I've never met anyone else with psoriatic arthritis before - I'd love to know what you do to help: meds, vitamins, etc. If you don't mind sharing. I'm just waiting for my appointment with a rheumy.

I'm in too. I have psoriatic arthritis and I get migraines. I feel kind of bad posting since so many are dealing with so many issues at once. However, this definitely affects life, especially with a 2 year old. I'm having a major flare right now and I am back on Prednisone (3rd time in the last 4 months) which is helping a bit but then more side effects. I also have Restless Legs Syndrome and between pain and a 2 year old and RLS, sleep doesn't always come easily which makes the next day terrible. I'm working on going low carb right now because the Prednisone has put on 15 pounds and I'm trying to lower gluten also. At this point I feel losing weight is more important than no gluten but I don't know. As everyone, I have good days and bad days and some days require lots of pain meds. My oldest son was a preemie and has many learning disorders and OCD/Anxiety. My daughter is AWESOME and I couldn't do this without her but I feel bad that she has to help so much. My 2 year old has some type of allergic disorder to all food and is still on an elemental formula.

We've tried other programs but we keep coming back to CW (even for my learning delayed, dyslexic - he just works further behind). I wish we had just kept with it instead of trying others. Although I may try some of WWS, we'll be sticking with CW from here out, even if we don't finish the entire series by the time she graduates. Thank you everyone for the encouragement.

Thank you Cleopatra. I hadn't thought of working OB like that and pulling on regular Homer only if needed for extra practice. My daughter usually picks things up well so this may work. Great suggestion.

Mine came from my grandparents rather than my parents and it sounds cliche, but they told me I could do anything. No matter what, I could LEARN anything. They made me feel smart and I wanted to live up to that. Also, positive reinforcement rather than negative consequences, and clear expectations.

Dialectica, I'm glad you feel like you can come and ask questions and pour out the pent up emotions associated with it. Everyone, This has been a fantastic thread and I appreciate everyone's contributions as I continue to learn how to help my son. He's still on 4th/5th grade math and we are just moving through it as we can. My feeling is that they have a lock and its very difficult to find the key (curriculum/method) that works and that lock tends to reset from time to time and you have to find a new key. And sometimes you just have to sit on it for a while and let their brains soak it in (once they do get it). At least that has been our experience so far.

So, just curious, in relation to this thread, what are your views on Singapore Math for dyscalculia? Would you recommend mastery or spiral programs? What about some of the other popular ones - Math-U-See, Rod & Staff, CLE, Developmental Math? Thank you,

When I asked about their grammar on their forum, I was told this: "The manual is simply the questions and the answers for all the grammar rules MP will cover with their grammar series. It does not have any exercises." Maybe that helps?

I love Homeschool Helper also. OLLY has just released their ipad app for beta testing too. You can start from scratch on it and not need the main program (which is good because it's for the MAC).

We'll be using it for late middle school/high school. I'll be adding to it quite a bit but we're looking forward to it. Both the previous posters inspired me to try it for ourselves and I'll be morphing in Sonlight with it too similar to Merry.

We don't use the cds either.

I sure hope so :) I had rice and beans yesterday that is gluten free.

Just wondering what snacks you've found that you like? I made home-made chex mix and I have some gluten free crackers but that's it so far.

Thanks :) I don't expect full recovery this week but it would be nice to see a little something for my efforts, kwim? I so want to feel better...

...So far so good. I've been wanting to do this for a long time, but after feeling horrible the last few days (really weeks/months), I finally decided I can't put it off anymore. How long till you really start to notice that you're feeling better? Or is it a little bit each day?

I'd consider either Simply Charlotte Mason Organizer (you just put in each resource you are using and schedule it - if you don't get to it today, it just automatically bumps it to the next day for you until you say it was done) or, if you have an iPad, the Homeschool Helper App could work the way you'd like also. Let me know if you have more questions about either.

My parents swear that they took me to Disney World around age 9 or 10 for me. We were there for a few days and they say don't you remember how it rained and rained and we bought ponches and did this and that? I can't remember a thing of it, nothing, nada. My husband is like yours. I think he remembers every single birthday present he's ever received, everybody's birthdays, all the vacations he went on, etc. I think Moms just have more multi-tasking going on for us to remember everything......

We use Barton and HST+. I just listed each lesson in Barton: Lesson 1: Vowels Lesson 2: Consonants, etc. whatever they were. Then I just added Lesson 1 as an assignment, say on January 1st and marked it completed. Then added Lesson 1 the next day and completed (whatever days you actually do it). Then when we finished Lesson 1, I added Lesson 2 the same way. Usually I know a lesson is going to last several days, so usually I just add 5 days manually of a Lesson and then add more if needed. I wish HST+ had a "worked on" feature instead of having to mark "completed", but this way works for me. Good luck,

I have to admit, I wouldn't trade my iPad for ANYTHING!! I'm in :001_wub: .

Thank you to all who have answered. I had no idea others had ever even dealt with this. He has not been scoped but once the insurance is cleared up, I'm hoping that will be our first option. We are in the Orlando area and will be looking up some good docs, possibly the one Kyr recommended as he specializes in EE/EOS. Luckily he loves his bottle - he won't drink the Elecare out of anything but a bottle. I hate having him on it so long, but he won't go to college with it. :) He'll drink water out of a cup and other things that we've "tested". He LOVES ice, so we let him have that as much as he wants for oral stimulation. Not sure what else to help with that though. When he does eat solid food, he frequently spits it out. We have no idea why. He'll be eating just fine and swallowing and then all of a sudden he just starts spitting it out instead.

I've noticed quite a few changed their names too, now that they can, and that might account for missing some of the "veterans". They might have new names and we don't realize it.

Yes, we've always done the one food at a time. At 6 mos. when he first showed reactions, we spaced it every 3-4 days and we've gone as long as a week in between. He has issues with nearly every thing he eats - fruits, veges, meats, definitely dairy and soy. Anything with sugars in it, I suspect fructrose since he has issues with fruit. The doctor put him on Florastor when he was still a baby, maybe nine months, and I put it in his bottle and he threw up all day and had the weirdest bm's I've ever seen (pink jello). We thought maybe it was a fluke and tried it again a few weeks later and the same thing. Florastor has fructose and lactose in it. He's just barely talking - he's been delayed on that though I suspect its from not eating. At night, I can definitely tell he's uncomfortable but only when he's had solid food (not his elemental formula). He doesn't sleep well and writhes and arches. I haven't tried smoothies because I don't know what to put in them. LOL We are testing rice milk and hemp milk but neither have enough calories, fat and protein. Chucki, do you mean how long do we keep giving the food? Like testing the rice milk - I'll give him whatever he'll take of it as often as he wants it throughout several days. My other son was an even earlier preemie and he had severe reflux but no other food issues, other than being picky. Insurance and doctors are our biggest issue. My husband and I are uninsurable and in Florida, unless we have family insurance, we can't just get kid insurance and we can't get family insurance since we are uninsurable (previous conditions). I'm working on getting Florida KidCare but it's taking forever. First time we were denied; this time, I'm still waiting. I just wondered if anyone had ever heard of something like this? Can a kid have intolerances to everything? I used to think those people who thought red dye was causing their kid's behavior to be bad were crazy; now we are that family.

I'm truly at the end of my rope with my two year old. Our doctor hasn't helped, nor our pediatric gastroenterologist. Background: My two year old son was born 5 weeks early at 4lbs. 5oz. He was in the NICU for 10 days for digestion problems and breathing issues. He's had trouble eating ever since. He had severe reflux and still has it a little now but is no longer medicated for it. In the NICU, he could not tolerate any formula - he'd throw it up and choke on it. I pumped like crazy and he seemed ok on breast milk. Then he started doing bad on breast milk. I quit dairy and soy - it helped some but not entirely. I quit wheat, eggs, nuts, etc. He ended up on Nutramigen and was somewhat better. Then once solids were introduced around 6 mos., he started with reactions - bad diaper rashes (bleeding, painful, it was horrible), stopped sleeping through the night, HORRIBLE crabbiness. We backed off of solids until 9 mos. same thing all over again. Then again at 1 year. We've been going through this for two years now. We've had various acronyms thrown at us but nothing definite - MSPI, FPIES, EE, etc. Now, he's still on elemental formula (Elecare Junior) and doing well IF that is the only thing he gets. As soon as we give him any type of food, juice, etc. he turns into a different child - screaming, demanding, tantrums, mean (pulls hair, scratches, kicks....), stops sleeping - but no other symptoms just behavioral now. He looks healthy and is growing though he's dropped to below the 10th percentile - he's small. What do I do? He wants to eat. I want him to eat but I can't take the behavior. Thanks for reading this far. I'm just so tired about all this.

I might add also to not feel badly about having to medicate. I fought medication for a long time before finally trying it for my son and I wish so badly that we would have started it earlier. This thread has even encouraged me to speak with his psychiatrist about needing either something different or a high dose. I'd give anything to have my old son back. He's come a long way and we are doing well but there is definite room for more improvement. Thank you to each of you sharing your story. I had no idea so many others were going through this as well. I have tears welling up from reading each post.

I have never used it, but what you describe sounds similar to Veritas Press online to me. Have you checked it out?