but I so sorry you are having these problems. IMO, an 8 y.o. should be able to recognize letters. Does he read at all? If he does, does it seem like he has memorized whole words? Some kids do learn like this. If he has memorized whole words, I would have him read, read, read, while you are working on letter/sound recognition. He'll get some confidence and so will you. I am always beating the drum for visual-spatial learners so here is a link. Meanwhile, I'd turn to your mom. She sounds like she would be a wonderful resource and advocate for you, as well a comfort. best wishes, unsinkable http://www.visualspatial.org/Articles/articles.htm Look at the reading readiness articles

She remembers faces like a cop. Kills me. :D She can see someone for a split second and then rattle off all the movies that person has ever been in. It's a gift. unsinkable

House fires. Car fires. Being trapped in a house or car that is on fire. Big, tall statue type things. Seeing the Statue of Liberty made me nearly wet my pants. A Christmas tree lot near us has a gigantic statue of Paul Bunyon that makes me catch my breath. It's just wrong. Being pinned down for any reason. Being pinned down and tickled. Having to hold still while people hurt me (ie: dentist or ob/gyn) Yikes! What a list. unsinkable

Open a USED curriculum store for teachers and homeschoolers. Then you can look at everything that comes in! There is one in my town and it is so great to go there and just browse. If you think homeschoolers are curric junkies, you should see what teachers give up and sell for pennies on the dollar. The store here is a consignment store. Teachers price their own stuff. I think this would really kept the owner's costs down. HTH, unsinkable

I guess it was the quantity of hair (3 or 4 pieces every couple pages) and the type of hair -- it was dark and wavy and it coulda been that kind of hair. I read in bed every night and the thought of that hair in my bed....shudder. unsinkable

This is inspired by the "reading in the bathroom" debate. I get out hundreds of books a year from the library. The strangest things I ever found were hairs...dozens of hairs: dark, wavy hairs in between pages, throughout the entire book. :eek::eek::eek: Gag, gag, gag. My imagination got away from my after about 30 pages and I almost vomited. The book was The Winter King by Bernard Cornwell. I returned it to the library and told the librarian, showed the librarian and she discarded it. Blech! http://www.bernardcornwell.net/index2.cfm?page=1&seriesid=4 unsinkable

http://www.oklahomahomeschool.com/PresElec.html This one looks good for younger students. HTH unsinkable

10 points for Gladys Kravitz reference! :) unsinkable

but take the personal tour where you pay for the guide to come in your car. It is worth every dollar! unsinkable

and this is hypothetical...ha-ha! Maybe it is hard b/c a mom has many, many clothes piled on the end of the bed and her kids ask her tosleep/babysit their stuffed animals and dolls...many, many stuffies and dollies. Maybe it would take 20 minutes just to get to the sheets. Hypothetically. :) unsinkable

I might be way off base here...but I'll share anyway. My dd (almost 14) regularly does says things like that. She has medical issues (epilepsy) and is a strong visual-spatial learner. She has a hard time finding the correct words quickly enough. SHe often has an elaborate explanation of why she just asked what bird food is for but she just can't get the correct words out quickly. In her mind, she isn't even asking what I often think she is asking. In this case (and she has asked stuff like "what's the pencil sharpener for?") she might have noticed a difference in the bag and assumed it was a different kind of food or she might have known there was another bag of bird food in the house and was wondering why you just bought a new bag. She also substitutes incorrect words all the time and she doesn't make sense but she can't understand why I don't understand and I can't understand why she can't understand. Like today, she thought she was saying petition and she was saying pension. She had a magnifying glass and was looking at an illustration to read the names on the pension. I guess what I am saying is w/some kids their brain is thinking one thing and their mouth is saying another. HTH unsinkable

I've had dreams like this too, about my abusive dad. He and my mom are both long-dead. My strangest dreams are when I see them alive somewhere and I have to chase them and ask them where they have been all these years. They always have these vague non-answers. I'm really angry but I accept their lame answers any way! unsinkable

Can you restrict what rooms she and the kids can be in? Like only the kitchen, bath and LR? Good luck!