I've only used them since we have no vision coverage with our insurance. I've had no complaints, the prescription is always correct, the doctors have been great, the glasses always fit and they always have something I like. The only "issue" I have with them, at least with the store here, is they are very pushy about getting add-ons and doing the screening tests for the eye exam. Usually they are pretty good if I say no, but I've had at least one sales associate irritate me when he acted almost mad that I wouldn't purchase any of the add on packages for my glasses. But I still go to them, nobody else in town can beat their price and I'm always happy with my glasses.

WOW!!!! I loved the song instantly, very nice!! I look forward to their album coming out. :)

:iagree:This is the company that I bought from when I had my 2yo dd (I wore a 42 J when nursing). I tried every bra that Motherhood Maternity and JCPenney had, nothing worked. I was ready to give up when I came across Birth and Baby, wish so much I had known about them when I had the boys. Reasonable prices, great bras, can't beat the shipping and I can't say enough about the customer service! My mom bought the bras for me and when they had a problem processing payment, the owner personally contacted my mom and got it all straightened, very very nice lady!!! Good luck finding the right bra and congratulations!!!!

Ds10, bossy, likes to be the leader and be in command, very vocal and will talk your ear off if you let him ;), incredibly stubborn, hates to do any kind of schoolwork that requires him to put out an ounce of effort, loves to sing and dance, so close to his papa that we worry how he would handle it if anything happened to papa, loves to go on a trip and promptly falls asleep in the car on the way. Very laid back and doesn't get upset very easily. Is rather timid and shy when he meets someone new, but opens up pretty quickly. He was our easy baby. Very independant. Ds9, easily aggitated and gets upset over the slightest thing, extremely emotional, hyperactive, not much of a talker until he gets going on a favorite subject then you are in it for the long haul, competetive, has no patience, loves to do certain subjects of school but the ones he doesn't he will fight you big time, doesn't like crowds, can't sit still for very long or stick to one activity for long, kind and considerate he can't stand it when someone is upset, will pray for anyone about anything, needs constant attention and can't stand to be alone. He was our difficult baby. Dd2, she is her oldest brother all over again, she looks like her 9yo brother but her personality is exactly like her 10yo brother. Very easy baby.

Oh my goodness, after the day I've had I so needed to read these "pee" stories! ROFL!!!!

Thank you so much for this recipe!!! I can't wait to get to the grocery store and buy the ingredients, looks so delish!

All 3 of my kids are in speech therapy. My best piece of advice is if you are concerned, it certainly wouldn't hurt to have your dd evaluated by a speech therapist. Whether or not your dd will need services, they will be the best people to answer your questions and concerns. :)

I've had a couple card numbers stollen (two charges made me laugh it was so rediculous, $200 worth of tacos in Mexico and a charge to a Catholic website, we're not Catholic), everytime the card company caught it and notified me right away. Dh's debit card had to be replaced when someone hacked into several local banks and credit unions and accessed debit card info. No charges were ever put on the card, but the number was compromised so they had to issue a new card. I asked one of the credit card companies how my number was accessed when that particular card never gets used, I had never lost it and no statements had ever gone missing. The guy said that it's becomming common for crooks to use software that generates random number combinations until it finds an "active" account, then they make a fake card and sell them, usually to undocumented immigrants. Thankfully it was no big deal to get it all taken care of, just filling out some simple paperwork and send it in. My cousin had his SS# used to open a cell phone account in Texas, they lived in Montana. Trying to get Sprint and the collection agency the account was sent to (that's how they found out about it, when the collection agency contacted them to collect the debt) to believe them that they had never been in Texas let alone had a Sprint cell phone account was a real pain.

ocelotmom ~ I hadn't seen that page before, thank you so much!

Same exact situation here. I'm lucky to have a used homeschool bookstore in town, but even then they don't always have what I'm looking for or it's still a little pricey. I go to every yard sale I can that has books listed in the ad especially ones at churches and private schools, I found a lot of stuff this past summer. I go to Goodwill and St. Vincent de Paul and the other good local thrift stores. Library book sales are another great resource. We are lucky to have a pretty good city library that also has an inter-library loan program plus we also have a county library system, I haven't thought about checking the local universities and colleges if they have public access. (Thanks for the tip prairiebird!) Used curriculum sales are great, too. I check Craigslist, I've also seen listings on Freecycle for homeschool books and you can always put a wanted listing on there. I check the internet for every possible homeschool site that may have a "for sale" or "swap board". I've bought a lot of used books here. :D What has also helped me was being able to pick up a part-time, work from home job. My mom does seamstress work for a local baby products company (also work from home, she loves it) and was able to get me hooked up with the business owner to do the product packaging. It's not a lot of money, but it's bought a lot of curriculum and reading books and school supplies. :) I've sold books that I don't want or could do without. Also, a lot of prayer. Just when I couldn't figure out how I was going to afford something, either dh would be able to pick up an extra shift or I had a larger than usual order for work. :001_smile:

That would be fantastic, thank you!

Thank you so much for your input! Ds#1 has down syndrome and ds#2 has high-functioning autism. The more I research AO and read through CM, the more that AO appeals to me and I just "feel" it would work well with the boys and eventually 2yo dd. I'm just hoping to get some insight from those that have tried it and/or are doing it before embarking down a new road. :) Thanks again!

I'm curious to know if anyone has done AO with a child(ren) with learning disabilities/challenges. How well did it work/not work? I really want to do AO next year with the kids, but I'm worried if it will work well with the boys and their challenges.

We deal with sterotypes thanks to the Aryan Nations who used to reside in this area across the state line. My bil and his wife (he's white, she's AA/Puerto Rican) wouldn't come visit us cause they were certain they would get hunted down and killed. We finally convinced them that they were a very small group while they were here and they were finally run out several years ago. But the image is still very much connected to this area and it sickens me. Everyone assumes people here are a bunch of racist skinheads when it couldn't be farther from the truth, our area is a very diverse and welcomming community. The other stereotype we've dealt with since moving here from Humboldt County in California is that we must know all the best places to get pot and we must know everything there is to know about growing and smoking. Yes, I was born and raised there but I never touched the stuff and wouldn't know the first thing about growing or buying it, lol!

Thank you so much ladies for your thoughts and prayers. :) We're okay.

I can't go into details, but if you would, please pray that the phone will ring and ring soon. Thank you. :crying:

Wondering how much time others would devote each day/week to the following subjects for a 3rd grader with low reading/writing/spelling skills (he has high-functioning autism): Math Language Arts Reading Spelling History Social Studies Science Health Art Music How about for a 5th grader that has down syndrome and is at a kindergarten learning level: Math Language Arts Reading Spelling History Social Studies Science Health Art Music This is what we are currently doing: 3rd grader Math: daily, about 20-30 mins/day depending on the complexity of the lesson Language Arts: daily, about 20 mins Reading: daily, about 20-30 mins (does not include family reading time or reading on his own for fun) Spelling: daily, about 15 mins History: 2 days/week, about 20 mins (done as a family) Social Studies: 1 day/week, about 20 mins (done as a family) Science: 2 days/week up to 30-45 mins depending on if there is a project involved (done as a family) Health: 1 day/week, about 15-20 mins depending on if there's a project Art: 1 day/week, about 20 mins (this is his favorite subject, he spends additional time on his own practicing) Music: 1 day/week for 30 mins of formal lesson, 20 mins/day practice 5th grader Math: daily, 10-15 mins Language Arts: daily, 10-15 mins Reading: daily, 10-15 mins Spelling: 1-2 days/week, 10 mins History: 2 days/week, about 20 mins (done as a family) Social Studies: 1 day/week, about 20 mins (done as a family) Science: 2 days/week up to 30-45 mins depending on if there is a project involved (done as a family) Health: 1 day/week, about 15-20 mins depending on if there's a project Art: 1 day/week, about 20 mins Music: Pretty much daily for him, more about music appreciation, he has set goals to reach (i.e. learn a new song and sing it for us). His favorite subject, he would do nothing but music if we let him so we try to incorporate music into his lessons as much as possible, he learns it better. :) All the times are instructional time, they don't include the time it takes them to complete a lesson unless stated otherwise (i.e. music lessons). And it's all subject to how cooperative the boys are, plus some days a lesson may be so short that I'll go ahead and do the next day's lesson as well depending on if they have a good grasp of the lesson. Thanks for any and all input. :001_smile:

We always wanted to, but when our oldest son was born with down syndrome and then our younger son was dx with autism, we really thought we couldn't. We thought we HAD to put them in public school. To be honest, with the exception of one rough year for oldest ds (great teacher, not best classmates for him), his special needs preschool years and first 2 years of elementary school were incredible! He had wonderful teachers and made a ton of progress. Our younger ds had a terrible experience in preschool (teacher adamantly refused to acknowledge he had any problems and refused to work with him) but had an excellent kindy teacher and amazing 1st/2nd grade teacher. We found out 2 mos into the second year ds #1 had the worst teacher ever that we most certainly could homeschool and we haven't looked back. :) Final straw for ds #1: went from star student the year before to class troublemaker (found out later it was the awful teacher that we had no idea just how bad she was at the time) plus he had totally and completely lost all the academic progress he had made, substitute cook refusing to follow his dietary restrictions (Celiac disease and lactose intollerance, he had special food the school purchased for him and this lady refused to prepare it), classroom staff more concerned about having to deal with ds's toilet accident (due to the food that was bad for him) than whether ds was okay or not. Final straw for ds #2: the school's refusal to deal with the bullying and teasing and tormenting that ds was enduring daily. I'm sorry, but social skills to me are not leaving my son with autism on the playground to defend himself and him coming home in tears saying he never wants to go back.

We had 2 miscarriages before dd was conceived, the boys (especially our younger son) were so upset with the losses that we waited until I was almost 3 mos before we told them. It was hard enough on me and dh with the losses but we couldn't bear putting the boys through that again.

This is one of the services in our city that is not being interrupted by the holiday. You can't go pay your water bill, but the garbage will be picked up on regular schedule.

I took a typing course in high school and then again in college the first time I went, was taught 2 spaces. When I went back to college the second time 10 years later, everything was changed to 1 space. It was so hard to get used to it, thankfully my typing instructor figured what the problem was and didn't mark it incorrect but gave me time to get used to the difference. Now, I type with 1 space but occasionally catch myself typing 2 spaces.

No, lol, you aren't alone. :) I did that New Year's Day, it was around the 4th trip to check the mailbox that if finally dawned on me that there was no mail. And I agree with Kathleen in VA, it really throws me when certain offices/departments are closed on holidays but others are open, i.e. our city hall is closed but departments within the city offices are open. Also, in one town around here the elementary schools are closed but the middle schools and high schools are open. Go figure!

:iagree:

Thankfully my parents live in the same are we do, we've discussed with them many times what would happen and they were the ones who said very simply that the kids and dh (or me if dh passed away) would move in with them and they would help with everything. If for some reason my parents were unable to, then my mil would most likely move in to take care of the kids, not my ideal situation but she is an experienced homeschooler (taught dh and his sisters) and former private school teacher so at least on that end there'd be no worries. In the worst case scenario that both dh and I pass away, my parents are to get custody and should something happen to my parents then my brother and his wife are to get custody (my brother was in tears the day he came to us and said that even though they have 2 kids themselves, there is no way they could turn their back on their nephews and neice). I know dh and there's no way he could handle taking care of the kids by himself even if he had to put them in public school. Both our boys are special needs but even then 3 kids are a handful with both of us alive and caring for them, I can't imagine what it would do to dh's sanity if I wasn't here.

I'm with the others that have read this and say they don't feel so bad now that their kids aren't more involved in outside activities/extra-curriculars. We only do 2 things right now: mid-week services at church and special needs baseball league in the spring. The boys' outpost commander at church does his best to keep costs at a minimum: uniforms and badges are free, weekly activities are free or if there is a cost he does his best to give you lots of time or finds a way to cover the costs himself or through a sponser in the church. The only things we've had to pay for is Pinewood Derby (the kit is $5 and that's it, no event fees or anything else) and camp which this past year was 2 times, once in the summer (birthday present from Grandma and Grandpa) and once in the fall (just a weekend outing for $10 to help cover food costs) and even with camp if you can't afford it the commander will find a way to work it out through either payments or seeing if there is scholarship money through the church available or a sponsor. The outpost does a few fundraisers through the years, but nobody is required to participate and there is no outside selling on the part of the kids. The commander and his wife (who are dear friends) put a lot of their own money into the program to keep it affordable for the families. The commander never wants to turn a boy away from participating due to financial issues, the outpost/church will find a way to cover the costs. The girls program is the same. For baseball, the league director has worked super hard to ensure that there is very little if any cost to the families. She is a mom of special needs kids herself and knows how important it is for there to be programs our kids can easily participate in and how little money we tend to have for extras. The most we've ever paid was $20 for registration the first year for both boys and that included uniforms, the director didn't want to charge but it all got thrown together at the last minute and there wasn't time to get community sponsorship to cover costs. The last 2 years, everything was free due to some very generous contributions from the community. It's a short program, just 2 practices per week and one game per week for 8 weeks. You aren't required to participate in practices and games, if you can only do one or the other that's fine. The point is for the kids to have fun w/o the parents getting stressed out over costs and major time commitments. The boys have made friends and all the kids and families have a blast. We haven't had to do any fundraisers, but that may have to start as the league is seriously working on getting our own playing fields (right now we have to deal with the school district and parks/rec for practice fields and game fields and we always are given the crappiest ones). We've been blessed by a local private college that allows us to use their full stadium for the last 2 or 3 games of the season. DS #2 wants to take art lessons and we've found a good one that is a little pricey but it includes all the supplies so on the surface there are no additional out of pocket expenses, but this thread has opened my eyes to make sure I ask and be prepared. He'd also like to play hockey and football, but the registration fees alone are too much plus the additional equipment we are required to provide is also a deal breaker. DD is only 2 so nothing for her as yet. We had talked about ballet when she gets older but after reading about the costs involved, I doubt we'll be able to do it.