We went for our anniversary last year... we paid for the "fancy seats" (which are pretty cheap in themselves), but would have been able to move up anyhow. It was a midweek show and the audience was not crowded at all. Very interesting to see how authentic "bare" staging would have looked. Lots of fun, and we enjoyed it--we're planning on going again this year when we are back in Virginia.

I bought the tickets for my dh for Valentine's Day. I knew he would love it (loves theatre in general, stage musicals in particular) but I really enjoyed it! I couldn't get through the book because it was such a downer, but the musical was awesome! We had 4th row seats, and I realized how much of a difference sitting close makes... you can actually see people's faces and good acting is so much more powerful from just a few feet away, not mediated by a screen. Anyhow, if you live someplace it is showing, I highly recommend it!

No way! Pam, that's like a depression-era story... my grandmother from Alabama talks about catalog pages, but she's 91. You aren't secretly an octogenarian, are you?

We're really enjoying Growing with Grammar 3. It does include diagramming at grade 3 and beyond... not sure about the 1/2 text.

ME (or mostly) in Red DH (or mostly) in Blue both (or neither) in green making money -- ME paying bills -- DH budgeting -- both mortgage/loans -- both home repair/maintenance -- call a pro banking/investments -- none taxes -- both car care -- ME (just scheduling appt.s and driving through the wash) health insurance -- ME scheduling (making/keeping track of) -- both phone calls or correspondence re: all the above -- ME teaching/school work or homework -- DH teaches/ I plan (and teach all Wednesday and as I have free time) discipline (planning and implementing) -- both spiritual guidance (who actually carries it out, not just the "head") -- ME kids mornings -- ME kids bedtimes -- alternate nights (DH if I am working) transportation for kids -- DH grocery shopping -- DH (I like to go if I have time, but he's in charge) laundry -- both (DH more often) eating at home -- both (DH more often) eating away (pack lunch, etc) -- DH daily chores/cleaning (really need sub-categories!) -- both & cleaning lady lawn care/snow cleanup -- neither (townhouse) garden or bed maintenance -- neither (townhouse)

I keep on inviting people to my births, and no one will come! Moms, mil, step-mom, dads, whatever... either the travel hasn't worked out or they have NO interest. Sigh. Both times it has been just me and dh and a doula. I have easy and fast natural labors (though in a hospital), and other than a tendency to tear because of the speed with which I push I don't have any medical issues that would make me rethink inviting my kids. I would want them to be old enough to be quiet and not disturb the process too much, so that will be at age 25 if my boys continue on thier current trajectory. :glare: My doulas both took great birth pictures, including crowning etc... and I love all of them. My boys have seen their "birth albums" from an early age, including a couple of "money shots" of the tops of their fuzzy heads, so I can't imagine they would be shocked by anything. I'm pretty comfortable with my body, and with bodies in general. I agree that birth is so personal. It needs to be how YOU want it to be. I would be careful about the feelings of my children, but opt for the birth experience that I want!

Well, the main exception is that if YOU instigate a "business relationship" with any kind with a company, then they can call you after that contact. So, for example, if you have ATT for your phone company, they can call you to sell you any products, services, or anything from their subsidiaries. Or if you fill out a form for a "sweepstakes" and drop it in a box somewhere, they are then able to call you. Etc. However, you are able to have that company remove you from their call list when they do call. Plus charities, political organizations and poll takers are exempt. You really shouldn't be getting "cold calls" from random businesses, though... I'd report them if you do get a call that is totally unsolicited. https://www.donotcall.gov/complaint/complaintcheck.aspx

I'm so sorry, and will be in prayer for you. My only advice: You'll need someplace healthy to debrief all this and get some good in-person support. Family and friends may or may not be as helpful as you'd like... as many things as are going on right now, don't forget to take care of your own mental health--think about carving out time for some counselling for yourself to help deal with the avalanche of emotions. Blessings,

Thank you so much---we have new computers, new network, and I'm new to Vista, so I was worried it was my system! Whew!

Am I doing something wrong, or is there a problem? I had trouble getting here for a while yesterday, but I thought that was just an overloaded server. But now when I go to the Yahoo Groups front page and click "sign in"--it spins and spins and nothing happens. Eventually the bottom of the page says "done" but the page stays the same Argh!

You can check out the link for some more ideas about 2nd grade plans for next year: http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=16562

I found WTM (and the boards) when I was pregnant with my oldest ds. I started reading in the couple of months before 9/11, posting sometime that fall. I've always been Kay in Cal... which goes to show I was not feeling very original that day back in 2001. :tongue_smilie:

It's late, and I'm wasting time online because I have to stay awake to take dh to the airport at 11:30 pm. So, the Institute for the Propagation of Uninformative Threads presents its latest poll. I like A New Hope best, but I think Empire is the best movie. Thanks for keeping me awake and alert!

Thanks! We are a couple years behind you, but are really liking GWG. It's a great program, and has that wonderful combination of easy to implement and comprehensive at the same time. We just ordered level 4, and I'm looking forward to using it next year!

Congratulations!

Yes. There are so many additional issues that go along with giftedness, particularly as you approach the more extreme end of high intelligence. A profoundly gifted child with an IQ of 180 is just as "different" from the norm as a severely mentally disabled one. Why wouldn't we expect behavioral differences, social challenges, etc? Life experience can bring the social graces needed to live in the real world, but it helps if there is a gentle place and time for both accepting of differences and allowing a child to fully express thier unique gifts and abilities. This is one of my favorite articles about the nature of giftedness, and while it is addressed mostly to school situations in particular, it can apply in so many places. It certainly encapsulates the major motivation for my dh and I to begin investigating homeschooling even before our first child was born. It at least made me feel better about my own strange little cheetah, and (retrospectively) about the awkward outsider I was at his age.:blush: http://www.stephanietolan.com/is_it_a_cheetah.htm The good news--I turned out to be a stable, competant, adult who interacts with many different people of all backgrounds. I fully expect my ds will be a wonderful man. It's just hard to remember that some days. As one psychologist told us--"He's going to need a lot of parenting." Ayup.

With strangers in a public place, mostly I smile and deflect. "Kids... gotta love 'em!" or something like that. Friendliness and a "thanks for your patience" attitude generally work. Some people are obnoxious, and in extreme situations deflection doesn't work (and we've had those), but that's just life. I don't engage with every teacher about my son's issues. I do want him to be able to be "one of the kids" and take the discipline that all the kids receive. If it is an ongoing class I would have discussion, but for one class a week for a few weeks, I might not mention anything at all in advance. If his issues become disruptive, then I will speak to the teacher--but I'm more likely to approach the other parent (of whatever child he has annoyed) with an explanation. Just as an aside: On Easter Sunday my son had to leave Sunday School because he was being disruptive. My dh went and took him out of class (because, ya know, I was preaching at the time). Of course all the teachers do know about his issues, but that doesn't mean they are always prepared to handle him on a bad day--which it was. So I was sad that Easter was tough, and dh had him sit out the egg hunt because he was behaving so badly. So screams and recriminations were echoing--inauspicious way to spend a joyful day. We got home, and I got a call from my step-mom. She goes to a mega church in Tampa, and teaches a Sunday School class. A few minutes into class that morning, another teacher had come to get her (they have at least two teachers per group) because she "is so good with difficult children". A visiting little boy, Wesley, was acting out of control, having a hard time not touching other kids and objects, and also seemed very far ahead of the curriculum. She worked one on one with him, doing bible teaching, gently guiding him to better behavior as he wanted to grab and squeeze and hug her (another one of my ds' issues), and she had a wonderful time. So did he. They didn't have to go get his parents, they just made a special class for him. She told me that "God put her in the right place at the right time" because she is so in love with our special 6yo and knew just how to work with him. It was a great story, and I ended up wishing that someone in my own church would have the grace, patience and loving experience that my step mom does. Sigh.

This is fairly common among children with sensory processing issues. Many kids will only wear particular types of clothing, cut out seams, etc. You may want to google SPD and do some reading to see if other behavioral clues "fit". It doesn't go away--all the pieces of our son's SPD started to fit when we realized that his grandmother (my mil) has many of the same issues--now manifested as intensely high threadcount sheets among other things. "The Out of Sync Child" is a good book to start.

My oldest ds was 2 or 3 when he yelled in the middle of Barnes and Noble: "Mom! Mom! My p*nis is uppercase!" He had his pants pulled out and was looking down with this look of amazement--I almost fell over laughing.

This makes total sense to me... why waste money on something that will only disappoint? My mom is the opposite. She would rather buy (and give) the cheap knockoff and have it NOW! I want to wait for the real thing. Years ago she found out I admired Le Creuset cookware--and bought me a whole set of cookware that looked kind of like it. It was horrible. It warped on high heat, was non-stick that scraped off, the outside paint (yes, paint, not enamel) burned and stained. Yuck! 15 years later those pots are long gone, thrown out as they wore out (I didn't have the heart to give them away when they were new--today I would have). But my wonderful collection of Le Creuset, picked up a piece at a time on clearance and as Christmas and birthday gifts has grown through the years and even the oldest pieces are good as new. The horrible fake stuff was just a waste of money, easily afforded and easily broken. I don't eat a lot of ice cream, but when I do it's either Ben and Jerry's or Haagen Daaz (I love thier Belgian chocolate). Why throw away calories on anything less sublime?

Sensory processing disorder.

We use GWG3 this year--finished FLL. It's a big hit with my son, the content is great, and it is so easy to use as well. At least take a look at it! www.growingwithgrammar.com

Lol! I must say, I want to come to your house... what beautiful drums! I'm envious of your "drumming circle", though probably not when I'm reading.

So glad you had a great time! Back before we had kids, dh and I used to play regularly at a place called Qzar. We'd bring friends, and often our team of married couples in their 20s and 30s would face a bunch of teenage boys. They would laugh, and high five each other. Then we would wipe the floor with them. We were slower, but age brings wisdom... and strategy.

To me, this board is real. As many of you know, a few years ago when my husband was very ill this WAS my only social life outside the hospital. For six months I got up every morning, turned the kids over to a nanny, headed for the hospital. Sometimes I didn't know driving in if Doug would be alive at the end of the day. I'd stay until 5pm, come home, feed the kids, get them to bed. That time in my life was horrible, exhausting, terrifying, sent shockwaves through our psyches and souls. And after the kids were in bed, and I had ten hours before I needed to be back at the hospital, I'd pull up the board and get online. And cry. And vent. And rest in the grace of cyber hugs and smilies. This WAS my life for six months. And truly, it was very real. Real women from this virtual world showed up at my house with food, with a massage, with emergency babysitting when the nanny quit. Real people sent care packages of books for Doug to read when he was well enough, boxes of soap (guess who?), and, as hard as it was to accept, some money when we couldn't afford to pay the medical bills and childcare and everything else. I can never thank all of those (you!) wonderful women enough. :grouphug: It was a terrible and exhausting time, but this was my community. My church supported us, my local homeschooling group made meals, some friends came through--though more didn't. But this place was real. Since then I've met even more boardies in person, and they were all real. Now that times are better, life is stable (is it ever?), Doug is home and things are good, all I can do is make it my life's work to be that real, that authentic to others who are in that same place of darkness. The power is ours, to create authentic community and grace, or not. Yeah, I know there are probably some fakes (JGEMOM, ahem). But perhaps the medium that filters our thoughts and our words allows us not to be fakes and hypocrites, but to be our best selves. The selves we want to be. And here, we can be that for each other. If that isn't community, I don't know what is.