I am very interested in reading the responses to this also.

We allow 30 minutes of a DVD/VHS movie and 15 minutes each of Kindle game playing time on weekdays. On weekends we allow one long movie and two 15 minutes of Kindle game time each. For the Kindle game time, they take turns playing and the one not playing sets the kitchen oven timer. They very seldom stop in the middle and use the rest of the time later. When they do, they are very good at keeping track of how much they have left but they have to use it the same day or they lose it. Sometimes we also set the timer for movie watching on weekdays because they will watch something that has episodes, such as old I Love Lucy or Gomer Pyle. If they are in the middle of an episode when the timer goes off, I let them finish it. They take turns picking what they are going to watch (by day, not by episode) and they both use their 30 minutes of movie time together. We don't allow one to pick something to watch for 30 minutes and then the other. If the one who doesn't get to pick does not like the movie chosen, he doesn't have to watch but he loses his 30 minutes of movie time for that day. Often we use a rule that they have to do all of their school work without big fits or complaining or they will lose game or movie time (or both if it continues after multiple warnings and they have already lost games). I always take away games first because it is the one that I like them doing the least:) and it is easier to monitor. If one of them loses his movie time, I have to set the other one up in my bedroom and let him watch his movie in there, which I don't really like to do. My sons like to watch each other play their Kindle games almost as much as playing them so, if they lose their games because of fits during school, they also don't get to watch.

My 7.5 YO ds is undergoing an OT evaluation that should be finished next Friday. The first part was done last Friday and the preliminary conclusion is that he does have some issues with fine motor skills that we will need to work on with OT. The remaining test next Friday has more to do with visual perception. He hates to write and always has, although he does enjoy coloring. Even though we are in the middle of 2nd grade, I have been holding off increasing his writing requirements because he seemed to have such a problem with it. I decided to hold off and not push until after testing so I would know if there is a problem. Now I know there is a problem so I am wondering what to do. I am wondering if I should go ahead and start teaching him to type or not. I can/will ask the OT lady when I see her in a week but wanted to ask the hive for advice on this also. Also, if I should teach him to type, then would he take dictation while typing? It seems that so much of writing at this age is more workbook related that I just don't know how much having him learn typing will help. Thoughts?

Wow, I didn't know that. What language do they speak? (We're talking about Mennonite's in the U.S., right?)

thank you to all who responded; very helpful.

...I don't even know what it is called but it is where they show how to sound out a word by the special spelling (backwards 'e', for example) and special little symbols/marks above the letters? I was just looking over the CLE Language Arts for 2nd grade and they have obviously taught these because they are asking questions about them. We have used OPGTR and are using FLL and we have never covered this before. Also, I was never taught this so I can not teach them if we happen across them, such as in the McGuffy readers.

As a child, I used to get tons of chigger bites when I went to my grandparents farm. They really liked attacking all around ankles and crotches.

BA in Computer Science

I saw him angry after he was already home. I don't know how he was when he was still over at boy1's house, although I think most kids (especially 7 year olds) would likely be a bit annoyed or angry if someone kept hitting them in the glasses with a basketball. I don't think the basketball/glasses event was really a significant event overall. They didn't play together for a few days and then they were both ready to play together again after that. It was in the past and they had both forgotten it. The question I was asking about was more related to the situation where they were playing at another child's house when that child was invited to go to another neighbor's and just took off and left them. I think I have gotten some pretty good feedback here on that issue.

I think I'll start making up some fliers:). I don't remember being like this when I was a kid but maybe I was and just don't remember.

This is all good information and will help me better set expectations (mine and my sons'). Thanks for sharing your experiences and how you have handled them. This is definitely new territory for me.

I definitely need to work on this! Thanks for the ideas.

Thanks for your thoughts. We actually don't ban all electronics now but we only have a Kindle with games and we limit the amount of time on it. When they first started playing with boy2, I would not let them play when he was here because I really wanted them to spend time really playing together, not huddled around staring at a screen. Now, when they have someone over, i will sometimes let them play for a short time and they seem to be pretty happy with that. Also, the day this happened, when they were over at boy1's house, they had our Kindle over there with them so he could play one of their games. I know you are right that we have to do something to make this a fun house to hang out at if we want others to want to come over. My husband is in the process of building a very nice tree house that will eventually have a long zip line across the yard. That may help a little. We definitely need to make more of an effort to get to know some of the other parents around the neighborhood. I will have to put that on my to-do list. I'm an introvert at heart so it is something I have to make myself do.

This was probably just a bad choice of words on my part. He was actually angry-upset when he came home, not cry-baby-upset. He is actually great at pretty much any sport he tries and that is one reason that he and boy1 had hit it off so well, because they both really love sports. Thanks for the book recommendation. I'll have to check that out.

That's funny. I'm sure every time I open one of these threads now I will be wondering if it is taser worthy. I think you are right about the "not everyone is your friend and that's okay" talk. I will definitely do that. I think they will likely end up playing with boy1 again but probably not boy2. I have wondered if it is a homeschool vs PS thing but you bring up a good point. I guess it is just all a part of growing up, learning how to get along with people and when to move on.

Well, it is just kind of strange and unexpected because they have been playing together, on and off, for about a year now and, at times, have seemed like best buddies. Nothing like this has every happened before. When my son came home all upset about the basketball/glasses incident, I was really quite surprised that this kid would do something like that. Funny enough, a 3 YO boy moved in next door to us recently and my sons really enjoy playing with him a lot. His mom loves them because they are so sweet with her son and she had to deal with an aggressive playmate situation where they lived before.

I think you are right and, at their age, they don't get it until it happens to them. My sons do have some friends that they enjoy playing with. I explained to them they will have to decide if they want to continue to play with boy1, if they explain to him how it made them feel and he continues to do it. I had already explained to them that we can't make someone be nice. They enjoy playing with him and are trying to figure it all out.

We live two doors down from a boy (boy1) that my two sons like to play with. He has come to our house and asked to play with them many times also and he has always seemed like a nice enough kid. I have talked to his mom once or twice but don't know her very well. My sons were at boy1's house playing (outdoors) when another neighborhood boy (boy2) showed up. Boy2 lives across the street and two houses in to a cul-de-sac from us and boy1. Boy2 invited boy1 to come over to his house to play. One of my sons asked if they could go too and boy2 said no and something snarky about already having enough friends. So boy1 went with boy2 and my sons came home disappointed. A little history here. Boy1 and boy2 have lived here longer than we have and have known each other for a while. They also go to the same school but are a year apart. Boy2 was actually the first boy my sons met when we moved here a little over 2 years ago and they enjoyed playing together for about the first year. It didn't take long before boy2 decided he didn't want to come over to our house to play because they couldn't play any electronic games (this was during the winter when it was too yuck to play outdoors). My sons would still go to boy2's house sometimes and play outside and sometimes inside. On one pretty day, my sons saw boy2 sitting outside on his swingset so they went to see if he wanted to play. I could see them over there talking to him and then I saw boy2 go inside his house and my sons were still standing around in his backyard. So I called them home and asked what was going on. Boy2 had told them that he was going to go over and see if boy1 could play (this was before my sons had met boy1). If boy1 could not play, he (boy2) would come back and play with them. They actually didn't get that this behavior was not very nice until I explained it to them. They didn't end up going back over to find out if boy2 came back or not. I think they may have played with boy2 once or twice since then, maybe. But then a few weeks ago they went over and were playing basketball on boy2's driveway with a group of boys all about the same age (boy1 was there also). At some point boy2 told my sons to go home. I'm not sure what happened but he said something to them about only wanting to play with his real friends. They were really disappointed this time too. When boy2 started this thing about treating my sons badly, I told them maybe they should not play with him anymore. Now I am thinking maybe that was a mistake and maybe I should have told them to tell him that he hurt their feelings when he ran off to see if boy1 could play ("and if he can't, I'll come back and play with you"). I have told them that boy1 may not have known that it was not nice to run off to play at boy2's house, when they (my sons) were over at his (boy1's) house playing and my sons were not included, so they should tell boy1 that it hurt their feelings. What do you think? I have no experience with handling this type of thing. How would you handle it? I have thought about talking to boy2's mom to see if she knows why her son does not want to play with my two now. I am interested in hearing how boy1 will respond when my sons tell him that he hurt their feelings. He seems like a nice kid, although one of my sons got real upset with him about a week ago because he kept hitting my son in his glasses with the basketball on purpose, even though my son asked him to stop. He thought it was funny but my son told him it hurt and wasn't funny and he wouldn't stop. Other than that, my sons have always gotten along really well with boy1. So, I am open to advice here. Would you stay out of it and let them handle it, give advice, go talk to other mom's, or what? The boys are all around 7 years old.

He is on track both academically and physically. He had a lot of catching up to do after the adoption but he did it very quickly. I think he does have some sensory issues but they have seen fairly minor to date, until the OCD came along. Your idea of a theater class is a very good one and it is something I should have thought of but had not. He has an excellent memory and loves to dress up and pretend. I will have to look into that. My number one issue though is really the social aspect. I think he would really be struggling if he were in public school. He does not like crowds or large groups of kids and I think he would have a hard time making friends. His brother is very social and has never met a stranger so he makes friends with everyone and son1 tags along and plays too, between running back and forth to home and doing his own thing.

This is what I was really wondering about, after having read the various descriptions. It is very common for children with OCD to also have ADD or ADHD. I think we probably need to have him evaluated so we are sure of what we are (or are not) dealing with. Thanks to everyone for your feedback and thoughts. Much appreciated.

My biggest concern is his people skills. I am very concerned that he is never going to have any friends. He really is such a great kid, can be very sweet and funny but, generally, I am usually cringing inside when I observe him in social situations.

That's funny. I do that sometimes too! My kids have to scatter around too but we do a lot of our work together so this wouldn't work. I will usually have one of them working on something at the kitchen island and the other one will go with me to my bedroom to do narration, or something like that.

I have been concerned about one of my sons (son1 - 7.5 YO) for a while now and I am thinking we need to have him evaluated but I'm not sure where to start. He was recently diagnosed with OCD so we were just getting started with a child psychologist for his OCD but then son2's (also 7.5 YO - both adopted from Russia at 14/15.5 months; not bio related) anger problems took center stage because it was impacting the whole family and the OCD was put on the back burner for a little while (we have some tools to help him with the OCD so we are still working on it). We are in the middle of an OT evaluation with son2, as he really hates to write (there are definitely issues there with his fine motor skills but we have another round of testing before we are finished). When I was filling out some of the paper work for son2, I kept thinking so many of the things sounded more like issues that son1 has and I know we need to have him evaluated. It is very overwhelming right now because it seems it is all needing attention at once and we are paying cash for the counseling and OT evals, so it is also getting very expensive quickly. Anyway, I made a list of concerns for son1 and wanted to post them to see if this resonates with anyone. I would like to know what we are dealing with so maybe I could start researching it beforehand. I am very concerned for son1 from a social standpoint. Following is the list. --Talks excessively, interrupts a lot, not socially aware, seems to cry easily, frequently loses things, is a walking tornado (leaves messes everywhere he goes, does not like to clean up. --Has a very low tolerance for pain and wants lots of attention and sympathy for the smallest injury (even if there is no sign of injury). --Seems to need to be the center of attention. (“does anyone notice that I am here?†“Is anyone paying attention to me?â€) --Frequently says things that are so inappropriate (rude, hurtful, etc.) but he thinks he is being funny or clever. Seems like every thought that enters his head comes out his mouth without any filtering. --Will smile or laugh at inappropriate times, like when he has been rude or hurtful and someone tells him it wasn't a nice thing to say or do. --Is extremely competitive. Always has to be first, although so does other son so maybe this is just an age thing. Brags a lot and wants to show off in front of others...will say that he was showing off or that he is going to do something to show off to someone. --When playing outside, frequently comes back in to get something, staying for long periods. Brother is always poking head in to ask him if he is coming back out. Often he is dressing up as something (police man, cowboy, etc.). --When group of kids are playing together, he is frequently returning to adults, interrupting the conversation to tell what he has done (something he thought was clever, funny, etc.) --When playing with his brother and a neighbor boy, he is always the odd man out and he complains about it but he does things to make it so, such as leaving them to come home or come into the house to get something, dress up as something or tell me something, or he just decides to come in and play with his Legos for a while, sometimes going back out a little later to play with them again. --Is more interested in playing with another child’s toys than actually playing with the child. --Does not seem to be hyper but does switch from one activity to another fairly often. Although he can read well, does not have the patience to sit and read for very long, unless it is Star Wars related. When I am reading a book aloud, he always loses interest before his brother. Frequently makes silly mistakes in math. --I have seen him get up during a movie, get dressed up as one of the movie characters, run outside and pretend he is the character for a while, then run back in and continue watching the movie, even though he missed some of it. --Is always very passionate about one or two things. It has been Legos and Star Wars for quite some time now, although he takes short times away from these to play/pretend other things when something else catches his attention. --Is very intelligent and learns things quickly. Has a great vocabulary and will use big-ish words that he has only heard once or twice before.

We started with RightStart in K and I didn't like teaching it. Then we tried SM 1a. I had a hard time teaching it and it seemed to make too big of leaps for my sons. We did all of MM 1st grade but there were some tears and I could tell they really were not 'getting' parts of it well enough. We were still in our 1st grade year so we started CLE 1st grade math and we are close to being finished. I have supplemented it with SM 1a and 1b so we would not miss the conceptual parts but I have really liked CLE, for the most part. I have purchased Math In Focus for 2nd grade and am planning to use it and supplement with CLE. I have been reviewing vid's from Education Unboxed, Crewton Ramone's House of Math, Let's Play Math and also the sample vid's from Math U See, trying to better learn how to teach math like they do. I had even thought of using Math U See and was getting excited about it but then I looked at the sample workbook pages for Beta and felt that it just did not cover enough. It seemed that most of what it covers in Beta was already covered in CLE 1st grade. So I am researching and studying and trying to better learn to teach it the way I wish I was taught. I had planned to try different things in 1st grade and settle on one to stick with by the time we started 2nd. I'm not sure if I am there or not but I am hopeful. I have been careful to compare curricula to make sure I have not created any learning gaps so far. CLE's 1st grade math really followed SM's 1a/1b very well, although SM had more conceptual math and memory math and CLE went further with telling time, measuring and a few things like that. It really has been interesting to learn how the different curricula teaches differently.