Since she didn't clear it with you ahead of time, I would have been very ticked off. My first inclination would be not to have her sit for me again, but I wouldn't say anything to her parents, since she's 19. However, if she was otherwise a good sitter, I might be inclined to give her a second chance, but specify that no other people were allowed. Maybe down the line, if she sits for you frequently and has a serious boyfriend, it might be appropriate to allow the boyfriend to come over, but not right now, for sure. I remember one time my parents had a sitter of about 16 to watch us (which was infrequent; I was about 8), and she invited her friend and at least one boy, I think two, over. My parents were NOT pleased and never had that sitter again. Otoh, when I was a senior in college (so, 20/21), I babysat for a couple with one little baby, who drank a bottle and cuddled with me for a bit and then went to sleep for several hours. The couple actually told me to invite my fiance over so we could hang out and watch movies; as long as I had the baby monitor and checked on the baby occasionally, it was no big deal. But I would never have invited him if the couple hadn't specifically okayed it!

I love having a nice big cheery schoolroom! The space is wonderful. DD has her own desk, and the two boys share a table. I also have a huge desk of my own. Everyone can be together and yet not be on top of each other. In my case, we have three rooms in the front of our house; one is twice the size of the other two. One of the smaller rooms is probably supposed to be the formal dining room, but the kitchen in the back of the house is a big country kitchen, so we use that for the dining room. The "dining room" is the playroom, and the other small room is the living room; I opted to make the large room the schoolroom instead of the living room.

I have the stove where the second oven is a drawer oven at the bottom. The main oven is a regular-sized (fairly large, actually) oven at the regular height -- yes, I have to bend over to put things in it. 99% of the time, I use the main oven. A few times a year, I use the lower oven, but it's indispensable then. I can't do anything too tall in it, but when I need a second oven for something at a different temperature, I'm sure glad to have that lower oven! I wouldn't necessarily have bought the stove for that feature, but we were looking at the Sears outlet store, and that's what they had that met our other requirements (and it was on a HUGE sale), and I'm glad to have the lower oven.

I alternate days for some subjects, and even for the subjects we do every day, I try to change it up a bit. One day a week, instead of doing the math from our regular books, we'll do a couple of math pages from a workbook (BrainQuest at our house). A different day, we'll do some social studies pages instead of our usual history work, and on yet another day, instead of copywork/handwriting, they'll have a couple of writing/grammar pages from the workbook. That covers different things in a subject, and it keeps things interesting. Our math and history work can easily take 30 minutes each. I don't do math problems just for the sake of doing them; if I can tell that DD understands the concept and can do a few problems, that's enough for me. If she needs more practice, we do more problems. If she still has math practice problems, and we're ready to move on to history (which we do as a family), her practice problems get moved to be finished at the end. I don't think 3 hours is ridiculous to expect from her, at fourth grade; the first grader's work takes less than an hour.

LOL, I don't know -- they're not my thing. I'm a little on the picky side when it comes to eating out and don't generally order meat dishes at restaurants, so Chili's is somewhat limited for me. But everyone else likes it, and I had a coupon for free dessert, and I really like the southwestern eggrolls, so I was cool with Chili's. They were out of the eggrolls. So I ordered the "make your own appetizer, pick three" as my entree, and they were out of the shrimp that I really wanted for that. And the lemonade (IIRC) I wanted. The waitress felt so bad! (I went ahead and ordered my dessert with my meal so she could put my order in -- sure enough, I think she said I got the last one of that!) It was still a nice dinner though. :) (And they did comp part of the meal, which was appropriate, I think.)

I'm fully expecting that by the time my three boys are teens and eating loads (and let's not forget the girl -- she eats nearly as much as I do, and I don't exactly eat like a bird), they will be old enough to help with gardening and raising some animals. I know that's not feasible for everyone, but we do currently have the space for it, and if that's what makes the difference between having meat and not having it, so be it.

I shouldn't laugh at the offensive content, but that was hilarious (and true)!

While I agree that the manager didn't really handle it well (acting like it was no big deal), I'm also not sure exactly what would have been the right way to handle that. If they ran out of sausage, they ran out of it; she can't magically make more of that appear. It's a bummer for you (been in similar situations -- we went to Chili's for *Mother's Day,* and they were out of FOUR things I ordered!), but what else can she do? I think she should have been up-front and told you about the substitution when you picked up your pizza, allowing you to decide whether you wanted it that way, or whether you wanted another pepperoni pizza, or extra pepperoni on the meat pizza, or whatever. And I think she should have offered you a free pizza another time, since you weren't in a position to go back to swap it.

I personally consider healthy eating to mean eating foods as unprocessed and close to their natural states as possible, without man-made stuff added to them. Local and seasonal is not absolutely crucial but not completely bonus either. I tend to lean more toward the traditional/primal side of things as well. So for us, that means: -fresh (or frozen without additives) fruits and veggies; lacto-fermented or home-canned acceptable too. -meats of various types, from animals fed their natural diets and allowed to roam freely (same with eggs); no worries about nitrite-free bacon or sausage. -raw dairy products from grass-fed cows when possible, but if not, preferably from cows not given artificial hormones -nothing artificially low-fat -- if it's a low-fat food naturally, fine, but not low-fat milk or cheese -lots of good-quality fats -- from dairy, meat, eggs, olive oil, coconut oil, butter, lard -- but not trans fats or hydrogenated oils -whole grains, soaked if possible -limited gratuitous sugar -- unless someone was eating fruit to excess, I wouldn't count the sugar in fruit (or in dairy), but I wouldn't consider added sugar to be healthy. And no matter how low-fat an item, if it has HFCS, I don't consider it to be healthy. Sweets should be occasional treats, not daily expectations. -water as the default drink (and sometimes raw milk); juice, soda, chocolate milk, etc. should be very rare, especially for children. I do kinda lean toward a lower-carb thing too. I'm not really convinced that we need 6-12 servings of grains every day. When my DH goes low-carb and eats mostly vegetables, proteins, and good fats (by our definition of good fats), he keeps weight off and feels good. (And I don't always follow my own advice. There is ice cream in my freezer, and I'm drinking a Dr. Pepper right now. And sometimes finances make it hard to afford the really high-quality meat and such. But those are my general parameters and guidelines.)

It really sounds worse than it is. Yes, you have to DO the stuff, but generally, it's really not that big of a deal. The evaluation -- you keep a few samples of work/certificates from classes/etc., an attendance calendar (which is just checking off boxes that *you* consider to be school days), and a list of reading materials used, and you sit down for an hour or so with a nice person (pick one who is good for you), pay a small fee, and chat. In my case, the evaluator is a good friend; she chatted with my DD about some of the things mentioned in her portfolio, looked at the samples and test scores, filled out her official form that goes to the school district (her form has only the information required by law), and that was it. Really easy, and the nice thing about needing to have the portfolio is that it made *me* put the stuff together as a keepsake for later (which I might not have gotten around to doing otherwise). The fire emphasis is silly. Most people just go to a fire station or some little thing -- it's not a big deal, just silly. You don't have to be approved. You send in your paperwork, and you're good. My district sends a letter telling me they've approved my paperwork, but I don't have to wait for that letter before starting to count days/work. If they ever sent me a letter telling me they didn't approve me, I would insist that they show me why my paperwork didn't meet the law. It really is not that bad! Just silly. Mostly it's just a few extra minutes of work to give the district something that meets the law (and since the law is so vague, you can use any type of school method and find a way to report it). And the flip side is that there are lots of homeschoolers here, so there are lots of support groups, and at least in my part of the state, the community as a whole is positive toward the homeschoolers. And there are so many other great reasons to live in PA -- there are other states that may be even friendlier to homeschoolers, but for other reasons, they are on my "do not move here" list! To each their own. :)

My DD was very much into baby dolls when she was younger. She is 9 but will still occasionally play with the baby dolls, except that usually, at this point, they are props in a pretend game, rather than her "playing house" like she used to. (Now she mostly plays with her 18" girl dolls instead.) My boys have played with dolls some. Not to the extent that DD did, but they'll cuddle and rock and put the dolls in slings. They're also likely to play with stuffed animals and do the doll stuff with them. They mostly prefer the real babies though (my 6yo oldest son, the least interested in baby dolls of the bunch, is the best with the newborn).

Hugs, and I am with the other people who said to allow yourself a good cry occasionally. This IS a big thing you're dealing with!

Yes, that. It sounds like most of the issues are because of superintendents not knowing the law. The law itself IS a pain, but at least it's vague. We chose to live in PA instead of MD for other reasons (and we did have a choice; DH commutes to MD every day for work); the homeschooling laws in PA can be worked around, whereas there's no work-around for the reasons we didn't want to live in MD. For the people considering PA, the requirements are dumb, but the vagueness helps -- you can send in exemptions for the medical/dental/vaxes (even if you do some or all of them), use very vague objectives, give them minimal portfolio stuff, and use online testing for the standardized tests. If they give you official forms or packets, I would personally ignore those and send them only what the law requires. If they complain, put the burden on them to show you where you have not complied with the law.

Not the poster who mentioned that, but one, it could just go into the group's general fund and go toward off-setting the cost of the next trip. Two, our group has had things change last-minute, so that the cost is less than expected, and they've given refunds once everyone was on the bus (or gathered at the site).

I know PA is one of the more restrictive states with its requirements; I homeschool in PA myself. But PA's requirements are not the only strict ones, according to HSLDA's site. I see people post about issues with PA all the time, but I don't see people posting about say, Massachusetts and New York, and there are lots of people there. (I understand not seeing posts about RI, ND, and VT, since their populations are smaller.) Are PA's that much more confusing, or what? Just curious.

Ugh, how annoying! I'd not bother with the PDE. I would send him a copy of the law and state that you are complying with the law. It's not the district's business what grade you say your child is (and actually, we didn't even have that on our affidavit), and they don't "give you credit" for any grades. So ridiculous!

Like everyone else said, we have one choice for all of those things around here. So just call the companies that the landlord has listed and ask them to transfer it to your name. Depending on your area, you might have options for the supplier. PA just deregulated electricity a few months ago, leading to competition for the suppliers, so we switched to one that had a better long-term rate guarantee. The bill still comes through the original company though, so we had to go through their website to find the other options for supply. ETA: In PA, you'd probably call the local township department if you didn't know who the utility companies were.

Possibly interested. Are they assembled or not assembled? If you don't mind, PM me and let me know where you are, so I can see if it would work or not.

Board games, educational games like on SheppardSoftware.com, a good movie (especially one with historic significance, and/or good music -- like Sound of Music), time on google earth, writing a letter to Grandma, art project that doesn't need a lot of help from mom, audio books, play dough, BrainQuest workbooks, nature walk outside.

Can your ILs help you out -- lend the money, so you could pay a few months of rent up front and hopefully bypass the credit/income requirements, or co-sign a rental application or something? :grouphug: -- praying for a solution for your family soon. This certainly is a fire you're walking through right now!

We do math, which is the least favorite subject, first, so that it's over and done. We do history, which is the favorite, second, and then I try to alternate the subjects DD likes with the ones she doesn't.

If I were attending the field trip, I'd have no problem with you keeping one free ticket for yourself as a perk for your hard work. That seems really fair. I think you should keep one for yourself and then give the other one away -- either do the drawing for the free ticket, or split its cost up among everyone so everyone gets a small discount. Alternately, you might donate one ticket to a scholarship fund, if someone would otherwise be unable to attend at all.

It would bug me. I can see why they want to eliminate soda and such -- shaken up sodas causing mess, kids hyped up on caffeine and therefore possibly harder to manage. . . But I think it's not really their place to do that. If they want to make a gentle suggestion, that might be one thing, but to outright forbid soda and such -- that would bug me. One big reason that would bug me is because it tends to diminish the importance of the actual allergy. Kids might react badly to the dyes and caffeine in soda, but they're not going to be allergic to it, like the one girl is to peanuts. So people tend to think, "oh, a little soda's no big deal, a little peanut butter is no big deal, she can just stay away from it," when it sounds like no, she can't just stay away from it. When you include too much on the "no" list, you make all of it less important, and it's more likely that people will ignore all of it, including the "no peanuts" thing.

I love your name choices! (I have an Andrew and a Benjamin, plus a Zachary, and DH is Samuel. You have my brothers' names in there too.) If we have another son someday, I'm out of names. No, seriously, he'll probably be David, Thomas, John, or maybe Daniel or Jacob. (I love Daniel and Jacob, but they don't fit our theme, sadly.) Girl names that we have not had the privilege of using yet that I adore: Katherine Abigail Elizabeth Julia Caroline Susannah Joanna Alice Emily Erin (Several of those don't fit the theme either, but that's okay.)

My children have liked the Cuisenaire rods, plus hundreds flats and a big thousands cube. We've also gotten a fair amount of use out of plastic fraction circles and squares. Nasco sells a set of circles that go around the fraction circles that have percents, angles, and some other things on them; they help illustrate that 1/4 is 25%, 15 minutes, etc.