Make it yourself. Canned tomato sauce, canned tomato paste, oregano and basil, maybe some salt, pepper and garlic. Smooth as a baby's bottom.

Thanks for all the input guys! I think my discontent about the book stems from the sexual aspects, not because I think she's not mature enough to read it, but because those aren't the things I want her thinking about. I'd so much rather her read great books about strong characters facing adversity, or beautiful stories of heroes or families or.. I don't know. There are so many good books! We were reading Moby Dick and Call of the Wild. I'd so much rather her fill her head with questions about why Queequeg was willing to risk his life for his friend than why a man would share his prostitute with his son. I'm going to read it myself, but honestly, if it's not appropriate what do I do? Complain to the teacher? I guarantee he's not going to chance his syllabus because a parent disapproves. He might give her something else to read but I'm sure that would be embarrassing for her. What does a parent do whey they're unhappy with something at school? So much new territory this year.

Thanks!

Can you be more specific? I'm not sure I'll have time to read it before she gets started and I'd like to be prepared. :)

My 8th grade daughter started school at a classical charter school last week and they've been assigned "The Good Earth" by Pearl S. Buck to read for lit class. I haven't read it myself, but I read the synopsis and am a little concerned about the content for a 13 year old. I understand the wife kills one of her babies and the husband buys a concubine, among other things. Can anyone advise?

As far as having different last names than your children - I do remember a time when I was 17 that this was a real problem. My mom had been divorced and remarried so we had different last names. I was driving her car and got pulled over. The officer made a big deal about the registration being a different name than my driver's license and accused me of stealing the car, or at least driving it without permission. We had to get in touch with my mom and get it sorted and it took over an hour. I know that's a singular incident, but it was tough sometimes having different names.

In defense of the church ladies, I imagine it's just their way of getting in on the excitement of her being newly married. Imagine if you'd just graduated with your PhD. They might call you "Dr. Soandso" as a way of acknowledging that. I took DH's name, partly because it was what people did, but mostly because I was excited about creating a family with him. I wanted us to share a name. I would have preferred us to take mine, because his is very common, but he wanted me to take his and I didn't care enough to make a big fuss. It never occurred to me that I'd lose my identity by changing my name. I am who I am, no matter what my driver's license says. ETA: I do remember my grandmother addressing cards to me as "Mrs. Husband'sfirstname Husband'slastname". I honestly thought it was kind of cute.

I guess this is where we start the conversation about guns being marketed to kids. According to the link, the gun that 5 year old boy shot his sister with was made for kids, with the slogan "My First Rifle". That I find upsetting.

"Electric kettles", huh? All these descriptions of appliances for tea sure sound different when read with another slant in mind. :lol: :lol:

Regarding the non-profit, my point was that gun manufacturers are afraid of a scenario like that, where they'd be targeted by anti-gun groups. I agree that it isn't unreasonable that if you sell guns you should keep them secure and make sure you don't lose track of them. Maybe I misunderstand the Act, but I believe that it doesn't limit lawsuits like these. Obviously there was some neglect if hundreds of weapons just go missing. I believe it limits the liability of manufacturers when people legally obtain weapons and then commit crimes with them. I think it's reasonable to limit that liability. After all, I could get my conceal and carry, take classes, legally obtain my weapon, keep it locked up at all times, and then decide to shoot my mail carrier. Not the fault of anyone but myself. But this is sort of a straw man argument when related to the original post anyway. Like I said earlier, I do support gun restrictions, I just understand that there are rights and responsibilities on all sides.

There is a difference between gun and cigarette manufacturers - namely that cigarettes have known addictive properties and carcinogenic effects from normal use. Yet, cigarettes remain legal and cigarette manufacturers continue to make a profit. I agree that their marketing toward children was wrong, as would be marketing guns toward children. (Spin off conversation - the marketing of violent video games to children) The rights of one group (namely, the right not to be a victim of gun violence) don't cancel out the rights of another (namely, the right to open and run a business selling a legal product). It would be very easy for a non-profit to start up with the goal of taking down the gun companies, hire some lawyers, contact people whose family members have been killed and start suing like crazy. It would absolutely hurt the gun manufacturers, which would be the point. The thing is, the vast majority of executives and employees of gun manufacturers do not actually want their weapons used to kill innocent people. They are producing a product with a long and proud history, one they love and stand behind. One that is legal. To be clear, I'm not a gun 'supporter'. I don't own any, I've never fired one, my husband is not a sportsman. But I recognize that this is a complex and nuanced issue that can't be solved with blanket statements. It's also incredibly difficult to have a real conversation when as soon as you defend guns in any way, you're accused of wanting little children to be gunned down. I absolutely support more gun control, although I've yet to see a proposal that would get guns out of the hands of criminals. There are lots of laws already that are incredibly difficult to enforce. Honestly, if you're a 'bad enough' criminal, all the gun laws in the US won't stop you from heading to Mexico to get one.

That sounds awful, but I wouldn't give up hope on your kids doing athletics. I assume that once they get out of that 3-5 range the parents are not involved? Maybe just wait until they're old enough to be in the upper levels, when there are coaches to take care of things instead of relying on parents.

:iagree: My mother is bipolar and ended up a meth addict when she didn't have insurance for her meds. Thankfully, she got clean and healthy and is doing very well now. She lives a very happy and productive life. Meds are vital, but for her diet and exercise, a good support network and good routine are also very important. She has found that if she's willing to put the work in and stay on top of things, life is really good.

We're in MN and I've been happy with Land's End coats, snow pants and boots. They're more expensive but the quality is good and the sleeves and pant legs have a feature where you can let out some stitches and get another 2" of length. The coat and pants we bought for my 13 yo dd 3 years ago are being worn by my 10 yo dd this year and are still in good shape. That makes it worth the money for me.

I believe this Act was passed to prevent extemporaneous lawsuits - for example, my husband is shot and killed by my meth-addict neighbor, so I sue the company that manufactured the gun. It isn't the manufacturer's fault that the gun was used for murder. There's no 'truth coming out' in suits like that. As another poster said, the only reason you could sue the gun manufacturer would be for some kind of defect, and as far as I know, that's still allowed. I'd be willing to be Americans would freak out over random in-home checks. I think her point was simply that people generally hold one position or the other, not both simultaneously. It's an interesting dynamic.

But removed to where? If there is nowhere for the child to go, what do they do? I agree with this 100%. Appropriate touching is actually necessary for kids. What a conundrum.

Maybe there was a second page I missed? I apologize if that was the case. And to clarify, I don't mean to say that these situations never happen - I'm actually very interested in this conversation - but that this particular article was very vague. I do wonder what the schools can do; as we've noted, they have the legal obligation to educate every child. Does anyone live in a district where there is a solution that works? I don't know much about IEPs, but I have a few friends whose kids have them, and the overwhelming comment I've heard is that they are hard to get, and hard to get the teachers to adhere to. I've also heard from teachers that they're hard to access. Because of privacy concerns, some teachers aren't even told their students have IEPs, they have to wait for the parents to let them know.

Is there a group for this? We should start one.

Articles like this are so vague that it's hard to know what's really happening. No sources, either, I note. For all we know it's a couple parents upset over some misbehavior and taking things out of proportion.

WHAT??!! I had no idea. Word Nerd, you have made my week.

So what happened? I've been impressed that so far my dd hasn't complained about the workload and still seems to like it (granted we're four days in) because it's a LOT tougher than I am. Pink and Green Mom - seriously. She's there for 7 hours and still has homework. What do they do all day? Looking forward to that groove, and thankfully I've been homeschooling long enough that I know it may take a while to find it.

I know this was from yesterday, but next time you're stuck - chicken cacciatore (lazy style). Put chicken thighs in the crock pot with some spaghetti sauce (or tomato sauce and basil, oregano, garlic), slice the green peppers and throw them in. Mushrooms if you have them. Salt and pepper. Cook on low all day and serve over egg noodles (or mashed potatoes). Everyone loves it here.

After nine years of homeschooling. All the kids have been on the wait list for a classical charter school near us, and we got a call last week that my 8th grade dd's number was up. She started Monday. I'm so excited that she'll get to enjoy Latin instruction from someone who, you know, actually knows Latin. And algebra from someone who actually knows algebra. And class projects and social hour and school colors. And yet.. I miss my girl! It's so foreign to see her doing someone else's assignments! Dealing with teachers is more difficult than I thought it would be. Getting up early is more difficult than I thought it would be. All the reasons I homeschool are still good reasons and she's not getting that stuff there. I'm so conflicted. I need a hug. Or maybe a drink. This childhood thing goes by way too fast.

:hurray: :hurray: :hurray: And yet it'll be 18 months before I see it, since I have to wait for it to hit Netflix. My life is so, so sad.

I don't think $110/week is high; around here it's $200 for full time care. I don't know how much you owe on your loans, but if you could put that $6000 toward them and have them paid off faster, I'd definitely go that route. K and even 1st in public school in order to be homeschooling sooner would probably be a great thing for you.