it is dyed wool for spinning :tongue_smilie: I used to have a shop but since the new LO I closed up and am hoarding it LOL

We start Tomorrow! :hurray: Yikes LOL

This will be our first year of on the books official homeschooling. We are going to go with the evaluation rather then testing and I am kinda lost. LOL I will be contacting our evaluator here in the next week or so. What do all of you that use this method keep and how do you keep it? I have the filing system setup that was all the rage last year except for I plan to do it in reverse. We use workboxes then as the work is done any physical papers I'd put in each folder for the week along with reading lists ect. How much do you keep? Should I take it out of the files and make a book for the actual evaluation or just show up with a milk crate full of work? LOL :tongue_smilie:

Have you looked into right start for math? It is very hands on with very little workbook type work. I have an aspie who is going into K this year. We tried so many different phonics programs before finding saxon which has been our miracle LOL he really really loves it and it has made it a breeze to teach him. It is also very scripted so you don't really have to come up with much LOL For history i'd go either history odyssey, story of the world and add in history portfolio junior for notebooking fun. For science I would really go Nancy Larson. It may be pricey (about 260) but man oh man is it worth it like crazy!! It is scripted and everything you need is there. You could keep in in a sterelite bin and grab and go easily if needed.

:iagree: We love us some NL!

I use an all clear colored set of these. I went ahead and bought 3 of them (at sams for 29 per) just so I'd have 3 matching. DS2 has all his toddler activities in his and they hold up fine. DS1 had a lot of heavier books and things in his and they also do not have problems coming off track.

I think you will get a lot of mixed responses her :tongue_smilie: I say if they are ready and they enjoy it then I see no harm. My little guy is 4.5 and won't turn 5 until February. However He has blown through 3 kindy math programs ( in my attempt to satisfy him yet slow him down) he did SM EM K, MIF K and MUS alpha. We have now started with SM 1A. he can count to 100, read pretty well and is very logical like a lil vulcan. When he had is evaluation (he is an aspie) he scored as a first grader so we are going forward with K this year. The teachers and SN therapists at our school district are very positive about his be able to handle kindy this year! Some kids are ready and chomping at the bit at 4 and others are not quite ready until later on. Though f you feel your LO is ready then go for it and don't let any naysayers hold you back :D Now if you hit a wall on anything just slow way down or even take a break for a bit until they move past it and then start forward again. just my 2 cents though

My oldest DS will be starting K this year. I am just getting his stuff ready and will begin the planning portion soon :D

we are using children's music journey by adventus this year. It is a computer based program using a midi cable with our electric piano. I am hoping with all the little games included that it grabs T's attention more =P

thanks for the responses so far :D

So we have our eval coming up in 2 weeks for the official diagnosis But my 4yo is extremely advanced and raring to "do school" He is starting singapore 1A today since we finished the 3rd (I tried to slow him down by during multiple curriculums) math programs yesterday. He blowing through saxon phonics 1. Is there anything to keep in mind when homeschooling aspies or anything that can make the extreme perfection and obsessions more manageable and less likely to cause a full on meltdown? I am still really new to this and my distraction techniques only seem to get me so far sometimes LOL and also if you more experienced moms of aspies does this sound full aspie to you and not like ASD or PDD-NOS? My 4yo's symptoms/personality is repetitive speech - the bigger girls call him the broken record because he doesn't stop until you can find a way to break his concentration Chews EVERYTHING, clothing, hair, carpet, plastic, wood (got him therapy chew sticks so he isn't chewing dangerous things) Licks things like walmart shopping carts EWW Fixates on things Very obsessive right now it is time and clocks Extremely ritualistic - things like cannot go to bed unless you say goodnight, i love you and sweet dreams in that order or meltdown will ensue Extreme texture aversion with food to the point where is stopped eating solids all together for 6 months and we had to put him on pediasure By the time he was 2.5 he could memorize whole books after reading them only a few times and could recite them back to you Hates loud noises - afraid of vacuum cleaner, can't go to sports games because of cheering crowds extremely literal , does not understand why there are fake toys of things like vacuums and brooms :D gets very angry and frustrated VERY easily repetitive motion, shaking head, bouncing or rocking His meltdowns are INTENSE he screams at the top of his lungs, thrashes about and gets violent extremely scheduled - if something disrupts his schedule he falls apart He will hold his index and middle finger twisted together. He seems to do this most often when he is stressed out. He obsessively sorts his toys (hotwheels and dinosaurs for example) based on size and color and then line them up. He becomes very distraught if it is messed up in any way. This has been an emotional rollercoaster and I will be both relieved but heartbroken come diagnosis time. I just feel I need to research and find out the best things I can do for my baby to make life as easy as possible for him. Right now discipline is a big ? because we just don't know how to approach it. That's the hardest thing for my DH who wants everything to be equal through all of the kids and thinks there should be no special treatment period. I am more in the camp of if you have a special kiddo they are going to need special treatment and that should be pretty easy to explain to a 9yo and 13yo why he is "getting it easier" then they did at that age KWIM? anywho thanks a bunch!

ok I am second guessing myself again imagine that eh :tongue_smilie: I've tried every phonics program under the sun trying ti find one that DS, me and DH all like LOL DS and I both loved dancing bears but DH didn't so we tried saxon phonics and after a few lessons we are sold! All 3 of us love it! Now though after reading blogs the last few days (yeah I know) I am second guessing going to 1 and skipping K. DS is on the young side but he is super advanced. He can blend and read a good bit already and knows a good bit of his digraphs too. I am just afraid that with picking up with 1 we are going to miss out on some all important rule or something LOL help steer me straight!

we are pretty much done barring any crazy last minute changes :tongue_smilie: all our books are purchased and sitting on the shelves ready for our upcoming K year

mine are on my blog as well

Got all mine under the tree in time :) did: balaclava for FIL socks for MIL socks for DH's aunt sweater for my dad scarf for my mom shawl and a soap sack for my grandma

thanks so much for the advice ladies I will be calling the early intervention people after the holidays and getting something set up

I do :P when I order the TM and stuff I always buy enough workbooks for all my kiddos just in case. I just keep them put up away so they don't take up too much room.

mo anam cara :)

they have wood working kits at lowes for young kiddos to make things like bird houses. You can also get premade wooden things at michael's craft store and paint them. Like stools, bird houses, plaques ect. decorate picture frames make stepping stones with cement mix, glass beads, little mosaic tile pieces and pie plates.

:iagree: I prefer EM over the EB!! also I have heard the readers really are not that useful. If you want mathy story books check amazon and you'll find lots. We like the sir cumference books :) And yes stock up on manipulatives they make math tons of fun for moms and kiddos.

DS2 is getting a leapster DSD2 is getting new didj games Cousins are getting books ( I'm the fun aunt :lol: ) DSD1 is getting money towards her flute

Dancing Bears!!!!!

DS2 is 21 months and doesn't "really" talk yet. He does say some words that we can pick out but they are mumbled. We just saw our ped yesterday and had him check him out. her opinion is that he has a speech issue mainly with the muscular control of his tongue. This makes sense me me because DH had a speech issue and DSD1 has a speech issue as well. Also both DH and DSD1 had horrible teeth that required intense orthodontics to repair. I have read that some tongue issues can cause both speech problems and orthodontic problems. We are supposed to have a pathologist come to our home to do an eval and then some therapy but our insurance switches in january and we are not sure if the new insurance will cover the therapy. :( My mom has offered to pay for the therapist a few times and buy a program that we could use at home once we have an idea of what we are doing. have any of you had a child with a tongue based speech disorder and if so what did you find the most effective? thanks!

i do a rinse first then a hot wash with rockin green soap, then a rinse with vinegar and then an extra rinse. if we get the stinkies (ammonia) I do a soak then wash with bleach and another hot wash and 2 rinse cycles. If you don't have an HE front loader you can soak your dipes overnight in the hottest water you can ( I used to pour boiling water in ) with bleach. Just NEVER mix bleach and vinegar!! :tongue_smilie: I use mostly AIOs and fitteds with wool

:iagree: This almost word for word. it drives my DH nuts at times but I have paralyzing fear of injuries that causes panic sometimes. As it is we own no dressers, Every outlet a child can go near has a screwed on safety cover that allows no access to the outlet, We use the really tall unclimbable top of the stairs baby gates, we only allow bathroom access to potty trained kids who know the rules and even then I am afraid of one of those horrible moments. In our house the kids own the upper floor, its 3 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, playroom and homeschool room. The toddler has a tall top of the stairs swing gate on his door and the only toys in his room are infant safe. The closets on the 2yo and 4yo's rooms are no accessible with glued on knob guards. We used to have toilet locks on the toilet until the 4yo got over his need to play in the toilet and now we just don't allow access to the little ones. The stairs going to the downstairs has another tall gate and the older kids have a gate as well to keep the littles out of their room. My worst fear now is a fire. I go through it time and time again in my head because it terrifies me so I play through the what to do. DH says I need to lighten up and while I agree I let it take over me a bit too much I would rather be paranoid then ever having to face something so heartbreaking.