Gingerbread Mama
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Posts posted by Gingerbread Mama
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Breakfast?
For me, a smoothie early this morning and then an egg and tea when the kids got up.
For the kids, smoothies and waffles.
Lunch? Probably left over roast and veggies.
Dinner? Not a clue. I think I'm having chicken and a salad. The kids??
What are you doing today? I did two loads of laundry this morning :D School... We've had PE (biking and skateboarding after breakfast) and they've done their independent reading. I hauled DD through her lapbooking (and I do mean hauled, she picked today to be whiney and obstinate.) Then I had to turn around and help younger DS with his work. At least he did willingly do it. ODS is finishing his work now. This afternoon we will have read aloud time. I have a lot going on tonight - my stepson has asked us to attend a soccer game (if it doesn't rain) and I also have a consignment sale I want to attend, of course, these are back to back on opposite ends of the county :001_huh:
Did March come in like a lion or a lamb? I suppose a lamb compared to others. We've had some rain but plenty of sunshine. It's been mid 60's to low 70's this week. Today is the first day it's looked dreary, tomorrow and the weekend should be cold and rainy. Hurrah, it's like Seattle came to Tennessee LOL
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DD has five of the historical dolls. I handed down my Samantha and Felicity dolls to her. Then she got Elizabeth for her birthday, and Nellie for Christmas. She bought Emily with her own money and now she wants Molly so she will have "friend" sets. I, personally, would rather her get Kit (she looks very different with her short hair) or McKenna (*I* want a girl of the year LOL)
She does also have a set of bitty twins and two bitty babies. All of those she saved and bought herself. We were only going to have one baby, but dd has red hair and they FINALLY brought out a redhead baby this winter so she and her daddy went to AG in Chicago and brought one home :)
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My screen addict is older (almost thirteen) but I've been reading this thread with interest. I recently grounded him from Xbox/non family tv for two weeks. The mega fit he threw immediately bought him a third week. We are three days in and he is acting like he is dying. I implemented a mandatory bedtime reading time. The book choices are all well within his reading range and I specifically picked several that fit his interests and gave him a choice between them. You would have thought I had suggested he read war and peace in one sitting. I hate to say it but I'm pretty sure he has a serious addiction to screens. I'm not sure we will ever be able to reinstate them here. If he has that option he absolutely ignores all else.
He *has* managed to get out and skateboard for a bit this afternoon and he and his siblings started filming a miniseries in my mothers woods. That's been the extent of his creativity. He thought he wanted to do stop motions and we bought him a kit at Christmas but that a) took work and thought and b) he wasn't producing cinema quality shows right away so he never picked it up after the first try. To say I'm frustrated with him is an understatement. If I could find one thing he likes *besides* Halo.
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Can someone give me an example as to what sort of skills this helps your child develop?
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Thanks, Elizabeth. That's good to now. I'm trying to brainstorm a listing things I think I might need to ask but would probably forget lol
Jumping - I think it's so unfair that the therapy our kids might need isn't covered by insurance but, if we choose to drug them, they will cough up money no question. That's just my personal rant :) of course, with our last insurance they would pay for a (traditional) eye exam but NOT the glasses if you were found to need them. Go figure. Yes you have a problem, yes you pay us a fortune in premiums, no we won't help you fix your problem. Sigh.
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I was ours could be covered by insurance if they found the problem was "medical" in nature. For instance, my youngest has an eye that turns out a bit. They said that would likely be considered medical. My oldest had what they think will turn out to be tracking problems, they told me that is considered medical. Now, based on those two things I can't think what *wouldnt* be medical…but I guess some aren't. Anyway, short answer is that (for us) it can depending in diagnosis.
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Mamakelly - I see. I can understand that.
Elizabeth - so is that something I need to ask about before they start the evals (whether they will initially test for, and treat the processing)? How do you know if it was successfully treated? I feel woefully unprepared for what I should know going in.
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Our VT sessions are only (only LOL) $100 a piece and we go once a week. I'm shocked at how much people here pay for VT. I'm not surprised that they say only ten sessions to start. Our VT Doctor typically recommends 12 sessions. Marlie was finished in 14 sessions, and I was the one who asked for it to be extended.
May I ask why you chose to extend her therapy? I'm just curious if there are things I should be looking for.
I was only suprised about the 10 session blocks because I had steeled myself for some of what I've read on the board (huge amount of sessions at $140+ each.) About the "only" $100 (or $70) each......I know, right? I think that is what threw my husband for a loop....the fact that I was saying how "inexpensive" it could seemed LOL LOL
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My children have planted a "garden", term used very loosely LOL They busted an old pumpkin for the seeds, then YDS planted a blueberry :D, and they are saving and planting apple seeds. All in a patch in a wooded lot *sigh* BUT, it shows some creativity and when they are working on it they aren't :boxing_smiley: so......... I'm pretty proud of them!
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I don't think 5,000 once a week would be enough. It gets peed out if the body doesn't need it, so one day he gets a chunk and the rest he's too low.
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I'm so confused. I thought I'd read that vitamin D is stored in the body and isn't removed (if not needed) via waste. I was under the impression that was how you reached toxic levels. Did I misread that?
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Can I ask, just how quickly have the changes you've noticed happened? Was he already improving in early January, for example? Or did it happen extremely quickly.
Rod
This was not gradual at all. We have been out of public school since the middle of December. Honestly, things were so miserable (and we were making so little progress) that we were beginning to doubt our ability to homeschool him.
We started coconut oil first, I also began weeding out the less healthy things he craved. It almost seems like an "overnight" change, but I'm sure it was more like over the course of 3 or 4 days.......he began to eat, hold genuine conversations, sit through stories, etc.. I would say we did coconut oil/eliminating foods almost exclusively for a week and a half to two weeks. We only began fish oil and the anti histamine last week. That seemed to kick things up to the next level, so to speak. Now he is a bottomless pit when it comes to healthy food, and, though we have "moments" of not the best behavior, his attitude/behavior has shown a remarkable turn around.
I have noticed a large difference in his ability to focus on your face when you speak to him. I've been around severely autistic children, they wouldn't even look in your direction. DS wasn't necessarily like that, but he couldn't hold your eyes or look directly at you during a conversation. His eyes would slide around your face or look slightly above or to the side of you, they almost seemed to "jump", like he couldn't hold them on you. I notice he is beginning, more and more, to look AT me when speaking and meet and hold my eyes. FWIW, he has been around SpEd teachers at school, and seen several specialists and no one ever suggested autism or Aspberger's. I'm not sure his inability to focus on a person when talking was anything like an autistic's, all I can say is that I can tell a huge difference.
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I know if he were still in school, between school hours, homework, therapies, and what little play time was left, he would never have even had time left over to read poetry for fun!
:iagree:This is also one of the biggest reasons we chose to homeschool. We do our "tutoring" during our school day, when the school day is over the kids hve to time to play and be kids. We are also looking at VT appointments, which we would NEVER have been able to do while in PS (unless I had taken a sick day and pulled them out of school once a week... imagine that conversation with the truancy officer :001_huh:)
Hurray for your son! I know just how thrilled you are, we are beginning "recovery from PS" with my own 8 year old, he is already improving as well. I hope, soon, I can make a post similar to yours! :001_smile:
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Well I signed up for the giveaway yesterday, but can't figure out how to join your blog to post a comment lol
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Marie, thanks for looking that up. I think my best bet on that is to have our DO do a blood test and check his levels. It would be so easy to err either way. I wouldn't want to OD him, but it would also do no good to be supplementing with far less than he needs.
Now if I could just get him to handle change/excitement a little better LOL My stepdad drives a truck and is in on weekends. I could tell yesterday that the "anticipation" of Papaw being home was making him act a little silly, today has been pretty bad when compared to behavior last week. Still, it isn't nearly as bad as it could be or has gotten to in the past. He just seems to be under the impression that rules go out the window when Papaw is home (as does Papaw, apparently...sigh.) As much as I appreciate him getting time with grandparents, I'm almost relieved to see Monday roll around so we can get back into the swing of things and not feel like I'm looking for someone to undermine me, however unintentionally.
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I think there's going to be too much shifting around in our house (from dd12 to ds3 to me)
Yes, I think it would be like that in our house, too. I'd love to buy them each one, we are a very techno-geek family, but I don't think I could quite swing that!
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Wow. That looks awesome. I wonder if it would be better than an Otterbox? I seriously think we need an iPad LOL I would definitely have to put something on it, though.
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I have read several on the threads here about vision therapy and cringed. I know my boys likely need it, but seeing all those $$$ in the posts worried me. I kept putting off checking into it. Now I'm sorry I did!
I called yesterday and spoke to the ONE person that was located anywhere close to us on COVD's website. It turns out that this woman was actually a dr I took the kids to years ago (she was just starting out in eye care at the time), so I know "of" her and like and trust her. Also, the cost is ... well ... almost shamefully cheap. The evaluations are $84 per child, if their diagnosis comes back as medical in nature they will only be $40 as per my insurance specialist copay. The VT sessions are a one on one session with the VT therapist, once a week, to the tune of $120 per pop. She then sends home homework to be done each day until the next visit. They will sell "blocks" of 10 sessions (and she said they don't want to sell more than 10 sessions because you might not need it) at a discounted price of $700. That makes it just $70 a session! They re-evaluate after 10 weeks to see what progress is made and how/whether to proceed. The woman I spoke to spent nearly 45 minutes on the phone with me, discussing what I was seeing with the kids. She said (and she did clarify that she couldn't diagnose anything over the phone) that it *sounded* like both boys issues would be something that would fall under a "medical" diagnosis, which she said she had good results getting our particular insurance to pay for. I can certainly imagine my youngest would end up being medical, he has an eye that you can sit and watch "drift" out sometimes.
Anyway, if the insurance would pick up some of the tab that would REALLY be the icing on the cake. If not, though, I'd be looking at a little over $1500 for the VT (at the beginning, anyway, they could need more.) I did decide to have them test DD. I haven't noticed any eye issues with her, but this will also take care of their yearly eye exam and, honestly, I'd feel sort of bad to have the boys evaluated and not even check to make sure her eyes work correctly.
We go the 14th of next month. I'm so excited, my husband can't understand why :lol: I guess a huge part of it is feeling like we are finally DOING something. Well, that and the fact that I can quit sweating how we would ever afford this!
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I'm afraid that if it bothers the library that we belong to, they will just have to get over it. I only say that because their shelves are such an awful mess. Twice, I have spent an afternoon there tracking down a handful of books. It isn't that they don't try, but it appears that people drop their children in the kids section while they browse themselves or surf the internet (despite a sign saying you must attend to children at all times :glare:) Several times I've had things come up on the computer search as being "in" but they weren't in their spot, nor could they be located. My mother is a librarian and even SHE gave up on our last visit and said "Oh my gosh, just reserve them and pick them up at the desk next time." LOL
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I'm curious whether the supplements include extra vitamin D3, and if so, how much? It's a topic I'm very interested in...Thanks
Rod Everson
They don't....yet. I am, however, researching it and have a bottle on the way. We are in TN and it's been a bleak/rainy winter so they kids haven't gotten much time outside in the sunshine. I'm not sure they'd get "enough" in the sun, anyway (barring summer, perhaps, when we swim almost all day), so we all probably need it.
I've read your posts on D3 with interest. Do you recommend having your doctor run a blood test to check levels before starting, as a rule? I know you said you differ your dose throughout the year - do you test before changing, or have you just found what works for you and know when to change up the dose? Luckily, we have a DO who is interested in this sort of thing and humors me when I ask for this or that lab work to be done :)
I'll be happy to update on the D3 once we have tried it for a bit.
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LOL'ing about the 15 month old comment. Yes, I've had a doctor give me totally idiotic bf'ing advice. With my first baby, his ped told me not to breastfeed him more than a couple of months because "breast milk is to help them grow, if people do it too long they will grow a super human as big as a house." He then proceeded to tell me to just put him on cows milk, that it was basically "the same stuff." Needless to say, that was our last trip to see that guy. I called every parent I knew (we were knew to the area, so it was a short list) and found a wonderful doctor who ended up being right around the corner from our house.
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:party:This is great news!
ETA: It is likely the elimination diet, from what I have been reading in Dr. Bock's Healing the New Childhood Epidemics, and probably the supplements too!
Yes, I think you are probably right. Now to just convince the rest of the family that, no, children do not NEED junk food to survive. If they want to spend money on them to make them feel loved they can always buy some curriculum ;)
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I'm happy to hear that you had a good visit. That is wonderful that your eye dr is apparently ok with the VT stuff and willing to order the glasses so you can use your insurance!
How long until you get the paperwork? I would be on pins and needles :) but that's just my personality.
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I just had to share with y'all. I know that none of the people at our old PS would understand what a big deal this is to me. DS8 has really been showing some remarkable improvements the last couple of weeks(, here's hoping it continues!)
To start, this is my little guy. He is 8, but he weighs around 45 lbs and is about 45 inches tall. He's exactly the size my ODS was at FIVE. He has always had the worst appetite combined with atrocious cravings (carbs, sugar...) I have always tried to serve healthy foods, but the little bugger could go for for.ev.er without eating when it wasn't what he wanted. Add to that my super involved parents who would rush right out and get him McD's chicken, chocolate milk, candy bars, whatever he would eat. When I got really sick with systemic yeast, it just made sense to me to make my lifestyle change affect everyone :D I ruthlessly banned sugar, cut back carbs, even his beloved cheese has been restricted (mold). The only thing I haven't ever been big on is supplements, but we've started those in addition to the multivites they already took. Let me tell you, his eating is off the charts. He is constantly saying "I'm hungry. Can I have _________?" Fill that blank in with tuna, almonds, fruits, veggies.... Things that he hasn't even tried until now he is eating with a passion! I haven't weighed him but I can tell when lifting him that he is gaining weight and he doesn't look so terribly, painfully thin. Better yet, he actually seems to focus on what he's doing rather than "drifting around." He will make eye contact and have a full conversation with me, before he would always be shouting something (that didn't always make complete sense) as he ran by you. I see him thinking things through, that is huge. He was always a "do first, think later" kind of kid.
He was always a terror to take anywhere. You never knew how bad his behavior would be, you just prayed for silly/mildly embarassing as opposed to the laying in the floor/running from you/complete baby talk that it could dissolve into. We went for haircuts today. I have always DREADED haircuts. With so many people in a small room, it's like he thinks he's on stage. He ALWAYS acted silly or wild and I would even have to have my mother take him home before I got my haircut lest he act like a complete cretin unsupervised. Today, he was darn near perfect. No running, no shouting. They have a little table with colored metal rods and wooden spools that you can move around the rods (can't remember what this is called, I'm sure that's a horrid description.) Basically, it's the kind of thing he would never look twice at. Today, he sat and watched his older sister play with it. He commented (nicely) on what she was doing. Then, he played with it for a while himself. He didn't wiggle/giggle/act a fool when he got his haircut!!!
Those, alone, are pretty big for us. The final topper was that he has been drawing. This child HATED to draw. He wouldn't color a picture unless he just swiped a crayon over it to get it done. Forget actually DRAWING something on a blank sheet. The last few days he's been asking for blank paper and drawing on it with crayons when we finish his lessons. The first couple of days, it was just some random squiggles and shapes. He was really laboring over color choice and placement, though, so I would make sure to tell him how proud I was of how hard he worked. Well, today he took his colors and papers outside to the porch (did I mention it's 73 and sunny today? Yeah, it is!) He came running in to show me the picture he did "all by myself, no one had to help me!" It was a picture of a person and house, complete with grass, trees, clouds, and birds!! Not only that but, while the drawing isn't perfect, all of the things he drew are in proportion with each other and in the correct colors, they were in a nice landscape layout and arranged sensibly. He NEV-ER does this. He rarely draws. The few times he was coerced to draw at school he would draw things like tiny houses and huge people or he would draw randomly all over the page. To say it blew me away would be an understatement. Not only that, he was proud of it. He has never taken an interest in things he did. Once it's done he was always too busy going on to the next thing. Don't worry, I have praised and exclaimed over it. I took a picture on my phone and emailed it to my mother and husband (with a can you believe this? message LOL) and let him send it to his Papaw. I've also noticed that he is using his pencil more effectively. Before, he would barely grip it. The marks would be super wiggly and too light to read. The last few days he is pressing down with his pencil and the lines have been less wiggly and much darker.
I don't know what is making the change. The better eating habits, the supplements he is now taking, getting better/more sleep now that we HS, being more relaxed about the work (it was like nightmare of the never-ending worksheets when he was in PS), or the excercise (we walk each morning before lessons and I kick them outside when we are done :lol:)........I just want it to keep on keeping on!
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I will have two in middle school next year, yikes. ODS will be in 8th grade. He doesn't have a label but shows some dyslexic traits as well as signs of dyscalculia and dysgraphia, though his handwriting is night and day from where it was even eighteen months ago. He struggles mightily with executive functioning. DD will be in fifth, so her first year of middle school. I can't say I think she is SN, she is just highly anxious. She has a completely irrational fear of getting an answer wrong or having to re-do something. So with her I'm just trying to keep it simple.
Right now we are using a FIAR approach and it is working well. I plan to continue that next year. I have found that adding good supporting books and projects helps beef up the material, so even if the book they row is a bit below them they still learn (and they tend to need to be a bit below their comprehension level in order to read the book to themselves and not be so frustrated they give up.) Through this approach we are getting history, grammar lite, geography lite, vocabulary, and occasionally science lite.
Math - not a clue. Seriously. ODS is decidedly not mathy. We are still working on place value, converting decimals to fractions, and the like. Some days he gets it, other days not. DD is much more capable but this is also the subject she is most likely to become so paralyzed by the fear of being wrong that she can answer anything.
Science - we are going super simple. I can't do it all, they came out of ps very behind where I feel they could be in the 3 Rs. I'm not going to sweat science too much. We will search out fun experiments, read books and magazines about science stuff, and hit on whatever science presents itself in our unit studies.
History - covered in unit studies. Contemplating throwing in SOTW CDs just for a bit extra.
Foreign Language - the kids think Spanish. I would prefer Latin, mostly because I aced Latin and flunked Spanish in high school LOL I'm thinking a very laid back approach to vocabulary from classical roots might be a good middle ground. Again, we need the basics far more than a foreign language at this point.
Reading - unit studies as above
I'm also planning to do some executive functioning strengthening activities with them both. For ODS, we are hoping to get an exam to evaluate the need for visual therapy.
Our district, at least, doesn't put tons of emphasis on geography/foreign language/anything above general science until high school. History is laughable all the way through. I figure if I get their 3 Rs up to speed, let them do interest led science, introduce any foreign language/history at all, they will be getting better than we could have hoped for in ps. They will also not be at a disadvantage (here) should they choose to enroll in the local ps high school.
If your dc does 4H, please read...I need advice/suggestions/tales of experience
in General Education Discussion Board
Posted · Edited by Gingerbread Mama
My two oldest (the only two eligible for 4H yet) have some experience with 4H via the public school. I say "some" because it has basically been creating a bulletin board, poster contests, cookie bake offs, electing officials, etc... Even my 7th grader never got around to being asked if he wanted a 'project.' We did all of the above, when I was in school, but also picked projects - maybe around 5th or 6th grade? I did dogs....it wasn't something we did heavily, it was presented to us as "Hey pick one of these and do some stuff, then you'll be eligible to go on these cool trips." :D FWIW, I think people who did agriculture/livestock projects had much more done with them.....
Anyway, in an effort to get out and keep the kids somewhat in the social loop, I thought I'd check out the local homeschool 4H group. I emailed the agent, and she emailed me back with the information that they meet once a month (at night, at supper time....WTHeck? These homeschoolers can't get out during the day? LOL) She also asked the kids ages and interests to give her ideas for what projects they might like. So...it sounds like we might be at an advantage over PS 4Hers, and my kids might get to do an actual project.
I've had ODS and DD browse the list of 4H curriculum and pick 4 things they found interesting. ODS only picked Electronics and Robotics. He has no experience with either, really, but I read the blurbs and they do look like cool products. Besides that, if it would be something he'd take an interest in and "do" beyond TV/XBOX (which I've taken away for the time being as he was basically an addict) then I'm all for it. He has a really good eye for photography and has taken some amazing pictures so I added that to his list. I suggested the Bicycle one, but he shot it down. It did sound sort of out of his realm, he rides but that's about it. DD picked Cats (we do have 2 cats), Veterinary Science (she wants to either be a vet or a dentist), and Theatre Arts (she is currently in a children's theatre production and enjoying it/doing well with it). I also suggested sewing but we might have to get a machine? And I can't sew anything..... I do know someone who could/would give her lessons. So my question is: Does anyone have kids who do these projects? Can you give me examples of what they do? What about Vet Science, it looks great but she's only 9 and I'm worried it might be too complex. Could she do cats now and switch to vet science in jr high if she still thought she might want to go that direction? We were always told NOT to switch, but I think it was just that it was easier for the agent because none of us were too into projects and she - understandably - had no interest in starting from scratch with us :D
Also, what do your homeschool 4H club meetings look like? Basically like public school (they have officers, contests, etc??) Or is it a whole different animal? Do your homeschool 4Hers go to camp? My DD is pants wetting excited to get to do camp. ODS did it a few years ago and she's been dying to go since then. I think she thought that was a dead end know that she's out of PS, so I hope she goes and loves it. I'm trying to convince ODS to do some trips as well, I did Round Up and Congress. While I can't say I got much educational out of it (I was too concerned with being cute/meeting cute boys :glare:) I do think it gave me travel experience, experience being away from my mother and in charge of my own money/choices...... Plus, it was just a lot of fun, but I had a best friend and several people I knew well that I traveled with.
If your kids don't do those projects, tell me what they do anyway. Maybe it's something my dc would be interested in. Oh, and has anyone just bought the books from the website? I see a few that I think would be good "elective" classes for homeschool......
ETA - we only have cats and a goldfish as pets LOL We don't have farmable land, or livestock (or any good place to KEEP livestock.) I also can't see them doing forestry. I'd love it if they did, but we don't have any super "outdoorsy" people in our family so I don't know who would mentor them in that.