We just finished day 72 of 180. We will stop for Christmas break when they are 1/2 through their school work. We work half their work in each subject and stop. In January we start everything back up. There is not much left that they need to do. I suspect that it will take the rest of this week... posibly a little into next week for my 10yo. So DS 11 has 12 spelling lists in SS3, 3 math lessons MUSZet, 6 Ch in Apologia Zoo, 4 SOTW 2 books to read, and 3 AO7 books to read (ds will likely spread the reading out through December. DS 10 has 10 pages in Italics C, 6 spelling lists in SS1&2, 6 1/2 lessons in MUSEps., 6 Ch in Apologia Zoo, 2 books on WTM list, 4 books in AO2 history list and 2 on year AO4 literature list. DS 7 has 10 pages in PP, 6 pages in RP, 2 pages in Italics B, 3 lessons in MUSBet., 10 Ch. in SOTW2, 6 Ch in Apologia, 1 WTM book, 1 AO2 histroy book and 2 AO2 literature list books. DD 4 16 pages in PP, 5 pages in RP

Stain Removal Best of Luck!

If none of the previous ideas work here Sensory Smart is a website that caters to kids with sensory issues... the clothing is 2/3 ways down the pager.

My dd 4 and my ds 7's have had constipation issues since they were 2 or so. We tried everything we could think of over the counter and even got perceptions several times for stronger stuff. We suggested a milk allergy and was tisked by our Dr. and lectured on how important milk is for a growing child. Ds had an impacted colon several months ago. We were given a prescription Miralax type med. which just made things even worse. I asked the Dr. if it could be food related again. She insisted that it was because ds was just being lazy. Which I knew was not true... the accidents were very embarrassing for him. He was having daily bowel and urine accidents. The prunes and prune juice did nothing. Then we tried the Aloe Vera Juice... just gross results it did remove the constipation but boy was it a mess in the other direction. Ds has gone to the Chiropractor since he was 3 so that was not helpful with his bowel problems. DD never had any accidents but still had constipation issues. We removed dairy (against medical advice) from our family diet and it has helped so much. The first week we removed just the obvious dairy, milk, cheese, yogurt. We saw some improvement. However, after a couple weeks of no obvious dairy he was still having some bouts of constipation as was his sister. Dairy is in a lot of foods including foods labled as "non-dairy" foods. Dairy is not in Kosher foods except when specified. Kosher foods are easy to spot because they have a K, a Circled U , or Circled K close to the product name. If there is a D or DE next to a K or U then it is not dairy free. Be sure to eliminate all dairy including hidden before deciding that dairy is not the problem. I think milk is at least a month, but most people see results within days. By the way Soy is a very similar protein chain to Milk. My dd is sensitive to both... It's best to use almond or rice milk when doing a milk elimination trial. Then add soy later to see if they are also sensitive to it. Here are a few other names for dairy: Curds, Whey, Casein, Rennet, Lactose, Lactulose, hydrolysates, Lacalbumin, Lactoglobulin, Lactate starter, Ammonium caseinate, Artificial butter flavour, Butter solids/fat, Calcium caseinate, Caramel colour (not always), Caramel flavouring (not always), High protine flour (not always), Lactabum, Lactabum phosphate, Lactate, Lactroferrin, Lactogloblin, Magnesium caseinate, milkderivative, Milk fat, Potassium caseinate, Sour cream solids, Whey protine concentrate, Galactose, Lactic Acid Starter Culture, Lactobacillus, Margarine, Prebiotics, Artificial or Natural Flavors/Flavoring. Some things that are not labeled as having any dairy fats at all but sometimes do are Formage frais, Sodium Steatoyal(not aways), Sherbert(not always), Nougot, hydrolized vegtable protein, tagatose / Naturose, Recaldent, PROSPEC MI (At dentist), Nisin, opta (fat replacer), Other odd things with milk in them: Drugs (not always) ask your pharmacist it it has dairy or dairy derivatives your Dr. will not know. Grout for your tub ect. (not always) House hold paint (not always) Children's Shampoos and conditioners (not always) School or craft glue (not always) Cosmetics(not always) Pet food (not always) cat, dog even bird food can contain milk protein. DS has only had one bowel accident and 2 daytime accidents since removing milk from his diet... I did not do "retraining" I just removed the problem food. It has been 2 months since we removed milk from his diet. Anyway, best of luck. :001_smile:

I would take it back and explain what happened. I bet they will take it back.

My 10yo would not understand why the cat disappeared and even after explaining it he would not cry about it... well maybe he would six months from now. The other three would have tears in there eye but I doubt they would cry. If they had more background there might be more of a reaction.

Santa was used in a bad way in my father's house. You'd get coal if you were bad kind of thing. I suspected at age 3 that there was a flaw in the Santa logic. My father or Santa actually only gave me coal for my 11th Christmas and not as a gag, I got nothing else, not from anyone that year. I never spent another Christmas with my father after that. But at my mother's house Santa was real and good and nice. My brothers told me to play along as mom would be very sad to know I didn't believe. Mom was emotionally unstable. So I never was told by my parents and I never asked. With my mom I got gifts from Santa our last Christmas together at 19. I never felt betrayed by their fib.

We have had many such disappointments around here too. Having the child say something hasn't helped around here either. My children are not the favored grandchildren and even among them one is favored least. They (the grandparents) have made it clear to our children that their only love language (to them) is gifts and not to expect more. After several years of my oldest asking to stay the night with Nana and Papa he finally gave up about a year ago. Their excuses were that he might wet the bed. Then it was that he might get afraid of the dark and then it was that they had appointments the next day... like having to take the great-grandmother out to dinner the next night. My oldest begged his Nana to go on a date once... just to spend time with her... he saved up for three months to take her out. He bought tickets to a play and she backed out at the last minute... because she just didn't feel like going out. He has never asked her for any quality time since. Ds did the same with his grandfather and a demolition derby. His grandfather changed his mind two days before the event. My ds doesn't like demolition derby he just thought it would be something his grandfather would like (it is). He didn't have other plans he just decided not to go. My 10yo has asked to spend time with his grand parents. But when he was 7 or so his grandmother was mean to him when she was alone with him and he has not since wanted to be with her alone. Mostly ds says initial hello's and good byes and spends the rest of the time playing with 3 legos and a screw when with his grandparents. My 7yo does not ask to spend time with his grandparents because he has no desire to spend time with his words "people who don't like me anyway." I think that is so sad. I have never told the children this, nor has my husband... they are just smart enough to figure out when someone would rather they sit quietly and not be seen or heard. My dd 4 is not oblivious to the lack of interest but she has been the longest on trying to develop some kind of bond with the in-laws. Still she hasn't asked to have a tea party with Nana in about 5 months... though she has asked a couple ladies in the church we attend... who btw were happy to oblige. It is so sad that their grandparents have missed so many cute happy memories because they choose not to take the time. DD is their only granddaughter. You'd think they would want to at least spoil her. But they don't.

We noticed symptoms with all four of our children. Our second son is the one with the dx. His first dx was at 6 with ADHD combined, then we got a dx of SPD, and at 9 he was dxed PDD-NOS (not negating any of the other dxes). But looking at our children's developmental history our oldest actually has more early signs of autism then our second. With stemming- spinned constantly and constantly rocking back and forth, lined toys up and had to have them in an exact pattern or would have a fit. He was also willful but not defiant. He was given some testing for a suspected learning delay in math at age 7 and was dxed as Highly Gifted. We have had more emotional issues with him then with our spectrum boy, seriously. So I guess he's not exactly neurotypical. Our 3rd son has a stutter. Tested but not bad enough to warrant a dx according to the speech pathologist. He's on the brightish side but is considered neurotypical. Our daughter has quite a few sensory issues. She was tested at 2 but it was not "bad enough" to receive even OT. So we did it at home, her sensitivities have diminished quite a bit. They told us that she was neurotypical too. Even though all of them have some odd little quarks Id say that ds2 is the only one that has significant impairment. I don't think that it has a lot to do with having an ASD child so much has having non-neurotypical parents. Dh and I are both weird, with dxes of LD's, Dyslexia, HG, MG and underachievers in our background. Not that you asked but I have seen some positives with having my ASD son in the home. The other children seem to be more compassionate and patient with others because they see how hard their brother has to struggle just to keep up with them.

This site may be helpful. We use the wii for my ds's PT. He uses wii Resort but his physical problems are likely different then your dh.

I would say this is the case with me too.

Well, we don't have holidays in our home. We always go to the in-laws. So we don't get to display their work. It wouldn't matter anyway as they are not in the least interested in our children's lives weather it is school or extra-curricular. My older two used to bring schoolwork to them to show off their work but a child can be pushed away just so many times before they no longer try. My dd will occasionally bring over her penmanship book (her prize possession), but I don't think she will do it much longer as she doesn't get the oohh aww response she craves. The children have notices the attention payed to the other grand kids and have resigned to it I think. The in-laws have said (in front of the children) that they are "weird" because we hs them and "we will see if they turn out normal". This isn't true... they are weird because they are our children, not because we hs them... one of the many reasons we hs them is because they are so different then their age-mates. My family lives farther away so there isn't any real connection to them. My parents are more to ask questions of their schooling and extra-curricular activities but the opportunity isn't there as often (maybe two or three times a year).

Sometimes the common sense issues with the very bright is not so funny. Like last week when my 10yo decided it would be interesting to pour a cup of water into the light fixture on the ceiling. Or when my GT 11yo decided that he would grab two exposed wires in the dishwasher. Fortunately I had turned off the power before he did it. My MIL often says dh has no common sense. But I often wonder what she means by it. He has a lot more "street smarts" then she does. Her brand of common sense is stuff like, "Being a democrat is common sense", or "Calling home to tell her husband to start dinner while driving is common sense" (while I'm thinking not driving and phoning is better common sense"). My dh does have trouble putting on diapers though... after 4 children in diapers he still occasionally put them on backward and can't figure out what he's done wrong.

My ds 10 had a very similar problem with narrations and summaries as you have described here. He has PDD-NOS, SPD and ADHD-combined. Charlotte Mason style doesn't work to well for him. I try to incorporate materials used in CM, book lists, nature studies, etc. But we have to do them in a much more structured way then what she suggested. Structure is key for him. Here is how we have helped our son retell stories. First we focused on details of the story. At age six we knew it was an issue so we started sequencing half hour shows. We used stuff like Dora the Explorer which has three steps repeated often throughout the show to give him the idea of sequencing... plus we used sequencing workbooks. He needed each step broken down. During school for History I did the narrations with him. He needed daily examples to finally catch what I was asking him to do. Once he learned sequences about mid-1st grade we began to analyze characters. I asked who are the characters and what are they doing. He was able to do this by end of second grade without prompts anymore. Finally we did motives, things like, "Why did Billy get mad at his sister in the story?" We spent several years discussing why people did what they did. I told ds why his brother would get annoyed at him when he got to close, why the other kids teased him when he spouts out facts like a machine gun etc. We used movies and cartoons a lot to explain why characters behave the way they do. Now at 10 he can tell me most of the time why a character is doing x,y or z. But even still he has to be made aware of the behavior... he doesn't automatically see it. With the freezing up I think you might do best narrating for him. Read a story then retell it in your own words... I'd do this not just a few times, but 30 or 40 times or until he indicates to you that he understands. Then ask him to retell a story after he has seen/heard it mimicked many times. I would not even attempt motivational questions until he is older. So teach each step separately: Sequence, characters (names of), details, and then motives. Motives are abstract and need a lot of contextual information most Autistic 6 year olds have not yet notices. Hope this helps.:001_smile:

I would think that places like this sub-forum would be free from the assumption of the braggart or pushy parent comments but I have noticed over the years that it is not. Which is such a shame. It is really the only place I can go and not get such ignorant comments from people who just don't get me or my children. We all (every parent) needs a place they can go to "brag" about the hard work of their children weather they are 3 or 13 and have just learned to read, ride a bike, finally found a friend, etc. I find it difficult to understand why being proud of my children's accomplishments is bragging. We have dealt with this mentality for many years now. My oldest two are the most obviously advanced being verbally precocious. The other two are more shy in front of people they don't know well and speak much more softly so stranger overhear their vocabulary oddities a little less often. When my son was a year people actually told me that he was being boastful and arrogant because he used big words that they as adults didn't use (more likely didn't know). One year olds aren't arrogant, they are one! One older lady told me that I should not have taught my 2nd ds to talk like "a little genius" because it showed my insecurity. Funny thing is I don't ever remember "teaching" my son to talk... I did teach him baby sign, but don't remember consciously teaching him any "big words". The boy is autistic and I still get told that I'm making him spew out all that info. that he has. In our area I often here parents asking their children to share what they have learned in school "this week" with other family members or even strangers. It is a regular topic at my Chiropractors office and at the Doctors offices in our area. My children have noticed that we don't do that and have mentioned this to me asking "Why can't we talk about what we learn during school?" My oldest is the only one who realizes that he is advanced for his age. I tried to limit it with him. I guess I've said enough. It is a bit of a soap box for me... so I'll try and get off for now.:lol:

We didn't start the WTM rotation with history and science until 6yo. I just wanted to expose him to everything before age six. In retrospect I would have done even more writing (penmanship) skills work to prepare him for the upper level work. Ds is not gifted in math so we just began at K level with him when he was 4 and slowly moved on from there. It took a while to find a program that worked for him. When he went through year 1 of the rotation (at 6) I got books out from the 1st and 2nd rotation list. So ds did SOTW 1, all the books suggested in the Activity Guide, the 1st grade and the 5th grade book list in WTM. We did this through the entire 1st rotation. Now that he is in the 6th grade he is rereading some (not all) of the better set of materials about 1/3 of the list (to his 1st grade brother) and about 2/3rds of the 3rd rotation books (10th grade list). We also expanded the list using Ambleside Online and skipped a few we couldn't find. This worked mostly for us except for some asynchronous development that gave us some trouble here and there. I think the best thing is to keep your plan flexible and be sure to move at their pace. Oh and remember that some days your 4yo will be able to do x,y,z grade work and other times she wont and that that is normal.

I don't know if it will help but my 10yo uses a weighted pencil and he is doing much better with it. He has a slightly different problem, in that he presses too hard with his lead, but has the wiggly sloppy mess too. The weighted pencils that you buy in the sensory catalogs are expensive upwards of $20 dollars per weight. So our Occupational Therapist made him a pencil using bolts from the hardware store. Just take a number 2 pencil with you and see which ones fit best. She used rubber bands instead of tape as this photo shows. She also used 4 bolts. His writing has improved with it. http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lT7ukgQg5zA/TmLjXV437ZI/AAAAAAAAGZo/j_I_s7MhD4U/s320/0903111917-780350.jpg

This is a concept that comes up often in our home, in math, in life. I have two very inflexible older boys (and a mostly inflexible husband) who think that their way of doing something is always the "right" way, and any other way is the "wrong" way. We have actually had to practice doing things "wrong" ways so that they can see that their way is not the only way. Even dh is learning to do math the "wrong" way with MUS. And so many times I've hear... oh, that is so much easier then my way.

We use MUS here. I have a GT child using it, a ASD child using it and two brightish children using it. They all love it. My ASD ds10 loves everything but the writing. The others like that once they prove they have grasped the concept they can move on. We require 96% accuracy.

I'm planning for 7th grade for ds and someone suggested using History of US. Our library had it and it seems like a decent set of books. But if we use this we'll be buying them. So how do you use these books? Do you use them in conjunction with other books on the WTM history rotation or stand alone? They seem to line up with SOTW 3 and 4 but ds has already read them both twice. So do you use any "World History" books in conjunction besides SOTW? Thanks.

Thank you Elizabeth. I was wondering is an Autism Neurologist the same as a neuropsyc. or are they different? Ds is going to a Neurologist on the 9th. Is this something we should discuss with him along with the long list of developmental delays and non-typical behaviors? Ds had an eye evaluation last week. She said that he doesn't seem to be in need of VT but when she was trying to look into his eyes he had great difficulty following her directions. ex. Look up and to the left, right and down. (it was not a directional problem as he knows left from right well). She said it took him three times as long with him then with the average 4yo, and he's almost 10. I could see a significant difference between his ability to do as she asked and my 4yo dd who also had an evaluation that day. He reads very well, high-school/college level non-fiction and Jr. high level fiction and retains the information well and long term. But he struggles with picture studies. We've done picture study since he was 4 and he still struggles to recall masterpieces that the others have long known.

This week at my ds's OT she gave ds 9 a picture of a group of children doing various things at the beach. She had ds look at the picture for one minute. Then she took the picture away and asked several questions (ten I think). Ex. What were the boys doing in the sand? How many boys were there? What color was the inter-tube? How many dolphins were in the picture? He could only answer one question correctly. He just couldn't remember, even though he had focused and looked carefully. So I was just wondering what is breaking down in his little mind that he's not recalling these things? And what can I do to help him in this area?

We have used books SS 1-3. Book 1 is for students on a 3rd grade spelling level. I do not suggest using this program with a second grader who has not completed a phonics program already. The spelling lists are not phonics instruction, though they are somewhat phonetic in nature. I am a horrible speller, but this program has helped me tremendously. My oldest began spelling with another program and hated it. With SS he just zooms through the list each day and doesn't have to do all the busy work he hated. He rarely misses a word. It takes 5 min. to do a list with him... 10-15 with my second son who has writing issues. He will miss one or two words a week.

We are starting this diet in a few weeks. We're preparing now, dropping all the obvious wheat and dairy. A friend told me that when she began the diet she was sleepy and grumpy. She said it takes about two months to get gluten and dairy out of your system. I've read that you should add more calories then age recommendations for the first few weeks of the diet.