I love our cuisenaire rods. But when i didnt have them we used a lot of duplos for manipulative. They worked very well

My summer bday 5 y/o is similar. Loves math. ahead with curriculum but when we hit a hard spot she got really frustrated. I decided to stop scheduled type curriculum altogether for now. (She is well past k math anyway). We have been playing: c-rods, computer games, math apps, cheap workbooks. Some are "easy" for her, but she enjoys them and benefits from the reinforcement of math facts etc... We also do a lot of real life math: fractions in cooking, math from nutrition labels, counting money and so on.

With the age of your kids I think it would be a good choice. Stuff to do all day and you can watch several shows. It is a bit pricey, but you get a lot. Rides, Shows, history/ art/ science lessons. Be sure to check out the glass blower, blacksmith and old farmstead. Oh and tour the cave, don't miss that if you all are physically able.

That is what I assumed her counselor would be doing since it seems to be the Gold standard in treatment. However her counselor isn't doing that. She is not very satisfied with her counselor so I am encouraging her to change to someone with more medical training. ( her current counselor is also anti meds and that bothers me) Seems to be the one good thing her counselor has recommended. It did help some, she does need to work with it some more

:) she is in her 60's. well past menopause, including a hyst. They checked her hormones, all clear. She was abit disappointed . Would be nice to have something "easily" treated. She did have a thorough physical etc...

All her bloodwork etc.. was back as of yesterday, everything is clear. She won't do "real" yoga because of her religious beliefs. But I tried to get her to do some yoga style Pilates, she had a panic attack doing them because she couldn't coordinate it all perfectly. I may try again and do some one on one instruction, I have a little bit of training as a PT. she is also limited because she broke her wrist about a week into this whole thing, so she. Can't bear weight or lift with her right arm. She has been exercising, what she can do anyway. (She is very fit previously involved in cross training type classes which she can't really do right now due to her wrist) I really appreciate the responses, thanks.

My instinct has been to say she needs to go to a specialist. Thanks for confirming it. Her Dr. Sent her to a Christian counselor because there is a spiritual element to her "irrational" fears when she is panicking. I don't really think this counselor is helping a lot, and she says she doesn't discuss spiritual issues anyway. Her Dr. Said if she goes on meds she will have to stay on them forever. So mom is petrified of using meds. (She's the type who doesn't like the idea of meds in the first place). I think she needs some. I have a medical background (I'm a physical therapist so this is by no means my area) and I think she should really look at meds to get it under control. She is having several panic attacks a day and not sleeping, her stress chemical levels have to be way out of wack. She did order something called panic away. It is endorsed by Claire Weeks. It hasn't come yet. Thanks so much for all your responses. I am going to encourage her to go see a psychiatrist, or the clinical psychologist her doc was considering referring her to.

My mom has a sudden unexplained onset panic disorder. She has been struggling with it for over a month. She is normally very even keel, strong, non-emotional, active. Now she is just a wreck. She is getting some treatment. Sometimes it is helping, but the last few days have been bad. I see her a few times a wk, or more. We live about 20 minutes apart I want to be helpful, talking to her can be exhausting, but I am willing to be there. Anyway, wondered if anyone has any experience and knows how close family can help. (My mom and I have an excellent relationship, so there are no other issues there.). Sometimes I think she needs to talk, but sometimes I wonder if talking about it makes it worse.

Oh wow, yes I feel old. Very big memories. 4 of us were driving to Fl for a conference over spring break. We got stranded in Chattanooga. Fortunately we managed to get off the interstate and find a hotel. There was no food though. All the restaurants were closed, vending machine empty. We had to live on the snack food from our car for about 24 hours before a Shoneys opened. I think we stood in line for about 45 minutes at Shoneys I was on that trip with my roommate and my husbands cousin, before I met my husband. My husbands cousin became interested on my roommate on that trip, and later they introduced me to dh. So it was kind of a pivotal point in my life in a way :)

Ok as requested to help with fashion. If you change your clothes that many times I am surprised you are frumpy ;) a frumpy person would just wear the same clothes for most of that. Lol But anyway. I am a bit skeptical about said bloggers version of frumpy. But I do think you should feel great in what you are wearing yourself. So if you feel frumpy than change is great. First step might be to think about what you wear that you feel the best in. Put it on and decide what you like best about it. Then see if those elements can be translated to your clothes for other activities. (For example color, shape etc...) Also more is not necessarily better. Having 2 or 3 outfits that all are great is a lot better than having so many things to choose from it is hit or miss. Go through your clothes and get rid of everything that makes you feel frumpy, or label it barn mucking only lol (although even barn mucking can be not frumpy)

Just thinking on what I meant when I talked about those who do manual labor having a different perspective. I didn't mean, those who do manual labor have to be more practical so they don't dress up. I meant those who do manual labor often (not always) feel good about their bodies while working hard, so what they wear to work hard, while not fashionable, feels like it looks good on them. That can carryover some to regular clothing. And since that "manual labor" good body feeling may be more powerful than "cute fitting top" good body feeling, clothing becomes less important to feeling confident and even "sexy" Now it isn't this way across the board. I am sure some people just feel gross doing manual labor. But I do know a lot of people who feel empowered by it, like others feel empowered by cute clothes.

Oh I don't think it is superficial to dress nice. Goodness, my mom and sil, who I adore, both get dressed everyday in great clothes. I don't think they are superficial at all. Although certainly there are probably people who are dressing nicely everyday for superficial reasons. But similarly, it is bothersome when people generalize that those of us who hang out around our homes in sweats most likely have body image/ self esteem issues, or are neglecting their spouse. I am sure there are many who do have these issues, but it is hardly across the board. I am not trying to run down the blogger, but she definitely has self esteem issues, in the comments she says she looks "hideous" in her before picture. That is so sad. Also just because one is unconcerned about dressing "fashionably", hair and makeup, doesn't mean that don't care about how they look. They may like how they look without all the add-ons. In the winter I do tend to wear bulky clothing around the house because it is cold. In the summer my clothes around the house certainly show off my body, its hot I wear as little as decency allows.

I feel like this too. My body is not perfect, but I can name lots of thing I like about it. Especially when I am wearing torn jeans, an old t-shirt, beat up sneakers and carrying 50lb bags of seed to fill the planter. I think there may be some different point of view for those who do more manual labor. I do wear nice clothes, I don't mind wearing them, but they don't make me feel better. They tend not to be very comfortable as well. The bloggers reasons for not "getting dressed" each day have nothing to do with my reasons. It is pure comfort and practicality here, I don't want the extra laundry. My dh comes home and puts sweats on anyway. He is not nearly as concerned about me getting dressed as me getting undressed ;) as long as I am happy to oblige in the latter he doesn't sweat the former. Lol

At this point he tolerates homeschooling, which is big. He is not anti-homeschooling but grew up in our nice school district and doesn't feel a real need to homeschool. He also does taxes, so this time of year he isn't home much, which is one reason we homeschool ( girls stay up late so they see daddy everyday). He loves us a lot and is a good provider, so that is a great blessing, and enough for me.

That is helpful. Very readable :)

I like it and don't like it. We have the textbooks, and like to cuddle up and work through them. But I did not like the HIG (US edition). I am not a fan of detailed teacher's guides in general. I really don't want to have 3 different books for 1/2 a year(or less) of math. We are going to switch to MM. I may still pick up used SM textbooks because my we do enjoy doing "cuddle math" for a change of pace occ.

A scientific origins curriculum that presents information from experts in at least 3 different perspectives, Science only evolution, old earth creation, and young earth creation, more perspectives would be nice as well. The key would be that it would be developed by scientists with each point of view, not just one point of view describing the other point of view. H(hope that makes sense) Maybe this exists, but I haven't heard of any. It will be a while before my kids will be old enough for it, so if anyone would to take my idea... A history curriculum with similar types of multi viewpoints of events would be nice too :)

Actually homeschooling is cheaper than public school here, at least for me. Our public schools are not "free". There are registration fees, book rental fees, activity fees, PTO fees, you pay cost for workbooks. This does not include school lunches and clothes. K would have cost almost $200 in fees I figure. I save that money by not sending them. I can easily purchase elementary curriculum for less than that. Costs increase incrementally each year. The high school registration alone is $500. Our local schools are decent and I don't mind my property taxes going there. Our state is quite corrupt so I am concerned about the money that goes to education in our state taxes.

Thanks :) My Ker has adopted proper letter formation. I really appreciate a retired K teacher friend for lots of advice she gave me. One of my best friends is a peds OT so both girls grips have been analyzed. (Which was helpful because my oldest has an odd but acceptable grip). I only have 2 and they are close in age so I do have an advantage there. We have been unable to have anymore dks so we don't forsee any growth in our homeschool. I definitely am no homeschooling expert, so sometimes I don't understand what people mean. I do want to apologize if anyone felt affronted. I really did have a different idea of the meaning of seatwork.

=) yes lol. Doesn't that sound odd, hence my confusion. I believe it was a pardigm shift issue for me. I guess I am a bit unschoolish. I consider anything my girls do that is in alignment with their current educational goals to be school, and generally pounce on such opportunities. I assumed seatwork meant the type of work one would do seated at a desk, not just the work you have on the lesson plan for the day. That makes considerably more sense. ( I don't generally do lesson plans and seatwork assignments in K so that didn't occur to me). Sorry for the confusion, I really wasn't trying to be a obnoxious. :)

Ok I reread the OP :) I wasn't totally confused. The OP was asking about the need to stay with a child who was using proper letter formation when she practiced letters for the purpose of increasing automaticity. I would not stay with my child for this, she would shoo me away. (in the OP's case the child was asking her to stay so it is a bit different) So when people responded that they shouldn't start independent work untill 3rd or 4th grade I was a bit shocked. I do have a different definition of seat work, since I don't really give "assignments" to my Ker. (Though I may tell her to practice a letter if she is struggling with it) But my Ker likes to sit in a seat at her desk and "work", and she does learn/practice skills while working. I consider this school, just like walking outside and talking about how the weather affects the snow melt is "school" for us. Any educational activity could be defined as school in my home (unless that activity is way too easy or way too difficult for the students level). I guess it is a different way of looking at it. I hope I didn't offend anyone in my confusion.

I did reread the thread and I did notice what may have been a source of my confusion. We don't really have a official school time, we school throughout the day. I think I am a bit more "relaxed" ( homeschooling philosophy speaking) and it didn't occur to me that others did a very structured school time for K. We "do school" off and on all day. We do some writing, reading, and math everyday, there are certain skills we are working on, but I don't have specific assignments to complete. Most actual intentional planned ahead school stuff we do is mom involved activities. Seat work is more extra stuff that my daughter enjoys. It did really seem that a few of the posters were saying that you shouldn't let them do any work alone.

Btw I do understand that lots of young kids can't and/or won't work independently. I just got the impression that the view by many was that they shouldn't work independently. I kind of felt like I was missing something lol

I wrote a spin-off question in the prek and K subforum I probably shouldn't have asked. I was rather surprised that almost all posters on one thread said that they directly supervise/sit with their children with all schoolwork, some even every time they are using a pencil until about 3rd grade. They were most adamant about the importance of this. So I asked if people don't allow schoolwork at other times, and if they somehow keep them from writing etc... the rest of the day. Didn't go over well... I really wasn't meaning to be funny, just to understand the tactic/thought process. So I will ask over here, do your early elementary dks do independent work? Meaning you make sure they know the instructions/purpose and then you let them write or do math problems while you go in the next room to do the dishes etc...? My daughter always shoos me away once she gets the idea. And do your littles ever do school type work spontaneously? (I would really have to lay down the law or forbid all writing utensils to keep my girls from writing without me hmmmm.... )

Yes it is a serious question. I was trying to figure out how others could seriously keep their children from writing without supervision. Maybe my girls are just a bit odd. They have both started teaching themselves to write capital letters when they were 2. They love letters. And my oldest loves math. It is not uncommon to find her working in a math workbook for fun in the evening. I actually have told them to save their "official" school books for school time (since they can't always understand the directions), but I have always kept lots of other workbooks available since they enjoy them so much. But it wouldn't matter they write letters, numbers, and words in their coloring books and on scrap paper as well. FWIW my Ker's handwriting is now fairly good, and she has switched to proper formation on the few letters she was writing incorrectly without much difficulty.