I voted sometimes because with DD8, I usually go over her list of work with her each morning and make sure she knows what to do. Over the course of the year, she has needed less and less guidance in "how" to do things and now it's mostly just reviewing the list and making sure she can find the materials she needs. Your 8yo may just be wanting the attention, in which case I would get the child out of bed 20 minutes earlier and go over their lessons with them before the other two get going.

My favorite gift for Eagle Scouts is a Leatherman. Not one of the cheap knock offs, but a real, hardened steel one with the belt holder. You could even have the scout's name engraved on it.

My high-maintenance oldest son started doing behaving like yours at 4yo when kid #3 was born. He was terribly jealous of the new baby and this was his way of expressing it. I notice you have an 8 week old - could something similiar be happening? We used many of the techniques mentioned by other moms. But what helped ME the most was the institution of "Quiet Time". DS never napped, of course, but we had a mandatory 1 hour of play-quietly in your room - he could read or listen to tapes. But I got an hour of quiet time away from him and he had a chance to "settle himself" each day away from the baby and the 2yo. It really helped save my sanity during this rough time - I could make uninterrupted phone calls or do household chores. ETA: I just remembered - what got us thru church was to get there a half hour EARLY and go thru the awkward transition behavior time BEFORE the service started. Having time to "get used" to church, talk to the people coming in, whatever seemed to really help. DS was always worst during transition time!

I like the one where you have them color on coffee filters with washable markers. Then you spray a little water on the filters so the color sort of bleeds. Then wrap the filters around pencils to make hand-colored flowers for Mom. You can probably find directions if you google "coffee-filter flowers". These are super easy and look really nice.

If it was my kid, I would march them back upstairs and tell them to change. If she had some under garment showing, I might quietly mention it to her so she wouldn't be embarrassed. But it's not my job to dictate what other folks wear to church. Honestly, in our church, she could just go sit with the old ladies wearing short-shorts and tank tops. No one would bat an eye.

I really feel for you. Grounding her probably won't make her more grateful. At least, it has never worked for me. But not taking her places will probably do the trick. You have the perfect opportunity to just-say-no with the upcoming sleepover (8 HOURS??? NO WAY!!!). I think a few episodes of sitting home will make her more appreciative of the transportation services. I know that my teens occasionally (ALWAYS) take their Dad and I for granted - usually a little deprivation brings them around attitude-wise.

protein is very good. Peanut butter, refried beans, eggs are all staples here. We used to have leftovers in the fridge for the next day, but now with 3 teens in the house, they pretty much clear out the leftovers after sports practice.

Not just teenage boys. Teenage girls too. It can be amazing to see them come in from sports practice and eat a second (or third) dinner!

Love Dr. Who!!!! My kids were moaning earlier today about the new Dr. not being the same as the old Dr, but I'm willing to give him a fair trial - oh a season or two! before I give up hope. I love this show!

Thanks, Lolly. I don't think I'll let my teens know, though. They supposedly read the manual to pass their permit tests and still think they can't take other teens in the car regardless. We'll just keep it that way for safety's sake.

Here (AK), drivers with learners permits are specifically prohibited from driving with anyone under 21 in the car unless the passenger is a sibling. Then, when they get their license at 16, they have an additional 6mos where they are not allowed to have any passengers under 21 except siblings. This seems like just good common sense to me. Having another teen in the car is a distraction. And, even if it wasn't the law, I would not want my teenager riding with an inexperienced, easily-distractible driver.

Sounds exactly like my ps HG/T DD16. She has put an enormous amount of effort into "going stealth" - her term for pretending to be as normal as possible and as completely un-nerdy as she can get. She is an amazing "social chameleon" - I'm in awe of how she can change herself to fit the social situation. I wish often that I had her social skills.

:grouphug: There were years where one of my children was not allowed into a store unless they were holding onto my or DH's hand. The. whole. time. And since said child felt they were much too old to have to hold hands with Mom/Dad, it did get the lesson home. Oh - and I am firmly in the "no candy" camp for both kids. For a good long time.

The voice of experience here.....you need a lid on the hermit crab habitat if you have a cat or small children. My cat :LOVED: his hermit crabs!

Age...Spring...Whatever.....I've been there, done that, and have way too many t-shirts! What helps at our house is MORE SLEEP and MORE EXERCISE. Hauling wood, shoveling snow, extra martial arts classes. And a much earlier bedtime. Or even a quiet nap time for that pre-teen. None of this is punishment, mind you, just giving the child an outlet for the excess hormonal energy (instead of whining at you!) and a chance to rest properly.

Terry Pratchett books "Dr. Who" on t.v. and....runescape.

HoodaMath.com is my kids fav for online math games. Very cool and totally fun. My kids also enjoyed the Jumpstart series (the CDs not online) and ClueFinders CD games.

A 1994 Ford explorer with 4 wheel drive - a blessing in the winter here for sure. Very safe and totally uncool.

DS18 - 6000 a month DD16 - 10000+ a month Unlimited plans, of course..... and the 2 of them together use less than 50 minutes of voice calls. Me....I rarely use over 500 texts - most of them from DS18 and DD16!

W00t!!!! Wow!!! Congratulations!!!

Many of the girls here never learn to play softball until they are 12 or 13. Athletic girls with good hand-eye corrdination do well. Tennis players, for example, are amazing when you put a bat in their hand and are really good fielders (you have to teach them how to throw, but their arm strength is wonderful). Like the pp said - if the teen is willing to put some time in outside of practice, they can probably master the skills.

At my house, the pre-teen boy would probably be preparing for a massive growth spurt and needs about 4 hours more sleep at night than he is getting. If every thing else is "normal" and this is a new thing, I would suspect sleep deprivation.

Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs

The difficulty we find with maintaining the chore rotation is that DS18 is often not home at the appropriate time due to work, classes, sports. This really was never an issue until this year. I think it's quite appropriate to have them help around the house. But we have had to make adjustments so that the things he is helping with are not time-sensitive. For example, clearing the table/cleaning the kitchen after dinner didn't work when he wasn't there for dinner. But he is glad to haul the trash/wash out the cans when he gets home from sports practice.

Sounds like you have a plan! We just took a break from Saxon 6/5 for a couple of weeks to do the Key to Decimals and Key to Percents books. DD just wasn't getting these two concepts. 2 weeks later, she is solid on the material and doing well again!