Thanks for all of the feedback and responses! A lot to think about! (I'm still feeling totally wishy washy and may just go with doing nothing in the end due to indecision)! Not about which design but whether I want that much ink on one spot to begin with! I LIKE tattoos and I don't regret any of the ones I already have but none of them are so, well, in-your-face and I just don't want to get it and then wish I didn't. Or think it looks completely stupid 20 years from now compared to just some scattered individual more easily coverable pieces. Plus I spend more of my time around more conservative people than I used to. And now I've got that line from that Rush song going through my head: "And if you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice" lol. But we'll see! This is an interesting idea to play around with. It's very rare that we ever attend formal occasions that require dressing up. But once in a while it happens. And I guess hopefully I'll be a mother of a bride some day come to think of it haha. The ones I've gotten in the past I did put consideration into whether they could be pretty easily covered and/or never have more than one or two showing at once because I didn't really want to look "heavily tattooed" even while liking tattoos. Maybe I just need to have someone paint me a picture instead LOL. I definitely wouldn't do two sleeves lol. That sounds really cool! Did you put a picture of it up anywhere? Would you here? :D I know! It's not the design/s I'm necessarily so so about, it's the thought of doing it to begin with. Which probably means I shouldn't. Or shouldn't anytime soon/impulsively. He only just brought it up a couple of days ago! I started toying with ideas I thought might be kinda cool but....Stephanie, just below, has a really good point. :lol: Probably wise words. After sleeping on it, thinking on it more, reading what you guys have to say, I'm still undecided but leaning towards you're probably right. If it's not something *I* personally was feeling like I'd love to do, with an idea I was head over heels about, and I have this much indecision about it, I shouldn't do it just because he's trying to talk me into it. Not that I would let him talk me into it if I was really against it. I wasn't totally against it, just not totally in love with the idea and was trying to convince myself by coming up with something I might like enough to go for it, but I AM kind of worried that I would regret it later, so I have a feeling I prob won't end up doing it (although I tend to be impulsive sometimes lol). :lol: haha. that is definitely too much for me! lol sorry. But if you ever want to visit PA and get a tattoo while on vacation, I know a good tattoo artist! :D lol well at least she's allowed to express her artistic nature on the walls! Some people are pretty impulsive when it comes to tattoos and are all gung ho and "let's do it!" and some people agonize and hem and haw and take forever to decide and sometimes never get around to doing it at all because they can't think of anything they want on them forever!

Hypothetically for now lol. And bear in mind I'm married to a tattoo artist who owns his own shop and already have a number of tattoos. :) (So the idea is not as shocking to me as it may be to some of you to begin with lol). As of now they're fairly spread out and I can cover most of them whenever I want to. I would not do a full sleeve, if I agree to this (he's dying for me to but I'm still undecided) it would be like a half sleeve so most of it could still be covered when I wanted to. IF I were to go along with it, I was considering something floral...like mostly pink feminine stuff, magnolias with some other flowers mixed in, whatever. OR I could do something a bit different, and an idea I was toying around with (since I've had my nose stuck in a book as far back as I can remember...since I was old enough to walk and talk, pretty much) was to do something like put an old fashioned looking storybook at the top, near the shoulder, with a short quote in cursive above it or on it (perhaps something like "We read to know we are not alone" by CS Lewis, or "I Am A Part of Everything That I Have Read" by Theodore Roosevelt), and underneath the storybook would be all different characters and scenes from several different well known books. I'd just pick a few, perhaps ones like Alice in Wonderland, Where the Wild Things Are, The Neverending Story, Goodnight Moon, Wizard of Oz...depending on how much we could fit, I'd pick 3-5 stories with a few characters/items/scenes from each. So, if you were me... Flower Theme because it's more girlie/feminine? Book Theme because it's more original/meaningful? Something else entirely/back to the drawing board? Or more of a horrified "No, don't do it at all!!!" ...? :lol: (Okay, I'm expecting mostly these lol but curious to hear thoughts from people who DO like tattoos as well)! :)

I'm in PA and I don't literally "count" our days. As far as I'm concerned my kids are learning and/or engaging in educational activities every single day. So I include an "attendance statement" with my portfolio that says something along the lines of life and learning being inextricable and attesting that as such we have more than completed 180 days of school and blah blah blah and then I don't even give it another thought. Every single field trip, camp, class, activity, extra-curricular, tour, etc we participate in "counts" as far as I'm concerned, as does every book, project and so on. I would never dream of literally counting them up, deducting them or whatever.

We used TT last year at grade level with no supplementing and my daughter scored very well on her standardized test- much improved over the previous year. She also developed more confidence in math, a new liking for math, and became more independent in math. I'm definitely a fan! We are using TT again this year (with Life of Fred once a week just for fun).

I don't know how many friends you're talking, but when my oldest daughter turned 16, she only had a small handful of girlfriends from her small, private, special needs school over, and a friend of mine came over to do their hair and makeup for them (glitter and the works). I rented a limo and originally intended to have it drive them to the movies. But since there was nothing really appropriate playing in our small local theater, it took them to the bowling alley instead. After they bowled a couple of games, it drove them home. They LOVED being in the limo and just being out somewhere in it and getting to go out after having their hair and makeup done. Back at home, we had pizza and a sleepover party and the girls had snacks and stayed up late and watched movies and did their own thing. In the morning we made them pancakes and they played Wii games or Rock Band until they got picked up. It was a really nice night. Our county has an online "calendar of events"- through the visitor's bureau I think. If yours does you could try looking it up to see if anything special happens to be going on around the time of her b-day. You might find some sort of event coinciding with it that you could take her and her friends to.

She should not have said all that in front of your son. I think it's ridiculous to put a damper on a five year old's natural curiosity in a critical manner like that right in front of him...and to sit there and have the nerve to tell you that you should put him a classroom next year? Who is she to question your educational choices? Definitely inappropriate. I'd be dropping her. She's a know-it-all with an opinion that you don't need to take so personally because in this case, IMHO, she's not right.

Gag! Seriously?!

:lol::lol::lol:

Wow, that is definitely crossing a line!

So, he raised a son good enough for you to marry, but he's not a good enough grandparent for you to trust your teenager around? What, is atheism contagious or something? You already said that he wouldn't try to "convert" her, and has agreed not to discuss it, so why is that even an issue? I thought your concern would be missing her when I started reading this post. She's not a little girl, you already instilled your values in her, she's a big enough girl to follow through with her own beliefs now, isn't she? And she'll be with YOU on weekends so you can do your church thing or whatever.

My settings are pretty private already but I looked over them, and I shared this!

Oh my gosh! I'd be mad and hurt, too! Unbelievable! Definitely find another sitter and YOU go! And if you're near me in PA, I'd babysit for you, too! :D

Well, I don't know, if I had a sibling coming in from out of state I would probably WANT to try to get the whole family together for dinner. If that night wasn't working out I'd probably suggest the night before or after instead, or a much later dinner, or a BBQ lunch the next day, or whatever. I'd try to work with them to figure something out. It's nice to get everyone together when you can.

LOL! It must be karmic revenge for that! In all seriousness though, beats me, I've never eaten edamame either. I think now I won't. :P

My 11 y/o and 20 y/o girls have tvs in their rooms. They can't order movies (we have a password on that kind of thing) and we have parental controls in place so nothing too inappropriate could even be put on. They are old enough to listen when we tell them about what time tv has to go off etc. It's never caused problems. In my 11 y/o's case it's never even caused her to spend more time than usual in her room- she watches in there only when we send her up anyway because it's time to go settle down or we want to watch an adult show for the most part. My 6 y/o son does not have a tv in his room. He's not old enough or ready. I know with him it would just lead to tantrums when he's told it's time for it to go off if he's allowed to watch in bed and I'm not dealing with that so he has to wait until he's older. In your son's case I'd let him!

Some babies are just like that. My son was like that his whole life. He was NEVER the type of baby to just fall asleep and sleep for hours like his sisters- he "cat napped," usually falling asleep when I nursed him, and waking up shortly after I attempted to put him down. Rinse and repeat. Forever and ever. For every nap, every night, always. He's six now. It never got better through his entire baby and toddlerhood lol. He was just that kind of kid. Though he did tend to nap pretty well on long car rides!

I would never voluntarily choose to be separated from my husband and to have my kids separated from their father for months if I had any choice whatsoever in the matter. We'd go along and make an adventure of it, make the best of it, etc.

:iagree: I don't choose to support an agency that says discriminatory things such as: "Same-sex marriage attacks the traditions of the family in western civilization. This is an attack on parental rights. This is a battle the homeschooling movement cannot afford to lose." I don't care to fund that "battle." That, to me, has nothing to do with the "homeschooling movement." It's none of my business who another adult loves or marries. It's only my business who *I* love and marry. :iagree: again. And then there's that. Even though I live in what's basically the most regulated state when it comes to homeschooling (PA) I just familiarize myself with the law, follow it, utilize local support groups and do what I need to do. I don't feel the need to pay any of my family's hard-earned money to a discriminatory, fear-mongering agency with a political agenda. I'm sure despite all that they've helped some people but fortunately so far I've been able to help myself or to find other help on my own when need be.

Do you have any updates? I was wondering if you talked to her yet and how the conversation went! :grouphug:

Glad it helped! It's been a year this month since I wrote it. My son is 6.4 now and like I said, much better success with K this year. We're doing more reading lessons this year and he's picking them up really well and has SO much more patience and willingness to sit and actually do them, and neither of us get frustrated with it the way we would have last year...it's just a much more pleasant easy-going experience overall, and there has been absolutely no harm done by waiting that extra year that I can see. He needed that extra year to just play and develop and be ready and there was nothing wrong with my giving it to him. I don't regret it at all. But if I had spent that year fighting with him and pushing him and losing patience with him and that had been a year of me getting frustrated, him being miserable? I would have hated that. That is NOT what I want Kindergarten to be like. No way. Just, no way. I want K to be sweet and fun and happy. Think about what you want your K year to be like and if it is best suited by waiting another year, don't even hesitate. Seriously, it's just not a big deal at all. You know your kid best. :)

Please don't be worried yet. 4 1/2 is VERY young, especially for a wiggly boy, so I would drop ALL efforts to do anything remotely school like yet unless he asks to do it and just let him play and do interest-led things. Any teaching things can be conversational, game based, interest-led, physical and don't have to be formal, academic "school stuff" at this stage at all. I wouldn't bother doing it, talking to him about it or stressing over it. Just let it go and have fun with him and let him do his thing. When the fall rolls around if he's still digging in his heels and not wanting to "do school" I wouldn't hesitate to shrug and go "no problem" and have another informal year of "preschool," letting learning take place in an informal, play based, conversational, physical sort of way- playing games, talking, going outside a lot, letting him help you around the house, doing field trips, and not worrying about sitting down and doing formal seatwork kind of stuff until the following year. You'd be surprised how much they'd learn that way, informally, and you'd be surprised how much difference a year can make with a kid like that if you start K with them when they are closer to 6 instead of barely 5. I know because my son was the same way and I had to do exactly that- give up on K after my initial attempt just before his 5th birthday, drop it for a year, and try again this year just before his 6th birthday, and it went SO MUCH BETTER this year. Less stress on both of us. He's more willing to sit and do what I ask of him, he's less resistant which is less frustrating for me and for him. And he still learned tons informally that first year anyway. Maybe not to read or write...he's learning that this year at 6 instead of 5, but I'm fine with that (1st grade was time enough for that stuff when I was a kid and I've been an avid reader my whole life)! He DID pick up a lot of math skills somehow and other sorts of things. Anyway, I blogged about it here in an entry I called "A Kindergarten Dropout" if you want to check it out. :) http://nancextoo.livejournal.com/190076.html

Well, my 11 y/o started out in public school. She was 8 when I pulled her out. She has no interest in going back. My 6 y/o has never been to any sort of preschool or public school and he tells me he wants to be homeschooled for the rest of his life and never wants to go to "puglic school." :)

Well, when I first pulled my daughter out of school (toward the end of her third grade year, just over three years ago) I did have a little of the "I hope I'm not screwing her up" flutters. But the schools around here really aren't good ones. Every year around here the standardized test results come out in the newspaper and when I see them, I feel better. My school district is the third worst in the area, and below state average ("on warning" last year, in fact). So whatever they're doing, they're not doing a great job (and there were SO many other things I didn't like about them aside from academics that I just KNOW my children are better off at home with me). Here in PA we have a lot of home ed laws. I have to hire an evaluator each year and show him a portfolio and some of our work and so on, and my evaluator always seems happy and impressed with what we're doing, so that also helps me to feel confident. When I give my daughter a standardized test, she does well on it, so that helps me to feel confident. But mostly I just go by the fact that when I interact with my kids each day, they are happy and thriving. They're enjoying childhood. We're having fun and spending time together. I can see that they are learning. I think they are getting a much better experience (academically but in so many more ways, too) than they ever could in public school, so, really, I just never worry. It feels right to have them with me. Maybe when they get to be closer to high school age and if I still have them home with me then, I might start to worry about my "qualifications" then- or maybe I won't, I guess time will tell. We'll sort it out when we get there. For now, things are going great and all I can tell you is that while I can understand as someone who didn't start OUT intending to homeschool that it's a bit nerve-wracking making the initial decision to do so, once I made it, I never once looked back. My only regret was not having done it sooner. :)

I've asked some of the other moms in my homeschool group how old they are during casual conversation while we were chatting about different things a couple of times. They didn't seem bothered by it. Some of them have mentioned it spontaneously. I don't mind if someone asks me how old I am.