[For those who always choose "other".]

And what happened to Other 5? that would be my REAL answer.

[For those who always choose "other".]

More other is always better.

[Where you live]

My actual town is probably 80,000 ... part of an area that has probably more than 1 million but less than 2 million.

[New Polls?]

Other.

 

:lurk5:

 

 

;)

[About your house]

 

I voted yes but it more like a covered patio rather than a covered porch and it is in the back.

This.

[Have you ever been to Africa?]

Nope haven't been to Africa. I live in Texas right now.

[Poll: Who are you HSing and how much are you HSing them?]

Year to year, kid to kid.

 

So far, the oldest went to ps (GT magnet) for 2 years -- 3rd and 4th. The next one did 3rd in the same magnet, and most of 4th in a Catholic parochial school (we moved out of state in March of that year). My youngest will likely go to regular ps (though probably skipped a grade for now) next year. My older dd will likely go to ps or charter school for high school. If charter school, her younger siblings may join her. My oldest has no interest in going back for K-12, but is easing into online college, and will likely transition to some classes at the local 2 year college before too long.

[iPod for 5th birthday?]

I probably wouldn't risk a brand new, top of the line model, but a hand-me down that you probably weren't going to use yourself anymore anyway? I'd do it.

[Would you donate one of your kidneys to your sibling?]

Yep. In a heartbeat.

 

My f-i-l has had his sister's kidney since 1982. They had a few tense moments (and some testing) when their brother was diagnosed with renal cancer in 2000 (he died a few months later). But both are doing fine.

[Should he acknowledge HER feelings? (Teens... WWYD)]

Yeah, as you know with Aspies, things really need to be spelled out. I'd probably coach him pretty heavily in this case, since it has presented itself. Hopefully, he'll even be able to apply it going forward (though there's a certain neurotypical 14 year old boy aspect where they also need a bit of a kick sometimes to not be rude).

[? for those that have children very close in age (15 months or less)]

Mine are 13 mo apart, then one 17 mo after that. Now that they're older and independent, they're only doing one thing each together. (Older two do science together, now-middles do writing together). When they were littler, I was never really able to combine math. Sometimes I could do LA, but my older is more advanced for his age level than the other two, so I'd combine them behind, kind of sort of ... eventually the youngers needed to split up in that, too, when they were 8 and 9, but by then the 9 year old was capable of being a little more independent. By the time they were 9-10-11, even history didn't work quite as well combined, but again, the oldest was able to go on more independently.

[Duke TIP Explore test]

My dd and ds did the Explore in 3rd and 4th grades with RMTS and in 4th and 5th with Duke TIP. Ds did the ACT in 7th with TIP. The EXPLORE scores were more helpful with dd than with ds as far as determining strengths and weaknesses. Ds still kind of ceilinged out (got top 10% in both -- did in the ACT, too, but the scores were still more helpful). Dd hit the mode score for her grade level in almost every category, which told us that she's completely normal for a top 5% kid. Ds we found out is unusual even among a peer group, but other than offering us $3,500 summer camp opportunities (thankfully, it's within driving distance, not that we could afford to plunk that down on one kid), TIP itself hasn't been much help.

[Parents of TKD/martial arts students, I have a ? for you]

The martial arts schools I've encountered emphasize (among other things) courtesy and respect for instructors and fellow students. I can't imagine name calling being tolerated. In my kids' classes, people get called Mr./Mrs. Lastname and sir/ma'am at testings and during the formal parts of class (beginning and end of class, etc).

This. Courtesy and respect are the foundation of our academy. We do have one instructor in particular who is very strict. I am aching from his 7-9 am Saturday class ... he is tough, but never in any way insulting. Even when he's working with the younger students and they frustrate him (he generally sticks to teens and adults when he can).

 

In our academy, the students are encouraged to test when the instructors deem them ready, but parents are allowed to override that (I've kept one child from testing because I didn't feel she was ready, even though the head instructor recommended her).

 

Instructional hours are completely different from belt levels, just for students in the instructor training program, and they earn chevrons for that. They only take enough people in that program so that every student gets teaching opportunities. My older three dc just started that program as other people phased out of it. It is possible for people to be black belts with no instructional hours if they're not on the instructor training path.

[Moms of girls - need outweighs age, right?]

My dd is 12 and I offered her the option to shave about a year ago. She's blonde and so it's not particularly visible yet, not enough to make her want to shave. It's not coarse/thick enough for me to really encourage her to shave, so we're in a holding pattern for the moment, but if she wanted to, I'd let her.

[S/O How can we help our kids be ready for earlier marriage?]

Dh and I married young (22) and did pretty well.

 

A lot of the life skills that we employed like budgeting, even getting an apartment, a car (and maintaining it) came from our Scout background. Even if you have philosophical differences with the programming as a whole either way, the Boy or Girl Scout materials (older is fine) can really help a lot with life skills if you can find them.

 

Our parents had married relatively young also (about the same age), so as firstborn children, we we remembered those lean early years, and didn't have expectations of anything else getting started as far as standard of living.

 

Our parents did encourage us to wait a couple of years from when we got engaged until we had finished our undergraduate degrees. We actually then chose to wait until dh finished his graduate degree, but it was only a few months more after my bachelor's. Our moms also had finished their educations to a point before marriage, and it does help in those early, lean years. My dad hadn't finished college when my parents got married (my mom has a 3 year RN diploma), and that made employment difficult, mom was often the breadwinner when I was little. Dh's parents both went to graduate school, and I would guess that if they had it to do over, they would have done that first, but they got through.

 

None of our siblings married early ... dh's sisters were mid-to late 20s, my brother was 30, and I have another brother in his 30s as yet unmarried and unattached. The same concepts, though, helped them launch on their own. Well, except for one s-i-l, who did complete medical school and her intern year before marrying, but her mother STILL even did her taxes for a few years after that.

[Would you leave a very responsible 9-year-old home for an hour...]

I would, provided it was the 9 year old's preference (which sounds like it is).

[Scheduling high school work]

My kids doing high school work plan it themselves, usually on a weekly basis. Some of their curriculum has it planned out day by day, sometimes they follow that. But I generally set expectations of what I expect to be done weekly, and all work is usually due on Friday. I also go through monthly and set deadlines for the bigger projects. I usually suggest smaller milestone dates, too, but they may or may not take those suggestions.

[Anyone have a child (or themselves?) missing adult teeth?]

I was missing 3 adult teeth. I also had a lot of crowding, so they just pulled the odd one ... I probably would have had to have the other 3 pulled if they'd been there.

[s/o At what age were your kids able to get started in the mornings without you...?]

Mine are 13, 12, 10 and 6. They CAN get up and get started without me (I was working shelters for the wildfires at night and needed to sleep in a few weeks ago). But in reality, while they were up and dressed and had fed themselves, unless there was something that they wanted to do later that they knew school had to be done in order for them to participate, the school part didn't happen. I do have them on fairly independent things this year (ok, for the little one, it's a Costco workbook, but she's happy with it). They CAN do it on their own. Reality is, they don't usually choose to do so yet.

[If your child wanted to study/be something when they are older]

I wouldn't split up the family. We did move to make sure that we lived in a state with a wide variety of higher education options that would suit our dc's interests (our previous state didn't have that), so that when the time comes, they can take advantage of in-state tuition. There were a variety of states that met this criterion, and it was a strong factor in dh asking for a transfer. But the family unit and our relationship as a couple is more important to us than our children's career aspirations. The kids will grow up and pursue their passions ... we will do what we can until then to support them, to a point ... and that point falls far short of splitting the family up in any way.

[Diminutives of Katherine]

All of the above. A couple of cousins and I were all named after our great aunt Catherine (my middle name, but it was used as much as my first when I was little). I was Kay (or KayKay), the next cousin was Katie (both spelled Katherine with a K). Our other cousin is Catherine, and when she was a baby, so many people asked whether it was with a K or a C, that she has always gone by Kayce (pronounced KC). On the other side, I'm named after my great-grandma Katherine, and I have an aunt Kathy who was also named after the same grandma and a cousin Kat.

[School at home?]

I agree that it means different things to different people. Lately, I've thought of it as people who use virtual charters and the like. People who are basically under the authority of a public (or private) school, do exactly the prescribed curriculum, etc. It wouldn't work well for our family, but I have several friends who, for various reasons, have found this kind of situation very helpful, whether to remove a child from a negative social situation, adjust to a child's competitive sports/acting/arts career, or to be able to give a child extra one on one attention. It's attractive to me on some levels, but my dc are even more asynchronous in their development now than they were when we started that I would have no clue as to where to begin to pick a grade out of a box.

[Rant: New Girl Scout Badge Books]

My daughter wants to stay in GSA long enough to earn her Gold Award. She really wants to be a Boy Scout because they have better badges, more prestige with the Eagle, and do a lot more cool stuff (with so much more support w/Merit Badge University, more leaders, more boy led).

This is my dd, too. My boys' troop might have a Venture crew by the time dd is old enough, though that's not entirely the same. Our council cancelled the High Adventure weekend they had planned that she was really looking forward to ... no reason as to why ... but now I see they have a Journeys weekend planned for the same camp the same weekend. She is less than enthused, but she's a 7th grader in a 6th grade troop (until very recently, our SU was very homeschool unfriendly, to the point of almost being hostile, finding a troop was hard -- this one is run by a hs mom, so she joined last year, even though she was a Cadette and they were Juniors, but got very little done for any of her own awards). Dd needs to get going to get one Journey done in order to be sure to have time to do her Silver.

[Rant: New Girl Scout Badge Books]

I haven't seen everything yet (our council still isn't distributing books -- I'm hoping to get to see one for a while at level training on Sunday). I have 1st graders, but since we don't want to keep re-buying new books, uniforms, etc., and since we're all homeschoolers and believe that grade level is somewhat arbitrary :001_smile: -- we're doing Brownies. I just planned the first semester with classic Brownie-type activities, like back when I was a Brownie and there weren't try-its, etc. I'll work on fitting them in to badges, etc. later ... in the meantime, we've been working on learning the promise and law, going to the fire station, learning first aid, planting flowers, making recycled art, visiting a retirement home. It is a pain supposedly having a program and not really being inspired, or in some cases able, to use it, but I think that the girls will still have fun. My older dd's Cadette leader has her work cut out for her, though.

[I'm always late with these things. Game of Thrones, book]

I have it on hold, too. I think dh might start buying them, he has been reading them for a few years. The mini-series depicts a richly created world with deep characters. Knowing that the book is almost always better than the movie (dh assures me it is), I'm really looking forward to reading them.