Haha, thanks. It's pretty easy to add stuff, so you could just go for it and see what happens!

I do! I just started adding things over the summer. I only have a few resources so far, and they're all a variation on the same thing. I was going to wait to share this until my store was a little more interesting, but answering your post seemed like a good time! Current earnings are $21 ? https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/I-Heart-Data Sometimes I go on TPT and just marvel at the things people have made. Looking at the number of reviews that some products get, it's clear that at least some people are making quite a lot of money from their TPT stores.

I had a bad UTI a couple years ago. I dealt with it for too long, like 4 days, before I finally gave up and went to urgent care. I was in and out in 15 minutes. You just pee in a cup, doc comes back in a couple minutes, done. I don't like antibiotics, either, but urinary infections seem really hard to beat without them.

I'm sad, too. He is always a gentleman, and respects and values everyone regardless of political position. I've never heard him say an ugly thing about anyone. I wish there were more people like him in government.

Yeah, that's awesome! I do something similar, and it's very effective. Love LiPS!

Oooh, Minecraft... should be a kids' favorite!

I'd get some colored tiles and have him say each sound in the word while pulling a tile towards himself. He probably needs something tactile to realize there are two sounds in the blend. You can also practice the blends on flash cards, and he could pound his fist for each sound: show "lt," he pounds L-T while saying the sounds aloud.

Great update!

I would let her do her thing with books, since she obviously has positive feelings about reading this way! I would also work hard to find books that she CAN read on her own (maybe the Boris series from Scholastic Branches, or some High Noon Sound-Out series, or other books from the Easy Reader section of the library). And leave them where she can find them and see if she starts reading them ?

When I pack lunch, I take a combo of: Sandwich Deli meat rolls, cheese, crackers Hummus or guacamole (you can buy individual servings in packs of 4 at the grocery store) Larabar or granola bar Jerky stick Apple slices with peanut butter Hard boiled eggs (but kids don't always want to take that) Trail mix with nuts for energy Dinner leftovers Greek yogurt is filling I have a bento-like box with sections, which makes it easy to throw a variety of foods together without worrying about whether they "go" well together. I like this brand (expensive but lasts for years!): https://www.ukonserve.com/U-Konserve-Food-Storage-Containers-s/26.htm

Wow, that's pretty egregious. Could she keep her stuff in her homeroom? With the secretary? I hope they apologized for yelling. I would go in and refuse to leave the school until I had her ID number and locker figured out. And then I would probably stay until lunch to give her the ID number, and then make sure she gets lunch. Sorry to you and DD ?

I used to make a peanut butter chocolate banana "smoothie" drink before I realized it had a bazillion calories. It was soooo good though. For a teenager, I think it would be great in the mornings and last her till lunchtime. I put in: 1 banana Couple tablespoons of PB - add more to be thicker, add less to be thinner 1 tablespoon or so of cocoa powder Honey or other sweetener if needed - I found the banana made it sweet enough for me Add to desired thickness: Coconut milk (from a can, for lots of fat/calories/fullness!), whole milk, or other kind of milk (almond milk, etc) I always add less liquid and then blend for a few seconds, and then add more liquid if necessary. If you mess up and make it too thin, you can add more PB or more banana. Cocoa powder also makes things thicker. When I made this drink, I liked to make it about the thickness of really rich chocolate milk. Your DD could slurp it down in a flash!

I'm just amazed at how long those kids sit still! ADHD compounds the difficulty of reading instruction so much.

Mt Desert Island, Acadia, Blue Hill, Camden, Rockland, are great destinations! Can be quite crowded in the summer. You could fly to Portland, rent a car, and make your way up the coast ? That would be a great vacation!

I thought she was great in the clip as well, very energetic and on task and just... on top of things. So much of teaching depends on the energy and focus of the teacher, which is great and not-great at the same time, since most adults are chronically sleep deprived! Anyway. I didn't like the guessing in the clip, either - like, oh, if you see a blend B-L, then you say BL and then you can guess the rest. Although she has a good point that if a student is monitoring for meaning, they very well may be able to guess the correct word. Not so good for learning to decode, though. I always find it curious that my dyslexic students ARE often monitoring for meaning, so if the word is "sea" they might likely substitute "ocean, " even though the words are nothing alike in spelling. And then there are the dyslexic kids who are decoding poorly AND also not monitoring for meaning. Those cards sound interesting.

Is it just 3 letter blends, or other things too? How does she do with short vowels? If it's 3 letter blends only, I'd be inclined to skip them for now, and move on. I seem to be recommending Raz-Kids a lot lately, but it's a great place to find lots of books. It's motivating to kids because they get stars for reading and taking quizzes, and you can use the stars to decorate the interior of a spaceship, and to customize a robot. It's pretty adorable. They'd have things that aren't in the correct progression for Barton, though, if you're trying to limit reading to things she's definitely learned. I looked at the Barton sequence. Honestly, I would do some things in a different order. Here is Wilson, for example: https://www.carlisleschools.org/UserFiles/Servers/Server_95479/File/Academics/Reading/Wilson Reading Program/wilson_scope.pdf and here is the Recipe for Reading (page 4): https://eps.schoolspecialty.com/EPS/media/Site-Resources/Downloads/program-overviews/S-recipe_for_reading.pdf?ext=.pdf There is also High Noon, which is again different. I say life's too short to be aggravated by a reading program - if you love Barton, stick with it, but if you're kinda meh in general, then... maybe try a different one. You could even take a break from Barton by doing the same skills in another program, and see if that's better - so you're not taking a break from reading instruction, just trying something different. Even just reading some High Noon books that cover what she's already learned in Barton.

That does look awesome!

This book looks super. You'll have to report back and see how it goes. I love the idea of sorting cards, because it's reading and thinking, but may feel more fun/less pressure than a workbook page or something. With the V/V words and describing, you could also use a word bank to help your DS have words available to him. Or you could just stick with filling out graphic organizers for a couple weeks - get good at assigning words to the picture - and then move on to writing sentences. That's probably the way to go, now that I think about it.

Yeah! If you turn that into a game, I'll buy it ?

Your comments about writing just reminded me of something I did ALL year in my writing class. I thought it wouldn't take the whole year, but we ended up doing it a couple times a week. I printed out all of the V/V words (what, where, color, size, mood, etc) and put them front and center in the classroom. You could put them on index cards and spread them out on the table. OR just pick a couple to start with. Then, I put up a picture for the kids. Say, a black cat sitting on a fence. Then the kids used the V/V words to write descriptive sentences. For so many of them, they needed to see a picture, AND have the V/V words there, to write sentences. Even with that, they still needed a lot of prompting. It got a lot better as the year went on, though, and then they could write multiple sentences. We also filled out very simple outlines prior to writing sentences sometimes. Like - put cat in the center circle, then writing black, soft, cute, on a fence, etc. in the surrounding circles. Perhaps you could start doing that with your DS. I found a list of writing skills, from most basic to complex. I really have no idea where it came from, but I'll try to scan it and put it up here. The earliest skills were something like labeling a picture, then writing a sentence about a picture, then writing a sentence without a picture, etc. It was helpful to me to see the very small incremental steps - writing challenges me because there is just SO much to do, and the books I see don't really give the big picture and then break it down. They just sorta jump in somewhere, but I really want to know how kids' writing should develop from the beginning all the way up to essays.

My DH is the same way. He sometimes likes to talk about things to me (not with me)... but really it's more like he's talking to himself. He figures things out by talking them out. Unfortunately, I'm really impatient sometimes and if I cut him off, he gets offended. If I explain that he's talking about things I have no clue about (computer programming, statistics, etc), and he may as well be speaking in another language - but he says it's okay, just listen! Sometimes, I ask him for the Main Idea. That sometimes works and he'll tell me the most important thing. Otherwise, he'll tell me EVERYTHING. It's why he's a great teacher. But he definitely gives lots of details. I never heard the term verbal processor before. That's helpful! I like to process things alone, let some time go by, process some more, and THEN share. So it can be tough for me to hear the stream of consciousness.

Definitely just go for it with the school district. Now is the perfect time to get something quickly. In my experience, being a support person is so much better than being a sub. You can actually make friends with the other adults, and you don't constantly have to be stressing about lesson plans with rowdy kids.

For levels... I think Scholastic, F&P, Raz, etc. all have their own labeling systems. You can use this chart to get an idea of how they compare: https://www.readinga-z.com/learninga-z-levels/level-correlation-chart/

I'm chuckling because yeah, lots of leveled readers sound dumb after a while. Sigh. I think Raz might fit your need, because he can see the progression right there, levels A-Z, and the books are quite good. I find the progression to be gentle, too, no big jumps between levels. And you can always read a harder book followed by an easier book, to end on a confident note. You can also read the books ahead of time, so if you're going up a level, you could choose one that you're sure he can do... also could preview words that you think he'll miss, like, in this book you'll see X, X, and X, and write the words on index cards beforehand. That way, he may not feel anxious about seeing an unknown word, because you already told him he's not supposed to know how to read it. I never had a visual or a signal for needing a break, but that's a good idea. I had to insist some of my students take breaks, walk away, etc. because they wouldn't know they how they were feeling. They just felt BAD, stressed. One in particular just reacted as angry, when I knew she was actually confused/overwhelmed. I would guess you'll have to be his emotional barometer for now! That's ok ?

Could you just take off the doors altogether?