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jessicalb

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Posts posted by jessicalb

  1. This year our schedule is:

    Daily, M-F: PE, Root Words, Spanish, Math

     

    The rest is block scheduled in 2-3 hour blocks with homework and reading done on his own time. I think it's ok to have a lower number of in-class and homework hours if you are having your kids do real work, not sit in class while someone drones on or completing busywork nonsense. Your time is just usually more efficiently spent in homeschooling.

     

    Mondays: Chemistry, Drama

    Tuesdays: History, Geography

    Wednesdays: Literature, Park

    Thursdays: Horseback riding, IEW, Art

    Fridays: Park

     

    He will decide as the year goes if he wants his weekdays basically full of work into the late evenings or if he wants to finish up stuff on the weekends.

  2. I agree and my dh wears a gun in a holster about 90% of the time around our farm.  He would not remove the holster/gun for someone coming to pickup one of our dd's, but he definitely would not be cleaning the gun or pull it from the holster.  

     

    Wearing or carrying a gun is normal here.  I cannot imagine it shocking any boy who came to our home.  The reason dh wears it around the farm is because we live in an area with LOTS of rattlesnakes and copperheads.

     

    This is what rational gun ownership looks like.

  3.  

     

    I think you'd be surprised how many people you already spend time with have and/or carry guns - that doesn't make them scary.  

     

    And anyone who does have and/or carry a gun will periodically need to clean it.  Sometimes outdoors, whether to avoid fumes from cleaning solvents or just because it's a nice day.  

     

    There's nothing in the OP to indicate the dad was threatening in any way, and the presence of an unloaded gun is no different than any other tool.  Would everyone be saying "run away" if the dad was reorganizing his sawblades in the garage, or chef-dad was in the kitchen sharpening knives?  Granted, none of that is what you do when you know company is expected, so there's certainly a chance he was acting out that cliche/stunt, but until the boy or boy's parents get to know this dad a little better there's no reason to assume he's crazy or dangerous.

     

     

    We go shooting for fun. We take shooting classes. I know the difference between people who are rational and safe about guns and people who are a little bit crazy with their weapons. Context is key, and in this case the threat is cleary implied by the context. I'm not interested in interfacing with families where gun ownership is used to intimidate or even be funny.

  4. I think a lot of what teens will do is what teens want to do. But when they grow up and their brains mature, if they have made bad decisions and are suffering consequences due to those decisions, at least I can hold my head up because I taught them what I feel is the proper way to live and did not enable improper behavior. But of course you think it is right to let kids have sex, so really nothing more to discuss.

     

    You might be misunderstanding me. I think what my kid does with his body when I am not there is well out of my control, so I tell him my ideas about best practices and give him suggestions for how to mitigate problems if he is choosing less than best practices. It's not a question of "let". It's a question of doing my best to prepare him for all the things he will face in the world, arming him with information, and giving him the best shot at a good life that I can.

  5. Just to be clear, this wasn't my son, it was a friends.

     

    As the boy's parent, would you say/do anything in this scenario? I know it is joked about and there is a country song (maybe more than one?) to this affect, but would you involve yourself, or let the boy figure it out?

     

    I would tell the boy that if it were me I'd meet the date at the mall or someplace else in the future, never again in a place where someone could easily pull a gun, and to be aware that he might be getting involved with a person with a kind of scary family member.

  6. If you permit it is permissive. Obviously if you permit it you don't think it is a problem.

     

    I really am shocked, morality aside, at how many people think it is ok for teens to have sex. Their brains are not even fully developed and hormones are raging making it unlikely they will make good decisions....do you (collective You) also provide alcohol for them too?

     

    It is not permissive to permit something. If you allow your children to read books I wouldn't allow my kid to read, that doesn't make you permissive, it makes us different kinds of parents.

     

    I don't provide alcohol but my son knows that if he were to make a poor decision and be stuck someplace, he and any of his friends can call me for a ride, no lecture included. Most of them think drinking is stupid and as far as he and I know, none of his friends are having sex yet. So I am not worried that this encouragement of good decision making paired with a safety net is creating drunken sex crazed teens.

  7. We did a health unit in junior high that covered everything I could think of, both in a straight up facts kind of way and in a this is what our family believes about ethics and good choices kind of way. Topics included: how your body changes, masturbation, sex mechanics, sex and how it affects relationships, consent, disease, babies, contraception, abortion, adoption, sex with different genders, different family structures, dating violence, drug use, alcohol use, self harm, medical care responsibilities for both partners once you start having sex, etc etc etc etc. Basically every hard thing I could think of about being a teenager that would be hard to talk about. We didn't usually make eye contact during these lessons but we got through them. The last thing I want for my child is for him to flounder, figuring this stuff out alone in the dark on a steady diet of sexism and violence in the media and in our culture at large. Probably the topic I think is most important, especially for young men, is consent.

     

    For years he said he would wait for marriage. Currently he says he would like to have sex, but not yet, but definitely before marriage. I'm thrilled he is talking to me about it. I make sure he knows that whatever choices me makes along the way that he can come to me for help, and so can his partner or his friends if they are afraid to ask their parents. And I think it's time to stock his bathroom with condoms. Maybe I'll put them in his stocking in December!

  8. I just have to share that after years of "I dunno" my son has a goal. An actual realistic achievable goal. Not only is it realistic and achievable, but it's challenging and difficult and he will have to work so hard to do it and he knows that and he wants to do it anyway! This is not a child who normally responds to challenge very well. He normally would just rather quit. And right now he is struggling mightily with his physics and he still wants to do it!

     

    So yay! WOO HOO!

     

    And if anyone has any ideas about what sort of things we should pay close attention to for a kid who wants to be a nuclear engineer, please share. ;)

  9. Really? I hadn't heard about the DE payments. I think if I have a child enrolled at the ps for more than 3 credits (3=half a day) then they are considered full time? I have an appointment with the guidance counselor at the school tomorrow to see what she knows. :tongue_smilie:

     

    I could enroll my dd for 3 credits there, and do the rest at home, and still be considered a homeschooler, that much I know. Just not sure if I can stretch it to 4 credits. But I want to. :D

     

    The person who told me it is possible basically said her child is going through Sequoia Choice online charter to do it. She said to talk to the principal about the options. I am just now investigating the possibilities.

     

    I hope your guidance appointment goes well! :)

  10. Arizona is very liberal about school choice. You could probably enroll her part time at high school, keep your affidavit, and still be considered a homeschooler. So you would give her a diploma, all your credits would count, and you could count what she did at the school on your transcripts.

     

    I've also heard that part time homeschoolers can get community college courses paid for by the state through dual enrollment. That is an option we are looking at.

  11. We use LoF as our main math with very little supplementation. My son is not at all mathy. He did pretty well with both pre-algebra LoF books and is really struggling with LoF Physics. The physics is THERE in a way the biology and economics was jut sort of a flavor for the math.

     

    I am glad we are doing it but I am also glad it happened to be released after the pre-algebra books. I suspect that this book would have killed his interest in physics if he had tried it any earlier.

  12. Definitely would not restrict bathroom visits in any average circumstance. I would bang on the door and request a bit of hurry if the length of the visits is a problem.

     

    I have to pee somewhere between every 3 or 4 hours and every 15 minutes. Depends on the day. I would just wet my pants if I had to wait more than 15 minutes or so on a bad day. I just can't imagine asking anyone else to wait without a really, really good reason.

  13. I have a 9th grader and we still read aloud, and discuss a lot. You could make discussion part of the grade for some subjects. Or maybe you could find shorter things to read aloud, like poetry or short stories once a week instead of every day?

     

    Our read aloud time comes when at least one person is doing chores. Whoever is not currently doing a chore reads aloud. We trade off, generally at my discretion (which is really when I am sick of washing dishes or sick of watching him wash dishes and not get them clean).

     

    We used to have a lot more read aloud time and I do miss it. One way I have stayed really involved is I flip open the science or math or whatever and pull out some topics to discuss. This helps cement the learning and keeps me in the loop and interacting with him.

     

    This is kind of a sad time, isn't it? Homeschooling the youngest in high school, I mean. I'll miss it very much when it's done. :/

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