Way to go! It's nice to see changes we make really work... particularly when it's a lot of effort on our part! Yay!

That's super annoying. I wouldn't want to be around a family that had had the flu or a stomach bug for AT LEAST a week after they're better. Sometimes people can be contagious for a long time. Sorry that mom was so inconsiderate :(

I've been dairy-free for a few weeks, but I just bought some plain yogurt. Thank you for the suggestion!

Wow, $6k deductible, that's horrendous.

You're right, I should. I think my deductible is like $1500 though! :( Really good teacher's health insurance :glare:

Thanks, I'll try that. So far feeling the same, and maaaaybe looking more like the thrush pictures online :(

Thanks for the sympathy :-) I can't believe it happened to you both times when you were away from home! Stress would make sense in that case, probably. And YES the gums behind my teeth are sore and feel raw! What the heck! I think there may be little tiny cankers or something there, but it's kinda hard to see. I'll probably swish with some diluted apple cider vinegar... that's my go-to for ailments and it usually helps.

Oh man, I hope it's not thrush. The very idea of it freaks me out. I thought thrush was thick white coating though?

My mouth is killing me! It started off feeling and looking like two little cankers on the inside of my lip. Then the WHOLE area inside my lip turned inflamed and painful, and now the underside of my tongue and behind my bottom front teeth really hurts. It looks like all the little bumps under my tongue that are normally there have gotten swollen. What the heck is this? I've had cankers before lots of times... is this just cankers gone wild? I tried a new toothpaste a few days ago, so I'm taking a break from it. I didn't see any ingredients in there that would cause a problem, though.

I love, love, love High Noon. I haven't used their entire program, just the books, but they are wonderful. Even using a limited set of words, they somehow manage to make the books interesting! I would bet that their full-on reading curriculum is excellent. http://www.highnoonbooks.com/index-hnb.tpl The Wilson program is fantastic, but the sentences are equally ridiculous/old-fashioned. Wilson was designed for older students/adults, so the words are sometimes too old.... like kidnap, gangster, buxom (I laughed aloud at that one).

Does it exhaust anyone else to plan meals again... and again...? Part of my problem is there are just so many cuisines to choose from.

I haven't, but for our last car we went to Carmax, and you just pay the price they ask. There's no haggling. We loved it!

You can use this chart as a fluency guide: https://www.readnaturally.com/knowledgebase/documents-and-resources/26/386 You don't measure by grade level, but by the grade level of the reading. For example, if your 4th grader is reading at a 1st grade level, choose the 1st grade level category.

I've never taught Barton, just other OG programs (like Wilson) and every program has its own progression. It does look to me like "easier" things like oi/oy are taught later than "harder things" like tion/sion. But when I really think about it, is any one piece necessarily harder or easier? I think it just depends on the person. For example, silent e can be really tough because it requires a child to realize that the e at the end changes the sound of the first vowel - and then to be able to to hold both sounds in their minds and choose the correct one. It's hard! Other kids struggle with remembering that "when two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking." Mine are struggling with that right now. All that to say, the specific order of teaching in any program is so that all of the materials work together - workbooks, readers, etc. If you pick up any "easy reader" it will likely contain most vowel teams, so for a person in the middle of a rigid program, it wouldn't be "easy." I don't see any reason not to teach vowel teams earlier - the only problem will be the OP won't be able to use the pre-made readers and such. She'll have to create her own sentences and/or find books from the library. I say go for it - but I like to break rules.

I agree about picture books. The words are often much harder/sophisticated than early chapter books, because usually parents read picture books aloud.

With my 10 year old boy students, I do a bunch of (to me) dumb things that seem to make the work more tolerable. Really mildly fun stuff like giving them a wooden block for each word they read, and then as they read they stack the blocks up. For some reason that's just fun enough to make it okay. If it's not fun in some way they tend to shut down, and then they don't learn. They also like to get a tile or block for every word and then after a set number, they get to flick them with their fingers, like soccer, into a "goal" I make with a box or my hands. I think it's lame, but I pretend to like it! They do like it, and it makes them willing to read. Another idea is to cut up sentences and have him re-arrange - he's still reading, but somehow it's "a game." You could also cut out individual letters (or use tiles) and he has to put a word together. For articles about his interests, you could try ReadWorks (grade levels 1-12) and Newsela (grade levels 2-12). Newsela seems pretty hard for my 10 year old struggling readers, but if you choose a 2nd grade article, you could highlight easy lines for him to read so you're doing the hard stuff. Newsela articles are from actual newspapers and then adapted to be different grade levels. Raz-Kids is really good - my students read it on the iPad. The books are short so it's less daunting for them. Many of the books are really good! I think a license for home is about a hundred bucks.

My DH is extremely busy too. It's hard in two ways, hard because you feel sympathy that he's working such long hours, and hard because you feel lonely. It sucks!

My DH is extremely busy too. It's hard in two ways, hard because you feel sympathy that he's working such long hours, and hard because you feel lonely. It sucks!

We have lockdown drills for "intruders." I never thought about an intruder PLUS the fire alarm going off - ugh. Two conflicting messages. Adding to the trouble is sometimes you're supposed to hide in your room, and other times you're supposed to run, if you think you can get out safely. I don't even want to think about having to make that decision. My opinion is that unless there is something constructive kids can do with the information, or if knowing about Parkland will somehow help them, they don't need to know. I doubt my kids would really process it anyway. They would "know" about it, but I don't think they could process beyond just having a vague feeling of discomfort. A coworker told me that she heard of some schools where the kids are taught to huddle in a corner AND put books in front of their faces. Others are being given "jobs" to do if an intruder comes - some throw books, some shut the door, etc. That is too much for me to picture.

That's exactly what I said - I don't want my kids participating. I may get overruled :(

My school may be having a 17-minute period of silence, outside, for the victims of Parkland in the coming week. The admins here are saying things about the young elementary kids participating if they want to. I'm not sure if my students, grades 3-5, with learning disabilities, even know about it. Certainly they haven't brought it up with me. Some coworkers say we should tell them about Parkland (after notifying parents), and talk about it. My opinion is that if they don't already know, why tell them? Is there a reason a 9 year old needs to know that kids can get killed in school? Can't we preserve the innocence of childhood just a little bit longer? I'm not a parent, so I don't have parenting experience guiding me here. Thoughts?

Yep... I can't fathom how some people can eat a bowl of sugary cereal and then still be okay 4 hours later! I would have to refuse to go somewhere if there was no food allowed. It's annoying!

When I lived near a Whole Foods, I used coupons all the time. Often I could use a store coupon from their coupon book, AND a manufacturer coupon that I printed out at home, at the same time! It was amazing. There are websites that list the WF deals of the week, and tell you where to find all the coupons to match up. :hurray:

I have hypoglycemic episodes where my BG drops into the 50s, but it always comes right back up again if I eat sugar. I have to be careful to consume protein/fat with everything - so no plain juice, bagels, etc. I'd probably buy a new glucometer at target or somewhere just to be sure your strips are right.

Wow, everything about this situation sounds exactly like my relationship with my father - affair, divorce, forced-ish relationship for a few years until I went to college, and then a lot of apathy. Although I never hated my father, I was furious with him for hurting my mom. I wouldn't have minded never seeing him again. Now that I'm in my mid-30s, I can see that he has many good points. He just made a mistake with the way he handled his marriage. I don't think I'll ever fully forgive him, but I think our relationship can get better. At 18, I would have said HECK NO to any trip with my dad. It wouldn't have mattered to where... no way. I wasn't angry, exactly, but I had extremely mixed feelings and the whole thing would have felt forced. If your son does go on the trip, can he have his own hotel room? It would be good for him to have a chance to recharge and have some alone time if he's on an extended trip.