I have a one night out a month with a group of friends/homeschoolers. I make it most months. I tried to find groups that my ds12 would be interested in. The one that showed the most promising turned out to be a whole morning/early afternoon deal (10-3 pm) and I just can't take another day off of homeschooling- trying to cram 5 days worth of stuff into 3 for an activity. They didn't have a night group. I almost cried when I heard what time they met. The other boys in his class seem to like him and want his attention. I've offered to pick up random boys in his classroom to come to our home, but he just isn't interested. He does have an adult friend (mine and dh's friend whom we trust) who is teaching him how to build computers and ds loves to learn with him. Ds loves to hang out with him. The thing is, due to my oldest's needs, I've constantly been in a season of inflexibility. Now that he's home full time, even more so. I'm working on getting him some places he can go and be taken care of, but most of the time, I'm still having to bring him with me to after school activities. Try getting a wheelchair over soccer fields to watch a child play and you can start to understand how doing that all the time just isn't possible for my 46 year old body. I found an activity that all 3 kids could participate in, but the time they did stuff was at 5 pm which meant driving 30-45 minutes in rush hour traffic both ways and then sitting in a small room with other parents and no room for a wheelchair. Maybe imagine having a toddler that you have to bring with you everywhere. Your toddler is always with you. You can't put him in child care anywhere -- you have to be able to bring them with you always because no one ever provides child care for your particular child even if they provide it for the other toddlers. Finding a babysitter for your toddler is limited so you just have to do activities that you can bring him with. Now imagine your toddler is your size. That's my life. Maybe I'm trying to justify this, but I don't know how to change this. We need to get out more. My life is totally unbalanced and my children's lives are unbalanced also. I just don't know how to fix it.

The co-op does include PE where they learn how to play different sports for the youngest two.

You know all those memes that say something to the effect of "Between soccer, youth group, gymnastics, boy scouts, and co-op, when will I ever find time to socialize my children?!" Well, we don't do those things. We barely see other people during the week. My ds 16 goes to a college class twice a week, youth group on Saturdays, and a mentorship program on Tuesdays. My youngest has friends in the neighborhood and sees kids at church so she gets to see others 2-3 times a week (assuming she doesn't get into trouble with me). My youngest and ds 12 have an all day co-op thing on Tuesdays. Other than the co-op, my ds12 sees no one. He doesn't care much either but he is lonely. He is VERY particular about who he is friends with and is the type of person that would find 1 out of a hundred kids to be friends with. I on the other hand see people at church once a week (I don't have good friends there) and other than therapists and doctors, I don't see anyone either. I feel like we're fairly isolated but I really can't do more than we're doing. I feel very swamped right now. My oldest with special needs is home full time and has lately required quite a bit of legal, medical, and services paperwork. Going to other people's houses is literally impossible (wheelchair issues). I don't mind others coming here, but after the little kid stage, people are busy and don't seem to do the play date thing when the mom comes also. The thought of driving an hour for a field trip makes me want to cry if someone said I "had" to do it for the sake of my kids. I'm at the point that I think school would be good just so we could all see other people more often, but what we have here works to a point. Encouragement? Slap on the wrist?

Why not just live where you want to live and choose to buy/rent a much cheaper house than you can afford and don't take the vacations? For example, instead of buying the big house with everything you dreamed you could have on a doctor's salary, buy the house that a person making half your salary could purchase. That way, you can live where you want and still pay off debt faster. Forget the vacations. Lots of us probably don't go on regular vacations. I can count about 4 "real" vacations since my oldest son who's 17 was born. Live as cheap as you can and pay off debt as fast as you can. Don't live like people who have a doctor's salary. Pay off the debt and be at peace.

I did a Sonlight core last year and we had a good year. This year, I wanted to try something new since Sonlight took away the option of a 4 day schedule and we only homeschool 4 days a week because of a one day a week enrichment program. The new thing didn't work and we went to Bookshark since their IG was less expensive and they had the 4 day a week schedule. We do a separate Bible study anyway so it didn't matter that Bookshark didn't have the Bible. Also, I tried TOG since I have it with my now 6th grader. I wanted him to answer questions on paper and TOG only has questions for their dialectic level. Ds just wasn't ready for them. But, he can answer the Bookshark questions. Also, having an online IG with Bookshark makes it so I just have to cut and paste the questions without having to type them all out. So, I can't say that we "love" Sonlight, but it's working right now.

In order to get SSI for a child, your income needs to be pretty low and you have to have less than $3000 in assets. If you own a 10 year old car, that may put you over the edge. That being said, we were told to get a denial for SSI so that the state benefits would kick in. I'm not sure if you have that situation. I've never gone through the full application for ds even though he would qualify medically. He just doesn't qualify based on dh's income until he turns 18. Then they only count ds's income which is $0.

My guess is that they want them to prove they're still alive. I'm sure there are plenty of people who died yet are still receiving benefits that someone without the disability is receiving.

Kinsa, start saving every document from any professional that's ever seen him. I agree with you...a royal pain. I've told my sister to get her 10 year olds chromosomes tested (she most likely has something - not sure what) so that her paper work can go a little more smoothly. By the time her daughter is 18, she should be able to have some ability to read, write, and do math, but with her issues, she will never live alone.

Did you know they have a whole series of science books?!?!? I am looking at "You wouldn't want to live without Bees!" from the library. Off to request more.

As an aside- the school district has evaluated him every 3 years. They string a long list of people to assess him and proclaim him still eligible for special ed. services. Again, time and money would be saved with the "get everyone in a room, spend 30 seconds with him" and figure out he still qualifies. But, they have to do the same assessment for everyone to make it cohesive.

I really have no idea if I'm "done". I'm assuming there is some sort of checks and balances. Every year, I've had social workers of some sort coming out to my house to re-assess him. I figured with homeschooling, if anyone ever decided to report me for whatever, I already had a team of social workers and mandatory reporters coming to my house to back up my story. Anyway, I think once I'm done with this paperwork pile, I will be done with the bulk of it with updates yearly. We have to apply to be his guardians. That's the bulk of it. There are also court fees and other fees associated with that, including an up to $500 fee for someone to assess him and proclaim him disabled. The kid is in a wheelchair, can obviously not walk by himself, says 10 words and phrases only, and has the education of an 12-18 month old. Yes, look at him, spend 30 seconds with him, he's disabled. I think once guardianship is done, it's done because my son would have to apply to remove us as guardians which at this point would be impossible. There is social security stuff which I have no idea what that means for him (they asked me how much rent we would charge him to live with us...what?!?!) or us and a state waiver service. I've become a live in the moment kind of person and when people say xyz needs to be filed next month, I just do that. I've never planned for him at 18 years old because with him especially, we can't even plan what we don't know. So, we live in the day. My son has never bounced in and out of any service because he is really disabled and never made it past any thresh hold of "normalcy". So, he's always qualified.

That is so gross! On the other hand, it's amazing what the human body is capable of.

My son with severe disabilities is turning 18. To celebrate, the county, the state, and the federal government thought I should have a bunch of paperwork to fill out. Let's just say that when all is said and done, there will easily be over 100 pieces of paper filed somewhere. While I'm thankful there are services to support him, a lot of it seems overkill. He's a 30 second look at him to figure out he's disabled. But no...we need to prove it on paper which isn't too difficult, but a lot of paperwork to fill out. A lot of people are involved in proving he's disabled. I wish I could just get everyone in a room and say, "Look, he's disabled." It would save time and state/federal resources. I know they are trying to avoid fraud, but there's just some people that disability is a given. Also, I had to answer questions such as "If your son was involved in a romantic relationship, how much support would he need to fulfill that relationship?" Ahhh...full care - from finding said romantic relationship to actually getting him to interact with his intended to even making sure he doesn't grab her hair because he wants her attention. Ridiculous, but she had it on her form and it had to be asked. It's a special time here. :glare:

I had a chunk of wood from a bad pool stick in my finger. My dad took me to get it out and they obviously didn't. I didn't bother with it (the thing was an inch long) until I was 31 and it developed a cyst on it. At that point, I couldn't bend my finger. It didn't hurt, it was just really annoying. The doctor made me get an MRI on my finger because he didn't believe it was a chunk of wood from 17 years previously. I had to get it surgically removed and he was surprised that I was right. So, no, your body may not work it out on it's own. You have to ask yourself if it's going to bug you to the point you do something about it, or if you want it to be a nice conversation piece.

I would get SL books on kindles BUT, I wouldn't buy all of them at once. I would go along as needed and change to real books once you are out of the camper. It would save on space for sure.

When my children were starting out with IEW, I just did simple paragraphs the whole year. Unit 1 stuff. I added 3-4 dress ups only after the key word outlines were easier for them. I think there's a resource book IEW sells that only has simple paragraphs and other suggestions for other units. I don't use theme books for early grades. Just paragraphs. Also, I agree with pp in that yes, the writing seems stilted and awkward, but they eventually internalize it and when you drop the checklists, those skills naturally get added in their regular writing. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

My periods coming every 21 days - sometimes twice in the same month. Anxiety to the point that I feel like I need to be medicated. Mostly in the middle of the night. Then it goes away so I just have to keep reminding myself not to make major decisions during that time in the month. I keep forgetting. My hair is thinning which is turning out to be a good thing because it used to be very very thick. Now it's just thick.

Can you use spelt? It's an ancient wheat like flour that people with wheat sensitivities can tolerate. That's the closest substitute I've found. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

For respite care with my special needs child, it would need to be done in my home. It's only because of wheelchair access. Most homes can't accommodate a child/adult in a wheelchair.

I'm looking for something like teaching textbooks, but I little more "academic." More like a teaching textbooks format for a program like Saxon or "name your popular math book here".

Ds#2 is taking college classes and they have this online portion where he can answer questions for their homework and take tests online and have them be graded (he also has a in class portion that's written). It was a disk that came with his textbook. Is there any math like this for pre-algebra and up? Grade 4 and up? Not teaching textbooks please. I'm looking for ways to lighten my homeschooling load so that I can actually continue to do so.

All of the above are great suggestions! I already do a separate writing curriculum with the 12 year old since I like online/ other people's input for my children for 6th grade and up. I may start with the maps and videos since I did want to do more with maps and I had thought about using documentaries also. I didn't realize how Map Trek co-ordinated with different programs. This all may happen next year since my husband is seeing an overloaded wife and thinks the Charter school two blocks away could be a nice option.

I've been having him write out answers to the questions for Sonlight books. It bugs me that they're all just comprehension questions rather than true dialectic questions, but I feel like he just needs work in that level a bit more. I've always had pretty high standards for our homeschool and I'm wondering how much I could let go and still give my children a decent education. I feel like on the homeschool intensity bell curve, I would be around the 80-90th percentile from what I've experienced with those around me. I'm just having a hard time feeling like I'm slipping closer to average. But, I think it's what I can manage right now. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I've had my oldest disabled son come home due to a horrible situation in his public school classroom. He is a full time job in himself. It's upset the balance we had going on here and I'm trying to figure out how to make it work better. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I am wondering about the educational level that can be achieved with Sonlight. I am coming from Tapestry of Grace where the questions for 6th grade and up are excellent and really get a child to think and process. On the other hand, I have a child who really needs help learning how to answer those types of questions. Unfortunately, I just don't have the time to teach my child how to do that. Part of the problem may also be he's just not ready. Someone once said the best curriculum is the one that gets done. Sonlight gets done in our house right now. Can I expect at the end to have a well educated child who's ready to tackle college if he goes that direction?