I taught in public school in Texas for several years. When i had preschoolers, I would drop my DS off at day care when it opened at 7:00am and leave work in time to pick him up by 5:00 when the daycare closed. It was a district daycare just for employees. I never did much work at home though. Even if I would plan to I never got to it, so I liked staying late better than trying to work at home. I only ev taught pre-k to first and then special Ed, so there wasn't that much grading. Private schools paid much less. I started out teaching at a wonderful private school that I really like, but the people who owned it decided to retire. I made $10,000 more the first year I went to public school. That was around 1996. I liked planning lessons and coming up with new and fun ways to teach a concept, but that was quickly done away with in public school. Our district really wanted each teacher to be doing the same thing as every other teacher in that grade. That was why I first moved to Pre-k where I still had some freedom to plan what I wanted withing the guidelines. Then I moved to special education where there was a bit more freedom to plan activities to meet the child's needs. Eventually, the regulations, paperwork, parents, and fighting the system wore me down and I quit teaching for few years. In working with visually impaired kids, I did feel that I made a real impact on some of the kids. I was able to work with the same kid(s) for several years. After taking a couple of years away from teaching, I lucked into a job with one of the online charter schools. I enjoyed the challenge of learning an entire new system of doing things. As for using the library, I'm not sure what you are asking. The kids had set library times to check out books. When I taught pre-k, the school librarian would pull books for us to use in the classroom that went with our theme for the month.

There is a great website(I think is sciencebuddies dot org) that has lots of ideas for projects.

Home depot has sets of kids sized tools that are not exactly toys - small hammer, screwdrivers, a hand saw. There is even a cordless drill. We used to get scraps of boards at Home Depot pretty cheaply for my DS and just gave him a box of nails to hammer pieces together.

Give each kid a backpack to keep all their books in. They can take downstairs to the table at school time, and take them back upstairs when school is over.

Can you go to counseling on your own? Unless you and DH are on the same page, there is nothing that can be done about your DS.

Yes, my DS throws up frequently for no apparent reason. It used to frustrate me to no end that he would throw up at school and I would have to go pick him up, but as soon as we would get home it was obvious that he was fine. He would throw up if the cafeteria smelled "bad". He threw up when the boy sitting next to him made a nasty mess with his own food. He would vomit after eating breakfast at school. He would vomit in PE after physical activity. He will vomit at bedtime for no reason. Sometimes when we would go out to eat, he would be fine one minute and vomiting the next. His is not one reason, but a combination of many. He is sensitive to smells and has a strong gag reflex. If he is congested, he will cough and gag which will lead to throwing up. When he was little he often ate very fast and did not chew his food well. The food would come back up looking like it did before it went down. And we recently found out that he has a sensitivity to milk and will sometimes throw up after drinking milk or eating ice cream.

I don't see asking "why" questions as a sign that there is something wrong. Asking lots of "why" questions is a normal characteristic of some kids. Some are just naturally curious and want to know everything. Others use it as a way to keep adults engaged. The adult can't answer a "why" question with a yes/no. The adult actually has to listen and respond. (Not saying you don't). The unanswerable "why" questions are also normal. Asking those questions about a picture in the book you are reading actually seems good to me. When I would get tired of all the "why" questions I would turn it back on the child saying something along the lines of "what do you think?" I actually think the "why" questions are good but a bit annoying at times. :-) to me is shows that the kid has gone past just observing and describing the environment. Just like as a child reads you don't just ask direct comprehension questions that can be coped from the story word for word. A teacher(parent) starts to ask higher level questions requiring the child to think about what was read such as "Why do you think the bat is chasing the butterfly?" Now, if your DD is constantly losing focus and off topic, there may be an attention issue. Or she could be using the questioning as a technique to deflect attention from something that she is having trouble doing. My DS, who has ADHD, is similar to what you describe. He would read one page and it would remind him of something else and he could not stop himself from getting off topic and/or asking questions. He has improved over time, but often I still have to redirect him and tell him we will talk about that later.

Don't give them the pass code to your wifi? But they could still connect to wifi that is unsecured.

I have only used Barton. I started this summer with my DS11. I like it because it goes slow and breaks everything down into very small steps. This way I was able to find small details that he had trouble with that had been missed in PS. I also like that it does not look babyish and obviously isn't a program that was first designed for little kids. There are stories for each lesson (starting with level 3) that were writen specifically for older learners. I like how you are always supposed to end a lesson with something they are successful at doing. After so many years of having trouble, it is nice that he can feel successful. We both like the routine of doing the lessons the same way every time. The training DVDs are very detailed but a bit repetitive and boring at times. The materials are of good quality and will last through multiple students. The only down side to the program is the expense.

A friend of mine has that Ikea table and chairs and uses it to seat seven in a very small kitchen area. It actually works well in her space once all the people are seated.

I think it is an "in demand" field right now. As the general population continues to age there will be more people in need of such services. Plus you have the option of working in a variety of settings such as a private practice, hospital, nursing home, or school based.

Put them on a flash drive.

Well, that is a lot of transition for even a regular kid. I would imagine that a kid with all those issues could just be overwhelmed with life right now, and then you throw school work into the mix. Pick out the essentials that he must work on right now and hold off on the rest. Barton definitely needs to come first. Yes, tell the tutoring center about what is going on. Ask them to reduce the amount of homework for a bit. How far along in Barton is he? There is no way my DS could write an essay right now without a lot, lot of help from me. Can you reduce what he is doing on the other two days and do his tutoring homework on those days? Can he do some of the work orally with you doing the writing or another way to show what he knows. For example, my DS just had a page where it indicated that he was to write definitions for some vocabulary out of a textbook. Instead of writing, I had printed out a list of definitions and he cut them out and then glued to the correct place in the workbook. What about setting a timer and give him a set amount of time such as 30 min for each section of homework. It he works hard for that amount of time he gets a break or reward or something.

If I could go back without having to deal with all the paperwork and regulations, I would love to go back to teaching Braille. I had the wonderful opportunity to work one on one with my students which does not happen much in public school.

If you are dong private testing, it will not be cheep. You have to reconsider testing the sibling just because they are competitive. At 13 they should be old enough to understand that they are not the same in every area. If the one has an actual learning problem that will show up on testing, he most likely already knows that he is different. If you go through the public school for testing, you will probably need a better reason to test the sibling than that they are competitive.

A bit late for your post, but do you have a humidifier that you can put near her bed? Have her take a hot shower or sit in a steamy bathroom.

If you have looked at the Dave Ramsey stuff and have really seriously looked at your budget and you are still over budget you may have no choice but use one of the credit counseling agencies to get your payments and rates lowered. We have not used one yet, but I know people who have and were happy with the results. If you are not already behind in your payments, what happens is that you immediately stop making payment to to the credit card companies and pay the money to the agency instead. Once you have done that for three or so months, the agency can negotiate with your creditors for reduced interest rates and lowered payments. The agency also works with you to establish a budget and figure out exactly how much you will need to give them each month toward your debt. You make bulk payments to the agency and the agency pays the creditors. This can take many years and your credit rating is destroyed, but if you cant make the payments anyway tha doesn't really matter much. The big thing that my friend mentioned is that you are not allowed to buy anything on credit ever while you are working with the agency or they will drop you and you will be own your own. (At least that what she was told) We are in a similar situation here, and it is tough to follow a very strict budget, but we are very slowly making progress. Live has been very different for the kids than it was just a few years ago. One thing that helped here was when my DD was old enough to get a summer job so that she could help with her own expenses and have some fun money that she would ocasionally use to treat her brother when I couldn't.

If the school has already agreed to the evaluations and you are just waiting on the evaluators schedule, then I would stay until that is all done. If you have to change and do the evaluations privately, it may take much longer to get An initial appointment, get on the schedule for the evaluation etc. not to mention the expense. At that age I don't think that starting homeschooling in the middle of the year will be any harder that the beginning of the year.

I don't really know, but when I had to take some very strong antibiotics last fall the doctor gave me a sample pack of some to take along with the antibiotic. I did not end up having the unpleasant digestive side effects that are usually associated with antibiotics.

My kids don't, but when I taught in HeadStart there was this one little boy who loved Roy Rogers. He brought in a picture of Roy Rogers for show and tell more than once. He preferred to watch Roy Rogers videos. I will say that this kids lives on a ranch and his dad is a cowboy. His older brother wore real, child size spurs to school the day I substituted for that class.

Can you mark her email address as SPAM and have it filtered out automatically? That way you never even have to know she emailed you.

Has he had a comprehensive vision evaluation? To get an idea if he has a vision problem or a reading problem, try typing up what you want him to read on a computer and put it in a font size that he prefers. If he can read the larger print but not the smaller print, then you really need to have his vision checked out. There are vision issues that are not specifically related to visual acuity. There have been many threads on here about vision therapy issues. Some people don't think it helps, but many people do. There is also something called Irlen Syndrome than can cause issues similar to what you describe. People use colored overlays to treat this. Again there are some people who do not believe in this, but many who do and use the overlays successfully. You really have to research and make your own decisions.

We have a fridge with no freezer and a separate freezer for a different reason. The part of our house where the kitchen is located is 100+ year old log cabin. The doors are very narrow compared to today's doorways. Most modern refrigerators will not fit through the door. For that reason, the previous owner did OT have his refrigerator in the kitchen, but I did want one in the room. We now have a refrigerator without a freezer in the kitchen and an upright freezer in the laundry room.

I would, but I am not terribly picky about stuff like that. I know other people who would not.

I did in my first house 20 something years ago, but not in the last two houses.