Oh dear. I hope this situation resolves well for you & your DD.

Yes, definitely need boosters with backs & a tether. Those seat only ones are mostly only used as restaurant high chairs now :)

What she said. You can hire baby capsules or forward facing seats from any car hire place but you will probably need to buy a booster for an 18kg+ child.

Yes and yes. Needing 14 hours sleep at that age really doesn't sound normal to me. I'm glad you are looking into a sleep study.

Yes, introvert here & I agree with PPs about homeschooling actually providing me with stimulation. Over the last six months I've started to spend more time and energy on my "pre children" interests but before that homeschooling was a special interest of mine in the Aspie sense. I greatly enjoyed the vast amounts of time I spent researching education.

Other. As PP's have said, it will be need based. DD is a dancer and I can see her needing one before 10 with the amount of classes etc she does.

"guests" are not required to do anything other than pick up after themselves. "Family guests" are expected to pitch in, and they do. Any biological family members, extended or otherwise who don't offer to help are no longer welcome to stay as any sort of guest. My mother can come any time. She is an enormous help whilst seemingly doing nothing & taking up little of our energy. My father & stepmother take up an enormous amount of energy, spend huge amounts of time "offering" to help but never actually do it. Thus, we are always busy when they want to come.

Indeed.

Yes, there was a well know sportsman who killed his own three year old in his own driveway. Always check! I would pay. If it was my child's bike I wouldn't ask for payment but I would be mightily annoyed (also with careless child).

Definitely shot i. Long e would be a weird american thing.

The Gypsy Crown series

Meals at table, no electronics. Snacks - from "free food" a PP suggested - wherever, however. Sneak just a little. No way! A child like this needs a protein breakfast. No advice for the last few as I shop in a different country & have more access to decent whole foods than even most folk in my country. Good luck.

A friend of mine does a "raw" ish smoothie every morning, then doesn't worry about what her children eat for the rest of the day. Which for her ds is often just a few rice cakes. I'm not sure of all her ingredients but they include coconut water (when she can find fresh coconuts), egg (even my mother used to do this when I was a toddler apparently - add a raw egg to a milkshake to get more protein into me), greens (but not always) etc. If you make it yourself, you can still add a commercial protein powder if you like but it doesn't become about the supplements, it's still about the real food :) I would be seriously concerned if my child was eating so much bread as to be eating frozen.

Yes, to what you said. Except in my area there are a few co-ops, including a prek/2-5 one. I wish there were enrichment classes.

Baby steps. If he's only five & you haven't done this with him before just do a little at a time. My DD would have wandered off after looking up one mushroom. However...the next she day would undoubtedly ask; "What kind of mushroom was that reddish one near the pine trees?" or something similar. THAT is the moment to pick up the ball & run with it. Have fun.

Yes, this. Good luck. Hope the meeting is productive.

Oh yes, I agree with this. I guess I'm just being a pessimist expecting that the school probably wont accelerate/do whatever else to meet his needs & he would be better off homeschooled & the scholarship $ spent on someone who would benefit from what the school has (& is prepared) to offer. I really hope that's not the case. I love your suggestions post and I'm copying for my own use ;) Good luck OP :)

I like that quote. I would share it. I do understand about "you should want to do what we want to do" though. I am actually in the process of extracting DD from some of the friendships she has through home school things as they are so entirely unsupportive of who she is.

I actually have heard this or similar often. One family had a child with a late Summer birthday & had been attending hs things for around a year. They invited every homeschooling family they'd ever met to hor fifth birthday in an effort to foster hs friends for her. Apparently it didn't work as they intended (although many families went) because a week before the new school year they rang a local private school & asked for a tour, then enrolled her on the spot. So yep, she was "homeschooled" until about a month after she turned 5. Like dmmettler, I'm very glad my daughter and I were welcomed into park days when she was young (too young even for preschool). Without that support I probably wouldn't have gone on to homeschool. However I do understand the frustration the "dropouts" cause when trying to build a group. I guess it depends on the aims of the particular group.

I for one didn't mean to imply that would their response (although it sounds as though the OP is concerned it might be). It's just that my sense of "fairness" has me feeling that such a scholarship would be best used by a child whose needs are not being met elsewhere and who doesn't have other educational options (which the OP's son appears to since he was originally homeschooled). OP, I do understand the overwhelm of the constant need for attention. In our household it has meant that my younger goes to Montessori preschool two days a week where frankly he gets a little more attention than usual whilst I attempt to fill his sister's "intense" cup so that things can be more balanced the rest of the week.

It's harsh but yes, this.

Eek. Yes, I'd send an anonymous complaint. Sorry your son had a bad experience.

Yes. Where I live now, all ages are welcome at park meets but there is a specific group running activities for the 2-5 age group. 4.5ish year olds and up are welcome in other activities depending on the class/teacher/maturity of the child etc. Buuuuut, in the large city I previously lived in keeping your child home until three was somewhat unusual and after that it seemed *everybody* went to preschool unless they were planning to homeschool. So DD & I started attending hs events when she was 18 months & that wasn't frowned upon. We certainly weren't the only ones either.

I don't think I could keep him in school under those circumstances. I would be wanting to bring him back home. Have you talked to the school about his lack of challenge?

Hmmm. We started reading the originals to my DD at 20 months but she has always been a bibliophile. My DS is really enjoying them now at 3.5 and I would have thought that was the right level for a read aloud. Disney book versions are banned in our house although both children have enjoyed the odd Disney Pooh movie between 2 and 5ish. Just checked the Scholastic link - it does say interest level 4-7. It's reading level that is 9-12.