With a 3 year old, sounds like you need a nanny for 30 hours a week, not a private teacher.

We have 2 boxes for 3 cats and each box gets sifted twice a day and changed weekly because I hate cats almost as much as I hate cat stink. They are fed very expensive high-quality food. Two of them are fine now, but one of them still pees on my stuff sometimes. No one set of solutions will "always" work to make all cats stop peeing on stuff.

Let me start by saying that I hate cats. I currently have 3 cats, 1 former cat, and I had 2 more as a child. Strike that--I had 2 cats as a child, and currently I'm surrounded by 3 more cats who belong to other family members but I do NOT EVER have to do litter duty because I refuse to have my own cat. 2 males, 4 females. 1st male: We rescued him along with all his litter mates and his mom, he was the only one we kept. Perhaps plenty of time with mom made the difference, but this female street cat litter trained all her kittens for us. He was a good litter user. Until he hit puberty, when he sprayed everything in sight repeatedly for 3 weeks until my mom FINALLY took him to get him fixed. Problem solved immediately and permanently. 1st female: Older male cat (above paragraph) litter trained her for us, she never ever ever wee-weed on anything she wasn't supposed to. 2nd female: dd's cat. still with us. Never went where she wasn't supposed to except a couple "oops" moments as a small kitten. Has never been a vengeful pee-er. 3rd female: my last cat. Sprayed like a male when she hit 5 mos. Later lost her mind and went completely bonkers and eventually had to be given away to be an only cat because she was *constantly* attacking 4th female (below) and endangered young kids in process. 2nd male: ds's cat. Peed all over the house, once peed all over a huge bin full of baby pictures I left open overnight (I was sorting them) and ruined most of them. Also, has habitually pooped behind our entertainment center for YEARS and we could never figure out why. Drove us nuts. Really didn't stop until we moved to a new home. One of my worst days ever was when a neighbor showed up at my door right after cat has diarrhea behind entertainment center while water is FLOODING into my kitchen from upstairs neighbor.... all at once. NOW he doesn't poop outside litter pan, but he is LUCKY to even be alive right now after these and many other incidents. 4th female: Has had HUGE problems with peeing in various places, but I suspect it is not because she is vengeful, but rather because she is a total idiot. But I think most cats are idiots. But this one is especially dumb. Really. TWICE she got stuck behind a couple tall bookshelves in a corner. The same bookshelves. Idiot. Cat pee stinks like nothing else on earth, and the kids will NOT clean it up to your satisfaction, and it cannot wait until your dh gets home if it happens while he's at work. If you get a cat, remember that there is a chance that it will pee on your stuff, and YOU will have to clean it up. Also, if it turns out to be a habitual thing, eventually it WILL pee on something dear to you and ruin it forever. But I say this as someone who readily admits to hating cats. If I had my druthers there would be NO CATS in my house EVER again.

I know a lot of people are saying that the down coat is not formal enough, but I'll add a couple of caveats to that. First, the puffy down coat look is very "in" right now (starting last winter, continuing to this winter) and it is considered more dressy than it once was *if* it has a more tailored cut, as the one you linked certainly does. Still, if you are going for truly "formal" as opposed to merely "dressy" then you may well go with the second. Here's a good way to tell. IF you expect to be able to wear the coat for a maximum of 3 or so occasions in the winter season, then you probably need something formal, and should go with the second. IF you expect to be able to wear the coat every Sunday to church, when going out on a dress-up date with dh, and for at least most (or possibly all) of your social parties this winter, then the down coat is plenty dressy for your needs. HTH.

I'm not sure how to see that as more than 3 high school science credits. Not saying that's not enough -- check with the school and see if they really need to see 4 high school science credits, even for a science major. That may well not be the case! Dh only had 3 from his college-prep private boarding school, and majored in science (2 BSs) without any trouble. Check with the college he plans to attend as what you've planned may well be enough. BUT I don't see that what you've planned amounts to more than 3 HS credits and 2 middle school classes.

I would tell him "no, because I said so" because I would NOT want my young son introducing himself as Jack the Ripper to neighbors. I would NOT explain to my young son why, just tell him it is NOT an appropriate character for a young boy. Jack the Ripper cut up and possibly first raped prostitutes and mutilated their girl parts. Not someone I would let my son dress up as, even for halloween.

[depth defines] is your subject-verb pair that must agree. I agree with other poster who said to cut "and a breadth" as it is merely a repetition of "from every conceivable genre."

Yes. You cannot 100% guarantee that he will not ever under any circumstances escape your home ever ever ever. And when he does, he WILL get some unspayed stray knocked up. You are also much less likely to deal with spraying if he's fixed. Even though your female is fixed, all those strays outside your windows are not, and they WILL set him off eventually. Why would you NOT have him fixed?

I loved to trick-or-treat when I was in high school, and so did most of my friends! I'll give out candy generously to anyone in costume who knocks on my door. It's a blast! We even dress up to hand it out! (I give out full-sized candy bars every year) The only thing I won't do is give out candy to older kids (teens) in NO costume who ramble by at 10:30 at night. Not that I'm asleep (I never go to bed before midnight if I can help it) but come on, at least put on some grease paint! I even went trick-or-treating with friends once *after* high school (we were 18-21 or so) because we were poor and hungry. But we dressed up. Most people laughed and gave us candy, and if they didn't we were polite and wished them a Happy Halloween and smiled and moved on, laughing at ourselves the whole time. I don't think I would consider there to be an age limit ;-)

I couldn't disagree more. I think waiting tables is one of the last places one can really exercise one's love of freedom at the tender age of 18. Knowing your income depends on how good your service is makes you work harder to earn it. This is why I get better service at a restaurant from a waiter making $2.12 an hour than I do even from the "Shift Manager" at the local McDonald's. The cost of the meal doesn't change that, either: IHOP and Denny's waitresses, lacking social grace as they *may* be (not always so) bust their behinds to make sure I enjoy my meal while it's still hot, while at the Dairy Queen I have waited over 20 minutes for a "fast food" meal because there were TWO minimum wage workers who were just as happy to slooooowly dip dilly bars as assemble my order. The difference: the tips, not the quality or even cost of the food they served me. In fact, it is often possible to get served better food in less time with great service at a restaurant as at a fast food joint at lunch time, as long as you're willing to pay the waiter $15 of your lunch-priced meal. Not a bad deal, in my opinion! I have waited tables, and I can tell you that "just doing your job" will earn you about half minimum wage most places. That includes garnishing dishes, side-work (rolling silverware, refilling food stations, cleaning table center pieces, refilling condiment containers, etc.), etc. Your customers *should* tip you because you are providing *them* a service that doesn't benefit the restaurant in any way. If you don't want to tip them, there are many restaurants that no longer use waiters that serve delicious, quality food that you can patronize instead (check out Jason's Deli!). I also take exception to the idea that serving a $100 plate doesn't take more skill than serving a $20 plate. I've work places like The Black Eyed Pea (family dining, similar to Cracker Barrel) to The Toque (an upscale Montrose-area restaurant in Houston where the cheap lunch dishes would have set you back $30 in the early 90's). At the former, my training consisted of 3 days of following another waiter around and then doing all their work for them for 2 more days without getting to keep the tips. At the latter, my training consisted of weeks of orientation, lessons on etiquette, daily food tastings, wine classes, and very strict rules about wardrobe, posture, behavior, and particular ways to open bottles, present checks, and even how to grasp, carry, and place plates before customers. I was also required to know EVERY ingredient in EVERY dish so that I could answer *without hesitation* a customer who had questions about vegan dishes, kosher restrictions, or nut or dairy allergies. In the end, though, most waiters don't make a whole lot more at the expensive restaurants (some, not much) because table turn-over is slower. But at least the customers are usually nicer, more polite, and tip more appropriately. I do not tip out of some fear of shame from others--if anything, I'm more likely in some circles to be ridiculed for GIVING rather than for WITHOLDING a tip (such as by this author). I tip out of gratitude to a person who is willing to work hard so that I don't have to, who can advise me on the dishes on the menu and help me find a good complementary wine on an unfamiliar list, who wisks my plate away when I'm done so I can lean in for more good conversation with my friends and family. To me, it is a "thank you, you were wonderful" at the end, not a "here, now who's bigger?!" statement on my part. Waiting tables is one of the last non-union places where someone without so much as a GED can rake in a decent living without having to go into business for themselves. It is the kind of profession where noone ever gets an undeserved raise, and those who do get a raise have invariably earned it that day, where you can be assured that your sloppy, lazy co-worker is not making as much as your industrious co-workers no matter who they're related to or fooling around with because their boses aren't in middle management, their bosses are the masses of people who come in off the streets each day, from all walks of life, from all educational backgrounds, who just want to sit back and let someone else wash the dishes for a change.

We watched episode 1 this season together to check it out. About 1/2 way through, right during the second weird bathroom singing scene of the episode, we all unanimously agreed to stop watching. It was one of those shows so full of embarassing moments it makes you feel sick and embarassed inside, like the first time you watch Napoleon Dynamite but WAY less fun. To top it all off, all that really horrible acting, over-singing, cheesey and too-obviously-lip-synced nonsense churned my stomach like grocery store potato salad left in the sun too long. More than anything else, I don't want to expose my children to such tripe and give the appearance that I endorse such drivel as "good music" or "art" (I nearly choked just typing that last word). Fortunately, we were too offended by the bad acting, silly choreography, awkward bathroom singing scenes and absurd lip sync attempts to see if it was anti-anything except, of course, anti-good-taste. It's a pass for me and mine.

Looking at the Progymnasmata for Session II it quotes Gilgamesh. I found this quote does in fact come from Gilgamesh. I'm reading from _Gilgamesh: A New Rendering in ENglish Verse_ by David Ferry ©1992 p. 16 section v stanzas 6-7: Helpless is he who enters the Cedar Forest." But Gilgamesh replied: "Who is the mortal able to enter heaven? Only the gods can live forever. The life of man is short. The beginning there is the end of a long quote from Enlil, the only other character to speak in this section.

I *wouldn't* call HSLDA and instead would follow the example of this boy who requested a meeting with the deen and changed hearts and attitudes towards homeschooling rather than just official rules and regulations. This boy accomplished BOTH in a way that a well-written letter from a legal organization cannot. The lesson from this boy's story SHOULD be that one should not just take this answer as set in stone. Clearly, it isn't! Request a personal meeting with the dean of admissions and see if your daughter can't change both the rules *and* the impressions of the admissions department.

Breaking the Spanish Barrier is a great grammar-based Spanish program that is very affordable and is designed for self-study so is perfect for homeschoolers. It does not require an expert teacher to use it! http://www.tobreak.com/ If you are afraid of Latin but want to teach it, then take a look at First Form Latin. It is very affordable, very easy to use, and assumes no previous experience in latin or any other foreign language study. Even the DVD is fairly affordably priced, but I think the program is extremely easy to teach without it.

Dd is passionate about learning Japanese, loves the culture, loves the food (and is really good at making home-made noodle dishes, tempura and sushi) and wants to study abroad in Japan some day. It would be silly to require her to learn French. Ds is passionate about learning German, loves German food, loves learning about German culture, and wants to visit Germany some day. It would be silly to require him to learn Spanish. They both asked to study Latin again in place of formal Enligh Grammar studies, so I agreed. If neither of them wanted to learn a specific language, I would have required them to study either Spanish or French for 2 years as those would be easiest for me to help them with, and also have them study Latin for one year's worth (even if it took them two years)

So far I haven't dropped a ton of money on anything that didn't work, but I have spent small amounts on MANY things I didn't need, didn't use, or that didn't work. What saved me, I think, was that in the early years, I didn't HAVE the money to throw at something was wasn't SURE was a winner. Often, the cheapest programs have worked best for us, and that was a good thing at the start! Now I have more money to spend, so far the two biggest risks I've taken money-wise have been VP's Omnibus I (huge success) and Saxon Algebra I (we'll see how it goes, but so far so good and we're on Lesson 16).

For some reason my kids LOVED the R&S Spelling books. Unfortunately, my daughter has such poor spelling skills that I was afraid that 10-20 words a week wasn't fast enough ;-) I think it would have been best if I'd used it from the beginning with dd but I was busy trying lots of other "developmental" spelling programs that were, in a word, useless. If I had it to do all over again, I would use R&S Spelling for her from the beginning to the end, even though I do not like schoolish, workbooky type things in my homeschool.

*snicker* reading all these not-fun stories, and have to share one a friend told me years ago. She homeschools all 3 of hers from K-12, but sends them all to pre-school. This SHOCKED me and I asked her why! She said she has white carpet. As in, she wanted them to go away some place with linoleum floors so they could glue, cut, paste, glitter, paint, color, construct and play with mud & water. She looked long and hard for a preschool that was as messy as possible and did NOT teach "reading readiness" nonsense. "Teach them to read? Harumph, that's easy, and I'll do it myself. I just want you to let them be as messy as possible so they'll get it out of their systems because when they come home to MY white-carpet school there will be No More of That!" She loves Dostoyevsky and never would cringe at nuclear physics, but finger paints and glitter leave her shivering and wimpering.

I have no qualms about designating my daughter's Science as honors as she does Apologia, must finish the book, do *all* labs (unless duplicate of Singapore Science lab), plus supplement with readings from Singapore Science and do about 1/2+ of their labs. To me, Omnibus is honors for history & literature as these courses are chocked full of books that even college students would have to "wade through" and are IMO above & beyond (in difficulty & volume) than what I had to do in high school for International Baccalaureate English or history. What are your standards? I'm not talking AP here--I won't have my kids take *any* AP tests, I'll not call any of their courses AP on their transcripts, and at most they *might* take a CLEP test or two.

For my daughter who is more interested in a liberal arts education. She may study abroad one year, so years 11 & 12 would be condensed into one year, cutting many things out: 9th Omnibus II Our catechism material First Form Latin I One year of foreign language of choice (dd does Japanese with Rosetta Stone & Genki, ds does German with RS & Themen Neu and another program I found) Biology: Apologia Biology plus Singapore Biology as supplement (and balance) Algebra I (Saxon) Traditional Logic I Analogies II Poetry Memorization: Level 3 (2nd half) from IEW Geography: Reading around the world with Nat Geo, internet, etc. 10th Omnibus II First Form Latin II Second (or 3rd) year of foreign language of choice Chemistry: Apologia Biology plus Singapore Chemistry as supplement and balance Algebra II (Saxon) Traditional Logic II Poetry Memorization: Level 4 11th Sonlight Core 300 Additional reading material Our apologetics material Henle Latin I (optional) 3rd or 4th year of foreign language of choice (optional) Choice of: Physics, other advanced science course Advanced Mathematics (Saxon) Material Logic Rhetoric I 12th Sonlight Core 400 Additional reading material Latin & foreign language optional Rhetoric II Finish Material Logic if not yet done Science optional Math optional (pre-cal or cal) For my son who is more interested in math and science: 9th Omnibus II Our catechism material Henle IA (optional) One year of foreign language of choice (dd does Japanese with Rosetta Stone & Genki, ds does German with RS & Themen Neu and another program I found) Biology: Apologia Biology plus Singapore Biology as supplement (and balance) Algebra II (Saxon) Traditional Logic I Analogies II Poetry Memorization: Level 3 (2nd half) from IEW Geography: Reading around the world with Nat Geo, internet, etc. 10th Omnibus II Henle IB (optional) Second (or 3rd) year of foreign language of choice Chemistry: Apologia Biology plus Singapore Chemistry as supplement and balance Advanced Mathematics (Saxon) Traditional Logic II Poetry Memorization: Level 4 11th Sonlight Core 300 Additional reading material Our apologetics material Latin & Foreign Language optional Apologia Physics with Singapore Physics Calculus (Saxon) Material Logic Rhetoric I 12th Sonlight Core 400 Additional reading material Latin & foreign language optional Rhetoric II Finish Material Logic if not yet done Choice of adanced/AP Science Choice of advanced math course (dh will teach)

Dd has her own laptop, and it is very nice because dh wants it to last her through high school and not have to replace it until she leaves for college. She was 14 when she got it. Ds will hopefully get one also when he is the same age, just in time for high school. We are a fairly tech-savy family and dh and I have both worked in computer fields in the past (him in IT/TechSup and me in WebDev) so we are willing to spend more than most for computers, I think. Some of their friends have computers, but only desktops, no laptops. We live in a very working-class town. If you have money, you generally don't live here ;-)

Yeah, I start with this recitation: "KNOX, GET OUT OF BED! CARLEY, ENOUGH READING THAT BOOK--GET TO YOUR SCHOOL BOOKS! KNOX, GET OUT OF BED! CARLEY, QUIT MOTHERING YOUR BROTHER! KNOX, GET OUT OF BED!" or something similar, just to add variety which I hear is the spice of life. I'm not even sure my kids know how to recite the pledge. Maybe I should ask them? I know some start with prayer/bible, but seeing as how NONE of us are morning people, I don't want them to associate the goodness of God with the wicked pain of mornings.

:iagree: WSS 100%!

It never changes while they are visiting the non-custodial parent because the custodial parent is required to continue to maintain a home for that child even during visits--you can't temporarily pay less rent on your home during the summer just because one of your bedrooms is sitting empty and you want to pay 2-bedroom rent instead of 3-bedroom rent then! Also, your insurance premiums keep getting taken out of your paychecks, your electric bills keep on rolling in, and you will still be stocking up on school supplies & curriculum for the next year even while the child is away. Your expenses related to having custody of your child don't go away while the child is away, and neither should your child support payments. Fortunately, the law agrees!

1. The DOE can't even regulate its *own* schools well--drop-outs, bullying, bad behavior, failing grades, plumeting standards, etc. are all rampant. Why assume they can do better with HSs than they can do now with PSs? (And if they can't stop bullying, cyber-bullying, child abuse, child neglect, molestation of students by their parents, teachers and even fellow students when the kids are enrolled in the PS then what makes them think that HS oversite to prevent these things in HS?) 2. If a parent is dedicated to providing a good education, they will do so even without regulation. If a parent wants to sit around eating pork rinds and watching the boob tube all day instead, they will do so even with heavy regulations in place, and sometimes not even get caught. 3. Your sister is making a HUGE assumption that the standards to which the DOE would hold your children are the BEST or even ONLY standards that matter. There are many different scopes and sequences one could follow. She is also assuming that not being held to them would mean that most children would simply fall below them, that parents don't often have much higher standards, or that children don't often excede expectations and standards on theri own.