I agree with you, Audrey. That and my parents got married at 18... and divorced at 48.

To the bold. Yes, I saw that and updated my response above. We must have posted at the same time. And as far as raising a special needs child... Yes. I know. I have one. I also have a sister who would occasionally call me on my parenting skills, and she had no kids. But the criticisms were not undeserved and they were always voiced in love and concern. We disagreed radically about about many things but I appreciate the openness in our relationship. It was great that we could be open with each other even when we were upset with each other. I would have been devastated if I had lost my relationship with her over a misunderstanding. I'm sorry that your relationship with your family isn't better. That must be terrible. But that dynamic doesn't sound like what was happening in the OP's posts.

- She loves you. Evidenced by her concern over the homebirth thing, which, I know, really annoyed you. But she loves you and she thought you were doing something dangerous. Even if you didn't think so, she loves you enough to care. -She loves your son. She checked on him after this incident and followed up with you. It had to be upsetting and embarrassing for them to have had that outburst. It might have been better if she had followed up with your dh, but I would have been angry and concerned about what happened... -She wants to be closer to you. She has called twice, you said. Bottom line is that she loves you... and that is a good thing. It would be terrible to feel totally rejected by your sister.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! May each one always be as wonderful as this one!

(((Audrey))) I'm sorry that you and those you love are hurting. I hope the new year will bring you all new peace and joy.

I think it is fine to ask them to help fix the meal and bring dishes for a potluck style meal. In fact, this is what we will be doing Christmas Eve with dh's family. I think it is rude, however, to ask people to pay towards the cost of the food that you fix. Very rude. If it is too much on you guys (and that is totally understandable), you should ask them to help cook, not to help pay.

We do vaccinate on schedule, but I've never been asked for proof of this.

Yes. I can't get the flu vaccine and all of us have asthma. Added to that, my youngest ds has been seriously ill already this year and my oldest has vision issues that become much more severe if he is sick. We don't stop doing everything, but we do stay in during the worst of the flu season and we are obsessive hand washers. Youngest DS probably won't go bac to regular activities until spring. Another round of trying to control his c-diff could land him in the hospital.

This... You can't make her do what she should, but you can refuse to add to the drama which may make it easier for her to [maybe] change. I know someone who did change. I was glad I hadn't shut any doors.

My kids say Nano blocks.

They will forget stuff, but I have found that the catch up is fairly painless for my kids. I think if you have just started them in Latin, you wouldn't want to take that much off, but if they have been doing Latin for longer than 3 months, I'd take the time off. Relearning can be a good thing. :)

Ooh... so hard to pick just one! I have to say that I think I love Darcy the most. ;)

Oh.... THAT kind of Tea. I thought you meant TeA at first and my advice was to avoid TeA when you have kidney stones. Other than that... I would think that lighter herbal teas would be ok. Chamomile, maybe?

Yes! I'd be pleased they were interacting in the community. My kids would be ecstatic that someone wanted to play chess. Maybe you could have tried just taking to the man yourself? After all, talking to strangers is a very good thing and a good way to stay safe.

Maybe he just wanted to play chess. I really hate that, when it comes to men, we always think the worst first. It makes me sad for my sons.

I agree. This by itself would not freak me out.

:party: [bump]

:party:Good Luck! [bump]

Voted... and shared on fb. Hope you guys win!

I've always explained it as the denominator is like a last name. 1/4 plus 2/4 = 3/4 just like 1 Smith + 2 Smiths = 3 Smiths.

In Virginia, you have to declare a grade to the school district and then give the child a standardized test based on that grade level. If a student doesn't meet a certain level of achievement, your homeschool is placed on probation, and then has to do much more paperwork. If he is 8 and will be 9 in April, that is appropriate for a young third grader, or red-shirted second grader around here. My son, who is nine, and in 4th grade will be 10 in March. He is one of the youngest of his 4th grade friends. Many of them will turn 11 by the end of the summer. OP, if you do this, I would stop talking about grade level to your kids and tell them that they aren't really in a grade except for outside activities, church, etc... I'd phrase it as "going to take some extra time to finish up last year's work." However, IF he is not testing dangerously low, I'd wait a year and see where he is then. Ellie is right in that the public school system rarely retain children and doing it now could create potential problems down the road.

Given this, you need to either host or NOT GO. He needs you to protect him from this until he is old enough to protect himself from this sort of hurt. I think if these kids were not family, there would be no question in your mind about the right thing to do. You need to not go. Distract him, do something fun with another family, something, but I would NOT put him in that situation again until he can defend himself emotionally.

Given the age differences and the loud, boisterous, and and continuing to try to touch stuff, I think that one problem you face is that he is a younger acting seven year old, while the 10 yo is probably an older acting 10. I don't think it is realistic for the 10yo to want to play with your little guy. My kids would probably play with a kid who was three years younger, but I would have to tell them that they had to play with him. Three years is a huge age gap when you are a little kid. The others are girls... I think that there you have a whole other issue. Unless the sisters regularly play with their brother, I would think that that dynamic would need to be parent led as well. My boys have cousins who are: 8yo girl, 6 yo boy, 4yo boy, and 1yo girl. They see them only on holidays and really the only one who plays with them is my 6yo son. My 12 and 9yo are into different things, and the cousins are very much still little kids. They are polite, but they DO put up stuff that they don't want messed with and I tell them that it is fine to do that. If they feel like one of the cousins is not respecting their wishes, they tend to try to stay away, even if it might be a seemingly unimportant thing. Most kids like to play games with adults... have you considered playing something with them to help control the situation?

I bet I can win for youngest kids seen! My oldest was born with cataracts, dx at 6 months which is LATE. My other two were seen by a PO either at the hospital or within 2 weeks of birth. Oldest will be seen every 6-12 weeks probably for the rest of his life, in fact we have to drive to his PO at Duke on Friday.

I would switch to straight Singapore Math for child A and maybe B. I would also think about separating them for math, into different programs. It seems like there is a high probability that kid Bis going to feel frustrated and tune out if he has to compete with kid A.