I was speaking in general terms, not really referring to a children's theater performance. I would expect to see school age children at that, not necessarily younger. At our children's theater, they have separate preschool performances. I was mainly ranting about a trend I've seen among homeschoolers in general, who assume that because a certain age group of children are invited to attend something, they can extend that invitation to include all of their children, no matter their age. I think doing that is rude and inconsiderate to the families who are only bringing appropriate age children.

My two oldest have thanked me repeatedly for homeschooling, have very fond memories of all we did, and have both said that they want to homeschool their own children (dd is married, no kids yet, and ds is still single). My youngest loves homeschooling, and I expect will feel the same way. But if not, that's fine, too.

Children behaving inappropriately at various public performances, museums, field trips, etc., is just one more reason why we stopped doing anything with homeschool groups years ago. And it isn't really the infants who are the problem. It's the toddlers and preschoolers. WAY too many mothers include their toddlers and preschoolers in activities that are not geared for their age group. I've been on too many museum trips that were aimed for school aged children (third grade and above), and one or two moms decide that everybody in their family can participate. It's worse than babies. The toddler/preschool group can't sit still, run around the exhibit, touch what they're not supposed to, talk out loud, and interrupt in the middle of the guide's presentation to ask questions or make comments. It is incredibly rude and renders the field trip useless for the age group for which it is intended. And the moms seem to think it's adorable. No. It's not. It's completely ill-mannered and thoughtless. And trust me...no one thinks your kid is cute. They think he's a brat. And even taking little three year old Johnny or Suzy to the side while he or she is having a melt down and trying to explain to the child why he cannot reach up and touch the pretty flowers on the Monet is distracting. Nobody else in the room can hear the guide over the child's wailing. Galleries are not sound proof. And you are not doing your child any favors by bringing him to something that is not suited for his age group. If you have to take him to the Impressionist exhibit (and the museum allows it), do it as a family trip on a Saturday. Don't ruin the exhibit for an entire group of children for whom it is age appropriate, and who are trying to learn something. Please. Rant over. :D

Make sure he does have something in his life that is challenging for him. I was one of those gifted kids, who didn't have to study at all until I got to my sophomore year in college. Then all heck broke loose. I hated not naturally just knowing everything. I was embarrassed, humiliated, and crushed when I failed a Statistics test. That had NEVER happened to me before. Hello? I didn't fail. I was smart. What the heck was this nonsense? You get the picture. :lol: Anyway, I was so used to not having to ever *try* to attain anything in life, that this failure devastated me for awhile. I literally had no frame of reference for it. I didn't know what to do with failure. Luckily, life provided me with many more opportunities to fail at things. :D I just wish my parents had given me a little dose of reality earlier on in life. There were literally hundreds of things I could have done as a kid that I would have sucked at :D , but because I resisted trying anything that I had an inkling I might not be stellar at from the get go, and my parents didn't push it...reality and I became acquainted at a much older age than was acceptable. Don't be afraid to push him past his comfort zone. And do a little cheer when he struggles. It's good for him. Trust me.

I don't really know what age, because my dd never told me either. And no, I wouldn't be bothered. I'm her mother, not her best friend. That's what her girlfriends are for. That doesn't mean we're not close...we are. She's married now (and we didn't really know how serious she was with her husband until she announced they were getting engaged :lol: ), and we talk every day. Now I can be her best friend.

If it's organic material, and it's not infected, it will either dissolve, or work its way out by itself. If it's plastic, glass, or infected, go see your doc for a minor, in office, surgical procedure to remove it. The charges won't be minor, but the procedure will be. ;)

Mention that you hate "Moby Dick", too. :D

What was the name of the test they gave you?

I always thought it was some sort of expletive, because that's what it looks like across the top of a post in all caps. Swearing and shouting. :lol:

We have fun and we learn together. And...this is my 20th year of homeschooling. I've learned a thing or two along the way. :lol:

I think it's rude, since the younger child wasn't invited, and there is a four year age difference in kids. It's not fair to your 8 year old who probably wants to play one on one with his friend to have a four year old tagging along. That's going to limit their play. I would have said no.

TOG has always been blatantly anti-Mormon. I won't patronize them any longer. Like you, I don't mind people enumerating legitimate points of our faith that they disagree with (and I will do the same with their faith in the context of study and educating my children), but when they are promoting obvious lies and half-truths, they've lost my respect. And I also wonder what other elements of their curriculum they are distorting in order to promote their own viewpoint.

Let me check on that. They are primary sources in our collection at the museum, but I don't know if they have been digitalized. I know that's the goal there for all the diaries we have. My husband's great grandmother's journal is also something I would like to do that to as well. She was the fifth wife, and the youngest. Her diary is fascinating. She gives a wonderful glance into the day to day life of pioneer Utah families. We have a home from another polygamous family at the park that is very cleverly designed. Two of the wives had separate living quarters at each end, with a common kitchen in the middle. Eventually, the husband in this family built six separate, but identical, homes for each of his wives.

As far as LDS historical polygamy goes, there is also the issue of the time period. The mid-1800s were not known as an exemplary time for women's rights. Women who were traveling alone to the west were very vulnerable. Having a husband offered a degree of protection unavailable to single women at the time. Just as there are a thousand reasons that women enter a traditional marriage, there were a thousand reasons women entered a polygamous union. Some did it for love, some did it for protection (and so that they could have a house and farm...it was harder for single women to own land on their own), some did it because of religious conviction, and some did it to escape abuse. I volunteer at a living history museum here in Utah ( www.thisistheplace.org ), and we have many diaries of women in polygamous marriages. I read one where a 16 year old girl joined the LDS church, and entered into a polygamous marriage to escape her abusive father. By all accounts, she led a happy life. My husband's family has been LDS since the beginning, and his great-great-grandfather was a polygamist. Three of his wives were in name only. They had been widowed and had young children. They married him, and he provided for them financially. They didn't even live in the same town he did. He did not have children with any of them. Personally, I couldn't do it. I also couldn't enter into polyandry and have more than one husband. Unless one of them was Bradley Cooper. Or Colin Firth. Okay, maybe I could. :D But in polygamous Utah in the 1850s, nobody was marrying a super model. I love this quote from Mark Twain after his time in Salt Lake City: "The man that marries one of them (Mormon women) has done an act of Christian charity which entitles him to the kindly applause of mankind, not their harsh censure, and the man that marries sixty of them has done a deed of open-handed generosity so sublime that the nations should stand uncovered in his presence and worship in silence." :lol: :lol: Luckily, we've "cutened" up some since then. I recite this quote often around my MIL, because it offends her deeply. And because he could have been talking about her grandmother. :leaving:

My dh received his Eagle at 13. My oldest son has his Eagle. My youngest son will also be getting his Eagle in the next couple of years. It's important to my dh. He was hired for every job he applied for as a teen right away because of his Eagle. It helped him in his college admissions process as well. Scouts is tied into our church, so all the boys participate until they're 18. Most (but not all) get their Eagles. I've found Scouts to be a positive experience for my sons, and they've enjoyed everything they've done. They go on great camping adventures in Southern Utah, and have learned so many skills that have helped them in life. If your son is close to getting his Eagle, I would encourage him to pursue it. If he's nowhere close, then I'd let him drop it.

Teens use Instagram and SnapChat now. And those whose parents don't allow that, do it on their friends' phones. You can delete anything you want on FB as long as you have an account. If your friends post photos of you, or say things about you in a post, and you don't have an FB account, there is nothing you can do about it. Same with any other social media. The kids in my youth group are always taking photos of themselves and other kids (who I know aren't on any social media at all...per their parents), and "Instagramming" them. So just because your kids aren't on social media....doesn't mean they aren't on social media. ;)

DP

Absolutely! I outgrew my allergy to bananas and chocolate. Thank. Goodness.

Getting braces put on your teeth does not equal childbirth. A little tough love can go a long way sometimes, especially with an Asperger's child.

The "handling the anxiety" part of ortho treatment is your job, not the doctor's. I don't recall my kids' ortho ever saying much of anything except, "Looks good! See you next month." The hygienists can give you some suggestions, but really, what should they do? Getting braces on hurts. Spacers hurt a lot. When he gets all the wires on, his teeth will hurt like h*ll for a week. However, I really wouldn't make too big a deal out of the anxiety, or even expect anyone to do anything about it. It's one of those, "Yep, it hurts. Suck it up, Buttercup." kinds of things for a kid. Don't feed it, you'll create an even bigger problem. Give him some ibuprofen and move on.

I found that having my child "teach" the material back to me helps me to know what he understands, and what he doesn't. I try to approach learning and school as something we do together. I can't possibly teach him all he needs to know, so I want to instill a love of learning in him (as I think I did with my two oldest...now homeschool grads). I want learning to be something fun and exciting. "Oh, we don't know this? Let's find out." Then I feel that as we discuss, research, learn, and experiment, the assessment part does come organically.

I don't have any words for you other than I'm sorry and you're in my prayers. I wish it could be so much more. :grouphug:

Your dh is wrong about the teaching thing. I have graduated two through homeschool, and am working on my third, so tell him this is 20 years of experience speaking. You most likely have to teach MORE through the junior high years than you did before, not less. I still sit at the table with my 13 year old every single day, and I did the same thing with his siblings. That age has less focus than a two year old, and if you're not there to guide and keep them on task...they won't finish their work. This is not an age for independent learning...that's 11-12th grade and beyond. Plus, a junior high student can be a lot of fun. My son and I do very experiential, hands-on, learning, and we have a blast together. His mind is finally able to reason (somewhat, lol), and he can contribute in a very thoughtful way, when the material is engaging and interesting. I've found that workbooks at that age are death to their attention span, interest, and desire to learn. I don't use any, except for math. Also, homeschool is not correspondence school. Your dh shouldn't think for one minute that school time is his free time. It's not. He needs to be present, in the same room as your children, asking questions, leading discussions, reading aloud, offering help, and actively teaching the material. I read aloud to my kids all through high school. We had a blast with Shakespeare, reading and acting out the parts. They understood it SO much better that way. I don't think PS is the answer for your son. I just think you may need to adjust your curriculum some (but that might not be true either...I have no idea what you're using), and your dh needs to adjust his expectations. And to reassure him a bit more...my two oldest both received scholarships to two different universities, and they have both been on the Dean's list every semester. They know how to manage their time, complete their assignments, study for tests, and get good grades...all without any prodding from the mom who was actively teaching each and every subject until the day they graduated from homeschool.

Bangs will immediately make you look five years younger. I always have bangs. I keep them long, and sometimes swept to the side. I go to a very trendy salon for my cut and color, and they are most definitely still in. Not that it matters...you should wear what looks good on you and what makes you happy. Here's a quick article on bangs (and their life transforming powers :D ) http://www.womenshealthmag.com/beauty/hairstyles-with-bangs

I'll sell you my Ipad with Flappy Bird for $10,000! :D It's 64GB (or whatever they are), so there's a ton of room on it!!