:grouphug:I'm on my third teen boy and I'm still shocked by how many stupid things they do. Fortunately, my 20 year old, who was an extremely immature teenager is starting to show some signs of maturity. There is hope!

I'm not a big fan of anything that makes it seem that keeping a living creature is cheap and simple. My 9 year old son is a likely future zookeeper and he's always talking me into more animals. We just spent several hours today cleaning our fish tank, cleaning our hermit crab tank, cleaning out the bunny cage and giving the bunny play time and taking care of our six cats. He is learning proper care and the time and work it takes to properly care for all kinds of creatures. Even hermit crabs and fish need daily care and I make sure he does it. I agree that you could get the frog IF you (and your dd) are willing to spend the time and money to properly care for it.

I agree with the others that you should buy Prismacolor pencils. When I was in architecture school it is what every student used. I still have some of them many years later and they're still my favorite.

Awww, he has such a friendly looking face.:001_smile:

Yes, I would let a child of that age see it.

No, that's not how it's done nationwide. I have a son who's a senior at the local public high school. He has read many novels and written reports on them. Right now they are reading Beowulf. Our schools also require all students in advanced classes to read certain novels over the summer and write a paper about it during the first month of school.

I don't allow screen time during lunch because I'll never get them back on track. Play, reading, eating or playing with our bunny usually happen at lunch time.

I'm right there with you. It's a rainy Monday and my son just cannot get moving today. It took almost two hours for one math paper! After he finished I let him play with his bunny hoping the break would help. I'm on the computer right now waiting for him to get some work done. Long holiday weekends and cloudy, rainy Mondays do not make for productive days.

We have one because it was part of a package that included other things that were really important to us. We would not have gotten it otherwise. We rarely use it. Our children know that it's only allowed to be used on trips that last 2 or more hours, so it only gets used a few times a year.

I live near a University and our church has a program to match foreign students with local families. They have many activities including shopping trips, picnics, hikes, parties and even "talk to an American" where students can come to a room on campus to practice their English with Americans. Several of my friends are involved and treat the students like part of the family. They do make a point of saying that most international students never see the inside of an American home if someone doesn't invite them!

I have a hard time with this because my children never want to let go of their toys. Telling them that some children don't have any/many doesn't really work well for us because we used to live in a very low income neighborhood. The kids in the neighborhood there would get plenty of new toys and bikes from charities and within months we would see them broken and strewn around the yard or in the trash while some of the exact same toys have lasted YEARS in our family. When my children realized that the kids didn't have many toys because they didn't take care of them, it really dampened the effect of saying that some children don't have many toys.:glare: I pack up many toys and if the kids don't play with them or ask about them for a long time, I ask them if we could sell or donate them. Often, I let them know that they won't get much for Christmas or birthdays because we just don't have the room and that encourages them to clean out the stuff they really don't care about.

I love it! My mom said she didn't like it the first year we had it but now she loves it. My son's girlfriend said it's her favorite Thanksgiving food. It's the one side dish leftover that we never have to throw out because it always gets eaten. I like that's it so easy to make.

Has he read "The Mysterious Benedict Society" books? My 9 year old loved those. He also liked the H.I.V.E. books.

I remember reading it in high school and loving it. I'll have to read it again some time.

I'm in the Midwest and my church started in the local public high school auditorium. The school in the next community rents out space to a new church congregation and a spin off church from my church started out meeting in a local public school auditorium. Another church met in a Christian school while putting up a new building.

When I first started reading The Wheel on the School, I thought it was a ridiculous story. I kept saying "Is this whole book really about a bunch of kids looking for a wheel?" until I saw how each of the characters were revealed and the village came together. We finished the book and ended up loving it.

My son was extremely unhappy and stressed in school. He had a teacher who yelled much of the time and classmates who made fun of him. He is very bright but also shy and would go for days without having anyone talk to him. When he would try to talk to his classmates about his interest in animals or Star Wars, they would make fun of him because of extensive knowledge about both subjects. He was in first grade and started peeing in his pants, crying after school everyday and developing tics. His teacher had less knowledge on certain subjects than my son did and I knew I could do a better job with less stress for the whole family.

MY FIL had Alzheimer's and he was in a facility that was only for those with Alzheimer's disease. He went to his room to get ready for dinner and didn't come back. They found him dead in a chair from an apparent heart attack.

I prefer snow bibs. They stay up on my thin kids and they keep snow out of their pants. My kids have never had more than one pair of snow bibs. We just hang to dry and wear them again.

Sorry, but there's no way that I'd leave a 10 year old alone in a hotel. I don't live in a large city and it would be considered a pretty safe area, but we frequently have news stories about crime in local hotels including meth labs, prostitution, drug deals, assault, and arson. Some of these are what I'd consider nice hotels. That would be the only issue for me.

We don't have gift exchanges with extended family other than our parents.

That's a good point! Maybe as the manager, it's always extra crazy and busy for him because of Black Friday and he always feels stressed or too tired to celebrate. I just know that he was not looking forward to leaving his family on Thanksgiving to prepare for Friday.

:iagree: Yep, it even outsold the Elvis Christmas album!

There is NO WAY that I'd be out there shopping on Black Friday. If I really need to shop that day, I'll do it online. I do find it kind of offensive that we can't even wait for the day of being thankful to end before we rush out to buy more junk. I was talking to a retail store manager the other day and he told me he had to leave home on Thanksgiving evening and work all night to prepare for Black Friday. His young son's birthday is the day after Thanksgiving and he said he's always had to work or he's sleeping after working all night and has never been able to celebrate on his son's birthday.

I would take him out. Preschool should be a positive experience and this isn't.