $20 per month. We would probably have Netflix regardless because we do like to rent movies on occasion and there are no movie rental stores near us. We have the streaming over the Wii now, which is fantastic! My dh had a PC hooked up to our TV before they offered it for the Wii, but this is much easier. We pay $45 per month for our landline for unlimited local and long distance calls. We do not have cells. We pay $34 per month for DSL. There are taxes in there somewhere :001_smile:.

I use this, but I bought the K/1st grade combo kit back in the day, so I really don't know. I'd call VP if no one here gives you a response, they have always been super helpful when I've had a question :001_smile:.

E-mail was sent!

Are you looking for a modern atlas or a historical atlas? I'm not to Year 3 yet, so I have no historical atlas recommendations. For a modern atlas, I like the National Geographic Visual Atlas of the World. I bought it in frustration last year when we couldn't do the mapping assignments without consulting the answer key :001_smile:.

I just started The Elements this week with my 10 yo. She's loving it. She told me today, "I think we just found the Stanley Schmidt of the science world!" (Stanley Schmidt is the author of Life of Fred.) I am also interested in her other offerings :bigear:.

Thanks for the book rec.! That sounds really interesting....so does the Thomas Sowell book in the thread you linked. Sigh. My Amazon wish list is entirely too long.

Ack, I had it all typed out and I think my computer ate it somehow... For my ds6, I just flat replaced most of TOG's Primary Resources with SOTW. I cherry-picked some of TOG's primarys for him if I thought they looked interesting and/or we already owned them.