What is animula?

Memoria Press has a really nice, active forum too since you didn’t get an answer to your question here.

Take magnesium. 80% of people are low in it. 99% of my patients are low in it. People who end up at a chiropractor tend to have tighter muscles than people who don’t. People who hate yoga might have tighter than usual muscles. Magnesium is nature’s muscle relaxer. Lack of it can make people tight and sleepless. Stress makes you pee out more of it. Don’t take magnesium oxide, it is cheaper by 1/2 but only 1/10 as absorbable as mag glycinate, malate, citrate, aspartate, chloride, taurate. Mag malate by Designs for Health is my favorite, mag citrate is my favorite if patient is constipated. I get all types from emersonecologics.com. Glycinate is my favorite for people who can’t take mag without it making their stools too loose. Don’t bother testing for it, standard mag tests are serum mag. Serum is an extra cellular fluid. Mag is an intracellular mineral. Don’t expect your doctor to know about it. It is a nutrient. Doctors get 1 hour of nutrition in medical school and one year of pharmacology. Take it with food. Start with one pill. if your mag has 170-200mg per pill, work up to two to four pills. I needed 5 so that is not unheard of. It will help sleep if you are low in it but it might not help all the way. Some people need GABA raising nutrients also, like l-theanine, chamomile, lemon balm, melissa. There are supplements that contain all of them in one pill like Gabatone by Apex Energetics, my favorite. Some people need serotonin boosting things too, like 5-http or tryptophan. It takes a minimum of 200mg of 5-http to do anything. Most people who have tried it on their own, haven’t taken enough of it. Serotonin makes melatonin. Magnesium has 300 known functions in the body. If you are low in it and have trouble sleeping, you could have 299 other things wrong with you because of it. If you can’t take pills, there are liquid mags and powdered magnesium that make into drinks also available on Emerson Ecologics. Any caffeine at all makes sleep harder, even for those who don’t think it effects them. A brain hack to help someone get out of “fight or flight” and into “rest and digest” mode is to put firm pressure on both closed eyelids until you see lights. And then hold for 30 seconds.

Thank you so much mathmarm for your detailed explanation and including ISBN numbers.

Meet the phonics letter sounds by preschool prep is free on YouTube too.

There’s a good 1:38 minute snippet of letter sounds on YouTube too.

A small 6 minute snippet of the leapfrog letter factory show to learn letter sounds on YouTube. I can’t seem to link it for some reason. Then readingbear.org to learn to blend. Prodigy game, squiggle park/dreamscape (like Prodigy for language arts).

Yay. Anyone who sits by their child for three hours a day for 5 years on one subject requires a medal too!

Very funny and well thought out, ironically funny, just like Jane’s writing. I enjoyed the insightful romp back through my favorite book. I was slightly dismayed at the dark view, but she called a spade a spade.

If he came up with his “minute” comment, you are probably already doing a good job nurturing his intelligence through the way you are always having conversations with him about things. You are doing a good job mama. I suspected the authority thing. I am very old to have such young children, so my authority comes from experience in all the things. I also take credit for some of my kid’s intelligence and tell them that. I would remind him that it doesn’t take a PhD to teach someone 5th grade elementary topics. That could backfire later if you continue to homeschool, but by then you would have experience. haha. Btw, I don’t even homeschool, so I know I couldn’t do it. Mostly I would just rather someone else did it. Almost anyone who wants to do a thing would do better than someone who doesn’t. I do teach them though, mainly because I just can’t leave something so important to someone else. I especially wasn’t comfortable with leaving teaching reading to public school. When my kids got to the part where PS taught reading, I was really glad I had already taught them. I didn’t like how they did it at all. My oldest would come home and say, “Can you believe the other kids can’t even read?” I was like, “Well, that isn’t because you are so smart, it is because I am.”

Hershey's makes sugar free chocolate chips that don't have chemicals in them. No Splenda or Aspartame. We use those for bribes, I mean, incentives.

My first thought is that he heard this from someone else. I was surprised that only one other person suggested this as well. Either way, if he thought of it himself (good on him, sounds like something an adult would say) or got the idea elsewhere, it should probably be addressed the same way. People here did give you good ideas to address it. If you doubt yourself a little or a lot, I would definitely tell you to, "fake it till you make it." Don't let him sense that. People look to leaders, parents, teachers, doctors to display a sense of confidence, whether they feel it or not. Even great teachers have had trouble navigating the present situation effectively. Being out of public school has unique benefits now that don't usually exist. To be fair, I am hearing from public school teachers that there are some benefits to the present situation too, less distraction with half the class virtual and half in school, in our area. That surprised me, but it makes sense.

Things we did with my father, have notes with written things like "You get a shower on Monday, Wednesday and Friday." Poster up with everyone's picture and large print name. Daily verbal reminders over and over again, note on his walker to remind him to use it a certain way. He always did something wrong with his walker, but I can't remember what it was. Look into Dale Bredesen, MD info for ideas to reverse dementia. We used a lot of supplements that I think slowed his progression, made him more manageable and I think more comfortable and happy. Phosphatidyl choline or lecithin, Alcar, Phos serine, GPC (all together in something like Brain Vitale by DFH or Acetyl CH by Apex), high dose vitamin D. Avoid mercury: no high mercury fish, no flu shots from multi dose vials (*50,000ppb mercury in multi dose flu shots, 2000ppb mercury in "perservative free" or single dose flu shots), white fillings only, no amalgam. *The EPA defines 200ppb mercury in a liquid as a hazardous waste.

This is the wording I was thankful for. I thought I had it quoted correctly, but apparently I didn’t.

Thank you for this wording. I have to write a letter for an autistic patient who is losing their disability because they think he can work. After 6 jobs in two years lost for the above problems, it helps to have you write the concise reason those jobs didn’t work out for him. You saved me some time. BTW I am not usually in this position. This patient came in for a Shoulder problem, which is resolved, and not keeping him from working, but they requested records from me and I know his work history, so I am including my 2 cents on it.

I am super impressed with women who take parenting and educating their children seriously, like a lot of them who hang out on this board. Achieving a lot of anything before having kids only makes you a better parent or educator of your own children. Jackie O said something like, “What difference do your accomplishments in life make if you mess up raising your kids.” I wasn’t particularly impressed with her (that was my own ignorance) until I heard she said that. “Jobs that are traditionally done by women are universally underpaid and under appreciated.” That was a quote from my mother and one reason I chose a field dominated by men. I thought that was an extremely insightful and helpful observation my mother shared with me when I was young. I was surprised I never heard that before or since. Of course I still chose a profession that was under appreciated by the masses, especially 35 years ago, when I started on that career path. That never bothered me. I do enjoy being universally appreciated by my patients. I only worked 1/2 a day per week once I started having kids and now only work away from home 1 1/2 days per week. I like 1/2 a day per week better. It was my Jewish college roommate (2nd Jewish person I had ever met in my life) who shared with me how women in her culture almost always stayed home with their kids. It made me stop and think of the wisdom in that.

Oh yes. I’m sure. I am not going to attempt to slow him down since his comprehension was ahead of grade level, just lagging decoding. I got these vocabulary books and the kids really like them. They are fun and colorful. https://smile.amazon.com/Storytellers-Illustrated-Dictionary-Definitions-Students/dp/1999610784/ref=mp_s_a_1_5?dchild=1&keywords=mrs+wordsmith&qid=1617444923&sprefix=mrs+word&sr=8-5 https://smile.amazon.com/Storytellers-Illustrated-Dictionary-Definitions-Students/dp/1999610784/ref=mp_s_a_1_5?dchild=1&keywords=mrs+wordsmith&qid=1617444923&sprefix=mrs+word&sr=8-5 Oldest brother, dd9 at the time, said he knew every word in them too. There is a fun/colorful vocabulary curriculum for 5-10th grade that I bought from them (Mrs. Wordsmith) for him that I just printed 1/5 of last night. I don’t like it as well as the books. It has a lot of workbook pages/exercises that might be overkill for the oldest. 1:5 of it was as large as one of the hardcover books I posted. One thing about having 4 kids is that when I buy something that one doesn’t need/like there’s almost always another kid who will.

I really appreciate everyone’s thoughtful comments.

Dp

Thats a good idea to explicitly teach someone to infer from context. I don’t think I would have thought of that if someone hadn’t explicitly told me to. Haha. By the way, his teacher told me it was his age that accounted for the spread between comprehension and decoding, which is basically saying it is his age/content knowledge. I just think hearing it is vocabulary seemed more actionable. I can’t change his age/experience, but I can explicitly teach vocabulary. Also he is only 19 months younger than his older brother who knew 100% of the words he knew none of. They have had a similar life and experiences. This is really my skills kid and older brother is my content kid.

I have put some effort into the audio book/or me reading to them thing. I ran out of effort for it. I know why they don’t like it. The same reason I don’t like it. I/we read very fast and it’s is painfully slow to listen to someone read. My fastest reader, the child this post is about, is my most vocal protestor. I think he influences the others in joining him in protest. They all overhear me reading to my daughter, who does like me to read to her and gets it daily. For now, I am just going with that. The youngest two, twin 5 year olds, do like dramatized audio. They have a Leapstory they like. It has many dramatized audiobooks on it. Yesterday. Dd5 grabbed her beauty and the beast picture book to follow along to the Leapstory audio version. We haven’t been driving much, but I am going to push audiobooks when we do again. Re: hearing, auditory processing. This kid has near perfect pitch, so I think that is probably not an issue. It would have been if I kept letting him have dairy. He says, “What, what, what,” for a week after eating a speck of dairy. Could a kid with way superior decoding skills still have auditory processing problems? We explicitly worked on auditory processing with him by trying to teach him perfect pitch. Life altering dyslexia runs in the family and I was trying to intercept this as early as possible.

I don't think I see the distinction between background knowledge and vocabulary. You either know the word's meaning or you don't. Why you don't know it seems to not matter to me. It is probably one of those between the lines things I don't get. Haha. Why Knowledge Matters is on my list to read. I really think I need to. I totally agree with the premise. Thank you for the reminder. I love the What Your X Grader Needs to Know books and I go through them with my kids. I really like them and I have all the applicable grades. I think Hunter said the older ones were better, so I got those. I actually want to try the newer ones too after we are through with the older series. If there is different content, I would like them to be exposed to that too. Does anyone know the difference between the older and newer, What Your X Grader Needs to Know books?

The first point is interesting to me because this child is quiet. He doesn't say a lot. His older brother, with the mad comprehension skills, talks a lot. Oder brother's ability to narrate is awesome too. I never would have thought about the relationship if you hadn't brought it up. None of the words he didn't know were something I thought a first grader would know. Is it just me, or are British resources just better? Maybe I just love Usborne. I don't hear anyone here go on and on about them the way I would like to. I guess it is just Usborne and alphablocks and numberblocks that I love. I might be biased because my grandmother was British and my mother was an anglophile. I also find British entertainment and humor to seem more intelligent. The humor seems more ironic, which I think takes someone of higher intelligence to come up with and understand. It occurred to me that it might be coming from and be delivered to a better educated populace.

It is funny you were the first one who responded because I was thinking about you when I wrote it, mainly because I figured this out through discussing books we read together. I DID know that people who struggle to decode could have comprehension issues, but I am glad you brought that up again because I needed to be reminded of it. Not because of this kid. He has been fluent and reads with inflection since he first could read. All my kids read with proper inflection and pause at the right places and emphasize the right things very early. This astonished me with all of them too. Especially since not one of my three boys likes me to read to them and they HATE audiobooks. He wasn't behind in reading comprehension. He was between 1st and second grade reading comprehension at the beginning of first grade. He topped out their decoding testing at 8th grade, but it only went up that far. He could decode like that from when he first started to read. I actually don't think his decoding has improved one bit since he was 2, because it was perfect then. His stamina has improved. I was just surprised that there was such a difference between decoding and reading comprehension. Once he was home with me at the beginning of the pandemic, I had him read every day from several Usborne book series I got with color pictures on every page. I like the series because they are enough at his level that he enjoys them, but there are quite a lot of difficult words in them. I would go through the book after the boys (1st and 3rd at the time) read them and ask them what each difficult word meant. My 1st grader knew NONE of them. The 3rd grader, my oldest, knew ALL of them. My now 4th grader is just a boss at gleaning meaning from context. He even told me he didn't know one of the words, but he figured it out by what was around it. Once I knew this, it made sense. I have to be explicitly taught things. I don't read between the lines. I needed to be reminded of the fatigue with decoding causing comprehension problems because it really is an important addendum to that quote. The quote that is the title of this thread. I am a fixer too Peter Pan. I have learned a lot from you. He isn't at the level of needing help, other than me going over vocabulary with him, but I always appreciate your input. He is neurotypical, but I like to fix little things too, even if they aren't at the level of needing another professional.

Montessori schools often start with cursive first. Our children’s school did. I really like that idea.