We stopped mint toothpaste. It really seemed to help. All the sudden my son started getting them. The Dr. here recommended stopping the mint toothpaste and it worked. Blessings, Jamie Z.

too big? Sometimes when they are puppies, you need to make the space smaller by putting a box or a board in the crate. What you are mentioning sounds unusual. However, 18 weeks is still young--you can't expect them to go for long periods without accidents. Are you scheduling food and water? Usually, healthy puppies will go poop routinely a certain time after they eat and not again until they eat again. I would think the puppy should be able to go from midnight until 6am without messing--if the puppy is healthy and if the space is small enough. That has been my experience. Sometimes, when our pups were very young, we would contain them in a small space where they could sleep in the crate but come out to relieve themselves. With consistency, eventually, they will get it. Blessings, Jamie Z.

One word...Crocs! All the time.... no exceptions.....for several months. It completely went away and hasn't come back--although, I got so used to them that I rarely wear other footwear now. I mainly wore the two strap sandal because I live in the tropics. I tried New Balance tennis shoes, Merrills, Clarks and other footwear and nothing helped like the Crocs. Jamie Z.

If a child has slow processing, IQ scores are not going to be high and it's not a good reflection of their actual IQ because of the timed tests. IQ tests are used to show a discrepancy between other testing scores (Woodcock Johnsons, etc) and IQ scores to help the child qualify for a learning disability. Again, though, if their processing speeds are slow they are not always accurate. Unfortunately, many educators look at low IQ scores and determine that a child is performing the best they can and often dismiss the possibility of better performance. I'm not saying don't go for the IQ score--there is helpful info there but you can't just take that final number and base everything on that.

I am new at hsing a high school special needs kid. IEW is working great for us with the writing. We are using SLCore 100 because she loves to read and I can talk through with her what she is reading using the teacher's guide. We are doing alot of analyzing what she got wrong, and why it was wrong, etc. Focusing on thinking through things. I think it depends no your goals to help you figure out what you are focusing on. For instance let me post one of ours: Language arts: 1. To develop the ability to choose and record key words which will help her remember a complete idea. 2. To learn to communicate the main ideas from something she has read by using a key word outline. 3. To choose selections, read them and create key word outlines independently and then verbally retell the basic ideas to another person using only the outline. This week we will work on this with her “How to Pray†book. Each day, she will make a key word outline from her reading. Then she will narrate the pages using only her outline. Example: One note for each sentence or paragraph that she reads. This will help M with: Reading Comprehension: helping her understand what she has read Language processing: encouraging her to tell about what she has read in a structured coherent manner Writing: outlining and picking out the important parts Eventually Malia can write a summary of what she has read based on these key word outlines. This week we will not focus on this for language arts. The week we worked on this, my main goal was for her to learn the process of finding the theme in the chapter. She did very well with this after we laid it out like that. Then we moved to having her use her key word out line to tell me about it and then to eventually summarize a paragraph on paper. She gets a grade for doing this because it's important skills she needs to learn. Blessings, Jamie Z.

Cindy, it does make sense to me. The part about the charming, delightful kid, alot of the time, esp! So, you are wondering if meds will help him focus more and get his work done? And, I'm guessing the Dr. did a simple ADHD assessment and based on that, told you that medication would probably help him? I have friends that say age 12 in boys is usually THE most difficult yr that you have with them. I have other friends that have gone all the way through elementary school without meds and figured out they were essential for middle/high school. I know that probably doesn't help you know what to do, does it? However, if you tried it and it did make a huge difference, wouldn't it be a great solution? Those who gave their input about Concerta are correct, it's in and out of your system--sooo if I was in your shoes, I might be tempted to try it. For the question about Concerta making you flat, let me give an example. My dd has taking ADHD for several yrs. This yr she decided she wanted to try to do school without it (8th grade). Usually, it's the difference between, making A's and making B's and C's. For me, I would rather her make the B's and C's on her own, without the medication because on the meds, she is a bit dryer, a bit less smiley, a bit less of herself. I'm not sure if that makes sense, but I believe it's what those are referring to when they say sometimes it makes children flat. When she started the meds, though, they were essential and really helped her engage in her school work. Now my other daughter, who sounds more like your son, Cindi, has not done as well on stimulant medications, although, they do help her focus. They usually stop working after a while, and sometimes her flatness can be more like a depression. Her ADHD tends to be more on the Autism spectrum than typical ADHD. The meds do help her--but we must keep a very close watch and she sometimes responds better to anti-depressants. So, that's alot said, to just let you know, I'll pray for you. God will give you wisdom. He made you the parent of this precious child and will lead you in the way you should go. I pray that you will feel his peace. Blessings, Jamie Z.

Why did you see the Dr. and why did he suggest meds? He sounds very similar to my dd, but my dd doesn't have the scientist, history type focus to her personality. Hers is more of a musical focus. Anyway, it sounds like you are in a groove and maybe would like for him to be a bit more focused but what would be your goal for making the change? I would not make any changes until after you return unless it will be over a month before you travel. Again, though, what is the purpose for making a change--if it is that things have gotten really, really, difficult, you've seen a big change, etc. you might want to weigh that carefully in your decision. Medications....they aren't the big horrible thing that many folks seem to think, or at least they haven't been in my family. However, right now none of my children are taking them, although they have in the past. If your child needs the meds, you usually can see a big difference in the first few weeks (once you get the dosage right) and that helps you decide to keep them on it. If it doesn't make a difference, you stop taking it. However, many, many times, (as they are growing) the medication needs to be adjusted, changed, etc. So, it's not usually a once in life time...."we're going to try meds," and then you are married to it. It just doesn't work that way. Pray about it, weigh the possible results, get some good counsel from those less emotional than you, talk to your husband about it and make your decision. Just because you start him on meds doesn't mean he will always be on meds or that meds are really what he needs. Back to my question.....why did the Dr. recommend meds? Blessings! Jamie Z.

We have three birth children and then adopted an older child from Ukraine. Bonding takes place between you and a child by that child being dependent on you to care for them and meet their needs. If you adopt an older child, you must be more intentional about doing this in order to bond with them in a similar way to children that you have raised as infants. I think it would be difficult to do this in a foster care setting, unless you have a younger child that is completely dependent on you. Our son was 7 when we adopted him. There were many issues to be worked though. I love my son very much but I will say that I didn't just "naturally" feel the same way about him that I did my birth children. I had to work hard at it--and if children are at school all day long, it's hard to do this. Other children would tend to want to help meet some of his needs and this interfered with my bonding process with him. So, all that to say, it's not always as easy as some folks make it sound and bonding with an older child takes intentional work which would be hard to do with several foster children that you aren't sure will actually be able to be long term in your family.

We are starting to hs again after about 5 yrs. My dd has LD and needs help with writing. This is one of the main reasons we are choosing to hs her. I'm leaning towards using a tutor (Writeguide or Writeathome) along with her writing assignments. I don't know if it would be better to do this option OR have her take a full Comp 1 class. If we go with the write guide option (she can submit daily) in their feedback, do they give instruction enough to help her? Or should I have her take a full course? I will be able to help her some using a handbook like Writer's Inc. Because of her ADHD I think it would make more sense to her to do the writing assignments in the curriculum we are using--it really has to make sense to her for her to engage it. At this point we don't know if she is college bound or not. However, I would like for her to be able to communicate her thoughts in writing. We are also going to be working on the thinking skills. Also, we are probably going to order the Inspiration software that SL recommends because one of her main issues is executive functioning--organizing her thoughts. Will this help with that? TIA, Jamie Z.