I think that their gluten free bread is by far the best I've tasted (toasted). We go to Aldis first, then go across the street to Wegmans to get whatever else we need. Their produce is hit or miss, but we've been buying decent steaks there on the cheap lately ;)

FWIW When I was a teen/young adult my cramps would get so bad that they would make me throw up from the pain if I did not take pain relievers (many) in time. I walked out of a college class to throw up from period pain once, and that was because the pain relievers didn't work fast enough. This hasn't happened to me in years and then then out of nowhere last month, it did. I was bent over in pain trying to get my kids to their class. It was the worst.

I can relate. Both of my kids have autism, and it's just difficult to find things that work for our family. I gave up on church awhile ago, it just caused more problems for us no matter where we went. Our YMCA has some limited aide support available, but the classes run for 6 weeks and then break for at least 2 in between sessions, so we basically see no one (besides therapists) for weeks on end and many people do not understand the stress involved in doing something unstructured during those times, like visiting the library without help. I think that sometimes we really are just choosing between bad and worse. I don't think that my children would be better off in any other situation that is available to them, so I don't know what more I could possibly do. I just keep searching and trying different things, and hoping that things might improve as we enter different seasons of life. Would your kids be interested in any kind of summer camp? We have summer camp set up for a month (with an aide) for my older son and I think that will really help for a little while at least.

My 5 year old's behavior improved a bit when he was finally able to start getting some of the intellectual stimulation that he craves. He's really enjoying the DK "How things work Encyclopedia" along with the Thames and Kosmos "intro to engineering" kit, if that helps at all. We've had a lot of luck with Snap Circuits, a beginners microscope, and we got him a Chromebook so that he can have access to various educational websites whenever he wants. Oh, he also loves the DK Picturepedia. Hope that helps!

I'd feel pretty offended by that.

Fish oil takes the edge off for me. I read a book called "The Depression Cure" and it honestly helped me a bit. I'm also using "Talk Space" (online therapy) which is also helping more than I expected it to. Not that those last two are supplements, but they are all natural! ;)

I think that it is normal for children to act entitled and to say whatever pops into their minds in order to get what they want. I also think that it is reasonable for you to be concerned about it because it is our responsibility as parents to teach our children, and it shows that you are taking that seriously. I think that it's the quality of parenting that will make the difference, and not the size of your house. It sounds like you are really trying to do the right thing here, so as long as you keep on correcting wrong attitudes as they come up, I think she will be just fine.

I'm considering purchasing the Mathtacular DVD's and those learning wrap-up thingy's, you could look into those.

Thank you so much for the great info, everyone! I will look into my local library first. I know that we have some sort of audiobook option. I was under the impression that it may not have many book titles to choose from, but I can be really flexible on this, so that might not end up being an issue anyway. Story of the world is very tempting. I have it in my mind that we will do US history next year, but maybe I'll re-think that in order to make better use of our time.

Thank you so much, everyone! I am so glad to hear that I wouldn't need to use the tiles! I went on their website and was so happy to see that I don't even have to buy them. I already know that they would just end up sitting in the bottom of a bin somewhere. I would be willing to try using an app in place of them though, does anyone happen to know if one exists? I see that they have some sort of app, but it doesn't look like you can move the tiles around on it.

I might be spending a lot of time in the car with my 1st grader next year, so I'm thinking about maybe having him listen to some audio books. How does listening to an audio book compare to reading or being read to? That being said, where do you get your audio books from? Is audible a good source? Thanks!

I'm starting to think about 1st grade spelling for next year. At first I was thinking that I wanted a simple workbook approach because my son is reading fairly well and he has been able to figure out how to spell basic words (including blends) on his own. We're going to finish up progressive phonics this year and he does have a solid understanding of phonics, but I don't feel like he has completely memorized every single rule, and I would also like to see him increase the rate at which he is recognizing them. I'm just not sure to what extent children typically memorize the phonics rules. How do I know when to stop formally teaching phonics and just rely on practice? That being said, from what I'm seeing, it looks like AAS serves as a good phonics reinforcement. It looks a little teacher intensive though, and I'm just not sure if it's necessary for my son or not. It's not that I'm unwilling to do it, I just don't want to commit to a program that would be overkill. I have to admit, all of the little pieces look like a hassle to me, but if it's a good fit then I'll get over it. Can anyone tell me roughly how much prep time this program requires and how much time it takes to teach daily? Can it move fairly quickly? Is it appropriate for a child who is strong in reading/spelling? That being said, if anyone thinks a different program would be a better fit, please feel free to suggest it! Thank you!

I think it's because getting help for a non-issue is not going to hurt, but not getting help for something that turns out to actually be a real problem could severely impact the outcome.

Thank you for recommending this! I set my 5 year old up on the website this morning and he's spent hours on it today! He asked me to bookmark it for him!

I found a ton of great books about disabilities for children at our local library. I would second the suggestion to contact the teacher about explaining things to the class. In our area, we actually have a developmental center that will come to a child's classroom and put on a puppet show about autism if you request it, so there may be something like that available on the child's behalf. I also second the suggestion to encourage your daughter to ask for help interacting with and understanding this child.

Thank you so much for the list of topics! I guess I'm having trouble finding what I want because it probably doesn't exist. I think you're right about the timeline idea, and that's probably what I'm going to end up doing. I think that I am going to get this American Pioneers and Patriots book though, even if I can't use it as a spine. It just looks like such a nice resource.

Thank you! These look great, and it looks like my local library carries them!

I'm still trying to figure out my 1st grade Early American History curriculum over here. So far I've figured out that I think I would like to pick and choose literature from MFW, Sonlight and Beautiful Feet books according to what is available at my library and what I like the best. I think I would like to use some kind of a "textbook" - but not really a text book. I don't know exactly, some kind of a guide. A spine? Is that the word that people use for this? Something that outlines what I'll be teaching, but not necessarily a text book or an official curriculum, KWIM? Anyway, I thought I would use the DK Childrens encyclopedia of american history, but I was able to borrow it from the library to take a look at it and this is way, way over my sons head, so that idea's out. Now I'm looking at American Pioneers and Patriots by Christian Liberty Press. Has anyone used this? I'm reading that it is very fictional, but I think that I might be okay with that if it get's at the heart of the historical events. I don't want to bore my son to death with dry history facts. I am considering just getting the beautiful feet books primary study guide, but I really don't need a guide to tell me how many pages to read per day and I usually don't like many of the activities in those sorts of things (not saying that I wouldn't necessarily, I just kind of like to do my own thing most of the time.) Anyway, would American Pioneers and Patriots give us a little bit of a uniform blurb (ideally 1-3 pages with some illustrations) about each major historical event in early US history that we can use to then dive into the literature books from? Or would this book actually be more like a literature book in itself? I'm just not sure looking at it online. Please feel free to suggest other non-textbook textbooks that would be appropriate for a 1st grader along these lines. Thank you!

:grouphug: Wish I had information for you, but I can only offer hugs and condolences.

Can you hire someone to come in and help you with various things? I'm juggling two with autism at home right now (only one is school age). I'm outsourcing whatever I can and I have a respite provider coming in to help out (we get some minimal funding towards this and a few activities.) If I had three at home, I would probably be thinking along the lines of getting more help to come in somehow.

Thank you everyone! Math went a lot better today, so maybe we were just having a hiccup. If MUS wasn't so expensive, I would definitely just try it and see how it went. It's not so much that I'm against using the blocks with Singapore, it's more that I'm wondering if MUS would be a better fit for him/us. There's still the issue of needing a teacher at some point as well.

That's very encouraging! It's not that I'm unwilling to try to learn, I'm just doubting my ability to. Honestly, if there is any hope of me learning math it would probably be through MUS anyway lol :lol:

My son is 5 and working his way through Singapore Essential Math. Book A went just fine, Book B was going fine, so I ordered Primary 1A so that we could just move right into it when the time came. Well, I also ordered the 100 pack of Unifix Cubes, and that messed everything up with Singapore. He LOVES these counting blocks and wants to use them for everything. He was nearly in tears when Singapore wanted him to use a picture of counting blocks (color to add, cross off to subtract.) and I've been having to use them as an incentive to do other kinds of problems (IE: use the numberline for 2/3 of the problems and I'll "let" you use the blocks for the other 1/3 as a reward.) I had considered MUS before we even started Singapore, but I reasoned that since he did not like c-rods at all, he probably wasn't a counting blocks kind of kid. Then he really took to the abacus for awhile, so I thought for sure that he wasn't into counting blocks, but then he got his hands on these unfix cubes, and boy was I wrong. It turns out he just doesn't like c-rods. And the way that he uses them just looks so much like what I'm seeing in the MUS demo videos. Like he was born to use counting blocks. So now I'm re-thinking Singapore, and if I'm going to switch, I'd like to do it sooner than later. Like, maybe after I finish up Essential B. Of course, that leaves me with Primary 1A which he hasn't touched. Could I return that? I ordered it from Christianbook.com. Also, there is another factor - I am not a math person. At all. I was planning to have my husband take over once we reached the point where I could no longer teach it to him, but I had my husband help my son with a few of his math pages recently and it turns out that he's really not very good at teaching. He can DO math, but he is just SO not a teacher and that was very apparent. So that plan is just not going to work. If I did switch to MUS, I know that they at least have videos of the guy teaching it, so that could potentially solve that problem, or at least help. Anyway, what is your opinion? Does it sound like he might do better with Math U see? Could this be a better fit for us? Is it better to jump ship on Singapore early on, or wait and see if it gets better? Would I skip the MUS primer or would we have to start at the beginning? Could I get the manipulative set used somehow? (sorry about all the questions!) Thank you!

My son is in K and I'm currently starting to plan for 1st grade next year as well. We've been all over the place trying to figure out what works for us for science since we started homeschooling. I finally started just reading a 2 page spread from the DK "How Things Work Encyclopedia" each day, and that's been perfect. I throw in a hands on activity from a science kit when we have extra time here and there (currently working our way through the Thames and Kosmos intro to engineering kit.) So...since this is working out pretty well, I think I'm going to do the DK "Human Body Encyclopedia" along with some human body kits for next year. If we finish that and it's still going well, maybe we'll do another DK First Encyclopedia.

When I tried to do My Fathers World K with my 5 year old, it was too easy for him - but I remember thinking that it would have been great to do with a 4 year old. Not sure if that's your style or not, but you could always take a peek over on their website. I found that I don't really like using a box curriculum, but I do frequently reference their programs for inspiration. Explode the code has some beginner books, you could look into those. We just bought some unifix cubes (the 100 pack) and I wish I had gotten them ages ago now that I've seen how nice they are. We tried c-rods with the alphabet book, but it didn't go over too well with my son. He's just not into that sort of thing, but I can see other kids loving it. Make sure you check your library for BOB books type readers before you spend money on them (or any books that you won't be using regularly, really.) Also, I like ABC Mouse for the computer. It's $7.99/month or something, but I personally do really like their program. I have my son sit and do it while I'm cooking dinner and things just to get a little bit of extra practice in here and there, and a lot of it is just so totally different from our curriculum, so I like that it gives him a little bit of variety in his learning.