You know what I really don't get? Sorry, I keep coming back to this lol. The idea of giving a little kid something to play with only to turn around minutes later and demand it back. And then beat them til they return it (basically). Just because. Because kids should blindly do anything a parent tells them to, even if there is NO reason for it WHATSOEVER. It just floors me. I think of actual times that something needs to be taken from a little kid - they picked up something they shouldn't have, older sibling forgot to put the scissors away, they decided to eat dog food, whatever - and even THEN I wouldn't do it in such a harsh manner. If it's something dangerous that I have to take from them and they're upset about it, we redirect the attention to something else cool and fun that they CAN play with!! Good grief. Sorry. I just ... can't even with this 'parenting advice'.

On a side note, my two boys helped their grandpa clean his garage yesterday. They spent the weekend at my ILs house with that intention (well, part of it - DH and I were working an event yesterday and we knew we'd be late, so the kids would stay the night last night... we added Friday night because Grandpa called wanting the boys to help him clean the garage! :lol: ) - they did know that they would be cleaning on Saturday morning/afternoon. Anyway, funny story: My two were there in the morning and did cleaning in the morning and afternoon - 5 hours or so. My nephew arrived a little later and was just there for the latter half, 3 hours or so. So my FIL looks at the cash he has on hand and decides to pay them $1/hour (I know it's not much, but they didn't expect anything, and they're happy to get anything, so it was no biggie). Nephew is in taking a shower and FIL pays my two boys $5 each. He goes into his office and does some work. Soon nephew knocks on the door and comes in and says, 'Where's my money?' :lol: So FIL gives him $3. Nephew is like 'Whaaaat?! They got $5!' (picture this not bratty, more good-natured type stuff) and FIL goes on to say that they worked longer than him so they got more money. FIL was like, 'So does that make sense?' and Nephew goes 'Nope!' so then FIL writes it all out - Link - $1/hour x 5 hours = $5; Astro - $1/hour x 5 hours = $5; Nephew $1/hour x 3 hours = $3. Nephew goes, 'Well dang it. That does make sense.' It was just funny. :)

I was telling DH about this thread yesterday - I had only briefly heard of RGT online (possibly here?), it's not popular where we live, and this thread was my first exposure to it... as I was telling him, he was just like 'Oh my GOSH... that's terrible. Let's not pay attention to the kids or show them ANY love AT ALL.' He was as appalled as I was (not that it's surprising :lol: - but he is so laid back that he rarely has ANY reaction to ANYthing lol... so for him to have a look of disgust and be like 'To parent like that is to be a jerk. It just is.' was a major outcry from him lol. You know, I've read many parenting books, not necessarily because I was looking for 'how to' parent, but because our moms group was reading them (we started as a Bible study lol... then a select few became more interested in parenting books than Bible studies and I loved the group and so I read along) and the best books weren't the ones that were how-tos. I enjoyed books that went into personalities and such. We read so many, but we never did do any Ezzo or Pearl or Growing Kids God's Way (though a close friend at that time had done the 'class' or whatever it was), and I'm so glad. I was never shy about saying 'I didn't like that this book said ________' but I've always been in the minority with that... so many people will easily just take everything written in a book as the gospel truth. I don't know what it is about me, DH, and my current friends (that moms group fell apart several years back) that we don't fall for this stuff. I don't think we're awesome superheroes or anything, but I just don't know what it is about all of us that we don't fall for stuff hook line and sinker, but can look through and be like... no. Some of the books I read in that moms group I literally read and refuted every. single. time we met. I didn't try to be rude about it, and nothing was so abusive as what is described here (though Creative Correction was one that was read in our earlier days, and that has its unpleasant moments), but was like, look, I get where the author is saying this and where they're coming from with this, but I don't necessarily think that the answer is this. And I've always hated books that said that 'this way of parenting is the ONLY way to have a kid grow up well'. That just makes me want to refute the book from day 1!!! :lol: :lol:

So I voted but I'm probably not very interesting because I don't care about any of them lol... We don't have any juniors or such thing. It's not unheard of, though, in our extended family - DH's brother is a II and he has a cousin who is a IV (uncle is III, Grandpa was Jr.) - the cousin went by his middle name, the uncle did as well. Just grandpa went by his first name. I didn't purposely give my kids normal middle names with unusual first names, but one plus of it is that if they ever really wanted to, they could be *run of the mill normal name* instead of *not run of the mill first name*. I didn't do it with that intent, and I obviously have always called them by their first names, but the option is out there if they ever were interested. So far none have been. The kids' names on here are not their real names, obviously. They're the same ones I use on my blog. When I was pregnant with Link, we had him named within days of finding out I was pregnant. It was a name from a Star Wars book, we changed the spelling, DH randomly said a middle name that fit well with it, and it was done. Not that we didn't keep looking - but we always came back to it. Later found out his name with his spelling is in another book in a popular series that I had read at the time, but forgotten. I've read it more than once since with the kids and he thinks it's funny/cool that the only person who shares his name is the guy in the book. One thing about his name, it gets mispronounced as a girls name sometimes when we go to appointments and stuff. Didn't really see that coming, but it doesn't bother me or, more importantly, him. Astro's name was one I came up with - yes, I made it up - when I was pregnant with Link. I loved the name but still was just like no, this kid's name is ____, and waited until I got pregnant with Astro to use it. We pretty much always figured he'd be a boy, and again, did look around a bit, but always came back to his name. I combined a couple names that I liked pieces of and made a name that wouldn't rhyme with our last name, because I thought that sounded silly (the rhyming). He got the middle name I'd always loved and wanted to make the middle name for one of them - I briefly considered another middle name or two, but came back to my original. His name gets mispronounced some, too, but I have no idea why lol. It's completely phonetically spelled and it's not complicated. I just think people aren't familiar with it so in their heads they create something totally different. :D No biggie. Pink is named after a video game character. My original girls name was another Star Wars book name (Jaina), but I was a little concerned with how people would pronounce it. My assumption would be that most people would look at it and see 'Jay-na', but a little bit of me was like 'what if people see J-eye-na?' which then would sound like a female body part and could be... awkward. :lol: I sort of fell out of love with that name somewhere around when Astro was born. I picked Pink's name shortly thereafter, as an 'if I ever have a girl'-type thing. So naturally, that stayed. Her middle name wasn't decided until the morning she was born because DH couldn't decide - he wanted to name her after his grandmother who had passed away a couple years before, but didn't know her middle name... the morning she was born, he was like, 'Oh... I guess we could use my grandma's first name as her middle name' and I'm like NO KIDDING!! :lol: Her name gets mispronounced, probably more than anyone else's. But obviously, we don't care, because if we did we wouldn't have chosen these names lol. :P And my last name was mispronounced all my life (maiden name Vander Waal), my first name was hit or miss (car-uh or care-uh - it's the second), and our last name is always mispronounced unless the people are mennonite or from a place where there are a lot of mennonites (why is it underlining that? Am I misspelling it?) and are familiar with it. :lol: So mispronunciation really matters nothing to us. All 3 of their names coincidentally start with the same sound. It wasn't planned that way lol... their initials are also similar, as are the general sounds of their names. I guess we just have a certain sound we like - we weren't going for similar, it just sort of happened.

I don't think there is a proper emoticon for my face when/after reading this. I'm appalled. And I feel like throwing up. That's terrible. And then to actually blog about it? Seriously? :blink: Whatever that religion is, I want no part in it. Ugh. I still just feel disgusted. Brain bleach, please. BRAIN BLEACH.

This ^^^^ is exactly us. And I like eyeliner. A fair bit of it. :D :lol: :lol:

Very true.

May I ask why? I'm just curious.

The bolded is hilarious to me. I'm sorry. I agree that what this poor mom is doing isn't working, but I don't think that what this lady is recommending is the way to fix it. :lol: There's a lot of spanking going on. I'm not anti-spanking, necessarily, but for it to be this common I would think the kid would just be used to it and it wouldn't matter to them anymore. I think of something like yelling. If I were to yell at my kids all the time, they'd get used to it, and then whenever I had to yell for safety reasons it may not register because they'd become 'immune' to it, so to speak. Anyway.

This may be moot, and I haven't read any replies nor have I read this book. I really have no interest in it lol... But just with reading this snippet, I see a few grains of truth in it... what we feel is what we think, but I can't say I would use it in this way. If I focus on negative things in my thinking, I'm going to not feel well emotionally, kwim? It's going to get me 'down', so to speak. However, I don't think that forcing children to not show emotions makes any sense. I think children need to learn how to control their reactions and emotions (as in, not act out inappropriately when angry, etc) but not forego having them altogether. Example: If you're angry it's okay to be angry, to come inside, to yell to yourself in your room, punch the pillow, whatever; not okay to punch a person. But that's a lot different than what she is saying. I think a lot of people could benefit from knowing appropriate ways to express themselves; forcing everyone to become a happy robot isn't the way to do it.

:lol: I've always loved going to the movies. DH and I used to just go every weekend (back in pre-kid, less-than-responsible-with-extra-income days ;) ). Anyway, out of your choices *I'd* go see Now You See Me 2 (just out of curiosity, I've seen the first one and liked it okay), X-Men, Captain America (I saw that one the weekend it came out actually), and maybe Central Intelligence. That said, I'm not someone who will only go see a movie if I really want to, if I have a choice. Honestly, I would probably still go see a lot of movies if it wasn't for the cost for all of us to go. But DH and I still go relatively often.

Not regularly. Link earns some when he goes and works with his grandpa. I think he got $35 last time? $25 from grandpa and $10 from the customer :lol: ... We have told Link that he *could* check around us and see if anyone is interested in him mowing their lawn for like $10 or something. But he hasn't done that so far. He hates mowing too much :p :D Oops. Link is 12. Astro (10) and Pink (7) are too young to really do anything. Astro has just started mowing our lawn this year and he's not very good at it yet lol...

Hmm. Well I was sticking with MUS because that's what I'd heard from a lot of other parents, years ago, when I asked about it - that it was good foundation up to pre-alg, but not great beyond that for someone (like me) who wants a really good, thorough, rigorous, college-ready math program for high school lol. So I always just planned on doing exactly that. The problem is, I have no idea what we're going to use for Algebra 1 and 2. So. :lol: SaveSave

He has mostly done MUS - a year of Saxon, a year of Singapore, before I switched him to MUS so I wasn't buying multiple math curricula (Astro did best with MUS at the time). But we always knew we'd switch to something else after pre-alg. I really have no desire whatsoever in two years of prealgebra - I'd rather condense both the MUS and something supplementary (or USE something else and make the MUS supplementary) than two full years of pre-alg at this stage of the game.

My favorite sport is basketball lol... unfortunately, the ENTIRE REST OF MY FAMILY thinks it's lame!!! :scared: :crying: :lol:

nt SaveSave

My eyes started glazing over so I'll have to really dive into that thread when I have uninterrupted time to sit and take notes lol. :D Luckily, I have that when I'm at work, and I'll be there this weekend, so... :)

I hear what you're saying and in general I feel the same way. However, I have read up a lot on MUS in the higher levels and with this kid wanting to go pre-med... I know it's a long way from now and I'm NOT by any means saying that I think he'll definitely stick to the career path he's chosen when he was a pre-teen lol, but just knowing that there are better things out there, that I'm confident he would do fine with, I think it would serve him better for any future endeavors if we switched after prealg. :)

So I said I was going to wait and really look into this this fall lol, but I changed my mind. Which happens. :lol: :lol: Ok, so Link is 12, starting 7th in August. He'll be doing MUS Pre-algebra this year and I was planning on switching to another curriculum for Algebra I and beyond because I had heard that others were better for those levels. So this is sort of a two-part question: 1. Recommend Algebra (and above!) textbooks for me, possibly even with grade/etc that you'd use them in and 2. Should I stick with MUS pre-algebra for this year or try something else to get him ready for next year? Or will it be no problem to switch between two different programs without him being behind? That's it. Thanks! (I'll probably post this elsewhere, as well, jsyk!)

So I said I was going to wait and really look into this this fall lol, but I changed my mind. Which happens. :lol: :lol: Ok, so Link is 12, starting 7th in August. He'll be doing MUS Pre-algebra this year and I was planning on switching to another curriculum for Algebra I and beyond because I had heard that others were better for those levels. So this is sort of a two-part question: 1. Recommend Algebra (and above!) textbooks for me, possibly even with grade/etc that you'd use them in and 2. Should I stick with MUS pre-algebra for this year or try something else to get him ready for next year? Or will it be no problem to switch between two different programs without him being behind? That's it. Thanks! (I'll probably post this elsewhere, as well, jsyk!)

So I said I was going to wait and really look into this this fall lol, but I changed my mind. Which happens. :lol: :lol: Ok, so Link is 12, starting 7th in August. He'll be doing MUS Pre-algebra this year and I was planning on switching to another curriculum for Algebra I and beyond because I had heard that others were better for those levels. So this is sort of a two-part question: 1. Recommend Algebra (and above!) textbooks for me, possibly even with grade/etc that you'd use them in and 2. Should I stick with MUS pre-algebra for this year or try something else to get him ready for next year? Or will it be no problem to switch between two different programs without him being behind? That's it. Thanks! (I'll probably post this elsewhere, as well, jsyk!)

The youngest is going into 2nd!!! Yay! (Though I forgot and was about to go to the 1st grade thread and post there... nope, she's pretty much done with 1st lol... :D ) Grammar: FLL 2 Reading/Phonics: Finish up OPG, do ETC 3-5, do a book or two of Beyond the Code, reading aloud from WTM lists and free reading Handwriting/Writing: We're going to do handwriting sans official curriculum this year - so many free resources online and I can show her how to make the letters for starting cursive. She still loves the Draw Write Now books, so she can do those for 'practice' History: SOTW 2 Math: MUS Beta Science: WTM 2nd grade earth science/ astronomy

I'll jump in! We're finishing up our school year on Tuesday, and I've already got SO much stuff sitting and ready to re-fill the shelves for next year lol... My middle kid is going into 5th! Crazy! :D Grammar: Language Lessons for the Secondary Child, Volume 1 + Elementary Diagramming Worktext Writing: CAP Narrative II and Chreia & Proverb Reading/Lit: pulled from TWTM and also other 'good' books that I think he'd enjoy (even though he won't admit it - this kid swears up and down that he hates reading, but he does it daily anyway) History: WTM 5th grade history Latin: Latina Christiana II Logic: Mind Benders Math: MUS Epsilon Science: Galore Park Science Year 5 Bible: probably a couple Bible studies from Queen homeschool - he did two this past year and liked them. That's pretty much it. I don't plan out extracurriculars - they play what they want to when sports season comes around and I'm the activities coordinator for local homeschoolers, so they have plenty to do lol. That'll all come into place later.

Okay, I finally found it! Idk why I love posting in these threads lol... The current plan for my oldest, going into 7th (we're officially finishing the school year on Tuesday! woohoo!): Grammar: Language Lessons for the Secondary Child, Volume 2 + Elementary Diagramming Worktext Reading/Lit: List from TWTM, a few YWAM biographies Writing: Writing With Skill 1 Vocab: Vocabulary from Classical Roots A & B History: WTM 7th grade history Logic: Traditional Logic 1 Math: MUS Pre-Algebra Science: Apologia General Science Bible: The Most Important Thing You'll Ever Study, 3rd book Foreign Language: Irasshai Japanese ETA: Didn't list extracurriculars because I don't consider anything other than art appreciation (for which we use SCM Artist Portfolios all together) to be part of our school plans lol - they play the sports they choose, we may or may not have PE or other classes going on, etc.