Well bummer. The closest PROMPT provider is at minimum a 6 hour drive away, each way. I don't think there is any way I can do that. But after reading your post. WOW!!! I cannot even imagine her saying all of that. Our speech therapist right now just tries to get her to say "go" when they're playing, and she flat out ignores her. I just cannot fathom that kind of result. It gives me chills. But seriously, 6 hours away--we'd nearly have to move there. And I have no idea what I would do with my older kids. sigh It looks so good. My oldest at one point went to OT at a really awesome place. I'm wondering if they might be a good place to look into? We have an appointment with the ped at the end of the month, so I think I'm going to push for a referral. I am going to mention the PROMPT idea to our ped and see what she thinks, though. I have known this ped since long before I had kids, so I trust her opinion.

Oh--I forgot that they are discussing having some sort of teacher coming out twice a week. That will certainly help, I think. No mention has been re-evaluating. My service coordinator (I think that's what she is called) is supposed to be coming soon to update our service, so I could also see if they could start coming out more often. I'm in a fairly rural area, so I think that makes a difference on what they are able/willing to offer. So much of this just seriously sounds like my little one. Her progression is coming all over the place from how my kids normally progress in talking. Like finally starting "baby talk" after she is able to say a couple of words. Or putting "hi" with some words, but still not saying other basic words.

Alright, so this PROMPT therapy sounds awesome. Would I just find one, call, and then see if I could get insurance to cover? And they would evaluate her, right? I've pretty much always done everything with the ped's referral, so stepping out on my own feels a little strange. ;-) I can't imagine her making that kind of progress. How awesome that has to be to watch!

Very interesting information, thanks a lot! It really helps me to hear from someone else who has gone through this. I never even thought about having her bounce to get her to repeat things. She just usually smiles when we're trying to get her to repeat instead of actually repeating, but I have noticed that sometimes several hours later she will make something close to the sounds we're trying to get her to make. Maybe coincidence, but her speech therapist has mentioned that maybe she just has a slow processing speed. We are using ECI right now, and I just really don't see how she's doing anything we don't normally do during the day, you know? And it's only 2x/month, too... I have noticed that often we'll ask her something, and she'll move her mouth as if she's answering, but she doesn't make a noise. Mentioned it to the therapist, but she really didn't say anything about it. I'd love to know if that's typical with speech delays. She has recently started saying "yesh" for yes which I think is fantastic. And she has "no" down very well! Our speech therapist just keeps saying that she's "right there," but although I've seen some progress since she first started, because she wasn't saying anything at all then, it's just not quite where all her friends are (saying 4-6 word sentences).

My two year old is still not speaking very well. She can sign about 15-20 words now (we've been signing to her since birth, just like we did with my older kids), and she can say about 10-15. Those she can say don't always sound like the actual word, like "iss" for "sit" or "rrg" for "drink," but she is fairly consistent. She is finally putting two words together with "Hi mama" (or dada or bubba or mimi. That was quite an accomplishment. And she is finally starting to vocalize and just make sounds in general now, like baby talk. She has been in speech now for 8 months, and I just don't feel like we're making any progress. Her therapist has thrown around the term "speech appraxia" some, but I don't know much about it other than that it's poor motor planning, making it hard to get together everything that goes into talking. She did have some major nutrition issues in the first year or so of her life (horrible food intolerances that weren't really dealt with until after her first birthday) that I think contributed. Her receptive language is fantastic. Just wonderful. She can follow directions like nobody's business. She sings on pitch well too, and she can repeat rhythms on either a neutral syllable like "ba" or on an instrument, so it doesn't seem to be a hearing issue. Anyway... I just was wondering if someone on here could point me to a resource(s) that might help us out some, or even just commiserate. All of my other kids have either been early talkers or right on schedule, so this is so new for us.

We are about to move into MEP I think. My oldest is finishing up Singapore 4B. We will likely move into MEP Year 4 and just go through it quickly as a review. She will be using it along with LOF.

Snow is pretty rare around here, but we still don't take off. We do school as normal in the morning and then they can have the whole afternoon to play outside. I really don't see the point of taking off a full day because of snow. It's too cold to be out in it more than an hour or so at a time, so we might as well get some school accomplished that day.

Yep. My oldest is so incredibly messy. Oh my gracious. She wears me out. She has hooks and places for everything, but her things still never make it there. She will even take something and leave it near where it is supposed to be, but it just doesn't make it to the right place!

Another vote for SSL here. And I had no idea they were coming out with a level 2! Great news!

We've done most of what has been mentioned so I won't mention them again. But we also liked the Borrowers for my kids at that age. We also read Mary Poppins. My kids at that age have also listened to the Narnia series since I have older kids too and we just do read-alouds as a family, but if my oldest were 4, I would probably save it for later.

DD (9) wants to be a veterinarian and has wanted to be one since she was around 2-3 years old. So far no change at all. Not even the slightest wavering. (Although she has gone from wanting to be one at a zoo to just a veterinarian for "regular house pets.") DS (7) keeps talking about something to do with planes. It varies, but he is pretty sure it is planes for now. Just a year ago he wanted to be one of those forest firefighters who go up in helicopters. Yikes. DD (5) would like to be a ballerina. :)

I'm still looking at what we're going to do for next year. I have decided that I would prefer something where I can combine all of my children (oldest is 9). We are coming from HOD. I have heard a lot SCM but I don't know anyone IRL who has used it and it does seem a bit lighter than HOD. Or maybe just different. Not sure yet. I looked at the sample history guides for several of the different modules just to try to get a feel. But is this really something I could use all the way through? Is it rigorous enough for Jr. High/High School (provided we are still hsing at that point)? I really like the idea of having history/geography/Bible planned and then allowing me to add my own science, grammar, writing, etc, because that's what I've been doing with HOD and it has been difficult to juggle it all plus juggle several guides at once.

I've been curious about MEP too. Is there any type of placement test or other way to know what level to jump into with an older student? How does it line up with Singapore? Would a child finishing 4B going into 5A of MEP, or something else?

Beautiful feet? (I haven't used them yet, just wondering), HOD?

We do appx 6 weeks on, 1 week off. We do take 2 weeks when the weather is nice in May, 2 weeks in the fall, and 2 weeks at Christmas. We still get in extra weeks that way, but my kids do better with the routine.

That is very helpful, thanks! She is definitely a bright kiddo, but I'm just now really looking into what is available for gifted kids. I thought that she might like the challenge of it, and it might be useful to get into one of the talent search programs.

I'm kind of interested in having my oldest take it next year, but when and where do you take it, and how do you find more information? I have no idea if it would even be offered anywhere near me. I have done several searches, but haven't found anything.

I love From the Top. What a great experience for her!

I would certainly try to have a better instrument by the time he is 12 or so, but it's just so hard to say. He could just completely astonish you in the next year or so. (I have seen it happen.) I guess my thinking is that I have seen really good used pianos for well under what you are thinking for a digital. So if space isn't an issue, you might think of going ahead and getting a regular piano. They are also so nice to have, because they become a beautiful piece of furniture for your house, something you can't really say for most digitals. I know that's silly, but it's true! And even if your kids don't continue with lessons, they might like to pick out songs here and there. (As an aside, my sister quit lessons at 9 years old, but she continued playing around on the piano and still plays it every time she is at my parents' house as an adult.) But you could easily get a couple of years out of another digital piano, and at that point you would have a better idea of what you would like to ultimately do with the piano situation.

You might look at Craig's list too, and then get a piano tuner (recommended by your piano teacher) to come by and take a look at it before you buy it. Sure, you might be out a few dollars if it turns out to not be good, but it will save you a bunch of money on junk. I bought one several years ago from $150 that way, and it was a decent piano, and I know someone selling a fantastic piano right now for $600, so they are out there. Definitely be sure, though, that your tuner comes highly recommended. I have a student who bought a piano *from* a tuner, and it turned out to be junk. Just like in any other profession, there are fabulous tuners and there are some not-so-fabulous tuners. This is timely as I just had our tuner come by and service our piano today (I'm a piano teacher). I was talking to him about regular vs. digital pianos (I really am not fond of digitals for kids who are serious about piano anyway), and he told me about this fantastic piano student at a local university who could not make it past a certain level around the middle of her junior year. She ended up having to change majors. Come to find out, she had only ever practiced on a digital piano, so she had not developed the strength or technique necessary for advanced playing. I will spare you the technicalities of why that makes a difference, even with weighted, touch-sensitive keys, but it is a real concern. I think that digital pianos do serve a purpose, and I think they are okay to get kiddos started right at the very beginning, and they are wonderful if you are going to be playing at venues that wouldn't otherwise have a piano, but if you think at all that the kiddo might someday be truly serious about advancing, I would highly, highly recommend getting a regular piano.

After Signing Time, I would probably work through Signing Online with my kids. My oldest is doing it with me right now and she is 9. She has a signing vocabulary that well surpasses mine--probably 500 words or so? Maybe more? I have never actually counted mine or hers. We also are friends with a signing interpreter, so he signs with her, and then a girl at our church whose grandmother is Deaf also signs with us. If you could find a local class, that would be ideal after Signing Time, but Signing Online is probably the next best thing.

That helps. Thank you both a lot. I think I'm going to go ahead and switch over to it for my 2 little ones whom I combine, but I'm not sure that I will for the older one. I'm going to read through the plans a little more and decide if I could do the whole thing one day, and then give her the work for the rest of the week, or how I want to do it. It is certainly appealing to me though. I love the level of thinking involved One more question. I just read through a few pages each of several levels of the student pages and the lesson plans. Are there as many word problems as Singapore? That is something we would like to keep.

Oh I just love Rachel. We got to meet her once, and it was the highlight of my then 3-year-old's life. :laugh: Can't wait to watch this! She is just such an inspirational mother. Thanks for posting it.

Do you have to do the scripted lesson plans? I really like the look of MEP, (and the price, or lack thereof ;) )but my 3rd grader is in Singapore 4B and using it fairly independently. We go through the textbook together, but then she pretty much takes off on her own and asks me is she has any questions if she needs to. I'm not sure how willing I am to give that up. I am also considering it for my younger kids (K/1st grade). They would be going into MEP 1 from Singapore 1A. How much time does each lesson take? I see the times written on the lesson plans, but that is written for a classroom, and teaching one or two kids is vastly different than a classroom of 30.

I agree with the post above; Signing Time will just teach some basic vocabulary. You won't learn anything about the syntax or putting words into sentences. But as young as your kiddos are, it would be a good start. If you are wanting to learn the syntax, you might look into signingonline.com. But that would be for you, so you can sign to your kids and teach them that way. The cost is about to go up, so if you're interested, you might want to act now. And if you can, definitely try to get involved with the Deaf community. It is definitely the best way to learn the language. But Signing Time is definitely a good way to get your feet wet with the language.