I was almost sold on this, but now there's a page in the front of the new editions that say if you leave a 5 star review on Amazon, you get a free gift. Ugh. Why can't a math workbook maker create something that has 6-8 problems per page, with no extra "stuff"???? Maybe I should just do it myself.

If you already know her academic levels, you're not going to get much more info than you already know by doing the academic testing. The psych testing is the really important stuff... you'll find out about dyslexia and more from that. I do like seeing the academic testing, and it's nice to re-test a year or two or three later, but I wouldn't say it's absolutely necessary. 🙂

If it were me, I'd be concerned about the intestinal permeability, and would eliminate the "biggies," like gluten, dairy, nightshades, excess sugar, even if they weren't detected on an allergy test. You could go as far as doing the AIP diet, or your own variation of it. There's some ingredient in many laundry detergent that aggravates eczema, a long name that start with an "m." I'd also wash clothes a bunch in plain water, and then use something super gentle like soap nuts, or even baking soda/vinegar, to see if it calms down your skin. https://itchylittleworld.com/our-eczema-trials-safe-laundry-detergent-alternatives/ Sorry you're dealing with eczema, it's miserable 😞

This is really interesting. It would be cool to see a study about who would be rated as attractive - once when it's just rating pictures with no possibility of meeting, and then again when you would actually meet the person.

It doesn't match my experience, either. None of my female friends have a movie-star-esque partner, or tried to get one. I have a male friend who is on a mission to find a girlfriend. The problem is, his standards are impossible to reach - he wants someone that ticks ALL of his requirements, from looks to age to job to hobbies... He uses Tinder ALL the time. I've watched him swiping left and right, and it's really strange. Women that I would consider pretty, cute, beautiful... all got rejected. This is a very smart guy, NOT in his 20s, and he was acting totally opposite to the way he acts in real life. With the phone in his hand, he wouldn't even consider the idea that a less pretty woman could be his perfect match. In actual conversations about relationships, he comes across as mature and understanding. I don't think young women are more obsessed with the looks of a potential partner than young men are... and hopefully it's something that many young people outgrow. In my circle of friends, nobody, male or female, put looks above personality - or if they did, they didn't admit it!

My cat throws up any time she has "gums" (xanthan gum, guar gum) in her wet food. Trouble is, almost ALL canned foods have gums! It's so annoying... I don't think my cat cares if her food is super gloopy or not, so why the gums? I found a log of cat food in the refrigerated section of the pet food aisle at my grocery store, and she likes that well enough, and it has no gums. She also LOVES the plain meat+water baby food jars, but I worry that those don't have enough vitamins/minerals for her. (Tons of human foods have gums, too, and why??? I can hardly find an ice cream brand with no gums, and once you start reading labels, gums are EVERYWHERE. I wonder if it's contributing to people's digestive problems. My DH is super sensitive to gums.)

Wonderful update 🙂

Also LOVE Jane of Lantern Hill, too, although I love Anne as well.

These aren't deep, but at that age I liked books like Trixie Belden, Nancy Drew (surprisingly scary!), Bobbsey Twins, etc., stuff from that era.

This makes me wonder if I should be changing out my kitty's food more frequently. Does it harm them to eat the same thing every day for years?

I would get the manual and the first couple workbooks. If the colored felts are cheap, I'd buy those too, or you can make them yourself.

Agreed - the information you get from testing is really valuable. There may be more going on that you think, and testing can speed up your discovery of a child's needs.

That's awful, I'm so sorry. Check out Atrantil on Amazon. It's got lots of good reviews.

If you have a specific paper that has this as a result, could you sent it to me? It would be helpful to show to my admins. Today, I actually got permission to have a 2-kid group for 1 hour each and every day for phonics and writing, and whatever else they need. It feels like a goldmine of time.

That's neat - I hope it works well for me.

I cringe when I see what classroom teachers have to do. It is TOO MUCH! At a certain point, won't teachers rebel, or keel over from stress? The primary teachers at my school get to their classrooms at 6:15 each morning, and go in all day on Saturdays 😞

I think I'm going to try Saxon as a spine, too! We have a stash of old books and workbooks at school. It seems manageable and not too overwhelming (fingers crossed).

I really want to know how many of the RTI kids in my school are actually dyslexic. I think a LOT of them are. Trouble is, if a kid is not absolutely failing in class, on standardized tests, etc., they won't get referred, they'll just stay in RTI indefinitely. Plenty of dyslexic kids have really great reading comprehension and vocabulary, so they can score well on multiple-choice tests, and that, coupled with good behavior and participation in class, makes it seem like there's not much of an issue. That is... until 5th or 6th grade, when compensating no longer works. It's SO frustrating. Oh, and don't get me started about the effectiveness of RTI (in reading, anyway). I think it can vary from excellent to sub par, depending on the person delivering instruction, the curriculum they use, how well matched the curriculum is to the student, etc.

I'm too old for this, too. I agree that 30 minutes a day can be really effective, if the teacher is really good. But, like you said, if the expectation is that the kid will get 30 minutes a day of intervention and not miss any class, well, that's just crazy talk. At my school, there is starting to be a push for more inclusion in RTI and special ed. Which I am all for! For specific kids. In reality, though, it's so complicated to include struggling kids in class at all times, and it's stressful for the kids, too. For a 4th grader needing reading intervention at a 1st grade level, heck no, inclusion is not appropriate. With "pull out" services, it's also hopeless to take a kid out of, say, math class for 30 minutes of a 60 minute period, and then plop them back into class for the 2nd half. They're totally lost and the whole enterprise is useless. There seems to be an inclination from administrators, and maybe even classroom teachers, to downplay the necessity of phonics instruction (and the amount of TIME it takes). Let's say a kid needs 45 minutes of solid phonics instruction per day, minimum. They're going to miss their regular reading class completely. That's fine with me, but for some people, it's a problem. There is just no conceivable way that a student can get 45 minutes of phonics instruction per day AND keep up with the regular classwork. They just can't. I think we need a fundamental reimagining of the structure of school. I don't know what an ideal structure would be, but there has GOT to be a better way!

Yay!!

OMG!

Thinking of you & kitty this morning. Hope you get some good news soon 😞

I agree that you should do this. It will help you a lot to know how he's getting speech if he doesn't have an IEP (seems unlikely, but if he had an IEP you'd know, so... hmmmm). Here is some info about requesting evaluations. It would probably be helpful for you to provide samples of his academic work so they can see a discrepancy between, say, his math level and his writing level. https://ldaamerica.org/advocacy/lda-position-papers/right-to-an-evaluation-of-a-child-for-special-education-services/

He should have a triennial IEP meeting every three years - has that come and gone already? You can call an IEP meeting at any time, and request evaluation for academic services, too. If he's still that hard to understand, it doesn't sound like he should be dismissed from speech, and if writing's a real bear, sounds like an eval is warranted there, too.

Yikes! That would definitely warrant something on the shelves.