Yes! Not everyone has a choice of VT providers. If a optometrist is doing the therapy himself, it might mean that it's a small practice in a low density population area. Sometimes we forget that other people don't have the same options that we have (library systems, medical providers, transportation options, etc.); I know I'm often guilty of this!

In addition to Nature, I think you can demonstrate your own curiosity and willingness to explore/learn in your family's entertainment choices ... Explore the world thru travel: Rick Steves Travel videos (youTube), Curious Traveler (pbs.org), I'll Have What Phil's Having (Netflix) Explore youtube with them on topics that interest them. Here's a great starting point: thekidshouldseethis.com Watch nature documentaries/programs .... for short attention spans, you could do Jonathan Bird's Blue World TV on youtube. Attend library programs on new/different topics. Travel to new destinations (near or far) ....research might be needed, in advance or on the fly. Or do it the old fashioned way, and bring home an Encyclopedia volume of one letter and just let them flip through it.

Bingo! You've just identified an area where you can demonstrate and model to your family how to learn. "Hey, Family. I don't know much about birds, but I want to know more. I'm going to start by adding a bird feeder outside. I'm going to buy a bird guide to help me visually identify them. Who wants to go to the bookstore with me to pick one out?" When you're at the bookstore, look at the books available and then think outloud why you don't want book X or what makes book Y desirable. "This one is more than I want to spend. While this other one covers all the birds of N. America, but I'm only interested in the Western/Eastern Region. I don't need all that information available right now; it'll just confuse me. ....." As you buy a bird house from Lowes or Home Depot or Walmart, look at the different styles and ask outloud, "I wonder why this one has a landing perch for the birds. Why does this have such a funny dome thing at the top? Why is the perch above the feeding hole on this one? Will the rain clog up this feeding hole too easily? If I get a window feeder, I wonder if I will get more or less birds than sticking one up on a pole outside? Why wouldn't a window feeder work in our house (noise, anyone?)?" As you get more into feeding the birds, you can wonder outloud about the different birdseed blends .... how the blend attracts different birds, how the blend interacts with the birdhouse design ... You can explore Cornell's Ornithology website. They have youTube videos, too, on learning to birdwatch. You could read the Burgess Bird Book a loud. And as you get overwhelmed with all the information in the book, you can demonstrate how to organize those bits of information. There are plush birds that have the corresponding bird call inside them; they might stimulate some play amongst your kiddos. Visit the Nature Centers at the parks you visit; they often have a display on local birds All this can also demonstrate how learning is a life-long process and not just a singular event. And when your kiddos exclaim "Hey momma, look! The red-wing blackbirds have returned; spring is coming!", your heart will flutter in anticipation of spring, and it will burst with pride at the knowledge they've taken in over the years.

I haven’t used it, but I’ve read a bit about it on these boards in years past. Have you checked out previous reviews? I re-found some of those threads just now by googling “blackbird essay site:forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic” (Adding the /topic makes the search results much easier to skim-read.) hope you find the info you desire!

If the context of the 20 min was a Consistency Bootcamp - maybe it's being suggested as a productivity technique. Just like the Pomodoro Technique asks you to set a timer and work for 25 minutes before you get a short break. The promise of a break & a timer signaling a firm end to lessons can be motivating to some kiddos. Or on the flip side, if you are having a hard time as a teacher getting to subject XYZ, you can aim for "just" 20 min/day rather than some longer, ideal time period. Once the habit is established, then it might be easier to lengthen the lesson time. Just trying to think outside of the box here .....

Can you audit the Self-Paced Course and thus allow you to skip a few books? I know you can audit their elementary history SP courses so that you didn't have to pass the quizzes to move forward through the course.

Killgallon's Sentence Composing for Elementary School gives practice in this. Michael Clay Thompson's Sentence Island gives a "big-picture" idea of what makes a good sentence, but it doesn't really give the kid practice or the parent guidance. Or ... you could take the path of Narration. Make sure your child can first give excellent oral narrations. Karen Glass's book Know and Tell is an excellent resource for this.

Simultaneously hit the following three keys: Command (or control) key and Shift and the plus symbol

I agree with all the resources already mentioned. And I think that it's just a natural stage/plateau of reading ... Just do a search on these forums for "multisyllabic"

They felt very different to me. W&R utilizes a greater variety of types of exercises that feel very different from each other.... narration, copywork, dictation, copiousness, summary. Killgallon was the same basic type of activity .... here's a model of good writing, now play with it and create a work of your own following the patterns in this model. ("Play with it" was done in a couple different ways, some of which could be done orally and not require writing.) From what I've seen W&R uses old, classic texts (fables, King Arthur, 50 stories retold, etc) whereas Killgallon generally uses 20th century literature as models. The W&R student book is consumable; the Killgallon is non-consumable. W&R seemingly requires more creativity .... "Add on to the fable." or "Write a paragraph that praises the character." Whereas there are parts of Killgallon that a you can just "follow the formula you see in the model" .... Like the model, I want you to start with a dependent clause, then add 2 adjectives modifying the Subject Noun, an action verb, and then finish with a prepositional phrase. So the student is writing/producing good sentences/paragraphs but the creativity is separated out from the process. You could add it if you wanted, but this allows kids who "Don't know what to write about" an opportunity to practice writing good sentences without requiring an abundance of creativity. W&R has a teacher edition to help you guide the conversation. Killgallon is written to the student.

There’s someone who is using the Mentor Network in one of the MCT groups on Facebook.

Another idea for introducing classics .... do it as an audiobook with an awesome narrator. He can be building with Legos (or some other thing he enjoys doing) as he listens.

Is this the documentary that SWB narrated a segment? My searching skills failed me on this question.

In my opinion, I don't think a Literature Guide is going to instill a love of classics in a typical child, boy or girl. Yes, it's school-y, but is that your goal? If your goal is to get him into reading the classics, maybe do the first couple as a read aloud with him and with no output required. There are lots of other ways to check that he's reading .... Oral Narration, make a movie trailer for the book, make a stop action movie of a part of the book, make a cartoon summarizing the book/section (even just a stick figure drawing), create diary pages written by the main character. or --- have him practice reading comprehension with non-fiction texts. You don't have to learn to read carefully by using classic literature. Reading Detective, Science Detective are the first things that come to mind.

The Reading League also has a YouTube channel with similar information if one wanted to listen while doing something else.

From what I've gleaned from stalking this board, the book When the Brain Can't Hear by Teri James Bellis is a great resource for APD.

Go down rabbit holes using this website: thekidshouldseethis.com

Some TV shows: I'll Have What Phil's Having Rick Steve's Travel Videos Andy Griffith Show (American Culture) Great British Baking Show Wild Kratts Popular Mechanics for Kids Seconding Night at the Museum movies Listen to Podcasts, perhaps? Brains On, Forever Ago, Smash Boom Best, Noodle Loaf, Wow in the World

The grammar is front loaded in your year. So you'd do the grammar book first. Once that book is finished, then you work your way through the practice book. We would typically just set the timer and work X minutes reading and discussing the book. I know other folks will break up the book by page numbers/sections. When we are finished with the book, then we just did 1 sentence a day in the practice book. Depending on the season of life, we'd aim for doing the practice book 2-5x/week. Depending on how comfortable the kid is with doing an analysis, a sentence in the practice book can take anywhere from 5-15 minutes. There's no script to follow; so it's really up to you to plan and structure.

I wouldn't buy a student book for the 2nd grader. By all means, they can feel free to sit in & listen to the lesson, but I imagine they might wander off halfway through the lesson. Even if they have the attention span to handle the material, the blanks are sized for students with mature handwriting.

Rightstart's Tutoring book? https://store.rightstartmath.com/activites-for-al-abacus/ And possibly their worksheet book that goes along with it? https://store.rightstartmath.com/worksheets-for-the-al-abacus/

If anyone has tried the new MCT Mentor Network, I'd love to hear your thoughts on how it is going/went! Any reviews from the Hive? Thanks in advance.

Can you just talk with a nurse to request the addition of the Free T3 & Free T4? Or better yet, do they have a digital system in place that allows you to contact the doc via secure e-mails? Perhaps you could say you want these extra tests to serve as a baseline reading for the future, since you have such a family history of thyroid issues.

Regardless of what doctor you choose, be sure to check your assumption that you'd be paying for the extra thyroid test out of your pocket. If it's part of a well-check and ordered by the doctor, it may be covered.

The bottle is easy to clean. The straw portion is best cleaned with a thin brush (I see that they now offer one for sale). The pivoting part is IMO impossible to clean 100% unless you somehow can disassemble it, but it doesn't bother me too much as I only put water in mine.