Wow! I feel old now. I voted "never heard of them" but I should have watched the videos first to jog my memory.

All of my DD's college scholarship essays were required to be done on computer. A couple of them even specified size and style of font required. I can't think of any high school (ps and charter) that required anything written in cursive. My DHs job actually requires that reports that are not done on the computer be printed not cursive for legibility reasons. So I think that it is totally personal preference on what you expect from your own child other than signature.

I go along with those that say maybe. It is not unusual in online public schools for someone other than a parent to be with the child during the day, but I agree that you need to be very specific with the parent as to what is expected of you. If you need ideas about what to put in a written agreement, check out daycare dot com. You are basically doing an in home daycare situation. You also may want to do a quick search on your state's home daycare rules to make sure that you don't need to register.

I totally agree with the "get a lawyer a.s.a.p." comments. You need to talk to someone before your husband gets out if rehab. The lawyer can tell you your rights and how community property works in your state, and if you can lock him out of "his" house. Second, protect your access to your money. Open a bank account that he does not have access to and put some money in it. Do you have any credit cards just in your name? Go get a cell phone that he will not have control over. FYI, I do know a woman who had college support for her kid put in the divorce decree, so the ex is legally responsible for his half.

About 20 yrs ago (I hate have to say that :-), I worked with a woman whose husband survived a ruptured aneurysm. He was in the hospital for a good long time. When he got out, he was fine physically and did not have trouble with motor activities. He had some trouble with language skills word retrieval I think. He also had some loss of cognitive functioning. I don't remember what career field he was in before, but it was fairly well paying with benefits. He was not able to contine doing that job. He was able to get a job selling cars at a local dealership. The woman eventually had to leave her job at the small private school where we worked and go backmtomteaching in public school so that the family could have the benefits. She would also tell of personality changes that were difficult for the family. I don't remember the details, but I think that is common in people with traumatic brain injuries.

The university my DD is starting this fall is the same.

The only thing that I would change about your original post is the statement that he will "pick up" those skills later. He could easily learn those skills later, but if he isn't exploring on his own he may need directed teaching in order to learn those skills or to have the technology skills that he will need for college or a job.

It is not the limiting of reading time or limiting the type of reading material that is bothering me. What bothers me in the original post is the instance that the kid is required to "produce" an art product instead of reading. I feel that is too narrow of an exchange.

Go to thrift stores/garage sales for old appliances and electronics that he could take apart. A kindergarten teacher I once knew had a unit every year wher she had parents send in old broken stuff like phones, irons mixers, typewriters etc and gave the kids tools to take them all apart. I wouldn't necessarily give up on medications if you are having such a difficult time at home, but there are non Ritalin medications that are effective for some kids without those kinds of side effects.

I don't think I would allow it for an Amazon purchase. What about helping him make up a written budget plan, so that he can see how he will have enough if he just waits s week or so. I know this would not work of all kids, but for mine I might go ahead and order the item knowing that the next allowance will be given out before the item arrives. Since he can't make an amazon purchase with cash he has to go through you anyway. This would eliminate the problem of taking advantage of the sibling.

Last night as I was driving home from buying some school supplies I was thinking about putting magnets on the back of my barton tiles, when something popped into my head that I thought someone here might be able to use. http://www.mathwindow.com/ It is basically a large magnetic board with a bunch of preprinted magnetic tiles with numbers and math symbols on them. The kids can use the magnets to work through a math problem without having to write anything. When this product was originally created it was designed for students who were visually impaired. I first used it when I was tracking Braille to a girl who was blind. The company now makes a set for the "math challenged" in addition to their Braille and large print sets that I have used years ago. I was thinking that I might get one for my dyslexic kid who hates to write.

It sounds a little bit like you are disappointed that you did not have the opportunity to develop your artistic talents as a kid so now you are wanting to force your kid to be artistic. Kind of like the parent who pushes a kid to a specific sport because they were not as successful in the sport as they would have liked to be. Not everyone wants to be artistic. For one of my kids, making her spend several hours producing something art like would have been torture. (She does like to write stories now, but at 10 writing was still a physical chore) if you want to limit the reading on her own, I would broaden what you want her to do in the meantime. What about allowing her to read aloud to her siblings, or volunteer reading to an elderly person in a nursing home or something like that? Physical activity like practicing a sport, riding a bike, walking the dog, or just playing outside? Science kits, wood working kits, or even a toolkit with tools, fasteners, and bits of wood?

Several years ago there was a Weight Watchers recipe where crushed chocolate graham crackers were mixed with stiff egg whites and baked in a pie pan. I remember that as being very tasty. I don't see why you couldn't adapt that for a dessert pizza just by spreading in a pie pan and baking for a shorter time. http://theskinnycook.activeboard.com/t7733742/brownie-pie-2-pts/ I just found this recipe online. It is similar to what I remember.

Yes, I would talk with the teacher and/or the person who supervises the program. We are in a similar situation with my DS. He had a LD that impacts reading and writing and ADHD. He really, really doesn't like going to religious education classes because it is too much like school with lots of reading and writing and having to sit still. I am planning to talk with the person in charge of our religious education program to see what our options are. (Other than me teaching the class)

I agree that it sounds like there could be a problem, and with the family history I would not wait to see if he gets better on his own.

Glad to here that you are having her evaluated. You may want to do a little research on dyslexia. If she has had a lifetime of being told she is lazy or stupid, it will take a long time to get over that. That book probably is too much reading for her. My DS can manage to read a sentence or two on grade level, but even just one chapter in a textbook is overwhelming. Once she is diagnosed with a disability, it would not violate copyright laws to make your own digital copy for her if she is not able to access (read) the regular print copy and there is not accessible copy already available.

I am almost finish level 1 with my DS11 who just finished 5th grade and tests at 3-4 grade level depending on the day. Right now, wether he will attend a virtual charter school or straight homeschool is up in the air. After looking at everything on the barton site, if I was strictly homeschooling I would do as she recommends and not do any other LA curriculum while doing Barton (at least in the early stages). Reading sentences and phrases starts in the 2nd level. The 3rd level has 1pg stories, and there are controlled vocabulary books (purchased separately) that can be read starting after level three. There is no need to do separate spelling. If you really want to have spelling tests, the training videos say that there are spelling word list available on the tutor support section of the web site but I haven't looked at that yet. I would do all other subjects orally with oral responses. Luckily, the charter school is willing to do this for my DS.

I 2nd this. Once they get as big as you are describing about the only thing they are good for is shredding.

I don't do it now, because we live too far from the store, but I used to like going to Target for school supplies sales. Each week there would be a couple of different items really cheep such as crayons crayons for $.25 or Fiskars kid scissors for $1. The next week there would be different items on sale. When I lived in the big city and Target was 5 min from my house I usually went every week anyway. Now that Target is 2 hrs from my house, buying regular priced items at my local store is cheaper than the gas to get to a big box store.

My DD, now 18, has ADHD-combines type. She appears mostly ADD at first, but the H is there is you know what to look for in her. She started having behavior issues in school in 1st grade. A good part of it was the teacher, because she did not have as much trouble in 2nd grade. At her first parent-teacher conference in 3rd grade, her teacher told us that she thought DD had ADHD. For diagnosis we went through the psychological services department at my DHs work since is was free. The ADHD became very obvious when the testing that would normally take a child one vist took my DD 3visits to finish. We alos did parent surveys, parent interviewe, and tracher surveys. I remember the psychologist going over the report later and telling us about how DD was distracted by a car alarm going off in the parking garage that was outside and three floors below. The psychologist was going to offer some sort of computerized treatment, but she left that practice before we could get started. My DD changed schools in 4th grade from a private catholic school to our neighborhood public school. She had some edcational gaps when she switched, but her social difficulties we more concerning at the time. We eventually went to our pedetrician to discuss medication. He took the info from the psychologist and had us(and teachers) do surveys. Once all that was collected and reviewed, he agreed to medication. He wanted to start with versions Ritalin because it has been around the longest and side effects are well know and documented as apposed to a newer medicine that might not have all side effects identified at that time. My DD would not (and still won't) take pills so we went with a brand that came in a capsule that could be opened up and mixed with food. He did warn us that medications were trial and error and might not work at first, but for my DD, medication was amazing. We noticed changes right away. On the 2nd day, the little girl spent hours building a house and swimming pool out of Legos. This may not sound like much, but this was a girl who could not play with anything for more than 5 minutes. There were other immediate improvements, but this post is long enough already. The only side effects she ever had are the loss of appetite that is very common. On the med, she just wouldnt eat. She generally did not use the medication on weekends and in summer when she was at home, so the appetite thing was not a big concern. Over the years, dosage has had to be adjusted as she grew. when the Daytrana patch came out, she was the first of his patients to try it out. The patch made life so much easier for us all. I really like how the dosage of medicine can be adjusted by taking the patch off early if she was in a situation where she did not need to be medicated all day or if there was a special event that she really wanted to be able to eat at. Over the years, there were periods when she did nt want to take the medication. As long as she could maintain her behavior and grades(i did not insisit on super grades, just all passing)I let her decide if she was going to use the medicine. Sometimes, I had to insist, and other times we could talk through a situation and she would decided on her own to use the medicine. She graduated from HS in May. Her grades were not great, but she chose a college that awards scholarships based on ACt scores, not grades, so she got a nice scholarship that covers tuition, fees, and books.

Cooking dried beans is easy if time consuming. I start the night before. I rinse and sort the beans. You do have to check through them because sometimes small rocks will slip through the processing. Then input them in a large pan, cover with water, and soak over night. The next morning, I drain and rinse the beans, add fresh water, and cook adding more water when necessary. I have heard that it is even easier to cook beans with a pressure cooker, but I don't have one.

Hot all the time! Just kidding. I am from Houston, and I like to say that summer is from April through October, but there is air conditioning everywhere, so the temp is manageable. The climate does make for some great vegetables. One of the things I miss the most is my tomatoes. Houston is very accepting of people moving in, but you may have a different experience in small towns. I would think that any of the larger cities such as Dallas-Fort Worth area, Austin, San Antonio, El Paso etc would be equally accepting. Housing is cheaper in Texas than many other places. There is no state income tax, but property taxes can be very high. Homeschooling is not unusual, and there is no regulations for homeschooling. If you choose public or private, the Houston area has tons of choices. There are several good districts that I would suggest over others. There are some good charter schools including KIPP academy and Harmony as well as lots and lots of private school many of which are church based if you want that. To me, the downside to Houston is the traffic and crowds. I do miss the shopping, restaurants, and all the kid activities. Where we live now has a better climate, but the is very little organized activities for kids and much less school choices.

Thanks for the input. I will hold off on the app until we get further along. We did the first lesson today and DS said he likes having the tiles because it seems more like a game that way.

It doesn't really bother me, because I don't see George as a "real" monkey. He is a fictional animal character that is given many human characteristics (I can't think of the literary term for that off the top of my head). In the stories, he is more human than animal. A real monkey is not going to go to a hospital with children to have something removed from his stomach, or ride a bike to deliver newspapers. My DS and I just finished reading a Hank the Cowdog book where Hank escapes from a dog pound and the worker chases after him and tries to run him down with his truck. While that would be horrible if something like that happened to a dog in real life, we thought the story was funny.

I dont know about a book, but one year for Christmas we gave my DS what he called his "office. It was one of those cheep three drawer plastic units on wheels. I filled the drawers with all sorts of art/school supplies such as construction paper, white paper, glue, scissors, tape, paint, post it notes, stapler. That way he could use his stuff however he wanted. It didn't really contain the mess, but at least I didn't have to worry about him getting into stuff that other people needed.