sbgrace
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Posts posted by sbgrace
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I don't find it puzzling at all and I don't see why anyone would.
It's a hobby and creative outlet. I don't see it as different than knitting or painting or anything else. It's cheaper than many hobbies really. Sure, small portion of people can certainly get over-involved or obsessed with anything and do it to the detriment of other things (think golf or fishing for some, internet addictions, people who spend money they don't really have on collections, people who watch tv to excess, etc.). Why would scrapbooking be any different?
Nestof3--I'm glad you posted to this thread because I took a look at your blog and I love your scrapbook pages (and cards). They are absolutely fantastic. Wow!
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When I used Little Hands my kids were (academically) beyond the program. It sounds like your daughter was too. I knew they belonged in the other program academics wise going into it but I really wanted to do the bible portion of Little Hands. So we did the bible stuff (happily) and I did my own phonics, writing, and math. We do all of Little Hearts though my kids are still doing their own phonics, writing and math as I liked the curriculums I was using.
There is more reading to Little Hearts (you reading selections to the child). There is more to the curriculum instruction wise for sure:
bible story or reading (history as time goes on)
another something (science activity or reading, drama, art, etc….I don’t know if you’ll love these if you hated Little Hands as it’s sort of similar and it’s not my favorite part of the program.)
sometimes another reading (devotional for example)
bible verse memory with an activity to help practice it--some are unique, some are repetitive (not that I’d expect someone to come up with a unique activity for each and every day). My kids like them; I like that they are memorizing scripture.
CD with verse to music (my kids like this).
handwriting or fine motor and/or thinking skill workbook activity (I'm doing the prescribed fine motor/thinking skill book activity but my own Handwriting so I don't know how advanced her choice is).
literature (we love this part)
reading instruction (phonics at her level)
math (we sub this as I wanted to continue RightStart and I've never tried her math selection to comment on it)
There are less of the act out the story activities. I still see that but not so often and it's often (though not always) different to me than it felt in Little Hands. For example they might use stuffed animals to represent Mr. Toad's family and they act as Mr. Toad to warn them of danger--a kiddie way to narrate a chapter out of the literature curriculum). It still has rhymes with motions like Little Hands did. I don't know if they are more complex or whatever because I didn't do them often with Little Hands. We're doing them w/Little Hearts.
I liked the bible better in Little Hands. It seems more skimmy now to me. Of course she’s covering more ground in this curriculum to get to the history portion. I knew what it would be and that’s why I did Little Hands bible. I like everything else better in Little Hearts.
I think the issue with it being beyond her will be largely solved. However, it’s the same author of course so you’re still going to see things at times like you saw before, particularly in the “another something†box in the curriculum. I think you likely won’t love that part based on what you wrote but it's been too long for me to compare the complexity to Little Hands. I don’t love that part but I don’t hate it and I do love the literature and some other aspects. In short, I really think it would be good if you can take a look at a guide. I think you’ll get a feel really quickly for whether it’s a good fit.
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This thread really jumped out at me because I tried and failed to use HOD's Little Hands to Heaven this year.
I wanted to like it; I really did. I knew going in that I wasn't a big fan of the finger plays and rhymes, but I figured I could just ignore those and do the rest.
In fairness, we tried some activities that *I* was not excited about, but that my dd-4 ended up really enjoying.
But I just have not enjoyed the program at all, and it sadly dropped away. I truly cannot put my finger on what I did not enjoy.
And now I find myself looking for a kindergarten curriculum and wondering if I should give Little Hearts a try, or if it would be deja vu all over again.
At the risk of highjacking this thread, does anybody have any advice for me? Anybody out there not like LHTH but enjoy Little Hearts?
Little Hearts is very different (to me) than Little Hands. But since you can't put your finger on what you didn't like I think it's hard to say if the same "whatever" will be off for you with Little Hearts. Is there anyway you can look over a guide?
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That was it! Thank you!
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I ran across a program a while back and I can't find the bookmark I had assumed I made. I believe it was a writing program (composition type writing I think) and had several levels. But the beginning/young child level was all oral. I remember it involved the child and parent making up a story together (you add, he adds, you add) and you made decisions together about choices you made in the story, sound effects, etc. I know that's probably too broad unfortunately but if anyone has any ideas of what this might have been I'm certain I'll know it when I see it.
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I don't have time to read through all the replies but I'd suggest:
High dose vitamin D (since most are deficient and that will affect energy). A healthy adult can safely take up to 9,000 IU of D3 per day indefinitely. Do check on the thyroid (T3 and T4 levels too).
If you need an actual natural antidepressant I've seen great results with 5-HTP and with Inositol. Either are good options.
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Known injury - no, suspected injury yes. She never had any brain bleeds during our time in the NICU - they checked quite a few times. We and our neurologist agreed on waiting on an MRI since nothing would have really changed so it wasn't urgent. Now that she's 4 maybe we should consider having it done I guess. Her low tone was one sided -torso and leg -so that added to their suspecting it was a brain injury. It was her PT who told us about it and our ped referred us to a neurologist.
Ah, one sided does sound brain related. Seems reasonable. And I see she has risk factors for that/potential causes. That said, metabolics can cause brain injuries as well. But the tone issues I usually see are low tone throughout. My son's is relatively mild though he had gross motor delays.
Did your son have the same risk factors for brain injury?
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Thanks for the info. I will have to go read your post that you linked.
Is this something a neurologist would look into? For my daughter they do believe the low tone is due to a brain injury at or before her birth (she was a 29 weeker but I did have preterm labor for about 6-9 weeks prior to her birth.
For my son we didn't know he had low tone so we have no idea of the cause BUT he did have a head injury at birth and I did have preterm labor with him as well so it could have been an unknown brain injury I guess. I am very curious about the metabolic stuff though so if a neurologist wouldn't look into that how would we look into it? Keeping in mind I haven't read your other post yet :)
Take a look at the post of course. If you see signs of metabolics then you'd want to see someone who does them (metabolic neurologist or some geneticists for example) but if you suspected mitochondrial issues you'd have a very small pool of doctors to use who know mito. But I'm skipping ahead as this may not be the underlying issue for your kids at all. Please feel free to contact me (either place) if you've got questions. I'll try to help.
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I think the way people handle grief is really complicated. My sister lost a husband as well. She (her actions primarily as far as I can tell) stays in contact with the FIL but at some pretty early point distanced herself from the MIL (divorced parents) for reasons that I think had to do with her own grief process. The MIL was the one reaching out, initially anyway, to my sister. I'm not sure a spouse somehow has more grief than a parent and so the parent needs to be the one to reach out. From what I observed everyone involved was completely devastated.
I can't imagine my sister sending cards for anything soon after his death nor his parents. I can't help but think no one even thought of dates/time really other than through the lens of their own grief milestones.
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Also, the way she's holding her head is opening her airway (imagine her on her back and she'd be ready for CPR). I would want to get her nose and throat checked out, just to make sure she isn't compensating for something.
I'm glad to see you say that. I have apnea and I tried to recreate her position and I, too, think it actually opens the airway but I wasn't sure. I'd really be wondering about airway compromise being behind this sleeping position. I know some strange sleep habits I had were because I was (not aware) trying to compensate for airway issues. I'm not overweight and didn't snore loudly but I did have apnea. Upper Airway Restriction would be more common for her age and sex though. Either way I think a high quality sleep study would be either illuminating or reassuring.
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If she were mine I'd ask the doctor if a sleep study might be in order. That would let you know if her breathing is compromised by the position.
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I actually asked because low tone is almost always brain related or metabolic. And when you run into low tone together with other things (in this case possible autism) I'd want to look into metabolics since they are often treated. However, my knowledge of the metabolic stuff that often causes low tone and autism like symptoms (very common in certain conditions affecting fat metabolism or mitochondrial function) they also include other health issues.
I made a post about signs of metabolics on the link below if you want to look and see if anything fits. http://www.mothering.com/discussions/showthread.php?t=734501 If for some reason the link doesn't work or you have questions feel free to send me a message.
He has always been 'behind' in gross motor areas but never enough that he could receive services. She thinks that the low tone is the cause of some of his delays and odd gait patterns.At around 3 there were some concerns about whether he had a tethered spinal cord - oddly I don't really remember what the concerns were, but he was referred to a neurosurgeon who did an exam and an MRI. The MRI showed he did not have a tethered cord but beyond that I don't know.
We are being referred to a neurologist at Children's Hospital Oakland for the low muscle tone. This is oddly similar to my DD who we took to Stanford about 1 1/2-2 yrs ago for the same thing --- we did know she had low tone though her's is one sided and most likely due to her premature birth, we opted not to do an MRI since the cause was suspected and wouldn't have changed anything in regards to her therapy.
Sorry for the book in answer to your simple question, lol. Is there anything about the low tone that made you ask that??
I didn't mention that the school psych does think that some of the 'autistic-like' signs are just from him being gifted so she didn't feel we needed to really be concerned other than some social skills programs.
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I think the underlying cause is going to be important in terms of outcomes. A kid with those delays with a metabolic condition vs. environmental factors vs. brain damage from a prenatal stroke for example is going to be very different.
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What works here is to have a separate basket for each type of load. Then the loads (here it is hot clothes, bath towels, kitchen towels/cloths) that we go through the quickest are washed one after another in a sort of cycle (here that is bath-hot clothes-kitchen stuff one after another). Then I add in one or two other loads of stuff we go through less frequently or, in the case of underwear and socks, we have so much we don't have to wash frequently. Then I repeat my cycle. I never run out of anything anymore because it's routine and I'm washing high use things frequently enough that it works.
I put a load in at night before bed and set it to wash right before we get up so it's finishing around the end of breakfast. Then after breakfast I switch it to the dryer. The part of laundry I hate the most is the folding and putting away. Sometimes I put that off until I have to unload the dryer to put the next load in.
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Thank you all so much!
This is my current plan. I'll join the group. I will do the I See Sam readers. I am going to make letter tiles for him as well. I'll go ahead with Headsprout as long as he's feeling successful and enjoying it but I think he's completely memorizing at this point. Unless something clicks I think I may need to do another (dyslexia) program.
I have a question and I'm not sure how to explain it but I read a free lesson on ABeCeDarian and it had kids pointing at each tile and saying the individual sound. The adult could do "turtle talk" to slowly run the sounds together if the child struggled but the child was pointing and saying individual sounds before blending.
So man for example, if I'm understanding the approach correctly:
point to m say /m/, point to a say /a/ point to n and say /n/ then run under them all and say /man/. If he struggles I do turtle talk and /mmmmaaaannn/. Then he tries again. Is there a reason he can't do it (still pointing as he moves to next sound) /mmmmaaaaaannnnnn/ /man/ if I can teach him to do it that way?
Sbatty, that's interesting. He does have sensory integration stuff going on (though proprioceptive) and that may be responsible for the grip/pressure stuff with writing. I don't know that he has auditory stuff going on? How would I know? I did a screening that involved comparing sounds (so he had to remember sh f ch and repeat them twice knowing they were three different sounds and f ch ch and know that there was one different and two same sounds) and he passed. Would that indicate to you it's not an auditory processing issue? I'd sure like another explanation for what I'm seeing honestly!
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Low muscle tone? Does he have any other issues--health or developmental?
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Thank you! This is really helpful.
I'm going to get those I See Sam books for sure and also look into ABeCeDarian. I may finish Headsprout and see where we are before the ABeCeDarian but it sounds like the I See Sam might help now. My hesitation is I'm afraid he'll do something like ABeCeDarian and feel like he's unsuccessful and give up/lose confidence. Right now he feels good about himself re: reading because he can do Headsprout.
Shay, that's really encouraging to read! I talked to my sister tonight who is a special ed. teacher who was in charge of her elementary reading program and she said very similar things to me. Headsprout does teach blending without pauses/continuously. You mentioned addressing phonemics with just two
phonemic awareness exercises. Is there somewhere I can find phonemic awareness exercises to work on it directly or would you continue w/Headsprout (or ABeCeDarian if Headsprout doesn't seem to be getting it) along with the readers and see where we get?
Ottakee, it is reassuring to know kids can read w/out things like rhyming. My sister said similar stuff about treating the ADD more aggressively. She has ADD herself and told me what a difference it made for her academically to finally be treated. I have tried diet stuff, supplements, etc. w/out changes. He had a sleep study two years ago and it had reduced deep stage sleep but few apnea episodes. I hesitate to medicate him at this age though I assume we'll need to as he ages. I guess I may have to faster than I wanted though.
burleygirl, what age did you do PACE? I figured a child could talk on time and still be dyslexic. Do you know if they can be dyslexic with essentially no family history (to my knowledge the only person with dyslexia in the family is a cousin of mine)?
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My son is a young six.
I'm sorry this is long. I just don't know what I should think or do at this point.
He has very little phenomic awareness. I noticed this long ago (couldn't and still can't really rhyme consistently). I did phenomic tests from this site: http://www.brightsolutions.us/ and he had no clue on all but two questions. By no clue I mean when I said "if you change the /h/ in hot to /p/ what word would you have?" and he said "pat, right?" "no sweetie, not quite hhhhhot and take away the /h/ and add a /p/." "pud?" He did tell me when words shared similar beginnings (he seems to get beginning sounds yet has no awareness of ending or middle sounds) and told me cat take away the /k/ is at.
Here is what is confusing me.
He had no significant speech delay and no weird articulation or pronunciation issues at all. He repeated dyslexia as dyswexia but he’s six. His ambulance sounds like his brother’s (L issue which I believe is typical at a young early six year old level). I never noticed stuttering.
I don't know of any dyslexia in the family (my sister does have dyscalcula and I see signs of possible dyslexia in her early years at least and I know she's still a horrible speller but she's a special ed teacher and can read aloud and etc.) Neither my husband nor myself are dyslexic. I'm sure of that.
He has severe ADD I believe. He's right handed.
He isn’t at all solid on left/right but does know things like over/under.
He was late with hand dominance but he's better now at six. I do still have to tell him to use his right hand in writing but not all the time.
He knew letter names very early (well before 18 months, self taught). He easily learned letter sounds. He can say his alphabet in order though he can’t tell me what letters come after other letters. He struggles with memorizing days of the week in order and stuff like that but I don’t know how much is attention and interest. I noticed when he was learning to print he formed his letters with extremely illogical ways (cross of H before lines type stuff) with weird starting/ending points but that seemed to mostly resolve as we worked on it with Handwriting without Tears. He has a tight pencil grip and really struggled to form a non-fist grip but his thumb now isn’t crossed (it does sit closer to the top of the pencil).
He’s extremely creative, imaginative, and intuitive. I think he’s right brained (not at all sequential and an “aha” learner/global thinker). However, his visual spatial skills (things like puzzles) are not his interest or strength so I’m not sure. He does have an uncanny ability to remember locations he's only visited once long ago and things like that. He had vision therapy for convergence, tracking, and related issues.
Mostly I’m confused as he doesn’t seem to have the major warning signs (such as oral language things and strong family history) but the phenomic awareness is so poor that I think I have reason to worry about that alone? He's doing fine with our phonics program (Headsprout) but it's repetitive and he's memorizing I believe as he immediately knows headsprout words (no sounding out at all and he remembers them quickly) yet he struggles to sound out any words he hasn't encountered in Headsprout--even simple three letter blends.
I'm sorry this is so long and I would greatly appreciate any input at all about what I should do for him? I particularly need help with the phenomic awareness issues I think?
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She's old enough to help with after dinner clean up.
I've got (fraternal) twins that age. One eats like a normal person and the other is a messy disaster. The messy guy has sensory issues (particularly body in space awareness stuff) and I think it has an awful lot to do with his eating "style" or lack of it in this case. I pick my battles. There are big issues in life and this really isn't anything close to one of them. I would try to put this in perspective. Letting this get to you that much has to be taking toll on dinner time peace and relaxation if not digestion. She'll get way better by college I'm certain!
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Waaahhh! The Voyage of the Northern Magik looks like a wonderful book. Too bad it is over $60 used at Amazon... I'll have to keep my eye out for that one and check out the other book.
Their site is really interesting! It looks like you can possibly* order it via the family website for bit less and part goes to charity.
http://www.northernmagic.com/ordering_how_to.html
* a google looks like an awful lot of yuck has happened to the family since the time of the website so I'm not sure what that means in terms of sales. The website is really worth a look either way.
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We use pure encapsulations. I trust their manufacturing process.
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We are a family who does not restrict our other children. Our 3rd child is allergic to dairy, tree nuts, and peanuts. He was diagnosed very early, so he has never had, say, chocolate, and he is not remotely interested in it. We always have a supply of dum-dum pops or something like that on hand that he can have if the other kids are having something else. Our thought is that in the world around him, people will always be eating things he can't have. That's life. He needs to be flexible, and we will help him find something suitably special that he can enjoy. Now, no one in our family is allowed to ever gloat about something they are eating that he can't have. That would not be kind. But I don't think it is inherently unkind to eat things he can't eat, especially if there is a substitute for him that he really likes! We always tell him that God made him so special, and we are so glad he is a part of our family. He goes to co-op and parties where people eat stuff he can't have, and he will most likely have college roommates that will do the same. If he's used to everyone only eating exactly what he can have--well, he's going to have a hard row to hoe!
I just wanted to offer an opposing viewpoint on why we have chosen to let our other kids eat things to which Caleb is allergic. You made it seem like we were just thoughtlessly rubbing his face in it, which is not at all the case! We thought it out, and this was what we decided was best for our family. Others may have other good reasons for doing so as well. I can also tell you that Caleb really doesn't mind. He feels special and well-loved, and anyone who is around him very much can tell that!
We eat lots of allergen foods my son can't have here. That is life. He doesn't notice/mind and he's used to it. The issue (for us) with nuts is that trace contamination could kill him. I personally just couldn't handle the stress of wondering if he might get a little bit of something on his hands and end up in anaphylaxis here. Like the pp, though, I think comfort levels w/risk on this topic vary.
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If trying stuff like this fails and you think it's very much related to the meds (likely is) you might look into Inositol as an alternative to the Wellbutrin.
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Thank you so much for the help!
In looking through our snacks at home, almost everything has nuts in it! He's never eaten any of those snacks because he's always made it clear that he has a strong aversion to nuts but now I'm supposed to get rid of them.
Does anyone have a few foods they already know are safe for nut allergy families so at least I have someplace to start?
Also, how do you know if your kid is anaphylactic to nuts? He's never had trouble breathing but each time he's actually consumed peanuts (which has only been a handful of times in his life), he screams in pain and says his throat hurts. Would that be considered anaphylactic?
It's a new world for me...
Nut and peanut allergies are always considered anaphylactic. A child can have a mild reaction and then the next (and first serious) one can be deadly. I never knew my son was even allergic until he had an anaphylactic (biphasic--very serious) reaction to cross contamination nut suddenly. I've never seen anything like it again and hope I never do.
My son told me he "never felt better in his life" (he's six) when we finally figured out and got rid of all the trace nuts in our foods.
Your home cooked meals (chicken, potato, green beans type stuff) are of course going to be safe. We're wheat free and my son has the cashew/pistachio/sesame/mango shared protein allergy combo so our stuff is more complicated. Quaker old fashioned oats are nut free. Some of their other products aren't (including I believe instant packs) but the regular oats are. I make "granola" by baking the oats with butter and brown sugar or other sweetener. It's yummy.
McCormick's spices clean for cross with nuts and sesame (sesame crosses with cashew in some nut allergic people). Lundenburg rice is nut free. Bionaturae olive oil is nut trace free. Tropical traditions coconut oil is too. It's the only safe coconut oil. Because of the sesame and gluten stuff "regular" foods aren't an option for us but I'm pretty sure some companies are careful with labeling. If you ask on Kidswithfoodallergies site someone will certainly give you ideas. All the Enjoy life stuff will be safe for your son but they are expensive. Cherrybrook kitchen has nut/peanut safe dessert mixes. All this hit around my son's birthday and it was a lifesaver to have something I knew was safe to use for his cake while I was figuring all of it out.
I encourage you to call companies. They are not required by law to label if an item shares equipment with tree nuts/peanuts. And, statistically, shared equipment is at some point going to have enough for a reaction. We got rid of all of it on the advice of our allergist.
Looking for good Bible story picture book.
in K-8 Curriculum Board
Posted · Edited by sbgrace
I have ideas that are a bit more than I think you want and ideas that might not be quite what you want either in the other direction I suspect. But I'll pass them along anyway.
We absolutely love that Jesus Storybook Bible mentioned above too. It's our current favorite. I tear up reading it often. Beautiful. But I'm not sure if it has too many words to hold the attention on the page for you and unfortunately I don't think you can preview it on Amazon. The pictures are nice and colorful (often full page w/ the text there too) but it has more paragraphs per page than you might want--I opened to a random page just now and it had four paragraphs (about 2/3 a page of writing) on one page. But it's not a waste to get it and try because if not now in time I think they will love it. It's just a really great storybook bible. That said, I think (based on my own child with, I suspect, similar preferences and "wiring" as your kids and the same age as your oldest) that it might possibly be too much wording right now especially for the youngers.
We also did this one:
http://www.amazon.com/Beginners-Bible-Karyn-Henley/dp/0310926106/ref=pd_cp_b_1 This is an older version by Karyn Henley. You can look inside and see what you think about this one. There is a newer version with a different illustrator and author but same title (and cover I believe) and publisher but based on reviews you really want the older one. I had to buy the Karyn Henley one used. There is about one paragraph per page on average. We really like this bible and I think it might be enough to hold the attention of the older without losing the younger (middle at least if not youngest) if you think the artwork is enough.
We loved these books (we have all four volumes..some I really had to search for at the time I purchased) especially when they were younger but it's even more simple wording (very memorable though) and you might not like the artwork either. http://www.amazon.com/Read-Aloud-Bible-Stories-1/dp/0802471633/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1272234162&sr=1-7 It may be too little but do consider. My spectrum kiddo especially loved these because of the wording capturing him . Do look. You might not like the art but I believe the wording is short and will engage them--especially the youngers--better than maybe any other choice. It might be too young for the oldest though. My same age spectrum child still likes them, his neurotypical twin is ok with them but he's ok with any book and they wouldn't now be his choice. I think they would be great for the younger ones.
The middle one I mentioned, if you like the art work, is the closest I have to what you're wanting.