Join things. Volunteer places. Sign up for classes. These are the ways to meet people. Since you are unitarian, find a unitarian church. Churches can be fantastic places to socialize. They offer classes, ways to serve the community, fun things for kids. Our church is the backbone of our social life. Joann, Hobby Lobby, and Michaels all offer classes for kids. Sign yours up for some classes and go fairly regularly. I think for introverts, familiar places and people are important. The more you see someone, the more likely you will feel comfortable talking to them and making friends. Lowes and Home Depot have free building workshops for kids. Go at the same time every time, and some faces will become familiar. Gymnastics classes or other sports will be a great place for your kids to make friends. I put my dd in an afterschool Latchkey class from 3:30 - 5:30 three times a week, even though we homeschool. It allowed her to make friends and play and do crafts in a fun environment. It wasn't very expensive and filled a social need for a couple years. Volunteer regularly somewhere. Again, familiarity will breed friendship. Best of luck!

The Beginner's Bible is great for that age! Any picture bible would be appealing, but in particular, we like that one at my house. If you want a picture Bible that is more of a translation than a paraphrase, you might look at the Read With Me Bible (NIRV) (the older version is NIV). When your vsl gets older, try Lion Graphic Bible or Action Bible (these are more comic-booky). Veggie Tales have tons of videos and dvds out. Heroes of the Bible is good, Esther is good. Almost all of them are good.

You might try experimenting with different shampoos. When my tween's hormones started causing her hair to be more greasy, we went through some different shampoos (although still a daily shower and hairwashing) before we found a good and inexpensive fit with Suave Daily Clarifying shampoo. It's $1.67 at Walmart and is kind of purplish-blue in color. It really helps with the grease.

What about Mathematical Reasoning by Critical Thinking Company? It's a workbook; it's colorful. I think the answers are in the back. Start a level below what you think she is capable of, to build her confidence. And have lots of conversations about how nobody's perfect. If we all knew everything, we wouldn't have to go to school, and everybody has to go to school. It does sink in, eventually.

Use Littlest Pets or Polly Pockets or Squinkies for your manipulatives. Bet she'll like that.

Have you tried Teaching Textbooks? I used Singapore with my visual learner for awhile (1A through 3A) but eventually switched to TT. She loves it. Take the placement test, no matter which math you get. For basic math facts, allow your visual learner to look at the charts of facts in order to complete actual work. It, frankly, is sheer torture to memorize math facts. Looking at the chart will take the pain away, and honestly, is good because they are "seeing" it, appealing to their visual learning style. Also, try Dianne Craft's materials, or for multiplication, I like Memorize in Minutes and Times Tales. Stories utilizing the facts can be very helpful. I can't think of any resources for the addition and subtraction facts that use stories, but they are probably out there. Maybe the Mathstart books? Try livingmath.net (I think that's the site) for good math picture books. Loreen Leedy has some good books. Manipulatives for things can be very helpful also. My visual learner needed Inch squares and centimeter cubes and actual physical manifestations of these "math concepts" to get them. I assume you have hundreds, tens and ones blocks. Those are great. Math can be really tricky, and I think a certain amount of it has to be aged into, honestly. Just remember to appeal to the visual learning style constantly. Color, picture, humor, story are the velcro that make things stick to their brains (I'm quoting Dianne Craft now). Best of luck!

If you like those, Evan Moor also makes History Pockets. They have Ancient Civilizations, Native Americans, and Life in Plymouth Colony. US Facts and Fun also looks good!

Aha Science might work. It's online and $15 a year, I believe. I see you tried Time 4 Writing, which did not work. Did you try Time 4 Learning? Elearningk12.com is the same kind of thing, too. Don't know the cost off-hand. Copywork was VERY GOOD for my vsl. We used WWE 1 and 2. We now do Winning with Writing, which is a workbook and not copywork, starting at Level 1, but advancing fairly quickly through. Pretty gentle. LA - Schoolhouse Rock, Grammar Tales, Language Smarts, Fun Decks from Super Duper Inc. I have also heard Michael Clay Thompson stuff works for vsls, although I haven't tried it with mine. Your vsl is around the time where she should be aging into some of the stuff for LA and such, so it might come easier to her now. If you google applestars or Cindy's Collaborative Learning Process, you might find helpful info on right brain learners. HTH!

Eats, Shoots & Leaves

Ooh, Literature Pockets by Evan Moor might be just what you're looking for in the literature area. They look really fun! They have them for Aesop's Fables, Folktales and Fairytales, and Caldecott Winners.

Montessori Grammar for hands on and colorful. If you don't need hands on for grammar, you might look at Language Smarts by Critical Thinking Company, or Grammar Tales, Parts of Speech Tales, and Punctuation Tales by Scholastic. For history, perhaps you could use Usborne's First Encyclopedia of History for a spine, and just get fun picture books or related hands on things (toobs? or coloring pages?) to supplement? I can't think of a formal literature program for 1st graders. Just library books would be fine.

Here's a link about the Karankawa Indians, who lived on the Gulf Coast: http://www.texasindians.com/karank.htm I don't understand why you think the Indians would want to move north in winter? It doesn't get that cold here. I mean, we have some chillier days occasionally, but rarely do the temperatures even hit freezing in winter. It's currently the end of December, and the weather has been in the 60s. It might drop to the 40s or 50s at night, but not too much below that. We hardly ever get snow. I live in South Texas, and it snows about once every hundred years. HTH!

What about the CAT test? You can get it for $25 from Christian Liberty Press, and you can proctor it yourself. Plus, there is an online option, which I love, as I like the instant test results. You can take it over the course of a few days, and once every section is complete, scores go right to your email. I think Setontesting also offers the CAT test.

Well, we, too are planning a Disney trip, but I refuse to plan the food. We will figure it out when we get there. We don't head to amusement parks to focus on the food, anyway, is my theory. Just stop planning and enjoy. As long as you have your tickets and travel arrangements, you are good to go!

What about Horrible Histories Rowdy Revolutions book or Horrible Histories Rowdy Revolutions: Russia magazine? You would have to buy it used, but it looks like some exist still. The magazine would be full color. The books tend to be black and white, but have cartoony illustrations throughout.

Back to OP for a moment, I just wanted to mention that we have a "no whining" rule. Four is prime whining age, and it needs to be nipped in the bud (I think Supernanny gave me this idea.) Teach her how to express a similar sentiment in a better way, without whining. Like a "it's okay to tell me how you feel, but your tone needs to be more like this, and your attitude needs to be good." And complaining is not allowed, either. Whining and complaining are time-out-able offenses in our house. You can say what you want to say without whining. Give suggestions for ways to re-word the whines. Also, I am thinking that your dc sounds a bit like mine, who stops when things get challenging. While fairly typical for a four year old, it also may be that your dc is a perfectionist, and if can't do it right away, doesn't want to try and gets frustrated. My dc is that way, and it takes a lot of encouraging conversations over the course of many years to overcome this. So hugs! Also, in case it's any consolation in the bike riding department, my dd didn't learn until age 9 and then she taught herself. :grouphug:

Fun thread! I will have a 6th grader: Math - Teaching Textbooks 5 and 6 Grammar - Language Smarts D Composition - Winning with Writing 2 Spelling - Spectrum Spelling 6 Literature - BJU 6 As Full As the World Latin - Cambridge Latin 2 (or 1 if we're not finished yet) Greek - Biblical Greek 4 Kids 2 if I can find it Spanish - Salsa? Handwriting - A Reason for Handwriting F History - Heritage Studies 3, 4 and 5 Science - BJU Science 6 and Usborne Marvels and Mysteries of Nature Critical Thinking Software - not sure which ones yet Composer study: Mozart Piano Mark Kistler art Abeka Health 6

My visual learner enjoyed Minimus. It has colorful comic strip stories. After a year of Minimus, she was ready for Cambridge Latin 1.

Use ground turkey instead of ground beef for burgers, tacos, meat loaf, etc. Drop biscuits and sausage gravy, and applesauce or cantaloupe on the side. Can buy breakfast sausage or use spices with ground turkey to make your own sausage. Tuna noodle casserole. Use tuna, box of mac and cheese (without the cheese) (or other pasta), peas or broccoli. Can make a white gravy with soymilk or just use creamed corn. Pasta salad is easy and cheap. Extra nice with ham chunks in it. Use homemade dressing. Pasta, can of corn, can of peas. Or any fresh veggies you have. Ranch dressing or italian is nice. Corned beef hash sandwiches. Yum! Black bean quesadillas. Black beans, salsa, mashed up together. Put inside tortillas. Add cheese for those who can have it. Pop in toaster oven or oven to get crispy. If you keep good tasting dairy-free cheese on hand (my dd likes Tofutti Mozzarella, but I must say it's an acquired taste), grilled cheese is easy and cheap. Tomato soup on the side. Baked bean chili. Baked beans and any other beans you have, leftover pot roast or other meat (leftover taco meat is good), can of diced tomatoes and/or spaghetti sauce or plain tomato sauce. 1 tablespoon of cumin. Taco kits (Taco Bell one is dairy free). Use ground turkey. Meals with tuna tend to be cheap. Creamed tuna on toast is good, but requires sour cream. Dairy-free sour cream tastes good, but ups the cost. Regular sour cream is cheap. Spaghetti. Use ground turkey in the sauce.

You may not do this, but I usually just eat a few bites of yogurt every day while I'm on antibiotics. Takes care of any problems.

Aspies need their hands held, when they're 5 and when they're 15 and when they're 25. I have two Aspie brothers, and we got them through school and we got them through college and we got them real jobs. The younger one still lives with my parents at age 27, but I do think he might move out one day. I think of Aspies as the ultimate late bloomer. Years and years later, in some cases. Hold your Aspie's hand as much as you can. It might seem like you are doing too much for her, but you're not. Aspies process differently from other people. They just do. If you want your child to graduate high school and go to college, you must completely stay on top of that. Yes, you will do some SERIOUS hand-holding. We were all super involved with my younger brother's homework all the time, to the point of re-teaching and occasionally doing some portions of it so he had fabulous examples to use to do the rest. And I'm the one who picked which college he would go to, and I'm the one who created his class schedule every semester for all four years of college (with his input of course), and I'm the one who figured out what to do when we had to change his major from Computer Science because he didn't pass Calculus three times. You must HELP. That's the nature of the beast. It's okay. Keep your emotional relationship healthy, but HOLD HER HAND to get through this. She needs you.

Have you taken the baby to an allergist to get her tested? I wouldn't be surprised if it were allergies. Then you would know what you can and can't eat. That makes it much easier, instead of the guessing game. My dd was allergic to milk, we thought for sure, and then also found out about eggs at the allergist. Very helpful information to have. :grouphug:

Call your allergist again. They really do want to know and can usually help. If my dd kept reacting like this, I would be tempted to park us in the allergist's office every single day for help and advice. They know what they're doing (unlike the ER and hospitals, more's the pity). You won't be a bother to them. Seriously. Call again, or at least tomorrow morning. Hugs!

Check out cwdkids or hannaandersson (websites or in-stores). Not sure where in VA you are, but I believe there is a CWDKids in Richmond, and there are hanna andersson stores in Tysons Corner, Leesburg Outlets, and Williamsburg outlets.

Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the plans I have for you, " declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and NOT TO HARM YOU, plans to give you HOPE and a future." (emphasis mine) Psalm 139 is great for feeling good about yourself. You are fearfully and wonderfully made, you know. The God of the entire universe thinks YOU are wonderful. That's a pretty amazing thought. Hope these help. They have been a comfort to me from all my childhood baggage, too.