My almost 3yo son is starting to potty train. He'll be 3 in a few weeks and I've decided to take advantage of my grad school break to try and train him. He's dry for hours on end, through the night and naps several times a week, and shows the other physics signs. His main hinderance is actually peeing on the potty. He seems nervous about it. We stared this morning at 9am and here it's noon and he hasn't peed. He's in undies only. Won't go completely bottomless. Have him playing in warm water and he still hasn't gone! Any tips?

It may be. She has chronic constipation but has been going daily and her belly feels soft. The doctor didn't feel any impacted stool, but it still could be. She is nervous too so maybe it is that?

That's what I thought, but both urine tests (Tuesday and Friday) were negative for UTI or any infection.

She's not excessively thirsty. She's been drinking as normal and both my kids drink a lot of water. But it's dry out and they tend to drink a lot of water. She'll see a urologist if the issues continue with peeing.

DD has been to the doctors twice this week for frequent urination. They initially thought it might be bacterial and sent it out to be checked by the lab. It came back clean and they called us back in. Her urine was clean again but her blood sugar was elevated. It was 170 an hour after she ate a small breakfast (2 cuties clementines and a handful of cereal). They had her fast last night and planned to do a fasting sugar check and an A1C and hemoglobin panel. Her veins were tiny tiny and they did the finger prick and her fasting sugar was 88. They decided not to do the blood draw since her fasting was fine. We go back Friday for another fasting blood check. They're pretty confident she's not diabetic but want me to keep an eye out for symptoms. Has anyone had a kiddo diagnosed after a normal fasting check? It seems so unlikely, but shes still urinating frequently.

They're wider, but softer bodied than AG, so I think it may be able to squish into it. I may have her being both dolls to her grandparents for Christmas. That way if it doesn't fit I'm covered. Bitty baby is her favorite so she's been favoring her more lately

We got dd a Dollie and me Christmas dress. The doll dress says it will fit dolls up to 18" and shows a picture of an American Girl doll wearing the dress. Does anyone know how the dress would fit a bitty baby doll?

Thanks. And I've seen somewhere that WTM recommends starting spelling after lesson 115, but I couldn't find it online. And I wanted to wait until she was 5. She's still in preschool, but I feel fine starting in January. She won't get any English spelling if she goes to the immersion school next year for K

She has pretty good letter formation and fine motor is her strength. She could use some work with size and spacing, but basic formation of most letters is good. I think we'll start after the new year. She can usually spell a lot of Cvc words, but I'd start with aas1

I've been looking over spelling curriculums and I'm leaning towards AAS for my 5yo. She's about 95 lessons away from finishing Ordinary Parents Guide. Would you start spelling now (in the new year) or after she's done with the phonics book since she's young? She'll go to K next year but it will be 100% in Spanish (native English speaker and reads and writes in English). I plan to do spelling after school. But I don't want to do nothing between finishing OPGTR and the school year in August.

It's hard to tell yet how she'll be with spelling. The spelling she does now is either phonetic or words she's memorized From reading. I think we'll do spelling and hold off on grammar.

It will be Spanish. I wanted to do some grammar and spelling with her after we finish phonics.

Dd 5 has 95 lessons left in OPGTR. I believe we will be done by the end of the school year or early summer of she slows down with the more difficult material. A friend is sending me the physical McGuffeys readers books 2-6. I plan to have her read from these. But, next year she will go to an immersion school and have no English language arts until 3rd grade. I plan to continue English language arts at home. I'm looking for inexpensive curriculum suggestions for spelling and comprehension. What did you use after OPGTR?

Dd 5 has 95 lessons left in OPGTR. I believe we will be done by the end of the school year or early summer of she slows down with the more difficult material. A friend is sending me the physical McGuffeys readers books 2-6. I plan to have her read from these. But, next year she will go to an immersion school and have no English language arts until 3rd grade. I plan to continue English language arts at home. I'm looking for inexpensive curriculum suggestions for spelling and comprehension. What did you use after OPGTR?

I agree with no pressure. And find books he loves. My daughter just turned 5 and we're a little over half way through Ordinary Parents Guide to reading (goes to a 4th grade level). What I've found that helps is finding books that she wants to read. Once she read one confidently, that helped a lot. I also have books below her level. These she can read with ease and they boost her confidence. For my daughter it was a confidence thing. And while she knew the phonograms, it was sometimes harder applying them in a book. In our lessons she works on one phonogram at a time. Then she'll read a story which does contain several phonograms, but still a higher % of the one covered in the lesson. In books, she's required to read words with multiple phonograms and phonics rules. It took confidence which took time and had to come naturally. She also LOVES the game Teach Your Monster to Read. It has tons of fun games, but requires them to read. There's no skipping the reading to play the games. It's helped a lot. Also, I do require reading daily. Usually she reads to me 1x a day outside of the lesson. I let her pick the book. Sometimes I make a suggestion or discourage a book that we've read every single day and isn't challenging her. But it is expected daily and I do tell her "reading is like drawing/scooter/etc. and we need to practice to get better" Next year she'll go to a 100% Spanish immersion program. They don't teach English language arts until 3rd grade. They teach reading and writing in Spanish. She'll be required to read to me daily in English and Spanish from them on. Well also continue spelling and phonics in English at home.

I would also not give an answer based on intelligence. My answer would also be based on actual chronological age.

We have the opposite issue. Dd looks young and at 5, she's barely over 30lbs. People always act like she's a really young child prodigy. As if she is a 2 year old who is reading. But, she answers her age for herself and has since 2 or so.

I saw the s&is as well, but they state it as kindergarten/year 1. It includes complex phonics, more complex sentences, and other things you said. To me that doesn't seem like K level. From what I've seen of K phonics curriculums it is more basic concepts. The website lists the first two levels as preschool and the third as K. Just seems advanced for K

On the website, it says that Champion Reader (level 3) is a year 1/kindergarten level. But it doesn't seem to align with american k level. It has kids reading multisyllable words with more complex phonics patterns. Has anyone had a kid compete the game who may have a better idea of the reading level?

I didn't realize that AAR4 went to a highschool level. I just assumed it went to 4th grade. OPGTR only goes to a 4th grade level

We are using OPGTR with my 5 yo and are a little over half way through. We switched from aar pre-level. I think switching from aar to OPGTR would be exactly what you're looking for. It is just the phonics concept and a story to reinforce fluency. Sounds like that's all he has interest in. For my 5yo, we add in the fun practice, but if you're looking for a straightforward no frills program, OPGTR would be the perfect choice.

Dd is a perfectionist and it seems to be self-driven. We do a lot of positive encouragement that focuses on her hard work and attempts and not necessarily the outcome. But, she definitely has higher expectations for herself when it comes to writing or drawing. I haven't really thought about how this might make her hesitant to perform. I honestly didn't think that she was completely capable of choosing not to perform out of fear of failure. I just didn't think that she was that self-aware yet. But that could be. Her preschool is heavily play based. It's only 3hrs a day and a lot of it is spent doing free choice time and group time. I believe their small group focused learning time is only 15 minutes? Which we love. But, I'm not sure how much opportunity that dd has to show her ability in terms of reading. She does do a lot of writing in school and will spell fairly well. Her teacher said she knew it was common for some kids to perform better at home and seems to think it has to do with dd being introverted and more comfortable at home. She noted that while dd talks at school and is assertive, she isn't as open and carefree as she is at home (our conference was an in-home visit). We are pretty positive about testing. Dd had a Kindy entrance test and I made sure to say it was going to be fun and that she'd play games and show what she has learned. She didn't do nearly as well as she would have at home. She is more excited about Kindy now though and the actual assessments for her school won't be until spring. A lot can happen in 6 months!

She has to be in school until at least first grade. I'm working on my masters and will be doing internship next year. If we send her to the language immersion school I want her there to gain fluency.

I'm not fully sure if it is true social anxiety. It seems purely tied to academics. She still performs well (above grade level). She does well being dropped off at school, going to a babysitter, going to Sunday school, etc. She is a little hesitant to join groups of kids, but will do it when you demonstrate how to (ex. Tell her to say "may I play with you" etc.). Did your daughter have other social anxiety issues?

I agree. This is the reason we after school and will most likely continue on for a while. Especially if she goes to a language immersion school She does great in playing with groups. She'll lead imaginative play and assign roles. For example, when they're playing house she will organize it and assign family roles to the other kids. Her anxiety seems primarily to deal with performance and communicating strong emotions. She seems to get ahead of herself and needs to be reminded to slow down, take a deep breath, and then use her words. I do plan to keep open communication this year and then throughout K.