Yuck. It sounds like it is carefully worded to allow them the option to later deny. The service "is eligible for outpatient coverage." It doesn't say it's covered, just that it's eligible to be covered. In other words, yes, this can be covered under your plan depending on specifics. That said, I definitely would have interpreted this as approval.

It is not a priority for me at all. I never went to camp and never wanted to. It's not too common where I live, though. I think some kids go to some kind of church camp, maybe, but that's all I've heard about. I will be very surprised if our kids ever go to camp. I'd much rather spend the money on other experiences and I don't feel that they need to be away from us for any length of time. Now that I think about it, I'd actually be pretty uncomfortable with them spending a week day and night with a group of strangers. I MIGHT feel better about it if it were with a group I know well, but I doubt it. As older teens, I'm sure they will have experiences being away from us for lengths of time, but it won't likely be at camp. It would be more likely to be trips with close friends for recreation and/or volunteer work. Which I guess is like a camp with people you know.

Similar to above, I have a couple places that I put things that I'm just not sure about giving up (or things I'm sure of but don't yet have a place to store long-term). It takes several months for these places to get full. When I go through everything again, I almost always find that I can let it go - even most of the things I was sure of keeping. There have been a handful of nice toys that took a couple years to be able to let go of. But I believe I'll eventually end up with only books and clothes from the baby - preschool years, and I plan to have the clothes incorporated into a throw or blanket. I think what happens is that with time I'm able to mentally move into the next kid stage. I'm nostalgic about the previous phases, but somehow once we're solidly in the next one I'm more ready to move on. ETA: My kids are very close in age. This wouldn't work the same way if they weren't, I don't think. It helps a lot that I take almost everything to consignment. I used to sell on facebook groups, but I find the consignment easier. I generally do two bigger loads per year (spring and fall). Any odds and ends at other times, that I know will be consigned, go into a sack in the back of the car. Easy to remove if I need the space, and ready when I make it by the consignment shop. It also helps that we simply do not have the space to store much in the house. I can stand some clutter of items we're actually using or will realistically use in future, but I have a very low tolerance for unused clutter.

Nvm. I posted before reading comments to see the direction this is going to go. 😂🤐

I used Advance (Ben Moore, I think). It's about $60 per gallon (a few years ago anyway) but well worth it. I sanded first, primed, and used small foam roller and brush. It has lasted fairly well. We don't have handles on the doors, they have indentions routed into the bottoms. This area has chipped and needs touched up on the most used cabinets. If there were handles I don't think this would be an issue. The silverware drawer has chipped. We have a very small kitchen, so everything gets a lot of use. Considering that, I think it has held up quite well. It would have been better if I had sprayed it, but at the time I wasn't willing to do that or hire it out. Also, I did a great job sanding the doors, bc I took them off. I could have done a better job on the frames. There are some spots where i didn't get the previous poly sanded down enough and the poly was uneven to start with. I wasn't willing to use the electric sander in there and accepted the tradeoff. Frames I sanded by hand and cleaned very, very well first bc some had a lot of grease buildup when we moved in.

Oh, fun! Such a good idea incorporating legos too. My ds is beside me and saw the pics; he's already intrigued.

Just received LiPs today. I'm only a few pages in, and simply cannot understand why the SLP would recommend against this! It's like some of the LOE stuff we did, only a zillion times more explicit. (The stuff that is probably part of why my dd has the phonological awareness she does have.) Difficult to implement? I'm just not seeing that.?! This will be SO GOOD for both dd and ds!

Yep, I ordered 2 extra sets of tiles. We do already have the sandpaper letters and a sand tray. Whiteboard, too. And the kids do love stuff like that, so I'll just add cute stuff to Barton. (Can I just give a big <sigh> here, because that stuff tends to try my patience. They love it though. LOL) I haven't yet gotten the link to the videos. Watching for that this morning. 🙂

My husband and I talked through it tonight. My gut says, after looking at the samples and re-reading this thread full of advice, that AAR wouldn't be enough different to risk wasting the time with it. He supports whatever I decide and after hearing the details agrees with me. So I ordered Level 1 and LiPs. I'm relieved to have this decision made and looking forward to starting. Still looking forward to the full report from the SLP too. Thank you all again, I'll update as things move along. Your advice has been invaluable--it means a lot to hear it from parents who have been there.

No, she won't be implementing it. I will. You're right, part of her opinion may be from past experience with families not implementing Barton well.

I actually love stuff like this. I can't even tell you the curric I have purchased (used, at least) just to read it. 😅 I think probably that's in the minority, though, and the majority of homeschool families she's dealt with wouldn't be able to implement it easily.

Yes, she did pass the Barton screening (my ds6 did not).

I envy people who are high or normal energy. I have always been a very low energy person and, even when hormones and thyroid are doing great, need more sleep and downtime than average. I could accomplish so much more with an extra 3 hours of productive time each day.

No, I didn't yet order Barton. I had pretty much set in my mind that is the direction we are going . . . I think I'm just rattled, like you said, and second guessing things. Haha DD isn't currently behind grade level in decoding (fluency should be better) so while I'm not crunched for time, it also would be nice to take advantage of catching it relatively early and not get too behind. I'm concerned that choosing AAR will be like you said, a lateral move, and months later we'll be in the same place.

We had the testing with the SLP this week. She will score the tests and provide a full report, which she'll go over with me in a couple weeks. I'll no doubt have questions after that. For now, about reading, she did say that she thinks dd will score as dyslexic. I was surprised by a couple things, though: She does NOT recommend Barton. She recommends AAR and AAS for dyslexia. She said she finds Barton "weak" (she said this when talking about explicit phonics rules). Also she doesn't recommend LiPs, because it is difficult to implement. This is not so surprising. I had pretty much settled in my mind what we were going to do, and now I'm unsettled. 🤔 She sees lots of kids and is very familiar and at ease with homeschool families. Should I wait for the full report to see what else may influence my decision? What do you think about what she said re Barton?

I have white sheets on our bed, and white washable quilts on both ours and my daughters. Have never regretted it. I wash both covers regularly and only occasionally do they need bleach. We don't currently have pets, but I have lived with pets and my answer would be the same.

Sometime after 1995 . . . maybe 1997 or so? It was just like the flip phone pictured above, through US Cellular. I knew one person who had a car bag phone. Other than that, I was the first person in my social group to have one. It was mainly for emergency calls.

I can't seem to find a mattress cover that I love. But for potty training (or any leaks that happen regularly) I love the bed pads that are generally used for the elderly. They lay on top of the fitted sheet (or some have attached panels that tuck qround the bed) and can easily be removed, washed, replaced. I've never had one leak and they have protected my mattresses better than any mattress protector has.

I would do it on a piece of plywood and mount to the wall. I did a small area, years ago, directly on the wall and it wasn't very usuable. The wall had texture (not super raised, I had thought it would be fine) and it was very annoying. The writing never looked clean enough.

I use PDFSam to do things like this. I have Windows, and don't know if it works with Macs. I've had it so long I don't remember, but think it was a free download.

Things like this happen to us sometimes. I had my gallbladder out right around our 10th anniversary. We joked it was the most expensive anniversary gift he'd ever gotten me. 😅

No, we don't. It's not important to either of us. Also, neither of us likes to spend the money if we don't really want or need it. I think if you both agree to whatever, it is fine.

Hmmm. This hit me. I wonder if my "been there, done that, don't wanna do it again" is more about not wanting to be say, my 30 year old self than about being tired of the activity I did in my 30's. Or maybe equal parts. I haven't considered that.

I've had good results adding glycolic acid and vit C. I used Paula's Choice.

I definitely feel very "been there, done that" about a LOT of activities I used to do, with absolutely no desire to repeat them. Unfortunately, most of the new-to-me activities that interest me are not feasible now because of time, money, caring for little people, or physical restrictions. And we also don't have any space for hobby supplies, so I'm reluctant to experiment with anything that could result in purchasing "stuff". I'm hobby-less at the moment and have been for about the last 6 years (since kids arrived). 🤷‍♀️