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Rebecca VA

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Everything posted by Rebecca VA

  1. I'd call the police immediately. Jewelers know better than to lose pieces of jewelry. I wonder if your SIL mentioned to him that the ring was an heirloom and very old. This is very sad. Obviously your SIL is just oblivious to the importance of family heritage.
  2. Kindergarten isn't likely to help your son if he is profoundly gifted. The students there will be learning very basic things that your son may already know. Just wondering, why do you want him to go to kindergarten so badly? If he doesn't go there, would he have to go to preschool another year? If the doctor who evaluated him thinks your son is immature, you probably ought to believe him. Sometimes a child's brain can be focused on academics to the point that other things (like maturity, or social skills) suffer. The doctor probably sees hundreds of children each year and can identify which ones are mature for their age and which ones are immature.
  3. My daughter (now 16) used to be like this. I would have to explain things many times to her, in different ways. When we read together, I would make sure she understood each page or chapter before going on to the next. If she didn't understand, I'd draw pictures for her, or explain in different ways, or have her act out the story. I never quite figured out why she was like that. She didn't have auditory processing disorder. I used to think she just thought in concrete terms, with no imagination, because that's the way she presented herself. I also thought she had reading comprehension problems (though her scores on reading comprehension tests were sky-high). She has developed into an outstanding writer, and she is an excellent student overall. I suspect now that she has a working memory problem and has difficulty thinking "on her feet" (for example, she still has trouble holding conversations because she'll panic when it's time for her to say something). She works better in a relaxed setting than when she's under pressure.
  4. You said that "her eccentricities are overwhelming." Could you be more specific? Also, do you normally feel that she doesn't understand what you say to her? That will help pinpoint whether she was having a bad testing day or whether she needs help.
  5. This documentary: http://www.amazon.co...onardo da vinci is especially good, though it's very old. (I watched it on TV in high school back in the 1970s). I have watched it many times and always enjoy it. P.S. You might want to get the VHS version of it, if possible, because the reviews say the DVD version is heavily cut down and choppy. I have the VHS version, and it's just like the original TV presentation.
  6. This is so sad. We're so blessed to have had her with us.
  7. Co-sleeping -- I used to know a couple who accidentally smothered their baby during co-sleeping. Of course it was an accident, but they were devastated and never got over it. I would not co-sleep if my husband or I were heavy sleepers or overweight in general. I'd keep the baby in a portable crib next to my bed. Spanking -- I agree with your husband. Some children push the limits more than others. If I were you, I'd work out a compromise involving how severe the spankings are to be and under what circumstances they're to be used. You don't have to use the exact methods your in-laws used; you can create your own rules. I think it's wonderful that you're working through these issues now rather than making decisions on the fly once your baby arrives.
  8. How much time would she actually be spending with her classmates? Is it just an accountability/tutoring set-up? Do the kids really socialize with each other after school?
  9. On another thread (the one on note-taking during church), one poster mentioned that her auditory memory is poor and she needs to take notes to help her remember. Is this like auditory processing disorder? Would it cause symptoms of ADD? If anyone has experience or knowledge of this, I'd very much appreciate hearing about it!
  10. That poor girl needs someone to step in and tell her some plain truths her mother might not be able to say. If she is naive and poorly brought up, she needs to hear things expressed bluntly, though gently. Even if she doesn't seem accepting of what you have to tell her, she will think about it. You don't ever want her to say, "If only I'd known...if only someone had warned me."
  11. Once you've mastered very basic cooking techniques, you can make almost anything. You have to have good equipment and follow the recipe carefully. You also need to have excellent knives and know how to use them (this is very, very important, since a cook uses knives constantly). To answer the OP's question, I'd sit down with the novice cook and get a list of his/her favorite foods. Then I'd teach how to cook those things.
  12. We had that happen once! Close off the doors to every room to make sure the bat is contained in one area. Open the doors/windows to the area the bat is in. Hopefully, he will fly out. If he stays, eventually he will get tired and stop to rest. You might be able to catch him and transport him outside while he's resting. We had a baby bat in our house one night. Poor thing flew all over the house for an hour or so, then stopped and laid down in the playroom. I scooped him up with the top of a large plastic box and took him out. He continued to rest on the box top for a while, and eventually he flew away. He was so tiny.
  13. Bill -- I'm close to your age. I fondly remember roaming neighborhoods, visiting older people -- all the neighbors -- at home (WHAT ON EARTH was I thinking, that I'd just show up at people's houses, expecting them to entertain me??), and riding my bike everywhere, all day long. The adults I visited were extremely kind to me, inviting me in and showing me around their gardens and telling me stories about their grandchildren. This happened all the time, every day. But I cannot EVER remember going up close to someone's house and messing with their stuff without permission. I would have been terrified to do such a thing. And if I had damaged something, I would never have shown my face again anywhere where these people might see me and suspect that I'd done it. Also, when I was under five, I was not running wild. I clearly remember my mom telling me a story about a young child who had disappeared and never been seen again. She had tears in her eyes when she told that story. It wasn't until my mid-elementary years that I got more independent.
  14. The fence is not ours; it's in their yard. It's very old and has a gate right at the top off a small cliff (which means you have to climb down the moment you walk out the gate). There's no way we can put a fence up in our yard, with the way the yards meet. The pond is a tiny goldfish pond, about five feet around. It's about 18 inches deep. Not huge, but deep enough to drown in.
  15. Bill -- The issue is that they're destructive. They're not simply looking at the fish, they're throwing snacks to them and destroying electrical circuits. They stand on the top of the edge, leaning down to scoop things out. They don't engage in polite conversation when I come out; they run away. They ring people's doorbells and run off. (There are many elderly people in the neighborhood, and they don't need to be bothered that way.) They destroy plants. They don't respect the word "no." Other children in the neighborhood have polite manners, and their parents are well-known to everyone. (We have an especially friendly neighborhood with an active neighborhood group.) These children's parents moved in last year under a dark cloud, and they have not been eager to meet the neighbors. These are VERY YOUNG kids running wild, and their parents don't seem to know what they're doing. It's a safety and property rights issue. But I want to resolve it peacefully.
  16. Huge privacy issue. That's creepy. People should have an expectation of privacy in their own home. This reminds me of the wife of an employer I had, long ago. She would often come into the office to do bookkeeping. She kept a pair of binoculars handy so that she could look over at the apartment building across the street to see what the residents were up to. She didn't know them or anything; she was just a nosy person. Ick.
  17. Remember that the housewives of the 1950s were children during the Depression years. They were probably very used to being cold, and it didn't bother them as much as it bothers us. They had lots of heavy housework to do, and that probably kept them warm. As far as clothes, they wore lots and lots of layers.
  18. Maybe I could say: "I will have to call the police on your children, EVERY SINGLE TIME I see them in my yard. I can't have the liability for them if they get injured on the brick wall or fall into the fish pond." I'm sure the parents won't like it, but at least they will have been warned.
  19. The family who lives behind us has three young children, all six and under. Their parents work during the day as realtors. The children don't seem to be supervised well, and they have been known to ring doorbells and run away, go into people's yards and pick flowers, and generally make nuisances of themselves. I have never met the parents, nor have I had any conversation with the children. We have a fish pond in our backyard that seems to be irresistible to these children. I have caught them on several occasions climbing through the fence, down the brick wall, and into our yard. They take the net and scoop things in the pond, and throw their snacks to the fish. Earlier this week they pulled out some of the circuits for the lights and water filter, which my husband is going to have to replace. On the occasions -- not many, but a few times -- when I've caught them in the act, they ran away. My next-door neighbor says they have had endless trouble with this family. Apparently the parents are disliked because they bought their home under shady circumstances (from an elderly, vulnerable couple at far lower than the normal market value). The parents don't respond to complaints about their children. The children run wild and, while they're not deliberately destructive, they are thoughtless and damage plants and other property. What would you do? Calling the police or CPS seems a little over the top. I have not been able to catch the parents at home, but my next-door neighbor has talked to them unsuccessfully numerous times. I do plan to speak with them and let them know that I'm very serious about not wanting their children in my yard. What else can I say that won't inflame them? Sigh. This is a sweet, peaceful neighborhood, and I really hate to have ill feelings with anyone in it.
  20. I would tell my child *if* she were doing something wrong, something that really wasn't quite socially acceptable. Your daughter was only telling a cute little riddle. Don't burden her down and make her self-conscious when she didn't do anything wrong at all.
  21. I think the key phrase in the article is that the Tiger Parents had "relatively low educational attainment." If they weren't that smart to begin with, it's likely their children had to struggle in school also.
  22. Hope the OP's dog doesn't end up like Pep in this story! ;) http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2325538/How-Pep-dog-sentenced-life-prison-framed-killing-Pennsylvania-governors-beloved-cat.html
  23. I think you should have gone the potluck route. :) Then everyone would be guaranteed to have something they like.
  24. If you're going to talk to Girl A's mom, you need some proof that she's turning the other girls against yours. Do you have a list of quotes that she has said? What exactly is she doing to turn the other girls against yours? I totally believe you, but I know from experience that this situation can deteriorate very quickly, and the more "ammunition" you take into the conversation, the better you'll fare.
  25. Movie theater? Though she might have to handle food there.
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