I'm definitely in for NaNoWriMo. I have done it in 2007 and 2008 and finished. I also I have my easiest idea yet. I am hoping lots of people on the board are doing it, I would love the support!

Creekland and Night Elf hit on two of the main reasons that my younger dc will not attend the ps near my home. There is too much time wasted, I know this for a fact as my oldest went there for four years, and the good classes are really for teachers and administrator's kids. You have to really go in in person and throw a fit to get your child into Honors English, for example. I don't have the energy for this for two more kids, and they don't want to. I just finished doing my NARHS things for the last school year, and I am stunned at how much he covered, how much he did, and he just turned 14. I have been shocked at the things I forgot to log and include. I probably blew 3 full high school credits for things he did with my poor record keeping, but he should still get 9.5 credits. We have a lot of gaps. We missed some things that break my heart. I meant for him to be able to pursue many more of his own interests. But that didn't happen, and I don't see that time coming up. He hated Don Quixote. A lot. He didn't read nearly as many classical books as I think he should have. But he's read way more than dd did in four years of ps. I know his composition skills should be better, and we're working on it this year. But it is still worth it, because I am catching glimpses of the man he is becoming, and I'm excited that I have been a real part of that process.

Don't call your insurance agent unless you make a claim. I hit an illegal alien and did a lot of damage to their car. They parked right behind my van while I was picking up some kids for church. He was completely outside my mirrors or vision. He wanted a lot of cash. I refused and called my insurance agent asking what to do. He never made a claim. I found out later he was illegal. But when I changed insurance the agent told my new agent all about how I did have an accident in the last year, even though it wasn't on my record.

I didn't mean to scare you like that. The 18 month old is now a 14yo. He is flunking out of school, and you would cross the street out of fear rather than walk by him, but he is alive. He fell into some bushes and just got some deep scratches. Western Oregon is covered with foliage and there were lots of bushes under the window. But CSD did not care and he and his brother and sister live with his mother today. It is not a good situation, but they are all alive and marginally well.

Honestly I think it's amazing that this sort of thing doesn't happen a LOT more often. When my step daughter was small her mom left her alone all the time. When we got custody of her she was used to taking care of herself and very self sufficient. When she was two I went to pick her up at a time her mom was not expecting me. I found her mom's apartment empty and walked around the complex looking for her. I found her mom and a group of other moms all drinking and having "fun". They sent me to a different apartment where they had stashed all the kids with a bunch of candy and cartoons on the TV. There were several kids there including an infant in a carrier and when I opened the door and held out my arms to my step daughter they all ran up wanting to go. That moment is ingrained in my mind like a movie, it was so sad that I could only take one. But in all the years that she did this sort of thing only one of her children got hurt. Her 18 month old son fell out of a third story window while she was gone. He was attended by his 4yo brother. She was so mad that the screen didn't hold him in that she sued the landlord. Wait for it.... she won $400.

Genines Art Store is great! Genine is a home school mom living in Mexico City. Her art blog is a big favorite of mine.

I could argue point for point against everything this person said based on personal experiences of home schoolers and grown home schoolers and the moms of grown home schoolers that I know. First of all I would like to point out that I know at least 4 moms of grown home schooled children that have wildly successful businesses or careers. Stacy Womac (someone anyone who can use google can look up, I'm sure) runs ARMS, a very large non profit organization that fights domestic abuse. She has SIX children that she home schooled for religious reasons. All SIX of them are doing much better than average as adults as far as I can see, and all those years of home schooling didn't stop her from running a meaningful ministry. I go to church with a home school mom who started a business when her youngest went to college and it's doing super with many employees even though the economy is so bad. I could go on, but I bet most people here can think of their own examples. This person is just so wildly pessimistic I bet they have swine flue complications right now because they do. I'm just saying.

If I were wrong I would not be a Christian. Now, does that mean that I should lose my faith over something as stupid as the Divinci Code? No. It would have to be real proof, not wishful thinking on the part of someone like Dan Brown. My Muslim boss and I discussed this one day and he was shocked that I said such a thing. He said, "You can't just change your religion because it's wrong. Come on, you are a nice Christian lady, you are who you are." I told him I was only interested in the truth. That really upset him.

My experience with giving young children lots of choices is that they often find it exhausting and behave badly. I print up a fancy schedule and the only say my kids have is what font and color I use on it. Then we stick to it as much as we can. I do think that she is probably on system overload, and that she needs to have some decisions made for her, kindly and firmly. Protein would probably help too, but I really bet she will come around when she doesn't have to make so many choices. I'm sure when you get some real sleep things will seem better. I've worked nights for years too, and organization is my key to not blowing up when I'm worn down.

I "recycle" stuffed animals in my basement. I cut out the stuffing and use it to make throw pillows. Then the "skins" of the stuffed animals fit into the garbage and no one knows they are gone. If the animals were important enough that even one time the kids went, "hey, where's my pink elephant?" I might feel bad about my sneaky deception, but they never miss them. But when I go to throw or give them away the kids see them in the garbage or the give away box.

My DH has used it when traveling in 3rd world countries for various infections with great success. He has a friend who makes it.

Here in Portland the Zoo is a great place for parents and kids to volunteer together. A woman I know from church does this with her two daughters in the summer.

I learned this in church and understood it from my own Bible reading.

Next year it might not be legal to make things for my nieces and nephews. I made my niece a pillow with her name on it. I made my nephew and other niece aprons for baking with their mom, my sis. I'm making my dd 10 a big throw pillow with her initials on it and a fancy pillowcase for her regular pillow and a new zipper wristlet. I would like to make a quilt with an eagle on it for my son who is just now becoming a life scout and will be working on his eagle rank, but I don't think I will have the time. I do think I will make him a book bag. I will probably get him a new alarm clock with a cd player. For my SIL who we are doing a gift exchange with I think I will make some big throw pillows that say "LIVE" LAUGH" and "LOVE", and a big meal for her freezer.

My heart really goes out to you. My ds annoyed so many people his first year of scouting that he alienated a lot of people permanently, even though he has matured and his behavior and personality has changed so much. The adults in the troop see the change, but Jr high, High School age kids do not seem to forget. My ds was crushed not to be voted Order of the Arrow. He has worked so hard with so many boys on their Eagle projects and done so much for the troop. He really deserved to be voted in, but more popular boys who hadn't done nearly as much were voted in. I would never have let him go without me or dh in retrospect. I haven't read all the replies, and maybe someone had a better suggestion, but I really think one of you needs to be there to protect him from himself. My experience is that being annoying is seen as the worst crime, no matter what someone else did.

I would get her something special from Etsy. That hand made touch is great!

A young man my son has scouts with is the top candidate for West Point from Oregon, and he has never gone to school. He has always been home schooled. He has also been accepted to the Navel Academy.

And thank you for keeping small disagreements respectful. I was a little nervous to post after all these years and you all have been very insightful and classy. One thing I hadn't thought about much before, but will now, is how much people can differ in what they consider to be disrespectful. I do think after reading your responses that my son probably SEEMED disrespectful to the leader at different times over the year when he just thought that people would want to know what he knew, and that this man is now going to have a mission to "fix" my son. Even though, to the best of my knowledge, no other adult thought my son was disrespectful, the more I think about it the more I think his scout master is a former Navy officer and probably wants a different countenance than my son presents.

My dh's mom is a serious packrat and her home is scary. All of my dc will do the same thing as your ds when cleaning up if allowed. My ds started an apple core collection at one point that he felt was sacred. Now it's Monster cans. He doesn't get to have Monster very often, so he saves every can. I put all most toys in basement and they have to "check them out" like library books. This seems harsh to people. My sister thinks I am quite a Nazi over this, but it is the only way to keep things from getting broken or lost in our home. The dc just have the strangest idea that stuff owns them, not the other way around. It doesn't help that MIL models this behavior. I don't know how to fix the underlying problem, but checking toys in and out is a big time saver.

Gently, to the OP, have you been an eyewitness to such interchanges, or are you hearing exchanges as reported only by your child(ren)? Is there any way that your child is, truly, showing disrespect? Again, gently, if you see this as a trend, I encourage you to take one giant step back and make certain you have clearly evaluated the bigger picture. Sorry, I didn't know how to make your text blue! You just hit on part of what caused me to think of this all week before I posted. Generally this does not happen when I am there. I am small and dainty looking, but I was a bartender for 12 years and can take a beer away from a Navy Seal. I can also deal verbally with things quickly. People don't do this in front of me. My dc are tough too, they don't tattle, other adults tell me what happened when this sort of thing happens. It isn't that frequent. My kids are not always as respectful as they could be, but that is something that we work on daily. I wasn't speaking about times when your dc are partly at fault, we have had a few of those, but those times when other adults tell you they don't think your dc did something wrong.

Because that isn't what I meant. My dh is handling it very nicely. We have a plan to deal with this person and are executing it.. But people like these do exist, and dc have to learn how to deal with them, like it or not, so I wouldn't pull ds out of scouts over this, because, like as not in another troop there would be some other adult acting the same way.

Most adults who work with kids seem to like and get along with my kids. They are confident, fun-loving, high energy and WTM educated and even nice looking, lol. Most adults love working with them at church or scouting activities. A few people, however, seem to want to "put them in their place" when they haven't really done anything wrong. It seems that these people don't like the level of confidence they exude. For instance, my son's scoutmaster embarrassed him in front of the all the patrol leaders on Tuesday and he has been doing this for quite long time now. Other adult leaders have noticed it and commented to me that they think this behavior is not right, but that they are proud for my ds that he does not let it get him down. Most people who do this have confident children who are leaders themselves, so I don't get why they act like this to other people's kids. I'm not really asking for advice, because it is part of the "socialization process" that we tell people are kids are getting. It is part of life. But I'm wondering if this happens to other home school kids very often.

Portland is pretty homeschool friendly with lots of choices for your kids. It's almost too many choices and too much stuff, but there is a wide range of affordability. Portland is not cheap, no home prices have plummeted in my neighborhood. People are still asking 270k for crummy three bedrooms if they are on a 1/2 acre lot. But the eastern side of the state is not as cheap as people think. Hope you pick a place you really like.

When my step daughter still lived with her mother she was spending the night at our house when she was just 3yrs old and my husband and I were praying with her lying in bed before sleep. She was doing that "God bless..." every relative with dh and I heard a clear voice in my head telling me to rebuke evil spirits from her. So I said under my breath "In the name of Jesus Christ every demonic spirit must leave C alone now." Instantly she sat up screaming and crying. She and dh had not heard me pray at all. My husband was scared and said, "What's wrong?" She said, sobbing hysterically "It hit me on the head." DH asked, completely bewildered, "What hit you?" and dd answered, still crying, "It hit me on the head when it left." My step daughter's real mom dabbles in the occult, although nothing like your mom as far as I know. There were other problems during her childhood and even two years ago when she was a freshman in Bible college she had some horrible night experiences until she threw away a simple silver chain given to her for Christmas by her mother's sister and had her friends pray over her. I think you may need a lot of thought before you directly deal with this. My poor step daughter had a hit head, and I would not like your little one to suffer worse. At the very least I would pray that the spirit was bound before it was loosed. I hope this helps, this is tricky. I'll pray for you.

When we changed doctors my son's records didn't come when I asked for them. After throwing a fit they called me in to pick them up and there was a file with only one page in it. Mind you, this doctor delivered my son and saw him at all his visits. He was five when I changed doctors. The page was from a time when my son fell out of our parked Jeep and smashed his head on the driveway. I called the doctors office to get advice on which emergency room to take him to. The nurse there said I had to bring him in to the doctor's office, not the emergency room. I refused to do that (his head was actually slightly flat where he had hit it) and got an ambulance. The one page in that file was from the day of the accident and it said that I had been resistant to getting him medical care that day. I was spitting mad, but it was more than two years after the fact. Not much to do but get the nurse in trouble, when she had probably been following doctor's orders, so I dropped it and did nothing. But I am now aware of how far a medical professional will go to cover their own butt.