The teacher probably could have phrased her feelings better. Whether or not she thinks your child is a budding psychopath and is sick over the thought of having your dd in class is not the issue. Is she treating your child as if she is sick to look at her? If it was my kid I wouldn't give a rats patootie as to whether or not the teacher felt sick over having my child in her/his class. That is not a solution and by saying that the teacher is part of the problem. If it was me, I would be focusing on a plan with the teacher to address the behavior and reinforce actions at home. You are correct that you can not control what goes on at school but you can be very clear with your dd what you expect and what the consequences will be if expectations are not met. You and the teacher need to be on the same page with the plan and work it together.

I understand your thought process. When my kids were in school I often butted heads because I very much had the attitude that the school was my employee and they worked for me. Turns out I was very wrong about that. I just battled them for the right for my homeschool kid to participate on the high school swim team. Reawakening of the knowledge of how schools operate. I can only imagine the beuracracy has an even stronger hold on the school since it is so small. Change is bad in the school world. It sounds to me like bringing them home is where your heart is and that the kids agree.

I see alot of things in your situation and for a moment I am looking at the situation from the schools point of view. And from that point of view you are asking for a lot of special treatment. That does threaten people. Large or small, school systems are a beuracracy. Their agenda-no change. Maintain the satus quo. You are threatening the staus quo. Your choices are to either be part of the public school or homeschool. Maintaining a foot in the pool will eventually have a negative impact on your kids.

I clean with vinegar and I believe it is a good alternative to commercial disinfectants. From my anecdotal perspective we do not get sick any more then we did before switching. As for the smell, it does not bother me (but my mother cleaned with vinegar when I was growing up so perhaps I am used to it). My kids complain but basically I tell them to suck it up. The smell dissapates fairly quickly.

I think it is an interesting quote. I homeschool because it is what works for our family. I would prefer to remain off the grid when it comes to homeschooling but he is not 100% wrong that there is the possibility of long term effects as the number of homeschoolers increase and those kids grow up and start families. I also don't think that government run schools are an institution designed to usurp parental authority and just create little worker bees. It is definitely a system in need of some changes. I know many successful kids who attend public school. Public, private, charter, home it all boils down to one thing imho, parental involvement. Parents invested in making sure their kids are civic minded independent thinkers will shape the future.

Well, I wouldn't let her go because I disagree with protesting planned parenthood. Peaceful as praying is, the location is still a protest. As for the legality of a school aged child being there during school hours, you said you would be with her so I think that is a moot issue.

No need to beat yourself up over the decision. Obviously a lot of thought and family discussion went into deciding what is the best course of action. My son is 14 and most days I seem to be battling the urge to give him some serious smackdown. This is one more step on the path to adulthood for your son. He will learn something from it and as a pp stated-you are his mother for life. That relationship is the most important.

Same with my 14 year old.

Good idea. I wish I had thought of it.

No shooting or pointing gun at mom. No head shots. No shooting someone who is not playing with you. No guns in the house.

They have known each other since 1st grade. He lives around the corner. 2 summers ago they had a disagreement and they were not friends for a year. This past summer the kid came up to ds and told him that he acted like a jerk and he was sorry and he wanted to be friends again. I thought maybe that was a sign of maturity on friends part. Things were okay for awhile but the bad behavior has been appearing again. The kid calls ds's cell phone the majority of the time. When I hear his ringtone I tell ds to tell him to stop and that the answer has not changed but it will become an outright no if he calls again. I can't speak for what is going on in that kids family life but if he is hanging out with my kid for a taste of normal I can honestly say I do not have the mental fortitude to be this kids sanctuary. I know I should just say you can't hangout with him anymore but I am hesitant to do so because when my parents did that to me I just found other ways to hang out with the undesireable friend. Based on everyones replies I will keep doing what I have been doing-which is keeping ds busy with other activities and limiting their time together.

My teen has made a bad choice in a best bud. The friend is a bad influence on my ds. Whenever they are together my son throws common sense out the window and does whatever stupid idea friend has. The friend is also a drama creator. He loves to say and create situations that create drama between friends. Through the years we have discussed what makes a good friend. Discussed sons behavior when hanging out with this friend. Discussed how in life you will be judged by the company you keep. I have always severely limited their opportunities to hang out together. Ds is busy most of the time with swim and youth group. But the kid hounds my ds. Calls him every day to hang out. Even though we have a no hanging out on school days rule. On the weekend he is calling at 10 am to ask ds to come over to his house. If they are going to see each other at say 1:30 the friend will start calling every hour asking why they can not hang out now. Ds keeps going back to him. I have never wanted to ban my kids from hanging out with someone because my parents did that to me and it did not work but it is reaching a point where I am out of ideas and just want this kid out of my sons life.

When I had mine out a gazillion years ago I remember eating a lot of soup. Potato soup, tomato soup. Most importantly keep with the icing of the cheeks. 20 minutes on and 20 minutes off each side all day. My mom made me do that and I had almost no swelling.

http://www.cwdkids.com usually has an assortment of sibling sizes.

I don't have the time or patience to deal with passive aggressive people. I don't doubt that she may be going through some stuff. If I knew her I might reach out to see how she was doing. If she was a friend of mine I would tell her to cut out the passive aggressive carp. If this is a group of people I did not feel connected too other then this group I would consider dropping out if I was not getting the desired return on my investment.

I was immediately fine with my decision to stop after dd. Prior to her birth dh and I always talked about having 3 kids. She was a challenging infant. When she reached the age where we would start trying for a 3rd dh and I looked at each other and said 2 is good. We have a boy and a girl. We are not outnumbered by children. We can do this. I never looked back. Dh, otoh, has had periods of wishing we went for that 3rd.

To answer the OP. I started changing our eating habits when I was pregnant with my oldest (14 years ago). I started by not replacing things when we finished them up. Now I prepare most of our meals from scratch, grind my own flour, make my own vanilla extract, and am part of a food co-op (since I can't grow anything to save my life). I changed one thing at a time. Some changes were more successful then other (brown rice comes to mind. I finally threw in the towel on that one and now we eat white rice). My dh is a meat eater. He was not a fan of meatless meals unless it involved a meaty vegetable, such as eggplant. He is still not a fan but will tolerate it. If something is successful I start sourcing where I can buy it in bulk. As for the gmo issue-I have always tried to avoid them whenever possible.

I don't think my mother ever got over the fact that my kids preferred my in-laws when they were babies. For my kids it was simply the fact that my in-laws are better with babies.

It depends on what they were stored in. Things I store in glass stay good longer then the things stored in plastic. I find the sniff test is the best way to determine viability.

:iagree: This can easily escalate into something more. Your daughter has to be the one to report it and stay on top of it. If campus police/dean do not handle the matter properly take your paper trail to the police.

I am going with regional. I have never heard crayons referred to as colors.

Dh vetoed Benjamin and I said no way to Brock. All I could see was a playground full of children making chicken clucking noises. To be honest, it is a good thing ds was a boy because I absolutely hate the name we had picked for him if he was a girl. I don't know what we were thinking. For a girl he nixed Francesca (which I have always loved).

:iagree: I only have 2 teens. I still can not figure out how to get more then one meal and stock out of a chicken.

Don't buy a plant unless you know they are good with plants. Total black thumb that I am would kill it immediately. I do enjoy a bouquet of dead things. Some chocolates on a dessert plate for the hostess to keep is always nice. I also like the sparkling cider idea.

66-69 during the day. It depends on how cold I am feeling. 64 at night. Although after surviving the cold during the power outage we are thinking we could lower it more at night.