WOOT! THANKS A MILLION!

I disagree that college is becoming more essential. If anything, I think it is less so. Forget that our culture has (pseudo) professional-ized everything from bookkeeping to aerobics instructing. There are jobs being invented by forward-thinkers faster than even our overbearing governmental entities can regulate them. While the whole well-rounded college experience does have some value, young adults are increasingly employed outside their degree fields. Case in point -  a kiddo I used to coach (from age 10-17) took off to a good state school on a fully-funded premed scholarship. FF 3yrs & where is he? Dropped out in his junior year to go be a music selection manager for a trendy retail clothing chain. YES! The skinny, kind of twitchy smart kid makes 6 figures selecting the music all the cool kids will be downloading to their ipods a week after they go school shopping. Who the heck even knew there was such a job? Definitely not his parents, who are still scratching their heads, trying to figure out why their brainiac son wears flipflops to the office & turns in expense reports for time spent in night clubs where he cannot yet order adult beverages, invests in rental properties, but lives in their garage. When it comes down to it, I would much rather have a kid like that...happy,creative, relaxed & financially comfortable (though not in my garage) than a kid who thinks he has to stay in a certain career even though he is bored to tears just because they spent 6yrs & $100k+ getting a master's in that field.

Even my multi-degreed hubby is fond of saying: "Learning is mandatory; school is optional."

We use our own domain, too. If you can get your last name or other inexpensive domain that makes sense, it will usually come with a fixed number of email accounts in the price, so you (as the domain owner) can access all the email accounts. We like GoDaddy for that kind of stuff.

I'm in! Totally open. Tell me which countries you want me to do.

Hi. We have been using some of the Doman materials since our son (a preemie) came home. Have had a lot of transitions along the way, so we are not as far along as I would like after almost 2.5yrs. I would love to connect with some other moms of little ones who do EL. (As some of you have probably experienced, mentioning EL in some circles is likely to make one unpopular.)

Wow! I am really surprised to see all the negative comments. Our (now former) pediatrician warned against them, too, but a relative bought one for our son, anyway. Once he got tall enough to reach to ground, I put his sneakers on & turned him loose in our carpet-free single-story house. It was fabulous! He loved being able to follow me around the house & quickly learned to navigate corners, hallways & even the transition between the hardwood & slate floors. Pretty soon, he was mostly using it for balance & standing up kind of dragging it along as he ran through the house. It was hilarious fun for him because he could keep up with the dogs or come in the kitchen to sample whatever I had on the chopping board. He got to be "part of the action" much more fully than if he had been limited to creeping or scooting. Now, I did not use it as a "babysitter" or leave him in it except for relatively brief intervals when he was content to be there, but I really cannot see how it could possibly have harmed him. It was not nearly so confining as the many other items people put their babies in...playpens, swings, jumpers. He walked fully on his own by about the one-year mark & does not have any back or leg problems. I would definitely use it again.

Check out hslda.org (Home School Legal Defense Association). They have a listing of support groups in every state, many US territories & military installations. We participate with our local group in park days & field trips (such as a fire house, zoo, arboretum & various museums). The group also organizes sports teams, performing arts lessons, book clubs & crafting classes. Once you get connected to a good group, your son will have no trouble finding enough friends.
 

The really crazy part about the Romeikes is that they have ALREADY been granted amnesty by the courts. It is almost unheard of for an AttyGen to attempt to deport someone who has already been granted amnesty unless they are determined to threaten national security or something. This is a very personal vendetta by the current administration. It is anyone's guess why they are doing this...to curry favor with the German PM maybe? Who knows?!

If you care to, go to whitehouse.gov & sign the petition.

Awesome.

  Those are the moment when I think, "Yeah, I'm doing it 'right'." 

Had a couple of my own "moments" at the zoo a few weeks back. The best one was when a group of elem school kids were arguing over the name of an animal (before their teacher read the sign to them). Most agreed it was a zebra, a couple thought it was a horse & one was certain it was some kind of "freaky dog". Nearly died of mommy happiness when my two year old stood up in his stroller, pointed & yelled (with the excitement only a toddler can muster) "Ooh, ooh! Okapi!"

Stay strong! You are the parents, & even if it could e unequivocally proven that the lack of vaccine allowed him to become sick, it is still your right to decide to take that risk. This is no different than allowing your child to get in a car with a friend's mom or buying his a skateboard...he might get hurt in any case, but he probably won't &, if he does, he'll probably be okay!

Our son (a preemie) received a couple of shots...before he was "ours" legally. In one case, the pediatrician flat-out LIED to me. In another, she basically threatened not to sign his medical for the adoption agency if I did not allow a pneumonia shot. Stupidly, I allowed it. My son's leg swelled to the size of his waist, & my happy little bundle degenerated into a red-faced screamer for 3 solid days. (Thankfully, that was the worst of it!) After that, I found a new doc for him. I still get automated calls from the pediatrics clinic reminding me that our son (2) is overdue for his 12month vaccines! HAHA! They are relentless! I have called repeatedly and told them he is no longer their patient.

One thing we have started to do recently is to just "circle the wagons". We just made a decision to keep our family life (mostly) inside the family. With the exception of discussions with like-minded families (like here), we just don't talk much about early learning, vaccines, our fairly conservative Christian practices, etc. Our son's health, happiness & actions speak for themselves. People still "know" we are "weird", but they really have nothing to nag or gossip about. And before anyone asks...NO, we are not ashamed or "trying to hide something". We just decided that not everyone needs to know our business. Now, the more our son talks, I am sure he will talk about his "picture cards" or whatever. That is just fine with us. I can't imagine even the snippiest of old bitty relatives coming down on a two year old that knows the difference between a zebra & an okapi!

 You seem to be really critical of yourself. Please, for your own sake & your son's, let go of some of the stress you are placing on yourself. Your son RAN at 10mos, yet mine didn't walk on his own until 14mos, & we have only started to scratch the surface of the toilet training issue. It may sound cliche, but every child really is unique & boys really are different than girls. As the mother of a grown son & a toddler son, I will share a couple of things I learned with the older one (adopted at 15yrs, but functioning at age 7yrs, as a result of neglect):

1. Read TO him, even if he is hanging upside down off of his bed, picking his nose with one hand & throwing Hot Wheels at the ceiling fan. A much older mother of 8 told me this when our older son arrived, & I thought she was insane, but reading to him allowed him to hear much more interesting stories than he was capable of digesting on his own. Once he realized what "cool" stuff could be found in books, he quickly decided to pick some of his own books to read & became perfectly content to read aloud to us or read silently...which leads to my second point:

2. Most little kids' books are LAME, BORING, PREACHY, SAPPY or otherwise annoying to mischievous, active, adventure-seeking little boys!  Boys don't care if the Berenstain Bears cleaned their room..they just don't! While I realize that boys need to learn manners, citizenship & ABCs, their story books should have stories of interest to THEM. Be careful when choosing his material to pick books he might actually like rather than what you wish he would like or what "experts" think he should read. Don't try to give him nightmares, but don't be afraid to read stories about pirates & knights or Daniel in the lion's den! Once he finds out that there are all sorts of adventures & villains to be faced in books, then it's time to say "Do you want to read the rest of the series? Yes? Well, come over here & learn how to sound out the words."

[ FYI: Check out the resource list in The Well-Trained Mind for children's editions of classics & other good meaty reading. Many can be purchased from Dover Publications for only a few dollars each!]

The fact that you are here in this forum, seeking counsel from like-minded parents means you are leaps ahead of what most parents are doing for their children, & your children will be ahead, too...even your little speedster.

Following this topic, as it is of interest to us. We are (regrettably) monolingual, but are determined to teach our son multiple languages.

One thing we have considered is a nanny or au pair who speaks other languages, even though I am a SAHM (mostly). Has anyone ever tried this? Au pairs in any of the programs we have explored cost about $25k/yr for all fees & usually stay 1yr at a time. Do you think it would be worth the expense when we really don't need the child care aspect? We found one nanny locally who spoke FIVE languages (including all the ones we wanted our child to learn, except Spanish), but she is engaged full-time as an after-school nanny for another family & would only be available 4hrs/3day/week. Not sure he would really get much out of that. Thoughts?

Okay, I'll admit it. I had exactly 72hrs to decide what kind of diapers to use with our son (quick adoption), so I asked my sister (who'd had SIX already), & she said to use Target's store brand, so I did, & didn't really rethink that decision until we started potty training. At that point, we switched to Charlie Banana training pants. We really like them, & I noticed that they also make cloth diapers with inserts, so we may try those if we have another baby. I definitely did not like all the waste of the disposables & even the store brand is up to $23 for a large box. (D-i-l pays $35 for the large box of Pampers, even though her kid has a perpetual diaper rash & the diapers fail as often as not!)

Hello! I am mother to an active, healthy adopted 2 y/o (nicknamed T-Rex). We have used some of Glenn Doman's materials since he was born & were referred to your website by another IAHP parent. It is SO nice to find a community of people interested in true early learning. I am used to being viewed as some sort of quack for teaching sight words...or worse, accused of being an abusive parent by people who have never even seen one of our brief, joyful learning sessions.

So far, I am impressed with the lessons in the trial package. I will begin using them with my son tomorrow. He LOVES playing on Daddy's computer whilst I'm working, so I think he will love them. And, thanks to the Doman materials, I think he will breeze through the first few, especially in the reading.

Looking forward to following the discussions of like-minded parents.