This is going on everywhere. Recently we were with homeschoolers attending a child-friendly matinee, a few families had babies and toddlers too young to pay attention to or be interested in an opera. I know it's tough to find occasional day care when you're in a metro area, but for heaven's sake, WALK OUT when baby gets fussy. Sit near the exit, sit toward the rear of a section if you can, so you're not walking in and out in front of people. Be realistic about the show and your children's interest. We've also been at a theater when a man holding a wailing infant sat for minutes without moving! :blink: An usher actually had to walk down the aisle and ask the man to leave. It was shocking. This was a holiday family show, lots of people of all ages attending. There was no way anyone could hear the show. What could he have been thinking? Suggestions to make an announcement before the lecture should help -- add in the bit about taping too. If you're a keynote or featured speaker (as opposed to a seminar or curriculum talk), I would think that someone from the event should be available to help. But, I do think people feel much more personally entitled to do what they want without regard to others these days. They want to be there too and it's not "fair" to expect them to leave -- that kind of attitude. Good luck. Hope something here works for the upcoming season.

If you (OP) are watching with kids, you'll want to preview Little Miss Sunshine and October Sky. Really enjoyed A League of Their Own but that's been awhile. October Sky is fabulous, really inspiring, but has some rough talk from the dad and a surprising amount of language. Amazing how much just skims over our heads until we're sitting there with young ears ... then the words drop like cannon balls right there in the room. :tongue_smilie:

Definitely visit websites to see what fits with your studies right now or what really interests your children (and you). Mine have enjoyed seeing things IRL that we've just read about or seen in books. You might have them cruise around on the sites too -- some places have good kid-links. Your dc are old enough to have some good stamina, but if you plan on just two per day with a break between, you'll all probably have more energy and enjoy it more than if you try to "pack it all in." I've also pulled back on my enthusiasm for some of the pre-packaged stuff the museums provide when it's just too simplistic for dc or not what they want to see. Have fun!

Same here. Can't imagine kids doing this. Prayers here too. :grouphug:

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Hmmmm. :glare: :lol: Sure sounds like some kind of "project" going on for this OP....

:grouphug:

Evil. There can be no other explanation. :sad: :crying: :angry:

Sadly, DC was set to be a great experiment for charters and other options for students with the local teachers for the most part on-board with the variety of new efforts. After decades of very poor school options for most of the city's wards, parents were excited, it looked like things were turning around. And then politics reared its ugly head and the kids are "sol" as the saying goes. Same ol', same ol'. In this apples to apples comparison, most of the charter and alternative options would've been ahead of what's now available. And several of the dismal failures in charters had given officials some better guidelines to watch for. The children don't wait around for things to get fixed, they grow up. :sad: :(

So agree with you. In our last neighborhood, a number of the parents in our "very good" elementary were struggling with several issues, including the new math program. They did lots of afterschooling. But many folks rail against "the system" rather than taking things into their own hands, whether that's afterschooling or tutors or homeschooling. I just told dh tonight about the stats for WI that a surprisingly large % of 7-8th graders there are below a reasonable level for reading. His response was that at some point it's up to the parents to care and help get their kids on track. That's what we did with ds when we noticed he was struggling in K. Regardless of whether you trust your ps or are busy or don't feel competent, at some point "you" have to recognize that it's your child and you have to step in. Kudos to you, OP, for being your kids' Superman! (Supermom!) :001_smile:

The one at this house is older, but white, so everything shows. We use this funny little handle thing with disposable pads that adhere to the base of the handle thing. The thin pads are damp with the cleaning solution. They've taken off nearly everything that we've had a problem with. You can find them at most grocery stores. Good luck.

Go for it. That's a good price, plus local so you may not have shipping. I've used Shutterfly -- for several occasions and groups. For $10-15, it's a great way to celebrate a special occasion. You have fairly good control of the process of designing the pages and choosing colors. Try to go with a background that's not too bright or pattern-y, subtle is better so it doesn't compete with your photos. Use the crop/edit options to trim out uninteresting backgrounds, enlarge people, etc. Play around til you get what you like. Shutterfly "suggests" a photo book sometimes, perhaps your place does similar -- that eliminates some of the work. Use the caption option if you have a number of people or something creative to say, but leave some photos without caption too. Alternate one larger photo with a collection of 2 or 3 or 4, so that pages don't get monotonous. Or ... you could print it up just like a little mini photo-album, one photo per page stye. Really, you can't go wrong. People love photos. Have fun! :001_smile:

Same here, I read the first 4 or 5. The quirkiness was interesting and bizarre, the vocabulary hilarious. They're so over-the-top, I think kids got that. But haven't they gone the way many of these series go, they're hot for a couple years and then the next thing comes along. Besides Harry Potter, are there any series from the last decade that will be well-read 10 years from now?

Agree with Emmy and Julie. We had a dairy allergy like Emmy's son and a picky eater like Julie's. And we have friends in our groups now who carry their epi-pen sets with them constantly. I'm so sorry for your pain and hurt right now. I think Emmy and Julie have said it well. My impression would be that your friends didn't know how to talk with you about this, they probably came to their decision after much angst and discussion and tried to keep it quiet to avoid hurting you. They were obviously discreet since you're just now hearing about it. But the result is that they've hurt you now. It's a very tough situation. If the kids involved were older, it would be different, but at these ages, the pressure to adhere to guidelines as strict as these would make it very difficult. Getting together on a weekly basis .... I'd find it tough too. (I'm mentioning this gently....) Maybe this isn't the season for this kind of group activity.....

Sorry here too. Hope you find hope soon. :grouphug:

Isn't this great? The conversations now that we're in logic stage have just taken on such a delightful depth. Sometimes we're reading something and I think it might be getting too complex and ds (dc) are right there with questions and perspectives. :001_smile: Agree with others here -- we mix SOTW in but not as a stand-alone -- dc do start to outgrow it, though they enjoyed it through early-mid grade school years.

:lol: No wonder you were worn out -- that's a lot of braids. (And I just got your name too. :tongue_smilie: )

I like the way you've said this. My vote has moved much higher over the years as dh and I have hit trials and challenges. For us, our faith grows stronger as it's been tested.

:lol: :lol: Well? Were their prayers answered? Imagine your cup is a bit fuller just hearing their prayers. : )

Yes! Hugs Aubrey.

Good answer. :001_smile:

Can you get it through hulu or netflix/wii or something else streaming? Bummer, either way. I do the same with my recordings. : )

Good luck. I hope it really works for you....even if the active core of members stays fairly small. Better to have a small harmonious group than a growing bigger contentious group. (Ask me how I know ... Well, don't ask, you can guess! ;) )

Sadly, there are many more children who are victims of abuse that attend schools of one sort or another too. That people hide behind homeschooling as a way to keep their abused or neglected children out of sight from authorities is reprehensible. But I wouldn't call these people homeschoolers, they are child abusers. And I wouldn't say that that justifies a bureacracy of oversight for homeschooling. Having lived in various jurisdictions with various requirements, I have found that some people with oversight authority are reasonable and some get quite power-hungry demanding all kinds of documentation etc. that is not in their legal purview. For those families with multiple children across 12 years of schooling, some of these requirements of outside performance reviews, approved certified testing, etc., on top of curriculum costs, supplies, lessons, is no small thing.

gotta have skills.