thanks guys! Can one of you post a website to Williamsburg so I can see when the homeschool days are? btw...dh really wants to see the Gettysburg and oldest ds wants to go to an amusement park. Hhmmm I think Williamsburg, Gettysburg and BG will fit into our plans. Now what about lodgings? Any must stay in ?? Anything with condos (full size kitchen)? thanks!! Holly

Hello! We may be going to Williamsburg this summer as our vacation. I need advice from those that went there. We have never been there so we need all the advice we can get. When is the best time to go? How long should the trip be (meaning how many days should we stay ?) Are there anything else to do besides Williamsburg Colonial? Where did you stay at (hotel and condos)? We would love to stay in a condo with a full kitchen if avail. Anything else we should know? We would love to hit some spots on the way so we will be traveling from Indiana by van. Thanks! Holly

What are the best Spanish programs out there for a newbie 7th grader? He is sort of a newbie. He did take Learnables Spanish in the elementary grades through a co-op. He hates that program. I am planning on buying him a new spanish program that he can use starting this summer to the next couple years. He is currently taking Latin here at home and plan on keeping up with it. Any favorites? Thanks so much! Holly

The pediatricians I had for the kids were not supportive at all even in non-mainstream practices. When I switched the kids over to our family dr things changed drastically for the better. Our dr is fine with homeschooling (both dr's in the practice... my dr's partner's wife was homeschooled) and both are very supportive of non-mainstream practices. In fact, my dr recommended our dd with autism to go to a DAN dr for possible eval for gluten free casin free stuff (at that point the DAN dr said no for her but possible yeast). Also when the neuro wanted our dd medicated for hyperactivity and seizers, my dr and I talked about this. He said let's not medicate. Let's wait and see how she does. He told me personally that if he was born today and in school today he would be medicated for hyperactivity. He said that his life would turn out so much differently in this time period than back then. We are the same age so medicating kids were unheard of back in my day. So he is very skeptical about medicating kids for hyperactivity. He is also ok with delayed vacinnations which he encouraged me to do so with our dd with autism. He was leary about vacinating her so young with her being autistic. He is a GEM!!!!! We go to the same church so he knows how we are and we are very open with each about our family's issues. I wouldn't pass this guy up. Maybe there is a pediatrician out there that is like my dr... If I had another child, this dr will be taking of him/her. I wouldn't switch at all. HTH- Holly

Our dd took it for a short while. She was 4 when she took Prozac for her severe anxiety. She also has autism. We took her off it after 2 weeks due to her crying all the time and being in fetal position all the time. We gave up on any meds for her and still do. I would keep a lookout for strange effects of them. I do not recommend prozac for anyone under the age of 16 from what I have read online during that time. This was 4 yrs ago. I am sure things have changed since then. A friend of mine's son is on strattera. She said that helped him alot. She said they had to pull him off of Prozac due to a side effect and put him on Zoloft I believe. I would start out with one med at a time if you are wanting to do med route. Holly

No social difficulties. He has so many friends in the homeschool group. He is one of the popular kids and everybody including adults love him. No problems with transitions or rigidity. He is a very loveable kid to everybody else. He exasperates me though. He is extremely mature for his age. Hope this helps a bit... About the auditory processing...No evals done or diagnoses made. We (his dad and I) suspect very strongly that he has APD. DS is requesting a hearing test. In this area I need to know if there is a specific audiologist I need to go to. I know of one that our insurnace will cover. I really like her alot but not sure if she is still at the hospital. She was the one who told me that my dd's hearing is fine even though she failed the hearing test. She said it is something else like APD or autism. This was before I told her about her possible autism diagnoses. I would feel comforatable for her to give my ds a hearing test. Thanks and I will look for your links below. Holly

Bonnie Terry's website is: http://www.bonnieterry.com He hasn't had an occupational therapy eval at all. This would be a possibility for us to do. Do you know what the normal charge for this is? Normally do insurance cover this? I know mine covers evals but not sure for what though. A good way to assess visual processing skills is to get a developmental vision evaluation. In short, before jumping on the visual processing bandwagon, I would want to get an occupational therapy eval. If visual processing disorder is still suspected at that point, I would get a developmental vision evaluation. Who does developmental vision eval? Eye dr? or?? To clarify...He has no diagnoses at all. This was based on Bonnie Terry's worksheet questionaire. We know something is up with our son. We told him something is up with him. He is in denial over this. We have an autistic dd so he is really freaking out over this issue of something being wrong with him. When we talked to him about this he blurted out to us that we think he is autistic. We told him no. We told him there are numerous learning problems. Autism is not one of them for him. So he is in denial that anythign is wrong. We told him that if we can figure out what is wrong then we can work on that and help him improve on that. Thanks!! I will look into those websites you mentioned.

No he is not in any therapy for auditory problems. All of these are cropping up in the past year. Our concern is warranted to possible help. Since he is not in any therapy then what is the 1st step? Thanks so much- Holly

According to the questionaire I got from Bonnie Terry...My son has very bad marks on the Visual Processing area due to his history of poor comprehension but excellent reading skills. I thought excellent reading skills equals excellent comprehension. We also suspect he has problems with auditory processing. I am still having a hard time buying into him having visual processing problems when his auditory skills are severly lacking or do they go hand in hand. Riding a bike...He struggled with this. He does this well now but didn't learn until about 10 years old compared to his brother who learned when he was 4. Clumsy...always have been clumsy and awkward. comprehension...He is a 7th grader but his comprehension is of a 5th grader where his reading skills is of a 9th grader. What is up with this? Can somebody explain this one to me? Disorganization....messy room, messy desk...he is responsible for the chickens so when he goes out there to do his chores, he will only do one aspect of it. For ex: check their water but not their feed or eggs so when he comes in we ask him if he checked this and this and this...He would groan and say he forgot. We send him out again and again and again. Help!!! The above are the major areas. Also his major area is sloppy handwriting which is in the visual processing area. I really need help in figuring this out. Exactly what is visual processing? Any must see websites out there? Do you have any children with this and how do you deal with this? Can visual processing mimick something else? Another reason for my son's sloppy handwriting, awkwardness, late in riding a bike... Help!! Holly

Thank you so much!!! I couldn't find her blog. So thank you!! Holly:D

I saw both versions. The 50's version is a bit cheesy but still scary (scared me out of my seat). The newer version is alot scarier than the 50's version. To answer your question, for me NOPE!! I will not allow neither of my boys to watch it. I want preserve their innocense (sp?) longer. I have a 13 yr old and 10 yr old boy. I also have an 8 yr old dd. For us if we decided to let them watch it, it will be when they are much older. I have no desire to see it again (neither versions). Holly

I only used this for one of my kids that needed further phonics help. My oldest didn't do them. I will be stopping at level 3 because he is doing so much better now. For me it was helpful for extra help. If your kid knows phonics really well and is a strong reader then no I do not see it necessary and do consider it busy work at that point. I will probably use them for my dd who has autism as soon as she starts to read. Holly

I just started one this past year. I am using Arbonne's Re9 skin care line. I have been able to tell a big difference with it. Holly

We eat all of ours within a week. Within 2 weeks if eating semi raw or slightly cooked. Within 3 to 3 1/2 weeks old we use for serious baking. No illness here at our house. If you are wanting to make stuff like lemon meriange pie or things that call for raw eggs then I would use the day of or 2 days old but no more than that. Holly

Thanks! I do not think Niffercoo is here on this board though. Can you post her blog? Thanks Holly

I can't remember who posted about RDI on the old board. She had her own blog which has her RDI stuff that she was doing with her two children with autism. If you are doing RDI I would love to know so I can ask questions. Holly

I can't remember who did this. Is there a way to search the old boards before the switch to this board? thanks Holly

Bumping this up as I would love an answer to this question too. I am considering the "Teaching the Classics" to purchase this April at the convention but not sure how to do that with TOG. Hopefully we will get an answer to this question. Holly

Here is what we are using for math: 4th grade ds: Saxon 7th grade ds: MUS Epsilon (after he gets Zeta done we are planning on going into Chalkdust math) 1st grade dd: MUS primer Holly

What is your long-term goal for homeschooling? Give my children excellent education in a Christian home. Do you plan on going through high school? Yes, we are going to homeschool through high school and graduate our children ourselves. At what point will you determine when to consider making a change? None at all.

That would be my guess too. I am a conservative Christian so that would be my reasoning for wanting a Christian point of view weather site. I have tried finding one when we did weather about 6 years ago. This was pre-global warming hype though so I didn't have a problem with it. She may have to just rely on library books written back in the 1980's to early 1990's. I use weather.com for weather watches but that is it. Sorry I am not much help there. Holly

The Farmers Almanac do not believe in Global Warming. They said it is Earth going through its cycles. Remember back in the 30's to 50's they thought there was going to be an ice age coming. Remember who is presenting the Global Warming ideas. The very people that are presenting are wanting to tax us for breathing carbon dioxide into the air. I have heard some really wacky stuff from the global warming people on how they want to tax people due to global warming. YIKES! My belief is Earth is going through cycles as it always have done. Let's let it take its course. Holly

We quit going to peds for the one reason of them scolding me for whatever it is that I didn't do or did. I got sick of it!! Oldest ds said he wanted to stop going to those kind of drs and go to my dr (who is a family dr). The kids are happy and we are happy too. He goes to our church so he sees them there all the time. No worries!! I highly recommend going to a Family or General pratictioner. They tend to leave you alone more from my own experience. Holly

My oldest is a 7th grader. I would not consider a school environment for high school. I will consider co-op setting through our homeschool group only. This is for our family. Through reading about how homeschool students do in college with large classroom settings...from the readings it really doesn't make any difference whether they are in inclusive setting at home, co-op or small classes in prep for college. In fact, they said that homeschool students (that only did at home school or small co-op)do so much better socially and environmentally wise than the public school students. However I tend to look at it more as per student's experience vs. the whole. I firmly believe that I am preparing my children well for college regardless of the class size or exposure to (whatever it is). HTH Holly

Our now 13 yr old son requested to stop going to a pediatrician when he was 11. So we switched all the kids to dh/my family dr. So much easier!! The kids love their family dr and I feel so much better and less stressful for me. Holly