:grouphug: As my mother would say (and did, to me, twenty years ago), she'll be "off on her life's adventure!"

google couch to 5k here is only one example http://www.fromcouchto5k.com/ good for you! have FUN!!!

I submit that at least some students of cyber schools may be BOTH public schoolers AND homeschoolers, possibly both from a legal perspective (depending on the state of course; e.g., if the student only takes part of their classes from the cyber school) and from a social perspective. IMO, anything that increases school choice is a good thing, for everyone, and cyber schools certainly increase choice. The one-size-fits-all approach of the traditional public schools does not work, at least not for my kids. My kids are in a charter school and we do a bit of afterschooling. Later they'll probably be in a private school. If it all goes down the tubes, I'm also somewhat prepared to homeschool (that's one of the reasons I spend so much time on this site, to learn how y'all do it!). I just saw an old bumper sticker in the parking lot this morning, "Public Charter School Parent By Choice." I admit, I'm a control freak - I crave choice when it comes to my kids' education. I think of homeschooling as the ultimate in choice - the completely custom version, the haute couture of education ;). Perhaps the cyber school is the knock-off I might find at Target (is this a possible reason it ruffles feathers?). Maybe the quality isn't there, maybe it is, but I love that choices are increasing where I live. We have 9 charters and another 8 "alternative" schools in our district - one cyber charter and one cyber "alternative" school are among them. Our district also offers dual enrollment for homeschoolers and otherwise seems very HS friendly - forms and info clearly available on the district website. (Isn't a dual-enrolled homeschooler a homeschooler AND a public school student?) As a practical matter, I can see how cyber school could potentially create opportunities for those with sinister motives against homeschooling, but the homeschooling community is so large and so accepted (where I live anyway) that any attempted crackdown would be cause for enormous uproar. Regardless, I think the ultimate argument in favor of choice, even for those politically against it, is that most choices (charter, cyber, private) cost the government less per student than traditional public school - private school and total homeschooling being the ultimate cheapest for the government at a cost of $0. (ETA: the trouble is that the teachers' unions are the ones that may lose out on $ by losing out on traditional public school students). A district cutting down on choices is shooting itself in the foot, cost-wise. Cutting off its nose to spite its face. That's where more union control of a district, at a board of ed level, presents a conflict of interest. ok I better stop babbling before I get myself in more trouble :D

I see there are two editions (2005 and 1997). Which one did you read?

Well that's interesting. I wonder what they do at those additional evaluations. It's been a couple of years since my dd did her VT, plus different docs do things differently. I'm feeling a desire to have more evaluations, only because recent testing showed a visual processing issue that is probably unrelated to the eye tracking issue she had before VT. Ocular motor dysfunction is a subset of sensory processing issues, and it's possible that OT could help also (it did for my dd). FWIW, two years ago we paid somewhere in the neighborhood of $2500 for 24 weekly appointments, and that included occasional progress checks with the optometrist. IMO, doing the daily homework is critical to success. Glad you didn't go back to the opthamologist? I guess that'll depend on what happens next. What will the reading glasses do? Are they just regular reading glasses, or do they do something special? Just wondering.

Have you ever read Weissbluth's Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child? He has a section in there re: adolescents on chronotherapy, resetting the sleep clock. p. 230 in my old copy: I don't know anything about teenage sleeping, but I've found Weissbluth to be very helpful on anything to do with sleep patterns in younger children. Until you get this straightened out, it doesn't seem to make much sense to attempt public high school. Good luck!!

We paid out of pocket. Let us know how the appointment goes!

How old is he? Have you discussed what the school curriculum is in these areas, particularly math? What are his weak areas? I would keep in mind that, supposedly, a lot of people with adhd may also be visual learners. I'm not sure what that means for the math curriculum, except that some visual learners (not all, of course) may learn math concepts easily but struggle with calculation. Maybe check on the special needs board re: curricula for adhd kids.

Well, IMO it depends on the child and what your goals are. I believe Song School Latin is written for K-2. If all you're looking for is a fun, teeny tiny taste of the language, it's nice, easy and entertaining. My 3rd grader went through the entire Song School Latin in a couple of weeks earlier this year. It was fun for her. She learned some vocabulary words, that's about it. She didn't listen to most of the cd. My first grade boys were not interested in Song School Latin. So, we started Getting Started With Latin and I love it. I teach each of them individually, and they answer the translations orally. It's much more "real" Latin - actual grammar, and lots of translation (Latin to English), which is what I want for our particular situation. (my kids have language processing issues, and I'm trying to use Latin as a back door to English grammar because Latin is so systematic and "mathematical", which is a strength for them). For my purposes, which might be unique, I want them to learn Latin grammar as quickly as possible. Song School Latin is not relevant to this purpose. GSWL has been fantastic for this purpose - we're planning on moving on to Henle when we're finished, and I'm confident that we''ll have a good head start on the grammar contained therein. I have found that if we do it less than two or three times per week, they start to forget, which makes it harder than it needs to be. (I will now commence self-flagellation for having failed to do Latin for the last 5 days.) I don't know anything about Prima Latina.

Reminds me of a time about twenty years ago, when I was a volunteer after-school tutor at a low performing elementary school. The teacher asked me to tutor kids individually in long division. I soon realized that they did not know the times table. When I asked the teacher about it, she said they didn't need to, because when they grew up they would use calculators. I never did figure out how they were supposed to learn long division if they couldn't multiply. Needless to say, my attempted tutoring never got very far.

I can't say I used Latin much as a lawyer. Indeed, I had forgotten so much by the time I went to law school that I still had to look up most Latin terms in the law dictionary. Perhaps I just never learned it that well the first time :D I'm teaching my kids Latin for the purpose of English grammar (we're afterschooling). My gut says it's the right way to approach it for them. (They have language processing issues but are good with math and patterns, so I'm hoping Latin will be as easy as math. So far so good, knock on wood.) And of course the vocabulary. I guess my thinking here is kinda LCC-ish, though theoretically they should be learning grammar at school too.

We love Getting Started With Latin - requires no prior knowledge of Latin and can be completely self-directed by your middle school students. http://www.gettingstartedwithlatin.com/faq.php It's heavy on grammar, with just enough vocabulary to teach the grammar. Heavy on translation. But easy and gentle for getting started - preview the book. I'm doing this now with my 7 and 9 y.o.'s. When we're done, we're planning to move on to Henle I, and when we do I think we'll have a pretty good head start, so to speak. For middle school age, I'd probably just do Henle I except that you have no knowledge of Latin (I really don't know whether Henle is teachable with no knowledge of Latin - perhaps it is). I'd take a look at First Form Latin http://www.memoriapress.com/descriptions/first-latin.html and Latin Prep http://www.galorepark.co.uk/product/parents/127/latin-prep-book-1.html (I think there are cheaper places to buy this program). As for your 4.5 y.o., I might wait until he's reading rather well before beginning Latin, whenever that might be (K or 1 or 2).

This is just my opinion, but if there was nothing in particular, just fishing, then I would not bother - I'd cancel that appt and just see the optometrist. You can always change your mind and go back to the opthamologist for the extra strong drops another day.

Just call and schedule. ETA: be sure to ask not for a regular checkup but one to see if she needs VT. Explain the situation. It's a little different from a regular checkup - they may ask your child to write or draw, etc., among other things. On the eye drops, I'd only do it if there were something particular that the opthamologist was looking for that you want to rule out. Regarding OT, we found that it was very helpful in how much easier it was for dd to do the VT exercises. It was coincidental in that we hadn't planned it that way (the OT said it would help but I wasn't holding my breath and that's not why we were seeing the OT; we did a short, intensive program of OT just after we started VT, took a break from VT to get the OT done, and then re-started the VT).

Same here. Our pediatric opthamologist said dd's eyes were fine. The same month, we went for some testing (IQ, etc.) and the testers suggested that she had a possible vision problem, so we found an optometrist who does VT. When the optometrist showed me how hard it was for her to move her eyes, it was obvious. See www.covd.org to find a provider to do an evaluation. Opthamologists who do this are very few and far between; most are optometrists. There's quite the controversy between these specialties on the issue of VT.

Why not simply get an evaluation through your school district? It would be free, and would not mean that you had to accept offered services, but you might have a whole lot better idea of whether or not there is a significant delay. You'd be looking at the results of a professional evaluation instead of just wondering whether there is, in fact, a delay. Three of my older kids were late talkers, and one is still in speech therapy at 7 y.o. I recommend *not* waiting to figure out the precise status of your child's speech. Before 3 y.o., free evaluations are offered through the state's Early Intervention program. After 3 y.o., it usually happens through the school district. Whether you are homeschooling is irrelevant to whether they will perform an evaluation for a child who has not yet reached school age. Once you have more information, you will be much better equipped to make decisions about what to do. (warning, for speech therapy my school district offered only special ed preschool with visits from the speech therapist there, but that was not something we wanted to pursue. ultimately we chose a montessori preschool and a private speech therapist. but as I said, you will be in a much better position to make such decisions when you have actual information in front of you). Just look on line at your school district's website for the phone number of the special ed department and call. They will either handle it or tell you who else you should be calling instead - in some states, the state pays private contractors to handle it, though that's more common for under 3 than for over 3. Good luck - who knows, maybe he won't even need help!

I think there was a section in the Latin-Centered Curriculum that discusses this question though I don't remember what it said :D (yeah I'm lazy; the book's downstairs); probably something about Latin and Greek as being part of a true Classical curriculum.

Similar situation here - hydronephrosis diagnosed on prenatal ultrasound. Kidney surgery to repair UPJ obstruction at 8 months old; prophylactic antibiotics in the meantime from birth. If it weren't for that ultrasound, we would not have known about the easily fixable condition until he had become sick, i.e., until there probably would have been permanent kidney damage.

;) You may report to them that: (1) my kids are in school and have poor handwriting, which is neither the fault of their education nor their smarts; they simply have motor issues. For that matter, I have horrible handwriting too - even in college, my roommates laughed about my "chicken scratch." Fortunately, the age of computers finally has arrived :D (2) they would be wise to avoid making judgments about either a person's intellect or the quality of their schooling based on handwriting. I agree with the other poster who mentioned that perhaps these are merely excuses they've cooked up to spend a year at high school. Sounds like a dialogue is in order (not that I have any idea how to speak with teenagers :tongue_smilie:).

We're doing GSWL and planning to move on to Henle I when we're finished. I love GSWL :D

Getting Started With Latin is inexpensive (just the book, like $18 at amazon; audio files are free on the web though we don't usually use them), completley self-explanatory, very straightforward. There are 134 lessons in the book, which would take her through all five cases, the first and second declensions, but only the present tense. It's an easy start to Latin, lots of grammar and translation. Answers in the back. You can preview it here http://www.gettingstartedwithlatin.com/faq.php We're using it now (7 y.o. and 9 y.o.) and when we're done in another couple of months I'm planning to move on to Henle I, hoping the ride through Henle will be easier with all this knowledge of grammar going into it.

I bought GSWS after loving GSWL for my 7 and 9 y.o. We're still doing the Latin - I don't want to start the Spanish until we finish at least this Latin book, so as not to confuse them (this will probably take a couple more months; then we will start Henle). But I love the page layout, the small lessons and the translation. My DH's first language is Spanish so I'll be having him help with the pronunciation - I'd let him teach the whole thing but I don't know if he'll have the time or the patience. Plus DH might learn grammar for the first time :D. With the Latin, I've been having my kids do all the translation orally so far. I'd like to have them start writing but they have handwriting issues, so I've been putting it off. I think they might remember it better if they wrote it, but I have to balance that with the amount of time that would take and whether the effort involved might discourage them. We're moving pretty quickly lesson to lesson, and as long as we don't let too much time pass in between, they're remembering it well. Has anyone chosen a curriculum to follow GSWS?

This, this is great encouragement. Thank you!!! I intuitively feel that it's the right thing to do, but it really does help to hear it!! :)

For what age? When they're little, see this page http://www.latetalking.org/ (scroll down about 10 paragraphs) for some ways to get started ETA: I would not consider anything done by myself to be a substitute for work with a speech therapist

Thanks for posting your brand! :glare: I totally overlooked the dose my ds has been taking of this http://www.amazon.com/Now-Foods-Kid-Cal-Tablets/dp/B000MPOSUG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=hpc&qid=1272655508&sr=8-1 I just looked at the container and he needs two chewable tablets to get 100 mg of mag, and I've only been giving him one (doh!). Which means he's only been getting 50 mg mag/100 mg calcium/100 D3. I give him extra D3 (500 iu) separately. He's around 45 lbs. I need to try something else for the cal/mag, maybe we'll try the Trace. His hematologist recommended cal/mag for his leg pains (he has a congenital thrombocytopenia, not that I'm worried about the leg pains or anything :glare: ) :auto: off to the vitamin store (ok well maybe tomorrow ;))