Unrealistic goal and one that seems like the people who are involved don't really understand the issues. I read a very well researched newspaper article a few years ago that dealt with non-mentally ill homeless and who they were and how they got there. THe author came into the project thinking it was random circumstances and anyone could have this happen to them. It turned out not to be the case. These were inevitably people who had other major problems like having alienated all their family and acquaintances with bad behavior and poor choices or being so proudful that they refused to get help that was available. It was an eye opening read for me and I am sure for others. Now that was an article about the small percentage of homeless that are typically depicted as being victims of economic hard times. The much big percentage of homeless are mentally ill, mentally ill with substance abuse issues, or simply substance abuse issue people. None of them can be helped under our present laws unless they are in imminent danger to themselves or others. That is a difficult standard and so they wander and get worse. I think this is one of the worse failings of the civil rights era.

When we lived in Albuquerque, there was a teen who murdered a neighbor. His first name was Mister.

It can be very hard. My dh never has deployed but he is always gone. Two things I think are important are communication with him and time alone for yourself. I now have older children but when they were younger and he had some very long tdys, I would hobble together day care options (things like base night out or a local gymnasium had a parent's night out) and go to a movie or go to a bookstore and get a coffee.

Also, please consider vision problems. My dd started to read somewhat early (4) and at age 8, she still wasn't reading chapter books. But what I thought was very strange was that she could read complex words in picture books like tthe Beatrix Potter books. I had been taking her faithfully to get an eye exam each year and nothing was found. WHat I did then was call up receptionists of opthalmologists and describe her and ask if the doctor would be able to figure it out. SHe also had a tendency to smash into corners. It turned out that she had a convergence problem. SHe could read the picture books because they had a lot of blank space around the words. SHe was seeing double. We did some therapy at home with just occasional visits and got her glasses with a prism correction and a slight far sighted correctin. Within 6 months, she was reading long, long chapter books. She did not have a reading problem, she had a vision problem. SHe is a big reader still today but her reading becomes problematic if she is very tired or headachy.

My adult son housesat at a house where the owners had cows, rabbits, cats, dogs, etc. He had another job too so this was just a side job.

Sorry to hear about your cat.

That is a bargain. My dd gets 10/hr for one rambunctious kid around here.

I don't think this is a parent problem or a homeschooler problem at all. As the article said, many of these schools with the strange pattern do not even have parent letters of intent. I do think someone is telling the parents to do this or they will get in trouble with the law since they can't force their kid to go to school. One big reason I don't believe we should increase the age of mandatory schooling. They need to take these kids out of the school and put them into something like job corps. I don't know if job corps takes kids less than 18 but something like that. It is my big beef with the whole No Child Left Behind - plenty are anyway and they get to high school and someone expects them to do algebra and geometry when they can't multiply and divide and read great works of literature when they can barely read at all.

Yes, a study in the Lancet found that it helps about 2/3 of migraine sufferers. It hasn't completely eliminated them but greatly reduced the amount and severity. It has one side effect though, it turns your urine very orangy yellow.

The opening match (Mexico v South Africa) (we are rooting for SA) is being broadcast on ESPN on June 11th. The first US game, US v Britain, will be shown on ABC on June 12 at 2pm. THe tournament lasts about a month. It reminds me that it will be four years since we have been back in the USA since we were watching the last World Cup tournament in base lodging at Patrick AFB on the beach.

I get a migraine sometimes. Less often since I take a migraine preventer (400mgs of B2 daily). What I find is interesting is that either NIH or NIMH is doing a study on migraines and depression in families. It seems that these are related and that families have certain people that get migraines and others that get depression and I suppose some unluckies who get both. Anxiety is well known to be linked to depression so I could definitely see a link there.

What always annoys me are the misnamed places Oak hill when the place is full of pines or Pine glen without any pines around.

I am already contemplating giving dd1 my car next year when she goes to college depending on two things- where she goes and where are we stationed. If she is going to a school on the same coast or within regular driving distance from us, then yes. THere is the added complication that dd needs to see doctors every few months and needs transportation for that. So if we live near enough or we go overseas, dd gets car. Otherwise, she won't. My insurance doesn't make any of our children principle drivers but we only have two cars. It does give us good student discount, driver's training discount, and if she goes away with no car, a student away discount.

Here is what my dd's do and have great luck. They shop thrift stores. My 13 yo 5'2.5 recently got a black Chinese style dress for about $10. I know my older who is 5'4.5 and wears very small sizes has had a lot of choices at them. Most people gain weight as they age and that means they shed clothes. Since they often only wore the formal dress once, they are in great shape.

Don't use Abeka if you are not a math person. From everything I have ever heard about Abeka math for high schoolers is that you need to be good at math to teach it.

Yes, my 13 mows the lawn with our reel mower. (We have a very small lawn). She was doing it last year when she was 12 too. My one dd never did it since she would have been the main mower when we lived in a house with yard service. My son mowed a lawn when he was 14, I think, because befoire that we either had no lawn or yard service again.

I have been in three regular co-ops. All have had policies that everyone works. THere has been different policies with little ones in every place but generally, either the mother works in the nursery or she takes her little with her, if that is needed. In the co-op I am in now, all of us work 2 periods and have support group the other period. We have a very large group (over 500 people attending) and it works out well. I see some moms bringing their little babies to the support group meeting so I don't know if the rest of the time they are working in the nursery or just working in other jobs or teaching other classes. They don't teach any of my kids so I am not sure. But everyone does something or many somethings. I teach two classes, coached one team, and judged and timed for another activity. A mom I know who doesn't teach a class coaches an afternoon activity, arranges all field trips, and works in the resource room. This is just one example of someone who has kids in the program but isn't teaching. We have some classes that have many teachers like cooking and pe. Others like my high school classes have only one.

My family loves to watch World Cup- anyone else here who is a fan?

Actually in all the areas I have ever lived in, including overseas in Belgium, there were noise ordinances and noise is not allowed before 7am, for example, here nor after 11 pm. I consider that a reasonable rule. I would check my area's rules and then I would let it go if it only happened one time. If it was against the rules, like I suspect it may very well be if you live in a city or suburb, then I would only talk to the neighbor if it happened again. If he persisted after the warning, I would then be putting in complaints to whoever does noise enforcement.

I agree about just supervising your children for these seven weeks and maybe talking to the little girl's parents. I have seen a big change in how people supervise children in the time I have had children which is 22 years. The supervision is less and less. At my church, we have a coffee hour with snacks. Can you just guess how many people let their very young children run around unsupervised? I am talking about 2-4 year olds wandering around a large church fellowship hall with hundreds of adults, two congregations mingling, and a large church complex to escape to including easy ways to escape to the outdoors and into traffic. At one event, I found a little girl no more than 2.5 yo who was lost and wanted her Mom. I found her MOm and Mom didn't hold on and she got lost again. This isn't a little church and not only do the kids do things they shouldn't (like take a bite of a cookie and try to put it back on the tray or grab so many cookies they can't manage to hold them) but the safety risk here is high. Even if no one wants to do these children any harm, the amount of older or less steady people (like myself with arthritis in my feet) is such that crowds of big adults and little tiny kids is just not safe.

Subjects are dropping and I think the last day of this year will be sometime before the end of the month. THen we will start in June with 12th and ninth grades but at least my older will still be finishing two subjects- ALg. 2 and Biology. The younger will still be finishing Algebra. But they will get to drop some and not start some other until after our SUmmer vacation in August. So the plan is right now for summer- finish maths, sciences, continue with SPanish, and start and finish a short literature course.

I am reading Inspector Maigret detective books and the last book by Robert Parker (that one is a very quick read). Just read the latest Botswana mystery books by Alexander McCall Smith last night. I don't normally read aloud since my youngest is 13 but I am making an exception starting today. I will skim and read aloud BJU Life Sciences to her so we can actually get through this. I need to reread Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man to discuss with oldest dd.

I have one more going into high school. For the first, who both he and I thought was going into history, we did WTM way with Great Books and Teaching Company tapes. We added in Geography (Cross country travels and then travelling in Europe for two years plus map work) and Government (both Great Books and practical side by helping on campaigns and also Boy Scout work). DD1 wanted to do a combined history and literature class but it didn't work out well since her ninth grade was her sickness year. SO we ended up with two years of American history (books and Teaching Company), geography (tapes and travel), government (book and class), economics (book and class), and finally next year Western Civ (book and TC tapes). FOr lit, we mostl read Great Books and next year she will be doing 20th cent. lit in a class but I will supplement it with some ancients and a Russian writer or two this summer. Number three is my science/Engineering child. She doesn't like the Great conversation- except if it is about how things work. I am going to supplement her history (textbooks) with lots of things about history of science and technology. If she turns out to be a lot like my dh, which I think she will, she will develop the interest in literature and ideas later. She will definitely do standard classes since she likes everything orderly like that.

My only really big eater now is my 13dd. SHe is worried about that she is hungry. I thinks she just needs to eat. SHe has grown 2.5 inches in less than a year and she is still growing. SHe had a very long time with almost no growth (over two years) and now she is making up, I think. My problem is that she is extremely picky- guess I need another talk to her about what she actually wants to eat now.

Oh I now realize how come DD's APril reading test score fell from 34 to 28. In the April testing session, the proctor got the time wrong and called a five minute warning 15 minutes into the test. DD got nervous and started marking answers. THen when the five minutes had passed, she went back to change things. I think the whole messup is a big reason her reading score fell so much. All her other scores rose or stayed the same since there weren't any time problems with those.