Hm. Well....you have some things to consider and a few choices. Is this issue SO important to you, that your son not be taught these things, that you are going to take a stand no matter what, even if it means a parting of ways between you and your relatives? Before you decide that you should consider: Are they good parents/stepparents and grandparents in other ways? Does your son benefit from their presence and attention in other ways? You said he enjoys spending time with them. Is it worth cutting off the relationship entirely? Are their religious beliefs and teachings something you consider actually harmful and/or hateful, that can damage your son's thinking and ability to relate to people, or are their beliefs just different? That would definitely make a difference to me. You say this only happens occasionally. You say he enjoys being with her. You haven't mentioned any other problems with them that might tilt the scales in the direction of "cut ties!" So with all that said...as a non-religious, mostly secular Jew who now identifies as agnostic leaning toward atheist... I think that if all else were good with the family and I didn't want to cut ties, I would try to remind myself that they think they are doing good, and instead of confronting them (if I thought that would lead to very hurt feelings and a parting of ways rather than someone respecting my wishes), I MIGHT consider just being honest with my SON and telling him: Mommy and Daddy don't believe this. Grandma and Grandpa do. Sometimes they tell you things that they believe, because they feel that is the right thing to do. It's okay for you to learn about what other people believe, because you're going to meet a lot of different people with a lot of different beliefs your whole life. If you have questions about anything they tell you, you can ask me. And when you get older, you will decide for yourself what YOU believe. It's okay to go in that direction with this. Of course, if you feel more strongly about it, and you feel that you have to take a stand...that is okay, too. You're the parent. Good luck, either way!

Ah, okay...well glad you have gotten support! If you need somebody else let me know lol, I don't mind listening if you don't mind a non-religious listener! :) Hang in there, hope whatever it is gets better for you! :grouphug:

Can you give a clue as to the topic and/or if you want to talk to someone who has experience with a specific topic or someone who holds certain religious beliefs, etc?

lol...but it's a nice place to visit! :D Nance (who is originally from NY!)

My 11 year old daughter is currently involved with: Library book club (once every two to three weeks) Homeschool wilderness club (periodically, has only really been once a month or so) Girl Scouts (weekly; she did two years of Brownies, two years of Juniors, and is now in her first year as a Cadette) Guitar Lessons (once a week for a half hour) Homeschool Bowling League (once a week for a period of eight weeks; she's doing the fall league now which ends in December, and will do the winter/spring league starting around February) Judo (weekly class she's been attending on Saturdays at the Y for about a year now). She also does lots of field trips and outings with our homeschool group, and in the summer things like scouts and book clubs and bowling leagues fall by the wayside, and instead we do swimming lessons and art camps and host Fresh Air Fund children and such. As for hobbies, she likes to write, read, draw, do arts and crafts type stuff, and ride her bike and play with neighborhood friends, or play imagination games, she likes to help cook/bake, she's learning from her dad here and there how to do balloon animals, and she loves listening to music. My 6 year old son is currently involved with: Homeschool bowling league, with his sister The homeschool wilderness club, with his sister Youth indoor soccer at the Y (He just finished playing an outdoor season through the town and is now doing an indoor instructional league for fun). (He tried teeball last summer but would often get bored and just want to play with the dirt. Soccer has been much more of a hit as there isn't so much standing around and waiting)! He also does swim lessons and Montessori art camps here and there in the summer. As for hobbies, he loves to play computer and video games, board games, play outside with other kids. Toys, crafts and books are hit or miss, nothing that stands out as a big hobby with those things. (And then I have a special needs teen who attends a life skills school and is frequently involved in Special Olympic sports which requires me picking her up from school twice a week instead of her coming home on the bus.... yeah, I stay quite busy)!

Pennsylvania... An Affidavit and Proposed Educational Objectives at the start of the school year. Maintaining a log of reading materials and samples of work throughout the year while teaching required subjects and providing a specific number of days or hours of instruction. Hiring an evaluator at the end of each year to look over said items and receiving a letter or form from that evaluator stating that an appropriate education is being received. Submitting a "portfolio" which is to include that evaluator's letter, the reading material log, samples of work in all required subjects, a statement about "attendance" (ha.) etc. to the Superintendent of your local school district for review. And in grades 3, 5 and 8, one of the approved standardized tests must be administered and the results included in the portfolio shown to the evaluator and given to the school district. That pretty much sums it up in a nutshell. Way too regulated if you ask me and a bit of a pain in the butt, and some districts tend to push for things they aren't supposed to while others don't push for things they are supposed to get, and some argue about what the law means (like whether what I interpret as a log of reading materials actually means a log of daily instruction which is to be provided with a log of reading materials; the wording is confusing in the law so it's controversial here) so it's all a bit of a headache, really. But once you've been through the process once you realize "Okay, that wasn't so bad, I can do this." (I say this because even though I don't think PA has the best home ed laws, I would never want to discourage someone in PA from homeschooling or cause them to be too intimidated to try)! ETA: One good thing about PA is that for the most part compulsory school age doesn't start until age 8. I would REALLY dislike if all this reporting stuff had to start in Kindergarten!

That it's okay to relax a little. Enjoy life. Academics are important, but they aren't everything. There's a whole lot of world out there. :)

Yeah, starting that thread was kind of pointless and immature. If the "famous" person in question wanted to come forth as some sort of role model, they would. If they wanted to maintain their privacy, then what was the point of that thread, other than to tease everyone else? And who even cares anyway, some people seem to fixate on "celebrities" a bit too much (in general I mean, not in this thread).

Because standardized tests focus on math and language arts, not social studies and science. If you want to make sure you're covering all the bases, don't look to public schools. They're only covering standardized testing for the most part. Just keep doing what you're doing and following your kid's interests as much as possible. I'm sure you are already providing a well rounded education, something even the best public school teachers are no longer permitted to do. Sad.

Last year, our first year using TT, we used TT5 with no supplementing (except for doing the Times Tales video and playing Timez Attack). This year, we are doing TT6 and are also using Life of Fred one time per week for fun. I had just thought it sounded cool with the story format and wanted to see if my daughter would enjoy it. So far she does. If she decided she didn't, I'd drop it and just use TT.

I'm saying this gently, but if she's only 6 and you've already tried six or more different methods for teaching her to read, I wouldn't say you've tried a "laid back approach"- I'd say you're really stressing over this, and by default probably stressing her over this, and, really, she's only 6. There's no harm in just dropping it for now. Read to her for fun if she wants you to. If she asks you what a word is or how to spell it, tell her. Play board or computer games for young children for fun that incorporate some learning of letters/language IF she enjoys it, all while NOT making a big deal or fuss over learning to read. Wait til she's 7 or so and then try again. There's a whole school of thought that waiting until around age 8 or so makes the process go MUCH more smoothly as they're more ready to grasp it, and that not long after that, you wouldn't ever be able to tell if that child learned to read at 4 or 6 or 8. Even if you don't fully proscribe to its beliefs, you might want to read a book called "Better Late Than Early" just for some perspective. And then relax. She's 6. But, of course, this is coming from a more relaxed homeschooler to begin with. :)

It depends on the child, I guess. My 6 year old son (turned 6 this month) would NEVER have an interest in or attention span for most of it. Sure, he might like some of the picture books recommended for supplemental reading but the text would be way over his head, he wouldn't sit for any of the longer books as he's kind of wiggly, he doesn't like to color, we're still learning to read so he couldn't find things on the map on his own, and hands on/artistic projects are hit or miss with him. And I wouldn't expect him to really retain the vast majority of it so it would seem pointless/a waste of time, to me. I started SOTW1 with my daughter when she was 8 1/2 and it went great. She just turned 11 and we're still using it. And still enjoying it. She loves the projects, the coloring, most of the supplemental books, understands what we're reading in the text, and while even she doesn't really retain specific names and dates and so on much of the time, she gets the main point and certainly retains a heck of a lot more than a 4, 5 or 6 year old could. In my opinion/experience, SOTW would be good for a kid at the 2nd-3rd or even 4th grade level and I couldn't imagine it being all that great for a K or first grader... but then lots of the responses here say otherwise, so it depends on your children!

Mine, too! My daughter went to public school initially, for K through most of 3rd. She was the youngest in her class with a b-day on the (then) Oct. 1st cutoff date. I wouldn't have sent her that year and would have waited another year if I'd known what it would be like. Homeschooling wasn't even on my radar then, but I at least would have delayed her entrance to school by a year. Because I envisioned a K experience more like mine. I didn't know she would have to sit still at a desk for hours, and that she'd only get a 15 minute recess, but that she'd often "lose" some or all of it as a punishment for talking too much in the classroom. I didn't know they had "silent lunches" so they could hurry out to that 15 minute recess (if they hadn't already lost it), so they could get back to doing those worksheets, so they could be "prepared" for the standardized tests to come a few years down the road. I didn't know she'd bring home homework in Kindergarten, with the school intruding even into our limited family and personal time. That they expected such developmentally inappropriate things from five year olds as sitting, sitting, sitting, quietly, for hours on end for fifteen minutes of play they were lucky to get. Still, she managed to get through the year with her bubbly nature pretty intact and did her best, though she didn't always succeed, to do what was expected of her. My son on the other hand, he's all boy. He likes to move. He's way more wiggly than she was. If HE was in Kindergarten right now? He'd be miserable. They'd probably call him a behavior problem, ADD, who knows what. And he's not. He's a normal just-turned-six-year-old-boy who thankfully I didn't send to public school K, because it's a miserable experience. I'm so glad that I made the decision to homeschool a few years ago and that he at least gets the benefit of a not-so-academic Kindergarten at home with lots and lots of play time. Play is a child's work, and this is not a trivial pursuit. -Alfred Adler

:iagree:

That makes me crazy. It's the stupidest thing I've ever heard. It used to be that K was just about learning to be in a classroom setting with other kids and a teacher who wasn't your parent, and you played a lot and moved around a lot and did fun things, and the academics could wait until 1st grade. What the heck was wrong with that?! It worked fine for me! Now, Kindergarten is very academic because they have their eye on the standardized test results the second they get their eye on your kid for the very first time, and they feel like they have to 'prepare' kids for 1st grade. So our five year olds who attend public school get to spend hours and hours sitting at desks doing worksheets. Ugh. And just when you thought things couldn't get any worse than that, now they make academic PRESCHOOLS to "prepare" kids for Kindergarten. :banghead: So much for childhood. I'm afraid to find out what comes next. You know, when the kids need to be "prepared" for preschool. I'd find a new preschool if I were you.

Hm, I happen to have this one sitting on one of my bookcases. Maybe we'll read it this coming week, since I am doing this challenge with my 11 y/o daughter!

Well, there are times when my husband (who, I admit, cooks more often than I do and is a better cook) makes something that I just happen to ENJOY eating (fill in the blank) on. It might be ketchup or gravy or A1 or sour cream or extra salt, or whatever the case may be. If I put it on it's because I LIKE adding that flavor, not because I DON'T like what he made. Every now and then he acts a little offended and it makes me nuts that he would take it so personally or that I should have to feel awkward about eating my food the way I enjoy it. So, I had to go with "You are being silly, Mrs. Mungo." Sorry. :D

I'm married to a tattoo artist. So, er, yeah. :D

You know, if somebody came to my house and stole my stuff, I'd be upset. I'd feel violated and angry that somebody took something that belonged to me, and I'd miss the thing that was stolen which would make me feel sad/bad. This response within myself tells me, "Stealing is wrong. It makes people feel bad. Therefore, you shouldn't steal from others." (That plus I wouldn't want to go to jail and my knowledge and common sense tells me that's what happens to people who steal. :P) My point is, I didn't need some supernatural, invisible "entity" outside of the universe to tell me that. I determined it for myself. As a feeling, thinking human being and as an informed member of society bound to its laws. I can say the same thing for a lot of other situations. If it does harm, causes pain and suffering or people to feel bad, which I can determine by reason, logic, experience, and/or empathy, it's wrong. By my OWN inner moral code (and sometimes by that of society/law), not some outside supernatural entity's, the very idea of which some people find absurd and fantastical but have enough respect and empathy to keep that thought to themselves, rather than insulting or belittling someone else's beliefs (it sure would be nice if non-religious folk were afforded the same respect). I don't even get why someone would have to explain this. It's just common sense to me. And it's insulting and presumptuous and downright irritating to be told (or to have someone insinuate) that you can't possibly know the difference between right and wrong unless you believe in "God" or a certain religion. What nonsense. Don't tell me what I believe or what I base my moral convictions on when you don't even know me. Everyone has their own inner moral code. Some people attribute theirs to religion. Some to their upbringing. Some to an inner conscience that they were just born with. Some to their experiences, which taught them how to treat others based on how they would want to be treated. But in the end, regardless of where we think our moral code came from, we all have an one and we all follow it and actively choose what we think is right or wrong and how we want to act in a given situation, regardless of our religious beliefs or lack thereof. That's why we are all so different. Even those of you who are of the same religion have very different beliefs as to what is right and what is wrong in many situations. (For example, some Christians are respectful and tolerant of homosexuality, and others condemn it- yet you're both Christians). In the end, we have to be able to sleep with ourselves at night and feel good about ourselves and how we acted that day. And of course we have to do what we have to do to keep ourselves from being arrested- following the laws of man and society. And it is our logic and our personal moral codes that determine this. And yep that makes for a wide range of beliefs and actions, good and bad,...as evidenced in the world...the secular world AND the religious world. That's why an atheist like me might donate to charity, host underprivileged children in her home each summer, treat people as she would want to be treated, refrain from doing things she considers illegal/immoral.... and on the flip side god-believing Christians like the Pearls might beat their babies, and Christian cultists might have sex with the twelve year old girls they force to marry them.... I mean, truthfully, there are plenty of "Christians" out there who do things that are horribly appalling to me as a human being...not a religious human being, not as a Christian human being...just as a human being. Appalling. Things I would NEVER do. And yet they believe they get their "morals" from God and I don't believe that's where I get mine. Kind of funny, when you think about it. Of course, I know some wonderful Christians who I am happy to call friend and consider good people. And I know some wonderful atheists, too. And I know some Christians who make me utterly cringe with their horrid words and deeds and beliefs. In the end...Christian, atheist, other, it doesn't matter. We all choose what WE think is right or wrong. It doesn't matter what we attribute it to or don't attribute it to in our own heads, but I will NEVER accept someone else telling me that I have to be religious to be "moral," especially when there's a whole lot of immoral behavior going on out there in the very name of religion. And you know, I usually avoid topics like this like the plague because I really DON'T want to offend anyone because of their personal beliefs... but more than one person on this board today has offended ME because of mine, so sometimes you just have to say what you have to say.

You don't have "responsibilities" toward your friends at all. Your responsibility is your family. And yourself. Period. You see them when you can see them. If you can't, they should understand. If they get snippy about it and/or stop calling you, then maybe you're just growing apart...sometimes that happens. At the current time, I have very few non-homeschool friends and see those people rarely, here and there, when I can. They're understanding about it. Others, we've just drifted.

I can't just pick one. I organize a homeschool group in my county and I'm extremely active in it, so I get a lot of support there. I belong to a yahoo email group for homeschoolers in my state and I get support there, as well. Of course, I also visit this forum almost every day and get a lot of support here. My family and some of my non-homeschooling friends are also supportive, and there are other websites that aren't "forums" per se but which I consider as being supportive.

What a presumptuous crock of sh**. :glare: Just when I thought people couldn't get any more ridiculous... they do.

:iagree: :grouphug:

I appreciate your thoughts. I was not raised in the Christian religion as a child and I'm not particularly religious as an adult. Yet I still consider myself pretty moral. I believe that you should treat others as you would want to be treated and make an effort to treat people kindly and to help others when and where you can. I donate money and/or food from time to time for charity. I take my kids on walks to clean up litter just because. We recycle. We host Fresh Air Fund kids in the summer. I'm faithful to my spouse and raise my children with love and guidance and don't hit them. I don't steal or cause harm to others. I do or don't do these things based on internal conviction, not based on thoughts of eternal life or hell- I don't believe in those things. I teach my children manners, respect, to help others, to be tolerant and non judgmental of people who are different. We don't discriminate against people of other religions, sexual preferences, races, etc. We live and let live. We stand up for others. I'm not a perfect person- who is? But I do my best to be what I consider a good person, and I admit it makes me a little nuts to encounter an attitude that implies that if I don't subscribe to someone else's religious beliefs, I can't possibly be as good or moral or whatever as they are and that I'd probably contaminate their kids or something with my secularism.

:lol: