We have had a lot of success with RDI. My son only has brief flashes of the inflexibility that used to rule his life, and now when they do happen, he recognizes it and usually comes to apologize later. It's very nice. It does take a lot of work, though. My younger child still has a long way to go, but she also had further to go than her brother. When we started RDI with her, she would scream and cry anytime I tried to enforce any sort of limit. And when I would introduce a variation into anything, she would meltdown. And in keeping with the math theme of the thread, I started using Right Start math with her last summer after having years of her not being able to comprehend the basics of simple addition. Unlike her brother, she does not have a mind for memorizing math facts. Right Start has been a Godsend for her. She is nearly done with level B already, and this is a child who spent 2.5 YEARS on the addition lessons of MUS Alpha without making any progress at all. Now she is adding double-digit numbers in her head, with regrouping. I wish I had used Right Start with my other children.

My Aspie has immense struggles with math. He memorized his math facts in a few hours, literally. But application is just impossible. He is almost 15, but we consider him to be an 8th grader, and he is still struggling with basic arithmetic. I have tried just about every math program out there, and we are finally having small successes with the Key to... series, but it's still not pretty. It's horribly discouraging - for both of us. He is in the middle of another round of academic and cognitive testing right now, and I'm praying that the evaluator will have some real, concrete help for me. The last time he was tested he was only 10, and the only suggestion I got was to put him in school and let them deal with it. This time, I chose an evaluator who not only has a masters in special education, but has also graduated 3 children from homeschooling.

Beth, our church is in the Hamilton Mill area of Buford. Would that be too far of a drive for you? My husband is the music minister, and we have found this church to be very welcoming of our special needs kids. Music is a blend of contemporary and hymns - there is a band and not a choir. Our pastor is outstanding! Next Sunday (the 13th) is "Bring a Friend Day" so you wouldn't have to feel like you're the only new face that day! PM me if you're interested. No pressure, I promise! :)

Well, bummer. I do appreciate the input, though. Saves me money on something that would frustrate him. :( Back to the drawing board!

I'm interested in this as well. Considering HOAW for my 9th grader with learning challenges and Aspergers. I really wish there were an audiobook version for him so he could follow along.

We did the brushing with both of our kids and found it to be more effective for our daughter. She is hyposensitive to touch, and she was younger - only 3- when we did it. The OT taught me how to do it, and the brushing was always followed by joint compressions. We did the brushing every few hours for 6 weeks, if I remember correctly. My son is hypersensitive, and he was 10 when we did the brushing with him, and it didn't seem to produce any good results. The OT had told us that he was probably too old to see the best results, but we tried it anyway.

Just checked my receipt and I did not get the discount. Oh well, it's a good deal regardless. But since I know I had 3 people (at least) to go through my link, I am not pleased that I didn't get the credits I was entitled to.

Me, either. I got my code just fine, but I know of at least 3 people who used my link and I didn't seem to get ANY credit for it. :(

I have 2 friends who have lost their husbands in the last 9 months - neither of whom had life insurance. Both were self-employed. One friend is doing better than the other because she attends a megachurch and she had 3 children(now 4, she found out she was pregnant they day before her husband died). I guess she is getting benefits from SS from before her husband was self-employed? The other family is not faring as well, but they don't homeschool and they have only one child. Regardless, the stress on the families has been horrible. PLEASE everyone make sure you have life insurance!!

My son with Asperger's is a grade level behind because we 'held him back' with the expectation that he would return to public school. He was going to have to repeat Kindergarten and we decided to hs him that year. At the end of that year, though, he was still doing the things that caused them to want to have him repeat K, so we continued to hs and have ever since. He was diagnosed with Aspergers at the age of 10 - but he has been on the spectrum since birth, hence the preschool and public school troubles I wouldn't acknowledge. He will graduate from our homeschool 2 weeks before he turns 19, so he can say he graduated at 18 like his friends. He starts high school work next week but it's going to be a very basic high school education, certainly not college prep. I don't know what he will do after high school. I used to think he would go to tech school, but our local tech colleges now require SAT scores for admission and it's doubtful he could score high enough. At this time, he won't agree to extend high school because his younger, quick-to-learn sister is right behind him and it would be insulting for him to graduate with her or even after her. I'm not sure if that will change as he grows and matures. As for my youngest, I consider her to be the grade level for her birth date. If she were in public school, they would likely want to have her a grade level behind. Academically she is very behind but is making good progress this year - the best ever. I have no idea when she will graduate, or if it even matters. At this time, it's hard to say if she will live independently or not. Honestly, I try not to even think that far ahead. Worrying over my son's high school and future is enough to keep me freaked out currently! LOL

Oh thank you SO much! I was looking in all the wrong places! :) This looks like it will be perfect!

Michelle, could you tell me where to find this file? There are a bazillion files on that yahoo group and I have been trying for the last 20 minutes to find it and I can't! Thanks! I have TtC and WttW on the way from IEW! I mostly got TtC for myself, and WttW to use with Austin next year for 9th grade. But if there is a better way to use them, I am all for it!

YAY, Jennifer!!! WOOOOOHOOOOO!!!!!

Good luck, Jennifer! I'm so excited for you (and a bit jealous that I'm not there myself! LOL)! Take it easy with your IT band and just enjoy the atmosphere! Can't wait to hear all about it!! Have FUN!!

This is actually Review 2, right after the section on tessellations. It includes percents of a number, converting decimals to fractions and percents, and some angles/lines and figuring those, and then the tessellations. So she's not quite to the end of the book, but almost.

It's 4-5 pages (she has the book right now, still working on it). There are no more than 30 problems total. Probably more like 25.

It's hard to say how long it 'should' take her. She is very, very smart, but like I said, she's very lazy. I lay some of the blame for that on my own shoulders because so often I had to leave her to work on her own while I helped or tended one of her siblings that I didn't train her in good work habits. She also learns very quickly, but now that we are reaching things that require more than one step or fast answer, she gets annoyed because it's not quick and easy. I don't think the work is too hard for her at all. We have had a 3 week break so I expected things to be a bit rusty, but she has cried over this for the last two days and it's grating on my nerves! LOL Thanks for all the input... I don't think I'll let her know most of y'all sided with me (and some of you would have had her to complete it in ONE day LOL). It's been a rough couple of days without me rubbing that in! ;)

My 11 year old/6th grade daughter and I are having a bit of a disagreement on this Friday afternoon. I assigned her some work and she insists it is too much. I would like your opinion. (Ok, I would prefer for you all to agree with me that it's NOT too much to ask, but since she is my only typically developing child maybe I do ask too much of her, so it would be good to let me know). She is at the end of Singapore Primary Math 5B (U.S. Edition). I assigned her the review section (in the workbook only) to be completed yesterday and today. Is this asking too much? She says she needs at least 3 days. I say she is being lazy. Thanks for your opinions!

These two points are what bothers me so much about the "accreditation" thing in GA. What on earth does having an "emergency plan" in place for a terrorist attack have to do with the quality of my child's high school education? It's absolutely absurd!! And they don't even really monitor your curriculum and materials? But the colleges want to tell me that I have to jump through extra hoops because I haven't paid this money to some 'center'? It makes me mad! I was just checking around online and even Gwinnett Tech even has the 'requires a diploma from an accredited' blah, blah, blah on there. If you don't, then you have to have a letter from the superintendent stating that you met all the state requirements (attendance and LOI, I guess??), a transcript, AND your child has to take both the SAT and the COMPASS! For technical school???

Ruth Martin spoke at length about these 'above the law' requirements of accreditation and how they came about. She graduated all 3 of her children and got them into college without accreditation, but that was a number of years ago. However, she does speak with passion about the slippery slope that led to GA colleges requiring the accreditation because it is easier for them. It was eye-opening, and frustrating to learn about.

I really think HOPE is not going to be an issue in another couple of years, at least not for middle income kids. They are going to tighten the requirements and probably put an income limit on it.

Last spring I attended a class given by Ruth Martin called "Homeschooling High School and Beyond". It was phenomenal! She's giving another one on January 29th. It's on the Grayson side of Lawrenceville (not too far from my house if you remember where I live from when you dropped off that curriculum that one time!). I highly recommend her workshop. If you're interested, send me a PM and I'll give you the details!

Really? Please tell me you're joking.

We were at the natural history museum today. If you had seen my kids, you probably wouldn't be able to tell that they have autism unless you knew what you were looking for. They were interacting with the other family we met there, and enjoying themselves, and having a great time in general. Now, you might have noticed when Reece decided she didn't want to hold her umbrella anymore and we tried to work through that - because I had told her that if I held it for her I wouldn't be giving it back, since I'd warned her that she would have to hold it if she brought it. She dropped the umbrella and dropped to the ground for a moment. I went over to her and kneeled and had her balance on my leg (trick to help her sensory system!) while we talked about her options. It may have seen like she was spoiled and I was indulgent. But it's autism... difficulty with flexible thinking, problems with understanding the consequences of her actions, challenges with taking another person's perspective. What autism looks like is so different for each child who has autism.

And I do just the opposite with my autistic kids so we can start breaking down these stereotypes! LOL Austin is dying to get his driver's license (learner's permit)... he turns 15 in May. But you know Atlanta traffic! Scares me to death to think of him driving here! We're going to play it by ear.