Add me to the electric roaster love. It is amazing that I can cook turkeys so fast from frozen. It is usually just immediate family at our home, so I am cooking all the things for a pretty large group. Having free oven space is important to me!

I'm so sorry. We have gone as far as getting to the hospital for sedated tests before being told the right person isn't able to do my daughter's anesthesia so it needs to be rescheduled. For us it is a genetic syndrome that also has increased risk of death under sedation so we need someone familiar with our girl and with her syndrome and with a lot of experience. But it is inexcusable when this part of care isn't coordinated ahead of time. Plus there are always the people who try to wave it off, "Oh, it will be fine honey." Uh no. Nope.

Ours was influenza A, and mostly everyone was knocked out for 48 hours and then functional but uncomfortable for 4-6 days afterward.

We have already had both strep and flu knock our crew out in the last month. So it's not too early! I hope you are on the mend soon.

I bow before you. I am in awe. For our family, we seem to have too many things we are juggling to ever have planning work out perfectly. About every 4 months I go over things. I see what we are using that is almost done, and what I want to do next. We had a couple years with a lot of upheaval to our school schedules, so we don't even try to stay on a school year at this point. Different kids finish and start subjects when they complete materials on their own schedule, unless they are combined like in history. Some things are on grade level, some are way ahead, some kids will never even hit kindergarten level mastery. I expect we will have surprises in our year that will throw us off track (3 different hospitalizations last December) so we just keep moving forward when life is calm. I've come to like the way we start new materials all through the year. We are always doing some of the same work so our daily routine and structure are there, but it gives a new change of pace when we finish something. It's much easier than when we used to start the new year with a bunch of new subjects at once.

I completely missed the 100 words part! I would watch things she already knows in English, if that's an option too. Magic school bus rides again is more advanced but hits a lot of elementary science topics. Word party might work well. Llama llama, super wings, these are just the first that pulled up on our Netflix page. If you go on Netflix shows for toddlers and preschoolers there are so many options.

So it sounds like maybe myoclonic seizures? It is likely that the EEG will show abnormal patterns, as mentioned. Seizures can be easy or tough to figure out. One of my kids has extremely abnormal brainwaves. It took 3 overnight stays at a level 4 epilepsy unit to decide that the falling over, shaking episodes were tonic seizures and not syncope or general muscle spasms. Most kids will not be quite that difficult to get a grasp on, but their seizure patterns can also change for better or worse as they get older.

I would focus on the vocabulary you need. Like workbooks mentioned above, we used the académie en ligne site for on grade level materials in French. That helped a lot with those expected school related words, and it was more natural than English resources geared toward learning French. Will you need household vocabulary? Typical kid vocabulary, scientific words, etc? The first 1000 words in French has a lot of little kid words, but not as much vocabulary you will hear if you are watching the news. At that age she might already be past it. For duolingo I will say that their model wastes a lot of time if you don't understand a concept. It's a helpful review if you know how to do it already. Otherwise they expect you to understand a concept by guessing on it over and over until you figure out the pattern, when the pattern is very simple if you explain it first. Their guides available on the browser are somewhat helpful but not well organized. To get the most out of that I would pre-teach and use the duolingo material to reinforce it. As you have noticed, their vocabulary is very limited. I agree with the Netflix recommendation above. They have a ton of options in French. I would do more than a short show. The longer you watch the more your ear picks up, even if you don't know the vocabulary. I don't love screentime, but if this was my goal for the summer we would watch at least a couple hours a day in French and not count it as work.

Why does it have to be fast, within 3 months? Is there a reason for that goal and deadline? How old?

Did you ever have a chance to get him into the doctor before? Or if he is sleeping very soundly can you use the time to make phone calls? My rule of thumb is generally that if I am worried, it is worth getting a professional set of eyes involved. I can't think of more than a couple times that I have regretted it as a waste of time. I can think of more than a couple times that those nagging worries were precursors to serious medical problems that weren't obvious without some testing. Worst case, you will get some peace knowing you have had it looked at.

Alabama has Personal Choices if you are on a waiver. I think several states have similar programs so that you can choose who provides your care, with different restrictions in different places. I want to say ours pays for Medicaid nursing hours only? It's on my to-do list to figure out how it works here, because I know we qualify.

I would get the ball rolling on the SSI now because it is also easiest to do prior to 21 (maybe 22)? We have done it for 4 kids in the past year. Go into the SS office and say you want to apply. You might even be able to do that part online. They can set up a phone interview to get the names of doctors, then they will contact them for medical records to approve you. Stop back into the SS office after it is done to set up payment arrangements, and you're done. With Duchenne's you should have plenty of documentation that will get an approval. We had to do a questionnaire for one of my kids with CP and one needed an actual appointment with their doctors to do IQ testing, but for both of them it was because we had no medical records before their adoptions as teenagers. Even if you don't want to sort through what is available right now for services, getting SSI set up as soon as you can helps maintain access to disability benefits later on. For the OP, we have a lot of teenage and young adult children with moderate to profound disabilities. We have a few local friends, but we have a lot of deep friendships through online communities. I'm talking friends who drive from several states away to help because we have a planned hospital admission this week, a friend who lives in another country who has come to help us during busy times, things I never would have expected anyone to do! But it is not the same as having someone who can duck out and meet me for coffee on the spur of the moment. It does help to have friends who understand things that happen in your life compared to typical kids, even if those friends are online rather than local.

I can't see the signature from my phone so I'm not sure how many kids or ages that other people are referencing. I agree with the recommendations to get the evaluation so you know what you are working with. Autism sounds like a reasonable assumption but there could easily be additional things going on too. FAS will usually look like a lot of gaps, and sometimes gaining and losing skills without being able to retain them. It also sounds possible. I would not make an idol of what a school would provide in terms of therapy. I have a child with severe autism in a school (our only one not homeschooled, but not because of the autism). After going to a settlement with the district we have a BCBA advising a classroom teacher and aide, but still not actually providing the DTT from our settlement. The special ed teacher had to ask what ABA was. I'm not sure specifically about your province, but my friends throughout Cananda have been complaining about a loss of services for autism. I'm not sure how much would be available even if you weren't rural. The suggestion to place a child who has been adopted with another family isn't appropriate, even if it was only made for emphasis. Start out by figuring out what is going on. Build supports into the environment with schedules, pictures, cues, whatever works. The autism specific methods are good. Floortime is a particular method that is a bit less rigid than some of the others. Approach things at his level for now. If normal reading books is too advanced, what about toddler board books? That sort of thing. Get the evaluation and go from there. One thing we are adding this year is Gemiini for speech and language. We haven't done it yet to be able to make a recommendation, but I have a lot of friends who have had success with it.

The high school biology hits main topics, but a regular textbook includes a lot more material. We use it to reinforce more difficult topics, but I wouldn't use it on its own for that particular course.

One thing we ran into with this was that our rural area had very few providers. That was 5 years ago so things may have changed.

We shop at a restaurant supply cash and carry type place. It cuts our grocery bill in half, if not more. Regular bulk stores like Sam's and Costco are mostly useless for us in terms of price.

I will check out both of those! Thank you! I'm really looking forward to this!

I agree with everyone else that you need better medication management. You can have both attachment issues and other mental health issues. Not everything is RAD of course. I have a son with severe mental health issues but no attachment concerns, and doctors try to label RAD as soon as they see the word adopted. It doesn't fit him. I do see the possibility in things you say here though. You also said that simple things were bringing her close to inpatient level. As much I hate the disruption of inpatient stays, they are a good option to get immediate medication changes put in place and faster access to resources.

We are taking the couple years before high school to do some different topics. I am putting together a linguistics course for my daughter who will be in 7th grade next year. She has enjoyed Great Courses in the past. She has a background of multiple foreign languages, but nothing in linguistics. I'm considering 5 courses related to this that we could use, totalling 130 half hour lectures. The Story of Human Language 36 lectures Language Families of the World 34 lectures Myths, Lies, and Half-Truths of Language Usage 24 lectures Language and Society: What Your Speech Says About You 24 lectures English in America: A Linguistic History 12 lectures This is the order I am tentatively planning to put them in as well as the order of how much reading and output I am expecting. I had originally planned for this to be a half year focus with only the first two courses, but I think there is plenty to make it a full year instead. I do want to leave myself a good stopping point if we decide to move onto something else next spring. Any suggestions for how to use these or other good resources to add in?

Our family called it Pistachio Salad and Green Stuff too, haha! I was always the outcast who couldn't stand it. My husband loves it. Bleh. It's as appealing to me as the aspics my kids wanted to try from our old cookbooks.

I am praying. I would love to be able to offer suggestions specific to your needs, but I'm also not sure what they are. I have experience with a wide range of conditions, so if it is something I am familiar with I would love to find a way to make life better for all of you.

A lot of autistic adults feel that their autism is a part of their identity that they wouldn't change. So I could see someone saying that they felt that they were supposed to be autistic. I don't get too hung up on predeterminism. I don't think God wanted my children to go through all the trauma they have experienced. I don't think God wanted my son to have a TBI due to abuse in his first family. But did he want my daughter to be autistic and nonverbal? Maybe she was meant to be, just like she was meant to give the best hugs and have the biggest smile. I don't know. 99% of people with Down syndrome are happy with their lives. I can't say that was a mistake. I think each of my kids is infinitely valuable exactly as they are. They might need different supports. Most of our kids with special needs will live with us forever. That doesn't make their future any less worthy or valid than my kids who will start college classes early and move out on their own. It's just different. We don't all have to do the same things. People don't have to hit a certain number of goals to have a valid life. If you are feeling pressure on you and on him to perform to a certain level, I'd kick that pressure to the curb. Life will be okay even if college doesn't work out this time.

Have you talked to anyone about your own needs? It's always easier for me to look for solutions for my kids when my own head is above water. Medical problems in kids can cause a lot of anxiety for their parents, and this sounds very stressful in general. One thing we do when I have to make medical calls is send my kids to a spot where they have to stay for a few moments with something that will keep them occupied. We do it all the time when I can't be directly supervising so it's part of our routine. Is there one main need that might be a route for you to get coordinated care? Anywhere in your region that could offer you some resources? For example our CP clinic writes most of our referrals, and our state has a rehab services department with caseworkers who help families get medical care and therapy and equipment for different special needs.

Right, it is just a cover school that "supervises" what we do at home. They make no recommendations on materials or courses beyond requiring a certain number of credits in certain subjects for a diploma. Legally we are enrolled with them and have a slip filed at the Board of Education, and they issue transcripts for us when we supply them with grades and course descriptions. This particular cover is extremely relaxed and unschooling friendly, so I laugh that it makes other people happy that we are "accountable" to them compared to when we were doing regular homeschooling in our last state. We are doing the same exact thing we always do.

We use an unaccredited cover school in order to meet our state laws for enrollment. The law has changed and does allow self reporting now, but we have kept reporting under the cover school. They are very hands off, and getting that stamp of approval makes all the medical professionals and social workers who come in contact with our family happy. The downside is that they are not based within our county, so they do not have DE agreements with local colleges or universities. With the changes in the law, self reporting families are eligible for DE. You can start taking classes in 10th grade. I have a rising 7th grader who will have high school credits for math and foreign language earned before high school. If we did not need DE I would stay with the cover the whole way through and have them provide a transcript and diploma. We need DE. The material I teach is exactly identical regardless of whether we use the cover or not. I do everything and provide the cover with the transcript that they issue to others. (We have already done this for my current high schoolers, but they need the records for benefits and not college.) Do I need to do anything differently on our transcript in the long run if we are enrolled in the cover school when these credits are earned? I want to make this as easy as possible later, but I'm not sure if I'm worrying about it too far ahead. On the other hand, this kid might end up finishing high school early (not my first choice) so the next couple years might be part of her last four years before graduation. TL;DR Will credits earned while enrolled in a cover school change how I write a transcript after leaving the cover school?