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naturegirl

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Everything posted by naturegirl

  1. That's so funny that you and your husband had that reaction to Yellowstone and the Tetons, because my husband and I had the same reaction. We went there on our honeymoon and just fell in love with the area. Talked about retiring there for years. Compared to Yellowstone/Tetons, I don't personally think that Yosemite is as nice. I know some people who consider Yosemite their favorite national park, but I just don't see it. Yosemite is beautiful, but it's not even my favorite place in California. I agree with the others who have posted that if you do decide to go to Yosemite, don't go this year. I was there recently, and with the fires, the drive in is not as pretty as it use to be. Yosemite Valley did escape the fires, but with the droughts in the area right now, the waterfalls are down to pretty much just a trickle. If you do decide to visit Yosemite this year or in a future year, I would also consider visiting a few other places in California. I know it's a big state, so it would require a lot of driving, but Big Sur is really beautiful (but expensive). Big Sur actually replaced Yellowstone/Tetons as my husband's favorite place (but not mine). San Francisco is a great city to visit with lots to do and lots of good food. My husband and I also really enjoyed Joshua Tree National Park. For this year you could consider Glacier National Park. Also, the southwest has a lot to offer in both Arizona and New Mexico.
  2. Regarding the OP, although I would be annoyed and possibly offended if someone said this to me, it's possible there's another side to this as well. My mom and many of her friends are public school teachers. One of her friends told a story about a mom who came up to her and asked about a letter that had been sent home with the kids. The letter encouraged parents to read to their children every day. The mom asked how to do that. As in, she didn't know what it meant to read a book out loud to her kids. You said the librarian is new. If this librarian came from an area where lots of parents weren't reading to their kids, maybe she's just use to constantly pushing it to every parent she meets.
  3. I must have been asked the birth control question a dozen times after I gave birth to my son. It drove me crazy.
  4. See, I didn't think the author was going for either angle. I thought the point of the piece was to tell the story of this girl who was kidnapped and murdered and the story of the man who was arrested for the crime. I think it was up to the reader to decide if justice was served or if the wrong man was convicted.
  5. I don't actually qualify as someone who has lived in Seattle, though I have many friends and family members who do, so I thought I'd chime in. I've never known anyone who didn't love living in Seattle. I'm sure there are a few out there somewhere, I've just never met them. I was there last month for several days with my son and I can tell you it's a fabulous place for kids. There is so much to do. There are great museums and parks. Plus there is a lot to do outdoors. My son really loved the Space Needle and riding the monorail. I don't know anything about Renton itself. Everyone I've known either lived downtown or north of the city. As far as being overcast, yes, it does get a lot of rain, but that's what keeps it so green and beautiful. During the summer, it is mostly sunny, but the great thing is that it rarely gets too hot. So you have beautiful summers but fairly mild winters. I spent every Christmas as a child near Seattle, and although there was an occasional sprinkling of snow, they rarely get much.
  6. My five year old loves puzzles right now, especially those ones of different continents where the pieces are shaped like the countries. But any puzzle (under 50 pieces or so so I don't have to keep stopping to help him) would keep him entertained for awhile. He also loves mazes and dot-to-dots. I picked up a bunch of dot-to-dot books recently at a garage sale for 25 cents each. He can stay entertained for a while with those.
  7. If you have two to three weeks, you could spend three or four days in San Francisco and a couple days exploring Monterey, Santa Cruz and Big Sur. Then drive north from San Francisco, stopping for a couple nights in Redwoods National Park, then another night somewhere along the Oregon Coast (maybe Florence, near Honeyman State Park - I mentioned this place in an earlier post). The next day head up to Cannon Beach (where Haystack rock is). You may need to spend the night here, depending on how much driving you want to do in a day. Then cut across on Highway 26 to Portland. Spend the night there, making sure to allot a couple hours for Powell's Book Store (a huge and amazing new and used book store than takes up an entire city block in Portland). Next head down I-5. At Eugene cut over on Highway 58 to Crater Lake. Spend a night or two here. Then head south to Ashland (someone mentioned the Shakespeare Festival earlier) or to Lava Beds National Monument (I mentioned that one earlier). Either way, you eventually need to end up back on I-5. At Sacramento, you can cut back over to San Francisco and fly back home. As far as whether to stay in San Francisco or out of it, traffic can be bad, but I've always been able to find parking there. We've always camped when we visited, and stayed in a cabin at the nearby KOA. I would probably stay in the city if I were you, just because I would think it would be easier, though I don't have recommendations for where to stay. While in San Fran, I've enjoyed Alcatraz Island, riding the trolley and visiting the Academy of Sciences (though this one is very expensive). I've also heard the Exploratorium is nice, though I haven't been there myself. My husband loves Muir Woods just north of San Francisco.
  8. I'm home now, and had more time to recall some details from when I've taken these trips. When we did the Tetons and Yellowstone trip, we also tacked on Glacier National Park. It's a really beautiful place and I highly recommend it. The Going to the Sun Road is amazing. I've been to Mount Rushmore as well, and it was fine, but if I had to pick, I would go to Glacier instead. As far as the other trip goes, Crater Lake is very pretty, but I didn't find that there was a whole lot to do there. Unfortunately both times I've been there, it's been too early in the season for the boat to run to Wizard Island. That is something I'd like to do sometime. This last time we were there we went to Lava Beds National Park in northern California on the way. It's about three hours south of Crater Lake. My son is really interested in caves right now, and there are 22 caves open to the public there. (If you do end up doing this, be sure you don't bring shoes or clothing that you have worn in other caves east of the Rockies - they screen for White Nose Bat Syndrome.) Along the Oregon Coast, I really like Honeyman State Park. They have lots of sand dunes to explore. If you get one of those plastic circular sleds, you can sled right down the dunes into the lake. The dunes are also a great to watch meteor showers at night if there are any during your trip. As far as Haystack Rock goes, it's pretty, but I don't know that I'd drive all the way up to Cannon Beach for it, if you weren't already planning on driving that far north. If you do make it up to northern Oregon, I would also recommend Fort Stevens State Park. I have really fond memories of going there as a child. One thing I enjoy most about the northern California and Oregon coasts are the tide pools. I'd get a tide schedule if I were you once you get there so you can hit some of those. As far as which road to take, I like Highway 1 best. It's slowest of course, but really gorgeous. If you do head south of San Francisco, Monterey is a nice town. The aquarium there is suppose to be really nice. It's a bit expensive, so I've never gone, but I've heard good things. There is also an amazing park in town (the Dennis the Menace park) if the kids need a break. My husband's favorite place in California is Big Sur. I like it as well, though I think other places along the coast are equally pretty. For a literary tie in, you have the Henry Miller library in Big Sur, and Cannery Row in Monterey. North of San Francisco along Highway 1 is a little town called Mendocino that I really enjoyed. I really like Redwoods National Park as well. It has tons of good hiking and I always end up feeling like I'm in a scene from Return of the Jedi.
  9. I am on my phone, so I apologize for my typos. I will type more at home. I have done both of these trips and really love both. I'd say between the two, I enjoy the Yellowstone area a little more, because it is so unique, but either trip would be great. If you go to Yellowstone, definitely plan a few days for the Grand Tetons as well. It's probably the most beautiful National Park I've ever been to. The hike around Jenny Lake is great. If you do the Northern California trip, Yosemite is not a day trip from San Francisco. You would have to spend the night in Yosemite. San Francisco is a great city. I've always enjoyed myself there. I wasn't as impressed with Yosemite. It's been years since I've been there, but I just remember thinking it didn't quite live up to the hype. I know some people really love it.
  10. Thanks for the suggestions. Those books look really good.
  11. I'm not in Virginia, but I just tried a google search and found something to check out in a neighboring town. Thank you so much for the recommendation. I thought this was something that only existed in my dreams. I know that sounds corny. But seriously, I've thought so often how I'd like a social skills class for my son, and now I'm finding out that they are real. I'm so happy that this actually exists.
  12. I absolutely understand what you are saying. It's entirely possible that putting him in a class with 16 other kids next year could be a disaster. But if he really is on the autism scale, I want to see if people who are trained to work with autism (his aide would have training in working with special-needs children) can be any help. My ideal would be to find a class specifically geared toward kids with issues similar to my son's. Something small, maybe 4-6 kids, with a teacher trained to deal with their issues. The kids could learn how to appropriately interact with each other. In an earlier post someone mentioned having something like this in her area. If I can find something like that here in my area, that would be my first choice. My problem is that we've moved a lot in the past couple years, so I don't know a lot of people where I live now. I've tried to get involved during this part year in the homeschooling community. I've met a lot of nice people, but we don't see the same people regularly enough. I want some sort of co-op where we see the same kids every week in a small group setting. I've even tried to get some things going myself, but I can't find people who can do something like that on a regular basis. And out of the few people I feel like I've bonded with over the last year who have kids close to my son's age, most of them have decided on some sort of school next year or have moved away. So I feel like I'm back to square one next year, which is why this modified schedule at the public school may be just what I need. I also understand what you are saying about mean kids. My son is very sweet. He may unintentionally say or do something mean, but he would never intentionally be mean to someone else. If I sense that the other kids are picking on him or being mean, I won't leave him in a situation that is upsetting him.
  13. Thank you for the warning. This is definitely something I need to stay on top of.
  14. Where did you find a social skills group? That sounds perfect for my son, I just don't even know where to begin looking for something like that. A couple of people have mentioned OT now, so that is something I will look into as well. Thanks for the advice. To answer your question, yes my son is getting opportunities to make friends, but doesn't usually click with the kids he meets. He will often end up playing with someone either older or younger than him, rather than someone his age. I'm glad to hear that the things you did paid off and your son is a happy kid with friends and lots of interests. That is what I want for my son.
  15. Thanks for all the info. I've had people suggest that I look into SPD before, so it's something that is on my radar. He does have issues with sounds and different food textures. And he doesn't like getting stuff on his hands, like paint or dirt. I wish I could pinpoint exactly what it is about my son interacting with other kids. Sometimes he just clicks with a kid, and they can actually play well together for awhile. Usually though, it's like they are speaking two different languages. He just doesn't get what they are talking about and they don't get what he is talking about.
  16. Thank you so much for the website and book suggestions! They look like they will be very helpful. I think you are right. A couple hour class with 16 other kids probably won't hurt anything and it may actually help. I guess I'll have to try it to see.
  17. Thank you for your insight. I agree, having an outside perspective can sometimes be helpful. And I also agree that taking it a year at a time makes sense. It's not like this decision is a decision for life.
  18. I have a question for you. How do you work with your daughter at home on how to get along with other kids? Do you mean you role play with you and her? Or do you invite friends over for her to play with? We have made a few friends here so far, but whenever I have friends over for my son to play with, he seems to go a little crazy. To much commotion or something. Maybe it's because I have several children over instead of just one. Finding other only children who can come over (I thought we found one, but he has such severe allergies, they never go to anyone else's house) can be difficult. Thanks.
  19. Right, this is why I'm thinking of trying it. Kindergarten is the only year there will just be the 16 kids, so this is the only year to try it and see. And as you say, it's not a life sentence. I can withdraw him if it's not working out. Thanks.
  20. I agree, I can always pull him out if it doesn't work. I was thinking the same thing, of giving it three or four months and seeing how it goes. Thanks.
  21. I'm thinking that 2 hours a day with 16 kids and and aide sound pretty good too. This would be the only year he could do this. First grade would be 32 kids all day, and probably not something I would be interested in. But with 16 kids, it may be a good chance for him to be around other kids in a structured setting without it being too overwhelming. And yes, he would still get to see the good speech therapist that he likes. Honestly, about him feeling left out if he left early, he is so oblivious to that sort of thing, I'm not even sure he'd realize that he was missing anything. If we just told him he was leaving at this time, I think he'd be fine with it. And yes, I agree, 32 kids in a kindergarten class is crazy. I'll have to look into OT. Thanks for the suggestions.
  22. This is exactly what I'm worried about. I can see it going both ways. Like you say, it may improve his social skills. If he has the right teacher, and if he doesn't get bullied, etc. But it could also be really bad. I don't want to make a decision based on the fear of what might be, but I don't want to assume that being around other kids will automatically "fix" him either. No, I'm not sure he's not gifted. I haven't had him tested. Maybe I'll look into that. Thank you for your thoughts on this matter.
  23. First, I'm sorry this is so long. I'm trying to decide what to do with my son next fall. To give everyone some background, I first started considering the idea of homeschooling a couple years ago, when my son was around two. After many many hours of research, I decided it was something I was interesting in pursuing. Academically speaking, I have no doubt that my son would be better off homeschooled. He is very bright. Not gifted, but definitely smart. I think that the ability to move ahead at our own pace will be great for my son. Socially however, he has some issues. My mom and sister are convinced he has autism (and my sister does have a background in child development and psychology and my mom is a former teacher). I was leaning toward ADHD myself and my husband thinks he is just a normal, very active little boy. He hates loud noises and sometimes when we are at the park he seems to be a loss for how to interact with other kids. He also relates better to adults than to kids. He just turned five this past spring. Because he was extremely delayed in potty training, and because he seemed so hyperactive at times, I starting seeing a child psychiatrist when my son was four. He said that my son has ADHD but not autism. He referred us to a child development specialist who agreed that my son doesn't have autism, said he may have ADHD and said that he is about a year or a year and a half behind developmentally (ie fine motor skills). He wasn't enough behind that any further testing is required. We were also referred to the school district for possible speech delays. As is standard practice here, they did a full evaluation on my son and found that he does have a speech delay and also they say he falls on the autism spectrum. So I have a lot of conflicting information about my son and what conditions he may or may not have. I've decided not to worry about whether he does or doesn't have ADHD or autism for now, since none of the specialists can agree. I may have him re-evaluated in a few year, if I think there are continuing issues. He did go to speech therapy this past year. It was in a classroom with three other kids twice a week. It was kind of like preschool, in that they worked on little projects in addition to working on speech skills. I've seen my son's fine motor skills improve. He can finally sort of use scissors. I've worked with him on that off and on for years, so that was exciting for me (it's funny how little things like that can seem like such big victories). They also had a chance to work on how to appropriately play with each other, because that's something that many of the kids struggled with. Anyway, my son loves his speech teacher. There isn't a program like this for my son next year (kindergarten). If he went to school he would be in a regular class with everyone else. That's 32 kids per class here. So for me, an easy decision. No way. I'll keep him home and homeschool like I had planned. However, I just had his end of the year IEP meeting, and it turns out that for the first two hours of the day, there are only 16 kids per class. His speech teacher wouldn't be his teacher next year, but she would be at his school and would work with him every week. Because he has and IEP, we could write a plan that A) gives him his own assistant to navigate kindergarten for the first couple months because at times he is genuinely clueless about what he is suppose to be doing, and allows him to leave early once the remaining 16 kids arrive (bringing the class size to 32. Those 32 stay together for another two hours, then the first 16 go home and the last 16 stay for two more hours.) So he would only be in school for about two hours a day. With this new information, I am thinking of enrolling him in kindergarten under these terms, and then continuing with the academic work like we have been doing. Obviously, that is what all of the teachers at the IEP meeting thought I should do. I was set to go against their advice, but one of them said something that really resonated with me. Whether my son goes to school next year or not, I'm going to keep on working with him on academic stuff anyway (I don't mean that we do anything hardcore. We just do a little Singapore Math, Explode the Code and tons of reading together). But by going to school, he may learn a lot about how to interact with other people. His handwriting is also really bad, so they may be able to help him a bit with that. And frankly right now, that may be what he needs. We are involved in the homeschooling community here, but I haven't found anything that is as involved as I would like. I want my son to be around other kids several times a week, and at least some of the time, I want the kids to be some that he sees regularly. Does anyone with a son like mine have any advice? What was better for your child? Staying home where things are calmer and not so overwhelming, but where there is less chance to be around other kids, or being in some sort of class where he can work on appropriate ways to interact with other kids? I know homeschoolers hate to be asked the old socialization question. And I know that homeschoolers have plenty of opportunity for socialization. But I'm wondering if in my son's case with his possible ADHD and autism if he would be better served with some more structure in his social setting. I know nobody can answer this but my husband and I, but I'm hoping someone who has been through this before can offer some advice. Like I said before, I have no doubt that academically my son would be best served homeschooling. But, if he can't make friends or interact with other people he won't go very far in life. Right now, he loves to learn. I don't want to send him to school and have him lose that, but sometimes I feel like I might not be the best person to help him figure out how to make friends and interact with peers. Other people want a tutor to teach their kids calculus. I'm fine with calculus, I just want some help in how to teach my child to interact with other people. I'm fine with my son being a bit weird (given his parents, it was a foregone conclusion), but I've met some people in my life who were so socially awkward that they struggled to get jobs and make meaningful friendships. I don't want that for him, so if there is something I can do now, I want to do it. If you've made it this far, thank you. I realize re-reading this, that I sound a little wacky myself. Maybe that's why I worry about my son. I just want what's best for him (as we all want for our children), but right now, I've having a hard time seeing what that is. Thanks for any advice you may have for me.
  24. Your welcome! I hope you find someplace that works for you and that you have a wonderful and relaxing vacation.
  25. I've stayed at Babcock State Park, and really liked it. We camped, but I'm pretty sure they have cabins there as well. I've also rafted on the New River, which runs right by there. Although we were in a raft, I saw plenty of kayakers while we were on the river. Actually, we stayed in a cabin on that trip. The rafting company we used rented cabins. I believe they were called Adventures on the Gorge, or something like that. We enjoyed visiting a little town in the area called Fayetteville. All we had time for was coffee and pastries, but it seemed like it might be a fun place to explore. Another place you could stay, it's north of Watoga instead of east, is Seneca State Forest. I'm pretty sure they rent cabins there. I really liked that area of the state, and the hike to the top of Seneca Rocks was beautiful.
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