I recently noticed how scraggly my own handwriting has gotten. I realizEd I must be out of practice, since (as you've noted) I keyboard most stuff these days. I bought myself an italic penmanship workbook and a new blank journal. I am going to have summer school for myself. :) There are lots of penmanship workbook options for older students. I'd let her choose one and add a page a day, followed by a couple of paragraphs of copy work. One of my kids has some visual discrimination issues, so I had him do penmanship and some cw through 8th grade. At your student's age, it will go a lot faster than it did back in the early grammar stage!

Read your update, making the leap to assume your dh had a hand in pressing for a scan - good for him! Sad but true, many patients really need their advocates close at hand these days.

I am so sorry, Jean! Hopefully they caught it in time to remedy it in some way...:001_huh: My dad was "diagnosed" with Alzheimer's related symptoms, including dementia. Since my mom had no one to help at homr, he was funneled into adult day followed by assisted living. A year or so later he started having headaches so bad they had to be investigated. Turns out all along he had fluid on the brain - a condition which could have been treated much earlier with great recovery potential. By the time he had a surgical fix, he and my mother were too deep into and dependent on the system. Very sad, and very hard to experience as a thousand-miles-away adult child. Anyway, I have an attitude about folks in old age getting the brush off just because they're...well, old. I feel a bit indignant on your behalf. I hope your mil has a full recovery.

had "ripped off" Shakespeare. Can you tell what she's currently reading for school? :lol::lol::lol:

Oh man, when I first read the title I thought you were missing your pmS. I was going to ask you what you did so I could try to lose mine, too!!! :lol::lol::lol:

Well, yes I did......when I was pregnant with twins! Fortunately for me, my OB was a curious sort and had an ultrasound machine right in his office, so we just walked across the hall and got that question answered right away. I was 14 weeks when I found out.

Yeah, I admit I laughed out loud at this statement!

I think what you need most is a big "YOU CAN DO IT!!!" and lots of these :grouphug::grouphug::grouphug: Sounds like you handled it beautifully.

:iagree: (Good to see you, Mariann!!! Hope you are settling in well! I am celebrating for you!)

I already replied once, but just had to add that my friends count is very low, in the double digits. I keep in touch with my far away siblings, my generation of out-of-state cousins and my older aunts and uncles. I have a few friends from church, and a couple other home schoolers. I am friends with my kids, and any friend of my kid that sends me a friends request (I do not ever send a friend request to kids, but I never refuse a request one of them might send me). I am not fb friends with any of my in-town relations. If we can't get it together face-to-face, it doesn't need to be done via fb. I say, again and again, a person's fb account should serve their needs, should be a happy little parlor on the web. If it's anything other than that, time to defriend a few folks or give it up entirely.

In your sweetest voice, just continue saying no. Think of it as though your dealing with three-year-olds, remember how many times you have to repeat the same thing to a little kid? To answer the "But why?" I would say, "I'm just not comfortable with that." Repeat, repeat, repeat. You will be mentally worn out by the end of the week, but count your blessings... in your case they eventually go back home. That's not true for everyone with challenging relatives! ETA - I just wanted to add that it's funny, the way we always think we owe people an explanation for why we don't want to do something they're trying to get us to do for them. YOU DO NOT OWE THEM AN EXPLANATION. Remember that!

Well, the real problem is not *my* expectations, but those of extended family. A few years ago I just put my foot down and said "Enough!" So now, that part of the stress has been removed. But I still don't like the day, I think it's artificial. I am aware that we have different opinions. :D Sincerely, I hope your special day is wonderful, Cat!

Swellmama, any new developments?

:grouphug: Ya know, it is probably a real blessing that it's one up suddenly. I understand you wanted to do some research but ime, that often creates a google-inspired set of worries. You'll avoid that! Just keep in mind that now Cora can get any help she may need earlier. I agree with Mergath's excellent suggestion of a second set of ears. Definitely a notebook!

I don't like it. Too commercialized. Too much hype. Too much focus on me, which causes me to cringe over what I know to be a year full of failings. Too much pressure on dh and the kids to make the day perfect. Too much drama about who it's actually for and who to celebrate it with. Our celebration of the day is pretty well laid out, at least it has been for the last few years. The only things I ask are not to have to cook a meal, and to not have to go to anyone else's celebration of MD (I call my own mom and dh takes his mom out for a meal on a day near to but not on MD). If my children, of their own initiative, have chosen to do or give something, I cherish it, but I am honestly quite happy with no gifts. Hope I don't sound grinchy. It's been a source of stress in the past and we already have plenty of that!

Robbie, someone mentioned getting help from a retired person... Are there any "retired" homeschool moms in your area that might be willing to take this on, perhaps as a ministry? Or even a teacher at your church who might be willing to donate the time? Just trying to think. Of course you cannot throw your own family under the bus. :grouphug:

It didn't hurt dd much until the last day or two of the two week adjustment period. By then I think she had just taken as much as she could stand. But me? That little key made me feel like the dungeon master in a medieval torture chamber. So glad it was a short term thing!

This is a bit off topic, but I'd like to put in a plug for the documentary Catfish. It's available on DVD from Netflix. Can't tell you too much about it without spoiling it, but it is about FB relationships. Oh yeah, if you watch it, don't miss the Q&A with the filmmakers bonus feature on the DVD.

Wow, that's a terrible situation disguised as a devout one. The state certified evaluator is committing fraud. She is the one who needs to suffer consequences. If evaluators - provided for by current law - are held to the right standard, then families will not be able to get away with educational neglect. Cutting her out of the loop will affect more than this one family. Now, how exactly to go about that, I'm not sure. But someone in the state dept of education needs to check up on her and accompany her to a few evaluations. Am I for more government regulation? No. But ime, people who take care of business and educate their child have no need to fear the evaluation process.

One glitch I think of when elevating the rights of the child above the rights of the parent is that a child asserting his rights will need an advocate to do so. Just who will that advocate be? Who will appoint that advocate? Will that advocate assist the child according to a policy that considers parental rights equally, or will the rights of the child always trump the rights of the parents? I understand that some children do need advocates to protect them from their own parents. Does our system - according to our laws - meet that need? What I'm getting at is this: rather than load on more laws, can we do a better job of enacting what's already in place? Do we need to burden our current system with a set of rules designed to provide children with the sort of protection for which our current setup of state laws, CPS and mandatory reporters already provides? It's late and I'm rambling. I know there will always be those that fall into cracks. But I wonder if entangling ourselves in a far reaching international agreement will actually help the ones who fall through, or if it just create a bigger, less efficient machine.

That's why I have strict parameters for accepting friend requests. :grouphug: FB is something to help you feel connected to others in a positive way. I think there are lots of tools and self-decided "policies" you can implement to keep it working for you. Streamline your friends list. Block repeat feeling-hurters. Decide on the criteria for whom you'll befriend in the future. If all else fails, log off for a while, maybe permanently. Life is too short for FB to make you hurt.

I couldn't. It's already as slim as I can get it and keep my kids fed.

As it should be. Oops, my opinion is showing....

Thanks! I don't usually use a recipe, either, but the way I do it almost exactly like you do, only I use only 1 or 2 eggs. I'm going to try it with more.

Would you please share your baked grits recipe?