ZR> I  don't know about your area, but here the school was very
 ZR> insensitive to  alternative learning styles so far as I was told and
 ZR> could tell on my own.
 Here our school system seems OVEReager to medicate!  :(
 
 ZR> All the children in the class were expected to
 ZR> do the same kind of work and my son and his different drummer were a
 ZR> big challenge to the teacher because he  was just refusing to fit in! 
 ZR> (He went to Kindergarten for 1/2 the year  because he requested to have
 ZR> the experience of it, and he ended up requesting  to stop going because
 ZR> other kids in the class were being physically cruel to  him and the
 ZR> teacher couldn't stop it.)
 This is so sad.  How old is he now?  Did he take it personally?
 My 8 yo made friends all along until last yr., and then, not only did
 he stop making friends, but he started to lose them, too.  All due to
 his relationship with his 2nd grade teacher.  He's much better now!  He
 has a much younger, male teacher and I don't see the negative reports
 coming back like I did last year!  :)  It was then that I started to
 entertain thoughts of home-schooling.  It may still be an option if
 things start to backslide!  ;)  Are regulations tough, as I've heard?
 I've heard that they follow the same regulations as home daycare!
 Would you know if this is true?
 
 ZR> To give an example.. Aaron doesn't know any of the letters as far as
 ZR> naming  them when he sees them, and has never said the entire alphabet
 ZR> all the way through.  He also doesn't know most of the one-digit
 ZR> numbers yet.  He has  resisted this kind of learning when it was
 ZR> offered to him, yet /on his own/ he seems to develop an interest... but
 ZR> it has to be /on his terms/.  For  instance, yesterday he created a
 ZR> "wild west town" out of construction paper.   He brought me a piece of
 ZR> paper and insisted that I cut out the letters to  create the words,
 ZR> "Saloon of the Old West".  That was a lot of words, so we  settled on
 ZR> just "Saloon".  Then he wanted me to put the letters onto his  saloon
 ZR> for him, but I convinced him that if I wrote out the word he could 
 ZR> figure out the right order for himself.  I checked on this later and
 ZR> he did  get the order right -- he just did the whole word backwords so
 ZR> it reads:  "noolas".  I didn't tell him -- he was so pleased with this
 ZR> project he went to sleep with it last night.
 This is SO cute!  He must've been SO proud of himself!  :)
 
 ZR> Oh -- he's left handed...
 A LOT of people are!  Should this make a difference?  Is this what you
 were told?  That it would?
 
 ZR> and has been doing things backwards ever since he was born (upside
 ZR> down).
 YOWCH!!!  No thank you...  :(
 ZR> I'm wondering how you got the diagnosis and medication.  My daughter
 ZR> is seven  and still has never had a diagnosis of any particular thing,
 ZR> and never has  been offered medication even when I requested it! :(  We
 ZR> are starting to see a new therapist now and he really made me feel bad
 ZR> about wanting a "label" for  my daughter's condition, but he is setting
 ZR> up some neuro-psychiatric testing  for us.  We'll see what happens...
 My daughter's 13 and has been on Ritalin since she was in the 3rd
 grade, much to her father's chagrin.  *I* saw a difference!  :)  They
 haven't contacted me about putting her back on for this year and she's
 been off since last June.  I won't have her on it during school breaks,
 weekends, or over the summer.  I usually wait for the school's cue to
 put her back on, as why use it if it's not necessary?
 They wanted to put my eldest son on it, but we're biding our time with
 him. Mainly because of his last yr.'s teacher's recommendation.  We tried
 two different meds., which did NOT work, so we took him off and don't even
 really notice a difference.  He did his classwork and got good marks.
 What was the big deal?  His teacher may not have been able to handle him,
 but I was gonna be hog-tied if he was medicated for his behavior!!!  BTW,
 again, I have yet to hear any complaints from THIS yr.s' teacher!  LAST
 yr.'s teacher was complaining on the *first* day!  No kiddin'...  :(
 With both kids, it was the teacher's recommendation(s).  No special
 testing...  :(  It was all handled through their pediatrician.
 Couldn't YOU go that route?  Funny you're going through all those
 hassles, as I suspect that *I* am and am going through the hardest time
 having my suspiscions verified.  I'm told that all adults show signs of
 being ADD at times.  Well then, if THAT'S the case, why is it more
 acceptable for adults, but not for kids?  And it's the kids who are more
 hyper!  (g)  That's one of the reasons (*too* many, unfortunately...) that
 my husband feels that I can't homeschool.  I have a short attention span,
 "Huh?  What did you say?  Care to repeat that?", can't concentrate,"Don't
 ask me to do that right now, I can't think...", lose things constantly,
 "Where did I put those keys???", and am occasionally short-tempered.
 Other than that... (shrug).  Once my daughter was diagnosed, I did some
 reading up and found a lot of similarities between us and our 'behavior'.
 I'm STILL trying to get myself tested!
 Also, while we're on the subject, do parents find it necessary to put
 a homeschooled child on meds.?
 Chris
... Some people come home to unwind; others come home to unravel.
--- Blue Wave/RA v2.20 [NR]
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