How neat! Our family would be thrilled at such an opportunity. We located an eagles' nest about 5 miles outside of town and will be visiting it frequently to see if anyone nests there this year. While out that way, we noticed that the Canada Geese are pairing off for the year and nesting along the flowage. Our final sighting of the day (Sunday) was a prairie chicken 20 feet up a birch tree methodically eating bud after bud. LOL

Don't pelt the bird. Songbirds are generally protected and I don't think you want to be caught doing that!

You all are making me feel like an ogre! Seriously, it is not the death of a child's desire to write if you correct something here and there. It has more to do with relationship and the child's personality than it has to do with the correcting itself. By correction, I don't mean that I whip up my trusty red pen and deface the work. I admire and praise it and then we usually move on to pointing out a spelling error (particularly if I have seen it before in their work) or other adjustment. I assure you, my children love to write and they write very well. It has not hurt them to get a little encouragement in this area.

I'm from Ohio originally and Cedarville was number two on my list of college choices. I still keep tabs a bit on things there. Someone I respect has long recommended the school, as well. This is a troubling development. The whole "emergent church" thing ... well, maybe this isn't the place to get into that but it has a great deal of potential for ripping any campus apart at the seams.

There was a thread recently in a similar vein. I was one of the few dissenters. In fact, I might have been the only one. :) In our home, it's just a given that suggestions will be made. It isn't a critique and it doesn't even feel like a correction. It's a hand up so the same mistake is not made again. Now, my seven year old made me a sweet card today and I didn't correct her spelling of the word "love". However, stories and such lend themselves to suggestions ***in our household***. I admit I was surprised to be (nearly?) the only person on the WTM boards to have such an approach. ;)

I really appreciate all the responses. Thank you. Our 2.75 year old is our fifth child, so I think we've moved beyond the point of jumping to the conclusion that our child is particularly special just because we are personally enamored with her cuteness. She knows her letters, uppercase and lowercase, as well as the sounds they make. She has worked at sounding out words in Bob books. She has a basket full of blocks with letters on them, and has assembled attempts at words and tried to sound them out. Since she has been part and party to the homeschooling of her older siblings, and is read to often, we have just assumed that this is somewhat normal and to be expected. Today, however, she brought a reader to me and opened it randomly. She said "What's my answer, Momma?" and I responded absentmindedly, "I don't know. What's your question?" She pointed to the book and said "It says 'called Rachel'." That is precisely what the book said. I was shocked. I still am. She loves numbers and counting and sorting. Two of her older sisters (ages 7 and 9) have oral math lessons with me. Our toddler always sits with them and listens in. Three or four times she has given the answer to their addition problems (flash cards) before they could answer. A couple of weeks ago, we were writing simple addition questions on a white board and she piped up that 10 plus 4 "... is pourteen, Momma" in an impatient tone, without hearing the problem. She only saw it written. She recently climbed onto a chair while I was cooking and pointed at the digital timer that had been stopped. She said "Dat's seben". (She talks a blue streak and carries on conversations, but still doesn't enunciate properly.) The timer said 05:02 and she had added the digits and come up with 7. That same day, an oral addition question for her older sisters was "What is 4 plus 3 plus 1" and she replied "Eight!" before the older two could answer. These things have all occurred in the last several weeks. Although we will not push her and are not racing out for curriculum to use with her, we also don't want to ignore potential or frustrate her. Do these things sound "accelerated" to those of you on this board?

Oh, yes, very cool! :iagree: One of them (though admittedly expensive) would make a great piece of decor in a kitchen, though.

This is precisely what we do. :) Certain subjects, depending upon the child, must be done daily. The reason we went to once-weekly on some subjects is because we greatly dislike interrupting ourselves in the middle of learning to move to the next thing. We get far more out of a full afternoon in Biology, for instance, than we get out of short sessions, five times per week.

Of course, we aim to cover everything. Up until recently, our focus was natural sciences in the view of Creation. It stemmed naturally from our oldest child's interests. She is five years older than the next child. Now that the others are growing into their own skin, we are diversifying. Our second child is a history buff. We cannot provide her with enough reading material. She can interject a pertinent historical tidbit into nearly any conversation. Our third child is very adept at mathematics and has outpaced the next oldest. It was a lot easier when we focused mainly on just ONE thing! :lol:

... that your child fit into the "accelerated learning" category? At what point did you realize that your child was different from the norm? Did you, at some point, choose to have an evaluation done and at what age? Thank you. :)

I have children who have to mock each other's sneezes. Thank you, Egyptian history lessons. ::rollingeyes:: Now whenever one child sneezes, a chorus of copycat "Hatchepsuts!" can be heard around the house.

Your son is six, by your subject line, correct? My son has been wearing glasses since he was three years old. What opth thinks you need to wait another year before helping your son?! Perhaps a man who has seen willful children who wouldn't wear them? That is possible, but probably wouldn't apply to your son. I believe if you call back and state that you want to put him in glasses now, as opposed to a year from now, that they will probably not argue with you. Explain what happened at home and how the magnifying glass exposed what you thought was a learning/maturity issue as truly being a vision issue. If during that exam, a prescription was noted, they are required by law to give that prescription to you. It would be better to have that office fulfill the prescription, perhaps, but if they are unwilling to do so then you have every right to purchase the needed glasses elsewhere.

My family moved the summer that I turned nine years old. My parents knew of the move a few months in advance, though they didn't know the exact location. If they had told me a week or so before school ended, I'd have felt better about it. I would have liked to have said goodbye to a few of my friends and perhaps exchanged addresses with them. Instead, I completely lost contact with those friends and everything that I knew. We were taken to a new state where we knew no one and no one knew us. I felt like I'd been left afloat and I resented it. Obviously much of my reaction was wrapped up in *me* and was inappropriate. I am not denying that! The transition could have been made easier, though. Since my children are homeschooled, our last move was considered a great adventure and we had no issues with sports or school grades or losing friends.

I agree with avoiding too much sympathy and essentially feeding the situation. I have one child who is very sensitive to many things. Little injuries tend to hurt her more than anyone else would feel pain from the same scratch or bump. I've handled it by teaching her to take care of herself. She is allowed to apply cream or lotion if infection isn't a concern. She puts the antibiotic cream on the bandage for other injuries. She gets her own ice pack or cold, wet washcloth. I avoid medicating my children in general unless it is really, truly called for. I can see the potential for the child I've mentioned to go through life seeking meds for every discomfort, as that is her nature, so I have actively worked at showing her other treatments for things.

Mad Libs are a great way to play around with teaching the parts of speech painlessly. :) Our four year old even takes part. The two year old tries, but she usually parks on one word and wants it used in every instance. ;) We own the card game, but I've never opened it! Perhaps I should pull it out today while we're overcoming sickness in the house.

Our set was the Maytag Atlantis. We weren't the only folks to have ongoing issues with them. We purchased through Best Buy and that's how we were able to choose a different brand. :)

I suppose it depends upon what you are storing. Certainly tomato-based and acidic foods would be a "no". Several years ago a government food inspector related a tale on an email list. A large group of people in the south fell gravely ill. The source of the food poisoning was traced to an enamelware pan or pot used in a restaurant. It seems the bonding agent that binds the enamel to the metal is toxic if exposed. He was part of the group that investigated and he explained it very well. My memory is foggy on the explanation, though. Since that time, I have phased out any enamelware that has a chip in it and have not purchased any new pieces. I no longer have any in my kitchen.

The Maytag washer we bought in 2001 was a lemon. LEMON!!! We had so many service calls that I couldn't begin to count them. We had just a few months left on our extended service agreement (though we had been forced to pay out-of-pocket for several calls they deemed "our fault" that weren't) when I finally gained a sympathetic ear. They gave us credit for the full purchase price toward the purchase of any machine we wanted. We opted for a Seimens front loader and I have greatly enjoyed using it. The Maytag dryer is a gem and we chose not to replace it. It works wonderfully still.

Our last washer was a lemon of a Maytag. We had purchased a matching set and the dryer has never given us a moment's trouble. The washer, though, was over 3.5 years of headaches! We replaced the washer with a front-loading Seimens machine because it was getting the best reviews among heavy users (we are a family of 7, using cloth diapers) and among sales/repair staff. I am thrilled with it! At the time, we didn't have the funds to replace the dryer. It hasn't been a problem and that dryer is now seven years old. In fact, it works better now because the washer wrings everything out so much dryer than a top loader will do. So for us, we replaced the washer but kept the dependable dryer and have not regretted that decision. As for contacting Sears, I have heard so many horror stories about their service that I wouldn't even attempt it. Particularly since you'd pay for a service call for the machine based on it's age. Perhaps a local repairman could offer a quote but at this point you might be looking at replacing piddly part after piddly part until the machine breaks down altogether. I'd replace it.

A few meandering thoughts ... That is a quote from the article. The man is ill-informed. "Homeschooling" has existed in some form for hundreds to thousands of years. True, formal education and not just story-telling. Perhaps he ought to Google the "history of homeschooling". That quote is from Christine (choirfarm). I just wanted to share my agreement. My husband is in retail cellular sales. He deals with the teenagers who come in, ready to pass out completely if their cell phone cannot be immediately repaired or replaced. He sells new phones to students whose phones have been confiscated (he cannot discriminate and must sell to the parents or students over age 18) because they used them improperly during school hours. He has watched parents kowtow to their children's demands for the latest, coolest phone with the biggest, most expensive texting package. The behavior, allowed and encouraged by the parents, is truly unbelievable. Again, from the original article. My children do not graze. They read. I know a good number of children who actually read. Experts and fearmongers have trumpeted for years that books are dying and what is read will be accessed on a little screen. It hasn't happened yet. It will never happen completely. In the meantime, anyone who wants to drop off their outdated books at Goodwill should let me know when they do it so I can reap the rewards of their foolishness. LOL

Tide here, and Baby's clothes (not diapers) go right in with ours from the very start. I do not have time for loads of *just* baby stuff! I draw the line at putting diapers in with our regular clothes, though. ::shudder:: I know lots of moms do that, but I just can't be one of them. LOL Our third and fourth children both had sensitivities as babies and one of them still does. Tide is the only detergent that consistently performs well without causing issues with rashes, eczema or dingy clothes.

Due to my son's skin sensitivities to some detergents, and the dinginess from poor-performing cheaper detergents, we pretty much stick with Tide. I was annoyed to find they are only selling the 2x type now. I already use barely a tablespoon per load for my front loader, so now I have to be very careful not to use too much of this new stuff. I want my old Tide back. :glare:

As I understand it ... Green box by rep is Positive Grey box by rep is Positive From Newer Member Red box by rep is Negative

This is what I was trying to gently point to in the post about my nephew. I adore this little guy and my heart breaks when I see how UNparenting has affected him for the worse. He really is a doll, and has taken a particular liking to me. But I am not his parent. God did not make me his parent. I can only offer advice and insight when it is asked for, and then assume (due to past experience in *this* situation) that it will not be followed.

I try not to judge the parenting of others unless I know the family well. My use of the word "judge" ought to be defined as "evaluate" rather than the impression of deriding their actions and choices. My nephew is autistic, but because of poor parenting is nowhere near where he *could* be. His sister is a terror, has been tested and is "normal", but I give her a little latitude in my home because I know she simply has not been parented. I can't expect either of them to behave like my children because I have not raised them, they have not been well-parented, and sometimes I wouldn't want ANYONE to act like my children. (Eek!)