Hi, I am going to give you the perspective of someone who is from Africa but has lived in both worlds since I was young. Since your son has a strong culture he associates with, the best thing you can do for him is to teach him slavery, Lincoln etc. from the perspective of someone who is not African American. To most Americans he is African American and you can't control or change that, but to your son, he is African. Start by learning about how slavery affected east Africa and specifically the country he is from, then when you get to slavery in your studies discuss the history you've learned about his country before you start studying Lincoln, The Civil War etc. This will give him a better perspective of how slavery relates to him personally. Even though I am grown, there are many things that affects African Americans that I can't relate to. Considering your son is very young, he sees the African American culture just as a caucacian does, which is something unfamiliar that he has to learn about. I hope you find this helpful.

I am sorry you had such a horrible experience with the PROMPT therapist. Unfortunately, you are not alone. My first encounter with a PROMPT therapist didn’t go well either. However, with encouragement from OhElizabeth and 4evercanucks, I decided to give it another short. This time, I searched the PROMPT website for a certified PROMPT therapist. I found a PROMPT instructor who evaluated my two sons. She diagnosed my 7yr old with word-recall issues . He has difficulty retelling past incidents, be it books he has read, shows he has seen on TV or incidents at his school. She also had me record him at home for her to watch him in his normal setting before giving me a final diagnosis. She didn’t diagnose him with stuttering even though my son sounds disjointed at times. She only had an opening for one patient so we decided to have her see the youngest one, who will be 4 in two months. We started seeing this lady at the end of February and in six weeks of weekly one-hour sessions, my son has started showing significant improvement in his speech. She diagnosed him with a loose jaw and some poor motor control. This makes it difficult to understand him. I haven’t cancelled his regular speech therapy at the local elementary school and didn’t inform them that we have started PROMPT. At our recent IEP, the school SLP remarked that my son has shown sudden significant improvement in the last month. My humble suggestion is to visit the PROMPT institute website and search for a PROMPT instructor or a Certified PROMPT therapist for a second eval. I will stay away from anyone who is not certified or is not an instructor. You may have to drive quite a distance for such a therapist. Mine is about 1.5hrs drive each way. OhElizabeth had to drive even further than I am. When you find the right PROMPT therapist, the distance won’t be an issue. The good ones are also very willing to help you find a program to work at home even if they will not be able to see your child. This is what the lady did for my 7year old. Best of luck to you and your son!

Hi, I have been through two adenoid surgeries with my ds and I hope my experience may help you. My ds was diagnosed with hearing loss at age two when he failed the hearing test at his 2 yr physical. The main symptoms he had was snoring, lousy sleeping, poor balance (he couldn't walk down stairs but this was attributed to his age), excessive energy, constant nose drainage, and speech delay. The speech delay was obviously due to the lack of hearing. The 1st ENT confirmed the hearing loss even though ds passed the newborn hearing screening. The loss was attributed to nerve damage since he never had any ear infections or was on any heavy duty antibiotics. The ENT recommended speech therapy and hearing aid. One of the requirement for speech therapy in my area is to attend a weekly speech group. At one of the group sessions, I overheard another parent describing her ds and it was as if she was talking about my children. I learned from her that her ds was diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea and will recommend I take mine to Children's Hospital. At the Sleep Clinic at Children's hospital, my dc (I had two children at the time, dd & ds) were diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea due to excessively large tonsils and adenoids. This explained why they had not slept through the night ever since they were born. They were 3.5 & 2.5yrs old at the time of diagnosis. We were referred to a pediatric ENT who put a scoop down my son's nose and found that his adenoids had completely blocked his nostrils. He explained how excessively large adenoids pushes on the eustachian tubes as such affecting hearing and balance. The blocked nostrils explained why his nose was always running and he was always drooling because he was breathing through his mouth. Both dc were immediately scheduled for surgery. The surgery for my dc was done on the same day. It was done two days before ds 3rd birthday. My son's hearing was tested immediately after surgery prior to leaving the OR and he had perfect hearing. My boy never had any nerve damage. All the hearing issues were due to the large adenoids. Recovery was not bad. Most of the pain from the surgery was from the tonsils and not the adenoids. They had to stay in the hospital for 3 days because they were so young and recovery took about a week after that. One thing the ENT told me prior to the surgery was that the adenoids do grow back in some people. My son's adenoids did grow back (my dd's didn't) about a year later and it had to be removed again. The second time around was an out patient surgery. The recovery was very easy. We left the surgical center with ds asking for some food because he was hungry. It has been 8 months since the second surgery and so far so good. My ds still has some speech issues but everything else has been resolved including the dry lips. My suggestion to you is to get a second opinion at a children's hospital if you can and then make the best decision for your child and your family. My children slept through the night for the first time in their lives immediately after the surgery (they were 4 & 3yrs old). I wouldn't wish the sleep deprivation of the 4yrs prior to be surgery on my worst enemy. I will try and answer any questions you may have. Good luck to you.

I have found the Microfiber Towels (Ultra absorbent) to work very well. I only rinse them out and clean the SS appliance with it. It dries with a wonderful sheen. By the way, I got my pack from Sam's Club. They are scratch free and Lint Free and comes in a pack of 24 towels. They have become my life saver. They work incredibly well on hardwood floors and on granite as well. Ok, so I use it for everything now.

I hope it is not too late but MYOB, which is now Acclivity www.myob-us.com has great accounting software for MAC. They have both single user and network software for PC and Mac. Check them out if you are still searching for one. Their complete single user support (annual support) is $249 and it includes software upgrades every year. Payroll forms is an extra $79 a year if you need it. They will process payroll for you for a fee. I hope this helps.

Thank you for your suggestions. I do certainly agree that as they advance in SM, their pace will slow down and I will also be able to add the Intensive Problems and Challenging Word Problems. However it is this early stage of fostering a love of math and their desire to spend a lot of time on math that I want to encourage. I will get RS Level A and start dd before we begin SM 1a. This will give her an opportunity to work with only miquon and EB-B for a while. If she likes RS, we will continue otherwise we will drop it. Thanks again.

Hi everyone, I have been reading these threads for some time and have learned a lot from all your great inputs. I am a little torn and I hope I can get some input. My original plan was to combine Singapore Math and Miquon, so I purchased SM earlybird A & B with the activity books and the Power Math-K as well as all the miquon books. My goal was to start earlybird but have my dd(5) and ds(4) play with the cussinaire rods while I read the Miquon Annotation and Teacher's diary. I was planing on my dd finishing EB within six months then starting miquon and finishing the orange book while doing some work in the Power Math-K before starting Singapore 1A and then combining it with miquon Red book. We started EB text A (including the activity A) three weeks ago and dd is on pace to finish within a week and it looks like she will finish text B within another month. Ds is also not far behind and is about half way through text A. Since they are moving faster than I had planned (even though we are approaching this in a very relaxed manner) I am wondering if it will be a good idea to include Right Start with our math program. I have read quite a bit about Right Start but I am wondering if it will be too much to do Singapore math as a core program, while we work on miquon but then include Right Start math as well. Would it be confusing? Should I wait until we finish Miquon before starting RightStart? I have read posts about combing Singapore and Miquon but not much about adding in RightStart. I recognize Singapore may not be challenging now but will change as they get into the higher grades. I guess that is why I am a bit torn. Any inputs or suggestions will be very much appreciated. Thanks, Confused Mama.