The best way to describe Littleton is more like an area with towns/suburbs within it. Almost all of those towns/suburbs within it will have a Littleton address but they are separate entities to those of us living in CO. Not that that really matters given the news. CO has had it's share of sorrows over the past few years with the fires, the floods, school shootings, movie theater shootings, kidnappings...it's just sad.

Let me preface by saying that I have almost always read your posts with care in the past. Your dd and mine have so many similarities. I don't really have anything new to add other than that I can commiserate. We are going through CLE 400 this year. It works better than anything in the past but can still be a challenge at times. We are now doing A&P after no retention with AAS. Still struggle with spelling words... Last year we did switch to Winston grammar and are going through it very very slowly. We do about 3 sentences together a few times a week and through in some Daily Grams for punctuation help. I can't say there haven't been tears, but she is slowly starting to grasp some grammar topics. She doesn't always like to use the cards, but working through it together has been key (she's very social) and it takes only 15 minutes on my part, so it's something I can live with.

Base 10 blocks really help with this if you have them. If not, you could use bundles of sticks or pipecleaners. I would build the top number out of the blocks (or alternate), then work through the problem, subtracting blocks as you go. Do this over and over and over again. It will eventually stick. This was a trouble spot for my DD as well until we made it as hands on as possible for as long as was needed.

I hate watching sports...the commentator drone drives me batty. I don't like coffee or anything with alcohol. I hate pie. I dislike all desserts that have fruit actually. I love cold weather and look forward to it. I hate swearing. Get more creative and think of a better word. I let my kids play video games with no limit on time...it gives me a break from them. I want to live in a smaller house that doesn't have hardwood floors, stainless steel appliances, and granite counters. I don't like cell phones for the most part. For emergencies and the occasional text, they are fine. I hate when people talk in public or check their texts while in other company. I don't like jewelry and shoe collecting is stupid. I hate when people say they are allergic to a certain food when really they are just intolerant. Big difference between feeling crummy and risking death.

My DS is very prone to mouth ulcers as well. His dentist said that this is frequently caused by a lack of B-vitamins. He gets fewer of them when he is taking his B-complex supplement. It didn't eliminate the problem so we switched to a SLS-free toothpaste as well. This has helped a lot. He still will have a flare-up from time to time, but they are much less frequent. I have looked into taking gluten out of his diet as well for the same reason. It logically makes sense that he could be not absorbing B-vitamins well due to gluten intolerance, but we haven't had the nerve to take that step yet.

Yup. Fast Track here as well. My dd was the same way. She knew most of her phonics but wasn't reading very fluently and accurately. DB helped her a lot.

All the products from Sound Foundations (Dancing Bears and Apples & Pears) really do look simple in their presentation. Their strength comes from the repetition they provide for a skill. If you don't need as much repetition, then you could definitely use a cursor on any program. If you need a slower build with a lot of repetition, then their products work really well.

My DD fits that description...needs a lot of repetition but is easily distracted. She is using CLE math. Saxon was just too overwhelming for her (small print, copying problems, etc.). Now, she doesn't LOVE CLE either, but she has grown by leaps and bounds since we switched to it. The lessons can be long (we cross off some of the problems), so I do have to sit next to her to keep her on track. We tried TT a few times with the free lessons online and I could tell it wasn't a fit for her. She was very distracted with changing the character on the screen and got annoyed with the "Time Out for a Hint" that happened for each problem.

My DD is doing very well with her math. She understands the concepts. She does great. However, those pesky word problems are still a bother. She mainly struggles with knowing which operation is needed. Once we reason through it together, she can solve it no problem. We have drawn pictures of the problem, tried the bar diagrams, done hand motions for the action, and found keywords (this worked the poorest). Nothing has really helped. We've been working at it for a few years now, so it's not like I've tried these things in quick succession and have confused her. Has anybody found a method or anything that helps solidify this skill?

I had to go with my DD's second choice for most of the poll. If she could have done more of a fill in the blank, it would have been: 1. hockey 2. Ninjago 3. comedy

Some of my favorites from those years were: The Secret Garden The Lottery Rose (one of my favorites a long time ago) My Side of the Mountain

Great! Now I just need to figure out which one I want to get.

We use Simply Nourish from PetSmart. Slightly cheaper than Blue Buffalo, Wellness, etc, but still great quality. Not manufactured by Diamond. Their canned foods are also amazing.

We went through VT for 9 months when my DD was 7. I wish I could say we had huge improvements from it like some other ladies, but we only got minor results. Then again, my DD tested as having only minor vision problems, so that was probably the reason. We went once a week and my DD loved her therapist. They would do the exercises and play different "games" that we weren't able to do at home. We did have homework to do 5x a week. That left us only one day a week where we didn't have any VT. It was pretty tough getting through the homework. We almost always did it first thing in the morning and it usually took us about 30-45 minutes. I did have to bribe her to do the work, she hated doing it. Sometimes we would even challenge dad and brother to try some of the exercises so she wasn't the only one. The early part of therapy for us focused mostly on eye movements, tracking, etc. Later therapy included more visual processing work that was a bit harder for my DD. We did have more relaxed academics that year. We basically did not do anything beyond the three Rs. History was mostly just me reading some library books and science was mostly nature walks and videos. I also relaxed a bit on her writing during that time. We worked on some letter formation, but I scribed for her a lot on her longer assignments. I don't think my DD felt headachy but she did get more tired and irritable, especially on some weeks where the work was harder or longer. Hope that helps and good luck.

I honestly wouldn't worry about it too much at your kids ages. I am not in the camp of waiting until a child is 10 before worrying about their reading, but 4 is really young to be worrying about it. For your daughter, she should still be at the level of reading where the fonts are larger. That is perfectly normal. You could try having her put a bookmark below (or above) the line she is reading to see if that helps her keep her place. As far as following directions and listening skills, we really like the HearBuilder software for that. You can find it here . We have the auditory memory one, but there is a following directions one and sequencing and even a following directions workbook. Not the cheapest around, but definitely less than therapy. For my DD, we have noticed the most progress this past year (at age 9) mainly because of consistency. I work with her on one area of struggle at a time over and over and over again. We have done therapy things in the past, but our main progress has been because of our own one-on-one work.

I don't have a homeschool room either. We used to have one and it was nice, but we felt very isolated. We now school just in the dining room/living room combo. Most of our eating is in our nook, so the dining room table was going unused. I keep the pencils, crayons, etc. in little dollar buckets from Target on a lazy susan in the middle of the table. We will soon be replacing our tall bookcase in the living room with either an expedit or horizontal bookshelf in the dining room. We only keep current school year books out, the rest are either packed away, given away, or the kids adopt them into their rooms. We have decided that we don't like posters hanging on the wall, most of those we just buy or print in notebook size and put in our binders for reference. No big whiteboard either; we just use little lapboards. All reading is done on the living room sofa, so we have our basket of library and current reading books out there. Our computer is just in our main office. Extra supplies (pencils, etc) are stored in the office, files for the year are in a filing cabinet in the office. Our science experiment supplies are kept in a cabinet in the kitchen (since that is where we do experiments). Other than that, our most frequently used books are kept in a 31 organizing bag that we bring to the table each day and store back at the end of the day.

left 60% (dominant - linear, least - verbal) right 40% (dominant - holistic, least - random) I also think I would have had a higher left score when I was younger. Having kids has changed me to look at the bigger picture more than I used to.

I had one done about 10 years ago now and have had no problems. In fact, it has been great for us because I am one of those super-fertile people that can get pregnant just thinking about it. I didn't do well on hormone birth control methods and had problems with PPD after my second. Two kids was our happy number and we have no regrets. I wonder if the method used makes a difference in outcomes. My tubes were burned, no clips here.

I'm late to this party and don't have much to add, but I will echo a few thoughts. If you are looking for something with a bit more acreage, then I would consider Loveland, Longmont, the Firestone area, or Elizabeth. Elizabeth is more on the conservative side, but people here are generally accepting of pretty much everything. The more northern areas like Loveland, etc. have more lakes than further south. Bugs are not an issue. We do have some mosquitoes, but not very many. Fleas can't live here. I've never seen a cockroach. We do get quite a few wasps though. Our humidity is so low that most bugs don't like it here. Wildlife isn't an issue for most places with houses. You will hear the occasional story of coyotes or bears, but not too often. You do need to watch for rattlesnakes on some hiking trails, but they leave you alone if you leave them alone. Colorado boasts more sunny days than most other states. That means that even if there is a big snow, it melts pretty quickly. Homeschooling is very easy here. As far as negatives, the dryness is the biggest. Low humidity and no water is the general trend. The only green you see in the summer is on some very well maintained grass. There are watering restrictions and it is hard to get certain things to grow (though we do attempt a garden each year, care for it is different). Water is truly the most precious resource in CO. Also, the elevation means that the sun is more intense here (and there is a lot of it). Sunscreen is a must and I don't know many people that enjoy laying out or relaxing in the sun here. The low humidity also means that skin and hair are usually drier. But I love living here. It is a very outdoor oriented state. Lots of emphasis on hiking and biking in the summer and skiing, snowboarding, or snowshoeing in the winter. It's a very active state. Most people do not own their own pool here (though some do). They need to be heated in the summer and drained in the winter. There are plenty of neighborhood or city pool though.

I thought that one too! I've only been able to sleep without something on my feet in the last couple of years. One theory I had when I was younger was that there was a slightly different time zone in water. This is why you move so slowly while in water. But when you are done swimming, your body needs to catch back up to the original time zone. That's why you get so tired after swimming.

My DD has dyslexia and also would struggle with long, drawn-out descriptions sometimes. I read her Charlie and the Chocolate Factory at age 6 and she LOVED it. I would say go ahead and start it. She has also loved listening to the Harry Potter books, the Chronicles of Narnia, Tales of Despereaux, and The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane.

Don't know that this will help, but my DS is a scab picker. I told him that I was going to check it every evening before bed. If he had picked at it, I told him he would have to wear his sister's Barbie bandages. I had to do it just once, but he knew I was serious.

Thanks! Procrastination pays off for once.

A full evaluation would be through a neuropsych, but an OT does most of the remediation work for dysgraphia and should be able to spot it and give recommendations.

I agree...this sounds like dysgraphia. Have you gotten an evaluation? I think that if she is spelling the same words well orally or via typing, then she IS learning the spelling. There is something in the way of her handwriting output. I, personally, think you would be fine to modify the directions some. Maybe continue the handwriting for the individual words, but allow for typing of the sentences. I know I have had to (and sometimes still do have to) break the sentences up into phrases because they get too long for my DD's working memory. I have also split the sentences up over a series of days for my DD in the past. She usually does one page of work a day. This makes the lessons usually last 2-3 days. I would divide the four sentences up between those days so that she wouldn't be stuck with 4 sentences on the last day.