In a desperate attempt to simplify our meal planning, I went app hunting yesterday. If anyone else is on the hunt, here's a great one: food on the table. Check out their website, foodonthetable.com It even searches for sales in your area and provides recipes using the sale items! Love that. And it searches allrecipes, too. :) The app is free to plan a whopping 3 meals, but I found a coupon code for free lifetime membership. SPRINGFREE Just thought I'd share.

We used P.E.G.S. from Family Tools. I bought it because it included components for attitude, behavior and communication. None of the pieces walked away. :) It was useful, but after a few years we stopped using it. It had a good run though!

Yes. Yes, it does count. :)

Another idea: reflux? DS9 was having trouble with night waking, and we mentioned it to his allergist, thinking it was only asthma related. Asthma patients can sometimes have trouble with nightwaking around 4 am, due to an increase in mucous, lying prone, etc. DS9 was clearly having asthma during these nightwaking episodes. Allergist mentioned that sometimes another cause for night time asthma was reflux triggering asthma. She prescribed 6 weeks of Nexium. It cleared up the nightwaking right away. DS's nights and days have been calmer ever since. FWIW, here, DS9 always woke up a bit groggy, but played hard despite the lack of sleep. But I can definitely see a difference in his day to day behavior now that he gets a better night's sleep. Hope you find an answer soon!

Woo hoo! That is great news! Congrats!

I come from a family of serious backpackers and thru hikers. :) Aunt and uncle have done the App Trail (among other distance hikes) multiple times, cousins and I have done portions (our lives don't allow for months off at a time). Yes, you carry what you need. But ... for an occasional treat, for people doing the App Trail, there are trail runners - people who will take your pack and gear (by car) to an established meeting point so you can have a day off from carrying it all. Of course, this takes some trust, since these are strangers, but it's a pretty tight community. I like Ann and Alessandra's takes above, though. Move into this slowly, step by step.

We have the first one, not the second. It's fun, it definitely gets used, and if I remember correctly it connects with other T & K sets, so you can expand. We have their physics kit as well, and I think they work together. So that's a bonus. We've had it for several years, and it's still pulled out now and then. :) The Snap Circuits look like fun, too - who doesn't love Snap Circuits?

Yes, they are low to the ground. :) We are backpackers, not car campers, so that's never been an issue for us because carrying much more would be too heavy for me, LOL. Everything we have, though, can be connected together - so sleeping together is doable.

We use Thermarest - not sure that's what you want though, maybe you are looking for something cushier. :) I've used them for 20+ years, and I think we've only replaced two of them (and that, not within the last 8 years). We store them inflated - and only deflate and roll them when we are transporting them. I keep a patch kit in the stuff sack, just in case, but we've only used it once.

Very true. The adults I know who are HIV+ do not disclose this information lightly. For reasons that seemed obvious - discrimination, fear, gossip, etc. Adults can make their own choices, but children depend on their caregivers to protect their privacy.

I agree. That was my first thought. Of all the movies that could be chosen ... Dumbo?? Bad choice on so many levels.

I think it was required. I had a double major, so that replaced the minor.

I find the very idea of violating a child's privacy this way repugnant. Any basic first aid course will outline safe handling of accidents involving bodily fluids - all bodily fluids, not just those of HIV+ people. Any sensible coop or classroom needs to have policies in place for this. There is no need to create an atmosphere of fear, drive gossip, or create a scenario in which a child is made to feel like a leper. HIV is not nearly as contagious as many, many other diseases. Anyone who thinks otherwise needs to do some research. I have personally cared for many people who were very, very ill with HIV related issues, and have not contracted HIV. And, before someone says, "but you knew they had HIV," let me also say that I have spent a large portion of my life with people who had HIV *before* we knew they did. Yes, we even shared drinks. [Gasp!] No, I don't have HIV. Yes, I have been tested multiple times. So, no, I don't think the studies that say it is not communicable via casual contact are wrong. They're not. HIV is not easy to "catch." My child is not HIV+, but he does have other health issues. If I found that a coop teacher or other person in that capacity made a general announcement regarding his issues, I would question their motives, and I would not be likely to stay in that group. My child's issues are his (or mine) to share, and I will not have him made the poster child for ___ issue. Beyond that, there are privacy laws, and while they may or may not apply in a coop situation - I would be cautious about broadcasting any child's issues without a clear discussion with and permission from the parents. Even if the announcement were only to include that an unnamed child in the group is HIV+. If anything, remind everyone of the policies regarding safe first aid.

They are your foster daughters? I know foster parent training can vary widely from state to state, but we covered this type of behavior in depth in our training. Do you have a social worker (or better yet, the one that oversees the training of foster parents) you could call? Ours often sets up extra inservice training days - maybe you could request one on this topic? The book that comes to mind, for me is Parenting the Hurt Child. It might have some good info on attachment issues. I can't remember. Also, just off the top of my head - do you have the video on stranger safety by the Baby Einstein person? I can't remember what it's called - it has "safe side super chick"... It might help a tiny bit with identifying which people are okay to ask for hugs, etc.

Please share? I don't mean how do you organize the actual books or manipulatives, or how do you plan what needs to be done, but where do you keep the upcoming work and how do you present it to your kiddos? I have yet to find a system that works for us the way I want it to work. I'm not looking for miracles here, but I need a way to keep our day to day, upcoming work organized and presented to DS in a way that he can manage easily. DS is going into 4th grade, and I'm *still* trying to figure out the best system - for me, not him. I've tried a few approaches, and they all work, but all seem too fussy. And I want to streamline my own time now. We did a year of workboxes (K), and that was great when he was a little guy. Then we did a year of work folders (like workboxes, but in folders). The next year I did the massive filing system - you know, the weekly folders (the one with the gigantic thread a few years ago). That worked well, until some subjects needed extra time, or he sped through a few lessons and we got ahead in some subjects (so I've learned that I need to break things up by subject rather than by week). This past year, I filed everything for the year in the order we'd use it. Each subject got it's own binder. I pulled apart anything like a workbook (we don't use many of those anyway), 3 hole punched it, and each week I transferred the following week's lessons into DS's binder. That worked fairly well. The downside was that it meant a lot of opening and closing binders for me, and transferring papers from one binder to another. I could do it again, but would be happier if I knew how better to organize DS's binder. I had each subject in his binder, divided into days of the week, in case we worked ahead. Gah! Not sure what to do this year, but looking for a system that will be less fussy, and more independent for DS. Is it time to just write his assignments on a whiteboard and expect him to be independent? :) If you'll share your system here, I'd love to read about it.

Thanks, Jean. I will check about the headphones to the TV - nice thought! I'll find out about the CD player, too. :)

Thanks, these are good ideas. We had not thought about requesting a different roommate. What a good idea. I will tell DH to pass on the other ideas here, too, and check out the books mentioned. He has a book about the lives of the saints that he reads often, I might ask if his spouse can bring that in for him, too.

There was a thread some time ago about books to encourage a young man who had been paralyzed. I've looked, but can't find it, and not sure the ideas there would be totally appropriate any way. DH and I are looking for books to encourage an elderly man, who has undergone double knee replacement surgery with serious complications (he ended up in ICU and almost died). The complications are such that he's been placed in a nursing home, and is very behind on his physical therapy, and in a lot of almost constant pain (there have been issues with pain meds). Physical therapy is excruciating for him, he has no mobility yet and cannot stand without a lot of assistance. He's very discouraged. With this surgery, we are under the impression that if he doesn't go through with his physical therapy he could very well lose the use of his legs. All of this is compounded by the fact that he is a very social extrovert married to an introvert, and while his spouse is doing her best to be there for him, she also has a naturally melancholy disposition. It's all adding up to create the perfect environment for depression. He's fighting it, but without a lot of help. DH stayed with him for almost a week, but has to work, so DH is calling multiple times a day, but it's not enough. We have sent funny movies but he doesn't want to turn on the TV because his roommate is always sleeping. We've made sure he has access to a phone (can't reach the room phone in his shape). We've encouraged the spouse to be there with him. But it seems they are sitting in silence. She does puzzle books, but he does not. Any books we could send him? He is Catholic, and very religious. He was a baseball player. He loves to laugh under normal circumstances. Any ideas would be appreciated!

Joining in on the washing of bedding, and I've been doing curtains today, too. We have washable curtains due to asthma. Doc wants us to wash them once weekly, which sadly doesn't happen often enough. So they are being tackled today. All the better to see the storms, right? That's my big task for the day, aside from school.

:grouphug:

We do a lot with 1plus1plus1equals1, too. A PP linked it. I've also used Tiny Tots from Carol's Affordable Curriculum. It's about $11 per month, I think, but they send all the supplies for the crafts, songs, rhymes, coloring pages, etc. nice when I don't want to pull it together myself. Not expensive, which I like. I just incorporate it with "tot school." We also have busy bags, and independent toys that I rotate during school time, along with Signing Time and Leap Frog videos.

Ditto everything Happy's already said. Get some input from a pro, mulch, and plant perennials. We have morning sun only, and used to have azaleas - when it became apparent DS was allergic, we removed them and put in knockout roses. I love them. If you dead head the spent blooms, they will bloom more than once a season - usually spring - fall. They don't require much care, or at least they don't get much here!

We use TT, too, but I do a lot of supplementing to keep DS's attention. We read LOF for fun, and play lots of math games. We use the math readers lists at the living math site, and we review with a "sticker math" book (or we did, in 3rd). We also supplemented with BA, but I think that was overkill. Actually, a lot of it is probably overkill, but somehow I just keep adding in more math. :laugh:

Please do! It sounds interesting. I'm checking out the Amazon link now. :thumbup1:

Love our Apple refurbs!