Quite honestly the other girls are afraid to talk to the coach too. They are actually afraid of her. One of the girls had the stomach flu last week and had to miss one practice. The coach was furious with her. Another had her wisdom teeth out and was out longer than expected because of an infection. She was also furious with her. These girls are terrified of her because knows how bad she will treat them. Last year a girl quit the squad. She did it at the end of the year and while I agree it wasn't the best time to quit (right before a competition) I don't agree with the way the coach handled it. She talked bad about her to all the other girls and convinced many of them to hate her and treat her bad. I think all of the girls are worried that if they speak up that the coach will do that to them too. Even the parents I spoke to don't want to talk to the coach for fear it will make matters worse for their daughters. My dd loves dancing and really enjoys the girls on the squad and performing at the games. She doesn't really like the competitions. The coach has always said that it wasn't about the competitions but of course this isn't true.

My 17 year old dd is on a pom pon squad at her christian high school. Last summer practices started off pretty rough. The coach was very mean to the girls. Another mom approached me (who happens to be a teacher at the school). She was also upset by the way the teacher was treating the girls. We both tried talking to the coach (after our girls had tried talking to her) but she wouldn't listen. The teacher convinced me to even talk to administration. I know that the person I spoke with kept our conversation confidential but afterword the coach only treated the girls worse. My dd trudged through summer practices and things were somewhat better during the school year. The biggest competition is in August so the coach is her worst over the summer. It is a huge commitment that takes up most of her summer. Starting in a week they will have 4-5 hour practices 5-6 times a week. Right now they have practice 4 times a week. My dd really enjoys dance and performing at the football and basketball games so she decided to try out for the team again this year. She felt that things would be better this year. She made the squad and a few days later I ran into the coach. All the coach could say is how wonderful my dd did. A few weeks later when summer practices began she started to tell dd how awful she was. She has called all of the girls lazy and a waste of time. She accuses dd of not trying her hardest. DD goes to practice an hour early just for extra practice. She went to every practice and game last year and hasn't missed a practice this summer. All of the other girls on the squad have missed at least one day of practice this summer. Many have missed several days due to vacation and one girl even missed almost 3 weeks. We are leaving for vacation tomorrow and arranged to leave right after practice at 11:00. Two days ago the coach changed her mind and said that she wanted to have a double practice on Thursday. Dd told her that we are leaving for vacation at 11:00. We are also going with another family so this isn't flexible. Today she told my dd that she better convince the other girls to do a wonderful job on Thursday, otherwise dd would be late for her vacation. I've talked to a few other parents. Their daughters have also come home crying from practice. My dd has the ability to do well but because she is worried about making mistakes she is starting to have some trouble. DD is known for her flexibility but since she is so tense during practices her muscles are tense and her flexibility is way down. She is also in a lot of pain because she is doing stunts with tense muscles. Because my dd is 17 I wanted dd to be able to handle this but after talking to other moms we all feel the same way. The girls are terrified of their coach. None of the girls will speak up because she will even be harder on them. At this point I really don't know how to advise dd. Poms doesn't end until the end of March so this is along term commitment. At this point my dh wants her to quit (even though we have always told our children that if they join something that they need to finish it). At this point though we feel that her coach is a bully and her behavior is inappropriate, especially for a christian school. (I haven't even said a lot of the things she had said to the girls). My dd doesn't want to down the other girls on her squad but she is truly miserable and feels so helpless.

We went to a 7:30 sneak preview last night. It was pretty good. When we got out I was amazed at how many people were already lined up for the midnight showing. A few people were mad at us because we already got to see it.

My dd 14 is having major sleep issues but she doesn't sleep during the day. Nothing has helped with my dd but one thing the sleep specialist suggested when we first went to her was for dd to stay up until 2:00 (the usual time she was able to fall sleep). Then I had to wake her up 8 hours later. The next night she would try to go to sleep at 1:30 and I would wake her 8 hours later, etc. until she was going to bed at 10:30 and waking up 6:30 or 7:00. Unfortunately nothing has worked for dd but perhaps something like that would work with yours. My dd had a sleep study done and she also has problems staying asleep at night. She is only getting 2-3 hours of actual sleep a night. We're getting pretty desperate because nothing has worked and we have gone to numerous specialists.

I really enjoy my Ipod Touch and my dh likes his Iphone but he gets it through work so we have no idea what the charges are for it. My dd (17 in a week) has a cell phone but I'm thinking about upgrading hers to an Iphone for her birthday so that we can give her younger sister the phone she has. I want my 14 dd to have a phone before she starts high school in the fall. She has a prepaid cell phone but it has stopped working and will need to be replaced anyway. We have AT & T and it looks like if we added another phone to our Family Talk Plan that the phone would cost $99. I know it would cost another $10 a month for the added line but beyond that is there an added monthly charge for the Iphone?

I'm thinking about doing more than one volume with 6th grade ds and I'm wondering if it would be too much.

We are going to a sneak preview Tuesday night at 8:00.

At a recent Little League game a friend of mine got stung by a yellow jacket. Another mom got mustard from the concession stand and applied to the sting. Within minutes the swelling had gone way down.

My dh, two of my brother-in-laws and a nephew all asked me to join their mafia. Now I'm the one addicted to the game and are at a higher level then 2 of them. I'm level 228! Now my nephew also has me playing Pirates. The thing I like about the games is that you don't have to spend hours playing it. I only play it for a few minutes at a time to use up my energy.

I did a little quick research online and it seems that it's possible that her sweat is more acidic than usual. Could this somehow be related to her insomnia. We still haven't figured that one out either.

Her sister uses it too. She only uses it on a few spots on her face, not on her back or neck at all. It's really strange because it's not spotty, except for on the towels but that may be caused from something else. It almost seems like it is her sweat causing it. It's all along the area that would touch the back of her neck but she doesn't use anything on her back that she doesn't use on the rest of her body. She doesn't swim so it's not chlorine.

We are having a mysterious problem with dd's t-shirts. The inside of the back neck area keeps on getting bleached. I occasionally find it in a few spots elsewhere on the shirt but most of it is contained to the inside of the back collar area. She is a big Cub's fan and mostly wears blue Cub's t-shirts. Her little brother has identical t-shirts that are washed in the same way and worn just as much but his are fine. (I don't use any kind of bleach) My dd uses the same shampoo, conditioner and body wash as her older sister. She doesn't use any body lotion or other hair products. The only other thing she uses is acne cream on her face but applies it when she is wearing pajamas. I would also think if that was causing the problem then it would show up on the inside front instead of the back. What is also strange is that our towels seem to get bleached out spots and there is a strange bleached out area on her sheet about 8 inches across in the rough shape of a circle toward the top of her bed. It's almost completely bleached out so if it was just the face cream I would think it would be more spotty. I'm not sure if the two are related. We're all frustrated because she is tired of her shirts getting ruined and I'm tired of having to buy new shirts and towels. She is really careful about toothpaste, etc. but I still don't think that would be on the back of her shirt. Any ideas?

You and your family are in my thoughts and prayers

I have to face it. I'm just not good at teaching writing. I'm good at teaching reading, grammar, spelling etc. but hit a block with writing. I've tried various curriculum and I've always run into the same problems. I'm just not good at grading it and tend to take it easy on my kids. I feel that my ds is behind in this area. He is entering 6th grade and can barely write a good paragraph. Last year we tried Home to Teach with his older sister and I was not happy at all. Write At Home looks good but is too expensive for me. Any other ideas? Has anyone tried Time4Writing? It looks pretty good.

The depression didn't really seem to manifest itself until the past month or so. Her sleep is just getting worse and worse and I'm sure that is causing much of the problem. She is with us pretty much 100% of the time so I doubt anything happened. Unfortunately she doesn't have a lot of friends right now. Her closest friend moved away a few years ago. Two other girls on our block have been on again off again friends and 75% of the time are either acting mean or ignoring my kids. She has a friend that she has known since preschool but they only get to see each other once or twice a year. She has had a rough year medically. Starting last fall she had extreme episodes of dizziness. She went to several different doctors and had several different tests but the dizziness finally just went away on its own. That lasted until around January. Then she had influenza twice this spring (apparently 2 different forms) and it really hit her hard. The insomnia has just been getting worse and worse since about January. She really hasn't had anything traumatic happen to her. She had skull surgery when she was a baby but I doubt she remembers that and she recovered very quickly. I just want to figure out a way to help her. I feel so helpless.

What does it look like? In other words, how did you know that they were clinically depressed. How do they act on a typical day? As I've posted about before my dd has severe insomnia. She just seems to be getting worse and worse and now she seems depressed. She has lost interest in everything. She used to enjoy playing games or sports with her little brother or just hanging out with her big sister but now she just wants to be alone. I realize that some of that is just typical teenage behavior but I think it is beyond that. She no longer enjoys doing anything: any sports, any hobbies, etc. She gets her chores done but beyond that doesn't want to do anything but sit or lay around. She plays on the computer, reads or watches TV all day every day. She'll go with if we go somewhere but once we get home she is back up in her room. She is on a bowling league but she just bowls her games and then leaves. She doesn't talk to anyone else and just stands by me in between frames. When I try to talk to her about it she just breaks down and says that she is just extremely tired. She is very upset with the fact that she can't sleep and wants something to help but it has taken over her life. I talked to her pediatrician today and he suggested that I take her to a psychiatrist. So I made an appointment but we can't get in for almost a month. In the meantime, I wish there was something I could do to help her. I realize that she is exhausted. She is only getting a few hours of quality sleep a night and only 14% of that is REM sleep so she is very sleep deprived.

My dd just took the ACT at the end of her junior year. This was her first time taking it. She got a 25 which I believe is a little above average. She did great on the reading (31) and english (27) but not so well on the science and math (21). I think her main problem in those areas as that she understands the math but doesn't do well when she is rushed. She has a 4.1 gpa on a 4 point scale (she has had a few honors classes that she got A's in and those count for more). She knows that she wants to be an elementary ed teacher. So far the only two colleges she has looked into don't require a very high score. One is a small private school and the other is a state college. Non of the colleges she is considering are selective. My dh thinks that the 25 is good enough and that she doesn't need to take the ACT test again. I'm on the fence. I'm wondering if she should take the ACT again next fall to see if she could raise her math and science score. She HATES taking these tests and gets very stressed out so I'm wondering whether or not to push her to take it and just let her keep her 25 score.

We watched it and it made us all cry. We have a golden retriever/yellow lab mix. We were told he was the runt of the litter. When dh went to pick him up he was huge. We think they switched the puppies. By the time he was 5 months old he was stronger than me. One time he got loose and my hand got stuck in his collar when I went to grab him. He dragged me on my belly all over the muddy yard until a neighbor came to my rescue. My jeans were ripped but I wasn't injured, except for my pride. He was very energetic and got into a lot of mischief. At his heaviest he was 130 pounds. He is turning 11 on Sunday and I'm afraid he is slowing down. He still weighs about 115 pounds. He doesn't get into as much mischief except for occasionally grabbing a sandwich that was put too close to the edge of the table while its owner got up to get a glass of milk. For some reason he must love the taste of old cardboard. We had a crate of old records sitting on the floor in the basement (finished and carpeted). A few weeks ago we put the dog in the basement for a few hours while we had dd's graduation party. He had eaten way most of the corners of the cardboard record covers. He is still quite the character too. Yesterday I could tell that someone was watching me. I turned around to see him laying on his back with his belly in the air. He was looking at me upside down with a big, toothy grin. It was so funny.

My dd needs to get "The Count of Monte Cristo" for one of her summer reading assignments. The teacher just emailed everyone and said that since it is difficult to find an unabridged version that she is changing the test to be based on the abridged version. I was going to order it at Amazon but I have no clue which one to pick. My dd really hates books with very small print (so do I). Is anyone familiar with these publishers: Dover Value, Signet Classics, Penguin Classics, Puffin Classics, Barnes and Noble Classics). Since this is only one of the 3 books that she needs I would prefer not to spend the money on a hard cover.

Do you limit computer time during the summer? My dd got a laptop for her 8th grade graduation. It is mostly for schoolwork but she can go online and play games on it too. I have no problem with that. The problem is that she wants to be on it all the time. Of course she has to do chores, etc. first but after that I'm not sure how much I should be limiting it. Her brother keeps on begging her to go outside with him but she doesn't want to. I know that part of it is the fact that she is very tired from her insomnia but I also know that she wants to spend time on the computer. The first few weeks I gave her more lenience because she just got it but now I'm thinking about limiting the time she is on it. She is 14. Part of the problem is that her older sister also has a laptop but since she is almost 17 I don't think I should limit it as much. Her older sister is a lot busier with school activities and friends so I don't mind as much.

How do you handle it when your son has a bad outing? This is my son's 2nd year of pitching. He is accurate (throws mostly strikes) but doesn't have a ton of speed yet. I think that will come when he gets a little bigger (he is only 70 pounds right now). Of course it doesn't help when the coach always puts in the weakest infielders when ds pitches. Our league has a rule that everyone has to play 2 innings in the infield. I agree with this but I wish they weren't always put in when my son is pitching. I like our coach but we know that he doesn't want those kids on the infield when his son pitches. So tonight my son pitched. He only threw 3 balls in 2 innings but unfortunately the kids hit off of him. Most of them were weak hits but the kids let them roll right past them. The kid who was playing 2nd base missed a ball twice in a row and then had the nerve to tell my son that he needed to pitch better. After the game another kid told my son that he needed more practice pitching. This is the same kid who missed an easy fly ball that cost us the game. (There was even another pitcher during that inning). Even the coaches all agreed that my son was throwing strikes and doing a good job and those hits should have been outs. The coaches emphasized that it wasn't my son's fault. My son is so discouraged. He feels that it is his fault that they lost tonight. They only lost by 1 point. I tried to explain that he would never blame the other pitchers if the same thing happened to them. A pitcher can only do so much. His team needs to back him up. We have had games where our other pitchers have walked in run after run and my son has never done that. I would much rather him throw strikes and have kids hit off of him then to walk runs in. Any suggestions?

Yesterday I bought one of those bean bag games for our backyard. We took it out of the box and set it up. When my dh got home he realized that it was already falling apart, nails were popping and the wood was splitting. I also bought one of those ladder games. It is made out of plastic but cost $30. My kids put it together this afternoon and started playing with it. It wouldn't stay put together more than 5 minutes. I also bought a volleyball/badminton set. We haven't put it together yet but it looks like it is also poorly made. I'm so frustrated. I was really excited about bringing these home for the family and looked forward to a lot of fun. (I also spent all of my birthday money and leftover Christmas money so it's a bummer that it was wasted). I plan to return the first two items to the store but I don't know what to replace it with. Do you know of any place that I can find these same items that are made well without spending a huge fortune? I already spent $130 for the above 3 items and that was enough. I can't afford to spend much more than that.

My kids have always enjoyed being outside but this summer they aren't outside near as much as they used to be. I think the biggest reason is that our court has really changed. We used to have a ton of kids living on our court and all the kids no matter the age would spend hours playing kickball, baseball, etc. The dynamics of the court have really changed. A few families moved away and now most of the kids on the court have very young kids. The only kids left that are near the ages of mine haven't been very nice this summer. My kids really do enjoy being outside but there is only so much for them to do given their ages. We really don't have a good place for them to ride their bikes except for within the subdivision which has gotten pretty boring. This is the first year that we haven't belonged to a pool and several neighbors also bought new pools this year, which I doubt they will invite my kids too so that is kind of a bummer too. My oldest dd keeps pretty busy with friends but still likes to spend time outside with her siblings and in fact lately is the one begging for them to spend sometime outside with her. We have a basketball hoop but unfortunately most of the day you have to face the sun to use it. I'm trying to think of a few items that I could buy for them so that they can enjoy time outside. So far I've come up with badmitton and that beanbag game (although right now I've haven't found a beanbag set that doesn't cost a fortune). I would love more ideas. I wish they were little again so that they could spend hours in the sandbox and on the swing but time marches on :crying:

I'm in my early 40's. I've been on this board for quite awhile. I have three children: My oldest daughter is almost 17 and will be a senior in the fall at a local private christian high school. My younger daughter is 14 and will be joining her older sister at the private school in the fall as a freshman. My son is 11 and will be doing 6th grade in the fall. He is stuck at home with me for a few more years until high school. :) We have been homeschooling for 9 years. My oldest went to ps through 3rd grade. I took my middle daughter out of kindergarten midway and that is how we started our homeschool journey. My youngest has always been homeschooled. We enjoy homeschooling but my husband wanted the kids to experience high school. My oldest went to public school for one year but was not very happy. The following year we found the private school that she attends now and she is very happy. We used a variety of materials and follow the WTM loosely.

I have three kids and they make me happy:)