Yay!! Love those Dragon Masters books!!! Your DS is so adorable ☺️

This hurts my heart for him, and for you. Has he been evaluated for special education?

Hurrah!

If commiseration makes you feel slightly better, I used to tutor a boy who was SO anxious (although it looked like defiant) that he positively refused to go to his very expensive reading specialist. He was probably about 10 at the time, and he sat in the car and refused to move. His mom told him that if he didn't go, he'd owe her the $100 the session cost... and he agreed! No reading specialist, and the kid handed over his birthday $100. The same kid also got refused a place in a private school because they wanted him to do some testing... during his regular gym class time. Gym was the ONLY thing this kid enjoyed at school, so when he was told he had to miss it for READING TESTING, he lost it. It was really too bad, because he's a great kid and any idiot could have seen that taking a stressed kid out of the only bright spot in his day was a terrible idea. Anyway - I hope touring the public school goes really well. If I were you, I'd do anything possible to make it a fun and enjoyable day for him. It does sound like your current school is not motivated to make changes to better meet his needs. Keep fighting! Sorry you have to be the mama bear 😞

Someone I work with said she doesn't think Fundations will work because the kids won't like it. I was like... well, it doesn't really matter if they like it. We have to teach them to decode. But really, I think they will like it. Every time I've taught reading to a kid (with a few memorable exceptions, ha), they're so delighted to actually be taught to read at their level, that they just drink it up. That's why I'm such a superfan of High Noon Books... because kids can still be reading GOOD, interesting books, and still practicing decoding at their level, not having to guess a bunch of words on each page. I was recently in a meeting with a pretty neat psychologist. She said that guessing a word is really, REALLY terrible for learning to read, because your brain makes neural connections (I'm sure there's an actual term for this, just paraphrasing), and if you say the word five different ways over the course of your reading, your brain won't lay down any solid neural pathways. So, when you're teaching decoding, you MUST stop and correct every error, and then have the student go back and re-read the sentence correctly. She said that it's even better to re-read the sentence more than once. Lots of times I've been guilty of letting small errors pass, not wanting to dampen a kid's self-confidence. But now? No more. I've been correcting every single error from then on, and so far, no kid's self-esteem has been dented 🙂

Ugh. This makes me angry! I think I'm allergic to "guided reading" now, just because it's so opposite OG. I'm going to check that out!

❤️

Dang! Now I know why I'm not a billionaire! Me and my stupid overspending! 😂

Wow.... that's really unreasonable!

She is so cute! And she looks so soft... purrrrr ?

I always bring something to read just in case I'm stuck in a long line somewhere. It helps to make me less crabby, especially at the post office ?

I just read this in the local paper. I knew that non-stick coating was toxic, but I didn't realize that it was SO toxic - as in, less than 100 parts per TRILLION is harmful. The new version is a tiny bit less toxic, clocking in as dangerous at a few hundred parts per trillion. Wow. How can they still make it?? https://www.pressherald.com/2018/11/14/draft-epa-analysis-finds-chemical-compound-in-new-non-stick-coatings-also-harmful/

You don't have to do anything special to ensure that it goes on the IEP - generally IEPs are reported on three times a year, and the teacher will have to write a little paragraph explaining how things are going for each goal. If I were you, since this is a new teacher, I would ask to have progress updates every so often - weekly, biweekly, monthly, whatever you feel is appropriate. That will keep the teacher motivated to keep good records - I know, as a teacher, I struggle with communicating in a timely manner with parents sometimes, but you have to be the squeaky wheel. I agree that young and energetic can be good, too - I was just concerned about his inexperience with the Wilson program (or any other reading program). I have a M.Ed. in Special Education, and I was not required to take a single class about teaching reading to students with learning disabilities.

That's awesome! How does your son like it so far?

I'll be a third vote for Wilson! A bonus is it's really easy to use, and the teacher's manual is well written. There are other materials that are very helpful (dictation book with words/sentences, student readers, etc). Definitely find out if the person giving the intervention is going to get trained in the method. That is non-negotiable. Even a young, inexperienced person could be great with training. You should also make sure they have systems in place for progress monitoring, to make sure this intervention is working for him - otherwise they need to switch to something else. Task #1 would be to make sure the special ed teacher is getting trained in whatever program you use. Wilson has recommended timetables of how often kids should get instruction, and how long the sessions should be. You could also use that when you talk to the school district. Kudos for getting this for your son! Yeah!

I recently heard a story on NPR about hospital billing, and how crazy it can get. The first piece of advice was: never pay the bill you're given! Always, always negotiate it down. Of course, don't NOT pay it to the point of having it negatively affect your credit, but you can stretch out the non-payment for quite a while. Keep calling. You can also research other facilities in the area and see what THEY charge for everything, and then negotiate down from there. I was once able to reduce a bill a lot by calling and explaining that I couldn't afford it (I really couldn't). Turns out the hospital had a program for low-income people. They might have other things, too, if you keep on digging. Sorry you're dealing with this!!

I have no idea, but that sounds awesome!

I agree with everyone who is saying to get back to basics - making sure that reading, writing, and math are done every day. After that, the other subjects are gravy. You could think about executive functioning as being a subject for her, as well - it's going to be important for her as she gets older to be able to follow a schedule and get things done, even with ADHD. Like PeterPan said, you'll have to increase supports a lot so that she actually meets her goals, otherwise she's not going to experience success, and will stop trying. If you start to teach her how to use tools (timers, lists, etc) now, at 12, it will be so much easier for her to manage when she's 15, 18, 25... I'm just imagining, here, because I'm a teacher in public school and not homeschool (so feel free to disregard if this is not realistic), but after you decide what's essential to her day and what can be dropped, what if you had a meeting with her and explained her new schedule with expectations. The schedule could be very basic - task 1, check-in with mom, task 2, check in with mom, task 3, check in with mom, done for the day. You could insert whatever teaching you're doing with her as well, or a period of free time, exercise, chores, whatever. My ADHD students need schedules with every single little thing listed, and they need me to make sure they check off every little thing! I also think it's important to reflect on how the day went. At some quiet time (assuming there is one with little kids around ?), sit with her and go over her list. Find out how she thinks she did, and what could be done better the next day. Special ed teachers often use visual timers so kids can see how much time they have left. Most of my students have no clue how long things will take, or how to sense the passage of time. Love these timers. (You do need to buy batteries.) https://www.amazon.com/Time-Timer-Original-inch-Classroom/dp/B06XSZ57B2

Also, the Read & Write extension on Chrome is good. It puts a toolbar on top of your browser, and kids can use it in Google Docs and Gmail, I believe. There is also a premium version, not sure how much that costs, but probably not that much. My favorite feature is that it reads back what you write, highlighting the whole sentence as well as highlighting each word as you go along. When you are using Chrome, just google "Chrome extensions." On that page, type in "Read & Write" and it will ask you if you want to add the extension. When it's added, there will be a little purple puzzle piece in the top right side of your browser. When you start a new Google Document, click that puzzle piece and a toolbar will appear with options. It's easy to use!

The speech-to-text feature on Google Docs is pretty good. My 9-10 year old students have used it on a Macbook and Chromebook with good success. I heard from other teachers that an iPad or phone picks up the speech better, but in my experience, just doing it on a laptop was fine. And free! ?

Thanks, that's really interesting! Good for them for going with what works. It must be so great when everyone is on the same page... and why not do OG for everyone? It just makes good sense. A couple people here have started to talk about "completely re-vamping" how kids get services... There's some talk about adding an "intervention block" for all grades, and possibly a late bus for kids that need additional time. We ended up going with Fundations for Tier 2. I haven't managed to convince everyone to switch immediately, but we're gradually getting there.

Do you suppose nobody can do it so far, because everything you need to do is so specialized for your DS? Or do you think providers are just doing generic help-y stuff, that helps somewhat for most people, but doesn't really get to the root of the issues? If you can't find people to spend the $30k scholarship, can you spend it on things for your DS - like interoception materials, conferences, books, etc? Tutors?

That is AMAZING!!!! Could he be... enjoying reading?

We put coconut oil on, and it looks a tiny bit better this morning. The fish oil supplement is a good idea... his hair is really dry too. Thanks guys!

I love Neil Gaiman as well, but Coraline really freaked me out when I saw it a few years ago. I can't stand that creepy/gross, dark animation. The theme was so sad too! Very scary. I would be very angry if my child saw that movie at school. Did anyone get back to you?