Hey all, thanks for the replies. Insurance covers private therapy, so cost isn't an issue. We did discuss early intervention with her doc and she seems to think private therapy is a better fit for the time being. Also got an audiology exam done, she had some fluid that the ENT is going to take care of, so that may or may not make a difference. We shall see. Thank you so much for your recommendations, I'll be checking them all out for sure. :)

Not totally sure if this is the right place. Anyway - my two year old (May bday) has speech delays (expressive and just plain developmental, I guess). She's in the 12-18 month range at 2.5. We are on the waiting list for therapy, but I'd love to know if any of you had any games, exercises etc that I could start implementing now rather than just wait until whenever we get off the waiting list. All the doc mentioned is to use shorter sentences, but I'm sure there's other stuff I could be doing. Thanks!

Mine turned into the normal version the year after graduating... it prompted me for an up to date transcript/proof of attendance every year. Lucky you!

Right now I don't, I'm too busy. As a teen, I volunteered with Search and Rescue, at the hospital, Police Explorers and Civil Air Patrol. Adults can volunteer at any of those as well (less so police explorers, the others for sure).

Sandra. Funnily enough, my best friend when I was little was named that.

Chicken Curry

If you want to be really freaked out, download a little app called Ghostery (Chrome and I think Firefox) and see how many companies track your movement on different websites.

If anything, Turbinado sugar.

If I drink 'normal' coffee it's with half n half and sugar. I usually drink Bulletproof (coffee, unsalted grassfed butter, MCT oil) however. Have never heard of milk with coffee as a 'thing', but I've used whole milk on occasion when I don't have half n half or butter.

You may want to fit yourself as well - a lot of people simply do not do bra fittings properly. I went from a D something to an FF when I measured myself. Comfortable for the first time in, well, a long time. http://www.reddit.com/r/ABraThatFits/wiki/beginners_guideis a great guide, as is the subreddit as a whole. They also have good recommendations re: specific bras depending on how you're built.

On the whole meditation subject, I've found Headspace very useful, and the first 10 lessons are free (and repeatable).

I've seen some odd spellings of my name (both at Starbucks and other places). Got a little bit better after Shrek came out... but not much. Fionia Feeona Pheona Iona Fionna I didn't think my name was THAT uncommon, but apparently it is. ;) PS. Growing up with people singing Scotty Doesn't Know to me, asking me how Shrek is doing, and asking if I am named after Fiona Apple... happened almost every day. So it wasn't like people hadn't heard the name!

I'm not a huge Duggar fan, but ya gotta admit one thing - I bet their family getogethers are a blast (as long as you're not hosting)!!! I miss living close to family.

I was 3 hours away, and came home 2x/month for the weekend, on average.

I didn't know that was even a thing... oops.

Another vote for YNAB here. They have some great free classes as well with some great tips if you're just starting out.

Clue is what I use as well. It works pretty well, have had no issues with it, and no ads is a huge bonus.

I grew up in Europe with a mother from the USA. She spoke English to me, I refused to reply back in anything other than Dutch. I thought it was weird to be speaking a foreign language when no one else spoke it around me. That said, though I didn't speak English I did understand it very well. And when we moved to the USA, I was speaking fluently as well within a couple months. I suppose what I am trying to say, is to not give up. Keep speaking Turkish - he may not want to speak it, that's fine at this point. The exposure to the language and being able to understand it will help him immensely if he does decide he wants to learn the language (or if you decide to require it as a 'class' at one point for your homeschool, if you're a homeschooler). Chances are that over time he will want to learn the language - especially if, like myself, he has family that doesn't speak English or (wink) refuse to speak English around your son. You can only be an interpreter for so long, after all. I've only just started in the dual language process with my kids now, so I don't have any specific suggestions on how to make your son want to speak more Turkish. All I remember from being so young were a lot of English books and movies, so I'm afraid I'm not a lot of help there.

Grass-fed, unsalted butter - salted butter tends to have a lower quality of salt than you'd necessarily want. I use Kerrygold unsalted (salted if I can't find unsalted, that seems to be more difficult to find). Costco has salted Kerrygold for the cheapest I've seen it anywhere, unsalted I can rarely find at the local grocery. I personally like it both ways, but some have a strong preference one way or the other. I also use Brain Octane Oil (from the BP site), though MCT oil works well and coconut oil almost as well. I use 2 tbsp of butter and 1 tbsp of BOO, been drinking it for close to a year now, though I tend to take 2-3 days 'off' every week. When I drink it, I usually don't have breakfast and wait to eat until brunch/lunch, depending on when I start getting hungry and how intense my workout was that day. You may want to start with lower quantities, some people can have a reaction to the caffeine/fat if they're not used to it. Oh... and make sure to blend (NOT stir) it, if you don't want an oily mess, and drink it when it's nice and hot!

I lost my pup (10 yrs old) to liver cancer this morning. She seemed absolutely fine Friday (we had no idea she had a tumor), Sunday she could barely walk, and today she had to be put down. First time I've really had to deal with this, it's tough. RIP Maxie (and Jeely) ((hugs))

http://www.reddit.com/r/bisexual is another option as well (or other related subreddits), though, like Tumblr, it has its share of immaturity. EDIT: http://www.reddit.com/r/BisexualTeensmight be more appropriate.

If he doesn't like compatibility issues, I'd suggest buying a Windows machine... 8 is better, though there is a free upgrade for 7/8 users once 10 comes out as well. I've personally had great experiences with my Lenovo laptop. Dell Inspirons tend to be good as well. I don't know about the most recent models of laptops, though, I've transitioned to building my own desktops now.

I have Ahlah wa Sahlan, Alif-Baa with DVDs, and Arabic for Beginners (Hippocrene LS). These are books, not courses!! They are good resources, however. I also have an ancient Arabic grammar textbook, but I can hardly get through it, I dunno how appropriate it'd be for teens. ;)

This is finally something I know something about. ;) Definitely plan on going the college route - there are many great CJ programs out there, but this is NOT REQUIRED. In fact... many departments look favorably at different degrees (try communication, psychology, sciences, even business or finance if interested in moving up). Most everything that is taught at a college/university is taught again at the academy, anyways. Many departments have different ways for teens to volunteer with them, which may be a good path to go - look for youth academies and the such. Police/Sheriff explorers, if there is one close by. Search and Rescue is great as well. Even being a cadet at a fire department or volunteering at the hospital - it's all a different world, and you can make great contacts. I haven't homeschooled high school (or at all, lol), but I can tell you what I did: In high school itself, I took business law, criminal law and forensic science. I joined Search and Rescue at 14 via the Sheriff's office as well as started volunteering at the hospital. Sophomore year - local youth academy. My junior year, I joined a Sheriff cadet program (Sheriff's Explorers) in a different county. I also attended the state police youth academy and ended up coming back and helped 'instruct' the local youth academy. Starting my junior year, I took law enforcement classes at the community college (with a bunch of currently active police officers, opening paths for me to volunteer at each of those departments as well as various academies that the CC hosted, which I did). I also focused on learning the languages mostly used in the area that I was looking at working in - Spanish and Russian. Other subjects I focused on were writing (being able to write well is integral), math (surprisingly important) and physical fitness (for obvious reasons: not just the physical fitness requirements, either. I also did 8 years of martial arts and a couple years of police 'defensive tactics'). I transferred to a 4 year university and got a Law and Justice degree, while being a part of the school CJ club. This is actually the only thing I would have done differently. I ended up going with it because it allowed me to graduate early, but for a while I was going the dual major + minor - Communications and Psychology majors + Law and Justice minor - route. I ended up marrying a soldier, so that kinda messed that route up for me, sadly. I'm actually still figuring out how to make it work - I'm young, so I still have at least 6 years or so before it'll be more difficult for me to find a job. EDIT: Hopefully this is useful. I went the obsessive route, which may or may not be your son as well, but I started about the same age. And I absolutely loved it.

I don't know how easy it would be to pull this off (since you are the teacher and all) but perhaps you could debate each other if you can't find others to debate with? It changes the dynamics a bit, but could still be pretty beneficial. You could both research a topic, decide who is pro and who is con, and then debate each other. You could give DD advice, and DD can analyze your debate and learn (and critique) your side. Perhaps once you debate each other a couple times, you can find another family member who may be interested in practicing some debate as well to switch up 'opponents'. Speech is easy enough to do just at home (where she gives a speech to you), at least to begin with. Perhaps move up to speeches in front of family and friends after a while. Hard to get a big group together otherwise, though. Is there a Meetup.com type website in Belgium? Maybe there are some groups you can find online. Even if they are for adults, there may be some that accept kids (or kids accompanied by parents).