My kids go to school part time. Here in Oregon we don't have a special status for this. I enroll them in school and I also register them as homeschoolers. I don't think anyone checks or cares that they are registered twice since homeschooling doesn't get any tax money. I have an agreement with the principal and the teachers and after some wariness the first year, everyone is on board and I have no problems at all with teachers or staff. In our case I have them in school most of the morning and I pick them up after lunch recess. Actually, my oldest comes in late and leaves early. He'll be in middle school next year so we will block the time a little differently but I'm not sure how it will work out yet since I don't know their schedule. The is very effective for us. I make sure they get the best that school has to offer and they get to be with their friends and have specials (with some exceptions when it doesn't fit our schedule). I have the afternoons to teach what they are not getting at school and especially the things that I teach well and are important to me. Even if they are in a bad year and are learning nothing at school, I can adjust our homeschool time to make up for it. It is very empowering.

I wonder if that was our group at OMSI a couple of weeks ago. My kids go to school half time and we took the entire 200 K-6 student population to OMSI. It was kind of a last science celebration for the kids' science-loving principal who is retiring. We had 40 parent volunteers so we were in groups of 5. Each group went around separately so I hope we didn't overwhelm the other patrons. I actually had a great time. Everywhere I looked there were people I knew. I do know what you mean though when we go to OMSI during homeschool time if I don't plan the timing around school groups. I had even worse luck over spring break. What a zoo!

I think its a predator, too. I know its creepy but I have seen similar things. We have hawks, coyotes, bobcats, owls. What we don't have is people, our nearest neighbor is not close by so I never suspect that here. I would just shake it off and try to get the picture out of your head.

I actually do consider my kids' test scores a gift to the school. I know I am not always the easiest parent and they do a lot for us and are extremely flexible with our part time homeschooling. My kids have very high scores. I get no feedback on the test other than the number they receive when they are done. Its not useful to me. I consider the scores purely for the school's benefit. I even come in on test days and sit with the wiggliest children in the class and help them focus on the test and do well. As far as my kids, since they score very high the test is not measuring what they know anyway. I do use it as a lesson on how to eliminate careless mistakes and maximize their score.

I have wondered about the sheep. It rains a lot here in Oregon and I drive by sheep every time I go down my road. I have this hilarious picture in my head of the sheep with their coats shrunken on their backs. I can assure you it doesn't happen though.

Some kids do truly read at a 3rd grade level in K. Mine did. I would estimate that there is usually at least one in a classroom and depending on the area where you live, it could easily be more (or none). I know some parents inflate the abilities of their child's reading but I mention this here because it is just as hard on the other side, getting someone to take your K'er seriously as a reader. Even teachers will resist testing them or simply listening to them read because they don't want to admit that they are truly ahead and need to be challenged at their own level. As far as pushing a young child, there is this hump that they often need a boost to get over. They are ready to learn but they are frustrated that they can't read what they want to read. The beginner readers are not exactly the most interesting stories, especially for someone who is read to a lot and gets the good stuff that way. I see no problem in giving a push, with incentives and a regular schedule and expectations, so help them get over this hump. It is so worth it when they are on the other side. By the way, my oldest who mostly taught himself to read was the quickest to learn. He went from simple letter sounds to a 3rd or 4th grade level in about 4-6 months when he was 5. Soon he could read instruction manuals for electronics. He knew rudimentary phonics (really just letter sounds and a few blends) and used context to learn whole words. Once he knew a word he kept it. He has that kind of brain. Phonics is great but when you rely on it completely it can be a whole lot of work to decode a story. When I taught my youngest to read, I felt bad because she had to sound out every sound when of course I can read it as a whole word. In her case she just didn't see the whole words. She could get the same word three times in a sentence and she would sound it out all three times. Its no wonder she didn't enjoy the process as much as my son did. So I kind of see where the whole word instruction fits in for some kids. Unfortunately kids learn differently and teachers usually only teach one way for everyone.

Have you thought about part time school? It may be an option even if it isn't advertised as such. This is what we do and we will continue this way during middle school and beyond as long as it keeps working. The kids get time with their friends. They get to learn in a group. Then they get to come home where I can challenge them and fix any holes from school. In elementary school they have not been exposed to bullying (luckily). Its a great school. I have heard that middle school is a rude awakening in many ways for the kids from our school so if its bad then I'll switch to full time homeschool.

There is a big push at a national level for healthy foods in schools, so I wouldn't assume it's the same junk you might remember. This may not have happened everywhere yet but it's definitely coming. I've never seen our schools serve dessert and even though the chicken nuggets are grossly preprocessed, they are breaded in whole wheat. Even the pizza is whole wheat. They have an option for chocolate milk but they offset by making it non-fat. The soda machines are out, even in the teacher's lounge and in high school vending machines serve juice or bottled water. I'm not arguing that they serve healthier lunch than lunch from home, just pointing out that things are changing. Also, I don't think it's a money thing. As far as I know lunch is pretty much federal money. At least free lunch is. All that being said, I still think it's very wrong to take parenting power away and is exactly what this does. It's also a very bad precedence. Where is this leading? If nutritious lunches are a problem they should step up their education on nutrition and healthy choices. Education is their business, not parenting.

Not being alive is not something I can easily comprehend. I let go of trying to wrap my head around it by realizing that I was already not alive for most of time. I was born a blink of an eye ago. Before that I didn't exist and it didn't bother me much. I don't see how it will be any worse after my short little life is over. Why do I need an afterlife? I didn't have a beforelife.

Well, I live in the Portland area in Oregon so I'd better not hate the rain, or let it stop me. I love the smell of wet pine trees; clean, moist air; fog rising out of the forest. Its beautiful, definitely not dreary. I do love the sun though, even more for the fact that we don't see it very often.

Another FLL coach chiming in here. I also teach lego robotics classes and summer camps to I have spent a *lot* of time teaching kids lego robotics. The next FLL season will be our 4th. The first season was the most challenging, as it is for all. The competition has a novice designation for those who have no experience because this is recognized as a significant disadvantage and they want to encourage new teams. There are also a lot of generous people dedicating time to encourage coaches. I don't know what state you are in but here in Oregon there are workshops and other support to help train coaches. I know many states have similar resources if you figure out where to look. I would also like to encourage anyone on these boards to coach and I would be happy to support you over email the best I can with my experience. This program is so valuable for kids but it is a big effort for coaches and learning from the experience of other coaches is almost essential. Just pm me if you want to stay in touch. My boys have always been on the team together. The biggest challenge for all the kids on the team is learning to work together. My boys follow some rules to help their behavior. There is plenty of work to do, they do not need to be working elbow to elbow but they do need to know how to make decisions based on priorities other than "my ideas are good and my brother's are not". One of my favorite moments was in a judging session when my oldest son bragged to the software judge that the code they were looking was for the most difficult challenge on the table and it was written by his brother who is an excellent programmer. This didn't come out because he is a nice kid and he loves to brag about his brother. It came out because he knew they were being judged as a team and he needed to make sure the judge knew about all of their talents. Either way, I'll take it. As far as LDs and other challenges, quirky kids are as common at FLL as quirky adults are in any engineering company. This being said, if the child gets stressed out easily it may not be a good match. It is a competition and the kids do feel pressure to do well even if you try to keep it low key. It is also a very long day. In preparing for the competition they will not finish everything and during the competition things will go wrong. This is not something many kids are used to. This is why it is such a great experience. But if this is going to cause a lot of anxiety it could be that a less intense experience might be a better environment for teaching these skills. Of course, as the coach you set expectations and the kids will know what their robot is capable of before the competition and won't be surprised when it misses a target or whatever. I had a kid my first year that would completely break down if things didn't go perfectly in spite of all the work I had done with him to set expectations and practice behaviors. This same child was also not able to solve a problem in a group. It had to be him and his way. FLL was not a good fit for him. I feel like he was in a situation where he could not succeed and it also wasn't fair to the team to be judged poorly because of this child's poor teamwork. He actually yelled at a design judge during the competition. In his defense, he was stressed out. I am pretty sure the team would have won an award that year for their project but this is not behavior that reflects the values of FLL and it would have affected the results across the board. At our competitions there is a place to indicate that you have a child with special needs and the judges will be told and will take this into consideration. I would not type for the child though. This is a chance for teamwork. Unless it is a need that is not reasonably met by the team, see how they can work together to take advantage of their strengths and boost each other in their weak areas. It is important that the work be done by the children. As far as the time comitment, FLL is a big priority for us. There are weeks when we put it ahead of almost all other homeschool. We also have learned to cut back on other comitments in the fall. My team sets high goals for themselves. They have placed as one of the top teams in the state for the last two years but it took more than the usual amount of work to accomplish that. We met twice a week as a team and probably twice more a week in small groups, each meeting was about 2 hours with some going longer. We also had several special sessions and field trips. My 9 year was very invested in a particularly challenging mission and he spent at least 50 hours to come up with the best solution for this problem alone but at least we had the table at home so it was done on his own time. I can't say enough good things about this progam. My kids have had experiences that they would not otherwise have. They have grown in speaking and presentation skills, teamwork, mechanical engineering, programming, organization, research skills, and more. I was joking last year that after all the time they have spent presenting to the judges and answering their questions, defending their PhD thesis will be a breeze.

I have led Wolves, Bears, then Tigers, Wolves, and Bears again. I like about 6 boys but 4 is a great start for a Tiger den. I have led a Tiger den of 3 and it was small but I recuited more boys each year and ended up with 7 by Bears. I would go check it out with two things in mind. 1. How well is the den organized and led? and 2. What can I add to make it even better? Remember, it is a volunteer effort and a lot of work for the den leader. If the other parents pitch in it is a lot more fun for the den leader and a lot more opportunities for the boys. I have managed to pass off leadership to dads in both cases at the webelos level. My younger son is a webelos I this year and I went in last week and taughts Newton's laws and set off water rockets with the boys. I plan on finishing up their scientist badge with them over the next couple of meetings. I think this is a perfect way to run a den. The den leader provides the schedule, structure, ceremony, and leadership, and the other parents come in and work with the boys in the areas of the their strength.

This is a pet peeve of mine with my second child (4th grade). He goes to school half time so it is not necessarily a homeschool thing. If he has the right orientation at all, he starts on the top line instead of the second. He does not respect the red line and has no sense of order on the paper at all. I have explained it numerous times. He just doesn't care. I don't mean this in a bad way. It just isn't a priority to him or something that he thinks about. I guess I could make him redo the work and he would start caring. But he hates writing things down already. I don't really want the fit that he would throw.

Yes, but it works best because they are part time.

I am in Oregon and I have an great, open relationship with the public school. My kids go to school half time. I have know other homeschoolers here to go to school for one subject or just speach, tag, or other service. I have known homeschoolers to take a high school course or two each year as well. I don't know why more families don't take advantage of this option. We take the good parts and say no thanks to the bad parts. The kids get to be with their friends and so far socialization has been a good thing but if it becomes a bad thing then we will use less public school over all. I am not familiar with sports yet because my kids are too young. I think they will be welcome on the sports teams as part time students but I don't know if they accept full time homeschoolers.