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.

I'm not aware of any form for exemption other than religious reasons, and we wouldn't try to claim that. Years ago dh and I wanted to wait on the chicken pox vaccine, but we were forced by the district to vaccinate when dd entered kindergarten there. Now that she is a homeschooler, which in our state is a private school, I thought all medical records resided with the school of attendance. I have such a visceral reaction to this request and I will honestly feel bullied if I have to cough up those records. Ugh. What is this waiver a couple of you have mentioned? If there is any other waiver besides for religious reasons please let me know.

I just got a call from the middle school where my dd has been allowed to join the choir as a homeschooler. The school nurse wants a copy of dd's 6th grade physical and immunization record. Well I don't have one. And even if I did I don't think I should have to show it. Getting an updated physical is no problem since my plan was to take her sometime this month anyway, but I do resent having to show it. I told the nurse that I would not provide this information, and if it was required then I would pull her from choir. She asked me not to pull her before she had an opportunity to speak with her contact with the state BOE to make sure the physical really was required. Why didn't she do that first? When we enrolled dd in choir the principal told me that if she wanted to participate in sports they would need a physical on hand, but it wasn't necessary for choir. I understand the logic behind that. Does your state require a physical on hand for non athletic extracurricular participation?

:grouphug: You're right. Thank you for reminding me not to take anything for granted. Best wishes for continued health.

What are you proposing - that Asians don't try hard enough or that they just don't care about sports?

Yep. This is what we did and I'm not ashamed to say it. My boys were educated in a predominately black school through mid-middle school, then we moved to an all white neighborhood so they could attend the highly rated, mostly white high school. There was no comparison between the two high schools and I wanted my children to have the best I could afford. Is that so bad? I don't think so. There are many people in my family who have chosen careers that allow them to help change the system. We are much more effective in that capacity than we would be if we were undereducated and trying to work from within. BTW, being a minority in an all white neighborhood does not come without problems. Thus, we are homeschooling dd.

My dd is not in school and she is AA. Does that automatically put her at a disadvantage? Her talent search scores would say otherwise. Automatically assuming a child is at a disadvantage because the parents chose not to utilize public school kindergarten is racist.

My husband works in higher ed, specifically to increase the diversity on his campus, so it is a part of his everyday life. Posting multiple links would take me some time and I'm headed to bed :), but here is an interesting one. If I'm not mistaken, I believe that in California you could be the class valedictorian, graduate with a perfect 4.0 GPA, and have a perfect score on the ACT, but still not be allowed admission to Berkeley or UCLA because your high school didn't offer enough AP courses. Perhaps some California folks can weigh in on the validity of that.

Agreed.

I thought sending your child to school WAS making use of available resources. It's their fault that the quality of education is vastly different from that in more affluent neighborhoods? I do agree with the notion that you can't make everyone want it, but I refuse to believe that a whole town or school is filled with people who chose to turn away from the knowledge we are trying to rain down upon them.

Not children failing classes, schools not educating children. Schools where the class valedictorian has to take remedial classes at the local cc to bring up their reading and math levels after they have graduated; schools where their best students are routinely turned down for admission to colleges because everyone in higher ed knows the low level of education they have received; schools where there are more students moving into prison than on to college; schools where the average 8th grader reads at a 1st grade level. These schools do exist. It's abysmal. And I'm talking about kids with no documented disabilities.