Take it seriously! This dog WILL bite if you don't intervene. Call your vet and get a referral to a behaviorist. I promise you it will be the best money you have ever spent. A behaviorist will come to your home and will be able to see the dynamics between the dog and the other members of your family, and show you how to train the dog to behave appropriately. PLEASE do not ignore the growling!

You never get over losing your mother. :grouphug:

Our homeschool co-op has a Lego Club. The original founders scraped together four large bins of Legos, a Bionicles bin, and a Duplo bin, and built a ramp for Lego vehicles to roll down. It meets once per month in a meeting room at the local library for 2 hours of free play. It is pretty successful and it is a great "landing" activity in the fall for new homeschoolers who are apprehensive about what socialization looks like. The kids are usually pretty thrilled.

You will notice, in these type of news stories, that it is always small children to whom this type of abuse occurs. No teacher would dare cut off the hair of a child (or slap, or write word in sharpie on a face, or "vote out of class", or lock in a closet) large enough to fight back effectively. Unfortunately, there are a very small number of people who go into teaching because it is job in which they have power over others. These teachers need to be tossed out the door and never allowed back inside. It's crazy. My opinion as a former teacher.

Um, what? :lol: Yes, I'm finding many of these comment judgmental. How terrible to send these little ones off to a place to play a few mornings a week!

One fun thing I do is pull out theme music for a week or two. I'll start school by blasting "You Can't Touch This" or "Who Let The Dogs Out?" and the kids just freak out.

That is awesome! Thank you for sharing!

I understand completely. Some days I want to shriek, "Just shut up for 5 minutes!!!!!!" I could rest completely in that 5 minutes of blessed silence.

This thread is JUST what I need. I can only contribute dog training, unfortunately.

:lol:

Losing your mom is a unique pain. I don't think you ever get over it. I am so sorry for your loss. :grouphug:

Karen, that's great that you had fun with your child and you finished!!! I think your time is excellent under the circumstances, and also leaves room for improvement. It's such a thrill to do it faster the next time! Great job!

I'm mildly chagrined to admit that I ALWAYS ask our schooled guests what they are learning at school, just to see if they come up with something cool I can steal.

:lurk5: My DS10 wants it, too.

Me too. I'd be thrilled if everyone relaxed a little bit. Of course, many people think homeschooling is also overparenting, so I guess I'm guilty as charged in that regard.

It's from hell.

I have used The Scramble for years and it has helped us eat healthfully. You can select the recipes you want and it will create a shopping list for you. It costs $4.95/mo, so it's much cheaper than one emergency trip through the drive thru! There is a free 2 week trial at the website: http://thescramble.com/

make forts out of blankets dress up and put on a show hide and seek make rice krispie treats and have the kids sculpt it into a shape while it's warm mad libs

Does your grandma lose things like gloves or slippers? I had my sisters buy my mom multiple identical pairs of gloves so if she lost one, I had a replacement that matched. My mom also went through a weird phase of actively throwing away her shoes (hiding them down in the garbage can), and that's where the multiple pairs of slippers came in handy. If she is now uncomfortable receiving gifts, stop presenting them to her. It's about making her happy, right? Just send them to your aunt on her behalf.

LOL Ellie, your link leads to a cooking show on youtube.

The nurse at my dentist's office told me about this fabulous idea. Her DD had twins, and what they did was pay a college student to come to their house every night from 9pm-3am. She changed diapers when the babies awoke, brought them to mom for feedings, then put them back to sleep. When no babies were awake she did laundry, dishes, and got a lunchbox ready for the older sister. Sometimes she needed help from mom or dad when both twins were awake and needy, but by and large a lot was accomplished and mom got more rest. Wouldn't it be GREAT if a laundry fairy did your laundry while you slept? I think you are handling this all very well.

I intervene. Sometimes kids need to receive direct instruction in social skills, and sometimes kids need immediate feedback that what they said was insensitive. In the first situation, I'd go to DD and say, "DD, please say excuse me so this girl will know you need some room to sit down!" in a positive voice. If the girl didn't move or refused, I'd tell her "Move over, please." I have found that most young kids respond to an authoritative adult, whether that particular adult is in charge or not. In the second situation, I'd pull the neighbor girl aside and say, "Neighbor, that was a pretty mean thing to say to DD. I bet that hurt her feelings. What do you think about that?" If she respond with something about not wanting to play with DD, I'd say something like, "Ok, that's fair, but how could you say it so it won't hurt her feelings? Maybe say 'I want to be alone right now.' instead of 'You better not follow me'." You might make an impression, you might not, but your DD saw you model how that interaction should be handled. Many mean girls have mean moms, but every child is born with their own temperament and sometimes perfectly sweet parents have no idea how to handle a child with a personality different than their own. It's really no different than biters. Lots of toddlers bite, that doesn't mean their moms are secretly modeling biting in the privacy of their own homes. :lol:

With the Thanksgiving break coming up, I would just cancel and let it die down, so to speak.

I used it years ago and it worked well for me. I also dropped the e-mails but kept the habits. I never bought any of her products, and made my own Control Journal. One thing I DO use every year id her Holiday Control Journal. It is avaialbale to download for free from her website right now: http://flylady.net/pages/holidaycruising1.asp

That's wonderful! My teaching experience is with kids with severe multiple disabilities, and my heart is with that group of kids. I'm so glad your kids are so loving towards each other!