Hello! So one of my 8.5 year old twin daughters really struggles with eating. It's been a struggle for as long as she has been eating, but as of late it has gotten increasingly worse. She went for a pediatrician appointment last week (due to a UTI) and had lost half a pound since her early December well-check visit. She is now barely on the percentile chart for weight, which is low even for her. I have done everything I can think of so I'm not really looking for advice on that aspect. I have about five books sitting on my bookshelf with advice on getting picky eaters to eat. I have her look through cookbooks and help me make dinner. She helps me shop at the grocery store. We've visited a farm and learned about where our food comes from. I just cannot get her to eat properly. She clearly has some sensory issues going on because if there is a mess on anyone's plate she shuts down and can't eat. She can't handle a lot of smells and messes on tables and the floor in restaurants. So she tends to eat snack foods like goldfish crackers, gogurts and things like that. Nothing that would constitute a main entree. She will not drink a protein shake or a smoothie. Until recently I could get her to eat waffles, pancakes and oatmeal. Now she has declared she no longer likes those things. I drive through McDonalds almost daily because their french fries are one of the few things she will actually consume. I plan on seeing our main pediatrician soon but I'm assuming she will maybe run some blood tests (I definitely want to rule out the possibility of an allergy) but she has brought up therapy in the past. I've heard mixed reviews about feeding therapy but I only know two moms who have been through it. Just curious if anyone else here has had to go this route and, if so, how successful it was? It's going to be a pretty big expense. Naturally we will look past that but I don't want it to be a complete waste of money if it takes months and months and nothing comes of it, kwim? Thanks! Tracy

Thanks everyone! Okay so I'm dropping CLE. I feel a certain sense of relief coming on! ?

Hello everyone! We are nearing the end of our homeschooling year and I'm mostly set for next year but I'm still unsure about language arts. We are currently working through CLE LA 200. While I like it okay, and it gets the job done, it comes with lots of moaning and groaning from my kids. And I find that I cross quite a bit of it out because we do separate spelling and writing. I'm trying to figure out if I *need* CLE or if I can get by with what we have planned for next year, which is continuing with Spelling You See, Essentials in Writing 3 (this will be new for us), Worldy Wise for vocabulary and continued cursive practice. Essentials in Writing seems to cover the grammar rules that we learn in CLE. My girls are pretty good readers so if I decide to ditch CLE I would pick up a phonics workbook. I would love to get some thoughts or suggestions. Thanks!! Tracy

Do you immediately move into the next level of the curriculum? My second graders are scheduled to finish CLE Math 2 in mid-March as we do it 5 days a week and tend to skip the quizzes. We take a week long vacation in April and our last day of school is set for May 25. I'm trying to decide if I should go ahead and purchase CLE Math 3 and get started as soon as LU 210 is complete or just pick up some math workbooks for their level as reinforcement and extra practice to finish out the school year. If it were language arts or another subject I would just continue on (which we are getting ready to do for SYS) but for some reason I'm hesitant to do that with math, I guess because I'm nervous about pushing them along too quickly. Any thoughts?

Thank you all for the helpful replies. Interesting thoughts and I very much appreciate it. I see their facebook posts which are always followed by rave and glowing reviews. It all sounds lovely. CLE is working for us, and my girls like it. We use SYS for spelling. I think I will stick with these.

We are a secular homeschool but do use CLE for math and LA. I LOVE CLE math and just look past the religious quotes and things because the program fits our needs so well. I don't love CLE LA, although it is working for us, and I'm really thinking about switching to TGTB LA for next school year but I'm a little nervous. Wondering if any secular homeschoolers have used any TGTB curriculum and, if so, your thoughts? I do have the free LA downloaded but have had problems trying to print it out and it's difficult to get a feel for the program itself until we dive into it. If we went with TGTB I would purchase hard copy versions of it.

We are a secular homeschool but do use CLE for math and LA. I LOVE CLE math and just look past the religious quotes and things because the program fits our needs so well. I don't love CLE LA, although it is working for us, and I'm really thinking about switching to TGTB LA for next school year but I'm a little nervous. Wondering if any secular homeschoolers have used any TGTB curriculum and, if so, your thoughts? I do have the free LA downloaded but have had problems trying to print it out and it's difficult to get a feel for the program itself until we dive into it. If we went with TGTB I would purchase hard copy versions of it.

I have second graders and we've used both. We used FLL last year and while I liked it my girls just weren't retaining as much as I wanted. We switched to CLE a few months into this school year and it's been a lot better fit for us. My girls want/need workbooks to help retain and remember the information. I do cross out much of the penmanship (we are secular and much of their penmanship work is not) and the spelling as we already use Spelling You See. But overall I like it. I don't *love* either program but prefer CLE to FLL. With that being said, I'm researching our options for next year (3rd grade).

Thank you for the responses. We are pretty low-maintenance travelers. We arrive at the gate plenty early and, at least on an overseas flight over, we just sleep and don't really eat much of the airplane food. I imagine on the way home we would eat before departure and bring some snacks. I'm looking at flights from BWI to Reykjavik or London. Good point on only upgrading the tickets for one person. We would only need to check one large suitcase for the four of us as we typically rent places through VRBO or Airbnb that have washers, so the other three tickets could be basic.

We are considering another trip to Europe for this spring. Wow Airlines keeps coming up in my fare searches and the round trip prices are hundreds of dollars less per person. I went directly to their website and I chose "Wow Plus" as it seems like a better deal since it allows a personal item, carry-on and one piece of checked luggage per person. So even with choosing Wow Plus the prices are still half the price of the next lowest price. I know this is a no-frills airline. We don't fly first class so I think it would be okay, but I don't know much about the airline. Any experiences flying with them? We would be flying with our 8 year old travel-enthusiastic daughters.

Points and suggestions taken. This is a subject they already excel in so it feels like overkill. Time to ditch it! :)

This thread is so encouraging to a mom whose daughter still invents spelling of words at 8 years old! She is a pretty good speller, but she gets lazy when she is making cards or signs or things from her art table after school. Some of the spellings are just so sweet and cute and lovable that I can't bring myself to correct it. There will become a time, sooner than I care to admit, that she is going to be "too old" to make cute signs and cards for me so I prefer to enjoy it!

Any tips from BTDT homeschooling parents on making the decision to stop/switch out a curriculum? I've gotten better with choosing curriculum that fits our needs, but I still second-guess myself and, of course, make mistakes. There is a specific curriculum I'm questioning right now, but I prefer not to say as I am looking for some general advice as opposed to pros/cons on the curriculum itself. I'm contemplating switching out, or completely getting rid of, one in particular that comes with a lot of push-back and whining from my girls. We just collectively don't care for it and I'm starting to dread it. But then I second guess myself (everyone seems to love it! it works! I paid good money for it!) and so we power through. And every day I question whether to switch. Any tips? How do YOU know when to throw in the towel? Thanks! Tracy

We are driving up to DC for the long weekend as tourists. Will spend time in one of the museums and them either carry in Chinese or get a pizza delivered to our hotel room. DH doesn't like Thanksgiving food, my girls are ridiculously picky and I'm kind of bummed about being away from family this year (unusual for us) so I'm fine with nontraditional.

No, no change at all. She is a bit more clingy and loving during the day, although she still goes to her activities away from me without a fight. She is a happy, playful little girl. We do have their well-check visits scheduled for next month. If this is still happening I will probably bring it up with the pediatrician just to get her opinion.

Thank you all so much. I'm going to be taking a lot of the advice. The melatonin works when she lets it work. But when she gets distraught it sees to make her even more emotional. I take 5 mg every night and have for about three years as I have a difficult time shutting my mind off to fall asleep. I will probably discontinue it if I'm going to be in her room until she falls asleep. I love the idea of audio books with headphones, a small protein-packed snack, meditation and trying a rewards system. Going to discuss it all with DH tonight and figure out how to tackle this. I'm exhausted right now from being up overnight but of course my girls are in great moods and don't understand what the problem is ;)

Thank you all so much. My grandmother lived halfway across the country from us so going to the cemetery isn't really an option. She wasn't particularly close to my grandmother due to the distance. We only saw her once or twice a year. I imagine it's more the mortality issue than her losing her actual great grandmother, even though she was very sad about it. I'm going to try your suggestions. I'm going to sleep with her until she falls asleep but let her know that after she falls asleep I'm going back to my own room. I will also set up a pallett for her/them and tell them they can come down quietly if she gets upset overnight. I would much rather her do this than scream for me overnight!!

Y'all, I could really use some advice! I have just-turned-8 twin girls and one of them has gotten exceedingly clingy for me at bedtime over the past few months. I don't recall when it actually started, but it may have coincided with the passing of my grandmother in August. This was the first time that they understood that someone that was previously in their lives isn't anymore. I purchased a few books to better explain the death and heaven process and we talked a lot about it. She doesn't bring it up anymore so now I'm not so sure. So basically when it's bedtime all the sudden she is a sobbing mess. Full tears running down her face and she just moans and cries out for me. We've been using melatonin to try to get her to fall asleep quicker but even that doesn't do the trick. She cries that she loves me and misses me and "I want my mommy". I'm literally right downstairs. I thought it was just a phase but it's been going on for awhile now. Last night she awoke sobbing and screaming for me at 2:30 am; this happens about once a week. I had to go up there and give her a hug and kiss and then she promptly goes back to bed but due to the adrenaline I'm up for an hour before falling back asleep. And then her sister is woken up and she gets super grumpy if she doesn't get enough sleep. I see her all day since I home school so I don't get it? It's very sweet but also exhausting. After long days I'm ready to relax on the couch and watch some TV or use my tablet. She was never like this before. She wasn't a super clingy child and her twin sister was the one that had more sleep and separation issues in the past. I'm just very surprised by this. It's gotten to the point where I've had to turn down invitations from friends for girls' nights out or change the classes I take at the gym so that I'm home when she goes to bed or it's a nightmare for DH. She shares a room with her sister so she isn't alone. They have a nightlight in their room and in the hallway and bathroom, although I don't think her behavior has anything to do with being scared. Our master is on the first floor and their room is upstairs, which doesn't help the situation. One of us has to sit outside their bedroom door until she falls asleep or give in and let them sleep on the floor in our room. I'm at a loss. I assumed that we were well past sleep issues. We've been fortunate in that they have always been pretty good sleepers. Up until this point it had been years, with the rare exception of maybe sickness overnight, that I've been woken up from my sleep. Any thoughts, ideas, advice?? Thanks!

We take melatonin to sleep on our overseas flights. Getting enough sleep to function that first day upon landing is key imo. Most of my international travel experience has been east to west (US to Europe) so landing at, say, 4 am EST and staying awake all day is difficult if you don't get enough sleep on the plane. And yes, I think you do get used to it. Traveling from Asia to and back was awful. East to west is a heck of a lot easier!

Ours isn't too bad compared to some of y'all! :) Tumbling -$80 per month for one DD Pottery - $78 per month for one DD Homeschool PE - $30 per quarter x 2 And probably a few hundred per year for Brownie fees

Thank you all so much. She's had a myriad of evals over the years and nothing with motor skills has ever come up as being a problem. She runs extremely well, loves the monkey bars, etc. I'm thinking it may be sensory, as she has some other sensory issues as well. I never considered that before but it makes sense. I think I'm going to try one of those kids yoga DVDs as well as doing some stretches with her so I can give her more explicit instructions.

I've used it in overnight oats with cocoa and banana, smoothies and in the banana "ice cream". I love peanut butter but its something lime 85% fewer calories and still gives off a peanut butter flavor.

Thank you for responding Arcadia. When she does a bridge its like its physically difficult for her to hold herself up. She can't staighten her legs and touch her toes, sit in a V with straight legs and things like that. She is pretty physically active so I don't think its from a lack of not doing anything all day.

BTW its tumbling not recreation gymnastics.

My soon-to-be 8 year old DD, who has high functioning ASD, is in a beginner gymnastics class. She loves it and I love that she loves it. I keep noticing what seems like a complete lack of flexibility, especially compared to the other beginner girls. She even struggles with holding her arms straight high over her head. Her arms and knees are always bent and the coach is always (nicely) telling her to straighten them. She has a very difficult time going into a bridge. I can't tell if this is just normal for her (obviously not everyone is highly flexible), laziness (doesn't seem like it physically hurts her), lack of understanding exactly what is expected (due to ASD) or if there is low muscle tone or something to be worried about. Her coach us aware of her diagnosis and will give her extra instruction and doesnt make her feel bad, and she seems oblivious that she is the only one struggling with these things I'm not expecting an Olympic gymnast here so this is more of a general question as opposed to my being worried about her progressing in class. Any thoughts?