If you are interested, you'd only need to pay exact parcel post shipping charges. These come from a pet-free, smoke-free home. PM me if interested. I have: A pair of Size 8 Reg. Mudd brand, light tan jeans. A pair of Size 8 Old Navy brand Low-Rise, Boot Cut blue jeans, small rip in one knee. A pair of Size 8 blue jeans that say "Place" for the brand (not sure if this means Children's Place or something different?) They are blue jeans with sparkles. Stretch/Flare, adjustable waistband. Some fraying down at the bottoms of the legs. A pair of Limited 2 brand size 8 reg brown corderoy pants with pockets on the legs, and gathered bottoms that tie. A pair of Children's Place brand pink corderoy pants size 8 "stretch" A pair of Faded Glory brand green khaki pants with a butterfly embroidered on one back pocket, size 8. A pair of turquoise (?) blue pants- not sure how to describe them, maybe like track pants? They've got like a shell and then a warmer lining. They are size 8/10 and they're Skechers brand. They've got a dark blue stripe going down the side of each leg outlined in white, and an elastic waistband that ties. Some pink stars on one pocket. The bottoms of the legs gather and tie. And a pair of One Tuff Babe brand size 8 faded blue jeans that seem to have some stretch to them. 8 pairs total. Let me know if you want them. :)

I agree that a blog is "safe" - he just needs to know not to write down things you want kept private like his phone number, last name, where he lives and so on. Not sure about making money though, he'll have to do some reading up on how to accomplish that one!

I don't know if you'll think she's too young for this (it does say ages 2-5 on it) but my son LOVED this. We used it indoors for a long time and it was very sturdy, even my daughter who was older than the recommended age would have fun riding on it. Sometimes two kids would go at once. Sometimes they'd just roll matchbox cars down on it. Eventually we moved outside onto the walkway along the side of the house, and all the neighborhood kids (toddlers through 8 and 9 year olds) would go on this thing lol. http://www.walmart.com/ip/Step2-Roller-Coaster/2603645?wmlspartner=GPA&sourceid=44444444445525099840

OK well I just walked over there and knocked on the door. The dad answered the door. The mom and my daughter's friend weren't home. I talked to the Dad about it- (he's usually a little more outgoing than the mom anyway) and he was quite surprised to hear that but very appreciative that I let him know about it. I'm sure he'll talk about it with his wife, daughter and take whatever steps they need/decide to take from there. Hopefully there is no (or not much) fall out for the relationship between the girl and my daughter. My daughter definitely DOES understand though that I had a responsibility to talk to her friend's parents about this and she's not upset with me that I did so or anything. I told her if her friend says anything to her about it, she can just say: "I asked my mom about it because I wanted to know what it meant, and she said she had to talk to your parents about it to make sure you were okay" and that hopefully her friend would understand. ETA: P.S. I remember hearing that Bloody Mary thing when I was a kid, too! Spooked me out! And my daughter asked me about that like last year, I guess that particular story will always go around!

I love my group. We're on meetup.com too. We usually have things planned two or three times a week at least for people to pick and choose from. We plan field trips, educational tours, craft days and holiday celebrations at a local community building, "community helper" days, park days, sometimes a member will volunteer to do some sort of fun 'class' or game day or something at their house, we have annual group picnics and other potluck events, we post special events that are going on in the community, and all sorts of things. It's a lot of fun!

Yeah- I'd tell her as an FYI that you think she should get somebody else to run it from now on. That you can deal with being outbid but not when it's done by somebody like that! That doesn't sound ethical at all!

Yep! Oak Meadow! Lots of fun, hands on, creative projects :D

The one GOOD thing I can say about PA, is they've never made me put my weight on my drivers' license! :D

LOL! All the time!

Thanks, everyone, for reassuring me AND celebrating with me. :)

I might say something like: So, the holidays are coming, and you're going to be getting a lot of new things! But you have SO much stuff in your room that you don't use anymore, I'm not sure where you are going to put it anymore! Do you want to go through your stuff and see if you can pick anything out that you might want to donate to the Salvation Army? That would be a really nice thing to do, then kids who don't really have many toys or who can't afford brand new toys might be able to use them. You'd be making somebody very happy! At the same time: "Is there anything that's totally broken or has a bunch of missing pieces? If so, you might as well throw that out in the trash now." And if I noticed anything that was never played with but might be worth something, I'd say: "Do you want to put that in a box for when we have our next yard sale? You might make some money and then you can use the money for things you want." Hopefully we'd end up with at least some things in each pile (sell, donate, trash).

I would just keep on doing the tooth fairy. And if they ask you, I'd say "Of course the Tooth Fairy is real! I think so! Don't you?!" And if they say "So and so said she's not" I'd say "Really? How silly! Maybe the Tooth Fairy won't go to her house then! Don't YOU believe? Yes, me, too!"

God, Jean, that makes ME want to cry. I know I probably did sound like I was more concerned about my daughter's innocence than the girl's safety here (I'm sorry, I didn't really mean it like that, I am horrified on behalf of the other girl too, that something like that was ever said to her- how horrible! I hope I didn't sound too callous- but of course I DO get a mama bear thing going on about my daughter's innocence, too)! I will talk to the girl's mom. About to leave for a haircut appointment but I'll see if I can get in touch with her at some point today.

My daughter (who just turned ten this month) just informed me that a girl who is about her age (maybe a year older) who lives on our street, and who she plays with often, told her something seriously disturbing last night while they were playing together. The girl said to my daughter: "One time, a boy at my school said he was going to put a blindfold over my eyes and rape me." I swear I was totally speechless. My mind went in a thousand different directions, from: Did somebody really say that to her? Is she making that up? If somebody really said it, did she tell her mother, a teacher, somebody?! (she goes to a private school). When was it said to her? Yesterday? A year ago? Did she feel threatened? Does she see that as some kind of joke? Does my daughter even know what that means? Does the girl even know what that means? Why did she have to bring that up to my daughter? My daughter doesn't need to KNOW such a word or concept right now as far as I am concerned! So with all of that racing through my mind, yet again I was put in a really awkward position of trying to explain something not at all age appropriate to my daughter, trying to balance being honest with her (I'd rather give her truthful information than have her head filled with the half truths other kids tell!!) with not giving her more information than she can handle and without totally destroying my kid's innocence, all because of some neighbor kid who said something like this to her. (Last time it was the birth control conversation after a neighbor boy told her that Silly Bandz are made of condoms and then proceeded to tell her what a condom is and what it is for). According to my daughter, the girl had then asked her "do you know what that means" and my daughter said "no" and the girl (supposedly) dropped the subject. I don't even know if the GIRL knows what that means or if she said anything else on the subject that my daughter ISN'T telling me. So now what? I did damage control with my daughter as best I could. Do I go tell the girl's mother (who I know only VERY casually) what her daughter said in case her mother doesn't know, so that her mother can get to the bottom of whether it is true, and if so, how recent it was and can determine whether she needs to go to the school with this and can discuss with her how to handle something like that (and how not to- as in telling other young kids in the neighborhood about things like that)! I should, right?! I know I'd want to know. (of course I would hate for this to cause problems between the neighbor kids and my daughter. But I guess that's not the most important issue here). Ugh!

I haven't had an opportunity to see SOTW4 yet- but I can believe this, because I personally believe that a 6 y/o is way too young to really get much out of SOTW1, and that's when it's recommended to start THAT, right? I started SOTW1 with my 9 y/o. She's now 10 and we're still working our way through it (we're using it more for fun not main curriculum so we just sort of get to it as we can) and she enjoys it. Could my younger do some of the crafts and enjoy some of the picture books? Sure. But could my younger get anything much out of the main text or a lot of the recommended supplemental books? No way!

To those of you who think it IS immoral: Would it be LESS immoral to you if I bought the test a few weeks in advance of when she was going to take it, and asked somebody ELSE (like say my mom or somebody) to look over it and inform me of the content they are doing for math? Like, she looks at it and goes "okay they're doing word problems, long division and fractions" and I go "okay, I think she'll do fine on fractions, but we'd better spend some more time working on long division then!" Would that work and not be considered 'cheating' if I'm generally aware of the content but not looking at the specific individual problems....?

At this point, I would, but someone else told me: "Spectrum test prep books will give a general sense of standardized testing, but are generally not test-specific." ...When I asked if buying the prep booklet would help with CONTENT as opposed to just test formatting. If that's the case, it won't solve my dilemma, unfortunately. I know, it does sound like a lot and especially if you come from a place where they are much more laid back about what they ask for! I have no experience homeschooling anywhere BUT PA so this is just the way it's always been. With that said, I was scared to death too of all of these things when I first started- but I have to admit that overall it hasn't been that bad- once you really familiarize yourself with the law and break down what you have to do into small steps and then actually do it one time, you're like 'Okay, that wasn't so horrible.' The affidavits, the logs, the evaluations, the portfolios, those are all a breeze for me now. But the required standardized testing is new for me as this is the first year it's come up for us- so I guess I'm just making myself nervous about the unknown again. Other than my superintendent trying to ask me for things he shouldn't (the first time I gave in but with a note that said "I'm providing what you asked for in the interest of maintaining a good, working relationship, but FYI here's a letter from the PDE stating I didn't have to." The second time I held my ground and absolutely refused what he was asking- and they backed off. Yay!) Other than that- things have gone very smoothly for us here in PA. Of course, the problem is, homeschoolers can be treated pretty differently from district to district. Some get away with not even submitting a portfolio (the district will tell them not to) or have no problem submitting really minimalist portfolios, and some really get nitpicked to death so I guess it depends on WHERE in PA you end up, too.

My daughter ABSOLUTELY LOVED the "Monster Of The Month Club" series by Dian Curtis Regan (reading level 8-12). The main character is a 13 year old girl- AND... she's homeschooled! From the back of the cover of the first book, "Monster Of The Month Club"... "When the first package arrived, Rilla thought it was a joke. But then the box started moving. And when it opened, the thing that came out was definitely NOT a joke. It was a real, live monster- with an attitude! Now Rilla has a problem: She's got a seven-eyed monster, named Icicle, who will only eat frozen yogurt and iced lemonade. And that's the good news. The bad news is that she's supposed to receive a new monster on the first of every month- for twelve months! How do you stop monsters from arriving in the mail? Do they all eat weird stuff? And who gave Rilla a free membership to such a strange club anyway? Rilla's got to find the answers to these questions- fast- or her bedroom will become the very first monster motel!" The setting of the books is a bed and breakfast her mom and aunt run, there's also a bit of a romance brewing with a boy from her homeschool co-op class- all I can say is my daughter couldn't put them down. http://www.diancurtisregan.com/middlegradenovels.html If they sound too "fluffy" for you, she also loved the Pippi Longstocking books, the Encyclopedia Brown books, Judy Bloom (things like Tales Of A Fourth grade Nothing and Blubber), American Girl books. Recently she read two books that I had assigned- one was "Pocahontas And The Strangers" and the current one is "I Am Regina" and she really loved both of those.

I'm so sorry. I wonder if you can visit your dad alone some time and just have a real, honest, heart-to-heart with him and lay it all out there, tell him how you feel, and just see what happens. This whole "dad" thing is so foreign to me, mine disappeared never to be seen again when I was my daughter's age (and prior to that, we only had every-other-weekend visitation anyway as they'd gotten divorced). You have a dad you at least used to have a great relationship with- so I'd lay it all on the line (and I don't mean a fight, I mean a talk) and see what can be salvaged before it reaches a point where it just CAN'T be salvaged. Good luck!!!

It depends on the age of the kid and it depends on the show- would I limit something like Magic School Bus? No, I like that show. And if it has an episode where a character has a bad attitude, I'd use that for a casual conversation with my child about it (if it was a young child: "Was that a nice thing for her to say/do? No, it wasn't! What would you say/do instead?" kind of thing). I am a lot more lax about TV watching (amount of time and content) than a lot of you guys (on this board not just this thread lol) seem to be, although I don't think I let them watch anything ENTIRELY inappropriate for their ages! But, so take what I say with a grain of salt anyway lol.

I have to confess (bad mom I know) I fell asleep before she even came home (which was at nearly midnight). I was SO tired lol. I had talked to her on the phone at one point a little after 9 PM though when she had called to check in and say hi so I knew she was doing well and having fun! My hubby was up and waiting for her when she got home (he's way more of a night owl than I am), and I talked to her this morning. She had a blast! They walked around, they ate, they went on rides, they played games (she won a Webkinz playing a game)! And she really had a nice time. I was SO happy she made a friend who wanted to socialize with her outside of school. I will be keeping this girl's number and letting Melissa invite her over in the near future, I hope that they stay friends! I think it's so good to have social opportunities and relationships outside of a structured setting, and she's never really been able to have that! Anyway it went great- I'm glad I let her go (literally and figuratively) and I'm glad she had fun!

Pretty much this. I've been invited to things where I was asked to bring things and I've been invited to things where I wasn't, and I don't mind either way. Either I want to go or I don't, and if I want to go, then it's worth bringing something along. I would never call somebody "rude" or "tacky" just because they asked people to bring a dish along. So you bring one dish. There will be plenty of others there that you didn't have to bring, that you'll get to enjoy. You'll be sharing in the food, the fun, and maybe making it easier on somebody's wallet (who for all you know really can't afford it but still wants a nice time- or else expects that they have friends who don't mind sharing/helping a bit). I wouldn't be so quick to judge or to see it as a big deal.

None of my kids are currently overweight. They are all healthy, active, growing kids. If they want seconds (or even thirds) they get it! They also have no problem not finishing a plate when they are full- they know their body's "hungry" and "full" signs, and I try to respect those. If you're worried about your kids having eating issues later, I think that refusing them food can make them covet it even more or something, I can totally see that mindset backfiring on you.

As an aside... ...it's driving me nuts that I keep hearing my just turned four year old nephew saying "ain't" all the time! I think that's worse than a teen saying "like!"

I'm another who thinks it's a fantastic idea!