Do you mind sharing some of the books she loves?

My 10yob is obsessed with weather too and I'm looking for ideas. I just bought him Weather: The Ultimate Book of Meteorological Events. It had really good reviews. I bought it from a seller off Amazon because even paying $4 shipping others can sell the book new for half what Amazon is selling. I'm in the market for other ideas though! http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00375LMKW/ref=oh_o00_s00_i00_details

It's not traditional in my family. However my bil wants it every year because he says he had it growing up. However as long as I've known him his family actually goes out to eat on holidays. My sister and bil left early this Thanksgiving and left their leftovers behind. Let's just say there was a very large pan of barely touched green bean casserole that no one else wanted. I'd probably eat it if it was gluten free though. Most things that look like slop actually taste pretty good. :D

My husband's parents are from Charleston and most of his family is still there. My mil grew up on King St. We love to stay at Folly Beach when we go. We are renting a condo during New Years on Folly Beach. And we'll be going back next fall and renting a house. Do check out Melvin's or Bessinger's if you want some delicious barbecue and the best onion rings around!

I've seen a lot of good reviews of the Zorb microscope on here. I was looking at in the Rainbow Resource catalog. There is another digital picture taking microscope next to it called a MicroViewer. The Zorb is 35X and the MicroViewers come in 200X and 500X. The 200X MicroViewer is about the same price as the Zorb is listed for on Amazon. I can't find any reviews of the MicroViewers other than what appears to be a video advertisement online. What do you think? I have no experience with microscopes. But I know my kids would love one and 200X seems better than just 35X. But I don't know if that's really the case. The MicroViewer also has a tabletop stand to make taking pictures easier. http://rainbowresource.com/product/sku/049673/684726e354d3b2535ed98281

No one?

I bought book A just to consider using with my 10 yob who is dyslexic but I think I'm going to use AAS with him and my 8yob. But the Apples and Pears looks great for my 5yog. Is there any reason not to use Apples and Pears with a child who does not having any learning disabilities?

Absolutely. My father is a heartless nag and criticizer. I developed a love for gardening as a teen. He never said anything nice just constantly told me my plants were "dying" etc. He nagged and nagged and criticized. He did the same thing with my kids as well. Every time I saw him he asked ridiculous questions like if I'd fed, bathed or changed their diaper. He treated me as if I was a completely incompetent moron who could not be trusted to take care of their own child. He genuinely stole a lot of my joy as a parent in the beginning by asking those kinds of questions. And then always telling me how whatever I was doing I was doing wrong and how he did it better. He made everything miserable for me as a child and sucked the joy out of it.

Isaac was recently reevaluated by a pediatric psych. She recommended he receive speech and occupational therapy as well as see someone to work on social skills. So he met with the speech therapist today who I did really like over all. She hit it off very well with him and seemed very intuitive with his needs. Much more than the ped psych. However she does not believe he needs any speech therapy at all! The ped psych recommended it for "developing his language pragmatic skills which include initiating and sustaining conversations with others". Does a speech therapist work on that? The ST however said he did exceptionally well. His memory was wonderful and he had no problem doing anything she wanted him to do. However she seemed to think most of his problem is that she thinks he's ADHD. The ped psych also said in her eval that the CPT-II (whatever that is) suggested he had a 98% chance of a clinically significant difficulty with attention. The ST was not even willing to write up a recommendation for speech therapy at all. She said she thought his "stuttering" was a result of his "motor running about as fast as she's seen one run". He stutters but it's not real stuttering basically. There is nothing going on with his vocal chords and it's not a speech problem. I really was not expecting that. She believes that he has very obvious sensory problems in conjunction with ADHD and that she really recommended OT and Vyvanse and seeing a Psych about taking it. I'm not real keen on placing my 10yob on amphetamines. She said she thought it likely if he was on meds that he might lost his ASD diagnosis. Meh. I don't know about that. He had a "good day" today. She saw some of what we were concerned about but over all he did not seem to need a speech therapist at all according to her. I'd like to hear from other moms whose kids have had an ADHD diagnosis and how you are handling it. I was given the diagnosis myself as a child. I was on Ritalin for a year. It made me a zombie. It's the year of my childhood I remember least. I'd really prefer to avoid meds. I think over all they are seriously over prescribed and far more dangerous than people seem willing to admit. I'm coming from the perspective of having had perfectly "harmless" psych meds pushed on me more than once with seriously bad side effects. I left the ST's office today thinking I'd consider it till I got home and looked it up and realized that Vyvanse is just pure amphetamine and a newer version of Adderal. My sister was given Adderal in college and became addicted. My mother is currently addicted to it. My cousin was put in Ritalin most of elementary school and highschool and ended up in rehab at a young age. I'm no fan of meds if it can be helped. I know I just made it sound like my family is a bunch of drug addicts. :/ But I'm highly unimpressed with psych meds due to my experiences.

It was my 8yo's birthday so he got to choose dinner. You probably don't want to try it though. It was fried frog legs and *sausaroni*. Sausaroni is his personal creation of cheese quesadillas with bacon inside. LOL

I'd see about testing for allergies. But I'd also give probiotics.

Well, that's because all the "hard workers" out there feel like every last dollar or dime is stolen directly from their actual pockets and they resent it. Everyone likes to give each other a hearty pat on the back about how horrible it is because they are all so sure they'd never be in those shoes. I mean with the level of unemployment out there it's ironic how everyone likes to assume it's just welfare queens out there using food stamps. I will never be so arrogant and judgmental again. My husband worked 60 hour weeks leading up to getting laid off at that time, without a dime to our names. And I do not believe for one minute all the women out there pontificating about how the government has no right to steal their money and give it to others would not also get food stamps if their husbands lost his job and they ran out of their savings and had nothing. I never in a million years would have considered it before that point. I get ideals. I know the government excels mostly at wasting money. I know some people are lazy mooches. But sometimes the money is put to good use. There is a reason we don't have families lined up at soup kitchens right now. It's food stamps! And the nitpicking over soda is really not about soda. It's clear in this thread that what it's about is people resenting that anyone gets food stamps at all. Thanks for the hug. I needed it.

Wow, I've only been through 7 pages and find a good bit offensive and hurtful. After having been on them before my opinion is different than it would have been before. Do you know what it's like to have an already meager come get slowly reduced so you are barely covering basic bills and minimal food with nothing extra? Nothing extra meaning shoes, clothes, books. In the mean time your savings are being slowly depleted because of the income reduction and you are eating into your food storage. You hold on to hope the income will improve. But nope you lose your job while you are at rock bottom with no savings at all. Then you have food stamps. Which are now your largest source of income or support while your family helps you out a little and you desperately search for any kind of work to bring in more income. When you are in that place there is nothing extra to set aside for any treats at all. There's nothing extra because you can't meet basic needs. When you are in that position sometimes it's just nice to relax with a soda because you have no money for real treats. And it's nice to fill your kids stockings with candy that qualifies for Food Stamp coverage because you really don't have money for presents. Sure the soda and candy are crap! But even people who were "stupid" enough to run through their savings and then lose their job still like a little comforting crappy food every now and then! And it's still food even if it's nutrient profile is no better than a bag of sugar or a jar of corn syrup. So knowing what it's like to have nothing but Food Stamps I would never begrudge someone soda with FS's. I don't assume the worst of them daring to need Food Stamps and feel like the food type needs to be tightly controlled so as to prevent them wasting the tax dollars of more deserving citizens.

Or Pilot Inspektor!

Yes, it's a really stupid name. But it's not worth making a stink over. And by arguing with them you are actually just ensuring that they feel obligated to stick with the name to prove a point. I'd make sure no one says another word about it. Deliberately offer support to them in their name choice and then just hope and pray they come to their senses before baby is born.

And it's great! I've used it myself! But the point is that it's only done for certain segments of the population. You might get Medicaid in pregnancy but in a few months that coverage is gone and you aren't getting any great coverage from the govt again unless you get pregnant again. Do we want to only take care of certain segments of the population while many many others are sick and dying and neglecting seeing a Dr because they don't have the money? Because they can't afford $1000 a month for health insurance that won't cover any meds or real treatment? It's comparable to us saying the US Govt provides an excellent public education for first graders but after that the kids are on their own. Let's just hope their parents can afford it.

The point is that in those other countries you can get seen and treated no matter what your income is. That is not the case here. ER's give bare minimum treatment if you have no insurance. There is nothing to be proud of that our country provides great medical care when the great medical care is limited only a certain segment of the population.

forgot to sub to this thread :bigear:

I'd love to see your garden. Mine's not near so exciting. The oddest thing about it is that I am basically turning the entire front yard into gardens. It's a hill so I've built swales which are closer to chinese terrace gardens. I have fruit trees and bushes all over the lower half..though the terraces are working there way down there being put in by hand. The swales/terraces are full of a mix of flowers and vegetables. I just bought 200, yes, 200 hens and chicks from a buyers coop and am looking for some great ideas for where to put them. I have a large vintage egg basket I was going to grow some in, lining it with moss. And then hang it from one of the rustic arbors in the yard. I want to plant in boots and other odd containers.

You have all the choice in the world so long as you have enough money to pay for it!

But you have insurance, right? California is one of a handful of states that offers assistance and health insurance to adults whose income level is above affording a cardboard box for a home. Where I live in GA your income level has to be so little that you honestly could not afford a place to live. My parents paid for major medical insurance for 20 years and basically never used it. They had to drop it when it was driven up to $1200 a month. They couldn't afford health insurance and keep a roof over their heads and food in their mouths. My parents are older now but not old enough for Medicaid. The treatment they have gotten without insurance is horrendous. My father nearly sliced off his thumb with a circular saw. I don't how it happened since the man has been in construction for nearly 40 years. The hospital would basically do little more than stitch his mangled finger up. They called in a surgeon on staff who flat out refused to come in and treat him because my father was uninsured. My father could not afford to go back for follow up treatment since they weren't going to do anything for him anyway. The hospital also quoted him a price of $400 when he was there for the treatment he got. He got a bill for 3K. He called and tried talking to them over and over and they refused to go lower. They sent it to collections. Want to know how much the bill showed up for with collections? $400 What really makes me angry is that if someone has health insurance their insurance pays less than what is charged to someone with no insurance. My kids are on state insurance and my husband and I are using Samaritan Ministries. We looked into private insurance when my husband lost his job. Want to know what kind of pricing we were offered? At least $800 a month before they jacked it up based on any previous health problems. And they would have because we are not in perfect health. And a 10K yearly deductible. So 20K or more for health insurance that wouldn't even cover all that much. $20,000!!! And then that was before the health care bill was passed and health insurance companies started upping the prices on everything. Not everyone is lucky enough to get reasonable health insurance through their job.

<<So yes, it is a problem of culture. Because we value big business and unlimited profit more than we value a healthy community.>> Awesome post. I resent living in a world with filthy polluted air, water, and food but it's all MY fault if it makes me or my kids sick.

I'm curious where you get the rate of 1/5 getting serious secondary infections. The HuffPost article you linked to said 1 in 15 having complications.

Person #3 is not lying. Person #1 is a bit of a nutter.

I wouldn't be at all offended in that context.