We've talked about doing the life of Washington, starting down here at GW's Birthplace, the next day, Fredericksburg for Ferry Farms and finishing at Mt. Vernon.

Which is why she should hand the problem over to her supervisor or whomever is next up on the chain of command. :iagree: That parents can overlook SOME behavior, but it seemed like what was described in the original post would be impossible to ignore.

Don't put a plastic bag over your head... they never really said why, but they said not to so vehemently that we obeyed. The first time my son put a plastic bag over his head, we (my husband and I) were both shocked frozen. Then the irrational overreacting commenced. Now, he doesn't put plastic bags on his head either ;)

If infants are not allowed in court, then breastfeeding in court would prove pretty difficult. On the other hand, if the officer that mans the door is nice, sometimes they are willing to listen for your name and hollar for you when your case gets called. I was in a similar situation, but thankfully our case was in and out pretty quick. If you have someone willing to sit (outside the courtroom) with the baby, then your little one should be fine. Just make sure they're full before you go in.

I would not think that kids could hide mental illness from their parents. IOW, she knows about the animal cruelty, but apparently not the extent of her son's abuse towards other people. If it was a mental illness, wouldn't his behavior be uniformly bad?

Microsoft Word has a grammar check. It also lets you know the rule(s) that is/are being broken. If you want to work on your own grammar, to help your child, then I recommend MSWord. You can type out something you are having a problem with, then look it up, all in one program. IMO, showing your child that you are not perfect, but willing to work towards perfection, is just as good as knowing everything. My kids know how to use reference books because I use them all the time. I may not have all the answers, or the best spelling or grammar, but I am willing to look it up.

There is a time for many words, and there is also a time for sleep. Homer (800 BC - 700 BC), The Odyssey Oh sleep! It is a gentle thing, Beloved from pole to pole. Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772 - 1834)

Every year we have a tea party for all the kids. My great-grandmother started the tradition when my mom and her sibs were all little, so it's become an institution with us. Christmas Eve is at my parents' house and it always has a different theme, this year we're going Mexican. We stay until Santa can be seen heading to the US (lol), then everyone goes home to sleep on pins and needles. I don't usually start anything until two weeks before Christmas, from then on it's all Christmas all the time, from the excessive baking and decorations to the music on our voice mail. Lol. If I have a few days worth of clean-up ahead of me, then I know we celebrated right ;)

Battleship and chess are my older son's favorites. He could also help cook, lol, prep work is usually stationary.

Does the boy get left anywhere else? His behavior indicates abuse. It would be a good idea to let the parents know, especially his mother since it would appear he's hiding his activities from her, that there is a good chance their son is being abused. Speaking to whomever supervises you would be a good idea as well. Kids don't do these things to this extent without a reason. The need to hurt and destroy could be a response to a feeling of helplessness and pain. You could also try talking to him, most four-year-olds have vocabularies capable of expressing emotion (fear, anger, etc). Who knows, maybe he watched a particularly bad movie or something?

We're up river from you, just a few minutes from George Washington's Birthplace, Stratford Hall and all that jazz.

My son will be in WDES until Christmas break, but after that we'll be homeschoolers. If there's anyone from King George or Warsaw or any other surrounding counties, could you email me? All I can seem to find around here are unschoolers and I was hoping to find my son some friends that use a similar curriculum. Also, what do all the "hive" references and ds de dd, etc, mean? Thanks, Julie