Hmm interesting. I pretty sure I have sensory issues and something similar to disgraphia. My oldest didn't have any speech issues and is a good reader but she struggles with handwriting and drawing and she also seems to have sensory issues. My son was in speech therapy as a toddler and when he was older for articulation. He is 5 and is struggling even more then my oldest with handwriting and drawing. I have no clue if this all would relate to winking but it is interesting.

Thanks everyone. He doesn't write letters or numbers at all right now but when I do have him start I will start with unlined paper. Thanks for the tips. I didn't realize they made sandpaper letters but I like that idea as well as forming the letters in the air. I also got something for him and his sister to build letters from pieces. He has no interest in writing and drawing at all. I keep working on him with pencil grip too and correcting it. His has a fist grip at times. The speech therapist gave me the OT's email and she going to look at him. When I described his sensory issues and how he couldn't draw shapes or stick figures she said it was probably related. I don't think he is going to qualify for OT through the school because he doesn't have academic issues but maybe I can convince her to keep an eye on him and give me things to work with him on. The other day his sisters were on a coloring spree and for the first time he asked to color. My oldest also struggles in this area too but she can at least get by and I was able to work with her.

Call the Tucumcari Police. I called the police and we finally heard back from him right afterwards. We cancelled the order and were going to get the money back but my husband told him that he just wanted the climber and he did end up sending it because of the police. I was so surprised it came with all the parts and everything but he is very shady and it was a horrible experience. I think he banks on getting away with it some of the time and that not everyone will contact the police. If you ordered from dome climber here is the info I found from a search below. He also has a rodney@dom​eclimber.co​m email which he responded to after the police were contacted. I don't have the phone number anymore. I ordered a dome climber from Rodney Ward's company 'domeclimber.com' because he was a small business owner that claimed to make a quality product that was made in the USA; I definitely wanted to support that. It is June 4th and I have no dome. The only reason he replied to my email and returned my money was because I threatened to call the Tucumcari police. Sgt. Paul Belle @ 575-461-2160 is assigned specifically to 'Rodney Ward Complaints'. Rodney is a terrible liar. He claimed he shipped our dome weeks ago, yet couldn't provide us with a tracking # or name of the carrier. He claimed he is not the business owner, but when we asked for his boss' name and number he claimed he couldn't remember. Liar. Scammer. Here's his contact info: 702 E Aber, Tucumcari, NM 88401. 575-815-8845 or 575-708-0571. Personal email rodneywa@yahoo.com, as he doesn't respond to the web@domeclimber.com. It's a mystery that he has been able to do this for so long!

I know about the history cycle but I haven't really done it with my kids. I have the SOTW volume 1 audio cd and we listened to it in the car but only 1 of my kids actually listened to it. I have a lot of history books in the house but I let them chose what they want to read and so they are not read in order of the time in history at all. I am now realizing that my older 2 have no sense of time of when things in history or that we are reading about have occurred in relation to one another. Did I mess them up?

I put the audio cd on for my kids in the car. My 4.5 year old listened to it and retained more knowledge then my 6.5 year old who did not listen to it at all.

Just checked all my kids and none of my 3 kids who are 3, 5 and 7 can wink. Like I mentioned I am an adult who cannot wink. What problem can it be an indicator with other signs?

I can't wink with just one eye and I am not sure if my kids can. This is a problem?

I just realized I forgot the NRRF one. My 7 year old daughter read through 1-4 but did make single mistakes in those sections then had 3 mistakes in 5.

My 7 year old 1st grade daughter got 42 words correct so 4.2. She got all the words up to 4th grade except 2 and 4 ofthe 5th grade words. Once it clicked she really quickly went from the 1st grade reading level to this level and has been there since the end of kindergarten. She can read any book that would interest her but I wonder if eventually I should work on the harder words or if it will come naturally. My 5 year old son who learned how to blend cvc words about year and a half ago but hasn't made any progress from there got half of the first grade words which is .5.

I haven't gone full Feingold but I noticed a difference taking out all artificial additives. I am noticing set backs in my son though. I do know it is making a difference because when they have something they shouldn't I notice it in their behavior right away and it takes several days to settle down. I have a hard time going full Feingold and cutting out whole foods but I guess it could be something I could try eventually.

In your circumstances I would consider it but only if you are okay with the possibility that you will be left with the snake down the road. This would obviously make her happy and she does sound very responsible. She is only 9 though and this might not be her future obsession when she is old enough to either go to college or move out or even later down the road living at home. I couldn't see myself in that situation because I don't care to take on any more pets and my kids have other passions and interests.

I wouldn't worry about the alphabet song too much but I would see if he knows his letter sounds. If he doesn't then I get either Preschool Preps Meet the Letter Sounds or Leap Frog letter factory so he learns those. If the school is heavy on sight words I would also take some time to give him phonics instruction at his pace. My 5 year old is working on that but very slowly. He misses the cut off on my state so he will be in kindergarten next year.

I think the first movie I saw was a re-showing of ET. I remember seeing that in the theaters but I was born the year it first came out. It was re shown in 1985 so I must of seen it then. I was really young. I also saw a re-showing of Bambi when I was in kindergarten. The Little Mermaid and All Dogs Go to Heaven were also one of the earliest movies I saw.

They only go once a week at dd's school. They can take out 3 books. They have open times right before school lets out but I think mostly older kids do that. DD missed the last 2 weeks because library day fell on thanksgiving and an ice day. She was a little upset about missing library day this week and was hoping to go on Friday instead but they didn't.

I find being a sahm hard but at the same time I am glad I can do it. For me it is hard because I am an introvert and there is constant noise and often times chaos. I do not do well without any quiet time. It is hard to not really have much intellectual stimulation from other adults very often. I am often either alone in a house with kids or at a chaotic place with a lot of other people. It isn't difficult or back breaking to do tasks like cooking, cleaning, dishes and laundry but I really don't like doing them at all and I have to do way more of it now. My kids are pretty intense at times and pretty emotional. I have done many different jobs and for me the most mentally challenging is dealing with kids with no breaks. It is fine that not everyone feels that way but I don't think there is anything wrong with people who do find it challenging. As challenging as it is at times I am happy to do it and glad I can. I never once regretted having kids or being a sahm but for me it is hard.

In Alaska people take off their shoes when they go into other people's's houses. It is the custom here and everyone just does it. I grew up in NJ where most people wore shoes indoors if you are visiting someone except the Asians families I knew. I much prefer to go shoe less indoors because I hate wearing shoes and it is easier to clean. My kids do take them off right away because that is what they are used to but I am not super anal about it if someone happened to not take them off right away. The boy and man in the house are the worse about following that one at all times. My son mostly does but sometimes he will tramp through the house.

DS is 5. He doing okay for his age in academics but he cannot write any letters or numbers at all, he scribbles for coloring and he doesn't draw pictures at all. I am starting to get worried about it. I am an afterschooler at the moment. Next year he will be going to a charter school. They are big on teaching kids to correctly form letters and have high expectations for letter formation. They also do a lot of coloring. Every time I try to work with him on letters on paper he just isn't ready to form them correctly. His lines are not steady and the sizing is way off even after showing him. I focused on other tasks such as doing wet,dry,try with a small chalkboard and having him do maze books. I got him a coloring book that was a story he really likes hoping that would motivate him to try a little harder. He does not like messy activities but he does try in rice. It would be helpful if he could write anyway especially in math and spelling. We use letter tiles for spelling and I dictate for him in math but it would be helpful if he could write out his own numbers when we are doing math.

So far my 5 and 7 year old went through phases as preschoolers where the were ambidextrous. My oldest was a lefty as a toddler, switched as a preschooler and settled on her right hand a little after 5 when she started being able to write letters with me. My son is still switching at 5. He actually struggling in writing but I am not sure that that is related.

My dd keeps her school library books at her desk in school to read when she finishes her work. I ask her what she gets and have her bring them home before library day to put it down on her reading list. So far she brings home complete fluff but nothing I found objectionable yet. I don't like those Junie B Jones books at all but she hasn't taken them out. She into those magic kitty and puppy and rainbow fairy books which is definitely not quality reading at all but also not objectionable. We can make requests of books that our kids can't take out that they will respect but I haven't had to do that. She does take out these easy reader books that are really simple and really has no worth now that she reading really well because they are disguised as books on certain topics. She doesn't need to take out only challenging stuff or anything but these are more controlled simple phonics readers. The library also lets the parent take out books for students or their siblings so I have been going weekly to her library and taking out books for all the kids. We discuss books before I go and look them up online but I have more control over these selections and can pick up some more quality stuff to go with the fluff and makes suggestions. If she picked something I didn't think she was ready for then I would talk about that with her and help her pick something similar and tell her to wait until she gets a little older but it hasn't come up yet.

I think the research guides are a little better with more information then the regular Magic Tree House Books. They seem to be a slightly higher reading level too. I'm not sure how many there are but I would get some at least if my kids specifically asked for them.

I'm not usually bothered or paranoid about pictures of my kids but that would bother me a little if my kid was in the google street view. I think the current street view of my house is hilarious. All you can see is the huge tree that used to be there until last years wind storm.

We are paying gas prices that are not realistic. We subsidize the cost of gas and make it artificially lower. Our prices are way lower then other industrialized nations and it shows in our lifestyles. We do need to make more walk-able bike-able etc communities but it won't happen with dirt cheap gas prices because there is no incentive to not continue in the manner we currently are. The majority of people are in the dark about our resource use and where it comes from or how a city should be designed. No one is advocating for a drastic change over night but we do need to slowly increase the price and make the changes we need to build more sustainable cities because one big aspect of sustainability is how we design our cities. This isn't about blaming any individual about their lifestyle choices but the need to make changes so that future generations have the resources they need to simply live. I think that the different things individuals themselves do are important and cool but for real change to occur the prices do need to rise and we need to start designing our cities so we don't need to be so resource intense. I could list out what we do and don't do to use less gas and why certain things I don't mind doing and other things are hard but it is really irrelevant.

My husband bike commuted to work year round for several years while we had kids even. We live in Alaska and get plenty of snow. At the moment our city isn't really set up for winter biking but there definitely are people out there doing it and who are advocating to make it more bike friendly.

I have a diesal volkswagon Jetta and it gets way better gas mileage then other station wagons of similar size like the Subaru. I am definitely saving over owning something like a Subaru.

Gas prices in the US don't reflect the reality. They just don't. They are heavily subsidized. It is leading us to build our lives in ways that are not sustainable for the long run. We will not change if the prices don't reflect reality like they do elsewhere. We do not pay the true cost of gas and they do need to be more realistic for change to be made. It can't happen overnight but it does need to happen. It will happen whether we like it or not because oil is a limited resource and we will be hitting a peak eventually where our use outpaces what can be produced. Drilling in the Arctic will not solve our problem. The amount there is just a small percentage of our use. Suburban sprawl is one of the biggest resource and environmental problems we face. It is a huge waste of resources. Our current life will not last indefinitely. More and more of the world is trying to live like Americans and there simply is not enough resources for that. We could have built our cities more efficiently and not around the automobile but we didn't. My city actually had a decent plan that was a ten year effort and a compromise between what developers wanted and what everyone else who cared about making a more sustainable city wanted. It passed but then with a change of mayors then plan was dead in its track and ten years of effort went to waste. Literally hundreds of people showed up from all walks of life in support of keeping the land use plan but it was of no use. Paying artificially cheap prices led to horrible sprawling city design and unsustainable practices. Yes it will hurt since we are so sprawled out but we need to change our ways. There simply isn't enough to support this lifestyle of heavy gas use indefinitely.