You must be able to form an opinion about SOMETHING! Double chocolate fudge cake or cheesecake?

You know, I think family should just help each other out. Your son probably has his strong points (it's been alluded to here that he's otherwise responsible, hard-working and tries to please you). But one of his weaknesses is that he's a little scatterbrained, like his dad you say. It's something that right now he can't help. Maybe he can't help it because of his age, or maybe it's just one of his personality traits. I don't think the answer is to go, "Well, too bad, you're on your own then." I think that's a little spiteful. I'm not saying YOU are spiteful, I think you're well-meaning. But by nature, it IS kind of a spiteful thing, and I think it would be better to just do what you can do to help him out instead, because that would be a nice thing to do. If that means the night before or whenever going, "Hey, I need you to go get this, this, and that, and put them in this bag," then do it, and watch that he does it. It won't take you very long, you'll be ensuring that he does it, (he'll still be the one physically doing it), he'll get to enjoy his sport, he won't miss out on anything, you'll have helped your son out, he'll still have physically followed the routine of doing what he needed to do, even though you had to tell him what to do and when and watched that he did it. He probably helps you out in other ways, right? Families play to each others strengths and weaknesses and pitch in and help each other out and I just don't see anything wrong with that. I don't think you really have to fear that he won't be able to do anything for himself when he's grown because you reminded him more and helped him more when he was 9. :)

:iagree: :iagree: Again! Not bad at all. You're much better off for it. It's vile.

Don't let it get to you. My son didn't fully train until four because that's when HE was ready, and now that he's six you'd never know whether he trained at 4, 1, or yesterday. He did it, so what's the difference when? He's a bright, normal, happy kid. Don't even worry about it. As for this post, I'd never knowingly be friendly with anybody who implemented parenting techniques like the Pearls.

I knew what you meant. Some homeschoolers worry about whether they are ruining their kid's lives by pulling them out of public school/not sending them to public school, and meanwhile so many of those public schoolers are getting to college not even knowing the difference between something as basic as its versus it's, so we're probably doing just fine. Especially if we see our 5th and 6th graders already know the things these college kids are scratching their heads over! It DOES help ME relax, I can relax knowing I CAN'T possibly do a worse job than the public schools around HERE do, especially when I see those standardized test results in the paper each year and see that my district is still the third worst in the area, that they're "on warning" for being below state average... if I ever had niggling doubts about whether pulling my daughter out and trying to teach her myself was the right thing to do and whether I really could provide her with a good education, I don't have those doubts anymore. I know she'll be fine.

That is definitely okay! I think you could easily save it for around third grade if you wanted to! If you find she's ready in 2nd and want to do it then, fine. If you find 3rd to be more suitable, that's okay, too! It may be a bit later than some other curricula introduces it but that doesn't really matter. If anything she'll pick up the concepts more quickly. (And some grammar I think they are naturally going to pick up as you go anyway, while you're teaching reading and handwriting and talking to them and pointing certain things out conversationally, but for formal grammar instruction, it can wait a little while longer). In my main curriculum, Oak Meadow, they're pretty gentle and relaxed in the earliest years (which is one of the things I really like about it), and they wait until 3rd to introduce formal spelling/grammar. Either way, definitely don't stress over it for 1st, your 1st grade plans sound great. :)

:001_wub: :iagree: So important to keep this in mind!

And was it apparent to the airline at the time that she is in the military, and they still didn't care? That's wonderful that the stranger did that for her. I love stories like that! So glad he was in the right place at the right time to help her and that she got to be with her family!

Deal! :lol:

It's adorable! Licorice would make cute antennae! I agree it would be fine sitting out overnight.

lol....hey, all we did was read today for history (and do a guitar lesson and homeschool bowling league) and all I've got is the tail end of a cold! Anesthesia is a much better excuse. (Maybe I can also count that my 11 y/o helped make dinner as like home ec or something. Can Rock Band 2 count as extra "music?" No...? :P)

A medical procedure? Are you kidding me? You took time off for that? You slacker! :P :lol:

I think that sounds great! An artist study at SOME point would be nice, learning more about master artists and such, or art appreciation, but certainly not necessary at 6 or anytime soon! Right now I'd just continue to let him have fun with whatever art projects hold his interest, in whatever creative manner he wants to! I think you've got the right idea. :)

Such a great book! I hope your copy has all the pages, though. :P I'm about to start The Dark River by John Twelve Hawks, book two of The Fourth Realm Trilogy. In The Traveler, John Twelve Hawks introduced readers to a dangerous world inspired by the modern technology that monitors our lives. Under constant surveillance by the "Vast Machine," a sophisticated computer network run by a ruthless group known as the Brethren, society is mostly unaware of its own imprisonment. Gabriel and Michael Corrigan, brothers who were raised "off the Grid," have recently learned they are Travelers like their missing father- part of a centuries-old line of prophets able to journey to different realms of consciousness an enlighten the world to resist being controlled. But power affects the brothers differently. (Snip for spoiler). The race moves from the underground tunnels of New York and London, to ruins hidden beneath Rome and Berlin, to a remote region of Africa that is rumored to harbor one of history's greatest treasures. And as the story moves toward its chilling conclusion, ...(snip). A mesmerizing return to the places and people so richly portrayed in The Traveler, The Dark River is propelled by edge-of-the-seat suspense and haunted by a vision of a world where both hope and freedom are about to disappear.

I'm a relaxed homeschooling mom of an 11 y/o and a 6 y/o. I blog about our day-to-day homeschooling lives a lot, and the link to my blog is in my signature if you want to take a peek (it's been even more relaxed than usual the last week because I'm on day 8 of being sick and the kids just got over being sick, but you can get a good idea of what our days are like if you poke around; I include text, pics, and a lot of info on the sidebar to the left as well). I'm not an unschooler. I consider myself relaxed/eclectic. I chose what I consider to be fun, creative, hands on curricula, I use it as a guideline and sometimes modify as needed/desired. We pretty much tend to do school around real life, and not live our lives around school, and I don't hesitate to drop school if things come up that we want to go do, because I feel that there are a LOT of different ways to learn and a lot of different things out there to learn about. We do a lot of outings and field trips and educational tours and activities and so on. We read a lot, play games, follow our own interests, and eventually we catch up on the curriculum stuff, or sometimes we consolidate, or sometimes we end up skipping some things, but we do get most of it done. We try to have as much fun with it as possible and to be kind of laid back about it and to not make it dry or textbookish all the time. I'm happy with the way our days go. I feel like they're well-rounded. I feel like my kids are happy and content, I can see that they're learning, and often, I'm learning with them. We have to have evaluations each year and our evaluator is usually impressed/content with the things I show him, even with our more relaxed/eclectic/hands on kind of style, and whenever I've given my daughter a standardized test, she's done well on it, so I'm not really concerned that I'm doing the wrong thing at this stage. Maybe things need to be a little different when she draws nearer to high school years, or maybe they don't, I don't know yet... but right now, things are going well and I'm pleased and we're all happy.

Aw. Nakia. It's so hard for a mom not to feel endless guilt and worry for her kids. But you're right about one thing- this, too, SHALL pass, and your kids will be okay. They will have their good and bad moments like everyone else but they've got good parents and each other and they will be okay. Anna's starting counseling soon. That's great news! And her wrist will heal! I remember when my daughter, now 11, had a broken ankle at 2, and my son, now 6, had a sprained arm at around the same age. It was tough for a while and pitiful but they got through it! I'm sorry Emma had a bad reaction to her allergies, poor kid! I know dealing with allergies is an ongoing struggle. The feeling like she's getting less attention, well, that may resolve on its own in time as you address counseling with Anna and Cora's ADHD (more on that in a sec), or maybe it'll come with a bit more age and maturity, bit I know you're doing your best)! Cora, well, you have to make your own decision but my oldest daughter was the same age when I started her on ADHD meds and I have NEVER regretted that decision. She is 20 now. She stayed on them from about age six to about age sixteen and then we tried taking her off them to see how she'd do at that age and we discovered she no longer needed them. In those years on between, she benefitted so much, able to be herself and focus and concentrate and relate better to others and so on. And the only side effect was limited appetite mid day so she was always pretty thin until she came off the meds. Like you said your kids are mostly healthy and happy, and they are there with you- hold on to that. You will all come through all of this just fine! :)

Is it crazy that I feel that I use my library heavily for homeschooling, too, and can't even begin to FATHOM having 85 items checked out at any one time let alone still worry about pending holds and needing more materials? :lol: I have about 15 items checked out right now! 15-20 is kind of a lot for me at one time! lol. Do what you feel you need to do! I was going to say I actually like having everything just on MY library card so I don't have to keep track of due dates and such on two or three different peoples' cards...I like being able to track materials online and going onto my account to see what's still out, when it's due back, just in CASE they don't all get back to the "spot" where they're supposed to stay for safekeeping when they're not in use, but I see you couldn't do that if you wanted to!

Beats me. But this is why I love having a DVR in our living room and a DVR in my bedroom! That way I can watch on either TV, and I can record two shows at once!

Ah. Never really thought about it. But then again pretty much the only time I ever stay in a hotel room meant for "4" with my 3 kids is when we're driving to and from Florida, which we do once a year, or once every other year, to go visit family. Once on the way there, and once on the way home, we stop at some cheap motel late at night when we're too tired to drive anymore, and all we do is sleep. We don't eat/snack in the room, we pull over at bedtime, get one room because there's no way I'm sleeping separate from my husband at some cheap roadside motel in a strange place with our kids with us, we crash for a few hours, we split first thing in the morning leaving no mess but beds to be made and a towel or two behind, grab breakfast on the road and we get going again. These rooms usually have outside private entrances, not the sort of fancy hotels where you walk in through a lobby, my husband is the only one who ever goes inside to check in, and no one would ever even notice how many of us are walking into our room. The rest of our vacation once we actually arrive at our destination is spent with family, not at a hotel. If we were doing any further vacationing that required more lengthy hotel stays we'd be more apt to get a family suite type thing that'd sleep more people, probably six, and it'd be a non-issue. Usually to date at those quick motel stops we've put the two girls in one bed, and my husband and I in the other with our young son (who was 5 the last time we went) either in between us or on the floor on blankets. ETA: I'm not trying to convince anyone that this is "right," I'm just answering what we do. Although for that matter I don't even know if my husband has ever just gone in and said yeah we do have three kids with us and they just didn't say anything. I never even asked or cared to be honest.

Wow, glad you went to the doctor! Hope you start recovering quickly now!

Sigh. Apparently, Trader Joe's does not sell their products online, and the closest one to me is 58 miles away. I don't think I'm destined to taste that cilantro salad dressing anytime soon. It sounded so good, too! I've been eating a Ken's Steakhouse lite Caesar salad dressing on most of my salads but I'm starting to run low and I think I need a change from that or the oil and vinegar thing!

Well, lol, theoretically Meetup will send her an email letting her know that she has been removed from the group, with a note from me letting her know why. If she doesn't check her email often, it's possible she won't get the email and she may show up on the 5th, dues in hand. The event on the 5th is just a Mom's Night Out dinner, so it wouldn't be a matter of not having a spot. I suppose, worst case scenario, she'd show up there with her dues and I'd have to explain to her that she is welcome to stay for dinner and submit her dues but that she is going to have to reapply online to rejoin again as she had been removed due to not paying them on time and that next year she really has to pay them before the deadline to prevent that from happening again. It would be slightly awkward but I would imagine more so for her than me, I'm pretty close to everyone else there whereas she barely knows anyone and if anyone felt a bit foolish over it, I would imagine it would (should) be her, even though, granted, the situation would feel a bit awkward for me, too!

As of now, no word, no payment. My husband is a tattoo artist and he'll be at work tonight until at least 9 PM if not later. It's still possible she'll walk into his shop sometime tonight and drop off a payment. Or Paypal me. I doubt it, but technically she does have until midnight tonight! So I'll wait until I wake up tomorrow to see if she ended up paying or sending me some sort of contact email. But if I've received no payment and no word, then, yes, I've decided to boot her. (I emailed one of my assistant organizers today to see if she felt the same way, and she said: "I'd boot her! She hasn't shown any worthwhile interest in our group!")

I just looked up that cilantro salad dressing and it sounds SOOOO good! Too bad I don't have a Trader Joe's anywhere near me! About to run out to take my daughter to Girl Scouts but I'll have to check into whether I can order that online! Oh, yum! I love broccoli salad, I just printed that recipe! I just bookmarked that site, thanks for posting those ideas and linking to that site!

:iagree: There's no way we're getting two separate hotel rooms so we just book four, even when it's really the five of us. I know some would disapprove but that's what we do. Do with the info what you will. :P