Aww, poor Havoc. Hope the specialty vet figures out just what to do. Hugs + pets!

I love this advice. What if you took a word problem, and then wrote it down a second time with the same wording but different numbers. You could do one word problem entirely, talking it out and drawing it out, and then do the second one together. With my students who really struggle, the anxiety of being faced with a problem to do all of their own made it impossible for them to actually do the problem. When I say, "I'm doing this problem, you watch me," they can relax. If the expectation for the second problem is to mostly watch but help you solve it a little bit, that might help. Instead of having to solve the whole problem, maybe you get her started to the point where she knows what to do next...

Sorry 😞 That's a real bummer. Hoping they have mild cases. And sorry you have to do the adulting!

Oh, I see the starred section now. Thanks! I agree it would be great if the recommend wall would go away, or just be starred items.

I love IXL, but it's a lot. There is just so much in there. My students log in, click on their level, and see 200 skills laid out in front of them. They then have to scour the list to see which items I've "starred." There's no way to restrict what kids see to only the things the teachers wants them to practice. For my kids with dyslexia, it's even worse because they can't read the names of the things they need to do. I've had this beef for a while, and I finally contacted IXL about it. I have a phone call tomorrow to talk about how IXL works to make its site accessible to kids with learning disabilities. Yay! Guess I just needed to put the word "disabilities" in there to get some action. Lol. My current ideas are: 1) Teachers/parents need a way to restrict skills to only what the the teacher wants them to practice. Dyslexic kids can't read all the titles. Kids in general are too young to independently navigate the site. 2) Video explanations rather than written explanations would be awesome. 3) A big one - The way it is now, kids see the grade level of the work the teachers suggests. You can "hide" the grade levels, but then IXL labels them A, B, C, D, etc. and kids are smart enough to associate those with grade levels. It's too depressing for my 3rd graders who need to practice decoding CVC words to go to "Level B" when really they know it's 1st grade. Anywho, if you use IXL, do you have any suggestions for how to make it more user-friendly for kids with learning disabilities? Or just kids in general? I'm tired of big edu-companies not caring about kids with disabilities. Thanks!

Oh phew! Thank you for clueing me in. I thought I was losing my mind!

I just watched this vlog. The whole family is sick with suspected flu. NONE of them wear masks to the Dr.'s office. The doctor isn't even wearing a mask! What the heck? I checked the date to make sure the vlog wasn't a year old or something. Are no masks in a Dr.'s office a thing? Also, if you think you and your entire family have the flu... PLEASE wear a mask to the Dr., even when it's not a pandemic!!

Yayyy!!!!

Holding steady is better than declining! I laughed a little at the big pee in the litter box. I'm also litter-box stalking these days.... my cat has been on and off antibiotics for a UTI for TWO months now, so I watch the litter box like a nutcase. He must be drinking some to be peeing, right? I think if they're not eating much, not much litter box-ing happens... at least in my uneducated experience. It sounds like his mouth really hurts. When my cat is sick, she'll often eat baby food in a jar - the kind that's just plain turkey or plain chicken (no weird gums added). Hoping he's just resting and letting the medication do its work. Also hoping that you're not sick! Waah. Life is so hard these days. (hugs)

@stephanier.1765, how's your cat today?

Eek! That's a scary looking wasp! Maybe email the picture to someone at the state?

I want to do this, too. I love and miss my family and friends so much. But I'm too afraid that one of them will be hospitalized, or die, from COVID that could spread at an indoor gathering. It's very hard to stay away.

Yep. It's so dishonest.

Thanks! I will. Makes me queasy now though 😷

Exactly. And if ONE more person on the news says, "WELL, back in MARCH, the CDC said we didn't have to wear masks!" I'm gonna lose it. We didn't know in March that masking was essential, but over the past months, we've LEARNED NEW THINGS. I don't understand why people just don't say that. "Now that we've been studying COVID for eight months, we know that wearing masks is extremely important." 😬

I visit https://rt.live/us/MA daily. I like it because it shows the new cases AND the testing volume. In Maine yesterday, we had one of our highest new case counts since March, yet the testing wasn't too high. So we're having less testing, more cases. Uh oh.

I'm so sorry! I've been going through health challenges with my kitty, but she's 15. It's so stressful not knowing, because they can't tell us how they feel. I hope the steroids and medication start working soon.

I fully agree with this. None of my students with attention challenges can work independently. Well, they can for short periods (5 minutes, 10 minutes) with check ins. Of course he likes going off too his room, who wouldn't, but it doesn't sound like that's working well. If there are things he can do independently, you could have him stay with you for something, then go in a different room for the thing that he can do on his own, and then come back, etc. I also like PeterPan's idea of something to work towards, like an activity or something else fun. The habit of doing the work first, then doing something fun, is a good habit to start cultivating.

Agree completely. Kids with great reading comprehension really get the short end of the stick when it comes to being identified with reading disabilities. They KNOW what word should come next, and often use the first letter of a word to help them correctly infer the word. If you show them the word in isolation, nope, can't read it. Or give them nonsense words like PeterPan suggested, that's when you'll see the contrast between actual decoding and compensating with good reading comprehension. This is a HUGE problem in schools because lower elementary classrooms frequently use predictable books with pictures for assessments, and smart kids know what words should be there, although they can't read them, and they're able to hide their poor decoding skills by managing to guess the correct words. This works till about 3rd grade and then it all falls apart. It's really a travesty.

DH chimed in to say he thinks there are elements of false equivalency and incomplete comparison as well.

We're going to do outdoor Thanksgiving and freeze our butts off. No idea about Christmas... maybe a snowy walk? No inside time in any other houses. 😞

You don't want someone who is selling you something secret. You want someone who is really good at what they do, and who can tell you exactly why. If you haven't ordered "Equipped for Reading Success" by Kilpatrick, that would be a valuable resource for you.

I have to say, I agree with this. Unless she needs LiPS, and then that would be great. Otherwise, no. I also agree 100% that 4 hours of actual OG would be insanely a lot, and probably an hour a day would be more reasonable. Kids do start to flip out at LMB. 4 hours is so much, especially 1-1.

From their website: HOW DO THE PROGRAMS DIFFERFROM ORTON-GILLINGHAM? The programs develop the imagery-language connection underlying the reading, comprehension, and math processes. Whereas programs like Orton-Gillingham focus on instructional strategies and expectancies related to phonetic processing, Lindamood-Bell programs stimulate the cognitive skills for reading fluency and language comprehension. But what we want is a focus on sounds, correct? I have never heard the term "phonetic processing" before. This LMB stuff sounds a bit off to me.

I don't think Lindamood-Bell is Orton-Gillingham based, is it?