In this situation your son doesn't come off sounding like the good guy. You're describing a group of boys playing dodgeball and a boy two years younger hitting your son with one. We don't know if he was just playing around, or what. Your son reacted by trying to beat the heck out of the kid. Who, again, was two years younger. And who hit him with a dodge ball which might not have been appropriate but which I would not consider an attack your son needed to "defend" himself against. I really don't know how you can say that your son used his arms but not his hands or that the other mother's claims were "false." I'm not saying that the other boy wasn't in the wrong at all but you definitely have to take a hard look at your son's part in this and at how he responds to situations that make him angry.

I'm reading The Map of Time by Felix J. Palma to myself. With my daughter, I'm reading Ronia, The Robber's Daughter by Astrid Lindgren.

This is the site for you: http://www.findgift.com/Gift-Types/Humorous/ Where else can you buy stuff like: Nose Shower Gel Dispenser: http://online.findgift.com/gift-ideas/pid-185630/ Don't Break The Bottle Wooden Wine Puzzler http://online.findgift.com/gift-ideas/pid-38936/ Smoking mittens, with metal eyelet to perfectly fit a cigarette http://online.findgift.com/gift-ideas/pid-285708/ The Butt Station Desk Organizer http://online.findgift.com/gift-ideas/pid-189275/ A Birthday Card That Is Also A Roll Of Toilet paper http://online.findgift.com/gift-ideas/pid-123147/ A Target Alarm Clock!! You have to shoot a bullseye to make it stop going off! How awesome is that?!!? http://online.findgift.com/gift-ideas/pid-268735/ A dog's water bowl shaped like a toilet bowl: http://online.findgift.com/gift-ideas/pid-122447/ Pop Quiz Math Wall Clock (You guys will LOVE this one!) : http://online.findgift.com/gift-ideas/pid-280780/ I'm not going to provide the link for the yodeling pickle or the insta-kilt beach towel or the world's largest word search puzzle shower curtain. You'll have to browse the site yourself! :lol: (P.S. They don't JUST have humorous gifts, it's actually a really neat site with lots of cool gift ideas). You're welcome! LOL.

Swine Flu World Tour Teeshirt: http://online.findgift.com/gift-ideas/pid-233088/ Pig Pancake Pan: http://online.findgift.com/gift-ideas/pid-285021/ Pig Corn Holder Set: http://online.findgift.com/gift-ideas/pid-110782/ Pig Wine Bottle Holder: http://online.findgift.com/gift-ideas/pid-275609/ Pig Personalized Christmas Ornament: http://online.findgift.com/gift-ideas/pid-194784/ Bacon Is Meat Candy tee shirt: http://online.findgift.com/gift-ideas/pid-243176/ Slightly risque pig sign: http://online.findgift.com/gift-ideas/pid-264895/ Bacon themed gift set (LOL even includes bacon soap) : http://online.findgift.com/gift-ideas/pid-315123/ Flying Pig Pint Glasses and Pitcher set: http://best.findgift.com/gift-ideas/pid-303856/ ETA: Bacon flavored lollipops lol: http://best.findgift.com/gift-ideas/pid-315137/

As someone who has never tried anything but Weight Watchers ever, I think I need something different. I actually ordered the book (it's coming tomorrow) and I think I'm going to give it a try after Thanksgiving!

Still no response other than a supportive one from one person who is great about showing up to things and also runs another group of her own and has had a similar problem. zaichiki, I actually agree with you. I really don't have an interest in charging deposits per event, even free ones, to get people to show up. It's more of a hassle than I want to deal with, and it's not the kind of "motivator" I want to use. I want people to show up because they want to show up and I want people to just enjoy the group and the events and each other. And I think for the most part we do. We've got a lot of really nice families, and I go out of my way to make new families feel welcome and part of the group, and I put a lot of my time into planning and organizing fun events. Sometimes things like this happen and I get frustrated. But I'm not willing to tell people they have to start paying in advance for every event. We have multiple events a week, it'd be ridiculous for me to keep track of even if I wanted to...which I don't! :P

I don't just "expect" things to get done. I ask specific people to do specific things, and they will do it. Much easier than letting the house fall apart and resenting that nobody did anything.

But my husband DOES "co-parent" the kids. He just doesn't "co-teach" the kids. He has his own business and doesn't say "There's no way I would want to be with someone who doesn't want to co-run my business!" No, he has his niche, and I have mine. He runs his business. I teach the kids. We parent the kids together- bedtime routines, play, discipline, conversations, celebrations and so on and so forth, everything that goes on outside of school and outside of my husband's work hours. But we do not teach them together when it comes to our official school day, nor would I want it to be like that. I have my routine and way of doing things, and I like it that way. He does finance our homeschooling and that is certainly enough of a contribution for me. He is also willing to pitch in with certain hands on activities that leave me going "huh?" All I have to do is ask. But I have no interest in him taking over certain subjects or helping me teach this, that or the other thing on a daily basis. (Of course if he had a burning desire to do so I couldn't refuse to let him, but he doesn't. Instead, he'd rather share his hobbies with the kids. And this is why my daughter knows tons about his 90 gallon coral reef set up and learns how to do balloon animals with him for fun and is going to start doing glass-blowing with him, for example....)

I don't know where you are, but here in PA where I live, I wouldn't have to discuss it further with them at all. I would have to mail in the necessary documentation (Affidavit, objectives etc) certified mail to the Superintendent's office, or drop it off there in person), and once I'd done that, I simply wouldn't send my daughter back to school. And that would be that. You don't have to justify yourself to them or "talk them into it." You've made your decision and no further conversation is necessary. Tell them politely but firmly, "No thanks, we've made our decision," and that's the end of it. Good luck! (ETA: When I pulled my daughter out, it was mid year. I emailed my daughter's teacher only because I did like her and wanted her to know that in this case it wasn't her, it was just a bunch of other things, but that I wanted to give her a heads up that Alexa's last day would be such and such a date. Other than that, I dropped my paperwork off with the superintendent, and when the date came, she just didn't go to school that day. There were no in person meetings or phone calls or people trying to persuade me, and you don't have to do that stuff either)!

Occasionally for me, also. And, ironically, the word misspell. Heh.

Your sister sounds lovely. Is she this supportive in all areas of your life? You can homeschool your children successfully as far as you want to homeschool them! Really. You can. You don't have to know everything. What you have to be willing and able to do is a combination of the following. Learn with them. Learn a step ahead of them. Show them where and how to find the information they need- be that library, internet, books, local resources. Outsource if and when needed. (This may mean getting a tutor, letting them take a class, using a DVD course, talking to someone more knowledgeable, or whatever the case may be- and, really, I don't even mean this for elementary school because I doubt it would be necessary then. This is probably more relevant if you decide to go past that). Use teacher's manuals. Care about them. I think you'll be fine. Don't let her put doubt in your head. Especially now with children as young as yours. Have fun with them and enjoy the process of watching them learn and enjoy life. Some people are just anti-homeschooling in general (often with zero knowledge of homeschooling) and will jump on any excuse, real or imagined, to tell you what a horrible idea it is. You don't have to accept that, however. Next time she opens her mouth, inform her that you have made a personal choice for your family which is not up for discussion and that if she doesn't have anything nice to say about it, she shouldn't say anything at all.

So far, I have not had any responses to my email. I just hope people read it and take it to heart. I don't really understand why this is such an issue across the board for so many homeschoolers, as evidenced by the responses here as well as experiences I've had in the past! I know some of you have suggested making events prepay only or charging a deposit or something...I know from experience that I'd be wasting my time. You should see the hassle we go through trying to collect dues on time from people...multiple emails, reminders, warnings, etc, which has even resulted in removing some members in the past. We do very few pre pay events and even then it's a constant chasing people down trying over and over to collect on it...those types of things are almost more hassle than they are worth. I don't want to stop organizing this group because my kids and I both enjoy many of the opportunities and interactions it enables us to have, but it's definitely frustrating when situations like this occur. It used to be worse...a couple of years ago, the group used to be much smaller, only 12-15 families, and when several families inevitably backed out of an event last minute due to sickness, car troubles, realizing that they'd "overscheduled" that week and needed down time or whatever the case was, we'd be left with pretty much nobody attending other than 1 or 2 families. If it was just a field trip to a place we could go to on our own, we'd go anyway. But if it was a tour or talk that involved somebody "leading" our group, we'd have to cancel. Now our group has grown to like 34 families so most of the time when "a few" families back out, there are still enough to have an event anyway. But today just fell apart altogether and really irritated me because first there were the families that backed out last minute due to this that and the other thing, cutting the original RSVP's in half, and then to top it off, half of the families who were left just didn't show up or call or anything. That was SO frustrating and embarrassing! And those wonderful librarians were SO nice about it, and did the program for the three kids anyway. I do love my library. I do already have it in my group's "About" page/policies section about how RSVP's should be treated like other commitments etc and it does mention something about how repeated no shows can result in removal from the group but apparently an email reminder needed to go out and I just hope it works! (I really don't want to have to kick anybody out and do everything I possibly can to avoid doing so but would do it if I had to if the same thing happened with the same member over and over...and one of the families today, this was the second time this has happened with her).

Well, that was enough validation for me! lol. Sent! Thank you! :D

I am about to send this email out to my whole homeschool group (I'm the organizer of the group and the one who set this event up). Yes, I'm irritated and want to get a point across, but I don't want it to seem like I'm singling people out or lecturing people unnecessarily. So would you send it or wouldn't you? --- Subject: Please Treat Your RSVPs Like Any Other Commitment!!! I have to say, today's library program was pretty embarrassing for me. We had 17 kids and their parents signed up and two librarians taking time out of their work day to do this program for our group. Within a couple of days of the event, several families dropped out for various reasons, putting us from 17 kids to 9 kids attending. I contacted the head reference librarian this morning to let her know that we'd only have 9 kids attending instead of the scheduled 17 and that if that was still okay with them, we'd still be there. As it turned out, only my family (two kids) and one other family (one kid) attended. The other families with the six other kids between them never showed up. And, unfortunately, this is not the first time such a thing has happened with our group, so I feel that this needs to be said to everybody: Being a "no show" is NOT ACCEPTABLE. Nice as they were about it, I felt as if I had totally wasted those librarians' time today. If I had known only three kids would show up (and one of them only six years old), I would have just rescheduled the tour instead of leaving two librarians standing around waiting to see if their scheduled group was going to be there, while I made frantic phone calls ten minutes after a scheduled tour time to try to find out where people were and if they were coming. It was an awkward situation and not fair to the librarians or to me. I understand that things come up, people get sick, cars break down, or whatever the case may be. But generally speaking, an RSVP should be treated like any other appointment or commitment you have. You should make every effort to attend events you RSVP to, and if you cannot attend an event you RSVP'd to, you should go on the site and change your RSVP and/or call one of the organizers and let us know, as far in advance as possible. Unless it is the direst of emergencies and you have no other choice in the matter, please do NOT just leave people hanging around waiting for you at an event you have no intention of showing up to. There are times we delay starting a tour or program to give everyone a chance to get there, and if you're not coming, we waited for no reason. And there are times when not enough people are attending to make an event worthwhile and it is best to reschedule, as was the case today, and if you're not coming AND don't call or change your RSVP, then we do not have the opportunity to do so. Thank you for your understanding, Your Organizer

I'm with you!

Wow! You are really NICE! I've never even heard of a landlord doing anything like this. :)

Oh, I'm sure they are all different, but in my experience my two girls were VERY "easy" babies/toddlers/young children" and my son has been quite the handful. They slept through the night between 6 and 8 weeks of age, he still wakes up at night at 6 years of age (only he finally doesn't wake ME up anymore and just comes and lays down on my floor at some point in the middle of the night lol). They were easygoing babies who were happy whether you held them or put them down, he was a baby who CONSTANTLY wanted to be held and nursed and got mad when put down up until he was able to move around on his own. Then he was less grumpy about it. They took nice long naps, he took catnaps. They were calm toddlers and preschoolers who liked to cuddle, hear stories and would sit and color and so on, he's all movement and motion and barely stays still for a cuddle and is only pretty recently willing to sit down and listen to stories for any length of time and so on. Then again...I know other families with boys who are just as calm and snuggly and content as my girls were. So, you never know! :D

Not a bumper sticker but a vinyl decal my husband made me of my homeschool group's logo which is the outline of a house with an open book for the roof and a pencil making the bottom line of the house. It's got the name of my homeschool group above it and the slogan "Living Is Learning" below it. So, yeah, that's on the back window of my car. P.S. I recently saw a bumper sticker on the car of one of the families in our group. They are unschoolers and it said something like: "My unschooler will rescue your honor student from the zombies" or some such.

Our group has each person who signs up bake 1/2 dozen cookies for each other person signed up. At our annual holiday party, we exchange them. We have people who are interested sign up on our meetup board in advance, and they post what kind of cookies they are going to make, though there are always a couple who don't decide til last minute. We do not include recipes (although I don't see why someone couldn't if they wanted to! I wouldn't make it an obligation, though). I'm not sure what to say about someone who has special dietary needs, though. We let each person bake whatever kinds of cookies they want to bake, we don't ask people to refrain from using certain ingredients or such and I think that would just get complicated. I don't have any dietary restrictions, allergies, etc, in my family, but if I did, I either would not participate or I would ask whatever questions I needed to ask so I could decide which cookies my family could eat and which they couldn't, and if there were some they couldn't eat, you could always pass them on to someone else lol.

I'm sitting at my computer and my just-turned-six-year-old son is on the floor behind me petting the cat. Next thing I know, I hear: Cat: Meeeooooowwwwwww! (She doesn't sound happy). Me: Ben! Leave the cat alone! Ben: "She's such a liar!" :lol:

Meetup.com!

Are you asking what happens when she's done with her schoolwork? She gets to do her own thing! When my 6th grader is done with school, she enjoys doing a great variety of things. Sometimes she goes outside with her little brother. Sometimes she likes to read, draw, do arts and crafts, work on a short story, write emails or write letters to family and friends, write in a journal. Sometimes she likes to practice knitting or asks to cook/bake something or plays a board game with her little brother. Sometimes she likes to watch TV, play video games, or play alone in her room. Sometimes she does chores, sometimes we do extra reading together for fun, or explore interactive websites. It varies.

Last year for 5th grade we used: Oak Meadow 5 (English, Social Studies, Science) Sentence Composing for Elementary School Teaching Textbooks 5 Handwriting Without Tears Can Do Cursive http://www.makingmusicfun.net (The Meet The Orchestra section) Plus weekly judo classes, Girl Scouts, and library book club, lots of extra reading together, and lots of field trips, outings and activities with our homeschool group.

A lot of games have "Junior" editions. My just-turned-six-year-old likes to play Monopoly, Jr. for example (ages 5-8). He also enjoys many of the Dr. Seuss games (The Grinch Sing Your Heart Out is hilarious and lots of fun and is a cooperative game which is nearly impossible to win but fun anyway), Memory games, Guess Who, Life, Connect 4, War and similar card games, Perfection, etc.

Well, I just did a quick Google on "homeschool groups in Orlando Florida" and found several lists and quite a few seem to be more "inclusive" rather than "fundamental" so you could look at those: http://homeschool.meetup.com/cities/us/fl/orlando/ http://www.home-school.com/groups/FL.html