"Thank God I'm not a public school teacher trying to teach 30 children effectively! You should write a letter to the school district letting them know that you feel strongly that teachers should not have more than 3 kids per class! And then be grateful that your nieces and nephews will have a teacher who is only one child over the limit instead of 27 kids over!"

Yeah, that. I like that idea! Another option is you could buy her this for a holiday present: http://www.secular-homeschooling.com/dont_worry/index.html

LOL. I am, too. I can't stand when I log onto email or a forum or something and find out they've changed the "look" of things. Oh, and my husband will never, ever let me forget uttering the words: "What do we need a DVD player for? We have a perfectly good working VCR!" ETA: Oh, I use Firefox. It took forever but I DID eventually change from IE because I just kept having too many problems with it- error messages, computer freezing, etc. I have been liking Firefox, once I got used to the change. :D

Which is BEYOND STUPID because the "I" stands for... "I"! That means the baby is saying it in the first person! HELLO?! McFly?! Uh... did i just get riled up enough to use a 1980's Back To The Future phrase? Going to have more coffee now. <slinks back out of thread> :lol: (I can't believe a LOT of these stories, people are nuts, I tell you. Nuts!!!!)

Rice Krispie Treats? You could top them with some halloween sprinkles or something even.

I don't know why. I actually didn't see her until the very end of the party when it was about time to leave, if I'd seen her earlier in the night I probably would have pointed it out to somebody who was working there. I really did find it very inappropriate!

Do you know what I just spent the last... I don't know, half hour maybe? doing? Looking at pictures of weirdos in Walmart. Thanks a lot, whoever posted that link... I can never get that half hour of my life back! :lol:

And I appreciate that! LOL. Uh.. ewwww! Yes, I agree, I wouldn't put that on a baby (although seeing the one that said- online, not on an actual baby- "All Mommy wanted was a back rub" did sort of make me smile, I have to confess). LOL...while I would not go out in PJ's and slippers myself, I've seen people do it now and then like to their kid's bus stop in the morning. It never bothered me though. :lol: P.S. I think it's so funny that so many of you are claiming credit for the "where do they grow these people" thing hehe.

LOL! Well, I wouldn't judge someone for owning that shirt and wearing it to... I don't know, the corner bar or something. But for the love of peanut butter and jelly, don't wear it to a children's party! Please!? :D

Like, for example, the mom who showed up with her preschooler at the YMCA Halloween Party for kids tonight, wearing a teeshirt that said something like: "I'm the biggest, baddest, b**** in town" with the B word spelled out- in huge letters-..... I can't even believe people are that brainless, or that tacky. To a kid's halloween party? At the YMCA? REALLY? Where do they grow these people?!

I agree with all of this! Of course, if she happens to call again within the next few days before you move, I'd say, "Nope, sorry, my kids are not able to play right now."

I would call, and if the teen answered, I would just ask her if she was available, and leave it to her to check with her mom. If the mom answered, I'd say "hi, it's so and so, how are you? I was actually calling to check if so and so is available to babysit for me" and the mom would either ask you for the details or would put the daughter on the phone with you.

We have chicken breasts marinating in a Hawaiian marinade sauce, and we're going to throw them on the grill. We've got cut up onion, mushrooms, pepper, garlic, and tomatoes ready to go in the oven to roast, tossed in olive oil, salt and pepper. We'll make some brown rice to go with it all.

:grouphug:

:iagree: (and my daughter at 10 still loves Webkinz too btw and would not be embarrassed to give or receive one).

Somebody on my PA homeschoolers email list sent this out and I thought I'd pass it on to you guys in case you were interested. I haven't had a chance to look it over yet myself but I bookmarked it to check out. :) Here's the email I got: "This is free, it has news for kids, educational articles, there are games they can play, they can submit reviews or articles I think it said poetry, too, so it can go towards your kids writing. They earn points but I haven't seen yet what those are supposed to be for. See FAQ below http://www.youngzine.com/all/world-news Frequently Asked Questions What is Youngzine? Youngzine is an online new magazine that brings current events to children in a simple and unbiased manner with the appropriate context. Is there an age group that Youngzine caters to? Youngzine is a website for school age children. We do not restrict to any age group, and it can go from late elementary school to high school as long as the child is able to understand and derive value from the site. Where does Youngzine get their content from? All articles in Youngzine are written by the editors after extensive research. We use the current events to educate the child on the underlying historic, socio-economic or technological context. We do not take any biased position and encourage the child to form their own opinions. All videos and pictures on the site are suitable for children. How frequently is the content updated? Youngzine will be updated with new content once every two weeks. Are external websites referenced in the articles safe for kids? We make every attempt to point to websites that have good, clean content for children. We do not control where the child may navigate after leaving Youngzine site and recommend that all content filters you have for your child stay in place. How do you ensure that comments and article submissions are appropriate? All comments and submissions will be vetted by the editorial team to remove anything that may be inappropriate for children. If your child wishes to write an article, they (or you) could contact us with the topic and we will send them some suggested guidelines. Articles will be reviewed by the Youngzine team and we will encourage the child with feedback. Submissions do not guarantee publication. Why should I register to join Youngzine? Registered users will be allowed to submit comments and articles such as movie/book reviews, travelogues or anything else children can think of. We will use your email address to send you a newsletter when new content is posted on the site, or to send password information if you have forgotten yours. We will not use the email addresses for any other purpose. How can I as a parent contribute? If you can write objective articles at the level children understand, we would love to hear from you. And of course, we continuously look for feedback from you that will help us improve the experience."

I once had my ex meet me for lunch near my job. I think I was around 21. He came with no money and I had no money, but I had my brand spankin' new Discover credit card that I was oh, so proud of. We ate our lunch, I presented my credit card (MY credit card! I had a credit card! How sophisticated was I?!) and was informed: "We don't accept Discover." Uh. Um. Okaaaaay. Who feels like an idiot now? Yes, that's right, I do. One of us had to wait there without leaving the restaurant. The other had to go to my job to borrow money from petty cash to pay the bill. Fortunately my job was cool about it. I was somewhat less proud of my Discover card from that moment on (and its interest rate was too darn high anyway)!

I'm sorry, I'm sure it is hurtful! My 18 y/o teen is special needs so I never had to experience what it would be like to experience 'normal' teen behaviors and rebellions from one of my children yet (my next oldest only just turned 10 this month). I do know that when *I* was a teen, I was doing all that and worse when I was like 13/14! Even though it's not the right thing to do, it's pretty normal for teens to rebel and do something they are not supposed to, and she knew you'd say no, so she went behind your back. Teens tend to think about what they want to do, and not what could happen/go wrong. In addition to grounding her like you have maybe you should make her write a letter or essay explaining what could have happened to her/how that could have gone wrong/why it was a bad idea etc. Make her really think about it. And maybe add how she would react if she was a mom and her daughter did something like that! I hope that nothing like this happens again for your sake!

I discourage my kids from saying "shut up." None of us have EVER used the pie hole phrase anyway lol. I will let them say "darn" but not dam*. They can say "heck" but not "hell." I won't let them say "oh Jesus!" or anything like that (we're not Christian btw) but they can say "Jeeze/Geez!" They can say "butt" but not the "A word." No cursing. They can't say "crap" (although the other day my almost 5 y/o did say "Alexa left a crap in the toilet!" and I had to say, "Ben! Don't say that word!" followed by "Alexa! Will you learn to FLUSH THE TOILET ALREADY?!") :)

Well, my family is Jewish. And not particularly religious Jews at that. I homeschool secularly. I was lucky enough to find a homeschool group that doesn't have religion as an emphasis- as in none of our meetups are religious in nature- but it is still composed largely of Christian homeschoolers. I've been a member of the group since I started homeschooling (and already knew the two organizers from the stay-at-home-moms group I had belonged to prior to that) and I soon became a group organizer, too, and helped out a lot with the group. Most all of the members have been very friendly with me when we are on outings together, and I with them. There are a couple whom I've become friendly enough with to have get togethers with outside of the group events and our kids love to play together (and they are Christian). There was one instance where a new member joined and introduced herself by saying something like "I'm looking forward to making good Christian friends for myself and my kids!" -that was a member who didn't really end up becoming active or staying with the group anyway, but it does make me think, "what, so someone who isn't a Christian couldn't be a friend? My kids can't play with your kids? Why specify you're looking to make CHRISTIAN friends? Why not just... friends? Can't homeschooling be the common bond and then see how you progress from there in regard to how you relate to people based on personality and common interests and so on?" I'm sure she meant nothing by that comment and that it never occurred to her how narrow minded it might have seemed to someone like me. Me, I will be friends with people who are Christian, who are Jewish, who are atheists, people of all sorts, because their religious beliefs or lack thereof just don't matter to me. What matters to me is whether we can have an easy conversation. Whether we can joke and laugh. Whether we have anything in common. Whether I feel like I can be myself with you. Whether you are nice to my kids when you talk to them. Whether your kids play nicely with my kids and seem to enjoy each other's company. Whether you seem to be a decent person in general. If or where you go to church, what you believe will happen when you die, those things don't matter to me. And if they matter enough to you that it would stop you from having a friendship with someone who doesn't go to the same place, believe the same thing (but who, believe it or not, still happens to be capable of being a good friend and does happen to have fundamental morals), so be it. That just means you're not at all my style and not really someone I'd want to have a friendship with, either.

Thanks everyone, and thanks for those great tips, Pauline! I do plan to go. I just have to not talk myself out of it between now and then. I still get a little nervous whenever I think about it lol. I wish I had somebody to go with me but I don't! (a friend said she'd love to join but can't until January when her Tuesday night classes will be over).

My syllabus is a 1998 edition and I love it. I don't feel like we're 'missing' out on anything. I wouldn't worry about it being an older version. There are some differences but nothing major that you'd be missing out on or anything. There's a lot of integration in Oak Meadow. There may not seem like there's a lot of, say, social studies if you're looking for a lot of textbookish stuff. But they incorporate stories, hands on activities, discussion and so on. I can't speak about 2nd grade specifically but I know now for fifth our language arts and social studies programs are integrated a lot. We're doing reading relevant to our social studies learning. We're doing interesting writing assignments. We're doing some hands on projects. Vocabulary words and writing assignments are largely based on social studies. My daughter's loving the OM5 Environmental Science which has some reading, some writing, some hands on projects and experiments... we really enjoy it. OM is not really about a lot of busy work or worksheets or textbooks so I guess it could come across as "lite" at first glance or to some people but I feel like my daughter really does learn a lot from it and retains a lot of what she learns as it is not presented in a dry, boring way, and does a lot of hands on things and reads things and answers interesting questions which lead to discussions that make it all seem kind of relevant to her I guess... like for science, it was one thing to read about and talk about things that decompose and things that don't. But to go actually bury some things in our backyard for a few weeks and then dig them up again to examine them? That really brought it home for her. It was easy to read about Jamestown, but to build a diorama of Jamestown using a shoebox lid and popsicle sticks to build little houses, that made it more fun for her. OM is really good with things like that. I am pretty sure K-2 are the years it deviates most widely from the 'norm' and pushes academics less and/or does it in more creative, hands on kind of ways, but me personally, that's one of the things I love about it. You said you did a lot of research on it, and that you fell in love with it, and that you wish you knew about it years ago- (and it IS an accredited school ya know! :D) so don't be afraid to trust it. :) I would suggest again that you join that OM forum I linked you to, there are a bunch of OM users there, including some that are using OM2 like you are and can answer more specific questions about that particular grade level. Nance

Does your library have an interlibrary loan program? If so, you can ask them to get you the books that are suggested, if you really wanted to use those ones.

Hi, Welcome to the board! I'm a huge fan of Oak Meadow! :D I homeschooled my daughter with Oak Meadow last year for 4th grade. This year I'm homeschooling her with Oak Meadow 5, and I'm homeschooling my son with Oak Meadow K. I haven't used 2nd or 3rd grade yet. But when it comes to assigned reading, my daughter and I for 4th and 5th grades ALWAYS read those assigned books together. OM usually tells you when you're supposed to finish a book by. So I figure out how long we have, and then figure out how many pages (or chapters) we would need to read a day (M-F) in order to finish it when we're supposed to, and we do it like that. Sometimes I read them aloud to her, sometimes she reads them aloud to me, sometimes we take turns, whatever we feel like doing. I know in current versions of the OM curric, especially for K (and I guess later grades too?) they have you do your reading at night and then ask the child to 'recall' the story in the morning. Is that what you mean by reading at night? I have an older, used version of OM and it doesn't say that, so we just do our reading during the day, whenever we feel like it. If we miss a day where we're really busy and don't get to reading, we'll add extra pages on for next time or whatever. Really, you can't do this wrong- do whatever works for you guys :) If your son finished the assigned book for this week and wants to start reading something else on his own, sure, let him! My daughter always has a few books going at once- right now, she's reading "The Witch Of Blackbird Pond" with me, as it's the current assigned book from Oak Meadow 5. But she's also reading "Tituba of Salem Village" on her own (which was suggested supplemental/optional reading suggested by Oak Meadow). And we're still working our way through "On The Banks Of Plum Creek" for fun... so I wouldn't worry about it if you have a reader on your hands who wants more than one book going at a time, as long as you're also reading whatever is assigned through the curriculum. FYI if you click on my livejournal site (in my sig) I have a lot of info about Oak Meadow on there, and I blog about our homeschooling with Oak Meadow on a daily basis. There's also a forum just for Oak Meadow homeschoolers, which several ladies here are members of, that you might want to check out. :) http://oakmeadow.yuku.com/

I decided to register by phone today for a "Kickin' Combo" class (kickboxing and resistance training) at the YMCA, which I'll be starting this Tuesday evening. If I actually follow through with showing up. I'm nervous about it for some reason! 1) I am a total beginner, never did anything remotely like it before 2) I am NOT in very good shape- as you know if you've looked at any of my weight loss updates! I've lost like 16 lbs so far but I'm still in the 220 lb range right now!!! I'm probably gonna get there and find a room full of skinny women who have been kickboxing their whole lives and I'm going to feel like an idiot. Tell me I should go anyway, that it'll be fun and that it'll help me GET in better shape. :D