Mine do it too. SO annoying!

I have had many dogs. We had an Australian Shepherd growing up that my parents bought from a reputable breeder and she was a great dog. I still remember going and picking her out. We bought a beagle from a pet store when we were young and stupid. DO NOT EVER do this! She was SO stubborn and was never fully potty trained. So much frustration with this dog. On the plus side, she was great with the kids! We rescued an Aussie before we had kids. He was about a year or so old. He was a great dog. Loved him! But, he was not good with our kids. We had to watch him all the time and they were never allowed alone together. He never did anything, but they clearly made him nervous. We assume that he had a bad experience with kids before we got him. This is the reason that we will not rescue an adult dog until our kids are much older. Currently we have a boxer. We bought her for $50 off Craigslist from a situation that sounds much like the OP's. We went and picked her out of the litter when she was 6 weeks old. Looking back we probably should have waited until she was older, but live and learn! :D Her tail is also not docked. We don't find this to be much of a problem except once when she was about a year her tail got slammed in the back door. We think that broke it as she kept it down and there was a noticeable crimp in it for about 6 months. It completely healed on it's own though, and now you would never know it had been broken. She is a great dog. Very smart, friendly, great with the kids, and easily trained. All in all, the best dog we have owned. So......I say all that to say this. If the inexperienced guy checks out, get the family puppy. It will save you a lot of time and money, and you will likely get a great family dog. Just be careful and don't jump in out of emotion. Good luck!

:iagree: This is how I feel. My MIL has a Kindle and she loves it. She is trying to get me to get one, but I just really like holding a book. There is just something about it that is somehow more personal and gives me a more connected feeling to the story and characters. I do, however, like the Kindle/Nook feature of being able to borrow a book from the library and not have to drag all my kids to the library with me!

I agree with everyone else that 30 days is not necessary. We do the Jr church for the prek-k-1 ages in our church and if we were to step down, we would have to give notice because we are the main teachers and it would be more difficult to fill the position. However, if there is plenty of help, I see no reason for such a long notice. I would go back once or twice to help the kids transition. Good luck!

I have read this before, and still thought it was funny! :lol:

I also feel a compulsion to answer polls. It's a sickness! :tongue_smilie:

:iagree: This is how I like them too. However, if I had no milk, I would go for double stuffed.

I get on here a lot, but I don't post that often. I hope people don't think I am a troll! I tend to think that everyone else has been doing this much longer and have more to contribute that I do, so I don't always chime in. But, I read A LOT! :tongue_smilie:

Yeah, whenever I can't find my phone I always ask Sarah (3) where it is. She always has it and is playing a game on it. Then she drops it wherever she happens to be or hides it because she thinks she's going to get into trouble because she didn't ask. Once I couldn't find it for 3 days (battery was dead because she left it on a battery life sucking game) and I finally found it in the trunk of a Barbie jeep! Incidentally, my 9 year old just brought me my phone with Sarah running behind yelling "NO! I want to PLAY on it!"

Thanks for the laugh! I needed it this morning! :lol::lol::lol:

Black pepper, ground mustard, thyme, rosemary, dried parsley, chili powder, cumin, cinnamon, bay leaves, ginger, ground cloves, basil, and oregano are the ones I use most often. HTH! :001_smile:

I'm sorry! How frustrating! :grouphug:

:iagree: My kids are like this, especially my oldest. I have no problem with my kids asking other kids to go to church with them. They think church is fun and want to share the fun. I kind of see it along the same line as kids inviting other kids to say, scouts or a neighborhood picnic. These things are fun and kids naturally want to share the fun. If a parent of a friend said they didn't want anymore invitations, then I would tell my kids to quit inviting them. I wouldn't tell them not to be friends anymore unless the friend was being a bad influence and I could not resolve the situation any other way. It honestly wouldn't cross my mind to ask the parents if they minded if my kids invited their kids to church or any other fun outing we were doing. They would obviously have to get permission before they came, but I wouldn't have thought it would be offensive. I wouldn't be offended if one of my kids' friends, of a different faith, asked them to go to their church. I would probably say no, but I wouldn't get all upset about it. I would be surprised if an invitation DIDN'T come. Kids naturally want to share experiences with their friends. It's just the way it is. To the OP, I would not judge these new friends by what the old friends did. That's just not fair. I know that you don't want your DD to get hurt, but maybe the other family was just weird and rude. I hope things work out for your DD and her new friends!:001_smile:

:iagree: That's my motto too! I think it is a disservice to kids to make them think everything is going to be equal all the time. I have a 9 yr old DS who sounds VERY much like the OP's. I recently realized that when I get frustrated (which is not hard for me to do) or upset because he is dawdling or not getting what, to me, is a very simple concept, he gets worse. Recently he told me that he keeps thinking over and over in his head "I can't do this. I can't do this.". He has actually asked me to repeatedly say "You can do it!" so that he can feel like he can do the work. :confused: So, now I write something positive and encouraging on the whiteboard and prop it up wherever he is working. It seems to help. My ds also cannot stand distractions. Difficult in a home where he is the oldest of 5! So, I usually send him to his room or mine so he can shut the door and work quietly. Of course, I have to check up on him often. I have recently told him, after a 7 hour math day that should have taken 30 minutes, that he has x amount of time to do his work before we move on. If he is not finished then he must complete his work on his own time when the other kids are done and out playing. This has sped his work along tremendously. :tongue_smilie: I have realized that he cannot write a lot and no matter what curriculum I choose, he is going to take issue with because he would rather not do it. So I just choose what I think is best and make him live with it. Curriculum hopping has not helped the problem, and believe me, I have tried! :001_smile: Hope some of this will help you! :grouphug:

I didn't see anything that covers grammar. I would add that in, otherwise it looks good.

I am in Ohio, but south of you near Dayton. I have found people in Ohio to be very open to homeschooling. I would also look up a coop or homeschool group in the area. Get a membership to a children's museum, we like the Boonshoft, but it's here in Dayton. Good luck with your move and welcome to Ohio! :001_smile:

:lol::lol::lol:

I would. I leave my DS9 at home sometimes for short periods of time. He is a fairly responsible kid and follows the rules. I think you would be fine. My sister was babysitting me and my younger brother all the time at 9.

My 4th grader did Galloping the Globe in coop last year and enjoyed it. She might like it as well. Thanks for the suggestion!

I am still deciding what to do, but maybe next week in Mexico will be better since it will be something other than the US. The kids are not liking it either. I am not the only one bored here. :tongue_smilie: I don't like to curriculum hop, but their eyes are glazing over when I read the science and geography for the most part. When there is an experiment they are more engaged. I really tried to like it. I wanted to love it so badly, but it is stressing me out more than I feel like it is teaching them. I am very torn right now. I really appreciate everyone's help and advice! :001_smile:

I get that there is only one read aloud scheduled per week, but people are saying that the book basket is where the depth comes in. If my second grader is not reading well yet, then those books become read alouds out of necessity. My fourth grader reads well, but says he gets little out of the book basket books, and I get most of the recommended books from the library so there are plenty from which to choose. Maybe I need to try to set some time to read and discuss a few books from the book basket with them. I do want quick and easy, but I want it so that they understand it and find it interesting as well. I guess I find the multi level teaching difficult. Maybe it is just a big learning curve and I am having a hard time adjusting. I don't have a problem with experiments, and we have done the ones scheduled. I read that people are adding lots of other projects and experiments that they got from other sources that were not scheduled and that was where they found the depth in the program. Thanks to all those who responded and have tried to help or encourage! :001_smile:

This is our first year doing MFW, so we are doing ECC. I read how great it was and how rich and how much kids learned. We are almost finished with week 5 and I have to say, I am bored to death! :bored: I feel like there is no depth to the study of the countries or the science. It is also taking us all day with LA and math added in. I don't have time for extra experiments or lots of read alouds. Most of it seems to go over my second grader's head or is very uninteresting to her. I am thinking of enrolling her (2nd grader) in K12 so she has something interesting and engaging. I feel so disorganized and like something is lacking. I need something open and go with little prep and I thought MFW was that. Then I read on the MFW boards that you were supposed to add stuff in to the countries and science. :confused: I guess I am just discouraged and needed to vent. I expected to love it and I really just don't. I like the Bible, but the rest is kind of disappointing. I don't really know where to go from here. I can't spend a ton of money on new stuff, but I don't want them to be bored all year either. I am having many curriculum woes this year! :001_huh: Thanks for listening if you got this far! :001_smile:

I did not know about the 1.5 pages a day. That would probably help. Let me clarify on the 3 math programs. I didn't buy CLE. I just printed the sample lesson from their website and had the kids try them to see how they did before I bought it. I had bought R&S 3 last year and it didn't fly, so I switched to Abeka and he did well with it, but I wanted something more independent which is why I went with MM. I may try doing less pages and assign only certain problems instead of having them do the entire lesson. I pulled out R&S and am having my 9 year old do that today, and it is actually going well. I am not having him copy the problems, just write the answers on separate paper and he says he likes it much better. Maybe the extra year made a difference for him. I will keep on with MM for my DD7 for a bit and see if it gets any better. Thank you all for your advice! :001_smile:

I am so discouraged! I bought MM because everyone on here seemed to love it and I got a great deal on it from the Homeschool Buyers Coop. But I think I am going to have to try something else. They hate it. It makes our days so horrible and long. They say it is too hard and too long. :confused: So I guess I need new math. What do you all suggest? I would need 2nd and 3rd grade (my 4th grader is a year behind in math) math in a work book format. R & S is too much copying and produces tears and fights. CLE is too long (4 pages a lesson makes them crazy!) Color or not doesn't matter. Thank you for your help and just for listening. This has been a rough year so far! :glare:

:iagree: This is a great answer!