My dh's mom also has some kind of personality disorder. I've been trying to work up the courage to write about it here - maybe sometime. Anyway, we have to deal with similar things... except with even LESS communication, from his mom OR his dad. It's really frustrating, and baffling to me. It's like his whole side of the family pretends everything is normal, which is definitely isn't. Anyway... just wanted to say sorry. It's really hard and stressful to deal with these things.

I heard that too - and wasn't it designed mostly for adults? Although my school (sadly) doesn't use Wilson for everyone, we have all of the workbooks and teacher manuals, so some people use the materials. I really love the whole Wilson program, how easy it is to track, how simple the materials are.... but you definitely have to preview the sentences before allowing a kid to go ahead and read ?

There are a whole bunch more than that, but that one stuck in my mind the most ?

Is anyone using the Wilson reading program, 4th edition? The website says they've made significant changes to steps 1-6, with steps 7-12 coming in 2019. https://www.wilsonlanguage.com/programs/wilson-reading-system/4th-edition/ I'm wondering if they kept all the things that made me giggle... words like "bosom" and things that were kinda inappropriate for young kids, but that entertained me as the teacher ?

Yikes!

Mango thickens up smoothies... strawberry and mango, or raspberry and mango, are good! Add water or OJ to the desired thickness.

I like the idea of getting rid of non-sentimental furniture. DH still insists on keeping t-shirts from 10 years ago, and old computers, "for parts"... ?

Maybe... we don't have too much stuff (sparse 1 bedroom apt). I just mapped it out, and an 8 foot "box" is pretty tall... although how do you fill it with 8 feet of stuff? Pile everything on top of boxes? Ugh, hate moving.

I lived in Boulder, Colorado for a time and absolutely LOVED it. It's about as liberal as you can get, though. Colorado Springs is a big city, with a conservative mindset, I believe. The weather in CO is unbelievably gorgeous - sunny most days, almost no humidity, and although it snows, it melts within a day most of the time. People in Colorado were extremely friendly - conservative and liberal both! ?

The Scholastic Branches books are GREAT! I like them for dyslexic readers and readers with comprehension issues. The pictures on each page are really helpful, and even though the books are at a 2nd grade level, they're really interesting! I just read the Henry Huggins series to my class of 9-11 year olds. They LOVED IT! I think we read 4 of them. I was worried that the books would be too slow/gentle for the modern kid crowd, but nope. Since Henry does lots of stuff at home/in the yard/at school, your son may be able to picture better. I also liked the old-fashioned-ness of the books... it made for some great discussions about what life was like then (1950s) vs. now. Some things were still really relatable (embarrassing part in the school play!) and some weren't (paper drive to raise money at school). Lots and lots of scenes involving kids and pets, too ?

We're moving to Maine in August (YAYYYY!!!!!!), and I'm working to arrange moving. In the past, we used a service where you fill a tractor trailer as full as you need it, and then they seal off your part. It was fine, and everything went well, but it was a little stressful having a huge tractor trailer back dropped at my apartment complex. I just called PODS and they were super nice. The 16-foot container is too expensive, but the 7x7x8 one is affordable... but I'm wondering if I can fit a 1-bedroom apartment's worth of stuff in it. We have random things like bikes and skis, and generally too much junk. Hopefully we'll get rid of a lot! To be honest, most of our furniture is second-hand, and mostly not even worth moving! Has anyone used a 7-foot POD for moving? Did it fit a lot, or fill up quickly? PODS are also nice because you get the POD for a whole month and can fill/throw away stuff at your leisure. The tractor-trailer option only gives you 3 days to pack.

That's pretty strange, and sounds so uncomfortable! That soap seems like the most gentle, natural soap ever, with only a couple ingredients, but apparently other people have your same allergy: http://hotinkreviews.blogspot.com/2012/02/kiss-my-face-more-like-kiss-my-butt.html Some of them theorize it's a chemical used in the extraction of olive oil....? Maybe the technique used to make food-grade olive oil and shampoo olive oil are different?

Sounds like that school is doing a fantastic job with their students with autism!

Gosh, that would be nice! In special ed, I'm slowly realizing the extent to which ADHD is a really serious challenge for kids. Aside from medication, the supports we have for ADHD kids aren't that fantastic. The best, from what I've experienced, is a small class size with the freedom to move around and talk when they want/need to. It's tough for them.

Love that pole dancing pic!

Something I do all the time is write out a detailed grocery list, only to forget to bring the list to the grocery store... I also forget things and lose things ALL the time. It's like I just can't force myself to actually put the things away where they should go, the first time... but then I ALWAYS get in a huge fluster looking for things. I've always wondered if this is an executive function problem, or just laziness on my part. This year was the first year that I didn't misplace the tax information. I actually put a binder clip on all the various forms, left the bundle in a memorable place, and didn't move it somewhere stupid. Granted, it wasn't in a reasonable place like, oh, a filing cabinet, but it worked out this time. This coming school year is going to the Year of Organization. Hopefully.

Oh... my heart sinks. I'm so glad you're okay! What is happening in the world?? Are the kids just so sad and lonely, or what? We all need to connect.

I found Lafe's all-natural deodorant in my grocery store, and it's been great so far. I don't know all of the ingredients, but it doesn't have the well-known toxic ones in regular deodorant. I need to do some more research, but I'm hoping that Lafe's is okay. https://lafes.com/collections/bodycare-for-women/products/lafes-natural-deodorant-twist-stick-active

(((((Hugs to you, Happi Duck))))

Oh, I'm so very sorry ?

Definitely, it's a lot of hard work!! It also requires a lot of tracking... which is time-consuming, and if you have more than one kid you're teaching at a time, it's very challenging. I had reading groups of TWO kids, and even that was tricky when one kid got a sound, and another didn't... it made even teaching two kids together a challenge. It's not impossible, but classrooms would have to have groupings and the teacher would have to do a bunch of reading groups in a day.

That's what I always say! Even with a significant learning disability, it's not rocket science to do a really good job of teaching. You just need to know what to do. Serious dyslexia may never been that well remediated, but to be teaching with the best research-based methods that we currently have... it's really not rocket science. It just takes knowledge and planning. It's sad to me that people think it's so difficult - maybe that puts people off training teachers? I'm starting at a public school next year after 4 years in private school. I don't even know what reading program they use, but I'll certainly report back. There will be a huge fuss if there's not a good program! (Hope I don't get fired....)

Is the rash itchy? I had a mystery rash on my armpits for about a week and it was horribly itchy. Looked a bit like heat rash. In the end, the only thing that calmed the itch and made it finally go away was apple cider vinegar! It burned like heck at first, but then there was immediate relief. My theory was it was caused by yeast, which is killed by ACV.

A lot of kids at my private school start in 6th or 7th grade, after they can't use their hard work and study skills to keep up with a disability. If your daughter has mild dyslexia and/or dyscalculia, those problems will be harder to overcome with determination as time goes on. If you can afford it, I highly, highly recommend getting an evaluation from an outside provider. You'll come away with a 20 page, extremely detailed report with recommendations. As far as reading goes, you said she reads well but is slow. Slow reading will impact comprehension, because she's slowly decoding and spending a lot of mental effort in figuring out the words, and then not being able to understand because it's difficult to keep tabs on what is happening. You could see if she does better on a comprehension quiz with a nonfiction passage read by you vs. a nonfiction passage read to herself. For math, I'm not sure Sylvan is a really good value. You should find out the qualifications of the tutors there. A person with a B.A. in something, or even a current college student, won't have any training that will help a child with a potential learning disability. If you can cajole/bribe/motivate her in some way, and you think you're a good tutor, I'd get her on board with 2 hours of tutoring at home, maybe 20 minutes a day. If she is having trouble with concepts vs. calculation, I think you should go with hands-on materials (manipulatives), drawing pictures of problems, talking about the vocabulary involved, etc. For example, she may not know what to do in a problem that says something like, "A big dog is 50 pounds and a smaller dog is 18 pounds. How much heavier is the bigger dog?" My students with dyscalculia struggle mightily with visualizing that (and understanding the vocabulary). I could go on and on about math stuff ? Let me know if more info would be helpful.

It doesn't surprise me that a bright child with dyslexia would score well above her grade level in comprehension, especially if she's a hard worker and really took her time. It always amazes me how much dyslexic 2e kids can understand when they read, even when they miss so many of the words.