A friend of mine was in the hospital and had given birth. They gave her an Ambien and that night she peed the bed. She didn't remember much about it other than the nurse yelling at her and making her change her own sheets. (bad experience) I told the morning nurse what had happened and she said she HATES that they give anyone Ambien. She said she routinely deals with people peeing the bed, walking down the hospital hallways naked and all sorts of stuff because of Ambien.

Dinosaurs were birds now? Crap....I guess I need to start doing some reading before we get into dinosaurs around here.

This is why I haven't been to this forum in a while. I realized homeschool parents are just as judgmental as every other group. :( It was very disheartening. I, too, loved school. So, yeah...maybe my homeschooling is more like "school at home." We have real school desks in front of a chalk board and white board. I do sometimes ring a bell to get the boys to come to the room. (which they love, by the way) I do use worksheets (again, which they love), specific books for each subject. It works. I really think I am going to start having my boys raise their hands in some situations. It's something they need to know. When we go to the library story hour they need to raise their hand to talk. In class at church they need to. It's one of those life skills and why not teach it along with everything else?

We are only 18 lessons in, but I LOVE it. I guess at this point my only complaint is for my oldest He'll sound a word out right away, but they still go through saying each sound like two or three times. I just tell him to be patient. When things start slowing down and he's really grasped it, though, it seems to then jump on to something a little more difficult. He starts getting a little board about one lesson before story time, but then story time hits and he gets excited. I'm just amazed at how much he's learned in 18 lessons. This is the only reading program we've done, but I love how they gradually introduce left to right, say it fast, moving from mark to mark. At first I couldn't understand why they were doing some of that....at the beginning with just pictures....but then it hit me and I felt stupid. :)

I've been a Sparks, Cubbies and Puggles leader and am a Sparks director now. I also have a Cubbie and a Sparkie. :) I LOVE AWANA. Re: getting more verses signed off on than you thought they'd get. I have amazed parents all the time. Their kid will do a handful of verses and they thought they knew one. If you drill the kids they do know them...forward and backwards and what they mean. BUT....if you only want them doing the one they worked on, I'd tell their leader. I totally understand wanting to go more in depth with the verse. Or if they are very capable of doing two or three, just work on three during the week and make sure they have a firm grasp. Re: Security. Talk to the leaders and directors! Sometimes it takes a parent bringing up a concern to get something going. I go to a very large church now with a very in depth security process. It's something we discuss every week in our leader/director meetings. Talk to someone and let them know you'd appreciate a little more strict security measures. Talk to the pastor of the church if you need to.

T-Mobile here, too. I've had it for years and love it. Great coverage and inexpensive. We always put on $100 at a time so the minutes don't expire.But I think you actually only have to do that once and as long as you add minutes before you run out, the new minutes don't expire either. Or something like that.

Ack. This thread is too long....nobody can keep my posts straight. NEVERMIND!

Sorry....I meant a general "you." I don't know how to phrase what I'm thinking. I don't think there is any way that we, as mothers...women, can understand the way our sons...especially at the age where the hormones kick in...think about sex/sensuality/women's bodies. Our brains do not have that visual thing theirs do when it comes to our hormones. Not saying nothing is visually sexually stimulating to a woman. Of course it can be, but I really don't think it's the same as with a man. I just think that with sons we have to be hyper-sensitive since we aren't able to understand. Yes, I still think we should teach them the way our society looks at things is wrong (oversexualization), but we can't assume teaching them that will change the way their brain is wired. If we do teach them those things we should still take into consideration their age and the fact that there's a good chance they are still going to struggle with certain pieces of art. And this is coming from a Christian pov.....I just feel that I have the responsibility to never put my son into a situation that is an obvious temptation for him...that could cause other struggles. It's not going to be a struggle for every boy. But I can't say that just because I teach him certain things it isn't going to be for him.

The popping them up and cleaning them thing is appealing! Do you just lay them down...they aren't stuck down or anything? Can you use them in basements?

Absolutely. And I have no doubt that happens.

On the same note, I really don't think anyone has implied that any boy would think every nude image is erotic. I'm thinking, at this point, nobody is understanding what anyone else is saying.

My initial point is there has to be a line somewhere. That line is going to be different for each person, which is fine. To assume you've done such a great job making nudity "normal" and disregarding their feelings is just as bad as assuming everything is going to turn them on and therefore keeping them completely sheltered. We don't have that much control over them...they are still individuals and no matter what we do they are still going to react in their own way.

I think it's incredibly unfair to say a boy who finds a painting which you find to be completely innocent to be "hot and heavy" was trained to feel that way. Sure, for some, but that is a very unfair generalization. I have no doubt there are young men who are just biologically very visual and no amount of trying to desensitize them is going to work.

That's true. It's probably just a way of making conversation.

We have hardwood all over our house, including the playroom, and my boys have never minded. I just have a rug in the middle of the room to add a little cushion. :)

I do notice that when I usually comment on a child's hair or if they have extraordinary eyes they give me a look and I always say "I bet everyone tells you that, don't they?" And I have never asked anyone where it came from! I think that's the strangest thing to ask someone, especially a stranger! I mean, who even cares? If they say "My mother's aunt had this color hair" well, who cares?!

Exactly!

Believe it or not, my boys do see me naked. They see my sister breastfeed. And I said earlier I took my 5 year old to an art museum this past winter and he saw all sorts of naked art. (although he thought it was hilarious) It's just, as a Christian, part of my responsibility is to not put my children into situations where they could stumble. Yes, part of that is to teach them that the human body is not a dirty thing, that breasts have a purpose, that women are not sex objects, that what they see in the media is not real. I have to do those things in a way that is sensitive to them as boys, too. Yes. And I would hope we would know our children well enough by the time they are a young teen and respect their feelings if something makes them uncomfortable.

We may be a multi-cultural nation, but there is still an "American" culture. A woman couldn't walk down the street wearing nothing but a loin cloth and expect it to be accepted. And sadly, our culture is Victoria's Secret commercials, Larry Flint billboards....sex every direction we turn. Yes, it is our responsibility to teach our children those lines as to what is acceptable and what isn't. What is natural, what is a perversion. But we are still a culture where women do not routinely walk around naked and when a teen boy sees a naked woman it is going to be out of the norm for him. Our sons are going to be bombarded with sexual images just by living in our culture. I don't see the harm in being sensitive to their feelings and going out of our way not put them in a situation they aren't comfortable with.

You get letters addressed to someone in another country delivered to you?!

I got the guy accross the street's porn magazine once. Wasn't happy about that one! One time I got all of someone's mail who had the same #, but a different street. I took it to the post office and told them what happened and asked "So, did they get my mail?" She said "Oh, I doubt it. They use a p.o. box." So I have no clue where my mail went that day!

It's not in Ohio! It's been close to 100 here and the humidity is suffocating!

Solgar makes a probiotic powder called "ABC Dopholus." It's what I used for my babies. I would put it in their bottles. My sister has either made a paste and put it on her nipple or mixed it with water and put it in a syringe. My oldest started solids at 6 months and developed respiratory problems and we finally figured out it was oatmeal. That's when I learned babies get probiotics when they pass through the birth canal and through breast milk. Well, my kids were born c-section and were bottle fed. (adopted) So Elliot started getting probiotics at about 7 months. I started Oliver on them the day he came home from the hospital at 2 days old. Oliver had a lot of constipation issues up until he was almost 3. He would go, but we called them rabbit pellets because he only pooped little hard balls. When we figured out he couldn't have food dye it all cleared up. Seriously, two or three days after eliminating all dyes he was pooping normally for the first time in his life. So it could definitely be some sort of intolerance.

In a culture where women don't wear shirts, a 14 year old boy isn't going to be uncomfortable seeing a picture of a woman without a shirt. We HAVE to take our culture into consideration.

Rosie - Hahaha! I'm a Capricorn, too. :) No, I haven't been to those places. It's neat when I go to our art museum and see a painting by someone famous. Like I said, I think they are pretty and can appreciate the talent of the painter. Mostly what I think about, though, is the people and the world they lived in. The artist, the model, how long the artwork survived (physically). I honestly can't think of anything I enjoy "creating." Not even meals! Haha! The things I enjoy are, like I said, nature and also people. Relationships. I love people. Which is really the only thing I like about a piece of artwork...that a person made it and I wonder more about the artist's life than the thing they made. I don't know. Maybe I'm just looking at things in the wrong way. I've honestly tried to like art. Artwork, dance (I sincerely can't understand a thing about any form of dance! It's just ridiculous to me.), music. I mean, I can enjoy listening to music, but it's not some big thing to me. I like plays....not musicals. Maybe that's one art I can appreciate and enjoy...a person becoming someone else?