Have you looked at all the Education Unboxed videos? It seems like those could keep you occupied for a long time just learning number bonds with so many of the games. BTW, Miquon is a curriculum that Rosie mentions on that site, and it's really inexpensive--$6 per book, 2 books per year. It's very friendly to use with rods. Well, MUS Primer obviously has some uses for the rods...they do some great stuff (that you can add onto) with place value, called decimal street. The Primer level doesn't actually teach borrowing and carrying, but it's really easy to get kids to learn it with the rods even if they don't get it on paper yet. They can visually see how they need to exchange units for tens and tens for hundreds. They also teach you how to tell time by using the rods to build a clock. My kids ate that up. Best way I've ever seen to teach telling time. Could you borrow some MUS videos?

Like this poster's situation, my son appeared borderline ADD (but only in some circumstances), and we eventually figured out he had sensory issues...then we found out he has Asperger's (straddling the line between full Asperger's and Pervasive Developmental Disorder, Not Otherwise Specified). He presented as some weird combination of obsessive compulsive and oppositional when he was smaller (now, he sails along until all of the sudden he's a basket case). Basically, control was how he achieved stability, avoided crippling anxiety, and limited exposure to the unknown. Sensory issues often coincide with or "mature" into anxiety issues, and both go along with spectrum issues. I have heard wonderful things about The Explosive Child also, but haven't gotten to it yet either. Other possibilities...The Mislabeled Child (looks at many, many symptoms and compares/contrasts various possibilities--cued us into sensory issues), Bright Not Broken, Out of Sync Child (and its spin-offs). I have to keep things pretty bare bones with school. He is very smart, but he wants to get things done, and if he's having a bad day, having history intertwined with science, writing, reading, literature, etc. gets way too complicated (no unit studies here). We have other quirks in the family too, and when they come up, they undermine our efforts with our son--any stress can do that. Best wishes to you.

If your daughter resists testing and shots because she is worried about being poked, I understand. They actually use really tiny needles, and it's not that bad--I used to be totally needle-phobic. I never got sick when I was a kid, so being ill as an adult was a big adjustment. The pokes for the test weren't bad--many actually tickled and made my muscles twitch over my ribs. The itching during the short test was pretty impressive though! If she starts to exhibit asthma symptoms, I would seriously consider testing and shots--they reduce your risk of developing asthma in the first place. One poster mentioned her child being allergic to only mites on the testing but miserable anyway. Part (but not all) of how that happens is that they only test for light pollens that travel, such as ragweed. Heavier pollens like you see on daylilies, for example, don't travel far, so they can drive you crazy in your own yard or the neighbor's, but they won't bother you from down the street (generally). So, they don't test for those or give shots for those pollens (they have to draw a line somewhere since you can be allergic to hundreds of things). Also, some people have histamine reactions to stress or have chronic/semi-chronic symptoms that behave like allergies (my dad has had this trouble at times). I personally think that is related to gut issues, and many of those folks also have bouts of serious chemical sensitivities to perfume, soaps, etc. Unfortunately, the folks I know who have those problems are also fairly unresponsive to allergy meds and asthma meds. If your daughter is opposed to shots and testing, I would look up pollen counts by zip code online and see how she feels according to what is pollinating. That might help you figure some things out. Then, if the same stuff blooms early the next year (we once had ragweed two or three months early, and it's my worst allergy), you can head it off early. Also, I would seriously consider alternatively treatment with diet, supplements, etc. One inflammatory type of condition predisposes you to the rest--asthma, arthritis, autoimmune stuff, etc. The gut seems to be connected to a lot of this. One caution about local raw honey, which many people try...it made my symptoms worse, particularly my asthma. I think it was partly because I was already doing the shots, and it was overload. Many people find relief this way, but if you try it, I would be really cautious and start slowly to be sure it doesn't make your DD very ill or provoke asthma symptoms. Many of my symptoms resolved after doing an elimination diet for yeast (candida) overgrowth and then removing some food items from my diet permanently (I tested as having no food allergies). Oh, certain foods, particularly herbs and some fruits are related to the things outside we are allergic to. For instance, chamomile is related to ragweed. I used to love it, and I can't drink it, esp. during ragweed season. I think Echinacea is also related. At any rate, it makes me absolutely miserable. I think melons are a food that can cause people's allergies to pollen to be worse during certain times of the year. This is something you can find specifics about online or at the library. Many people who are allergic to poison ivy cannot consume cashews (unless properly processed), mango, and some other fruits because they have a common allergen. My hubby will get "honey crusted lesions" all over around his mouth if he eats mango, touches mango juice by accident, etc. I can't even buy it for my kids because he'll end up breaking out somehow.

Thanks, Lecka, for clarifying about the rhyming--checklists are not always as explanatory as they could be! We found that out with the screening checklists for our older son. I am finding your replies encouraging and a good way to chart a path forward. Thanks so much. I am glad to hear that reading can help articulation and that even if we can't evaluate for the APD, we can use some of this to help in the meantime.

Thank you! I will be sure to ask the SLP about these programs and exercises.

Lecka, I will check out the links and the resources. Thanks for the encouragement. Phonemic awareness is being able to map sounds to print, right? This is where we've been having our eye-opening experiences, like finding out that then/than are the same to him. He thought I was making a joke the other day when I told him they were two different words--he kind of balked about reading them, like one was a nonsense word or something. He can read them, but until he saw them in print, he didn't realize they were different. He did hear a difference between thin and then/than, probably because the beginning sound is different. He accepts this, and he's not upset. I would say that he's learning to read at a good rate, but not what I anticipated given how fast he learns overall. And, now I know that I need to add in practice using then/than appropriately. We are using a phonics program, but it is not Orton-Gillingham. It's less technical, but it does go through many, many letter combinations and the sounds they make and gives hint words to remember them, like "th" in "thin" and "th" in "thick" (called special sounds in this curriculum). He marks vowels long and short, and he circles special sounds, etc. He can hear syllables and rhyme, and he likes figuring out syllables. I chose to use a phonics curriculum that I was familiar with and add in any extra practice or strategies rather than to learn something totally new, or else I would have started out with an Orton-Gillingham curriculum. If he were struggling, I would change (or will change if he hits a wall). I guess you could say that phonemic awareness may pave the way for him to be phonologically aware rather than the other way around or having problems from both directions. I am very grateful that it's not a huge struggle, but I do want to correct what I can now rather than worry it'll bite him later. I also want him to be able to enjoy auditory information. For a long time, he wouldn't listen to books on tape or anything like that (now, he's starting to enjoy them). He also has trouble hearing the words in songs in spite of enjoying music. He has a pretty good memory and has done well with telling time--I suspect he will have dysgraphia and auditory issues, but not turn out to have the full range of dyslexia trouble. And right now, he likes to write, so we're not going to worry him about that. We'll just make typing a part of his work as early as we can. His speech issues are with articulation for sure. After this week, we'll know if there are additional issues with his speech. His vocabulary is very good--it's sophisticated and usually precise (like using terminology specific to a particular study area, like science). Sometimes he can't retrieve a word he's searching for or he substitutes a related word, like calling beef chicken. (This kind of thing can be a real hoot sometimes!) He will stutter or use palilalia (echoing his own words softly), but usually only if he's upset, stressed, or laughing. I am glad to hear that your son is progressing and comfortable with his rate of progress! That's so important!

Yes, get a giant drying rack (if you live near Amish or Mennonite country, they are easier to come by). You can fluff clothes on no heat (or very low heat for just a couple of minutes) to get some wrinkles out before you hang them up.

Local food pantry? Neighbors? Work? Church?

When our dishwasher broke and we went without for a few weeks, I spent 2 hours washing dishes every day. I take issue when people say that dishwashers don't save time! :-) I also noted when we bought our dishwasher that the energy sticker said it takes about 25 cents per day to operate it. Other than the outlay of money to buy the thing, it's certainly worth it to me to have most of that 2 hours back for such a minimal cost. With soap and the initial cost of the dishwasher, that's less than $2 per day to have the whole thing paid for and dishes washed daily in a year's time. I can't tell you how many people tell me it's too expensive, wastes water, and takes more time than washing by hand...and how many of those people go through plastic wrap, papers plates, and baggies like they grow on trees, lol! No offense if you are one of those folks! We're weird folks who use real dishes, real storage containers, real napkins, real hankies (much of the time) and real diapers (when we had kids that age), and our kids are baffled about what to do with a banana peel when we are out of the house and away from the compost bucket.

My almost 6 y.o. son has some speech and language issues. We are pursuing various evaluations this year, with WISC testing being last since he isn't quite 6 (and the preschool test has too low of a ceiling for a likely gifted 6 y.o. according to our psych). Learning is going well at home, but we have some quirks that we are trying to assess/address. Our older son, 9, is 2e (Asperger's), and my hubby's entire family has lots of brilliant people with exceptionalities of all kinds, mostly undiagnosed. The diagnosed issues are dyslexia and varieties of AD/HD. The family member with dyslexia was Dx as an adult. She could read very, very well in school, but struggled with nearly everything else. Nearly everyone in hubby's family has some problems with handwriting automaticity (my son with Asperger's has dysgraphia). Because of all this, we have taken a new look at some of my younger son's learning quirks. Back to DS almost 6...we noticed early on that his speech was not on par with his brother's as far as pronunciation goes. Now, we have an auditory processing screening under our belt that indicates younger DS probably has auditory processing difficulties (and/or a language disability), and he definitely has speech issues. Speech eval scheduled with no problem for this week. The speech lady (who is highly reputable) talked directly to the auditory processing lady, and she will not test DS until he is at least 7 because there are no age-based norms she can use to score the results until he is 7 or 8. However, when we described his issues, she agreed that he sounds like he has auditory processing problems. What, if anything, can I do to help with auditory processing at this point? (I will list symptoms below.) The SLP lady says that he can do speech therapy without addressing the auditory stuff. I know that phonological awareness and dyslexia are related, and so I assume auditory processing is all intertwined in this as well since it hinders phonological awareness. Should I be worried that even if he reads well, he's going to have other dyslexia related issues (he has dysgraphia related symptoms too)? I hate to have him struggle as much as our dyslexic family member did. Details about the auditory processing: He has always appeared to be a bit ditzy and scattered--the stereotypical absent-minded professor. Now that he is learning to read, we are realizing that not only does he have trouble reproducing certain sounds, he doesn't hear nearly the difference between sounds that the rest of us hear. He's accommodated really well given how widespread this is--nearly every day we encounter sets of words that he didn't realize were distinct, such as then/than (and many, many others). He is eager to learn to read (but has been hampered by a wrongly made lens in his glasses since May!) and is doing well--that's one way we've learned how far off his auditory perception is. He is also trying to spell, and while I realize all beginning readers use invented spellings, it's pretty impressive how many sounds are missing. One example, "enter" is "itr." He doesn't really hear the "n." If we choose to spell a list of words that are phonetically related, he does fine, but anything outside of that context comes out very interesting. Again, just a little bit more unusual than I've seen from other kids his age or his brother at that age (who can't spell anything). DS is a fantastic and mostly enthusiastic little student. He can't for the life of him remember how to make the number 8 after a year or so of trying (and he's a QUICK study), but he's not being compared to someone else, and he's good natured, so he plugs away in blissful ignorance. It doesn't keep us from learning challenging math. Not knowing then vs. than (and being totally flummoxed and amused when he saw it in print) doesn't keep him from learning to read, but having to learn the difference definitely slows him down. What can we do for him to smooth his path? What signs should we look for in the future to see if he's struggling more than is typical for his capabilities? Thanks for taking the time to read all of this! My older one is less flexible in his thinking and thinks he is stupid. Our dyslexic relative spent years thinking she was stupid (but now has a master's degree). We don't want the younger one feeling that kind of frustration if we can avoid it.

Oh, I absolutely agree with this! I have two boys, and my older one (just turned nine) was diagnosed with Asperger's a couple of months ago. I like to jokingly think of him as a part-timer because he compensates quite well until all of the sudden, it's all a big mess. Because of that compensating ability, some people just don't get it (others who've only seen us at a bad time think I'm a terrible parent). My younger one has some quirks of his own in a totally different direction that we're trying to tease out. You have plenty on your plate! Best wishes with the evaluation process.

Do you know what she is actually allergic to? You indicated environmental allergies, but I am not sure what all you consider environmental. I'm not trying to be patronizing, but I know that people often start by eliminating common triggers even if they don't know what they are allergic to. If she not allergic to animals, banning them from the room will not help. However, if she is allergic to pollen, and the animals carry it into her room on their fur, that will help. I developed allergies as an adult, and they were very severe; shots helped me a great deal. I am allergic to everything, but my big triggers were dust mites, dust, and pollens so that's what my answers are based on. If she has some sensitivities to chemicals in carpets, etc., you might consider house plants to help filter the air. As long as you don't let the soil get moldy (if she has mold allergies), and you keep the leaves dusted, they are great for indoor air quality. I believe spider plants and peace lilies are some of the best air cleaners, but you could google to be sure. If she is allergic to dust and/or mites, in addition to allergen covers, use easy to wash bedding, and wash every scrap of it on HOT every single week. Once she starts feeling better, you might be able to do it less often. If she is allergic to pollen and spends any time outdoors, be sure to have her wash her hair or shower before bed. Be sure to clean her room early in the day so that any dust that gets stirred up has time to settle before she has to sleep in there again. Use a really good vacuum with a good hepa filter and consider a steam cleaner. If you yank the carpets, you'll want to dust mop with microfiber or something like that. It's nice to have an extra allergen cover to take with you when you travel if you don't usually take your own pillows along. We change our furnace filters regularly. Once we started buying the really good filters and keeping them changed, we noticed that the vents throughout the house started running cleaner over time. We never have had carpet in the bedrooms, and I've never had an air filter, so I can't speak to those changes. Sometimes you can get rebates for the 3M filters by looking online. Saline nasal rinses help quite a bit after any exposures to allergens. If she is really bad off, you can do the irrigation thing with a sinus bottle or neti pot. Be sure to boil water or use distilled if you use a pot or bottle--some parts of the country have bacteria even in drinking water that can cause infection. If she has pollen allergies and goes outside, change clothes immediately after she comes in and rinse her nose with saline. Also, be sure to keep your car windows up and use the A/C even when she is not in the car. (This is less of an issue if you have leather seats.) Not every responds the same to every allergy medication. I know Zyrtec is a favorite, but two of the four people in my house find it completely ineffective. Three of us can use Claritin. At least two of us can use Allegra. I totally agree with getting the gut healthy. It's helped me a lot, and so has adding fish oil and probiotics (one with several strains of bacteria). Vitamin C and zinc are also really helpful if you get a quality supplement. Some of these things don't seem to make a big difference right away, but if you use them for a while and then stop, it's obvious.

We are using Rosie's videos at Education Unboxed because of what I've read on this board, and they are wonderful. My younger son loves the rods, and I am considering having my much older son do some of the math fact games on that site. He uses his number sense/mental math strategies to calculate, and the math drills he did with A Beka (in school) just made him resort to counting on his fingers really fast, which is definitely not the goal of the curriculum! We do not use A Beka now that we homeschool. I was taught A Beka all throughout elementary school, but I wish I had been taught more conceptually. Not knowing why something worked undermined my confidence in math even though I was a really good student. I could use A Beka and still teach conceptually, but we opted for a curriculum that makes a conceptual approach easier. I have heard very good things about BJU math and almost went with it myself. We now use Miquon for my younger son and Singapore for the older. The younger one completed Math-U-See Primer first. Best wishes finding a program that works well for you.

Thank you! This looks like good stuff.

I keep hearing good things about The Explosive Child. Apparently it's more widely useful than the title itself suggests. It's on my "to do" list for books.

I voted Other to clarify that I don't think the Bible gives us permission to get drunk. I don't personally drink for many reasons (lots of them to do with family history, including a bootlegger in my family lineage!), but I am perfectly fine with the idea that I am free to drink if I choose to. I worked in a company that had many brands of Christians, and most of them drank socially (and most didn't get drunk). Oddly enough, because of where I went to college, my co-workers would have been bothered, offended, whatever you'd like to call it if I drank, even though I made my views on the issue clear. They would have seen me as being two-faced for some reason. It never made sense. However, I decided that if I did take up drinking once in a while, it wouldn't be at work. While I think it's unfair that I would have been considered a hypocrite for drinking when I think drinking is okay, and other Christians were not considered hypocrites for drinking, I decided the damage to my reputation (and to their perception of my beliefs) would have suffered too much, fairly or unfairly. I am also comfortable with the idea of churches making their preferences known and asking members to abstain. I don't believe it's necessary, but I can understand that particular church cultures or particular local cultures could influence a church to make that decision. We belonged to a church in a dry town, and because of the town culture, the church adopted a tee-totaler policy for members. They were up front about it, and they made it clear that they didn't feel the Bible required it--they did it as a way to be respectful of the local culture. They were not a rules oriented church, so this really was a cultural quirk.

I found out that I can't handle wheat by going on a general elimination diet (cutting out just about everything but brown rice, non-starchy veggies, and quality meats, then adding things back in over time). I wish I had done the various blood tests first. If you think celiac is a real possibility, it can be nice to know. I feel so bad on gluten that I will not eat it to find out why I can't eat it, but if I am celiac, I knew so that I can persuade my family members to also get tested. I am not the only person in my family or my husband's that can't handle gluten, and both sides of the family have people of Irish or Dutch descent (two of the groups most frequently plagued by celiac).

I can use mine for a couple of hours at a time, but it just won't stay in place for longer than that. It's not the cup. I usually get the placement right (I have to break the suction to get it all the way out). I never had a leak. After my first birth, they spent 45 minutes stitching me up inside the birth canal (pushing phase was fast and furious), so I think I just don't have enough elasticity anymore to keep the cup in place after I use the restroom, etc. I am constantly having to fix something. Otherwise, I like the cup MUCH better than I ever liked tampons, and I can use it to swim for a couple of hours if I really need or want to. It's also nice if I need to swim and know my flow is going to start sometime that day but hasn't yet. If anyone else has had my experience, I am curious if you found a way to make it work.

Bump. I'm interested in knowing more as well.

I haven't tried it, but there is a water pillow out there. Not sure what kind. My chiro recommends it. I bet it stays cooler than many pillows. I use a memory foam pillow from Select Comfort. I LOVE IT, and I hate being hot. Mine has a cover that comes with it, and I added an allergen cover (sort of silky, not papery or noisy) in addition to a pillow case. Maybe the allergen cover affects temperature? It's a very heavy pillow.

Answering from the 10,000 ft. in the air level, if "we" as a society are so busy that most people have to sign their kids up for something just so that they can meet kids and make friends, yes, I think "we," in the collective sense, are too busy (individual families have to decide for themselves). It's different if the kids have no neighbors or social group that naturally forms, but in many cases, people who want to have a casual life and can't find friends for their kids are excoriated for not signing their kids up for multiple commitments. Ironically, group activities don't always help kids make individual friends they see on a personal level, and then the laid back parents are once again excoriated for not throwing parties so that the other soccer kids (or dance kids, or chess kids, etc.) will come over. In some cases, people have neighbors and friends they never see because those neighbors and friends are never home. I lost a couple of good friends to the never-ending pursuit of sports (they no longer had time for day-to-day friends), and I have a friend whose family's identity became wrapped up in sports/music, and the family disintegrated as kids grew up and sport was not "the tie that binds" after a certain stage of life.

I am using Earth and Space with an advanced K'er and a 4th grader, but I don't expect the younger one to do as much written stuff. Sometimes I scribe for him. We did RSO Chemistry last year, and it's harder than the Earth and Space and has more material to plow through (just in case you want to use chemistry sometime and haven't seen it).

Yeah, a balance would be nice. At the same time, you can't get blood from a turnip--if people can't afford it, they can't afford it. In our district, the most critical levies continue to pass; the less critical ones mean the school has to make do. It seems to even out over time in our case. One neighboring district has "benefited" in recent years from development by the way of more affluent tax payers, but then those folks want all the bells and whistles and will fork over the taxes. Folks who bought a house there before the boom are really squeezed. It causes a lot of controversy around levy time, judging by the yard signs!

They are, but it's not as simple as "elect different board members." People have to be willing to serve, inherit a bad situation, and engage in class warfare in order to take on all of this. Many people are busy just making it, and many are farmers or small business owners who literally live their jobs 24/7. Those who have time to serve are often people who are from out of the area and favor policies that erode the income base of those who've lived there for a long time. It's complicated, but the school taxes are a huge problem when you cannot vote on them separately the way you can some places. That system also has some cons, but at least there is a broader accountability in being able to vote on the board and the funding separately. And, I don't bring this up to condone the man but to say that not every municipality has equivalent laws and procedures. Hearing this story from the POV of someone who can vote on school taxes changes things a bit.

I read the article but didn't watch the video because others made a great point about not contributing hits to it. "Anne Bennett-Morse, the local tax collector who was on duty to accept the multitude of greenbacks, told Fernandes that the school board, not the local municipality of Forks Township, sets the budget for the schools." I agree that his actions were basically a publicity stunt and don't do us any favors, but there could be more to the story. I don't know what it's like in his part of PA, but I have family elsewhere in PA, and the school board not only sets the budget, they determine what is charged in taxes. Where my family members live, you don't get to vote on school taxes. My grandmother has lived her entire life below the poverty level, but she owns her house outright after decades of minimum wage work as a single mom. A couple of years ago, she was in tears because her property taxes went up so much that she wasn't sure she could pay them. She has a very small, very old house on a very small plot. She actually took her property deed to the county and told them they might as well have it. I think the county ultimately adjusted property values because she was not the only one raising heck. The average income in the area is low. In that area, teachers have some of the best paying jobs around, especially when you compare benefits (yes, you read that right). Property taxes are up basically because the schools have runaway spending that isn't voted on, and people moving into town from out of the area find the housing there a "bargain" and will pay more for a house than locals can afford. This is a rural area BTW. Can this be changed? Maybe, but it's very difficult, even in a small town, to "fight city hall" sometimes.