Yes, I would like to know about dress codes and music codes before. I know that my musical and athletic daughter would not take kindly to such restrictions unless gangsta rap was the only music restricted (which she considers noise).

That is why we sit each of our children down in eighth grade and discuss high school. If they are homeschooled, we say, it is for the entire high school. We never know where we will be stationed and enrolling in school can be difficult if not impossible. By the time they are in eighth grade, they should be able to make this choice. In many other countries, they are choosing career paths at 11 or 12. This is just a high school choice so I think that can easily be made.

:iagree: with laughing lioness. I may have a similar problem with my daughter, I am not sure since she didn't bomb her 10 grade PSAt but didn't do anywhere as well as her older brother had done. ON the other hand, he didn't suffer from migraines and PMDD and she was having PMDD on the day she took the test. SInce she has decided she wants a very competitive career, I am doing all I can to help. THat means this summer she is going to do CD Sat Math prep. She is alos going to do vocabulary prep. The Math prep course gives SAT tricks and she has had planty of testing practice. By the way, even if your state doesn't require testing, I strongly suggest testing from let's say 3rd grade or so up. It doesn't matter how they do, it matters that they learn to take standardized tests. I had the misfortune to watch a girl take a Stanford test for the first time in the ninth grade. When I mean she bombed, I mean she didn't do most of the test. I was a substitute tester since she had missed the first day of testing. I saw what she had done on the previous day's tests. Most was blank. Now she was reading very well, LOTR was what she brought for extra reading, and my dd hd said she talked as if she was reasonably intelligent. But she hadn't ever done tests nor had she been prepped. The best thing for test anxiety or anything like that is to do lots.

For my oldest, he did art- which included water painting class and drawing. He also did a Science Fiction literature, and Russian. My next one is doing music electives- Choir, Introduction to Music, etc.

I am on opiate pain killers and have been since 2001. I am not addicted and not even dependent on them. That is, I sometimes forget a dose or two and never had any withdrawal symptoms. I also have no 'high' whatsoever. It doesn't make me feel good, it makes me able to function with arthritic pain. On a good day, I don't have hardly any pain. Many days, I still have pain but mostly the kind I can function with. Well done studies have shown that people with chronic pain have a very low addiction rate. Basically, the people who become addicts are people who become addicts regardless of the drug or vice of choice. I don't have an addictive personality. I don't doctor shop, I don't get or try to get multiple perscriptions, etc. By the way, the biggest danger here in the US with opiate addiction is what they mix it with i the pills. That is, you will get harmed by the overdose of acetaminophen faster than the overdose of hydrocodone. I was in a lot of pain until my doctor explained to me that I cannot pick and choose when to take my medication. For medication to work well with chronic pain, you need to keep it rather steady in the blood. By the way, I have been on similar dosings of pain killers for 6 years and it continues to work rather well for me although I did need to go on stronger disease modifying drugs because of functionality issues and also pain.

about three weeks in the states and six weeks overseas (APO)

As a Christian and a mother of a Eagle Scout, I would not have had a problem with Laura and her son with what they did with the requirements. Obviously they are not Christians. But they do have an ethical system and could, in theory, meet with others who believe as they do. There are established groups of humanists. I, for one, tend to veiw them if not as religions, as religious equivalents. Buddhists can be Boy Scouts and they do not believe in a higher being, per se. Boy Scouts is not a religious organization and there are no religious tests. Anyone who can refrain from disparaging religious beliefs and has a belief system in place - be it that we have a moral obligation to help humanity or some such thing, will most likely have no problems at all. Now each different Boy Scout troop has different leaders. You may have to look around and check several groups.

Yes, they should register at military.com and they have both the new GI rules and a GI bill calculator.

We have that with four out of five family members. My dh is alone in not having anything like that. DS has unknown liver issues that aren't serious now but ? DD 15 has a lot of issues which each is being watched and monitored but some of which may very well be connected and actually one underlying issue since she is either extremely unlucky or is having at least a few co-related issues. We are treating what issues need treating and monitoring others. DD12 has osteoporosis which is a diagnosis but in children, it usually is secondary to something. We have done all the tests for the most common causes of this non-common disease and now we are in the treat it now category and find the cause later. The doctor thinks it could be idiopathic juvenile osteoporosis which would be the best diagnosis since it would go away in a year or so when she reaches puberty. I have an offical diagnosis of Sjogren's but actually have more of a overlap syndrome since I have very specific lupus markers and other issues more like RA. WE treat the main diagnosis the same way we would be treating others except with a few additions like eye drops anyway so that is where I am at.

I think Intelligence is almost all nature to start out with but you can certainly lower it with neglect, abuse, etc. :iagree: with the article and had wondered in the past why my family was different than that which is described by multiple intelligence fans. We are good at learning. One of my kids is particularly talented in drawing and painting, another is very musical (and it is not solely interest based. or rather her brain was wired for this interest). SOme people love music but that doesn't make them have any talent. I also agree with those who say while it is nature, you do better by assuming it isn't. Note too that a few conditions are often found with giftedness and can mask it. ADHD, dyslexia, anxiety, etc. IN terms of math drill, that has very little correlation with intelligence. My 12 yo maxes out math concepts part of the test but doesn't have all her facts down. Although I have had math oriented undergraduate degree and very heavy statistics based graduate, I still have to reflect on a few math facts. So does my PhD husband. So what- it takes us only a second or two to figure it out although we may not remember 8*7 at a given moment. I do calculate quickly though and often people in groups like to use me for cash handler at events since I do that.

I always took mine. Only one didn't like it much and she loves them now.

I think this issue is one that typical liberal/conservative labels don't apply. That is because some people see the school in a law enforcement position and they then take a position on that. Then others see it as a constitutional search issue and think that whatever emergency exceptions apply to searchless warrants, non-prescription drug rumors just don't meet that criteria. The fact that someone could be injured by one is no different than someone could be injured by a pencil or a plastic bag. THe school should step in when they see a clear and present danger like someone throwing pencils or putting plastic bags over people's heads or handing out medications. The mere presence of a pencil, or a plastic bag is not a danger. And most certainly the rumour of one of those things or the equally legal ibuprofen isn't either. We aren't talking about things like alcohol or cigarettes which are illegal for kids under age.

The Supreme Court today ruled 8-1 that a search of a 13 yo girl in Arizona including checking her underpants for ibuprofen was an unconstitutional search. I am so happy that finally the schools have been limited un the crazy searches. My kids don't go to school but my middle is going to a program this summer held at a school building. SHe won't be carrying medicines but I am glad they won't be able to search her without getting others involved.

That is very hard especially if they can't swim. I talked with my daughter and our coaches explain the strokes to everyone, no matter if they have been swimming one year or ten. They have a sytematic way of getting people in the pool like once every five or ten seconds. No one is swimming on top of anyone even when we do have a lot of kids like in the warm up before a meet. They have orderly lines and everything is kept orderly. My daughter remarked the your team sounds horrible when she asked why I was asking. SHe had started the season having never done a complete butterfly storke and not doing the breast all that well and the coaches explained and helped them learn everything, even to the children who had done it before. They also divide our team into three practices by age groups.

We weren't owners but our house in Florida where we lived until December had a inground pool. WE had an automatic pool cleaner that vacuumed up leaves, bugs, etc. That was great. We also had a pool service. He took care of everything- the chemicals, the vacuum, checking the water levels, the pumps, etc. When something was wrong, he told us and the landlord and arranged for it to be fixed. I wouldn't have known that there was a problem. I decided then that when we retire and have a house with a pool (dh's preference), we will have pool service. The only things we did was occasionally fill uo the water if it had been particularly dry and hot, and also clear out the vacuum if it was full early or the large palm fronds that fell in after a storm.

I have a very large cat- that is he is taller, much longer and has a bigger head than most household cats. He weighs about 16 lbs and I think he probably should lose about 2 lbs. He is eating the recommended amount of Iams lose weight/anti hairball dry food. He is 8 years old and healthy. SHould I be switching him to moist food? WHat kind? Regular canned or something else? He is medium haired and he has an issue with both hairballs at times and with canned foods, he normally overeats and then upchucks. Any recommendations?

Everyone in my house likes to have fun at my expense. They all think that I am not that fun. But about activities- I do plan that. I make sure they have plenty of fun even though they think I don't. See I would rather read a good mystery or go look at flowers. I am not fond of most comedic movies although I do like some comedians. I generally am not a slapstick kind of person and they all like to do things like either doodle on my newspaper or watch their dad draw funny cartoons. ALl four of them read comics and I never do. I am not changing. They love me anyway although I am more serious. I am not a grouch, worried about other;s opinions or anything like that. I just have different interists (sp I know but having a brain spasm or something since I tried to spell that five or sic different ways). THey can watch their silly shows while I watch my news program or my mystery diagnosis or Dr. G. I find my dh and dd's enginnering shows quite boring and unfun. C'est la vie.

I have one in a local walk-on swim team and she walks by herself there since it is five houses away and she is 12. This is our first year. FIrst of all, she knew the coaches' names the first day. SHe said they all do warm up drills like crunches and pushups before swimming. I have been at the meets and the coach talks to kids about what they could do better next time. No one is swimming on anyone else. They have practice times divided by age groups. SHe is in the 9-12 group. SHe has stroke lessons in the winter in preparation for this summer but she has learned more since being on the team. FOr the younger kids, they do more teaching but anyone who doesn't know anything is taught whatever they need. They have lots of people in the water helping the youngest kids because they ask older ones to stay and help. Mine often does. I wouldn't be happy with the situation if there was chaos in the pool. It should be orderly. The children who are experienced at swim meets should know what to do and if so many don't, I would guess that it is an inexperienced team and needs much more training and supervision. In our case, there are only a few kids in the 11-12 group who are first timers like my daughter and they all quickly caught on.

I think that at this point, I would not be interested in welcoming my dh back if he did something like this. What a horrible example for children- not her, him. And to do this on Father's Day weekend, no less. I also have to wonder why we keep electing jerks, be they Democrats or Republicans. I know that I am not voting for these fools who shame their families and their offices. At least, she wasn't trotted up there to stand up there while he makes his mea culpa.

I agree with the posters who think there may be abusiveness going on. We had a similar situation occuring when we were overseas. THe husband wasn't a believer but was very controlling over the wife. She was young, had a few kids, was away from family, and it wasn't a good situation. I believe it finally came down to her having to fly home with the kids. She was a very sweet person but he was older, and very possessive. When a cousin came to visit, that is when she persuaded her to leave. We were suspecting problems like this and had encouraged her to talk to family, maybe go visit family, etc. I am normally a person who wants marriages to stay together but not abusive ones. I don't consider those legitimate marriages since there is no partnership but rather an agressor and a victim or sometimes two aggressors. I want to emphasis that I am not equating non-believers with abusiveness. I just think that someone being furious over a spouse's once a week activity that isn't immoral or unsafe is a warning sign of abuse regardless if they are furious about a Bible study, a book club, or a ladies coffee night. Now I think that if he knows this church is geared towards men, he may be rightly upset that she isn't going to a women's bible study or at least a less male oriented one. However, if she goes to another style Bible study and still he is upset, then the same warning applies. Note that Gov. Sanford wnet down the wrong path supposedly by meeting this woman in Argentina at some Christian conference or other Christian event. That is why I said if his issue is with men, she should go to a women's study.

I posted this on the college sub=board but think more AD families might see this on this forum. I knew we were eligible to transfer GI bill benefits but I had no idea how much money it is. So far from what I have found it is anywhere between 22K and 70K a year. Obviously we will be looking more at the states where the payment is higher since colleges cost so much now. Only thing we need to do is make sure we can fund the youngest child's college too. But since she is thinking about engineering, I think it is easier to get scholarships for that. Type in GI Bill calculator and have the colleges zip code and you can check out how much money you can get.

What didn't work- BJU Spanish 2- she really needed a class or more interaction here even though we got the DVD. At least she was a sophomore and we will finish up Spanish 2 in another way this year and then move onto more Spanish.

My dd is a junior this upcoming year and so we really need to start looking at schools. I had been under the wrong idea that she would be getting only money for the cost of FLorida state schools since that is where our legal residency is. Now it turns out that out of the states I have researched so far (about 20) she would get anywhere from a low of 22,087 a year if she goes to a school in DC to 71,022 if she goes to a school in Texas. I think we will still try to have her try to get merit scholarships so that we can either use the money for her younger sister (who actually is more likely to get scholarships as she will be going the science/engineering route) or for the older one to get financing for law school or medical school. Dh will get 4 years of tradional school years financed up to the maximum for the given area and he can divy it up as he pleases to me or the children. (He could use it for himself but since he already has a PhD, I don't think so).

Some of these cases are negligence but most are accidents. The negligence occurs when someone leaves the child knowingly in the car like to go to work when they don't have a sitter. Otherwise it is an accident. And I am certainly with those who don't want accidents prosecuted. Those parents have enough suffering. I agree with Drama Queen and a few others that if it isn't this thing we do accidently, it will be something else down the line or some other way we fail. We are fallen beings and are not perfect.

I just went to the site. It showed my older to be high average on verbal although she has always been much above average in writing and reading once her eye problems were solved. So basically it showed her too low but correct on the part which she is most talented. On the other hand, my youngest is topping out math concept sections and is definitely much more math oriented and talented than her sister. However she scored lower than her sister on both and they said she was equally good or bad at everything. That just isn't true. As the interpretation said, N is significantly higher on all the non Language Arts and Reading portion of the test than predicted. That is because the test was not accurate. Now I will have to decide when we will have enough money to test her accurately with a professional.