I woke up to snow.

I don't want to over do anything with the kids this year, so I'm looking for opinions. DD 10, will be in 5th grade. She'll be using cyber school, but I'd like to supplement with; Violin lessons, math (probably just multiplication, division, and word problems), extra reading of course, penmenship (starting with calligraphy and then a handwriting program) She also wants to take French through the cyber school, we've been doing ASL for a while, and just started Latin. DS 6, repeating 1st. He's also doing cyber school. He'll have occupational therapy, speech therapy, and reading. I want to add/continue ASL, handwriting, piano (or violin), lots of reading, and basic math facts. Does this sound insane? DS will probably take some time getting into the school routine, but I can't imagine DD needing more than a few hours to finish her basic school work.

There's another group called Missionettes.

Thank you! I'll look into them.

I can't seem to find any boy books that interests my little man. He likes Cars, Toy Story, etc., just isn't interested in reading them. I just ordered him the book Chicken Butt and I'm sure he'll like it, I'm just not sure if he'll be able to read it. Suggestions?

I wouldn't wait for him to turn blue! It sounds like it could be sleep apnea. I'd talk to his Dr. Obstructive sleep apnea is usually fixed in kids by removing the tonsils and adenoids. Both of my kids had massive growth spurts within 6 months of surgery.

Do you have any recommendations? A quick amazon search shows a range of $50 for one pen, or $15 for 7 different colors.

According to the COVD website, both of my kids have had a comprehensive vision exam. Also on COVD, there are no providers closer than 3 hours. DD is reading well above grade level, and for hours at a time, can write in a space given (just sloppy), can copy homework off the board, posture is fine, etc.

You can have sensory separate from tone issues. DD is severely sensory seeking in everything she does. She still puts things in her mouth, touches peoples hair and clothes, likes to be squished, etc. DS has slightly low tone throughout and is a mix of sensory seeking and avoiding. She was not seen by a developmental optometrist, but since he has special needs kids of his own, I was confidant in his exam of both of my kids. Where we live now I doubt I'd even be able to find a developmental optometrist.

She was in OT for about 6 months. She does have some sensory issues, but nothing too severe. I've spent many hours learning and observing in the Ot world, so I do consider other things. DD's tone, strength, and range of motion are all perfectly normal. We did HWT for a few years, but her handwriting seems stuck. She's seen an optometist (with SN kids) every year since she was 4. All testing that has to do with visual skills, patterns, copying, etc., are all slightly above average. She can draw very well, and always has been able to. She plays the Violin which requires a decent amount of hand strength. I didn't think callirobics was too young, in a babyish way for her, just that they're expensive and I think my ds would greatly benefit (can't afford to do both right now). I can always copy the activity onto plain paper for her to start. I'm not up her tush in a bad way, nor would I ever label her (to her) as lazy, etc. When she writes on her own, she gets about 2-3 lines written and needs to stretch her fingers and wrist because she's strangling the pencil. I've tried every grip out there, and she still holds it wrong, which uses the wrong musles, which causes unneeded pain and sloppy writing. If I sit with her and fix her grip and pressure as soon as it happens, she can write much longer and neater. She learned D'Nealian in Kindy-2 and it doesn't matter what we try, her sloppy D'Nealian shows through. I'm aware of core/back/shoulder muscles playing a part. That's my ds's biggest problem; he has to do a few minutes of "tummy time" with toys daily, as well as being (comfortably) "tied" to a chair while writing to force him to use the weak muscles. He has low end of normal tone, as well as weak upper body strength. ETA- DD loves to doodle. Has too many plain notebooks for doodling as well as 2 topic starter doodling books.

Mozzerella cheese on tomato slices ... mmmmmmmmm ... going to have some now!

For ds I'll be getting callirobics, but the books are expensive and I feel it may be a waste on dd who has been writing for 4 years already. My questions are relating to her (10yo/4th grade). She grasps the pencil very, very hard and writes very dark. She's even found a way to write hard with mechanical pencils. Any idea what types of exercises she can do to strengthen the right muscles? Other than writing on paper over carpet, how else can I encourage her to write lighter, or stop trying to strangle the pencils? Could a pen help? She's capable of writing very neatly, but falls back into messy habits by the second line (of anything) if I'm not up her tush. I have horrible handwriting, and want to push her so her's isn't so bad as she gets older.

Thanks again everyone for all the support. I registered my kids for connections academy over the weekend, and they took the placement tests. DD seemed to be on track except with a few math problems. I'll be speaking with the academic advisor this week. DS only got 5 question right on the math test. It's sad because connections is putting him back in 1st grade due to his birthday only. So he's had 2 years of school and could get a handful of questions right. The language arts portion he did better. Some things were just a lack of attention. He seemed to grasp everything that was asked. For ds, I'm 100% sure that this is the right choice. He will never get the attention needed in school. They accomodate all the wrong things. They have odd expectations of him. I'll always be unsure with dd. I just have to remember that she's autistic and gets no support services at school, even though she would greatly benefit from them.

Makes sense, sorry! LOL.

Below is from wikipedia- and how I view everything. Dawkins posits that "the existence of God is a scientific hypothesis like any other." He goes on to propose a continuous "spectrum of probabilities" between two extremes of opposite certainty, which can be represented by seven "milestones". Dawkins suggests definitive statements to summarize one's place along the spectrum of theistic probability. These "milestones" are:[2] Strong theist. 100 per cent probability of God. In the words of C.G. Jung: "I do not believe, I know." Very high probability but short of 100 per cent. De facto theist. "I cannot know for certain, but I strongly believe in God and live my life on the assumption that he is there." Higher than 50 per cent but not very high. Technically agnostic but leaning towards theism. "I am very uncertain, but I am inclined to believe in God." Exactly 50 per cent. Completely impartial agnostic. "God's existence and non-existence are exactly equiprobable." Lower than 50 per cent but not very low. Technically agnostic but leaning towards atheism. "I do not know whether God exists but I'm inclined to be skeptical." Very low probability, but short of zero. De facto atheist. "I cannot know for certain but I think God is very improbable, and I live my life on the assumption that he is not there." Strong atheist. "I know there is no God, with the same conviction as Jung 'knows' there is one." Dawkins argues that while there appear to be plenty of indiviudals that would place themselves as "1", no thinking atheist would consider themselves "7", as atheism arises from a lack of evidence and evidence can always change a thinking person's mind. Dawkins considers himself to be a '6'. Bolded is where I fall and what I believe.

My family and I are atheist. I do not believe in the existance of any god or gods, nor will I claim that they absolutely do not exist. It isn't possible for me to prove without a doubt that something doesn't exist. If a god or gods can be proven by using something other than faith, I have no problems accepting it, but unless that ever happens we live life to the fullest since it's all we got! My understanding of agnostic is a belief that "something" does exist, but may not have a name, or some may believe in a god. (if you are agnostic, please chime in). Yes, this issue is far from life or death, but I wanted to get it out there after seeing a bunch of atheist/agnostic replies. :D

:bigear:

Why not look for a basic violin teacher? Someone with patience. My dd started violin at 6 and had an amazing teacher. He was expensive, basically $1/min, and we usually did 30 min per week. When we moved I found a teacher who only charges $12 for 30 minutes, and dd will be starting again. As long as this new teacher can play the violin at a higher level than my dd, we're good to go! ETA- DD has had 2 violins, both $99 and came with a music stand, bow, and a book. Nothing amazing but always worked fine for what we needed. She will not be getting a nice violin until she can use a full size, unless she stays with 3/4, then I'd get a nice 3/4. DS is 6 and will be starting piano. Again I'm not concerned with the technique used, only the patience of the teacher and that he can play higher than ds.

That's a good idea, thank you!

We have Netflix through the Wii. My dd loves and adores anime. I find it all a bit annoying. I do trust her (but not ds) to change it if it turns out to be inappropriate. However, it's nearly impossible to judge before watching. I will allow a TV-14 rating as long as I'm in the same area as her. She knows not to watch TV-MA. But then some things are NR. I thought the NRs were all going to inappropriate, but then I noticed Thomas the Train, and Johnny Test are also NR. For those of you that do allow your dc to watch things that could be considered inappropriate, how do you judge? What parts are you judging? (violence, language, sexual content, nudity?) My way was working, until netflix added more hardcore anime. I'm not giving in by any means, but it sure is irritating listening to ds tantrum over an anime show that is tv-ma and I say no, and he doesn't even really like anime!

Hold My Hand by Sean Paul

My ex is a plumber, thankfully, or some of my son's flushing experiments could have been expensive! First repair- Ex came over and tried to snake it, but it wouldn't work. So he pulled up the toilet and put it on its side. He pulled out a glow in the dark dinosaur, 2 hotwheels, a hand towel, 3 socks, a t-shirt, and a handful of army guys. I have no clue how all of this fit, but it was jammed right at the base of the toilet. Second repair- He snaked out some socks. Third repair- He had to take the toilet in the backyard because he couldn't see in it. There was a chip & dale's (kid cartoon) McDonald's toy really stuck in it! DS also tried bathing the ferrets in the toilet! DS potty trained soon after the 3rd repair and lost interest.

You're probably thinking of another kid! This child does not have an IEP. She's only slightly behind in math. She is very ahead in reading, so I would expect her to get what they're asking.

DD who is 10yo, ending 4th grade is taking the cyber school math placement test. She's done EM since kindy. She can't answer a basic word problem. :001_huh: I don't have it in front of me, but the question is basically--- There are 20 rows of 46 chairs. There will be X (don't remember) number of people coming. Do you have enough chairs? First she started by dividing 46 by 20. Realized that wasn't going to work. Now she's drawing 20 circles and putting 46 dashes in each circle. :confused: Seriously? I know that'll get her the correct answer, but that is (IMO) a very basic multiplication word problem.

I was doing this with ds and I may go back to it. I felt a little bad because he does struggle with handwriting, but I got over it! LOL. He usually has to write apology notes to his sister. Recently I made him start drawing pictures. He's a pretty angry kid, so he has to draw 6 things that his sister does that makes him happy. Or when he was going through his "I wish I was never born" phase, I made him draw pictures of good things. I try to keep everything on the positive side, so instead of teaching him how to write the words he shouldn't be saying, I'll have him write "I will only use nice words like ..." "When (sister) annoys me, I will walk away." My dd does it on her own. A week ago I had a butterfinger (I know, in the grand scheme of things this is nothing) and dd was begging for it. I told her no, and reminded her that she and her brother have other types of treats. This is my treat, and I usually do not have treats. Anyway, later that day I went for my treat and the wrapper was empty! I sent her to her room for not listening. When she came out, she had a note of apology and said she'd work for the cost of the treat. It was very sweet. I did make her go back and edit her mistakes! :)