Like my first ds, ds2 only applied to one school and has been accepted for about a week now: Texas A&M Galveston. He wants a specialized marine degree that isn't offered anywhere else in Texas, so it was there, or the local college here for a year then reapply.

I'm a little late to the game, but I thought I'd share: Son Schreiner University Scholarship Honors

Go with what you love! I have an uncommon name in the US and a fairly common (elsewhere) name that is mispronounced (in my opinion) on a current (US) TV show and also in an older Barbie movie, but the people I know and love try very hard to pronounce it the way I prefer it . I'm very patient with strangers (My name listed on the board here is a halved and shortened "Americanized" version). I named my three kids easy to spell, easy-to-pronounce, easy-to-read American names, and people STILL misspell and mispronounce them regularly. Go with what you love. Folks who care about you will get it right. Your daughter's friends will likely meet her and hear her name before they see it spelled and will not have any trouble at all.

See if your library has this book: Bird Talk overheard by Ann Jonas My kids loved it! HTH, Lisa

I should have posted an update! We saw the new doc in October and she saw what can best be described as eye spasms in my dd. The computer also registered wild swings from extremely near- to extremely farsighted vision. She could see these spasms through her equipment. The doctor then dilated dd's eyes and tried again with both a manual and a computer eye exam and found dd to be only very, very mildly farsighted not something one would normally correct. This doctor suspected that this was a stress-induced muscle spasm. My dd immediately started to cry and said that it was "not in (her) head", but the doctor explained that she both saw and believed the lack of visual acuity. She said that stress can cause heart palpitations and serious diseases, why not eye spasms? I was not inclined to believe this stress theory right at first, (my dd is not an anxious kid), but since, I then I do. We bought prescription glasses to correct the mild farsightedness with the instructions to wear them whenever blurry, we did not emphasize the stress connection, just the blurry vision. She wore them all the time for weeks and now will wear them on and off depending on the day. On very stressful days, she tends to wear them, and while this makes the glasses sound a bit like a placebo, she is so consistent with her complaints - these glasses don't fix the random blurriness that can best be described as nearsightedness - but she is better. Is this the placebo effect? I don't know, but I think that having the glasses does make her feel less stressed. I don't know if this would help an adult who understood everything and was having a similar problem. I will talk to her about dry-eye, next time she is blurry.

OK, my dd has an appointment about an hour & some from the house with an O.D. who is both FCOVD and FAAO. Her emphasis is on vision therapy and has extensive experience with children. I don't know anyone who uses her (so far away), but the staff was really good with dh on the phone. I will make a well-child visit with our regular doctor and rule out diabetes (although blurry vision is the only symptom she has). He could hopefully rule out any other medical issues then, too. Thanks for all the advice, the only thing left to do is wait -the appointment isn't until mid-October.

He did use the black whatchamajig, but he set it at no correction (I didn't know it at the time, but he told me later), and then spun the dials (for show only) and did the "is this better, or this?" She said "no" for a while, and then (I think, in order to please him) she said yes. So he made her then read the letter lines while looking through it. When she couldn't read the 20/20 lines through it, he made the lines larger and larger to the 20/70 mark, then she could see and read the chart. But here's the thing... he then stepped the lines back down to 20/20 each time asking her to read them. She said she couldn't read them initially, but each time, he would say "Try harder". I couldn't always see her eyes, but I did notice once that she was squinting. I know she was tearing up (perhaps out of frustration) at this point, I could tell from her voice. So, while he was a jerk, maybe her problems could stem from dry eye....

What is a COVD?

We're confused too. He seemed much more interested in finding she was faking/lying/being dramatic than figuring out what she could and couldn't see. He trusts his equipment, I guess. We won't be going back.

They took a picture of the back of her eye (retinal imaging?) and said that was in place of dilation. I hadn't been giving her allergy medication regularly, but thought I'd try a regular dose of Claritan for a week or two, as we have been all suffering with some allergies since we got all the rain.

For several weeks my dd10 has consistently complained of blurry distance vision and intermittent near vision. She complains of not being able to read billboards, or see the whiteboard at co-op. We waited to take her in to the eye doctor so that we could do all the checking and verifying that she was indeed out of focus and not just wanting glasses, or having allergy eyes, etc. The doctor's assistant checked over and over again, jumping around from the larger letter lines to the smaller and back and dd was consistent with seeing no better than the 20/70 line. I was convinced we were on the route to glasses, until the doctor informed me of the computer tests which showed she is 20/20. My dd said she never say the "Hot Air Balloon clearly" in the doctor's machine (they told her she would see one). The doctor suggested that dd was making up her vision problems and then, when quiet tears rolled down her face, he took me aside and said that he could prescribe placebo glasses if I'd like. I turned them down. My dh and I choose to believe my dd, when she says she is out of focus, because she believes so strongly herself. But I would like to know if anyone has any experience with this at all. Can eyes be perfect, but vision be blurry. So that we are doing something, and she feels safe and believed, I have promised we'd find some eye strengthening exercises, take a daily optical vitamin and do some stress-relieving exercise, but is there anything else I should check on before ignoring this symptom? Thanks, Lisa

In my opinion, LOF without supplementation is a complete math course. My boys have used Fred exclusively since Fractions. The 8th grader is finishing up Algebra this year with Advanced Algebra scheduled for next. My 10th grader is finishing up Trig this year with Calculus scheduled for next. They both score very well on standardized testing including the PSAT which my elder son took last October. I post this positive review to even out the negative, because people who haven't used it, or only use it to supplement once a week, often post that it is not rigorous or complete or is lacking in some way that a spiral method course or program with 50 problems a day are not. This is not my experience. That said, several of my friends have tried LOF for their own kids. Some loved it and stuck with it, others didn't like it for various reasons and switched to something else. Sometimes the conversational style of the book belies its true difficulty - maybe the student doesn't take it seriously. I know one friend quit because her (very bright) child did not like having to figure out a problem that he wasn't taught how to solve (all the answers & processes are still clearly explained in the answer areas). The Zillions book was not available for my eldest, but I did buy it for my second son for Algebra. I only assign problems from it if he seems to need more practice. Otherwise, I will let him work through the home companion and text. He does do every problem in every city, "Your Turn to Play" and in the Home Companion. As far as I remember (from last year, lol!) is that the Geometry course is pretty much all proofs. Once in a while it was a bear for me to grade, as my son was sometimes a bit creative with the steps he took going from the given to the final answer, and, of course, with proofs, there is often more than one path to solution. I have compared LOF Geometry to several of my friends' courses, and I think that Fred is on par or better for the knowledge that I wanted son to gain for geometry and problem solving. After all these years, Fred is still quoted at the dinner table. They will copy problems to discuss at dinner that they think will stump my dh (I don't believe he can be stumped), and they chuckle or groan at the story as they do their work. My 10 yo is finishing up the Elementary series (as a supplement to Singapore) and will go to only LOF (no supplementation) next year in the fifth grade. HTH, Lisa

I'm going! The SETHSA conference last year was my first conference ever. I bought SWBs Ancient History book and asked her to sign it. I own everything else it seems, but didn't think to bring anything. She was very gracious and I was probably very comical "I'm a big fan..." Oh boy, embarrassing, but I think she must hear that from time to time. She's a great speaker. My oldest was entering high school and she put it all into perspective. This year I'm going to listen to her lit analysis workshop. I could use a bit more help/direction there.

Beautiful! I'm hoping we can do a similar remodel of our kitchen. We want to move the dishwasher, too. ~Lisa (Who never posts, but hopes to change that as well)

Oh, I hadn't realized/noticed how very young your kids are. I would definitely take the time to go through all the books. Follow some rabbit trails and get lost in the journey... you have so much time!