My accelerated 9.5 year old is about to finish up Singapore 5B. He's done 1-5 all along and enjoys it. Math comes pretty intuitively for him (several engineers in the family). I've heard that Singapore 6 includes a decent amount of review work and also overlaps somewhat with Pre-Algebra concepts. My question is, did you do Singapore 6, Pre-Algebra, Algebra or skip 6 and do Pre-Algebra, Algebra or Singapore 6, Algebra? I'd especially love to hear from people who used Art of Problem Solving but I'd like to hear from anyone who has gone through Algebra in any program with their accelerated kids too!

Interesting. She does have diabetes in her birth family. Might be worth having the dr run an A1C on her. We did recently clear out the entire room when switching kids’ rooms. So I scrubbed everything, rewashed her clothes, aired out the mattress, etc. it smelled fine after all that. But now just 2 weeks later her room is starting to smell bad again already! It’s crazy!

She’s not quite neurotypical. There’s adhd and overall learning disabilities. I do think she’s been more stressed than usual this year but not to the point of full depression. We are keeping an eye on that though just in case. It’s not so much that she refuses to shower but that she won’t remember/bother unless we remind her. If we remind her she does it happily.

She drinks from her big nalgene water bottle all day (finishes at least one every day) and has a bir of orange juice or milk with no sodas or caffeine so luckily I think we can rule out dehydration.

The big change in the last few months was her trying out public school but that is only since august. She was miserable there and it caused endless stress so she’s home again now. As for shoes she wears flats or boots this time of year. I make her wear socks with all her shoes because that was an issue in the past but she’s pretty good about it now. She has slowly gained weight again lately. She drinks plenty of water thankfully so she’s not dehydrated. But I have wondered if the weight gain (not insane but she is technically overweight again now) is behind increased smell and/or sweating. I do have her shower nightly before bed. She complies, she just is so ADHD that she will forget for days on end if not reminded.

Any idea what types of health issues to have them check for? I had thought maybe athletes foot (she got that once before) and had her use the medication for that for awhile but it didn’t help. I’m thinking it might just be hormones? Though she’s had her period for 7 years now so it seems a bit odd that it’s suddenly an issue.

How do you keep your teen’s room from smelling?! I never had this issue myself as a teen and DD16 did not stink until the last 6-ish months. It’s awful! Like as in it’s affecting the rest of the house bad. Mostly I think her feet are the culprit. I recently tossed out half her shoes because even after cleaning with baking soda, airing out, etc they stunk bad enough to make everyone gag just walking near them. Every item in her closet stinks too though. Her bedding. Everything she touches practically. I have to bug her to brush her teeth so breath is an issue too (brushing teeth has been an issue for 4+ years) and remind her to shower. I even got her nice smelling bath and body stuff, good shampoo, etc to motivate her. So yeah, right now I just need help getting her room smelling decent enough that it doesn’t seep out into the main living areas :P Any ideas? Magical cleaning products?

I enjoy the first day pics too but yes it does get a little insane how many you go through this time of year! Anytime anything becomes too overdone I start getting those rebellious urges to do something weird/mocking in turn :P

Wow, good for you pushing for more testing to get the full picture and a correct diagnosis! I wish doctors listened to mothers more, they usually know when something is wrong. So will this give you a clearer direction in treatment or expectations for her? Does this negate the high functioning autism diagnosis or simply explain the root cause?

DS- 8 weeks (10.5 hours) DS- 12 weeks (11 hours) DD- 6.5 weeks (8+ hours) DD- 10 weeks (9+ hours) These are the times with zero wakings/feedings. With my girls I did a dreamfeed, hence the shorter times, but dropped the dreamfeed around 4-6 months. So they'd sleep 7-10pm, have a quick feed, then slept again 10:30-7am or so. Helped me not be soooo overfull with milk by morning and prevented 5am wake ups.

Yes, I have. but then I had no choice :P Financially/logistically it just wasn't possible for me to travel up for house hunting more than once. We did facetime so I 'saw' the house but had no clue where it was in relation to other things or details. It's interesting driving up to a house for the first time 2 hours before closing. But you do what you've got to do. It's not been great but not awful either. The house is fine, we've cleaned it up a lot. Location still stinks but we didn't have any great options closer to town anyway so I don't feel like it was a bad choice. I figure if you trust a spouse enough to marry them surely they can be trusted to make even major decisions for the family independently in need.

My 15 yo is like this and always has been. Drives. Me. Crazy! I flat out tell her no when she does it, that it's rude. Besides DD15, I've honestly only had 1-2 baby boomer age people try to parent my kids in front of me. And they're always the super awkward types who seem to lack social skills in general. Like the lady at the mall playground who gave my 18 month old a granola bar without asking me! I was livid. I tried to be polite and explain that he had allergies so couldn't eat it and she kept pushing "oh, it doesn't have peanuts" as if that's the only allergy?! I had to explain that no, he was allergic to soy and casein and bananas and I was 100% sure that granola bar had soy in it, because they all do.

Old Navy and Cat & Jack at Target. Old Navy even has cute dresses for teens. You do often need to add a cardigan or jean jacket bit with good layers they're very cute!

We have a similar issue with a 15 yo who is overweight and done growing (puberty was at 9, she topped out on height at 11) and a 9 yo who is very much still growing and thin and active. I hate that I can't tell the 9 yo 'yes' to seconds at dinner without the 15 yo asking for seconds too. If I say 'no' to her I feel like I'm being overly pushy. But if I say yes or even 'if you want' or anything but a firm 'no' she will go get more even if she's not truly hungry. Plus she sits inside all day whereas ds runs around several hours outside. Honestly, I take chances to give DS extra food whenever DD15 isn't around. Also, we do tell DD15 she has to do a sport and that helps. When the sport season ends she gains it all back, but at least during the season she'll drop back into a healthy weight range plus I don't feel as worried about a few extra pounds on an active teen vs a completely inactive one, kwim?

I actually completely agree. Especially with the tiles, why be so strict? I've had trained, certified Orton Gillingham tutors who use similar programs sooooo jealous of my Barton tile board. It really is handy and very well made. Why not let others buy the tiles? Nothing about those could allow someone to plagiarize her curriculum. They're just useful manipulatives. If the true goal is kids learning to read well in the best way possible, I personally would be a lot more generous with my products. Anyway, on a practical note keep checking ebay, people post just the tiles periodically. Or if it's one of the early levels and you're in a pinch try the All About Reading tiles, they are cheaper quality but cover most of the same phonemes as Barton.

Good point to get it in writing but to whom? The school website is a joke, no useful contact info besides office phone. The meeting is on Monday though and I've been caught up with job interviews all week so I honestly just didn't have time.

No, that was part of my post earlier, the eligibility meeting isn't until aug 29 and the iep meeting would be within 30 days from that. That's a big part of our problem. I'm actually going to bring notes from our last meeting and nail them on the timeline thing too :)

Yes, we've tried calling the deaf school multiple times. They don't answer or return calls it seems. Plus it's 1.5 hours away so she'd have to live on campus to attend. And we do doubt the mild ID diagnosis because the assessor was inexperienced with deaf kids. We're planning to have her retested this year, hopefully at Kennedy Krieger which is only a couple hours away. We have an appointment with the school on Monday to discuss accommodations and that meeting will focus on her hearing impairment and them putting in place the right technology, etc.

We're in Virginia so here they have the SOL's (funniest acronym ever for a graduation test). Students have to pass an SOL in Algebra, then an English one in 11th, and I think either a science or history one too. There is no way Ana could pass an Algebra SOL this year as expected and she will never pass an English SOL in my opinion because of her language disorders. Her language is still that of a 2nd grader at 15. She still mixes up subject verb agreement and struggles to write sentences that make sense or identify a verb vs adverb.

I've asked multiple times for an alternative to the block schedule and they just keep repeating that "she'll do fine" to which I roll my eyes. They really do it for all subjects, even math and language arts. It's crazy! And I totally agree about the "algebra for everyone in ninth grade" nonsense. They used to offer study hall but no longer so it would be just the regular class. Oh, and summer school here is only to retake failed courses. They said there was nothing for kids like her who tend to slide over the summer and she isn't even 'allowed' to do summer school until/unless she fails a course, then she can retake that course.

So we talked with the school starting in May. They assured us they'd use summer to get her all set up. They did do a speech eval and neuropsych testing (cognitive and academic tests with the psychologist and adaptive behavior survey for me to full out). But then they spring on us that we won't get those results until Aug 25th and then an eligibility meeting Aug 29, then an IEP meeting 30 days from there!! Not cool. They did agree to do an SST meeting, like an informal non-binding IEP, on Monday before school starts but still, I am annoyed. I talked with another homeschool mom whose older son is attending this school and she said they were given a huge run-around too. Also, they apparently have a no-fail policy that they keep secret. No test grade can be below 50% no matter what percentage the student actually got wrong. I'm debating insisting that she will not start school until an IEP is in place.

Yeah, I know someone who works for the BSA ;) It's only been discussed openly at a few events but they are discussing what it would mean to have parallel programs, one for boys and one for girls but all under the BSA. So there would be girl dens and boy dens within a pack. One thing being tossed around is how to make that work with older scouts and possibilities for girls to qualify for Eagle Scout. Personally I'd love that! I see no current options I love for my girls honestly. I'd love something truly comparable. And Eagle is an excellent thing to put on a college application. I'd love for that to be open to boys and girls with the same rigorous requirements to keep it exclusive and meaningful. Venturing is a great program too, that's where I met my husband <3 That's odd some packs/troops are so expensive! Our cub scout packs have always covered dues with fundraising (popcorn) and so we just have registration which is $25 a year. The uniforms are more expensive than I'd like but with 2 boys it works out not so bad as they hold up well between kids.

We're trying out the local public high school for Ana, 15, 9th grade, this year. However, we're already running into snags. She's got all sorts of diagnoses, including Mild ID, Profound hearing impairment in both ears, Dyslexia, MERLD, and ADHD. On top of just being adopted and having a few difficulties from the poor upbringing, followed by trauma of separation, and then trying to process all this as a teen. But the school so far is acting as if all this is no.big.deal. They have put her in Algebra I for math right away. They have a block schedule where each class is just one semester. So she'll have 4 classes this semester, then 4 new ones next semester. Which means theoretically kids could go 6+ months with zero math or english. NOT a good idea for a kid with a memory in the <1st percentile! She presents as a typical, if naive, teen. She's cute, sweet, and socially adept enough to navigate situations. But all this falls apart if you ask her to do a difficult task or learn anything new. In particular, her math teacher today at the open house was insisting that she'll pass Algebra I because "we don't fail kids unless they don't show up".....so basically she won't understand but they'll give her a passing grade anyway???? Also, she was all "Oh, the graphing calculator will be no big deal if she has a smart phone!" Except Ana doesn't have a cell phone. She doesn't understand email very well despite me teaching her over and over. She can email now. But Facebook was a bust (she can't even find her friends on there, doesn't understand how to use it, etc), and Instagram was as well (she thought the internet existed on only one computer so created multiple accounts....none of which she knew how to upload a picture to). How do you make the admin/teachers understand? I try to be positive and I don't like to tell just anyone in real life all of Ana's learning struggles. People know she has dyslexia and memory issues and hearing aids. That's about it. But these teachers need to get that she is not a typical high schooler. And if they just pass her along without her understanding anything it won't help her. This school basically has regular education inclusion, which seem way too high level for her, or an isolated special ed that learns life skills which they say, and I agree, is not appropriate for her. For those familiar with IEP's, how did you make it clear what your child's disabilities were ahead of time when the school seemed resistant? What kinds of accommodations did you find most helpful?

You can DIY the Lindamood Bell programs. Especially Visualizing and Verbalizing, the one intended to help with comprehension and hyperlexia. The teacher's manual can be purchased on eBay used. You may want one or two of the workbooks/pictures just for ease of use, but you don't need them at all. And I found the manual interesting and doable to implement for your average bright parent with a college degree. I also agree that making them read it aloud to slow down can be very helpful! And you can even explain that even very good readers often will read aloud difficult material to help them understand it better. I even find myself doing it when I'm learning something new or reading something particularly tough to grasp. Or if I'm just tired ;)

Yikes! Boy Scouts is way cheaper than that! The Boy Scouts are voting this year on whether to make Cub Scouts co-ed and then there'd be a girls and boys track...Scouts for Girls and Scouts for Boys are the names currently being tossed around. Anyway so hopefully if that happens you'd have an alternative option in a year or so that would be much cheaper with fewer fundraising requirements!