I think that you have to communicate with the main girl's mother. I think you should write her a letter detailing what is happening, when and where it is happening, how it is affecting your daughter, that it has been an ongoing situation which has been witnessed by the teacher, how you hate to pull your daughter out of the program because your daughter loves the program, but this ongoing bullying is impacting her self-esteem and can no longer be tolerated, and that you want to know what steps she is going to take as supervisor to ensure that a stop will be put to this behavior immediately. Be polite but direct, detailed, and firm...put the ball in her court by letting her know that you do expect change/steps to be taken and that you expect a response by asking her specifically what steps she will take to ensure that the bullying will stop etc. Ask her for a meeting to discuss this further. Hopefully she will resolve it to your satisfaction. If she doesn't, find out if there is somebody over her head that you can go to, and if that doesn't work, then I think you might have to consider pulling your daughter out because I WOULD worry about the long term effects of always being bullied like that. I admire that your daughter wants to stick this out though because she enjoys the class!

Well, this thread caused me to go check what my google settings were on. They said moderate, I slid the slider thingie over to strict. :P I think it sounds like you have a good plan as to how to handle this already (not freaking out, having a conversation with your son, fixing your settings and so on). It also sounds like your son didn't see anything too extreme, so I wouldn't lose TOO much sleep over it!

Fakebooked! haha, that's funny. These are all good ideas.

I don't personally see what a five y/o could possibly get out of or really retain from learning ancient world history anyway. Why don't you just do things more relevant and meaningful to her now, and less intense for such a young sensitive child, and introduce that stuff when she's older? Why the rush?

Teens age 16ish or so who really wanted it, were really mature and whose futures I thought it would benefit? I don't know. Maybe. I'd consider it. Younger kids? My 11 year old? No. I'd miss them too much and want to be with them and raise them myself.

I use Oak Meadow, too, but I've never enrolled so can't answer questions about that, sorry! I think you're probably going to just have to talk to them about it. You can call them, you know, if you want a quick answer rather than waiting for a return to email. They do have good customer service and are nice on the phone, too (going by the one or two times I called them to ask about something)!

:iagree: Does this group have an organizer that you can talk to privately about the situation? If so, maybe she can remind people to "play nicely" and to treat everyone with respect and consideration, especially if this is supposed to be a "homeschool" group and not just an "unschool" group per se. I'd hate to see you leave a group you might otherwise enjoy and get a lot out of because some of the members are acting snippy. I take it there are other people in the group aside from these couple, that they aren't ALL unschoolers, and so on. Or if that doesn't work and it continues and you reach the bottom of your rope, maybe you can send her/them a politely worded private message explaining how you feel and that you would like to continue joining in on activities and so on but don't want to be made to feel judged every time you do and see if being straightforward with them (nice, but straightforward) makes a difference. Of course, maybe after what one of them posted on facebook they will preempt you and end up branching off on their own and starting their own unschooler's group anyway! Another alternative is for you to start your own meeup group and identify it as an inclusive group for homeschoolers of all educational philosophies and religious backgrounds and so on and make one of your guidelines that everyone should respect everyone else's choices and differences and just get together for playdates, field trips, socializing and so on. That's basically what my group is all about, and I love it. We've got Christians, Jews, atheists, unschoolers, classical schoolers, relaxed schoolers, cyber schoolers, and I've been a member and assistant organizer for two years and then took over running the group for the past year (so with the group for three years total) and it's been going great. We don't debate religion, politics, educational style...we just socialize, do field trips, tours, playdates, etc, everyone's friendly, not preachy, it's great. It wouldn't work for a real "co op class" kind of situation of course but for field trips and kickball games and park days and picnics and touring the fire house and occasional informal fun classes and so on and so forth? Perfect.

No. :) That is HILARIOUS! I love it! That is so getting posted on Facebook today! That's what I had to refrain from last night heh. Then decided I should make totally sure it didn't get tracked back to me somehow here either. Thank you! But it was just something that bothered me but really was none of my business in the end. Sorry guys, didn't mean to stir your curiosity and then go nah, nah, I'm not telling...if you're really dying to know I'll be happy to PM you (and then you'll see it wasn't all that interesting to begin with lol, just something that bugged me, and I had to mind my own business about it rather than getting into it on Facebook. Started to vent here and then thought, yeah, like I need it getting tracked back to me somehow, so I deleted it. But now I'm glad I did just because of that "Somebody's wrong on the internet" link hahaha.

Over the summer, I was reading my son (then 5.9 years old) a book about bodies for health, and one part mentioned that the behind is the biggest muscle a person has. Which prompted my son to ask, "So, you mean, you can attack someone with your butt?"

n/m...I shouldn't say anything here either lol. sorry.

My son has been known to do this. Of COURSE I think it's disgusting, rather than "okay." Of COURSE I tell him it's gross, that he shouldn't do it, to stop it. But he still does it. Oh, he'll stop temporarily. Or he'll laugh. Or he'll duck his head and try to "hide" doing it. I guess your kids are just more normal than mine, or you're a better parent, or whatever. Do you feel better now? :P

Ooh, Beth, those are pretty! That worked pretty quickly, too! Here's some of our latest projects/activities with my 11 y/o daughter... 1. Bean Mosaic (gluing different beans onto a tile to make a mosaic) 2. Impressionist style painting (Monet unit via Meet the Masters) 3. Snow Candy (boiling maple syrup with butter and brown sugar and cooling it into candy on snow) 4. Paper marbling using oil based paints, paint thinner and water and then mounting a poem onto one of the sheets of marbled paper as a border/frame 5. Blown glass (this is one of my husband's hobbies and lately my daughter has been observing, learning, and even getting to help him some; these are some of the latest pieces they made)

With my K'er, I chose a Waldorf-inspired, gentle curriculum (Oak Meadow) which doesn't take very much time per day and focuses on upper case letters of the alphabet, stories, drawings, crafts, seasons, music and movement, that kind of thing. It's not an academic K, really, which was what I liked about it. The only thing I've added to it is Funnix beginning reading lessons which we're doing a bit sporadically, we completed lesson 36 today I think. I'm not pushing them hard but doing them as we have time for them and as he's motivated to do them... I didn't want a lot of pressure on them, although I did want to at least start reading lessons this year, but I'm not really stressing over it, either, because, hey, 1st grade used to be time enough for learning to read back when I was a kid and I turned out fine. :) That's about it for us! Plus of course I read to him, we go on outings and field trips, play games, and so on.

I consider myself to be a relaxed homeschooler. I use Oak Meadow as a curriculum. In the earliest years, it is not overly academic...it starts out more Waldorf-inspired and gentle and slow-paced and sweet and doesn't push a lot of formal academics. I'm using it for K with my son this year and just adding sporadic Funnix beginning reading lessons. As it gets into the later years (so far I've used it for 4th, 5th and now 6th grades with my daughter), it does become more "academic" but still not in a dry/textbookish way, which I appreciate. It doesn't focus on a lot of textbook/workbook stuff but rather on short lessons written to the student in the syllabus followed by using living books, interesting writing assignments, hands on activities, and a lot of integration (social studies and English is integrated so whatever you learn about in social studies, the English reading will pertain to that, and the vocab words will come from that, and the writing assignments will be based on that, and the hands on project or activity will revolve around that, and so on and so forth. It will also integrate geography, art projects and more). I really like it. If you want to follow the link in my signature to take a peek at my blog, I have a lot of information on it...my daily entries show what our day to day lives are like as relaxed homeschoolers using mainly Oak Meadow (I did switch the math to something else from 5th grade on with my daughter, and I did add on one or two other things we found interesting such as Story of the World for instance, and Meet the Masters art), and on the sidebar to the left of my blog are reviews including a detailed Oak Meadow review and some other information, sample schedules for each grade we've used so far, articles I've written, including quite a few on my educational philosophy/laid back approach and so on. I don't think I could ever go with an unschool approach either, but I am pretty relaxed/eclectic, enjoying a more laid back curriculum, doing school around life rather than living life around school, willing to drop things to go out and do other interesting things when they come up because I think there are lots of ways to learn and that it's nice to have the freedom to take advantage of them all as they come up and so on.

About the same. It's been about 3 years, starting toward the end of 3rd grade with my daughter and currently doing 6th.

Cold cut and cheese roll ups without bread (can wrap in lettuce too) Fruit and cottage cheese Yogurt Soup Fruit, cheese and nut trays Cucumbers, carrots, celery etc with things to dip in like ranch dip or cream cheese Apples, bananas and peanut butter Scrambled eggs with cheese, or omelets with veggies, or baked scrambled egg "muffins" with some veggies in it Hardboiled eggs Tuna salad (with or without hardboiled egg in it), maybe with carrots/celery grated into it. Eat it on carrot or celery sticks instead of sandwiches, or just off of a spoon. Salads with cold cuts, cheeses, grilled chicken or shrimp on it.

WOW! He looks very handsome and grown up! I really do love it! And I'm not just saying that because he's reading this, either! Love it!! And, er, I agree...a lot more boyish now! (And brings out those gorgeous eyes a lot more!)

Do you have to show this in a portfolio? I do, too. You can look up "fire safety worksheets" or "fire safety activity sheets" and have the kids to a word search, crossword puzzle, activity sheet, etc. and include that in your portfolio. Older kids can write up a fire escape plan and draw a diagram of how to get out of your house. I usually include a brief "summary" with my portfolio and it might say something like this: SAFETY EDUCATION TO INCLUDE FIRE SAFETY Alexa read about fire safety and prevention on various websites, such as smokeybear.com, firestories.com, and sparky.org. We discuss fire safety in our home. We walked through our home reviewing a fire escape plan, and Alexa drew her own fire escape diagram. She's done such activities as fire safety crossword puzzles. We also discuss such things as outdoor and street safety, the importance of seatbelts, pool and water safety, electrical hazards, and have age appropriate discussions on the hazards of smoking and illegal drugs. or "Alexa did various fire safety worksheets. We went to visit a fire department, where the kids in our meetup group got to see and climb in and explore the fire trucks, see all the equipment, try on the safety clothing and ask any questions they may have of the fireman who was there. We have discussions pertaining to fire safety and fire escape plans in our home."

I am using the free health curriculum available at http://www.kidshealth.org. It's called Kids Health in the Classroom and they have it for different grade levels. You print the articles (or you can read them at your computer if you'd prefer) and read those, and then there's sometimes a quiz sheet, and there's always some sort of fun activity you can do at the end. My daughter and I do it weekly. http://kidshealth.org/classroom/ See the sidebar on the left under "Categories" to pick the grade level you are looking for. Click it, then select the category you want to start with (There's Human Body, Health Problems, and Personal Health), and then it'll bring up a bunch of articles, handouts etc that you can download and print as desired. Did I mention free? :)

I haven't read these, and I'm not sure if it's what you're looking for, but here's one called "The Adventures of Young Krishna, the Blue God of India" by D. Dalal Clayton. I can't find any summary or reviews on Amazon, but on Google Books, which I'm linking here, there are previews of it: http://books.google.com/books?id=X_6gwo-t8QMC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Krishna#v=onepage&q=Krishna&f=false There's also a 159 pg book called "Storm Over Blue Hills" by A.C. Jenkins which "traces a boy's journey across India as he searches for a sacred buffalo bell stolen from his tribe," but, again, there is no information available for it on Amazon...no reviews or anything, and we haven't actually read it (it's just in a suggested list of optional/extra reading in our Oak Meadow book on the chapter on ancient India). But maybe your library would have them or could get them through interlibrary loan so you could check them out. The rest of the suggested stuff in my OM book was either books of tales like "Just So Stories" or "Jataka Tales" or informational books like "What Do We Know About Buddhism?" "...Hinduisum?" "...Sikhism?" etc, so that's all I've got! P.S. Oh, also we're currently finishing up "The Ramayana, A Shortened Modern Prose Version of the Indian Epic" by R.K. Narayan. It's a Penguin Classics book, 157 pages, so you could look into that one, too!

We're a secular Jewish family (not particularly religious but celebrate the major holidays for cultural/traditional/heritage reasons), I'm 38, married for over 11 years, AOS degree, 20 year old daughter, 11 year old daughter, 6 year old son, do not attend any churches or temples, we have active social lives and do not limit music or television much except to keep it reasonably age-appropriate. We don't really care what someone else's religious beliefs are or educational philosophies- when choosing our friends, we just care how people treat and relate to others. We're pretty tolerant/non-judgmental and as long as you are, too (general you), we're good. :) Glad you posted! P.S. We haven't dealt with the dating thing yet though because my 20 y/o has special needs and it hasn't been an issue with her, and my 11 y/o is still too young!

1. Envy, by J.R. Ward (3rd in the Fallen Angels series). I don't like this series AS much as her Black Dagger Brotherhood (vampire) series but I do like it. 2. Kiss of the Highlander, by Karen Marie Moning (Highlander series). I don't like this series as much as her Fever series and it's more typical romance but it's got highlanders and a bit of time travel thrown in so it's fun fluff. 3. The Ramayana, A Shortened Modern Prose Version of the Indian Epic, by R.K. Narayan. I read this one with my daughter for school/social studies. It's a 157 pg Penguin Classic but it actually kind of held my interest. Probably more so than hers. 4. Dark Highlander, by Karen Marie Moning (Highlander series). What can I say. Continuing my guilty pleasure series. Still waiting for the newest Stephen King to become available at my library. More guilty pleasure reading. I saw that movie years and years ago and only have vague memories of it. I never did read the book. I should read the book (AND rewatch the movie as an adult now)!

This person swore they were 34 years old and married (no kids though but acted like it was perfectly reasonable to come on a homeschooling forum since there were lots of "general" posts on our general board anyway) and rant about their waitresses not asking whether they wanted salad or appetizer first and that they should always get salad first since hungry people don't like to wait for food at a restaurant). She used lots of caps, exclamation points, and said "DUHHH!!!!" a lot to prove her point that we were a bunch of nincompoops who just didn't get it. She was an idiot yet somehow amusing nonetheless. Either that or we just made her amusing with our witty comebacks. Or I was extremely bored that night. Or Ibbygirl posted Russell for me. Or a combination of all of the above, I don't know. :lol:

Would I love that she didn't finish the book? No. Would I feel the need to take it upon myself to tell the teacher she didn't? No. Let the teacher judge the assignment on what she manages to put together in the end (which I wouldn't help her write btw), not a note from mom.

:iagree: