Thanks! We will look into both those options.

I am guessing near union station.

Not entirely sure....we are taking a train to New Orleans? 😜

Last time I travelled on amtrack finding parking was a relatively easy affair. This time not so much. We will be gone for about a week and need to find a place. Ideas?

I think this is completely child specific. Mine are slow to physically mature (some of this is related to athletics), public schooled, and we have had minimal drama or need to fit in issues. I only just convinced dd15 to wear a bra and that was primarily due to the mount of running she does and having to wear skin tight XC uniforms. ;) A couple years ago she did ask me why she was the only one in her class (8th grade) who hadn't started her cycle, but has since made peace with it and is happy she does not have to deal with that right now.

Perfect! It has been awhile since homeschooling I somehow missed that Khan now had chemistry videos. :)

I know I am very late to this thread as I have been away for quite awhile. That said, it is an issue very fresh on my mind. 3 years ago we moved our children to a lovely village town where dh aunt was the elem and middle school principal. There is approximately one classroom per grade. We have loved it! Many of the perks to homeschooling as well as the perks of PS found in one place. Then some of the down sides crept in. There was a massive lack in electives, clubs, and strict (unwritten) rules not allowing them to dual sport in the same season. Further there wasn't a foreign language option for middle school. The excuse was that they just didn't have the funds or enough kids to allow these things. We discovered that in our state, by law, the school has to cover up to two online courses of the students choice per year. So, we enrolled our middle schooler in a foreign language instead of art (which I could do at home). I was a bit taken aback at the push back we received from the high school principal (not the middle school one). In fact, right before school started he wrote a massive letter that was posted to the main web page of the schools site explaining that while they did have to provide this opportunity he strongly discourages it. That the school would provide no help and most students fail. That failing would be permanent on their grades so please be VERY cautious about enrolling your child in online courses. Dd got an A, but true to threat, she was given no support at school and it was our history of homeschooling that allowed us to help her. Then next year (9th grade) we enrolled her in 2 online classes. Biology and Latin allowing her to take Spanish 2 with the 10th graders. Again we were met with massive resistance. Spanish teacher said she would fail doing two languages and there was serious tension between the biology teacher and our family. She again received A's in all classes while playing varsity level sports all 3 seasons and going to state as freshman in XC. I did notice that as dd was successful more and more of her peers started taking online classes. Finally, at the end of last year as we sat with her school counselor discussing this coming year (10th grade) he finally admitted that he didn't think their was anything she couldn't handle and what did we want to do. The 10th grade science option (same lackluster biology teacher) was going to be Physical Science and I just about lost it. We decided on online Anatomy and physiology and Medical terminology through a local college as her elective. Over the summer things changed for us. It was subtle, but I found I was frustrated with the constant uphill battle of trying to provide and excellent education for my children. I was also frustrated that my dd was forbidden from doing both XC and equestrian team at the same time and that her brothers could not do soccer and XC at the same time when the village school 5 miles down the road could. Also, I cannot say they were being bullied, but there was a definite attitude of "do well, but don't do so well that you make others look bad by default." As a result, some students would find opportunities to drag them down to their level. We made the decision to enroll them via school of choice at a larger high school and middle school 45 min away. They offer everything. AP classes, a variety of electives, dual sporting if the child can handle it. Most of all they are not threatened by our children's desire to succeed and push themselves. I feel that homeschooling allowed us to both support our children in a unique way, but it also gave us a higher standard of education and provided us with the strength to seek out better options. Ultimately, I feel bad for our village school, I work with a lot of young doctors and they ask me about moving to the area (torch lake, mi is stunning) but these are people who will not settle for their children's educational options. They are losing families who genuinely support their children's education and are not attractive to this next generation of parent that is accustom to having options.

Dd15 is going to be taking AP chemistry as a sophomore at a new high school. I wanted to see if I could find a quick introduction to it for her, before classes start as i fear she will be dealing with a bunch of NEW all at once. She doesn't need a full course, but we underwhelmed her last high school (hence the move) and last year she took Biology online with no challenge. Her knew school believes her to need more of an academic challenge, but as her mother I know her anxiety levels and feel that she needs something to give her a tad bit of confidence going in. Thanks so much....and long time no see ;)

My situation is a bit different in that dd was completing her 2nd year of high school Spanish on campus while doing her 1st year of high school Latin (online) as a freshman. Her Spanish 2 teacher was convinced she couldn't handle the two simultaneously. She ended up with A's in both, but mentioned that she didn't feel that either language helped her with the other. I think if she had had more of a foundation in Latin (we hadn't picked it up since early elementary) it may have been different. Still, she was successful in both.

I just discovered this series and am really hooked! I love learning about the medical discoveries and practices in history. Highly recommend, but it is a bit graphic and true to the era. http://www.amazon.com/Episode-1/dp/B003UPMK1Y/ref=sr_1_1?s=instant-video&ie=UTF8&qid=1335930606&sr=1-1

This was very helpful to me at a similiar questioning place. :grouphug: Not a book, but rather lengthy. http://orthodoxinfo.com/inquirers/whichcamefirst.aspx

I have just spent a week with my mother and grandmother and have a couple thoughts. It was really interesting to see how much my grandmother has started to live in her past. My mother anchors her and helps to keep her present. It is barely noticable, but hwen Grandma is on her own she quickly falls into the past. So, how is she aging? Mentally? I also wonder if your dh provided more guidance in selecting photos for the other quilts. As she ages it is really normal for her to get more lost in the past and confused. I am sorry, I know things like this hurt. :grouphug:

:iagree:

Praying!!!!

Can someone explain how these work? Tomorrow's looks really interesting, but I am not sure what this entails. Help? http://us4.campaign-archive2.com/?u=8b0600c50a6edcfcf9aea65d5&id=1d7e95acd6

C. diff. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clostridium_difficile Nasty stuff!

Thank you! This is my plan B if I still feel uncomfortable, after I block all the people I need to. :D

Yes, this is something I have thought about as well. It is troubling. I am often at war within myself. Part of the problem lies in how much I am willing to share IRL (so to speak) You see we started as the children's pastors, then absorbed the youth dept, and finally absorbed everthing young adult and down. I have "kids" (now in their late teens early twenties) who want to be FB friends. I love them dearly and cherish the time spent as a Pastor's wife in their lives. Thankfully, they were young enough or fringe enough to not have been drastically affected by what happened. Basically, I do not feel it is for them to carry all the gorey details. OTOH, I now this man. I know that he did not give a second thought to using direct family members and casual aquaintances to keep tabs on me and dh. They (the fb kids) are from a culture that for the most part loves to have a ton of FB friends, and I need to be cautious. I just feel torn. It turns out FB has some better security features than when I went through a similar episode last year. At that time the only way I knew to protect myself was to make sure we did not have mutual friends. Thanks, everyone for the support. I am a little shook up, but having a long drive home from vacation really helped me sort my emotions. I do not want this person to have power over me, but I am also not as angry as I once was. I just want to feel safe and move on with my life.

Yes, I went ahead and did this this morning. The reason I had not done it before was that I had a lot of dupliciate people in my life connected to him. Monitoring the mutual friends allowed me to see who he had recruited as spies. I know sounds crazy, but people will do things for their "pastor" that they normally would not. Especially, if they think they are protecting him from the enemy (me :tongue_smilie:). Now, it is clear that I have someone in the role and he is more than happy to oblige, afterall he could have just blocked me..like his wife did. Ugh! This thing is so nasty!

Many of you know I went trough a traumatic experience at a church dh and I were staff pastors. This involved a Sr. Pastor who has major control and other issues. It involved spyware on my old computer and a lot of horrid things I really do not want to go into. Because this was a huge church I always had quite a few friends on fb. Because of security issues I had created a system where I did not accept friend requests from anyone who was mutual friends with this man. Someone has alerted him to this. I can now see that we have mutual friends, but he has found a way to block my being able to see who. In a sense I feel betrayed in my own friends circle, but I do not know for sure how this has developed. I do have reason to think it is someone who recently friend requested and I declined may have inadvertantly alerted him. I care deeply for this person (dh officiated their wedding), but she had the former pastor as a friend (she is a young adult and had a huge friends list) She knew the whole story, so I simply explained why I could not accept. She said she forgot they were even friends and if she unfriended him would that be okay. I accepted. Now, about 2 weeks later he has figured out how I am doing this. She may have innocently told someone, but he is alerted and I cannot ascertain who our new mutual friend is. Sorry, this is confusing. :glare: Is there a way to save this fb account if I do not know who the enemy is in my friends list is? Do I just need to create a new, very small account? Can I import my pics? Please be gentle as this is very triggering for me. I am so sad and upset.

Hmmmm, maybe poke your head in and say, "are there any finals today?" That should be all the reminder he needs. ;) does he respond better to loss of privledges or physical labor.

Wow! I have been out of the loop. I just caught up on the Jack Chick and Julie Bogart/Brave writer situation. The Jack Chick situation I understand as an oversight and I can give that GHC. But when I take this combined with the JB/BW I am once again left with that icky feeling. I had considered flying to a GHC convention this year, but could not find enough speakers I wanted to hear to make it worth while. Here is what I just cannot understand...why, after the whole Ken Ham fiasco, would they backtrack in such a way? The die had been cast. Their identity as a more "inclusive" homeschool convention was secured. Now, IMO they have shot themselves in the foot. Next year it will once again come down to convention speakers and vendors for me. If they cannot diversify, I am really just not interested in spending the money.

You have all been really helpful! It is so good to read your stories about how this is playing out in your homes! The bolded is brilliant! I had read something similar before, but completely forgot about it until you mentioned it. I remember thinking about how gentle of a mother I would be if I remembered that......then I forgot! :tongue_smilie:

It is so good to know I am not the only one who does this!!!!