Thank goodness!! That is a scary situation. We had something similar to that happen at my son's elementary school. They were on lockdown for 4 hours while the police searched for a killer. :eek: :svengo: I'm so glad your dh is home safe and sound.

Awesome! Thank you so much. :)

from Common Sense Press?? How did you like it?? I'm curious about this program. Thanks to all who reply. :)

Thank you so much. :) Thank you Lori. I will take you up on that. :) Thank you. I'll hold onto the papers.:) Yes, her interests very well may still change. Thank you for pointing that out. It's good to keep in mind. I'll look for sample transcripts. :) Thank you so much. I know that scholarships will definitely be needed in our case so I really have to investigate further. This is a horrible question because it is so subjective, but how do you decide what school is "good"?? I mean obviously the Ivy Leagues, but other than those how do you know how they rank and what their strong programs are?? Is there some kind of list or breakdown of the universities and what their strong suits are?? Thank you all so much for helping me and being so gracious with all of my questions. My highschool did not equip me for college and my experiences when I got there really impacted the whole rest of my life so I want to make sure that I get this one right for my dd's sake. I want to have all my ducks in a row for highschool so that she can glide into college as best as possible. Thank you again ladies for your help and wisdom. :)

LOL I saw this years ago and I never get tired of it. :lol::lol::lol: I play cello so I can totally relate! It's such a beautiful instrument but yet most of the parts played with the orchestra are so boring. Thank God for Bach's Cello Suites! :) :lol:

You ladies are AWESOME!!! Thank you so much for all of the wonderful info. I was thinking about doing the dual enrollment at the local CC for 11th and 12th as a way of killing two birds with one stone. Is there any reason that I shouldn't go that route?? Any pitfalls/dangers I may not be aware of?? Just a bit more info on my dd, we're almost 100% certain that she will be a writer. It seems to be her natural "bent" and she's always writing books, short stories, blogs etc in her free time. She is a good writer and has already written 2 books and is working on a 3rd and 4th simultaneously. I will be adding more work this upcoming year on creative writing and sentence structure things like that. Would a standard college be her best route to develop her as a writer?? Does she even need to go to college?? I didn't finish college. I had to work full-time (50-60 hrs. per week) to pay for my college so I only went part-time before marriage, life happened. I only have my A.A. degree (which took me 4 years to get) so I'm not experienced with a typical 4 year university. I want her to go to college personally because I think that it is important, but I really want whatever she does to have the focus of developing her as a writer. Hope that makes sense. Also, how do you do/get the transcripts?? Do you write them yourselves?? Thank you so much ladies for posting your transcript information. That really helps me think and plan for the future. Right now I'm planning to start my dd on Algebra I for 8th and Geometry for 9th. We're doing Earth Science and Astronomy for 8th and Biology for 9th, but that's as far as I got so far. hehe Thanks for all of your help. I really want my dd to be prepared for whatever may lie ahead. :)

My dd is a high functioning Aspie with OCD and ADHD. Homeschool has been THE ONLY thing that works for her. I homeschooled her right from the start but when her behaviors started manifesting (before we had her evaluated and diagnosed) dh thought that she had to go to school for "socialization". She went for 3rd grade and it was A NIGHTMARE! She was spacing out all the time in class. She would come home with tons of homework and she didn't know what she was supposed to do and I had to basically homeschool her when she got home without the benefit of having taught the lesson and knowing what was expected. She was bullied mercilessly and I was constantly in the office with the principal, vice principal and ESE specialist. I realize that every child is different and every family situation is different, but with a child like mine, one on one schooling is the absolute best situation for her. It allows me to give her breaks when she needs them, to tailor the curriculum to her (and her attention span), to work on her socialization skills one on one etc. I would never send her back to school again. I think your son's therapist probably has some definite opinions about what *she thinks* is right or wrong when it comes to schooling. I've noticed a lot of that myself when dealing with my dc's therapists, but the interesting thing to me, is that when they listen to me telling them what it is I do with my dc and they see the results in them, I've managed to get them to open their eyes and change their thinking about homeschooling. My dc's behavior therapist that we have now told me that my dd had to be in school for socialization reasons. I told him about all of the socialization that she has going on with other kids in our homeschool group, church, etc. I told him what we do in a day and when he looked at it all objectively he actually agreed with me that it was the better thing for her. My best advice is to go with your gut. If you know that homeschooling is helping your son and it works for you guys, then IMO that is validation enough of the rightness of your choices. The fact that your son is "doing excellent working with the therapist one on one" should tell you something right there. Maybe you could even broach the subject with her on that tack? Ask her if she could have the same success with 20 kids doing group therapy as she could with a one on one session and then explain to her that is what you want to do with him with his schooling. Maybe she just needs to look at it in another way? JMHO.

:) I'm glad I'm not the only one. :) Here's some popcorn :lurk5: while we wait for the replies. :) :tongue_smilie:

for 9-12th math and science? What do I need to worry about for college?? My dd is going into 8th next year and I just want to make sure I have everything taken care for a smooth transition to 9th. Thank you to all who reply. :)

Oh my goodness what a gorgeous baby!! And your photos are amazing too! So many talented women on these boards! :) Thank you so much for sharing. :)

I hope it all goes well and that you can enjoy your vacation. :grouphug:

I've got one. Maybe not SO amazing since I do live in South Florida afterall, but here goes... ;) When I was working my way through college I had a job at the mall in a woman's clothing store. I live in the county that is just above Miami and the mall I worked in was kind of touristy so a lot of Spanish speakers would come up to shop there. My managers would always call me to come help the Spanish speaking customers since many of them didn't speak English at all or only very little. One day a husband and wife came in to the store and they called me from the back to help them. The wife told me what she was looking for and I picked out some outfits for her and while she was in the fitting room her husband asked me where I was from. I told him that I was American but that my family were Spanish and Cuban. He said, "I'm from Cuba. Where in Cuba are your family from?" I said Havana. He said, "I'm from Havana too. Where in Habana are they from?" I said, "Jesus del monte." He said, "I'm from there too! What is your family name?" I said Pelaez and his jaw dropped and he said, "my family name is Pelaez too!" So we started naming off our relatives and eventually discovered that he was a second cousin of mine! The amazing thing though is that only half of my family (my grandparents etc) came to Florida from Cuba with the cigar industry before Castro came to power and settled in Tampa on the other side of the state. This man was an exile who came to Miami after Castro's regime was in power and he just happened to come into my store. I had no contact growing up with the other half of my family who were left behind in Cuba with the exception of meeting two of my great grandfather's siblings who got permission to come to Tampa for his funeral when he passed in 1990. Other than them I had never met any of my family on the island or had contact with them before meeting this guy randomly in the mall. But the kind of funny thing was, all this time we were chatting, the wife was in the fitting room. She couldn't hear our conversation clearly but she could just hear that her husband was chatting up this young college girl. She came out of the dressing room all angry and glared at me like I was trying to steal her husband. He told her, "my love, it's okay. She's my cousin." The wife answered, "sure she is!" and grabbed him by the hand and left the store. It's a pity too because I never saw him again after that.

That's what I was wondering too. Sugar cane is natural as well and the turbinado is just the crystals from the cane juice, no?? That seems very minimally processed to me. :confused:

I'm sorry you're struggling with your son. For what it's worth, it seems to me from what you wrote that your ds might have some sensory issues with his hands. You said that he likes to touch everything. Maybe you can sent up a sensory center for him to play at where he can do play dough, or make macaroni pictures or finger paint or something?? What about pudding paintings where he can eat the pudding while he paints?? My son is severly Autistic and he has tons of sensory issues too. For years he bit his right index finger to the point that it was 3 times the size of his middle finger next to it. All the OT's kept telling me to give him a steady sensory diet so I was continually, brushing him, giving him massages, letting him play with beans and macaroni, taking him for walks, got him a trampoline and a swing and he still kept biting his finger. It took a behavioral therapist to point out to me that his sensory issues seemed to be focused on his hands and that I should try a sensory diet just for the hands and it worked! It got him to stop biting his finger. It is almost back to normal now! :) My dd is also an Aspie and has ticks and sensory issues as well and keeping her busy with artsy craftsy, cooking hands on type stuff helps her as well. Just a thought. My ds has the extended school schedule in PS as well and I do homeschool my dd through the summer too. We usually just do a light schedule and do lots of outdoor exercise for the other part of the day. We go swimming, walk to the park, go on outings etc. Lots of physical activity seems to be the key for us. They get tuckered out playing and swimming and then they are calmer in the afternoons. hehe Best of luck to you with your dc. :grouphug: Blessings, Jennifer

My favorite fiction novel is Bram Stoker's Dracula. It's the one book that I love to read over and over.

Wow!! It is amazing that the baby wasn't hurt! Unreal! Your kids are beautiful btw. :)

:lol::lol::lol::iagree::iagree: Yes I have experience to back this claim as well. The only time my dd isn't talking is when she's sleeping and even then she talks sometimes. :lol::lol::lol: God bless her!! I love that kid to death.

Thank you Chris. I'll check google. :)

LOL I could have written this. My dd is obsessed with these obscure anime action figure dolls from Japan that are based on a tv show/books. She saves up her money and buys them from a website in Japan and has them shipped here. She has 2 blogs where she writes about these dolls and discusses every facet about them. She'll sit there and watch other people's reviews on youtube of these dolls and she poses them and takes photographs of them and then puts them up on her blog like a story. It's actually quite creative but it just gets overwhelming. The first thing she asked me when I woke up this morning was if I read the book (about these dolls) that she asked me to read last night. I told her that I only read 3 chapters of it (each chapter was around 50 pages) and that was enough. Then she proceeded to talk about the dolls and the characters for an hour and 45 minutes (I actually did time her) and I told her enough that I couldn't take hearing about them anymore and let's talk about something else. Her reply, "okay. I guess I can take a break from talking about them for a couple of hours." Say what??!! lol I told her, "um honey, actually I meant that that was enough talking about them for me for the rest of the day. I don't want to come back to them again in a couple of hours." She was like, "oh, okay. I'll just talk to my friends online about it until you and I can talk about it tomorrow. Don't forget to read the rest of the book later on so we can discuss it tomorrow okay??" :001_huh::001_huh:

:grouphug::grouphug::grouphug: I'm so sorry Bethany. Lots of prayer for peace and comfort and lots of hugs for you and your family. :( :grouphug::grouphug::grouphug:

Threads get buried so quickly here. I hope it's okay to give this a bump. Thanks. :)

Gosh! I'm so envious of you ladies. I love to sing but ummm don't have the best voice. When I was preggers with my first (dd) I envisioned what it would be like when my baby was born. How I would hold her swaddled in my arms and rock her in the rocking chair singing softly to her and she would look up into my face smiling and cooing at the sound of my voice... (insert record scratching sound here) reality.... both of my kids hate my voice and cried when I would sing to them. lol So, no bedtime songs in my house unfortunately. :( sniff.

You're very welcome honey. I hope they help you. :)

Wow!! lol Sounds like it's providence then. :) Here is a link to the CDTC http://www.childrensdiagnostic.org/ I think they might have an age cut off if IIRC and then you had to go through Child Find http://www.childfindidea.org/. You might need a referral for them from the pediatrician or psychologist though.:) Good luck. :)

I had a complete battery of tests done through the Children's Diagnostic and Treatment Center here in Ft. Lauderdale. I don't know if they are in all of the states, but basically a pediatric psychologist, an occupational therapist, a physical therapist and a speech therapist all spent about an our each with my son and after all of that they came in and told us their findings and recommendations. They advised us to take him to a pediatric neurologist and it was the neurologist who gave him an official diagnosis. If anything I would talk to your dd's pediatrician or psychologist to see about how you can get your dd evaluated. I believe the school board also does testing but I don't know if your dd has to be enrolled or not to receive that. Sorry I'm not of more help. I wish you well. :)