The Polar Express!!!! I know its just a picture book but it is a great book to share every year!

I am really enjoying the second glee cd there are a couple new songs that I like.

We are at the crossroads of this right now...so far we have an ADHD label for dd...but our current developmental physcologist has referred us to a neuro for more testing because dd has many characteristics of spectrum but "she wants to be social". But if she had an ASD diagnosis we would receive medicare which would pay the 800 dollars that we are currently paying out of pocket for therapy for dd. If she had the diagnosis of ASD our insurance would cover somewhere around 30,000 in behavioral therapy a year. If she had the diagnosis she would qualify for a social group, right now she doesn't have the "right" label. I don't want her to get the diagnosis of ASD, and don't know if the neuro we are seeing will think she is ASD, but without it we are left treading water and dd can't get the help she needs all because of a silly label. Sometimes I wish this stuff was based on the severity of symptoms and not on the label but that is not the way the special needs world works.

There is a genetic disposition and that for some children it is triggered by outside events such as a vaccine/high fever ect.

DD would be curious george!!!!

ours will repay up to 150 dollars a year for a gym membership....not a lot when the memberships are 1000+ per year.

My sister made the dinosaur tail for my dd for her halloween costume, she LOVES it!

Or perhaps because it is all computerized and there is no human element, no one thinking maybe we shouldn't seat a 3 year old at the back of the plane and his mom in the front like it use to be with paper and pencil.

I think it always was just not always known....I think about the beginning of Anne of green gables when mrs. Lynn tells about all the horrible things orphans did to their adoptive family.

I think the truly hurtful part is when the person being unfriended felt the relationship more than the person doing the unfriending. Its always hard to feel like you were more invested in a relationship than someone else. If it was just a person that I had me on their list because they saw me once at this thing and I just liked what they posted then I would not be hurt if they unfriended me.

Supposedly if you eat at Mama Melrose for lunch you get priority seating for Fantasmic...You might call to see if that really is true and switch to a lunch and do Fantasmic that night.

If you are lucky at o'Hanas you can watch the fireworks at MK and they pipe in the music. Also the dessert is INCREDIBLE there! Didn't do the others sorry.

Some of the meet and greets specifically told us to have 1 adult wait while the other takes the children around so ask the attendant.

I would just be prepared for lots of prayers at the beginning of every session that may sound a little funny to you. But otherwise if you are interested come and enjoy. It looks like you could even just do the Wednesday sessions. I really really really want to go...so now I just have to convince my dh!

Regarding the clementines and apples...your son could be reacting to a pollen allergy and getting oral allergy syndrome. I would check his environmental allergens with an allergist.

To me it looks like he is trying to use his phonics skills but 1st isn't reading carefully enough completely through the word....2nd he needs to start monitoring his reading and if the word does not make complete sense he needs to notice and stop reading go back and look at the word again. You could stop him after an error (right after or at the end of the sentence) and ask if that made sense, would you say it that way and he should say no, if he says yes you read it the way he did and say no that doesn't make sense. Then tell him to go back and reread it looking carefully at all the letters in all the words. Doing this a few times should help him start to realize that he needs to be noticing for himself if what he is reading is right.

Is it really down? I was looking today and had 1 show up...their stuff is nothing like FIAR...its her own little thing using the same books but very little is directly attached to items in the BFIAR book. Sadness if she did have to remove it all.

I use yahoo groups...and actually just set one up for a group I am in. I like getting the emails....and I get lots in some...I just delete what doesn't apply. That said...I have found that having gmail which links up all the emails from the same thread really helps in understanding and following the group because I don't have to go searching to find the first post it is at the beginning of my email group.

Ukiah (in Mendocino County) is one of the bigger towns in the county. It is about 45 mins north of Santa Rosa on 101. It is a nice area with a basic community college Mendocino Community College, and they do dual enrollement (or did 10 years ago). It is more townish and just a short way away is country life. It is very very very wine country. Its about 1 hour from Fort Bragg which is right on the coast and about 2 hours from Humbolt. Also has Lake Mendocino and about 45 mins from Clear Lake. That said I DO NOT recommed anywhere in Lake County (where Clear Lake is) because while beautiful there is nothing for teen to do and basically it was drinking and all that goes along with that in high school.

I second Ben and Jerry's....also the quarry (I think it is in Barre VT?) is really interesting and fun. When we went they did a bus up to the actual quarry and you got to see them working in the pit. It was really cool. Also if you are up to $$$ the Boston Museum of Science is AWESOME!

Perhaps you could change at least the age range if your family is dead set on a yankee swap every year. Perhaps you could suggest that 2 games are played one for the under teen age and one for the adults/teens. That way the kids buy kid gifts and the adults can do adult gifts and the kids at least are less likely to walk out with a vase or some such gift they really wouldnt like.

I just watched the second session (its on netflix now) and actually I think he was much less cocky in this season and I could see more how much he loves his family. I think the wives have a unique perspective and they all want to be in a polygamous marriage.

Inadequately prepared teachers is a HUGE one. Many teachers are very unfamiliar with the way they were trying to teach the math and were not able to truly help the children move to complete understanding. Many let children sit in ineffective techniques for too long and never really made it automatic. There is also a huge disconnect from children learning the math facts....which are important when children are not getting automatic numeracy understanding which many teachers were not getting children too...so the children had HUGE gaps in basic understandings. Side Rant: Many teachers are teachers not because they were best in math, actually most of the ones I knew HATED math of any kind. I believe that teacher experiences with math really impact how the children in their class do with math. Most teachers love reading and that is why literacy is better taught in schools than math. End rant Another big issue was getting everyone around the "new" math ideas. Many schools weren't able to really show the value of the program and all any one saw was that children were not getting the basic mathematic understandings for their childhood such as borrowing in addition and subtraction. Parents weren't able to help with math which left them out in the cold about what their children were learning. It was a HUGE PR problem in the schools that I worked at that did it...and again if the teachers were not really understanding/liking/able to teach the program then they were not helping the parents see the value of it and many times were agreeing with the parents that hated it. Personally I think that the "new" math programs can be amazing IF everyone is really invested and if the teacher/parents really understand how to get the child to true mathematic understanding and not let them sit on a crutch like counting on fingers or a numberline or what not. Honestly when I taught "new" math I saw children who learned incredible things about math but I also had a teacher helping me in my classroom 2 times a week helping me learn how to move children through the underlying skills until they truly had numeracy understanding and could add or subtract as fast as a child who had memorized the facts...because they had memorized them and internalized it...but many many many of the other teachers I worked with did not have the help and didn't really invest in the program. JMHO

So exception to the norm I guess but I read Anne frank at 9 yrs old end of 4 th grade just on my own. It started my interested in everything world war 2.

The problem is that dividing in k means children can never get out of the group they were placed in at 5. That is why they don't ability group because it is wrong....now allowing true differentiation is a different story. Schools need to figure out a way to let kids move at their own levels and not in a factory made manner. Many schools do this in reading but they really should do it for all subjects.