There are the super-cheap online glasses places, too. It happens. My first pair of glasses was the victim of a basketball accident.

It really depends on how often they see each other!

A search found this: http://www.bing.com/search?q=spelling+placement+test&FORM=AWRE

BTW, I was given Zoloft once because of an absurd misdiagnosis and was so sick at the time (I'd had a low-grade fever for months, along with severe fatigue) that I took it in the hope that it would do SOMETHING. Weeeeell, it did. It gave me a powerful sense of self-alienation within a couple of days, like I was looking over my own shoulder at everything and my body wasn't mine but a revolting meat-sack. Apparently, this is reasonably common with Zoloft when it's not actually needed. It would have scared me to death if it had left me with the ability to be scared, but at least it didn't rob me of my judgment! I got off of that as fast as I could. Anti-depressants can be crazy when they aren't actually medically needed. The nice thing about amphetamines is that they have a VERY short half-life, so if there's a negative reaction, it's gone in eight hours. My brother (who was Dx'd PPD-NOS) climbed under a table and just rocked with Ritalin, but Dexadrine made him able to function in a classroom.

I would look more into amphetamines and less into antidepressants. (Not to be a jerk, but I am highly suspicious of a kid Dx'd PPD-NOS ALSO getting an OCD Dx. Um, yes, if there weren't obsessive behaviors, the kid wouldn't be PPD-NOS. It's like diagnosing someone on the AS with anxiety.) Amphetamines can allow kids on the AS to control the overwhelming inputs that they get. You may have to try several to get them to work. Antidepressants on the AS are generally less helpful. Even caffeine often helps a little.

Also, this: http://www.learner.org/resources/series83.html

I don't think the McGuffey readers are the best. Not by a long shot. Other readers, past and present, do a much better job of systematic phonics instruction, and using the primer requires a lot of instruction outside of the book. Our Crayola whiteboard crayons certainly get a workout! But BOTH my kids have liked the McGuffey readers better than any other early reader, so we've ended up going with them. I think the reasons are this: 1) The pictures are much more sophisticated and complicated than other early readers. Often, the text only tells a small part of the story that you can see in the picture. They like this. 2) McGuffey provides plenty of moral outrage. Small children LOVE moral outrage. They love to tsk, tsk over other children being bad, and they love it when someone gets a well-deserved comeuppance. 3) The morals and the cautionary tales aren't too hokey. Be kind to animals. Be kind to other children, especially those poorer or smaller than you. Be kind to the disabled. Don't play in the pond alone, and don't get into rickety boats. Don't skate on thin ice. These are things kids can really get behind. 4) The kids actually do interesting things. They visit the seaside, chop wood, visit neighbors, peer into nests, roller skate, and the like. Adults are present, but the children aren't consigned to a very narrow world of "play." So, anyway, we're back with McGuffey again, and it keeps my DD's interest up when other things won't, so it looks like we'll stay there for now!

I was poking through the Marriage Builders site because of a link on another thread, and I saw this: The question of the ages: How can a husband receive the sex he needs in marriage? Answer: Foreplay. Don't be a selfish jerk in bed, and she MIGHT be interested in spending more time there. "Problem" solved. I mean seriously, now, that is probably the MOST ABSURD article that I've seen on that site. It starts from the assumption that there is a historical imbalance between men's and women's libido, when anyone with the slightest grasp of historical law knows perfectly well that the plaintiff in cases of sexual abandonment in ancient Jewish society were almost all WOMEN. It's only been within the last 200 years that WESTERN society hasn't believed that women were naturally the more lusty--and it's only been in the last 100 years that female orgasm has been proven not to be involved in conception. It's awfully hard for anyone to think that for over 2000 years most people thought that women had greater libidos than men and that women had to orgasm to conceive and yet frigid wife/frustrated husband is a biological normal. The stupid pseudo-science just makes the article worse.

That's my brother. He ALWAYS complains. ALWAYS. You can tell he's having a good time because the stuff he complains about become really stupid! I mostly make fun of him. :) It actually works pretty well.

They probably were hoping he would regain his sanity and they wouldn't have to come to you because he would do the right thing and come clean. :(

I always catch the birds. The bats I let find their own way out!!!

We will be adding on for the grandparents. It would be nice if my kids' families could stay here until they have a sizable amount of money for a house of their own. I don't know if we'll have the room for that, though!!!!

Our house is roomy, but the 4-y-o will have the room with the crib, not the 10-y-o, so a girl and boy will share and the older boy won't, at least officially. It seems silly to me to segregate by gender when the kids are that small! My kids pretty much always sleep in the same room, anyway. They haul all the blankets off DS9's bed and sleep like a pile of puppies on the middle of the floor. DD4 always wakes up in the night to pee, and since she ends up there anyway, there doesn't seem to be any point in making her not start out that way. And beds? I haven't been able to get my son to sleep in a bed for 4 years. I'm really glad we inherited the bunkbeds that we have, or I'd be pretty peeved at the waste of money! They'd prefer a big Japanese-style futon on the floor. As it is, other families change sheets--I shampoo carpets. *rolls eyes*

Bedwetting means you need your own bed, not your own room. And if a kid has a night terror, there won't be a sleeping person in the whole HOUSE. (I had them as a toddler, and so did my DD--she had her first one in 2 years 3 nights ago!) Seems like pretty silly reasons to me. :/

The problem is that in apartments, the owner can get in trouble with the fire marshal if there are too many people. :/

Unless you are raising the animals yourself or your neighbor is, chances are you're getting snowed here. You may believe that the meat is "more humane," but if you're getting it at your grocery store--yes, even if it's Whole Foods--it's almost certainly not. There is a lot of guilt making people believe that they are hurting their families if they don't get more expensive types of food. If you really believe that the food in the grocery store is harmful, the organic stuff is NO BETTER--not in the treatment of the animals or in the use of potentially harmful substances and pathogen exposure. It is more dangerous by several measures, in fact. So then the priority should be making sure the garden doesn't fail this year and raising some birds and rabbits for meat. And that, itself, can turn into a small profit source through a farm stand or a farmer's market, depending on where you live.

You should search as if you want to be tutored, then find the employment link. http://www.tutor.com/ http://www.tutorvista.com/ http://www.e-tutor.com/ http://eduboard.com/ etc. If you search for BECOMING a tutor, you'll get scams. My husband used to sit down and eat a meal meant to serve a family of 4 ALONE for dinner. (He had a serious problem with compulsive eating.) He's backed off a good amount, but even then, I fed 2 of us on $30 a week. We eat a healthy amount of meat--we have meat every night, but not normal "standard American diet" quantities. I certainly wouldn't say that we feel at all meat-deprived. We have a lot of veggies--we also LIKE a lot of veggies. We eat, in one form or another, pretty much EVERYTHING. Except beets. Beet greens, yes. But none of us have managed to like beets in any form. There are way more cheap veggies out there than just carrots! My husband is Chinese, so we are a rice-heavy family. We have pasta once a week or less, and we really don't do much bread--I never have rolls or anything like that. Just don't. I could, with the same budget. It's just food preferences. I'm not sure how much my DH would really notice if he went gluten free, except for the cereal! Before ALDI opened locally, I couponed more. :) It was more work, and I still paid $5-10/wk more. You could find out how far away the Wal-mart will allow price matching. There may be other grocery stores that are too far for you to visit but that Wal-mart will still match. Most grocery stores have their circulars online, so you can print them out and circle the prices. I strongly recommend doing a twice-yearly long distance trip to an excellent, large ethnic grocery. That's where you get 50-lb+ bags of rice and TONS of other staples for dirt cheap. Even if it's three hours each way, it can be worth it if you save up for all the other shopping that will be cheaper in the city at the same time. You should be able to buy ALL your cereal with coupons. You can get them for free online and can print off two copies per website per computer. Print on the reverse side of scratch paper, and it's down to .25 cents per sheet for laser ink. You can also expand your breakfast horizons--like oatmeal, grits, polenta. I can't stand thin oatmeal, but thick oatmeal is great. And oatmeal's better for diabetes, too. :)

Even at 10, it could give her a yeast infection if it's not needed. So if it's getting better on its own, I'd leave it.

What???? You have places around there that do diagnostic scans for free??? I'm jealous. :p

I found college to be discouraging for the intellectually curious and stultifying for intellectual exploration. Course work is NOT set up to satisfy the intellect. If it were, then college graduates would largely be well-educated, at least within their fields of study. If you are learning something that you find a true discovery in your undergraduate coursework, you're probably not destined for much significance in that field. The best students were quite beyond the coursework and found it trivial. Of course, if you want a future in academia, you must jump through the hoops, But as far as autodidacts go, MOST of the greatest lights in mathematics, literature, and science were just that--most were, also, amateurs. The professionalization of intellectual endeavors did not come until long after many thrilling discoveries were made--the ones most fundamental to most fields, in fact.

We do eat a lot of rice here because we like it. Cashews are very expensive, anyway, and almonds are pricey, while peanuts aren't too expensive but aren't really a "budget" food, either, except as peanut butter. I'd still easily average $100 less than what you're paying now, with our local grocery stores and prices. I use coupons for select things. (Cereal!!!!) Mostly, I use circulars and other strategies. Most online tutoring has exams that you pass to qualify to tutor that subject.

There is also the fact that most--though not ALL--good readers actually ARE good spellers, but not as good as they are readers, so they attempt harder words in their writing. A typical pattern might be a 2nd grade child who reads at the 6th grade level and spells at the 4th grade level. MOST teachers will "decide" that such a child has a "spelling problem." Really, it's normal development for an advanced reader. Regardless, you'll teach each subject where she is, so it hardly matters. :)

So sorry, Julie. :grouphug: :grouphug: :grouphug: I figured it was something like this because of the timing. :(

Sorry you're in a tight spot. With my local grocery stores, despite the insane COL here, I could feed your family for about $110 a week while still eating very well. If there's enough interest, I could do a virtual course on saving on groceries here. (I live near Washington, DC, and spend $50/week feeding my brood, and I could spend $35-40/week if I had to.) Online tutoring is an option for getting more money, if you have the time. You can do that even in rural areas, which have fewer other decent employment options.

I do agree with having to make all desserts and snacks from scratch. I'm convinced that a major contributor to being overweight is how convenient crappy foods are to eat. If you do not buy chips, cookies, ice cream, granola, etc., and have to make a small batch from scratch whenever you have a hankering, that can really put the kibosh on snacking. But it's a lifestyle commitment, and if it's not one you're likely to make about EVERYTHING, it's unlikely to work for you.