I also had two boys with speech delay, and my oldest didn't even get intervention until he was 3, and he finally did learn to talk (even if he is still in therapy today...) and I am convinced that the earlier the intervention the better - but I did just want to encourage you that even though things aren't moving as fast as you would like, it's not like he's doomed to have problems forever. My second son also had speech delay and started talking within 6 months of therapy and he didn't need more than an a year of it. Of course if I had it to do all over I would have gotten my oldest in at or before 2, but .... live and learn.

It seems like the eval's were about an hour. Most of it was looking at pictures and talking about them. Like pp said - mostly just listening to what they are saying and what they need to work on. When my boys got ST through the public school it was once a week for 30 minutes. I wasn't actually there for the therapy sessions so I can't say what happened there. However, we've also had private st's in the home and it is really a lot of "play therapy". The boys always loved it. My oldest is still in st and she has flash cards with words on them that they play memory or go fish with, she brings a fun game for every time and he has mouth exercises to work on. She meets with him twice a week for 45 minutes each.

I don't know what age group you are looking at, and I've not used these, but Kay Arthur has a series called Discover 4 Yourself Inductive Bible Studies for Kids that I have been wanting to use with my boys once they get a little older. From what I've looked at it might be a little above them still. So you might want to check those out.

No advice at all, but I feel I'm in the same boat. I've known for a long time ds (oldest) that there were issues. In the last year it has become so obvious there are some major developmental issues, because his younger brother has now passed him up in every area and has even come to me and asked why Ryan isn't normal. For years I listened to everyone telling me he was okay. DH refusing to believe anything is wrong. Finally he has said we need to pursue evaluation. I'm with you, I'm not into labeling, but just knowing what we are dealing with will give me to a starting point to realistically evaluate where we are going and what our goals are. But I'm terrified to pick up that phone. We recently switched pediatric dr's and while I like her, I have no idea what her reaction will be to homeschooling. I've cried so many tears over this. Thanks for putting this up. It really does help to know I"m not alone in this.

:iagree: I don't have the second set and we do fine without it, but there are times I wish I had it.

:grouphug::grouphug: With my m/c it took six weeks to get my hcg down to where a pg test would pick it up. (I was 14 weeks pg when I m/c). Not to give you false hope, but with Ana (my last baby) I bled quite a bit throughout the whole first trimester. Three times I was bleeding and passing clots and cramping to the point I was convinced I had m/c. It turns out the placenta was over the cervix and it didn't take much to set me to bleeding. It's really hard not really knowing. :grouphug:

I'm afraid I'm not going to be any help, but my experience was this.... Most of the battles my mom and I had were the first couple years after I pulled out of school (so that would have been when I was 10/11/and probably 12) and the battles were because I didn't want to be home schooled. I missed my teachers and I made it pretty clear that she was nothing like my teachers and this was nothing like what my teachers would do or how school was. My mom may have a different take on it, but it wasn't over her making me do school, I just had a bad attitude all around about it. Once I realized she was serious, and I wasn't going back to school, things settled down some. I don't have issues with my kids, but who knows...that may be coming. I learned a long time ago never say never. As far as curriculum being boring, yes what we used was. (of course back in they you pretty much only had Bob Jones, Abeka and Saxon was just coming on the scene when I got to high school. Not much to pick from). I think my mom's attitude was "There are plenty of boring things in life, get over it". :tongue_smilie: But my natural tendency is (was) to be responsible and do my school work and keep things neat, etc, etc. I can see where someone with a completely different personality may really struggle in this area. I am starting to see this in my second born. I guess I should also add, I called my mom recently just really upset because I was such a horrible mom, losing my patience with one of the boys over something school related and I yelled. I felt horrible. Mom said "don't you remember all the times I lost my patience with you?" and I said "No!" and I honestly don't. Most of that rough stuff is forgotten now and I think of my mom as one of the most patient people out there and really she WAS the best teacher for me. I'm hoping my kids will feel the same about me when they are adults!

well, I'm not expert, but my dd (almost 2) is on antibiotics (a different kind) and she was throwing up every time I gave it to her. Nausea and vomiting are listed as side affects and I called the pharmacist and he said it was antibiotics and just stick it out and make sure she has as much in her tummy as possible all the time. (to reduce the nausea). As long as she eats really well when we give her the meds that seems to help. I'd just stick it out, although I know it's no fun to feel that way.

The children's part of the museum at the Holocaust Museum was WONDERFUL. So well done and it wouldn't take super long to go through it. I would not recommend the rest of the museum for a child, but that one for the children was perfect and right on the main floor when you go in. I haven't actually been to DC with children (we will this fall) so I can't help you out much with that. There was TONS of walking. I got so sick of it. :tongue_smilie: As far as where to stay, we were lucky and have family there and we didn't eat out anywhere, because the prices were so high most places. The Metro actually worked out really well for us because parking was so confusing as to where you could park and when and for how long. We just avoided what would have been busy hours. i had tons of fun and can't wait to go back with the kids!

That totally sounds like me as a teenager. I rarely went to sleep before midnight. And bedtime was at 8:30, light had to be out by 9. Still I would lay there until midnight bored out of my mind. Wake up time was between 5 and 6 (it depended on my dad's work schedule). Basically everyone in my family but me was an early bird and no one could understand my night owl schedule. So for me, it didn't matter how many days in a row I had to get up at 6 (and it was year round) I wouldn't just "go to sleep by 9" in the evening's. My parents spent the entire time I lived at home trying to turn me into an early bird. No matter how you look at it I just don't function well in the mornings, and I'm sluggish until about 10:30. I get my best work done between 8 pm and midnight. And nothing my parents did could change that. So, as someone who would love to be able to sleep until 9 every morning (I have three early birds so that isn't happening until they either hit teenage status or move out), I would say as long as she's getting her stuff done and being responsible let her have her own schedule.

This will be our second year of starting the school year in January. I loved it because our "summer break" falls during the Holiday's. It's too hot here in the summer to appreciate having time off. Anyway, I can't even tell you what grades we are here but I have a 10 year old (with developmental delays) and an 8 year that basically are at the same level. we are doing Story of the World 3 Math U See Epsilon Elemental Science - Chemistry Spelling Power A reason for Handwriting LLATL - Yellow (we are already halfway through that)

I used it last year with my boys (the astronomy one) and I am planning on using the Chemistry this year (our school year starts in January). I like it just because I feel so science impaired and handing me a book and saying "read out of this twice a week and do some experiments" does NOT work for me. I did no supplements last year but the boys really loved doing science and my second would check out books on the stars and planets on his own at the library. It's perfect for what I need right now in my life. I'm hoping next trivium dh will take over teaching it!

I would give my right arm to move back to Colorado!! (of course I grew up there and I really miss home after being gone for 13 years!). Yes, Texas is a great state to home school in and we are in East Texas and it is very conservative. I actually do not find this area to be that racially prejudiced, but that could be because have moved here from Louisiana and things were horrible down there in regard to racial issues, so it may be more what I was used to before. I wouldn't particularly recommend this area - yes, it is beautiful and people are nice, but ugh...I just don't love it here. People don't take care of themselves, there are major drug issues and I have allergy issues and this isn't just East Texas...but the bugs are just crazy. And huge. And there seems to be tons of poisonous snakes/spiders/weeds...etc.

I spent a whole week seriously debating this - like day and night losing sleep over it! I had an itouch and loved it and dh had a Galaxy and he loved his. (he was supportive of me getting whatever I wanted). The short of it was this - dh popped his battery out of his Galaxy and said "if my battery dies I can easily replace it. if your battery dies in your iphone...your screwed". I have found that most "geek" type people love the Galaxy and the rest of us love the iphone. I haven't regretted getting the Galaxy once. It's kind of had a steep learning curve for me since I'm so used to the itouch, but I'm honestly finding it to be a lot more versatile. I don't think they has as many app's as iphone had, but the marketplace is really expanding quite quickly so I doubt this would be the case for long. I would only recommend an iphone if you have an itouch already and have a lot of app's already purchased. It would be a shame to lose those. (I didn't have that many purchased). Another thing I love about the Galaxy is that it is no huge deal to transfer things to and from your phone/computer. you don't have to work through any other system (like itunes which I was seriously annoyed with on a regular basis). I don't regret getting the Galaxy one bit. That's my very non-professional/non-sales person opinion.

I totally love the Wii for that reason. The boys were 6 and 8 when we got ours and they loved the Wii fit (and more so the Wii fit plus now) and all the olympic games are very active (at least the ones we play). Wii sports resort is fun too. It's just nice to be able to send them in there to play together, they get exercise and I get a bit of a break. (Especially on bad weather days!)

Both my boys learned to read using 100EZ. Yes, it worked with both of them but I am not planning on using it with my youngest. I was pretty unsatisfied with it to be honest, and it kind of left them off knowing HOW to read, but not really mastering reading and there almost seemed to be a gap for them. (like they are supposed to be able to read at a second grade level when finished, but my boys needed more to get to a 2nd grade level). I know it's just a case of each child being different, but I"ll go with something that provides a stronger foundation with dd.

FLL did not help my son with speech at all. It worked out great for him in all other respects but it did nothing for his speech. I have found that spelling is helping him more than anything right now (we use Spelling Power). Another thing that has helped him (and this is not even related to school) is that on my droid I have a speech thing where you can say the word and it fills it in for you (there is a name for that..) anyway, that has helped him understand what he THINKS he is saying is not always what is coming out of his mouth. He's 10 now and his speech delay is due to PDD.

I grew up outside Estes Park, and there are tons of easy walking trails around the area. Trail ridge road is accessible through the National Park though and it is a beautiful drive, but I get horribly car sick, so take is slow if anyone is prone to that. Once you get above timberline it's just amazing. (and cool!) I believe that you can take Trail ridge road through the park and over to Grand Lake. We did that a few times and it's fun, but a loooong day. Worth it though. Bear Lake is a great hike, perfect for young kids (I'm pretty sure it is handicap accessible) that is in Rocky Mountain National Park as well. The hotel that was mentioned that was used in the Shinning is The Stanley, and it is still there, but mostly fun to look at from the outside. We stayed there for our honeymoon and not much on the inside. (The lobby wasn't bad, but the rooms were really old all the way around). There are no narrow gauge railroads in the area. Honestly the only things we ever did in Estes (and we spent a lot of time there growing up) was hiking. If you don't want to go into the Park to hike, there are plenty hiking trails around and anyone that lives around there will know where they are. There are tons of shops if you like that. I personally love The Egg and I restaurant there. Breakfast and Lunch. The best. I'm sure it's changed a lot since I've been there (actually 10 years now) but it was always a favorite!

I got my hep b series years ago when it first came out, and of the three the second shot was the worst. It was weird. I'm not a shot wimp and I thought I was going to pass out. Other nurses I worked with said the same thing, so they started putting the second shot in the opposite arm that the first shot went into. That doesn't even make sense to me, but whatever. Overall I think the Tetanus was a more painful shot.

We are looking into that right now. We have friends that have used it since January and according to the wife they love it, although I have heard the husband complain about the data not being super fast to get (you know, like when you access the internet from the phone) but they seem happy with it and recommended it to us.

ditto on the breastmilk. Fastest cure out there (I used to get pink eye all the time). if breastmilk isn't easily available, you can use contact lens solution. It's basically just boric acid. I used to get an rx for pink eye every time, but haven't had to in at least five years now because either one of those always works.

My 8 year old JUST learned to tie his shoes. I just kept encouraging him to work on it. One day it clicked.

I'm thinking I was around 10 when we went to Yellowstone as a family and I was one of those kids that hated walking (camping, hiking, standing...you name it...a real "joy" to be around) and I LOVED Yellowstone. We just did a lot of the shorter "nature trails". I don't have any memory of what kind of trails they were, or even what the park as a whole was like, but I did enjoy it a lot.

I'm new here (have been lurking a lot in the last six months), but I had to reply to this topic because I've been there. I don't know your whole story, but my oldest son (now 9 1/2) was diagnosed with lead poisoning at the age of 2. His levels were at 12. Where we lived in Texas at the time offered no assistance for lead remediation at all, and we were basically forced to leave our home and go live with my in-laws. (When the dr called to tell us of his levels she told us to leave immediately, we also had a 9 month old and I was pregnant). We ended up selling the house. I would really encourage you to move if you can. There was lead EVERYWHERE in that house and even in the mini-blinds that were actually manufactured in the 90's! I'm sure you know by now lead hides everywhere. Anyway, I just wanted to offer you my hugs because I know how exhausting and frustrating this can be. It has been a looooong very rough road, that will affect us for the rest of our lives.