My oldest took a long time, but she did need/benefit greatly from vision therapy, and she is a VSL, so she read the same backwards and forwards. She hung out at a basic level until 6.5. She's moving through Dancing Bears FastTrack now and can read chapter books if she chooses to. At 5 I wouldn't worry yet.

My VSL girl listens to audiobooks when we drive in the car. It took her awhile to get used to it but now she requests them--she's stuck in her seat already, might as well listen to something. She also likes listening to picture book CDs whie looking at the picture book itself. Actual read-alouds at home are confined to picture-heavy science books and a chapter when she's tucked into bed and is drawing.

Oooh, I hadn't seen that site yet. Fun!

I'm trying to get The Love off the iPad during school time. :lol: I found a capital/lowercase ABC matching game that I printed and laminated, and he asks for it multiple times a day. I think he's my first kid who would really appreciate velcro file folder games. ABCs, 123s, matching, colors, animals, human body parts, etc. I only have a B&W printer but I can color in outlines.

My ADD girl thrives on Miquon and MEP. They both have a lot of puzzles and logic and move around a lot--not much reptition in a row, but in MEP things spiral back around in different and harder ways to cement the knowledge. Full disclosure, she is on the lowest dose of ADD medication now as well. She needed it.

There is a strong genetic component so she may indeed be like her father. the Sponge and dh both have it. Often ADHD comes with sensory issues, so sensory seeking/rough play makes sense.

:iagree::iagree::iagree: I adore Life of Pi, but I read it in college in a lit class where it could be fully appreciated and understood. NOT for a 9-year-old.

Now that we are eaing meat (food allergies plus nursing/pregnant as well, which ups the meat consumption even more), I have half a chest freezer full of local pastured meat that lasts about all year, plus occasional purchases and wild fish. That helps, some.

It's just keeping the littlest kid occupied while I school the biggers, lol.

At 11 I'm sure I'll be right there with The Sponge! She's close at 7--middle school science input and K/1st output.

We walked together and so did our friends.

We only have one that we all share but the 2-year-old thinks it is "MINE!!" and is very adept at using it. He is practically putting himself through preschool on it while I school his sisters. :lol:

:grouphug::grouphug:

Was veggie but had a kid who is allergic to all dairy, egg whites, and all nuts. :001_huh: So much for that.

Skip the math review. At his level you could check out Beast Academy, and I also think MM (cheap) or MEP (free) would serve a math whiz much better. Another vote for BFSU (I think $30 for three years) for science!

Peter Sellers movies! The Mouse that Roared is my favorite. We also love Stardust here--there is violence but it's made to be entirely silly and cartoonish even though it's a live action movie. My kids adore it. Also another vote for Remember the Titans. I also really liked Harry Potter 7--I forget if you've watched that series or not, but the movies get better as they go so the set of two 7 movies is the best of the lot.

Dancing Bears FastTrack is designed for older students. It seems to be working very well here.

Congrats!!! I love the name!

Well, we have a friend who lives in an apt and is not allowed to work on cars there in the parking lot, so he has to bring his car here to our house to do any work on it. I hope it's nothing illegal.

For books, anything by Bob Shea or Jon Scieszka.

Hmmm. I know the book would be abolutely fine but I havn't seen how much they changed in the movie yet. I can't imagine much could happen to worry about stranded alone-ish on the ocean.

So the good news is it was you driveway and not your house! For me, there's a baby in there! Just one! And it's baby shaped! (Snazzy u/s is next month. This was a quickie.) And we have a gender possibility but it was hard to see and will be rechecked next month. Hubby got an award at work and is out getting fancy pizza with the girls as part of the award goodies! Cookie bars are cooling! My parents are closing today and moving out here! Yay!! I found an OB who is quite pleased to work with me in whatever I need even though I'm planning a homebirth with a CPM if everything is low risk. Wahoo!!

As a NICU mom, FOOD. Portable food she can bring when she visits or gift cards for that as well as food for at home, where she won't be spending much time, certainly not enough to actually cook stuff!!

There was a study about it published in Lancet last year, too!

Diet/food sensitivities are often a huge factor in worsening ADHD symptoms.