It's possible she asked him something like that, but I still think it is so glaringly inappropriate to mention genital piercings to an 11 or 12 year old, that I'm shocked he did it. He could have just been vague and been like, "I don't know," or "I'm happy with the ones I have," or whatever. He didn't deflect the question (if she asked him that), he listed the names of genital piercings. Even if she knew what they were already, he was engaging in an inappropriate conversation with a young girl, and if she didn't know what they were, he was putting it in her head...of course she was going to ask about it. So, great, he told her to go ask "the proper people"...thanks, stupid creepy guy. That's really what I wanted to have to talk to my 11 y/o daughter about! She definitely needed to know that some guys pierce their boy bits! :iagree: Firstly, my husband doesn't even DO any genital piercings and doesn't tattoo anything that can't be covered with a bathing suit at least, and we certainly don't go around explaining genital piercings to our pre-teen children or discussing them with other people's children, or discussing anything else that is above their age and maturity level. I hope he was just kind of slow and oblivious and not a real creep! As for letting him have it at this point, If I bumped right into him on the sidewalk, I wouldn't even know who he was (other than wondering "Hey, this guy has snakebite piercings, is that the same guy?"). They were at the total opposite end of the pool from where I was and I couldn't make out any features or anything. So all I can do is tell my daughter if she ever sees him at the pool again, or if he ever walks into the school where Girl Scouts is held over the school year to drop off or pick up his daughter or something, she should let me know and not to engage in any conversation with him.

Thank you for clarifying! I will let DD know and will pronounce it right next time (though I don't think I'll ever be able to stop myself from thinking 'lousy' whenever I see that name haha) :lol::lol::lol:

I took my kids to the pool today, and dd (who is a couple of months away from turning 12) ran into a girl she knows from Girl Scouts, who is 14. They started hanging out together at the pool. At one point, I looked around trying to find my daughter to see if she wanted to get ice cream with her little brother, and I spotted her at the far end of the pool talking to two people, one of whom was obviously an adult male. The other I was assuming was the girl from Scouts but couldn't tell for sure from that distance. When I got her over to me, I asked who she was talking to, and she said that it was her friend and her friend's dad, so I said oh, okay. Then she proceeded to tell me she had asked him where he got his "snakebite piercings." (Type of facial piercing). Now, keep in mind that my husband is a tattoo artist and body piercer who owns his own shop, and my daughter has wanted to work with him since she was five, so these things are of interest to her, and she was probably curious whether he got it done at her dad's shop, so that isn't as weird as it sounds. She said he was telling her about some of his piercings. Okay. But it wasn't until later, after we'd gotten home, that she said to me: "You know how I told you I was talking to so and so's dad about piercings? Well, he told me he would never get a Jacob's Ladder or a Prince Albert. I said, 'What are those?' and he said, 'Ask your dad, maybe he'll tell you when you're 18.' Will you tell me? Is it the p*nis?" Uh... :confused::ack2::cursing: What kind of adult man would bring up something inappropriate like that to a young girl, a young girl he's never even met, who just happened to be hanging out with his daughter at the pool, who very obviously looks younger than his daughter no less...what an idiot!! If she had told me that while we were still at the pool, I'd have gone over and given him a piece of my mind. I really don't understand some people! I've had to have conversations with my daughter before about things I really wished she didn't know about yet, but up until now, it's always been because of something stupid a neighborhood kid said. Now I have to have a conversation like this because of something someone's DAD said to her? Wonderful! I told her if she ever runs into that girl and her dad again, she is not allowed to stay near or engage in conversation with the father, that he never should have had such an inappropriate conversation with an eleven year old and that I was not happy about it. Just, ugh! Really skeeves me out and makes me wonder if there's anything else creepy about that guy! ETA: To spare some of you who aren't already familiar with those terms and get the urge to Google, yes, they are both types of male genital piercings! And as someone commented further on in this thread, wikipedia shows graphic images if you google. Just saying!

Either will I! LOL.

COMPLETE 1. Envy, by J.R. Ward (Fallen Angels series) 2. Kiss of the Highlander, by Karen Marie Moning (Highlander series) 3. The Ramayana, A Shortened Modern Prose Version of the Indian Epic, by R.K. Narayan (with my daughter for school reading) 4. Dark Highlander, by Karen Marie Moning (Highlander series) 5. The Immortal Highlander, by Karen Marie Moning (Highlander series) 6. Spell of the Highlander, by Karen Marie Moning (Highlander series) 7. 11/22/63, by Stephen King 8. The Traveler, by John Twelve Hawks (Fourth Realm Trilogy, Book 1) 9. Into the Dreaming, by Karen Marie Moning (Highlander series) 10. A Judgement In Stone, by Ruth Rendel 11. The Dark River, by John Twelve Hawks (Fourth Realm Trilogy, Book 2) 12. The Golden City, by John Twelve Hawks (Fourth Realm Trilogy, Book 3) 13. Forbidden Pleasure, by Lora Leigh 14. Relic, by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child 15. House Rules, by Jodi Picoult 16. Midwives, by Chris Bohjalian 17. Wind Through the Keyhole, by Stephen King 18. The High Flyer, by Susan Howatch. 19. Daughter of the Blood, by Anne Bishop (The Black Jewels Trilogy, Book 1) 20. Heir to the Shadows, by Anne Bishop (The Black Jewels Trilogy, Book 2) 21. The Host, by Stephenie Meyer 22. Queen of the Darkness, by Anne Bishop (The Black Jewels Trilogy, Book 3) 23. The Invisible Ring, by Anne Bishop (The Black Jewels series) 24. Fifty Shades of Grey, by E.L. James 25. Fifty Shades Darker, by E.L. James 26. Fifty Shades Freed, by E.L. James 27. Dreams Made Flesh, by Anne Bishop (The Black Jewels series) 28. Tangled Webs, by Anne Bishop (The Black Jewels series) 29. Goodnight Nobody, by Jennifer Weiner 30. Kiss the Dead, by Laurell K. Hamilton (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter series) CURRENT 31. The Shadow Queen, by Anne Bishop (The Black Jewels series) 32. Ahab's Wife, by Sena Jeter Naslund

I should start by confessing that I have NO IDEA how to pronounce many of the names we read for SOTW. When I'm reading aloud from the various supplemental reading books and I come across difficult names, I don't look up how to pronounce them, I just fumble my way through them, or we'd be there forever. Today, we were reading "Made in China" for the chapter on Confucius, and we started reading about Lao Zi. I had no idea how to pronounce that, but I interpreted it as Low (rhymes with cow) Zee. You know how sometimes something really stupid makes you start giggling uncontrollably and you can't stop? Right after I read it to my daughter, I said, "Hey, his name's lousy!" and I started giggling. Then my daughter started giggling. And next thing we knew, we were hysterical laughing- tears rolling down our faces, stomachs hurting, and we couldn't stop laughing. And every time one of us would manage to stop, the other would snort or giggle and it would start all over again. Finally I gasped, "Enough! I have to think of something sad like, like, a dead baby deer." To which dd11 replied "Dead baby deer are lousy!" And we started cracking up again. Was it all for nothing? Did I totally mispronounce it? :lol: It was fun, anyway!

I don't think it matters how many minutes you set as your goal! Just do something that seems attainable to you. If you don't make it, no big deal, you try again next year lol. If you exceed it, you can still keep logging your minutes, and next year you'll know to set a higher goal for yourself. Either way, your minutes all get counted, and you still get a board game at the end just for participating and so on. :)

I hope my wet phone can be saved :( On Thursday, I went to Hershey Park. I put my iphone in a ziplock baggie and left it in my pocket and went on a few water rides. Afterward, I noticed there was a little light flashing near the top of my phone but my screen was totally black. I couldn't do anything. Couldn't turn it on, off, get a picture on the screen, nothing. And inside the baggie wasn't even very wet! At home, we put it in rice for a few days...but it never did work. Today, six days later, still not working. A teeny tiny little screwdriver came in today's mail and my husband opened the iphone and took out the battery, sim card, etc. (it didn't even look like it had gotten very wet inside), and the phone is now sitting without those things in a container with Damprid in it as someone suggested to me that would work better than rice. We'll see. I really hope it starts to work again. I miss it, and I had lots of info stored on it that hadn't been backed up in quite a while that I hope I can get back!

You can register now! http://www.millionminute.com/ I just signed up as "Life Without School" and I set a goal of 600 minutes (last year I did 500). For those who don't already know, the idea is to play board games and card games as a family or group, and then you log your minutes on the website. You set your own goal of how many minutes you want to aim for; they only ask that you spend a minimum of 20 minutes playing games. The goal is to collectively reach at least one million minutes of game play time- good old-fashioned face to face fun and interaction! :) They will mail you an organizer's packet, and at the end, they will send you a board game just for participating. The challenge runs every year from September 1st to December 31st.

Why don't you just start with OM and use it for a few months, and then in maybe December evaluate. Do you feel like it's going well on its own? Do you feel like you want to add something else in? If you add something else in, don't go nuts with it, just add a little bit- the kids are real young! This past year, I used OMK with my son and the only stuff we supplemented with was that he did some extra online reading stuff, like Funnix or Reading Eggs. But we were pretty sporadic with it and I tried to do it only as he was willing to, because I wanted the early years to be gentle, and I wanted him to enjoy it, and I figured that if he didn't become "fluent" in reading until 1st or 2nd grade, who cares? I didn't even START learning to read until 1st grade, my K was play-based mostly, and I've been an avid reader as long as I can remember. My daughter has been using OM since 4th grade, we'll be going into our fourth year of using it with her. I supplement a bit more for her but mostly with stuff we find enjoyable, not because I felt like I HAVE to supplement the curriculum. I'd just start off with OM as is, get used to it, fall into a routine, see how it's going, and then see if you want to gradually add a little bit on.

:) We love TT over here! We'll be going into our third year of using it this fall!

I definitely would not pay for the return shipping. He lied about the condition of the book, I wouldn't want to pay a penny for it. I'd also leave feedback letting everyone know that he blatantly misrepresented the condition of the item and was very resistant to correcting his error!

The only "religion" in my daughter's Girl Scouts troop is that the word "God" is in the "Girl Scout Pledge." That's it. She's been in Brownies, Juniors, and now Cadettes. She's liked it, mostly because she has a good friend there, but that friend will not be returning this year, so I'm not sure if my daughter will continue to want to stay without her, we'll see. Personally I wish they did less "crafty" indoor stuff and did more outdoorsy stuff. They really don't. They do a hike once a year, some outdoor winter sledding and games once a year, at the end of each year there's some big field trip to another state, they had a scout day at an amusement park, they do their 'mall day' and sell cookies and whatnot, but for the most part, they meet in a school cafeteria and do more craft type stuff in there. I wish they did more of the type of stuff you tend to associate with Boy Scouts (which we have never actually been associated with, but, you know, the learning about outdoors and survival and so on).

We use the book and Activity Guide. I've never used cd's or felt like I needed them. I wouldn't want to skip the Activity Guide, that's what makes it for us!

If you didn't look at this website- you should! I've never been here (yet) but plan to go this summer, it looks absolutely AMAZING!

If you're interested, I have a long list of books (with descriptions) featuring homeschooled characters on my blog. Maybe she'd appreciate some of those! :) http://nancextoo.livejournal.com/167361.html

:iagree: Marry that guy? I'd never want to look at his stupid face ever.again!

Our curriculum is one of the things that makes school fun for us. We use Oak Meadow which is not a dry or textbookish curriculum. There's a short lesson written directly to the student, with a lot of integration. So whatever they learn about for social studies, spelling and vocab words stem from that, literature is assigned based on that, any writing assignments are based on that (and there's always a choice of creative writing assignments), and there are lots of hands on projects, activities and crafts, and while I do not consider myself a crafty person, we've had fun with these! We also do a decent amount of field trips and outings, we read together books that we both enjoy, we're active with our homeschool group, and so on.

I like what John Taylor Gatto said: "By bells and many other similar techniques they (schools) teach that nothing is worth finishing. The gross error of this is progressive: if nothing is worth finishing then by extension nothing is worth starting either. Few children are so thick-skulled they miss the point." Just something to ponder!

http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/340987215 NOTE: Contains adult language/profanity! ETA: Follow her links to her reviews of the other two books, too. They are just as funny! :D

Well, bearing in mind that I'm a fairly relaxed homeschooler myself, I really don't think you need to be in a state of panic. :) My daughter is 11 (12 in 2 1/2 months) and we are nearly done with Ancients- we just do it along with our other stuff, I don't add a bunch of stuff to it, we just enjoy it as is. She likes the coloring pages. The mapwork is simple, true, but I don't really care, she does occasional mapwork with Oak Meadow, too. The supplemental reading books cover a wide range of ages, the activities are fun, and because she enjoys it, she actually does retain quite a bit (no, not every specific name and date, but the events we read about and the people she was interested in and so on). We don't keep notebooks and we do the narration stuff orally, but then again Oak Meadow is a full curriculum that covers social studies, and we added SOTW to it for fun. But regardless, I think you should do it in a way that works for you without getting you overly stressed out with busywork, and in a way that your daughters enjoy because it really is a fun curriculum, and if you have time and inclination to add some stuff, go for it. If some of it seems overwhelming and too much, don't add it, they'll still learn a lot!

You know, I wish I remembered! I spent a bit of time googling stuff like "funny homeschool teeshirts" or "cute homeschool teeshirts" and eventually found those and ordered them online, but don't remember which particular site I got them from!

I blog about my relaxed, secular homeschooling days with my 6th grader and rising 1st grader. Link in sig line!

To me, the activity guide is what makes it! My daughter loves to color, so she loves the coloring pages. The mapwork is very simple, but I like having the supplemental reading books listed for me. And the activities suggested seem to cover a good range of ideas for different age groups and different levels of difficulty- so when we want something that is just quick, simple, fun and stress-free, there's something suggested that's easy to do. When we want something a little more elaborate, there's often a suggestion for that, too. I have a review of SOTW on my blog in which I included a whole bunch of pics of some of the activities and projects we did for it, if you want to take a peek: http://nancextoo.livejournal.com/124469.html

My daughter struggled and needed quite a bit of handholding with SCFES (age 10) particularly with doing the imitation sentences. By the end of that year she was getting better, though. The following year (the school year we just finished), she was 11 and we did Story Grammar for Elementary School which is much of the same stuff, and she was MUCH more proficient and self-sufficient at it. So I would say ten and up!