[Molly Pitcher]

Chairman, traveling prayers for you.You've certainly earned a vacation!

SY- Your wife's concern is understandable - school adjustments can be so difficult...I sure hope and pray that everything settles down soon.

Everyone - I'll be starting the thread between 7 and 7:30 tomorrow and Friday, somewhat later on Sat. probably.

Riv - I was going to post that link about the RATS too, and my reaction was the same as yours!

That whole party is beyond pathetic....

[Mr. Mulliner]

I shouldn't have said my wife was just worrying. She was praying, of course. It's hard to put our finger on the problem, but relationships have been harder coming in as the new kid. She's actually a very popular kid and has two "factions" competing for her, but she feels obligated to befriend another new girl who has problems of her own due to divorced parents. Our daughter is our "sure, mom!" kid and she's probably trying to please too many people or trying to make sure no one gets hurt.

With regard to school, she can do the work, but it seems to keep her too busy for her liking. She's a very creative person and loves to play outdoors so staying cooped up all day is torture to her.

And that brings up something my wife mentioned about the socialization of the classroom environment. The teacher tells the class, "If you're good, you can have recess." But if one kid misbehaves, they don't get recess, and that happens almost every day. So kids actually get the message that they might as well not act good because someone else is going to mess it up for them. My daughter is a well-behaved kid and yet she gets punished along with everyone else....every day.