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home schooling, IEPs and rights

We received a letter from our school district. A bit of history. We had a facilitated IEP meeting a few weeks ago. We ended the meeting at an impasse. The school wanted to send our child to a school 50 miles away. We want him in his home district. We asked for an hour a day. We said that if they couldn’t agree to that then we would home school him until we could come to an agreement. We also asked them if they would give us written assurances that if he completed the program at the other school, that he would be allowed to return to his home school. Something that they did not feel able to do. So I completed the home school paperwork in order to ensure that we were not violating any laws in regards to David’s education. ============ The school in their infinite wisdom, think

Houdini Part IV – A Fathers’ Love

In part III I talked about my Uncle. Let’s step back a bit and talk about some friends. Growing up, I had a myriad group of friends. Some that let me practically live with them. I ate meals with them, went on fishing trips with them. Called their parents mom and dad. Why? Because in my mind, they treated me better than my own parents. Looking back, this isn’t entirely true, but it is how I felt as a kid. I can remember when I graduated from high school. My best friend’s family through my graduation party for me. They video taped graduation, they made cakes for both their son and myself. If I needed to talk to an adult, I went to their house. My mom didn’t like my being friends with their son, because she thought he was a devil worshiper. On the other hand, she was okay

For the skeptics: The research on dads’ influence on girls’ puberty

Several people took issue (some in an unfortunately hostile way) with my post that mentioned research showing that girls with involved biological fathers start puberty later than those with a non-biological father or no father at all. So to satisfy the critics, here are several citations that should satisfy your inner (and not-so-inner) skeptic. Fathers Influence on Daughters Puberty, by Karen Davis-Johnson. Posted April 5, 2011. Davis-Johnson is the editor of the Journal of Father-Daughter Communication. “Quality of Early Family Relationships and Individual Differences in the Timing of Pubertal Maturation in Girls: A Longitudinal Test of an Evolutionary Model. ” Bruce J. Ellis, Steven McFadyen-Ketchum, Kenneth A. Dodge, Gregory S. Pettit, and John E. Bates. Journal of Personal and Social Psychology. 1999 August; 77(2): 387–401.Abstract: In an 8-year prospective study of 173 girls and their families, the authors tested predictions from J. Belsky, L., and P. Draper’s (1991) evolutionary model of individual differences in pubertal