I'd count that as an English assignment for sure! After all, isn't one of SWB's goals in WWE to get them so they can get their thoughts from their heads to the paper? I would think that's along the same lines. I think she did a great job, and what a great idea!

I don't know about Life of Pi (never read it), but I think The Hobbit definitely would be a great read-aloud for that age!

Probably not much. Being homeschooled would have been nice, but I'd have traded a lot of things that were also beneficial (like tutoring ESL students, captaining the quiz bowl team, and other things that probably ultimately led to getting accepted to a college honors program with a hefty scholarship). I decided before I even started high school that I wasn't interested in casual dating, that I wasn't going to date anyone I couldn't see myself marrying. I did go for the smart, geeky guy, and if that was all I ever got out of high school, it's worked out pretty well for me. ;) I think the biggest thing I would have done differently is to find myself a hobby as a teen and stick with it. I think I also would have pushed myself more academically, not remaining content with a 94 when some effort could have gotten me a 99. Laziness is not a trait I admire in myself. (At the same time, I also recognize that I did a ton of extra-curricular and service activities, was maintaining a serious relationship with a boyfriend who was six hours away, before email and cell phones, and was taking multiple classes each semester of 11th and 12th grades that were 30 minutes from home and lasted until 10 pm, so I realize that there was a limit to what more I could have done.) Also, fwiw, I am doing exactly what I said I wanted to do. Couldn't have nailed it better. In high school, I knew I wanted to marry my boyfriend, move to the country, and homeschool a bunch of kids. And here we are. :)

See the thread about humming. I am definitely like that. I just wish I knew what to do about some of the things.

My DH read The Hobbit to our older two when they were 4 and 7. The 7yo then read Fellowship of the Ring to herself (after having seen the movies, so at least she knew the basic plot and characters), so The Hobbit was fine for her. The 4yo liked The Hobbit a lot, but DH did stop to explain vocabulary and such to him. I think it would be fine to read The Hobbit as a book club book for 4th-8th graders, especially if listening to it was an option for some of the kids.

I used to read her blog, but that was before I actually had a large family. I think she has some good advice.

We got DD's epipens after a swelling episode last year (face/nose, not to airways, but I expect it could escalate), and yeah, I'm a little scared of actually needing to use it. I think that, in an emergency, my brain would take over and tell my body to just DO IT. I hope. I think the hardest thing would be that she's almost as big as I am, and if she was scared and resisting, it would be very hard to hold her still. Anyway, we watched them try to get a vein on DD at the ER when she was still swelling. They tried multiple times before being able to get one, and she had bruises in three spots. Poor girl was pretty miserable -- they were so gentle, but it still hurt. Plus the swelling and hives. I will try to keep that picture in mind if we ever need the epipen -- surely one swift stick would be better than multiple attempts at digging into her veins.

Four years and two years ago, I watched the numbers climb online, so I expect that I'll do that this time too. We're on the east coast, so it will probably be a late night. (But it was fascinating watching our Gubernatorial race two years ago -- it really appeared that one candidate was going to win, and bit by bit, it swapped.)

I don't think it's unreasonable to see what people post in public on FB, or in their front yard, or whatever. I think asking people for their personal passwords to log on to FB is a bit much, though. If someone posts sensitive/personal/etc. stuff to a few friends, that, to me, is very different from having it all out in the open for lots of people to see (even though nothing is really private), and I do see how the latter might show a lack of discretion. As an employer, I can see being concerned what my employees might be posting, especially if they also listed my company as their employer. If I owned Jones Consulting Firm, and my employees routinely listed that with their profiles, and then they posted lots of public pictures of them getting drunk or something, maybe my potential clients would be turned off, y'know? Same as if my employees were often found throwing large parties with lots of drinking, and it was known around town. Or if my employees were known for making lots of crude jokes in polite settings. Not illegal stuff, just stuff that showed a lack of discretion. My DH refuses to do FB, but I know that if he throws his employer's name around at all, he's going to be careful how he represents that name. I expect that of my children, that they'll represent our family, homeschoolers in general, and God in a positive way; I don't see why an employer shouldn't be able to expect that his/her employees should represent the company well.

LOL, my kids and DH walked a lot last night! Easily a mile or more. (The baby and I stayed home -- too cold and damp and raw for us.)

A ring sling (sleepingbaby.net is a good brand) might be nice for short periods of time, but they get uncomfortable because they're one-shouldered. Is there a local babywearing group near you? They might have some options besides the Ergo that you could try. I like my Ergo, but there are other similar carriers that fit differently and might work better. I also hear that PAXBaby rents carriers to try. I also really love my woven wraps for long periods of time when the baby is too heavy for the Moby; there are lots out there, but I personally have found both the BBSlen and Storchenwiege wraps to be very comfortable and supportive. I also love my Kozy mei tai (kozycarrier.com). I do think my Ergo is the most comfortable for long periods of back carrying, but the Kozy is a good one too. My Ergo shunts a lot of the weight to my hips -- could you try lowering the Ergo on your hips a bit?

You are a good sister. Does she have other friends in the area? Could you contact one of them and send some money to that friend to pick up dinner for them? Is there anywhere that delivers pizza or anything? Could you pick up a few snack items and send them to her, so that she's got trail mix, granola bars, fruit, stuff like that if she has to go back to the hospital?

DH brought home some Cadbury scream eggs -- I enjoyed one with my coffee this morning. :) However, nobody ate any candy until after breakfast (eggs), myself included. That's one of my very few rules -- good protein breakfast first.

You're in PA -- I assume you checked with ERIE? (Or maybe the really high quote was ERIE.) That's crazy that it's so high for one teen!

Yes! Oh my goodness, definitely this. Especially wrt the Legos.

Most of the time, a new toy belongs to the giftee for a while, and then after a while, it's communal. There are a few things that belong to each child, though, and they don't have to share those. In our case, those things are usually things that are also not small-child-friendly (like DD's nice dolls, or DS1's vintage tractor collection, or even special Lego sets), so they live in their rooms and/or on high shelves. It also happens that the boys have identical toys in some cases -- like, they each have a toy rifle, but they know which is DS1's and which is DS2's, so they don't generally argue about them. DD doesn't typically want to play with the rifles (any more than they want to play with her dolls), but if they do want to play with something like that, they do ask first. But trucks, most Legos, kitchen food, puzzles, dress-up clothing, and other random toys are mostly communal after a while (with the exception that they don't get to commandeer all of the Duplos that are supposed to be DS3's).

Yeah, that sounds pretty normal. My 7yo and 4yo boys wrestle constantly. In fact, the 4yo can be very "boy," and the 7yo tends to be a bit gentler, so a while ago, he came to DH and me, asking how he could wrestle with his brother because he didn't want to hurt him. It's evened out a bit more now, and they are forever wrestling and play fighting with each other. I draw the line when someone does get hurt, but the major thing I notice about the two of them vs. when DD is involved is that the emotional aspect just isn't there like it is when DD's involved -- no grudges are held when it's just the boys, just a fine line between loving on each other and whacking each other for fun. Fwiw, my brothers are 3 years apart and were the same way. :) ETA: I reread the OP. Biting and spitting and scratching and the like would not be tolerated here. Wrestling, even bonking each other without causing harm -- that's typical, and I don't intervene unless someone's getting upset. Half the time, they're wrestling with each other and laughing. But if someone starts getting upset, or if it would cross into biting or similar, I would intervene. I also tell all of them, "If I have to intervene, you have to live with my consequences, so before you come get me, see if you can work it out between yourselves." This has cut down on one child complaining to me about another child and then getting mad at me when I separate them -- they know that if they don't to be separated, they probably ought to see if they can work it out without me first.

One of mine gets like that when he's tired, hungry, or has had too much sugar/grains in the past couple of days. He's a fairly sensitive child anyway, and if he's off, it shows up in being ridiculously silly. I usually remove him from the room for a while, because he'll feed off his siblings egging him on, but if all else fails, a nap or solid chunk of protein resets things. He's usually very compliant, so if he's silly and can't focus worth a darn, it's almost always a combination of too much sugar and too little sleep.

I think the teacher showing her own home birth was probably inappropriate. Discussing it with students who were curious, maybe, but showing the birth -- probably not. ETA: Although, being a homebirther myself, I do think it's good that students were shown the option of homebirth -- it's not for everyone, but it can be a wonderful option for some families, and I think it's nice to plant the seed of options in kids' heads early. I also think it was inappropriate to show graphic videos without parental permission. Now, I showed my kids birth videos and have had them at my births (they were all supposed to be at DS3's birth, and we watched videos to prepare them for that, including DS1 and DS2's birth videos, but DS3 was born so quickly that they missed the actual birth), but we did a lot of discussing and talking about it all ahead of time. And I think within a family is a totally different thing. I can see why a school might want to try to warn kids about teen pregnancy, but I'm not sure that's the way to do it (I'm pretty sure they're not going to be thinking about birth when they're thinking about having s*x), and I think in a school setting is totally different from a home setting. Yet another reason I homeschool.

Congratulations!

I was all of 18 pounds at 18 months, so small isn't necessarily bad, and *someone* has to be on the lower end of the curve. Was he walking a lot at his last checkup? I'm thinking that he's just really active, and especially if he wasn't walking much last time, the increase in activity could be hitting the same time as a normal slowing down of the metabolism that often happens around that time. It could be that he's due for a growth spurt really soon. What's entailed in testing for diabetes that young? Maybe it's worth doing the testing, just to rule it out? :grouphug:

:grouphug: and prayers for good news!

I googled this issue, and it seems like it could be a type of sensory integration or processing disorder. Interesting (though I'm glad I'm not the only one). I have no idea how you address that in adults, though. I've always been pretty sensitive to things -- tags on shirts bother me terribly, my skin is very sensitive, my eyes are very light-sensitive, I'm super cautious about textures when eating (though I'm not at all a picky eater). One suggestion was noise-canceling headphones. While that might work for studying, a homeschooling mother of four can't exactly walk around with them on all day!

Paper airplanes/origami. Marble run. Stuff to play ball outside. Anything useful for hiking together -- nature guides, binoculars, journals, backpacks. . . DH takes my big kids hiking frequently, and they have a blast.

Humming, whistling, tapping, even singing incessantly -- they all really bother me. I'm super sensitive to noise, especially repetitive background noise (I don't keep a TV or radio on) and several of the people in my family do those things often. I wish I knew what to do about it, but so often, I feel like my head is just buzzing, and I can't think straight.