burfield1mom's comments

Bill To Make Spanking A Crime Dropped - Blog Entry

18 Mar 2007 02:13 PM

This is so crazy that CA is the one that proposed this bill considering one of the worst public cases of child abuse went undetected for years. Dave Peltzer has a story that would rock some peoples minds. They need to evaluate the resources that they have to patrol these things before they propse crazy laws. There is a difference betweeen disiplining your chils and child abuse; there is also a very fne line in the two.

Homeschool Glossary (words homeschoolers should know) - H-I - Blog Entry

18 Mar 2007 02:06 PM

Andrea I'm so glad to see that someone else see's that holistic is a way of life. I try to keep our family 100% natural, it's hard in a very superficial world!

Reason I am Glad I Homeschool: School Decisions - Blog Entry

02 Mar 2007 01:33 PM

Andrea, I think that sometimes when schools believe that they are doing the best they can do to prepare for emergencies they tend to become commandos. Yesterday I was on the way out the door to take my dad to a doctors appt when I caught wind of the local public schools closing. My first reaction was to go get my 14 year old nieces from school (private). When I called the school they were not going to release school early, so what! My sister is an hour away at work - what could she do if something were to happen? I proceeded to get my nieces who are 5 min's away from me, by the time I got there they had decided to close school early. Thankfully our weather was very mild yesterday in comparison to last year when tornado's shredded the neighboring communities. I can not comprehend how a school can determine that you will be locked out, or that you can't get your child if you feel that they are unsafe. In all honesty if you were to loose a child do to a judgment call by a school who would ultimately pay the price?

5 Advantages to a Christian School - Blog Entry

27 Feb 2007 12:37 AM

Amy - I agree with your points about Christian schools completely. As a very active leader in a Christian School and having had my daughter in public school and a Christian Elementary school, there are some things to be aware of. Sometimes children are placed in a Christian school as a last hope. When all else has failed they are pulled from public schools and placed in a Christian environment. While this sounds great for those of us that raise our children in a Christ centered home everyday some of these children are not Christians nor are their parents. I know no one will believe in Christ until they are shown, and the unchurched need to have the doors opened for them. This is a conversation that I have with many of my friends on a regular basis. With all this being said here are some of the things I have learned to ask from any Christian school. 1) Along with daily textbook material will there be someone to minister with my children if need be? 2) What types of students is the school accepting? (drug users, teen pregnancy, offenders, etc.) 3) What type of spiritual instruction will be available to my child outside of the classroom. While someone reading this may say "Oh no that doesn't happen!" Yes it does!

How Twins Form Their Own Identity - Blog Entry

25 Feb 2007 11:43 AM

Valorie, I am so glad that you have written this article. My sister is a single mother with twin daughters who are now 14. Even when they were first born people tried to make this distinction of how they needed to be different. Because my sister is a single parent and her ex lives out of state I have very active in their lives because my sister has to work. I know that when the girls were little they loved to dress alike and do the same things. They are very close in every way possible even now as they get older. A few moths back the flu hit all of us very hard and in order to get everyone well we shuffled kids back and forth to moms, sis, and my house. The ones who had not gotten sick yet stayed at my sisters, the ones who were sick stayed at my house, and once they got over it they went to moms. There were about 3 days when the girls were separated from one another and it drove them crazy. People need to realize that most twins' grow up being best friends, and sometimes see themselves in one another. I have experienced that as they have gotten older that they do not want that label. They want to be called by their own names. I have in-fact had to sit down with the athletic director at their school and request that he stop calling the two of them the "twins". While it is a novelty to many, there are those of us that realize they have their own names. They both have their own personalities and relationships with different people. When they feel its time if they ever do it is their choice to lead separate lives, have different styles, and different friends. It should be looked at no different than if you had and older sister and you wanted to dress like her. Look at how many families are out there that have several children that they buy the same clothes for their kids of different ages and people say how cute.

Am I Prepared for the Ritalin Debate? - Blog Entry

24 Feb 2007 11:29 PM

My daughter who is now in 5th grade struggled horribly in school, both public and private. She’s calm, not hyper, very sensitive, wants to please everyone, loves to learn, she just couldn’t focus. It all started in kindergarten when her teacher asked me to take her to the pediatrician to see if she needed Ritalin. In the last 2 years here is what I have found. I was told about a pediatric ophthalmologist that specialized in kids that were thought to have learning or behavioral problems. I thought this was a crazy approach, until I started reading the studies and the, signs & symptoms. http://www.add-adhd.org/ . After seeking the help of an ophthalmologist trained in this we started seeing results. After this I purchase a book that my neighbor of mine whom home schooled told me about, â€Å"Discover Your Child's Learning Styleâ€Â� By: Mariaemma Willis M.S. . Come to find out my daughter learned better when she could be hands on and have music going in the background.

I feel your heartache! I can’t tell you how many hours I have spent crying, angry, confused, desperate, frustrated, and just ready to give up. I’m not saying that this is the answer for your son, but it was a step to finding an answer for my daughter. Things are so much quieter in our house now. Since then we are homeschooling this year, and not one tear to date, neither her or I.

Momma's Can Be Wrong! - Blog Entry

22 Feb 2007 11:51 AM

My son is a Christmas lover! We watch Christmas movies all year long. Infact he had a small artificial Christmas tree in his room with his green lights. IT'S STILL UP! We aredecorating it now with his baseball hats and shamrocks. Everytime he wants something he ask "Do really think Santa can bring that to me before Christmas?" I love the fact that he "believes" but its time to get the 12 Dogs of Christmas out of my cd player for my sanity.

Dating Tips for the Single Mom - Blog Entry

22 Feb 2007 08:50 AM

I love the fact that you made an outline on this subject. Dating is the hardest thing after a divorce with children. I am trying to drill these same things in my ex-husbands head right now. He is now a 2 time divorcée. With no children by his second marriage. He dates like he's 17 y/o. My daughter is 10 and gets angry at the fact when she goes to his house that she never knows what "girlfriend" will be there. She told me one day he's like the ice cream store he has so many flavors. I do have one thing to add to this. When you date - your children watch. If you are promiscuous, you are teaching your children that this is OK. Would you want your children to follow in the same dating pattern that you are exposing them to?

"Did Somebody Dial 911?" - Blog Entry

22 Feb 2007 08:43 AM

I am always so glad to know that crazy things happen to people other than myself. When my daughter was @ a year old and starting to get into everything we had a similar occurrence. My ex-husband is a firefighter and his friends at the hall were always playing pranks on me by making phone calls saying they were the 911 dispatcher. So one day my phone rang and a man on the other end said "Hello ma'am we had a 911 call that was disconnected. We are sending an officer to your house to make sure everything is in order." Dumb me thought it was on of the guys from the fire hall and replied with some very sarcastic comebacks. The man on the other line was getting quite frustrated with me about the time my doorbell rang. Uh-Oh my daughter had dialed 911 with her newly developed motor skills. I wanted to crawl under the front door rug. Where we live the have to come in and look over your house. I was mortified. Not a week later we were outside at my parents house in the country and we see a Sheriff's car flying up their long drive way. Once again the toddler bandit had struck again. It still amazes me how when you watch babies when they hold a phone in their hand how their little fingers fit so perfectly on the numbers 9 & 1.

Preparing for Standardized Tests - Blog Entry

21 Feb 2007 08:47 PM

Thanks Andrea for the tips. I also posted a reply about some of the learning problems that we have had in the past on the original blog. By the time that you had a chance to answer I had already headed to the Parent Teacher store. I ended up purchasing the Spectrum program. Our state requires that we be under a church umbrella or have to go directly threw the local school district (and a 30 page application). The local school district is a joke; the adults are terrified of the students and the Super that’s a whole other subject. But due to the fact that we have to go this route we go to a testing center (church) where other homeschoolers take the same test. Its not until they reach 9th grade that they don't have to use the umbrella of a church, but they can go to a local private school and register with them, this also helps so they can take onsite classes if they need for the more advanced subjects.