This is one of those things that I wouldn't have believed until I saw the proof, but my husband's almost-daily migraines went away when he stopped consuming citrus. Crazy, but wonderful!

I've been trying an 8-hour-eating window, 11:30-7:30. It has been tricky because I get up at 5:45 and have always "needed" breakfast every day. I don't drink tea or coffee, so I just drink a lot of water until about 9:00 in the morning. At that point, I start feeling nauseous and HUNGRY. Even though it doesn't always sound appetizing, sipping a little chicken broth (I guess it should be bone broth, but I haven't managed to make any yet!) gets rid of the nausea right away and makes it possible for me to keep going. I don't think I could do intermittent fasting without that little bit of chicken broth.

Yes! This times 1000! I thought that I would always homeschool my kids. I also thought that it would get easier "when the baby got older" and then "when the toddler got older" until he was a preschooler and it was still really rough! I would encourage you to look at all of the school options that you have and see what choices you have that you may not be aware of. I never would've known until I really did a lot of searching that there are A TON of schools near me to choose from. Traditional public schools, yes, but also many free charters and other "choice schools" that are public schools based on certain philosophies rather than neighborhood boundaries.. We took the leap and enrolled one of our kids into a Montessori charter this year, and it has been wonderful. The school does so much that I couldn't manage to fit into my day, and the social aspects have been so important for my little girl. All of my kids will be going to school next year, and I am feeling so happy and relieved. I guess that I was experiencing more homeschooling burnout than I realized... I may homeschool again in the future-- I'm certainly not opposed to the idea, and I'm willing to do whatever is best for my kids. But I am very grateful that we tried the going-to-school thing this year. It was a good change.

Acellus is another decent option.

My teen DS has some anxiety over math. Probably due to ADHD and dysgraphia mostly, because he is really not bad with the concepts. He dreads math, gets anxious, does anything he can to postpone it, will get teary-eyed and cry about it-- almost every day. It has been hard for me to know what he can and can't control emotionally, and I don't want to be mean about it. However, I also know that sometimes I tend to underestimate what he is capable of. This has helped us: If he can do his math daily (we use CLE Algebra) without tears and drama, great! I am available to help him, of course, but he needs to try to learn it, not just give up. If he gets teary-eyed and emotional, then we pack up the math and I drop him off at a local tutoring center. The people at the tutoring center are nice, so this isn't really a terrible threat. But he is an introvert and would rather be home, so he doesn't really want to go to tutoring. I have been very surprised how often he can "pull himself together" when I tell him to get his shoes because we are going to the tutoring center: "If I can't teach this math to you, then we need to get the help of someone who can." YMMV-- my son doesn't get angry, just sad and frustrated. And we're lucky enough to have a free tutoring center through our homeschool charter. But maybe you could find a center that would be willing to work with you guys on a drop-in basis...

CLE Algebra. I am loving it, and DS is doing well with it.

I'm also weighing options for my DS's freshman year next year. I had thought that a local twice-weekly academic homeschool academy was going to be a good idea, but the more that I think about it, the more that I don't think it will be the best option. We have done a lot of homeschool classes in the past, and no friendships have ever been forged. Like you mentioned, when kids are picked up right after class, there isn't much opportunity to really get to know each other. Also, homeschooling is hard! There are definite perks, but some of those get lost when you have to deal with homeschool academy class teachers and busywork and schedules, etc. And usually there are not a ton of different options for each class time slot, so the subject and level of work are usually not ideal for each student. So you lose control, and time, but still have to do the real work of homeschooling. I don't know. I'm beginning to think that I either want to enroll him in school OR just teach the subjects myself with some online classes. The "middle ground" homeschool academy seems like it might just have too many cons.

We bought a foreclosure using an FHA loan a few years ago. FHA does have some restrictions, but it is surprising what the inspectors really look at. Our house was built in the 1950s and has a lot of issues--- I'm still trying to decide if it was a good deal or not. :closedeyes: Anyway, the two things that stopped the FHA loan from going through initially were a bad roof and a fallen-down fence in the backyard. The bank that owned the house paid for both of those to be fixed, so that worked out well. But there are still a lot of things wrong that FHA didn't care about at all...

We do this all the time--- just mix frozen apple juice concentrate with 3 cans of sparkling water from the sodastream. We love it! It is not quite as good as Martinelli's, but pretty close. (I think that the frozen concentrate dulls the "sparkling" effect just a little bit.)

After doing a bit of research, we ended up going with Healthy Paws. It made the most sense for us, but we haven't had to submit any claims yet-- so we will see how it goes in the future!

In case it is helpful information, we recently acquired a Golden Retriever puppy, and we pay $35 per month for pet insurance for him-- with all the health problems that may occur down the road, it seems worth it to us. The insurance doesn't cover preventative care (immunizations, neuter, dental cleaning), only problems.

That's a great idea! Maybe then I would actually look forward to the dishes...

Well, darn! I'm glad that I'm not alone :laugh:, but I was hoping that someone would have some wonderful idea to increase my willpower somehow. I have been pondering the idea of putting the current novel into my husband's car before he leaves for work each day. That would help with the daytime at least! Maybe I could promise myself a guilt-free reading period before bed if I work really hard during the day.

I love to read! Whenever I have a little free time, reading is always my first choice activity. Unfortunately, I have a hard time pacing myself once I begin an enjoyable novel. Sometimes it is because I am having a stressful day and want to escape into the book, and sometimes it is because I just really want to know what's going to happen! I've tried giving myself a "30-minute lunch break "and limiting reading to that time only, but invariably I will find myself picking up the book again while the kids are having a "little break" in the afternoon that then turns into an hour or so. And again at night, once everyone is in bed, I'm tired and just want to read (which wouldn't be a problem except that I am ignoring the dirty dishes and ungraded math assignments, which affects the next day.) At times I've just had to eliminate novels from my life because I don't seem to have the willpower to read responsibly. However, that seems sad to me and takes away one of my joys. Am I the only one? Has anyone come up with a good system that works well for balancing your reading life and real life?

It is funny how many people have that misconception. "The stomach flu" should be called something else, I think! I was one who never saw the need for the vaccine until we all got the flu 4 years ago. It was terrible. Really awful, and the ill effects lasted for months. The only one who didn't get it was the baby, because he had a flu shot along with his regular immunizations. We didn't have a stomach-virus-type component to it. However, the coughing was so severe and prolonged that we were actually vomiting from the intensity of the coughing jags! We get the flu shot now!

Yes! After I read her book, I spent awhile trying to figure out if it was the "mastery" or the "self-propelled" part of her plan that mattered most. I never decided for sure, but I do think that the mastery expectations are a big part of their success.

I thought this article was interesting, and it seems as though K-8 schools really might provide a better middle school experience than traditional middle schools: http://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2016/09/19/494232646/sixth-grade-is-tough-it-helps-to-be-top-dog I'm hoping that is the case, as my 4th grader is thriving in her K-8 Montessori charter. I hope that trend will continue all the way through the 8th grade!

Thank you both for the advice! I talked to our OT, and she said that some of the things that they are doing in OT right now might make a difference with the piano, too. So we'll see. This week he has been practicing the piano rather happily, so I might just wait and see how it goes. But if things get frustrating again, I won't feel bad about dropping it. The guitar might be a possibility, but I know he will have a hard time with the finger soreness... And yes-- we definitely need to make typing a higher priority. He is still writing most of his work, and typing just a few of the essay assignments. Spelling is on the computer this year, too. I will also look into the carnitine and supplements-- that is something that I hadn't thought about yet. Thanks again!

The Books of Elsewhere series

Hello, Could anybody help me understand the following test results? Any insights? DS will be 14 next month. He has some "autistic-like behaviors" but may or may not be on the spectrum. We are still in the middle of getting that figured out/evaluated. We've completed lots of the initial assessment forms...So far, he is right on the borderline and no one can quite figure him out. Same with ADHD inattentive... maybe, maybe not. We are waiting on further testing, but it may be several months before we can get an appointment for the ADOS and NEPSY. These are the scores that our homeschool charter school provided us with last week. The educational psychologist seemed to think that it was really the motor skills issues that are the real problem. He said that even the low processing speed is also a result of the motor skills component, and that the motor skills dragged the Full Scale IQ score down as well. The school said that he is doing fine and that we just need to work harder on learning how to type... but we've been working on it for awhile and it is very slowly coming. I'm just not sure. I'm seeing a lot of concerning things in this report, but I am not sure what to do about them. We have done a lot of O-G phonics work in the past, but he struggles to remember the rules, and so we had moved on to a more traditional spelling program. I'm not sure that I want to go back to teaching the rules, since he doesn't seem to retain them. He is currently receiving OT for sensory/muscle tone/ motor issues. WISC-V (Scaled Score 8-12 = average) Similarities 9 Vocabulary 13 Block Design 10 Visual Puzzles 12 Matrix Reasoning 9 Figure Weights 10 Digit Span 8 Picture Span 9 Coding 4 Symbol Search 7 Full Scale (Standard Score/ Percentile) Full Scale 93/32 GAI 101/53 Verbal Comp 106/66 Visual Spatial 105/63 Fluid Reasoning 97/42 Working Memory 91/27 Processing Speed 75/5 WIAT-III (Standard Score Average = 100)/ Percentile Total Reading Composite 91/27 Written Expression Composite 95/37 Mathematics Composite 106/66 Listening Comprehension 129/97 Oral Reading Fluency 95/37 Word Reading 96/39 Pseudoword Decoding 86/18 Reading Comprehension 116/86 Sentence Composition 110/75 Essay Composition 103/58 Math Problem Solving 112/79 Numerical Operations 98/45 Spelling 77/6 Berry-Buktenica Visual-Motor Integration Beery VMI (Percentile 42, Age Equivalent 12:3) Visual Perception (Percentile 63, Age Equivalent 16:0) Motor Coordinaton (Percentile 1, Age Equivalent 6:8) CTOPP (Scaled Score, Average=10) Elison 9 Blending Words 5 Phoneme Isolation 10 Memory for Digits 6 Nonword Repetition 5 Rapid Digit Naming 9 Rapid Letter Naming 6 Phonological Awareness (Percentile 21) Phonological Memory (Percentile 3) Rapid Symbolic Naming (Percentile 16) His listening comprehension was very high...I'm assuming that means that we don't need to pursue the testing for CAPD? Also, does the high visual perception score mean that vision therapy wouldn't prove helpful here? One other question... does anyone have an opinion on whether or not piano playing is a good activity for him? He has been playing for 5 years and making mediocre process. He likes his teacher and playing songs on the piano, but gets discouraged easily when learning new songs and I face frequent tears about practicing. I understand that with his processing speed/working memory/ motor skills issues, piano is going to be difficult for him. But is it worth it? Is it actually a kind of therapy in and of itself? Of should I accept that piano just isn't his thing? Thank you for any help and advice!

Thank you so much. I am always so impressed with the helpfulness of you people on this forum! (I told my worried daughter that some of my "online mommy friends" could help her with her data and I'm not sure she believed me. Thanks!)

One of my daughters is attending public school for the first time ever, and she came home with a math assignment to gather data from 25 people about their favorite cold treat, and then to make graphs of the data. She's talked to a lot of people, but we could still use about 15 more responses. Can any of you help? Thanks in advance!

Is this a private Montessori or a pubic charter Montessori? We have some experience with a public charter Montessori-- because it is a public school, they have the required special education services offered at the school. So specialized reading help would not occur in the Montessori classroom itself, but would occur as a "pull-out" service with a reading specialist. That might be a good option. On the other hand, a private Montessori might not have those resources.

http://www.learnpianolive.com/ These lessons are different, and a lot of fun. The lessons are broadcast live weekly, but you can watch them later. The kids' version simply has them learning a new song each week, but at six different levels of difficulty. You can also access some of the older lessons in case you need some more songs to work on. There is also an optional part of the program called "Klopol Academy" where the students prepare for online/Skype tests in order to pass off certain skills... this is a way to make sure that the learning is also methodical in addition to being fun. I think there are only three levels so far, though, so maybe too easy for your girls? The adult version is different, and I don't have any experience with that one. He is a funny guy, and makes the lessons interesting. It looks like you can try it free for 30 days to see if it would work for you guys.

If you live where I think you do, there are several different homeschool charters in the area. Have you thought of trying a different one? One of the new ones is offering a $2600 budget...