lea1
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Posts posted by lea1
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bump - anyone? please?
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I want to purchase MP3's for my just-turned 5 year old sons, primarily for listening to audio books but also for some music. I don't have a feel for how much memory is needed to be able to load a few books at a time and some music. Also, I have read that, for kids, one should go with a smaller amount of memory to stay within the flash drive type memory that is more durable? Is this right? We would like to spend the least amount of money possible to get the function we need.
I appreciate any advice. I searched the forum already but did not find exactly what I needed. Thanks!
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I also read that many of the scanners were roped off and that the airports were empty compared to normal.
I also heard on the news that they were expecting a much higher number of people to be driving to their destinations this year than normal.
I will not be flying until the situation is changed, unless it is an absolute emergency. We normally fly out to Arizona once a year to visit my SIL. This time we will either drive or go somewhere else.
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We have one male and one female who are half siblings and are around 13 years old now. I had them both fixed as early as the vet suggested. They have both shared a littler box the entire time. They never had any issues until just recently. There are times when one decides the box is not quite clean enough and pees right in front of it. I still don't know which one does it but it has not happened in a while so maybe we are past that now.
With these two cats, the female is more of a one person cat (my cat). She follows me around a lot and has very little tolerance for our sons, although she is very very sweet with me, and also my husband, but will pick me over him most of the time. To be fair though, the cats were with me long before the children and they (the cats) have put up with a lot over the past few years.:tongue_smilie: Anyway, the male cat is a sweet heart to everyone and has never met a person he doesn't like. He has never scratched anyone and was so sweet with the boys when they were little. He would let them crawl all over him and one of the boys would such his thumb while holding the cats tail.
I have had cats all my life and never had bathroom issues. These two cats are both bengal cats and they both have amazing personalities. I think the male must be part dog.:001_smile:
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I just heard (or read) in the news that it is actually cheaper for the banks to foreclose than it is to modify the loan so they are doing what is best for them. There is so much fraud in the system right now and it is out in the open. It is crazy that people have not been arrested for what is happening.
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We have left our two cats lots of times, over the years, with extra food, extra water and someone checking in on them once daily. They have always done fine and were happy to see us when we returned.
There was one time they were playing in the guest bath and accidentally shut the door, trapping them inside. Fortunately they were being checked daily so they were found and they were fine. They did claw at the carpet near the door, not surprisingly.
I would never even consider taking them to a kennel for boarding. They freak out about riding in the car and I know they would be very miserable at a kennel. They would hate all of the noise, strange people and animals and strange smells and they would be on edge the entire them they were there.
They may not be very happy about their people being gone for a while but I know they would rather be in their home than at a kennel.
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We used Christian World Adoption to adopt our two sons from Russia. They were very good and we would definitely use them again. I have been blogging for a number of years, since we first started our adoption process so you can take a look at my blog if you want to read about our process.
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We are getting ready to start building a new house so I have been researching this kind of thing myself. I absolutely love the look of the carrera marble and that would be my first choice except that I have read it does stain and etch easily. Many of the websites I have read have said it is not recommended for counter tops because of this, although there are people who know this and choose to have it and take that risk.
I just found this:
http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/ny/best-advice-white-marble-counter-tops-pros-cons-110818
and it has some very interesting comments and pictures. It is making me reconsider:lol:.
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We bought our used Toyota van through AutoTrader.com and we got an awesome deal on it. It was like new and had very few miles on it. The owner had decided they could not afford the payments. It was also still under warranty. It was such a great deal that my husband ended up flying one-way to Louisville, KY (from Tulsa), met the guy at the dealer where he had bought it, did the deal and then drove it back. It was still much less expensive than buying it new.
We also sold our Toyota Avalon through AutoTrader.com very quickly.
Personally I would go with a higher mileage Toyota or Honda van before I would purchase an American made one. We always follow consumer reports and it is very clear through their testing that the Honda and Toyota vans out perform the American made ones, for now anyway. When that changes, I will be one of the first to purchase an American made one but we cannot afford to buy something that is not going to perform well.
ETA: I would also recommend choosing an option that would not put you into debt again. We pay ourselves a car pmt every month and we know years in advance when we will be purchasing our next vehicle. It gives one such peace of mind to not be in debt and you will be able to rebuild your emergency fund much faster without the debt of a car loan. But I still think checking out AutoTrader.com is a good idea. They normally have a lot of cars listed there.
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I put the food on the table and dh and I help the boys with their plates and then we fill our own plates.
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My father's wife went to the ER at an Indian hospital (where people who are American Indian descendants can receive gov't provided health care) for what they believed was appendicitis three times before they finally decided it was and did the surgery. It turned out there was some cancer detected so they did a follow up surgery to remove a tiny section of her colon, to ensure they got all of the cancer. (And they had gotten it all during the appendictemy).
As it turns out, the surgeon did not close her colon completely and it was leaking, causing a horrible case of peritonitis. This does happen on occasion; surgeons are not perfect. But what made it tons worse was she had classic symptoms of peritonitis and he did not catch it.
My sister is a nurse and spent many days and nights with my step mom in the hospital. She raised concerns about the symptoms multiple times to no avail. She called my husband, who is a doctor, and they discussed the symptoms. My husband recommended at least twice that they needed to move her to another hospital (this hospital did not have some of the specialists that he felt she needed at this time and he knew they were missing something). He was very concerned they were going to let her die. My step mom did not want to move at first. Eventually, after she had been in ICU and then moved back out again but still was not getting better, she agreed that she needed to be moved and she regretted not having moved sooner.
By the time they moved her, she was hugely bloated and in terrible pain. I think this was about two weeks after her surgery, although she had been bloated and in pain pretty much the entire time. My dad, my sister and I met with the surgeon and told him we wanted to have her moved to another hospital (and that she wanted to move). He said he saw no reason to move her so, if we did that, the Indians would not pay for it. My dad, who is very polite and soft spoken, said he still wanted to move her. The surgeon then said that we would have to find a hospital/dr. to take her. Basically he was saying that he would not help us because he didn't think she needed to move.
Thankfully, since my husband is a doctor in the area, he knew how to get her transferred pretty easily so this was not the issue for us that it seemed the surgeon wanted it to be. And then the surgeon had the nerve to say he wanted to do an MRI before we moved her. She said no, that she just wanted to get moved ASAP.
We had her moved that afternoon and first thing the next morning she was having emergency surgery to clean up her insides. She had a massive infection and had to be in ICU for about a month and they had to keep her heavily sedated for the majority of that time. She was enormously bloated and they had to leave the surgery site open so she could heal from the inside out. They had to disconnect her colon, where the original surgeon had not sewed it properly, and let it heal so she had to have one of those bags attached to her side. Her kidneys failed and she had to be on dialysis even after she finally got out of the hospital and rehab center. They did not know if her kidneys would ever recover but they finally did. She came very close to dying.
She is now trying to regain enough strength to be able to have the surgery to reconnect her colon. She is still very underweight. At the first hospital, during the two weeks she was suffering, she basically did not have any nutrition at all. So she was very weak by the time she ended up at the second hospital and her body was very malnourished.
The day we had her transferred, my sister talked to the head of the department, after the surgeon had refused to help us with the transfer. It turned out that she knew the dept head and had worked with him before. He was aware of my step mom's case and he was quite surprised that the surgeon had refused to help us and had told us the Indians would not pay for her care at the other hospital. He told my sister (and we already knew this) that they transfer people to this other hospital quite often, when they do not have the speicalists needed for the care. My father had actually been transferred there once with heart issues, which is how we knew about it. The dept head said they would pay for her care at the other hospital.
Now they are refusing to pay for all or some of her care at the other hospital. My dad and step mom did not want to sue but, as it turns out, they feel they have to since the Indian hospital is refusing to pay. Plus she still has to have the surgery to fix her colon and I'm sure that won't be cheap.
Like any profession, there are great docs and there are really really bad ones. My husband is one of the good guys:).
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Do not leave an open bucket of sand in the garage, after winter is over and it is no longer needed for sanding the icy driveway.
Do not assume your two 4 year olds are playing nicely and not getting into anything in the garage, just because you can't see or hear them, especially when they should be playing on the driveway where you can see them.
Never leave the van unlocked, when 4 year olds are playing outside on the driveway and in the garage.
Never drive a van that has sand in the gas tank. Call a tow truck and make 4 year olds sit in time out until tow truck arrives. (dh got this one right:).
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I love hard woods in the kitchen. I've never had a problem with water or anything. Most people clean up spills when they happen anyway. We are getting ready to build a new house and will definitely have hard woods in the kitchen again.
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We recently sold our house and moved into a rental, as we are in the process of selecting a builder to build a new house. This rental has two large attic spaces upstairs with regular-type doors that open into them. Our two sons know they are not suppose to go into the attics without an adult and, up until yesterday, they were obeying that rule quite nicely.
Yesterday mid-morning I noticed that the boys had one of the attic doors open. After determining who the culprit was, I made sure the child understood that this was not allow.
Fast forward to yesterday evening. I went into the master bathroom to use the restroom. I heard my female cat meowing very loudly, which is common for her. But it sounded like she was on the other side of the wall, in the shower. I checked, nope, not there. There was only one place she could be, based on where the sound was coming from. She was IN the wall between the shower and the toilet!
I raced upstairs and immediately noticed that one of the doors to the attic was not completely closed so I knew someone had been in there again. I went in and started calling her, thinking she might be able to get back out the way she got in. My male cat came out of the attic while I was calling to the female.
To make a long story a bit shorter, dh ended up having to cut through the wall to get the cat out. She was not a very happy camper. I was worried she might have a broken leg from walling down through the wall but, thankfully, she was not hurt.
There was a bit of confusion as to who had opened the door to the attic, as one son said he did it and I think it might have been to keep first son who had already been punished once for this that day, from being punished again. By the time I figured out for sure who had done it, it was a bit belated but I did plenty of talking and explaining about the seriousness of the matter.
Dh replaced the door knobs with knobs that lock so we will be sure this never happens again.
In the house we recently moved out of, this same cat had gotten stuck in a space behind the built-in TV cabinet in the living room and had to be cut out of there too. She is now about 12 or 13 years old. I think she has used up a few of her nine lives.
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It reminds me a bit of how an old one room school house might have worked, albeit on a much smaller scale.
Seems like I heard about a school doing this recently out east somewhere but I cannot recall the specifics of it now.
They have thrown more and more money at the problem with no solutions, or so it seems. One would think they might consider trying something a bit more radical at a few locations. They need to start thinking outside of the box.
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I am doing OPGTR with my two four-year-old sons. We do it 2 or 3 times a week and they also spend time reading their little practice readers to me at different times. We also work on learning to write letters a couple of times a week and we do Bible readings and devotions.
We spend a lot of time reading. We just finished Little House in the Big Woods and James and the Giant Peach and we are in the middle of Little House on the Prairie and Dr. Dolittle. I try to keep one to three chapter books going, we always have one going in the car and then we also have time when we just read whatever happens to catch their attention.
Both of my sons are almost five. I thought this would be the year when we started a structured daily school time but it has not worked out that way. It seems to be working though and we are all enjoying it so I guess that is a good thing.
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Maybe at least through elementary anyway? Maybe they should divide the children up by skill/ability within each subject, rather than by grade? The kids would see that they are ahead of peers in some subjects and behind peers in others and maybe they would see and learn to understand that everyone has their strengths and weaknesses.
If a child was behind in math but ahead in reading, he would not think of themselves as a failure. He would not need to be held back for every subject in 2nd grade. Maybe he would go through a smaller (less students), more intensive class in math to help him understand what he was missing and catch back up to where he was.
I can see how it is easy to divide up the children by age/grade but does it really make sense?
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We just did it recently, although we only have two four-year-old boys. We rented a storage unit and decluttered a ton of stuff. That makes it much easier to keep everything in it's place....and that is the key. I tried to be as organized about it as possible and make sure everything had a place. It took a few showings to get it down but, after doing it a few times, the husband and I kind of got a routine going as to what had to be done very quickly before the house could be shown. And the boys knew the routine also and knew what their role was.
Also, remember that everything you pack up now and put in storage is just one less thing you have to do to move. Go room by room, through all cabinents and closets and pack everything away that you don't absolutely need for the next 3 to 6 months or so. I packed away almost all knick knacky type stuff, all personal pictures and many other type of pictures also. We had a stager come in and tell us what to get rid of, after we had already gotten rid of a bunch of stuff. They really advise you to go with a minimalistic approach. We are in a rental house now, preparing to build our new house, so many of our things are still in storage. I really did not want to move them twice though and this rental does not have enough room for everything anyway.
It is overwhelming but you can do it and you will feel so relieved after it is done. Just take it one step at a time and know that it is only for a period of time, not forever. Keep the goal in mind and keep thinking about how relieved you will be when it is over and you will be able to afford a new vehicle. :grouphug: and congrats on your pregnancy.
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It is common for people to speak like that here in Oklahoma. When I moved to the East coast, people would tease me about it and I quickly modified my speech. I have never picked it back up but I have noticed it is still alive and well in this part of the country.
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Yay! for you and your boys!!
Ok, I just have to ask... did you have twins with one early delivery? Or did you adopt? Or what? It's very rare for twins to be delivered a few weeks apart, but it has happened.
We adopted them from Russia when they were 14 months and 15.5 months old. They were very under weight and developmentally behind but, a lot of good food and attention and it sure didn't take long for them to catch up. They were not even on the growth charts and now they are around 80th percentile for height. Children are such an amazing gift! (But I still definitely need my breaks:tongue_smilie:. I'm 47 so getting a bit of a late start in this business but I love it (most of the time:lol:).)
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I know most of you have already been there and done that but I thought I would share some excitement from a newbie. My two sons will be five on 9/30 and 11/11. I had been using OPGTR very informally and very slowly for a number of months.
Basically, I had made up flash cards with words and sentences from the book and I would leave them laying around. The boys would inevitably see them and want to "play a game". If they sound out the word or read the sentence they get to keep the card and then they count them at the end to see how many they have. They really enjoy this and we did it this way for a while because they were totally turned off to learning to read if I brought out the book and tried to do it that way. (They had already learned their letter sounds a while back.)
Before August, I started talking up "starting school" in August and they have friends who were starting K so they were really into it. We started sitting down with OPGTR for one lesson a day and it started out really well. They were so excited about how much they knew and how many words they could read. But after the newness wore off, which didn't take long, they were not into it so much. We took a few days off and I changed things up a bit. We are using the cards again, for review, and then I have typed up lessons, leaving out instructions to the teacher, so the lessons don't look as long. I also shortened the lessons, so we are doing a short review one day and the next day a lesson. So we do review with the cards and then I printed the lessons and we each get a copy and I highlight the words and sentences I want them to read. They really like this approach and it is now, once again, going very well.
Someone on this board posted that they use a jar of marbles to provide incentive for good behavior (put a marble in the jar for positive behavior, attitude, etc. and when the jar is full, we will do something fun together). I decided to implement that, in an effort to improve behavior a bit. Then I decided to allow them to also put in a marble for every book (reader) they read to me or the dad. They were so into this and they have been reading a ton. It has given them great incentive to practice. (Whoever posted that, thanks for the great idea. It has also help to promote better behavior and attitudes. They love putting marbles in the jar and talking about what we might do together when it is full.)
What amazes me is how quickly they are learning to read. It is really incredible and I just feel so very blessed to be able to lead them in this and watch them get so excited about being able to read a book. We are somewhere around lesson number 54 or 56 (finished ending blends and working on beginning blends) in OPGTR and they are really doing well. I am doing a good amount of review, to make sure they remember the rules. I am amazed at how many words they can already read without sounding out each letter. Their capacity to learn is incredible.
I have been so excited about this and have not had very many people with whom to share it, without it sounding too much like bragging. But I thought the people on this board would understand. Do you remember being so excited to watch your first child beginning to learn to read, especially when it was really clicking and you could see they were really getting it?
They are also learning how to properly write their letters, although they can both write most of their letters already. And we do a daily devotion, which they really enjoy.
I should save this post so I can re-read it when times are rough:lol:.
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We have a standing order with all three credit agencies to freeze our credit (not sure if this is what they really call it or not). Basically it means that no new accounts that require a credit check can be opened and also no credit checks can be done without us first removing the freeze. Since we never open new credit card accounts and very seldom do anything that requires a check, it works for us. It also assures us that nobody is out there stealing our identity without us knowing about it, at least as it pertains to opening new accounts, buying cars or that sort of stuff. Obviously it does not protect against medical identity theft, which I hear has become more common of late (if they got your medical id cards, make sure you notify your insurance company).
Keep a very close eye out on your bank account for a while. This happened to me twice in the past. Both times I closed all cards/accounts and canceled my bank debit card. Both times the person who stole my wallet used my bank debit card and both times the bank did not catch it AT ALL. I caught it when I discovered my checks were bouncing when I should have had plenty of money in my account but did not because the thief was on a shopping spree at my expense.
Both times the bank reimbursed me, after a lengthy investigation. It was a real pain. It has been a number of years since this happened so hopefully they have a better system now and this doesn't happen anymore.
Sorry you're having to go through this. It is definitely not a fun thing.
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The vast majority of the time my guys seem to like it. They hardly ever complain about it anymore and seem to even look forward to it some days. We started doing it when they gave up naps so it was a treat for them to get to stay up in quiet time and look at books, do puzzles, play with quiet toys or listen to books/music on CD rather than take a nap. After it became routine, we went through a period of testing/complaining but it really didn't last long because we are so consistent with it. I really enjoy it myself so it is easy for me to be consistent about it:).
We started out with 15 minutes and have worked our way up to 75, which is where we are staying. When we started out, they were only allowed books and puzzles but I eventually allowed quiet toys. Eventually we will go to just books, once they are reading well.
When we first started they would each get on a couch in separate rooms. One of them frequently fell asleep because he still really needed naps. He still falls asleep half the time. They share a room so sending them to their room for quiet time would not have worked the way I wanted it to.
Now we are all in the living room for quiet time, one still on the couch and the other with two bean bag chairs in a fun little cubby corner behind a chair.
They normally also have a little snack to eat and water to drink. It works very well for us.:001_smile:
What is the best MP3 for books and 5 YO's
in General Education Discussion Board
Posted
Thank you both. I had read that both of those were good. I appreciate your help.