Finally at the age of 10, I broke down and started my son on meds. He was three years behind and made 5 tutors leave crying in three months not to mention me. He was on the ground howling and screaming and couldn't focus on anything. It was time. He was getting OT , speech and resource an hour 1;1 a week but still three years or more behind. Started with ritalin and he was great with it. But we had to pour it in applesauce and he complained about the taste and it didn;t last long enough. They we tried another one starting with an A and that tasted worse. He won't swallow anything. We tried it in chocolate pudding, sauce and applesauce. Ice cream. Finally Daytrana patch. We did 10mg and it wasn't enough. He needed 15 mg every single day. If we took a break, it took too days to get him to get his behavior back. By then that was Wednesday and the tutors and myself are back in tears along with him. So yeah, it bums me out but he caught up 3 plus years of school in one year of meds. Plus he matured greatly. Theory of Mind developed. Plus even understands why doing his chores is important for the family. At this point it is needed.

Minecraft education version Dungeons and dragon Hero Kids

I need info about writing in braille. Maybe that might help my son who has no visual memory. He learns things kinesthetically. How do we get a braille writer? Do we just push pins in a paper?

Having lost a son with ASD at around 23 yrs old (he would be 26yrs now), I have learned the hard way that these kiddos are not ready to be adults at 18 year old. You can continue to homeschool them until 22 or 23 yrs or so. They just don't have the executive functions to manage all the expectations of adulthood even they so badly want to be part of society but their anxiety and depression gets the best of them. The biggest issue for my son was how naive he was. He wanted to be popular and liked but listened to the wrong people. The people who loved him told him the truth but it wasn't anything he wanted to hear. He couldn't hold a job for long or finish one single college class. He couldn't manage his finances and his relationships were a mess. When he passed he had $30,000 debt. What he needed was someone to come along side him and help him each week with budgeting and all of the paperwork. He wasn't going to listen to his dad or I though. We tried but he was like "I am an adult and I know what I am doing." Also look up Pathological Demand Avoidance. I am learning new ways to phrase things with my younger ones with ASD that addresses their severe anxiety. Right now I am thinking of the SCERTS model. I did become an Behavior therapist after all these years of experience and work pt for 10 hours a week remotely. But there are some things that just doesn't sit right for me. So with these young adult ASD kiddos. Keep them home and treat the time as elongated adolescence as much as you can. It's hard as legally they are adults and you would naturally expect them to be adult like. They are not ready and need the extra time to grow and develop in a safe and respectful environment that doesn't trigger them. For many of them it is a rude awakening that they are different than their NT peers. Just a different time line. Don't think he would do better in a group living environment. We thought that with my son living in his youth pastor's home with other men. That was a mistake for him. It didn't work.

Have a challenge for you all: He is 7.10 He has been diagnosed with ASD, Temporal Lobe Epilepsy, Apraxia and Intermittent Hearing loss and CAPD. Things were somewhat plugging along when we were getting OT, Prompt, Speech and Resource and seizure meds Zonergran. Even started moving beyond the page red level after taking three years to do the prek -k level. But we hit a stand still with reading/blending phonics...sight words. And sequencing days of the weeks, months of the year, numbers and letters. Speech issues continues. Nothing was staying put. Over the summer he was taking a bunch of Outschool classes and that was when I noticed something was off. He couldn't focus in the classes where everyone was talking. He did better when the teacher muted everyone and each person spoke one at a time and with headsets on. I suspected something like hearing or CAPD. I found an audiologist who worked with us remotely who was Gallaudet trained. She noticed definitely CAPD and possible hearing loss. She got a team together and was insistent something was up with with his seizures and that the meds were not correct. I did know he was having breakthrough seizures and his respite caregiver and ABA therapist saw some going to 4 mins and 55 mins. At the same time noticed his memory was getting strange such as forgetting sisters names and colors and suddenly eloping out the house, anger, sexual inappropriate behavior, aggression, husband found him in washing machine and he put the dog in the fridge. Something was seriously wrong. We went to an in person audiologist and they got Kaiser to get hearing aids for him and he will be fitted in a few weeks. Plus we went through two EEG. one sleep deprived one with sleep that showed constant epileptiform discharges from from right temporal lobe which I suppose wasn't there before. He just had some occipital and parietal stuff prior. They started him on lamictal. They did another EEG awake with him doing school work and showed epileptiform discharges. So now we are decreasing zonergran and the lamictal was increased to 150mg a day. They want to wean him completely off Zonergran. I am terrified as I know that when he was not on zonergran he didn't talk at all. It was the zonergran that allowed him to start speaking more. I won't lie but his speech is pretty garbled at times and his speech is not clear and grammatically not correct at all. I think our family understands him about 80% of the time and now we really are pushing for ASL so he can at least sign one word to us what he is trying to say to have some context. We are pretty exhausted and spent. AAS/ LOE not working. We tried Phonics Pathways. Even Early Reading Tutor. Headsprouts, Teach your monster to read. Not sure what else to try. At a loss. Math wise he is fine until we reach the teen numbers. Place value is hard. Reading the words is hard. Blending is a nightmare, No recollection in sight words. But....he has mad Roblox and Minecraft skills. Kaiser wants to file Medi-Cal and get him institutionally deemed with IHSS protective services. I need help and I am grieving and scared for his future. He has been improving slightly since he has been going down zonergran and on lamictal but we also stopped all sped services temporarily. Been like two weeks now and his aggression and eloping has decreased. He remembered the day was Sunday today but couldn;t remember the sisters names who lived in the house. Thoughts, ideas? Anyone?

Here in California one of the main ways to get into a UC or State school is going through the A-g program through a public independent study charter school. That is the route we took as it seemed the easiest with other kids I needed to care for as well. As we continue with this A-g route without charter school, I am finding it limiting. Freshman year my twins took Moodle classes through their charter school and a BYU foreign language class and honestly they were not challenged. Sophomore year they took three junior college courses, three AOPS courses and and an APEX English and finally a little more challenged. However AOPS is no longer considered A-G. And they didn't like APEX. They prefer face to face online classes rather than read something and bubble in the answer all the time which is essentially what APEX is about. My question: This year they are going to try out UC SCOUT for a course and is that like APEX? Has anyone tried NUVHS? I continue with this misery because one of my twins want to go to UC berkeley and the other Stanford or some UC school down south.

I am currently using it with my k and 1 but I have three kids in high school and debating it. I am not sure it is challenging enough for my older high schoolers who are taking junior college classes and acing them and they took three AOPS classes this year and got A's in them. But I am considering it for my below average high school student but not sure if our independent study charter school would consider it as a course. Can anyone give me a feel about Acellus high school --for special needs? Average kids? Not for gifted cooperative high schoolers?

Start at book one and move upwards is what has been recommended and just move really quickly. We did that with our middle schoolers and they said it really helped make things 'clearer" for them. They said "yes" they knew of some of those things but never thought of thinking of things that way and classifying things. After that, science just kind of took off for them. Once they hit high school they have been amazing with science. Both are heading into science majors now. Mechanical Engineer and Medicine. We are heading back to BSFU for the younger kids again. Trying to fit it all in now.

Anyone have a good order for Vol 3?

Going to try and answer all the questions: Kaiser is a doctors/hospital clinic. When you are a member of Kaiser you have to use their services/doctors. Connecting Waters Charter School is an independent study charter school here in Northern California. Some work can be done online and some can be done by the parent and some can be done outsourced work. Basically whatever works for you and your child. They help pay for things. I am sure she will get a full evaluation when she goes to Connecting Waters. They did that with my kids. It was much more fuller evaluation than what the local school districts did that's for sure and we got more services too. I was hoping to just get more information so we can work with her now and during the summer so we can close some gaps. I told her mom about Acellus Tutoring. That might help her. I don;t know much about her concussion. But I had taken her to go ice skating over the holidays forgetting about it and her mom was fine about it. She doesn't seem to too affected but who knows. She falls down a lot in general. I showed her some exercises she can do using MNRI to help with her toe walking. Whether she does it or not is up to her and her mom.

I have found an awesome resource for my asd adhd sons. They spend hours watching unboxing videos or Dan TDM so I might as well make their video watching more useful. When they are not watching videos they make everyone's lives miserable. Plus driven to distraction like anything with hands on materials and writing implements. You have no idea how often a pencil can be dropped and flung to the floor in 10 minutes. Or the AAS tiles flipped in the air. Sigh. Or the Right Start Abacus beads pushed back and forth and back and forth. ARGH Acellus tutoring has been my answer. Not bad for $9/ a month. Customer service not bad at all. Called them twice. The set up is a pain though. There is a lag when you click or press the answer that can get annoying. Get the tutoring version so you can go up and down lessons as you wish. They even have special needs classes. It is common core. The questions and answers section works for my sons. Simple and short and it finally sticks ! https://www.acellus.com/tutoring/ I have tried so many things but I think I can finally close some gaps. I get no money for this review by the way. I am not affiliated with them just thrilled I found something. Anything !

A lot of those monitors are for those with convulsive seizures. I have children with petit mal, complex partials and drop seizures-where they suddenly just drop on the ground. I only had one child with convulsive seizure. So just be aware of those monitoring watches. My youngest son had seizures every time we did speech therapy. So we did sign language a bit more. We didn't totally stop speech therapy but we replaced it with sign language and speech at the same time (we signed while speaking). We didn't overwork that part of the brain too much but it was still being worked. Hope that helps. Definitely agree with the journal but it can drive you batty trying to figure out every little thing that could trigger your child. Things are at a lull right now but over the holidays one of my daughters was a mess. Medication changes etc. Make sure you take to your child's neurologist about this.

I have found the best "flu curriculum" for my family. What is the flu curriculum? The curriculum is one you use when mom or anyone else in the house is just sick with the flu and down for awhile. It's also a good curriculum with a newborn and toddler in the house or for a large family when mom needs a break before she has full burn out or maybe she has reached full burn out. I love curriculums such as Right Start and All About Reading and Spelling but I also have learned that for some kids those hands on stuff causes them to be even more distracted for some reason. They can't stop touching the stuff and make them flip in the air or dropping them on the floor. It's very disheartening to teach a child or children who are that driven to distraction. So my go to curriculum for the flu, family with babies and toddlers, large family, family with mom in burn out or major upheavals and kids who struggle to learn with hands on materials----Acellus Tutoring. I like the tutoring version because it allows you flexibility to move around the curriculum as you see fit. Its not the only curriculum and its not perfect but its working right now as the flu is moving through our house. We have 7 in the family . So that is a lot of yuckies going around. https://www.acellus.com/tutoring/ You can't beat $9 a month.

My friend is pulling her daughter out of school for next year. Her daughter has been bullied and recently got physically hurt with a concussion. She will be entering 9th grade and has been in mild to moderate special ed class all of her life in the local public school district. Diagnosed with adhd by Kaiser but school district says autism spectrum. I started spending more time and found out she doesn't know multiplications and couldn't tell inches from centimeter just to begin with. We did all help her with her history project and noted her reading and writing level is also pretty low. Her mom works but dad stays home caring for her younger brother who is nonverbal. He goes to school though. I could not say her dad is dad of the year. He's a pretty uninvolved unmotivated person in general. So she will be spending her time up here with my kids but I thought she would be able to do work with my daughter together as they are the same age but finding my daughter is way ahead of her despite having similar personalities and behaviors. Her mom is signing her up with an independent study charter school for funding. How do you begin with someone starting to homeschool in 9th grade and is behind? I have a son who is in 2nd grade and they may be on the same level at this point and how do I this without insulting her. Her mom feels really guilty. And feels like a horrible mom for not knowing how behind her daughter is. I told her its common when kids are in school and the parents are working or single parent household or if a parent has mental health issues (her dad). Its easy to assume the kids are learning in schools and most of the time its the parents working with the kids at home but she's so busy with her nonverbal child that she hasn't really focused on her daughter much last few years. I can tell she's doing her best. I am sure the charter school will assess her but in general it will still fall on this poor mom and most likely me to try and remediate her. She's terrified of being homeschooled as she doesn't want to be left home alone with her dad and afraid she won't have friends but she barely has friends now.

Seizures can be triggered by a number of things: lack of sleep, hunger, thirst, stress, flashing lights, emotions, stress, illness, that time of month etc etc. Stress can trigger it as well as as stimulating parts of the brain that hasn;t been stimulated before. I have had three kids with seizures and have seen seizures with kids who are about to go through a major developmental leap as a result of a new therapy just getting started. Keep the Barton going and perhaps consider an increase of meds.

PAHS =? Yes their a-g moodle math class was also very uninspiring as well. So they are signed up for Intro to Counting and Probability with AOPS class. Hopefully they will be more inspired. They get tired of just the five or less kids who take the class seriously. The rest barely get their homework done.

I don;t think the Gallaudet classes are paid for by our charter school though. And they may not be a-g (California thing). In terms of college campus, I feel these days I may not be even old enough. LOL There was a lot that happened to me when I was in college. I can only imagine what goes on college campuses now. Actually I have heard feedback from other recent graduates. Basically if you partied, all kinds of things happened. If you weren't the partying type, you could have a professor taking advantage of you as well as campus staff and security guards. I am very nervous about the whole college experience, but I they need to fly eventually and the only way I can do it comfortably is to be sure they are educated to all kinds of scenarios and listen to their gut feelings and if anything comes up, I can only hope they can talk to me about it. I am thinking that since I am open to such conversations about it beforehand they would know to come to me if anything comes up. I did buy my girls pepperspray for their purses as they are starting CC in the fall....Breathe Breathe. They will Bart and shuttle back and forth. Breathe Breathe :unsure:

WARNING: Adult topics. If you are not comfortable with sexual topics or you do not have the consent of your parents to hear about such things, skip this post. Sex ed... I wrote my own curriculum in addition to what the book required. I added in stuff like: sex abuse, different types of sex, how one can get pregnant and how one cannot, how one can get std and how one cannot, consent/rape/sodomy, lgbt , abortion, birth control, masturbation, cycle of domestic violence, cyberbullying/sexting, sex toys, menstruation and products, pregnancy, natural child birth and delivery, religion and sexuality, female genital mutilation, date rape, drugs used to spike drinks. media and sexuality, body image etc. .... It was mainly like make a poster about this, or make a powerpoint about that. Or draw a picture of the male anatomy (circumcised and uncircumcised) and female anatomy. Write an essay about this or that. My kids will be going to community college next year in the Bay Area and just wanted them to be aware of all these things ahead of time they may hear on campus or in class or among the kids. I went further than what the textbook would go into because I am very open about these kinds of stuff with my kids. They need to know that should anything ever happen to them I am ready to listen and understand. I will not judge. It's been great because they are very comfortable about coming to me about any of these issues. I added a journal component where they would write privately about anything they wanted based on some questions I asked. I also required them to write down and/or come talk to either myself and their dad about anything they wanted about the topics or if they had any questions. I'll send resources once I get the girls to gather things up. I went to Good Vibrations and bought some teen sexuality books there and on amazon.com. A few websites were helpful too. Although the textbook covered some of these things, I wanted them to read books specifically about these topics and have them read quotes from other teens about their questions or experiences so they don;t feel alone in all of this.

I would like to know how some of you work and homeschool. I just started a new job as our family needs some extra income and wondering how I am going to balance it all. Luckily its a job I can do mostly at home and doesn't have a bunch of small parts where kids can get into and eat them :) But it will require some talking on phone, texting, computer, paperwork and driving and meeting people. So send me all your advice on this topic...

In general we kept academics separate from social time. I had long learned not to do academics with unschoolers. We just did social stuff but even then there were issues... My kids complained that they weren't interested in what they were interested at all. Mainly my kids are not into playing with and talking about My Little Ponies at the age of 10 and up. They are interested in talking about the latest Microbes affecting the ecology. My daughters would rather read Shakespeare or watch Casanova than watch fairy videos or books. I got tired of being flaked on. I got tired of them saying "oh we decided to go here or there instead" and this happened nearly every day because well...they are unschoolers. The kids dictated where they went and what they did for every second of the day. I really don;t know what to say when they say "oh kids don't need to learn their multiplication facts." Gulp and I bite my lips for the 100th time. The biggest one of all that drives me crazy is that they are constantly hurting financially because they spend money on everything in the name of it being educational. Expensive toys and classes and trips and equipment.

Thank you for your advice but for someone who has been homeschooling for over 20 years I think I have used all the curriculum out there :laugh: :laugh: I was even on twtm forum before they switched over to this system.. I even started homeschooling before TWTM came out :lol: Its the whole act of searching and finding a new curriculum that is even burning me out. Every curriculum you have mentioned, I have done already. Sigh I homeschooled 8 kids. I am burnt! I am thinking maybe just doing a board game curriculum. Just play board games for every subject. HAHAHA I do think my biggest slump regarding all this is that my last three kids have special needs and they are exhausting to teach. It's fun to teach the ones who want to learn and learn easily. Only four out of my 8 was like this and then the other four made me want to tear my hair out every step of the way.

How do you deal with them..... In a lot of my homeschool groups we have more of them than people like me (relatively structured homeschooler with a charter school that will have the kids go to speech therapy and occupational therapy if it is warranted). We clash in schedule. We clash in our activities. We clash in a lot of beliefs ie parental expectations except we are pro homeschooling. Our kids clash because the discussions and interests are different due to different skill levels. Everything was fine until end of middle school and beginning of high school. As a result I have had to pull out of the groups, because we just are on different paths. My kids need friends but it is hard to find.....

I read on the MBTP forum that the last year of middle school curriculum can be used for the 9th grade year. For what it is worth, they are coming out with LA 9th grade this fall. I am trying to find a curriculum just like MBTP that has high school levels already developed.