I bought some Prismacolor pencils at Michael's on Tuesday and used the online coupon, but I was just studying my receipt and found the 20 percent coupon did not take anything off for the pencils, only the other items I purchased. I'm going to go back and talk to the manager. I'm guessing they are going to say the Prismacolor is not on sale but on "clearance," which is excluded from the coupon. Check your receipts!

I know it seems a long time off, but the week after Halloween is a great time to find cheap costumes of all sorts.

Is there a good reason for paying more for the multi-user homeschool account? Does each child in my home need a separate login?

Disposable cameras, small flashlights, key chains, dollar bills, gift cards ($5 for iTunes for example) or movie gift certificates. Anything to eat is a safe bet, I agree!

Just FYI: The digital download is only $12 at currclick.com. (I'm not affiliated with either the product or the store.)

Thank you for this suggestion! Updating *did* fix the problem and all is well. I also got an email response back from Karyn at Homeschool Spanish, and she said the deadline is going to be extended.

My files seemed to download with no problem, but some of the pages are unreadable. I have emailed and am waiting on a reply. I recommend scrolling through the pages of your download. My activity book seemed to have the most problems.

I'm so glad you posted this. Mine had gone into my spam folder as well. Thank you!

My son's tutor gave me a copy of the High Noon Books catalog to get some "high/low readers" after we finish Level 3. I haven't yet ordered any of the books, but I plan to in the near future. You can see sample chapters on the Web site, I just noticed. http://www.highnoonbooks.com/inside-readers.tpl

We did this at our house recently. My daughter has a hard time letting go of things, so her toys were out of control. We sat down the night before and made two lists -- one for stuff we knew she wanted to keep and the other for things she didn't mind getting rid of. The next day, we went through and gathered everything on the give-away list and boxed it up. I think this helped because we weren't discussing the items while we were boxing them up. It was easier for her to detach. I kept emphasizing how much nicer her room would be when she had room to display her dolls and play with her other toys.

I didn't realize there had been more than one edition. I guess I have a newer one (just bought mine in July). Regarding the short vowel issue: We are midway through level three of Barton (lesson five of eleven), and just did the FLOSS rule. I just looked in my manual, and it does not say it has to be a short vowel. I'm sorry for any confusion my mistakenly saying that earlier caused. It does say single vowel. All of the examples used are short vowel words because we have just used short vowels to this point. Words that end in "oll" -- toll, roll, stroll -- are taught in lesson eleven with "oll" as a unit syllable, which means that "oll" together always says the sound you hear in roll. Sorry again for misspeaking.

I am using Barton with my son, who is dyslexic, and AAS with my daughter, who is not dyslexic. AAS does include the FLOSS rule, on page 82-83 of level one. It is presented in a more explicit and repetitive way in Barton because of the way that program is scripted, but it is definitely there in AAS as well.

Barton teaches the FLOSS rule, too. Short vowel sound and ends in F, L or S, the last letter is usually doubled. Then we learn a few exceptions right away: gas, bus and yes.

TeeLeigh, at some point in my education, I learned this mnemonic device: There is "a rat" in separate. Now, I don't know *why* this is easier for me remember, but I don't misspell it anymore. LOL I have trouble with the word yield. I always type it yeild first.

There's a chain called Petite Sophisticate where we bought my niece a size 2 suit -- for debate, too! The store is in our local mall. ETA: Just read the rest of the thread and I wanted to add that I've ordered blazers from Chadwick's for me -- definitely not petites, though -- and I've been pleased with the quality for the price.