BlogHer - K-12 - Comments

Making it work is what it's all about :)

ShoreBookworm — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 15:06:34 -0500

Maybe I sound too adamant because I am still cranky about being woken up. lol I should have offered a disclaimer.

You make a great point. Like everything else in parenting, nothing can be one-size-fits-all. Every family is unique, every child is unique. Things even can change from day to day, with our little darlings being fine with something on Saturday and having a melt down in the same situation the following Friday.

I guess the best advice is be flexible, be ready for anything and trust your instincts. :)

Marie

www.nourishourselves.blogspot.com

www.theshorebookworm.blogspot.com

My nine-year-old just had her first one -- friend came here

MarcomMom — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 14:08:26 -0500

We live in L.A. and while our daughter attends a neighborhood school and has lots of friends who live close by, I never felt she was truly ready to sleep away from us and I never felt I knew her friends' parents THAT well. (Plus, I knew she liked the IDEA of sleepovers more than the reality that she'd be sleeping away from us.) But we let her have a sweet friend over for her first overnight just about a month ago. I blogged about the morning after -- suffice it to say the friend needed a LOT less sleep than my daughter did. We had them sleep on the pull-out bed in the living room and watch a couple of pre-approved movies--that is, once we got them off the Wii. It went fine. We'll see how soon she really wants to be the one who sleeps away. She gave us major push-back on going away alone to church camp for a week, so she's not that independent--yet.

http://marcommom.blogspot.com/2009/05/mornin-after-sleepover.html

Sleepovers

Mom on the Run — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 23:40:51 -0500

Mom on the Run

My oldest was 8. All she wanted for her 8th birthday was a sleepover. I reluctantly relented and let her have one, She inivted 5 friends. One never RSVP'd until the day after the party. One was not ready for a sleepover. Three came. Only one of the three had been to a sleepover before.

The kids arrived, played, ate, watched a movie, and then things got interesting. I had all of them get ready for bed. My younger children headed to bed upstairs. I turned off the lights and all hell broke loose. Screaming, laughing, high jinx. I gave them a friendly reminder and they were quiet until the noise started up again. I had to sit in the hallway with the lights out telling kids to be quiet. It was exhausting. I sat there for an hour.

Sleepovers from 8 through 10/11 were about the same. Loud, nosiy, exhausting. We did about 2 per year per child so it was doable. I was always ready for moms to pick up at 10 a.m.

I'll disagree...

nelle2nelle — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 21:57:30 -0500

the child I mentioned had, by that time, slept at our home many, many times, going back a couple of years. That was a unique circumstance, a product of her recent accident.

Our daughters, particularly our youngest, started sleepovers when she was in kindegarten; we were particularly close with one family, their son and our daughter lived at each other's homes. Heck, I could walk in their home and find my dog calmly lounging around there, enjoying the children's company.

Once in school, given this was a suburban location, sleepovers worked for them in getting together. The issues were rare; I recall one drama-filled night at a later age, but overall, the kids were great.

I certainly have no regrets over allowing her to sleep over or have friends at our home. We made it work for her.

llhaesa

A good rule of thumb

ShoreBookworm — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 21:40:24 -0500

Several of you have mentioned middle of the night homesick crises where a child needs to go home. I think that is an excellent deciding factor in whether a child is ready or not. If there is any possibility of a middle of the night phone call, the child is not ready, pure and simple.

It only happened to us once, but that was one too many times. The girls were 13, so it never even occurred to me as a possibility. This child's parents had told her if she needed to, to call them and they would come and get her. Problem is they didn't tell me. Maybe because they knew I would never have allowed her to stay.

It ended up waking all of us up, not just me and the child involved. I thought it was an incredibly inconsiderate thing to do. The rest of the children, and I, were up for the rest of the night.

If a child has that much apprehension, they should not be staying over.

Marie

www.nourishourselves.blogspot.com

www.theshorebookworm.blogspot.com

Why can't everyone just sleep in their own house?

NYCMom — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 19:50:21 -0500

The sleepover. I just don't understand the appeal. Oh, I get that they get to play and have fun and watch a movie. But why don't they want to go home, to the comfort of their beds afterwards? I know that I want them to!

My daughter started sleepovers at 8 and every time she goes on one, it's even odds if we'll get called to pick her up. My son strarted them at 5, and he never looked back. He always had a great time and I never got the call to get him.

I think you'll know when it's time. The problem is that she may be ready years before you are.

good luck!

Marinka

http://www.MotherhoodinNYC.com

http://www.MouthyHousewives.com

http://www.SecretSpinelessWhine.com

I'm glad it wasn't till he was 7...

Karen-MEG — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 16:05:36 -0500

that he approached me about sleeping over at a friend's. And we'd known the family since he was in kindergarten, so it was easy for us, and for him (they're also almost back door neighbours, so physically if he had to he could have hopped the fence ;)

He went on about 3 sleepovers last year, and loved every one. This year he's been on two, (one which he negotiated so he wouldn't need a babysitter... crafty kid!) and hosted his best friend here for one. It was fine. I don't think I could handle more than a couple boys at a time, though. And he just turned 9, so he's a little older.

Although much younger than I was for my first sleepover...I didn't go on one until I was about 10... and we watched CARRIE!!! Tame compared to nowadays, but crazy for back then!

So with the girlie wanting to do everything her brother does, I expect she'll be asking at about 5 as well... oy.

K-MEG

Preschool teachers

Vered — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 22:23:39 -0500

When my kids were in preschool, some of their teachers did babysitting on the weekend, while others said they needed to be away from kids during the weekend. :) The ones who did babysit were a great solution becuse both we and the kids knew them and trusted them.

----

Need to hire a blogger? I’m a mommy blogger and a blogger for hire.

Ugh

MoreThanMommy — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 21:32:48 -0500

I don't think I'd be all that bothered by sleepovers except that my son has food allergies. I'm not sure I'll ever be ready for that process.

I loved having sleepovers at our house but hated sleeping at other people's houses. I'm still like that!

Tell me more about this special book

sassymonkey — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 19:36:44 -0500

I'm curious!

Sassymonkey and Sassymonkey Reads.

Yay for libraries

sassymonkey — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 19:36:00 -0500

I'm glad that your 9 year old loves the library!

Interestingly I was reading someone else recently who said that their oldest child wasn't as interested in books as their youngest.

Sassymonkey and Sassymonkey Reads.

Reading ahead

sassymonkey — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 19:34:05 -0500

I never did understand why the entire class had to read one book. Why didn't they just assign different books? I had a teacher in high school who let us read whatever we wanted in English class...I think it was because he couldn't stand the idea of having to teach an unwilling class of teenagers about To Kill A Mockingbird one more time.

Sassymonkey and Sassymonkey Reads.

I find this whole "Edupunk"

andrewten — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 08:35:03 -0500

I find this whole "Edupunk" stuff interesting and controversial. Learning shouldn't start nor end inside the four walls of the classroom. There's a big world out there, and it's definitely worth exploring. Surely, every student would want to know more about things he enjoy the most. And that, for me, is edupunk.

Japanese Course

Once I learned to read I couldn't stop

christinajeanne — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 01:08:10 -0500

Before I knew how to read I hated to even try reading a book. But, once I learned I was always reading some book. I couldn't put them down. My mom even made me my own special book that I still have. I still love reading.

self-discipline leads to peace

Nordette — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 14:05:47 -0500

Thank you, JoAnn. "self-discipline leads to peace" That statement is true indeed. To be more self-discliplined is one of my goals.

Nordette Adams is a BlogHer CE & you can find her other stuff through Her 411.