We have an appointment on Wednesday. Ds almost 11 just struggles with the written word. He is asking for books on CD. He has to finger read or we get nowhere. That being said, he is super good with his hands. He draws schematics of airplane systems, designs paper airplanes with intricate designs, and his current thing is cross-stitching and sewing. I had something that wasn't working and he took it apart and found and fixed the broken wires inside. So, can he be so troubled in reading and so skilled with his hand-eye and still fall under the domain of needing vision therapy?

My 11 year old son does not read well. He cannot keep the phonics' rules in his head. And he often times will look at a word and say a synonym. He assigns ending to words without them, no endings where they should be, etc. However, he does much better when he physically points to the word. I can't tell what the problem is so I am thinking that I need to figure out what the problem isn't. Is this a vision therapy issue or something else?

I think antenna only is $9.99 but you can find boxes that have lifetime attached to them for pretty cheap. I haven't hooked my second Tivo up yet since I don't have a converter box so I don't know how it compares to the new one.

Another thing that I learned this week: If you have an antenna, you can put a Tivo Series 2 SINGLE TUNER on it. You will need an analog-digital converter box. Buy one with a lifetime subscription on it. You can find them on eBay for around $100. That will give you DVR, pause, FF, rewind, still with no fees. The downside is that you will lose HD if you have it. Or you can use a Tivo Premiere and that will do HD. It costs more as it has lots of bells and whistles, but it comes with a hefty price tag.

We bought: http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3767303 I was going to use an RCA 751r as it had phenomenal reviews (and half the price) but the Blue Ridge Mountains separate us and the signals 70 miles away. We did put on a $20 amplifier from Lowe's. We are 70 miles from DC and this actually pulls channels from Baltimore, which is even further away.

UPDATE: We tried an in house antenna. We got one, two, tres channels (all PBS, the last one in Spanish.) So I ordered an antenna from Amazon but decided that it was too small so we went out to Radio Shack and got a behemoth one. It is about 7.5 x 12 feet. Much to our surprise, we get about 50 channels. Dh loves having HD now but wasn't a fan of no DVR. So I bought a Tivo with lifetime. No more monthly fees for TV ever again!!

We use the Internet for finding shows. You can find everything out there (which sometimes is NOT a good thing.) I'm not a fan of Hulu as I don't like to pay for commercials. But then again, I do that with DirecTV, now don't I? Although, I do watch the Insanity and P90X infomercials a lot. It gives me the courage to press play. In fact, I am going to start P90X in October, just after I turn 49.

Got my package dropped and the DVR service fee dropped. I can still cancel (which I will) but I will take any concession that they will give along the way.

I'm pretty sure that there is a $5 charge every time you downgrade. I could certainly use the extra time. I am so over blaming homeschooling for my inability to lose weight. I am down 55 pounds simply by finding the "me" time that I had given up. No TV means more "me" time. More time to work on the other 55 pounds that needs to go.

Is she offering a better deal or just wants you to sign up? I am trying to think this whole thing through. I get my lunch and flip on the TV to watch People's Court. I will get sucked in for the 43 minutes. I am trying to visualize what I will do with the time that I found.

I found a link from the Best Buy site so that you can check. Search for antenna and it is should come up.

Just checked what stations we can pick up with an antenna. PBS Guess that we don't need an antenna.

No they didn't ask. But then again, I already have their equipment so they know where to find me.

Alright, this sounds like a go. We all have laptops that have WiDi, so we can all sling our computer screens to a TV. We already do this for Netflix. And we don't even have standard DVD players. And we have Amazon Prime to boot. I did speak to DirecTV a couple of days ago. I spoke to 4 representatives who all gave me 4 different answers. They kept me on hold for 20 minutes and I never did get to speak to a supervisor.

Not that we are a sports family, but my husband does like NASCAR. But not as much as the $1,000 it costs for it.

I have had enough of paying $82 a month. We barely watch TV. And what we do watch we can watch online. Admittedly, it will make us change how we watch TV. I will miss Judge Judy, The People's Court, and Dr. Oz (although that is the biggest selling point with my husband, no more Dr. Oz.) Anyone dump satellite and cable?

Staples. Transparency sheets. They are pricey, though. But they work so much better than page protectors.

My hands-on child is 10 years old. He is working through BJU Press Distance Learning now. He complains about the amount of time, but it is what it is. It isn't really all that long, but just too long for him. The boys are really SO solid in math that I really hate to mess with that. He tried TT but asked to go back to BJU Press, so we did.

December was when they did the $99 deal last time. However, you just never know what deals will come around when. I am a consultant and these are the current offers: There is an extended sale for August. 6 DVD Subject kits for 50% (mix and match grades 1-12) 10% BJU Press August 3-5 And consultants have free shipping, every day, no minimum.

We just did a few years of BJU Press Distance Learning. I really like it but one of my kids needs a more hands-on approach. He said that he would do the Distance Learning again but if he needs hands-on, he needs hands-on. I am also in the midst of fighting my age-old battle with obesity. So, I need to take a good amount of time for fitness training. The distance learning fits well into this equation, but then again, I will find the time if it will do the trick. Also, my daughter didn't do well with Saxon or TT, so I am wondering if I might have the same issue with her. Any advice is appreciated.

I am going to use this for my hands-on guy. And I know that once my 5 year old girl sees those blocks, she is going to be all in. Do I need to start her in Primer or go for Alpha and work it thoroughly? Thanks.

3rd grade Other than for grading, I don't need it, do I? I can just buy the student workbook.

If you are looking at Grade 1 Phonics and English, it is a great program. I just had two boys go through this last year. Fantastic program. My older boy struggled with reading and after 8+ programs, it stuck with BJU Press. That being said, you should look at getting the DVD Distance Learning. First grade DL has Phonics, English, Reading and Handwriting wrapped in one. You would get: 211797 Phonics and English 1 Teacher's Edition & Toolkit CD (3rd ed.) 211789 Phonics and English 1 Worktext (3rd ed.) 211821 Phonics 1 Practice Book 211391 Reading 1 Teacher's Edition (3rd ed.) 221119 Reading 1A–1F (3rd ed.) 211383 Reading 1 Student Worktext (3rd ed.) 233999 BJ Booklinks: Blueberry Dell (guide & novel) 231654 BJ BookLinks: Buttercup Hill (guide & novel) 244673 BJ BookLinks: Looking for Home (guide & novel) 211714 Handwriting 1 Teacher's Edition (3rd ed.) 211706 Handwriting 1 Worktext (3rd ed.) Books only cost $381 You can get the DVD DL for 13 month lease for $349. So it cheaper to have the video instruction.

4th grade Math is in production now. So if you wait until the new catalog (March 1, I believe) then you will get the new recordings. It won't be available in the online format until June 1st as that is when all online classes begin. And I don't feel that elementary math is behind. My son just finished 2nd grade math and he covered many tables in multiplication and even started on division.

If anyone wants to sell their tiles (magnets preferred) I am interested. I just had my son tested for Special Needs and I have to go back to O-G teaching.