Our Wal-mart generally has very good service. Everyone is friendly. If you ask where something is, whoever you asked, walks with you to help you find it. AND the prices are much lower than other grocery stores around. The friendly, helpful atmosphere is actually one of the reasons I shop there.

I'm glad you're moving. As a former social worker in mental health, these are my concerns and suggestions: Someone who would take a toddler into their house without permission is scary. These people are not normal. They are breaking social conventions left and right. That raises red flags. They may simply be oddballs, but things may be more serious than that. Because I think they are violating health and safety boundaries flagrantly for both pets and kids, I don't think you should worry about "being nice", making waves, etc. I would see what back-up I could get from the community. For the dogs, could you talk with your vet? Maybe if the vet wrote a letter stating the dog's health problems related to the food, and you sent it certified mail along with a letter stating that their continued further feeding is grounds for legal action to recover medical expenses plus pain and suffering. It really doesn't matter if you intend to pursue legal action or not. For the kids, I would call the sheriff and ask them if there is anything that you or the sheriff can do given that someone is feeding your kids without your authorization and in opposition to your continued demands that they stop. Because they have already demonstrated willingness to feed your dogs things that you stated would cause medical problems, you have more than ample reason to be worried about what they might feed your kids. You can also call the district attorney and see if there is anything that can be done. What they are doing with your kids is similar to a process called "grooming" that happens with molesters. They give kids treats, gifts, etc. until the kids trust them, then there is a process of mildly inappropriate touching that starts and slowly escalates over time. The kids become used to it because it's gradual. The kids also feel partly responsible because they've liked the treats, which often keeps them from telling once things start to get uncomfortable for the kid. Because this is such a well-documented phenomenon, it would surprise me if there were not something that you could do about what your neighbors are doing. (Note: I'm not saying that they are molesters, but their behavior is consistent with the behavior of molesters. They are undermining your authority in a very blatant way on top of it. At the very least, their behavior is incredibly bizarre. ) Because of this, I think it's likely that law enforcement would be helpful to you. Your kids have a right to play in their own backyard without being bothered by inappropriate and bizarre actions however long you live there. And if you take action, you may protect the next parents' children and pets as well.

Toastmasters Gavel Club also offers lots of leadership opportunities. The clubs have several officers and kids take turns running the meetings.

LOL!

I did know by high school what my fields of study would be in college, and am still happy in those fields decades later. Dh on the other hand, wishes that he had had some guidance from parents as to what would be a good match with his gifts and also what he enjoys and a career. (He earns a living doing something different from his major in college and grad school and thinks he would have been happier in still another career.) So we've tried to make this a topic with our kids, while at the same time, not limiting them. I think it's my job as a homeschool mother to keep their options open for them through high school, however much they complain. When they hit college, they can start pruning off some options by their own selections. Ds #2 and Ds #4 look a lot like engineers to us (and both gf's are engineers). Ds #2 is accelerated in math, but we also work hard in writing (I tell him an engineer who can write has got it made!) and in the humanities in general. Ds #4 is still a little guy, too young to specialize. Ds #1 is an excellent writer, has more trouble with math and science. We've not shied away from hard math and science courses with him, even though my guess is that he'll take the minimum in college and that will be the end of those subjects. BUT, he is only 15 and I don't think it's the time for "pruning off" those choices yet. We're trying to give him help with exploring possibilities of where to go with writing, reading, and good thinking/analytical ability as well as music. ( While he may double-major in music, we've counseled him to also pursue a major that will enable him to "get a day job" and let the music be avocational. He's not cut out to be a teacher, and doesn't want to travel as a performer.) Ds #3 has some real gifts, but also some areas of weakness, so we'll need to work hardest with him to make sure that he's ready for a career he'll be able to be successful in.

Pros: The program gives a systematic, step-by-step approach to writing. It is in bite-sized chunks and is excellent for a reluctant writer or a child with learning disabilities. It is also good for a parent who is unsure of how to teach writing. The program for teaching structure is very good. It comes with DVD's so that the parent can watch the DVD's and take notes in the notebook. The DVD's will show you how to teach things exactly. You get taught how to do the lessons in the basic package. The other stuff (like the Ancient History lessons) are offered as later add-ons. However, the whole point of the basic package is that you should be able to use it across the curriculum. I've found that to be true. I would wait to purchase the any add-on's until you've used the basic program. Cons: It's expensive. The DVD's have great material in them, but were recorded before a live audience. The speaker also gets off-topic fairly often, or puts in "filler" stuff that is probably personable in person, but annoying (imo) in a DVD. Additionally, some of the best teaching tips aren't even on the outline. I'd recommend having blank paper handy for notes in addition to the notes in the outline. You DO need the DVD's to understand the approach. The notes in the book will not make sense without it. I do not agree with the approach taken with the style portion of the course. The approach is such that several different techniques are taught and then required in every paper (often every paragraph.) These include things used rarely by good writers, such as using an "ly" word as a sentence opener. If you actually follow the check-lists, you end up with overly flowerly writing that is in need of a good editing job. The philosophy behind that is that the students will naturally learn to use the styliztic techniques in proper proportions eventually. I'm not so sure. I don't want to teach bad style on the way to good style. Doesn't make sense to me. So I've greatly modified the style portion. Teaching things like use of strong verbs and adjectives is great. Lots of "ly" words--sounds like the Hardy Boys. :ack2:

I would use Madrigal's Magic Key to Spanish as the text for a 9th grader. It's paperback, less than $20 and you can get it at a local bookstore. It gets you speaking very quickly, using a unique method that combines learning English cognates with teaching grammar nontraditionally, but in a more natural way than a traditional grammar text. Rosettastone is good as a supplement so the student can hear a native speaker. It is pricey, though. We've used it for many years, and I think it's perfect for elementary students and a good supplement for high school students, but by high school, you really need a solid grammar book to go with it. (It does have a workbook, but the approach is immersion. By high school, if it's a new language, systematic presentation of grammar will get the student farther, faster, and cheaper. I've also heard good things about SOS Spanish, but haven't used it myself. Maybe someone else will chime in.

I agree that your idea to start with the available budget and plan from there is a good one. I'm going to file that away for the future! While bride's family paying might have started from the dowry tradition, if the model includes the bride calling the shots, it does still make sense to me from the point of view of negotiating costs being easier with one's own parents than with future in-laws.

I think this is a really good point and the crux of the issue. When the bride's family paid all, if the bride had fantasy dreams, it was between her and her parents. But if the bride has dreams of a Ferrari wedding, and then assumes the groom's parents will ante up, that's where the trouble comes in. It's a bad way to start an extended family life together if the groom's parents are not Ferrari people.

Not to mention that he will want to be in comfortable clothes--which means clothes he already owns and has worn several times. Yep. I think that would be really affordable! Well, you'd probably have to figure in pizza, but still. Maybe WE can start a new trend: Groom's fantasy weddings!

Oops. This isn't the All Kinds of Minds website, but is from another group of educators who put together their own list after attending one of Mel Levine's seminars.

http://pages.us.edu/reading/interventions.htm I hope this link works right. (I don't really know how to do them in this new format.) This site has a great list of both interventions and accomodations for several learning constructs .Looks like a treasure trove of good info. It's from the All Kinds of Minds site. Following are the constructs covered. Attention Attention and Focus Attention to Detail Temporal Sequential Ordering Time Management Historical Perspective Organization / Serial Order Recall Spatial Ordering Visual-Perceptual Skills / Visual-Motor Integration Visual Memory Spatial Planning Memory Pattern Recognition Factual Recall Rapid Recall / Automatization Saliency Determination Short-term Memory Active Working Memory Long-term Memory Social Cognitive Social Inabilities Higher Order Cognitive Ability Concept Formation Neuromotor Handwriting Language Phonology Semantics Syntax Comprehension Reading Speed Written Expression

Hmm. That is a tough one. I'm recalling from past posts that you are a Christian, so I'll answer from that perspective. I think there are competing moral obligations, so you have to discern the way through. There is always the moral obligation to love, as we have been loved, and that is sacrificially. There is also the moral obligation to care for one's own family. Is she your family? Does sharing genes make her part of the family or does a relationship from birth make her part of the family? What about the parable of the Good Samaritan? Is she hurting? Are you the stranger who could help? Is she your neighbor? What does it mean to love her? On the other side of the equation is the necessity to be "wise as serpents." If she could pose an actual danger for you and your family, then love for them would say no to the contact. It does concern me that the other mother is so pushy. However, pushy mothers don't necessarily mean the daughers are the same way. I think that an email to the daughter would be pretty safe, or even a phone call from a phone outside of your home (next time you are traveling, for instance) . You could just keep it to email, making sure that there is nothing about your email that would reveal your whereabouts. You would have the option of just shutting down the email account if her reasons for wanting contact were unhealthy. But probably, she is just a young woman in search of some roots. You could also see what you can find out about her ahead of time via internet search, or asking around other ways if she is fairly nearby. I would not meet her in person until you know more. If the contact is something that you're avoiding because of some things in you that you've pushed aside in order to go forward, then it may be that it's time to deal with them in a different way. A free choice to act in love toward her (after you've made sure that you're reasonably safe) might well be a path to healing for you in a way that you've never expected. Some IRL who could sit and listen to your reasons for not wanting the contact, who could have some access to some of the things that you've possibly "boxed up" would have a better shot at assessing this than over the internet. I think this is something to pray about, listening for an answer, to ask your husband and pastor to pray about as well, and to seek counsel about from those who know and love you IRL. Sounds tough, but it could end up being a real blessing.

Thanks, everyone. That's interesting to know that the alleged "trend" is not actually a trend. This was in New England, so if anyone from New England happens to read this and posts otherwise, I'd still appreciate hearing about it. It's also reassuring to me as the mom of sons. I'm already nervous about the mother-in-law/daughter-in-law relationship. I would not want to get started on a totally wrong foot if asked to pay halves for what I think is a waste of money in the first place. I'm not against helping out with a simpler wedding, if needed, but the mega-bucks expectation is what bothers me. If I had girls, they would not have been raised imagining that mom and dad would pay for the "princess fairy tale fantasy," and hopefully, they would have acquired values that would preclude having the fantasy in the first place (but you never know about that part!)

I'm curious as to how broad this trend is or isn't. In our extended family, the parents of the groom-to-be have been told by the mother of the bride-to-be that the new trend is for the groom's family to go halves on the wedding. Bride-to-be and mother of the bride-to-be both conceive of the wedding day as the day when the bride gets to live out a costly princess fantasy. Groom's parents have not laid aside tens of thousands of dollars for fairy tale weddings, and have said as much. Has anyone else heard of this "trend?" What a way to start a marriage and relationship with the in-laws! When I got married, I really did not want to spend big bucks on 3 or 4 hours of my life and so it's hard for me to imagine that choice. As the mother of 4 boys, I'm sure hoping this trend isn't really the up and coming thing. :001_huh:

when I was a teenager, I bought a white suit. It had texture to it and was lined, but you could still see through it. When my dad attempted to take it back, the store said there was a "no return" policy on swimsuits, unless there was some defect. Dad said, "Well it IS defective. You can see through it!" They took it back. Guess the father of a teenaged girl didn't seem someone to argue with! :)

That sounds like it was spoiled fish. Fresh catfish is not super fishy, nor does it smell bad. I've both cooked it caught fresh by a foster son and eaten it at restaurants. When our foster son caught it, I realized that the expression "There is more than one way to skin a cat" is not about kitties. It's about trying to get the daggone skin off the fish. I think we finally nailed the head to a tree and pulled it off with pliers. Whatever. It doesn't stink. I'm glad you couldn't choke it down because you probably would have gotten food poisoning.

I've had palpitations, racing heartbeat (they weren't particulalry concerned about 120 beats per minute resting), and the feeling of a skipped beat. The latter, in my case, is a common and benign condition that is actually called a premature beat. (It totally feels like the heart just stops and then goes WHUMP.) Anyway, when I had it really bad, I was perimenopausal and had gotten flat out exhausted. It took about 6-8 weeks to resolve. I had a bunch of tests, etc. Since then, I've been careful to avoid the exhaustion. I still get a bit of it occasionally. You should have it checked, but you shouldn't worry. (ie Get it checked to be prudent, but don't worry that they're going to find anything.) It's common for these symptoms to have benign explanations as women approach and go through menopause.

That was my first thought too. 1) How would the IRS know it wasn't the actual person filing? 2) It surprises me that if they knew, they would call as opposed to write. Gov't agencies have to document everything and a written letter is the easiest way to do that.

I would characterize the ones I've read as "okay"' in the historical fiction category. They typically have a Christian theme in them as well. However, I quit reading Henty after encountering what I consider a vile level of racism. I am not just referring to another century's lack of sensitivities or unthinking sense of superiority that one finds in many if not most older books. In some books Henty goes well beyond other authors of his time. A case in point was Beric the Briton. In an otherwise decent historical novel, there is a page of horrendous racist dialog. It is entirely unrelated to the plot. It is just stuck in there for the purpose of...what? Not worth it to me. I had read Cat of Bubastes before that, and another (can't remember the title) and found them "okay." I liked Beric the Briton better until I came to that passage. I was horrified that I had considered buying that book (based on its inclusion in so many Christian sources and before I read it) as a gift for ds's best friend who is African American. Horrified and very disappointed that Christians who would absolutely never condone vile sexual passages could just accept vile racist passages and put them on recommended booklists. Gross. I would not just hand a kid a Henty without prereading it.

Pam, it sounds like you have worked SO HARD for this child. It is such a sorrow when you can't seem to make it right. Hang in there. Ask your OT and ST for a recommendation for the neuropysch. They likely work with neuropsychs on a regular basis. I would also ask them about reading tutors. You can get a tutor to kick-start you, and then use the tutor for consultation. It's kinda like this board, only she could see your son IRL and see things directly for herself. When you ran into a snag, you could ask someone in person about it. Are you willing to get some testing done by the school? State laws vary, but most require schools to do special needs testing for kids in private and homeschools. If you could just get the WISC-IV done for free, that will cut back a lot of the testing costs. If you don't want to go the school route, a regular psychologist can also do the WISC. That is really an important chunk of info. I would want to know whether or not his scores were pretty similar on the subtests or whether there are areas of signficant discrepancies. It sounds like he has trouble both with active working memory and getting things into long-term memory. If the overteaching method works for spelling, start using it for other areas, such as division and reading. For reading, for instance, use those same high frequency words as you're using for spelling. Review them in the 5 days in a row, 3 weeks in a row, etc. way that you do the spelling words. You can also work on groups of words with certain vowel combinations this way. Your goal is to get the high frequency words to be automatic when he sees them, then each pattern of vowels, etc. to be automatic. Does he have regular short-vowel words down pat? Fluency readings should help with the reading as well. Repeated oral readings are what you are after. First, select a short passage on your son's reading level. Then, read it aloud to him to model oral reading. Next, have him read it aloud to you. Correct any errors as he goes. Next, have him read it while you time with a stop watch. (Don't correct on the timed readings, but mark his errors on a photocopy). Do one more time trying to beat his previous time. The next day, he could read it silently, then out loud. You could do another reading if necessary, then do two timed ones. You should choose short readings (that would take only a minute or two) so this doesn't get time-consuming. Pam, you sound like such a good Mom. Your son is blessed to have you. In all this work to remediate his weaknesses, don't forget to look for, reinforce, and cultivate his strengths. Adults generally find our niches in the areas of our strengths, so make sure you focus on those, too.

Handwriting Without Tears is the OT choice for handwriting. You can also do things to help them with their fine motor skills in the meantime. Work with clay a lot. Sculpey is very good because it's hard and you have to work it a long time to mold it. Bury little beads in Playdough and have them pick them out. Using tweezers or tongs, have them pick up beads from one box and put them in another. Put a row of pennies on a table. Have them turn each of them over starting at the outsides and working towards the middle (both hands are being used. each turning one penny over) Use clothespins to hang clothes, or pictures, etc. Let the kids open and close the pins (builds strength in the hands)

I agree with OTtakke. Get a good neuropsych evaluation. Ask for a copy of the report before you meet with the examiner so that you can read it yourself and get questions ready. Then, when she explains it, it will sink in better. Make sure that you understand the results, even if you have to go back for a second interpretive. Or take someone with you (like your friend the teacher) who may be more used to the jargon, so that there is an additional set of ears. In looking over what you've tried for reading, I'm surprised that you could get through REWARDS. How did you do that? Did he really "get" it? Other than REWARDS (which goes quickly if you have trouble with vowels), I don't see any programs that are remedial in nature. Because of his age at this point, I would suggest a reading tutor. Try a Phonographix tutor first, and if that doesn't work within 3 months, switch to an Orton-Gillingham type of tutor. Wilson is an Orton-Gillingham method. There are also some just plain old O-G folks out there. If he needs OG, it's going to take about a year to get him up to grade level. Phonographix works faster if it works. While he's getting his tutoring, you can watch and then reinforce the concepts at home. Also, don't forget to do "repeated oral readings" for fluency at home. These are so key to reading success, but often get left out of the mix.

A few things that might help: Drink small sips of cold water. The water neutralizes the stomach acid. Keep the water by your bed at night. Chew gum. Saliva also neutralizes stomach acid. Eat small portions of whatever you're eating. The other poster gave you some other good pointers re: times for eating and raising bed. I would not take all those medications at once. Just take one. Or none until you see the doctor. Don't take any ibuprofen. Ginger tea can be helpful. Small sips at a time.

The Woodcock Johnson is a very widely used and well respected test. Much better than the CAT. The only reason they wouldn't allow it is because...well the gummint doesn't always make sense. :001_huh: My statement about the IEP was because it sounded as if you were wondering about honesty in the way you would administer the CAT. If it would be allowed as an accomodation on an IEP, I don't see the problem with honesty in doing it as a homeschooler.