So true! This is what I told her. :)

I think I've heard it all now. My dd went to physical therapy this afternoon and chatted with a woman of about 80 who was also receiving therapy. This lady went on and on about how homeschoolers were socially awkward and dumb. She said there was no way dd had any friends. Also made comments about how sure she was that my dd wasn't getting any personal attention since "her teacher" has to split her time amongst her 10 other children (Uh, I have 3 children and two are away at college, so one-on-one attention). She is a former teacher and claims to have 2 grandchildren who homeschool, although they are smarter because they do all their work online. She asked dd if she was going to high school. Dd said probably, we are exploring options. She told her there was no way she could ever test into any of the private schools in the area and the public school won't want her. Such a pleasant lady. Oh, and Homeschooling makes you dumb, and being dumb stunts your growth. I was proud of my daughter. She was respectful but logically defended our decisions. She saw the humor in it, too. Too bad I didn't get to meet her.

I just looked into this for my mom. We were on vacation and discovered mixed generation homes, which is basically a small apartment (bedroom or two, living room, kitchen, bath, laundry area) tacked onto the main home. Two years ago we never would have considered this but my mom needs the help and wants the companionship. I see so many benefits to us all with this type of arrangement. I'm not sure how to do this though, since we don't have a builder in our area who specializes in these types of homes and our current home has too many stairs. I definitely see us moving in this direction though.

On Friday my mother bought the Thanksgiving turkey for the family. Her intent was to bring it right away to my house since we host the holiday. She put the frozen turkey in an insulated bag and threw it into the trunk of her car. She then forgot to bring it and it sat in her trunk for two days (in a large garage with temps in the 30s). She called me this morning to ask me to come get it. The turkey is thawed, yet cool to the touch. There are bloody turkey juices in the bottom of the insulated bag. Will it make it safely until Thursday if I put it in the fridge/freezer? Could I cook it today and freeze the cooked meat or should I just throw it out? I'm willing to chuck it and buy a new turkey, although I would never tell my mother that.

On Friday my mother bought the thanksgiving turkey for the family. Her intent was to bring it right away to my house since we host the holiday. She put the frozen turkey in an insulated bag and threw it into the trunk of her car. She then forgot to bring it and it sat in her trunk for two days (in a large garage with temps in the 30s). She called me this morning to ask me to come get it. The turkey is thawed, yet cool to the touch. There are bloody turkey juices in the bottom of the insulated bag. Will it make it safely until Thursday if I put it in the fridge/freezer? Could I cook it today and freeze the cooked meat or should I just throw it out? I'm willing to chuck it and buy a new turkey, although I would never tell my mother that.

No wait at all. In and out in less than 5 min.

My boys went at that age with their friends. They always dressed up and they waited until the end of the evening. Most of the little ones were done by then and many folks didn't mind giving their last bit of candy to the teens. I don't have a problem with it.

Dating myself but one summer when I was in college I worked at a gas station and cigarettes were $.89 per pack. I believe they are in excess of $5 now where I live.

Come on mama. Pat his little bottom!

It's moving!

Poor mama looks confused. I wish the baby would get up already. It's making me nervous.

It sounds like she made the kids clean up. "Then came the cleanup, which took two days, and during which Stilwell did not lift a finger to help, but sat on the couch drinking coffee that her daughters made for her. The girls gagged and bickered as they scraped cheese out of what had been a milk glass, using two bottles of Pine Sol and a half a bottle of bleach before the whole house was nearly perfect."

Whether it can track a student while off campus is not relevant, imo. The issue I have with this system is that it will get these kids used to being chipped. A few years down the line it won't be too much of a stretch for their employers to get them to agree to a tracking system. Truant kids are not going to care that someone knows they are not at school. We already know they are not at school. And they don't care. So what's the deterrence? Think of the information we already put out there. If you use the discount card at your local grocery store all of your purchases are known and tracked. The store will tell you they use this information to target discounts and coupons specifically to you. Innocent marketing tool? Perhaps. But it sure is getting us used to divulging information we might not have disclosed if someone just asked us to do it 10 years ago. Our privacy is slowly being whittled away. One generation at a time. Bit by bit.

I understand everything you said here and agree with it, to a point. There is (troubled) history between my family and the district. When we made the choice to request extracurriculars we went into it with the hopes of bridging our differences and starting clean. I made an appointment with the principal so I could learn all of the particulars of a homeschooler participating in extracurricular activities. He told me he wanted to speak with the superintendent prior to sitting down with me so that everyone was on the same page. No problem. There were required forms (emergency contact, health information, student/parental information, etc.), which we filled out and returned. There were other forms which would only be required if dd chose to participate in an activity which was governed by the middle school association, including sports, speech, cheerleading. The principal made a big deal out of the fact that more detailed health information, such as a physical or immunization records, would NOT be needed if all she wanted to do was choir. Perhaps the nurse was not aware of that conversation, but I know dd is not the first homeschooler to participate in extracurriculars, so it bothers me. I'm not a rule dodger, but I intentionally made an appointment so that I had all of the information upfront. We may have made a different choice about dd's participation had we known beforehand.

This makes sense. I really try not to be a pita, but I struggle with that sometimes.