We have something three days a week that is an offshoot of the Christian school. It will teach Latin,language arts, and history using veritas press stuff. I visited and the school seems like it’s where all the top students “perfectâ€children attend. It’s an option. My daughter is a spark plug...things would get more lively over there for sure and it would give us at least three mornings of peace. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

And if you think they're teaching tons of material, they're not. My dd brings home workbooks with 80% of the worksheets not finished. They were never assigned. There's no way they could go through all of the material in the textbooks. My advice? Pick a good math program that is well respected on the boards, do a placement test for that, and just make sure you're doing a grade a year. You'll be ahead of most public schools in math understanding (although the ones that do a Singapore math well are doing a decent job). I never understood how our country could be so far behind in education. Since sending my dd to a "good" charter school, I TOTALLY understand.

I did the block thing also. I'd start the older child on math so they could do the problem set alone and then work with the younger child. Same with Language arts. Then we would do history together. The problem is - my ds 13 is needing more instruction without interruptions. I'm not sure how long this will last. He's getting evaluated for ASD next year (when we could get an appointment) and seems to have some trouble figuring out what a text says. So, we laboriously go through each section and I have him explain what it said. Dd would constantly interrupt when I was working with him because she got frustrated easily. She would also ask questions about whatever I was reading to both of them despite how many times I told her not to. That frustrated ds. I call dd the sun. When the sun is out, it's hard to see anything else. The sun demands attention. My ds gets left in the dust.

This is my concern also. That she will have trouble doing things alone since she is so social. Yet, I'm quickly realizing that there are not enough hours after school to teach her everything she's not learning at school and having her be overwhelmed with that. They expect her to know how to type yet don't teach it - she never understands the confusing math lessons the first time around - they're not really teaching writing, but expecting students to just "know" (they went from "interesting sentences" daily to a five paragraph report with little to no instruction other than an outline of how their paper should look). She comes home frustrated often because she's left to try to figure stuff out on her own. She's an "A" student and I have no idea how she got those grades. Her test scores that she takes on the computer are lousy/ horrible.

Go Math-- also in the truly horrible category. They try to push concepts on students that if they would only sequence it better, it would make more sense. Don't even bother. Horrible horrible horrible. My dd is using this in public school now. For concepts, in fourth grade, they "taught" up to multiplication two numbers by two numbers and are "trying" to teach long division. So far, they have students skip counting until they get to large three digit numbers and making multiple large circles containing up to 15-20 smaller circles to teach division two numbers by one number.

My dd is going to public school. While our relationship is greatly improved, I can't even begin to tell you how much I absolutely hate public school. I am basically teaching her math because the common core math they use makes no sense most of the time. I understand what they are trying to accomplish, but the sequence of it is way off. When she came home with the suggestion (this is how they taught it) she skip count by 3's until she got to 102 to figure out how to divide 102 by 3, I put my foot down and decided to just teach her long division ignoring their methods. She gets distracted easily and will make little mistakes often. Tonight, I taught her how to write a five paragraph paper because they basically gave her an outline of what the paper should look like and that was the extent of the teaching for the most part. They also told her she should type her paper but they have yet to teach typing (no, she didn't miss it in another grade either). She is also pretty irritated that her classmates don't listen to the teacher which I know is a teacher issue, but you can't exactly choose your teacher each year. Anyway- I am trying to figure out how to homeschool her and my ds. She is a STRONG personality and we have butted heads because I was pretty stressed with juggling her, her brother, and my oldest ds with disabilities who is home now. She also wears me out completely when she's with me all day. I'm wondering if I could homeschool ds in the mornings while giving her read alouds on tape to listen to and other independent activities (typing, math fact practice, readers, etc). This would give me some measure of peace during 1/2 of the day. Then, after lunch when things with my oldest disabled ds seem to calm down a bit, I could homeschool her while ds does his afternoon routine which means he basically hangs out in his room. These two really need separation from each other. Ds and I need peace and quiet and dd loves chaos and noise. This plan doesn't address her huge need for social interaction and I have no good solutions for that, but at least she would be well educated and I wouldn't have to be re-teaching her so much at night. She's already in school for over 7 hours and really doesn't need the extra I am teaching her just so she can have some degree of success. As an added bonus, next year, ds will most likely be in a university model school for at least two classes and I can add a different day at another homeschool enrichment program for dd. Does this plan even seem feasible? Am I missing pitfalls?

I have used Saxon with three children. They have all done well with retaining concepts because of the spiral nature of it. My ds who is now 17 went through advanced mathematics. He took college algebra the year after that and got an easy “Aâ€. My children have all scored well on standardized testing. The only weakness is that the word problems aren’t as complex. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

My ds is in 7th grade and is going to be tested for Autism spectrum next year. Basically, I'm going easier on him as far as the "extras" until we figure out how he is processing things so I'm a little less apt to push him in history and have him spend the bulk of his energy on reading, writing, and math. We are finishing SOTW #4 along with Sonlight Core H and he enjoys having me read history to him. I am having him read the related readers in Sonlight. Looking at the next Core for Sonlight, the Hakim books are a little much for him. He really needs the narrative story feel. So, I'm looking at something more literature based for American History. He likes the Beautiful feet books (The World of George Washington for example) and I would like the guide by Beautiful Feet History for just some decent questions to ask. I've also thought briefly about the "Timeline of Classics" that IEW puts out, but I'm pretty scatterbrained with wide open suggestions. Anything I haven't seen yet? Maybe I'm just looking at a literature selection that goes through American History nicely.

You have to buy $250 worth though...[emoji22]I’m not a huge spender right now Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

My dad most likely was autistic and ds is reminding me of him. They have similar mannerisms even though my dad died before ds was born. I have a nephew also who drives my sister nuts because of his lack of caring about or even understand social interactions (he’s in 8th grade). I also have a niece who is most definitely autistic but she probably has an undiagnosed syndrome. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Obviously, since he’s 13 and we’re just now looking into a diagnosis, his has been mild if anything until now. It makes me wonder if we address the anxiety/depression better if the social piece and emotional piece would get better? I have no idea...the neuropsychology eval can’t come soon enough. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I'm just asking for more opinions since I don't have this kind of support around me right now. He is under care of a therapist and we are seeking a diagnosis with a professional. In the meantime we're just trying to navigate this a little better and are wondering what is out there for help. What is AEA?

The therapist suggested that I wasn’t ready to accept the diagnosis of possible autism and depression. Nope—I told him I have dealt with a much worse diagnosis. I am just trying to figure out what is really going on because the happy kid at home doesn’t seem to be the same kid a doctor sees in his office. My mommy gut which has often helped me figure out my nonverbal child is telling me we are most likely dealing with mild autism spectrum with social anxiety. For example, in the doctor’s office, he looked and acted depressed but his heart rate was greatly elevated. To me, that screams anxiety. My biggest challenge is that I don’t know how hard to push him. Do I force social relationships on him? Do I send him to a full time university model school or do we go just part time? Do we force a sport on him? These are questions I don’t know how to answer. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

No, my ds is not able to discuss feelings with us or the therapist. He will say a lot of "I don't know" and with the therapist gets fairly upset. A lot of how we figure out what is going on is seeing his reaction or the emotion on his face and saying something like, "I see that you're trying not to cry. When people start to cry, they are upset or sad. Are you upset or sad?" We have been making some progress, but most of figuring out his emotion comes from very drawn out conversations like the above. It's exhausting. My ds had a neighbor friend who was 3 years younger even though he had a brother his age. He never went to his house to ask him to play outside. The friend always came to our house. Same with other children. Ds never asked to have them play. He is awkward at best with peer relationships and really has no friends that are over at our home regularly. We are going to start forcing this issue a bit since he does have an acquaintance who is much like him. It's the quietest interaction I have ever seen. They don't talk to each other almost the whole time but both of them feel like it was a good time. He is scheduled to see a neuropsychologist in early March for diagnosing autism spectrum. It was the soonest we could get in with any neuropsych in our area.

That's what I've mentioned to the therapist - anxiety rather than depression. He still feels like it's depression. He's in his 70s and has worked in this field for over 40 years so he's seen a LOT of kids. Just that his mood could flip so easily like that when the office visit was ended. Also, when he was working with his 2nd grade buddy, he was methodically pulling at his shirt collar the whole time. She's never seen him so agitated.

Ds (age 13) is currently in therapy for what we felt like was depression. He was sleeping a lot, not eating great, and was mumbling all his answers. He has no friends and no desire (so he says) for friends. The therapist feels like he is having some sensory/audiology processing disorder along with verbal processing disorder (basically autism spectrum). We ask ds how he feels about something and we get a lot of "I don't know". We ask him what he wants and while it's getting better, the answer is usually "I don't know". The therapist also believes he's moderately to severely depressed. The pediatrician would say mild to moderate based on a different test. In doctor's offices, he's moody and "dark". Almost crying but not allowing himself to do so. The last doctor's appointment for a well child check, he was mumbling, dark, moody, almost crying before and during the time in the office even after I promised him no pokes and needles. In the elevator ride down after the appointment, he was back to his happier self and chatting away. At home, he seems pretty happy - he's smiling a lot and gives dh some trash talk when they play video games - he wrestles good naturedly with his older brother, and while he's fixated on Minecraft, he's happy about what he gets to do. He has no friends and doesn't seem to desire them. I have to make "play dates" for him because he never asks and never wants to go to the bother. We have to arrange activities for him to participate in and he'll do them, but not really want to go back to them again. He does go to a one day a week program and his teacher doesn't notice that he's different from any other kid. She did notice he was pretty stressed when they had 2nd grade buddies come in to do an activity one on one with the 7th graders. The therapist still believes there is underlying depression. I'm having trouble reconciling the kid I see every day at home (this happy kid for the most part) and the kid he sees in his office (dark, depressed, and crying). I have no problem with any type of diagnosis - I just want to get him appropriate help. Any suggestions or thoughts? This is a puzzle to me.

is all of the reading she's having trouble with on a screen? I'm asking because my dd's school is like this. There are plenty of studies out there that show if you're reading text from a screen, you have more trouble remembering it. Surprisingly, this includes Kindles.

Are those watering troughs near the back patio where they look like they have a garden? That’s something I could actually see using! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

My D3 is most likely good since I take D3 daily. It was in the very low levels when I moved here from Minnesota so I started supplementing at that time. I'm at a higher altitude so while I get more sun, the sun doesn't give as much D vitamins as it would at a lower altitude even though you burn faster.

I have no idea. After reading replies here, I check my multi-vitamin that I thought contained iron and found out it has no iron in it. I have a Dr. appointment next week and can have her check my levels at that point. I read about Vita-calm on their website. I have been mixing it wrong. I didn't realize that if I have it cold, I have to let it sit for 15 minutes to let it fully dissolve. I was gulping it down immediately. I will be trying this method for a while and see if it works better.

Does it matter if the Natural Calm is at lunch or at bedtime? I actually have that supplement already. I took some last night - no help whatsoever.

I don't eat gluten any more and have started staying away from dairy. Caffeine will be a bit harder since I consider coffee my one treat.

I am not sleeping. I already have trouble sleeping, but my legs are achy and restless often. They wake me up and keep me up. I sleep with heating pads and wrap my lower legs probably too tight because that stops the achy restless feeling. I have a lot of stress that I am dealing with also (three kids with three different medical issues - some are just waiting, some are yelling for attention), and the lack of sleep is really kicking me to the curb.

Ours charges $5 . Well worth it. I do use it because my son is handicapped but my very able bodied DH picks it up and doesn’t feel the least bit guilty. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

My mom sold her house in a Chicago suburb and moved into a smaller home somewhat because the property taxes had jumped so significantly. When she left, property taxes had reached $20k a year. Now she’s only paying $7k a year on a pretty small home and thinks she’s doing well. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk