I would probably insist on rephrasing of the statement to the offended sibling followed by an imediate apology and then a punishment of some sort-something that will upset them to lose: video games, tv, we even do a few minutes early to bed. Let me explain that. My kids go to bed at the same time each night. In the summer it is 9pm. The offender will lose 5 minutes each time something happens. So they go at 8:55pm for the first offense. If they end up in bed at 8, so be it. They HATE going to bed early. It really gets them thinking I believe. Good luck! I feel your pain! :grouphug:

I like: Joy Kate Grace Hope

This! Absolutely!!! They have ZERO right to scold your child. Tell them she is YOUR child, YOUR responsibility and YOU will handle her. NOT them. Grr...the mama bear in me is angry FOR you. :grouphug:

IMO, forgiveness is not about the other person. Forgiveness is for YOU. You are the one that is suffering from the pain of unforgiveness, not her. It doesn't affect her one bit that you are upset. You really should forgive her, with or without an apology from her. Also my opinion, the apology is for HER. It is for her to acknowledge she did something wrong to you. It often makes the offended feel better to hear from the offender, but it isn't required to choose forgiveness. However!! That doesn't mean that you should walk blindly back into the relationship. If it's not a healthy relationship, maintaining appropriate distance from her is probably a good call. Now don't get me wrong, I have plenty of my own issues with people in my own life. None of the above comes easily to me though I do know it to be true in my life. *jumps off soapbox* HTH in some way!

You sound ready to me! And I love the idea of taking the entire month of December off too!!

This is what we had to do this year as well-send it in to the district.

We had this happen last year (but it was the BACK that was in her ear) to my then-five year old! I had her lay on my bed, bad ear up, with a warm washcloth over it. That seemed to help lessen the swelling and clean up the gunk that had quickly gathered there. I then used a q-tip to press around where the back was to gently get it back to the surface so that I could remove it. We took the entire earring out and treated with saline and neosporin for a couple of days to heal it. We left the earring out for a couple of days and it seems fine now a year later. And I DID call the dr about it-the nurse talked me through all of that to help avoid the ER (which would have been both expensive and very upsetting for DD).

:lurk5: We are using this through our co-op this year and I am wondering the exact same thing!

We are using it in combination with Mystery of History at our house and I expect my 7th grader will probably roll his eyes at me through some of it. :lol: With him, I'll be focusing more on MOH than SOTW but it should be great for my DD and DS2 (who's in 4th grade).

I think it looks great, personally! I wish I'd done more free stuff this year instead of buying, buying, buying! I went with used items but still, it could have been cheaper... For art: http://www.thatartistwoman.org/2009/05/fossil-casts-dinosaur-art-project-1.html http://www.kinderart.com/arthistory/ We are also using a book on drawing that we already have here. I would think there's a ton that you could use for art and music at the library too. :)

We had baseball a lot this past spring. We did a lot of early dinners, lots of sandwiches, and tried to do crockpot stuff on those days. We also often didn't eat until 8:30pm on game/practice days.

Woohoo!! Congrats!!

That poor girl! I'm so glad she finally got to you though!!

Congratulations! So exciting!!

:grouphug:

We are sort of doing a 4-day week this year. I say "sort of" because we will be doing the bulk of our work M-Th and then have a co-op day on Friday. Anything we haven't finished M-Th, we'll finish on Friday afternoon, but the plan is to be done and only doing co-op that day. I have a 7th grader, a 4th grader, a 1st grader, and a Preschooler this year AND we have been doing school (science unit studies) over the summer to keep us going. We are finishing up a unit study on creeks. We did a field trip to a creek, studied the water cycle, watched videos and read books about it...you get the idea. I've also had the kids reading daily on their own (though DD is in 1st grade and reads to me). And I've been working on letter recognition and patterns with YDS who is 3 and absorbs everything you do with him! :lol: I just find it keeps them fresher and they fight less when we are working on schoolwork together.

So glad you found a replacement! :)

:grouphug: Praying...I don't know your particular issue but I'll be praying. :)

I was not born yet...had to wait another 11 years for that!

Agreed!

Well, DH talked to the boss who said it wouldn't be a big deal if I had to go and that DH could just work from home that day if necessary. :tongue_smilie: Thank you, God for one miracle in this so far! I also sent my letter with my little questionairre but haven't heard back yet. I'm sure the best I can hope for is 6 months delay or something.

I just found this link for "Teach a child to read with children's books" on this site elsewhere and am reading it myself: http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/search/detailmini.jsp?_nfpb=true&_&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=ED437625&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=no&accno=ED437625 YDS is 3 as well. He knows most of his letters (uppercase knows 18/26 and lowercase 14/26). He knows his colors and shapes. He is starting to pick up the sounds of the letters. He can count to 9 without help and then forgets what 10 is called. I have been reading to him a lot, watching letter shows like Word World and Super Why, doing letter puzzles with him, trying to get him to remember how to spell his very short name, etc. Just lots of games and fun. :) He likes playing games at these sites as well: http://www.starfall.com http://www.sesamestreet.org http://www.nickjr.com We also do an online Thomas game (I'll have to look for the link to that). And he loves to sit in with his older siblings and do "school" with them as well. :)

I think you should use the things that you know work AND that your kids like. If they hate doing it, they won't without a fight. And then you should do #6. :lol:

Yes, your concern could have raised your blood pressure. My DH was told he had high blood pressure that had to be attempted to be regulated with diet change over the course of a month or two. We lowered his sodium intake a TON because that was what they told us to do, and it worked! Try not to worry too much, it'll just make it higher! Try adjusting your diet and see if it helps. :)

:lol: Are we talking biggest fine actually PAID or biggest fine I've talked my way out of? ;) The biggest I have ever had, but talked my way out of because I have some awesome library ladies and clearly God was on my side that day, was $15. :tongue_smilie: