Do not skip down stairs that go around a corner. The ceiling might be lower and you might get a concussion.

This is the philosophy that my parents had. They couldn't bring back out childhoods. While most of our friends spent their money on their house, new furniture, etc. My parents put us in sports, took us on vacations and made our lives special. My little brother and I have wonderful memories of our childhoods and my dad said they have never regretted it!. IMO (take it for what it's worth lol) as long as you are working on paying off debt and saving, then the activities are great! They will remember their time and appreciate the lessons for the rest of their lives. I know I do! BTW these aren't over the top prices where I live either. :) :grouphug: I hope you are able to figure it all out! Just my two cents :)

Maybe start with more of Bible stories rather than a curriculum? My kids really have liked Carson Dellosa's books. They are fun, short and simple. Give a nice overview of the Bible. Right now they are doing one that has a simple Bible story on one side of the page and a picture of the story on the other side with a missing item. The twins aren't interested in coloring lol they just draw in the missing item. The book we have for the second half of the year is the same idea except the opposite side is a puzzle based on the story. :) It is pretty non-denominational just basic stories. The other curriculum I've really liked is this one: http://www.explorerbiblestudy.org/homeschool The younger grades are very easy going with a story and then fill in the blank questions. :) Hope this was helpful!

OMG my 14 year old DSS is the same way! I understand he is frustrated, esp since he has FAS but seriously! I keep trying to calmly talk to him about how I understand schoolwork is hard but he needs to learn other ways to deal with frustration besides bursting into tears. (We have made lists of other coping mechanisms and practiced them but he WON't try them when upset! He just ignores me and keeps crying!) I try so hard to be calm but it is really really irritating! I have always told my twins to take deep breaths, try to calm down and talk to me, even if they were hurt, obviously his birthmother didn't do the same lol. DSS just drives me nuts. If he gets frustrated at work is he seriously going to cry hysterically? He has to get a job one day soon and I am not sure how well that is going to go over!

I am glad it is getting better! My son has some of the same issues. BTW I am SO with you on the IQ thing! My FAS step-daughter's IQ is just above cut-off and so she gets no help at all, in any form even though she has no abstract thought process. We will continue to be thinking of you and your family! :grouphug:

I am pretty careful and have a family of 6. I spend about 600 a month total. It doesn't give us any snacks or fun things though. I agree that the area you live probably really affects prices :)

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Yes I would. It sounds like there is an issue that needs to be addressed. I won't venture to guess what :)

Yes the disposable ones work great! It is what we use when we go shooting with the big guns :) You can reuse them forever too

My parents LOVED it! We had all the products as a child. I wish we could afford them now :)

:bigear:

I want to start this! After my wedding in three weeks though. If I lose weight my dress won't fit lol. The only time ever i need to stay the same weight for something to fit! :lol:

I adore our ped! After all my kids have gone through she is always there when we need her and always listens to me and accepts that, as their parent, I know what is going on with them :)

I feel so bad after reading all the wonderful activities everyone is doing! Between the difficulties of 2 of our kids and the expense my kids don't do anything outside of home besides church 2x a week. I really wish they could!

Oh my twins would LOVE this! Uncle and Papa do lots of it with them but to actually have a unit study! That would be sooo cool! :) I hope someone responds and knows of one! It never even crossed my mind and now I am so excited about it. I love this forum!

We have been doing VT although our eye dr gives us eye exercises to do at home as it is much cheaper. After a year of daily eye exercises, my son, who to begin with, had NO depth perception now has perfect stereo vision. According to the experts, that isn't supposed to happen at this age! He still has a small tracking issue (although that has GREATLY improved) and is very far-sighted but we are going to continue our exercises. I would really recommend eye exercises to anyone! We found you can repeat what they do at VT at home daily and not do VT as often.

A Beka!

I don't mind the side conversation at all :) It is perfectly on topic since I am also trying to find a good writing program. Thanks for all the feedback so far! :)

DSS 14: We are working on dx of fetal alcohol syndrome, depression, low IQ, etc. It is a work in progress. We first saw symptoms at 12 when his abstract thought process should have started developing. It didn't. As he hit a wall with schooling, friends, etc he became depressed and sullen as he became (understandably) frustrated. I don't know if earlier intervention would have helped or not if DH had noticed the signs. He couldn't answer questions if you switched the question around, always had rote answers, didn't understand word problems in math. Could only do comp questions that didn't need inducement or opinions. He was in PS though at the time and got good grades because he memorized his way through the lower grades. He is going to start Connections Academy, which is online PS. HSing him is putting too much strain on our relationship since he is so frustrated with school suddenly. DSD 11: We just got a dx of Oppositional Defiance Disorder, low IQ and Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. VERY long story about how this was discovered and I don't want to hijack lol. Suffice it to say that she is "the most disturbed little girl" her psych has ever seen. Many signs but it took months of digging and hidden cameras to discover the extent of the issues. If DH had known sooner, she may not have progressed to where she is now, I know it is something he regrets. No curriculum has worked for her because she refuses to do it and refuses to go to PS. No idea what to do here. DS 10: Preemie, has had home health nurses since birth then moved to early intervention, then speech preschool, etc. He has been evaluated by our local Children's Hospital yearly since he was 4. His first visit he was diagnosed with anxiety, articulation, and language disorder. We have since added a reading disorder. He still scores at the .01% in most speech subtests but is a hard worker and gets straight A's. Writing is really hard for him, as proper grammar does not make sense to him and words aren't spelled even remotely close to how he says them. DS 10: Preemie, has had home health nurses since birth then moved to early intervention, then speech preschool, etc. He finally started reading a year ago and is now on grade level (the grade we are doing anyway, we started slowly and are only on 3rd). Just tested out of speech by one percentile! However he has severe asthma, hyper-reactive immune system, allergies, chronic pneumonia, hyperactivity induced by his hyper-reactive system, etc The twins have done well with A Beka but I am moving them to MFW next year to give them more hands on time and less workbooks. They don't have the patience to sit for that long. Plus all the workbooks are really frustrating DS with speech issues, it is way too much reading and writing and he ends up in tears every day, even with me trying to read to him as much as possible and write for him part of the day. I personally like having DXs. It makes it easier for me to do research, come up with plans to help or intervene etc. It helps get the assistance we need. My advice for parents looking for help/answers would be research, research, research! I spent hours and hours on the internet at night searching symptom lists and interventions. By the time we got to someone who could diagnose DSD we had already tried all the behavior plans I could find and it really helped them DX her, to see what she did or (in her case) didn't respond to. As far as advice to juggling multiple children with special needs- I don't have any. I wish I did. We are working with our specialists now to attempt to answer this very question. I would love to hear any advice that others have on this! Esp for people who don't have money to hire help or special needs babysitting for "me" time.

I think I have decided on Writing Strands but before I cement my decision could a few people tell me what they think the positives and negatives of the program are? If you loved it why did you love it and if you hated it why did you hate it?

My experience is that people who aren't going to school their children, don't. We are supposed to turn in a notice and test in 3rd, 5th, 8th and 10th. The people I know who don't want to be dedicated, aren't. They just don't report that their kids are homeschooling. I have never heard of one being in trouble for it. I am sure someone has been caught but I haven't heard of it. I think it is like a lot of laws. The people who obey them do, and the people the law was meant to be for, still don't follow it. lol

Wow! Thanks guys for the help! I can't wait to try some of these heehee

This is exactly our situation! I am trying to finish up A Beka by December/January so we can start MFW ECC. So excited!

I am in Beaverton. The only support group I could find online was closed and I didn't find any co-ops but I my be looking in the wrong place lol

Thanks! :) I have one with a reading disorder and I do DIBELS but that only helps with certain things not finding books. Sorry I couldn't help you though!