To me, unschooling is more child led learning. It is definitely not scripted or scheduled like a typical homeschool. I have friends who are unschoolers and they tend to spend a lot of time at the library, do lots of unit studies, etc. When I think of "radical unschooling," I think more of those who decided to teach their kids to "learn through life." There is typically no set learning time and they may not even sit down and do any kind of "school." For instance, they are taught math by cooking (measurements, adding, subtracting, etc), paying for items at the store, etc. My "definitions" are not out of any book...it is just what I think of when I hear these terms. I don't see unschooling or radical unschooling as "bad" at all. I think that a parent who is devoted to whichever method they choose for their kids will succeed at teaching that way. :) That said, I am a scheduling, by the book, to the letter homeschooler. LOL

Sadly, I am not surprised. :(

Oh how cool!!!

Have you tried typing a few of the lyrics into google? You may also got better responses if you post some of the lyrics here too. :)

Oh bless her heart! Prayers that she heals quickly and no MRI is needed.

He was my age. :( My thoughts and prayers are with you and your family. I am so sorry!

:lol::lol::lol: OMG and more :lol::lol::lol: Especially the part about burning our eyes!

Unfortunately, I am. Most of my weight is in my hips and around the middle. I am also quite pale and have developed some lovely spider veins on my legs and such. Blech! I tried on swimsuits the other day and became so depressed I was screaming at the kids on the way home. NOT a good thing to do! :(

I agree. To be on the safe side, I would trash the other clothes. It is not worth the risk to ANY infant if the pesticides do not come out.

I am so sorry for you loss...yet so joyful that your mom is finally at peace. Peace be with you and your family as you endure the days ahead. May God bless and keep you. Amen.

I don't have an issue with a mom in a bikini. I do have issues with large women who wear them - mostly because I don't want to see all that! But, if you are a hot momma, then by all means, show it off. That said, I wouldn't be caught dead in a bikini, or swimsuit of any sort. I am 5'6" and about 140 pounds which is just too much to shove in a bikini or bathing suit and feel comfortable. However, if I was a size 5 and sexy, heck yeah I would wear one! My kids will survive. I wouldn't be wearing one of the slutty ones (that are basically just a crack and nipple cover)...but a bikini like this one (if I looked like her!)... Absolutely!

Oh my! I didn't know this existed!!! Now I have to have one. ;) Let's see...that will make 2 cats, 1 dog, 30 hens, 1 rooster, 3 pigs, a gecko, and a frog. (and a Partridge in a Pear Tree...) Can you tell I love critters?

Wow! That is awesome...and a bit sad, I am sure. Time sure does fly!

UTI was my first thought. Did she just start doing this or has she done this since you got her? How old is she? Has she been spayed?

We absolutely plan to. I know things can always change, but as of right now, this is the plan. :)

That is just so tragic! She and her father were both so very young. I HATE Cancer!!

Oh my! How heartbreaking. May I ask what type of cancer she had? She just went so quickly, it seems. :( My thoughts and prayers will be you, as well as her family and her two dear children.

LOL. Nope. Spanking in our house is like anything else...sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. The same can be said here for time outs, cool down time, taking away toys, grounding, and on and on. This is especially true for my older son who is very hard to parent at times. My reactions to him are constantly changing because discipline techniques/tactics tend to work for him for a bit and then lose their luster. The kid can change most punishments into "oh well...whatever" pretty fast. Unfortunately. The one thing I have yet to try with him is taking away everything he owns other than his bed and letting him earn it back pne thing at a time. That is just a bit more than I can bring myself to do. Otherwise, we have likely tried it all with this one child.

You have some really neat ideas. I had my dh and FIL build shelves for us. I figured that, if the workbox system didn't work for us, I can always use the shelves. :) Here is a pic of mine all loaded up.

Okay. I have been sitting here thinking about the different components that make up this illness and here is what I have come up with. My ds, about once a year, gets a nasty throat infection. It can last from 3-7 days and is NOT strep. He is usually in lots of pain, terrible looking throat, and fever that hardly goes down even alternating motrin and tylenol every 3 hours. His is viral and has to run its course. He is miserable the entire time and so are we! That said, the white tongue sounds like bacteria...as does the bad breath. It also sounds like her sinuses are involved. I have terrible issues with my sinuses and I do not tend to drain properly. It is a nightmare and oh so painful. My advice is to obviously get back to the dr. I am not thinking meningitis, and if it was that, I would bet viral (bacterial is just scary and honestly, she would probably have gotten much worse by now). My thought here is that she needs a much stronger antibiotic. Amox is like bottom of the ladder. Amox won't touch a bad sinus infection and I am surprised that the doc gave her that when she was suspecting strep or a bacterial throat infection. Likely, she did so because your dd is not sick much and does not take antibiotics. At the very least, your dd should be taking Augmentin...even though I much prefer Levaquin or something really potent when it has gotten this bad. 2 days on Levaquin once knocked out a sinus infection that I had battled for over a year (repeat infections). Good stuff. My thought and prayers that your dd turns the corner with this soon and that the doctor can get her on some stronger medicine. Keep us posted!

I partially agree with this. Kids definitely, at some point, need to learn how the world works and learn to roll with the punches. However, I don't want my 10 and 6 year olds to have to learn these hard lessons just yet. My 10 year old went to ps and he knows, all too well, what that world is like. It changed his personality completely...adn NOT in a good way. My 6 year old, however, has never learned that there are people who won't like him just because he is...him. And honestly, I see no reason to purposefully expose him to those hurtful things just yet. When he is older, he can better understand why this happens and keep his self esteem in check. But, when ridicule starts at age 5 or 6, self esteem can really plummet. My older son deals with hurt by getting angry...and he is angry a LOT. My younger son has to be one of the most tender hearted and loving kids who ever lived. He cries if he thinks HE has hurt someone's feelings. I just can't imagine throwing the hard knocks of life at him just yet. My plan is to hold off on the rude cruel "real" word for a good long while with my kids. We will talk about what goes on, we will talk about how to handle these things, and we will talk about what wonderful people they are because they are their own person and no one should ever change that. Then and only then will I send them out to wade through the sludge.

My oldest son is at summer camp right now - Church camp. Before we even left the place after dropoff, my friend's daughter was in tears due to some very cruel and rude behavior by her roommates (and fellow CHURCH MEMBERS!) !!! How sad is that? I mean, my heart just breaks for her tonight. They switched her room, so I hope she is feeling much better now with new roomies. It just blows my mind that kids can be so mean, rude, cruel, and unkind. The way all of those ps kids act, I praise GOD that I am able to homeschool!!!

It sounds like she is curious and just asking questions and making observations. Does your sister/brother agree with homeschooling? If not, then I am sure that your niece has picked up on this and is asking things to satisfy both her own curiousity as well as get a feel for why it is "bad" or what have you. She may also be jealous. I thought that other kids would be rude to my sons about homeschooling - tell them they were nerds or something. But, in reality, most of the kids say, "OMG! I wish I was homeschooled" or something similar. I am not sure either of my kids have ever actually gotten a negative response from peers (we won't talk about the ignorant adults), to be honest.

Spanking is actutally something that we do after other methods fail, so I am not sure I can answer your question. For instance, my 5 year old this morning decided to slap me while we were playing. I immediately told him that it is not okay to slap people and sent him to sit on his bed for 5 minutes. He went straight to the bed and sat. When he came back, we chatted about why you don't hit, even in play and that was that. Now, had he not sat on his bed or had he hit me again or in some other way escalated the situation, then perhaps he would have been spanked eventually. The only thing we will spank for immediately is if one brother hurts the other to the point where a mark was left or there is blood. And, I have to say, that whether it is the spanking, the threat of spanking, or just not wanting to badly hurt each other, that is one thing my kids RARELY ever do. I guess what I am saying is that, while I am not "against" spanking, it is not our primary method of discipline by any means.

It really sounds sinus or reflux related to me. Is he taking any kind of medicine that may cause this as a side effect? I take Lexapro and I know that when I come down off the stuff, I feel terrible and sick to the point of gagging for about a month! Seeing a doctor couldn't hurt.