I'm not sure- although I would venture a guess that it's pretty normal for all of us (kids and adults) to have more enthusiasm for something we want to do than for something we don't. Maybe you can't always give her a choice of topics, but can you give her a choice of directions to go in within a given topic? Not sure if that would help. Maybe like she could write something as if she were a news reporter live on a scene describing it. Maybe another time she could write something in the form of a letter to a character or historical figure. Like, sort of give her some creative choices to the extent possible?

Apology accepted- er sorry I went off like that, reading it back now I was pretty defensive. Then again my son DID take til VERY close to his 4th birthday to be fully potty trained lol. There's such a wide range of "normal" for this, seriously.

Webkinz, a pillow pet, Littlest Pet Shop stuff, simple craft kits, etc

Oh, my oldest daughter just found it! It was on a bookcase. I mean, of course, where else would a remote control be! I don't know why I didn't think of that! </sarcasm> lol. Thanks for the help (the couch crevices, behind the couch and under the couch was one of the first places I looked, but apparently my kid can't misplace a remote control in a normal place)! :D

I agree with what the others have said. I think you should also check out this link: http://www.kellymom.com/bf/supply/low-supply.html#supply

where my remote control is? We've been looking everywhere for it and we can't find it. I'm sure my almost 5 y/o had it last but he has no clue where it is and I've been tearing the living room apart looking for it with no luck. Any ideas? :P

Yeah. I'm sorry :(

No offense, but *I* think it's ridiculous that YOU think that just because YOUR kids were potty trained around the age of 2, that all kids should be, and if they aren't, it's "ridiculous." That's just as silly as saying it's "ridiculous" for a child to not be walking by a year just because all of yours were. Or it's "ridiculous" for a child to not be weaned or sleeping through the night or talking or anything else. This is a developmental milestone like any other, and not all kids reach it at the same time. A LOT of us had kids who didn't potty train til three or four, it doesn't take much effort to find plenty of evidence out there that this is a normal thing, and it comes across as EXTREMELY pompous to tell us who went through that how "ridiculous" it is that our kids weren't potty-trained by age 2, just because yours were!

Thanks for all the replies, and the various viewpoints (Her hearing is fine, btw, Chris!) Anyway. I think, without getting too lengthy on this, there may also be some lingering long-term resentment on my part over the fact that I never really DID feel that my mother was much of a mother when I was growing up, and her life has been one drama after another with me always feeling that I didn't have much of a mother, followed by feeling that I had to BE a mother to my mother. Which continues to this day. Ah I was going to go into some detail but I'm not going to bother putting you all through that lol. I did email her back and tell her I felt awkward making this phone call for her and that I thought she should just do it. A while later she called me and said that she'd done so, and he'd said he'd call her back in a few minutes, and that it had been 40 minutes and she was very anxious and she knows I don't WANT to call but she's asking me if I WILL call and she basically guilt tripped me into it.

Chris, You haven't upset me, thanks for your input! She is in her early 70's. And yes she does suffer from some depression for which she is on medication (I sometimes suffer from mild depression, too, for which I am not on medication although I used to be years ago, I guess it's genetic or something!) I guess I just felt put on the spot too many times, she used to ask me to run interference for her and get in the middle if she was having an issue with one of my siblings, too, especially when she lived with one of my brothers up until recently, and that used to make me nuts. I don't like being put in the middle, I guess. And now that she's in this apartment, she's still asking me to get in the middle and handle these things for her (like I don't have enough on my own plate with my household, three kids, homeschooling and so on). I don't know what she thinks he's going to tell me that he didn't already tell her/or wouldn't tell her. I just feel really awkward about this!

If the child WANTED to do this, and it was a positive experience, maybe you're right. But based on: "On the evening of the 4th day his mother got emotional and let him get off" I don't get the impression the child wanted to do this. Why would the mother get emotional unless the child was distressed, and why would she have to "let" him get off if he wanted to be sitting on that potty chair for four days? And I don't see any two year old wanting to just sit ANYWHERE for much of a day, let alone for four days straight. Two year olds are way too active for that. Maybe I misinterpreted the original post. I hope so.

I do whole-heartedly agree that this is a much better idea. Next time my husband assigns my daughter "lines" I will suggest this instead :D

LOL that struck me as funny! With that said, yes, sometimes we do give this as a punishment (my husband is particularly fond of this and likes to use it for things that he has told my daughter repeatedly, and then she goes and does (or doesn't do) it AGAIN, and he gets fed up, and tells her "go write this 50 times, then maybe you'll remember next time"). She does not like doing it- but it has not affected whether she is willing to write in OTHER situations. This started at ages like 9 and 10 though. I don't think I'd do it with a young kid who is just starting out writing or anything. ETA: We do not use physical punishment either. So when there is a need for a "punishment," it's either this, a time out sitting on the steps, or losing something of hers (like her Nintendo DS or something) for X amount of time. Fortunately she's a pretty good kid overall though, it's not an issue like every day or anything!

My mother recently moved into a new apartment building and she's been having some problems with issues pertaining to the apartment. She's already discussed these issues with somebody who works for the property management people, and he said he'd contact the appropriate people for her today and get back to her. She's worried and wants a status update ASAP. Granted, it IS something I'd worry about, too. But she doesn't want to call back the guy she talked to because he makes her feel like she's worrying needlessly and she doesn't want to annoy him and seem like she's nagging- so she's emailing me asking ME to call him on her behalf and talk to him for her. I can't stand being put in that position. She's a grown woman, for crying out loud. SHE lives there! She's having an issue that she should certainly keep on top of- but come on! Put on your big girl panties, call the guy, ask for an update, and if he thinks you're worrying needlessly, let him think that. You need to handle your business and cover your bases. But why ask me (I don't even live there!) to call your apartment people for you to discuss an issue with them that YOU are having, that YOU already discussed with them, and that YOU feel too awkward to call again about?! That's not supposed to make ME feel awkward?! That's not likely to annoy the people even more, that third party people are now calling on your behalf? This isn't the first time she's put me in this position. In fact, she once got upset with the ex property manager while on a walk thru of this apartment, called me on my cell phone while I was driving to complain about what was happening, asked me to talk to her about it, and before I could get out more than "I'm driving, what am I supposed to....." the property manager was on the phone. Acting quite irritated to have been put on the phone with me. And she asked me another time after that to call the property manager for her about another issue with the apartment being ready on time for move in. Which I did (reluctantly). And now this. This woman is an ex social worker who is certainly capable of having a conversation with somebody. Am I just being witchy about this?! Would you want to be put in this position? Or would you see it as no big deal to do these things for her? right now I either have to call this guy for her, or email her back and tell her I'm not calling and that she needs to do it herself. Ugh.

Sorry, but this is pretty mind-boggling to me. He's only two and he's obviously NOT ready for potty training. Forcing him to sit on a potty for however long on end is not right. (And if you mean that you literally made him sit on a potty pretty much all day long for four days that is beyond disturbing). His mother needs to find a way to afford the diapers and you need to hold off on pressing the potty training issue, or be willing to continue cleaning his messes/washing his clothing- without shaming him or punishing him for it or forcing him to sit on a potty if he's not willing to. It's not at all uncommon for boys to not be fully potty trained til they are 3 or even 4 years old and I would never try to force it on a 2 year old who is that obviously just NOT ready.

Yeah, much as I hate to discourage you, I've always joked that the "terrible twos" are just practice for having a three year old lol. At 4 my son got much easier to deal with, more so the further into his fourth year we got. (He's going to be 5 next month and while he still has his moments, it's been WAY easier than having a 2-3 year old, and he'll even do some (not particularly academic) school work now. That's not to say that every moment of his third year was hard or terrible by any means! But don't expect a miraculous improvement over his behaviors or personality as a two year old once he turns three. (Of course, every child is different, I'm sure)!

I'll be using Oak Meadow too. We're only in 5th grade now but we love it (and my daughter especially loves their science). I have Oak Meadow K through Oak Meadow 8 so I'm committed to it for at least that long (my daughter's used 4th and is now on 5th, and my son is now on K).

I do this. When my daughter does writing assignments (or any writing, really) in a given week, I jot down a list of the words she spelled wrong. The following week, those are the words I assign to her for spelling review. Because there often aren't all that many, I will pull a few more from a "___th grade spelling word list" (just google, in her case, it's a 5th grade spelling word list) online. Then, on Mondays, I'll ask her to review them with "bubble letters" (she'll write down the words, making the initial letter of each a fancy bubble letter, and then she'll decorate/color that letter with colored pencils. On Tuesdays, I'll ask her to review them with "construction cutouts"- she'll draw little pictures or shapes on construction paper, write the spelling word in the picture or shape, then cut them out and tape/glue them into her book. On Wednesdays, I'll ask her to write the words 5X each. On Thursdays, we'll toss a ball back and forth to each other while chanting the spelling words. On Fridays, she'll get a quiz. She almost always gets every word right on her quizzes. I try to keep spelling review on the fun side, because she's also given a list of vocabulary words each week, and she has to alphabetize those, write definitions for them, and use them in sentences. So spelling we keep more creative/fun. In 4th grade she's also done things like: writing them in chalk on the sidewalk, making a small town map and naming the streets and buildings after spelling words, making a simple windsock from a paper plate and some crepe paper streamers and writing the words on the streamers and so on. I never have seen any need to buy a separate spelling curriculum but maybe it's because she's a pretty decent speller to begin with so I don't feel like we're constantly floundering with spelling or anything. I don't know what I'd do or how I'd feel differently if her spelling skills were a lot weaker. As it stands now, though, this works just fine for us.

I started my son with our Kindergarten curriculum on Labor Day, about two months before he turns 5 (which will be in early November). I only did this because Oak Meadow K is not very academic- it's much more gentle and hands on in the earliest years, so I thought we would enjoy doing it together this year. 1st Grade will be a lot more gentle and laid back than a more academic curriculum usually is, too... and my plan is to stretch 1st grade out over two years. So by the time we get to 2nd grade he'll be at the age he is "supposed" to be as per school cutoff dates and will then be one of the 'older' ones from that grade on. Not that he'll be in public school but I think (based on some of the writing assignments my daughter has done in OM4 and OM5) that he'll be more mature and get more out of the assignments we do in later grades if he has that extra year to mature.

I love your daughter's comment! I DON'T love your description of "The Plan" and how it makes you feel. Have you considered Weight Watchers? Not to sound like a walking advertisement, but WW is effective, healthy and realistic. You don't cut out entire food groups. You don't replace meals with shakes. You don't eat pre-packaged meals only. You don't take pills. And you don't walk around feeling cranky and hungry enough to gnaw off your own arm resulting in a guilt fest over a sandwich. :) Maybe you should look into it!

Up until my daughter turned 8, she was only ever allowed to play in the backyard. At 8, she started being allowed to play "out front" (which, here, means on the sidewalk in front of the houses as we don't have front yards), but only within a range of like 5 or 6 houses, and only with her neighborhood friends or cousins. She was not allowed out front alone at all. At 9, she started being allowed to go the whole length of our block and back (it's not a very long block and a relatively quiet one way street) but could not leave our block or go off the sidewalk into the street. I would periodically get up and go on the porch and look out to see where she was and make sure everything was ok. At 10, we're just now starting to very gradually give her a little more freedom (which will probably go into effect more in the spring when she's like 10 1/2) and we'll start letting her go "around the block" with her friends or to the park around the corner (part of which we can see from our kitchen window, although from a distance). We've done that a small handful of times already in the past couple of months (she turned 10 this month). Again, only with a group, and after a good amount of conversation about various safety issues. My son is going to turn 5 next month and so far he is still not allowed 'out front' without an adult out there with him. Although I do let his sister take him directly into one of the neighbor kid's backyards and keep an eye on him there. I'm not sure at what point I'll feel comfortable with him "out front" without me out there, too. I'm sure it will be earlier than it was for her, since he'll have her (an older kid) with him, whereas she didn't have that. I'll re-evaluate it when the warm weather comes again and all the kids are playing out front a lot more.

Thanks, all :) As an update, I just received a text back from my friend. She said: "Hey Nance don't feel bad at all, apparently I suck as a gym partner lol. It's just been one thing after another. I think I can switch to the Y. I will check it out sometime this week. When do you guys start?" Then she said something about Halloween plans and I ended up giving her a call and we talked about the gym and Halloween and the kids and so on, and she said she's going to try to meet us at the Y tomorrow to check it out, and she's going to call her insurance place to find out if she can switch over. She said she hadn't really loved the other gym, that it felt more like a 'guy's gym'... and between that and some things going on with home and family she wasn't really making it over there. Maybe she'll do better with the Y but if not, at least I have my husband going with me, so either way, I'm not stuck going by myself! :)

:iagree: :cheers2:

I look ahead to the next chapter (when I know I'm getting close enough to the end of the current one) to see what books are recommended in the Activity Guide for supplemental reading, and then I go on my library's website to see which ones they have. The ones they have, I reserve online, and they call me when it's ready for me to pick up. The ones they don't have, I email the interlibrary loan librarian and ask her to order them for me. She does, and then either emails me or calls me when they are ready. Once I receive the books, I look through them and determine whether they are interesting enough and/or age appropriate enough to want to read. In most cases they are (as my daughter is 10 and not like 6 or 7) but in some cases I decide against them, and they just go in my "return to the library" pile. I do not buy any of the books, that would get ridiculously expensive. :D

I'll be using Oak Meadow when the time comes, too (we're doing OMK this year and will start OM1 next).