If the single sink is large enough, most people place a plastic pan of soapy water in it to wash, stack unrinsed dishes next to the pan, and then rinse them under running water. You need a second sink only if you plan to dip the dishes to rinse them (which I have seen people do). With the drain in the rear of the sink (like mine is), the garbage disposal is always available if something needs to be dumped. All I do in my single sink is rinse dishes for the dishwasher and wash the relatively few pots and pans that I don't want to go in the dishwasher. I never fill the sink with soapy water to do this. Usually one of the dirty pans or bowls is large, so I will that up with soapy water first and wash the smaller pieces in it, then finish washing the big piece. For example, I might briefly wash out a soup pot and then fill it with water. I'd wash the tupperware in that soapy water, set it down in the sink next to the pot, then wash smaller pieces and place them in the tupperware until I'm ready to rinse. IOW, usually I do all the washing first, and then all of the rinsing. If I have a lot of big things, I wash and rinse those one-by-one at the end. The only time I would fill my sink with water to wash dishes would be if the dishwasher were broken and I needed to do all the dinner dishes by hand. That's the only time I would need something big enough to hold a stack of dinner plates in soapy water. The biggest advantage of a single large sink is its versatility. Cookie sheets and large pans fit inside so they are easier to clean. You can make a smaller sink inside the big sink with a plastic dishpan (usually kept underneath the sink). My sink is extra-deep in addition to being large. This makes it easy to stack a dinner's dishes in the sink out-of-sight when I don't want to immediately load the dishwasher.

I had a Sh-mop with the cotton terry cloth covers, and I too found it too difficult to push around on my floors. I wonder if the floor finish makes a difference? Ours are new floors. Anyway, I went to the company that put our floors in, and they gave me a mop with a flat microfiber cover. That one is much easier to push around than the cotton terry was. All I could use the cotton for was dust mopping.

As long as they're studs she should be okay. You can talk to her soccer coach about it too.

I think actually that this has to do with your computer's memory. My computer seems to lose its memory every once in awhile (cache cleared or something?) and then everything is bold again. However, it starts catching my new read threads for awhile. I think it might have something to do with refresh options under internet tools, but I'm not sure.......

I'd start him on the antibiotic. An illness can start out as viral and then progress to bacterial. In my experience, waiting on an antibiotic too long may allow the infection to become so bad it needs 2 or 3 courses of antibiotic to eliminate it completely. If it's viral, the antibiotic won't make it any worse. If it's bacterial, now would be the time to start the antibiotic. Did your doctor say it would be okay to double up on the first dose of antibiotic? That's what I always do, as it takes some time to get the blood levels of the antibiotic up to where they start doing some good.

Were you planning on spending an hour at a time? The attention span of a 5yo would more typically be 10 to 20 minutes at a time. I'd probably start with just one topic for 20 minutes and see how it goes. If at all possible, I would feed her a snack and have her do some physical exercise to rest, refresh, and blow off steam before sitting down to do some after-schooling. If she does really well with the 20 minutes at a time, then you could consider adding in another activity (perhaps 2 activities 15 minutes each). I really think planning on 60 minutes with a 5yo could be frustrating for both of you. You can always build up to that gradually, though, if she is having fun.

I really like my flush-mounted Franke stainless steel sink. The quality of the SS is excellent, plus it has good soundproofing so the sink is quiet. Mine has a grate that sits in the bottom. One of the features I really like is that the drain is in the back righthand corner and the rest of the sink slopes towards it. Having the drain in the corner really helps when the sink is full of dishes and I need to get to the drain. My sink has the large main part and then a very small adjacent sink. Next time I think I'd just get a larger single sink -- easier to clean cookie sheets, big pans, etc. If it's a possibility for you, I'd also consider getting a farm sink. That's what I want next time. Farm sinks are huge, plus the edge starts right at your waist so there's no need to bend over countertop to work in the sink. I would never buy a double sink again unless I had a *huge* kitchen, in which case I'd probably install two large singles side-by-side. You might want to rethink the double. I place kitchen towels on the counter and allow my pans to air dry there. Next time I'll probably have the countertop installed with a built-in drainboard, but this works fine for now. I'd rather do this than give up my single large sink for two small sinks in a double.

Having finally gotten around to getting rid of books we don't use anymore, I am absolutely appalled at how many books we own! Am I the only one?

How long is the grounding for? I think it's enough to take away tv and internet, and would let her go to the party. That is our normal definition of grounding around here anyway, as social activities have a value to them that tv and internet do not.

I don't know about Scaredy Cat, but ABeCeDarian is excellent. I recommend joining their support group and asking for advice there. I bought the Pecci book years ago when I was thinking about helping my dyslexic dd at home (she was in private school 2nd grade at the time) but also did not care for the sight word portions. Ended up not using it and using the book "Reading Reflex" by McGuinness instead. This is the same methodology used in ABeCeDarian, but ABCD has better parent support materials plus the email list is extraordinarily helpful if you have questions or run into difficulty. The author of ABCD, Michael Bend, posts on that list. He was the keynote speaker at the IDA conference held in Colorado Springs a couple of years ago -- very highly respected in the field of reading.

I was nervous anticipating the first day of school too! When the day finally arrived, we all breathed a sigh of relief around here (dh, dd and me). It was *wonderful* being at home! Are you aware that most children benefit from some "de-schooling" time to transition? I can't remember the rule of thumb for sure, but I think it is to allow one week of decompression time for every year the child has attended school. It allows the child to de-stress. During this time you would do lots of "fun" homeschooling activities but not jump into heavy academics right away. Since you mention having multiple children, I would plan to transition into homeschooling one child at a time starting with the youngest. So, for example, if you have a 1st grader and a 3rd grader, I would start working with the 1st grader during the first or second week and not add in the 3rd grader until the 3rd week. I think you will be pleasantly surprised at how easy it becomes. If there are activities you and your children can do together to de-stress (trip to science museum, trip to library, nature walks, whatever is available in your area), you might want to start those sooner rather than later.

What I great post! Agree with everything Lauri4B said. My 17yo dd is a remediated dyslexic. What helped with her weaknesses were vision therapy to remediate severe visual efficiency deficits, cognitive skills training to develop phonemic awareness and visual processing skills (we did PACE), and structured/explicit/multi-sensory reading programs (we used Phono-Graphix for elementary and Rewards for middle/high). Although she has been fully remediated in reading since age 10, she retains many typical dyslexic traits -- poor spelling, weak written grammar, weak organizational and time management skills, etc. Science is a struggle because of her weakness for memorizing facts and math is a struggle because of her difficulty following sequential methodologies. It has helped *enormously* to help her develop her strengths over the years. She is a gifted artist and gifted athlete. These have won her a lot of social status in public high school. This helps *so* much to make up for the little hurts she endures -- such as during the spelling "games" her Spanish teacher uses in her public school classroom. When we homeschooled, I used oral work whenever possible to get through content-heavy material -- DVDs, audiobooks, oral discussions of vocabulary, etc.

Just wondering if there is any noise associated with these? Also, do you turn it on, wait a minute, take your shower, and then turn it off? If so, what happens if you forget to turn it off?

Rofl!!! :d

Does she watch television? My dd was a little older (around 11) when we noticed a deterioration in her attitude. Turned out she was being influenced a *lot* by the teen attitudes in the shows she was watching. She was imitating them, pretty much without being conscious of it. When we restricted tv and cut out those particular shows, she returned to normal. About a year later we let her watch them again, but by that time she was sufficiently mature not to let their attitudes affect her attitudes.

My only tip is to be *sure* you carry all personal items yourself -- photo albums, family video, memorabilia, keepsakes, etc. I still remember a tv documentary about a couple cross-country move. The moving company stole everything they had, and the mother had allowed them to take the family photographs. Many people pitched in to replace their furniture, etc., but photographs of the maternal grandmother were irreplaceable.....

I got mine from Snyders. Try calling your Walgreens to make sure they have it in stock. The last time I purchased mine, I got the last jar of the cream and they had no lotions left. Apparently a lot of people stock up on it during the winter!

One thing I forgot to ask is if the lazy eye is due to strabismus. If so, I would *definitely* recommend trying vision therapy first. Surgery for strabismus typically results in cosmetic correction but not better vision. Here is a link to a description of treatment options for strabismus . Strabismus can lead to lazy eye. My dd had beginning amblyopia (lazy eye) diagnosed by her opthalmologist at age 3. In her case, the lazy eye was caused by a huge discrepancy in the visual acuity of the eyes. The weaker one was getting used less and less. The opthalmologist gave her eyeglasses that equalized her visual acuity, and the amblyopia reversed just from doing that. Otherwise we would have had to patch also. I wanted to clarify that strabismus and amblyopia are two different eye conditions, although they can be related. A child can have strabismus without amblyopia, amblyopia without strabismus, both conditions or neither.

I'll try, but it would help to have more specifics. Did you post as Catherine on the old boards? I could probably look up your original post to refresh my memory. If I suggested Rewards, then the boy must be able to read at a basic level. Rewards is good for students who can sound out one-syllable words (including nonsense words!) fairly fluently. This usually means at least an ending 3rd grade or beginning 4th grade reading level before starting Rewards. Rewards Intermediate was designed for upper elementary students and I would use this if his oral vocabulary is at the elementary level. If his oral vocabulary is very good, I would use Rewards Secondary. I used Rewards Secondary with my dd and a neighbor boy when they were 10yo and 11yo, and it worked very well for them. I just used the higher level words as oral vocabulary lessons, explained the meanings, had them use them in a sentence, etc. I personally prefer the layout of Rewards Secondary because *everything* in each lesson is scripted for you. The format changed a little with Rewards Intermediate, which came out later -- still scripted, but to me a more confusing layout because they added options classroom teachers wanted. For either program, you need to purchase the Teacher's Guide (all of the scripting is in there!) and a student workbook. Total cost with shipping is about $100. Buy two workbooks if you want to resell the set on the swap board. These are popular programs and resell at about $45 ppd for a set. Rewards Secondary has 20 lessons that can be completed in about 25 hours of one-on-one. Both RS and RI are *very* efficient at teaching multi-syllable word attack skills. About halfway through each program, lessons start incorporating repeated readings to work on fluency. If the 12yo can't do Rewards at all, he probably needs to work on basic decoding skills (segmenting, blending). If he gets through Rewards but remains disfluent, that would be a red flag to get his vision tested. See this Children's Vision Website for information about vision problems not evaluated in regular eye exams. My dd needed vision therapy for multiple severe visual efficiency problems that her regular opthalmologist never caught. VT was able to correct her visual efficiency problems, but her reading remained disfluent. (She also had severe phonemic awareness delays.) Cognitive skills training developed both visual *processing* skills (next level of development after visual efficiency) and phonemic awareness skills (automaticity of segmenting and blending skills) very efficiently. The program we did was PACE . The company has since launched a franchised program called LearningRx . They used to have a home program, but that is no longer available. I can't say enough good things about PACE. At the beginning of the program, my dd was a very disfluent reader of Berenstain Bear books. By the end of that program (with no other reading instruction), she was reading the first Harry Potter book out loud fluently. She was 10yo at the time.

CeraVe is the best I've found. A dermatologist recommended it for my dd. It is a little pricey, but worth it IMO. Only certain drugstore chains carry it. I like the cream in a jar version best because it lasts all day, but there is a lotion version also. The jar version performs a lot like the original Eucerin in a jar, but without the stickiness.

You can subscribe to your threads, but I think it is just as easy to use the "search" option at the top of the page. Click on "advanced search" and choose the righthand option of searching on a name. If you put in your own name, it will pull up all threads in which you have posted.

Do you have medical insurance? If so, I would call your company and tell them your son needs a complete neuro-psychological evaluation. They will tell you if you need a referral from your physician or whether you can self-refer. (I called our HMO and found out from them that I could self-refer.) To get medical coverage for evaluations, you must always describe medical problems (*not* educational problems, such as difficulty reading). From your post, it is clear that you could describe memory problems and possibly language problems. The value of a neuro-psych eval is that it is more thorough than other types of evaluation and will specifically cover testing of different types of memory.

When you call, be sure to tell them that she hasn't been eating. They should see her the same day you call. If they can't fit her in, ask where else you could take her.

Congratulations on taking the first steps!!! Have you looked in the phone book to find adoption agencies in your area? They typically have informational seminars you can sign up for. While you are on the phone (call each one!), ask which countries they deal with. Most agencies have contacts in specific countries. You will eventually want to decide on one agency to handle your paperwork and home study. Each country has its own requirements, and waiting times vary from one country to another and from one year to the next. Ukraine is one you might want to look into. Our closest agency places most of its children from China, India, Russia and the Phillippines. (Be aware that infants from East European countries are often alcohol-exposed.) The agency you work with will also be able to provide you with information about U.S. babies. Inter-state adoptions (child from another state) can cost considerably more than an in-state adoption. Foreign adoptions are the most expensive, but you usually have more choices. I don't think it's tacky at all to have a blog or website that provides a way for people to make donations. There are adoption email lists that can be very helpful. When I have some time I will see if I can hunt up a couple for you. The process is not a fast one, so I wouldn't be looking too much at specific countries yet. You will need to coordinate money with the process. A country that is easy one year can be hard the next year if their adoption laws change. Best of luck!

Oh, thanks! That helps a lot! :)