WOW! I never knew this existed. This will be veeeeery useful...muhahahahahahahahahaha! Thanks!

Well, around here, it would be a certain *kind* of girl or boy doing that. I wouldn't see a neighbor girl doing that, or she would be branded a sl** and would be excluded from parties and such with the "popular" kids. Not that the popular kids don't make out. They just wouldn't do it in public like that. I *myself* am very anti PDA. I don't even like to hold hands in public. But to each their own. It doesn't bother me if someone is making out. It doesn't bother me if my daughter sees people making out in public. I want her to see firsthand how trashy it looks. There are kids here that are doing much more than making out at school. The new thing in middle school now is called the "spit it out game". I'll let you use your imagination. They play this both at school and on the bus. I could not imagine keeping my child away from a football game or something just because of some of the kids there. Just because some people choose to act in a way that is not fit for good society doesn't mean I have to punish *my* child for it.

Our schools have it all wrong. Just because some kids choose to do drugs, they punish all the kids by not even letting them have Tylenol at school. This leads to a feeling of, "No one is going to trust me even if I do the right things." That is the most dangerous attitude a child can have, I think.

I have no idea if my dh has a FB or not. Probably not, but that is frankly none of my business. It is none of his business what I do on the computer either. We are both adults. I talk to old boyfriends now and then. My dh talks to old girlfriends. They are all adults too. I don't sit around and worry about my dh cheating on me. If I did, I would see a therapist to get over MY problem. If dh meets some woman online and runs off with her, I know our marriage was not a healthy one. I certainly would not want to be with a man who didn't really want to be with me. It would be like not letting my dd go places because there might be kids there doing things I wouldn't want her doing. Either I trust my daughter to do the right thing, or I don't. Either I trust her to come and talk to me about mistakes she's made, or I don't. Essentially, I have either done my job as a parent or I haven't. If someone made it a point to read my email or messages on the internet, I would be totally ticked off. I would strongly consider leaving my husband if he did that. I do not wish to be married to such an insecure person. I would go as far as to classify a disrespect of privacy or setting "rules" about who I could and couldn't talk to online as emotionally abusive behavior.

Yikes! I can't get over the comment surrounding your adopted child. That is beyond rude!

3 girls of any age is a bad bad combo. We talk to my dd all the time about how she needs to be careful in groups of 3 that she's not leaving anyone out. Dd really tries hard to be a good friend and not to hurt people's feelings- but it still happens. Whenever I get stuck with 3 girls here, I strongly suggest jump rope. That way two are turning and one is jumping. Tween girls are strange animals also, searching to find where they fit in. Right about 10 years old, you see leaders start to emerge and groups form. 6 year olds are generally happy go lucky creatures and are usually oblivious to this. I would venture a guess that 9 yo #1 was trying to assert herself as leader over 9yo #2, and your dd got used as tool in that mission. If girls don't have a whole lot of guidance from mom or other strong women, they can turn mean mean mean at that age. We are having the opposite problem planning dd's b-day. Last year, we had it at Justice for Girls and it had to be a small party because of the venue. Dd just invited her really really good friends, we ended up with 8 girls, and that worked well. Dd has been to 11 birthday parties just since January. Plus, when one of the dance team girls has a party, they generally invite the whole team. Places around here usually do party packages for 10-15 kids, with you paying for each additional kid. One thing I've considered if I want to be lazy and get out of doing a huge party is to tell dd to pick one friend and take them either to the amusement park, water park, or for a day of girly fun like pedicures and such. This could be an option for you. Overall though, I vote for trying to get your dd to stick her neck out a bit and invite some of the neighborhood girls for a party so she can get to know them. Sure, not all of them are going to be perfect kids, but you're a good mom and fully capable of teaching your dd to handle the complexities of girl world.

Badly worded post there. ITA with this. I was speaking in the sense of assigned reading/listening for school purposes. Heck, back when I got dd the Little House series, I sat down and re-read them all. In one day. :blushing:

I will agree with what others said about improved writing and add this: Being able to study language by breaking a sentence down piece by piece is just plain good ol' brain exercise. Just like when we work out our bodies, we use different exercises to work different muscle groups. I think diagramming is a very good way to exercise the language muscles. When we're in good shape, it makes that much better when we're involved in activities and events - true from brain and body I think.

I can think of many other ways to get medical help without going on a talk show. I can understand the plight of some of these parents, though. They get put up in a hotel and probably even paid for their appearances. I can see how that would be hard to turn down for someone stuck in a less than desirable position in life. But, just because I can understand it, doesn't mean I think it is in the best interest of the children. My dh and I are not milk drinkers. DD would only drink chocolate milk there for awhile when she was about 2-3 (we used Ovaltine instead of the syrup). Then she went to a b-day party where the kids were served milk. She asked the hostess if she could have chocolate milk, and of course the hostess obliged. I explained to her later how what she did wasn't polite. She then made it her mission to like regular milk in case it was served to her again. She never drinks chocolate milk at home to this day. I should call the WIC people and tell them it CAN be done.

See, I did not get that from the video at all. I think there are a lot of teachers who simply don't understand kids and the world they live in today. I think the video was aimed at the dinosaurs left in the public school system who flat out refuse to change their methods to keep up with the changing times. I didn't get any feeling at all that the video was trying to say teachers should abandon books for video games. What is mindless IMO is having kids doing tons and tons of fill in the blank worksheets and multiple choice questions. It takes more thought to create a Powerpoint or organize info on a spreadsheet. ITA that education doesn't equal entertainment. But perhaps if more children saw reading as something relavent to their world, they would do more of it. I think it is the school system that has created this idea of books are for learning and technology is for fun.

Another thing to think about- people who are living in lower income situations often feel as if they can't afford to eat healthy foods. It is easy for them to buy something off the dollar menu and think they are getting a "deal" because a lot of these people live paycheck to paycheck. Some families actually "shop" at the convenience store because they don't have transportation to go to an actual grocer.

That is exactly what I thought. As far as the "classical method"- I don't know anyone who believes they are duplicating the way people were taught back in ancient Rome or something. I mean, why would anyone really want to do that in the first place?

I can't pick just one. The Revolution and post-revolutionary period and the 20th century would have to be tied for 1st place.

I would have an issue with a 7th grader listening to Harry Potter - especially if he was of above average intelligence. I would expect him to be weaning off children's books by that age. But that's just me. As far as listening to books in general, I think it's great. But I think the books should be at a higher level than what the child is capable of reading- or- like we do with movies, you read the book first. I am not a book on tape person. I can't really concentrate on listening to a book and do something like drive or work in the kitchen. But, again, that's just me. There have been some I have really enjoyed. I enjoyed listening to Silence of the Lambs much more than I did reading it. When I was little, my dad's company made the tapes to go along with the old filmstrips we used to watch in school (remember how cool it was to get to be the one to flip the frames? lol). He would bring just the tapes home (without the beep sound) and I would listen to them at night at bedtime. I never realized just how much I learned from that. My dd, on the other hand, loves to listen to books on tape. She does what I used to do as a little girl- she listens to them at night.

I am wondering why it has to be an either/or thing. Why can't kids use technology AND read books? Mine does. As romantic as the 1850's or 1950's might sound, we live in 2009. A 1st grader should be able to use a spreadsheet to record simple data from a science experiment. Many schools (not public of course) now require kids to have laptops as early as 3rd grade. The educators I know who are using technology in the classroom are not giving up education for entertainment. They might have their class read a book, then design a powerpoint presentation (think "book report"). They might do a lesson, then introduce interactive content or use computer games to give the children an opportunity to use what they have learned- in a way that is meaningful to THEM. I have never had parental controls in this house and never will. By the age of 4 my child knew that there were sexual predators pretending to be kids on the internet. We are considering getting her a cell phone in the very near future, and have already begun having conversations about "sexting". This is the world we live in today. I certainly can't change it, nor can I try to force her to live in Mommy's little dream world.

I pretty much just started. I know we are sticking with TT for math this year. Dd insists on that. We are also sticking with Lively Latin. We are almost sure we're going to do TRISMS. It incorporates IEW, which we already use and love. I can always beef up the lit studies if I feel dd isn't getting enough on that end. Dd wants an anatomy course, so we'll get her one. She's also going to to Plato Physical Science "just for fun". I am trying to decide between Analytical Grammar and MCT grammar. I'm also considering using the poetry stuff from MCT. Dd says she doesn't want to do Spellwell again. I think she just gets tired of the format after a whole year with spelling. She and I have been looking at different options, but nothing has captured her fancy yet. She wants a vocab program- I'm thinking Wordly Wise perhaps. I really want to put her in an art class rather than trying to do that here. But between piano, dance, swimming, soccer, and life, we may just flat out not have time.

I am totally cracking up. :lol:

Yet another reason to greatly admire our friends to the north. :D I have run into students while tutoring that were not getting the facts because they really didn't understand the concepts. Like, if you gave then manipulatives, they couldn't show you that 7*8 is 8 groups of 7. Even worse, I ran into a few who knew the facts because they had been drilled, but still didn't understand the concept.

What I think is even more tragic than allowing the child to overeat is to - instead of getting the child proper help from qualified psychologists and other medical professionals with experience in these types of cases- bring the child on national television seeking "help" from a talk show host.

What a fantastic idea!!! Thanks!

I don't think you are officially a homeschooler until some friend or family member says something totally stupid. So, welcome to the club! You've gotten some great advice already. One thing I would add is to try to put yourself in your mom's shoes. She's talking out of fear and that fear stems from love - love for you and her precious grandchildren. I totally agree with trying to make grandma a part of homeschooling. My MIL has been taking dd to swimming in the mornings recently. She said something about it cutting into school time (not said in a negative way). I told her that it was a little tough on those swimming days to get all our work done but the swimming counts as PE and I think that is so important. I could tell it really made her feel good. Also, make sure grandma has plenty of stuff to hang on her fridge. They like that. ;) Hang in there- you are going to do great.

Have you used any of these texts by any chance?

When dd was 3, she did not want to do any kind of simple addition problem. 24+24, um no thanks. But, if you gave her simple variables to figure out like 24+x=48 or 48-x=24, she loved those. This is kind of the way it went with multiplication. I tried flash cards, quizzing her in the car, multiplication.com, times tables the fun way, you name it. Nope. This is when I called for backup. She didn't start learning her tables until she started long division. One day, I decided to go over some factoring stuff with her just for fun. It was amazing- the information was just - there. Now multiplication and division are easy, even though math is not my dd's strongest subject by any stretch of the imagination. I wouldn't advise taking this approach on the fly. I only did it after talking to a professional who was familiar with my kid and has seen this type of thing before. But had I held my daughter back until she had her times tables down, we would still be sitting here doing elementary school math, and my dd would be miserable. So, although I do agree that some students need to wait and get the facts down before moving on, that is not true for all kids. Fortunately (grin), she's our only child. I don't know what we would do if we had two of these. :001_huh:

Ahhhh, yes I thought you did mean the dad's crossed the line. As for the dance itself, the choreographer is highly respected and has won many awards. The studio has been doing this particular dance at recital for over 10 years. Having your little girl placed in the class that does the "daddy dance" is considered kind of an honor.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/04/10/earlyshow/main4934181.shtml?source=RSSattr=Entertainment_4934181 "Burger King responded by saying the ad is aired "only during shows targeting adult audiences" and "is intended to show that even adults can have fun." Apparently, the organization that is heading the "backlash" (pun intended lol) also urged parents to send letters to Scholastic to stop them from publishing children's books about Bratz dolls. Here is the original music video in case anyone missed the 90's (it's okay, my husband did too) http://new.music.yahoo.com/videos/--2147288