Well, GI appt was good overall. We don't have to go back to GI. They said her absorption was good. Her blood work looks much better from their view point. The abdominal pain - they said it's the nerves in her stomach and that she will probably notice it especially after eating. So, we will see. I am giving her too much water and not enough other fluid. They recommended coconut water smoothies - giving her maximum nutritional benefit with electrolyte water (coconut water), add in salt and sweeten with maple syrup or honey if banana isn't enough. Also, bone broths and things like yogurt. One of the things they said today, that makes sense to me, is that until her body settles down, heavy meals will have the worst after-effects and cause her to have to work harder to digest. They suggested charting that for a while and seeing if there's a relationship between the pain, heavy meals, and syncope. Next week is the cardiologist. The GI doctor said that was where we will start getting into the nitty gritty. She needs to be checked for some other heart-related conditions, according to the GI team. *****So, another question***** how do you get the insurance company to pay for things like compression socks, wheel chairs, blood pressure cuffs, cooling vests, etc? Anyone done that? Anything else I need to know? Thanks everyone!

Thank you. My daughter did end up bedridden for 2 months while doctors kept telling us different things, she kept getting worse. She has lost what little muscle weight she had and is now just forcing herself to even walk. I have an order for pt, but cant find someone who knows what to do with it. I am going to a seminar this weekend for POTS and other autonomic dysfunction. The main speaker is the pots cardiologist we have an appointment with in June. My hopes are to get copimg strategies, names of pt that wont put her on a treadmill and know what they are doing, and to network in hopes of getting the right dr team. Today, we start with a new hospital, new gi team. They said they know about POTS, but i am finding that isnt always the case. I have a blood pressure cuff that we borrowed from a friend, but have no clue what i am doing as no one has explained what we are looking for or when to take bp. I did that on my own just out of desperation when she kept passing out and the doctor told us she was making herself and needed psychiatry. I was determined to prove there was a pattern and it wasn't in her head. I agree that we need better help. If today doesn't turn out any better than the last gi experience, we are seriously considering Mayo.

Also, symptoms are pretty classic pots. Current symptoms are sever stomach pain, chronic constipation, passing out multiple times a day, staring off into space but not aware, hair falling out due to malnourished, xtreme vit d and iron deficiency even on supplements, food alergies started to be noticed, hard time gaining weight, difficult swallowing, numb and tingling all over, feet and hands extremely cold and often blue, difficulty breathing, exhausted after doing anything, achy all over. Low grade fever after eating most of the time. Eyes swell almost shut when over tired. I think thats it right now. These have been the symptoms for the last 3 weeks. It has evolved some since last October when this all started.

She is 14. Doc suggested immediate drug therapy. Said excercise could help some, but just to keep her moving. Not to restrict her salt intake. Said she would never recover fully and basically made my daughter and i stare disbelieving...everything we read prior to the appointment at the children's hospital said a whole bunch of the opposite. The doctor that actually treats POTS here in st Louis area cant see her till june. So, in the meantime, we are changing over to st, Louis children's hospital to finish the cardiologist testing needed for the pots plus portion of the diagnosis...

That's a very small part of it, yes. http://www.dysautonomiainternational.org/page.php?ID=30

Does anyone here have a child that has POTS? (postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome) My daughter just got diagnosed with this and I would love to know how this works with school and multiple siblings. Also, things you've been able to do to help your child. I have 4 other children also homeschooled, one of which is a SPD child that needs more indvidualized schooling. Any information would be appreciated.

I actually found a copy of BCM online and got it to look at. Figured it would be good to at least look at. I looked up Dyscalculia and that sounds like my daughter. She is able to do several of the things, but not a lot. Memorization of math facts - nope. She's been trying for years. Even teaches the littles their math facts in hopes that she will remember hers. Music is good for her, but theory is a challenge that makes her want to beat her head against a wall. I will have to do more research. Thanks.

** this is cross-posted in the high school forum as well** We are gearing up to start high school with my daughters, both 14. The first time thru. (I have 3 more going to be 5th, 3rd and 1st.) I have everything mapped out for the 1 daughter - she wants to go to college, so that made it very easy to plan out her 4 years. The other daughter (14 and 9th grade in the fall), however.... well, she is very artistic, musical and language oriented. Great and wonderful skills and very easy to get her to work in those areas. MATH, on the other hand, is so very difficult for her. We have been working for 2 years on division, fractions, decimals. She still doesn't really understand. She is currently in Dreambox math to build up her math knowledge and is doing ok with it UNTIL she hit division, fractions and decimals. She also uses Life of Fred AND has tried the Math Mammoth series directed at those specific areas. Other things we have tried over the years: Singapore, Horizons, Teaching Textbooks, Saxon, Kahn In a frustrated effort, we did a placement test for CLE math yesterday and found she places (barely) in level 500. She is very upset by this. I am at a loss as well. We work on these things over and over and it's just not sticking. So, I don't really know where to go from here. My goals (and hers) are to give her functional math skills for life. She would like the option of College, but has expressed an understanding that she will have to take a remedial math course at the community college if she wants to pursue that. I would love to help her move ahead and build confidence. I need a solid plan for high school that we can start working as soon as possible. I just don't even know what to do with this. I know that we aren't the only ones that have struggled here. We would appreciate some feedback from those of you that have experience with this.

Sorry about the confusion... I have twin daughters. Both getting ready to go into 9th grade. The one is mapped out and easy to plan for. It's the other one that is musical, artistic and really having a hard time in Math.

Sorry, the oldest are twins. The one twin is mapped out thru high school and beyond. It's the other soon to be 9th grader that we are having so many problems with math.

We are gearing up to start high school with my daughters. The first time thru. I have 3 more going to be 5th, 3rd and 1st. I have everything mapped out for the 1 daughter - she wants to go to college, so that made it very easy to plan out her 4 years. The other daughter, however.... well, she is very artistic, musical and language oriented. Great and wonderful skills and very easy to get her to work in those areas. MATH, on the other hand, is so very difficult for her. We have been working for 2 years on division, fractions, decimals. She still doesn't really understand. She is currently in Dreambox math to build up her math knowledge and is doing ok with it UNTIL she hit division, fractions and decimals. She also uses Life of Fred AND has tried the Math Mammoth series directed at those specific areas. Other things we have tried over the years: Singapore, Horizons, Teaching Textbooks, Saxon, Kahn In a frustrated effort, we did a placement test for CLE math yesterday and found she places (barely) in level 500. She is very upset by this. I am at a loss as well. We work on these things over and over and it's just not sticking. So, I don't really know where to go from here. My goals (and hers) are to give her functional math skills for life. She would like the option of College, but has expressed an understanding that she will have to take a remedial math course at the community college if she wants to pursue that. I would love to help her move ahead and build confidence. I need a solid plan for high school that we can start working as soon as possible. I just don't even know what to do with this. I know that we aren't the only ones that have struggled here. We would appreciate some feedback from those of you that have experience with this.

we do Math Mammoth with Life of Fred. The MM gives us the solid repetitive practice and LOF gives us an engaging way to retain for my non-math thinkers. 2 of my other children prefer Teaching TExtbooks. I start TT3 in 2nd grade and supplement with other "fun" things like "real books" from the library, youtube videos, school house rocks, even the Sonlight math cds. also free lapbooks...

anyone?

Just a little background...I had all of the kids plans up and running. Working decently but taking 8-9 hours of my time per day to just get school done with my 5. Around Christmas I found out I had 2 tumors - one inside my brain and one on the outside near it. Fortunately, it's benign and slow growing. Had the outer tumor removed and have, finally, recovered (for the most part). The other one is in a hard place to remove, so I am learning to live with it, for now, and working on trying to shrink it. So, all that has led to some major changes in our home and school. The kids got very little school done during the 3+ months this was going on. We are just now really starting back with everything. The 7th graders were able to work more independently but they were having to help with everything else while I was down and weren't able to get much past their Language Arts, Math and music done. I have figured out the boys - put them (pk/k, 2nd & 4th) into MFW-ECC and their math and language arts has stayed the same. The girls are where I am stumped. They are 7th grade. Currently, we are doing the following: History/Geography: BF-Early American & World Lang. Arts: Growing With Grammar 6, Lightening Lit 7, Jump-in Writing Math: their own grade appropriate/level appropriate thing Science: various reading and going thru physical science encyclopedia electives: 2 instruments each, Spanish, cooking OK, so on paper it's not too bad...BUT they don't like the lack of a spine, they are having a hard time keeping up with all the different writing assignments from history AND Light lit AND Jump-in, and they aren't liking Science too much (but are troopers). So, after much thought and reflection I decided I needed to make things easier for them to get thru this year without starting over again. I have done the following: History/Geography: Adding in Notgrass America the Beautiful for them to read with the BF Early American & World History (They have NEVER had American History, so I am really trying to bring out that focus without losing the world context.) They really liked these at the HS conference. They both want to continue with the BF as well - they love the thought-provoking questions and the global context of history. Lang Arts: Continuing with GWG7, Leaving my more creative writer in Jump-in as she loves the program, putting my other child in Essentials in Writing 7. Lightening Lit - want to finish but maybe stagger? not sure Math: Same Science: putting them in Apologia General Science w/ labs and letting them get used to structured and non-mom-directed science. electives: same since I don't really do much with these. ****So Here's where I need the help****** Is it too much to do both BF and Lightening LIt? They like to read, but I don't want to overwhelm them with essays (unless that's normal for middle school). I also don't want to do overkill on any one thing. I want to them to work efficiently and, frankly, don't want to invest in something that isn't needed. Now, to the rest of my frustration: 8th-12th. I need some help thinking this thru - at least with the next couple of years worth. I figure the rest of high school will be set with the pattern I establish in the next 2 years. I will just keep going from there. They really like Beautiful Feet and like how its laid out (except for the lack of a spine, which is why we are using Notgrass). They would like to keep on with BF BUT I am not sure how to do that and get thru US & World history thru 20th century. I was hoping to complete the "intro" years with them before high school so we can take 11th and 12th to delve into US & World on a more mature level. If I keep going with BF, they will be in the high school US & World for 8th and 9th grade. Then 10th-12th would be ancients-wherever and Govt/economics. That sounds like a weird setup to me. What I am thinking about doing is finishing out BF for this year and then just continuing on with the Notgrass Jr High history and just add in Kingfisher History Encyclopedia for the World content and add in some readers from Sonlight Core H. OR***** Should I just use the Notgrass with extra readers for reinforcement, set aside BF Early American and then use it for High school? If I did that, I would then do the following for History: 7th & 8Th - Notgrass America the Beautiful & Uncle Sam & You (together), Light. Lit 7 9th-BF Ancients/ Notgrass World History, Light Lit 10th - BF Medieval/ Notgrass World History, Light Lit 11th - BF Early American & World, start on US & World/ Notgrass Us History, Light Lit 12th - BFUS & World/ Notgrass US history, Light LIt Also, I have considered MFW for high school. I am even ok with not going back and doing ancients again - we've already done it twice and already done all the compare and contrast of ancients civilizations and bible Old Testament, so ... I KNOW I am making this harder than it needs to be! I know this is probably not worth the headache I currently have. I just can't seem to get my mind "unstuck" with the girls planning and I don't want to start over mid-year. My main goal is to give them some kind of overview of us history before high school history. We meant to do that last year, but got stuck on middle ages and renaissance era. Please, if I haven't overwhelmed you, do you have any ideas or suggestions? Things to consider? ways to simplify?

Having used all 3...Heart of Dakota is your easiest to implement as far as it being all there for you. I didn't use their math and ended up using different/extra language arts and more bible (just because we have a series we really like). Overall, my kids liked HOD better than Sonlight. I also added a list of books for them to read thru the year that were the sonlight readers for their age/ability level - these were the "if you are bored and want to do something" books. My Father's world. I really like the flexibility of this program and the ease of use with multiple children. I don't like needing to go to the library so much as ours is 30 minutes away, but I have pk-8th grade, so this program just simplifies life for me. It's pretty well laid out as far as the weekly things you do. BUT, if I only had 1-3 kids, I would have stayed with Heart of Dakota. Love their book choices, love their notebooking, love their activities, love their extras. AND I absolutely loved the fact I could open the book and do what it said every day without worrying. The only thing to look ahead for with them is supplies for the projects and science. Lots of great resources on their yahoo group as well. Sonlight, I tried over and over to love this program. I love the books. But FOR ME, this program wasn't as open and go. With just one child (or even 2 close together), it would have been much more doable. With my ages, I had 3 cores at the same time and not enough of me to go around. My independent children chafed at the program as written, so I ended up tweaking it to death. There are MANY that don't have this experience though. This was just mine. I, personally, liked the science program though. It was laid out and gave us plenty of introduction to various areas of science. As far as my children's perspective: 7th/8th grade - favorite program is Heart of Dakota. Like MFW ok but not favorite. Sonlight- just give them the books and let them read them, don't like their schedule 4th grader - Heart of Dakota is favorite. MFW close second. Sonlight- only like science books and readers. 2nd grade - Heart of Dakota. MFW equally. Sonlight- only science books. PK/K - Likes both MFW K and Sonlight 4/5 program equally (and I am using both currently) It's really up to how you and your child work together and how your child learns. Also, the time you have to spend with the "extras".

We are looking at a couple of universities here in the St. Louis area. 3 of them will be at the homeschool conference this weekend. The other school is out of town and will require a visit. Most of these are for one of my daughters who wants to major in Music. She will need to go to an actual brick and mortar school for her major area course work. HOWEVER, she also wants to major in English (a double-major) and then continue on for her Masters in Library Science. My other daughter wants to major in History (hasn't picked a certain area) with a minor in art and Music. So, she has more opportunity to actually do most of her work online or thru distance-learning. I've looked at that Thomas Edison college (the one College Plus recommends) for the History degree. I requested information today from them. So, once we decide on the school(s) then do I just make an appointment with an advisor?

Thanks for your feedback!

My girls are 14 and have almost finished their first year of High school Early American history. They believe they would do well on either (or both of) the CLEP or DSST test(s) for this subject. I am not sure if it's worth it. I did look at the colleges they could possibly attend to make sure they accept all of these types of tests and found most to be testing centers for them. So, what to take? What is worth the money and effort? We will not be doing community college. My husband decided this last year. He is ok with them doing college online while in high school, but I don't want to do a dual-enrollment scenario where I lose control of what materials they are using for studying. We looked at college plus, but decided against it. So, anyone have experience with this? suggestions? books to read?

No I haven't seen Mcruffy. Thanks, I'll check it out!

No, I haven't. Hadn't heard of it before. I'll look now. Thanks

I think, for this child, it's a matter of maturity as well as a sensory issue. He does write a bit with the history notebooking, so I know he's getting writing in. I am ok with starting later with formal writing, once he gets more comfortable. I haven't looked at Queens, so I will take a look. Thanks for the suggestion!

I am trying to figure out what to do for my son's language arts. You'd think after 8 years, I'd figure this. This child, though, doesn't do well with just absorbing things like the rest of the children have. I was looking at Essentials in Writing for him (middle child uses it and its OK). BUT, I don't think he will work well with that. I have Sonlight LA 2 (the 2013? one). That might work, but he HATES all the writing and balks at it daily. We have been working with it for half a year now and are only on week 4 for many things. He's one of those kids that likes to get in there and get it done without the extras. So, I was looking at CLE online but know nothing about it. I am fine with him being in a workbook-based language arts. I need it to be as complete as possible and not take a very long time to complete per day. Any thoughts, ideas, suggestions?

Thanks! I know she appreciates it! Daily voting thru the 12th! Let your friends know, feel free to share the link.

For anyone who would like, my daughter, age 12, entered the Jarrod Radnich Pirates of the Caribbean contest as her first ever piano competition. She is competing worldwide and would love to have your vote... the direct link to her page is http://bit.ly/146QptL If you are on facebook, you can vote from there as well, from his page https://www.facebook.com/pages/Jarrod-Radnich-Mastermind-Studios/173359956007657?id=173359956007657&sk=app_256584427800733 You will have to "like" the page before you can vote, if you do it thru facebook. If for some reason, it doesn't pull up, you can search entrants with my name Heather Reed and it will pull her up. Thank you! Heather

Trying to make final decision for math for my 2nd grader for next year. He is technically still at a first grade Math level. He has SPD/ADHD/ and some delay issues, though he has made HUGE improvements over the last 6 months. He loves working on the computer, but cannot do that exclusively or his learning is still unbalanced. I am planning to use LOF with him next year, but need to combine it with a different program for reinforcement. Several sources have recommended Professor B, but I'm not sure it's hands-on really. The computer component is a possibility, but from the examples, I am not convinced. Right start math looks interesting, but possibly very time consuming. So, I am asking ya'll - the experts and the experienced. Any help would be appreciated.