I would assume that, credible threat or not, the lawyers told them they had to warn the parents. My first instinct would be to pull my daughter out of school, definitely for the day and possibly for the year (and many more years to come). My husband's response was, "Eh, it depends on the threat. We didn't take her out of Cairo when there were threats against Americans there." My response: "We also didn't send her out alone into the target zone." It's hard when you don't know the nature of the threat--is it a threatening note, scribbled in the handwriting of a 5yo? (If so, probably not too much to worry about.) Is it an accumulation of evidence from multiple sources with high credibility, or from multiple sources with credibility varying from high to medium? (If so, the threat is very real.) Unfortunately, police departments--like national security organizations--usually don't reveal that information for fear of jeopardizing their sources or compromising their methods. It's a reasonable stance for them to take, but it does make it difficult to make decisions based on their warnings. I pray that you, yur husband, and your children will have wisdom and peace as you decide what to do, and that whatever you decide, your children--and the other children in your area--will be safe from violence. :grouphug:

The bolded part--that may be a problem with an international school as well. Although the instruction would be in English, many--though not all--international schools require students to study the host nation's language. I'd start looking into the available international schools and determine if that's a non-waivable requirement at any school you would consider for your kids. If it is, then depending on who told you that a written/read foreign language isn't appropriate for your daughter (preferably a well-credentialed educational psychologist/counselor/advisor or something similar), then that advice may be an additional point of argument for why you should be allowed to homeschool even in Germany. Also, if the international schools reject your daughter for any reason, it would be a good argument for not forcing you to send her to the public German school that may hold weight with the authorities. If you teach her at home, then you can hire a private German tutor to teach her to understand and produce verbal German, if needed to satisfy the educational authorities, without the typical classroom requirement of reading and writing it. If you would be there longer than the standard 2-3 years, then getting permission to homeschool may be more difficult than for more short-term residents. The more good arguments you can develop, and the more documentation you can gather, the better your chances of being allowed to homeschool her.

Also no ideas, but prayers are being lifted for you and your family.

These same schools reject students whose transcripts show that they are performing below grade level. The particular schools I have in mind are considered prestigious; they are very concerned with maintaining that status. It is good to know that there are other international schools who focus more on the educational service part than the business part of their existence.

I apologize for generalizing too broadly--I did not intend to offend you or even to disparage these schools or their administrators. My comments were based on what parents I know have been told by the schools who rejected their children. Your school rejects some special needs children for other reasons--I certainly don't object to your reasons for not accepting some children into your school, but I also did not intend to paint the other schools as "the bad guy." I respect their right, their need, and indeed their duty to do what they believe is in the best interests of their schools and the students they do accept. My intent was to explain what some parents have been told, not to demonize schools that are not set up for special needs students, that are not required to accept them, and that choose not to.

One nice possibility--if the company pays for international schools, but your child can't go to the international schools because of the lack of services for special needs, they may be willing instead to subsidize your homeschool curriculum. If you are offered the opportunity and decide to accept it, it probably wouldn't hurt to ask your HR people if the benefit is transferable in your situation. If they don't have an explicit policy one way or the other, then it may matter whether you've been homeschooling already (as in, "we won't pay for you to continue doing what you were doing anyway, but if your kids had been in free public school, we would pay because that option was removed from you for the benefit of our company"). It (almost) never hurts to ask ... especially since homeschool curriculum is almost always MUCH less expensive than the private international schools.

I'm not familiar with the laws in Germany, as the rules for diplomats parallel those for military members--we do not fall under the jurisdiction of the host country when it comes to educational law; we can homeschool anywhere. But the stories I've heard from other diplomats who prefer to put their children in the private international schools all confirm that the international schools do not do well with, and are not interested in doing well with, special needs students. On average, special needs students are more expensive to educate and also have lower test scores and other measurable indications of success, so they both drive up costs for the schools and lower the statistical evidence that the school is good, making the school less attractive to other parents. As private schools, rather than public, they don't have to take that "double hit," and so they choose not to--even in cases where the special needs student would not fit the mold of costing more and doing worse. I would think that a combination of explanations should work well for you--"My son has some special needs that the English-speaking schools cannot accommodate, but I don't want to put him in a German school and have his English education fall behind since we'll be back in the States in just a few years. The only workable solution is for me to continue his education at home in English." That should work for legal justification. As far as neighbors or German friends go, they really don't need to know more than "The international schools didn't work for us, but he needs an English education, so we're doing it at home."

:bigear:

I was just like that--although I definitely was not a math or comp sci kind of girl! I learned to get good at manipulating margins, substituting longer words for shorter ones, adding just enough to pop that paragraph from ending near the end of one line to having a single word on the next line ... when I became the teacher, I remembered my tricks and specified word counts rather than number of pages :) But in principle, I agree with your son. If he can say what needs to be said in a shorter space, that's actually a *good* thing. A respected psych professor in college told us that he expected our papers to display "clarity, conciseness, and felicity of expression." That phrase has stuck with me for over a decade now, and I will use it when I teach my own daughter to write research papers many years from now. If you want him to get used to being able to get a paper to a certain minimum length, as he'll have to do in some required college classes, then the suggestions above are good ones, especially the footnote idea. But when you're teaching him to *write* ... just make sure he writes well; length doesn't matter, as long as he says what needs to be said. If he can say it in a space that you think is too small, then start to help him develop more complicated theses or topics about which to write--that's the best way to make a paper longer; make it *need* to be longer to get the job done.

I also am grateful that you offer these boards for free, especially with such light moderating (and the ability to freely discuss all sorts of curriculum options!). Of course you should generate some ad revenue to help cover the costs--even if members were to see the ads too. I'm pretty new to the boards, but I know this place is going to be a huge help to me.

Seconding the advice above. If you didn't have problems while inside the house, you're probably ok. Get rid of the doggie door, and it should remain ok. If you do think it'll be a problem, consider what it would take to "de-cat" the house: would a good, professional cleaning on the carpets be enough, or would they need to be replaced? Can you afford either option? Are the current owners leaving the curtains or other fabrics, or taking them away? If all the soft surfaces (curtains, carpets) are leaving or being cleaned really well, then that should be enough to deal with the problem even if the cat did go in the house from time to time, right? (Of course this is coming from someone with no allergies, so I'm making the assumption that hard surfaces, given a basic cleaning, shouldn't be a problem.)

:iagree: That's what I was going to say.

Hmm ... ok. Some things to think through. I'd planned on saving money by buying a complete set--all available levels, rather than individually as I go--but now I'm thinking I may be better off to get just level 1 at the discount to try it out. Amazon also seems to be offering the discount, and I think it's on both the homeschool and the regular vesions. I also discovered that there are free resources available online, including the courses that are offered by FSI (Foreign Service Institute; where my husband's coworkers who get language training get it from--he does not receive the training in his position). I may need to try a couple of those and see if they will suffice for what I want. I also should be able to get free language classes once I get there, employer budget permitting, but it's difficult to take classes outside of my home because of needing to make arrangements for my daughter. It would be better for me to start now and be able to do it slowly, in accordance with my schedule, and from my home. I'm assuming that whatever I do, I also will buy a dictionary, make some flash cards, and use drill for vocab memorization. I have a good ear for languages, so if I can hear it, I usually can repeat it with a good accent, but I also have a horrible memory, which means I have to work at remembering both the meaning and that correct pronunciation. After Saturday, I can come back and ask for recommendations for the specific language. I'm running a trivia contest on my blog right now to announce where we're moving next, so I don't want to give away the answer before the game is over.

I typically despise grocery shopping ... Amazon.com, especially Subscribe'n'Save, is a good friend of mine! My current routine is to make my meal plan, create a shopping list from that, and make one weekly trip to the supermarket, hoping against hope that they have everything I need! (It's not a given here--even something as simple as tomato paste is not always available, which is one of the reasons I've become such a fan of Amazon.) My favorite grocery shopping routine was when I lived in Cambodia. I'd do my Amazon purchases and my weekly supermarket run, but I also lived 2 blocks from a local market. I had no interest in picking out the best produce (I'm bad at it anyway) or haggling in Khmer over the prices (bad at that, too), but my housekeeper had been doing those things her whole life. So when I made out my shopping list, I'd also make a list of fresh produce and which day it was needed. Every day or two, my housekeeper would walk down and buy what was needed, as well as extra fruit when things looked particularly good--as they almost always did; oh the mango! It always was fresh and delicious and less than half the price I would have paid, either at the supermarket or at the local market. At our next post, where we'll be moving next year, I think I'm unlikely to do much driving. I'll get around on foot and by metro. I'm hoping that there will be a supermarket and/or smaller shops near enough that I can make it part of our routine to walk to the store(s) every day or two and buy what we need, hopefully without haggling.

My family will be making an international move next year, and we'd like to use this time in between to prepare. One of the things we're considering is learning the language, using Rosetta Stone. What we aren't sure about is which edition would be better for our purposes--the homeschool one or the regular/personal one. I would appreciate insights from anyone who's used either version and particularly from anyone who's used or seriously looked into both. We are a family of 3. I definitely would use the software, and my husband probably would. We also would try our soon-to-be-4yo daughter on it to see if she seems to learn from it, with no pressure at this point for her to learn if she isn't ready for it. We would like to be able to set up different "accounts" for the three of us, so we don't have to remember where each of us is in the lesson plans. I also do better with a written list of words to memorize, rather than trying to "absorb" it all naturally--if we buy a version that does not include such a vocabulary list, I'll end up making one, using the lessons and a dictionary. (I pick up pronunciation pretty well, and I love the idea of first exposure and some practice using a natural method, but if I don't have a list and make my flash cards and study, I won't remember any of the words! I've learned this from experience ...) At this point we are not concerned with tests or grades or academic credit, though if we buy a version with tests, I'll take them to assess my own learning. Now I'm off to scour the internet for information about the different editions, but please--if you have done this work already or if you've used the program, please let me know what you would recommend! Thank you for any advice or information you can offer.

:bigear: Been dealing with this myself--only one glass shower door, but in order to keep it clean, I'd have to clean it every other day ... not so much interested in that! I just deal with letting it look a little spotty most of the time, but if anyone has an easy solution, I'd love to hear it too!

:iagree:

As a child, I believed the stereotypes about people who lived in trailers and trailer parks. It was all I really was exposed to, and I had no reason not to believe it. But there was a girl in school who was very popular: pretty, smart, well-dressed. The first time I went to her house, I was shocked. She lived in a mobile home, and not a particularly well-maintained one. She since has said that she had a very difficult family life as a child. So even then it became apparent to me that where a person is growing up--and even with whom a person is growing up--doesn't have to determine who they are. In jr high I started dating a boy from a neighboring town. The first time I visited his house, again, I was shocked--it was a very well-maintained double wide trailer. His parents obviously weren't well off financially, but they were dignified and respectable. This experience started the notion that maybe just maybe, the stereotype wasn't true--maybe it wasn't just that the kids who lived in trailers had hope, but that the adults also could be just as respectable and responsible as any adults who lived in brick-and-mortar homes. I also had an uncle who lived two states away from me with his wife and daughter. I rarely saw him, but when we visited, we stayed in his very nice double wide trailer in a large, clean trailer park. There definitely were some "southernisms" in his manner (loud, opinionated, laidback) than made it easy to assume that he was a good, respectable, but poor man who was doing the best he could to provide for his family. Imagine my surprise when I was told, sometime in college, that he had purchased a brick home on a nice plot of land--big enough that he'd moved the trailer over for his adult daughter to live in--and a brand spanking new truck--and that he had paid cash for every bit of it! His family hadn't lived in that trailer park because they couldn't afford "better," as I had so naively believed. They had lived there because underneath his gruff exterior, my uncle was a very principled, very hardworking man who refused to go into debt for anything, even a house. He had paid cash for everything his entire life and had saved a nice pile of money so that when he bought the house he wanted, it would be with cash. No, I don't believe that the type of house in which you live has anything to say about your character, which is what the term "white trash" references. If someone is lazy and dirty and entitled and apathetic, that's what determines to what degree the term fits--not where the person lives.

I don't know about a Language Arts curriculum, but for the handwriting--if she has the basics and just needs to practice doing it correctly, you can always look at Wal-Mart/Target/Dollar Store/some little teacher supply store if there's one near you. At Christmas, my daughter received a Curious George backpack full of inexpensive workbooks, including a tracing one. It started with tracing straight lines, then curved, then loops, and moved on to letter formation. She loves the workbook, and I think it only cost a dollar or two. I'd be amazed if there wasn't something similar that focused on letters. Amazon or your favorite online homeschooling store probably would have some options. Of course, you also could make your own tracing sheets. Indicate with a circle outline where she should start, a little arrow which way she should go, and a full/colored-in circle where she should stop, of course with the dotted lines along the path. You could customize it to just do the letters at first, and then make it more interesting by teaching her how to write her name or your name or the names of her friends.

Hmm. Maybe it's time for a new grammar curriculum?

Thanks--good information there!

Thanks! I'm going to take a look at those slides.

Thank you--you answered both the specific question I asked and the one that I maybe didn't ask outright, but definitely wanted the answer to!

This is what I'm asking--not just with regard to Native American treatment specifically, but in American--or world--history in general. I am a Christian, and I am a patriotic American who believes that America is something special (but who recognizes that citizens of other countries believe that their countries are something special, too, and have no issue with that), but my own history education was sadly lacking. I don't know whether America was founded as a Christian nation, though I'm confident that it was founded as a nation where religion is neither prescribed nor proscribed. With regard to westward expansion and Manifest Destiny--I'm perfectly ok with curriculum teaching the facts, including the fact that people of the time believed they had a God-given right and duty to take the land, and I'm ok with curriculum implying (maybe even teaching explicitly) that however it happened, God worked in the situation even though people behaved badly. It just seems that in some posts where the term "providential view of history" has been used (and I wish I could find them again and ask the posters directly but haven't been able to), it seems that people use it so scathingly and in such a highly derogatory manner than it's caused me to wonder if the curriculum in question wasn't teaching that the people of that time absolutely were right and that whatever they did in service of that goal was ok--which is something I'd not be ok with. And I'm just using westward expansion, Manifest Destiny, and treatment of Native Americans as an example--it's the worldview that I'm interested in, and this was the first and easiest example that came to mind where a curriculum could present history in different ways that fit with the worldviews I'm trying to express. Thank you all for your responses!

Our DR wallet has held up pretty well. We're on #2 because we weren't very gentle with--ok, we abused--the first one, but this one has been in use for maybe 3 years or so? The key, I think, is to determine how many envelopes you need and make sure that it has enough. I think it has 5 or 6 attached, and it came with a few spares. You'll want to check the current model and see if they say how many envelopes it actually has so you'll know if it meets your needs. If it doesn't, I'd consider going to an office supply store and seeing what small 3-ring binders and accessories (3-hole zippered bags) are available; that solution may require a larger purse, though.