On my dad's side. His great-grandfather went to Ohio Northern. They are farmers, and truly believed in college education. As the story goes, they majored in agriculture and minored in business. Now, that was just for the men. I think Aunt Maude did finish high school, though. My dad's mom's family was not as educated, although my grandmother did attend college for a couple of years before she got married. Her dad was a Methodist minister, back in the early 1900's. It didn't involve a college education. (Funny aside... He was offered fist chair violin in the Cincinnati Symphony, but his father made him turn it down because he was afraid they would be playing in bars.) My dad has a Ph.D. in economics. My mom was the first person in her family to go to college. She has an MS in nursing. She was a college professor. My sisters and I all went to college. All of us have graduate degrees. My sisters both have MS in Education and I have a Ph.D. from Georgia Tech. My baby sister is working on her Ph.D. in math education as a way to distract herself while her husband in serving in Iraq.

Me, too!

First, Sarah, you described my thesis advisor perfectly. She could never get anywhere on time and was always frazzled. Second, I am a calendar reading flake. People understand that about me. Thank goodness DH can keep a decent calendar. I can totally see myself in your friend's situation. I do imagine that I would be apologetic and feel bad. But, I really am bad about such things. My DH would probably bail me out and get your DD and drive her home if you wouldn't let her attend the event with me. So that is how we handle it when I make calendar faux pas, which I am apt to do at least once a month. My DH just steps in.

The Lords of Discipline by Pat Conroy. One of my husband's best friends graduated from the Citadel, and after knowing this man for a while, I thought I would read the book again. (As an aside, this man's father was in the same graduating class from the Citadel as Pat Conroy, and, well, you can probably guess his opinion on Mr. Conroy.) I also have two magazines, Quilting Arts and Altered Couture. One of my favorite fiber artists has clothes featured in the latter. Stacked beside the magazines, I have a few calculus text books because I just found out that I was selected to take the AP Calculus course from College Board this summer. The current calculus teacher at my school is excited to have someone from an engineering perspective teaching calculus with him. He has a Ph.D. in math. Mine is in materials science and engineering, so we make a good applied/rigorous team. Hey, does anyone know, do they make a calculus Cliff Notes? I really like their geometry, trigonometry, and algebra ones. I think my next read will be The Well Educated Mind and SWB's latest history book.

I've been to Michael's. Have you been to Holly's? I cannot remember exactly where it is. (Somewhere on the way to the shore in Maryland.) Great crabcake sandwiches.

We had issues last year. My oldest is the same age as yours. I don't think I did a good job. I wish now that I had spent more time with him. I wish I had hugged him more. I think I treated him as if he were younger than he was. Now things are better at our house. And I have made a huge effort with Alex, my 12 year old. I make time to go out to lunch or dinner with him alone every couple of weeks. We are reading the same books (The Lordof the Rings Trilogy, Animal Vegetable Miracle, and Friday Night Lights.) I will keep your family in my thoughts.

Union Oyster House in Boston Phillips in Baltimore and OC Browns in Oxford, England Ledos Pizza in College Park, MD and one down the street from the 14 th Street Playhouse in midtown Atlanta but I cannot remember the name

I was thinking the same thing.

Me, too, although I'll take the ones way up in Roswell since I live about 10 minutes from it...

I miss Baltimore's food, too. My DH works for a company located in Cary, NC. Every few years they threaten to relocate us to Cary.

I grew up in Columbia, MD. I went to school in Blacksburg, VA. Then we moved to the Atlanta area, and have lived here for 15 years. If I could move... I don't know. I love London. Or I might want to move back to Columbia. When I retire, it will be to the beach in South Carolina.

I think this is a wonderful lesson for my kids.

My boys do Kids Chess, Lego Robotics (both FLL and the soccer one), and art classes. (They do other things, but they were on your not right now list.) They swim in the summer, but they are on a team, so I guess it would be considered a team sport.

They got to spend some time with their grandchildren in the car. They got to enjoy the excitement of the kids after the kids saw the exhibit. I think it is fine. I know there are things that my parents did with us that they are "over" now and don't really care to do with the grandkids. It isn't that they don't do enough with my kids or my sisters' kids. They just pick and choose what they are going to do. And I think that is ok. Maybe I am weird?

She does collage stuff. I also like Jan Brett. All of hers have a hedgehog somewhere in the book. But I guess both of those are well-known, so not much help. I do love Tomie de Paola, too.

We had hail this afternoon. Since nothing bad happened, it was pretty cool. Our deck was covered. I am worried about Abbeyj, because I think she lives in the city.

I have skinny boys. I have found Levis with the waist cinching thing, too. Just a little cheaper alternative to the Gap ones.

:iagree: I think it is just the way boys work. I grew up with only sisters, so this boy stuff is new to me. But, I knew my husband's brothers when they were in middle and high school, and my oldest is very similar. They turned out ok, so I guess my kid will, too. And, it is true, the boys are there for each other when one of them needs it.

I teach math at an at-risk public school. We have over 80% of our kids on free or reduced lunch. Our population is 95% minority. But we have a lot of great kids at this school. And many of our kids would rather be at school than at home. On Saturday mornings, the AP Calculus teacher opens up the school for kids to use the computers in his classroom, get help with classes, get help with college applications, work on SAT prep, etc. I am new to the school this year, and I didn't want to invade his space. Yesterday, he invited me to come hang out this morning and bring my kids. So my 12 year old and 7 year old and I went over to school. We had a BLAST! My 12 year old was just absorbing what these kids were studying. He was listening to AP Calculus Exam practice, and Georgia High School Graduation Test practice, and SAT practice. My seven year old, who is fascinated by multiplication, was working on patterns in multiplication with some of the BC Calc students. And they were just eating him up. We had to leave pretty early, though, because a tornado watch was announced. But, whenever we don't have morning soccer games, I think we will head back to school.

I really love public school. My kids are learning a lot. I love the community of learners. I even teach in a public school, even though I have a Ph.D. in engineering. For my family, public school is a well thought out decision, not the default mode. I am glad your public school is working out for you. And I am glad you feel comfortable sharing with us. I am going to try to keep this board more active.

I agree.

Nevermind.

First of all, since I see you live in Georgia, I will tell you there is no teacher's union in Georgia. We have organizations, but we have no union. Teachers in the county I work in have the choice to have their kids go to school in the feeder pattern in which they teach. So my kids can go to the high school at which I teach, and any of the elementary and middle schools that feed into it. It is a professional courtesy to allow teachers to have their kids with them.

I drive an SUV or a minivan, depending on which one I found the keys for first. Neither has a DVD player. Both have a soccer ball magnet on them and a bag of soccer balls in the back. ;) Both have a "Pray for our Troops" ribbon magnet on them. (I once didn't get pulled over in Macon, Georgia because of that magnet. Then I felt bad because I know he thought I had a DH in Iraq. I do have a DBIL in Iraq, though.) I have two kids who play soccer, and one more who will start next year. The little one will have to wait two more years to play. However, the whole family spends quite a bit of time at soccer each weekend. DH is the coach of both teams. As for other activities, they are involved with chess club, LEGO Robotics, Earth Club, art classes, and music classes. They don't have a lot of homework, because our schools have made it a practice to not give busy work. I do not drive while talking on my cell phone very often. Only when I am in the car alone, and then only to my husband to see what we might want for dinner and to check if soccer practice has been called off because of the weather. I wouldn't know what to order from Starbucks:confused:, although people give me gift cards to Starbucks as thank-you's for volunteering. I have been the PTA treasurer and newsletter person. I do a lot of volunteering for my kids' schools. I think that it is important for each child to have the opportunity to get a great education, no matter how he/she gets it. (Homeschool, private school, public school, whatever.) My family eats dinner together every night. We spend time together after dinner every night playing in the front yard, reading books, watching tv, just messing around, doing art, etc. My family, and most of the neighborhood kids, play soccer or lacrosse or football or some made-up game in our front yard. Our neighborhood has a mix of public, private, and home schooled kids. We all get along and don't get snarky with each other over standardized testing. When we ask each other questions about such things, we are genuinely curious. We have banned HFCS from soccer snacks. Water and fruit is what we have for soccer snacks for both teams. (And orange slices at the half.) I don't think I am highly competitive about my kids. Maybe because I know they are perfect? Just kidding.:) In fact, I hate sitting around the pool in the summer hearing moms drop what books their first grader is reading and that their little Susie made it into the gifted program in third grade. Politically speaking, my biggest concerns in the election are health care, the War in Iraq, and the environment. I think the war tops my list because I have seen how it has changed my DBIL (who is on his third tour in Iraq, and when he gets back he will have been gone for a total of 5 years) and my sister and her kids. Oh, add No Child Gets Ahead to that list, too. I do work as a high school teacher. I love my job. I teach in an at-risk school (over 90% minority and poverty), and many of you would be appalled at the behavior in my classrooms. But there is genuine learning going on. Many of the kids I have in my precalculus class have parents who didn't finish the eighth grade. Yes, they need a lot of support. Yes, I have pregnant teenagers in my classes. I have a cross-dresser. I have gay students. Probably more than you wanted to know. But I am a soccer mom, and you asked...:)

I actually am a public school teacher. However, we have four kids and buy a lot of books. I get asked about once a month if I am a homeschooler. People seem shocked. I get the line, "But your kids have such great vocabularies." But, we have such a nice homeschooling community around here. I have a number of friends who homeschool, and we afterschool with them. And I help some homeschool friends with math and science. So I guess maybe I fit in... (I don't have long hair and I wear jeans most of the time.)