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phathui5

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Posts posted by phathui5

    Do you ever think college will be mandatory?

    in General Education Discussion Board

    Posted

    At my dd's high school you can take college credit classes. Why? Why not let a high schooler be a high schooler? I have no interest in trying to have her take classes on that level. Kids need more time for brain development. We, as a society, are already trying to teach concepts too early.

     

    I would have loved to do parallel enrollment like that when I was in high school. Instead, I quit in the 10th grade, took the GED and started college.

    Half-sibling relationships after divorce?

    in General Education Discussion Board

    Posted

    Here's our situation: Ds1 has a different biological father than our other three children. Xh signed to have dh adopt ds1. He has been absent from ds' life since he was six months old. We have been divorced for six and a half years. Ds1 has always known dh as his "dad."

     

    Xh has a toddler now, who is ds' half-brother.

     

    I have four half-siblings myself. I didn't meet one of my sisters until I was 13. I always resented that my mom didn't tell me about her sooner. I regret not knowing my two oldest half-siblings. (I met them once when I was a baby).

     

    At this point, ds doesn't know that he has a half-brother. I would like him to know and have the option to meet him, but I don't know how realistic that is and how xh and dh would feel about it. I don't want him to feel like I did, like there are siblings out there that he doesn't get to know.

     

    Xh is currently a single parent and the child is a toddler, so contact with him would neccesitate contact with xh. This isn't something that dh or I are comfortable with. But I don't want to keep ds from meeting his half-brother because I'm uncomfortable; that's what my mom did to me.

     

    How do you handle half-sibling relationships, particularly when there is no contact/relationship with the other biological parent?

    S/O Why universal health care frightens me

    in General Education Discussion Board

    Posted

    The healthcare system as it is now is a disaster. A recent example at our house is dh (supposedly covered by insurance) went to the doctor for a sprained wrist. The portion not covered by insurance was $229. They charged us $65 for the cloth Ace bandage that they put on his wrist and another $65 for them to take it out of the package and put it on. That's ridiculous. I could have done the whole thing for $9.

     

    Prices for healthcare in the US are so high because docs know that insurance companies are only going to pay a part of the bill, so they jack it up higher to get them to pay more. But then people who end up paying for their own are stuck with huge, artificially inflated medical bills.

    Academic testing and establishing giftedness

    in Accelerated Learner Board

    Posted

    I've been thinking a lot lately about doing some sort of academic testing for my oldest. He's seven and has read the whole Harry Potter series and just finished Eragon. My feeling is that testing would give me a picture of where he is academically and help me find better materials to challenge him.

     

    Where did you all go through for testing? What criteria do you use to determine giftedness? When a level was established, what kinds of materials did your children enjoy?

    Neighbor question/situation

    in General Education Discussion Board

    Posted

    Let's say you have a neighbor who you're not super close with but get along with pretty well. You've babysat the kids a couple times and they're over to play with your kids pretty much every day, what with it being summer break.

     

    Last school year her oldest child got beat up at school often for being the only non African-American kid in his class. Some days they beat on him for being Mexican, other days for being white. His grades took a serious nosedive the second half of the year because he was distracted by the social issues. When she tried to talk to the school, nothing was accomplished and the guidance counselor suggested that she homeschool.

     

    He knows my kids are homeschooled and is asking to be homeschooled. The younger two don't mind going to school and have said they want to go back.

     

    She said that she can't do it. She first said she couldn't have them home all day (she has three children). Other roadblocks are that she has to work and can't afford childcare. Her husband's work can be spotty and she cleans houses and they really need her income. During summer break the kids have either been going to work with her or her husband or staying home with their dad (who's asleep). I've watched them a couple days and she's paid me $10-$20 for the day because she feels like she has to pay me something (I do childcare for work). She does need school for the free childcare it provides.

     

    This kid is so sweet and it's killing me not to go "Send him to school here while you work. I'll watch him for free and we'll enroll him in a good homeschool umbrella that won't give you crap about working and having someone else watch him." If she and I were closer I would have said it months ago. She did actually ask me back in June about helping her homeschool him but then didn't ask again. I don't want to see his spirit get crushed in our crappy neighborhood school.

     

    What would you do? How do I bring it up without overstepping bounds? Should I leave it alone?

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