:iagree: Except that it's not allergies, it's a bunch of fussy kids. But I'd say different understandings, same God. I guess I don't really understand a different answer: if there's only one God, then who else would they be worshiping? Even if you think their understanding of God is totally and completely wrong, I still think the conclusion would have to be that they were worshiping God but misunderstanding him, not that they were worshiping a different God. If somebody thinks Obama is a centrist compromiser afraid to push for real change, and somebody else thinks he's a great leader, and somebody else thinks that he's a Kenyan anti-colonist intent on destroying the nation, we're all still talking about the same guy, not three different Obamas. We could say that one (or two, or all) of those conceptions of him is wrong, but it's still talking about the same person. I think this is the same thing.

I'm going to second It's Perfectly Normal. Honestly, there's some stuff in there I'm not 100% comfortable with, but it's a book I'll be handing to my kids when they are preteens or young teens (depending on their maturity level), because I think it's got stuff they need to know regardless of my comfort level. Depending on his age, though, It's So Amazing might be more appropriate right now, and you can hold off on the other book until he's a bit older.

I usually shop at a Gap outlet, Old Navy, and Target for me and for the kids. Oh, and sometimes Fashion Bug for me. I really don't have trouble finding stuff that's appropriate and affordable. But, I tend to go for really basic stuff for all of us--jeans, corduroys, plain tees, plain cardigans and pullovers, some dresses for DD. If I was interested in getting us trendy stuff that was both affordable and appropriate, I'm sure I'd have more difficulty. I got the most adorable little denim dress for DD for $10 at the Gap outlet this weekend.

I saw a post like that and I was wondering what was going on.

DS is still little, and most of his friends don't do activities, and the ones that are available generally start around 6. So, usually from 3-4 or 3-5, there are kids around for him to play with.

Love "JAWM."

Your DD needs to talk to the teacher, and it probably wouldn't hurt if you went with her for moral support. Plagiarism is generally taken very, very seriously, and it's not something you can just let go.

I always think I don't. I get really nervous beforehand. And then I remember that, wait, I LOVE public speaking. All of those people who have to at least pretend to listen to me!

One of my son's friends has some stray cats that he sort of adopted, and they had a litter of kittens. We were going to take two when they got old enough (around 8 weeks), but they're five weeks now, and all but one died over the last few days. Apparently the momma cat stopped feeding them. :( He's brought us over the last survivor. I've had older cats, but never one this little. Help! What are we supposed to do? Can we take care of one this young? If not, where should we bring it where they can?

My DS sounds a lot like your daughter. With him, I'd say it's neither what he's really feeling or a genuine attempt at manipulation (in the sense that he thinks if he says that he'll get what he wants): it's drama. He's a dramatic kid--I go from being the bestest mommy in the whole wide world to the worst meanest mom who ever lived numerous times during the day--and I see it more as exaggeration than as anything else. As to the negotiation issue, I don't think attempts at negotiation are themselves a problem, if they are made respectfully and if there isn't a meltdown when they don't work. My thing, when I tell DS to do something, is that DS either has to do what I say OR ask a respectful question. So, if I ask him to get his pajamas on while he's playing a video game, he doesn't have to immediately get off and get changed; he can ask if he can wait until he finishes the level he's on, provided that he asks in a respectful way. In most cases I'd say yes. If I ask him to clean his room, he can ask if I'll help him, or if I'll help him with the rest if he'll clean up the Legos by himself, and in many cases I'll say yes. I don't mind him asking those kinds of questions as long as he does so in a respectful way: in a nice tone of voice, asking only once, then waiting for an answer, and accepting the answer that comes without a lot of drama and fuss. If he does all that, then I don't mind considering his request. If he doesn't, then I let him know that, while I might have considered it if he'd asked respectfully, because he didn't, I won't.

I'd say that's more "Why we need vowels." ;)

I agree. I'd imagine that maybe he initially thought you were single, and maybe now feels even more awkward given that he was flirting with you and you're married. I wouldn't attempt to engage him socially, though. If he is somebody who isn't very socially attuned, he could take that the wrong way, and then you'll be in an even more awkward situation. I'd probably just consider him kind of weird but harmless--I've known lots of guys like that (for whatever reason, I've always seemed to attract that type)--and ignore him. As politely as possible, of course. ;) If you have that kind of relationship with your pastor, maybe you can mention the situation to her, but more in terms of "This guy seems kind of lonely, maybe you can talk to him/introduce him to some men in the congregation he'd get along with/invite him to a group or class or activity" than in terms of "This guy is weird and creepy" (even if he is).

Isn't the beauty of homeschooling that you don't have to? I'm more of a morning person, so I like to get up early. And, I'm selfish and like time to myself, and really the only time I can get that is in the very early morning. But, if it worked for my family and I was a night person, I'd just plan my schedule with that in mind. I don't think there's any particular virtue in rising early.

I can understand why you are upset, but I imagine it might be really meaningful for her children to have her go on vacation with them. I'd probably do my best to put my anger aside and enjoy the trip.

I'm not criticizing anybody else's schooling choices, or what works for them, but I'm really glad that my DS isn't going to school today. A bunch of my friends are posting pictures on FB of their kids getting ready for school, and my first thought was that we were missing out on the fun and excitement of the first day (and I'm really glad they're enjoying that--I loved it when I was a kid!), but then I realized that I'm really glad DS will be home with us all day.

It's like Fight Club: the first rule of underwear is that you never let anybody know you are wearing underwear. Or something.

Honestly, I don't think I'd give it even a moment's thought. Homeschooling is legal in every state. You don't need to join an organization that has a political agenda that goes FAR beyond protecting the rights of homeschoolers in order to enjoy legal protection; you ARE legally protected, because homeschooling is legal. The chances of CPS coming to your door about this are pretty much nil. I'd unfriend her, ignore any other attempts at contact, and just go on living your life.

I'm generally a morning person, but today was my first early morning in a while. My new DS generally wakes for a feeding between 5 and 6 a.m., and since he's been born I've been going back to sleep after that feeding, and then DH gets the other kids breakfast and wakes me up right before he leaves for work (usually right around 9). But I've been feeling really, really sluggish lately, and need to start exercising regularly again (and the only time I can manage to do it regularly is if I do it first thing in the morning), and now two mornings a week I need to be out the door at 7:30 a.m. to teach my writing class. So, I've decided that I need to just stay up after the baby's early morning feeding. I got into bed around 8:30 last night, but then read to ODS for about half an hour and then stayed up longer than I planned to reading my own book. The baby was up to eat at 5:15 this morning, we got out of bed around 5:30, and I exercised. Of course, the first morning is always the easiest for me. We'll see if I can keep this up for the rest of the week! At least I can manage to get in an hour-long nap in the afternoon.

Love those books. I will say, though, that I think the ages they recommend the books for might be a bit younger than what I'd lean toward, and I'm pretty liberal about sex (and definitely much more liberal than most on this board). I'd say it wasn't until he was about 6 that my DS was ready for all of the information in It's Not the Stork. I got It's So Amazing out of the library when he was 7 and I was pregnant with #3, and it had lots of good information, but a number of chapters had more information than he needed right now. In fact, I told him he could read through the book on his own, and he skipped a bunch of chapters because, he told me, he just didn't want to know that stuff. ;) It's Not the Stork has more than enough information for your average 6-8 year old, IMO.

I think some of it is that you're just starting. If you do keep homeschooling for years and years, you won't be doing that amount of prep. If you enjoy the prep work, then I don't see any problem with the time you're spending on it, but if you want to be spending less time, you could very easily do so, and you've gotten great suggestions. Personally, I love homeschool prep work. I'm a teacher, and I'm a planner. (Following through on my plans, not so much. ;)) Spending my evening doing homeschool prep is really, really fun for me. Now, at this point, with the two littles, I really can't do it very often, so my prep time is much reduced from what it could be (most of the time I don't prep at all, other than gathering all the materials we need at the start of the week), but if I had a run of free evenings, I'd enjoy spending a few of them doing homeschool work. The thing with teaching prep is that it's the kind of thing that can fill as much time as you let it. We learned that when I was in grad school and many of us were teaching our first classes. It's just kind of the nature of teaching. You can spend 20 hours a week prepping for your classes, or you can spend two hours. There's always more you can be doing, and you'll never get it perfect, so unless you either LOVE doing it and have unlimited time, you need to put limits on the time you spend, otherwise the planning can and will expand to fill any time you leave open.

We're not. DH is home, and it's the last day of summer break for a lot of DS's friends, so they'll likely be coming by during the day (he's got one over right now). We're having a little last-minute birthday party for one of DS's friends, too (we hadn't been planning on it, but his family party which was supposed to be this weekend fell through and we wanted to do something for him), so that will probably keep us occupied.

Sex talks are my job. My DH grew up in a home where all he heard about sex was 1) not to talk/ask about it and 2) not to do it. He wants to be more open with our kids, but he's just not comfortable actually being open, so the openness is left to me. My DS got the gritty details while I was pregnant with #3. His first reaction was "You mean you and Daddy have done that three times?!" He was horrified. About a month later, he told DD, "For a girl, the worst part of having a baby is pushing it out. For a boy, the worst part is having to have s-e-x." I just about died laughing. Oh, and then he asked me when we were going to have another baby, and I told him that we probably wouldn't have another, and if we did it would be a few years from now, and he said, "So you are never going to have sexual intercourse again?!" I'm telling you, this kid cracks me up. He's 7. I've told him that it is very, very normal that sex seems gross to him, because it's only for adult and is supposed to seem gross to kids.

I think that was me, too. I lacked the ambition big dreams would require.

When you were younger, did you have big dreams for yourself? Have you achieved them? If not, are you disappointed? If you didn't--if you had "normal-sized" dreams--is your life what you expected?

Not worried. My DS is 7. He's really good at self-censoring. If something is too intense for him, he stops reading. he started reading HP in the spring, and we figured that, when/if they got too intense or mature or him, he'd stopped. He did. He made it halfway through four and decided he was done. If he'd been good to keep reading, though, that would have been fine.