You guys are awesome. Thanks!

I do think his is a little bit trickier though, because we wanted a strong female protagonist in a book that would still hold a boys attention, you know?

I have a nephew who’s into epic fantasy and his mom Is just wondering where the strong women are! Any ideas? He’s 11 and is into HP, Gregor (current fav), Percy Jackson, etc.

I have a fb message for my friends out and will update when I hear back. In the meantime, this is the book I used as an undergrad that I thought was super fun: https://www.amazon.com/Abstract-Algebra-First-Undergraduate-Course/dp/157766082X i no longer have access to it so can’t peruse it to re-evaluate the opinion of my younger self... lol. So if you could find a sample somewhere, you might run it by them. In particular, I didn’t need it to stand alone at the time, so it might have been a pleasure to read, but insufficient for self-teaching anything. Another popular choice is this one (that my current university uses- I find it very readable, but I may be out of touch ? ) https://www.valorebooks.com/textbooks/abstract-algebra-an-introduction-3rd-edition-3rd-edition/9781111569624?gclid=Cj0KCQiAoJrfBRC0ARIsANqkS_7Sg9k9AtPHGGrTFDnorh1uOztY81eAA5QJMMNqkYNFx0crNKWQIhAaAvUrEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

As an undergrad, I found my modern algebra text extremely engaging and readable and it was my first higher level math course and I’d never seen proofs before and didn’t do real analysis until the semester after. It’s possible I was already twisted, but I actually enjoyed reading my book before coming to class! ?

Some articulation issues, particularly with r, but they’re generally intelligible. I guess this is just a new idea to me, and I didn’t know if there are some that are considered better or how this works really. You dictate and then go back in to edit— Is that best done in a computer then? Sorry for asking such dumb questions!

Search function is not working for me at all. But the title pretty much says it all. I’ve got kids who love making up stories and have aspirations of writing a book, but keep giving up because the physical act of writing a single paragraph is so excruciatingly long... lol. Just looking for some good software here, preferably that won’t break the bank to see if they even like it (they love speech to text when sending DH a text message) but am willing tonight pay more for something better if it turns out to be a big hit.

Have they already taken a modern algebra course? If not, I find many textbooks are extremely readable, and the content is just plain fun. I can reach out to my math peeps is you want, and ask for recommendations for the most readable ones they’ve seen? (I teach math at a large uni and have lots of friends from grad school also teaching at universities.)

My dyslexic dd7 is currently Learbing German and told me just this morning that she prefers reading in German. I think part of it is that her German comprehension is weaker than her English, so the gap between what she’s able to read and what she wants to read is much smaller than in english, where she’s listening to and enjoying 4-7th grade books but barely reading at all (disclaimer: she was raised bilingual, but her English is far stronger at this point). I also think she finds it easier because they start so basic:she’s halfway through the first grade workbook (we have school materials imported from a friend who works in ge school system in Germany), and they still have syllabification exercises several times a week. She loves how you learn a sound, and then spend ample time practicing it- writing it, identifying if it’s a beginning, middle, or end of year word sound, writing it some more, etc. there’s lots of pictures to color and stickers to stick in and lots and lots ornaments cursive writing with a nice fountain pen. So his is no help to the OP, but just an aside for anyone else who may be wondering about dyslexics with another language. Her dyslexia is still obvious in german- but it’s far less frustrating for her.

I am in Jackie’s boat: have a kid like this, and external motivators just don’t work. She does the things she’s interested in, and pretty much dumps on everything else (very loudly and repeatedly). She’s come along a bit just as she matured, but I still never really know from week to week if she’s gonna just refuse her new violin assignment because one of the songs is annoying to her, despite loving the violin in general. The only thing I’ve figured out so far is to expose her to a much wider range of stuff than I did with my first, in hopes that she might discover an interest in some obscure topic that I wouldn’t have guessed. She is very bright but completely lacking in goal-driven perseverance, and it’s not uncommon for her to completely quit her piano practice at the first mistake or want to smash her violin if she accidentally makes a scratchy sound. If she thinks she can’t be successful at something thenfirst time, she won’t even attempt it usually. At this point, she pretty learns the things she cares about and dismisses everything else completely. We work on character a lot.

My girls (7,5,3) are obsessed with ballet. They have watched most famous full length ballets on YouTube repeatedly (including different companies doing the same performance sometimes), and have memorized the teach-yourself ballet movies we have purchased or borrowed from the library (6-8 in total). My 3 yo still likes he preschool ones that are more fun and games, but my older two are wanting something more meaty. They already are in ballet lessons, so this is just to supplement and practice at home for fun. Does anyone have favorite ballet instructional videos (YouTube?) for elementary aged kids who are already familiar with basic ballet? I’d also be interested in ballet documentaries that are kid friendly: they ate up First position and the Misty Copeland movie and have those practically memorized as well. Preferably no fictional girly drama that’s more about boys and adolescence than actually ballet. ?

Yes, that is what we're trying (again, after dh fell off the wagon... lol.) I think they're getting enough carbs through fruit, especially bananas, sweet potatoes (yes, they are allowed!), and a few other higher carb veggies and dried fruit (they LOVE unsweetened dried mango - I have to cut them off most days!). But they do eat an awful lot of fruit and meat, and my picky eater eats pretty much every 60-90 minutes. We are definitely eating lots of soups, though this is a not-preferred way of eating veggies for my picky eater, and a great way of eating veggies for two of my other kids (so-so for the fourth). I have spiralized zucchini before, but I need to figure out what else I can spiralize that my kids might eat! lol. Nobody is a big fan of squash, except my 3 yo. She eats toasted butternut squash with avocado and lime and salt like it's going out of style, and I so wish my other kids liked it,!! ? I even managed to get dh to eat it, but the other kids are adamant that it's evil.

Not to derail, but can you tell me anything about these LoF books? My oldest was bored to tears by LoF when he was 6-7, so we quit, but we didn’t have the high school or college books. How quickly do they get more interesting?

Thanks for bringing this up again and adding so many more good thoughts! She did eat a bigger variety of veggies before, but Her favorites were stuff that we eliminated temporarily for the inflammatory side of the AIP (red peppers, for example, which is still hard because they’re everyone’s favorite, but I’d really like to get in two full weeks of right eating without cheating (DH struggles with cheating... lol) before we start adding stuff back in. On the up side: she started eating a lot of other veggies this week. Still refused a lot, but ate baby bok choy, kale with avocado, spinach, cucumber, broccoli AND cauliflower this week, along with her carrots. She even ate 3-4 slices of her dreaded fried plantains one morning, even though I’ve only be requiring one bite. It felt like such a relief to me! I did buy a jerky cannon and have been making our own beef jerky with just meat and salt. We keep it in the freezer most of the time after it finishes, but it’s easy to pull out for a snack or even toss in a bag for a few hours if we want to go hiking or something. At first I made 3 lbs, and then I made 5 lbs, and yesterday I made 8 lbs at once! Lol. my ds 9 with ASD and ADHD told his psych this week that he hates eating healthy but his brain feels so much better and life seems so much easier when he eats healthier. This just made me feel good as a mother, and gave me some extra motivation to keep it up.

Not an AL thing, but boy am I sure glad they're homeschooled and don't have as much opportunity for this nonsense.... DD7 to middle-aged violin teacher: Are you pregnant? Teacher: Nope. And it's not really appropriate to ask that. I have medical issues that affect my weight. DD7: Oh good. You're too old to be having more kids. Teacher told me about this after the lesson (while laughing), but all I could do was cringe...

PS I make our own lard/tallow from grass fed animals we buy, and we use it very everything. So They get lots of fat, so long as they actually eat. ?

Ha ha! They collaborated just the other night to make carrot-spaghetti... we haven’t been eating tomatoes, but they were so eager to make it themselves and so excited about t being healthy that we just went with it: meatballs and sauce over long strips of raw carrot (they used a veggie peeler to make those), with a side salad of kale coated with avocado and lime and salt. All four aye the carrot spaghetti, but dd5 was so disappointed with her kale salad! Lol.

I also want to say that I really appreciate everyone’s thoughts and suggestions! While it won’t all work, it’s given me a lot of new ideas, which is wonderful. My kids are stubborn enough to go at least three days without eating (when I broke and fed them something else... so don’t k ow how long they actually would’ve gone... lol) and I was feeling beaten, but I have so much more hope and enthusiasm now!

Yes, avocado got eaten once with lots of lime and salt! But it was a one time deal. I haven’t made it into a dipping sauce yet... i should try that! For the very first phase of AIP, all nuts and seeds and beans are out, sun butter, hummus, etc are not on the table right now. I think we’re going to add back in garbanzo beans anyway, because hummus, roasted chickpeas, and flatbread out oF besan flour have been staples here in the past. ?

Also, I had no idea about wild rice. I’ll check it out!

Yes i know we eliminated a lot! But DH needed black and white so produce and meat was black and white. And I needed results fast. We’ve done eliminations in the past. And I knew that I did not have it in me to eliminate one food group at a time and not see improvement for months. We have a plan for adding back in the things that we most love and miss. I think it’s just that DH just underestimated the effect that a little cheating would have. In all honesty, he was completely floored at the changes he experienced in his own body when we eliminated stuff and Ian still processing that. three of my kids will drink smoothies with coconut milk- child in question will not (even if it’s just coconut milk and fruit with no veggies involved). Im not sure what to do about snacks right now. We keep lots of snacks on hand, but dd7 tries to game the system by skipping meals and subsisting only in fruit and meat snacks. Lol.

Not just carrots- you’re supposed to eat a wide variety of vegetables. Thanks for the encouragement! We’ve always aired towards the philosophy that they either eat it or don’t. It's just been hard watching her the last week as she spends longer and longer crying about being hungry... lol.

So we implemented some diet changes. We basically went AIP (which includes eliminating dairy and grains) and also mostly (but not completely) cut out foods high in salicylates. Behavior improvement was undeniable within a week: way more emotional regulation for the kids, way better focus and flexibility from my ADHD/ASD kid, school work getting completely done by 10am instead of fighting over it all day long and still only getting through half of it, and DH said it was the first time in ten years that he hasn’t struggled with anxiety and depression. He started cheating and giving the kids other stuff again and everything went downhill within 18 hrs. So the food intervention is an obvious Win, right? Except now my 7 yo in particular is really just refusing to eat most of her food. She’ll eat meat and carrots and fruit, but almost nothing else, and this has been going on for a full week. She moped around crying that she’s hungry, but still won’t eat. Does anyone have sage advice regarding staying the course with a stubborn, anxious kid who doesn’t take to diet changes, when they’re so clearly beneficial? ETA: it’s mostly every other vegetable in the world she won’t eat, even fried plantains, which the rest of my kids love! We’ve tried sweet potato, butternut and acorn and spaghetti squash, zucchini, radishes, celeriac, bok choy, kale, cabbage, beets, salad, turnips, parsnips, onion, Brussel sprouts, avocado with lime and salt, asparagus, jicama, and pretty much every other kind of vegetable w can.

One thing I find interesting is that her preschool teacher and the speech language pathologist who did her dyslexia evaluation commented on what good pressure she has while writing, because her pencil always made thick, dark lines when they asked her to write. It makes me wonder now how long she has had these tension issues, and if I was just not aware of them previously.

Ok, we’ll work on trying some of this! Thank you very much!