That is a good question. Maybe we did not stay on top of it. They never go out at all. We have ordered some siphotrol from Amazon and will soon be treating the yard. We do treat the cats monthly with something. I opened the windows this morning. Lovely. Thanks everyone!

Well, I guess I just assumed they came in through the windows. We have a one story house, and the windows the cats like most to sit in are about two feet off the ground. Plus sometimes I open the back door and just have the screen door, which does have a bit of a gap in places. You are theorizing that we are just tracking them in, then? I live in a suburban neighborhood where houses are fairly close but there are a few outdoor cats around, plus backyard dogs on all sides of me. In any event, I guess we'd still need to treat the yard? My husband seems to think we still have some fleas inside. I don't like to think that. Short of hiring a pest control company, what's an easy way to get rid of them? We aren't having a huge infestation or anything. The cats scratch their necks once in awhile. Is this fleas? I don't see any.

I have found that bread items made from scratch seems more filling (and certainly healthier and cheaper) than store-bought. If you have a bread machine, use it frequently. There are some easy bun recipes. Biscuits are easy, too. Gravy is a great stretcher and filling. Made from scratch, I don't know that it would count as unhealthy, especially if you're trying to stretch your meat. Biscuits and gravy. Creamed tuna on toast. Open faced pot roast sandwiches. Pot pies. Homemade waffles and pancakes are easy and cheap. Make homemade fruit "compote" or jam or marmalde with about-to-go-bad fruit and a little sugar in the crockpot.

In times of stress, sometimes it really helps to just do the basics. I see you have a couple in high school, but I would suggest cutting back as much as you can. Decide which subjects are absolutely positively necessary, and do only those. Use the rest of the time to deal with relationships and the move and whatnot. Maybe make a few wonderful memories.

Oh, great! Thank you! By the way, this made me think of calling our pest control company (kind of necessary here in S. TX), but they want way more than $24 that Amazon is advertising. So I'm going to go with this. Much appreciated!

How do you keep from getting fleas in the house? Last year, I tried to open the windows a lot (they are screened, but fleas are so tiny) to save on electric costs plus I just love fresh air in the house. However, eventually we seemed to have a house full of fleas. So this year, I haven't opened the windows at all, and we are essentially flea-less. We do put Advantage or Frontline on our two cats every month. Tips? I would love to open the windows again.

Get rid of cable. Get netflix instead. No iphones. If you need a non-dumb phone, there are many less expensive options. Then use a pay as you go service like ptel. Drop your home phone and use your cell phone as your home phone. Don't buy Walmart shoes unless you want to replace them every three months. Better quality shoes (and clothes) last longer and can often be gotten for sale prices which put them close to cheap clothes prices. Freeze all leftover food. Keep your thermostat at 78. Use very little power between 3 and 7pm, when rates are higher. Especially don't run the dishwasher or dryer. Line dry clothes.

Well, some may think this is too harsh, but you could always try doing school like public school at home for a week or so. Look up their schedule and adhere to it strictly. Be sure to have math books that she's not allowed to write in (a cheap way to do this would be Rod and Staff). Have worksheets. Send the kids outside for recess however often (or not often as is usually the case) the school does for the small length of time they get. In first grade in private school, my dd got recess once a week on Friday. If someone was naughty, it was taken away.

Maybe have some yogurt? Soy based or coconut based or whatever you can have? Make sure it has acidophilus in it (I think just "live cultures" might be adequate too). That always seems to help us with gastro symptoms.

The Cat Who mysteries by Lilian Jackson Braun Cat in the Hat Wow. There really is a cat genre. I'm so excited!

Three Little Kittens Millions of Cats Kittens for Kim Pete the Cat

Garfield, of course. I'm loving this thread. Can you tell?

There seems to be a Jenny the Cat series by Esther Averill that looks quite good. http://www.amazon.com/Jenny-Cat-Club-Collection-Childrens/dp/1590170474/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1407337602&sr=1-1&keywords=esther+averill TS Eliot's Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats.

Catwings series by Ursula LeGuin. Here is the first one: http://www.amazon.com/Catwings-Tale-Ursula-K-Guin/dp/0439551897/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1407337309&sr=8-1&keywords=catwings

Since it's in October, I would make pumpkiny or fall things. So branch out. There are cute crocheted pumpkin hats and pumpkin booties and such like. I am a big fan of seasonal items. I love table runners. Ooh, a pumpkin doily for the end table....

I know for netflix, you can search online at netflix.com like "house hunters" and it will pop up with similar stuff. Then you can click on the button to add it to your watchlist. Then it will show up in your roku netflix watchlist. As a for instance, I did just that, and found "My First Home" and "Salvage Hunters" on netflix which you might like. I haven't seen them. Amazon prime used to have Chopped and some HGTV shows. Again, search online and add them to your list.

You might look at these resources for grammar instead: The Sentence Family http://www.stmichaelschool.us/sentencefamily.html or Language Smarts B http://www.criticalthinking.com/language-smarts-level-b.html# (you can easily sharpie out the one place it mentions grade, which is on the cover. I don't agree with the grade level they say there at all, but it's a great book) or Grammar Island http://www.rfwp.com/series/grammar-elementary-program-by-michael-clay-thompson I agree that the spelling is not that big of a deal. Very typical of the age. My dd did the same thing. I freaked out and started reviewing some phonics with her, but really, I think it's the age. Just make her rewrite it with the correct spelling. And keep doing a spelling curriculum of some sort. I would drop math curriculum and just work on understanding and memorizing math facts right now. They are a necessary foundation. It really will be okay. You are discovering the holes in her learning. Now you just have to fill them.

I took the survey just now. I don't know that they are going to get much data meaningful to the homeschool community, but I guess they might be surprised at the range of demographics of homeschoolers. That really seemed to be the focus.

Fantastica :)

:grouphug:

Here's my list (Note that I used abridged version of most of these. I really like Usborne Young Reader versions or Illustrated Classics or graphic novels. I have a visual spatial learner.): Don Quixote Around the World in 80 Days Fairy Tales by Perrault William Wordsworth poems Legend of Sleepy Hollow Rip Van Winkle Pied Piper of Hamelin Grimm's Fairy Tales Alice in Wonderland Adventures of Tom Sawyer 20,000 Leagues under the Sea A Christmas Carol by Dickens Hans Christian Andersen Fairy Tales Edgar Allan Poe misc. Frankenstein Jane Eyre Moby Dick These were on my list, but I didn't get to them: Pilgrim's Progress Robinson Crusoe Rime of the Ancient Mariner The Way to Wealth by Ben Franklin Christina Rossetti poems Pride and Prejudice Scarlet Letter Oliver Twist Last of the Mohicans

You should scoop out the box every day or two, but change the entire litter every week. If you are not changing until three or four weeks, that could be your problem right there.

Ooh, yes. I love their Literature Pockets and History Pockets. Tall Tales was particularly fun.

Are you scooping his cat box every day so he has a clean place to poo? That can make a difference. Also, this is fairly typical. It will happen occasionally. As long as you are maintaining his box, I wouldn't worry about it, and would just clean up as needed. When one of our cats was a kitten, sometimes poo would hang on, and she would just wiggle and it would come off on the laundry room floor (the room next to the litter box room). It was gross and funny at the same time. That doesn't happen anymore, now that she's older.

If Horizons is a great fit for this child, I would stick with Horizons. Their Algebra looks very solid. As a former curriculum hopper, I would say stay with what works as long as possible, especially in Math. Because what if the thing you choose next is a bad fit? You can cross the bridge of Geometry and such when you come to it. I think Abeka or Bob Jones would be similar to Horizons. Or is there an Alpha Omega version? I believe they are the makers of Horizons. Or maybe Horizons will publish more upper level math and save us all problems.