ONe option we may consider is Landry Academy Lab intensives for a weekend.

Just brainstorming. doors with keyed deadbolts on both sides. you hold the keys. I like the door and cabinet locks that use magnets to open. IRL my experience is limited; a friend with 6 kids and all 1-1 1/2 years apart. Worked with her littles all morning in how to be a part of the family, no school unless someone did in independently at the opposite end of the house. Basically, eating, playing, and problem solving. School was in the afternoon with her then 7 and 5 1/2 year old. Once I got a room or rooms secured, my next priority would be quiet time or naps for the youngest ones. Even if I had to start at just 10 minutes for a non napper and gradually build it up. This may not be possible if your priority now is appointments. That is also a season of life. Overall I would focus, on safety rooms, a quiet time routine, then school. We still have to do this after weeks off. It's faster now that the kids are older but it use to take 2 weeks to get back to school.

We've tried this a class out but we were wiped the next day from the commute. My kids are 9,11,13. The kids said they got more cardio in their 30 minutes of playing chase/ tag at the house than in the hour long class. Typical may not be an option for our location, family dynamics, and budget.

We're checking into boy scouts; sports are only through 5th grade. Anything else is a 70 minute commute. I'm definitely going to have to get creative. 4H has some things going, but it was not guy friendly, and the activities were prioritized base on what would look good for scholarship apps for the juniors and seniors.

We're researching adding Martial arts for our family, me included. Commute is 70 minutes each way and one to two meals not at home. I'm justing wondering how often we would need to go to make progress.

I'm wracking my brain here. But I think developmentally you would see her attuning to others and her environment first and herself last. Stories in third person with pronouns he, she, it. I would work here. Then 3rd person ownership when it's obvious. He is holding his ice-cream come. There is also a whole developmental area that's easy to miss in ASD where the child is distinguishing between themselves and you and the different perspectives that each one has. RDI therapy breaks this down incrementally. An example would be mom wearing a blindfold when child is describing various new objects. Mom says, "I don't see the blue." This would be one tiny step in realizing me and you are different and have different input channels. This would gradually include all of the nonverbal channels. It would finally culminate in the child prefacing their comment about a character they want to talk about with a description of the book of movie to get you oriented to their perspective. I guess to sum it all. I saw a lot of language growth when the nonverbal channels started functioning and processing more of my child's world. I was amazed that they my child understood things around them but not register their own needs, perspectives, emotions, etc. :grouphug: it's been a journey here too.

RDI is therapy designed to sort through all the normal communication, planning, and social skill milestones from birth through adulthood. An adult would work with a consultant with an evaluation and set up goals gradually managing their own goals. Just another option.

I have a nine year old and a small bass quitar. We haven't tried much because I mostly know piano and a smidge of dulcimer. Pm me if this is the age that would fit.

RDI has a consultant training program. I paid my consultant monthly, and we met weekly via skype. She sent feedback on video homework I submitted.

Scott Foresman Science 1984 It's a hardback science text book with a raccoon on the front. Any websites? I checked amazon.

Our faves: Beorn the Proud Hittite Warrior The Story of Rolf and the Viking Bow Son of Charlemagne The set in ancient time period was drier and probably more for upper junior high, highschool.

"Try again please." or "I wonder what you might could ask for." as in "It's not fair; they get to____." vs. "I see brother is playing can you show me what I have to get done before I can play." or "I can't do this." vs. "Would you do one (sample) next to me?" This takes years of practice. If they're trying, I'll help them problem solve. We usually use some hand signal the child chooses. When words come out in the wrong tone, I use the handsign and wait. At about age 7, one ds also hit the "derail and delay at all costs" mentality. I was working harder at avoiding being drug into his battles than the instructing. This required a different tactic. 3strikes= your out, timeout. It's now someone or something else's turn. You may wait in the _______, I'll get back with you in 20 minutes or I'll call you for lunch." :grouphug:

There can be many reasons for meltdowns or reactions. One cause can be the brain not utilizing nonverbal communication. This causes many misreads and frustration that builds. The child may even use nonverbals in their own communication just not be recieving and utilizing the nonverbals to make decisions. Life would be like living in a foreign country since nonverbals are 80%. Snowball this to 6-8 years of not being able to learn from your parents experience but having to learn everything from the ground up everytime = avalanche. Another way of looking at avalanche is calling it the tipping point. This is a down hill slide where the child can't compensate any more and can't keep up with the social and executive functioning/ organizing problem solving skills. These aren't my original thoughts, just what I've gleaned from RDI.

http://www.honorsphysicalscience.com/ This is a physical science class for highschool with powerpoint lectures, videos, study notes and more. Would love to know what textbook would correlate?

what types of routines, rules, habits, arrangements help you to keep your school day running smoothly? Each kid has a weekly schedule that I write out on the weekend. I stagger mom intensive time in morning or afternoon blocks. I use a timer for meals, laggers who are whining or wasting my lesson time i.e., " here is your 15 minutes of help". This teacher goes off duty at 5pm. The community area of the house is at normal noise level after 4pm. I've found that for us we have to be home 4.5 days a week and school year round taking smaller breaks. This keeps the habits going and the stress level low. I grade at the moment if I'm beside the child or daily and write correction pages on the next day's schedule. For example, do you require all work to be completely where you can see it being done? I know some have had kids who go off to do work and are so easily distracted that they don't come back for the next subject. I only did this for handwriting and dictation. They have levels of freedom they earn. Level 1 would be next to mom for all work except pleasure reading. Level 2 next to mom when I ask you to come for a lesson as long as your done with the exact list I give you in the morning and the afternoon. Level 3 mom offers a lesson you can accept of decline but I don't have to offer again, you're done with each day's work by 5pm. Level 4 you ask for your lesson on the day scheduled; your work is completed by the end of the week. Level 5 plan your own weekly schedule meet the deadlines for papers, reports, test etc. Level 6 (we're not here yet) plan your own semester goals. Level 7 design your own course syllabus The 9 year old fluctuates b/t level 3 and 4, the 11 year old level 4, and the 13 year old level 4 on some subjects and level 5 on others. These ideas aren't mine; they came from a homeschool magazine. Do you make certain areas of the house off limits b/c they tempt Dc to goof off? depends on their level of independence Do have a rule that Dc must check in with you after completing each subject or independent assignment? depends on level How do you store books so that they are easily available to you, yet also for your children? Each child has a crate by their desk/or kitchen table area for most things. One nearby bookshelf is for books in use for the week especially chapter books more than one child is using. Another shelf is for my answer keys, teacher guides, extra practice materials etc. All work is turned into an empy box on the bookshelf.

I'm guessing this would mean 10$ for a year. If you don't get 30 subscriptions, I tunes has these as apps for 15$ for each play. I've not used I tunes. Does purchasing the app mean you have access as long as you maintain the files? http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/shakespeare-in-bits-a-midsummer/id460928278 pm me if you get enough.

I can't leave them together in the room for chores, getting dressed in AM, or cleaning up. Sometimes if they have a good story going with blocks of legos they're focused and able to regulate themselves. pp: Though it's really burdensome, I think you need to give thought to structure/prevention constantly. For instance, after tonight, the structure would be that they don't clean the room together, but sequentially Totally agree with exercise. A neighbor gave us a mini trampoline. It stays in my bedroom standing vertical;it's quite an eyesore. But 10 minutes here and there when I hear the pitch and tone ramping up really helps refocus the brain. I also have to use my bedroom as a quiet spot for one of the two boys. I use divide and conquer strategy. I even had to confiscate all the nice sized sticks around outside for awhile since I wanted them to play outside unsupervised some of the time. After a few years of supervised stick use, they can handle themselves for short periods now.

The RDI Book helped my DH see why social things would only get worse. This book breaks down the brain development and shows where are kids are missing foundational skills that social skills build on.:grouphug:

http://movies.netflix.com/WiMovie/Reformation_Overview/70028052?locale=en-US When we got this from Netflix, I went to the producers site. What a find. There is a free viewer's guide with teacher background notes and discussion questions. A student workbook is an in depth Bible study on the main beliefs being discussed in the video There is even a simple play. It reminds me of the Simplicio skits in TOG. Vision video has other courses too. https://www.visionvideo.com/search_by_text.taf?_function=text_list&keyword=religious+art I think we can use this guide with just internet access to the works of art. I thought most of the paintings were in the BJU museum but have only been able to find 3 of them.

Thank you for sharing. We need to know the ups and downs.:grouphug:

http://www.humantrafficking.org/updates/515 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-19169943 I'm checking these sites. I know this is a huge problem in our backyard.

When there are under fives: -Stay up late or early morning let kids sleep in -everyone exercise/ active immediately after breakfast -independent work, or independent chores for olders, TV babysit littles -lots of frozen pizza and sandwiches with a crockpot meal or two -cancel all outside the house activities I didn't get everything done but main goals for each kid and books and crafts planned for next 8-10 weeks. A friend packed her car with her supplies and stayed B&B for 2 nights. Hubby was willing. She had 4 five and under. Youngest is now 8: I can take over the dining table and work for 2 weeks while they work mostly independently at about 1/2 speed. -

http://www.math-drills.com/ These cover a large scope of skills and have multiple sets. The pages print easily from adobe.

OP:and to top it all off, the attention and time management issues for dd7 were all inherited from dh. So as I try to keep a clear space for her to work, I keep finding dh's things, and I don't know what to do with them. This morning, I wanted to just do a song, prayer, pledge of allegiance and memory work with both kids and then do Latin and history with dd7. I had to ask dh like 4 times to join us for the pledge of allegiance, as he was tinkering with something right in the middle of our classroom area. Then dd7 interrupted right in the middle of the song. Ds4 was whining and complaining the whole time, because he wanted to do memory work first. I totally get this. When hubby is home on a school day, we usually make it through 1/2 to 2/3 of normal workload. I can also bank on having to start, start, and start again. It's just some unknown mathematical formula for chaos 10 to the power of n. N = the number of bodies human and animal involved. KWIM. I don't have a lot of concrete advice. Who could because each of our families is so unique? Here's a few ideas that may or may not fit you're crew: -whenever restarting school after any break longer than a week, start with one or two items then add more each week. For us this means starting with early to bed, early to rise, protein bkfst, chores, and 30 minutes+ exercise. Then add 3R's, then electives. Mine are now12,10,8. But when they were 2,4,6, it would easily take 3-4 weeks before we were up to full speed. -I totally agree with adding more school days or major chopping. This takes the pressure and guilt off. We've ended up schooling year round. We're not ahead but breaking even and keeping me sane. -I have had to use my bedroom to work one on one with a child for short bursts of about 20 minutes when there's too much distraction elsewhere. This gets a few essentials done and my frustration down. -Another way to keep my sanity, and add flexibility is in making twice a year goals in each subject. It really allows me to see which areas I need to stick with 5 times a week vs. 2-3 times a week. I can also prioritize for each child. Sometimes it might even be less academics and more cooking and planning their own schedule (12dd). I guess this is similar to pp idea of chopping. I already know where to chop without anxiety or guilt. I'm learning that my greatest satisfaction needs to be in steadily doing what I need to be doing; anything extra (smooth day, clean house, everyone enjoyed a hands on project) is gravy.:grouphug::grouphug:

:drool5::drool5:Added to my wish list. This looks well worth the $.