:001_huh:Another choice, don't do that to me I am dealing with it with another thing I am trying to decide on!!!! I will look at it-how can I resist the temptation!

We love it here. I have bought both the Science and History one. Next year I am going to invest in the Geography one. They have been a great resource that can be used for years to come.

I was curious how others would use an IPad or Nook with their kids with any kind of special needs. What kind of features are you finding helpful. I am trying to justfy the money if it is something that would benifit in the homeschool. I like the ideal that you can have the books read out loud to them. My daugter is a struggling reader but, loves to books as long as she isn't the one reading.:D So give me the scoop on both the IPad and the Nook on what kind of Applications I can do with them in the homeschool. I understand that there is a big difference between the IPad and Nook. Just needing to know if the differnce in cost would be worth it. I have looked on line and I am mostly seeing the reading out loud part. I think I am not seeing the other benefits so fill me in!!!!!!:001_huh: I am clueless.

Anyone use any voice recognition software with the kiddos who have a hard time writing? The main program I see is Dragon Naturally Speaking. Are there other software? My computer has a voice recoginiton already on it,(Vista) but I am not sure if it would be suitable to use it for a child with speech issues. My concern is that my daughter has severe speech apraxia and would either software work with her speech issues? I am not to computer illiterate but some programs stump me still. Are they hard to work? Most of all are they worth it or is it just a hassle?

I wish I could carry around a mini recorder and hit play! I think I have it memorized and feel like a recording myself. I think for most individuals it does make them understand and have compassion. For some they seem to avoid you like you and your kids have the plaque! I agree we are our kids advocates and it helps them in the long run to hone their skills. I get tired at times of always explaining and it depends on the ones who are listening at times. Some think you are making excuses for your child or seeking pity. Which is a far cry from what I want when I am explaining things about my daughter.:grouphug:

Never a dull moment when you homeschool. You just never know what the next science experiment will be! :tongue_smilie:Glad to here it wasn't lice. Sorry about the $$.

Yikes!! Wondering if he will go an investigate next time he hears noises coming from the bushes! Glad to hear everything is ok and he knew what to do.

Walgreens is a good place to start I would recommend the metal nit comb. The shampoo will kill the live critters. The nits need to be removed by comb and hand. I also use olive oil at night time and the first few days it suffercates them. It also makes combing them out easy like the tea tree oil and cetaphil. You can put a shower cap or plastic bag over it. Most have the olive oil on hand. Also another tip-lice like clean hair. I never get them because I wear hair spray and gel. Start having everyone wear some type of hair product-gel, mouse, hair spray. The breakout are usually worst at the beginning of school year in ps and during any extended breaks. Just have them put some on when they are going to be around others. My son got them a few months back and I forgot to buy his gel for him. He has sensative skin and I ran out of his. I don't put mine gel on him. It would break his skin out real bad Sure enough he got it and I haven't had to deal with it for 14 yrs when I was doing foster care. Don't forget to spray your car seat! No fun and no easy way of getting them out quickly. I feel your pain :grouphug:

Seton runs around $25.00 and she could do it a few times a year. I am in the same situation as your friend. I have not went this way yet. I know others who do it for that reason and seem happy with the results. Maybe others can chime in who have used Seton. A place that HSLD recommended to me and has been a blessing is HIS Help in School which is kinda like and IEP that the ps would do. The publisher calls it a student educational plan and it keeps you aware of your childs abilities by setting goals and other methods. She has forms in the book and its also very informative on how to do it. It was under $20.00 when I bought it last year. She is very helpful on the phone to answer questions. She has another book that looks just as good. Which I have not got around to buying it yet. Hope that helps some.

I just wrote about this on my blog we are still trying to put the puzzle together. At this point I would not do anything different. As far as getting a diagnoses I wrote about this also on my blog. Follow your heart, you are your child's voice. If knowing isn't a big deal then respect others who want answers. Curriuculum. Would be MUS, AAS, SL and a little bit of this and that!!!!:001_huh: I just started to formally educate my son and daycare girl for pre-k this year. I was hoping my dd would become much more independent. Which at this point is not going to happen. My son has no special needs. I just make sure I do the other kids first because I never know how long my dd will take. I don't want to neglect his needs and my dd is a big challange every day. Some days after her I feel stressed and I want to be refreshed when teaching the little ones. I don't want to rush them because it is so close to lunch or nap time or I am just to fed up and want to get it done. I want them to see the joy that I have in schooling them. I do have joy with her but somedays it doesn't show up after the drama:tongue_smilie:

We are in are 2nd wk of VT and I dropped everything for now and just doing the 3r's. I am glad I did it. The homework for VT is a challange enough for my dd to get done. Hopefully the homework gets easier for her and for me getting her through it!!! I would just do what needs to be done, all the curriculum will still be there but VT will be done before you know it. I think I am trying to encourage myself also!:) The joy of homeschooling is being able to be flexable when life gets crazy. :grouphug:

Sorry Ladies it took me so long to get back here. Thank you for all your wonderful information and advice. I figured with my kids age it wouldn't hurt to do a major change on my plans this year. It also seems like a good time to slow down and work with her on reading and writing since it is such a struggle for her in these two areas. Hopefully the VT will help her improve in these areas. I will continue to do the planned math, Language Arts and phonics. I can't believe I am doing this but I am taking my whole Sonlight 2 curriculum and shelving it for the whole year. I will just add in some read out louds from my other 100's of books we already have. Work on some lapbooks- when I can tell how much this is effecting her. Then I can add in other books to read for history and science. She has a lot of medical issues and it might overwhelm her with the added therapy and me starting pre-k with the other two kids. Change is hard for her at times. We start the Vision Therapy this week. Thanks again and I will let you know how it goes.

I am glad for my daughter and hope this helps her, she struggles so much!

Looks great I love your design. I need to redo mine one day. I would love and appreciate any new followers also. I need some motivation!

We recieved a fully paid scholarship for my daughter, I am so excited. It was something we applied for last March and I thought that we just didn't get it. They called me last week and told me that depending on the first session results ( a session is 27 visits) they may pay for 2 sessions! My daughters eyes are severe and they think she may need 2 full sessions. Each session is around $4,000. Can you believe how expensive it is! We start after Labor Day. It changes the school schedule alot, I feel a little overwhelmed with trying to add in two preschoolers this year and getting everything done. I think I will just worry about reading, math, phonics, writing and some language arts for the next few months for my daughter while she is in VT. Then see how it goes before I add in anything else. My dd doesn't function well if it gets to late in the day with doing school. We are already at the hospital on Monday for several hours for therapy. Tuesday and Wedn. are Vision Therapy. To keep the scholarship you have to do the required homework. How much homework is done for VT in a week so I can figure out some sort of schedule? What is the homework that they want you to do at home? Thanks ladies!

We got a mini trampoline, floor scooter and when we sit down to do school work my dd uses a ball chair. At first it took everything in me to not go stir crazy with her bouncing while doing school work. I am better and she is happy. I don't know how she does the bouncing and school work at the same time! She also has a weighted blanket wrap. OT are wonderful if you are able to see one. The out-of-sync kid has fun is wonderful also. Lucy Miller Sensational kids is another good book. Does she sleep well or toss and turn all night? My daughter never slept all night before. Weighted blankets are wonderful for night time and for wrapping them in when they fall apart. It seems to relax my daughter more than a regular blanket when I put her in a roll. http://www.weightedblanket.net/ This place also has a monthly drawing for a free one. It happens alot with people judging the parents and child when they can't see a physical problem. Sorry!:grouphug: I know its hard when they don't know the whole story or think that SPD is just and excuse.

:iagree: Drove me crazy because it confused my daughter so much, she has special needs and could not understand why it said, "u" and the letter was upside down. It was a big issue with her. Love the program it just wouldn't work with her. I had to sell it just for that reason alone. If your kid understands it and you can get pass it looking different then I would use it.

We mummified a Barbie, here is the information of what we did on my blog. I don't think my kids will ever forget it, we had alot of fun doing it.

Hello and welcome :grouphug:

I bought Rosetta Stone with the intent of using it for my kids but, its a little to much for them. So for now my husband and I are using it and First Hebrew Primer. So that being said we have been teaching them vocabulary from it. Also we are in a setting where there is alot of Hebrew spoken-that helps. I am working on getting The Learnables and I have looked at Ester Maria suggestion-just not quite sure how the programs work. Maybe Ester Maria you can explain to both of us in a little more detail about them. I would be interested in more information from someone who has used them. @mommyintraining Sarah and David is a good start. It teaches the alef bet (alphabet) in a fun way with coloring and copy workbooks and then it gets into some basic words. They have a Hebrew primer that goes with the set. I know they have some adult books and other suggestions that they sale. I think this is a wonderful fun way to start to learn the basics. First you want to focus learning the alef bet and the sounds.

Like you we used First Hebrew Primer and we got to a point where it was too much for the kids. Then after that we borrowed Sarah and David from a friend and it was alot of fun. It goes through the alef bet and goes onto some more basic concepts. I would think that it would work for younger kids but it really is more of an introduction with the alef bet and some words. Rosetta Stone is nice but IMOP is geared toward older elementary and up. I looked at The Learnables at the convention and spent some time playing with the program and talking to the rep. It is much less $$$ and the level 1 is perfect for starting with words. They use basic pictures to teach the words and lots of reviews. They also have games to learn the language like Tic Tac Toe and others. It looked like a neat program. I am not fimiliar with the other programs. I have only looked at them online.

I am not sure what age your son is. I did MOH with my 7 yr old and my 4yr son and 4 daycare girl listened in. Which I didn't plan for them to. They all loved MOH. I wrote about MOH on my blog if you want to look at it. I did some of the activities that they suggested. I found alot of my own activities. We mummified a Barbie instead of what they suggested. I also found coloring pages to go with the subject and also I used Handle on the Arts. Which is created to use with Sonlight Core 1. It worked great with MOH and covered all the areas of Ancient History with some fun hands on crafts and it was just as good using it with MOH! I didn't do the pirates or elephants either. I think that depends on the kid and if they like that kind of thing. I sat down over the summer and planned what I was going to do. It would of been to much for me to do an activity with each lesson. I tried to do one activity a week and the others were real simple like coloring. I didn't do the memory cards with mine either. It would of been too much for my kiddos. I also used a pre-made timebook and didn't spend alot of time on the timeline. I used it as more of an introduction to timelines. We did most of the maps since mine love maps. It wasn't very detailed mapping. Sometimes it was looking at it on the globe. We put everything in a note book and had alot of fun with it. MOH has a yahoo group that has some great info. and activities on it. I wish I would of found it before I planned my year. It would of saved me alot of time. Also MOH this year has a coloring book and folder book(Lapbook) which are reasonable that you can download. (Wish they had it available when I was looking:)) They are available on the Bright Idea website. Also Homeschool Launch has some MOH notebooking pages. If I remember correctly it was more for older kids-you will have to look at it. I hope that helps. We really enjoyed MOH last year. It was one of my kids favorite. It surprised me how much they loved it.

I have to say I was glad to see this thread. I have my first one next week. They didn't tell me anything about deoderant and perfume when scheduling. I will just leave it off. At least I know what to expect now. :001_huh: Thanks for starting this thread!

Thanks