I love this, fantastic idea!!! 11yo (down syndrome): Can memorize every word of a movie after watching it 2 or 3 times then act out the entire thing. Loves music and memorizes songs quickly. Loves to tell stories, he has a vivid imagination. Very independant, he's always saying "I can do it" or "my turn". Very good at sharing. He is really clever and crafty, he can size you up quickly and figure out just what tricks to play on you to get his way. Can be the sweetest, most affectionate kid you've ever met. Can make anyone smile, he is a charmer and a lady's man. ;) When he makes up his mind about something you best just get out of his way cause here he comes, lol! 9yo (high-functioning autism): Amazing artist, he blows me away with his drawings. Very athletic, taught himself to ride a bike w/o training wheels and roller skate, picks up playing sports easily. Has a natural instinct to be very gentle with babies and toddlers. Very protective of his little sister. He's my cuddler, he is the one to jump up on the couch with me and snuggle. He's turning into a very handsome young man, all the girls around his age at church have crushes on him, lol! He is our helper, always ready to lend a helping hand. Is very good at math and loves, loves, LOVES science. Better than mom at video games. ;) I feel the exact same way about both our boys.

:iagree: It took my 9yo a little while to figure it out. We took it very slowly, he wasn't sure what to do. I started out with a book he enjoyed, narrating myself as an example and asking simple questions he could answer pretty easy. He doesn't write very well (actually he loathes it) but he loves to draw so I encouraged him to draw if he couldn't think of what to say. Suddenly the last few weeks he has exploded into narration, he will narrate anything and everything, lol! He loves it. :) Whenever he reads or watches an educational program he will come to me and dh and say "do you want me to tell you about **** now?" Give it time and take it slow, he'll get there.

I've seen the ProClick P50 mentioned a lot and now dh and I are wanting to get a binding system (me for school, him for church and music stuff). I'm looking at the P50 but before I get one, I'm wondering how good it is and if has held up. Are there other binding machines that are just as good for the price or better? Thanks!:001_smile:

Love these! Especially the first one, it's my first name, lol! ;) The second one was the first name of the most wonderful nurse praticioner I ever knew and the last one I actually met a little girl that was seeing the same speech therapist as my daughter and that was her name. My oldest, when he was in public school, had a classmate that was named Dartagnan, his nickname was Dar. Everyone loved him, he was my son's best buddy at school. :001_smile: The one's I wish I could have used are: Girl Charlotte Sarah Rachel (dh's grandma's name, doesn't work with our last name) Marianne Sylvia (my grandma's name but we couldn't make it work with our last name) Boy Benjamin Jeremy Justin Harrison (my grandpa's middle name) Zachary For our 2yo dd, we could only agree on Danielle (dh) or Katherine (me), in the end dh let me have my way, lol! He was a little dissapointed until he discovered that Katherine is the middle name of his favorite aunt that passed away several years ago and his great-grandmother, then he was very glad we picked that name.:001_smile:

kandbp~Thanks, I will look into that one! CourtneyB~We are looking at ones around Tracy, too. Thanks!

Thank you! LOL, dh just said "sounds like Stockton". I will look into that hotel, thank you for your help. :)

Dh has, but I haven't. My fil has been here to visit us several times since we moved, we live 1500 miles away now. We can't afford to travel down there as often as we'd like to, it's a 2 day trip by car and a plane ride is out of the question with the expense of the flight and rental car.:001_smile:

Thanks, I do plan to check the bedbug registry before we go down there. Thanks for the other link, I will check it out. Any recommendations don't have to be exactly in Stockton, we're open to anywhere else that has good places that aren't too far away (Lodi, Tracy, Sacramento, etc).

We're going to Stockton in 2 weeks to see dh's father and will be there for a couple of nights. It's been more than 10 yrs since the last time we were there and I have no idea where the good places to stay are. We don't have a ton of money but I'm will to spend a bit extra for a nice, clean, safe place. I appreciate any recommendations anyone can make. Thank you! :D

I agree with the others who recommend working along with a psychiatrist/psychologist. I have a 9yo w/high-functioning autism w/OCD and ADHD. He takes a high dose of Strattera and a low dose of Ritalin to combat the ADHD symptoms (extreme hyperactivity). The meds are a life saver, they allow him to function much better. W/o the meds, he is literally bouncing off the walls, off furniture, becomes physically aggressive and sometimes violent, his emotions are out of control and he cannot do anything. He is still a very active child even with the meds, but as he says "they help me think better". :) We tried other stimulants and had the issue of the ADHD getting better but the OCD getting much worse. The combination he is on is so far the only combo that works well for him and keeps the ADHD and OCD symptoms in balance. He also has major anxiety issues and is showing signs of depression. At this time, both his ped and psychologist agree that anti-anxiety and anti-depressants aren't something we want to consider right now. This is where the psychologist plays a vital role in our lives, she focuses on the OCD and anxiety issues and how to work with him w/o using meds. Are these meds in our future? Most likely, but for now we are trying to keep the meds as minimal as possible and use other techniqes and methods. So far he is responding well and we'll continue this way until the time comes to make changes. :)

I grew up in Northern California, just south of the Oregon border, and people in the area I lived in were not friendly or outgoing. I lived in the same house until I married and I barely knew any of my neighbors and the ones you did know, you kinda wished you didn't cause they weren't very nice. You could walk down the street and not one person would say hello. I hated it there and couldn't wait to leave. We moved here to eastern WA 12 years ago and people are very different. People are nice, outgoing and friendly. I know most of my neighbors and I'm happy to know them. You walk down the street here, people not only will say hello but will start chatting with you as well. I love it here and I'm so glad my kids get to grow up here. The town I grew up in was small (less than 10,000 people), now we live in a city (300,000 plus people). The climate was mild and moderate where I grew up (little change in weather and temps throughout the year), the city we live in has a full 4 seasons (hot summers, cold snowy winters).

What brands/companies are the ones to go with and which are the ones to stay as far away from as possible? Has anyone purchased from a dedicated refill store like Cartridge World or Rapid Refills? How would you rate them? How about store brands (Office Depot, Staples, etc.)? Do they compare to manufacturer originals? What kind of problems have you experienced? We're in the market for a new printer for me for school and trying to figure out what the overall costs will be before making a final decision. Thanks!

I would if they had anything I wanted to borrow, lol! Our library system has a very limited selection available. Hopefully it'll grow soon.

Yep, I've got that in my favorites!!!

Oh man, I hope they fix it soon, I missed out last time.

Dh suprised me back in November, he braved Best Buy on Black Friday and got me one of the Nooks they had on sale then. I haven't really used it all that much, I debated for a while whether to return it thinking I really wouldn't use it. Then when the special was run on Jane Austen's birthday that all her books were free, well....I haven't put my Nook down, I read it every night, lol! :D Here's where the idiot part comes in. ;) I've been searching all over for certain literature books I want to use with the boys next school year, agonizing over how much it was gonna cost me. Light bulb goes off and I check for ebook versions. Ta da!!!! I now have all but 3 of the books I need and paid a whopping 95 cents for everything. Silly me for actually spending all that time and worry searching for books when I could have them all for less than a dollar all along. :tongue_smilie:

The young lady featured in this story was homeschooled, is now a junior at the University of South Carolina, is working as an assistant teacher at Kindermusik and if that isn't awesome enough...she has down syndrome! Just more comfirmation to me that we have made the right decision to homeschool our special needs kids. :001_smile: http://www.wltx.com/news/article/121995/2/Teacher-Born-With-Down-Syndrome-Breaks-Sterotypes Here is the blog that has been put together to chronicle Bryann's journey. http://notableaccomplishments.blogspot.com/

The young lady featured in this story was homeschooled, is now a junior at the University of South Carolina, is working as an assistant teacher at Kindermusik and if that isn't awesome enough...she has down syndrome! Just more comfirmation to me that we have made the right decision to homeschool our special needs kids. :001_smile: http://www.wltx.com/news/article/121995/2/Teacher-Born-With-Down-Syndrome-Breaks-Sterotypes Here is the blog that has been put together to chronicle Bryann's journey. http://notableaccomplishments.blogspot.com/

If it helps, both my special needs kids are at home. Ds #1 has down syndrome, ds #2 has high-functioning autism, plus we have a 2yo. It's hectic at times, especially when ds #1 needs much more attention and help than ds #2, but they are doing so much better at home than they were at school. Especially ds #1, school had become a nightmare and he was learning nothing except how to become a bully to his classmates. With the help you said you can set up for her, I say bring her home. I agree with what you said about her learning life skills in the environment she is going to be using them regularly, we feel the same way about our kids. I'm not familiar with how PA homeschool laws work. In our state, yearly testing is required but we have the option of having an assesment done rather than standardized testing. Also, our state requires that school districts offer homeschooled students access to services the same as ps kids. We do private therapy because: 1. We were never happy with the level of work done with our kids when they attended ps, 2. The way things are going with cuts to school districts around here it's just a matter of time before therapy services are completely cut from the schools. Good luck with your decision. :)

This is exactly what my mom had to have done for my brother when he was in school, otherwise she never had any idea what his assignments were and no work ever got turned in. Once the assignments/homework were written down, my mom could go over it with my brother and make sure he did it. After that, rarely did my mom ever get a call from a teacher again that T had not turned in his work or completed the assignment. ((hugs)) I understand your frustration totally and hope the principal will step up and help get this resolved in a way that works for everyone.

My son was a little younger, but he sucked his thumb until he got his braces at 8yo. They attached what they called a "habit reminder" or "thumb rake" onto the palatte expander he got, looks like the tongs on a fork. The orthodontist told us that either he'll quit or he won't and if he doesn't quit then ds would have to go through the whole ordeal again but on our dime as the insurance would refuse to pay for a second round of the same treatment. Ds got everything removed last November and so far he hasn't gone back to sucking his thumb. I'm nervous he'll go back to it but so far he's kept his hands out of his mouth. I agree with the pp that suggested looking into sensory issues, this was definately the case for our ds. For whatever reason, getting the braces did something for him that helped. Our ds has high-functioning autism and his orthodontist, speech therapist and pediatrician are all amazed that he stopped. You can get The Out of Sync Child, it's all about sensory processing disorder/sensory integration disorder and very informative. It explains the different categories of spd/sid and includes checklists to help you narrow down if your child may have spd/sid and what category.

We've used Pamela's brand bread mix, following the directions for the bread machine. Let me just say, the loaf never lasts long because everyone loves it!

This pretty sums up my feelings. Our boys were 8 and 7 when their little sister was born and she rules the roost, lol! The one thing that made the bond very close between ds#2 and dd is that their birthdays are just 6 days apart, he tells everyone his baby sister is the best birthday present he ever got. They have good days and bad days, but to be honest I don't think anything would be different if the age difference was less. The kids are now 10, 9 and 2. One of the things that was really neat with the age difference was my pregnancy with dd was so much fun getting to share it with the boys, they loved watching my belly grow and "talking" to their little sister and feeling her kick and move. The boys fell head over heals in love with their sister the moment they laid eyes on her and nothing has changed, other than she bosses them around. ;) We aren't sure who spoils her more, her papa or her brothers, lol! Above all, congratulations!!!!

So happy for you!!! Continuing to pray!

RanchGirl ~ THANK YOU so much for linking Notebooking2Learn, I only wish I had known about it before we started Astonomy. Thankfully we are still early enough into the book that we can take full advantage of the pages. :)