psychokitty

My husband scared me tonight. I`m still shaking now.

I threw away some books of his. He had put aside books to get rid of and there were other books in a cardboard box next to them. I was wrong to throw them out (I should have checked them more carefully)....but his reaction was over the top and extremely scary. He yelled and screamed at me and hit the bed over and over next to where I was sitting. I really felt he was going to hit me next.

I have known that my marriage is dead for a long time now. I don`t love him any more and am not happy with him, We NEVER have sex.

Basically the only reason I haven`t left him before this is our 5 year old daughter.

I live in his country....and I have no guanrentees about getting primary custody of our daughter. Don`t get me wrong...I am not advocating cutting him off from her......but as he NEVER does anything to look after her, giving him custody would be the worst thing for our daughter.

I can live with being ignored,and with doing most of the stuff around the house...but I cannot live in fear. I know I have to leave him somehow.

I just want to get out now....but I know I have to plan to do this the best way.

My mind is racing now? Where do I start to plan? Any advice from those who have been there?

I decided to ask this question in homeschooling as I feel that people here might be able to give me a more long-term view of this.

My 4 year old daughter is a Japanese/English bilingual. Even though we live in Tokyo, until recently she has been "stronger" in English. She is uses only English when talking with me and also joins in with my ESL lessons for Japanese kids. She can read the alphabet and enjoys writing letters (and her name).

She has just started Japanese kindergarten this year and has learned a lot more Japanese and has just started to recognise Japanese letters.

Her kindergarten is pretty relaxed (which I love) and she won`t be formally taught any kind of reading or writing skills until the end of next year, when she will be 6. Once she starts elementary school she will start learning Japanese letters in earnest.

She WILL NOT be taught to read or write English at school (although she may have a minimal amount of foreign language-ie English- instruction)

Basically if I want her to be able to read and write in English it will be my responsibility to teach her.

I am wondering if home-schooling parents could give me some advise how best to do this.

As she has just started kindergarten this year and she has a LOT of new things she is learning, we haven`t done anything formal for a while.

I read to her every night and she loves to make cards or shopping lists and try to write down people`s names or food items. She does like trying to recognise letters in signs while we are out.

She is really interested, so I wonder if I should do some formal structured things with her now. I also wonder if I should be giving her some handwriting work to do to help her form her letters better.

Should i take advantage of this interest now to teach her....or just let her do what she wants for the moment and not worry about teaching her anything for a while.

Also any suggestions about how we should continue as she gets older. What should I teach...when and how should I teach her.

Any help and advice apreciated!!

I need to get some ideas for parent and child games/races for my kindergarten sports day....the kids are 4/5.

I also need an idea for a race for just mothers

And come to think about it.....why do small creatures (mice. birds etc) have a much faster heart rate than large creatures?

My little daughter and I were listening to our hearts with a stethescope...and at 4 her heart beat is a lot faster than mine. We already talked about how exercise increases your heart rate.

However I had no good answer to the "why" when she wanted to know why our heart rates were so different.

My daughter is an English/Japanese bilingual and has just started going to Preschool (Japanese) in April. Until now she has been at home with me and has been stronger in English than Japanese. I read to her every night .She knows her alphabet and can read and write her name and I have played with her sounding out letters and identifying words (although we haven`t done any kind of formal phonics program).

The last few months we have had a bit of a break from that as she has been learning to read her name in Japanese and just get used to preschool (and being immersed in a Japanese only program) er preschool is relaxed and will only start teaching pre-reading/writing (Japanese) next year.

In the Japanese school system she will not learn to read English until middle school, so teaching reading is all up to me. I am wondering where to go from here....whether to push it now or ease off...to start with books or a phonics program.

Any advice from experienced teachers/parents welcomed.

I have been married for almost 8 years and my husband has had little or no interest in sex for most of that...especially after the birth of our daughter 4 years ago. (We actually went without sex at all for the first 3 years after she was born).

I have talked to him about it. He promised to give me more physical affection - hugs kisses etc as well as sex......but quickly falls back into the same old patterns. Last week when I wouldn`t let him give the same old tired excuses and promises, he admitted that now I am a mother he can`t see me as anything else. And he can`t see how that can change. I have been going to the gym to get in shape, and have a great new hairstyle.

I just don`t want to keep on doing this. I know that sex is not the only thing in a marriage, but it is important to me.

I hate to break up my daughters family, which is what has kept me here for the last few years.....but I feel that I have wasted the last 8 years of my life.

I am wondering what others do that are in my boat...and their husbands won`t have sex.

What do you do?

Do you just busy yourself in other parts of your life and try to forget about it?

Do you get sexual satisfaction in other ways?

Do you go elsewhere?

I got a phone call last night from the police who said they had my husband. Aparently he was drunk and passed out in front of an apartment building. Some residents there called the police. Luckily for him (or perhaps not) the country we live in takes a fairly lenient view of these things, and apart from calling me to take him home, nothing will happen to him.

The fact that he is employed in a white collar job seems to mean that his behaviour can be excused.

I got dressed and got my 3 year old daughter out of bed took a taxi to where the police were waiting. My husband was passed out on the pavement in front of the building. I talked and yelled at him trying to wake him up......when the policemen pulled him to his feet he could walk and we got him into the taxi and home.

I`m starting to feel really old.....

I searched the term emo when I saw it being used on Yahoo Answers..and found out it is a variation on Goth.

I had a lot of Goth friends when I was at high school and Uni WAAAAY back in the late 80`s (I tried to be a goth...but was too cheerful to really get into it).

When did the phrase Emo start to be used and were there any other phases in between?

I live in Japan, where there has been a recent epidemic of measles among those of mostly University age (there is a whole generation who missed out on measles boosters in Primary school)...as well a number of cases among small children.

My 3 year old has been vaccinated, and is not due for her booster. I just got informed that there was a measles case in her occasional daycare so I didn`t send her this week.

My daughter should be fine, but I realised I have no idea whether I have been vaccinated or not. My mother has passed away so I can`t ask her and I don`t have any vaccination records. My mother believed in vaccination and followed the vaccination schedule so would have had me vaccinated if it was recommended in Australia at that time.

Did we vaccinate for measles in the late 60`s? Would there have been a follow up booster in the 70`s?

(btw - I don`t want to discuss the pros and cons of vacination. It is irrelevant to this question)

I know pre-school age is a little young to be considered home-schooling but I thought you might have some words of wisdom........

My 3 year old daughter is bilingual English/Japanese and we live in Japan .....in an apartment above MIL btw....

I worked in an International pre-school from September last year to April and my daughter was in my class. We both got totally burned out by the experience.....and I became very disillusioned about "International Schools".

I decided to keep my daughter home this school year (the school year starts from April here) but the more I think about it the more I think I want her to stay home until she goes to school. I want her to keep on learning English with me

Of course MIL is concerned about how she needs to learn Japanese..and socialization.

At the moment, she goes to Japanese daycare 1 day a week, with her grandparents 1 day and has swimming and music classes as well as lots of play-dates, mostly with other bilingual/bicultural kids.

This may seem like a dumb question to Americans as I am sure you learn this at school!

I am an ESL teacher (not American) teaching in Japan. We had a class about shopping and money....especially the US dollar.

The students wanted to know who the people were on the banknotes and coins.

Also one teacher noticed that the head on the penny was facing the opposite way than those on the other coins - why is that?

I`ve tried to do a search without much luck. Maybe I need sites for school children?

I`d appreciate any information or links that can help me explain about the money.

Thanks

We have raised our daughter bilingual from birth - English and Japanese. We live in Japan...so I have really tried concentrating on English with her. She speaks only Japanese with her father and Grandparents who live next door.....BUT her English is quite a lot more advanced than her English.

She will chat away at a great pace with me in English, using really complex sentences for her age......but uses only 2 word sentences or gibberish in Japanese. Her grandmother and father are getting really worried. They think she has a speech problem.

I am wondering if I should do something to help her Japanese catch up. I have recently started asking her how Daddy says things and teaching her Japanese to use with her Daddy. This goes against the way we decided to teach the languages - which was one parent/one language.

Any suggestions or reassurance from others who have been in the same situation.

thanks

I have a cycle that is 31-33 days on average, so I am not really late.....but there doesn`t seem to be any sign of my period.

I am not actively trying to conceive at the moment.....but not avoiding either...(we have a 3 year old and would welcome a second child)

Trying to conceive my first child, I charted my periods and found that I usually ovulated around day 16-18.

This month we have only had sex on what would be day 7 and day 27 (sorry about the TMI)....so I wouldn`t have thought it would be likely that I was pregnant.

Any thoughts?

I am living out of Australia right now...and am not sure what is going on. When is the election scheduled for in 2007?

My husband and I have had sex once in three years - his choice, not mine.

I have often thought about leaving him, but have a child (3 years old) who loves her father dearly.

As the title says....will be in the Gold Coast from 14 Dec onwards and am looking for Christmas activites and events for my 3 year old. Looking for Carols By Candlelight, Santa, Christmas lights etc

Doesn{t really matter where as we will be going from Southport to

Burleigh *and across to Robina

Am interested in any other small kid activities/events.

I know most people will say just relax on the beach or swim in the pool.....but although I am Australian we don`t live there - so I want to expose my daughter to as much Australian (western) culture as possible..and meet and talk with other Australian kids.