Depending on your public school, it may or may not be helpful in the end. Still do it -- since you're paying taxes and might as well get something from it;) But ime, public schools are very very inept at assessing reading. I was told 3 y ago that my 9.5's reading was on target for 1st grade....it wasn't and I knew it wasn't. But in all honesty, everyone missed that dx. They thought her adhd was just making other things appear worse than they are. Nope, she's mod/severely dyslexic. Get a thorough evaluation from an *educational* phsychologist who comes highly recommended and who has lots of experience. Be sure that they have a *great* rapport with your child as it makes a huge difference. Personally, I'd a avoid a neuropych evaluation at this time. Read up. Good books: Driven to Distraction One Mind at a Time Right brained child in a left brained world I want to understand both her strengths and her weaknesses so I read things across the whole spectrum. The book _The Explosive Child_ has been most most helpful in terms of managing her behavior. Most most helpful if you have one that is constantly freaking out, blowing up, loosing it. Explosive:) It was lifechanging....esp for dh's interactions with her. He wanted her to 'follow directions....or there will be consequences'. Bottom line is that for her, that kind of thinking puts her on the path to ODD and probably Conduct disorder. But if we let that go and work on a more consensual basis, it's much much better. Much better. If he's having trouble with reading, a quick-ish evaluation by a reading specialist who has exceptional experience dyslexia would be recommended. Our psychologist and her teachers totally missed it. The reading specialist nailed it in short short order. Since early intervention is key for reading remediation, don't delay. Sally Shaywitz's book _Overcoming Dyslexia_ is phenominal. Read it. Take notes. Read sections again. Don't be intimidated though by all that needs to be done....you can do it. You can be that expert he needs. I reluctantly became that expert and am now so happy to have made the change (rather than sending her to the $90/hr professional 2x/wk). they need phonics daily, in specific multi sensory, *explicit*, direct teaching, systematic ways. there are plenty of programs that allow you to do this at home should you find out you need to go this path. I'd caution you against being pulled into the mindset that visual spatial learn don't learn phonics and need a whole words/whole language approach. While some will and will go on to be great readers, others will seem to be decent readers for a time, then will hit the wall generally sometime between 5th and 8th grade when their ability to see/memorize shapes of words is overcome by their inability to decode new long multisyllabic words. Phonics instruction done right works for everyone. It's true that some don't need it and read well......they are the ones with an internal phonological coding system that is intact - it was just there. But for the rest, phonics will get them reading......some will need more specific kinds of phonics intervention, but it *will* get them reading. When phonics instruction is done via evidence based methods (normal phonics for non dyslexic kids.....phonics intervention programs for kids dysplaying phonological processing issues), there is virtually no reading reading failure at average IQ levels and up. Virtually none. Oh! The book _How to Get Your Child off the Refrigerator and onto learning_ is a must purchase. Not a library book like the others but an actual buy:) Wishing you all the best!!

Be sure to not take any D supplements for 48h prior to the test of the results will be skewed to the high side. Also, keep in mind that it takes 3 mos for your body's D level to max out at 'x' level of supplementation.....in otherwords, it's only after 12 weeks or so of taking the 5,000 IU everyday that you'll know how high 5,000 IU will get you. Sounds like your doc is 'on it' though:) At least they have you taking 5,000 IU D3 (right?) as opposed to 50,000 IU D2 several times per week....which is poor practice but done very frequently. Wishing you all good things

I love love love this book....great for right brain learners, various ld's, adhd and really those without those needs as well. it's just plain good. :)

:iagree: with laurie4b. It's mostly getting accomodations in place. You keep working on the handwriting b/c there will always be a need to fill out forms and that sort of thing. But the major players will be 1)excl keyboarding skills (read, write and type! is the best of it's kind) 2)voice recognition software (dragon speech for pc's, dicate for intel based macs) 3)using a wordprocessor or laptop for taking notes in class.....or having an assigned 'notetaker' in class 4)getting the proper paper trail in place to get accomodations for school/college/standardized testing. start now and be meticulous with dx'ing and documentation. :)

The _Body Ecology Diet_ has a great recipe for tomato free tomato sauce. It's based on butternut squash, italian seasoning and a little acv to give it the acidity. I love the stuff. I don't currently have the book availble, but it's worth checking out from the library for that recipe and a few of the soup recipes. Chicken Mirabella is a wonderful tomato free recipe. :)

I've overcome early CFS/FM, celiac, adrenal fatigue, chronic joint pain, gut issues, depression, anxiety, severe eczema and probably other things I can't think of right now:) There won't be a magic bullet that's 'one size fits all', but the foundation will be the same for most people. POTASSIUM Get lots of potassium. Lots. That's a major energy producer. The only way to do that is via fruit and veggie consumption. Make it easy since you're so fatigued right now. Tomato juice, tomato sauce, salsa can and should be added to everything (if you tolerate tomato). It's got the best ratio of potassium: calories of all available foods. Make sure to get low sodium versions since potassium:sodium ratio is critical. We often hear that bananas are great.....they are, but they only have enough potassium to balance their own caloric donation to our diet. Ideally we want a 4:1 potassium to calorie ratio. Banana's don't have any 'extra' potassium to offset the poor potassium/cal ratio of the other foods we eat. Tomato products do - in spades. Kiwi also has a lot of potassium (eat the skin). Broths made from veggie peelings have tons of potassium (but your energy level might not be up to it right now. http://www.krispin.com has a good section on ways to work potassium into your diet. great section actually. PRODUCE tons. potassium, minerals, fiber, antixodiants. since you're extremely fatigued, make it easy for now....buy bagged lettuce. eat a salad with every meal (yup, incl breakfast). Or make a pot of veggie soup (tomato based with mixed veg/beef broth).....or broccoli fennel soup.....or carrot cauliflower.....or cauliflower dill. Something based on *nonstarchy* veggies and broth (ie no dairy, no potato etc). Make sure you're getting 2 servings of veggies at each meal and one at each snack plus a few fruits per day - *in whatever way you can*. eating pickling cukes plain, carrots, celery, bagged salad, soups made ahead, apples, kiwi, pears....things you can literally pick up, wash and eat with no peeling, cutting, chopping (i never peel carrots....just wash and bite) PROTEIN a gram per 2 lbs ideal body weight. some will need more, some less. I need less. but when i was less well, I needed much much more. krispin's recommendation for me was a 'palm sized' portion 4x per day. at the time I had been nursing or pregnant for 6 years.....vegetarian that whole time, and certainly severely deficient in zinc, iron, vitamin d and other key macronutrients. I needed digestive enzymes to tolerate the meat consumption....and thankfully now, I can do well with less meat (i'm a veg at heart, from an ethical/environmental perspective). Go with dark/bright animal protein sources....ie red meat/dark meat (iron/zinc...but lowest fat cuts), wild salmon (never farmed), sardines, tuna (the mercury risk has been overstated...the seychelles child development study clearly details this) VITAMIN D get it tested right now. now. no D containing supplements (multi etc) or high D foods for 48h prior to testing. D deficiency is nearly universal (based on optimal values, not lab norms) in the united states. at least amongst people wearing clothes;) or sunscreen or those indoors midday or those above 30d latitude. that pretty much covers everyone. Five years ago, I had my D levels tested per Krispin's recommendation. I was severely D deficient even though I was outside with my children every day (i sought shade and avoided midday heat), got lots of incidental exposure and wore *no* sunscreen of any kind, ever. It takes me 2000 IU to maintain good D levels. I haven't been tested in a year though, and I'm more sun avoidant/protective than I used to be. Based on my increase in respiratory infections, I'm thinking I might need even more D. vitamindcouncil.org has all of the evidence based info. D3 is the correct form, d2 is not helpful. there is some anecdotal evidence that optimizing 25(OH)D levels will improve thyroid profile. more info at the aforementioned site. More is not better with D, it's the *right* amount you want....and all available evidence is indicating that the right amount is definitely not less than 2000 IU per day and for healthy normal women it maybe as much as 4400 IU per day (depending on skin tone, sun avoidance/seeking, latitude, etc) SUPPLEMENTs A great multi can really round things out. After tracking my best and worst days, it's clear to me that no matter how perfect things are at times, I still don't get enough zinc, iron, magnesium, calcium and D. I take Natrol My Favorite Multiple Take One. iherb.com has the best prices. it's got the 'right' kind of iron (the safest, most easily absorbed Ferrochel (iron bisglycinate) by Albion labs), the right kind of zinc, selenium etc. Not too much E, decent b vites etc. Add in sufficient (not excessive) calcium and magnesium....read up on magnesium at krispin.com. For me, a 1:1 ratio of cal:mag (from all sources) is better than the typial 2:1 cal:mag. I take solray calcium magnesium citrate.....it's a 200:200 mg supplement....I take a few spread throughout the day (usually 3) If my muscles are feeling stiff/sore, or if anxiety is creeping in, I take some additional magnesium in the form of Jigsaw Health time released formulation of Albion labs chelated/magneisum glycinate. It's the only expensive supplement I use - and I use it b/c it's the only way I can get 'extra' magnesium in without causing loose stools. How can you do this fairly easily: 1)roast a pan of chicken or turkey thighs (evoo, salt, pepper, garlic) or some red meat. freeze in amounts sufficient for you for one day. or cook in crockpot then freeze (unless your family will eat it all in a couple of days like mine will) 2)get canned beans.....add 1/2c-1c to something you eat.....every single day. on days when you're over the beans, use hummus - try for no additives except olive oil. 3)easy produce - ideas above. you're shooting for 10-13 servings of produce per day. It's not as much as it seems like considering that most servings are 1/2c except for the fluffy stuff (lettuce, raw greens) and the big stuff (broccoli, cauliflower). shoot for 2lbs raw weight produce per day.....most of it raw where possible, lightly cooked as needed. clementines, apples, pears, grapefruit, frozen fruit blended into a smoothie with water and vanilla whey protein powder......carrots, celery, bagged lettuce, tomato, avocado (1/8 per day), cukes, frozen broccoli, frozen cauliflower are all super easy and require little to no prep. as you feel better, you can modify your choices and prep options. make soup to keep on hand. 4)handful of raw nuts (freshly shelled preferable to keep delicate fats stable) each day. 5)order cheap but high quality supps from iherb.com or vitacost.com or similar I find iherb.com to be unsurpassed in customer service and prices. i often put my shopping choices in the 'cart' on both sites...b/c of iherb.com's discount at the last second of checkout, it's always been cheaper for me. Natrol *take one* original is great for premenopausal women and boys and girls who are hitting puberty. Lots I know also like GNC's women's formula. It's time released. It's expensive though so I'm not thrilled with it:) An appropriate cal/mag (solaray cal/mag citrate.....rainbow light everyday calcium.....fish oil like natural factors rx omega to take on the days you don't eat a fatty fish) 6)check out krispin.com for excellent info on the hows and whys of magneisum and potassium. they're critical to optimal health and virtually no one gets sufficient amounts. Wishing you the very very best and a speedy return to health. I'm happy to help clarify/help in any way I can.

I so agree. It shows a frightening lack of independent, critical, logical thinking. Interesting really - considering we're here to discuss (basically) ways to education our children to be independent, critical logical thinkers. :iagree:

Ahh, but the Lunette (finland) is so much better than the DivaCup. I used a DivaCup for a couple of years but could always feel some level of discomfort with it. I was determined, one day, to find something perfect -- if it existed. I ordered one of every currently available menstrual cup in every currently available size. In the following linked forum, the Lunette is (%wise) the fave cup. I discovered this after I fell in love with it. I also love the LadyCup but it's very soft and I have problems with slight leaking with it. http://community.livejournal.com/menstrual_cups the DivaCup is the longest of the normal size cups. this seems to be the problematic factor for so many women. Also, it's very very stiff. The Lunette is a little wider - a smidge, a little shorter. The silicone is thinner, yet perhaps slightly more ridgid so it has a great seal. I also like the UK Mooncup very very much. Fwiw, I find the sizing to be not terribly accurate. For all of the cups, I can wear the large (over 30 or after childbirth regardless of age or route of delivery) or the small. The only difference is how long it takes to fill -- and for some of them, the size affects the comfort level. Also for all of them, I completely trim the stem. Completely. I just can't say enough good things about menstrual cups. I can't believe I wasted 22 years messing around with pads (cloth and disposable) and tampons. I find it to be the easiest most comfy solution. Empty and wash twice a day (q12h) and aside from that, I don't have to think of it at all. :001_smile:

There's probably a lot of reporting bias as opposed to 'inflation' or lying. People who know they have a high IQ are more likely to respond to the post. People who don't know, or don't have a higher IQ are less likely to respond. Many people are using scores from CogAT or similar and that's not an actual IQ score. Others have reported using scores from online quizzes - also not true IQ scores. There are many valid reasons for testing kids. Gifted, HG, EG and PG kids are suprisingly at risk academically if their intellectual and social needs aren't being met. To get them services or acceleration in school, IQ and achievement testing are often required. Others have had IQ testing done as part of a larger battery to suss out various issues including learning disbilities, ADHD, NLD and more. We've done both.....for one child, I needed it to support a grade skip. It's not a push on my part but a pull on her part. She's happy and content working at her intellectual ability. She's miserable, whiny, ADHD-ish and quite frankly, a bit snotty when working below her ability level. She needs to be at the right level for her....not the right level for me, not the easiest level for her teacher....but to support it, we needed 'objective' (:glare:) data. For our other dd, IQ testing was part of a larger battery of tests to try to figure out what the heck was going on and why nothing was working despite the fact that she seemed bright as heck. For this child, it was helpful, but like most things with her, it wasn't all we'd hoped for. Supporting her in growing up is like peeling an onion.....we're always finding out something new - whether or not we want to. :tongue_smilie:

Reading readiness is tricky. For some it's just developmental. For others though, they'll *never* be 'ready'. For that ~20%, early intervention is key. The earlier the better in terms of outcome. If I had a struggling, resistant or relucant to read child at age six, I'd pursue additional testing. There are measure that, while not perfect, can indentify those who have phonological weaknesses associated with 'traditional' dyslexia. If the child is one of those, intervening at that point can head off tremendous difficulty later. If the child doesn't seem to have phonological weaknesses or difficulty with rapid naming tasks and word retrieval, then it's likely only a developmental issue that will resolve in time. While vision can definitely be a portion of it, it's a small portion compared to the 1 in 5 who will fall somewhere on the 'typical' dyslexia, dygraphia, dyscalculia spectrum -- and it is a spectrum to be sure. Some are barely affected, some significantly so, so debilitatingly so. All the best

Pandia Press Earth/Space http://www.pandiapress.com/real_science.htm Excellent curriculum. We did the Life science 2y ago.

I fill out all of my attendance forms in August....for the whole year. Then just send them monthly. I figure that whether or not we're doing school, we're getting an education so the if the days don't line up exactly, I'm not concerned. :)

I love the sugarcane ecoeasy paper from Staples. It's wonderful to write on and reasonably priced. :)

imo, opg has a very difficult page layout and phonics that are not explicit enough for some children. if there is the possibility of familial/genetic dyslexia (anyone in your family have trouble learning to read? at all?) consider moving directly to an o-g based program like Wilson or Barton asap. It's not worth the struggle and disappointment for the child to repeatedly face failure. Go for the known successful intervention sooner rather than later. A well structured intensive multi sensory phonics program will help virtually everyone. I'm doing Wilson at home with both my kids -- after having read, meticulously, the Wilson training manual and having watched the training DVD's. Barton is even easier. Totally scripted. Great support. Dancing Bears (prometheantrust from the UK) looks reasonably good but the instruction is not as explicit (ie direct teaching of rules). Paired with apples pears spelling it does seem to have a excellent success rate. It's sort of a halfway point (imo) between the o-g intensive explict methods and the abecedarian/reading reflex types of programs. While abecedarian did get my child reading, the steps were too large to get her reading fluently....she needed a more incremental approach (saxon for phonics if you will), but one that was also multi sensory, moved quickly through a lesson (ie each step in the lesson could only last a short time if her attention was going to have half a chance at sticking it through). Wilson is working great. For abecedarian to work on it's own, I would have had to rewrite it. Once a child can reliably decode one syllable blends and blend/diphthongs (cat, sprong, thrang, shred, cracks, quarks, quints etc) with *no* difficulty and no delay, you can move to REWARDS intermediate which is a quick effective evidence based intervention from sopriswest. Continue read alouds to him (or audiobooks) at a higher level to continually stretch comprehension and vocabulary. Make sure that what ever you're doing for decoding (reading/phonics) is also done for encoding (spelling). Wilson covers this thoroughly. So does apples and pears/dancing bear. SRA also has great 'canned', 'off the shelf' intervention programs that are highly scripted. They're listed in Sally Shaywitz' _Overcoming Dyslexia_. Add in sightwords as needed with a lot of repetition/drill.....i would cull sight word lists though to those that are *truly* not decodable. the decodable ones get practice in a good systemtatic phonics program. Read, Write and Type! is an evidence based dyslexia intervention and keyboarding program all in one. It's not cheap; though they're kind enough to send you a $25 coupon via email if you sign in to access the free trial. I've used all of the available typing programs and this one is hands down, the best of them. It should be at $100 or so. :tongue_smilie:

"Do you just skip through to find your child's level? Or do you have to start from the beginning? Any comments from those using WWE with kids who are older than the target range?" I started my dd9 at 'her level'. She's dyslexic and fairly severely dysgraphic (processing issues with converting the phoneme to the grapheme.....has excl fine motor skills). We opened it up and started at level 2. My 2nd grade dd (just turned 7), is at the same level and actually could probably easily do level 3. :) katherine

TT=Teaching Textbooks they look *fabulous* http://www.teachingtextbooks.com/

some kids will be great readers regardless of the type of reading instruction they encounter. it's not b/c whole language is a good approach that it will work for *some kids*. the ones that learn 'whole language' and don't struggle with reading later when it gets harder, do okay b/c they simply 'get' the underlying structure of the english language and have an internalized phonological coding system. they get it. they dont' need to be taught. my dyslexic dd is like this with vocab and comprehension. she doesn't need to be taught vocab and comprehension directly (yet....4th grade). she 'gets' it. what she doesn't 'get' is then underlying structure and phoneme/grapheme part of the english language. the whole language instruction and 'implicit' phonics instruction she received in private school was devastating to her reading skills. really obliterated it. she is one of the 20% or so who truly was truly damaged by the whole language approach. regular phonics also didn't work for her.....montessori, opg and others. she needed intensive, explicit, cumulative daily instruction in systematic, explicit phonics with direct instruction....directly teaching and reteaching each skill to mastery - in a multi sensory way. she's now getting it and is learning to read. bottom line? phonics can teach everyone to read. whole language (with implicit phonics as a part of that) will teach some to read but will significantly impair about 20% of emerging readers. also, even though some appear to do well with it for a time, that time often comes to an end in high school or college when specialized technical terms come up and the reader has no framework from which to approach. If phonics isn't working.....with both of your kids, it's reasonable to assume that they are the 1 in 5 who needs a direct instruction explicit intensive approach. It certainly wont' harm them and the likelihood of it being helpful is in the neighborhood of 99%. you can search dyslexia, wilson, barton, rewards intermediate and you'll get a bunch of great posts from a few moms who've been down this path before. time is of the essence....dyslexia interventions work better the sooner they're carried out. Katherine in atl

Yes, a simple evaluation can generally rule it out. I'd encourage you to see a highly recommended very experienced reading specialist or educational psychologist -Not someone just trained in one of the reading remediation programs. Sally Shaywitz' book (overcoming dyslexia) has info on the standardized tests used to dx various reading issues. Time is of the essence with dyslexia. The earlier the intervention starts, the better the outcome. Of course, the severity of the dyslexia matters as well but the bottom line is that intensive, systematic, direct instruction of *explict* phonics remediates dyslexia with dramatic effectiveness. Early early intervention (ie pre-k/K) can rewire the phonological weakness virtually in it's entirety. But even without that early early intervention, outcomes are very very good if 1)the right interventions are used (research based intensive direct instruction of systematic, explicit phonics) 2)by the right teacher (needs to know what they're doing.....you can be trained or train yourself or use a 'scripted' program) 3)with the right intensity (5 days per week) 4)for sufficient duration (don't stop when things seem to be 'getting' better.....continue until they are reading above grade level) There are many orton-gillingham based approaches to use for remediation: ~Barton is one intervention that's fully scripted. It's expensive to use, but many love it. It's $2000++ to do the whole program, but you're purchasing in steps and at times you can find them for resale on ebay. ~Wilson isn't so scripted but you can figure it out by *watching the videos* and carefully reading the manuals. This is what I'm using. It will cost me overall, about $500 for the whole program. ~Recipe for Reading (much like Wilson) It's critical to use 'overlearning'--> insure complete mastery and automaticity at each step before moving on. This is most critical. Any/all of these will need to be combined with vocabulary/comprehension to create a 'comprehensive' intervention. My severely dyslexic 'gets' the vocab without explicit instruction, so I do almost no vocab/comprehension work with her. She also has the most unbelievable visual memory. My mildly dyslexic, highly visual-spatial math whiz isn't as strong.....she gets the phonics faster, but she needs more direct explicit work with vocab and comprehension. In terms of time invested, I'm spending about an hour to 1h 15 min per day with the 9.5 yo severely dyslexic child and about 45 min with the less affected one. It's a major time chunk since I have to do it separately with them (b/c the younger one gets it faster and can move on)....and it often cuts into other things that we both love;/ (science and history) but it's paying off. For the last 6 mos, I was paying a Wilson tutor $90 (also experienced in Recipe for reading, great leaps, pure o-g etc) but her bias against homeschooling eventually created impassable road blocks. We're doing much much better on our own. DH was freaking out for awhile regarding her progress and poor test taking skills - and he was very much wanting to send her to a specialized school here in Atlanta specifically for dyslexic kids ($27K/YR) but since he's seen me take charge of this in a fairly dramatic way, he's feeling much better:) wishing you all the best, Katherine

I so agree, Sagira. If more people felt that they would have the option to sell, more would buy it. It only benefits WP to get the curriculum out there to as many people as possible. The more buzz there is, the more *new* curriculum they will sell. As it stands, I know more than a few who won't buy from them at all b/c of their shortsighted illogical position on relsale. It just leaves a bad feeling about them. Katherine

Even though this is an old thread, I just can't resist:) My dh is an attorney. He was rather amused by WP's no-resale statement. It's not legally binding in any way, shape or form. At all. In fact, they might as well have said "you must wear purple while using our curriculum". It's ridiculous. You have paid for your copy and you can do what you'd like with *your* copy - including selling it. You cannot copy your copy to sell, but you can do whatever you'd like with the copy for which you paid. I love AC1......and will probably sell it when I'm done with it. :) Katherine

http://registration.beavton.k12.or.us/lbdb/ correct link for leveled readers. fwiw, these are all normal, regular old books that any library will have (or can get if you use the online search/request feature). no special series to buy. "He seems to like the non-fiction ones better. I just can't seem to get a grasp on how to find these easily at the library." the above link will (thankfully) take care of that for you. search the database in one window, in another open window, have your library's website open......copy from the database, paste into library search. sometimes I have to mess around a bit with terms - ie title, key words, authors name....but in the end, since they're all common common titles, I am able to find them. I stop at the library a couple times per week to pick up to books being held for me at the circulation desk. It's *so* wonderfully easy. :) Katherine

I'd use leveled readers.....ie regular library books that have been assigned a 'level'. You can start where he is and move up incrementally as skill level dictates. the following link allows you to search by the level (ie A, B, C.....Z), author or title. It's the most extensive of the leveled databases I've seen. I prefer this leveling system as opposed to Lexile or DRP b/c it seems to more heavily weight phonics into the equation. http://registration.beavton.k12.or.us/lbdb/FMPro :) katherine

Oh! and books I like on the subject.... for young kids I like Dr. Ruth's book.....I do change the language as I go to align it with their questions (ie not giving them more than they really wanted to know) for slightly older 7,8,9 I like Marc Brown's book _What's the Big Deal?_ Change/add language as needed to fit one's own religious/moral framework. A good adult book is _Everything you Never Wanted Your Kids to Know About S*x (and were afraid they'd ask)_ Worth checking out from the library. :) Katherine

i use google calendar and love it. dh and i can share information easily so family scheduling is more effecient and trasnparent. :) katherine

REWARDS intermediate is a great program for specifically this issue. here's what another hivemind mom wrote wrt decoding multisyllabic words with an otherwise good reader: "Once a child can read regular short vowel words, including nonsense words like grun, spag, frung, etc. with automaticity, and is at about a 4th grade comprehension level, you can use the REWARDS intermediate program by Sopris West (publ). REWARDS is scripted, so as a teacher, you know that you're "doing it right." sopriswest.com is the website, I believe