Me, too. Our marriage counselor, who recommended I take them, suggested just a six month trial. I'm hoping she forgets, I'm approaching six months... :D A friend of mine has been on them for a decade, she said she's tried to stop a few times, especially since she went off them while pregnant and nursing and decided to try never picking them up again. She eventually decided "she was just someone who needs them." For me, it's like my diabetic dad who just needs insulin. My body doesn't process the chemicals well and these pills do help. I plug this book a lot on this board, but I just read The Mood Cure. It's a more holistic- supplement way to treat moods. Another friend of mine read it and now uses supplements instead of anti-depressants. I don't know how I feel about taking that leap, but there are also food suggestions and diet changes that I have found useful. I think it's worth the read for anyone considering anti-depressants and/or changes to them.

I know you already decided, I just wanted to add my late two cents... I have two kids that I've done opposite things with. My son turned 6 last July and we red-shirted him to K in September, first grade started in May. For his football team, he played as a K'er last fall and will be an older first grader at 7 this fall. My daughter won't turn 6 until November, so she would be in K in the public school this fall. But she's doing all our first grade work with her brother. But we do keep her in the younger class in Sunday School so she won't be in the same class as her brother. All that to say- we just move along to the next thing. My kids are in different grade levels for reading and math. We do first grade history, science, spelling and writing together, as it's just easier. And I agree with AAS, don't start it yet.

You know, I hadn't noticed it until I read your post, but since going on Zoloft in January, my headaches and stomach issues have gone, too. I wonder if the headaches and stomach problems were created as a by-product to anxiety and depression? My mom always said I had a nervous stomach, so maybe relieving the stress of depression has helped that. I know my diet has changed (much less caffeine) but I also know my sleeping habits are much better. So, it may not necessarily be the anti-depressent getting rid of the headaches, but rather getting rid of the depression also got rid of the headaches. Just my guess. :tongue_smilie:

We home-educate to have the flexibility to spend more time together as a family. We travel a lot and being able to all go and explore our world together is not only educational, but allows our kids to enjoy their childhood and just be kids longer.

Coconut has recently been verified as a tree nut, so if she's going to avoid all nuts, this may not be a good option. My son is tree-nut allergic, and we don't do coconut. Here's my two cents, as having kids with severe food allergies- forget about variety and all the "shoulds." The texture issue is common with kids with allergies, as tongue-tingling is usually the first sign of an allergic reaction. These kids often don't trust food and it takes a lot longer to build variety for them. Honestly, she already has more variety than my kids did at twice that age, so I think feeding him those things over and over are fine. He needs to develop a confidence in his food and repetition is not bad here. For a good protein, I recommend beans. My daughter lived on refried beans for a long time. The cans are cheap, and Mexican food is very popular here, so we can almost always find it at a restaurant. My son loved edamame, but too much soy isn't good for young boys, so if you're doing soy milk, I personally wouldn't do too much of that. Bean soups were a big stand-by here when we first got our nut diagnosis and were struggling for protein. As for desserts- go for pie. I never liked cake anyway, I always asked for pie for my birthdays when I was little. Most pies you can do without egg or milk, I think. Just stick to non-pitted fruits- cherries, peaches, mangoes, etc are all related to tree nuts.

I think tithing is a personal issue, where the Holy Spirit can speak to you. I don't think there are hard fast rules. So, my easy-out answer is to pray about it. If you feel led to tithe, do so. If not, don't.

I prefer the curriculum whose designs work is "here's a list of things you need, a simple chart if needed and some words. Have fun." But that's for the teacher's manual. I just don't buy any other kinds of curricula that my kids will look at, other than math or phonics. For me, that's why I like ETC. The pictures are functional. Nothing else to distract them. Singapore math is like that- the pictures are about the math lesson, not some little decoration. Honestly, maybe it's the classical education love in all of us. I mean, I want to teach my kids through encyclopedias and literature. So I don't want to spend money on any sort of curriculum that puts too much of their resources into graphic design. Easy Classical Science is the best example I have on my shelf right now- a $30 pdf that includes a book list and one page of instructions per lesson. Perfect. Honestly, it's one of the reason boxed curricula scare me. I'm afraid it's going to be so over-designed that I will be distracted. I'd rather be distracted by good pictures in a good book. ;)

As in- what are they? And what am I expected to do with them? :tongue_smilie: We just finished the addition part of our Singapore math book (1A) and it says "Practice these math facts" and shows a picture of kids with flashcards. It shows the addition chart for numbers 0-10. This is new to me. The only "math facts" I remember in school was the multiplication table. I never memorized it because I always just "figured it out." I was doing algebra in 5th grade, just had a math mind, so I feel inept to teach this aspect. Both my kids seem to have gotten their parents' "math brains" and have picked up addition facts quickly just by doing them. So I'm curious as to the need to memorize them in flash card format. So- do we need to drill them and call them math facts, for the sake of continuity? So we're in the habit of it when we get to harder things? We do skip-counting during our calendar time every morning, so I could add them in there. But a part of me would rather work on other things, as I feel they'll just pick up the addition facts as they just continue doing math. How have you handled this?

How about not taking a break completely but just review for a while? Go over lessons she's good at, only use books she's mastered. Or switch gears and focus on sight words? Or move over to a spelling curriculum? When we started All About Spelling with my son, his reading took off. To me, it's the same thing. You can "do reading" with her multiple times a day and in multiple ways, so that she doesn't "hate reading" but instead can just "hate reading new things." For what it's worth, my daughter had mastered CVC words at 4 years old and her brother didn't become proficient in them until 6.5. They're just different. He needs lots of review and lots of times of focusing on what he already does well. We use the ETC online tool, which is always set a book behind the one we're working on in OPGTR and the ETC workbooks. This makes him feel confident and enjoy some reading so that he doesn't identify all of reading with the struggle. Does that make sense?

Oh, yes, introvert married to extreme extrovert here. It is SO exhausting. :D Not to mention, both my kiddos are extroverts, they talk and want interaction all day long. So by the end of the day, I'm all out. The only three things that have helped some for me: 1) I take one hour of quiet time every afternoon. My kids go to their rooms, I either read or work around the house, but it is QUIET. Eventually this will become our one hour of personal reading time, but for now, it's just rest/quiet. 2) Right when the kids go to bed, I take 30 minutes to do my Bible Study. It's QUIET. 3) I don't pick up a book or my iPad until I've talked with my husband. For us, he just wanted my attention. Once I talked to him about something, anything, he seemed less annoyed to see me lost in a book. As for what we talk about... I guess I talk about the kids a lot. Or something I've read. I try to share about my day and ask him about his. Usually he'll get going and I can slowly quiet down and things are fine. ;)

It's the lack of bruising that makes me think you should take him in. I've twisted my ankles a bazillion times (I'm actually nursing a bad sprain right now :tongue_smilie: ) and they always come with bruising. My daughter broke her arm two weeks ago with no bruises anywhere. So, yeah, I'd say take him in.

:iagree: Yes, I'm wondering about you both today, too.

We used the whole year of Kindergarten to come up with our first grade schedule. I tried different times, orders, breaks, schedules, etc. until I found what we're doing now (we started first grade this May.) I think starting slow is perfect, especially because you add so much in for first grade. One tip I have is to actually drop an every day thing when you first add in something. Or cut it short. For example, when we added WWE, I did half a spelling lesson or no spelling lesson for a week. (Because we do phonics and reading, too, I felt we wouldn't suffer too much.) I think it can be hard to add not only a new thing, but also more time to the school day all at once, so I decided to add a new thing without adding time. Then the second week, we went back to our normal spelling schedule and also included WWE. It was a little more gentle for us. Because we year-round school, I also started with doing WWE only 2-3 times a week for the first month. After a couple of weeks we added FLL, then we added history and science... The other thing is to take note of when your child is best able to pay attention and what subjects or activities are the hardest. Try to make those line up together. For us, narrations are hard for my kids (my son hates to write, my daughter hates to listen) and I've found that first thing in the morning is their best sit still time. So we do a narration first thing in the morning, over breakfast. I've found my kids aren't so great in the afternoon, so we do our projects and activities then. You'll probably want to work around naps and snacks from your little ones, so I would keep that in mind when figuring things in. And be flexible- if someone is sick or hungry or acting up during your normal math time, then just try to fit in math at a different time. And, the thing i would actually try to go back in time and tell myself, put away the checklists. The first couple of months will not go as planned- it's new for everyone. You first grader will have to adjust, your little ones will, you will... and as mtcougar said, things change just about every day. I use HST+ to keep track of what we do and I just aim to keep pace. As long as we read at some point every day, I sort of shrug my shoulders at the rest. Between weekends, extra time in the afternoons and finishing things early, we always seem to fit in more than a week's worth of school. It sometimes looks NOTHING like what is on our schedule, but it works. I have a copy of the schedule we work towards for first grade on my blog. As I said, we started K in September, finished it in March, and then played around with things the next couple of months to come up with it. And now it's summer and that is screwing everything up. ;) But this is our target. Having it like this has helped me to pace ourselves. http://coloradostrongs.blogspot.com/2012/05/this-is-test-to-see-if-i-can-figure.html

My sister's allergies got really bad through puberty, and she eventually traced the worst of her hive outbreaks to her cycle. I don't remember where in the cycle, but I would make sure you make a note of this for future reference. And I agree with the Zyrtec. We do Benadryl cream on the hives and liquid Zyrtec. As for what I'd do- depends on which of my kids got the hives. My daughter has only presented hives, once, so if she got them again, I'd try Benadryl cream with Zyrtec liquid first. My son, who presents with anaphylaxis, I would take in to Urgent Care for hives in a heart beat, because they would be so out of character. I'd dose him up, but put him in the car anyway. That's just me, though.

I'm going with the molars. Sorry, I hate teething, all aspects of it have STUNK for us.

I think your son sounds like a perfectly normal four year old boy who is the second child. My son is almost 7 and CAN color in the lines but doesn't often care to. I don't know what age it was when he could but it certainly wasn't 4. My daughter, my second-born, always wants to be with her brother and I always wanted to be with my older sister. It comes from, well, always having them around. Older children are, by nature, more independent because they had to live a while without another child. We second children tend to get used to the company. That may change faster for second-children sent to public school but it isn't caused by home-schooling. I think I would be far more worried about a four year old boy who could sit still. My kids still jump on the couch sometimes while reading. I've never felt the desire to test them for ADD because, well, I think they're just being kids. The kind of robotic, forced-calm and regimented classroom style that your mom seems to want is exactly WHY we're home-schooling. Kids need to be kids and turning them into little robots so young is, in my humble opinion, not necessary or desirable. Should he learn how to handle himself for short hours, like for Sunday School or VBS? Sure. But learning is a process. As he does it more, he'll get better at it. Just because he doesn't already know how to do it doesn't mean he needs a diagnosis. He just needs practice. As for what others think- it never ends. There will always be someone looking over your shoulder, questioning, critiquing... This is whether you home-school, public school, private school or send them to the zoo to be trained as lion tamers. Everyone has an opinion, and they more you validate their opinions by responding, the more they feel free to share them. When it's someone like your mom, then you get to say, "Gee, Mom, thanks for letting me know. I'll think about it and look into it." Done. She gets that for the first meddling. After that, it becomes, "Yeah, you told me, I don't really need to talk with you about it anymore. I've registered your opinion, now I'll work with my own." Anyone who isn't close to you- just smile shortly, thank them for sharing their opinion, and walk away. You'll get lots of practice with this. :glare:

I'll share, I have no shame! :D I take Zoloft and I have been told- by the doc, my counselor, the pharmacist and the directions on the bag- to be sure to take it in the morning. All four of these seemed to go out of their way to point that out. A few times I've forgotten to take it in the morning and took it with lunch and I had a hard time falling asleep on those nights. I do feel myself "lagging," for lack of a better word, in the early evenings and by 8 I'm usually pretty grumpy. I don't think I could take it at night as I feel it would make me sleep in late and then be "worn off" by the afternoon, when I really need it. There are some supplements that you can take for anxiety and depression. A girlfriend of mine recommended the book The Mind Cure and she takes the supplements recommended to get herself off of Paxil and Zoloft. She seems to be doing well. I have a few nights when I take some of those to help me sleep better. It may be worth looking into those, definitely checking with the doctor, if you want her to try something at night.

Here's a link to our schedule on our blog: http://coloradostrongs.blogspot.com/2012/05/this-is-test-to-see-if-i-can-figure.html (I hope it works, I haven't been able to post new posts the last week but I think my old posts are still there...) I should include this disclaimer- we don't use all of the time allotted for every subject for every day. Our state standards are a certain number of hours for a certain number of days. I figure I can set aside 30 minutes for spelling, but some days it takes just 10 or 15. Then we usually read more, jump into the next thing to finish early, or take dance breaks. But I also don't have their daily reading to me, or our daily bedtime reading on there, so I figure it all balances out.

Funny, here standard is half-day and parents have to pay for full-day kindergarten. And half day is really barely three hours. Ah, budget cuts.

Love love love love love love love love it!!! It's, literally, my favorite thing we do. BUT- the reasons I love it might not apply to you as much. :D The games are great, but not so fun that they're not learning, my kids have learned the keys on the keyboard and how to use a mouse from it. The reports are AWESOME, the grading scale is informative, the software is smart about how it places the child, and the control you have as the teacher is perfect. For us, though, it works because it's one more tool to get my wiggly kids to get more phonics in. I teach them both through the book at the same level but let the computer pace them individually. This allows me to just teach phonics once, but still allow my kids to go through the online review and stuff at their own pace. My daughter is usually ahead of my son, so what we do together in the book is review for her, and on the computer she gets challenged more. Without my son getting disheartened that his little sis reads SO much better than he does. If you can afford it, I highly recommend it. BUT- it's by no means a necessity, so I wouldn't necessarily pick having it as a tool over, say, a curriculum you really need.

:iagree: We had an OT ask about this with my son- with no real diagnosis or anything, just ideas thrown out there. We were told what AngieW has suggested. Ironically, this is how All About Spelling starts off teaching spelling, and my son LOVES it. He still doesn't love reading but he absolutely loves spelling. Out of curiosity- did your daughter have speech issues, like lisps or using W's instead of L's? Those habits of my son's were what raised the red flag, so to speak. He really struggles with reading those sounds, because he doesn't hear the blends in his head. Like the BL blend- he struggles to "hear" it, in his mind it's either B or BW.

I guess it really depends on what is causing the feeling of being "not-normal." If it's an interest in things above your age group thing- sometimes that's inescapable until the child is older. Home-school groups help that a lot, I think, as lots of ages mix so well. If it's a matter of not understanding the need to struggle, or to find thing difficult, then I recommend two things- the book Nurture Shock by Po Bronson, and getting involved in things outside of your gifted abilities. No one is a prodigy at everything. I was gifted academically but just average at sports. I loved playing them as it gave me a feeling of belonging. I think it also helped keep me grounded about myself- I think sometimes we tend to focus on our differences instead of our similarities. I may have just won the state science faire last weekend, but that didn't make a lick of difference when I was trying to get a rebound off a girl who was probably reading three grade levels below her age. She still beat me on the court, gave me a challenge, and put my world into better perspective. I think it can be a mistake to not expose our kids to things they don't excel at- sometimes a little challenge is all gifted kids need in order to feel "normal."

:iagree: When I started to not like it, I remember saying, "I WANT to want to do it. I WANT to love it." I did find out I was pretty chemically depressed, as I said this to a counselor. She later told me that me saying this about home-schooling was one of the red flags that gave her the idea I may need to take a Depression Survey. Apparently losing interest in what you feel called to do is a big sign. Not to say that having a bad day, week or even month here or there is a sign we should all drug up. But I do say, from the other end of it, that I wished I'd paid more attention to these signs and made some changes sooner. If it's just end of the year exhaustion, go on with your day. But I think it doesn't hurt to take a good look at what we're doing every once in a while, get a big-picture glimpse, as the day to day details can become over-whelming. I say this is true for everyone that sometimes just doesn't like their job. ;)

Another vote for "had a ton with my baby and didn't notice any ill effects."

It's very acceptable to ask a provider to tell you the cost and how much your insurance will cover, and choose whether to use it or not. I used to do that with dental procedures all the time- I would pay for my annual cleanings out of pocket so I could save my annual maximum for the tier-2 and 3 procedures. The key is to recognize how insurance companies and physician offices negotiate payments. You are best off paying for routine visits and lab work yourself, as the physician's office spreads the cost of their most common charges across all patients. For example, if they feel the correct cost for an office visit is $150, they may only get $120 or even as low as $75, from some carriers, but as much as $175 from others. So they over-charge people with good insurance because they can make up the losses from the people whose insurance pays less. This is going to happen more in highly common procedures, as these are the ones insurance companies negotiate to pay the least, under the "bulk" theory. Anyhow, I recommend asking how much office visits and lab work is before offering your insurance cards. Don't lu are entitled to let them hem and haw, you should be allowed to have access for that before you sign anything saying you are responsible for charges.